grateful to the partners and support which we are receiving. reporter: then making a surprise announcement. translator: i shall have the meeting with the state secretary mr. blinken and defense secretary, who are coming to us. reporter: zelenskyy saying he will meet in person with u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken tomorrow in kyiv. the state department declined to comment, but austin and blinken would be the highest ranking u.s. officials to meet with zelenskyy in the war zone since russia invaded. zelenskyy also discussing the threats against his life. translator: i don t have the right to be afraid. i don t have the right to be afraid, because our people showed that they are not afraid of anything. reporter: nearly two months into the conflict, zelenskyy says he is still willing to meet with vladimir putin. translator: there is the diplomatic way, and there is the military way. so, any healthy and sane person
it is exciting. i like to see that. yeah, we need to free up some time. make our way down there. thanks for joining us. we ll see you back here at 6. tonight, several breaking developments in the war in ukraine. talk of a crucial meeting between top u.s. officials and ukraine s president as russia intensifies attacks on multiple cities. president zelenskyy says he ll meet sunday with defense secretary lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken. his news conference in a kyiv subway station hours after a brutal russian strike on odesa. video circulating online shows the aftermath of a attack that killed at least eight, including a 3-month-old baby. russian forces attempting to storm the steel plant in mariupol where it s believed a thousand ukrainians are living in an underground bunker. one mother says she s lost count of the days. and what a child had to say about wanting to see the sun. our marcus moore on the ground in kyiv.
south and east of the country. those attacks as the fate of ukrainian fighters and civilians holed up in that steel plant in mariupol is unclear tonight after renewed shelling by kremlin forces. about a thousand civilians thought to be sheltering underground at that plant. these images believed to be taken this week, released by members of a far-right battalion which is now part of the ukrainian army. abc s marcus moore leading us off from kyiv tonight. reporter: tonight, in the face of new and deadly russian missile strikes in southern ukraine, a defiant president volodymyr zelenskyy holding a rare and highly orchestrated press conference on a subway platform in the capital of kyiv. in reference to the military aid that you re getting from the united states, are you pleased with the equipment that you re getting, not only for the short term, but for the long term if this conflict drags on? translator: we are very
video s authenticity, and russia denies civilians are still there. this woman says her family has been hunkered down here for 52 days. are you counting days? they ask her. we have lost count. we want to go home very much, but i think there is no home anymore, she says. this bright-eyed young girl still smiling, saying, we want to go home, want to see the sun. just wanting to go out, see the sun after all those days underground. marcus moore joining us again from kyiv tonight. marcus, i want to go back to today s press conference with zelenskyy. you were there asking questions. what more are you learning about that possible meeting between zelenskyy and those two senior u.s. officials? reporter: whit, this was quite a sight today. the subway stations here in kyiv served as bomb shelters at the start of this war, so for president zelenskyy to hold his news conference on that platform was symbolic. as for tomorrow s meeting with secretaries austin and blinken, president zelenskyy sa
meteorologist rob marciano. rob, this includes a tornado threat. reporter: yeah, it s become a powerful and expansive storm, whit, really encompassing the entire central u.s. we have had multiple states reporting 70-mile-per-hour winds. this map is messy. shows the critical fire danger stretching up into kansas. full-on blizzard in rapids city. could see one to two feet of snow before it s done. you mentioned that severe weather threat. we ve got a tornado watch up and multiple warnings for fire and wind and snow, and now a flood watch has been posted for parts of arkansas and southern missouri. there s a line of storms that gets through minneapolis tonight, into chicago tomorrow. then the front drags south. front drags south. two to four inches of heavy rain falling into monday morning. whit? > rob, thank you. new to new details from the january 6th committee claiming former white house chief of staff was made aware of the potential for violence before the insurrection. and former