sometimes you have to see to believe and witness history as it unfolds when the news is breaking watch with the newsroom of the washington post we explain what's happening and why it matters thank you for choosing to watch the headlines as they're being written by our journalists you can subscribe with a special offer at washingtonpost.com watch subscribing through that link lets everyone hear from the front lines to the control room know that you care about our continued efforts to inform the public protect the first amendment and foster a healthy democracy we could not do this without you [Music] president biden will speak shortly and is expected to announce another 800 million dollars in assistance to ukraine that brings the total amount pledged this week to 1 billion as ukraine tries to fight back against the onslaught of russia this is a washington post special report i'm libby casey biden's remarks come just hours after ukrainian president velodemir zelensky spoke virtually to the u.s congress in those remarks he urged president biden to act as the world's leader of peace and he called on the united states to create a no-fly zone over his country for more i have with me james homan and rhonda colvin in the washington post newsroom and john gerberg in the ukrainian capital kiev rhonda to you first what are we watching for biden to announce today well with this is coming hours after president zielinski addressed members of congress i think we can expect biden to come out in in this short address right now and brief the american public on what's going on and show that the u.s is responding to ukraine in a robust way so he is expected to announce that he is calling for 800 million dollars in aid to ukraine that will address weapons and security efforts now that is a total of one billion announced from the white house in just this week but that is also on top of a humanitarian aid package that congress added to a government funding bill on thursday night the president just signed that actually yesterday so 13.6 billion dollars is appropriated in that bill and that is going to be split between weapons and military funding as well as humanitarian aid in ukraine so we can expect the president to come out shortly with officials and discuss the the u.s response to ukraine right now especially after these calls for him to be a world leader those were the words we heard from zielinski just moments ago that he wanted biden to be the world's leader and step up the response especially when it comes to the issue of the no-fly zone how are lawmakers responding to president zielinski's impassioned plea for more help well one lawmaker i spoke with on the hill told me that the mood in that room was incredibly sober especially when the video was played that showed the toll of war that is going on right now in ukraine i think it moved a lot of lawmakers they all seem to be commenting about how moving that was that the u.s does need to stand in support of ukraine i believe that any sort of votes that they will have to take on any aid packages would likely not see any sort of problems however the big open question right now is that no-fly zone or the u.s assisting in any sort of air defense right now of course the white house is saying they do not want to go into that because that would involve our troops and also also escalate uh the aggression from russia but one lawmaker i spoke to earlier today said putin's already there so the u.s needs to respond we at first we're hearing from democrats that they were more in line with the president's thinking on the issue of no-fly zones now you're seeing a few more democrats come out a little bit louder now with the calls for a no-fly zone or at least some help with getting some fighter jets to poland to assist in this effort so i just left the hill and and this is certainly the talk of the hill right now is what to do next with ukraine where do we go with air strategy thanks rhonda let's go now to video journalist john gerberg who joins us from keeve john it's so good to see you you've been in ukraine for 19 days now does key feel like a city under siege at this point hey libby yeah it's good to be with you um yeah keeve i mean under siege it kind of depends on where in the city you are right i mean we were able to enter the city um from the south you know going through a lot of checkpoints but um with relatively you know open passage um i've been this is my third time visiting the city i have you know ancestors from this city it's a place near and dear to my heart and it was a completely different feeling driving into the city this time you know the the roads are just completely choked and shackled with checkpoints and armaments um you know the streets are empty um the people you do see are mostly either fighters themselves or volunteers that are shoveling shuttling supplies to and from front lines or helping other civilians who have stayed but need help in some way so it really there are sporadic attacks that we've documented that have made it into the city itself a lot of the most intense violence is kind of in a ring around the northern side of the city um and when those attacks do penetrate the city itself um it it does feel incredibly uh violent and dangerous but even on a kind of day-to-day basis absent of the direct attack it is definitely a city you know bled of its humanity and its culture and its normal vibrancy and especially today there is a 36 hour curfew in place meaning no no one other than you know authorized military um you know authorized people can go out on the streets at all so it is completely silent other than like the constant sound of uh of shelling and out outgoing uh ukrainian armaments and in that way yes it does feel eerily quiet and like there's more to come about 5 30 p.m where you are that curfew is in place until seven o'clock tomorrow morning local time uh john you were just talking a moment ago about these residential areas that are being hit i want to play some of the footage that you sent home about one of these attacks let's watch [Music] john how many people are left in kiev just just in the sense of who hasn't fled either because they haven't been able to or because they they want to stay because it's their home or they are trying to help yeah i mean there's a mix of that as as you just heard um one of the voices that that we met in in the streets that was a neighborhood called podil in kiev um two days ago and um that was an elderly woman who was too old to leave and she loved her community both kiev as a city and her own neighborhood and she didn't want to leave and she felt like she had nothing anywhere else to go to and she was going to stay where she belonged um there has you know according to uh nhcr over three million people now have have fled ukraine all together but there are a lot of people that have stayed for different reasons um you know military age men um which which the ukrainian government considers ages 18 to 60 are all prevented from leaving so though men of those age are either saying to fight or just can't leave the country and they're kind of stuck in limbo um there are also a lot of the elderly who for a lot of different reasons whether their medical ailments or they just don't have any reason or motivation to leave want to stay here and then you have a lot of people either staying to fight specifically or to support the fight in various volunteer roles like i mentioned before so it's kind of an eerie thing when you see these civilian build residential buildings that are getting hit with shelling we aren't always seeing as many fatalities as you might think because so many of the the buildings and the residences have emptied out but as i just mentioned there are a number of groups of ukrainians who are still stuck in place and are caught right in the middle of this really brutal war and they are continuing to bear the front of this john obviously terrible for the people who have had to stay also very hard though for the people who've had to flee and become refugees tell us about some of the reporting you're doing about people who who are among those millions that the u.n is saying are now refugees yeah absolutely i mean it's a story that literally has replicated itself millions of times over at this point and when i entered the country at the polish border two and a half weeks ago we saw lines of people trying to flee across by land literally waiting three days in line just to get out of the country um that initial kind of push has slowed down um or trickled out because people have made it out of the country so people are reporting much faster passage times over the border um but again not everybody even in family units has been able to leave so you see many many families getting split apart and 18 60 years old but other you know mothers and children will will leave the country so families are torn apart um you see other people who decide to stay with the relatives they can't leave but are you know internally displaced so you know for instance i was ju i was just spending a night on the nipper river a few hours outside of kiev with a family who had two sons um they were in their late 20s and early 30s um they didn't want to do a real interview but we just kind of were talking and you know the sons were a carpenter and a and a web designer and they had no interest in fighting whatsoever but they couldn't leave um and their mother who was a radiologist they were all from harkiev which is a city on the russian border under under intense fighting right now um so they had fled uh their home city but had nowhere to go and where they wanted to they chose to stay together so they were staying living in a hotel where they had been since the fighting began on the 24th of february and so there are people displaced within ukraine there are millions of people that have now fled the country people have you know had to flee with very few possessions you know have given up everything all the normalcy they had their jobs their careers their loved ones um and i've many of them who i've interviewed along the way have seen horrendous violence have you know some of them especially in the east where cities are either besieged or in the middle of intense fighting between the ukrainians and the russians citizens have you know endured weeks of shelling of violence having to basically live in their basements or living in neighbors basements if they don't have their own um and then had to flee through these uh humanitarian corridors that have opened briefly but some have even been closed off because the fighting continues um so you know we we've interviewed people who were coming out on these buses and you know for lack of a better term were you know really shocked coming out and just you know 10 year old children who had just you know learned too much about the kind of gruesome details of what incoming rocket shelling was and how to protect yourself and your family from that or at least try your best to and had fled out through russian military lines and were taking different buses and hoping to get to the polish border um so there are millions of different ways that this um crisis has upended the lives of ukrainians as a very much unscripted and ongoing catastrophe john gerberg video journalist joining us from keeve john please stay safe and we'll talk to you again soon thank you for all your reporting thank you let's bring in james homan you know james president zielinski called on congress and the white house again today to establish a no-fly zone what do the ukrainians say that would actually do and in the location where john is in kiev as well as other parts of the country yeah libby john was talking to us from here in kyiv and he crossed the border from poland here the ukrainians are saying that a no-fly zone would protect these humanitarian corridors you know the now three million refugees who fled the country would be protected the ukrainians claim that just the mere threat by nato and the united states that they're going to fly over these corridors and shoot down any planes that would dare harm them would deter the russians from coming in in practice the feeling of the biden white house is that we don't need to be cold-hearted but we do need to be clear-eyed world wars have started over much smaller things than this the the united states uh has moved quite a lot of military assets all along the polish border uh also hungary and romania all nato members and under the article 5 commitment the u.s has said that they would defend every inch of nato now ukraine obviously not a member of nato if a u.s plane was