israeli police beating with batons. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with michael holmes. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy says more than a thousand towns and villages have been retaken so far from russian forces, including six more over just the past 24 hours. he says the russian military is paying a heavy price for its aggression. translator: today we can report 200 downed russian military aircraft. russia has not lost so many aircraft in any war in decades, and russia has lost almost 27,000 soldiers. ukraine also says russian troops continue to retreat from around the city of kharkiv in the north. farther south, ukraine claims it successfully blocked a russian advance at a key river. you re looking at drone video there showing pontoon bridges destroyed. also tanks and other heavy equipment destroyed as well. meanwhile, russia s top general and the u.s. defense secretary spoke by phone for an hour on saturday, their first chat since the war began.
conflicts. there is a sense of urgency, and i think watching ukraine right now, that is very prescient. reporter: fred pleitgen, cnn, latvia. more to come on cnn newsroom. israeli police violently attack mourners at the funeral of an evacuees journalist killed while reporting in the west bank. we ll have more nenews from jerusalem when we come back. g. connected toto your health and your phone. visit t onetouch.com today. as a chef, i always knew what i should be eating, but ww helped me to do it. there s nothing off limits. chocate. is that a no no? it s not a no no. it s not about t no nos, it s about the know knows. get your first 3 months fretoday. offer ends may 16th.