this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. this hour, fear and anticipation. a massive russian assault on eastern ukraine is coming. already shelling overnight in kharkiv. scorched buildings, debris

spilling out from shattered windows. at least 11 dead. the destruction, the byproduct of at least 66 rocket launches. outside the city, satellite images tell us vladimir putin has assembled an eight-mile long convoy of russian tanks and artillery. inside the city, the mayor says moscow is deploying new and deadly weaponry, bombs he says on time delay to maximize the number of people they kill. in dnipro, plumes of smoke mark another russian attack on the city's airport. across ukraine, towns turned to junk yards. look there. this is from irpin, a kyiv suburb. corpses of cars, torched, stacked one on top of the other. today an invasion first. austria's chancellor meets in person with vladimir putin. he's the first western leader to get an in-person audience with putin since russian forces breached ukraine's border 47 days ago. ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy is ready to give his

life for his country, if he has to. today he warns many already have. >> translator: mariupol lies destroyed. tens of thousands have been killed there, and still, the russians won't end their offensive. they want to make an example out of mariupol as a city ruined. >> let's begin live in lviv, ukraine, with phil black. what's the latest? >> a senior adviser to the ukrainian government said today this new russian operation in the east is already under way because there's already been a notable increase in shelling and bombardment across the three key regions in the east, kharkiv, luhansk and donetsk. he said there is already a noticeable increase in the numbers of russian troops and hardware moving into position in these regions.

what they are now expecting is a push by these russian forces to try and drive forward and break through ukraine's defensive positions in order to expand their control of territory across a wide area. before that happens, the focus from the ukrainian point of view is encouraging, helping people to leave, thousands of people to leave these regions as quickly as possible while they still can. mariupol, which you touched on, is an example of an encircled city where the civilian population was not able to leave and you're right today, president zelenskyy has given a grim assessment of the likely death toll from that siege. he says tens of thousands of people have died since the bombardment and the blockade. staff are there back in march. it's impossible to verify that number, but we do know that much of the city has been damaged or destroyed. a city that once had a population of around 500,000 people. >> phil black live on the ground in lviv. sober reporting.

grateful for it. with me in studio, retired major general, james "spider" marks. you just heard phil black lay it out. kharkiv attacks there. lu lu luhansk and donetsk set to be next. you see a lot of red, towns, places they've seized since the war began but also the striped areas. russia's held crimea for eight years. pro-russian separatists in this area. the donbas, plus russian forces as well. what makes this different in terms of ukraine to protect its territory has to push out russians, not just keep them away. >> absolutely, john. thank you for having me. let's review. russians have departed from the kyiv area. they're now moving down here as we've seen with some of the recent imagery that we've been able to get our hands on. what has been happening in particular is most of the fighting has been taking place in that area. in this particular region of ukraine. what this has become now, john,

is this is the primary effort. all of this activity, the movement of forces in this direction, repositioning of forces to take advantage of some of this open terrain. this is much more open terrain. these are supporting activities for the primary effort down here. what is going to happen, most importantly, is the ukrainians have -- the ukrainians understand this terrain better than the russians do. this is a home game for them. and this is wide open terrain. so the advantage goes to those that can bring the most speed and the most firepower into that. and, obviously, the russians have just moved their new commander to the area. the butcher of syria. now this commander -- >> he's been in mariupol? >> yes, sir. >> why does it matter that he's now essentially in charge of the next chapter? >> it's important because with all of the other supporting efforts that we were just talking about, this now is the primary effort for the russians. he has overall command and control, not only of this region

but he can give directives in terms of what other supporting activities are necessary to support him. the russians have not had that previously. >> one of the things we know, as much as we saw coming into kyiv, now we have coming near kharkiv, this long eight-mile russian convoy. tanks, artillery, support vehicles, support forces. the ukrainians who are highly successful in stopping the movement of this and then disrupting it with limited attacks. what should the ukrainians be doing if putin is trying to back up his forces in the east and southeast with this convoy? >> what we -- what's important now is that we have the intelligence to see this. the ukrainians are getting this information. this becomes very targetable. this is gps locations. these are eight and ten digits so you can bring precision fire on each one of these targets. the ukrainians were very successful about a week and a half ago going after that oil depot in russia. this needs --

