will do that, i m not here to say. i will tell you there is certainly a great deal of fear about continuing war crimes that we ve seen so far. we re still talking today about things like the ka teen massacre three generations later. we re watching similar history unfold before our eyes. general mark hertling, thanks so much. thank you, jim, and bianna. i ll speak live with a ukrainian lawmaker on capitol hill recently asking for more help and military aid. what she makes so far of the commitment from the u.s. and nato. plus, the french president is heading to a runoff with a far right candidate who is sympathetic to putin. the outcome of that election could have big implications for the war effort. also ahead, president biden set to announce a new measure to crack down on so-called ghost guns. we re live at the white house with morore details.
nagter s song imagine. he said he s been disturbed by the unimaginable tragedy and went on to condemn what he called russia s murderous violence. it was part of an event to raise money for refugees. imagine there s no countries it isn t hard to do insight i understand the incomprehensible death toll in a ukrainian city as russia launches a fresh offensive. good morning. i m jim smoout sciutto. i m bianna golodryga. a never-before-seen look at the destroyed theater in mariupol.
russia suffers tactical losses on the battlefield, they are attacking civilian targets more and more when you look at mariupol. we have to expect the same in the east. the size of those losses jumping by orders of magnitude from a few hundred in bucha to, according to zelenskyy, tens of thousands in mariupol. should there be a red line for u.s./nato intervention? history books are being written of, in effect, the west standing by as civilians are slaughtered here. jim, one of the things that the soviet union for was the mass dmer poland where they murdered 22,000 polish officers. the russians are going to become more famous for the kinds of criminal activity they ve done in this war. you mentioned the new commanding general of all the forces, general dvornikov. his nickname is the butcher. i ve had a lot of nicknames in
residential buildings destroyed. reporter: ukraine is preparing to try and repel the coming russian military operation, what they expect to be a strong sudden push to break through the defensive lines. before that happens, the focus is getting civilians out of the region. there are many people still there, and officials in every level are emphasizing the need for them to leave as quickly as possible because they re in danger, but also they re in the way. thousands possibly still trapped there. as jim alluded to earlier, there is new concern this war will take an even more brutal turn after vladimir putin appointed the new military commander for ukraine, alexander dvornikov. his moniker is the butcher of syria. what more do we know about him? reporter: you re right. as you touched on, dvornikov is a man with history, the sort of history that will add to concern about the likely brutality of
artillery, support equipment. vladimir putin taking a fresh approach to the war, appointing alexander dvornikov as the new commander of russian forces inside ukraine. dvornikov also known as the butcher of syria, notorious for afflicting brutality, atrocities on civilians. that is putin s fresh look at this war, even more disturbing than we ve seen so far. phil black joining us from ukraine. senior ukrainian officials say that offensive in the donbas has now begun. what do we know? reporter: that s right, jim. imminent offensive operations here when the view from ukrainian officials is that this is already under way, such as the fact that they re already reporting extensive escalation of shelling and attacks and