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hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and all around the world. i'm kim brunhuber live at the cnn center in atlanta. just ahead on "cnn newsroom." >> every indication we have is they're prepared to invade ukraine, attack ukraine. >> russia says it's pulling back forces. we do not see that happen on the ground. >> it will be mr. putin who will bear the responsibility for the

suffering and the immense sacrifice that ensues. >> america's top leader is giving direct warnings to russia's president putin. it comes as clashes between the ukrainian armed forces and separatists escalate. we have reports from washington, london, donbas and moscow. plus, a major legal setback for donald trump and two of his children. a judge now orders them to testify in new york's investigation into their business practices. and a shocking loss. the russian figure skater at the center of a doping scandal stumbles through her routine. we're live at the olympics ahead. u.s. president joe biden is delivering perhaps his strongest warning yet. he's scheduled to host a call

with world leaders in the days ahead to discuss the crisis. meanwhile, russia's military drills just a few kilometers from the border continue to rattle nerves around the globe. some of the exercises have finished and that the troops are returning to the home bases but the u.s. and nato leaders remain skeptical. fighting is flaring in eastern ukraine. they say rebels shelled a kindergarten in the lunsk region and they may use it as a false justification to fire into ukraine. >> the russians have all of the forces on the ground that would suggest that they are prepared

for an attack any day. now when that attack will occur i think only president putin himself can answer that question but we see everything that shows that he is ready for such an attack. >> cnn is covering this major story with correspondents positioned around the war. our nick robertson is live in moscow. we begin with phil mattingly at the white house. >> let me be clear, i am here today not to start a war but to prevent one. >> reporter: a dramatic appearance at the united -- and it will give way to a russian invasion of ukraine. >> every indication we have, they're prepared to go into

ukraine, attack ukraine. >> reporter: this direct and dire warning from the president of the united states. >> my thought is it will happen in a few days. >> reporter: they gave a messaging blitz. >> we see them add to the more than 150,000 troops they already have arrayed on that border even in the last couple of days. >> reporter: shelling in the donbas region sounding alarms across the region. >> we've said for some time the russians might do something like this in order to justify a military conflict so we'll be watching this very closely. >> we have reason to believe they have a false flag investigation. >> a surprise and highest

efforts. >> they will advance on key targets that have already been identified and mapped out in detailed plans. >> and force their hand in what may be a last ditch effort. >> today we are laying it out with the hope that by sharing what we know with the world we can influence russia to abandon the path of war and choose a different path while there's still time. >> just hours after defense secretary listed his own ominous warning. >> we see them stocking up their blood supplies. >> vice president kamala harris set to land in munich all as russia after weeks of silence delivered its response to u.s. security proposals meant to spark talks but by all

appearances instead marking an ultimatum. >> our priority is not seeing isolated issues plucked from the package and claimed we've resolved all issues. >> u.s. officials are reviewing this and there are few if any areas of overlap. still, the biden administration officials say over and over again they need to keep talking. that is critical and antony blinken asked to continue the talks next week in europe. phil mattingly, cnn, the white house. cnn's scott mcclain is live this hour in london with more of the diplomatic efforts in europe. first inning robertson is in

london. what do we expect to come of this? >> reporter: alexander lukashenko arrived a very short time ago going to meet with president putin. both joined up in a massive military exercise that's been going since the 10th of february. initially the belarus authorities said they would expect this joint military exercise to last until the 20th of february so this weekend. however, in an interview with cnn's fred pleitgen yesterday lukashenko indicated that these joint military exercises would continue as long as they were needed to continue before the troops would go back to base. then he said they would go back to base. but it's unclear precisely what we'll hear from president putin and president lukashenko. today they're expected to talk about the military exercises, the position in europe, economic ties between the two countries

as well. it does seem to be a meeting to watch to see if they would watch the joint military exercises to see if as many as 30,000 troops would be coming to an end soon. will that be indicative of the other russian military exercises going on in crimea, in russia to the south and to the east of ukraine. so an important moment to watch. we've just learned from the state news agency quoting the russian foreign minister that president putin will attend military exercises on saturday, tomorrow, and during those military exercises they will involve the launching or testing and training of ballistic and cruise missiles that will involve forces from the aerospace forces, strategic missile forces and the north and

