Breaking news. Ukraine says Russia's new offensive in the east is now underway. The governor of the

Dinesk region reported continuous shelling overnight. We'll play for you what the Pentagon is saying.

And the other big headline we're following, airlines begin to roll back mask mandates after a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration

had overstepped its authority. We'll get reaction from the White House when Deputy Press

Secretary Chris Marr joins us for a live interview. Good morning and welcome to way too early

on this Tuesday, April 19th. I'm Jonathan Lemire.

Officials in Ukraine say Russia has launched its anticipated offensive in the eastern Donbos region.

The Ukrainian military says the new phase began when Russian forces tried to break through its

defenses along the entire front line from Kharkiv to the north to

Dinesk in the south.

But some military officials, both in Ukraine and in the West, say the ground is still being

set.

A Ukrainian military official tells the New York Times that the offensive will, quote,

activate in the coming days.

Last week, the U.S. said Russia wasn't quite ready to launch the new offensive because of ongoing

logistical problems.

Here's what the Pentagon is saying now.

These appear to be chronic difficulties that the Russian military has had in terms of logistics

and sustainment, command and control, unit cohesion, operational

maneuver, integration of air to ground, all problems that they still suffer from. So it remains to be

seen whether they have, quote, fixed these problems and are now ready to execute in a more

efficient way in the Donboss. Our assessment is that they are still struggling with a lot of

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