>> just across the border here. >> yes. it was right in here. belgorod. so those deep strikes need to be repeated. and the ukrainians have the capacity to do that. takes a lot of planning. you have to suppress air defense capabilities, but you can bring capabilities in and go after those and disrupt that supply line before it can influence the fight that's going to take place, the continuing fight that's now increasing down in this region. >> you mentioned suppress air defense capabilities. we've previously reported the united states has deployed ea-18 g growlers to nato bases. they are not supposed to be, president biden says, u.s. will not cross into ukraine. but if you have this air suppression technology, can you use it in the neighborhood if you will in a way that helps the ukrainians if the fight shifts over here. as the fight shifts over here. >> short answer is, yes. two pieces to it. the e/a-18 growler is never going to put -- be put

underneath some other nation's command and control. the united states will control this. the other thing is, if you go back here, you can see that the russians have -- they've put their -- they've got a lot of their fleet activity -- i'm sorry. the russians have fleet in the back sea. we can fly those aircraft into these international waters to influence the flight that's going on. we also get some additional good intelligence on this activity. >> general marks, grateful for your time. up next for us, austria's chancellor visits vladimir putin in moscow and says he delivered a tough message. he's the first european leader to meet face-to-face with putin since russia's invasion of ukraine began. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks!

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today, austria's chancellor is in moscow for an invasion first, a face-to-face with vladimir putin. chancellor karl nehammer called his 75-minute session with putin direct, open and tough. he says he delivered a clear message that the war may end and that there are only losers in this conflict. let's discuss. angela stent is from the brookings institution. also the author of "putin's world." russia against the west. and with the rest. angela, grateful for your time. you see zero evidence of vladimir putin is interested in diplomacy or changing course at this moment. but is there value in such a meeting? value for a european leader to sit across the table and say you are morally wrong. you are morally losing, and the world is against you? >> well, i suppose there's some marginal value because at least the european leader can feel he's delivered an important message and made sure that putin is hearing it on the assumption

that none of the people around putin are telling him this. but the question is, is putin going to believe it? is it going to make any difference to the way that he's thinking? if you look at what's happening now, preparing for an assault on the donbas region, appointing this new commander dvornikov, the butcher of syria, there doesn't look there's any intention on the part of the kremlin to offer diplomacy as opposed to continuing and intensifying this war. >> president zelenskyy clearly agrees with you. listen to a bit of his remarkable interview with cbs "60 minutes" that aired last night in which he says it's about to get worse in his direct appeal to the united states is more help fast. >> we think this will be a new wave of this war. we don't know how much russian weaponry there will be, but we understand there will be many times more than there is now. all depends on how fast we will be helped by the united states. to be honest, whether we will be

able to survive depends on this. >> the white house, other nato governments say they're doing all they can to get heavy weapons, including some tanks, anti-aircraft systems and develop them as soon as possible. president zelenskyy, i get the politics and military imperative of this. keeps saying he needs more, though. >> yes, well, i'm sure he's also listening to the reports that our own intelligence and nato intelligence is giving him that, you know, this assault is going to get worse, that things are going to get worse, and i think he believes that war could be done. i think one can also go back and say maybe we should have started doing more earlier when this war began, but he said it quite plainly in that extraordinary interview without nato and american arms. ukraine wouldn't be able to push the russians back as it's able to do at the moment. >> one of the remarkable things the past 47 days and the weeks before the russian invasion was the west has been able to stick together. maybe not giving zelenskyy

everything he wants but the nato allies have tried to help as much as they can. there is an election under way in france. president macron will now face off against marine le pen who for years has been a fan of vladimir putin. whose campaign, her party took a big loan from a russian bank not that long ago. what would happen if marine le pen won the french election? >> this is a scenario we hardly like to comtemplate. if she were to win, there will be a runoff. she has made it quite clear here party is anti-nato. it's also anti-european union and she has said very favorable things have vladimir putin. her party has taken money from russian banks. and just a couple of weeks ago she said if this war stops, then russia can be our great ally again. putin can be our great ally. so you would probably have a fracture of the western unity over how to deal with russia over the ukraine crisis.

france is a major, you know, european player. if is opts out of supporting this coalition, that could have serious ramifications for some of the other countries in nato, for instance, like hungary, that are much more pro-russian and would like the sanctions and things like that. so it would have very serious consequences for, you know, the future cohesion of the alliance and the ability really to push back on russia. >> something to watch as we keep our attention on the battlefield in ukraine. angela stent, grateful ff yfor your time and insights. heavy shelling by the russians. we'll speak with the former president of ukraine about how much more his country can endure and what it needs most. that . get two pairs of privé revaux plus a free exam for $89.95. book your exam online today.