black sea fleet. you could look at the military exercises that president putin will oversee tomorrow as a final big flourish of all of these joint military exercises going on or just part of a continuum. they certainly are the sort of biggest headline event of these massive military exercises so far inasmuch as they're using the most advanced and biggest strategic weapons in the russian military arsenal. that is certainly how it's being teed up by russian state media at the moment. >> all right. as we watch that play out. still on diplomacy, scott, u.s. vice president will be in munich. i take it the expectations there at that conference pretty low? >> reporter: i think that's fair to say, kim. even the vice president herself, kamala harris, seeming to keep

expectations low with her tweet that she sent out late last night when she arrived in germany saying she is there to demonstrate the unity of u.s. allies in the face of russian aggression. i don't think anybody expects kamala harris to show up in germany and have all of the answers as to how to solve this crisis on the ukrainian border. what she will have is some three dozen or so world leaders all anxious to meet with her. we know for sure she has meetings with many leaders. she'll meet with vladimir zelensky. she'll give a moderated talk to the broader conference tomorrow and her team says that she really has three priorities here in munich. first to keep an eye on the situation on the ground. we know as we her from nic that tensions are rising. cease-fire violations are becoming more common. number two, they want to make

sure that all of the allies are on the same page as to what their response to russia will actually be, and by and large they are with some small outstanding issues as to how exactly to respond. chief among them perhaps is the north stream 2 gas pipeline between russia and germany. the u.s. wants germany to commit to abandoning that. russia seems to indicate they will do that but has yet to say that in plain language. the third thing, kim, we have heard over and over for the past few weeks and that is the u.s. would prefer a diplomatic solution. they're ready to respond in the event of russian aggression. the over arching problem in munich is the russians won't actually be there, kim. >> thanks so much to nic robertson in moscow and scott mcclain in london. appreciate it. my colleague michael holmes spoke with robert english at the

university of southern california. he asked if the threat of russian sanctions would keep vladimir putin from moving into eastern ukraine. here it is. >> i don't think it's likely he'll risk anything of a magnitude that would trigger those sanctions, meaning it would involve significant loss of life, major violence but there's a political instead of military move in putin's deck and that is for russia to recognize as independent the break away donbas and luhansk regions. so far russia has not done that. if they were to do that it would be a purely political and diplomatic move. russia would be saying, we've given up on any kind of negotiations. we are now going to create essentially a friendly buffer zone, a proto state that's dependent on us because we can rely on them at least to shield

us from nato advancing into ukraine. that would be very difficult for the west. would that trigger sanctions? >> and the european union's foreign affairs chief says the block has a tough packet of sanctions ready to impose on russia as soon as they're needed. a new york judge says former president donald trump and his children ivanka and don jr. must sit for a deposition of their business practices. the state attorney general is looking at whether they inflated the assets to get loans and said they were worth less to avoid paying taxes. >> reporter: the state attorney general has a clear right to question principals of a business she is investigating especially after she's got copious evidence of crimes. they are trying to say this is politically motivated. they point to comments that the

attorney general made when she was campaigning for the job saying she wanted to target trump but the judge rejected those arguments first pointing out that trump is no stranger to the new york attorney general's office noting that he engaged in substantial settlements after investigations into his university and his foundation. also pointing to the fact that the judge said, look, the attorney general has the same first amendment right that donald trump has on the campaign trail. the judge also notes this zregs not start with personal animus from the attorney general. in fact, this investigation looking at whether the trump organization misled into the value of assets it has to get more favorable terms on insurance, taxes, it all started when michael cohen publicly testified he believed the trumps were, quote, cooking the books. the judge rejected the argument from trump's tlaurs if he were

to sit for a civil deposition, that could potentially expose him in parallel criminal investigations. the judge noting that trump's other son, eric trump, invoked his fifth amendment over 500 times in his deposition. the trumps are expected to appeal this decision. the judge said this dictates they must comply with the subpoena over the next three weeks but it's expected the trumps will ask a stay of that decision while their appeal is pending. paula reid, cnn, washington. and cnn's chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin explains more on the investigation and how the trumps might respond. >> it's actually very straightforward. this is a legitimate investigation and the attorney general of new york has subpoena power. she subpoenaed the former president and his two children and they have a choice. they can testify or they can take the fifth. the problem with taking the fifth is, first of all, it's

embarrassing but that's no bar to having to do it. second, in a civil case as opposed to a criminal case, a jury can draw what's called an adverse inference. if you take the fifth in a civil case, the jury can assume, if it comes to that, that you did something wrong, that there is an incriminating answer there. so that's why the trump family wants to avoid having to take the fifth, but the answer to that is, too bad. that's what the law is so it's not a surprise that the judge ruled this way. >> and the former president's long time accounting firm recently said the last ten years of financial statements it prepared for trump are unreliable. still ahead on "cnn newsroom," the russian skater at the center of the doping scandal ends her olympic journey with a gut wrenching finish. steven? >> reporter: kim, they felt disturbed watching 15-year-old

kamila valiyeva compete on thursday. what disturbed him more was how she was treated by the adults on the team afterwards. mucinex lasts 3x longer for 1212 hours.

