stay safe. top of the hour here on cnn news room. thank you for staying with us. >> a grim warning today from ukrainian president. he spoke to jack taper in an basic collusive interview from kyiv. the world should be prepared for vladmir putin to launch a chemical or nuclear attack. that flag ship is now at the bottom of the sea and the u.s. now believes it was hit by two you yan missiles in major military victory in ukraine. >> two people were killed in front of a church. ukraine claims a clust ber bomb in the city killed fooi people and russian forces now appear on the verge of a new offensive. >> let's begin our coverage this hour. that's where jake tapper joining us now. you had this exclusive sit down with president zelenskyy. we have been playing his warning to the world. tell us what she told you. >> there's a lot including the information i passed onto him to the cia director bill burns. bill burns saying that they are monitoring whether or not putin born from desperation might use a tactical or low yield nuclear weapon against ukraine. it seems like a pressing issue and possibility. i asked president zelenskyy if that with something he was concerned about. >> the director to have cia warned that he's worried putin might use a tactical nuclear weapon in this fight. are you worried? >> all the country vs to be worried. when they begin to speak about one or another battles or involved nuclear weapons or come chemical issues. they can. for them the people did nothing that's why. i think so. >> that was one of the few answers that president zelenskyy gave in english. if you take in sum what he said, yes we're worried but we're the only ones that should be worried. the whole world should be worried. we're not afraid. we're prepared. putin has shown a glib and casual disregard for human life. why woupt he use neek here weapons. there's nothing that would hold him back. that was his response to that idea put out by the cia director. >> jake, did the president say anything about this russian warship that is now at the bottom of the sea. did he say anything about that? >> he did. i asked him about it. this is the infamous russian warship from the very beginning of this war when ukrainians soldiers on snake island were told to surrender by the commanders and they responded in ukrainian russian warship go f yourself . he wouldn't say that. he said we know the ship is gone. the fact that it's not a tragedy for us and better for us the las less powerful they are. he was kind of cagey about that. >> we know the latest is on the way. it's supposed to arrive in the next 24 hours. did you taub about the plan for what they will do to fight in the east? >> yeah, he said that some of ukraine's best fighters are already there preparing. he said they anticipate a big fight of more than one battle and in general his message is they need more offensive weapons. the sooner the better, the quicker they get here. he did say the fight will influence the whole course of the war. he does see it as a rather significant inflection point coming up. >> jake, we'll remember that president zelenskyy while touring bucha said what's happening in his country is genocide. president biden agrees. the french president said that people should be careful about using that term. was there some response from president zelenskyy to that? >> this was one of the questions i asked him that impressed me because his answer was so diplomatic and a lot more than mine would have been had i been in that situation. he obviously agrees with president biden that this is a genocide. he put out a tweet that day praising president biden for using the word genocide even though biden later said he was offering his opinion. it was not a legal ruling by the state department. instead of criticizing president macron for acting as though the use of this word was so offensive in the war crimes and slaughter of innocence that we're seeing on the ground. he just said pe dihe disagreed. that's one of the many moments where you could really see him rising to this moment. there are people that are put into certain positions of leadership whether by fate or the blessings of god or just happenstance. he happens to be this man for this time, this person for this time and in the course of this s interview was funny, emotional and in this case, very dip emp diplomatic. >> sounds like fascinating conversation. thank you. looking forward to seeing more of it. there will be more of jake's exclusive interview with president zelenskyy at the top of the hour on "the lead." and the full interview airs this sunday at 9:00 a.m. or "state of the union" right here on cnn. ben, as we were talk about, ukrainian officials have reported heavy shelling near you in the donbas region which you have reported also and we're learning more about the local reports that now more than 900 civilian body vs been discovered in the region since the russian troops retreated. as you have warned us, that's a very rough estimate and there could be more. >> yes. definitely can be more. let's think of mariupol where a city that's been under siege for 40 days. we heard various figures coming from the mayor who said more than 5,000 people have been killed. zelenskyy saying more than 10,000 have been killed. yesterday we went into a hospital morgue on the eastern most city in the ukraine and i spoke to the hospital director. he said 90% of his staff have left. they moved to safer parts of the country. they don't have enough people to manage