Somewhere the russians have been trying to get since day one and because it s so important, that s why those fighters have been fighting so hard there and they didn t want to give vladimir putin that victory. it creates a land corridor from the russian mainland up to the donbas region. it gives them control over the sea of azof and the black sea and will give vladimir putin a victory in the war, which hasn t happened. it would be the most major city to fall into russian hands. they would probably have an ods victory parade there and we ve seen them taking down ukrainian flags and places they captured and would probably have a big military parade in a city decimated by the russians. this is a city that s been completely destroyed, burned, bombed and raped by the
That russia would invade ukraine, he said it tongue and cheek, a bit ironically, and instead of that, he wanted to have a show of patriotism all across the country. he s coming down here as part of that, and erin, you re absolutely right, he s a critical city to a number of reasons. to the east, 15 miles away, to the front line, where ukrainian forces have been battling pro russian, russian-backed separatists past eight years. a little past that is the actual russian border. the city is actually on the sea of azof, which is where crimea is. as you have been discussing, the russians have been building up this third front all along the southern coast of ukraine with exercises in the black sea, with troops in crimea, with those helicopters you were talking about with fighter jets. and so there has been all sorts of speculation that putin for years has wanted to join crimea with those russia-backed
Marquardt. you ve heard shelling there today, why is that area of such particular concern, alex, as a russian target right now? reporter: well, wolf, this is a key port city. a key city on the sea of azof. when president putin announced this war and he doesn t call it a war, he called it a special operation. he said this was about the donbas and about defending the donbas against a ukrainian offensive. that is where we are now and now we re seeing russian and pro-russian forces quickly moving in on either side of this key city. just about 15 miles that way to the east where we have heard this increase in shelling over the course of the past 24 hours. you have those pro-russian breakaway republics that president putin has now recognized, where president putin said he s soon going to be sending peace keepers, the leader of the breakaway enclaves
President zelensky is expected to visit here later today. laura, we are in the southeastern most part of ukraine and it s here that you are seeing the mixed messaging and, you know, us trying to make sense of what russia is really up to. as fred was just talking about, russia is saying it s withdrawing its forces from crimea. crimea is on the sea of azof which is where we are in mariupol. there are troops and tanks and artillery and fuel trucks leaving crimea by train across the kurtz bridge which was built after russia annexed crimea in 2019. laura, at the same time we have seen an increased buildup of forces. that s why president biden announced the figure of 150,000. that s the highest number he has ever talked about. we have satellite imagery showing 60 million hellie kopt jerts both attack and transport were sent.
Lviv, ukraine with the very latest on the ground there. mike to you. unfortunately we re covering more of what appears to be civilian casualties. a bomb shelter that took a direct hit. it s in the town of mariupol to the south and east on the sea of azof. the bomb shelter was a theater. it was built in the center of a park. it was being used as a bomb shelter. upwards of 1,000 people were supposed to be in this bomb shelter. you know if it s being used be i the civilians, it s used by men and children. it would have a concentration of men and children. what we have from the city council there is that it took a direct hit from a russian bomb. they re having a hard time assessing the casualties because everybody was fighting and everybody was in the basement. they can t get in there to see how bad the situation is.