ukraine forces so that russia can focus on what it really wants which is establishing greater control in the eastern donbas region where russia has recognized the independence of two break aways, so-called peoples republics. now, this is very different to what governments and experts around the world think russia has been trying to do here. the common analysis is that russia thought it could invade this country, conquer this country very quickly, invading across a number of fronts, quickly overwhelming ukraine s defense and then very swiftly also taking the key cities. of course the reality has been very different for much of this war so far. russia s advance has been described as stalled. they re still yet to achieve any obvious key military goal. so what could all this be about? it could just be domestic messaging to a russian audience. it could yet in itself be an deliberate action or distraction
in mariupol. officials now say 300 people seeking shelter there were killed. we do have it all covered tonight, beginning with this new message from russia. what they now claim their military goal has been all along. martha raddatz with her sources. can the russians be believed on this? abc s james longman leading us off from inside ukraine tonight. reporter: tonight, russia now signaling a major change in ukraine after facing significant setbacks, now appearing to be reframing its mission. the russian defense ministry seeming to significantly scale back its objectives, saying the main goal of the invasion now is to take control of the eastern donbas regionin ukraine. the ukrainians saying they put russian forces on the defensive around the capital. and for the first time, the u.s. says the russians no longer have full control of kherson, a city they had taken over. ukrainians now launching counterattacks nearby. a senior u.s. defense official saying russia may have lost up
immense, you re right, president zelenskyy said overnight it s been turned to ashes. the analysis there suggests that russia is sending a message, first of all, to other ukrainian cities and this will happen to you as well. but it is desperate to take this city to show progress, momentum, to show it is achieving its military goals because this is a key military goal because of its location between the russian border and that russian-controlled annexed territory of cricrimea. we saw in kherson the protesters fired on. that has to be enormous concern. indeed. every city like this there is clearly people who are unhappy about this russian occupation. and i guess it s a source of concern perhaps for the russians in the event they do take control of more urban centers because they don t just have to fight a war. they don t just have to advance, they have to suppress the local population who are clearly so unhappy to see them there. all right. phil black, great to see you. thank you so
she says she can t imagine life without mariupol, she will return, but now in her burning city there are lots of people, lots of children under the rubble, others in shelters. the journey out of the besieged city is slow and dangerous but every day relatively small numbers are leaving whatever way they can along what are supposed to be agreed corridors. a local official says some people have been fired upon, others have had their vehicles seized at russian checkpoints. the people of mariupol have no good options. stay and endure the horror of russia s bombardment or face uncertainty and leave all behind. mariupol is a powerful symbol of their stalled offensive. russia wants to say it is achieving military goals. it is a key military goal. taking mariupol is important so russia can say it has achieved
excellent, especially the leadup to this war. but we don t know much about what is going on now in the kremlin. the one thing i m sure of is i don t believe i don t believe that putin is scaling back his military operation to northern ukraine. we are going to see even more fierce fighting in the eastern part of the country. maybe he is modifying his military goal right now in ukraine because he realizes and this is my assumption that he he has been misled by his closest aides, by his generals, by his commanders who had been so optimistic about the ongoing war, and they were sure that the ukrainians would surrender quickly, that they would take kyiv in 72 hours. and now i m keeping my fingers crossed for the russian army to be crushed. two weeks, three weeks ago i didn t believe it, but now i do. neil: is so if you re vladimir