the morgue itself. essentially, there are dead bo bodies strewn all over the morgue. some covered, some not, some wrapped in body bags or sheets. i think it will be a long time before we have a general idea about the number of dead and if you look at the progression of figures that have been issued by the ukrainians, of course there are always tentative but i think many people will expect the final toll to be much, much higher. >> it's such a ghastly scene. >> a senior defense official said the first flight of supplies from latest round of u.s. aid is expected to ae rooif in ukraine within the next 24 hours. that official says youukrainian will pick up the shipment at the border. >> let's discussion with steve anderson. let's start with the air bridge that's been set up to expedite the deliveries to you ukraine. walk us through how that works and when they need the weapons now, it's so important. >> one of the reasons we're winning this war is logistics. this is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate our power as a national power. our ability to project military power of long distances. what's going to happen is the united states transportation command will establish an air bridge. air bridge that will leave from ports on the east coast in charleston and dover air force base and fly about 4,000 miles into warsaw and poland in that area. they've got incredible assets in order to be able to do that. particularly the c5 aircraft that can take two tanks if needed. it's got huge capability, huge capacity. we have 223 c-17s that can be u used. the problem is they require aerial refuel. they'd have to get refueled in the middle. there's no reason we couldn't use the aircraft as well. the other thing we need to consider is sea lift. it's potentially an opportunity to give us some capabilities. we can sail from ports on the east coast all the way to poland in about four and a half days. we can do that. we have incredible capability to get to poland. what happens when we get to poland? we'll take assets here and from the port, if needed. we will push them into lvivgist this area. i'd also like to point out we have the capability to use river barges. it's 300 miles from kyiv. we can't forget the ukrainians captured 150 tanks in the vicinity of kyiv. wouldn't it be nice to recommission those tanks and put them to use down here. this will be the mayjor logisti staging area. they will use it to push into eastern ukraine for the upcoming battle that will take place in the donbas. >> looks like it's not going be that easy to get to kyiv there. why aren't the russians interdicting those supply lines? >> it's all about redundancy. that's zernl what they will do. i am surprised that the russians haven't tried to attack the logistic bases more. they will be able to get what they need to eastern ukraine for the upcoming fight. >> general, let me ask you about this will to fight. i read something today that we know that the reports that come out of that city have been awful for weeks. they are now two generals who say that their forces, theirs h. it sounds like progress. what's the significance of that? >> i think what they are trying to do, the russians will try to establish a logistics base down here. we know they will be up here logistics hub as well. they want to push -- it's been talked about pushing down here into this town. this is the key town because it affords access out here. down in mariupol they will try to utilize the log bases and perhaps push up here. i don't think that's a good game plan for the russians. i think they will try to push up here where they have secure lines. i think that's the way they will go. >> thank you, general. >> thank you. cnn obtains text messages between two republican law makes and trump's clhief of staff showing how they lobbied the white house to over turn the election before souring on ta idea. we have basic coll exclusive re you, next. stephen miller testified for eight hours yesterday about january 6th. we have some details for you. welcome to the eat fresh refresh at subway wait, that's new wait, you're new too nobody told you? subway's refreshing with better ingngredients, better footlongs, and bebetter spokespeople. because you gotta you gotta refresh to be fresh i am here because they revolutionized immunotherapy. i am here because they saw how cancer adapts to different oxygen levels and starved it. i am here because they switched off egfr gene mutation and stopped the growth of tumor cells. there's a place that's making one advanced cancer discovery after another for 75 years. i am here... i am here.... because of dana-farber. what we do here changes lives everywhere. i am here. this is vuity™, the first and only fda approved eye-drop that improves age-related blurry near vision. wait, what? 