shot down over ukraine that would dramatically escalate the situation if the russians shot down an american aircraft the u.s would have to respond by shooting down a russian aircraft and then it would you know potentially escalate you've heard president biden himself say that it would risk world war iii and we can't forget that russia up here has almost 5 000 nuclear warheads most of them still pointed at targets inside the united states which is why the american government has been so unwilling to deploy air resources over ukraine and and what's been remarkable in watching the congressional reaction to president zolensky's speech is that even republicans aren't really calling for these no-fly zones they're saying that the u.s should support moving two dozen migs from poland into ukraine so that ukrainian pilots can do it themselves but neither party really pushing the president to escalate in this way and zolensky himself acknowledging that there are other ways that the us government can be helpful including helping get anti-aircraft defense systems that are currently in romania and bulgaria into ukraine that was what the president president zolensky was referring to with the s 200 systems thanks so much james i want to bring into the conversation white house economics reporter jeff stein jeff thank you for joining us you know first let's talk about the money that president biden has signed off on has literally put a signature to that would provide aid uh aid in terms of humanitarian assistance to ukraine break down for us the difference between military aid and assistance aid right so last week congress approved roughly 14 billion dollars an extraordinarily large aid package for ukraine which is probably just the beginning of those efforts to help um today the white house is announcing that about 800 million of that 14 billion will be deployed i haven't gotten the specific breakdown of where it will go yet but the the money congress approved will include money for humanitarian aid refugee resettlement and reconstruction also you know ukraine has lost a tremendous amount of physical infrastructure they're really struggling right now to get food and medicine to parts of the country particularly in the east supply chains have really broken down in part because of russian attacks and so this money will at least in theory help alleviate that let's pivot to sanctions tell us about the sanctions against russia that that have been set up so far and what sort of a bite they're actually having yeah so uh despite being the country under invasion the ukrainian economy is by most measures actually holding up much better than the russian economy and that's because the us and coordination with its international allies has essentially cut russia off from the international financial system this has been an extraordinary economic war um you know that we've seen the us be involved with because as james just described the military options are so dicey and to this point have remained off the table um the the key measures uh there are there are many but um right now the u.s has announced a ending to a ban on russian oil and gas imports we've also the us has also targeted the central bank of russia prevented preventing putin from drawing down over 600 billion dollars in reserves that that the kremlin was clearly counting on for this kind of effort we've cut off um technology imports um to russia that will have long-term devastating consequences for the russian economy and we've also taken aim at a number of of top um oligarchs who are close to the kremlin and vladimir putin the result is that the russian economy is in free fall we're hearing more more and more talk of a potential russian default which would um be an extraordinary step and the value of the ruble has crashed every day russians are struggling tremendously and and the theory from from the west we'll see if it's borne out in reality but the theory is that the free fall of the russian economy will put pressure on putin to rethink some of what he's done jeff what would a default actually look like and and feel like what is the real-life implication of it yeah it's something that i've actually had the misfortune of covering in the u.s context because we flirt with doing um this which is kind of you know you know with the debt ceiling default issue which is kind of remarkable um that you know that we are willing to consider that even or have that be on the table for russia um you know we're already seeing a huge amount of capital flight uh the russian economy has grown since really it was destroyed in the 1990s we saw a huge decline in in life expectancy in the 90s and we were in russia after the soviet union fell and there's quite a large expectation that that could repeat itself and and the consequences for tens of millions of russians who have no interest potentially in this war um you know that could be uh something that repeats itself quite tragically appearing alongside president biden momentarily will be the secretary of state also the joint chiefs of staff chairman will be watching to see president biden announce some of the the latest breakdown of financial support for ukraine jeff you know i i want to talk a little more with you about this question of targeting russian elites targeting the oligarchs you've been reporting that the treasury has has released this list of people that they're targeting tell us more about it so i think there's one of the staff that's really stayed with me the last last couple weeks as i've gotten to learn more about this is that and you know we have extremely high wealth inequality in america of course but the number of um of billionaires who control a huge amount of the russian economy is really even beyond our comprehension russian billionaires control about 30 percent of the nation's wealth of russia's wealth and they have about as much wealth stashed abroad overseas as the entire russian population has domestically uh outside those billionaires this is a a huge amount of power and wealth concentrated in a very small number of people and so the us has tried to take aim at them the question is and and one of the difficulties and the challenges here is that maybe 15 20 years ago it seemed like according to russia experts you talked to that vladimir putin really answered to a lot of these these oligarchs but in the last 10 15 years that that really has shifted and putin now seems much more in control of them and so the west and the u.s um have launched this as i said unprecedented campaign to try and track down the overseas holding yachts jets um luxury apartments all that fun stuff um from uh these russian oligarchs kept you know in in the mediterranean and the luxury apartments in new york city and so the theory is you know if we can freeze that um you know there's efforts in congress to confiscate that and actually sell it and turn over the proceeds of the sales to the ukrainians which is an interesting idea that is the theory but but that maybe that will influence putin and cause more descent within russia but a lot of people think now that putin is so in control these oligarchs that that probably won't even matter because because his control is so firm over there over their decisions that that even if they're very upset there's nothing they can really do about it without being killed or by being ostracized by the kremlin stay with us jeff i want to bring james homan back into the conversation james there is the question of who vladimir putin is beholden to or if anyone or anything what do we know about the intelligence on on what's motivating putin right now and also who he might be communicating with james yeah libby you know putin is much more firmly in control of russia than 22 years ago when he took power uh he himself has amassed quite a lot of personal wealth uh during his years in charge and russia has really shifted from sort of soft authoritarianism to hard authoritarianism and really today i think it's fair to call it a totalitarian system and in some ways we haven't seen these kinds of restrictions on freedom inside russia uh where you know saying the war is a war will get you a 15-year prison sentence since the soviet era in terms of who putin is listening to it has been really fascinating in recent days because his power base is really the fsb which is the post-soviet successor to the kgb which is where putin got his start he was a kgb officer and uh there have been very credible reports in recent days uh that our sources have told us are accurate about putin not just being frustrated with the fsb which really is the core of his support but also kind of knocking heads and and really cleaning up shop there reports of uh senior fsb officials who have been put under house arrest uh there are you know rumors that the fsba was supposed to spend uh large amounts of money trying to bribe ukrainian officials to subvert ukrainian the ukrainian government but instead allegedly may have pocketed some of that money and so some people have been arrested inside russia uh and so they're you know the kremlinology is the term that was used during the the cold war uh because it was often so obtuse what was going on and uh we really didn't actually know what was happening in the inside and that's true now vladimir putin has taken kovit extremely seriously he's terrified of it and so he has uh already had a small circle going into the pandemic and the circle has become much much smaller so the number of people who actually have regular access to him is is tiny and uh the you know we've seen those pictures with the foreign leaders coming in to meet with him at the end of a long table that's a reflection of just how isolated putin has become and unlike here the the duma they have you know their parliament it's a rubber stamp there's no actual you know political challengers to putin he is is fully in control of this country and the gamble that the us is taking with these sanctions is that these oligarchs and jeff's absolutely right much less powerful relatively than they were 20 years ago still have enough power to push putin uh to to reverse course or to save face or to look for what national security people call an off-ramp uh to be able to to defuse this crisis rhonda you know james is talking about the optics of vladimir putin sitting alone at that long table or with one other person so far away it is such a contrast to how ukrainian president zielinski is trying to show himself out on the street talking to troops talking to fellow ukrainians and today addressing congress talk to us more about the relationship that president zielinski is trying to create with americans and members of congress and president biden and i'd also say you know members of the global community he's also addressed the british parliament and the canadian parliament just yesterday so uh what he did today addressing a joint session of congress a joint event of congress rather is something in line with what appears to be a strategy to make sure that the the global stage is behind ukraine he has uh been very forthcoming with members of congress even in a closed door session they had with him over zoom a couple weeks ago in describing the type of aid that he needs and describing the desire he has to see a no-fly zone gets set up so he uh definite contrast between he and putin and it's something perhaps because of his background in the entertainment industry that he is very aware of public perception today uh for those who followed zelinski's remarks to congress he also played a video and while i was watching that video i was thinking about a lot of americans at the beginning of this who said that they did not want to be involved in any sort of escalation or conflict in ukraine and their priorities were more domestic you may start to see a little bit of a shift and i think we have seen that actually but to actually see some numbers behind a shift where you see americans desire to be a little bit more involved with this now that we're seeing these devastating images and zolensky appears to be very aware of what those images have have done i mentioned in our earlier program and we were covering that speech that the american audience is a visual one and i know that member members of congress saw that video and removed from what i'm hearing i heard one lawmaker tell me before i left the hill that uh he could hear people sniffling or perhaps crying when that video came on so zalensky is aware of the audiences he is in front of he also knows that this is being transmitted to the entire global community rhonda mentioned that video that was