top u.s. military leader talking finally again discussing the hour s long call of the state of the war. how ukrainian using official recognition technology on the battlefield and plus two russian journalists were able to defy the sensors, they were still alive to do it. we start with the preliminary hearing that could become a first in this war. a prosecution of an alleged russian war criminal even as the war goes on around it. melissa bell has the story. she warns you some of the images you are seeing are graphic. reporter: ukraine opens its first war crime trial. the 21-year-old vadim shishimarin accused of shooting an unarmed man. they include the massacre of 300 unarmed civilians in bucha and the killings of many sicivilian of men and children in the two months long of kharkiv. we have commanders give orders of shots. from other side, we understand that ordinary soldiers have their own responsibility for these atrocities. reporter: that s a message that needs to be
israeli police beating with batons. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with michael holmes. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy says more than a thousand towns and villages have been retaken so far from russian forces, including six more over just the past 24 hours. he says the russian military is paying a heavy price for its aggression. translator: today we can report 200 downed russian military aircraft. russia has not lost so many aircraft in any war in decades, and russia has lost almost 27,000 soldiers. ukraine also says russian troops continue to retreat from around the city of kharkiv in the north. farther south, ukraine claims it successfully blocked a russian advance at a key river. you re looking at drone video there showing pontoon bridges destroyed. also tanks and other heavy equipment destroyed as well. meanwhile, russia s top general and the u.s. defense secretary spoke by phone for an hour on saturday, their first chat since the war began.
visit sends a strong signal, bipartisan support for ukraine. it s not clear whether the meeting took place today nor whether the delegation is actually still there in kyiv. this is the second visit by a group of u.s. lawmakers in two weeks time. cnn correspondents are covering the latest developments. what are you learnin ing about s delegation to ukraine? i was to emphasize what you said which is we re still getting a lot of details about this visit from mitch mcconnell, john cornyn. we re not sure if they are still in kyiv, still meeting with zelensyy. it s likely this took place already. pelosi led a delegation two weeks ago to ukraine. this is happening as the senate is trying to pass a bipartisan bill. the problem here, noticeably missing from this delegation is senator rand paul, republican from kentucky is holding up this legislation while senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer have worked with their party and most of the party in support. senator
they are in response to a leaked draft opinion revealing a majority of justices poised to strike down roe versus wade. if over turned, constitutional protections for abortion rights will be eliminated in 26 states, likely. we have reporters covering this in several key cities today. joe johns is live for us in the nation s capitol. let s begin in the nation s cap capital. the d.c. rally is near the washington monument and it will kick off at about noontime and people will start making their way to capitol hill outside the u.s. supreme court. reporter: that s right, fred. the point, obviously, the message they are trying to send is there is strong support for upholding roe v wade even though the court appears to be poised, if you will, to strike it down. what we re told here is that they are expecting about 17,000 people in the nation s capital for this event but that certainly could be affected by the weather. rain is in forecast. a coalition of organizations is throwing th
he joins me ahead with his personal story of living under china s covid lockdown. but we want to get right to cnn s john avlon, charlie dent. alice stewart is here as well. i m happy to have all of you on. good evening to you. john, let s start with the new stuff, the stuff that s breaking. hi, everyone. the fbi issuing investigators issuing, i should say, a subpoena to the national archives to access classified documents that trump took to mar-a-lago. are we going to find out what he took to mar-a-lago, and what does this mean for the former president, you think? well, we will find out what he took to mar-a-lago. we may find out the context in which he took it. was it trump cluelessness, or was there classified information that hadn t been declassified? there s also a statute having to do with these documents which might end up being material. there is a law on the books that says if you steal, spindle, mutilate official documents, that there are punishments that go