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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 ea ....
country s borders. welcome to the show, everyone. it is now 8:00 a.m. in lviv, ukraine, and we re getting a clearer picture about russia s goals in ukraine. russia s military now confirming its objective is to take full control of ukraine s black sea coast. and key to that is a city that we ve been talking about for days now of mariupol, where an unknown number of ukrainian troops as well as civilians are trapped inside a large steel factory, a large steel complex as you can see it on your screen. ukraine s prime minister spoke about the dire situation as he met with u.s. officials in washington. have a listen. the situation in mariupol is terrible. this is the biggest humanitarian catastrophe during this and maybe during last centuries because many thousands of people, maybe many thousands of people are died in mariupol, and we will see the terrible atrocities and terrible war crimes in mariupol when it will be liberated from russians. that s the situation in mar ....
translator: i want to see the sun so when our houses are rebuilt, we can live if peace, we can live in ukraine, because this is our native home. reporter: a ukrainian official in mariupol saying a planned evacuation has been thwarted by the russian military. he says at least 200 civilians who thought they were on a bus headed to safe points were instead taken into russian-controlled territory in the east. russia capturing dozens of small towns in eastern ukraine, but uk officials say russians have not made any major gains in the last 24 hours. and this as russia reveals its end game in this invasion. top military officials say they plan to take full control over southern ukraine and the eastern donbas region. let s bring in scott mclean in lviv. what more can you tell us about these missile strikes in odesa? reporter: hey, fredricka. one city counselor in odesa called these an easter gift from vladimir putin. this is not the kind of gift that you want to get. we r ....
finalize the war. there is a diplomatic way, and there is the military way. so any healthy and sane person always chooses diplomatic way because he or she knows even if it s hard, it may stop the losses of thousands, of tens of thousands. and with such neighbors, hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of victims. victims, losses of people, we don t want that. and any leader, whether he wants that or not, he doesn t have the right to deny it subjectively because it will be a subjective decision to deny the diplomatic way. and it s also important for our partners, i may say, because we are constantly speaking about that and made certain step for the diplomatic solution of the military conflict and the war with russian federation, our partners, both european and the partners from beyond the oceans, the united states, canada, everybody sees that what russia says and was saying during all these times, that ukraine itself doesn t want to everybody could see it was the kin ....