a few days ago we heard of a police official there working for the russian occupied force. he was killed according to sources there, and in the last hours or so we ve heard of another attempt to target an official working for the occupying russian forces there as well. on top of that, too, now a number of explosions targeting rail facilities in that area. one may have been an improvised explosive device, suggestions of another potential explosion just today. so increasingly as we head into what many believe is the beginning of ukraine s counter offensive something they ll be absolutely clear they will not announce, we re seeing more sabotage around targets inside occupied areas. nick paten walsh, thank you. today some rare praise for house speaker kevin mccarthy after mccarthy pushed back against a russian reporter who asked him about not supporting aid to ukraine. take a listen. i vote for aid for ukraine.
thousands of writers walking off the job after contract negotiations fail. what this might for your favorite tv shows and movies and the future of entertainment. plus protecting kids on social media. there s a new bipartisan push in the new york senate. we re going to talk about what their bill does and does not do. does it block access to potentially lifesaving resources? and leading this hour, the kremlin pushing back on newly declassified u.s. intelligence that shows 20,000 russian soldiers have been killed in ukraine since december alone. a large portion of those are likely private wagner mercenary fighters killed around the area of bakhmut where you see these apocalyptic scenes we re showing you right now. despite the destruction russia says ukraine has not completely captured the city. cnn s nick paten walsh you say british intelligence shows russia is afraid ukraine could
civilian population. we ve seen that in the past. but a lot of pressure on ukraine now to get results in this strategic win it needs in the counter offensive. nick paten walsh, thank you. appreciate it. we thought tonight good to check in with retired lieutenant general mark hurtling. we heard the foreign minister say the way to peace is arm ukrainians with f-16s. are fighter jets the answer? i don t believe they are, anderson. and i know this has been a debate and i know i m going to get heat for saying this but you just don t put a pilot in a different kind of airplane and expect the kind of results the u.s. and nato forces have seen in conflicts around the world. it takes years to train that kind of capability where you have a coordination between the ground forces and the air forces. with close air support, with combat air patrol, all of those things are critical. it isn t it s beyond a
move mounting as russia lashes out. nick, how does the size of this attack compare to other big missile waves that we ve seen from russia? reporter: yeah, i mean over the past two weeks we saw a significant attack and over a dozen people lost their lives. so this is bad certainly. it s also intriguing to see how many of the missiles ukraine says it was able to down, well over 90% taken out of the skies. that a reflection of improved anti-aircraft, anti-missile systems supplied by the west. i fear, anderson, we re going to see more of this as the counter offensive inevitably gets under way in the days or weeks ahead. russia has a track record of lashing out over time claiming it s trying to hit something but really knowing its targing systems are pretty poor and the violence ends up being indiscriminate. it ll probably try to take it s anger and reerevenge out on the
bases and runways undergoing improvement over the last year. cnn s nick paten walsh with this report. reporter: up here in the arctic, you wouldn t get the feeling russia s military is crippled by its catastrophic invasion of ukraine. to moscow this ice quickly receding with climate change is vital to its defense and future. these new satellite images obtained by cnn reveal the changes at key military installations over just the past year and show that despite the damage done to russia s military from their invasion of ukraine, they re still expanding up near the arctic circle fast. towards the east three radonees have been built-up here between this october and last. work here over the last year over the runway in the airfield far up near the arctic circle. and one of five new raiders which they claim can find stealth jets emerging out of