>> i don't think this is a big secret. the people from the u.s. are coming to us tomorrow. i shall be meeting with the state secretary, mr. blinken, and the defense secretary, and we will be waiting for the time when the security situation allows for the president to come and talk to us. >> in fact, a high level visit to a country at war would be deliberately kept secret until after the aroorival. it is not clear why zelenskyy chose to share this information. today, here in ukraine, orthodox easter sunday. right now, a curfew is in effect across several regions as officials warn of increased attacks during holiday celebrations. in the south, at least eight people are dead, several other injured after russian forces struck residential buildings and a military facility in the kyiv port city of odesa. and in mariupol today, russian troops thwarted again civilian evacuations from the city. this as we're getting new video from inside the steel plant reportedly showing ukrainian soldiers delivering items and food for women and children in a bunker there. all this as ukraine is fighting back on the battlefield. officials say the ukrainian forces struck a russian command post in the south killing at least two russian generals. the death toll has been very high in this conflict. we are following the latest from the white house and in kyiv. let's begin with matt rivers. he is in kyiv. matt, this is a major reveal by president zelenskyy of information that would deliberately be kept secret for security reasons. what more did the ukrainian president have to say? >> it was a huge surprise, jim. i think one that not a lot of reporters in that room thought was coming. you and i have been having conversations over the past week talking about when and if we would see senior u.s. leadership come to kyiv like we have seen so many other senior leaders from europe come here. now it appears it is going to happen on orthodox easter sunday, which is now today, in kyiv. zelenskyy talking about what he expects in the meeting, saying he will lay out exactly the kinds of weapons he says he needs in order to immediately start a counteroffensive, basically trying to retake all of the territory russia has taken from ukraine. he acknowledged the change in pace at which u.s. weapons are being delivered. >> i see the change min the sped of response on the part of the u.s. and if the speed is increasing as we are promised and if the steps coincide with the words as is the case with any good leader and people, we will be able to quicker reoccupy our territories in the east of our state. >> and this will be interesting to see, jim, when we get word about this visit tomorrow. as you mentioned, highly unusual to announce a visit of this high level, this top level security that is needed here this far in advance. it will be interesting to see if we get any video of the meeting. both blinken and austin. meanwhile here on the ground in ukraine, air strikes in odesa as you mentioned off the top, with at least eight killed, including a 3-month-old child during this press conference, president zelenskyy got emotional at least two times. one in which talking about the death in odesa saying he feels the pain of every parent in ukraine. this is important as these two leaders set to make an important visit. >> these are deliberate attacks on shrivcivilian targets by rus forces, happening on easter weekend. orthodox easter weekend. thanks so much. let's go to washington. cnn's senior washington correspondent, joe johns, at the white house. as you know, this kind of information about senior level visits to war torn countries kept very secret for operational security yet the ukrainian president revealing this in advance. have you gotten any comment from the white house or the defense department? any indication that because of the security concerns this trip might be reconsidered? >> jim, this is very closely held information as you just indicated and we have been reaching out across the biden administration to try to get some confirmation or otherwise about what president zelenskyy said and so far, we have pretty much gotten nothing. what we are getting is a referral back to a statement from jen psaki, the press secretary, on monday when she indicated a couple of things. first that president biden has no plans to go to ukraine and number two, that there will be no outline, no preview, no details of who might be going to ukraine from the administration and when. so that, she said, is purely for security reasons. that said, there is an awareness here at the white house that there have been multiple top leaders of nato countries who have already gone to ukraine and the question was becoming when the united states was going to send one, someone just to show solidarity for the government of ukraine. of course, president zelenskyy continues to push for a visit from president biden himself, but so far, we're told no plans. jim? >> would be remarkable for such a long anticipated, long desired visit to be disrupted by disclosing that information in advance. thanks so much. joining me now to discuss, former u.s. ambassador to nato. he also served as u.s. special envoy for ukraine. now senior adviser for the atlantic council. it's good to have you this evening. you've been involved in high level visits like this throughout your career. tell me what you would advise the secretary of state, the secretary of defense under these circumstances? you know that these are considered dangerous visits and this is information deliberately kept very private. >> sure. let's face it. president zelenskyy is in kyiv every day and he's target number one. so he is braving this out. secondly, other foreign leaders, prime ministers, presidents, have visited kyiv already and more are going to do so. so i think it would