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just last hour, president biden met virtually with the prime minister of india. prime minister modi. this comes as india has remained for calling out russia. he condemned the killing of ukrainians in bucha but doesn't mention russia at all. >> translator: the killings of innocent civilians in the bucha city was very worrying. we instantly condemn the killings and have called for an

independent inquiry. >> with me to share their reporting and insights, cnn's mj lee, manu raju and vivian salamo of "the wall street journal." president modi there, if you were just following -- just tuning in today, it sounds like he's horrified. it sounds like he's had about this, but vivian, i saw a tweet from you yesterday on this subject. india has obstained from the vote to remove russia from the human rights council. abstained from a vote as the united nations calling for an emergency session on the russian invasion and also has been gobbling up at a lower price russian oil. >> i mean, not only gobbling up, we're talking 13 million barrels of russian crude since the war began nearly two months ago. last year, india got 16 million. so imagine that. almost the same amount in just a month and a half or so to show that india is definitely accelerating the pace of imports of russian oil. something that's gotten the white house very, very

disappointed, very angry. they are trying to play it off because they believe that india is a very important ally and they want to maintain that relationship but behind closed doors, those conversations were definitely tough between president biden and prime minister modi, and they are trying to make sure that india knows, they have alternatives to russian crude. and so here we are, you know, president biden leaving the cards on the table saying the ball is in india's court, but whether or not they act is another story. >> india is in a tough spot here because historically they've relied on russia. they've been allied with russia through the cold war. they were allied with russia when the united states was allied with pakistan at the time. and now india relies on russia for helping combating chinese aggression. of course, china is its neighbor. they purchase arms from russia and russia is a critical ally. so modi is in a difficult position here because if you were to come out and criticize putin and say that they are amounting to genocide, war

criminal or taking any rhetoric even close to what the west is doing, that could hurt him with a key ally, which is why they are main ttaining this position. >> which is why i suspect president biden was very polite in his public comments when reporters had access to it saying it's a good friendship, it's a developing friendship. look forward to seeing you soon. there's a meeting coming up in japan. publicly president biden didn't want to fight with modi, but in private, they get the strategic complications manu just mentioned. but they'd also like modi to help them some. if they can't help him fully, help them some. >> particularly on the oil front. this is a complicated position for the white house to be in because they know that it's not just india that remains dependent on russian oil and energy. some of our -- the u.s.' eu allies remain dependent on russian energy and this administration has said in the past, look, we understand the

steps we can take on the russian energy front. those same steps cannot be taken by the european allies because the dependence is so great. the space to watch as far as this white house is concerned, they've made very clear any country, including some of our allies and friends, if they take any steps to essentially be a bad actor on the russia front, whether it is evading sanctions or helping russia evade sanctions, they are going to be consequences. you have to wonder for a country like india where the u.s./india relationship is considered so important, what do those consequences look like? >> and so part of the calculation, the president is in this tough conversation with the prime minister of india. what next from the biden administration? thank you for everything you've done, but i still need more. and he'd like the united states, president biden to go beyond what he's been willing to do, whether it's a no-fly zone, humanitarian corridor, clearing the way to get more mig fighter jets in and liz cheney, one of the leading republicans on national security issues in congress saying, i see this.

