good morning to you. i m jessica dean in washington. jim sciutto is off today. we re following several major stories this morning. overnight ukraine rocked by a barrage of russian missiles. the defense minister saying it s the most massive missile attack since the invasion began in februariment we know power is out in several regions including parts of the capital kyiv. we ll be live on the ground ahead. plus, the u.s. reinstating covid tests for travelers coming from china as beijing drops its own restrictions despite an overwhelming surge in cases. a fresh apology from southwest airlines today, plus new steps the airline is taking to reimburse passengers whose holiday travel was ruined. still more than 2,300 southwest flights canceled today. we re told the scheduling nightmare could end as soon as tomorrow. let s begin this morning on the ground in ukraine. cnn senior international correspondent ben wedeman is in kyiv. ben, you saw firsthand some of this damage. tell us
that means traveling from coast to coast are stranded. some of them forced to drive thousands of miles. we were at the airport at noontime on sunday, finally made the call at 10:30 p.m., that we could not afford to lose any more time if we were going to drive. i can t rely on southwest to get the family home, so we maid need to leave a little early to drive ourselves home. the kreismt on the blaming the travel disaster on schedule and outdated infrastructure. the ruling that keeps on tens of thousands migrants now bait in limbo. we ll go to el paso, texas in just a moment. let s begin with an absolute nightmare for southwest airlines passengers. 0% of today s 2700 flight cancellations are from southwest. the company s ceo, bob jordan, said system upgrades are floes to avoid a repeat. the tools we use to recover from disruption service works well 90% of the time, but we need to double down on our existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances s
good morning, everyone. i m jessica dean in washington. jim sciutto is off today. the pressure is on for southwest airlines. the airline canceling another 2,500 flights already this morning. we are now up to more than 15,000 since the meltdown began a week ago. passengers from coast to coast remain very stranded. overnight southwest airlines ceo bob jordan issuing an apology. he says he s optimistic they will be back on track before next week. i want everyone who is dealing with the problems we ve been facing, whether you haven t been able to get to where you need to go or you are one of our heroic employees caught up in a massive effort to stabilize the airline, to know that we re doing everything we can to return to a normal operation. and please also hear that i m truly sorry. also ahead this morning, the crisis at the u.s. southern border. tens of thousands of migrants now wait in limbo after the supreme court ordered title 42 restriction toss remain in place as legal
they by potentially reinforcing this image of extremism that hurt republicans so much through purple states. there are others, but for me those are the biggest known unknowns for 2024. and that last one is a great question because you have heard republicans, you know, they have been basically chomping at the bit to take over the majority for obvious reasons. but with such a small majority, you negotiation i heard from republicans who say, we re concerned about what these investigations look like and what path this goes down and do we look like we have a strategy that we have it together or we don t know who is going to be the house speaker next week when the new congress takes over. good point. ron, thank you very, very much. thank you, guys. happy holidays. thank you. cnn this morning continues right now. good morning. it is 8:00 a.m. eastern. we re so glad you re with us. it is december 27th. welcome to cnn this morning. all right, so we will begin with
those are on southwest. the airline now apologizing, but as you can imagine that s little comfort for people who may miss out totally on seeing their loved ones this holiday season. i m beyond frustrated. and hurt. because i can t see my dad. my mom is in the hospital and i wanted to be there for her once she like got discharged. unfortunately because of the situation they are saying that the closest flight is the 29th. are you going to make it home today? no, likely not. i mean, i heard someone say over the intercom not to expect to get a flight within the next four days. that s definitely not what i wanted to hear. people just missing their family and loved ones. the log jam starting with the powerful winter storm that hit western new york the hardest. look at that. this morning people in buffalo struggling to get food, water, medicine, after days of driving bans and closed stores. we are going to take you live there in just a moment. let s go first to our team co