good morning. buenos dias and welcome to cnn this morning. we are grateful you are starting your sunday, march 19th with us. i m boris sanchez. i m amara walker. is there a good morning? it is a very good morning for me. it is a great one. because boris is going to getting a lot more sleep on the weekends. look, there is really no bad news. there is some breaking news. i guess the bad news is that you won t be able to see boris bright and early in the morning saying buenos dias, but, for all the boris fans you will be getting a lot more of boris during the week. we don t want to disclose all the details. look, i think you and i channelled each other because we are kind of in mourning with all of our black. sadly, because we won t be together. that s the bad news. the good news, you will get so much more of boris. you are too kind. more of that in a sec. here is what we are watching today. russian president vladimir putin makes a surprise visit to the russian-o
Ivan, let s start but. the timing of putin s visited to mariupol in ukraine notable given the icc s putting out a warrant for his arrest a few days ago. reporter: sure. and just ahead of his meeting face to face with the chinese leader and, look, a year ago this time russian forces had encircled mariupol, were bludgeoning it with rockets and artillery and airstrikes. the residents were hiding in basements, drinking rainwater, they were being killed in the courtyards of their own buildings, and burying their neighbors in the front yards of their apartment buildings. this i heard firsthand from shell-shocked residents who fled that city, fled the russian assault. since then, the russian military, it captured what was left of the city and the russian government annexed mariupol and other parts of occupied ukraine
Ukrainians decide to fight to the last man. certainly, there s every indication right now. there s no weakening of their will and resolve. thank you both very much. i appreciate you. next, u.s. officials say putin s forces have encircled mariupol, that would give them the land bridge. the russians bombed a maternity hospital in mariupol. what exactly do we now know about that attack? a russian opposition politician who survived two poisoning attacks. he will talk about what putin is capable of. plus, the first lady of ukraine. what is she saying about putin s invasion tonight?