happening now, the key ukrainian city of bakhmut amid fears it could all at any time. alex murdaugh is sentenced to life in prison after jurors quickly convicted him of murdering his wife and son and the judge calling him a monster. desantis trump split is on display. this as cnn uncovered comments by a new appointee of governor desantis with an animati-gay conspiracy room. alex marquardt is near the front lines in ukraine. alex, bakhmut is significant. reporter: russian forces are trying to encircle ukrainian forces but holding out. this is a very tough fight for the ukrainians that got tougher with a ukrainian bridge on the main supply route that ukraine uses to get to the front line. essentially the only paved road ukraine can use to back up the forces. we were on that road yesterday. we showed it to our viewers here on this program. we saw all kinds of military vehicles going to and from that front line so now, if ukraine wants to supply its forces, if i wants to
is shaping up for this year s midterms. this morning, we are keeping a close eye on pennsylvania s state gop primary where trump endorsed celebrity doctor mehmet oz still in a neck and neck battle as you see there with retired hedge fund executive david mccormick. we are making a ferocious charge but when it s this close, what would you expect? everything about this campaign is pin tight. we knew our message was resonating with the voters of pennsylvania and they showed it today and we are so incredibly grateful. senator minority leader mitch mcconnell pretending to wipe sweat off his brow when asked about his reaction to pennsylvania saying the gop is, quote, ready to win in november. he had serious reservations about barnett. madison cawthorn on his way out. the trump favorite conceded late last night. cnn s national correspondent athena jones and dianne gallagher this morning begin in lancaster, pennsylvania. here we are. pennsylvania. tight race. mail-in ballots c
reporter: russian forces are trying to encircle ukrainian forces but holding out. this is a very tough fight for the ukrainians that got tougher with a ukrainian bridge on the main supply route that ukraine uses to get to the front line. essentially the only paved road ukraine can use to back up the forces. we were on that road yesterday. we showed it to our viewers here on this program. we saw all kinds of military vehicles going to and from that front line so now, if ukraine wants to supply its forces, if i wants to withdrawal, if it wants to extract civilians, it s going to have to do so on dirt roads and across open fields that makes things a lot more difficult, a lot more dangerous. brianna, we heard from the head of the vogner group, the russian mercenariries leading russia s fight, he called on volodymyr zelenskyy to withdrawal forces from bakhmut that say they are surrounded and will be completely surrounded in a day or two and he should save the
the ukrainians and their idea is to keep pushing manpower until the ukrainians can t stand the losses anymore and they will hope for a breakthrough somewhere. i still believe that there are uncommitted russian mobile forces that may be waiting. they may be in the wings. they may be waiting for a breakthrough but we think the forces with aircraft north of the ukrainian border there in the eastern part, northeast of ukraine so i think that we re in a very difficult situation as long as ukraine can hold, it should. it should do its best not to fall back. a withdrawal under enemy pressure a difficult military operation. as long as they can hold, they should hold. the idea the russians have is force ukrainians to give up the ukrainian offensive capability that s being held back and force them to throw that in the fight. that s the challenge for ukraine.
kharkiv. ukraine s second largest city and now at least stalling in the east and i wonder, when you look at the whole picture, does that show you the russian military is losing in ukraine? i do think the russian military is losing and i think you framed it right. there were four initial axes of advance and main effort was significant and now in eastern ukraine, the russians attempting to set a new main effort and encircle ukrainian forces in the donbas and take the entirety of the donetsk and luhansk, and even that now, the second attempt is stalling and revising down their objectives once again. so ukrainians in the midst of this have been on the advance in some areas. push back and remove russian forces around kharkiv and attempting counteroffenses further in the east to gain back some of the territory rather