>> i got it. i got it. >> wow, talk about a heart stopping moment. the man you saw there is deputy william kusinski in action. here's what he said a short time later. >> at that moment i knew i had to save the baby. i didn't know how i was going to do it but i had to figure it out. it was very rewarding. >> very rewarding to say the least. truly a humble hero. thanks so much for joining >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. good morning to viewers here in the united states and all around the world, it is monday, april 25th, i'm john berman with brianna keilar and we do have breaking news. we're just getting our first readout of the high stakes visit by secretary of state antony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin to kyiv.

this was the first time high-level u.s. officials visited ukraine since the russian invasion. the meeting with president zelenskyy lasted 90 minutes, major announcements include that the u.s. will send diplomats back to ukraine for the first time since they were pulled out for safety just after putin launched this war. the president will nominate a new ambassador to ukraine, bridgette brink, who is the current ambassador to slovakia. also, decidedly different language from the secretaries about the future of the war. >> in terms of our -- their ability to win, the first step in winning is believing that you can win and so they believe that we can win, we believe that we can win -- they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support and we're going to do everything we can, continue to do everything we can to ensure that that gets there. >> we don't know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do

know that a sovereign, independent ukraine will be around a lot longer than vladimir putin is on the scene. >> notably, and i believe for the first time, a senior u.s. official said he wanted to diminish russia's military power going forward so russia could not do this again. >> we want to see russia weakened to a degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading ukraine. so it has already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability. also breaking overnight, missile strikes in the lviv region, this is in the west of ukraine. ukrainian officials say the russian forces struck five railway station there is in the west and also in the center of the country, all within an hour, and there are casualties that we are getting word of. meantime, russian forces are bombarding the steel plant in

mariupol, the last holdout of ukrainian forces where hundreds of civilians are also sheltering. according to the "new york times" ukrainian forces say they are willing to leave the factory and evacuate the city if there is a guarantee of safe passage for them and those trapped civilians. and in kherson an ominous warning from a top ukrainian military official who says russian forces are preparing an offensive strike formation. i spoke with the mayor there and we're going to hear from him later this hour. let's begin with matt rivers live in kyiv this morning. matt, we are just learning the details of this high-stakes visit. >> reporter: yeah, john, that was the big news out of kyiv over the weekend with that meeting between the u.s. secretaries of state and defense and the president of ukraine with the country here saying that those heavy weapons are desperately needed, a welcome visit at a time when missiles keep falling across the country. orthodox easter sunday in a

country at war, a holiday defined by its celebration of life, this year shrouded by death. our people live in the time of war, under bombing and shelling, with tears, grief and sorrow, but we need rays of hope. some of those rays are ways to fight back, at least if president zelenskyy gets his way, telling reporters that getting more and more heavy weapons from the u.s. would be a top issue at a meeting he said was scheduled for sunday with u.s. secretaries of state and defense antony blinken and lloyd austin. this as russian shells rained down across the country over the weekend, including in odesa. here a video of what ukraine called a russian missile hitting an apartment building killing eight according to authorities, an infant and her mother among them. inside that building a camera captured the strike's horrific

impact. and in a town northwest of kyiv there is utter destruction. russian shells shattered homes and lives, there is nothing left here but pain and an eerie silence. ukraine is of course pushing for all of the new weapons to try to avoid other towns ending up like this one. this playground now littered with bullet holes, the remnants of ukrainian fighting position to my left and to my right there is a sign warning of all the land mines that are in this area. it's going to be a long time before children can use this playground once again. the secretaries of state and defense are not the only u.s. officials interested in the future of ukraine. we met up with two members of the u.s. congress, representatives tim wahlberg and victoria parts who stuard the damage. parts the first ukrainian born member of congress. >> it breaks me heart that they are living through hell, but seeing it is important and it's