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after days of uncertainty, the olympic medal ceremony for figure skating will go ahead hours for now. 15-year-old kamila valiyeva fell multiple times. eileen gu has just become the first freestyle skier to win three medals in a single olympic games. the american born superstar competing for china earned gold in the woman's halfpipe adding to gold in big air and silver in slopestyle. covering the games from every angle, coy wire joins us on the latest. first bring in steven jiang. take us through what happened with kamila valiyeva and the reaction as well.

>> reporter: kim, it was just heartbreaking to watch valiyeva compete on thursday night. her performance was such a stark contrast from what we saw a little over a week ago, that near perfection she displayed. the dark cloud of doping allegations seemed to be hanging over not just her but her teammates as well. the tension, drama, a lot of tears, not just tears of joy from all of these young athletes. now the international olympic committee president thomas bach held a press conference not long ago. he felt disturbed watching valiyeva compete seeing how much immense mental distress she was under. what upset him even more was how valiyeva was treated by the adults on the russian team afterwards. here's what he said. >> after we saw how she was received by her closest entourage with such what

appeared to be tremendous coldness. it was chilling to see this. rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her. you could feel this chilling atmosphere. >> reporter: so like many others, thomas bach training his fire on the adults around valiyeva. thomas bach made a point saying how many lies and excuses he had heard from those adults over the years. the court released the summary last weekend saying how the claims made by those adults not backed by concrete evidence. this saga is obviously far from over. >> we'll keep following it.

steven jiang in beijing. thank you so much. coy wire joins us now from the mountains where the action is happening. coy, you sat down with team u.s.a.'s ice dance bronze medalists earlier. what did they tell you? >> reporter: yeah, kim, madison hubble, zachary donohue, they said, yes, they are sad there is such a cloud. hubble and donoughe will take home a bronze and they were part of the event in which americans won silver. they felt sad for the skaker while valiyeva's doping investigation is ongoing. here's a sneak peek of that talk. >> i don't think it's fair to any of the athletes who medaled that we have to, you know, forego that olympic moment standing on the medal stand and it is -- it's hard to go home

empty handed. we have our empty medal box waiting in our room and we have no answer as to what the time line will be for the issue to be resolved. >> are you given anything, some kind of place holder prize or is it an empty box? >> the ioc was very generous in extending to us olympic torches, which we definitely considered to be an honor but we have a whole team of athletes that have finished competing and are staring looking at an empty box, the unknown of the future and missing out on that olympic moment. it's not at the olympic games, not for the whole world to see, not the true culmination of their hard work and effort, blood, sweat and tears. >> we appreciate the fact that thomas bach took time out of his schedule upon our request to,

you know, mainly the point was to hear our perspective as athletes, to hear that team u.s.a. was still craving that medal ceremony, that we wanted a resolution that would result in us receiving our medals in beijing. we didn't leave the meeting feeling i don't think any better about the situation, but at least we had our chance to kind of say what it feels like to be an athlete in our shoes and hopefully, you know, we all agreed as a team that we want to push for change and we want to continue to voice our opinion and use our platform to push for, you know, as much as we can a clean sport, fair play and, you know, always looking to improve the sporting world and the olympic spirit. >> reporter: team u.s.a.'s

madison hubble and zachary donohue, profound perspective shared by so many athletes. >> really impressing to hear their nuanced perspective. appreciate you bringing that interview to us. coy wire, thanks so much. coming up on "cnn newsroom," states across the u.s. look ahead to the next phase of the pandemic amid falling cases. experts say they should slow down and see what happens. parts of asia battling omicron as it continues to subside. we'll have the latest from seoul ahead. i mean seriouslyly, we named ourselves booking.com which is kind d of lit if we are talking... literal... ha ha. it's why we're planet earth's number one site for booking accommodation. we love booking stuff! and we're just here to help you make the best of your vacation. ow... hi...

