the secret planning for president biden s very dangerous travel to kyiv and the direct messaging he s sending to vladimir putin as the russian leader is expected to unleash a major new military offensive in the weeks ahead. key white house official john kirby joins us this hour. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer, and this is a situation room special report. president biden is in poland this hour after personally delivering a strong message of support to the people of war-torn ukraine. his high-stakes, high-risk trip coming at a pivotal moment in the fight against russia s unprovoked invasion. cnn s chief white house correspondent phil mattingly is traveling with the president. good morning, mr. president. reporter: for president biden, a dramatic moment months in the making. one year later, kyiv stands, and ukraine stands. democracy stands. reporter: to mark the resilience of a nation and u.s. support after mor
been made homeless, they have been living outside in makeshift shelters, in tents and trucks right after that powerful 6.3 aftershock today we spoke to some people who were out on the side of the street. and take a listen to what they had to say. translator: we were terrified of the quake. we were sitting, then electricity went off, then communications went off. then immediately we ran outside the instant it happened. we were afraid sitting in our cars, sitting also in a tent. it was told that there is nothing left, come back to your houses. we went back to our house and this shock happened again, and we went out. may god help us. jomana karadsheh reporting for us. jomana, thank you very, very much. just ahead, north korea testing nuclear-capable missiles in a major provocation. at university of phoenix,on. you could earn your master s degree in less s than a year for under $11k.
and since then, cyril, there have been some moves to try and get everyone to the negotiating table to try and start some dialogue. but baghdad had a precondition. they wanted the kurds to annul the results of the referendum. something that hasn t happened and tensions have been building. in the past few days the kurdistan regional government came out and warned saying that the iraqi security forces along with the shia, the iranian-backed shia militias were preparing to attack the city of kirkuk. in their words that was denied by so many iraqi officials. but overnight we have seen iraqi forces with starting they re calling this operation to secure kirkuk and moving in from different directions on the city with reports now they re claiming to have captured some sites. and as you mentioned some reports, some exchange of fire. unclear at this point the nature of that in the past few hours. jomana, i know it s a very fluid situation. do you think we could be looking
right now at the beginning of the partition of iraq? i think, cyril, we have been looking at this for quite some time as that battle against isis started winding down in iraq. this is the direction that the country has been headed towards, especially when the kurds announced that they re going ahead with that referendum. now, i spoke to a senior kurdish official a short time ago. and she was telling me that they have not reached this is not the point of no return. that there is still room for de-escalating, that the iraqi prime minister can do something now so everyone can sit and negotiate a way out of this. and they re also saying that the united states has a big role to play here. they say they have a lot of influence, a lot of assets and diplomatic influence in baghdad and erbil, and that they should be using this, according to kurdish officials, to prevent war, according to this one official, cyril. all right, jomana karadsheh
a time and until that happens is this a great gain for isis. a major blow, atika, for the iraqi government that has been tried to last month s launching and offensive to try and take back anbar province. a very complex situation there, after it announceded a victory north of baghdad in the city of that the key. they took over that city. but here, the challenges are very, very different. and of course, the u.s. air strikes intensify yesterday, also, the iraqi forces, the government saying they re sending elite troops into al anbar. a very tense situation unfolding. that s cnn s jomana karadsheh reporting. thousands of people in burundi are running for their lives. the latest on the amendmented