of creating the impression among russian garrisons in those towns and villages that they are being encircled, that they are far behind the lines, they are getting isolated. so it disrupted their ability to go on. they did not waste time on storming cities in russian style and destroying them all. so they would pass them by, isolate the russian garrisons, and then move on to the next point that needs to be cut off and taken under control, so that russian units would be surrounded and basically isolated. i must submit that, even to us, to ukrainians who know a lot about our military, that was quite a surprise. nobody, i think, in the military, absolutely nobody expected this success, such a success. the operation effectively caused the whole of russia s kharkiv front to collapse, and it enabled ukraine
care career. it s great to be here with my fellow paratroopers. very storied unit there in poland. how have you seen the u.s. military posture change? well, brianna, before the russian invasion we had about 80,000 u.s. troops stationed throughout the european feeder command is what it s called. we plussed up about 25,000 service members, added strategic assets, tactical assets, weapons and equipment. and i think what we are going to see a long-term shift as well from fewer number of large garrisons and bases to a larger number of smaller garrisons and bases throughout eastern europe. i think we will see distribution of the u.s. basing to more eastern-flanked countries.
california is lifting statewide mask mandate. a 12% drop in daily deaths in recent weeks. and news on the trump organization finances. after the long-time accounting firm cut its ties with mr. trump and his family-owned company, calling a decade of financial statements made on his company s behalf unreliable but not concluding there are any material discrepancies. let s begin with new developments in russia and ukraine. joining me is correspondent, richard engel, peter alexander. retired four-star general, mccaffrey. and the new york times diplomatic correspondent, richard crowley. there is spectism is over russia s claims they re moving troops back over the border to garrisons. what are you hearing to make you
they ve called it mir l the russian for peace . this is newsday on the bbc. i m mariko 0i in singapore. our main story this hour: the white house says russia s claim of withdrawing troops from ukraine is false and that, in fact, it s sent in thousands more troops. to recap the breaking news this hour, the united states has flatly denied russia s claim that it s withdrawing troops from the border with ukraine. russia s defence ministry had said on tuesday some troops were returning to their garrisons as planned and published video of tanks on the move. but a white house official has now descibed
a lot going on this morning. in a moment we will get to the potential development out of russia. russia s defense ministry saying this morning some of the troops gathered around ukraine were being loaded on to trains and trucks and sent back to their garrisons. we will talk about how reliable the assertions are and get full reporting on the situation there. willie, did you see the lavrov? yeah, the table is back. what did i tell you about lavrov? lavrov being lavrov, you take that to broadway. i m there every night, on the front row. lavrov pitch that to ari. i m going to pitch it. oh, my gosh. the depth and feel. it is great depth and feel. the president, he doesn t like covid but he is saying, tell me what happened, lavrov. lavrov said, we ve had the americans calling us, we had the french coming, we re going to have the germans coming. uh-huh. he goes down a checklist and the great thing is, and this is