reporter: yeah, that s absolutely right. we were quite surprised that was happening. i want to show our viewers where exactly we are. i ll step out of your way for a second here. a little more quiet, this is the last checkpoint before we go into the area where essentially that invasion is taking place. so if we go further down into that direction, that s where we see a lot of the tanks go into or towards ukrainian territory, but really the only place they can go is into ukraine around the area where kharkiv is. you re right, john, it has been a remarkable day that we have seen here in the past hour, hour and a half or so, where we witnessed those rocket artillery fire that, of course, general mark hirtling was the smerch system, one that can wreak a lot of havoc as well and also seeing russian t-72 main battle tanks also make their way toward ukrainian territory, and, of course, the interesting thing there was they were apparently
country enters its seventh night of attacks. what have you been seeing there today? reporter: well, anderson, the fear always, and especially when night falls, is what s going to happen in the skies above kyiv. it s been almost a week now since russia launched their invasion and tonight is no different. much of the city is dark. much of the outskirts where we are is dark. that s why it s pitch black behind me. we re using minimal lighting. and that is because there is increasing evidence russia is targeting, hitting, and killing civilians. we saw evidence of that today. we went to the site where five civilians were killed yesterday when a russian missile a series of strikes hit around the tv tower to the west of the city. one missile hitting that tower. but, also, significant destruction just across the street. we went to a gym that was still smoldering with a fire almost 24 hours later.
turn right there right now past that checkpoint. that is the straight way into ukraine. that is the straight way to kharkiv. these forces seem to be heading straight into ukrainian territory. that s what we have been seeing, essentially what this invasion has been looking like from our vantage point. we re at the last checkpoint before you go into ukrainian territory. we have seen that steady stream of russian vehicles here move that way. what we also have seen, jim, this is something kuquite troubling to a lot of folks on the other side of the border is rocket artillery fire being fired towards ukraine as well, we heard several barrages, saw several barrages being fired not far from where we are toward ukrainian territory as well. we also saw from this vantage point here main battle tanks, the style of the t-72 russian main battle tank go past exactly the same route you saw those other vehicles go past us and also advance toward ukrainian territory. it seems to us, from being here,
frederick pleitgen, what are you seeing today? reporter: john, russian military equipment moving to the frontline to kharkiv. some heavy vehicles moving in there and then also multiple rocket launchers as well. but i would say the big difference we ve seen here from our vantage point from the russian side, and it meshes with the fact the fighting is growing more intense in kharkiv and more heavy strikes, a lot of really heavy rocket artillery fire coming from around here. in fact, i was hearing thuds and also russian warplanes have been in the air a lot over us the course of the day. we do know there have been several major impacts in kharkiv, an administration building hit, police headquarters hit as well, and the university building getting hit also today. a lot of heavy fighting. it seems as though right now as far as the conflict is concerned, as far as the russian invasion is concerned, that kharkiv seems to be one of their
earlier that a lot of russian military gear seems to be breaking down and in need of towing. what s going on? that s certainly something we saw around the front line today. we are at the front line in belgrade. that s very close to kharkiv. this is sort of the area from where the russian military supplies its forces in kharkiv and indeed moves additional forces into kharkiv. and one of the things we saw today as the russians earlier this morning said that they had breached the defenses of kharkiv and were moving their forces in, which, obviously, leads to some urban combat there. we did see a lot of military activity or on the russian part. a lot of rocket artillery fire going out from russian positions. also military hardware moving in. we did also see a couple of russian vehicles, quite a few actually, that seemed to be in need of towing that seemed to be broken down. now it s unclear whether or not that s sort of the kind of normal attrition that you have in an operation like this