played during president zielinski's remarks after that he switched to english and made a direct and emotional appeal to president biden imploring president biden to lead the rest of the world in protecting ukraine let's watch peace in your country doesn't depend anymore only on you and your people it depends on those next to you and those who are strong strong doesn't mean big strong is brave and ready to fight for the life of his citizens and citizens of the world for human rights for freedom for the right to live instantly and to die when your time comes and not when it's wanted by someone else by your neighbor today the ukrainian people are defending not only ukraine we are fighting for the values of europe and the world and at the leader of my niche i am addressing the president biden you are the leader of the nation of your abbreviation i wish you to be the leader of the world being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace ukrainian president zielinski earlier today in his virtual address to congress james let's talk about what zelinski put on the table in terms of his ask a no-fly zone he wants to see polish jets funneled through the u.s into ukraine but he also had some other requests other options on the table essentially yeah and and it there was a pragmatic side to that speech where he i think in many ways calling for the no-fly zone is actually a nod to his domestic audience in ukraine because they see these bombs coming down and they want the americans to come in and prevent aircraft from dropping the bombs which is why that part of the speech was in ukrainian and it is notable that uh zielinski said if you're not willing to do that here are these other things uh you know the the truth is that the billions in weaponry that the united states is funneling into ukraine in a lot of ways is actually more effective than a no-fly zone might be a kind of a no-fly zone is a high risk relatively low reward especially because a lot of the missile strikes that are coming down on ukraine that are causing the most trauma that are hitting the apartment buildings etc are being fired from russian airspace they're not being fired from planes above ukraine so even if you had the no-fly zone even if it wasn't going to lead to escalation you you still would see those strikes hitting ukrainian civilian targets that's one of the reasons that he asked for a surface-to-air missile a system you know the s 200 there's the s-300s what's kind of a amusing or ironic levy is that those are russian-made systems they're soviet era the systems and the former eastern bloc countries have them from when they were part of the warsaw pact uh turkey has s-300 missile defense system that it bought from russia uh and and faced a lot of criticism from the united states for doing so and that's what zelinski wants uh the u.s to help arrange the us doesn't have any of those systems because again they're russian made but clearly zielinski believes that the americans can maneuver and maybe backfill if the romanians or the bulgarians give some of their air defense systems to the ukrainians who know how to operate them then america could give a better systems uh that the u.s manufactures to some of those eastern european countries there also uh is reporting uh that the president is increasingly leaning toward giving drones uh to the ukrainians uh the turks the the drones could be immensely powerful from the us they've gotten some from turkey but they could get more from the americans let's talk more about that in just a moment thank you james i just want to mention it's a little afternoon here in washington d.c you see that image of the white house we are awaiting president biden's remarks they should be coming soon you can also see a live image there of keeve ukraine's capital 6 p.m there night is falling as the city is in curfew again overnight the curfew this 35-hour curfew lifts tomorrow morning at 7 a.m i want to go back to jeff stein jeff i have more questions about sanctions you know you detailed for us how they are having a real toll the sanctions that not just the united states but the but you know much of the international community barring countries like china are putting on russia but who do sanctions actually punish who actually feels the sanctions well it depends on which sanctions you're referring to right i mean there really are two separate tracks for the sanctions there's the sanctions designed to stop the russian economy as a whole the measures targeting the central bank the measures targeting different parts of the economy um and that's really one basket but then there really are um sanctions that are are not meant to be broad-based and or not that really target individuals that cut off um their ability to travel abroad and allow in many cases for the seizure of their overseas assets so really i think useful to think about those operating on two distinct tracks i think just quickly to um go back to what james was saying about zielinski's ass um to to the uh to congress i reported on friday that um in a private call um biden between biden and zielinski zalinski asked biden to broaden the list of sanctioned russian officials so far a lot of members of the russian parliament have been sanctioned by the west but that list is relatively small compared to the overall russian government tons of regional officials and others that ukraine wants to be sanctioned as well um so we'll see you know if the west follows suit of course there's a question of even if the the people of russia suffer terribly because of sanctions how much does that impact their leader vladimir putin the one who's making the decisions it's a great question that we don't have an answer to i mean i think for a lot of americans this um this economic battle has really uh made clear which i think you know some people have known for a long time but it is not maybe broadly known that the us has just absolutely extraordinary power to destroy a nation's economy you know the world's reserve um you know uh assets are in dollars the world's um uh really dependent on on u.s dollars in the u.s financial system and if we cut off um a foreign country from the global economy it has devastating consequences for everyday people there um we are looking at you know potentially tremendous humanitarian consequences then also the sanctions may make it more difficult to get humanitarian aid into russia and maybe even ukraine um and so these unintended consequences are are really dramatic and we shouldn't lose sight of them i spoke to a senior administration official last week and i asked the question that you're asking and i said are you worried that there are going to be lots of innocent russians that are going to get their lives completely ruined and this person said you know i think about that all the time i you know this is a thing that we weigh very seriously but that they see you know military options as off the table and want to respond as dramatically as possible to this unwarranted incursion into a sovereign country thanks so much jeff stein really appreciate it let's talk to pentagon reporter dan lamoth now dan first of all you know i'm fascinated by the white house's pushback dan on some of the asks that the ukrainians have on the table we're hearing a message from the white house that they believe what is being supplied is helpful and is actually the targeted tools dan that the ukrainians need rather than a no-fly zone which obviously zelinsky is pushing for there's a natural push-pull there the united states continues to expand what it's willing to send how much of it etc but for obvious reasons zielinski's always going to be asking for more you can kind of understand the desire from his perspective to expand as much outside help as he can get so yes we've seen uh you know i think that this discussion today is likely to probably center on those air defense systems uh missiles that shoot down planes missiles that can shoot down other missiles on occasion uh that's notable that's important uh and and that would even from the ground in a large way created a very difficult spot for the uh for the russians to be flying they're already losing aircraft but you know to a much greater degree the more air defense systems you put in place the larger you can kind of stretch that umbrella that makes it a a no-go for russians to fly dan talk to us about how we're getting information from the ground in ukraine on what's happening how is the information being filtered in terms of the defense department and getting information out to reporters and the american public how much do they know they have certainly have a lot of gaps in their knowledge and and some of that simply because there aren't u.s boots on the ground here the way you know i think a lot of americans are accustomed after 20 years of war so you're not seeing the same level of fidelity on you know where troops are what they're doing uh we don't have american aircraft overhead the way we have in iraq afghanistan etc so that that that plays a significant role we have had a significant challenge on on occasion uh checking not only uh russian claims but ukrainian claims as well several of which have also turned out to be wrong so dan tell us more about what we know about the defenses of the ukrainians and some of the strategy that they're bringing to this fight you know with this this behemoth force that has rolled into their country now that we're kind of past the those first few days where you know russia obviously made their play and to try to get into kiev and some of these other major cities and were repelled they've made their way into russia they do have control of certain parts of the country but to a large degree the major cities have held so what you're seeing is the longer the ukrainians can hold out the more you can add various defenses that goes in all kind of all directions ranging from molotov cocktails putting barriers in the road you're seeing old vehicles dragged in the middle of intersections anything you could do to slow down a russian onslaught into the city so the longer this goes the more difficult it gets for the russians on that front and then you add on top of that their own problems with logistics fuel food etc you know we've had a lot of reports of russians you know more or less fading into the woodwork as things get difficult for them that also is going to drag this out from the russian perspective one of the stories you reported on recently was this warning from the united states to china not to assist russia what concerns are on the table and uh what sort of power does the do the us and and other allies have to nudge china on this issue china has i think tried to kind of play a middle ground here between russia and the the rest of the international community uh so russia is going to make the request at some point they're going to need additional munitions uh they're going to need other resources fuel things of things of that sort uh and and the question is is china willing to either you know overtly or more covertly willing to supply any of this the united states is trying to you know get in the way of that out front let's bring in white house reporter tyler pager tyler there's really the question we talk about the push pull between what the ukrainians are asking for and what the americans can provide but there's also a push pull between congress and the white house so talk to us about that dynamic and you know how the white house perceives congress in leading or following yeah we've seen a few examples of congress really pushing the white house to take action the most notable one of course is the ban on oil and gas imports from russia we saw congress taking steps to passing legislation to just doing doing just that only for the president to jump out in front and announce that through executive order uh before congress really moved on that legislation and i think we saw today with uh president zilinski addressing congress directly in this extraordinary speech a recognition of congress taking a really active role in trying to set the agenda in terms of what u.s policy toward russia and ukraine at this moment is and i think it is a moment it is a it is a dynamic we've seen also with regard to europe europe has really taken the lead in the sanctions and in the response on many fronts with the u.s supporting and facilitating some of those actions but announcing similar actions only after europe has taken them tyler we'll see president biden out today with the secretary of state israel's uh joint chiefs chair what sort of a message is he sending by who he surrounds