important for us to shares this with the american people. >> reporter: they repelled the russian drive toward kyiv back here in march, a powerful sign of resistance against an unwanted invader. the two republicans will head back to washington soon with an urgent call to send whatever ukraine needs and fast. >> they're brave, they're committed, just put something in their hand that matches the efforts here and they could win it. >> reporter: we're going to be watching very closely what the impact will be of these russian missile strikes at train stations across the country l it have a negative impact on the ability to ship heavy weapons agreed to by the united states sent here to ukraine to get to those front lines, that's the open question at this point, brianna. >> thank you so much for that. do appreciate your report. i want to bring in cnn white house reporter natasha bertrand and kylie atwood cnn national security correspondent. this was a big visit and there was a lot that that was said as

you had secretaries austin and blinken there. let's start with austin said he wants to see russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kinds of things that it has done in invading ukraine. that's really bolder than we've heard. >> it is and this is consistent of course with what they've been saying about want to go provide ukraine with the weaponry that it needs to defeat russia decisively. they are not in agreement with the uk prime minister boris johnson that russia will necessarily or could even win this war, they say that the ukrainians can win this as long as they have the equipment that they need. they can drive the russians out as long as the west supports them sufficiently. and so the announcements that we saw from secretary austin, from blinken during this trip to kyiv yesterday really underscore that. over $300 million in new security assistance to ukraine alone,.00 million to eastern europe writ large in new equipment, new assistance to allow them to have heavier equipment that they need, how witsers, seven more being sent

to the region as we speak. they're going to be training them on nato-type systems, heavier equipment that the ukrainians have not necessarily been using before that the u.s. and the west were more reluctant to provide them training on because they weren't necessarily sure which way the conflict was going, but now they really do seem to believe that as this fight has shifted to the donbas region the ukrainians while the conflict is going to be different in its form they do have a chance of defeating the russians here and that's exactly what the u.s. wants to see. >> it's really interesting to hear this difference between american officials and not just once, i mean, we heard it from ned price, we heard it from tony blinken, lloyd austin, compared to what boris johnson said about his assessment. >> an overwhelming sense of optimism from blinken and austin on this visit. what boris johnson said last week is that there was a real possibility that russia could win this war and what you heard both blinken and austin saying on this visit is that the united states believes that ukraine can win and blinken said that the

u.s. believes that russia has already failed here because what it initially set out to do, which was to overtake all of ukraine, to undermine its independence, its sovereignty, they have failed to do. so their first priorities were clearly not able to come to fruition. now, russia is still seeking to take a part of ukraine and that is going to be a real intense fight, but the biden administration wants to do here is make sure that ukraine has everything in its capacity to succeed on the battlefield and that is a key part to this visit. >> blinken saying diplomats are going to return to ukraine. it's important to note they had to the from america. >> he was saying diplomats are going to resume work in ukraine but they are not going to be restarting at the embassy in kyiv, which they left when this war was about to break out in early february. what these diplomats are going to be doing is taking day trips into lviv, that's a city on the western side of the country.

the united states is known for being incredibly careful and risk averse when it comes to sending its diplomats into place where is it could be challenging for them and obviously there is a war in ukraine, we've seen these missile strikes just this morning on the western side. so the u.s. is going to resume diplomatic presence but they are not reopening their presence like other countries are doing. the uk doing that this week. >> lviv is relatively speaking a safer part of ukraine but it has had some missile strikes and you have the lviv city, you have lviv -- kind of like a larger region just to make it clear to americans who are watching, but you saw these missile strikes in the lviv oblask as we saw secretaries austin and blinken had just potentially passed through. they went by rail and this was on rail infrastructure. what kind of message does that send? >> it's clearly a warning shot. it can't be an accident that the

same day that two of the highest ranking u.s. officials visit the region you see missile strikes on railway stations and areas that we have not seen them recently. so i think that the russians are trying to send a message about the fact that the united states is continuing to support the ukrainians with this heavier weaponry and they show no signs of backing down. this is also why the biden administration has been so reluctant i think to send the president himself to the country. this is something that a senior state department official did address in a briefing to reporters last night saying, look, the president's presence in the region in the country it just requires a massive security footprint, it is much different than sending blinken and austin and just in terms of the entourage, in terms of the security preparations and now we see that russia has kind of widened the area of its targets in the country, it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen even though the president has said repeatedly that he would like to go. >> he has twice now putin hit

