ukraine. jim? >> anderson, thanks so much. this is "cnn tonight." i'm jim sciutto live from lviv in ukraine, along with the great laura coates in the u.s. the pentagon says tens of thousands of russian troops have now amassed in eastern ukraine. one of putin's commanders claims their new goal is to take full control of not just the donbas region in the east but southern ukraine to provide a land corridor to crimea and perhaps go further. still, president zelenskyy expressed hope and defiance tonight. >> translator: we will defend ourselves as long as necessary to break this ambition of the russian federation. the armed forces of ukraine continue to deter attacks by russian invaders in the east and south of our country. and i am grateful to each of our defenders who are bravely holding on. >> in this new offensive, they continue tonight in the region. this is the push and pull of the front lines. the russians launched for air strikes on the southern port city of mariupol earlier. an estimated 100,000 people still remain stranded in that war zone. and another staggering note, the mayor of mariupol told me today that he believes that 20,000 civilians have already been killed there so far. 20,000. in two months of war. and look at this new drone video we got of a village on the outskirts of capital kyiv, most obliterated by the russians. those are civilian homes you're watching right there. before the russians withdrew before their invasion in the east. >> jim we're going to come back to you in just a second. also tonight, two russian executives found dead within 24 hours along with their wives and daughters. begging the question of whether vladimir putin's fingerprints are perhaps on these deaths as well. plus, receipts are coming back to haunt two trump loyalists pertaining to the insurrections. house minority leader kevin mccarthy has been radio silent today, at least publicly radio silent, on being caught in a total lie about whether he was going to tell trump to resign after january 6th. the tapes frankly keep oncoming. and there's even more that surfaced today. along with trump's new response to them tonight. and gop congresswoman marjorie taylor greene would be in jeopardy of being disqualified from ever running for office again over her alleged role in january 6th. this is what she testified to today. >> i was asking people to come for a peaceful march, which is what everyone is entitled to do. but i was not asking them to actively engage in violence or any type of action. >> but of course this is what she said two weeks before the insurrection. >> you can't allow it to just transfer power peacefully like joe biden wants and allow him to become our president. >> not sure what the air quotes mean, but there's a lot to take apart there. we should start with what's happening on the front lines in ukraine. and jim, we've seen frankly so many other evacuees that have gotten on trains to make it to safer territory, like where you are in lviv. i remember thinking about in poland and the images at the train stations of strollers that were put there by people knowing that women and children were arriving and needed some place to put their children, to carry their belongings. and we now see the tragedy of really how few civilians seem to be allowed out of mariupol. are there other conclusions here other than the russians are choosing to make people stay there and suffer? or is there some other explanation that you're hearing on the ground, jim? >> the evidence of the prosecution of this war is that civilians are part of the target, that russian in these cities does not want to let the civilians leave easily and safely. we've seen that in evidence of the attacks on civilian corridors even when they're agreed to, or in this case where they're just simply not agreed to. and by the way, beyond what happens when there are discussions of possible paths out of these cities is what happens before and during. and that is russia's continued c bombardment of the cities, of the civilian areas, really the leveling of them. we showed tou aerial view outside of kyiv. it looked look a tornado went through. that was not an act of god. that was act of man, the weapons of russian military. and it's one we've seen play out from village to city across this country. civilians are one of russia's targets of this invasion. >> and increasingly, even the idea, the prospects of the ability to leave, the choice fee feels e loose ri to everyone watching this. day after day, jim, we see video of the smoke that's rising from the -- look at what we're seeing right now. and that is mariupol. and we can never lose sight of the fact that there are still thousands and thousands of people who are inside of what we're viewing. and i know you spoke with the city's mayor. what would it take to get people out of there? >> what a vision he offered us today from inside that city. to say that in two months of war, 20,000 civilians are killed and efforts, frankly -- and we've seen evidence of this by the russians -- to destroy the evidence of those crimes. what they want there, they want a path out that is somehow supervised by a third country, right? and they're begging for this kind of help. but there's no sign that there's any sort of plan for that to happen. so, understandably, they're frustrated. they're concerned. and they're losing hope, right, that there will be a safe way forward. have a listen. >>. >> translator: