hello and thanks for joining us. i m abby phillip here in washington. now, president biden makes it official. just moments ago, the u.s. is sending abrams tanks to ukraine. that announcement comes just hours after germany revealed that it will send its own leopard 2 tanks to ukraine. germany had been reluctant to do that but ultimately they bent to weeks of intense pressure from western allies. cnn s phil mattingly is over at the white house for us. but let s begin first with our own jim sciutto. jim, can you walk us through what we are talking about here? what are these tanks, and where are they coming from as it relates to what s going into ukraine? reporter: abby, this is a significant move and let s begin with what the capabilities are. this is a german leopard tank then you have the u.s. sending abrams as well. first thing to say about this, highly capable, it s an offensive weapon, not a defensive weapon and the ukrainians hope here, their aim is to use this as a weap
k kyiv to show support for ukraine without a large military presence. without that military presence, of course, it is different from other presidential visits to afghanistan or iraq for instance, and the air raid sirens as biden is walking side by side with volodymyr zelenskyy and it is the first trip to the country since the russian invasion. he made the decision friday to make this visit to ukraine, and the president had invited him prior, and he was informed hours ahead of the arrival there which tended to deconflict to make sure that russia would not fire on kyiv while he was there. in a news conference this morning, there was a new round of sanctions including another $500 million assistance and more weapons, and biden s trip gets them closer to victory. freedom is priceless. it is worth fighting for, for as long as it takes, and that is how long we will be with you, mr. president, for as long as it takes. for as long as it takes. kaitlan collins is in warsaw in kyi
Republican Texas Governor greg abbott. A surprise to the volunteers who raced to receive those people. Some are families, men, women, and most that cant speak english, to defend themselves. As officials scramble to get them food and shelter. In new york, the mayor says his Sanctuary City is nearing a Breaking Point with more than 11,000 Asylum Seekers dropped off there since may. Were covering each city and all of the angles here and the impacts of this escalating battle. We begin there on Marthas Vineyard. Cnns miguel marquez. We know you arrived there a short time ago. What do you know about the migrants there and how they are doing right now . They are doing well, given everything they are been through. Everyone i have spoken to, i have spoken to about a dozen of them so far. They are all in san antonio, texas, yesterday morning. And then, they arrived here. We know a little about them. Theres about seven families among the 50 on the 2 planes. Theres four children between the ages o
standoff between its allies. lloyd austin meeting with european defense ministers at ramstein air base in germany. we are also, though, just getting in some breaking news, cnn white house reporter natasha bertrand, oren liebermann joining us. what are you hearing potentially about what more we re learning? even this secret meeting that the cia director held last week with president zelenskyy? yeah, so about the meeting between ukrainian president zelenskyy and cia director bill burns we are learning that burns went there really to brief the ukrainian president on what the u.s. believes are the potential battle plans by russia to launch an offensive in the spring. now, of course, bill burns has been a very key emissary between the u.s. and ukraine as well as even with russia over the course of the war and this really just signifies the urgency the u.s. feels in this moment getting ukraine the information the intelligence it needs ahead of this potential russian offensive see
seems a little odd that the black kid are there with a white santa. it s all good. to each his own. you was scared of santa. he s got the cutest things. you can t really see my phone. there s a black santa and white santa stocking that we found. ryan, you re the best. thank you. cnn this morning continues right now. so glad that you could join us this morning on the eve before the eve of christmas. good morning, everyone. poppy and kaitlan are off and i m here with the lovely and smart and talented sara seidner. i was wondering where you were going with that but you re good. we re going to catch you up on the five big stories this morning. more than half the population is under winter storm and wind chill alerts as a major storm moves across the country. it s not like a snow day when you were a kid. this is serious stuff. please take this storm extremely seriously. more than 820,000 power customers are in the dark, thousands of flights have been cancel