battles that have taken place over the last nine, ten months. it looks like the ukrainians are able to gain some of these areas back. and if they can do that here, and then if you can see what s happening down here in the kherson area, the zaporizhzhia area, the ukrainians possibly coming in this way and this way. one of the key things to actually look at is when you look at those areas plus the eight settlements right here that they ve been able to capture in these particular areas. you re looking at the ukrainians possibly being able to move to this body of water right here, the sea of azov. if they can cut this land bridge, they will have inflicted at least a tactical defeat on the russians. if they can do that, this counter offensive will basically be a partial success. all right, colonel cedric leighton, thank you so much, sir. you bet, victor.
need in order to make that connection between the areas that they have here and the areas that they have here, plus this area. so what they want is a total connection this way, and that then cuts ukraine off from the sea of azov, which is right here. we re also seeing images of russian strikes close to the border in lviv where at least seven people have been killed. lviv, right? supposedly a safe haven. is any part of the country safe? i think i know your answer, but please explain to our viewers. we talked about this, as a matter of fact, last week. yes, we did, don, absolutely. here s a picture of a missile that is striking in lviv. this is one of the russian cruise missiles. but just to get a basic idea here of where things are, on the big map, this is lviv in the west, 40 miles away from the polish border. you spent a lot of time there, so you have a real good feel for this. but the key thing is every
that is the latest u.s. intelligence assessment. the supreme irony of an air defense cruiser not being able to protect itself from missiles is remarkable. i want to ask you, matthew, what ukrainian officials say about if and how this might affect russia s ongoing military plans because it has been their intention, their hope, to conduct a sea born assault to help take odesa for its military and commercial value, sunk its ukrainians sunk its flagship. has that killed that plan in effect, right? given russians pause about whether they can assault the coast without enormous losses. yeah, you re right. that as we understand it that was the plan of the russians to carry out a sea born amphibious landing into those coastal areas from the black sea and from the sea of azov to try to secure some of those areas. like every aspect of the russian plan, when it comes to their invasion of ukraine, the reality of implementing the plan has
here, the sea of azov, there are russian strike fighters ready to go. more of that imagery showing that there are some 60 helicopters have been flown into crimea over the course of the past few days. meanwhile, this russian ministry of defense video showing that they are pulling back troops from crimea. it says they are loading on to trains, along with tanks and artillery and heading back across what is known as the kurt straight on to the russian mainland. we should note, john, even as those troops if the troops are being withdrawn from crimea, they are still going to be extremely close to ukraine. now, as you mentioned, today is a day of unity. this was announced just two days ago by president zelensky. we have seen lots of flags here in mariupol, billboards. president zelensky will be accompanied today by european ambassadors, and this is really just a show that, you know, that