hundreds ever migrants are schiffering about a critical immigration law. and a drone creeps deep inside of russian territory and killed three soldiers. p plus, should the world take vladimir putin as his word as the russian leader repeats an offer to slide a chair up to the negotiating table with ukraine. this is what we re watching at this hour. and good morning, thank you so much for being here. i m amara walker in for kate bolduan. the death toll from a brutal winter storm rising now to at least 47 western new york bearing the blunt with a once in a lifetime blizzard. the death toll in erie county climbing to 25. more than 43 inches of snow fell over the weekend. and it is still coming down in some places. roads in buffalo are impassable and the city is under a driving ban. over 12,000 people are without power there. the governor of new york has declared a state of emergency and the national guard is deploying 200 additional troops to the western part of the state. e
territory took place, were a series of strikes several dozen in kherson, that important city to the south that was liberated only last month and we ve also seen on sunday more strikes not just in the donbas but from zaporizhzhia up to kharkiv. the fear is that in retaliation for this drone making as far as that air base, we could see what we saw after december 5th and that is more retaliatory strikes and that is what the country is bracing for. we heard on sunday night, the ukrainian president warned that the ukrainian people needed to get ready to prepare themselves mentally for what he expected to be dark and difficult days as we head towards new year s eve. that is the expectation, that is the fear. of course targets including critical infrastructure continue to come under attack. a difficult few days expected in ukraine as a result of that strike in russia. again, not quite recognized by certainly alluded to by ukrainian authorities, amara.