destroy a children s playground. ukrainian official posted this picture showing a large crater at the site. all comes after russia suffered a humiliating blow when an explosion damaged a bridge to crimea. president vladimir putin blamed ukraine for that blast, calling it a terror attack. we ll go to first fred pleitgen live at the scene for us in kyiv. fred? reporter: hi there, max. the scene of one of these explosions we had a rude awakening when we had massive explosions we heard i would say at around 8:15 local time, which is 1:15 on the east coast of the united states. multiple places were obviously hit. i m at the scene of one of these explosions. you can see behind me there s people sort of working that scene over there. there s several buildings that were damaged around this area. you can see several cars there also severely damage there as well. those cars burned out. the latest that we have from the authorities here in kyiv so far, it s always important to point
dozens more are hurt. today, putin is boasting about these attacks and vowing there will be more. he says the attacks are retaliation for the weekend attack on a key bridge that links annexed crimea to russia. ukraine s president zelenskyy meanwhile says putin s latest assault shows a world he is a terrorist. cnn nick paton walsh is in onei targeted overnight. nick, what are you seeing there? reporter: what we saw here was a sign that while russia boasts about the precision firepower, it s hard to discern what the target was and clear it hasn t really hit it. across ukraine, we ve seen startling brutality, frankly. this is not the first time that russia has it seems targeted or killed civilians since the start of this war, but we haven t seen a level of violence unleashed across pretty much all of ukraine s major population centers like we ve seen today for a number of months, possibly since the start of the war. kyiv fundamentally gained the blunt brunt of this. carnage, m
of hurricane ian, what residents are finding when they return home. plus vladimir putin s brazen move, how the rest of the world is reacting to the russian president s plan to annex part of ukraine. and how south korea is reacting to the latest missile launches from pyongyang. relief and recovery efforts are ongoing in florida after parts of the state with utterly devastated by hurricane ian. this is some of the damage left behind in ft. myers, a town once brimming with life is now a flattened field littered with debris. residents say much of what they own has been washed away and lost forever. lost everything last night. everything. family is okay, dogs are okay, parents are okay. lost everything we had. pictures, memories. gone. and we re seeing similar trails of destruction in other parts of florida where some residents are still trapped and waiting for help. my grandparents are still at the house. we have animals there. they didn t want to leave the animals. s
feet high, could plunge into the neighborhood. it s just one of the many gulf coast communities still suffering from catastrophic flooding. it s been quite an operation. some of our major thoroughfares have become impassable even as the water recedes, there s washouts. so we have a long, long recovery period. all of this following hurricane ian s destructiv ive h across florida. it slammed into the gulf coast as a category 4 hurricane. entire towns leveled. florida governor ron desantis is expected to give an update on the situation later on in this hour. we ll take that for you live. let s send it down to boris sanchez with our coverage from ft. myers, florida. boris? fred, you just broke the news that we have been dreading all day. initially, when we got up this morning, officials had told us that the death toll from hurricane ian was hanging at around 45 fatalities, and you just broke the news, 64 people killed by hurricane ian here in the state of florida and potent
hello again, everyone. thank you for joining me. i m fredricka whitfield. we begin with a new update on the devastating toll hurricane ian has taken on florida. at least 64 people were killed across the state. as recovery efforts continue, the number is expected to rise. governor ron desantis at this hour giving a briefing on the storm response and recovery. hurricane ian slamming into florida as a category 4 storm, leveling entire communities. and today severe flooding is complicating rescue and recovery efforts. let s go back to boris sanchez anchoring from ft. myers, florida, for us. reporter: hey, fred. as you reported just a moment ago, the tragic news that the death toll has again climbed earlier today. it was sitting at 45 fatalities. now cnn has confirmed from state officials that it has reached 64 people killed as a result of hurricane ian. and those devastating, nearly category 5, storm force winds. obviously, this is a difficult time for so many across the stat