the nufrp ukrainians who have fled russia s unprovoked invasion now tops 5 million people. as scott mcclain reports from poland, a growing number are now returning home even as this war rages on. in the early days of war, trains leaving ukraine were standing room only. packed with terrified women and children. trains going the other way for virtually empty. as the bombs fell and the tanks rolled, millions desperately tried to get out. most to poland. almost two months later, there are now days when more people go back into ukraine from poland than come out. do you think that the mass exodus is over? we can never say that. it s hard to predict, actually, the direction of the crisis. the first stop in poland for many ukrainians traveling by train, the mayor was once
but it is outside of the country and it s a small number of trainees, a little more than 50. so we ll train these 50 or so on how to use american howitzers. they ll go back to ukraine and will be able to train their colleagues as they get these in place in the donbas region. if there s a need for additional training on additional systems outside the country, we ll certainly look to do that, too. as someone who has seen these howitzers in action, they are devastating when used appropriately. president putin claims russia has now successfully captured mariupol. what s the latest u.s. assessment on control of mariupol tonight? we are looking at this very closely. we don t share the russians sanguine nature of their capture of mariupol. we still hold it as being contested that the ukrainians inside mariupol continue to resist russian efforts to take the city. but clearly, the russians have devoted a lot of force and fire power to make mariupol.
they re moving into the donbas so we want to be able to have the same capabilities available to the ukrainians and they have asked for specifically artillery support. that s why there s another 72 howitzers going in and more than 1400 artillery rounds to go with them. we re doing training this week with ukrainian soldiers outside of ukraine on american howitzers so they know how to use them and can train their teammates. these unmanned systems will let them attack russian ground formations. they re very capable, fairly new systems, but we believe they re well suited to the kind of fighting that s going to occur here in the donbas region. when you say training outside of ukraine, can you tell our viewers where this training is going on? yeah, we re being very careful on the exact location out of concerns for the host nation. we want to respect their need to be able to continue to do this so we re not detailing where,
they believe it s critical to their ability to move on the donbas region and get that land bridge between the donbas and crimea. but again, our assessment is that the ukrainians are still fighting for it. because putin apparently isn t sending troops in for a last stand at that steel factory in mariupol, saying there s no need for russian soldiers to quote, climb into these catacombs, his words. does putin want to avoid urban warfare like the kind russia failed out around kyiv? difficult to know. you heard what he said today, but you ve got to watch and see what the russians do. their tactics of late have been brutal. they have committed atrocities. we know russian forces have committed war crimes so we re going to watch this very closely. in the meantime, we re going to do everything we can to get the tools, the weapons and the m ises that the ukrainians need to continue to defend themselves and their territory. yesterday as you know, john, the u.s. assessment made public was th