happened yesterday in the courtroom in just a moment. plus russian president vladimir putin gives a rare national address announcing significant moves in the war with ukraine. the russian president also talked about a plan that kyiv is calling a desperate sham. and president biden will surely have something to say about all of that when he takes the podium later this morning at the united nations general assembly. we ll preview that and the other topics he will likely focus on in his speech. good morning, welcome to way too early on this wednesday, september 21st. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we begin with major moves from russia this morning claiming that the west is, quote, trying to destroy us. vladimir putin announced overnight he s partially mobilizing the military in russia while also approving a move to annex portions of ukraine. in a rare prerecorded national address, putin said, quote, russia will use all the instruments at its dis
disaster. cnn s frederik pleitgen is joining me live from ramstein air base. what do we know about the new aid package? reporter: the secretary of defense made those remarks just a couple minutes ago here and you re right, it certainly comes at a really decisive time as the war is dragging on in ukraine. on the one hand the fighting around the zaporizhzhia power plant, but then also you have the ukrainians making gains in south of the country and also in the northeast of the country as well. the secretary of defense says the u.s. wants to make absolutely clear that they remain strong in their commitments to ukraine and are going to give the ukrainians what they need to succeed. he was saying that the package from the presidential drawdown is $675 million and he listed some of the main items on that new drawdown. here is what he said. the latest package includes more gimmlecs, howitzers, artillery munitions, missiles, humvees, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems, small a
for a rematch. and we begin this hour with tropical storm ian, and that s churning in the caribbean and getting stronger as it heads north towards cuba. now, ian, is expected to reach hurricane status monday before hitting western cuba. officials say they re expecting strong winds, heavy rain, and dangerous storm surges. now, ian then expected to turn into a major hurricane tuesday and forecast to hit the florida coast some time later this week. now, people in florida as you can imagine already preparing for ian. florida s governor has activated 2,500 national guard troops. tampa residents, meantime, are filling sandbags you see them there to try and prevent that flooding. and emergency management officials preparing for storm surges. we are loading and by the day we would have loaded 360 trailers and more than 2 million meals and more than 1 million gallons of water ready to be sent into impacted areas. you need to be prepared for sheltering in place. you may lose po
being told to get out. weather experts say it s been 100 years since that city was directly hit by a hurricane. and with time running out, lines for water, gas, and sandbags are getting longer. no matter ian makes landfall, fema and state officials say all of florida will feel some level of impact. predictions include a huge storm surge, inland flooding, and even possible tornadoes. the bad piece of news we got this morning is that this storm is trending to slow down which means it potentially could sit on top of us for 47 hours. cnn has more from the weather center. tom, show us the path right now. a big concern which she mentioned, sitting on top of us for so long. t it s getting stronger. the winds are up from 80 to 85 mile-per-hour, waiting for an eye to form. it will ride over cuba. look where it is now. the warmest waters in the atlantic. high octane fuel. it interwent rapid intensification which we expected, that means within 24 hours the winds increased by 35. t
broken. i think my recommendation, my feeling that we should make referrals, but we will get to a decision as a committee. it may be the last investigative public hearing where we re going to try to round out the factual narrative. i m alex marquart in washington in tonight for pamela brown. thank you so much for joining me. you re live in the cnn newsroom. tropical storm ian on the cusp of becoming a hurricane. the storm is swirling toward the warm waters of the gulf where it s expected to explode into an intensity intensely powerful category 4. then ian will likely weaken a bit before charging ashore somewhere in florida. florida s governor saying that the storm s massive size means that the entire state will be impacted, and he has activated the national guard. just moments ago the national hurricane center issued its latest advisory. cnn meteorologist in the weather center. tom, what are we expecting from ian? let me tell you like it is here, alex. this infrared