david, what do you think about this shifting of focus, it seems, for the russians in saying that we re now going to be focusing on the eastern part of ukraine? was this essentially vladimir putin admitting he s losing the war, he s losing kind of his initial what his initial goals are in changing them? yes. yeah, i agree. it s gone extremely badly for russia, unbelievable, you know, numbers of casualties. thousands of troops, thousands of tanks. so it is an admission of how badly things have gone for him. i think that s a diplomatic opening. i come back to this again. i covered the war in afghanistan, the war in bosnia. i see this as a protracted steal stalemates that s going to go on for months and months. putin, it s horrible what he s done, but you need a way to step back and end this, because more and more people are going to die. neither side is going to win.
to save lives as the patients come in. there you can hear the bombing around you. there was a gunfight less than a kilometer away. the windows are sandbagged. it s all blackout curtains. the patients are mostly in the corridors because they re very aware that multiple hospitals have been targeted in this war. dozens and dozens have been recorded by the united nations as having been hit. but they re still there. again, they re determined to leave and save as many lives as they can. determined to stay. sorry. yeah, thank you, emma graham harrison there for highlighting that so many medical facilities have been hit in just a few weeks. thank you so much for your reporting. u.s. officials are trying to walk back president joe biden s fiery remarks about vladimir putin when he said the russian president cannot remain in power. you ll remember he said that was an ad-libbed moment at the end of his speech in warsaw. cnn s arlette science has the details from the white house.
2:00 o clock in the morning after 3 days in europe. that trip ended with a major speech in warsaw and lasting declaration that russian president vladimir putin cannot remain in power. that needed a major clarification from the white house and top administration officials traveling in israel, secretary of state antony blinken stressed the massive western sanctions campaign is not designed to push putin from power. president putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against ukraine or anyone else. as you know, and as you heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in russia. clarification follows confusion over the white house s position on a response to potential chemical weapons used or the purpose of sanctions. though critics argue the president muddled the american message at a time when there should be more sensitivity and clarity coming from the u.s. government. there was a horrendous gaffe right at the end of it.
take an listen. it. the president, the white house, made the point last night that quite simply, president putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against ukraine or anyone else. as you know, and as you ve heard us arepeatedly, we do not have a strategy regime change in russia or anywhere else in that matter. in this case as in any case it s up to the people of country in question. it s up to the russian people. reporter: even with those explanations, the comments still reverberated around the world. russia was very quick to respond with a spokesperson for the kremlin saying it is not a decision for biden to make but one for the russian people to make about who should be in power in their country. here in the u.s., president biden has also faced criticism from republican lawmakers who say that this essentially, one of them, senator jim risch of
behind the wheel of a lincoln is a mighty fine place to start. a senior ukrainian official tells cnn a group of russian military contractors nicknamed putin s private army allegedly in ukraine now with the goal of assassinating president volodymyr zelenskyy. the mercenaries are part of the vaugner group and consist of what could be several thousand fighters who have a proven track record for committing horrendous acts of violence around the world. cnn s david mckenzie has the story. reporter: a russian mercenary takes a selfie video in syria. it s a recruitment-style pitch. allegedly for the notorious vaugner group, a brutal force believed to be linked to the kremlin.