that fighting in the east and difficulties the russians are having but what this trial provided was a window to the first few days from russian point of view, just how badly organized this offensive was to begin with, how the invasion was not understood by those fighting for it, as you mention hearing from that soldier who spoke to cnn off the record, happily at home unlike shishimarin spending the rest of his life in ukrainian jail, we ve heard russian officers being sacked from beyond the russian military as well. melissa, thank you very much from kyiv tonight, pretty stunning could resign as that soldier did and then go home, perhaps more to that story. outfront now, retired general mark hertling former commander of europe in the seventh army and i mentioned a 20 year russian diplomat quitening that scathing letter condemning the invasion and criticizing the russian foreign minister by the
here, moscow is going to do even if it loses, cause as much damage as it possibly can to ordinary life here, erin. all right. thank you very much, nick, for that incredible report. now i go to retired army general mark hertling, commander of europe in the seventh army. when you see this destruction with russia attack on phosphorus on top of shelling and as they leave, saw places where they put mines under the carpet in peoples homes so they can try to kill innocent people when they return. it s a scorched earth retreat. and some areas you heard nick say impossible to know who is even in control with this back and forth. what is happening here as you see it? what you re seeing, erin, is an attempt by russia to expand the area that they hold in the donbas and truthfully, it s failing. they will come out of there, conduct reconnaissance and forced maneuver elements will try to go forward but they than
putin now fired senior commanders that were considered to have, quote-unquote, performed poorly during the initial stages of the invasion and we also learned that putin is directly participating in decision-making that most western armies would be reserved for lower-ranking officers. as you start to hear this confirmation coming in from intelligence agencies, how does this impact putin s army? it s a great question, erin, because it severely affects it in several ways with second and third order effects. when you relieve the generals in charge, the generals that take over for them are then afraid to talk to their senior commanders about what s going wrong so it becomes a toxic leadership environment. not only that, you got the subordinate leader whose are used to a very autocratic system of reporting up the chain of command and not doing anything they re not told to do so the ranks below them, the maneuver units, movement units are frozen in place and don t have the
ukraine that were occupied by russian forces for some time that so many of those war crimes are now being investigated and there is, of course, a sense of relief now in those parts of the country that occupation should be over. worse news, of course, for ukrainians as you mentioned in the asovstal steel plant. this was not their preferred outcome. these had be fighters who had been holding out, a key symbol of their resistance in their fight against russia. russia, therefore, confirms its control over mariupol but good news for the families immediately involved and will at least be getting their sons and daughters home, once they re taken back to those border regions of donetsk and an exchange can be organized there. thank you very much, melissa bell tonight in kyiv. i want to go now to retired general mark hertling, former commander general for europe in the seventh army. you hear mikola s story and it is so horrific what happened, beaten, blindfolded, bound with his brothers, shot,