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it. the text obtained by cnn show how they were trying to help initially but by the end, raised concerns to trump's top deputies di about his campaign's effort to stand in the way of the certification of the 2020 election. we're driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic roy warned meadows in a text message on january 1st. his stark warning came after weeks of begging meadows for hard evidence of election fraud and drn of the lack of specific evidence was a real problem for the trump legal team. we must urge the president to tone down the rhetoric he wrote to meadows on november 9th. roy did believe there was problems with the election. he went to the house floor imbrothering his colleagues to look into the thin examples of fraud. like roy, senator mike lee started out hopeful for a path to challenge the election results. he touted the work of conservative lawyer sydney powell. encouraging meadows to get her an audience with the president. less than two weeks later he appeared with rudy giuliani in an infamous press conference where they made wild, base let claims about the election. >> president trump won by a land slide. we will prove it. >> lee changed his tune, calling powell a liability. lee pushed a plan to convince state legislatures to offer up a set of alternate electors. when that plan fizzled, he decided he was not on board. he said i think we're past the point that we can expect anyone to do it without some dreirecti in the strong -- >> our job is to open and then count. open then count. that's it. that's all there is. >> privately, they were more emphatic about the fool's errand trump's team was on. the president should call every one off. it's the only path, roy texted mea meadows. lee argued it was on dangerous constitution ground. he warned i know only this will end badly for the president unless we have the constitution on our side. they did not but the trump team and a group of loyal republicans went ahead with their plan any way as it became clear there effort would not be successful, hundreds of trump supporters stormed the capitol in prozest as the violence was raging, roy texted meadow, fix this now. he then went to the house floor and placed the blame squarely at president trump's feet. >> the president should never have spun up certain americans to believe something that cannot be. >> reporter: we reached out to both the offices of chip roy and mike lee. congress roy said they believe the text speak for themselves. as for senator lee, his office telling us he was very transparent during this period of time and there's nothing that contradicts his public statements when you compare them to what he was texting mark meadows at that time. >> those texts do speak loudly. it's really interesting to see how concerned and worried they were. onto stephen miller. he's the former white house adviser to president trump and he testified the house select me. >> he played a role in crafting that speech. he was with the committee for roughly eight hours. at times the conversations got a little chippy means he wasn't being that cooperative and it got a little confrontational at times. it's significant he went into the room and answered for a long period of time. many of the allies that were close who were resisting to committee's efforts to get them to come and cooperate are now relenting and participating on some level in this investigation. it shows, like these texts show us, the committee is compiling a lot of information as they look forward to issuing a final report in the fall. >> thank you for the reporting. russia has sent a formal protest to the u.s. about its weapon shipment to ukraine. biden official says it shows the russians are hurting. president zelenskyy asked president biden to name russia state sponsor of terrorism. we have more on that, next. clean ingredients... in a buttery brioche roll. made fresh, to leave you... speechless. panera's new chef's chicken sandwiches. $1 delivery fee on ourur app. with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug yore covered by our happiness check t angi.com today. angi... and done. russian officials have reported strikes. there's been warnings of a major russian offensive in the coming days. russia is watching the move and the kremlin is warning that continued shipments of military aid to ukraine could result in unpredictable consequences, their words. let's welcome in now william cohen. he served as defense secretary under president clinton. welcome back. let me start with what we're just getting in here that president zelenskyy asked president biden to designate russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. do you support that and if the president were to do that, what would that do? >> it just add some sanctions. syria, iran, north korea. it would prevent imt making loans to russia. >> do you support that desig designation? >> if it's not terrorism, i don't know how you define terrorism. they are unleashing weapons of destruction that are terrorizing, intimidating, killing. i think that fits the definition of what a terrorist looks like and acts like. >> this note that the yes, ma'am l -- kremlin sent to the u.s. for the u.s. were to send weapons aids to ukraine, there could be unpredictable consequences. how do you interpret that? does that change anything the u.s. does? >> pretty rich for the russians to say if you help ukraine provide for its defense, it will have unintended consequences. it could. it could also have unintended consequences for russia. the more they kill thousands of innocent people, the greater the incentive will be for the west, not just the united states, but for the west to take more aggressive action against the russians. we'll have to wait and see fp i don't think that will inhibit the united states from doing what it's doing. >> the first flight of this $800 million of this weapons aid should be there by tomorrow. so far, the u.s. has promised or pledged or provided $3 billion in military aid for 7 weeks of this war . >> the russians to have invaded another country, independent, unassociated, unaffiliated and to have invaded them and level of killing