himself in a moment like this so much of his uh announcements to the american people have been president biden at the podium and that very sort of presidential white house look yeah i think today there's going to be a focus on the military assistance that the the us is providing to ukraine there's been a lot of pressure both from zielinski and u.s lawmakers for the united states to take to take more action to help the ukrainian people in their military fight i think as we see the president flanked by the nation's top military leaders it will underscore the message that the united states is is providing more military support for ukraine as it comes that zielinski has asked for even more obviously the no-fly zone is is the biggest ask he is making it's clear biden and many other u.s officials do not support that but i think they want to show a united front throughout this entire policy process it's been very clear that biden is trying to find unanimity with it with allies and also within the u.s government as he takes more aggressive steps to punish russia and assist ukraine in their fight against russia president biden's planning to go to europe next week what do we know about this trip and its significance yeah i think it's incredibly significant for the president to make this overseas trip to brussels the trip is still coming uh together there are there are reports of other potential stops as part of this uh europe trip but i think two things one the president has not made many overseas trips this will only be his third time leaving the country since taking office a lot of that obviously has to do with the persistence of the pandemic but i think the fact that the president is going overseas and appearing in person alongside european european allies to show again this this unity this you know almost unprecedented unity in response to the russian invasion i think president biden wants to be there um and stand side by side with these leaders he's expected to to meet with nato and and the european union and i think it also could be a time to plot out additional steps and additional measures um in terms of if if this conflict persists but also try to find ways um for for cooperation and ultimately some sort of peace deal we saw today jake sullivan spoke with his russian counterpart the first you know high-level meeting that we know of between the u.s and russia since this conflict has begun and i think it's an opportunity for them to try to plot a path forward to try to find an end to this conflict and tell her before we let you go you were reporting last night on uh vice president harris's husband the second gentleman doug emhoff testing positive for coronavirus this is the first uh you know that we know of of the first or second families uh revealing a positive test do do we know how if he's been around the vice president if he's been around president biden uh how concerned are our white house staffers about this case yeah so as you mentioned this is the first really high profile case in the biden white house since he took office what we know the timeline of events here is that the vice president was with her husband early yesterday morning and then she spent most of the day with fiden she went to the oval office for the presidential daily brief and then attended an event with the president and congressional leaders to sign a bill uh the second gentleman doug emhoff went about his own schedule going to an event with americorps members in washington um and then sometime after that he tested positive for kovid we know he first took a rapid test that tested negative uh and then an anta pcr test that was positive and out of abundance of caution harris's spokeswoman said that she cancelled her appearance at an event with biden and second lady our first lady jill biden at the white house was speaking with white house officials today the vice president is on campus doing her work in her office she's not going to appear with the president today out of an abundance of caution but they are following cdc guidelines which you know do not mandate her to take a test immediately we're waiting to see if she does take a test in and what those results might say but it does not seem to be a lot of concern in the white house i think this is obviously the closest the covet the chronovirus has gotten to the oval office since finance they can take in uh become president but but i do think um there is some concern uh that this could uh you know travel around the white house but it does not seem that they are altering any sort of precautions as a result of of m hof's diagnosis tyler page your white house reporter thank you so much james it's a reminder that uh while coronavirus cases are very much down and a lot of precautions are loosening that cases are still out there we just saw a cluster of house democrats uh contract it um yeah and a lot of focus now on president biden's trip next week right and making sure that he is healthy and ready to go overseas can you just put this ukrainian story in perspective right now as the white house contends with all the domestic stories uh and all the domestic issues on the agenda yeah libby the federal reserve is meeting today and likely to raise interest rates uh it it it hasn't been discussed because we've been so focused on the national security picture the hard reality is that the world is likely to slip into a recession later this year i was talking to a european leader a head of state this week who was saying that they are expecting a a recession a painful recession in europe uh partly the result uh of this invasion and the disruptions that it's caused the supply shocks there's already been the problem with inflation uh making everything cost more and and one of the real challenges right now when you talk about the domestic backdrop is that there's not a lot more you can do with regard to stimulus you know remember there were trillions and trillions of dollars that were poured out in 2020 and 2021 uh to try and and stimulate the economy the problem is you can't dump another trillion dollars into the economy right now because of inflation it would only make inflation worse which democrats and republicans both see as ultimately the number one problem for democrats in the midterm elections this year so you're not going to see a big stimulus package either in the united states or europe uh and so this is happening against you know the president is essentially asking americans to sacrifice uh by paying higher gas prices thus far they've been willing to do so uh if the pain becomes protracted especially in europe will the west stay the course and that's one of the reasons why these kinds of speeches we're about to hear from president biden are so important because it is about rallying national support about keeping people together and i'll tell you ultimately the white house is quite pleased uh to have republicans coming at him uh biden for not doing enough rather than for doing too much because they feel like that inoculates them to some degree from criticism down the road uh that you know biden was more focused on ukraine than he was focused on on america which is what we heard from republicans before the invasion you know it was a common gop talking point for people to say biden cares more about the ukrainian border than the southern border you're not hearing that really anymore uh there has been some hope among white house allies that biden would see a bump from this uh that it would it would increase his approval rating which remains in the low 40s uh so far while the president is getting pretty high marks for his handling of ukraine it's not translating into really a meaningful increase in support and that's because most americans still don't approve of the job that he's doing on the economy and covet has become less top of mind despite these latest infections dan lamothe let's talk about the secretary of defense lloyd austin tell us about what he's doing and how he fits in to uh to this this you know puzzle uh that the white house is assembling in in working on the aid package relief package etc uh he's in europe at the moment uh he's in brussels today as the defense ministers across the international community meet in brussels uh from there he's expected to go to both slovakia and bulgaria this week so the question becomes you know what kind of uh systems might bulgaria and um slovakia be willing to offer to ukraine uh they also have some of those old systems that the ukrainians are familiar with uh and and i would imagine if i'm a slovakian uh official i'm also looking for some sort of assurances uh that the united states would either backfill those systems or provide protection um should russia then target you know those other countries after that yes defense secretary austin's it's a relatively quiet character within the administration uh we hear from him on occasion uh but but he's he's pretty reserved with his remarks and and it can be some pretty opaque to get a sense for his thinking white house bureau chief ashley parker now joins me by phone from the white house let's go to ashley now so ashley we expect president biden to speak in about 10 minutes time give us a sense of what's happening at the white house today sure so president biden was originally supposed to speak about an hour ago after zolensky's address to congress we the white house press corps who's here today we gathered on sort of pebble beach in front of the white house and then right before we're supposed to head over to his remarks we were told well it's going to be a while which if you cover president biden you are quite familiar with because he's often running late so they rescheduled for an hour later and president biden in the speech today as we and others have reported is expected to announce 800 million in new security assistance to ukraine that would put the total um from the administration to uh 1 billion in just this past week and roughly 2 billion total since uh since president biden has has been president which which seems in its own way uh an understandable move to basically you know try to answer uh what was originally president valencia's expected appeal then it was the appeal we actually saw this morning for some things that president biden is unwilling and unable to provide with some of the things that he can actually do ashley you know does the white house have a sense we were talking to tyler page about this does the white house have a sense of whether congress is leading on this and pushing the white house or is the white house trying to stake out territory that they are making their own decisions i mean it's really been a mix up until recently in this crisis it was the white house leading in part because before russia actually invaded most of the stuff was you know the white house behind the scenes uh working with nato allies and other western countries to present a unified and strong front against the the potential for russian aggression and that that's sort of where it was uh originally and in part because congress initially couldn't get their act together congress had tried to do a sanctions package uh before russia invaded um or right around when russia invaded and basically were only able to come up with sort of like a statement of strong disapproval now that the invasion has started you are seeing the white house being pushed a bit by congress i think a perfect example of that is specifically what happened with uh russian the the biden administration initially being very skeptical about banning imports of russian oil and gas and then once you saw a sort of bipartisan movement and pushing on that from congress the white house coming around and doing that but there are other areas that congress is pushing for for instance zolensky has requested these uh polish mig fighter jets um to be provided to ukraine um and the us would have to help facilitate that that's something where you actually have not just republicans pushing but some bipartisan support and the administration has so far said no so it's a real mix thanks so much ashley parker at the white house and we are awaiting president biden's remarks in just a moment dan lamothe tell us more about those polish jets and and what the ukrainians believe they could help with and why there's that reluctance by the americans to facilitate their transfer sure you're talking about the mig-29 um which which is a kind of soviet-era plane the ukrainians have been flying them that is the system they are familiar with the the deal that was sort of proposed by the polish uh would have had uh their mig-29 jets delivered