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and welcome back to "cnn newsroom," everyone. i'm michael holmes in ukraine. >> i'm kim brunhuber at the cnn news center in atlanta. if you're just joining us, let me bring you up to speed on our top stories. a new york judge ruled donald trump and two of his children donald jr. and ivanka must sit for depositions into the trump organization. the judge is rejecting attempts by trump and his lawyers to block the subpoenas for their testimony calling their arguments quote, audacious, preposterous and something out of a george orwell book. russian skater kamila valiyeva failed to medal. she was favored to finish in her first after being in the top spot following tuesday's short program. several mistakes dropped her to fourth place. we'll have more on these stories at the top of the hour. now here in ukraine renewed

shelling has been rattling the contested eastern regions. a kindergarten in the ukrainian controlled territory was sheldon thursday. it's unclear at the moment who fired first, but authorities say a few people suffered minor injuries. fortunately too kids. ukraine's president calling the shelling a big provocation. clarissa ward takes us inside the damaged school. >> reporter: ukrainian military has brought us nearly 400 miles towards the front lines in the east of the country. it's already dark by the time we land. we have a short time on the ground but they are determined to show us the aftermath of heavy shelling earlier in the day. this kindergarten is less than three miles from a so-called line of contact, the front line, and witnesses in this area said that around 8 or 9:00 this morning they started to hear

shelling. it was loud enough they could hear the whistle of the shells going by and two of them landed here. let's take a look. at the end of the hallway this is what remains of the play room. the military says the first shell hit at 8:45. mercifully the children were eating breakfast in another part of the building. teacher julia simenyeko rushed them into the hallway away from the windows. >> reporter: so she's saying in that moment she was only really afraid for the children. i asked her how they reacted to the situation. our youngest children thought it was all a game at first and we just let them pretend, she tells us. our older children understood what was happening and they were afraid. video released by ukrainian police shows the kids being hastily evacuated from the

building. it's very dark here. i'm not sure that you can see. this is a children's playground. if you just turn over here, you can see this is a crater and the local authorities are telling us that this is where the other shell hit. our time on the ground is restricted. fighting usually begins after dark here. as we finish up a live shock, our ukrainian minders grow nervous. yes, i hear it. john, please excuse me but our ukrainian military minders are asking us to move because of that shelling so we will check in as soon as we can. let's go. on an average day there might be three or four major cease-fire violations but today the military says there have been more than 30. they're telling us we have to go now. there's a steady stream of artillery we can hear in the distance. we're getting onto the bus to leave. in the hours after we leave

another shell hits a house in the same town as this front line continues to heat up at a time when calm is desperately needed. clarissa ward, cnn, ukraine. >> and that'll do it from us here in western ukraine. let's accepted it back to kim brunhuber in atlanta. kim. >> thanks so much, michael. most could he vitt infections steadily fall and states begin to contemplate next news, there is encouraging news on the vaccination front. half of the population is fully vaccinated according to data from the cdc. alabama is the last state to fall. 60% is totally vaccinated. meanwhile, states are moving ahead with plans to ease restrictions. gavin newsom unveiled his plan for the next stage of the

pandemic which is mask mandates. some health experts are saying, not so fast. >> it is risky. it is risky. you may get away with it very well. it is possible you are going to get away with it, but you do have the risk when you pull back and you have a certain dynamic of infection that you'll have a rebound. hopefully the states that are doing that have a plan if, in fact, we do see a rebound. they'll be able to reinstitute the mitigation that they're now pulling back on. you know, when you want to pull back and say we're done, well, you know, the virus may not be done with us so going down 345i be the right thing. keep going down. pulling back. but you have to be prepared to re remitigate or rebound. >> coronavirus cases are soaring fueled by the variant.

south korea topped for the first time in february. thousands of new cases are reported every day. so for more on all of that, i'm joint by cnn's paula hancock in seoul, south korea. before we get to this, give us an update where you are in south korea. >> reporter: we're seeing many countries hitting record levels as omicron really takes hold. more than 109,000 new cases reported here nf south korea. sat the same time as we're seeing these high numbers, they're seeing cases doubling every week. we have not reached the peak. they're estimating potentially the end of february, middle of next month, middle of march may be when it starts to peak. they're not as concerned as they might be because they're pointing out that the number of deaths and the number of critical cases while rising is relatively low still. they have enough icu beds. they have the capability and the

medical system here is stable. stable enough for the decision friday that they were going to ease some of those social distancing restrictions, just one really. there's a curfew on restaurants and entertainment venues of 9 p.m. that's being pushed back but the prime minister says it is a nod to those small businesses that are really struggling to keep their heads above water. and we're also seeing a significant thing here, which is the qr code system, which was really the pinning -- underpinning that the track and trace system here in south korea which worked so well for so many months. they've now dismantled that so they're not going to need that. they realize you cannot contact trace when you have over 100,000 new cases a day. now it's a very contrasting view in hong kong though. they are still sticking to their zero covid strategy. those 6,000 cases, the last daily case to be reported and

