to block humanitarian convoys from coming in. there s a mismatch here in terms of what the russians are allowing in and what they are allowing out. if any of the cease-fires can work, and we see them working on days on in in sumi, that will allow civilians to escape in what is especially in the eastern part of the country on just relentless bombardment from the russians. it was called apocalyptic in mariupol a few days ago, and you can only imagine how much worse it is now. courtney, let s talk about the target in the west, and russia said in the arms coming in from the west are fair game. is that what they were targeting here? we have been asking that same question since we first heard about the cruise missile strikes, and officials did not
to advance. their goal in all of this is to link their forces here, in the, east coming out of donbas, with this axis of advance here, heading out of kharkiv. one important part of all, this kharkiv still very contested. the problem for the ukrainians is, very close to the ukrainian border, russians can do lots of resupply here. secondly, how long can they last without enough humanitarian aid flowing into this area. this comes back to what we are talking about this morning, awful devastation invariable. talking about a lot of cruise missile strikes, a lot of fire being levied on. here is starting to see russian forces advancing. the goal, all along, really, has been telling the southern portion here with the eastern portion. i think that is the key thing to look at, as the week goes on. which is what is going on in the south. the russians, despite many setbacks, particularly in and around kyiv, have created this land bridge. that is essential to them, that is what they see. and that s
not going into ukraine, they are not part of those convoys. those are, you know, there s a handoff taking praise, and those are ukrainians who are driving those vehicles. so nato is not going into ukraine, but it s getting meetingty close right now with 12 niles from the 12 miles from the border those cruise missile strikes, and there s a great deal of, you know, there s a it s getting very close, and nobody can say where this ends and whether putin will, will strike across the border into poland. that will put nato into a whole different situation and a whole different set of decision making. arthel: a whole different ball game. jennifer griffin live at the pentagon. thank you, jen. reporter: thank you. eric: well, here s some news, former president barack obama says that he has tested positive for covid-19. the 44th president tweeting moments ago that he feels fine other than having a scratchy throat.
0 official, i asked him if president putin is directing this himself. and he said yes, that is how it is going. that is not surprising. we know that president putin makes all of the decisions. in the end, he will have had advice from that small clique around him, that ultimately he is the decision-maker. and another element of his televised address, which to reiterate, if russians will be stunned by. waking up and seeing now, another man from that televised address, which is chilling frankly. is that president putin requires russian s nuclear capability. and clearly, openly threatens western leaders. even after the collapse of the ussr, losing a significant part of the nuclear potential. today, russia is one of the most nuclear powers. and he says, i think that this is a direct message to the west. in this regard, no one should have any doubt that a direct attack on russia will lead to defeat and dire consequences for a potential aggressor. and so, i just want to say all, just before t
stakeholders are actively trying to find a resolution so what s the game plan here. well that is the game plan that there is no way out but through that unless you run realizes genuine engagement driven by a genuine change in the regimes behavior unless that actually happens that there will be no way out of the crisis for these let it s not working so and so many times we can sit around for this but the what the blueprint but the blueprint for this is not the nuclear negotiations it s the allow these sanctions to do what they ve been doing which is to force teheran to choose and tehran has chosen the path that shows that there really is no difference between the new judge administration or the rouhani administration that when pressed the islamic republic is going to act like the row with the trumpet ministration has said that it is and that s a wrong with our use there at now even if even federica more greeny of the e.u. is saying that the j c p y cannot last in this form and even the