also been occupied by russian-backed separatists, very similar to donbas region. it s kind of seen as a mini donbas. so if he were to do that, if they were to achieve this goal, they could create a land bridge between moldova and the donbas region along the southern coast, and then, now, today we re seeing this lethal attack on odesa. a city that they would have to take in order to achieve that deal. all of this two months into vladimir putin s invasion. the two-month marker is tomorrow. also tomorrow is the holiday of easter. i m standing in front of a church here where in the orthodox tradition we re already seeing parishioners lining up, being blessed by the priest. the festivities and the observance begins actually in the orthodox tradition the night before easter. and so a lot of ukrainians here. and you heard this in some of the social media video that came out of odesa after that attack remarking that president putin is continuing his war through
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