wolf, it s not just civilians here who are facing great danger. ukrainian security services have released an audio tape that purportedly shows communications between russian forces in which they discuss an alleged order to kill prisoners of war in the town. take a listen. what can i tell you, damn it. you keep the most senior among them and let the rest go forever. so that no one will ever see them again, including relatives. cnn cannot independently confirm the authenticity of that audio. we have also reached out to the russian ministry of defense, wolf, who have perhaps unsurprisingly yet given us any
preparations a few days ago for that. mayor, now we re in it. now we re in it, and as al said, it is going to get worse by tonight. we re going to feel more of the effect. i m standing here on the beach. feels like 65-miles-per-hour gusts to me. it is going to get worse. how are things looking for? it is looking pretty sense right now. we do have some pretty strong wind gusts, 75 to 80 miles per hour. the one thing i can say about florence is that she requires a lot of patience. we have been waiting for days. now that she s here we are waiting more. reporter: how did you succeed? you and i were talking about the degree to which you were encouraging people who were in low-lying areas or in vulnerable places to leave. what is your sense of how many people are here and in need of help or will be in the next 24 hours? we don t have a number yet because people have literally been lost in their houses, and those who evacuated cannot get
russians have yet to force out the remaining ukrainian fighters. putin acknowledge fighters remain in the steel plant and essentially said no problem, just wait them out. he said there s no reason to climb into these catacombs and climb understground. block off this industrial area so a fly can t get through. for those inside, the blockade strategy, a sign of weakness from the russian military. a force that has tried and failed for weeks to force out resistance. russia now is cowardly hesitating with the assault, final assault because they know that they will fail. and they will fail. no matter whether the russians cannot or will not fight their way into the steel complex, the end result is the same. ukrainian fighters inside are not only responsible for
themselves, but for the hundreds of civilians they say are sheltering there. some seen here in unverified video from ukraine s government. most heartbreaking thing in this that we have limited supplies here and we re trying to share everything with civilians, but russia claims we use them as a human shield. it s bull [ bleep ]. it s complete bull [ bleep ]. real military doesn t do this. even outside the steel plant in areas firmly under russian control, tens of thousands of civilians that need to be evacuated cannot. only a fraction managed to leave in the last few days. some seen here arriving in the ukrainian city of zaporizhzhia. not thousands, not hundreds, muhabut mere dozens after ukraine said russian forces violated cease fire agreement. it s more like a terrorist operation against mariupol and the people of this city. matt rivers reporting for us