and it is historically bad. >> i think this clearly is genocide. europe needs to understand and grapple with the fact that you've got a genocidal campaign. the first kind of horrific genocidal campaign that we have seen, certainly in recent decades. >> you hear her say europe has to grapple. that's part of the message the european countries you noted -- germany and others -- russian gas, rushial oil, russian coal. a lot of them have said no more coal. some are debating oil. gas is the big moneymaker. is the united states, are they now on day 47, willing to take this fire to try to hurt putin and hurt yourself in the process? >> this is something that is an ongoing discussion. i was with secretary of state blinken last week at nato headquarters. behind closed doors pressing aauthorize accelerate their timeline to stopping or tapering down their imports of russian

gas and oil. and this is a big problem, a sticking point with the europeans. but at the end of the day, the biden administration also has its own limits. we talk about genocide that just happened. potential genocide as a lot of lawmakers are saying. talk about what happened in bucha with these atrocities coming to light before our eyes. and whether or not the administration can do anything further that isn't short of intervention and involvement that doesn't lead to world war iii as president biden has repeatedly said. this is something they continue to grapple with because they're trying to find that sweet spot of addressing the problem, really hammering russia, but not getting sucked into a brutal conflict that would involve u.s. troops at the end of the day. >> trying to maintain that unity which has been the challenge all along. folks like liz cheney wanting to go further, calling it a genocide. that's not where the rest of europe is. and rhetorically, strategically and also economically, they've tried to maintain this alliance and that's taken some time and that's led to the frustration of members of congress.

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we're getting a look at the aftermath of the horrific russian attack on the ukrainian railway station. we need to warn you these images are graphic and disturbing. the station was packed with people trying to flee the

fighting. the strike left at least 57 dead, including five children. more than 100 were injured. now as the station is out of service, more civilians are boarding buses and trains in a nearby city and trying to escape. cnn's ben wedeman, right on the ground there in kramatorsk, ukraine. >> reporter: the air raid siren rings out. in kramatorsk's railway station, a ripped shoe, a cane left behind. they dime the station with only what they could carry. hoping to reach safer ground, but nearly 60 never left. lives cut short by a missile. on it someone scrawled in russian "for the children." 4,000 people were here, waiting for a train west when the strike happened. the massacre accelerating the exodus. most of the residents of

kramatorsk have left the city, having been urged to do so by local authorities. as this part of the country, the entirety of eastern ukraine, braces for what could be a massive russian offensive. at the city's bus station, nikolai, a volunteer, has been helping with the evacuation. for him, news of the pullback of russian forces around the capital kyiv was bittersweet. >> when i heard about kyiv, i was happy, you know, but then i realized a couple seconds later that they move in to donbas. all their forces. i can't say that i'm scared, but i'm worrying about my people, about people, about mothers, grandparents. >> reporter: some are heading west. others north to the town of slovansk where trains still run. oksana and a friend and their children are bound for lviv in the far west. there's a lot of bombing here,

says oksana. i'm afraid for the children. the children, thankfully, still children. a handful of adult relatives stay behind. far more aware of the danger ahead. ben wedeman, cnn, eastern ukraine. joining me is the former president of ukraine, petro poroshenko. you just heard ben wedeman's report there. you have in recent days been in irpin and borodyanka. the netherlands, sweden, germany pledging $2.7 million to help fund the international criminal court to do a war crimes investigation in your country. are you convinced that the west, the european nations, the icc, a, takes this seriously enough and, b, will get the necessary resources in for accountability? >> i want to thank the whole world community for the

assisting ukraine, for taking the responsibility of russian dictator, russian war criminal putin and the whole participant of this disastrous crimes in irpin, in borodyanka, in bucha. but definitely in mariupol. and i'm not sure that it should be international criminal court or it would be special criminal which can be -- mariupol tr tribunal, bucha tribunal. i very much appreciate that they are already here in kyiv to help us collect evidence. and i think that that would be great idea if u.s. can send the fbi expert together with us to help with the investigation and second to add the credibility. because we are open for this

investigation and do the same as me as a president doing in 2014 when we launched international investigation team. now this is vital that every single participant of this crime would be responsible, would be guilty with a court decision. and this is help just to bringing the evidence that this is a genocide against ukrainian people because people were killed, were raped, just because they are ukrainian. just because they want to stay alive. and they want to kill us. just because we want to have our own state and they want to wipe our state from the world map. and with that situation, definitely the special criminal would be absolutely necessary. and when we talking about kramatorsk, you are right. when yesterday, during our visit with a world famous -- just in

