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kidnapped in mexico. look at the video. you can see a man with a gun as people are being loaded into the back of this pickup truck. you also see a second man in a black shirt. you can see him in the video. he appears to be pulling the people into the bed of that truck. now the fbi says unidentified gunmen abducted the victims friday, shortly after they drove into the mexican border town southeast of mcallen, texas. cnn s kylie atwood joins us live from the state department. mexican authorities are expected to give an update any minute now. what are you hearing from u.s. officials, though? reporter: as you guys were saying, this happened on friday in northeast mexico. it s four americans who were kidnapped and assaulted in this area. now, according to one u.s. official, this was a case of mistaken identity. the folks that attacked them didn t know who they were, presumably, possibly didn t know that they were americans. but according to that u.s. official, they were ....
Mistaken identity that they thought these americans were related to some folks related to drug trades or the like. but we really don t know yet. it s speculative to go there and we ll wait to hear more information from the state department, from the fbi, from the mexican government. and we re expecting to hear from the mexican government as we mentioned any moment now. kylie atwood, thank you. now to ukraine where after months of fierce and bloody fighting russian forces may be on the verge of capturing the eastern city of bakhmut. [ gunfire ] now even as fighters, russian fighters, surround the city, ukrainian commanders are not withdrawing and instead calling on president zelenskyy to send in re-enforcements. cnn s melissa beln kyiv, ukraine, and oren lieberman is at the pentagon. melissa, mercenary fighters re seen planting their flag there. what can you tell us about what and what it signifies? ....
Troops are very quickly meeting their demise. it is worth pointing out a critical distinction, the city of bakhmut may not have strategic value but it s an important strategic decision on the part of ukraine where to fight the russians. for now, ukraine has chose on the do that in the city of bakhmut, knowing that if they fall back and still have options to do so to withdraw, they ll simply fight them further into ukraine. it s ukrainian s decision to keep that fight going in bakhmut. the cost incredibly high to russia. that s why we heard what melissa reported the strategic objective of bakhmut to deplete russian resources is being achieved. we should note the cost is increasingly high for ukrainians, too, in terms of manpower and ammunition as well. one more for you, we re learning ukrainian pilots arrived in the u.s. for assessment for training. does this suggest possibly f16s or any fighter jets in ukraine s future? reporter: it certainly seems to indicate that window or rath ....