Ukraine, with john berman in new york. Investigations are under way this morning to determine whether Russian Forces might have used chemical weapons in the battered Southern City of mariupol. The head of the military there in the Donetsk Region telling cnn that three people are being treated for a nonlife threatening illness, or symptoms, after a russian drone dropped something from the air. Cnn cannot independently verify that claim. But the pentagon says it is monitoring this development, and the uk has launched an urgent investigation. And breaking moments ago, fierce new fighting there in mariupol, we have a new video that shows plumes of smoke rising from a residential area on the hills above a shipping yard near the citys port. And even though Russian Forces have retreated from the kyiv area in the north, there is still danger lurking in northern ukraine. President zelenskyy describing the region as one of the most contaminated by mines in the world. Translator invaders left min
Dangerous as possible. Due to the actions of the russian army, our territory today is one of the most contaminated by mines in the world. To that end, this morning, you can see this huge effort by ukrainians in and around kyiv to uncover and clean up the unexploded mines that were left behind there. Overnight, we are getting reports of Heavy Shelling by the russians in the eastern part of this country. This, of course, is the area where the russians are launching this new offensive. Really where were expecting intense fighting in the days ahead. But, ukrainian officials are hoping that heavy rain will slow plans for the russians in that area. The rain is expected to last for several days. It could create acres and acres of mud here which would keep the russians on the road system and would make them an easier target. As for Vladimir Putin, he says russias military goals in ukraine are noble and will be achieved. The reason were telling you this, this is the first time we heard of Vladi
reception from congressional lawmakers both sides of the aisle during explosive hearing today. but, first, china s very bad intentions for the u.s. via hacking. the head of the fbi sounding a serious alarm tonight. correspondent david spunt has details. good evening, david. bret, good evening. fbi director christopher wray chooses his words carefully and his words today sobering. china s hackers are positioning on american infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real world harm to american citizens and communities. wray warned lawmakers during a hearing on cybersecurity and china s aggression. he says chinese hackers outnumber u.s. cyber personnel at least 50 to 1. u.s. intelligence agencies identified hundreds of routers that have been taken over by a china-backed hacking program called volt typhoon. the program injected malware into u.s. sectors like energy communications and water treatment. china s intent? to destroy or degrade the civilian critical
good morning. i m kristen fisher. i m jim sciutto. joe biden is meet virtually with g7 leaders and the ukrainian president as the world marks one year since russia s full-scale invasion of ukraine. the u.s. has pledged another $2 billion in aid to the country and announced new sanctions against russians, and the people who help them around the world, particularly procuring weapons for that invasion. defense secretary lloyd austin vows the u.s. will stand by ukraine, using a phrase we have heard frequently of late, for as long as it takes. as long as ukraine continues to conduct operations and continues to work to take back its sovereign territory, we will be there with them. you can expect that the international community will be with ukraine once the fighting stops. and just look at how the front lines of this war have evolved over the course of the past year. in that time, more than 8,000 ukrainian civilians have been killed, entire communities have been decim
as the conflict nears the one-year mark, the russian president this morning is, again, falsely accusing the west of starting a war and claims russia wants to solve the conflict peacefully. meanwhile president joe biden is in poland as wool speak following his historic trip to ukraine s capitol. we ll have new details about the surprise visit including why the president chose kyiv. meanwhile the maga members of congress stay on brand criticizing the president for visiting the war torn country. good morning and welcome to way too early on this tuesday, february 21st. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. this morning president joe biden is in warsaw, poland, where he ll visit president aduda ahead of remarks. it ll begin at 7:20 eastern followed by a meeting leading to biden s speech marking one-year of war in ukraine. he is set to return home following that meeting. today s events come after president biden delivered a message to his russian counte