have been never started. live from london, this is cnn newsroom with max foster. it is tuesday, october 11th. 9 a.m. in london, 11 a.m. in kyiv. people across ukraine on the verge after the heaviest russian bombardment since vladimir putin s russian forces invaded back in february. ukraine thought 19 people have been killed, more than 100 others wounded. just in the past few hours we ve received reports that one person was killed in a missile strike on zaporizhzhia. the u.s. says it believes monday s attacks were planned far in advance. when you look at the size and scale here of these missile and drone attacks, more than 80 reportedly, that s not the kind of things the russians can just throw together in a couple of days. it likely was something that they had been planning for quite some time. that s not to say that the explosion on the crimea bridge might have accelerated some of their planning, likely this was not in retaliation but was something very much a contin
Since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time, Russia’s nuclear threats have been stark and consistent. If the war continues, Russia says, Ukraine and the West risk escalation to nuclear conflict. The Russian state, Putin and other Russian leaders argue, faces an existential threat. In October, the Russian government released pictures of President Putin overseeing a training launch of both ballistic and cruise missiles as a part of a major nuclear response.
the white house readout saying president biden pledged to continue providing ukraine with advanced air defense systems, whereas, president zelenskyy said in a tweet air defense is the number one priority in our defense cooperation. we ll see whether there are going to be any new announcements from the u.s. side on additional defense system capabilities that the u.s. might be willing to provide to ukraine as these attacks from russia escalate. the president has also been clear in casting these new attacks as demonstrating what he said as utter brutality of war on the ukrainian people. the war began back in february. the u.s. has, of course, already committed some billions and billions of dollars to help ukraine so we ll see whether the attacks of the last 24 hours will in any way shape the u.s. s calculus on the ongoing security assistance that it is willing to provide to ukraine. m.j. lee, cnn, the white house.
to you? reporter: in large part i do think that it is almost a flexing of their capabilities in the leadup to may 9, which is victory day and very important holiday that the kremlin sort of centers a lot of its narratives around. as well as likely they are having to bring in new capabilities that they may not have originally deployed for this war as it has gone on certainly longer than the kremlin has wanted and they are having to use these new munitions with surface warships possibly running out of their own stores or being threatened by ukrainian defenses. and i want to talk about the ukrainian counter offenses. we re seeing russia escalate, but we ve also seen a lot from the ukrainian counteroffenses being able to push russia back and make russia change its war strategy. tell us about that and how effective they were particularly in mykolaiv where that was so important. sure. so just today and in the last 48
the metric. olympic champion swimmer michael phelps weighs in on the controversy surrounding transgender u penn swimmer lia thomas, listen. i believe that we all should feel comfortable with who we are in our own skin. but i think sports should all be played on an even playing field. ainsley: thomas breaking two national women s records last month. the ncaa says it plans to review its current guidelines for transgender athletes on thursday. and those are your headlines. brian: take your time. the season is almost over. good job. great job, ainsley. meanwhile, still ahead on this show, secretary of state antony blinken joining a bipartisan group of senators in the ukraine yesterday as tensions with russia escalate. congresswoman victoria spartz is ukrainian immigrant and reacts next.