Good morning. I'm Ali Valshi. It is Saturday, March the 12th, day 17 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It's 8 a.m. Eastern and 2 p.m. here in Zahon, Hungary, on the border with Ukraine, where I am today.

According to the United Nations, nearly 2.6 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the start

of the Russian invasion. More than 235,000 coming here into Hungary. I'm at a train station

into which they're coming. You're hearing the announcement of the fact that a train has just

come in. It's headed to Ukraine, but we're going to have a train coming in from Ukraine in about half an hour.

In the last few hours alone, Ukraine said that 14 humanitarian corridors are open within the country.

Previous corridors and humanitarian ceasefires quickly collapsed due to ongoing Russian attacks.

Also in the last few hours, Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told state-run

media that Russia views convoys of foreign arms in Ukraine as possible, quote, legitimate targets.

Despite ongoing logistical and operational setbacks and fierce Ukrainian

resistance, Russia continues to get closer to encircling the capital of Kiev.

Russia continues to attack civilians throughout the country as well. It's now begun strikes in

civilian areas and cities far from the front lines of the main fighting, including in

Nipro, which is located in

central Ukraine and in other sites in Western Ukraine along the NATO border, including one 120

miles from where I am in Hungary. The key southern city of Mikhailayev remains under siege,

with new strikes reportedly hitting a cancer hospital,

a shopping center, and a cafe, according to the local Ukrainian government.

In a new statement, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, says that the mayor of

Melita Pole in southern Ukraine has been forcibly abducted by Russian forces.

The situation in Maripol continues to be hellish and medieval,

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