to the united states in germany uh on an air base in germany with the united states then transferring those planes in some fashion to ukraine that that creates concerns on a couple fronts one uh it makes that air base in germany a target so i would imagine there are probably german concerns there two it becomes a question of whether or not that drags nato on a larger level into this conflict the united states also looked at it and saw that the ukrainians are only flying their jets several hours per day at the moment they still have supposedly about 56 as of last count makes it available available to them already uh so from the us perspective it was it was seen as they don't necessarily need them at the moment uh and those would be offensive systems and that there was the concern of how russia would respond certainly there's a lot of disagreement over that issue um so dan you know there is the question of of just how much strength i'm gonna use that near quote strength that the that the americans and other allies should show and how putin responds to strength because we've heard some analysts say actually showing strength is a is a logical way to respond to someone like putin what are the calculations going into that you know that that language because there's showing strength and then there's also escalating a situation that could lead to direct conflict or a greater war all of this is is assessments and to some degree a guessing game there's the you know a sense that there's the viewpoints vary so wildly on how to handle this uh and and everybody's kind of making their best assessments as they go there's disagreements on what the best bet is yes you can show more strength you could put your american boots on the ground if you wanted but all of that has consequences if you have that no-fly zone you are putting american troops in ukrainian airspace facing russian missiles russian planes uh and really if you're gonna do the no-fly zone kind of in its totality you'd actually have to take out russian missiles that are based in russia because they can launch into ukraine from there so this is not this is not an easy button it's a complicated issue to get to so there's the question of defensive operations dan versus offensive operations how much is the pentagon talking about everything in terms of defense versus providing the ukrainians offensive weapons everything has come with a defensive uh weapons tag to it uh and and certainly if i'm sitting in a russian tank right now and i have a javelin missile coming my way that doesn't look defensive uh but but from the american perspective from the international community perspective it's giving the ukrainians the ability to defend themselves against an invasion once you start talking about jets the idea at least is that those jets could be used uh somehow in russia and and that that at least for the biden administration to date is a step too far what will you be listening for dan as we hear president biden outline this 800 million dollars give us some more specifics about what it could be allotted to i'm really looking to see what what's new in this package the the packages have continued to grow uh both in size but also in scope uh you know what what the united states is offering to the ukrainians uh continues to include additional kinds of weapons you know that there was a discussion you know a couple months ago where stinger missiles uh these uh kind of man-portable missiles that you can be launched from the ground uh at helicopters and low-flying planes that was a two step too far at that time that that's now a part of these packages regularly there are pallets of stinger missiles being delivered so things change over time i'll be looking in particular to see what additional air defense systems might be going and what kind all right let's go to rhonda colvin for what she'll be listening for today rhonda with your congressional hat on what are your ears tuned into yeah i've been saying this for the last uh week or so that i i'm always listening for any sort of hint or direction the president might give on where his thinking is on air power and military defense it's coming after what zelensky said today about wanting that no-fly zone so i want to hear how president biden follows up on that and beyond the words i think i'll also be just looking at the tone he's coming at with this these remarks shortly that zelensky addressed to congress was very powerful like i said many members of congress are still talking about it i'm getting in my email statement after statement from senators and house members who are talking about how emotional they got i joni ernst who is a veteran she commented that she just wanted to put on her uniform and go help somehow so coming after that address that we heard today i think president biden the tone that he decides to strike with this is going to be very important and also give us a sense of of where his direction is right now what's his thinking what's his his calculus right now as it appears there may be members of congress who will be pressing him on that issue of uh providing air support so i just want to see what he has to say on that it will be interesting if it doesn't come up at all even if it's just talking about some of this money we'll be going to more air defense i'll be listening for anything on that subject james howard let's go to you and i'll start by asking you what you'll be listening for but then i also want to talk about some of the alliances that president biden is really trying to keep stoking and pushing as we head into this let's start with what you'll be listening for well yeah i've been wondering if the reason biden's an hour late is because he wants to make his own cool video with uh powerful images and slicker maybe he's going to get a an olive green t-shirt to wear obviously quite a contrast between president zielinski and president biden you heard president zolanski talk about being in his mid-40s uh he's the father of two young children uh but talking about how his heart stops when young children die here is uh you know an american president who is at the tail end of a half-century political career someone you know who was very much came of age during the cold war now when we talk about alliances libby you know nato has not been this strong since the end of the cold war and uh president biden's trip to brussels next week for an extraordinary meeting of nato is pretty significant now you can see from this map the these countries are in nato the great countries are not in nato and it really underscores how important the alliance is that putin invaded georgia in 2008.
he invaded ukraine in 2014 and has been there ever since uh belarus has essentially become a vassal state of the russians again sweden and finland terrified looking potentially uh to to try and join nato but in a lot of ways quite protected although finland has uh terrible memories from world war ii of being invaded by the soviets uh the the term molotov cocktails comes from the finnish resistance to russia's invasion what you heard president zielenski propose toward the end of his speech was what he called u-24 he said a new era calls for a new alliance and the idea is that this would be this international alliance that would respond when anyone is attacked the reason he's doing that is because as he said just yesterday the odds of ukraine being welcomed into nato are pretty low and what you're certain to hear from president biden because he said it in every public statement that he's made over the last three weeks is that the american commitment to these countries in green the nato countries is iron clad that an attack on one is an attack on all that the united states will defend every single inch of nato over the weekend those missile strikes uh in northwest ukraine came within really about 20 miles of the polish border there's absolutely a chance even without doing the no-fly zone there could be miscalculation a lot of the russian bombs aren't as accurate as american bombs it's it's possible that the there could be a strike over the border and that creates a massive crisis and would in a lot of ways demand an american response the other country that's very concerned right now is moldova which is this small country here in gray also not part of nato so the united states not obligated by treaty to defend that country uh but they're also trying to connect themselves as much as possible to nato support uh inviting u.s troops if they want to come in to come in uh and meanwhile the united states continues to deploy more and more american troops to sort of reassure not just poland where a million and a half refugees have now come but also the baltic states up here estonia latvia lithuania terrified that russia could move in there and and so you you're seeing including in romania just people like joni ernst wanting to suit up to help the american military obviously not there for offensive reasons but in some ways those troops are being deployed almost as a trip wire so that if putin did cross the border into nato and americans died american public opinion would demand a more forceful response uh but there was a poll just released in the last few minutes from pew of americans that was just conducted and it found that only 35 percent of americans want to risk a war with russia to send any troops into ukraine that includes a no-fly zone so in a lot of ways president biden is is being respectful of what he sees as public opinion let's go to dan lamothe for more on those american troops that are that are stationed there right across the border dan and are in some of those nato countries talk to us more about sort of the logic and calculation there sure in poland in particular the number has been bumped up to about five thousand uh you're also seeing troops in places like romania grow and grow in numbers uh these are not enough troops where if russia were to somehow shift a major invasion in that direction they alone would would be dealing with it there would there would be additional reinforcements coming from from germany and other places but the idea is make it clear where the nato boundary is make it clear that we are willing to defend that boundary as a nation uh and and basically do everything possible to deter russia from shifting in that direction be it now or two years from now all right dan lama thank you so much really appreciate it um james president biden has this trip plan we've been talking about it going to europe next week you know uh we've been reminded of the context by tyler pager that this is not a president who's taken trips like this really i mean he's been a very homebound president in part because of coronavirus in part because of domestic issues he's been dealing with here what does this mean to see biden head over to europe next week well it's notable because his most recent foreign trip was also to europe for the cop 26 climate uh conference in the g7 in rome uh and as tyler noted this is going to be his third trip it shows that you know biden is in many ways a cold warrior uh and despite his best efforts and the efforts of the last few american presidents he's not really able to make the pivot from america's focus being on europe to being on asia obviously we've talked during this program about the role that china's playing and the meetings between u.s officials and chinese officials in recent days but what it really illustrates is that you know biden sees american leadership is really important he sees physically being there is his way to demonstrate that america is back uh he spent a great deal of time in ukraine uh as vice president this was part of his portfolio uh and he made a lot of trips after the basically revolution in 2014 installed a pro-western government and indeed a a white house official told me that in biden's first call with zielinski when he was president zielinski was quoting back speeches that biden had delivered uh in ukraine to the ukrainian parliament and saying you know this was so important this was such a good speech i remember it and that that deeply impressed biden and it showed people in the white house that zelinski was doing his homework and taking the meeting seriously so in a lot of ways biden just like the united states very oriented toward europe and often that has come at the expense of paying attention to asia obviously the administration trying to do both rhonda colvin you know as president zielinski uh really called on american patriotism and american pride today you know we also heard from members of congress who feel a strong kinship to ukraine you talked to