be exceptional if the united states did not proceed with the visit. of course, it's unfortunate that the information was leaked out. i'm sure that there will be some discussions about that behind closed doors. but at this stage, i don't think there's any reason to turn around and more over, the symbolism of secretary of state and secretary of defense appearing in kyiv with president zelenskyy and making clear full u.s. support and commitment to ukraine's success in this war is extraordinarily important. >> tell me to that point, tell me about the significance of having both of them come, right? you have your senior diplomat in the secretary of state blinken and you have your senior most civilian military official in the secretary of defense, lloyd austin. why that combination in your view? >> well, it conveys commitment. it conveys military commitment to ukraine, also commitment to ukraine's international relationships. its relationship with nato. its relationship with european union. the involvement in diplomacy. the effort to seek peace. it's a powerful combination to have the two of them there and i think it does convey very strong commitment. let me add i think this is relatively new. i think when president biden visited nato a month ago, it was not so clear cut that the u.s. was all in. but when secretary blinken went there later, the tone was different and now we see the accelerated delivery of u.s. security assistance to ukraine and i think we are in a different phase of u.s. commitment to this now. >> yeah, two $800 million weapons packages in just over a week. we heard another comment from the ukrainian president in the same press conference saying that blinken and austin better not come empty handed. in pressuring them more publicly for more aid. what do you think the function of a statement like that is given the acceleration of aid in recent days and weeks from the u.s. already? >> i think president zelenskyy knows very well that the u.s. has been turning on the gas already, been accelerating security assistance. it's probably just a reflection of the pressure that he's under with as we saw, bomb attacks on odesa. people being killed. the extraordinary, extraordinary siege of mariupol with 100,000 civilians trapped and the russians fully intent on starving them out. this is the kind of pressure that president zelenskyy is under. but i do think that the u.s. is providing the kind of support now that will make a fundamental difference. >> before we go, tell us with russia's new focus on the east and the south, new focus not just attention, but military assets. how does that war go now? because of course you have the u.s. and nato trying to back up the ukrainians for a new kind of battle in the east. armor on armor. artillery on artillery battle. how does that play out in your view? >> right. we can't forget just how poorly organized, poor command and control, poor morale the russians have. that has not improved. also an experience. they brought in secondary equipment after having first tier equipment destroyed. they're going to have a very hard time organizing themselves and advancing and in the meantime, ukrainians are highly motivated, highly effective with the equipment they've been given and i think there is a genuine chance that they will continue to roll back russian gains. the areas where this is important is east of kharkiv to relieve the pressure on that city. breaking the land bridge in order to try to relieve mariupol. and also pushing back on russia's occupation of kherson. those are the strategic objectives for ukraine. for the west, i think we need to provide as much as we can. we ought to be looking at freedom of navigation in the black sea again and we ought to be looking at whether there is any possibility to orchestrate some kind of ariel relief. an air lift to mariupol. what the risks are of doing so and if they can pull it off. >> that's been another public request. ambassador, thanks so much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. still to come, this hour, president zelenskyy repeated his call as we mentioned, for more weapons from the west today. what could be a game changer on the ground in ukraine? that's coming up. also ahead, we'll speak to a former adviser to president putin. what is behind his mindset at this stage of the war and what would it take to stop the invasion of ukraine? plus, a firsthand view from the front lines of this battle. >> i got to be honest with you. the things that we're seeing, i don't think i have the time to process it yet. >> a ukrainian volunteer medic will join us live. our special live coverage continues right after a quick break. why do dermatologists choose dove? the dove beauty bar, is gentle. it not only cleans, it hydrates my skin. as a dermatologist, i want what's best for r skin. with/4 moisturizing cream, ve is the #1 bar dermatologists use at home. wealth is breaking ground on your biggest project yet. worth is giving the people who build it a solid foundation. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. ♪ ♪ wealth is watching your business grow. worth is watching your employees grow with it. ♪ ♪ allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. it's still the eat fresh refresh, and subway's refreshing their app. so you can customize your favorite footlong, set a pickup time, and jump the line! oh, here she goes! ugh, i thought she was actually gonna jump. just use this code and order on the subway app! ♪ (drum roll) ♪ ♪ (energetic music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (camera shutters) the all-new lx 600. ready for any arena. ♪ ♪ no matter who you are, being yourself can be tough when you have severe asthma. triggers can pop up out of nowhere, causing inflammation that can lead to asthma attacks. but no matter what type of severe asthma you have, tezspire™ can help. tezspire™ is a new add-on treatment for people 12 and over... that proactively reduces inflammation... ...which means you could have fewer attacks, breathe better, and relieve your asthma symptoms. so, you can be you, whoever you are. tezspire™ is not a rescue medication. don't take tezspire™ if you're allergic to it. allergic reactions like rash or an eye allergy can happen. don't stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. sore throat, joint and back pain may occur. avoid live vaccines. by helping control your asthma, tezspire™ can help you be you. no matter who you are, ask your asthma specialist about tezspire™ today. (supervisor) conventional thinking says this level of 360 support ends after the sale, but not with t-mobile for business. when you're looking for a solution tailored toward your unique business needs whether that's improving efficiency, increasing collaboration, or driving growth. t-mobile's team of experts work side-by-side with you to help realize your vision. it's the kind of partnership that delivers real value for your business. and it's ready right now. so, should all our it move to the cloud? the cloud would give us more flexibility, but we lose control. ♪ ♪ ♪ should i stay or should i go? ♪ and we need insights across our data silos, but how? ♪ if i go there will be trouble ♪ ♪ ♪ wait, we can stay and go. hpe greenlake is the platform that brings the cloud to us. ♪ should i stay or should i go now? ♪ ♪ ♪ primary request to the u.s. is simple. weapons, weapons and more weapons. i spoke with the adviser to the ukrainian interior minister early about what ukraine says it needs most. you're in -- where ukrainians stood up for their freedom, their independence years ago. do you think ukraine can do that again successfully? stand up against russia? >> yes. ukrainians have stood up twice to the pro russian regime, but now we have a much bigger challenge and we need your help. we need the help of the united states. particularly with weapons. we need even more weapons to expand this offensive. >> the u.s. and nato are sending weapons, but russia's still gaining territory in the east, the southeast. they have most of ukraine's coastline. they want all of it. are you getting enough weapons to stop russia? >> no. what the u.s. and allies are providing absolutely is not enough. it is not enough at the moment. i will give you one example. during the second world war, president roosevelt provided the lend lease act and gave britain assistance worth $390 billion until 1948. compare that to 300 to 800 million given now. russia is receiving one billion euro per day. >> something called the buy me fighter jet campaign. a website to raise money. each jet cost $25 million. is it working? are you getting some of the world's wealthiest people to help? >> well this campaign was actually started by sean penn. he wanted to raise $300 million to buy planes for ukraine. but what i would prefer is that the u.s. and nato allies would furnish their soviet airplanes. our pilots know how to use these. we would prefer american planes because they would be better against russian aggression, but would take several months to train our pilots. we would need the will of the american people to give us these. they have about 70 soviet era planes. that's what we need. >> after the war, what will it take to rebuild this country? how many years? how much money? >> to rebuild ukraine, we will need a lot of money. the ukrainian government estimates that we will need about 600 billion u.s. dollars. that is the extent of the damage. we hope that the u.s. and its allies will give ukraine 300 billion. that's the money that flows in from russian banks and the russian central bank. that will help rebuild ukraine. we have hundreds of bridges blown up. tens of thousands of buildings destroys. tens of thousands of ukrainians killed. >> thank you so much for joining us tonight. i wish you good luck in all that you're doing. >> thank you. >> to speak more about the course of this war, joining me now, retired general, paul eaton. good to have you back, sir. i want to ask you about the current flow of weapons to the ukrainians. ukrainians have understandable urgency. they need help to fight russia. a bigger force. you hear from u.s. officials increasing urgency virtually every day, but there is sort of a never enough quality to some of these pleas. is the u.s. and western weapons support behind, in your view, what russia needs or is it meeting the need? >> jim, thank you for having me. there's a saying in the military that more is better, but it's actually more is not enough. you cannot have enough to distribute across the battlefield because you have pockets of requirements that vary based on the geography of the battle ffield. what ukrainians need is a whole lot more and a whole lot faster. we're doing a brilliant job. nato and america in particular. we do need to continue to ratchet this up and we're getting better, faster over time. so they need more aircraft. ukrainians, their pilots have done a stunning job of denying not just air supremacy, but superiority to the russian air force. so we've got a great group of ukrainian pilots. we need to get them aircraft. long range fires, counter battery radar, we need to deny the russian strength of artillery and that whole erases artillery from the battlefield is a requirement. president zelenskyy needs mobile defense. go ahead. >> sorry to interrupt. there are two different views of the battlefield now in terms of both that aid. ukrainian capabilities and also whether russia has solved some of the problems they had in the north. you speak to some folks who said ukrainians have the advantage in the east. able to push the russians back. others