months. the city pushed to the brink, and some new yorkers are not happy about it. it s a story you ll see first outfront. and an american citizen sentenced to 16 years in a saudi prison for tweets he sent while he was in the united states. the man s son is my guest. let s go out front. and good evening. i m erin burnett. outfront front, putin s top commander speaking out saying russia and ukraine are one, upping the ante hours ahead of a major meeting between putin and his national security council. all eyes on what putin will do. this as his top commander in an interview said that, quote, difficult decisions are ahead, seeming to signal that he may pull back from the crucial ukrainian city of kherson. tonight we have new video, it shows ukrainian forces pushing deeper into the russian-controlled area of kherson. so they re in that armored vehicle moving relatively quickly there. that is in the kherson region. you hear the sound of constant gunfire. you see that man
vehicle moving relatively quickly there. that is in the kherson region. you hear the sound of constant gunfire. you see that man firing the machine gun. ukrainian troops have been raising the flag in town after town in kherson. even as putin continues terrorizing drone and missile strikes, nearly 200 in recent days and destroying a third of the power stations in the country. the reality remains even with all of those strikes, when you look at what s happening in kherson, putin is feeling the pressure on the ground and also now at home from a formidable group of russians, the mothers of newly mobilized soldiers. translator: i got a call from my son today. and he told me, mom, help me, save me from this hell. it s just a portrayal that they go there unprepared. my son, sergei was not even supposed to be mobilized. he has poor eyesight.
how can he go? they re standing there together, mothers and sisters. and a mother s wrath can have profound impact. certainly the russians know that in the chechen war in the 1990s it was russia and mothers who spoke out against it who were partly responsible for turning russian public opinion against that war, which is why a lot could be riding on putin s security meeting tomorrow. fred pleitgen is out front to begin our coverage tonight live in kramatorsk, ukraine. putin again today waging a brutal war against ukrainian civilians. reporter: very early on starting in the early morning hours, we were fast asleep when all of a sudden we heard the outgoing sound of surface-to-air missiles and a location near where we were got hit, a thermal power plant in the town of dnipro. the russians using those
when they appointed him. what we expect now to happen, wolf, is that after the election we re going to see a report from john durham if what he said before this jury is any indication, he s going to argue that trump was treated unfairly by the fbi in the trump/russia investigation. well, that will be significant indeed if that happens. so we ll watch it together with you, evan. thanks very much for coming into the situation room. and to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i m wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, putin s top commander speaking out, signaling what may be a drawdown from a major city. is ukraine on the verge of another major win? plus, new york s migrant crisis. more than 18,000 migrants arriving in just the past six
i want to bring in now the white house national security council spokesman john kirby. and, admiral, i appreciate your time. look, we re hearing putin s top commander talk about what he says are difficult decisions when it comes to kherson. it has been under russian control since the beginning of the war. ukraine has made some significant gains there. what does your intelligence indicate? is ukraine on the verge of another major win there? they certainly are putting a lot of pressure on the russian troops that are around sort of the northwestern edge of their presence in the kherson oblast. they re across from the dnipro river, but they re sort of isolated. the ukrainians are putting a lot of pressure on them, erin. and they re sort of advancing on multiple fronts in part of the kherson oblast. from what we ve been seeing,