today at least four buses were able to leave that city. in the east, russian forces making incremental gains in the donbas region, in luhansk, the village of kreminna is under russian control. plus, massive shelling in kharkiv, it is intense but they have no plans to evacuate. later this hour, president biden is set to brief reporters on further u.s. security assistance to ukraine. we'll have more details on that in just a moment. let's begin with cnn correspondent matt rivers, he is reporting from lviv, in western ukraine. matt, mariupol is now on the brink of falling into russian hands as putin calls off storming the azovstal steel plant, instead ordering a blockade, so not even a fly could get through, his words. what more are we learning about that standoff? >> reporter: this is essentially vladimir putin declaring victory in mariupol, even though if victory would be capturing the entire city, that hasn't happened yet. putin himself has said that. even if the russians functionally control the entire city, which it seems like they very much do, as long as there are ukrainian fighters and there are inside that azovstal steel plant complex and a small surrounding area, then technically the entire city has not yet been captured. the russian defense minister saying they might be able to capture that steel plant in the next three to four days. this is what we have been hearing from russia for a long time now, this idea that russia is on the brink of capturing mariupol has been talked about for a long time now. and what is clear, i think, bianna, is that taking this steel plant is not going to be easy. putin himself even said that essentially it is not worth sending russian soldiers in to fight and die just to capture that steel plant. you could see the russians essentially just wait them out, wait out the defenders inside that steel plant. not only waiting out the defenders there, but also remember there are hundreds of civilians that are also inside that ukrainian held territory, that small piece of mariupol that the russians still have not taken. so the dire situation that is already going on inside that steel plant might just get even worse as -- if russia moves into more of a siege-like instead of going in there and attacking it. there is a limited number of supplies they have inside that steel complex. in russian held territory, the ukrainian government says there is 120,000 civilians in and around mare rupplmariupol that need to be evacuated. and we could see several hundred thousand get evacuated from that city. but it don't as planned. only four buses, four buses managed to make it out of that city with ukrainians once again accusing russia of violating a cease-fire agreement that would have allowed for the safe passage of citizens out of mariupol. so this horrific situation, bianna, just continues. >> this is why it was floated that perhaps a nato third party member would help facilitate the evacuation of some of those residents. we don't see that playing out thus far. matt rivers, thank you. cnn learned that when president biden speaks from the white house minutes from now, he will announce additional security assistance to ukraine. let's get to cnn's are lette saz at the white house. an additional package a week after authorizing a similar measure. what more can you tell us and what is he planning to say about refugees coming into the u.s. as well? >> reporter: well, bianna, president biden has previously said that the u.s. is working around the clock to get weapons and assistance into ukraine, sending that stuff over daily, and in just less than an hour, the president is expected to outline the next package of security assistance, which is expected to total, sources tell us, around $800 million, that is similar to what the president announced just last week. now, while we do not have the full scope of the details of what is included in this, it will include heavy artillery and ammunition. you have seen the biden administration really change their strategy in the types of weaponry they're sending to ukraine as this new battlefield, this new phase of the war is playing out in the eastern part of the country. now, this new package that is going to be announced in just a short while will bring the total approximate aid since the war began to $3.4 billion. the u.s. has been coordinating with allies just earlier this week. president biden holding a call with the leaders of g7 countries and some european countries as well to talk about military assistance. but also talk about further ways to punish russia through sanctions. just yesterday, the treasury department announced a host of new sanctions aimed at one of russia's key commercial banks, as well as individuals tied to a russian oligarch and they're also targeting cryptocurrency mining companies, which is an interesting move as well. but this all comes as the u.s. is continuing to try to find ways to hold russia accountable, one area that the u.s. has not fully been able to act on is a total ban of russian energy, that will require more coordination with allies who are much more dependent on russian energy and then additionally i'm told that as soon as today, the biden administration could be announcing the new humanitarian parole program that would allow ukrainian refugees to come and seek entry into the u.s. through humanitarian grounds, that could come as soon as today as the u.s. is trying to meet that goal of president biden's pledge to welcome as many as 100,000 ukrainians to the u.s. >> yeah, 100,000 compared to what europe is taking in, we're talking millions in poland alone. arlette saenz, thank you. purported new intercepted communication appears to reveal russian soldiers feeling abandoned by their leaders. the security service of ukraine released the recording. cnn cannot vouch for its authenticity, but ukraine has previously released audio of russian soldiers and russian troops using unsecured lines of communication, according to military observers. take a listen. >> translator: we sat there for three days without [ bleep ] anything. our commanders, they received provisions, cigarettes, food, and our command have all [ bleep ] off. they abandoned everyone and [ bleep ] off. we don't even know where they are. [ bleep ] jackals. shoot them and that's it. just imagine, they didn't provide a way to retreat. didn't say anything. didn't even bring food stuff. [ bleep ] them. [ bleep ] shoot him. [ bleep ] quit. the first one. >> joining me now to discuss is retired army general and former u.s. centcom commander david petraeus. great to have you on set, finally. first, let me ask you, as a general, what do you make of those intercepted communications between russian soldiers, giving you a sense of the morale? >> well, it is clearly not very good. commanders can't fool their soldiers. soldiers know that they're sharing risk and hardship or not. and it is quite apparent here that that's not the case. that's not surprising, candidly. this is characteristic all the way at the top, vladimir putin, we haven't heard of him visiting a hospital of wounded soldiers, we haven't seen him comforting grieving widows, none of that. he doesn't want to acknowledge these extraordinary losses that are vastly higher already, just eight weeks into this war than they sustained in nine years in afghanistan. so, again, these commanders don't seem all that concerned about their soldiers, many of them are draftees, conscripts whose tours end this month. their morale, i'm sure, will not be good when they're told they're extended and so forth. so can't fool them, and they have not been fooled. and there you hear their honest opinions. >> we don't know how many died on that battleship, the moskva, last week. >> no, they're controlling all of that and it was much more than they have announced they lost so far. >> which is why it was almost laughable, we were talking about this, to hear vladimir putin today publicly there with his defense secretary say for the sake of lives, the troops' lives and their security, that they're not going to storm that azovstal steel plant that they will just blockade it now so that using his words not even a fly can get in or out. what does that tell you about the situation there as it pertains to what he calls a victory in the city itself? >> i think that he and his commanders are finally realizing how soldier consuming combat and urban cities is, urban centers. this is not just a course of single building plant. this is a four plus mile square mile industrial plant. it is a series of buildings. there are lots of underground tunnels and passages and so forth. it is ideal to become, if you will, the ukrainian alamo and that's what it has become. i think they finally realized how costly it would be to take just this one complex, and so they're just going to starve them out. and the question is how long can they stay there without having to come out at some point and surrender. but it appears they want to go down fighting and they may well do that. >> and it appears that vladimir putin wants to announce publicly of a major win, leading up to not only the eastern orthodox easter this sunday, but obviously the may 9th victory day parade in russia. what does the win look like in terms of what we have seen leveled upon mariupol itself, the city that used to have 400,000 residents has just been leveled. if that sis a victory in vladimr putin's eyes, what does that say about the rest of the war in the weeks and months that ed? >> this is history repeated. what did they do to grozny and chechny when they couldn't take gr grozny. they were defeated, so they essentially destroyed it. aleppo, the same commander in charge of all russian forces leveled aleppo. that's why he's called the butcher of syria. and that's essentially what they have done to mariupol. so, you know, if you destroy the city to save it, what kind of victory is that? beyond that, they would love to have some real success in the east, and, of course, they're really not achieving all that much. they're getting grinding, grudging success there, the ukrainian soldiers giving up a bit of ground in some areas, but by and large this massive armor defensive that many anticipated just has not materialized. and i think it is once again a sign of the ineptitude, frankly, rushed forces that were withdrawn to belarus, pushed people and equipment into them, plussed them back up and brought them all the way around and shoved them in. and it just is not going according to their plan. they are achieving combined arms effects of armor as well as infantry engineers, artillery mortars, certainly not getting air ground integration the way we with want to see it real close air support. they're just bombing out there. and, again, i don't think that despite all of the forces that they have massed that they're going to achieve the kind of victory where they envelop the ukrainian forces, surround them, and get them to surrender. i think this is going to be a very, very hard fought campaign, and i think if we can continue to equip the ukrainian forces with the arms and munitions and so forth that they need, and i'm sure, again, 800 million more dollars is very, very substantial, if we can get that in their hands and do it quickly enough, they may even start to counter attack, as they already are out of kharkiv. so, again, i don't think goesing to have something extraordinary to announce on may 9th. >> he'll have an insurgency on his hands in the weeks and months ahead. you can take cities, but you can't take civilians that don't want you there. >> they have to recognize, i think the soldiers do as well, you can't fool them, they created a country in which every citizen hates them and is actually willing to fight them. it is really a very, very difficult context to put it mildly. >> part of vladimir putin's in the calculation, general petraeus, great to see you. thank you. >> good to be on set. and ahead, the justice department says it will appeal the judge's decision that led to masks being optional on planes, trains and buses. we'll break down what you should consider when you're traveling. plus, "the new york times" is reporting the top house republican was ready to ask former president trump to resign in the days after the january 6th attack. hear how congressman kevin mccarthy is responding. they fo. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'i'm retired greg, you know this. people have their money just sitting aroround doing nothing... thatat's bad, they shouldn't do that. they're getting crushed by inflation. well, i feel for them. they're taking financial advice from memes. 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>> elizabeth cohen, thank you. so here to break this down for us is elie honig, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and cnn senior legal analyst. so help us make sense of things and where they stand right now, why did the cdc ask the justice department to step in now, given that the mandate was set to expire in just a few days anyway? >> yeah so here's where things stan stand moving forward. this is being appealed by the federal justice department. this could take four, five, six months, even more. of course, the numbers on covid will change over those times. might get better, might get worse, we don't know, and that could impact some parts of this opinion. one thing that is really important to know, doj has not asked the court for what we call a stay, meaning we want you to put a pause on this court while the appeal is ruling. they have not asked for that. so as of this moment, until the appeal is over, the mask mandate is off, and it will be up to each individual whether to wear a mask on airplanes and other transports. >> is this for more precedent so that in the hopes of, god forbid, we have another crisis here, another pandemic, that you don't have one judge unil unilaterally coming in and overstepping the cdc? >> that's part of the rational here. they want to preserve the cdc's ability to issue this kind of ruling and there is real controversy out there over what is called a nationwide injunction. we have 94 different federal district courts in this country. and the concern is well, can one judge just come along and strike down the policy for the whole country? and the politics here are kind of interesting, because this happened quite a bit under the trump administration, where one district court judge struck down a policy, and liberals and democrats applauded and said this is great. and conservatives hated it. and now the tables are exactly turned. so we do need some clarity as to how much discretion, how much authority does any one district judge in any of those 94 courts have. >> what is the likelihood this could go up to the supreme court? >> well, it will be up to the supreme court. i think doj has an uphill battle here. the court of appeals is the 11th circuit, that is a conservative-leaning court. and the district court judge here struck down the mask mandate on three separate bases, one of them was substantive, the other to procedural. so doj has to win on all three of those on the appeal to win. whatever happens in the 11th circuit, it will then be up to the supreme court, if they want to take the case or not. they have been hostile toward broad covid restrictions. so i think if it goes up to the supreme court, they're not likely to rule in favor of the biden administration. >> and once again, here we are, two years later, still having mask confusion here, as to whether we should be masking up, mandates for it, but, listen, the option is always still there for people to wear their masks if they want to. thank you. >> thank you. still ahead, russian land mines found planted in toys. think about that. even in dead bodies. next, we'll speak with a ukrainian national police explosives expert about the booby traps soldiers are finding everywhere, and how long it will take to get rid of them all. you think you're empty? 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>> translator: on some occasions, they tried to mine the places where they had been stationed. but on other occasions, it doesn't make any sense at all. >> do you believe that the intent of russian forces is deliberately to kill civilians with these explosives? >> translator: after the russians left, before our forces entered these areas, there were lots of civilians left in these territories. so i think that there is great possibility that their target was specifically civilians. >> have you seen evidence in your work of war crimes by russian forces? >> translator: everywhere the russians have stayed, we are finding the bodies of civilians who were killed deliberately with gunshot wounds to the back of their heads. in basements, and with their hands tied behind their backs. and the bodies of these people had been mined, on many occasions. >> mining dead bodies, lord. your work is very dangerous. i know at least one of your team have been injured. are they scared of this danger? how do they keep going? >> translator: these people are professionals. and they are aware that no one, apart from them, is able to do this job. they are working for the sake of their families, for their children. >> do you have enough people to do this work? i know there are american volunteers, i've spoken to one of them, in your team, does ukraine have enough people here to clear all of these dangerous weapons? >> translator: we never have enough specialists or experts. and they are not trained in one day. so any extra pair of hands is useful. the american experts that are helping us are very valuable. >> i've been to countries including in asia where many decades after war they're still clearing unexploded ordinance and mines. do you fear ukraine will be dealing with this danger for many years to come? >> translator: no, i hope that we will be able to do it much sooner. especially if we have some additional forces and additional technical possibilities. i am sure we will be able to deal with this within five to ten years. >> well, thank you so much for taking the time and thank you for the work you're doing. i hope you and your team are safe. >> translator: thank you also. >> one takeaway from listening to accounts like that is this. there is no military function to booby trapping kitchen items as russian forces retreat. they have given up the territory, it is not military equipment. that's designed to terrorize, and i think we just have to keep saying that, repeating that, a lot of the methods we're seeing employed by russian forces, torture, rape, bombing of civilian areas, leaving bombs inside