including the u.k. prim minister who fears the russians can grind ukrainian military forces down. where do you stand? >> so what the ukrainians have demonstrated is that their troops have the will, they have the capacity to adapt and they are infinitely better at emotional warfare than the russians have proven to be. they have interior lines. we are rapidly moving mobility through the hands of the ukrainian army. as i mentioned, counter battery radar and long range fires are necessary to remove the russian strength of indirect fires. we also need to and ambassador volcker brought up navigation. the navy, nato's naval forces need to be brought to bear to influence military outcome. i'm not saying attack. i'm saying that they need to deny free access. they need to deny the fact that the russians think black sea is their lake. >> final question before we go. you've heard that president zelenskyy has released the information that secretary blinken, secretary austin on their way to kyiv perhaps as soon as today. if you were advising, when you were in iraq, you had high level visits and that information kept secret until those folks were on the ground for their security. if you were advising the secretary for today about whether he should keep his appointment in kyiv, would you say he should? >> well, i know how general austin will react and i have extreme faith in the wonderful diplomats that we have. these are men of courage. women of courage. secretary blinken, secretary austin i'm sure will be front and center where they need to be and i'm not sure what the dynamics are in the reveal of the information, but these two delegations are going to make us very proud. >> good to have you on. thank you. >> jim, thank you very much. still ahead this hour, as russia's offensive pushes ahead in the east and in the south, are there any hints of what putin's next move will be? we're going to speak to someone who knows one of his former close advisers. that's coming up. were delayed when the new kid totaleled his truck. timber..... fortunately, they were cocovered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. ♪ ♪ we believe there's an innovator iall of us. ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. 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complete. upgrade today. right now, president zelenskyy doubling down on his willingness to meet with russian president putin. zelenskyy says he does not have the luxury to be afraid as his people stand tall in the face of russia's continuing invasion. joining me now to discuss, a former chief economic adviser to putin. he resigned in 2005 and has been a critic of putin since. good to have you back, sir. i do want the begin with the news tonight and that is zelenskyy revealing that sometime today that u.s. senior officials, the secretary of state blinken, secretary of defense austin will be visiting kyiv. something that a senior u.s. official has not yet done two months into this war. i wonder how will putin, do you think, react to a visit by senior u.s. leaders like that? particularly a show of force with the top diplomat and top official? how does he view it? >> good evening, jim. it's very good news that the u.s. officials would visit kyiv. after the many from european countries including the polish president, president of baltic countries, president of european union. prime minister of united kingdom have visited kyiv. it is view for u.s. officials to visit kyiv and have talks with president zelenskyy and with ukrainian officials to express their real support to ukraine and reach agreement to provide more support for ukraine in this war against russia. what would be the reaction of mr. putin is not much interesting because that's the business of ukraine and ukrainian allies. what to do, how to resist these aggression. what is necessary to provide ukraine more economic support and more military support. just today, the international monetary fund has released data for expecting decline in gdp in ukraine and in russia. according to these data, ukrainian gdp is going to fall by 35% and russian by 8.5%. what it means, it means that ukraine will lose substantial portion of economic potential. about 70 billion u.s. dollars and it needs substantial economic resources, financial resources, and military resources to sustain this war. and it means that the economic pressure from the western countries against russia is not enough. >> we've spoken about that a number of times. you have urged smart sanctions. particularly on the energy sector. european officials say for instance they're going to reduce their dependence on russian natural gas by two-thirds by end of the year, but that's eight months away from now. when does europe have to stop its purchases of russian gas and oil? >> yes. full embargo for russian oil and gas can wait for another eight months, but introduction of accounts and smart embargo must not wait. it can be done overnight and it means that while russia would continue to provide energy to european countries, the proceeds from these energy exports will not go back to putin. it will go to ukraine to support ukraine in this war against russia. >> yeah. it's a smart idea that you have expressed before. before we go, zelenskyy says he's still willing to meet with putin. in fact, he says he has no choice. putin will meet with the u.n. secretary general next week. he's visiting moscow. you know putin's mindset through this. is there value in these face-to-face meetings with putin? can these people convince him, pressure him to back off? or does he bulldoze ahead? >> i have serious doubts that meetings between the general secretary of the united nations will produce any result. but i have even more doubt that this time now for zelenskyy includes him. i think time permitting direct