the co-chair of the ukraine caucus in the house how are are they talking to their constituents ukrainian-americans of which there's a large population in the united states how are they absorbing the concerns of their constituents and then pressing the white house to uh to do what they think should be a heightened response yeah that that interview was with representative mike quigley who represents a part of chicago and chicago historically has had a lot of ukrainian americans settle there chicago also the cleveland area have high numbers of folks who identify as ukrainian and he said you know they're very passionate many people from the chicago area are also from the region whether it be poland or other countries and they're all sort of banning together he spoke about a rally he attended recently with senator dick durbin who also uh is from illinois and how impassioned everyone is because they are very aware if this happened to ukraine it could also happen to poland it could also happen in moldova so they are very attuned to what's going on and we're also hearing that from folks who are in other areas like i said cleveland has a lot of ukrainian americans as well who are holding prayer services at i'm from the uh close to the area of cleveland where there are a lot of ukrainian born people and i know there are a lot of church services holding prayer vigils for family and friends over in ukraine and i know representative quickly said for these people they may be american citizens but they have family members very close family members there and this is something that is is so front and center to their daily lives right now so a lot of lawmakers are hearing from constituents on another side i've heard from a representative who is from california and she represents a district that has a lot of veterans and a lot of them are concerned they may have family members who are in active duty and they're wondering will they have to eventually go off to war on this so they're calling congress members about that so this is something this is not a distant issue for most americans whether it be you you know people who are there or you just care about the images that you're seeing every day and seeing this unprovoked attack turn into something that appears like it may be a long haul so that's what members of congress are saying about the issue currently and i i assume they will continue to hear from their constituents on this uh specifically if things continue to escalate um i was also looking at the monitor here and looking at the room and i don't know if this was a part of the delay but if you notice this is a lot different of a setup than we've seen from president biden when he has made remarks on ukraine it looks a little bit more polished it seems that he does want to appear to be giving a robust uh remarks today on where the united states stands after the zielinski speech and of course where they stand on the issue of aid and continuing aid to support ukraine james this question of sort of optics and what the white house wants to show a lot of the times prior to this it's been president biden in that very classic visual of the solo american president at the podium right which they want to to show a reflection of his decision-making he's the one in power today a different setup as we see him flanked by other representatives of his team exactly showing that this is a whole government response that he's not isolated and alone that the entire american government is mobilizing to do everything within reason to help the ukrainians about the ground in ukraine james as we await president biden's remarks here it's after 6 p.m in kiev dusk has fallen there is a curfew in place in the capital city until tomorrow morning what do we know about russia's advances on the ground and the ukrainians defensive operations yeah the battle for keeve obviously this continues to be russia's main prize today we did see a counter offensive from some of the ukrainian defense forces aimed at russian forces moving on the city from here and here you know these are the suburbs this is a city of several million people the pink here is where russian troops are they still have not been able to take control of harkev the second biggest city in the country a city of one and a half million people or tsharnaev both cities continue to get shelled uh we've we've mentioned that there have been about a thousand missile strikes now unfortunately uh the news is less good for the ukrainians in southern ukraine mario paul which is one of the largest cities in the country down here has been surrounded uh literally hundreds of ukrainians are blocked into a hospital by the russians it's very hard for anyone to get in or out the russians let through a few cars of ukrainians but not many it really is a terrible situation here we're talking you know mass graves of children uh this is it's it's horrifying uh and the the a lot of the just the most brutal shelling has taken place here uh the the russians have also gotten control of kirsan what that means is that all that's standing between the russian land forces and odessa the that really the gem uh wonderful seaside city so much history is mikhail uh there's also a nuclear power plant here that uh that is is disconcerting so russia uh one of the most surprising things thus far about the invasion is that they have not made a play for odessa there have been some shelling there are a lot of carriers and subs and other russian naval forces in the black sea there's been talk about an amphibious landing uh but odessa is so far been spared the worst uh as this week so far uh has the west the big news story on on the weekend in on sunday was that the russian forces bombed a uh a base where until a month ago u.s troops were training ukrainian forces a lot of equipment that's been coming in from poland has been going through this base that's near the border uh there were no u.s troops there according to the pentagon uh and so they bombed that really i think to send a message about about not getting uh too involved and basically to use a baseball term brushing the plate uh the u.s diplomatic presence is now in levive instead of keeve that those diplomats were moved before the invasion uh you know so increasingly there is sort of a scenario where as these negotiations between the ukrainians and the russians get more serious you could have uh essentially the ukrainian government remain in control of the western half of the country the nipper river here is the historic dividing line between east and west uh a lot of the uh the people who live over here are russian speakers much more so than in the western part of the country where they tend to be more aligned with the europeans and the you know obviously that's an outcome that really neither side wants uh because uh putin wanted to conquer the whole country zelinski wants to save the country uh and you know a lot of the east is now basically in rubble but if uh if if putin withdrew uh you know these cities would take potentially decades to rebuild i mean the uh the in harkev a city of one and a half million people these cathedrals and art museums and buildings that are hundreds of years old have been completely destroyed the other news that's happening today libby is uh sumi here uh russian forces have been coming from the east and the west uh and and it's pretty close to the border uh there have been humanitarian corridors here and some ukrainians have been able to get out heading toward poland now about three million refugees have left this country as you've noted there is this curfew in kiev uh right now that's in effect uh the the there there really is a lot of girding we've heard from our colleagues during uh this special report uh about the kind of the the cloud that hangs over key right now there could be a lot of very very tough urban fighting uh in the coming days in potentially a real humanitarian catastrophe if russia is able to get control of the southern area south of the city that would allow them to have this pincer movement to run siege operations on the city where the president zielinski still is but right now ukrainians are able to escape keeve going south uh and uh there are some roads that they can get out to from the west as well james as you talk about what could happen in kyiv and remind us of just the devastating tragedies happening in mario pole where we are seeing mass graves and everything else you just have to step back and be reminded that it's all it's all senseless like many wars there there is no purpose to it and the ukrainians continue to ask for help the question is just what help will be effective and what won't create an escalation so i want to play back a little bit of president zielinski's address to both chambers of congress earlier today we're keeping our eye on the white house and that podium we'll go to president biden as soon as he comes out and begins to make his remarks but let's listen to this brief clip of what president zielinski is most eager for which is a no-fly zone over ukraine you can hear the translation of this clip russian troops have already fired nearly 1 000 missiles at ukraine countless bombs they use drones to kill us with precision this is a terror that europe has not seen has not seen for 80 years and we are asking for a reply for an answer to this terror from the whole world is this a lot to ask for to create a no-fly zone zone over ukraine to save people is this too much to ask humanitarian no-fly zone something that ukraine that russia would not be able to terrorize our free cities if this is too much to ask we offer an alternative you know what kind of defense systems we need as 300 and other similar systems you know how much depends on the battlefield on the ability to use aircraft powerful strong air aviation to protect our people our freedom our land aircraft that can help ukraine president zielinski earlier today talking to members of congress also pleading with president biden and really talking to the american people at large calling on the american patriotism and the american sense of leadership to help out ukraine which we will hear president biden talk in a few moments about the u.s is doing through all sorts of monetary means as well as military means but i do have this news from the associated press that the nato secretary general has ruled out a role for any military organization for the nato organ any any country within nato the nato organization itself to set up and police a no-fly zone over ukraine james i stumbled on that a little bit but but let me repeat it that nato will not create a no-fly zone this is significant news but it's also not surprising this is the most definitive statement that has been made but it's a reminder nato wants no no part of of a no-fly zone which literally could lead to world war iii it the russians have made it clear that that would be escalatory if an american plane got shot down they would find themselves in potentially a full-scale conflict as dan lamothe was telling us be you know enforcing a no-fly zone could mean striking targets inside russia or belarus uh which would be a causa spell eye act of war uh so nato making clear that they're not going to do it is consistent with the white house making clear that they're not going to support this and it's not the united states alone that is reluctant to do this it's several other nato members including germany uh in france that are also hesitant to take this kind of escalatory action the hard truth is that ukraine is not a member of nato the article 5 obligations do not apply the goal of nato is to make this as bloody and painful for putin as possible to deter him from coming into nato and to make clear that if he does go into nato we are talking about world war iii that that is a war that the united states is willing to engage in uh and that i think you know one of the things the president is going to be doing in this speech is trying to be clear-eyed but not cold-hearted he's going to talk about the ways that the united states is supporting ukraine there are other things that the u.s is doing that he's not going to talk about that remain covert and clandestine in order to you know funnel as much support into ukraine as possible but it really is just a breathtaking amount of weapons and a just large sums of money are being spent to surge american and western weapons into ukraine including from turkey uh which is a nato member on the other side of the black sea here so ukraine has as dan was saying you know nearly 50 jets migs that uh they're capable of using now uh the the weapons that are