lviv area when you have american officials there. he did it when president biden was just over the boarder in poland, he's done it again here. it's important to keep an eye on. thank you so much to both of you for your reporting. joining me now cnn military analyst and retired air force certainly cedric leighton. i want to start with what defense secretary lloyd austin said. when a defense secretary says a goal of the united states now is to weaken a super power, russia, so that they can't do this again he is not just talking about ukraine, he is talking about overall, that seems to me to be a significant statement going forward. what do you see there? >> i believe that as well, john, and when you look at the map of nato, for example, and you see, you know, how big russia is and we are not even showing all of russia here and you've got all of the nato countries here, we're definitely setting up a situation where we're going to have a border maybe like this going across this way and what that can mean is maybe the start

of another cold war or maybe an effort to contain russia in a way that allows the united states and its western allies probably to include ukraine going forward. so this is a game-changing way of describing what has happened. i think a lot of people have been there mentally within the washington establishment, but now what we're seeing is an effort to really put that into records and to make this a kind of a reality for nato policy as well as obviously for u.s. policy. >> not just stop them, but reduce them going forward. let's talk about what's going on on the ground in the west right now. obviously the battle is in the donbas region the eastern part of ukraine. one of the things that we keep on hearing is that the russians may be making territorial gains there, taking over some towns but we keep on hearing they're not achieving their strategic goals and may not. explain to me how that can be, they could be making territorial gains but not succeeding. >> that's right, john. what they can be doing, for example, is you will see like in

these areas right here and i will go into the detailed map of the donbas just to illustrate the point, they can make gains right here and they've been reported to have made some gains here, a few gains right here and in small places here but they're making these gains and everything else that was kind of staying stationary that is not what the russians want to do, they want to take mariupol, they are not taking mariupol. they want to go into areas like in the south here, they want to go ahead and hit this area right potentially go to odesa. that is not happening at the moment. they are doing -- conducting operations around mykolalv and kherson has been part of this before. they have captured this area but they are not moving any further forward. so what this generally means, john, is they are in a static mode. they are not going forward, they are not doing the kinds of things that they need to do in order to actually take the offensive to the ukrainians.

they have some huge losses that are coming up in the types of tallies that are put together by the ukrainians and in most cases reflected also in western intelligence. when you lose over 21,000 personnel, 181 aircraft, go through the tanks almost 900 tanks, all of these different pieces here this,s an incredible price to pay for any military and when you look at what has happened, you sigh that this is incredibly difficult for them to -- you know torques actually sustain. so the russians are going to make a huge effort here, but they're going to fail if they can't replenish this and it looks like they're not able to replenish this. >> odesa obviously here on the black sea coast. you say don't sleep on owe des sarks the russians may really want this. >> yes. yes. they may really want this. and the reason they would want this is this is the third largest city in ukraine and it is the largest port. this is where all the major sea

born traffic comes through -- came through here before the invasion and through mariupol to a large extent. well, when you don't have mariupol, you need odesa and the idea that the ukrainians have is to control this area because what they want to do is they want to prevent the russian advance in this region because if odesa falls ukraine in effect becomes a landlocked country and if they become a landlocked country that changes the economy of the country, in he is dense strainingless it potentially because this is the fifth largest exporter of wheat in the world and also a major exporter of other agricultural projects as well as steel and finished products. this is a major deal. odesa needs to stay in ukrainian hands if the ukrainian economy is to remain viable. >> as always, thank you so much. >> you bet, john. russian forces you heard cedric talk being it poised perhaps to launch a new offensive down in the kherson region where there is already heavy damage. we will hear from that city's mayor.

plus a new report explains why the u.s. has so far reduced to sanction vladimir putin's girlfriend and the mother allegedly of his three -- or three of his children. and one week ago at this time i was getting ready to run the boston marathon. it didn't go as planned at all. i will explain next. - hiringwe can't open a new it coshop or a new loca tion without the right people in place. i couldn't keep up until i found ziprecruiter. ziprecruiter helps us get out there quickly and get us qualified candidates quickly.

