ukraine. jim? anderson, thanks so much. this is cnn tonight. i m jim sciutto live from lviv in ukraine, along with the great laura coates in the u.s. the pentagon says tens of thousands of russian troops have now amassed in eastern ukraine. one of putin s commanders claims their new goal is to take full control of not just the donbas region in the east but southern ukraine to provide a land corridor to crimea and perhaps go further. still, president zelenskyy expressed hope and defiance tonight. translator: we will defend ourselves as long as necessary to break this ambition of the russian federation. the armed forces of ukraine continue to deter attacks by russian invaders in the east and south of our country. and i am grateful to each of our defenders who are bravely holding on. in this new offensive, they continue tonight in the region. this is the push and pull of the front lines. the russians launched for air strikes on the southern port city of mariupol earlier.
There are many here in lviv and the surrounding countries, the neighbors of ukraine, who are lucky to have escaped the horrors of this war. but of course never forget what they witnessed and endured. you re about to hear from a mother who managed to escape the area around kyiv in the early days of the invasion with her three children. she came from a place called bucha. at the time we met her, we said it had seen heavy fighting. we caught up with her. she s in spain now, but boy the stories she s hearing from home. that s coming up. tion. oh i get i it. so you can take your old phone, that you ve had for 12 years and loved d every minute of, and trade it in for somethining new that suits your life now? that s right, yeah. and then enjoy immediate success, even though you ll never forget your old phone. ever. it s a great trade. life-changing. get a free samsung galaxy s22 with any galaxy trade-in. any year. any condition. only at at&t. we hit the bike trails every weekend
I just want to tell one story today that helps highlight it. and you and i were discussing this earlier. a few weeks ago when i was here for the first time with my team, we met a woman and three children had fled. they were fleeing the country, as many millions have done. they were from a place called bucha. at the time we knew that bucha had seen horrible fighting, but we did not know what bucha would become, the scenes of some of the worse crimes of this war. here was a family that just made it out with their lives. i connected with them today. they re now in spain thankfully safely. and they told me that they ve been reaching out to friends and family in bucha, and they re hearing just the worst of stories. they heard that two of their children s teachers, including a kindergarten teacher, were killed there. she can t tell her 6-year-old son that. who would? that s the reality. i think we have to remember that each grave that we see, each account of civilians killed here has a face
Recovered. there was video that came out of a district called bucha, northwest of kyiv, where the streets seemed to be lined with co corpses. the ukrainians say they re going to try to bring some of them away and clean that area up. the ukrainians for their part are saying this is definitely not the end. they say they believe the russian forces were beaten as they tried to invade the capital, kyiv, and are essentially trying to regroup. ukrainian officials say they believe that attacks will intensify, especially in the southeast of the country. it s certainly something they re bracing for. fred pleitgen with that report. we re joined from kyiv with alexandra metchevkuk, human rights lawyer. how are you coping in kyiv? what s been happening there overnight? are you feeling a little safer