by ramping up security on their orders just to make sure their national interests were safe. preventing any russian citizens from coming into the country today given everything taking place. we seen leaders today, members of nato, european union close communications, actually the president of turkey who called russian president and said they needed to be a clear effort to create briefings back to normalcy according to the conversation. as far as the sylvania, they issued a statement today urging ukrainians not to take this is a moment of pause but continue to push forward. vladimir putin who last night promised there would be a swift punishment to anyone behind this armed uprising now changing tune. he dropped charges against yevgeny prigozhin and any fighters in the rebellion. new video leaving the military
by ramping up security on their orders just to make sure their national interests were safe. preventing any russian citizens from coming into the country today given everything taking place. we seen leaders today, members of nato, european union close communications, actually the president of turkey who called russian president and said they needed to be a clear effort to create briefings back to normalcy according to the conversation. as far as the sylvania, they issued a statement today urging ukrainians not to take this is a moment of pause but continue to push forward. vladimir putin who last night promised there would be a swift punishment to anyone behind this armed uprising now changing tune. he dropped charges against yevgeny prigozhin and any fighters in the rebellion.
dr. ilena from inside the town. cnn met her, and other nurses, on christmas eve. not quite happier times, but certainly less desperate ones. now, the constant artillery prevents her from leaving the basement of her hospital. the ukrainian military says civilians are now trapped. the head of the vagner mercenary group urging ukrainians nonetheless to try to leave bakhmut as his men close in. the pinsers are tightening, the ukrainian soldiers are fighting but their lives are short, a day or two. give them a chance to leave the city, it is, in fact, surrounded. reporter: ukraine dismissing those comments as a disinformation cam.designed to spread panic. for now ukrainian soldiers continue to fight. almost all the building outskirts ruined absolutely.
made a decision to move forward. all right, so despite being excluded from today s aid package, ukraine s defense minister said he s confident western countries will in fact send those fighter jets to ukraine. is he right? what do you say to him? so, president biden has spoken to the question of f-16s. right now we are focused on ensuring that ukraine has the security assistance that it needs for prosecuting the battle on the ground. today we announced another significant security assistance package that included large amounts of ammunition, and other types of equipment that the ukrainians have been using very effectively in their fight. and no doubt the administration, the country has given weapons that ukraine has been asking for. but specifically as it relates to f-16s, has that definitively been taken off the table as part of any future aid package to ukraine? so, president biden has spoken pretty clearly about this in terms of where his view is now. we are continuing to wo
interview are seeing on the ground. certainly it has been a bloody and vicious fight. the russians have heavily invested in this for unclear reasons because it is not a particular strategic value for them. we have seen them throwing thousands of body at this fight, including a large number of prisoners and it is not going to be something that is replicable for them. from here, we re continuing to give the ukrainians the security assistance they need, including another large package we announced today to enable them to continue fighting effectively on the battlefield. what is the significance of bakhmut and what kind of morale blow would it be to the ukrainians if they lose it? the ukrainians so far have taken back already half of the territory seized by russia since this war began. the strategic value for russia has never been particularly clear. i want to talk about the meeting today between president biden and chancellor scholz. one administration official told cnn they could d