We're tracking the latest
developments out of Ukraine.
Overnight, explosions
were heard
throughout the capital of Kiev
and other Ukrainian cities and regions.
As authorities said
there was a countrywide air attack.
This is fierce.
Fighting has continued around
that embattled
eastern city of BUK
moves that we have been telling you
about for several months now.
Ukraine has been gaining
some ground there in recent days.
And CNN has obtained
new satellite imagery
that shows just the devastating toll
that fighting has taken on the city
over the last year alone.
This all is happening
as Ukraine is preparing for that
long awaited counteroffensive
to reclaim
occupied land
that Russia took when it invaded Ukraine.
With us now to talk more about
this is retired U.S.
Army Major Mike Lyons.
Thank you, of course, for being here.
So we're talking about mood,
which is this key city
that they've been fighting over.
We talked about last week
with the Russian mercenaries
and whether or not
they were going to withdraw.
This image
right here is so striking to me.
This is back about a year ago
and it just looks completely towards
what happened, exactly what weapons
were used to take it from this
to this Kaylen example of, you know,
Russian war crime.
This is a thermobaric weapon fired
firebombing fundamentally weapons
that are designed to do nothing
but cause fire and destruction here
against civilian targets.
This was a civilian apartment
building, an apartment complex here.
You could see
the entire vegetation
it is gone on both side
and on this side here.
The buildings are destroyed.
This is just one example
of many other examples of the Russians
using weapons
against civilians that they shouldn't
be doing.
So that's something that
they would never typically use in an area
where you can see
homes, you can see parks. Right.
And we saw in apartment buildings
and other places
where there's other examples
of the thermobaric weapons
there's a certain kind of system
that they've brought to the battlefield.
It's not even controlled
by the Russian army strategically.
It was brought in
by the senior leaders
of the Russian military in order to
to create a weapon of terror
for the civilians in that area.
Just all of
this is
what makes people wonder
about the Ukrainian counteroffensive
that we've been talking about,
which was expected to happen
I believe, in the spring.
There's now big questions
about what exactly
that's going to look like.
I mean, obviously, now
we're here through mid-May.
What's your sense?
So I think there's a pause
taking place rightfully
so as the Ukraine military
is training its troops
overseas, places
like grass in
places like the United States
has to put its weapons in place
in order for the counter-offensive
to be effective
the commander has the option of both
where it takes place
and when it takes place.
So if you look at this very long
border here
between where Russian troops are
and where the Ukrainian troops are,
I think the counter-offensive
when it finally happens
kind of cuts in this way
and threatens Crimea until the Ukraine
military can threaten
what Russia is doing in the south here.
The Russian military
is not going to stop.
So you think it's more towards
the south and the east?
I do.
And I think there's
a little bit of a faint
taking place
right now and disinformation
for what's going on.
The ballot box is a classic example
of Ukraine resilience
and Russian military failure
and is feeding into that narrative.
But it also will show
that if the Russians put too much effort
towards that,
the Ukraine will turn around
and kind of cut their forces
kind of in half here
and really threaten Crimea.
And as you know, President
Biden is in Japan right now.
He's meeting with G7 leaders.
Obviously,
Ukraine is going to be one
of the top topics they're talking about.
The White House is coming under pressure
once again for the F-16 fighter jets
that are made by Lockheed Martin.
To provide them to Ukraine.
What's your sense of whether or not
they're going to give on that?
I don't think they're going to give it
still a long time frame.
18 months
in order to get them to the battlefield
for them to be effective, to train pilots
and also for the logistics supply chain.
They need helicopters.
They need ways to move troops
around the battlefield quickly.
I think
besides the artillery, the air defense
and the armor systems
that have been given to them,
you bring helicopters
to that counteroffensive
right now
would allow shock effect
that allow troops
to move around the battlefield, cross
over that the Dnipro River
crossed those obstacles
that we have there
I think that this
conversation gets tabled again.
So those are the arguments against
sending them
the time it would take to train
and to get them there.
And, you know,
how long it would take before
they could actually use them.
What's the argument for sending the F-16?
Well,
it sends a signal to the Russians
that the European community,
we've seen the Brits
and then the Dutch have already said that
they're willing to send
the Belgians
have said
that they would like to train the pilots
and do things with them.
So it's a more of a strategic weapon.
The bottom line is
this is leading more
and more to Ukraine,
likely becoming a member of NATO
at some point, three or four
or five years down the line
when this is all over.
All right, Major, big lines.
Thank you for that update.
It's good to see that
and to see
just that striking image
once again of black mode before
and after and seeing what
Russia has done. Thank you.
Ukraine says Russia launched
several waves of missile attacks
overnight from air, land and sea.
The country's
air fuel says
29 of the 30 missiles were intercepted.
At least one person
was killed in a missile strike
in the southern port city of Odessa.
On the front lines in the east
fierce fighting is being reported
in back mud
where the head of the Volga
mercenary group claims
his fighters have edge forward
inside the battered city.
CNN's Clare Sebastian
is following these developments.
Clare,
quite a lot of activity
there, aerial attacks
that you were telling me
about across the country,
as well as a potential news from back up.
But it's very difficult
to know the veracity of these.
Yeah, so we've seen
what the Ukrainians are now saying
is the ninth overnight aerial
assault from Russia in the month of May.
So clearly there's an uptick there.
This while it was less
concentrated than what
we saw
on Monday night
into Tuesday with that huge attack.
This was sort of
waves of attacks
happening over the course
of about 7 hours.
They say, according to the officials,
coming there
from different directions
so this backs up the assertion
that we had from a U.S.
official earlier this week, that
this is not just about
exhausting Ukraine's
air defenses on Russia's part,
but also trying to confuse them,
bringing in missiles
from all different directions.
We understand that in the Kiev region,
no missiles got through.
They do report fragments and debris.
And that, of course,
has its danger in itself in Odessa.
The the regional command
there is now clarifying
that it was actually debris
that hit this industrial facility
and killed one person.
So that is sobering.
Even when air defenses are activated,
there is still significant danger.
They also say they shot down
a couple of drones over in Beirut,
know different weapons.
This is land based fighting,
but a similar
sort of attritional strategy
that we're seeing from Russia.
They continue,
according to the Ukrainians,
to bring in new units
into battle with Prigozhin,
the head of Wagner, now claiming
that they took some 260
meters of territory
in the last day,
presumably within the city.
Ukrainians say they're advancing
from the outskirts.
And we've got some images
that I want
to show you,
some new satellite images
that show really the cost
of this ongoing battle.
This is a school, school number 12.
This is in the western districts of Baku,
when you can see on the left
in May last year and on the right
this month,
pretty much wiped off the map.
It looks like ruins.
So that is that's really what's going on.
These are heavily contested areas.
This is the theater
just to the west of the river.
We believe that scenario
that was taken over by
Russian forces earlier on
and possibly sort of end of March,
beginning of April.
That theater
also destroyed their shops
to the right of it
that you see also destroyed
so that gives you a sense
of the kind of fighting buildings
collapsing destruction in Bermuda.
No one is giving up.
Russia, as I say, continues
to bring in new units
Sebastian, thank you so much.