Sheltering inside. evacuations from that plant now under way. moments ago, the mayor of mariupol spoke to us about the dire situation for the civilians who are remaining. translator: the russian army is holding more than 100,000 people captive in mariupol. they are using them for hard labor to clear the rubble that these russian troops created, by their bombardment, to dig graves, mass graves for the people that the russian army killed, over 20,000 people were killed. and so the situation for these people is very, very difficult. joining us now is pentagon press secretary john kirby. sir, thank you so much for being with us this morning. are you expecting vladimir putin to declare war by victory day? you know, we have seen the same kind of rumors that you have, brianna. we can t confirm that s what he s going to do or not. and quite frankly, he s already declared war on ukraine. on february 24th, he moved all
Defended by our brave service men from the ukrainian armed forces and the national guard. so, we re waiting to save their lives. we re waiting to see them reach zaporizhzhia cisafely, on the w, they collected people from surrounding areas from the village, we ve been able to join these people to the evacuation efforts. so we re waiting for news to see whether these people, these buses, have reached ukraine-controlled territory. an estimated 100,000 people remain in the city. what s the current situation in mariupol for those civilians remaining? translator: the situation is such that the russian army is holding more than 100,000 people captive in mariupol. they are using them for hard labor to clear the rubble that these russian troops created, by their bombardment, to dig graves, mass graves for the people that the russian army killed. over 20,000 people were killed.