That it would per t pre-turn hi but i thought it was the honorable thing to come. reporter: even though brooks still tried to win back trump s support ahead of the runoff. game on. reporter: but trump ultimately sided with britt who is widely seen as the favorite on tuesday after receiving the most votes in the may primary. our thanes to kristen holmes for that report. ks to kristen h for that report. let s go now to ukraine where russian forces are stepping up the pressure in a grinding battle for the city of sever severdonetsk. the city has been the epicenter of the fighting in the east in russia s push to seize control of the wider donbas region as you see on the map. to the north though shelling sparked a massive fire in their second largest city and at least three civilians were killed in
Rush russia. russia is destroying ports and destroys food stocks. they are destroying infrastructure. russia, not us. reporter: the tricky situation now of course is that grain is still sitting there as ukrainian farmers look to harvest their harvest at the moment. there are plans from the european union and u.s. white house to try to figure out how to get some of that grain by land on rail out through poland and other nations, but everyone assumes that that will never get close to getting all of that grain out. it is really that sea route which is critical. and with the defensive minds in place and the warships from russia surrounding those ports, there doesn t seem to be an easy solution to this problem which could have very real world consequences in the months ahead. yeah, months and could impact years because of course if farmers can t plant their crops
Shelling. and cnn teams on the ground have also reported hearing more explosions than normal. but the war isn t just dev devastating ukraine, it is also propelling a global food crisis while russia and ukraine have both blamed each other for the paralysis at ukrainian ports, one fact hasn t changed, millions of tons of grain are currently stranded inside the country and that is putting millions of people at risk for food shortages especially in africa where many countries rely on both russia and ukraine for their wheat imports. david mckenzie is standing by for us in johannesburg with those details, but first i want to go to salma abdelaziz in kyiv for the latest on the fighting. let me pick up on severdonetsk because the picture you have been painting, you know, kind of every day here on the show is really ukraine on the back foot but really trying to hold the line. what is the latest assessment by the ukrainians as to how long they can sustain this?
Embankments are being breached. tributaries have been overrun as well. these are indications and it is time that governments both india and bangladesh look at short term as well as long term solutions. and more forecasts, more rain forecast for the coming days. very troubling indeed. thanks very much. and still ahead right here, ukraine s president is accusing russia of holding african-american nations hostage and putting millions at risk of famine. and plus what donald trump give us, donald trump taketh away. how his endorsement will affect a primary. we ll explain.
Forces say that they fear that russian troops are trying to open yet another front line. so to stretch ukrainian forces that are already very thin even thinner, look, this is a war of attrition that has dragged out. neither side really strong enough here to win in severdonetsk but neither side weak enough to lose. president zelenskyy has insisted that his fighters will not back down but hard to imagine how that city won t fall. yeah, stay with us, i want to go to david because one aspect of course of this war that is having global repercussions is really this blockade along the ports. i know president zelenskyy addressed the african union about this. what did he say in terms of the logistics of what is being done behind the scenes here? reporter: his main empploy w to try to appeal to the african