against the nazis. brian todd reporting, thanks very much. i ll be back in two hours, 9:00 p.m. for cnn tonight. and once again tomorrow for a special edition of the situation room. that s from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. in the meantime, thanks for watching. erin burnett outfront live from ukraine starts right now. this is cnn breaking news. good evening. i m erin burnett live in ukraine. outfront tonight, the breaking news. they will assault tonight. those are the words of president zelenskyy. cities across this country are under curfew, including where we are tonight. the streets deserted, the people scared. we saw it today when we had to go to a bomb shelter when one of several air raid sirens went off here. but in these darkest hours of the night now, president zelenskyy posted a zoo warning
and the american basketball player detained in russia. officials say it will not be easy to get her out. let s go outfront. good evening, i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, the breaking news. the president of ukraine daring putin tonight. zelenskyy showing up in his office, not his nightly inspiring speech from his bunker, from his office, okay, for the first time in two weeks delivering a message to putin. translator: now i m going to say here i am. i m staying here, not hiding, and i m not afraid of anyone. a defiant message coming as putin steps up his assault on civilian targets in ukraine. tonight the horrific images of these strikes. one hitting an evacuation route in a suburb of kyiv. i m going to warn you that the video that you are about to see is horrific. [ speaking foreign language ]
outfront tonight, the breaking news, russia intensifying its assault as it targets ukraine s fuel supply. according to a top ukrainian military official, russian forces have hit a fuel depot in western ukraine. this is just the latest strike targeting the country s fuel facilities specifically. over the weekend, a barrage of russian missiles targeted fuel storage sites including in lviv and today s attack happening as russia and ukraine are battling for control of crucial ukrainian cities. tonight the mayor of the besieged city of mariupol using some important words saying humanitarian corridors are now in the, quote, hands of the occupiers. also calling for a complete evacuation of the city which at one point had a population of 440,000 people. just outside the capital, ukraine s deputy defense minister claims russian forces are attempting to block humanitarian supply routes around kyiv. our fred pleitgen traveled to one village north of the capital and this is video that he and
let s go outfront. good evening, i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, a covid death every minute. this is where we are tonight. about every 60 seconds, another american is dying of covid. that is the grim reality we are in the united states. covid again tightening its grip on the country. today president biden meeting with his top health officials and he had this warning about the highly contagious omicron variant. it s here now and it s spreading and it s going to increase. for unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death if you re unvaccinated. for themselves, their families and the hospitals they ll soon overwhelm. it is a sobering warning and cases are increasing incredibly fast in vaccinated and unvaccinated. take new york city. the number of those testing positive doubled from december 9th to the 12th. doubled in three days. the mayor s health advisor tweeting we ve never seen this before in new york city. and the rush of new cases is
and good evening. i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, the breaking news. top government officials are currently considering requiring everyone who enters the united states to be tested for covid. the day before their flight. this comes as the cdc quickly ramps up efforts to ward off a possible threat from the new coronavirus variant. right now, the biden administration is working with pfizer, moderna, and j&j, to develop contingency plans for a potential booster. the cdc, also, enhancing screening for the variant at four of america s busiest international airports, newark, jfk, san francisco, and atlanta, specifically, are on that list. the u.s. is, nonetheless, prepared to combat it. to be crystal clear, we have far more tools to fight the variant today than we had at this time last year. vaccines remain our most important tool in our fight against the virus. we are hoping and i think with good reason to feel good