at the barrel of a gun. russians have orchestrated sham referendum votes in four occupied regions in ukraine. plus, calling trump s bluff. the former president and his lawyers publicly suggested the fbi planted evidence at mar-a-lago. now the trump appointed or approved special master is daring them to make that claim in court. we begin at the white house. notably this is a political venue for president biden s speech moments from now. what are we expecting to hear from the president? this is all part of the amped up political activity we ve seen from president biden as he is anticipating and describing what he believes will be a very tight midterm election campaign. that is why the president is using these types of political events to, one, try to tout some of the legislative accomplishments his white house has achieved, things like infrastructure, bipartisan agreements when it comes to guns and also the recently passed inflation reduction act which touches economic, clima
reporter: just so they can kill the sons of other mothers. cnn international editor nick paton walsh is live for us in ukraine. nick, start with this referendum vote. officials say that some ukrainians are being forced to vote. how is that being done? reporter: yeah. some of this is clearly because of the implied pressure of being occupied by a military force of russia or in terms at time the direct pressure that appears. at the moment, ballot boxes are being brought to people s homes, suggestions they walk to polling stations. there is a great confusion on how this would play out, thought in in-person voting would happen on the last day. it appears to be much more haphazard and people are simply being asked to put their mark on a piece of paper. none of this of course is anything relow temperaturely approaching democracy and being, done under the pressure of military occupation. probably the middle of next week there will be a round endorsement, an extraordinary high p
hello. i m alisyn camerota. i m victor blackwell. we begin with vladimir putin s latest attempt to justify his war in ukraine. today he s orchestrated a referendum where separatist leaders in four occupied ukrainian regions are voting on whether to become part of the russian federation. now, these referendums are considered a sham by kings and other western nations. u.s. officials believe he will use the results to escalate the war further. in russia, we re seeing emotional divide as people are forced to leave their families and join putin s military. translator: i ve got two kids conscription age. i brought them up alone and don t want to lose them.