it s just been remarkable across the country. interesting she mentions the material shortages, too. thanks for joining us. i m christine romans. i m laura jarrett. new day starts right now. good morning to viewers here in the united states and all around the world, it is monday, may 2nd. i m john berman with brianna keilar. happening now, the successful evacuation of at least some of the civilians trapped for months in the steel plant in mariupol. a plant that has become a last line of defense for ukraine in that city. about 100 civilians seeing sunlight essentially for the first time. they ve been trapped in a basement under ground. they got out, but others have not. overnight a ukrainian military commander said the shelling of the site resumed, hit, he said, by all kinds of weapons, hundreds still remain there. including innocent women, children, elderly who are running out of food, water and medicine. new satellite images exclusive to cnn show the plant, parts of it,
thursday president biden asked congress for $33 billion in additional aid to ukraine, a dramatic increase. we need to contribute arms, funding, ammunition and economic support to make their current sacrifice have purpose. i will ask ukrainian president zelensky s top aide, andriy yermak, if ukraine is getting what it needs to win. then looking east. will putin s invasion inspire china to attack taiwan? that is the big question, and i put it to taiwan s foreign minister in a fascinating exclusive interview. but, first, here s my take. at first glance the war in ukraine would seem to confirm president biden s oft express view that the world today is marked by a contest between democracies and autocracies. after all, autocratic russia is waging a savage assault on democratic ukraine and the latter enjoys the staunch support of western democracy. on closer examination, however, that framework turns out to be neither accurate nor helpful as a guide for american foreign p
from the ground in ukraine. it was the highest level visit to ukraine since the invasion. defense secretary lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken made the risky journey to visit ukrainian president zelenskyy in the capitol, kyiv, there, the u.s. promised return of diplomats to ukraine and new military aid. president biden also finally announced a nominee for ambassador to ukraine, the current ambassador to slovakia, bridget brink. we don t know how the rest of the war will unfold but we do know a sovereign, independent ukraine will be around a lot longer than vladimir putin on the scene and our support for ukraine going forward will continue. it will continue until we see final success. following his visit, austin made the administration s most aggressive comments toward russia so far, saying it intends to see russia, quote, weakened. we want to see russia weakened to a degree that it can t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading ukraine, so i
reported in both the donetsk and luhansk regions of the country. evacuation attempts disrupted by russian shelling. that s something we have seen frequently in this war. russian forces deliberately bombing civilians as they try to flee for their lives, they stopped a bus from safely leaving the town. cnn s ben wedeman, he is live in kramatorsk, ukraine, and, ben, the west, the u.s. is expecting a bloody, bloody new phase of the conflict, almost world war ii-like in the east in the coming days and weeks and yet again civilians suffering so much of all this. reporter: yeah, jim. we were in the town of rubizhne, about an hour and a half s drive east of here, and that is it is a battle zone. the russians control the northern part, the ukrainians control the southern part. we were able to get on an advantage point overlooking the town and saw just artillery shells raining down, raining down on both sides it must be pointed out. now, we were able to get into the southern part o
and we re learning tonight that president biden is likely to announce another $800 million in security assistance, that means weapons, to ukraine soon to add to some $800 million he approved just last week. this as russia intensifies and expands its assault on the donbas region in the eastern part of this country. jim, i know russia hasn t agreed to open any humanitarian corridors for quite some time, which is of course leaving so many civilians still trapped by this bombardment. so what s president zelenskyy s take tonight? forever the russian army will be written in history as the most barbaric and inhumane army in the world. and this hour we re also going to address the major fallout over a very different kind of fight for freedom, the freedom to no longer mask up on public transportation, after a federal judge has struck down the cdc s mandate just yesterday. it s been very welcome news for many, but a very worrisome news for others as this pandemic is clearly not ove