joining us now, is nbc news correspondent holly arouzi from tel aviv. ali, what is the situation there tonight? good evening lawrence. russia s assault on ukraine s eastern front has intensified with relentless shelling in the donbas. they are hitting that area pretty hard over the last two days, and russians managed to capture a city called kreminna, with about 18,000 people. but the ukrainians have managed to repel them in other areas. and if you listen to the ukrainian commanders on the ground there, they are saying that this is now a battle of artillery. between them and the russians. and that s why they keep asking for more weapons. they say their artillery is a depleted, or the russians are destroying their artillery. it will allow russian tanks to roll into that area. and give them a significant
Days, and russians managed to capture a city called kreminna, with about 18,000 people. but the ukrainians have managed to repel them in other areas. and if you listen to the ukrainian commanders on the ground there, they are saying that this is now a battle of artillery. between them and the russians. and that s why they keep asking for more weapons. they say their artillery is a depleted, or the russians are destroying their artillery. it will allow russian tanks to roll into that area. and give them a significant advantage in that pivotal battle on the eastern front. and they are getting some new hardware. the u.s. as you mentioned, has pledged $800 million in new weaponry. the pentagon announced today that have been delivered to europe.
The russians have entered a town called kreminna. that is right on the front line. they said they had been trying to evacuate people, that that is now impossible because russian forces have been firing on civilian cars attempting to flee. they describe pretty harrowing sounding reports of street-to-street fighting going on in that town. and the fear is this is really now the beginning, the tipping point if you like for some kind of an all-out offensive on the eastern donbas region. but i do want to say the ukrainian forces have been hitting back hard going with the old proverb that the best defense is actually an offense. they have been launching a number of offenses to cut off russian supply lines as they begin to try to seize parts of this donbas region. brianna, john. clarissa, what do you make of