fire. months after filling these videos, he is still fighting on the southern front. were the russians in this village before? yeah. reporter: ukrainian military is fighting to claw back territory seized by what this commander describes as well prepared russians. this month my team and i traveled the length of the southern front from the critical port of odesa to the edge of the donbas region. i spoke to people willing to risk their lives against the russian war machine. in the city, ukrainian forces storm a building. it is actually a training exercise to prepare these men for one of the most dangerous forms of modern warfare, urban combat. the commander here was gravely
footage shared exclusively with cnn shows ukrainian senior lieutenant andre hiding in shell craters, flying a drone to call in artillery strikes on russian positions. they narrowly escape the long range fire from the russian military. months after filming these videos, he is still fighting on the southern front. were the russians in this village before? yeah. reporter: the ukrainian military is fighting to claw back territory seized by what this commander describes as well prepared russians. very slow the process to take back all our territories. but step by step and with the help of the west, artillery systems, we do that. reporter: this month my team and i traveled the length of the southern front from the critical port of odesa to the edge of the
from the russian military. months after filming these videos, he is still fighting on the southern front. were the russians in this village before? yeah. the ukrainian military is fighting to claw back territory. it s very slow, the process to take back all of our territories. but step by step and with the help of the western guns and so on, artillery systems, we do it. this month my team and i traveled the length of the southern front from the critical port of odesa to the edge of the donbas region. i spoke to people willing to risk their lives against the russian war machine. in the city, ukrainian forces storm a building. it s actually a training exercise to prepare these men for one of the most dangerous forms of modern warfare, urban combat.
that. reporter: this month, my team and i traveled the length of the southern front from the critical port of odesa to the edge of the donbas region. i spoke to people willing to risk their lives against the russian war machine. in this city, ukrainian forces storm a building. it s a training exercise to prepare these men for one of the most dangerous forms of modern warfare, urban combat. the commander here was gravely wounded pushing russian-backed separatists out of cities in the eastern donbas region in 2014. we have a duty to liberate our territories, he says. this is our land and we will not give it to anyone. that confidence shared by a regiment of front line troops in eastern ukraine. they show off recently
to grow up and see what we accomplished and recognize their value instead of having to fight to see it themselves. the women s soccer team win. that s a potential victory beyond the field. plus, the pain at the pump about to get even worse. now there s talk we could soon be looking at average prices of $6 a gallon. and leading this hour, a small sign of hope in ukraine as the american flag is raised above the u.s. embassy in kyiv. the flag marks the reopening of the facility evacuated in february before the start of the unprovoked russian invasion of ukraine. from the capitol to the south and the critical port see of odesa along the black sea coast where a fancy hotel once enjoyed by russian tourists now lays in ruins, sara sidner reports for us, the owner now says the only way he ll allow russians back to his hotel is if they re the ones cleaning it up. translator: the hotel means in italian, big shell. most of the guests came here because it s 30 meters from the