russian military for the first time acknowledged it wants to capture southern ukraine along with territory in the east. let s bring in our nbc news reporters. ali arouzi in ukraine, courtney kube at the pentagon. we re also joined by former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. ali, i ll start with you. talk to us about the latest from mariupol and what the russians are saying now about their intentions in southern ukraine and beyond. reporter: hi, garrett. well, mariupol is just beyond a catastrophe right now. the russians are not in fully control of that city. they haven t captured it in its entirety. but you know, those small band of azov fighters are still holed up in that steel mill. that steel mill is still getting bombed by the russians. but they re hanging on by a string in that city. and the russians have annihilated most of that city and they are in control of large swaths of it. and the feeling here on the ground is that it s not going to be long before they entirely c
moldova. and that s a very vulnerable place if the russians were able to do that. that is a place without a functioning army. it borders ukraine. a lot of border territory. russian separatists there. it s been described as a mini donbas. they re not a nato member. they re not an eu member. so if the russians were able to get there, that s another very vulnerable country that the russians have their eyes on. but in order to get there they have to destroy odesa first. and the ukrainians have really fortified odesa right now. but as we ve seen time and time again in this war, the russians are not worried about decimating cities to gain their objectives. ali arouzi in lviv for us. thank you. courtney, we just heard from the pentagon about this new effort by the u.s. and our allies to try to coordinate better on ukraine s defensive needs. what more can you tell us? yeah, that s right. so the pentagon announced yesterday, pentagon press secretary john kirby, that secretary austin was con
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