dead bodies as he was saying there, that's just designed to kill, and to terrorize. there is no function beyond that. >> yeah, and that is why we hear so many accusations day in and day out about war crimes, many ukrainians calling this genocide. also interesting to hear him thank american experts there, who have been helping them throughout all of this, gives you a sense of the aid that the u.s. is providing and our allies are providing, not just through weaponry, right, but through some of our experts there and specialists on the ground as they are untangling all of this. >> we interviewed one of those volunteers last week, and oftentimes, frankly, near all the time, they're volunteers, including the americans, many former military veterans fighting on the front lines now, volunteers willing to put their lives down. >> so important to get all of this documented, jim, we'll be back to you later in the hour. >> yeah. straight ahead, the battle for donbas. we'll speak to a reporter on the front lines of the war. we'll talk about that is at stake if russia takes over that region. that's up next. it's still the eat fresh refresh, and subway's refreshing their italians. so, we're taking this to italy. refresh. because subway n has italian-style capicola on the new mozza meat and supreme meat love the smell bof italian food. has italian-style capicola subway keeps refreshing d refres- you don't know how much pressure you put on your septic system. but rid-x does. in a 21 month study, scientists proved that rid- x reduces up to 20% of waste build up every month. take the pressure off with rid-x. we hit the bike trails every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? 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>> so many of them, as you know, they didn't have any electricity from day two, i think, they hadn't had any gas, they hadn't had any water. some of them were doing deadly trips to get more drinking water, to provide to the family, to themselves, and, you know, they survived. and many more people stayed. as you know the evacuation was happening only on their own cars, so finally those people who had -- who don't have any cars, they are here, and they are evacuated by, like, by -- right now. >> from what you can see, is it mostly women, young children, elderly? what do you see among those who have been evacuated? >> it is mostly children and women and also elder people. so it is mostly families and those who wanted to leave. the people that we spoke to, some of them told us that many more ukrainians are staying there, but they're not considering them ukrainians, so those people who are willing to stay there, they're having -- and it is also, you know, something that people who are more tend to be like with ukraine or who call themselves ukrainians are going through, so it is not only the russians who are insulting them, also the collaborators who are, you know, make their lives hell. >> and, tanya, can you quickly show us there -- i was going to ask you to turn the camera so we could see the evacuees, there is some media and press there, waiting for them. but just knowing that among those civilians are elderly, children, women, and families that were torn apart, and besieged in that city of mariupol without electricity, without much water, food, the situation for them was extremely dire. and i know you're going to go talk to them now and get more details on their harrowing experience. hopefully this is a sign of what's to come and we can get more civilians out of that city. tanya, thank you so much for your time and your reporting. >> my pleasure. well, russia is tartstartin plant its flag across ukraine. images published this week show the soviet victory, not even a russian flag, a soviet flag from world war ii, appearing in several russian-occupied cities. two european officials told cnn that russian forces are feeling self-imposed pressure to achieve any semblance of a victory ahead of russia's may 9th victory day celebration. a major holiday in the country usually marked with speeches by president putin, a big display usually marked as well, not sure what to make of that soviet flag, though. still ahead, a new report says top republicans had planned to push former president trump to resign or have him removed from office in the wake of january 6th. so what happened? 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"the new york times" is reporting that house minority leader kevin mccarthy told other republican leaders he was going to advise president trump to resign. the times is also reporting that mccarthy and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell looked into the 25th amendment as an option for removing trump from office. cnn washington correspondent sunlen serfaty joins us now for more on this developing story. given all this, why did they ultimately back down? >> reporter: it is so interesting, bianna, this report says they backed off because they feared the political retribution, the consequences from trump, and trump supporters that could come if they stood up to him. and this is just a fascinating excerpt by jonathan martin and alex burns looking at really how the republican establishment wing of the party grappled in the hours and the days after the january 6th attack, how they grappled with and struggled withstanding up potentially to trump contemplating potentially a total break with the then president, so just revealing and how they really struggled through this decision. and some of the excerpts in their book talks about how mccarthy specifically, their reporting says he wanted to push trump to resign, he said, quote, i've had it with this guy, he called his conduct on january 6th atrocious, wrong, and he even inquired about mechanism for invoking the 25th amendment, and he said that he told the republicans, according to the reporting, that mccarthy told -- said he would tell trump, quote, i think that in terms of the impeachment, this will pass, but it would be my recommendation for you to resign. and the senate leader mcconnell, he said, quote, if this isn't impeachment, i don't know what is in terms of the fallout from january 6th. so all of that certainly very notable. now, mcconnell's