katie, as you know, there have been more than 3 million refugees that have left ukraine. now the number up over 3.5 million but today, president zelenskyy is calling for fresh talks with his counterparts in russia, and he says that his country is being bombed beyond recognition. of course, the attention is still focused on the residents of mariupol. some of the people in these buses are from that region. a humanitarian corridor was open and so we ve been speaking with residents from southeastern ukraine throughout the morning. in fact, surprisingly, katie, some have even boarded a train back to that region after spending some time here in lviv, because they wanted to bring back supplies and also a few of them told us that they felt that they had no other choice, that this was their country. so many refugees, more than 3 million, about half of them children. gabe gutierrez from lviv, gabe, thank you very much. and let s now go back to chris
supporting this war, all of them are using italy as a place for holidays, so please don t be a holiday resort for murderers. president zelenskyy says 117 children have now been killed since the start of russia s invasion. joining me now is nbc s gabe gutierrez in lviv in western ukraine. gabe, russia seems to be struggling gabe, you got us? there you are. hey, gabe. reporter: hey, yes. i want to talk to you about what s happening right now, katie. these buses are pulling out of this train station, literally within the past few seconds, and i want to tell you a little bit about them. they are filled with refugees from the southeastern part of ukraine. they took a 17-hour train ride to arrive here. they just got here to lviv, and right now, this bus is about to head out to warsaw, poland.
actually shot down three missiles in the last several hours. of course, willie, this comes after at least two airstrikes over the weekend. those two airstrikes on saturday that came just as president biden was in neighboring poland. lviv, of course, less than 50 miles from the polish border and nato territory, but the fighting is intensifying in other parts of this country, willie. you just played a report from richard engel. he is in the northeast part of this country in kharkiv. the fighting is also intensifying in mariupol, as he mentioned, but also we are hearing in the last few hours local officials in mariupol are saying a humanitarian corridor is being allowed to go into the city today. so that is perhaps some good news. they re able to evacuate some of the residents there. but we have been speaking with residents and refugees coming out of mariupol and they describe an increasingly dangerous and disastrous situation. local officials saying more than 160,000 people are still in
we met valentina after her agonizing escape from mariupol. the grandmother sobbed as she described her 15-mile trek on foot to a humanitarian bus. we were bombarded ruthlessly, she says, one word to describe the situation hell. but calls her 8-year-old granddaughter a hero for helping her. an awful journey she says would have been impossible to survive alone. breaking late today news that would make it easier for immigrants including those fleeing ukraine to come to the u.s the bide administration in late may is planning to lift title 42, the public health policy that denied asylum seekers entry due to covid. officials at the border are anticipating a surge when the policy lifts. lester okay. gabe gutierrez in lviv, thanks new insights this evening on russian president vladimir putin and his inner circle with the white house declaring putin s aides are deliberately misinforming him about what s happening on the battlefield. keir simmons now with
right now. it sounds very kbens. what has been happening here? reporter: we ve repelled every russian assault, he says. now they re just bombing us from afar. richard engel from kharkiv. meanwhile u.s. officials say ukrainian troops recaptured sumy near the border with russia. russia has launched more than 1,300 missiles in total since the invasion began last month. moving to the western part of ukraine, we find nbc news national correspondent gabe gutierrez in lviv. good morning. reporter: good morning, willie. minutes before you came to us we heard the sound of air raid sirens here in lviv. it has become a common sound in this western city which, as you mentioned, has been a relative safe haven for refugees since the start of this war. we are still seeing thousands of them streaming through here each day. the governor of lviv this morning saying that air defense systems here in this region