i absolutely expect more of this, of course. probably some of the regions of kyiv will be almost like we saw severe bombing in other places, for example, they ll definitely be fighting around the city, within the city. but pretty optimistic, very low in morale. their logistics are quite low quality and then our forces have managed to kill already four generals out of 20 participating in invasion of ukraine. so clearly logistics lacking and we think with our troops and morale so high, they don t have a chance. obviously to kill lots of civilians and property but gaining any military advantage,
russian military right now, but on such a grand scale that they can t even keep advancing. we kept advancing toward baghdad even though we got low on food and at one point even low on ammunition. they re completely stopped. and i think, alex, they don t actually have enough combat power to go in and take over a city like kyiv. you need a lot of troops to fight in urban warfare. those troops right now are sitting ducks. they re getting picked off. they re running low on food. they have to be low on morale. and if they actually get the order to enter a city like kyiv, they re going to start getting torn apart by the ukrainian resistance. everyone is talking about how brutal this will be for ukrainian civilians and make no mistake, putin has shown he will deliberately target civilians and a lot of innocent ukrainians will die if russian troops go into the major cities, but there are a lot of russian troops who will die too. i don t think the russian
themselves have increasingly become targets. the international organization for migration said the number of people now fleeing the war tops 3 million. that s just in less than three weeks. cnn is following all the developments here in washington and across europe. let s begin with cnn international correspondent scott mclean in lviv in western ukraine. scott, tell us about the damage in kyiv because we ve been seeing more and more in recent days, deliberate attacks on civilian targets in a city like kyiv. what s the damage? reporter: exactly. and so, you know, yesterday, you had a senior u.s. defense official, jim, saying that from their assessment, many of the ground forces that the russians have in and around the city, have not been able to make a whole lot of progress. their closest point is still 10 miles out, so it seems like at this point, the russians are resorting to lobbing artillery
for defense. we do this by ourselves, by ukrainian military forces, but we need to protect our sky, because on the land, russian army every time we beat them. but every time bombs our city, our infrastructure, our civilian people, like mariupol, like kyiv, like kharkiv, and a lot of the people die. that s why we need to do something to protect our sky. and we need some mr. beleniuk, how concerned are you, because there are lots of reports that the russians are planning on using chemical or
those sanctions and tariffs have had little impact on holding back putin s forces on the battlefield. brian, steve, and pete? pete: thank you benjamin. brian: benjamin, real quick, if you were to characterize the way these cities block by block are yesterday to block any type of russian offensive if it comes today or this weekend, how would you character it? how ready are they? look the mayor of kyiv saying this city was a fortress. we have spoken to some of the commanders here running the defenses. they say they have multiple rings around the city. each single one they will be ready to defend and burn back the russian invasion. particularly in a major city like kyiv, you have the subway system which they said they would be able to use. extensive and pop up wherever you want. built up area. high rise billings, snipers in all of them. they say they are already there. they positioned supplies, weapons across the city. there s no doubt that they are