You know, several weeks ago, whether mariupol would be the win, the trophy that generals would probably be handing him. some of the times perhaps not, he wants the donbas, but he s really struggled on that front. do you believe, as we ve been hearing from u.s. and western officials, as they have been suggesting, that putin will use this, perhaps, daniel, as an excuse to really to declare victory over the donbas or do you think it s going to be more a de-escalatory move from him, or will he double down? i mean what are the options here? i think he remains committed to taking, consolidating power in at least the donetsk and luhansk people s republics and expanding the boundaries of those. he may not be able to announce significant advances by may 9th on those fronts, meeting a lot of resistance, but i think that remains the key objective.
Take mariupol here. well, right, so, mariupol is this last city that the russians have been fighting so hard, trying to take for weeks now. they control all the land between donetsk and crimea. clearly it was a major objective to connect crimea, the russian-occupied peninsula of crimea to the parts of eastern ukraine that russian troops controlled and mariupol stood in the way, and it got down to just the azovstal steel plant, which is still untaken, so, it s a thorn in his side, it s preventing him from announcing this, at least partial victory in what has proved to be an incredibly difficult war compared to what he anticipated going in. and i remember asking some of my guests on set here, daniel,
There are also rumors that he might do other things, like announcing the formal annexannexation of donetsk and luhansk or he might announce a general or partial mobilization. all of those rumors are unverified, we don t know at this point. many options that he could choose between on may 9th. yeah, really trying to read between the lines, trying to look at the putin playbook to try and understand what could come, of course, we have crimea is an example of that, but as you clearly pointed out, daniel, kherson, which we ve seen them trying to have, obviously, a referendum, independence referendum for kherson, we have seen push-back, of course, from ukrainians in kherson. we shall keep an eye on the developments in the coming days. daniel, great to have you on the show, joining us from california.
Place yesterday for the city of mariupol itself, more than 300 people were evacuated, according to president zelenskyy speaking overnight. let s get more on all of this, daniel treeseman, a professor and author and joining me now from california. and daniel, a very good morning to you. let me start, really, with what we ve just heard from sara sidner and inside that mariupol steel complex. as we ve been looking in the last 24 to 48 hours, it s been completely battered and decimated by russian military. how do you see this playing out? reporter: well, the russians clearly would like to take the azovstal steel plant before may 9th. it seems that putin would like to announce victory on may 9ette and the last remaining part of mariupol that the russians haven t taken yet is this steel
Thank you, daniel. thank you. well, the european union is proposing a ban on russian oil imports. we broke that story yesterday, but may find it tricky, in fact, to implement it. it s part of the six package of sanctions on moscow for its war on ukraine. the czech republic and bulgaria are seeking xem moneys from the ban while slovakia and hungary say they need a three-year transition period. here s more from hungary s foreign minister. translator: it is not a matter of lack of political will or a question about intention or time. this is simply a physical, geographical, and in infrastructural reality. while the european commission president says the ban on russian oil is the next step to make vladimir putin, quote, pay a high price for his brutal aggression on ukraine. and i ll have much more from lviv next hour. in the meantime, back to kim in atlanta.