Cronkite school of journalism at
Arizona state university.
Geoff: The wide plains of
eastern Ukraine are now the site
of a pitched battle between
Ukrainian and Russian forces.
American and allied weapons keep
flowing in to assist Ukraine as
it fends off fearsome Russian
artillery and bombing.
And a new report shows that
perhaps the death toll in the
war's worst airstrike could be
double what was originally
believed.
From Kyiv, Nick schifrin
reports.
[Gunfire]
Nick: On the frontlines in
Ukraine's east, Russia prepares
another artillery onslaught.
Russian forces continue to make
slow progress, firing at
outgunned Ukrainian positions.
Russia released these videos
today and said it also targeted
Ukrainian railway stations to
disrupt the flow of western
weapons.
None more crucial than these
American howitzers that the U.S.
Is rushing to Ukraine to counter
Russian artillery.
Today, Russian defense minister
sergei shoigu threatened once
again to target those weapons
shipments.
>> The U.S. And nato allies
continue to pump weapons into
Ukraine.
We view any transport of the
north atlantic alliance arriving
on the territory of the country
with weapons or materials
destined to the Ukrainian army
as a legitimate target to be
destroyed.
Nick: But yesterday many of
Russia's so-called legitimate
targets were clearly civilian.
A bus stop in donetsk near a
chemical plant that killed at
least 10.
In the eastern city of kharkiv,
an amusement park, which before
the war would have been filled
with children.
And the most widespread attack
on the western city of lviv
since the war began.
Missiles struck power stations
and knocked out much of the
city's electricity.
British officials said today
Russian troops are expected to
move south from izyum and could
capture the cities of kramatorsk
and severodonetsk.
Further south in mariupol, a
senior U.S. Defense official
said Russia maintains about
2,000 troops inside the city.
In the center of that city two
months ago, 1000 civilians,
mostly women and children,
sheltered in a theater's
basement from Russian strikes.
Today the associated press
estimated a Russian missile
strike that destroyed the
theater killed 600 civilians.
That would double the official
death toll.
The ap's new estimate relies on
3D floor plans, videos, photos
and the accounts of survivors,
like Maria kutnyakova.
She lives only because she
happened to walk outside before
the Russians attacked.
>> This was the ultimate
realization that they are not at
war with the army, they are at
war with every Ukrainian, with
every resident of mariupol.
They came not to capture the
city but to destroy it.
Nick: And destroy it they have.
Two months of Russia's ruthless
campaign have left a ravaged
skeleton of a city.
Soldiers and civilians final
holdout, the azovstal steel
plant.
Mariupol's mayor said this
afternoon they temporarily lost
contact with those inside.
>> We pray for our heroic boys.
We thank them for this feat.
They held back the enemy and
gave us more time to prepare,
our defenders of mariupol.
Nick: Far from the front in
France today, the European union
announced new penalties on
Russian banks and a full ban on
Russian oil.
There may be temporary
exceptions for Hungary and
Slovakia, but European
commission president Ursula Von
Der leyen said the move was
necessary.
>> I would like to be clear, it
will not be easy because some
member states are strongly
dependent on Russian oil.
But we simply have to do it.
Nick: But the bloc remains
divided over an even larger
punishment, a ban on Russian
natural gas, mostly because of
German resistance.
But economic punishment has not
prevented Russia from waging
war.
Today in Moscow Russian jets
flew in a Z formation, a symbol
of the conflict.
The country is preparing for
Monday's national holiday
celebrating the anniversary of
victory in World War II.
British and American officials
fear Russian Vladimir Putin
could use his anticipated speech
on may the 9th to declare some
kind of victory, or escalate a
war, geoff, that has already
destroyed so much and taken so
many lives.
Geoff: What kind of victory
could Putin declare, and what
exactly are his options for
escalation?
Nick: You heard mariupol mayor
admit earlier today he lost
contact temporarily with
soldiers and civilians in a
steel plant.
If Russia takes over that plant
and mariupol, Putin could
declare Russia created a land
bridge from Russia to crimea by
combining territory that
separatists already controlled
since 2014 with new territory
that Russia occupies in southern
and southeastern Ukraine.
A senior U.S. Official
acknowledges to me that Russia
does have options for
escalation.
The U.S. Remains concerned about
chemical and biological attacks,
and British officials are
publicly saying that Putin will
use his speech on Monday to
declare some kind of national
conscription in which he would
increase the invasion of Ukraine
and could even try and target
Kyiv once again.
Many western officials I talked
to say that is unlikely because
they could spark the kind of
dissent within Russia that Putin
so far has suppressed.
But they do admit that that kind
of announcement as possible.
Geoff: Is there any sign the
strikes that Russia says target
western weapons are preventing
their delivery?
Nick: Western officials I talk
to say there is no sign that
Russia has managed to interdict
those weapons convoys.
A senior official told me either
Russia does not have the
intelligence to target those
convoys, or the capacity in
terms of precision guided
missions in order to interdict
some of those convoys.
One secretary said yesterday
that most of those howitzers,
the artillery coming from the
U.S. Into Ukraine, have actually
reached eastern Ukraine and
Ukrainian soldiers are using
them in the fight in the don
bass.
Some officials in Moscow say
this is a kind of proxy war
between the U.S. And Russia.
That goes back to the fears of
escalation because Russian
officials indicated that they
would rather escalate than lose
a proxy battle.
Geoff: And you are standing in
the street at the center of
Kyiv.
Give us a sense of what life is
like there now.
Nick: This is the center of
Kyiv.
This would normally be a
bustling street.
There is a 10 P.M. Curfew.
Even though it has been five
weeks since Russian forces left
the area around Kyiv, this city
is a ghost town after 10:00.
I am standing for a much in the
middle of the street.
That said, a lot of residents
have returned to Kyiv in the
last five weeks and there is a
lot of shops and life open, but