plains. where the storms are headed next. the war in ukraine fighting intensifies as russia steps up its offensive in the eastern part of the country. strawwear recall the f.d.a. warning of a multi-state outbreak of hepatitis a infections linked to the fruit. ( playing taps ) and a memorialday tradition, honoring our falon heros one note at a time. cordes: good evening, and thank you for joining us on this memorial day. i m nancy cordes no for norah. tonight the nation pauses to remember the heroes, veterans and gold star families who served and sacrificed for our freedoms. this afternoon the president owheoldi atbom t arlington national cemetery. less than 24 hours earlier, president biden was in texas, visiting families of the 19 children and two teachers who were gunned down in elementary school shooting last week. tonight, the community of uvalde is preparing for the victims funerals, and the justice department has announced it will conduct a critical incident revi
armed vehicles. air defense systems and combat aircraft. freedom must be armed better than tyranny. [inaudible] to make it happen. the final victory over this tyranny and the number of people saved depends on them. we are aware of the clock. and we know time is not our friend. and that s why even before this was announced today, we had been moving at very, very fast speed. all the other security assistance that we have been providing, frankly at an unprecedented rate. bret: the biden administration announcing $800 million in more equipment heading to ukraine. the financial times writes it this way: the assistance comes as ukraine is bracing itself for a new and more brutal russian offensive in the southeastern donbas region. one of the definitions the administration had been use something offensive vs. defensive weapons. there is sort of a feeling now that s no longer a meaningful
to russia that russia uses for its military. biden added that sanctioning putin himself remains on the table, though he did not answer as to why he is not sanctioning putin now. as president biden was laying out that u.s. response, cnn s teams in the northeastern city reported hearing a loud series of booms. explosions have been reported in at least 15 cities across ukraine since war began overnight, all over the country not just confined to the southeastern donbas region where russian-backed separatists have been waging war against the ukrainian government for eight years. the world appears to have little appetite for taking any serious military measures to stop the russian invasion beyond sending weapons to the ukrainians themselves. president biden confirming in his afternoon remarks u.s. forces are not and will not be engaged in a conflict with russia on the ground in ukraine. the question then becomes, of course, whether and for how long this conflict will be confined to ukraine.
gallagher in los angeles as we continue our live coverage of the crisis in eastern europe. it is 10:00 p.m. here on the west coast, 8:00 o clock thursday morning in the ukrainian capital kyiv. the battle for ukraine s independence now in its 36 day with tempered optimism of a nearing cease fire . as one ukrainian city official puts it, russia s pledge to scale back the war turned out to be quote a complete lie. in reality, russia is turning up the heat around the capital , shelling homes, stores, libraries and other civilians. moscow also stepping up its brutal assault on the southeastern donbas region after redeploying troops . vladimir putin wants that area turned over to separatists in washington. president biden has pledged an additional 500 million dollars in aid to ukraine. but with thousands now dead on both sides and the number of war refugees topping four million, president vladimir
ukraine right now. that s where russian troops seem to be repositioning from the kyiv area and could be preparing for a new large-scale offensive. ukraine s defense ministry says the russians seem to be focused on capturing the second largest city of kharkiv. the pentagon says they ve seen more military operations in the southeastern donbas region. this new phase comes after putin s forces failed to capture the capital of kyiv. and they ve now mostly withdrawn from that specific region. we now have a clearer picture of the atrocities that were committed there while the russians were there, a sickening picture in the town of bucha, which is on the western outskirts of kyiv. by now you may have seen the images. if you have not yet seen them, i have to warn you, they re extremely disturbing. but they re also an important record of history. scenes of a massacre, slaughter, torture of civilians in bucha,