translator: they are preparing to bomb odessa. russian people always used to come to odessa and they only knew warmth and generosity. and what s now actually bombs against odessa. this will be a war crime. this will be historical crime. let s get to cnn s nick payton walsh who joins us from odessa. nick, give us a sense of what you re seeing on the ground and odessa, it s a vital port? reporter: yeah, we have been hearing for days of the possibility of maybe an amphibious or naval a salt against this third largest city in ukraine. it s maritime to the outside world. you can t control ukraine if you don t have odessa as part of that. but so far throughout the night and this morning with horizontal snow a moment ago, it has been quiet. not the case, though, from where you just saw the report. at 5:00 this morning, a number
bl bleak. i want to bring in our team tonight. nick, let s start with you. president zelenskyy is saying russia is preparing to bomb odessa. what is the situation there tonight? anderson, throughout the night so far, it s 4:00 a.m. here now, absolutely startling silence. not quite clear where president zelenskyy got this information from that he felt he needed to warn odessa of an imminent bombing but partly a cultural message aimed at the russian speaking population here and of course, russians, as well. he reminded them this is a popular holiday destination for people saying how this is a place where russians would only knew warmth and generosity and now artillery and bombs against odessa. this will be a war crime, this will be a historic crime and switched to speaking from ukrainian into russian and telling russians they had a sla. this city is bracing itself for an assault. we heard the occasional
kharkiv, mariupol and other cities. the question how long this could go? for control of the skies, russians would have wanted that as quickly as possible but they still don t have air supremacy over ukrainian air space. the ukrainians continue to contest that both with aircraft, as well as with missile defenses so the fight for the sky is on going and that s one of the key elements we re looking at as the u.s. works behind the scenes to get other countries like poland to give ukraine more fighter jets to keep contesting the skies and make sure the russians don t have control of it there. there are a number of different reports we ve seen throughout the course of the weekend. the senior defense official says he s unable to confirm those like violations of the seize fire. he does however say as of their indications now, pamela, there is not an assault on odessa nor does there appear to be one imminently. thank you. let s continue this
against the nation s third largest city, that is odessa in the south on the black seacoast. translator: they are preparing to bomb odessa, russian people always used to come to odessa, and they only knew warmth and generosity, and what s now? arti artillery, bombs against odessa. this will be a war crime. cnn international security editor nick paton walsh is in odessa. you have really twin concerns there, you and i have been talking about over recent days. one is the possibility of an amphibious invasion in the south. now this prospect the president warning of a bombing campaign, which we ve seen on so many cities. how is the city preparing? reporter: well, i don t know if you can still hear the air raid sirens we ve heard a couple of times during today. no explosions to accompany them, but it shows you really, i think, how president zelenskyy s warning is being taken to heart hear. certainly that s been the case
reporter: in southern ukraine they are trying to flee the city cut off from power, water and heat. a second attempt for safe evacuation corridors breaking down. the red cross tweeting its attempt to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people failed. ukraine accusing russia of using a humanitarian seize fire as a trick to kill more civilians. seize fire took place only for 30 minutes. after that, russian troops continue shelling of mariupol. we face war crimes hour by hour, second by second. reporter: russian president volodymyr zelenskyy warns russia plans to bomb odessa with zelenskyy s life increasingly under threat, western officials tell cnn talks are underway about how to support a ukrainian government in exile. but zelenskyy has rejected any thought of leaving kyiv and instead, focussing on boosting the resistance against russia.