so thank you for joining us here on the beat. you can also online connect with me @ari mel beer.com and go at the beat where we have the link posted, as well. the reidout with joy reid is up next. good evening, everyone. we begin the reidout with putin s war in ukraine. russia began an all out offensive in the east. in the latest video, the ukrainian leader said the russian military has begun the battle for donbas. a new phase of the war that could see three times as many russian troops in the donbas region including mariupol which russia needs in order to forge a land corridor to crimea. the city bar sieged with 100,000 people remain without food and water but ukrainian forces are
citizens of avdiivka, hiding in bunkers. but for how long? jonathan beale, bbc news, eastern ukraine. as we mentioned, in his latest address, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky said that russia has started a large scale offensive in donbas in eastern ukraine. let s take a listen to what he said. translation: we can assess now that russian military has| begun the battle for donbas, for which they have been preparing a long time. a very large part of the russian army is now concentrated for this offensive. no matter how many of the russian troops there, we will be fighting, we will defend ourselves and do everything we must to keep what s ukrainian. what is not, we simply don t need it. meanwhile, seven people have been killed in missile strikes in the western city of lviv, which has been
of ukrainians close to genocide in small towns near kyiv, and this is why ukrainian society and ukrainian armed forces are very much determined to mount a counter defensive and liberate those areas and defend what is possible to defend. that s why supply routes have to be strictly protected. they have to be sustainable and they have to move fast. we do see ukrainian railway functioning surprisingly well, both evacuating people one way and probably using to a certain degree to supply in those necessary munitions to the front line, but the battle for donbas will be vicious. we do expect huge suffering from the civilian populations. i do know that ukrainian government is trying to convince people to leave and not everybody wants to leave.
already seeing in mariupol and on a bigger scale. the problem for the russians, they do not control the airspace like they did in syria, and they will be challenged, and that s why the anti-aircraft defense is so key, and that s why the 300s that slovakia is providing and other states are so important, because they will be key in the next battle for donbas. a super yacht was just seized from a russian oligarch, and the biden administration announcing they are going to put in new measures to crack down on russian measures, and about a month ago you wrote about the importance of these economic measures. you said what is needed is,
now at the bottom of the black sea. that is very interesting that they are kind of keeping that close to the vest. this widespread battle in some ways is already under way on a smaller scale in the east, but we re waiting it to be launched in a widespread way, this battle for donbas. what did he say about the timing of that? he said, he talked a lot about the battle of donbas which is, of course, pending and he said the fate of the war will be, will rest on what happens there. he did express confidence throughout the interview that ukraine ultimately will win, but he s obviously concerned. it s been tough. it s been weighing upon him, all of the civilian casualties, all of the images, the videos that all of us have seen on social media and on cnn of grieving widows and moms and dads and