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 earlier.
Post on its channel. in two years the nazis killed 10,000 civilians in mariupol. the russian occupiers killed over 20,000 mariupol residents in two months. over 40,000 people were forcibly removed. this coming from mariupol mayor. cnn is not independently able to verify these claims. but talk to us, if you can, of the challenges of verifying this. it s difficult to verify because we have isolated city of mariupol in reach of russian troops, other parts are still struggling regardless of the russian comment that they have control over the whole city, is not true. and there is no international presence there. mariupol city council also work in exile. so it s hard to verify. but it s understandable. the situation is dramatic. russians use a military method
Hoping that as part of the evacuation plan, that the soldiers can also come out and also be part of this, but an mp talking to me in the last few hours said, look, while this is part of the plan, it hasn t been agreed upon. we don t know what s going to happen to the soldiers that have been wounded. as well as we don t know what will happen to those who will stay inside. will they surrender? or will they stay inside? let me give you a sense, this is a small fraction of what we re hearing. a thousand people inside a steel plant, 100 plus thousand in the stiff mariupol hoping to get out, hoping to evacuate. we have heard from the city council directly, i ll read it to you. in two years, he says, nazis killed 10,000 civilians in mariupol and the russian occupiers killed over 20,000 mariupol residents in two months. this is what we hear directly from the mayor of mariupol. 100,000 stuck inside mariupol.
Frustrated. they re concerned. and they re losing hope, right, that there will be a safe way forward. have a listen. . translator: so, at the moment, we have people waiting for evacuation. we would like to evacuate the civilians that are sheltering in azovstal. and we need one clear day of ceasefire to evacuate those people. however, we have not been able to so far. and i feel as if my heart s been torn out. my life, my family, we lived there. this was our life. and for me and tens of thousands of mariupol residents, it is extremely painful to see so many dead and the city destroyed. you heard him there. they just want one day, one clear day without fighting, without being attacked by russian forces to get the people out. that is all the mayor and the