That's Odessa just a short time ago. Russia retaliating tonight by air for the naval attack on its bridge to Crimea over the weekend. CNN's Alex Marquardt is there, joins us now. So what have you seen Well, Anderson, this is a city that is under attack by Russian forces tonight. From the air, we have heard the Odessa air defenses working quite intensively. And a local military official also says that those air defenses are engaged in combat. Now, Anderson, this comes some 24 hours. Exactly. After that Ukrainian attack on the Kerch Bridge. That's that 12 mile long bridge that connects Russian occupied Crimea with the Russian mainland and not too long after that, we did hear from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that Russia would be responding. He had asked for military options and that they would respond For that attack, we may be seeing at least part of that response right now in terms of what we have seen over the past hour and a little bit. It started just before 2 a.m. local time. Loud explosions in the distance, the sounds of what sounds like air defenses, rockets and missiles perhaps going up into the sky. We've seen spotlights down in that direction. And we are quite close to the port, which, of course, would be a natural target for Russia, particularly on a day like today when just 3 hours ago at midnight, Russia did pull out of this green deal that has been in place for the past year. Anderson, perhaps most dramatically, just over my shoulder at least three times in the past hour, we've seen these bright streaks of flames streaking across the sky. Of course, we don't know exactly what it is. It could be a drone that's being shot down. It could be something else that is being fired. But again, we are rather close to the port. This is one of the most important cities in Ukraine. And it comes on a day when there were two huge stories in Ukraine. The attack on that bridge near Crimea and Russia pulling out of this great deal, arguing that Ukraine had all the benefits of the deal while Russia had none. So two significant reasons for Russia to be targeting Odessa tonight. And what are Ukrainian military forces saying Well, we're starting to hear more from them. And a lot of this comes in on their individual telegram channels. So we have heard from a leading local military officer or official, rather, who raised the possibility that there could be missile strikes on Odessa tonight. That second official talking about the fact that the air defenses are combating this. This Russian air strike we have seen over the course of the past few days and really quite regularly, waves of missiles and drones fired on cities all across the country, including Odessa, Ukraine. These days, and a large part thanks to this war support that they've gotten from the West, does have robust air defenses. They do generally manage to shoot down the majority of the missiles, rockets and drones that are fired at these cities. That's not to say that there isn't destruction and death that follows when these drones or missiles are shot out of the sky. You've got all kinds of debris that falls to the ground, destroying buildings, killing people, and oftentimes missiles and drones do get through. We just saw a huge missile attack on Lviv about ten days ago that killed some ten people. So this city very much on edge tonight. Officials warning that there could be a significant attack on it by Russia Anderson. All right, Alex Marquardt, thank you. Shortly before air, I talked about the bridge attack with Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmitry Kuleba. Earlier in the day, you talked about the Kerch Bridge being a legitimate target. You said not every bridge is civilian by definition condition. What was the importance of the Kerch Bridge to Ukraine? Well, this is the main route of supplying Russian army in Crimea and in the south of Ukraine with more troops, more ammunition, more weapons, more fuel and other type of resources. And there's one little point that everyone should be mindful about, mindful of. This bridge was built outside of the body of law. This is an illegal bridge, illegal construction. It was built after the annexation. Exactly. Yes. Without without any, um, you know, kind of seeking without seeking any permissions from from Ukraine. And we should be always aware of that. And when Vladimir Putin says that the attack on the bridge was a terrorist attack, you say, listen, if I don't have to comment, every piece of lie and distortion of reality that President Putin is making, I mean, he keeps saying that I'm not the legitimate government, but the so-called Kiev regime installed by the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries but you know, I don't have to comment on that. We should we should know one thing about President Putin. He's a professional liar. He was taught to lie as a KGB officer and he excelled this practice throughout his political career. So the less we listen to what he's saying, the more time we will have for more productive thoughts. Is it clear to you from your vantage point what happened with the whole promotion thing? I I'm pretty certain it was immunity, a mutiny. Prigozhin was absolutely serious, serious about arresting Russian generals or overthrowing Vladimir Putin, serious about creating conditions under which he would be recognized as the source of real power in Russia. Let me put it this way, because, know, I'm I'm not a wizard to make a prophecy about all possible scenarios, but it's still unclear what made him change his mind. What kind of arguments made it work. But I think the main lesson of his of his rebellion is that the weakness of the regime was exposed to the entire world, but most importantly to the people of Russia, because throughout his career prison, Putin was always crushing his enemies in the most visible way, in the most eloquent way This time, she did not crush Prigozhin. She bargained. She made a deal with him. And this is the real turning point in terms of the progress of the war. How's it going Oh, it's definitely moving in the right direction because we are advancing. It comes at a cost, but we are fighting for our land, for our people, and for our future. So we will be moving forward. Whatever it takes is the the the fortifications that Russia has been putting up, the trenches, the mining. I mean, there's a lot of reporting about the just extensive mining operations that Russia has conducted. Yeah, that's we lost a lot of time and by we, I mean both Ukraine and its partners, we lost a lot of time preparing counteroffensive and making decisions on deliveries of weapons and delivering these weapons necessary for the counteroffensive because it allowed Russia to physically reinforce its defense lines. Mind the fields. I'm not complaining here. I'm just stating the reality because in the end, it's us and our partners who are facing this, who are fighting against this new reality. So you have to understand that in the beginning of the counter-offensive, when our forces moved to this into this minefields, there were days when Ukrainian soldiers would crawl 200 meters per day crawl, just physically demining the path for their comrades, following them, and to create corridors for tanks and other types of weed kills to advance. This is how it began, and this is why the pace of this counteroffensive is not as striking as the previous ones. So but we reached the first line of defense. We will break through. Then there will be the second line of defense. And behind that second line of defense, there will be a lot of online space to to get through. How closely are you watching US politics given folks on the far right, far left are not as supportive of American aid to Ukraine as the vast center seems to be. Do know what Russia has been doing since early 2000? In every country of Europe and also here in North America, it was financing, supporting and endorsing far right and far left in every single country because their strategy was always to squeeze center, to squeeze political center in every country. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