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do you think any of us will look back in our lives, and regret the things we didn't buy? (camera shutters) or the places we didn't go. ♪ ♪ week to raise money for charity i ran the boston marathon or maybe i should say ran in the boston marathon or at. how about most of the boston marathon. the fact is i didn't finish. now, when you run a marathon and i had run four before pretty much the number one goal is to finish that's why you spend five months training, you're not trying to win you're trying to finish. well, i didn't win and i didn't finish. frankly, it does leave me feeling extremely unfulfilled.

i'm not going to lie t kind of sucks. what doesn't suck is being alive and there was a bit of time last monday where i wasn't sure that was a given. this is what happened insofar as i remember it, though the most important parts i don't remember. i was running a terrific race, i felt great, i wasn't on pace for a personal best or anything, but i was on the faster side for me, it was actually smiling when running which is very unusual for me. i remember around mile 24 i started feeling fatigued, not overwhelmed but enough that i was doing the math in my head that i could run much, much more slowly and even walk some and still finish the race right around the time i wanted to. i really didn't have that much further to go. so that was mile 24. and that's the last thing i remember about the race. because the next thing i remember is waking up in an emergency room with maybe 12 or 15 people around me doing all kinds of things to me. they told me i had taken myself to the medical station at mile

25, you can see it there on my watch, it stopped recording the run right then there at the bottom. i can't believe that picture. they told me the people in the tent put me in an ambulance to the emergency room at beth israel hospital. again, i have no idea how i got to the tent or who saw me there or who put me in the ambulance but thank god they did. in the er my body temperature was around 104, my blood pressure wicked low and my heart rate very, very fast. they were pouring ice all over me trying to bring my body temperature down. the worst part was i was incredibly disoriented and confused. i knew my name, but not my address or phone number. i could remember my wife's name, but not her number. i could remember that she was waiting for me at the finish line, though, and i wasn't there. and i was never going to be there. and i had no way to reach her and that broke my heart. not being in control of my head was terrifying. i could not put many thoughts

together but could put enough together to know that i was messed up and know into my brain is crucial is what i do because clearly i'm not going to get by on my athletic ability. ultimately they were able to bring my body temperature down and stabilize everything that was running wild and then, i'm not sure when, maybe an hour or so later my wife was able to track me down by calling around to hospitals. that was everything i needed and i am so profoundly sorry for what i put her through, but she found me and i started to get my wits about me, which is when i post this had photo to let people know what happened. at that point i thought i would spend a night in the hospital, just one night and be released but it was not to be. they tested my blood and determined i had something called randomyelosis. rambo can happen from heatstroke which is apparently what i had. it basically means you have dead muscle tissue which decays into your system and can be a huge

problem for your kidneys. once they spotted it there was no right side k, i just needed to be an an iv. i was hydrating an ungodly amount. but it worked. after three nights in the hospital, three nights, they let me out as long as i promised to drink my body weight in fluids for the next few days. there shouldn't be any lasting effects at all. it goes without saying that i'm only here because of the amazing people at beth israel hospital, whoever saw me in the medical tent, whoever helped me get there if anyone did, thank you so, so much you all probably saved my life. i also want to thank everyone who reached out to me on social media, email, text. i heard from almost everyone i have ever met in my entire life. family, neighbors, friends from elementary school, high school, college, republicans, democrats, abc and cnn. since half the people i know are tv producers most were offering

to produce my treatment. i am grateful. i don't want to be presumptuous but i genuinely did feel loved. even if you were faking it made a huge difference. i wanted to mention one text that deserves special recognition from my college friend adam. after i posted my photo from the emergency room he wrote to a group of us, so what he's saying is he didn't finish. i think that means the charity gets nothing, right? so i laughed. but, yes, he was partially right. all this have rambling explanation is to say i didn't finish. but not the charity part. one of the more annoying parts i never wanted the marathon to be about me, i was running as part of team beans led by my colleague in memory of his daughter francesca. yes, team beans still gets the money, in fact, largely because of andrew and his wife rachel team beans raised a ton of money, it makes it all worth t

