infrastructure from afar, just like the russian missile strike on a tv tower in kyiv on tuesday, which could be an ominous sign of much worse to come. reporter: russia has launched a new phase of this war on ukraine s communication and information. this was the moment a russian missile struck kyiv s tv tower. today we walked through the rubble of the buildings we low it. shown around by a man who joined the civilian territorial defense forces just last week. the 38-year-old is normally a hot air balloon pilot, whose wife and daughter have fled the country for safety. the russian rockets on tuesday landed all around him. translator: first two, followed by two more. i saw them personally where they were coming from. i was standing next to the wall over there. reporter: as russia ramps up
ukrainian release. somehow, that path has led him to the role of wartime president at a perilous moment for his country. is it fair to say he was an unlikely presidential candidate and a thoroughly improbable wartime leader? i think that is fair to say. he is a man of extraordinary achievements and capabilities. reporter: capabilities widely noticed through his recent example of leadership. zelenskyy s videos from the streets of kyiv are being watched everywhere, calm, determined, insistent the world must do more. and he s provided perhaps the most memorable line of the war so far, responding to a u.s. offer to get him out of kyiv with the fight is here, i need ammunition, not a ride. and you can be sure that courage is appreciated and has strengthened his own people and their resolve to deal with this act of blatant aggression. reporter: he could personally
kyiv so far. near the tv tower was a gym, a fire still smoldering, smoke pouring out of the broken windows, the gym equipment covered in dust and debris. at the garage next door, staff stoically cleaned up glass, broken ceilings and insulation. all of this just steps from the memorial for the massacre of over 30,000 jews in the holocaust, an area that has seen so much suffering for the jewish people, hit by a russian leader who claims to be de-nazifying ukraine. this fellow comes and bombs the memorial to the jews killed by the fascists. reporter: but the tv tower is still up, now also as a symbol reenforcing ukraine s resistance against this increasingly harsh russian invasion and standing tall.
by the way the human cost of this war is already tragically high. matthew chance, cnn, kyiv. now the devastating situation in ukraine has motivated people around the world to look for ways to help, among them is businessman john who is volunteering now as the director of a group called education ukrainian platform, now this is a group that is working to get there, and we talked a lot about the refugees there they are the ones that have crossed the border, you re dealing with the internally displaced and there are a lot of them, what is their situation and how are you helping? first of all, it s called the ukrainian education platform, the situation is pretty dire, women and children are dying every day because of the russian assault on ukraine and we re looking we re providing safe places for them to live.
against an overwhelming force. so the russians have had very, very tough going north of kyiv in large part because of fierce resistance, but also because of the trafficability of the ground. it s been different elsewhere in the country not because the ukrainians haven t fought harder, but because it s more amenable to open maneuver and the russians have been able to move their forces, amass their forces and able to more isolate some of the ukrainian defenders. so there is a russian move in the south. it s moving up toward kyiv. that is a major concern. there s also a situation as far as kyiv is concerned that you have russian forces encircling mariupol. you have kharkiv under shelling as well. these two cities are in the east. they could fall within days, maybe a little bit longer, but they will fall. some have suggested that then gives russia effective control of eastern ukraine, which cuts off the capital from ukrainian