The Kremlin announces its offensive plan for Ukraine in every sense of the word offensive.

The lead starts right now.

A Russian general reveals Putin wants full control of southern Ukraine and to do that they

need to seize Ukrainian cities such as Odessa and Mariopol.

This is as we learn what it was like inside a Ukrainian village held hostage by Russian

troops for more than a month.

They are the lucky ones, the few able to escape the horror and bombardment happening

in Mariopol.

We're going to talk to them as they arrive in the relative safety of Western Ukraine.

Plus, planes, trains, automobiles and mass confusion, CNN took an Uber, an Amtrak, and a flight

to see what the mass reality was on public transportation.

Welcome to the lead M. Jake Tapper and we start with the world lead and for the first

time Russia is revealing the goal of its new second phase of its unprovoked war against

the Ukrainian people.

Their plan is to take full control of southern Ukraine.

That came today from a Russian general who said the Kremlin wants the entire Donbass region.

This would connect Russia to Crimea, which is of course the peninsula, Russia annexed

from Ukraine in 2014.

Right now Ukraine still controls smaller but still significant cities such as Mikolayev and

Odessa, Mariopol, well that's another story.

This is where Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to create a blockade around a steel plant.

Ukrainian forces and civilians have taken cover inside that steel plant today.

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