you can give right now, please do. the link is right there. team beans is what is important here. not me and my stupid missing mile. on that final note, and in closing, i wanted to show you a gift that my hospital roommate's family gave me. he was a marathoner in with the same thing i had, they gave me this bell which people in the crowd ring when you get close to the end of the marathon, it says one mile to go. that about sums it up. that's a cosmic metaphor for my life at this point. i'm sorry it was such a long, long explanation, but hopefully we don't need to talk about this anymore or go running for a long, long while. >> thank you for explaining that, berman, because i just learned so much about what happened myself. i just took for granted that you were going to run and run pretty fast and that you were going to finish and, you know, all of it was for team beans and when i found out you were in the

hospital i was completely floored and incredibly worried, but also i felt very confident in the care that you were getting, but every day that you stayed in longer than i thought you were, i just kept worrying what now? is something else going to happen? but i was so thrilled to learn when you got out of the hospital and, look, maybe you didn't finish the last mile, but that was the best run of your life for such an important, important cause. >> one mile to go. i will always have this. i mean, i literally will always have the bell and i will always have one mile to go at this point. i thank you so much. look, again, the scary part was the moment when my head wasn't working, which i think -- i think it is now. the next few days in the hospital were just frustrating because i wanted to get out, i wanted to be here with you. >> i know. you kept thinking you were going to be. >> yes. >> and we kept thinking you were, too, but we're glad -- so glad that you are back this morning. >> thank you. thank you, everybody. i mean it.

>> your friends, man -- >> right? right? >> funny guys. can a football coach pray on the field at school? why the question is going before the supreme court today. plus, in georgia's gubernatorial race the challenger former senator david perdue opened up the debate last night talking about the election. ♪ ♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. that's why we build technology that makes it possible

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join over 3 million members and start enjoying rewards like these, and so much more in the xfinity app! and check out jurassic world: dominion, in theaters june 10th. the supreme court takes up prayer in school today. this is a case that involves a high school football coach in washington state who got fired for praying on the field. so let's bring in cnn supreme court analyst joan press could you pick to tell us about this.

tell us who the coach is how his case bond up before the supreme court. >> joe kennedy is a former marine, da bought christian and win or lose he felt grateful to god so he always wanted to take a knee and pray quietly on the 50 yard line after the games. did he this for many years but eventually other coaches, students, people in the community raised some mild concerns to the school district and the school district wanted to head off any kind of liability for, you know, separation of church and state issues, first amendment establishment clause issues and asked him not to do this so publicly. one thing led to another and he felt like he was effectively fired. he didn't reapply for his job. he wanted to do it in a way that didn't encourage the students to necessarily do it with him but he felt like he wanted to do it on the field and wanted to do it

immediately after the games. they tried to not make it so visible. what he has said is that his first amendment speech and religious rights have been infr infringed. the school district has said that if it hadn't taken some action the rights of the students could have been infr infringed, that there could have been establishment clause concerns about them being coerced or pray or looked like government was endorsing the speech. so the questions were was this private or public speech? he was a public high school worker so that's kind of where we're at. really important question about the rights -- religious rights from the coach's point of view, from the students' point of view and liabilities from the school district's point of view. >> a fascinating, fascinating case. we will be keeping an eye on that today. >> yes. let me just add one other thing, this is a court that's been very conservative, siding with religious conservatives and this could be a chance for them to start going backward on prohibitions against school

prayer. so so many different groups have come in to watch this and i would say with abortion and gun rights, it's a top case of this current term. >> yeah, this is going to get so much attention. joan, thank you for taking us through it. really appreciate it. republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene called out in court for repeatedly advocating violence against democrats. the social media post she claims she can't remember next. plus a new report says u.s. officials have been hesitant to impose sanctions on a very, very close associate to the russian president. more details on vladimir putin's alleged girlfriend. and -- >> hand me your baby. hand me your baby. >> he's saying hand me your baby. a dramatic rescue, how a deputy saved a baby from a burning building.