coming in uh including surface-to-air missiles uh are are quite capable of preventing russia from getting dominance of the skies over this country it's so easy to forget and it's worth reminding ourselves you know ukraine is the size of texas the from from the eastern part of ukraine to the western part of ukraine this is from the distance from new york to chicago this is a you know it's a it's a it's a large country uh and that's one of the reasons the russians have struggled to get control rhonda james said the president has to be clear-eyed but not cold-hearted and and you've been talking about that that this isn't happening in a vacuum right that it's coming on the heels of president zielinski's impassioned remarks to congress uh earlier that devastating video that he played showing the the trauma and horrors of war and so the president has to put that in context and realize he's speaking to the american people to members of congress also to president zielinski as he makes these remarks that's correct and i think that's been his approach all along we've covered uh now several of these remarks from president biden on the issue of ukraine and what he usually does is it's two-fold it's educational where he is trying to tell the american public uh where the u.s stands on this issue showing that uh the white house is supporting ukraine and also letting americans know how this will affect them we've heard several times in these remarks where he talks about gas prices potentially going up and they have been because of a ban on russian oil imports he has been very clear about those issues so i think that we will likely see that type of president biden again today where he will give sort of a very direct and clear view of where america stands uh where the world stands right now and you almost have to wonder if this delay is associated with that news out of uh from ap about nato saying definitively that they will not support any sort of no-fly zone that has really been one part of president biden's approach to ukraine over the last few weeks that has faced probably the most criticism is that he has said over and over again that the u.s will not be involved in any sort of no-fly zone and involve our troops in that so i don't know if they have not yet done any reporting on that behind the scenes yet on if that was a part of the reason why we're saying over an hour now of a delay but president biden if you look at all of these remarks he's made on ukraine it has been very human understanding and underscoring that this is a crisis for people in the global community but also letting americans know uh where he stands where those red lines are and where he thinks we should be going next and most of the time it's about aid it's about humanitarian assistance is about sending weapons rhonda the last time we saw president biden talking about this directly having a a moment to specifically talk about ukraine uh was on friday and he was calling for an end to normal trade relations with russia something that congress has to act on but president biden was essentially announcing it tell us where that is at yeah and just to give a little bit of background on that congress actually was ready with legislation to reform those trade relations with russia and end normal trade relations with russia they had planned on voting on that last tuesday however we're told by sources in the white house that biden wanted to wait on that and so they pulled that out of the legislation that they voted on restricting oil imports from russia so that was pulled out in order to give the white house an opportunity to take the lead on it and also to coordinate with our allies on how they were going to address their own reform of trade with russia so right now that legislation is being prepared because in the u.s you do need your legislative branch to vote on any sort of uh change and rules with our with our trade so that is where that is right now i'm told that that is uh it is currently right now under negotiation and perhaps will be voted on this week but that is another example of how you've seen a congress kind of be full steam ahead on some issues on ukraine in the areas that they can do what they can vote on versus what the executive branch can do and and that was one glaring example last week of congress doing that and the biden white house asking for them to kind of put a pause on it so that they could make those announcements and make those first moves james and ronda are staying with us we are awaiting president biden's remarks and we'll bring those to you as soon as they start but we want to show some footage from ukraine our colleagues are there documenting what's happening and talking to people almost 3 million people in fact perhaps more than 3 million people have fled ukraine at this point according to the united nations and there are many more displaced inside of the country trying to find safety our colleague video journalist john gerberg has one story of a ten-year-old boy and his mother let's watch is [Music] foreign [Music] footage from john gerberg in ukraine uh just one of the families that has had to flee and you saw their the mother and wife saying that her husband couldn't leave of course because of the rules in ukraine barring men of fighting age uh from leaving the country james homan let's go to you to talk more about refugees and what we know about their plight and where they're going it's so important to be reminded you know that the this number 3 million three million it's three million people like those we just saw in in john's video and this is the biggest refugee influx we've seen inside europe since world war ii it's bigger than syria it's bigger than the balkans in the 90s 3 million people almost all of them going west the majority of them going into poland poland has said in recent days that they are at or near capacity to take in any more refugees and all 27 members of the eu block struggling to figure out how they can welcome in as many people as possible the biden administration has announced temporary protected status which affects about 75 000 ukrainians who were already here in the united states we're expecting an announcement from the administration soon unlikely in this speech but soon about humanitarian parole for ukrainians to try and and bring some of them into the united states the three million people could end up having really a major political impact the syrian refugees in 2015 2016 ended up leading to a backlash that led to a lot of nationalism a lot of nativism in a lot of these eastern european countries fears that the syrian refugees were taking jobs uh the the ukrainian refugees are being welcomed with much more open arms because a lot of these former warsaw pact countries in part uh know very well about russia and what it is capable of you know the even countries like ireland are taking in you know 50 000 refugees which when you compare that as a share of their population to the american population would be like the us taking in you know a million uh refugees so this is going to have cascading impacts second third fourth order implications on europe that we can't even really begin to imagine but for now there are you know a million and a half refugees in poland it's just a massive amount of people massive infrastructure needs and the united states is picking up a lot of the tab even though washington really isn't taking in a lot of refugees just yet the u.s government is going to end up paying for elections james we see president biden coming out now so we will go live to the white house good afternoon i want to begin by thanking president zielinski for his passionate message this morning i listened to it in the private residence and uh he was convincing and significant speech he speaks for people who have shown remarkable courage and strength in the face of brutal aggression courage and strength that's inspired not only the ukrainians but the entire world putin is inflicting appalling appalling devastation and horror on ukraine bombing apartment buildings maternity wards hospitals i mean it's it's god awful i was speaking about this with the our our our our commander behind here general milley i mean it just is amazing yesterday we saw reports that russian forces were holding hundreds of doctors and patients hostage in the largest hospital in mario pool these are atrocities they're an outrage to the world and the world is united in our support for ukraine and our determination to make putin pay a very heavy price america is leading this effort together with our allies and partners providing enormous levels of security and humanitarian assistance that we're adding to today and we're going to continue to do more in the days and weeks ahead we're crippling putin's economy with punishing sanctions that's going to only grow more painful over time with the entire nato and eu behind us and many other countries what's at stake here are the principles that the united states and the united nations and across the world stand for it's about freedom it's about the right of people to determine their own future it's about making sure ukraine never will never be a victory for putin no matter what advances he makes on the battlefield the american people are answering president zielinski's call for more help more weapons for ukraine to defend itself more tools to fight russian aggression and that's what we're doing in fact we started our assistance in ukraine before this war began as they started to do exercises along the ukrainian border the russians started in march of last year we took the threat of putin invading very seriously and we acted on it we sent ukraine more security assistance last year 650 million dollars in weapons including anti-air and anti-armor equipment before the invasion more than we had ever provided before so when the invasion began they already had in their hands the kinds of weapons that needed to counter russian advances and once the war started we immediately rushed 350 million in additional aid to further address their needs hundreds of anti-air systems thousands of anti-tank weapons transport helicopters arm patrol boats and other high mobility vehicles radar systems that help track incoming artillery and unmanned drones secure communications equipment and tactical gear satellite imagery and and analysis capacity and it's clearly helped ukraine inflict dramatic losses on russian forces on saturday my administration authorized another 200 million dollars to keep a steady flow of weapons and ammunition moving to ukraine now i'm once again using my presidential authority to actively activate an additional security assistance to continue to help ukraine fend off russia's assault an additional 800 million dollars in assistance that brings the total of new u.s security assistance to ukraine to 1 billion just this week these are the large these are direct transfers of equipment from our department of defense to the ukrainian military to help them as they fight against this invasion and i thank the congress for appropriating these funds this new package on its own is going to provide unprecedented assistance to ukraine it includes 800 anti-aircraft systems to make sure the ukrainian military can continue to can continue to stop the planes and helicopters that have been attacking their people and to defend our ukrainian airspace and at the request of president zielinski we have identified and are helping ukraine acquire additional longer-range anti-aircraft systems and the munitions for those systems our new assistance package also includes 9 000 anti-armor systems these are portable high high accurate high accurately high accuracy shoulder mounted missiles that the ukrainian forces have been using with great effect to destroy invading tanks and armored vehicles it will include 7 000 small arms machine guns shotguns grenade launchers to equip the ukrainians including the brave women and men who are defending their cities as civilians and they're on the countryside as well and we're and we and as well as the ammunition artillery and mortar rounds to go with small arms 20 million rounds in total 20 million rounds this will include drones which which demonstrates our commitment to sending our most cutting-edge systems to ukraine for its defense and we're not doing this alone our allies and partners have stepped up to provide significant shipments of security assistance and will continue to help facilitate these deliveries as well the united states and our allies and partners are fully committed to surging weapons of assistance to the ukrainians and more will be coming