strategically important for vladimir putin and it is just northwest of russian occupied crimea. meanwhile, new explosions rocking the ukrainian capital overnight, this was the scene in southwestern kyiv earlier. u.s. officials warning that moscow shifting to a new strategy of what they call slow annihilation that could see civilians targeted even more. fierce fighting in ukraine s second largest city kharkiv has seen the destruction of homes, schools, even church, the un says 227 civilians have been killed nationwide in the weeks since the fighting began, the real death toll could be higher than that. ukraine state emergency service had put a much higher number out, 2000, but later backtracked on that cnn of course cannot independently confirmed these figures. now all of this is to neighboring countries like poland, hungary, romania, the un says 1 million people have
general wesley clark is a cnn military analyst and former nato supreme allied commander. general, thank you for being with us. so before this invasion began, there were some estimates out there that russia s military could sweep through ukraine maybe in a couple of weeks. now we re a week in and they ve taken just one major city. clearly this is not playing out as putin planned. what are the problems here? what does he do next? well, the military may have planned, the russian military may have planned to come in there and finish it in a week or two, but they didn t count on the warm weather north of kyiv. that land is not frozen, so the russians have been road bound. this was their main objective. they wanted to sweep into kyiv, take it and install a puppet government. they just haven t been able to get there. they ve also discovered that the ukrainians are pretty good fighters . they re, in fact, brilliant
welcome, everyone. i m michael holmes coming to you lye from lviv in ukraine. coming up this hour, russia ramping up its aerial assault on ukraine after apparently taking control of a key city. and i m rosemary church live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta. as the war escalates, one million refugees have fled ukraine in just one week. experts warn the humanitarian crisis may get worse. this is cnn breaking news. more than a week now into the invasion of ukraine, it appears russia is moving into a more brutal military campaign, escalating attacks on major cities. air raid sirens rang out earlier in kyiv, where it is now 10:00 a.m. you can hear them there. and there was at least one explosion today on the outskirts
evacuees at hungary s border with ukraine. the train to safety arrives 20 minutes late, rolling across the border from ukraine loaded with civilians, all fleeing the world s newest war zone. it is a carefully manage procession, families emerging 151, expatriates from south asia and africa, and of course ukrainians, welcomed by hungarian officials and aid workers. each handed a solidarity ticket, a free seat on another train to the hungarian capital where more help awaits. we help them with traveling, food, wi-fi and all necessary things. even with hotels. among the new arrivals is this family. they fled kyiv on the first day of the invasion. two days ago i was thinking
are you scared? first time, first day i was, but now i understand that we need to support our soldiers and people and then we will live in peace. before leaving we meet pablo and his son arthur, to mental wrapped in the ukrainian flag. he told me i just want to say that my son arthur will learn how to say glory to ukraine faster than he says mom or dad. those will be his first words? yes. yes. anderson cooper, cnn, lviv, ukraine. now this isn t the first time ukrainians have been put to the test, their push for freedom and independence on full display, more than eight years ago during deadly protests in kyiv s square, the