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you by tractor supply company, providing pet food, animal feed, backyard and grilling supplies. this morning nearly 40 million people are under the threat for severe weather from texas all the way to western new york. so let's go go now to cnn meteorologist chad myers. >> brianna, lots of lightning, even the overnight hours when

things typically calm down and even a little wind out there. this weather is brought to you by the tractor supply company. this is not a severe weather tornado outbreak day, but there's an awful lot of people in this green area here that will see the storms charge from the midwest to the east and be right over the east coast for tomorrow afternoon. probably not as severe tomorrow, but certainly for today watch out for the lightning, make sure the pets are inside if that happens and keep an eye out to the west. some rainfall here but the biggest story for the eastern half of the u.s., cooler air is on the way, for chicago it may be feeling more like the end of winter rather than the beginning of spring, brianna. >> i swear it changes every day. i guess that's the weather, chad. >> it's why you have me. >> that is chad myers. thank you. so republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene took the stand on friday in a hearing to determine if she should be

constitutionally barred from running for reelection because of her alleged role in the january 6th insurrection. there was a lot of not recalling when asked if she discussed planning for a march on the capitol with any of her colleagues. listen. >> you didn't talk to anybody in government about the fact that there were going to be large protests in washington on january 6th? >> i don't remember. >> you spoke to representative biggs or his staff about that fact, didn't you? >> i do not remember. >> how about representative gosar? >> i'm sorry, i don't remember. >> did anyone ever mention to you the possibility that there might be violence in washington? >> i don't remember. >> and in another moment taylor greene first denied she had called house speaker nancy pelosi a traitor to her country before kind of hedging a little bit when faced with actual evidence of saying it. >> in fact, you think that speaker pelosi is a traitor to the country, right?

s>> you're -- i'm not answering that question, it's speculation. >> you've said that, haven't you, ms. greene, that she is a traitor to the country? >> no, i haven't said that. >> okay put up plaintiff's exhibit 5, please. >> oh, no, wait. hold on now. i believe by not upholding the -- securing the border that that violates her oath of office. >> joining us now john avalon senior political analyst and author of "lincoln and the fight for peace" and laura jarrett attorney at law and anchor of cnn's "early start." did you call nancy pelosi -- nancy pelosi a traitor? you know, no. but here is you calling nancy pelosi a traitor. would there be grounds for perjury there? >> that alone is not going to get her in the cross hairs for perjury. i think part of the issue here is that this is happening in an administrative law case.

it's sort of a weird procedural posture. it's not a criminal case, it's not a civil case, it's because the voters are trying to hold her accountable and get her kicked off the ballot which means they don't have a fully developed record. all of the stuff that the lawyer is questioning her about is just in the public record. she could have said a whole bunch of stuff we don't know about that they could have cross-examined her with and if she would have lied it b. it knowingly that could be purge i didn't. she's under oath, has to tell the truth. but when she says i don't know, i don't recall, i don't remember, all of those hedges sort of insulate her. it's not a defense to perjury but insulates her and it's her way of protecting herself when of course she knows she could be in jeopardy of perjury if not careful. >> perjury is the one thing. i started with that because that's where i thought she was in the most jeopardy. the actual case against her i'm not sure they had a slam dunk case. the judge didn't seem to think

so, either. >> definitely not a slam dunk. 14th amendment section 3 -- >> your favorite amendment. >> not my favorite but right up there. is in the constitution and it's not constitution for a reason, it was put in after the civil war to ensure that people serving in congress who participated, aided or abetted in an insurrection were not able to serve again unless they were basically allowed in by two-thirds vote of congress. that law was passed in the constitution with an idea that it would be prospective not only retrospective. i think this is premature, we don't have the full january 6th report, we don't know what the members of congress did. if it ultimately comes out with clear evidence that members of congress aided or abet this had insurrection attempt then that can be a real conversation. this seems to be premature and risks a degree of political backlash. she has a primary coming up, a general election, this is a heavily republican district but the voters are the ones to hold her accountable. when she says i don't remember those are weasel words, let's be

real. >> on the subject of georgia, there was a debate for governor last night between the current governor brian kemp and david perdue the former senator who lost and has the support of donald trump. i want to play for you how david perdue the very first words out of his mouth at this debate. listen. >> folks, let me be very clear tonight. the election in 2020 was rigged and stolen. >> so there you have it. >> what a sad state of affairs, something that should be disqualifying now seems like it's the litmus test. this is donald trump's guy, the cardinal sin apparently from governor kemp was refusing to not -- not not certify the election which is what he wanted and that seems to be the real crux of this. that's why he doesn't have the support of trump, the de facto leader of the party and why this is now being used as sort of a -- being trumpeted as a good thing. >> and it's so pathetic to see

