welcome to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada, and around the world, i m kim brunhuber, ahead on cnn newsroom, the united states announce more sanctions on russia, as the war enters the second year. a slow-moving storm floods highways and prompts a rare blizzard warning in southern california. details plus the wintery forecast for tens of millions of people. alex murdaugh back on the stand, prosecutors target the lies the disgraced lawyer admits telling while maintaining he did not kill his wife and son. live from atlanta, this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. the second year of russia s war on ukraine is beginning with reports of more attacks, we re told russian forces have shelled the southern district overnight into saturday and just a short time ago came word of heavy explosions in the occupied city of mariupol. confirming the destruction of an ammunition depot. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy confirmed his call to arms. here h
who helped russia dodge sanctions, including yachts, planes and properties all seized over the past year. for more on this, we re joined by tom coating, leading the center for security studies at the royal institute, speaks to us from london. thank you for being here with us. when it comes to the effect of the sanctions, the true test is whether they ve been able to weaken russia s military capabilities. so how effective has that been so far? well, of course the initial attempt was to deter the invasion itself a year ago. their sanctions failed. and since then, as you say, we ve been trying to disrupt and degrade the russian military. obviously the russians are responding. they are shape shifting. they are switching to war economy. and so while we clearly are tightening the net, we re going after entities in third countries now, which is good to see, i think the sanctions will take a while to have the effect that we all wish they would have, which is to disrupt and