world, i m u.s. officials are tracking a suspected chinese spy balloon that s moving towards the east coast. we ll hear how beijing is trying to explain how it ended up floating above the united states. thunder, snow, fierce winds and temperatures reaching triple digits below zero. all part of the arctic blast that s hitting the u.s. northeast this weekend, and millions will feel it. meanwhile, in ukraine there are signs that russian troops are preparing for a spring military offensive. this is cnn newsroom, with kim brunhubber. a suspected chinese spy balloon will finally leave u.s. air space in a couple of days or could be sooner. some new weather models show the winds pushing it over the atlantic as early as today. the pentagon has been closely tracking the object and it s carrying a large payload of surveillance gear. military officials are advising against shooting it down now. china that has apologized and said the balloon entered u.s. air space by accident. bei
a russian lieutenant who fought in ukraine has fled putin s army and he s out front to talk about it. the lack of equipment, training, boiling rabbits for food, the atrocities he says were committed by russian fighters. you won t want to miss this interview. breaking news, the pentagon right now is tracking a chinese spy balloon flying over the u.s. president biden asking for military options. what are the chinese doing? plus, fbi agents investigating congressman george santos for allegedly scamming a veteran out of thousands of dollars meant for his dying dog. that veteran is out front tonight. what did he tell investigators about santos? and good evening. i m erin burnett. out front, a russian officer speaks out right here. constantine served on the front lines for three months and is now telling all. the former lieutenant is the most senior russian officer to speak publicly about what he saw and did in ukraine. you re going to see that interview in just a moment. he
to remove her from the key foreign affairs committee. the democrat calling it an act of revenge by republicans. speaker mccarthy is denying any parti partisan tit for tat and new questions into the beats of tyre nichols after the d.a. told me up to 20 hours of footage is yet to be released. i ll talk with the nichols family attorney, ben crump. welcome to our viewers here in the yunited states and around te world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the the situation roo tonight, ukraine s warnings are growing more ominous and putin s forces unleash new attacks targeting ukrainian civilian areas. fred and sam are on the ground for us in ukraine with firsthand reporting on these new russian strikes. first to you, fred. you and your crew had a very, very close call. walk us through what happened and the current fighting unfolding there in the east. firstly, we certainly did have a very close call. essentially what happened, the night before, there had been a big air strike on a bui
for moscow s kpmted attempt to turn military fortunes around. nick paton walsh reports. reporter: the spring is looming and so the warnings of more war heat up. first, the beleaguered russian president using the 80th anniversary of the battle of stalin grad to suggest despite the endless western weapons to ukraine he s not done yet. we are not sending our tanks to their borders, but we have something to answer with, and it will not end with the use of armored vehicles. reporter: but on the ukrainian side the warnings are thick and fast too, and of a renewed russian offensive with perhaps half a million troops. we all know that russia is concentrating its forces for a revenge attempt, not only against ukraine, but also against free europe and the free world. reporter: but how can russia surprising most in how badly they ve performed in 11 months suddenly be such a threat again?
traumatized by the violence. it is terrifying she tells me, but what can we do? the strikes came as search and rescue efforts were on going in exactly the same neighborhood after a russian missile levelled an apartment block on wednesday night, killing at least three and wounding eight. the russians seem to be bringing the cities of this region into their war regardless of the consequences. and russian president vladimir putin is saying there is worse to come. putin spoke thursday at events commemorating the battle of stalin grad where soviet forces defeated nazi germany 80 years ago, openly threatening the u.s. and other countries supporting ukraine. clearly they don t understand that modern war with russia will be quite different for them, he said. we won t send our tanks to their borders. but we have the means to respond and it won t be with the use of armored vehicles. cities like kramatorsk know that