as we source additional stocks of equipment that are all that we're ready to transfer now now i want to be honest with you this could be a long and difficult battle but the american people will be steadfast in our support of the people of ukraine in the face of putin's immoral unethical attacks on civilian populations we are united in our abhorrence of putin's depraved onslaught and we're going to continue to have their backs as they fight for their freedom their democracy their very survival we're going to give ukraine the arms to fight and defend themselves through all the difficult days ahead we're going to continue to mobilize humanitarian relief to support people within ukraine and those have been forced to flee ukraine in just the past few weeks we provided 300 million humanitarian assistance to the people in ukraine and in neighboring countries tens of thousands of tons of food water medicine and other basic supplies to support the people in need our experts on the ground in poland and moldova and other neighboring countries are there to make real-time assessments of the rapidly evolving crisis to get urgently needed humanitarian supplies of the people in need when they need it and we will support ukraine's economy with direct financial assistance as well and together with our allies and partners we will keep up the pressure on putin's crumbling economy isolating him on the global stage that's our goal make putin pay the price weaken his position while strengthening the hand of the ukrainians on the battlefield at the negotiating table together with our allies and partners we're going to stay the course and we'll do everything we can to push for and end this tragic unnecessary war this is a struggle to pitch the appetites of an autocrat against humankind's desire to be free and let there be no doubt no uncertainty no question america stands with the forces of freedom we always have we always will i thank you all and god bless you and i'm going to walk over and sign this legislation sign this bill to allow the drawdown of those materials and may god protect their young ukrainians who are out there defending their country what i'm signing here is the delegation of covenant section 506 day one foreign assistance act of 1961.
translated into training a total of 800 million dollars [Applause] [Music] quickly you did just say that putin is going after hospitals president biden getting questions there from the press court gathered to watch him uh not answering a question asked specifically about these uh polish jets that ukraine has requested uh be allowed over the president detailed the military aid to ukraine and said that america stands with the forces of freedom he was flanked there by the secretary of state anthony blinken deputy defense secretary kathleen hicks and the chair of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley with me this afternoon at the washington post newsroom james homan and rhonda colvin rhonda let's go first to you on what the president outlined and also the tone that he struck yeah that's something that i kept my eye on is his tone coming after such an impassioned plea by ukraine's president earlier to congress and he started off biden started off his remarks there noting that speech and saying he watched it in the private residence he was moved and biden's tone seemed to be that of a humanitarian somebody who uh is trying to understand a president who is leading his country right now and that's under war and needing materials needing resources and has asked for more military air power but biden then went on to describe what is in this 800 million dollar package that he just signed right there he discussed more armaments more weapons that will be there to assist the ukrainians in fighting off the russians one of the things that struck me though is almost after every sentence he kept saying we are in this for the long haul we have ukraine's back right now we will support them ongoing he seemed to indicate that this is almost going to be perhaps a weekly or monthly or however long it will take effort by the united states that he said that the united states continues to stand with ukraine and he sort of gave us a glimpse into his thinking that this is not just you know one-time package where the one he signed yesterday is not a one-time thing but this is a part of consistent support the united states will give to ukraine such a good point rhonda james let's go to you for more on that the president embracing all of us uh as we've heard analysts also do that this could be protracted we don't know where and how this ends yeah libby and the president showing that the u.s is going to continue as he said surge weapons in will send more he listed off some things that they have not previously said they were providing ukrainians including drones those are potentially quite significant some of the other capabilities that the president mentioned are being sent into ukraine also quite significant all falling under the rubric of defensive weapons one term that the president did not use in those remarks was no-fly zone uh biden was you know in some ways the tone i thought felt defensive uh you know saying we are doing all these things we've given a billion dollars in security assistance this week alone uh but outlining what is actually on the table what is happening uh rather than what he's not willing to do and as you mentioned libby you know he did not answer the question about migs the reporters were yelling at the end he didn't talk about the no-fly zone either but you know 9 000 anti-armor systems shoulder-mounted missiles that are going to the ukrainians uh long-range air defense is the term that he used which is potentially quite significant 800 anti-aircraft systems and the quote you know if i was writing the the news story off of this the lead quote would be we're going to continue to have their backs james you know the white house is trying to make the argument that what the united states is helping to supply uh is what ukrainians can use and what ukrainians need uh talk to us about the pushback that ukrainians are giving why do they want the the polish migs and tell us even what what is a mig let's get to the very basics here i mean we're talking essentially about about russian equipment and technology that's what's so funny is the anti-aircraft system that the united states is facilitating the delivery of to ukraine was produced by the soviet union it's it's from russia uh mig by definition a mig is a is a soviet aircraft uh and so you know these are planes that are more than 30 years old uh they're fighter jets that's what the ukrainian pilots are trained on that's what ukraine has and you know i'll answer the question you know these migs are basically fighter jets from the top gun uh movie era but biden was um you know he noted that the us sent 650 million dollars in weapons before the invasion uh more than the u.s had ever given to ukraine before and he basically took some credit for that being why uh russia has been waylaid why they haven't been able to make more advances to your question ukraine saying well you know the country's still slipping away these major cities are are being lost to the russians and that wouldn't happen if there was air support and air superiority uh the you know the ukraine has good ground forces but uh has a weak air force and essentially no navy uh because it was based in crimea and russia took control of the ukrainian navy in 2014 and so they're saying that that's why it's so imperative that the nato countries provide that air support that we're unable to provide for ourselves rhonda colvin what questions do you take back to congress now since we've heard the president speak we also heard of course ukrainian leader zielinski speak earlier this morning where does this dialogue go from here i think my main question probably for the next few weeks is where do we go from here there are certain powers that congress has certain powers that the executive branch has um right now because we don't have any of our military involved in this on the ground in ukraine that's sort of where congress would begin any sort of uh action on the issue of war but uh we're not saying that that will happen and of course now that we know that nato is not uh supporting a no-fly zone that uh that issue may not be on the table but it seems as if members of congress are taking initiative in their own way to help out ukraine i think they were more moved to do so after they personally heard from zielinski this morning one of the things i have been watching is they beyond just voting on a supplemental bill where you know they'll be giving money to ukraine some lawmakers are authoring legislation that deals with very specific things or they're watching very specific issues i know mark warner of virginia has mentioned he is keeping an eye on the issue of some of the african migrants being abused and running into trouble at border stops so there are there are different issues that are part of the ukraine story right now that some members of congress are certainly going to pick up as their issue but i think overall my question to congress is what do you do next is it is it continue to push biden in a way where they may want to see actual on-the-ground military support or is it following along with however the executive branch is directing on this issue so from what i have watched over the last few months as the situation has escalated is congress is reactionary so when something happens they are going to react to how they think it could be fixed how they what powers they have to use in this issue uh so it's a wait and see what they do so that's my main question is what's next all right thank you so much rhonda uh james to you uh as we you know take over into yet another week essentially uh of this war in ukraine that that russia has solely perpetrated what questions are on your mind what are you watching 21 days in i mean it feels long for us but it must feel like an eternity for those who are on the ground facing these nightly missile strikes president biden was pretty explicit in that speech that we will keep up the pressure on putin and he said quote that's our goal make putin pay the price so what i'm watching libya is is putin paying that price effective today essentially russia is going to default on foreign debt for the first time in more than 100 years since the russian revolution in 1998 they defaulted on domestic debt there's a 30-day grace period it's not going to be official or technical today but it's a it's a huge moment for russia's economy you know the the ruble is worth less than half of what it was last month the russian stock market still has not reopened it hasn't been closed this long you know it closed after the bolshevik resolution in 1917 and didn't reopen until the 90s it hasn't been closed for so long since it closed for that uh so the the the more pain that putin feels uh as those close to him uh and the elites feel this pressure does that affect his behavior does it bring russia to the negotiating table uh and make them willing to offer concessions and then the flip side of that is zielinski is doing what a leader has to do to defend his country he's facing this existential threat but how willing is he privately to negotiate what is he willing to give to stop the fighting what assurances would he accept from russia uh to to save his country and his capital city all right james thank you so much rhonda colvin thanks to you as well and thanks to all of our audience for joining the newsroom of the washington post we will continue to cover the war in ukraine ukraine waged by russia and next week we will also be here broadcasting the confirmation hearings in the senate of judge katanji brown jackson to be the next associate justice of the supreme court so we will be bringing that to you every day we'll see you soon i'm libby casey in the newsroom of the washington post [Music] sometimes you have to see to believe and witness history as it unfolds when the news is breaking watch with the newsroom of the washington post we explain what's happening and why it matters thank you for choosing to watch the headlines as they're being written by our journalists you can subscribe with a special offer at washingtonpost.com watch subscribing through that link lets everyone hear from the front lines to the control room know that you care about our continued efforts to inform the public protect the first amendment and foster a healthy democracy we could not do this without you [Music] you
Free Coupon for Discounts on Pharmacy Medications