office responding to this report he made, declining to comment on it, but a spokesman for mccarthy denied one specific part of the reporting, telling "the new york times," quote, mccarthy never said he called trump to say he should resign, that is notable because he's not doing a blanket denial of everything, he is just denying that one specific detail that "the new york times" reporters reported that mccarthy was going to call on trump himself to resign. an important distinction there in the end. >> sunlen serfaty, thank you. well, a false alarm prompted the evacuation of the u.s. capitol yesterday. the scare happened last night as a result of an army golden knights flyover at the washington nationals baseball game. local air traffic control, the faa and norad were aware of the flight, but the u.s. capitol police were not. they say the faa failed to notify them and they thought the flight was a possible threat. now, while the faa is reviewing what happened, house speaker nancy pelosi slammed the agency, saying in a statement, quote, the unnecessary panic caused by that apparent negligence was particularly harmful for members, staff and institutional workers still grappling with the trauma of the attack on the workplace on january of 6th. soon, johnny depp will be returning to the stand for cross-examination in the defamation trial against his ex-wife. what he says about her alleged attacks against him, including one that severed his finger. we'll have a live report up next. hey businesses! you all deserve something epic! so we're giving every business, our best deals on every iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with 5g. that's the one with the amazing camera? 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>> one that really stood out. he was in australia shooting pirates of the caribbean 5 and how intense those days were. three hours to get the make-up on, shoot all day, get it off. he and amber had just been married but had to fly to australia, so she joined him. after a time period. so she arrives. and immediately, it just starts getting into an argument and he said that he had been sober for a while and he was very proud of that, but as the arguments start escalating, he went to the bar at the rented house and had two shots of vodka. the vodka bottle was there. i'll let him take it from there on his testimony. let's hear it. >> she threw the large bottle and it made contact and shattered everywhere and then i looked down and realized that the tip of my finger had been severed. and i was looking directly at my bones. i don't know what a nervous breakdown feels like, but that's probably the closest that i've ever been. >> so the jury got to see the picture of the severed finger and by the way, the top of it literally went off and the cook at the house found the severed finger. he's rushed to the hospital. they take the severed top of the finger off. i think you just saw it there and then had it flown to los angeles to have it reattached. but the prosecution said in the opening statements he did it to himself, she played no role. it was a cell phone and then the vodka bottle broke and the finger was severed at that top portion. >> i remember that severed finger incident because it was written about in all the publications at the time. we also know, jean, the jury got to hear some of the ex-couples' heated arguments. >> you hear them talk in narratives but he said they decided they would record some of their arguments and this was for the counselling session because they had a psychologist, they had group sessions, individual sessions. well, now four clips became evidence in this trial. let's listen to one of them. >> you didn't get punched. you got hit. i did not punch you. i did not [ bleep ] deck you. i was hitting you. i don't know what the slow motion of my actual hand was, but i did not hurt you, i did not punch you. i was hitting you. what am i supposed to do this? i'm not about it, you are. that's the difference between me and you. you're a [ bleep ] baby. you are such a baby. >> so the psychologist in her testimony and this is a neutral person, she said when this happened, that depp, and he testified it too, he would leave. he would go to a bathroom and lock himself in there and he'd go to a bedroom and lock himself in there or he'd leave the house and amber also said during those counselling sessions, according to the testimony from the psychologist, that sometimes she would just keep hitting him because she didn't want him to leave. >> we are looking at live pictures now of the courtroom where depp is set to testify again in this trial and continue to cover it for us. jean casarez, thank you. >> thank you. newly released report determined the crew on "the rust" movie set, quote, willfully violated safety rules which led to the tragic death of cinemat cinematographer halayna hutchins. alec baldwin said he never pulled the trigger and misfired. the management team apparently knew gun safety procedures were not being followed on set but failed to correct them. "rust" movie production fined $137,000 and given the highest level citation. and good morning, everyone. i'm bianna golodryga in new york. any moment, president biden will be speaking from the white house. we expect him to announce an additional $800 million in security assistance to ukraine. earlier this morning, the biden administration announced a new program set to provide a streamline process for ukrainian refugees looking to come to the u.s. biden has agreed to accept up to 100,000 ukrainians. on wednesday, the u.s. announced another round of sanctions. this time, targeting a key commercial bank and a global network of more than 40 individuals and entities. all this as ukrainian president zelenskyy said his forces need more heavy weapons to beat russia and they need them now. all of this as russian troops make significant advances throughout ukraine. right now, vladimir putin is claiming victory in the besieged port city of mariupol. russian forces are blocking all entry points into the city where some 200 people are now currently awaiting evacuation buses. so let's get back to jim sciutto for more on this. white house corresponden