meeting with zelenskyy could arrive when ukrainian forces will inflict substantial damage to russian troops on the ukrainian territory. when they achieve military victory over the aggressor. maybe that time will be right time for direct negotiations between zelenskyy and putin. not before that. >> win on a battlefield first, talk later. thanks so much. good to have you back. >> thank you very much, sir. a quick programming note. make sure you catch the powerful, inspiring, unbelievable true story of the man who took on putin, lived through poisoning to expose the truth. sunday it's award winning film, navalny, airs tomorrow on cnn. still ahead, an exwhite house official said he was warned about possible violence on january 6th. what did he do about it? newly revealed testimony coming up. toto financial advice, tools and d a personalized pln that helps you build a fututue for those you u love. vanguard. become an owner. ♪ ♪ bonnie boon i'm calling you out. everybody be cool, alright? wee got bonnie right here on a video call. we don't take kindly video calls. oh, in that case just tap to send a message. we don take kindly to messages neither. in that case how 'bout a ringcentral phone call. we don't take kindly to no... would you can it eugene! let's just hear her out. ha ha ha, i've been needing a new horse. we've got ourselves a deal. ♪ ♪ ♪ ringcentral ♪ this is not the stallion i was imagining. you're probably 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reveals the white house was warned before the u.s. capitol attack there could be violence that day and trump's former chief of staff, mark meadows, pushed forward with the rally anyway. cnn capitol hill reporter joins me now live. melanie, so the committee here, it wants a judge to throw out a lawsuit through all this that meadows has against them. what's the status of that? what are the details from these new revelations? >> that's right. mark meadows has refused to comply with the subpoena to appear before the select committee so they released a trove of damning new details last night to show the courts why they want meadows to testify and among those new revelations, an aide to mark meadows testified that he was indeed told that january 6th had the potential to turn violent and yet he pressed ahead with both the rally and efforts to overturn the election on the floors of congress. she also testified she overheard the white house office's saying that a scheme to use alternate electors was not sound and testified just how involved republican lawmakers were in the effort to subvert the election. in fact, scott perry of pennsylvania was frantically texts meadows the day after christmas about this plot to install a loyalist in doj leadership. that is jeffrey clark. they also wanted to give jeffrey clark a deputy underneath him and i want to read for you some of those text messages which were revealed last night. mark, just checking in as time continues to countdown. 26 and 25 days until inauguration. then on december 26th. perry texted, you should call jeff. now it's worth noting here that the select committee has also asked scott perry to testify before the committee. he, too, has refused to cooperate. but unlike meadows, the select committee has not yet issued a subpoena for scott perry or any other republican lawmakers to date. jim. >> the revelations, just remarkable. thanks so much. still ahead, cnn goes to -- where russian soldiers there use them as human 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candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire check out this vrbo. oh man. ♪ come on. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ russian forces are now focused on the east and south, but left a trail of stories of ruthless treatment after withdrawing from the north. we're learning more about the horrors that russian forces caused in the northern turn of chernihiv. there, president zelenskyy says that russian occupiers forced civilians in a school and locked them in a basement for weeks. ed lavandera spoke with survivors. z >> war stopped time here. bombs and artillery scorched vilages. russian occupation ravaged the minds of its people. the story is just emerging, revealing how the russian army held this village hostage for more than 30 days. sofia shows us the underground bunker in her shed where she first hid from the fighting. she says she had food stored here that the russians ate. this is where she slept. sofia says russian soldiers went door to door rounding people up and taking them at gunpoint into the basement of the village school. sofia tells us that when the russian soldiers moved them all into the basement of the school builds, that they were put down there and the soldiers told them they were being put in the basement to die. a woman named natalie took us into the basement where she was trapped. i was in a stupor, natalie tells me. i was just sitting there, praying, hoping it would all stop soon. residents tell us this there were about 350 people held hostage in the basement of this school building. men, women, and children forced to live in these horrific conditions. in fact, it was so strangulating, there was so little air circulation that one resident told us that 12 elderly people died here because they couldn't breathe. and their bodies were left while the fighting raged outside. these are some of the only known images captured in the school's basement. the faces say it all. she's telling me that about 35 people slept in this small room. nobody could lay down. they slept kind of sitting with their knees up against their chest. the rooms are littered with makeshift beds, school books, and russian troop meal boxes, but it's the art on the walls that stops you in your tracks. this is how the children passed the time. colorful drawings