Welcome to the lead-up, Jake Tapper, and we start with breaking news in our world-lead

today's explosions, rocking, key, if you crane this afternoon, a city with a population

of almost 3 million people, roughly the size of Chicago.

Air raid sirens becoming a familiar sound in Kiev, just as the Biden administration

warns the Russian military could take a quote, more aggressive approach toward capturing

that capital city.

A senior Pentagon official saying today that Russian forces are growing frustrated

that their progress has slowed, partially because of tougher than expected resistance

from the Ukrainian people.

Warning from the Pentagon seemingly backed up by new satellite images showing a Russian

military convoy stretching for nearly 17 miles, one that is advanced to the outskirts

of Kiev.

CNN's Matthew Chants finding a different Russian convoy destroyed earlier today on a

bridge leading into Kiev, smoking remnants of military vehicles surrounded by unexploded

grenades and the bodies of dead Russian soldiers.

And a first today during this conflict, Russian and Ukrainian delegations meeting for talks,

which concluded, without any immediate breakthroughs, the talks taking place in neighboring Belarus,

just as Ukrainian government sources tell me, their intelligence indicates that Belarus

is preparing to join Russia and attacking Ukraine, Belarus already, is allowing Russia to

use their territory for pre-invasion military staging and allowing Russian troops to cross

their border into Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcing earlier today

that the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, Belarus, has suspended operations as the Biden administration

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