besieged areas, while that fighting is going on. as you mentioned, tens of thousands apparently already tried to flee. we saw many of them yesterday when we were out in those areas. they are very weak in very bad condition but say at this point in time they have no other choice, wolf? >> based on everything you're seeing, we mow know the military is advancing in eastern aleppo. how much direct military assistance are they getting from the russians in terms of bombing? >> reporter: you know what? in terms of bombing, it's unclear. russians claim she haven't been flying missions over the city of aleppo. that is unclear. we are hearing jets dropping very heavy munitions and it's really not clear whether or not the syrian air force would be able to do that. also, one of the things we have to take into account is that the russians do have a much larger military presence here on the ground than many people know and, also, that the russians at least publicly commit to. they -- what we've seen on the ground here have been sniper