Happening now breaking news bloody battles at the Marriupole Steel Plant. A

Ukrainian commander now says enemy troops have broken into the complex where the city's last defenders and

hundreds of civilians are hold up. We're getting new details on the fighting and

whether it could be a final showdown in the deceased city. Also breaking, CNN's exclusive new poll shows most

Americans are casting blame on President Biden as their view of the economy is worse than it's been in a decade. We're tracking consumers

fears about high inflation and a potential recession just hours after a historic interest

rate hike by the Federal Reserve. We want to welcome our viewers

here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in the situation room. Let's get right to the breaking news on the bloody battle for the southern Ukrainian

city of Mario Pole.

Russian forces now inside the steel plant at war with the city's last defenders.

CNN International Security editor, Nick Payton Walsh,

is following it all from his post in Central Ukraine for us. Nick, after weeks of

bombardment, is this potentially the last stand for a

you poll?

It does look dire for those defenders but frankly it has looked dire

for the Ukrainian troops inside that steel plant, such an extraordinary

well fortified structure they've managed to hold on to for weeks, if not months now, but

their commander of the Azov Battalion in their lieutenant Colonel Dennis Prokopenko

saying that indeed Russian troops have been inside the compound for two days now and there was

intense fighting saying that he's simply with his men carrying

out the order to continue defending.

Now we do know that intense bombardment from artillery and airstrikes has hit that compound over the past day after, frankly, a miraculous rescue

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