department. let me begin with you. you have studied general dvornikov very closely. tell our viewers who he is and why it is an ominous development. he is a senior russian general. he was awarded with medal in russia called the hero of russia. if you see it on russia, that is why. it is not google saying he is a hero. it was following his behavior, his leading the mission in syria and particularly aleppo and how brutally he approached aleppo which was by bulldozing the entire city and recklessly and ruthlessly killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians there, is what landed him that award. he has a long history before syria as well. he is the one who led the charge of russia into grozny in chechnya. he is the worst of the worst in the russian military and he s
slowly, yesterday, just 200 or so civilians were able to flee the city, jonathan, there s barely any gaps in there now, and if you can get the russians to agree to a humanitarian corridor, it is very difficult for anyone to get in their cars and drive out. the russians are turning to a litany of new tactics that are almost guaranteed to increase civilian casualties. one is the use of phosphorous weapons which basically rains burning white material over a large area. the russian air force also using unguided weapons. these are basically dumb bombs. you drop them from a great height and they fault where they fall, be it is a military base, a school, a hospital, a train station. president zelenskyy says these are war crimes and they need to be investigated just like these massacres we ve seen in bucha, and other parts of the kyiv suburbs. jonathan? the world is holding its breath seeing what will come out of mariupol in the days and weeks to come.
providing support to the war-torn nation. joining us now, news director for new alliance magazine investigative reporter michael weiss who of course has kept us updated on the war throughout. michael, great to see you. you just were in ukraine for about a week. including a stop in kyiv. and some of the suburbs that were really devastated. tell us what you saw. yes, so i went to a town called borodyank and closer to the border than bucha where the massacre took place and this town practically does not exist anymore. the russian jet fighters had bombed a series of apartment blocks on the main thoroughfare, one was so badly bombed that the entire center column of the apartment had just, the building rather, had just collapsed. and the emergency services there are pulling people from the rubble. one building that was still intact, i was with a former bbc journalist bob sweeney, we went inside that building and russian soldiers had looted every single apartment. there were jewelry boxes o
potential mediator between kyiv and moscow. we saw the israeli president bennet going to moscow in the early days of the war and the turkish president erdogan hosting ukrainian and russian delegations in istanbul. and now, this latest development of the austrian chancellor going between the two capitals within just a couple of days of each other. so we will see what comes out of that. jonathan? it will be toing see the readouts for sure, if there is any chance of a diplomatic solution from this visit. . nbc foreign correspondent rchd af sanchez, thank you very much. please stay safe. still ahead, one of the countries considering nato membership is hit with a cyber attack. and what donald trump jr. is sending the chief of staff just days before president biden s election. and the world s top golfer gets his first green jacket. those stories and a check on the weather when we come right back.
east. and what could be a devastating escalation in the war there. and plus liz cheney says there is enough evidence to refer former president donald trump for criminal charges. new details from the house panel investigating the january 6th insurrection. and on his 100th day in office, new york city mayor eric adams tests positive for covid. it comes amid a surge of new cases in new york and washington, d.c. we ll ask a health expert whether other big cities are next. good morning. and welcome to way too early. on this monday, april 11th. i m jonathan lemire. british prime minister boris johnson made a surprise visit to kyiv over the weekend, for a remarkable showing of unity with ukrainian president zelenskyy. the two leaders walked side by side, through ukraine s capital on saturday, which just a few weeks ago was under threat from russian forces. stopping to talk with citizens on the street, johnson s visit came one day after he announced