shellered for weeks. today a small group got out. 25 people including six children were just evacuated according to russia s state news agency. cnn has not verified that. and for those who remain stranded, the ceo of the steel plant company paints a very dire picture. the city is being destroyed basically beautiful thriving city was turned into a concentration camp by the russians in less than two months. you could say it is genocide. i have a terrible story. one of our employees who had to leave the city and walk through the mine fields with his pregnant wife for more than 30 kilometers. actually, as he got into safety, his wife gave birth the next day. but fauortunately the child is okay. but they had to live through is terrible. vladimir putin seems to be flaunting the brutality. thursday his forces launched a missile strike that hit a kyiv apartment while the u.n. chief was in the city. also this week, russia chained together a series of strikes on rail and supply lin
equipment that is being promised and indeed delivered from nato and from the united states and other nato countries coming to this arguably the most important battlefront in terms of the ukrainian defense against the russian invaders. so they re going after those very important railway lines with these bombardments. i have to say on top of that, though, the railway bridge that links leman to the other side of the donetsk river was also blown today. it s not clear, though, jake, whether it was the ukrainians or the russians that blew it because we do know that the ukrainians do have a tactic of blowing bridges in order to slow russian advances. they are going to use in all probability the donetsk river as a line of defense if it comes to that. there have been very substantial troop movements among the ukrainians on the ukrainian side throughout this region over the last 24 hours. and clearly an effort at least at re-enforcement is under way. a lot of movement of troops. a lot
he was coughing up blood and appeared to have tuberculosis and they freed a russian pilot sentenced to 20 years in an american prison for drug smuggling. reed s parents spoke to their son after they were physically swapped out at an airport tarmac in turkey. he was kind of subdued. i think he is a little overwhelmed. he seemed to be in shock a little bit. they have moved him to a moscow prison this week. we didn t know that. he went to the first prince i think paul whelan was held in for a long time and then they flew him from there to turkey and then they quickly told us that the american plane pulled up next to the russian plane and they walked both prisoners across at the same time like you see in the movies. just in, we have learned that russian prisoner was returned home, cnn s caitlin colin joins us as well as kaylee atwood, what have you learned about why this came to be and why now? reporter: a good question of why now, u.s. officials are saying this was a l
team in trump s white house, and now dr. deborah birx is here with a new book to reveal what she was really thinking at the time, as well as offering her take on the covid response by the current white house. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our world lead and a warning from the top u.s. general that the entire international security order is at stake because of russia s war on ukraine. joint chiefs of staff chairman general mark milley making this declaration during an exclusive cnn interview with jim sciutto earlier today. if this is left to stand, if there is no answer to this aggression, if russia gets away with this cost-free, then so goes the so-called international order. if that happens, then we re heading into an era of seriously increased instability. general milley also confirming one of the u.s. goals in this conflict is to weaken russia. echoing comments made by the u.s. defense secretary just yesterday. it s a goal u.s. officials had pre
this as top pentagon officials are sharpening their stance toward moscow following critical talks with other military leaders in germany. we have an exclusive new cnn interview with america s top general. our correspondents are standing by at key locations in the war zone for cnn s live global coverage of russia s invasion of ukraine. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we re following the breaking news on ukraine s angry response to russia s new talk of potential nuclear war, accusing the kremlin of trying to blackmail the world. more on that just ahead. but first we want to take you to the front lines of this brutal, brutal war. ukrainian forces say they re facing an offensive in all directions as russia intensifies its attacks in the east and the south. cnn s chief international correspondent clarissa ward traveled to the northeastern city