Ukraine's military says it destroyed almost 70 aerial targets
launched by Russia in its latest onslaught overnight.
And that includes more than three dozen cruise missiles,
as well as Iranian made drones and a reconnaissance drone.
A police official in Kiev says residential buildings and infrastructure
in several districts were damaged, but no one was killed or injured.
This comes just a day after Ukraine said Russia had launched one of its
largest drone attacks to date against Kiev.
CNN some analysis is in London with the very latest for you.
Somehow Russia ramping up missile and drone strikes
targeting the Ukrainian capital just as crowds were marking Kiev day.
Yes. So yet again overnight there was a huge assault
by Russia on Ukraine, as you mentioned.
Some 67 air targets shot down, according to Ukrainian officials.
37 cruise missiles and 29 drones were destroyed.
Ukrainian officials say that this latest assault was targeting
military facilities and critical infrastructure.
And it comes, as you mentioned, just a day after on Sunday,
Ukraine saw the largest assault since the conflict began by drones.
Some 59 drones were shot at Ukraine on Sunday.
All but one were shot down.
So there's a couple of things
to take away from from this news, from this information, as you mentioned.
It appears that Russia is ramping up its attacks far from the front lines.
Of course, this serves to terrorize the citizens of Ukraine who are, again,
not on that battlefield, but it also expands Ukraine's
very valuable munitions When you think about the drones
in particular, these are very low cost.
They cost about 20 times less than the missiles required to take them out.
So it's a way of forcing Ukraine to expend very valuable resources.
But for Ukrainian officials, what they take away from
this is that their air defense systems are working.
Is that those weapons that help that poured in
from Nieto and its allies, those are effective.
Those are saving lives.
If you take, again, the example of the air assault today.
So far, no reports of casualties.
That means they're able to be effective in taking out.
Again, these huge barrages that are being fired by Russia.
And so what more have you been able to learn about these series of explosions
that have happened in and around the Russian occupied cities of Mariupol?
So both Ukrainian backed officials and Russian backed officials
giving indications that the cities of Mariupol
and burned down were sites of exclusion over the course of the last day.
What we understand and again, it's great for you to pull up the map there
because these are two very important cities, critical cities on the Sea
of Azov.
Mariupol in particular, of course, has become emblematic
to Ukrainians of the brutality of Russian forces after it was taken
in a monthslong siege last year at the beginning of the conflict,
it is very much Russian occupied.
So is Verdansk right now Ukrainian backed officials there
saying that they were targeting sites for the Russian military
in both those locations, at least five sites were targeted in Verdun.
Another site was targeted in Mariupol.
Russian officials did indicate that their air defense systems were activated.
What does all of this mean?
It means potentially that we're looking at Ukrainian forces
conducting what they call shaping operation.
So taking up critical infrastructure, critical Russian positions
ahead of this counteroffensive.
Again, Alina, some of these reporting, thank you for your continued coverage.
So that
sound in there, you can see as it lights up those images
of Ukrainian forces repelling an intense barrage of Russian drone attacks.
Ukraine's military says its forces shot down nearly 70 drones
that were targeting Kiev.
It's being called Russia's largest attack
to date on the capital city using Iranian made drones notably.
And it comes as CNN teams on the ground heard several explosions in
Kiev overnight.
Now, these Russian attacks also come as Ukraine nears the launch of this
long awaited counteroffensive we've been talking about.
One of Ukraine's top generals recently posted this highly produced video.
It shows Ukrainian troops preparing for battle and ends with troops
chanting a message that calls for victory for a decisive offensive.
Joining us now with more, retired U.S.
Army Major Mike Lyons.
Good to see you. As always.
So when we
when we talk about this, what would this potential counter offensive at this point?
What would it look like? Yeah, just look at a map.
You can see Russian forces in two separate locations.
I believe any counteroffensive
is going to cut these Russian forces in half here and threaten Crimea.
I think that is the issue here for the Ukrainian forces.
But they're not going to do that
until they have the combined arms, the shock effect, the tanks,
helicopters, Bradley fighting vehicles, more men, more equipment.
Russia still has had setbacks.
Lost a lot of men, low morale, but they're still Russia.
They could go on the active defense and they still are very formidable opponent.
They certainly have time on their side.
They can wait it out a bit longer in terms of the counter-offensive and whether
whether plays a critical role and when we start to see that offensive.
Explain to us how weather plays into all this Yes, weather and terrain.
It's part of a commander's assessment with regard to the tactical situation
on the ground.
On a ground war, though not
like D-Day, for example, when weather really impact the seas and the like.
I think what you're going to see here,
the soil where there's concern that, for example,
a satellite images show that the soil is hardening up.
It's a little better.
That will provide, again, those tanks a little more mobility on the ground.
The Ukraine military has the advantage.
That's a home.
Then they know the terrain. They know where the bridges are.
They know where things are going. But I think it's still a small effect.
I think the combat forces are really more important.
I say. So give us a sense of of timing.
I feel that we've been talking about this
for a long time, this potential counteroffensive.
Are we approaching the right moment?
Yeah. We go back to you.
Go back to that and you have to say that again.
They're not going to put their troops in a situation where they're going to fail.
They need to succeed.
They do pick the time. They pick the pace and location.
I'm not sure they have enough troops ready to go.
We haven't seen, for example, reports
of massing of equipment in this in the areas in the south.
We hear a lot of reports about what's going on in this part
here in back mount in the west.
But again, from from my perspective, from a military perspective,
I think this is where the counter-offensive takes place.
And we don't have that equipment there yet.
It's not ready to go.
Any sense of when it might be?
Because, I mean, the spring offensive, I think strategically
is really important for Ukraine to be able to show that they can do this.
Well, I think let's say
let's give it another 90 days and assess the situation there.
You still have these crews, for example,
some of the weapons systems, for example, the tanks, the leopard, the Abrams.
These are the things that are going to make a difference.
These are the shock effects that will make a difference on the ground.
And they're just not there training troops and grief and fear.
We have troops in the United States still.
The Patriot missiles have been effective.
The way Ukraine wins is a combined arms fight and synchronizing all these troops.
That takes time.