david perdue trot out this line as his front line of defense because he likely knows it's a lie. these people are lying to protect a liar but it's his best argument for winning the primary and so it should be disqualifying. the guy lost his own senate race. do you know why he lost? he lost in part because donald trump depressed turn out. >>est that the one thing governor kemp said the whole dilate but you are a loser, you kept on losing. >> this is one of the arguments the republicans who won didn't say they've been treated, he lost to a special -- basically a runoff -- well, special in georgia law -- because trump had been saying the election was stolen and turnout was depressed. >> we're likely to see more of this with the midterms. this is likely a preview, i think, of what's to come. >> stay tuned. >> we have a piece in the next hour on that very subject. thank you both very much. more on the breaking news, u.s. defense secretary and the secretary of state visiting kyiv, stating that they want to

see russia weakened. plus, we're following the breaking news out of ukraine, russian forces striking five railway stations, our special coverage right after this. ♪ ♪ i came, i saw, i conquered. (all): hail, caesar! pssst caesar! julius dude, you should really check i. i was inking like... oh hi, caesar. were just talking about you. ha ha ha. yeah, you should probably get out of here. not good. ♪ ♪ ♪ ringcentral ♪

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the city of kherson has been occupied now by russian forces for 54 days. there is no safe passage for anyone to get out. earlier this morning we posed questions to the mayor of kherson, ihor kohykhaiev, about his city. mayor, ukrainian military officials say they've actually observed preparations for a possible offensive by russian forces from the kherson region. what are you seeing?

>> translator: i am seeing in the last three days that there is a lot of troop movement in the city of kherson. the russian troops are changing their deployment and the deployment of their check points, and there's also been quite an increase in troops and also there's been quite a lot of daily and nightly movement of artillery and troops. >> the kremlin is reportedly threatening a referendum to turn kherson into an independent republic. what do you expect is going to happen, and are people trying to get out because of this? >> translator: we must understand that kherson has been occupied for 54 days and at the moment there is no safe passage from kherson, there are no humanitarian corridors. people are organizing their own evacuation, they're trying to organize many troops via the

telegram channel and they're organizing evacuation towards mariupol, mick leave and on to sf zaporizhzhia. but at the moment there is no organized evacuation from kherson, there is no safe passage, there are no humanitarian corridors. there are large waiting lines to get out of kherson in the private way. in the last three or four days these lines have grown longer because there have been reports in the media about so-called planned referendum. what we know is that kherson is in the ukrainian legal system. kherson is part of ukraine and according to the geneva convention of 1949, a forced

change of regime is illegal. so whatever they're doing there is not something that is within the ukrainian law order, legal order. kherson is a ukrainian city, there are 114est necessities, ethnic groups living in kherson and the city is part of ukraine and we are not talking about the city itself but also kherson region. if the russian federation wants a pretty picture, they don't need the referendum. they just need to get their so-called local administration so they've imposed there to declare a desire to exceed to russia and that is something that russia will arrange for them and they will have a pretty picture if they want one, but if we are talking about something legal, something about -- that is within the legal order, there is nothing like that. >> mayor, there are reports that russian forces are conscripting ukrainian civilians from some of

these occupied areas. is that happening in kherson? >> translator: i've not heard about mobilization in kherson. i don't really know how that's going to work, to be honest, because the people of kherson are pro-ukrainian. so if they are trying to mobilize the people in kherson to fight against ukraine, i'm not sure how they're going to do that because in any case that is a violation of geneva convention of 1949. >> residential areas in ukraine's second biggest city being hit by russia's intensifying assault. cnn's clarissa ward joins us live in kharkiv at a site of russian bombing.

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in the united states and all around the world, it is monday, april 25th. i'm john berman with brianna keilar. and breaking news, we begin with the very first readout of the high stakes visit of secretary of state antony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin to kyiv. this was the first time that high-level u.s. officials visited ukraine since the russian