and massacre and barbarism on this country is really taken us to a different level. it's not walmart other starbucks coming to your neighborhood. it's putin coming to a neighborhood near you. that's what they are afraid of now. that's what they should be afraid of. i think you're seeing the reaction, two neutral countries considering the possibility of joining nato for collective offense. that's sending a message to president putin. >> president biden has called this genocide. you served as secretary of defense during the clinton administration during the u.s.' intervening, along with nato. president clinton said it was the guilt over not stopping the general side in rwanda that hastened the u.s. involvement in kosovo. when you hear an american president say this is genocide and his white house says and nothing will change after that feeling, what does that context tell do you? how the you receive what we heard from president boyiden? >> president biden is speaking the truth. i co-chaired a task force on preventing genocide. we had a distinguished group of individuals. it was sponsored by the holocaust memorial museum. the u.s. peace institute, u.s. diplomacy institute. it's clear that genocide has been committed. >> mr. secretary, my question is, the u.s. said never again for decades. never again after the holocaust, never again at rwanand, cambodia and president zelenskyy says what is the point of never again and an american president can say this is general side but nothing will change. >> something changed in kosovo. we had a coalition of the willing saying never again. the question is we're dealing with something quite different. putin has wrapped himself in a nuclear terror. he said if you fry and stop me, i may blow up this nuclear weapon. it's different calculation we have to make here. we have to be careful. no fear and no compromise on helping ukraine. >> former defense secretary. thank you. stone, fire crackers and stun gases. violent clashes injure dozens on a day for many. we have more on this story, ahead. you're probably thinking that these two are in some sort of lover's quarrel. no, no, no. they're both invested... in green eney. and also each other. digital tools so impressive, you just can't stop. what would you like the power to do? 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>> well, he works for a network -- >> okay. >> that provides people with questions that nothing personal to any individual, including peter doocy, but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a [ bleep ]. >> let's bring in cnn's brian stelter. obviously he has at times been a thorn in the side of jen. doesn't that come with the territory? >> it does come with the territory. i think the point she's trying to say there is that fox pushes story lines that are sometimes nonsense. doocy does that in the briefing room. still, she did it in a way playing to a liberal audience that will certainly cause a lot of outrage from fox probably the next few days, right? here's what the network says in a statement. fox telling me, peter doocy's job is to eloose it truth from power for the american public. his questions are his own and he is a terrific reporter and we are extremely proud of his work. fox is saying, we don't provide his questions. he comes up with them himself. remember in senior year, spring of your senior year, you're about to graduate and you're just tired of all this? i think we're seeing that from jen psaki. she's about to leave the white house. she's going to msnbc and so she is relaxing and maybe showing how she really feels. she wasn't really criticizing him directly. she was really criticizing fox as an organization. >> and let's remember that it was born out of what president biden said. >> at that time was peter doocy. but he said something to the president like, do you think that the inflation is going to hurt your chances at the mid-terms? that's a fair question. it rankled the president but that's not a gotcha question, brian. >> no. that's not a gotcha question. there have been other times where doocy does advance right wing talking points in the briefing room but that's his right. and that's the point. the tension there is to be expected. and it will exist. whoever replaces psaki as well. it is the same that she is going to another channel and he won't have psaki versus doocy anymore. >> we should remember, the president should remember the promise he made at the start of the administration. that anyone who disrespects someone, you're out the door. his words were actually his. brian stelter, thank you. >> thank you. president zelenskyy tells the world to be prepared for the possibility of putin using nuclear weapons. more of the exclusive interview with jake tapper, coming up. made fresh, to leave you... spspeechless. panera's new chef's chicken sandwiches. $1 delivery fee on our app. (cto) ♪ i want the world ♪ (production manager) ♪ i want the whole world ♪ (supervisor) ♪ i want to lock it all up in my pocket. ♪ (ceo) ♪ i want today. ♪ ♪ i want tomorrow. ♪ (warehouse worker) ♪ presents and prizes and sweets and surprises... ♪ (driver) ♪ of all shapes and sizes. ♪ (dispatch) ♪ i want it noooooow! ♪ (vo) t-mobile for business has 5g that's ready right now. you never know what opportunities life will send your way. but if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis, enbrel can help you say i'm in for what's next. ready to create a bigger world? 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