welker and michael crowley and barry mccaffrey. thanks for joining us. molly, let me start with you. we see russians make key advances, especially as they are being more concentrated in the eastern part of ukraine. they are hammering the area of severodonetsk. talk me through what you are hearing when it comes to the battlefield in ukraine. reporter: that s exactly right. they are hammering severodonetsk and all of the villages surrounding it. there s been a pocket, a horseshoe-like area, a-in-law fighting area, but that s where all of the russian aggression for the last week has been concentrated in the donbas. severodonetsk has the biggest city, the most strategic in lieu luhansk. this morning. we heard the front line cut the city in half. as of an hour ago, we heard from the head of the city military that told reuters, 60% of the city is under russian control, the eastern part. 20% under ukrainian control and there s a portion of that city which is no man s land. evacuat