Boxer as he beat me in the same place, my ribs, breaking six of them, rupturing a lung. broken in parts here but even as russia closes in, still breathing. nick payton walsh joins us now along with clarissa ward and matt rivers. nick, you can sense obviously the desperation in all the people you spoke to in that piece, can you just kind of describe the intensity of this new phase of the war and the area that you re in? reporter: yeah, i think it s frankly something that hasn t really been on peoples radar. it is extraordinary to think that here in kryvyr rih, hometown of zelenskyy, to the south, are russian troops getting pretty close in the scattered villages you see there, obviously marooned at times in the open fields but a concerted push certainly in the last 48 hours to bring the russian lines much closer to where we are here.
That here in kryvyr rih, the hometown of president zelenskyy, 20, 30 miles to the south, there are russian troops getting pretty close. in the scattered villages you see there, obviously marooned at times in these huge open fields, but a concerted push, certainly in the last 48 hours, to bring the russian lines much closer to where we are here. where are they going, is the fundmental question. russia announced lofty aims to veer out west towards odesa, maybe towards moldova. seems unlikely, been trying it for two months and had no luck. are they aiming at the symbolism of the president s hometown here? possibly, but pretty well defend as far as we can see. or some suggesting they are headed out east, but i have to tell you, it has been remarkable to hear the accounts of the volume of russian forces on this, the western side of that river that splits ukraine in two, anderson. clarissa, you were just