for democracy, for freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and so on and so forth. so we are thankful for some countries that are a part of nato, to be brave enough to work, but not the whole organization, which numbers 30 countries. it certainly does, 30 members of nato. the ukrainian parliament member, thank you so much for joining us. good luck to you and all the people of ukraine. retired major general spider marks joins me right now and joining me in the situation room. let s talk a little bit about what s going on right now. it looks like the russians have scored a major victory in mariupol, taking the steel plant where so many ukrainian troops and others were seeking refugee. it looks like they ve succeeded in mariupol, the russians. and i think it was simply a matter of time. russia has really been concentrating almost exclusively on that area. we saw them migrate out of the kyiv area in kharkiv and back
weeks. and a lot of russian russian troops were, you know, encircled around mariupol and didn t go further to other cities. from the military point of view, the defenders of mariupol, did everything they could. and now we understand that we immediate to save their lives. because russia doesn t care about lives of their soldiers, but we do. so that s why in this situation, mariupol cannot be unblocked in military way, it was the only way to to save these people s lives. and we really hope that we can exchange those soldiers. for capture to russian soldiers, so they can come back to ukraine. how worried are you about for the ukrainian defenders of the steel plant in mariupol, who are now in russian custody. do you have any faith at all that the russians will reet
and the ukrainian capital for us. melissa, it appears russia is about to secure its biggest victory since putin launched his invasion nearly three months ago. it s opinion a long time coming, wolf. but tonight, it is a huge swath of territory in the hands of russia. essentially, the fall of mariupol providing that land bridge between crimea annexed back in 2014, the donbas region, those separatist breakaway republics that have been at the heart of a battle to fight a war that has gone on since 2014. all of that swath of territory now in the hands of russia. and it is that strategic importance or mariupol that you have to bear in mind when you remember and look at the resilience and the resistance that those fighters that have been holed up in azovstal all this week has shown. this soldier helped the world see the azov steel plant in
It is now being said that Mariupol, the eastern port city of Ukraine, and more accurately of the Russian-occupied Donbas region, has fallen, and that the last of the soldiers who had resisted had surrendered. Both Kyiv and Moscow have confirmed
settle its leadership issue and count on stronger chinese support. this pushes back a decision period to, let s say, late october, early november, or even into the early part of 2023 after the ground freezes. yet yeah, because at the moment, it s simply too muddy for them to go into these fields. there has been more fierce fighting at the azov steel plant. why is it taking so long to capture that place, and how embarrassing is it to do so given its overwhelming superiority? it s underground. it s bombed. it s convoluted. there are a million corners, pockets, places to hide, ways to get elevation and snipe. it s enormous, and if you don t