front of uts, they find out the family, mother, small child and their father was founded out -- was buried in the destroyed building. and with that situation, i think that mariupol is still about the size of the tragedy and please imagine that mariupol is the size exactly the same like new orleans. imagine that one-third of the mariupol population is displaced. one-third is killed. and one-third is in a disastrous humanitarian condition. eating dogs or eating cats, crying for several days taking the water from their heating system and this is the disaster what russian troops do against ukraine. and they want to cover the evidence of their crime. learning the experience from bucha, and they bring the mobile

crematorium who burn their dead ukrainian people, erasing the evidence. and with that situation, definitely, we need to have a trustable international team who help us to put this things on responsibility. and i want to give you another thing. yesterday you are absolutely right, we were in irpin. and in irpin we find out one of the most who suffered the most. i tried to show you. this is a white house, and this is just one side of this white house. it's called white house and this is killed dozens of people. just maybe 12 kilometers from here. we are where eyewitnesses of that. and i think that would be great idea if we can invite the american politician, the members of the american administration,

the american -- we have a lot of american journalists, and i want to thank you because you are delivering objective information from them. and that would be great idea if after returning back, the eu embassy, the embassy of the european union member states, the american embassy now can return in kyiv. that would be symbolic step of our solidarity. that would be facilitating the coordination of our work and we think that this is the extremely important thing to have america together with us. and the things what we need now the most because can you imagine we need a game changer. and the game changer is from the very simply thing. it depends from 300 tanks. it depends just from 1,000 armed

personnel carriers, from 100 planes, jet fighter and with that situation, ukrainian forces have long lines of volunteers who want to enlist in the ukrainian armed forces. with a great pilot, a great operator, a great soldier which we demonstrate for the 47 days of war. and with this situation, we can change the war. we can throw putin away from ukrainian soil. with greatest assistance of the whole world, including u.s. and we are very much appreciate for this type of solidarity with the whole world for ukraine. >> petro poroshenko is the former president of ukraine. grateful for your insights. you're on the ground giving us a firsthand look at some of the devastation. we'll keep in touch in the days ahead. appreciate your time. ahead, we return to our big story in washington. a new report revealing the january 6th committee has enough evidence in the members' view to open a criminal probe into donald trump's action. but there's a debate among

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a crossroads moment for the january 6th committee. "the new york times" reporting its members believe they have enough evidence to make the case donald trump's conduct was unlawful. but the times reports not all committee members believe it's a good idea to send an official criminal referral to the justice department. the report includes this. the justice department appears

to be wrapping up a wide-ranging investigation and making a referral could saddle a criminal case with further partisan baggage at a time when trump is flirting with running again in 2024. liz cheney calls it a discussion, not a dispute. >> there's not really a dispute on the committee. the committee is working in a really collaborative way to discuss these issues, as we are with all of the issues we're addressing, and will continue to work together to do so. >> ryan nobles joins our conversation. you've spent a lot of time covering this committee. i get it, right? it's number one. some of these committees want to send a referral to merrick garland and say be more aggressive. others say would jared kushner have come in last week or ivanka trump if we're more public about this? >> also, how does merrick garland receive criminal contempt referral because it would be loaded with political overtones. and i think that's the discussion that's happening right now. and what you've seen the

committee members do publicly is send a not-no-subtle message that, hey, this evidence already exists. it's out in the public domain. you don't have to go looking for it. we've already found it for you. even at the end of our investigation, if we don't specifically author some document which has no weight at all legally that we send over to you, you can still take all this information that we found, you can read our report, and then decide for yourself whether or not a crime was committed. obviously, there are a number of members of this committee that believe that evidence exists, and, of course, you already have a judge in california who ruled on a case related to john eastman, that conservative lawyer, who said at least the building blocks of a criminal conspiracy exist and the evidence that's been uncovered. >> but garland chooses his words very carefully. he said last week the investigation will go wherever the truth takes it. we know they've expanded to include the planning and financing. but you have a democratic appointed attorney general. under a lot of pressure, mostly from democrats to do more.

he doesn't react. >> that's right. the key point that ryan just made is the political overtones, right? if there is a referral that is made by this committee in congress, to the doj to take this action, no matter what they do, that is going to be perceived by some as the doj sort of acting as a political arm and an extension of democrats in congress. and that's certainly the perception that the doj wouldn't want to play into. >> look at these numbers. liz cheney has used this position on the committee, number one, she believes that trump was wrong. two, she believes the committee should build a historical document. she's also being primaried. trump has endorsed her opponent harriet hageman. trump raising more money than ever before because this has given her a national profile. >> this is coming from all over the country. she's getting support from big national figures like mitt romney and helped headline a fundraiser.