so, at the moment, we have people waiting for evacuation. we would like to evacuate the civilians that are sheltering in azovstal. and we need one clear day of ceasefire to evacuate those people. however, we have not been able to so far. and i feel as if my heart's been torn out. my life, my family, we lived there. this was our life. and for me and tens of thousands of mariupol residents, it is extremely painful to see so many dead and the city destroyed. >> you heard him there. they just want one day, one clear day without fighting, without being attacked by russian forces to get the people out. that is all the mayor and the people of mariupol are asking for at this point. but russian leaders, commanders, showing no interest in doing so. a russian general came out clearly today saying why even that bare minimum of humanity will not happen. vladimir putin wants, his general said very publicly, total control of southern ukraine. sam kylie is live in the central part of this country. how, sam -- and you've been covering this country for a long time and observed this war for a long time since the beginning, this latest invasion. how has the fighting there shifted in the last several days? >> reporter: i think it shifted in two important ways, jim. the first is as was said in advance by the russians, they are focusing their efforts. their principle effort is in bombarding at the moment towns in the east of government-held ukrainian territory in the area known as donbas on the area of donetsk and luhansk. you mentioned 42 settlements that have been captured by the russians. captured, i think, say difficult word to assign to those sort of artillery exchanges, really. there's very little movement of infantry yet in this war because they are following, particularly the russians, this long-range tactical strikes that the soviets have pioneered. and then they're going to try and follow up with the tanks and heavy armor. i think the ukrainians will be preparing to meet them when they try to do just that. we haven't yet seen any significant ukrainian response except to just to try to hold the lines. and then we've seen an upstick in violence along that southern coastal route that the major general referred to, said that the russians will likely -- or at least intent on pushing all the way to the border conceivably. again, i think that that is in large part an effort to draw off ukrainian pressure because this is all about trying to make the ukrainians spread their troops, spread their troops and get them into an environment where they can be overwhelmed by the superior numbers at least of russian forces, even if they're not as competent or indeed as well-supplied as nato supplies are pouring in, which brings us to mariupol. why is it, for example, that they are still focusing their efforts on mariupol so much? well, there's 1,000 ukrainian troops hanging on in there. the russians really need to either get out of there, get them to surrender, before they can release a very large amount of troops to try to push north because that in the end is going to be their agenda, to try and cut off the ukrainian forces. but for now they're being bound up in that fight for mariupol still. jim? >> it's a great point, right? because if you are focused on the southeast for now and you start talking about the southwest and going all the way to moldova, do ukrainians believe that and feel they have to shift some of their energy and resources there? sam kylie, good to have you there in dnipro. thanks so much. the british prime minister says it is a realistic possibility that putin wins this war. but i got a very different assessment when i spoke with a member of the biden administration this morning. have a listen. >> ultimately, putin will see that this is not the end game he bargained for. as thousands of body bags are coming home, his economy is kraekting by double digits, inflation is up, shelves are empty, people can't travel, the country is in default, that's not a win for putin. >> that's the biden administration view. let's take that question and others to the former u.s. army commanding general, retired lieutenant general mark hurtly. to that first question, mark, you've been a skeptic from the beginning and rightly so really in a lot of cases of russia's ability here to win the war and to gain the ground they want to gain. do you take boris johnson's view that the russians can wind the ukrainians down or the administration's view. >> i take the administration's view but for different reasons, jim. i'm not going to talk about the domestic politics inside russia or what mr. putin can or cannot accept from his population when body bags start coming home. what i'm talking about and what i've been talking about from the very beginning is the military capacity of the russian force. you have this general who is the commander of russia's central military district, the largest military district, saying -- that's the one that consists of the bulaga and the euros and the siberian district. i met this guy when he was a younger general officer. saying that the new strategic objective is to get to odesa and beyond. i will say now what i said earlier in this campaign. they can't do it. they do not have the forces to do it. they do not have the capacity to do it. when you take a look at some of the areas that they're talking about in the south, you're talking about the town of mykolaiv, which they