in friday s fighting, a russian missile destroyed a vital supply bridge into the city. bakhmut has seen intense fighting for weeks, as russia tries to claim a victory in eastern ukraine. cnn s melissa bell joins us now from kyiv. melissa, where do things stand? reporter: well, we ve just been hearing from the british ministry of defense, saying that they understand that ukrainian forces are under increasing pressure. that s what we re hearing from the ground, with one soldier on the ground telling us that they were essentially outmanned four to one. and this has been the story for the last few weeks. so russian forces sending in more and more men to try and take every trench, every defensive line, at huge cost to themselves, first and foremost. there is also ukrainians, will there is a lack of ammunition compared to what the russians have, and they are trying to capture bakhmut, but yes, for the time being, this town still stands with his four and a half thousand civilians
i m amara walker. i m paula reed in for boris sanchez. you re live in the cnn newsroom. this morning, more than a million people are without power in the eastern united states, as a deadly storm system continues to move north. over the last 24 hours, at least 12 people were killed in multiple states, due to the severe weather that brought tornadoes and major flooding to parts of the south. the majority of those deaths were in kentucky. where hurricane force winds toppled trees and even toppled tractor-trailer trucks. in indiana, the high winds tore the roof off of a church. and in one town, a man says god saved his life, after a tornado swept through his property but left him and his home untouched. the back door started shaking. the house started shaking. and i could see nothing but white. we didn t have time to get anywhere. it was right on top of us, the house was shaking, and we were all close together, in the middle room of the house, still, but wow, this is the
stands with his four and a half thousand civilians still inside but increasingly circled and of course their prospects increasingly desperate as well. this is already, fredricka, the most sustained battle of this war so far. this siege has gone on for seven months. and if you think back to cities in the past, where ukraine has adopted a similar strategy for holding on to towns as long as they could, despite the huge cost to themselves and for civilians involved, because it forces the russians to degrade their war capabilities, and what they have to throw at this war, but also their men, and that is what is happening in bakhmut and has been happening these past few weeks with an intensifying intensity, and russian forces are continuing to turn their artillery westward to the next town which will follow once bakhmut falls. it could take to days, 20 days,