control of soledar they will start increasing their attempts to encircle and capture the city of bakhmut, which is just 9 miles to the south. wolf? we re also following major developments, ben, in western military aid to ukraine. how badly does ukraine need this? i ll give you an idea, wolf. just the other day we were at a ukrainian anti-aircraft battery that s being used to fire russian trenches. that artillery piece is from 1950. and what one sees is sort of when you go along the front lines you see tanks dating back to the 60s, to the 50s. so they desperately need this help. what we re seeing is help on the way. today the dutch prime minister meeting with president biden announced the netherlands following in the footsteps of
the united states and germany is going to be giving ukraine the patriot anti-missile system. now, later this week the countries that are members of the ukraine defense contact group, which includes most european powers, the united states and others, is going to be meeting in germany. and it is hoped there that officials will convince the germans to allow poland, for instance, to provide ukraine with leopard 2 tanks. these are modern battle tanks, which are desperately needed by the ukrainians. desperately needed because it is anticipated that as the weather improves in the spring that the russians will launch a major offensive in this part of ukraine. that s an enormous fear right now. all right, ben wedemen in ukraine for us. thank you very much. stay safe over there. new western military aid hopefully is on the way.
carnage from russia s attack on an apartment building in ukraine, one of the single deadliest strikes of vladimir putin s war. cnn s senior international correspondent ben wedemen is joining us live from ukraine right now. ben, give us the latest on what s happening on the ground in the war zone. well, as far as as that apartment building that was struck on saturday, more than 72 hours ago, at this point ukrainian rescue teams have been able to find 45 bodies. among them six children killed in that attack. there s still 19 people unaccounted for. as far as the fighting on the eastern front, it continues to be intense in and around the town of soledar. what we ve been seeing over the last two days we were in bakhmut that the fighting is increasing there. the expectation is that as soon as the russians gain complete
we re joined by the national security counsel coordinator for strategic communications, retired u.s. admiral john kirby. john, thanks so much for joining us. as you heard the netherlands and as you know the netherlands says it ll follow the u.s. and germany and provide the patriot air defense missile system to ukraine. the u.k., france, and poland are moving toward providing battle tanks. will the u.s. step up as well with a major increase in its military support to ukraine? well, we have stepped up, wolf. we ve been the leader for security assistance to ukraine. and as ben noted in germany this week secretary austin will be convening another iteration of the ukraine defense contact group. there ll be dozens of nations there, and i suspect you ll continue to hear coming from the united states additional packages of security assistance, additional weapon and capabilities for ukraine perhaps as soon as the end of this week. will those packages include battle tanks? i don t want to
like aptos and santa cruz county are flooded. it s so dangerous for drivers some have found other means to get around, trading in their cars for kayaks and in this case a jet ski. and with all that rain comes high winds and statewide warnings. already more than 150,000 customers are in the dark due to power outages. randy kaye, cnn. remarkable images. up next our ben wedemen follows a group of ukrainian soldiers trying to silence russian attack drones as the war in the eastern part of the country gets even bloodier.