george w. bush, the former vice president dick cheney has helped her. money will be no issue for her. the question is can she get over the hump in a state that's very conservative, that donald trump won overwhelmingly, that has a pretty small electorate. this is testing the power of president trump's force in the primary. you'll see that in north carolina in may, in pennsylvania he made that endorsement of dr. oz over the weekend. will donald trump, just because he's popular with the baise, wil that be enough to propel his chosen candidates to victory? >> i want to come to the dr. oz point in a moment, but for liz cheney, win or lose in this congressional race, a lot of people think she'll run for president in 2024, because she is on the record saying i'll do whatever it takes to stop him from being back in the oval office. >> is there enough of a national constituency in the republican never trump movement to legitimately mount a campaign for president?

while we see these pockets of never trumpers that still exist in the republican space, one or two senators, a few members of congress and certainly there's a donor base at liz cheney's disposal, there doesn't appear to be enough votes to win a republican primary, especially in the states where it would be necessary to do so. this will be the prelude. whether she can pull off a primary in a competitive state like this will be our first answer to that question. but there's got to be i lot of skepticism as to whether or not she'll legitimately be a candidate. >> it's a fascinating question of 2022. what did we learn about his power in 2022 that we can carry forward in 2024. the endorsement of dr. oz. here's the former president delivering it. >> by the way, i endorsed another person today, dr. oz in pennsylvania. dr. oz. great guy. good man. he's a good man. harvard educated. tremendous, tremendous career. and they liked him for a long time. that's like a poll. when you're in television for 18 years, that's like a poll. that means people like you.

but he's a great guy. >> trump's original pick in that race had to suspend his candidacy. he was -- lost custody of his kids. trump has a spotty track record. is this the right call? >> that's right. and i was actually there when candidate trump back in 2016 appeared on the dr. oz show. i was doing a stakeout in new york city. a sentence i wrote back then was, trump told oz that he wants to lose about 15 pounds, according to audience members who also said oz sounded generally impressed by trump's health. i read this because i actually think the fact that oz responded that way at the time, about trump's health, clearly 5 1/2 years later, that understanded up being key to trump endorsing him because as we've discussed so many times around this table, for former president trump, a political endorsement is never really about what is best for the party. it is about, has this person been supportive of me? is this person on my team?

and clearly this -- the thing he said about his health being extraordinary ended up leaving quite the impression for former president trump. >> all about loyalty. the base -- his supporters are divided over this. may not be successful. he's facing very wealthy executive, former david mccormick who has tons of money in pennsylvania. even though he's supporting oz, it may not work out for him next month. >> keep your list. a lot of fascinating things on that. for us, president biden revealing a new plan to fight gun violence today. felt more energy in just two weeks! (sighs wearily) here i'll take t that! (excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar,r, and nutrients to support immune health.

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topping our political radar. president biden this afternoon will announce new regulations on ghost guns. those essentially untraceable weapons you make from a kit. you buy it online and assemble it at home. the new rule will require a background check before you can buy them and serial number for some gun parts. he's also expected to announce a new atf director, a former u.s. attorney from ohio. eric adams has canceled public events this week because he's has covid. it's not clear where adams got in infected, however, he was at the gridiron dinner here in d.c. at least 67 people have tested positive after attending that dinner. a federal judge could rule on blocking marjorie taylor greene from run again. a group of georgia voters, liberal activists and constitutional scholars claim greene can't run because she was

involved with january 6th insurrectionists. a similar case against madison hawthorn was tossed out. the judge in the georgia case suggested in a friday hearing he's inclined to let it go forward. thanks for joining "inside politics." appreciate your time. dana bash picks up our coverage right now. i'm dana bash in washington. ana cabrera is off today. the blood on russia's hands is mounting as ukraine braces for another crucial phase of the war. president zelenskyy now says he believes that tens of thousands have died in mariupol. tens of thousands in just one city. new drone footage shows the theater where hundreds of killed, many of them women and children who were trying to find shelter from the bombing. and the death toll is so