have not taken yet. 500,000 in the population. it's the size of kansas city, missouri. odesa, 900,000. that's the size of indianapolis. it's 420 miles from mariupol to odesa. they can't sustain the supply lines for that long a time and no matter how many forces we are saying are piled up on the eastern border getting ready to go into the country, they just do not have the size of a force to take over these cities. they've proven that. the russians have proven they can't take mariupol, which is a pretty big city in and of itself. they've been thwarted there. even though they have killed a lot of civilians, murdered a lot of civilians, they still haven't controlled the road junctions going in and out of there. so, yeah, i don't buy boris johnson's commentary, different commentary than what the white house is giving out. >> okay. one of the issues in the north around kyiv, where the russians failed was -- you highlighted the supply line. they just couldn't get the ammo, the fuel, the food, and the command and control to those troops there. so, they pulled back. the advantage in the east for the russians is they're closer to the russian border. they can drive the stuff right across and get to those forces there. do the russians have an advantage in the east that they did not have in the north? >> it is certainly a shorter distance. but it's still over 100 miles, jim. and they don't have the equipment. but most importantly, they don't have the people. we have seen so many russian soldiers killed. we have seen a lack of leadership on the part of the senior level, middle level, and junior level. they have not proven themselves to be a good combined armed force. so, yes, they certainly have the artillery. but that gets to the package that the administration and nato is providing with ukraine now in this second part of the war. they can count -- the ukrainians can counter this with counterartillery fire. russians cannot maneuver in this area. ukraine is on their home turf. they have home field advantage on this. they know how to maneuver. they have not been successful yet in the east. they've tried several reconnaissance and force missions in the donbas so far. as sam mentioned earlier, they have hit with artillery several towns. but their maneuver has not been such where they've taken over towns or they control towns. and in fact, they're not moving all that much. and i personally think ukraine is playing it very smart, the ukrainian generals. they're allowing them to think that they're moving just a little bit, and the counterattacks by the ukrainian forces are soon to come. >> and these are all battle lines. they've been fighting there for eight years. so, ukrainians know them well. general mark hurt lee, always good to have you on. >> pleasure jim, thank you. ahead, there is great suspension after two russian oligarchs were just found dead with their families, sadly, just 24 hours apart, under extremely mysterious circumstances. what does a russian journalist who knows putin and russia, make of these deaths? 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[ding] e*trade now from morgan stanley. so, listen to this. two russian executives and their families found dead just a day apart. both cases are now being investigated as murder-suicides, but the facts are suspicious. the former vice president of a russian bank, his wife, and 13-year-old daughter were found in their moscow apartment on monday. russian police released this 4-second clip of the crime scene. on tuesday, a russian oil executive was found outside his home in barcelona, spain, his wife and daughter inside dead as well. what's happening here. author of "all the kremlin's men," good to have you on tonight. >> hello. >> you have interviewed various people in putin's inner circle through the years. tell us what you make of this because in russia when deaths like this happen, there is often a story behind it. >> yeah, i'm not a huge fan of conspiracy theories, and i won't haste to make a conclusion that there is mysterious series of murders. probably it might have been a coincidence so far because one death is in moscow, another in barcelona. but it's definitely very important how two of those deaths could be perceived by russian elites and by russian businessmen, by russian bureaucracy who stay in moscow. because a lot of people have alternative in mind, to leave or to stay. a lot of people belonging to russian business elite are shocked by the war, and most of them are not supporting the war because they understand they are losing -- they're going to lose everything they have. so, probably for them, that's a huge shock. and having in mind an option to leave or to stay. they see those terrible deaths. and probably that could be perceived as some kind of a warning or very bad sign for them. so, many people -- >> so, you're saying -- >> -- i'm sure are afraid of those deaths. >> particularly the fact that one of these took place in spain -- putin, again -- to your point, we don't know the circumstances behind it. but we do know that in the past, putin has gone after his enemies and critics outside the country. you think of alexander venn yen coe in london in 2006 or 2018 and navalny has he was flying inside the country. you're saying that people inside russia today who might think they would be safe outside the country are not so sure anymore. >> i would not compare those two guys to navalny. i think these are