to our viewers in the united states and around the world, welcome to the situation room. happening now, a sixth memphis police officer has now been relieved of duty after the deadly beating of tyre nichols and the release of chilling videos of his arrest. our experts are breaking down the evidence and the growing calls right now for federal police reform. also tonight, cnn is on the front lines in ukraine amid fierce fighting in the east and the south after nearly a year of war, we re told some battles are worse than ever before. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is on an urgent mission in israel and the west bank amid a new outbreak of violence, meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and urging a deescalation of tensions. i ll discuss these high-stakes international conflicts with key white house official john kirby. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s get straight t
and to our viewers, thanks for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, crackdown. a russian couple arrested for having a private conversation critical of putin s war. this is putin s former speech writer tells me his former boss is erratic with no strategy. plus, cnn learning a seventh officer from the memphis police department has been relieved of duty after the arrest and beating of tyre nichols. and wait until you see what the strategy is to stop him. let s go outfront. outfront tonight, arrested. a russian couple handcuffed just for criticizing putin s war. according to the independent russian monitoring group. the couple was having a private conversation you re looking at here. the conversation had some things critical of the war in ukraine. somebody called the police. you see there. the couple were arrested. this is the type of police state that of course we saw in nazi germany. informant, people rounded up just for speaking out. havin
here s what we re learning. ukraine s entire eastern front is now heating up. this is russian infantry in a massive fire fight in the forest near the town of krim na. close by, we re creeping through the same forest with a ukrainian front line drone unit that scouts out russian positions. drone operator says working in the forest is extremely dangerous. a lot of artillery from different directions. from east and the north. here, russian infantry are moving through the thick woodland and this tank leaves cover and opens fire towards ukrainian positions.
drones. they can manufacture drone munitions in 20 minutes. drone operator is one of the most dangerous jobs, the boss says. as soon as they locate a drone operator, they use all kinds of weaponry, artillery, mrls, tanks. we have a high rate of casualties among drone pilots. in the forest, uslan s mission is now over, but he sees a long battle ahead in a contest of wits and brute force. mostly last month our but last two weeks maybe we stop and russians making counterattack. reporter: all the time drones will shape the way this war changes. there was a lot of heavy fighting going on around us as we were there with that front line drone unit. that s something we ve seen increasingly and heard about