today at least four buses were able to leave that city. in the east, russian forces making incremental gains in the donbas region, in luhansk, the village of kreminna is under russian control. plus, massive shelling in kharkiv, it is intense but they have no plans to evacuate. later this hour, president biden is set to brief reporters on further u.s. security assistance to ukraine. we ll have more details on that in just a moment. let s begin with cnn correspondent matt rivers, he is reporting from lviv, in western ukraine. matt, mariupol is now on the brink of falling into russian hands as putin calls off storming the azovstal steel plant, instead ordering a blockade, so not even a fly could get through, his words. what more are we learning about that standoff? reporter: this is essentially vladimir putin declaring victory in mariupol, even though if victory would be capturing the entire city, that hasn t happened yet. putin himself has said that. even if the russians