on a canvas of anguish. the people who were trapped down here etched names on to this concrete wall. they marked the days with a calendar, crossing out the days as they went by. everything down here has the feel of a world war ii era concentration game. above the basement, russian soldiers took over the school builds. residents say they were used at human shields. they knew the ukrainian military wouldn't fire at this school with civilians inside. olna grabs food from a humanitarian delivery truck and takes us to her home. russian soldiers threw grenades through her windows and did you think you were going to survive that? >> i thought my child would not survive, she tells me. i asked themt to let me out so the child could breathe fresh air because she felt bead bad. they said let her die, bae we don't care. sophia, how did you feel when you got out uft basement of the school? >> she says, one of the villagers opened the basement door and said the russians left the trapped villagers were surprised. in the morning ourks guys enter the village, she said we hugged them and cried. what will you tlt e tell your daughter about this speerngs? >> nothing, she says. her daughter will not remember it, and she will tell her nothing. ed lavandera, cnn, ukraine. recollection. >> we have to remember when we watch stories like that, these are not isolated stories. they characterize how russian forces operated not just in that town there, but many towns and cities across this country, and continue to. we almost to continue to bear witness, and will do you are best. still ahead. to quickly clear minds, first ukrainian officials -- thefr to find them. the devastating places officials are locating these 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(girls giggling) mmmm... it's so good! order your american made comfortmat at weathertech.com. i didn't know my genetic report could tell me i was prone to harmful blood clots. i travel a ton, so this info was kind of life changing. maybe even lifesaving. ♪do you know what the future holds?♪ there are new images in to cnn tonight, and they are hard to see. significant destruction, like a tornado tore through there. this is in a town just outside the capital city of kyiv. showing the scars of the nature of this russian' invasion. civilians, as targets. entire blocks of homes, we should note, those are not military targets -- they are homes -- leveled. hit by heavy shelling. one more example of another suburb, another village, another community in this country attacked. this one, just outside the capital. i recently spoke to the mayor of irpin. another hard-hit suburb of kyiv nearby. he told me that additional evidence of war crimes is being uncovered there every day. mayor, what is the situation in irpin now? and have you found further evidence of russian' war crimes there? >> translator: the situation in irpin is under control. at the moment, we have almost finished clearing the level. we are finishing mine clearing. unfortunately, just an hour ago, we had an unpleasant incident. a truck was coming in with supplies, and it blew up on a mine. unfortunately, the driver died so we are having those unpl unpleasant surprises the russians have left behind. every day, we find btrap childrn toy, we just found a sandbox that was boobietrapped. so this is a war crime. >> do you have any teams there, ukrainian or foreign teams that are able to clear any mines and booby traps? >> translator: yes, we clearing these mines. it was unfortunate for the truck i mentioned earlier. it went off into an uncleared area. we are finding these things. we have a local team of mine cleaners but we are also helped by the military. they are giving us their mine-clearing teams and ub unfortunately, we are finding these surprises all the time. in private areas, private houses, billings, on apartments, on children's playgrounds. but yes, we are work on it. we are working on clearing it all. >> there is a lot of talk now about war crimes' investigations. you have people in the international community even accusing vladimir putin of being a war criminal. do you have any confers that the people behind these alleged crimes will face justice? >> translator: i absolutely believe that putin is a war criminal. and he must face justice in the hague but also the people following orders. how can you follow such ab order to kill children? to kill women? and they did kill children and women. we have evidence. but a couple of women and children were trying to leave irpin, and their own vehicles and two to four vehicles were shot. the people following these orders, they are war criminals and they must face justice. >> reporter: russian forces have now withdrawn from the kyiv area. many of them, moving to the east. do you feel that they will come back, if they make gains in the east, they will try to come back and attack irpin, the kyiv region, again? >> translator: we are always facing this threat there could be troops coming from belarus, from that direction, and we are prepared for it. now, irpin is a city that held on and stopped the enemy from advancing on kyiv. we fought a wattle and as a result of this battle, the city is 50% destroyed but we are building up our defenses. we were victorious over the second-largest army in the world. he with stopped their advance and we will continue defending it. and i am sure that with our military on our land, we will be victorious. >> mayor thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. good evening to you. i am jim sciutto reporting live from lviv in western ukraine. i want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is a special edition of cnn "newsroom." president zelenskyy says u.s. secretary of state antony blinken and defense secretary lloyd alwayustin are expected ie capital, kyi