been at least one death resulting from this morning s early morning attack. this is something that is part of this eastern offensive. we heard from the russians that they are gearing up for a major assault on the east, where i am now. british intelligence have said that ukrainians are preparing this city for an assault from the south. that would bring russian offensive straight besieged city of mariupol which has been destroyed. we can expect to see more of an assault coming up in the coming days and weeks. i gotta tell you, we have been hearing that for weeks, that this eastern assault, which is where the russians have been focusing forces, could be coming at any time. so far, all we have seen are artillery bombardments, cruise missiles. we have seen modest gains on the part of the russians. we are waiting to see the other
foot drop in the east. if they did that, that would create a dangerous, threatening movement, a double surround of the ukrainian forces. reporter: that s right. part of the theory behind this, at least is what we hear from western intelligence analysts and military analysts, is that the russian strategy is to tie up some of the elite ukrainian forces that are already here in the east. they have been fighting this war here since 2014. so that they can pin them down, especially in the northeast of the country, around kharkiv, and launch their assault without having to deal with a lot of resistance from elite ukrainian forces. in mariupol, that s a problem for them, because they are still fighting for that city. they are tieing up their own russian troops. matt bradley, thank you so much. michael crowley, let s talk about secretary blinken.