guarantee for a safe evacuation for civilians or military. i asked that commander several times, we ve asked people inside the steel plant complex, why don t the soldiers just surrender to the russians? the answer is the same every time, these soldiers who are fighting in that complex do not believe that they can safely surrender to the russians. in fact, many believe that they would be summarily executed. they ve told me that personally. they think they would be killed by the russian forces if they were, in fact, to surrender. that s why they re calling on this third party country to get involved with these evacuations to guarantee their safety. but as far as we can tell, at least publicly no substantial progress made on that front as of yet. matt rivers, cnn, kyiv. of course we ll day stay on top of this story to see if there are any evacuations, if they continue today. i mentioned that russian missiles have again struck ukraine s third most popular city. residents of the south
people like naomi who i put right up there with dolly parton. such a trail blazer. such an important point to make as we mourn her loss. thank you so much. turning now to ukraine as the russian siege approaches a breaking point. these are new images of the sprawling steel plant complex. it s now the last stand of resistance in the port town. russian forces are targeted the site since the first days of the invasion. nothing has escaped the bombardment. the images are from the ukrainian soldiers who are dug in there. these new satellite images show nearly every building is gutting or reduced to rubble. what is most important is what you don t see. underneath it all, hundreds of traumatized women and children
near that complex. now it comes as mariupol s mayor says more than 600 people were injured in a russian bombing that struck a makeshift hospital facility inside the steel plant complex. reporter: and they re there trying to save their lives because russia s bombing the rest of their home city. in the east, u.s. and nato officials acknowledge russian forces are making some progress, learning, i m told, some lessons from their failed offensive in the northern part of this country, around the capital kyiv. that said, ukrainian forces doing their best to push back a fuel depot attacked, set on fire in part of the donetsk region controlled by russian-backed forces, that in the east. ukrainian officials say a town in the northeast has been recaptured from the russians. this is the give and the take of this battlefield. all of this as we are learning of another american casualty in this war. a 22-year-old who was fighting al alongside ukrainian forces, part of that international legion,
also the last remaining pocket of ukrainian resistance around the steel plant complex. consistent shelling there as well. stay safe. talk to you soon. my next guest is among the fortunate ones that have escaped from mariupol but not before two near death experiences. andrei joins me now. thanks for coming back. we ve spoken with you before about your harrowing journey out of the city, but right now, there are 100,000 people still trapped in mariupol. it s hard to imagine given all of the devastation we ve seen so far and we re getting even more reports of russians forcibly deporting civilians. in one case, residents were boarding buses they thought were going to take them to safety and instead they learned they were being taken inside russian
russian shelling and settlements around the area. that is just the overall view of what we re seeing across the country, and unfortunately, it s more of the same. in places lake kharkiv, the second largest city in ukraine also seeing a day today filled with artillery bombardment, shelling in places like mariupol. we ve talked about that for a long time now. the last remaining pocket of ukrainian resistance centered on the steel plant complex. also under constant bombardment. that is the theme this orthodox easter sunday in ukraine. meanwhile, we are still waiting on any sort of word about a meeting today that president zelenskyy said was going to take place between secretary of state blinken and lloyd austin and the president himself here in kyiv. it was a surprise last night that zelenskyy previewed the meeting was happening. generally speaking when top officials like that under heavy