the medical system is struggling under that caseload. one of the reasons being is that hong kong still sends to a hospital or to a facility everybody who tests positive. when you have that number of people testing positive, there is inevitably going to be strain. we have seen some people on guernseys, stretchers lined in a row in a parking lot of a hospital. a couple of doctors speaking to cnn said that they felt frustrated because they had patients outside who were feeling cold, asking for blankets and they simply didn't have anywhere inside to put them. but at this point hong kong is saying it will stick to its zero covid strategy. the chief executive saying they may test everybody within the territory. kim? >> yeah, huge undertaking interest. paula hancocks, thanks so much. parts of the u.s. will be dealing with, quote, a plethora of weather hazards this morning. that's according to the national

weather service. on thursday a powerful line of storms moved east from the plains and midwest. two tornados were confirmed in alabama. power was knocked out to more than 100,000 homes and businesses across a number of states. let's bring in meteorologist derek van dam. a plethora. what are we looking at here? >> reporter: yeah. it was a very multi-faceted storm. snow on the northern side, cold side of the storm. we had severe storms and tornadoes and flooding in between. here's a look at what it appeared like on the roads in kansas city. this is of course the wintry side of this major storage moving across the eastern portions of the country. let me take you to the south where we had tornadoes across alabama with severe wind reports stretching from mississippi, georgia, tennessee. you already mentioned, kim, over 100,000 people without power. that is slowly being restored to customers across eastern portions of the country as storms start to exit the coastal

areas of the u.s. low pressure and cold front associated with this located over new england. it is still bringing wintry weather to upstate new york, for instance, and to the downwind areas of lake ontario and lake e erie. that's where we'll start picking up the lake effect snowmachine. this is an all rain event, d.c. and slick spots because of rain. at least it's not snow. you have to travel a little further north and inland to see the snowfall. there's a look at the individuals under a flood alert at the moment. over 8 million americans impacted by the heavy rain that has brought flash flooding to the area. we broke daily records in cincinnati in place since 1976. other impressive rainfall totals in excess of 5 inches of rain in missouri. we have high wind alerts across the east coast. wind warnings for the boston metropolitan area.

the east coast spared from the snowfall this time. kim? >> thanks so much. derek van dam, appreciate it. coming up, a fight between a black teen and a white teen that's captured on video in a new jersey mall. now there's outrage over the stark difference in how police responded to each boy. we'll have more on that next. stay with us. so you b both sleep just righ. saveve 50% on the sleep number 0 limited edition smart bed. plus, free premiumum delivery wn you add a base. ends monday.

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for today's olympic winter games and every day after, we'll be there, keeping businesses ready for what's next. comcast business. powering possibilities.™ outrage is growing over the police response to a fight between two teenagers at a mall in new jersey. one teen was white, the other black. they received very different treatments from the officers who responded. now even the state's governor is weighing in. cnn's athena jones reports. >> reporter: accusations of racial bias by police after they broke up a fight between a pair of teenagers, one black, one white at a new jersey mall.

and now violent video shows teens having a heated discussion. the white teen pointing his finger in the face of the black teen who pushes the white teen's hand away. the white teen then shoves the black teen and the two begin to tussle. at one point the white teen tackling the plaque teen and pinning him to a couch. then throwing him to the ground. when police arrived to break up the fight, a female officer pulls the white tina way and pushes him to the couch without handcuffs. while the other officer presses the black teen to the ground and no neils on his back. they place him and only him in handcuffs. oh, no. >> [ bleep ]. >> holy [ bleep ]. >> reporter: treatment some viewed as unequal, unfair and racially biased. one exclaiming in surprise as police handcuffed the black teen. >> yeo, it's because he's black. >> cnn affiliate wcbs spoke with

one of the teens involved, 14-year-old ky, who asked that his last name not be used. >> i was confused. why they saw me as a bad person, i mean, as like aggressive. >> telling cnn affiliate wabc the fight began after he stood up for a friend, a seventh grader being picked on by the other teen who the station identifies as a high school student. the teen calling the encounter with police scary and frustrating. >> if they don't know how to treat the situation and deal with the situation equally and fairly, then they shouldn't be able to deal with the situation at all. >> new jersey governor phil murphy saying -- >> i'm deeply disturbed by what appears to be a racially disparate treatment in the video. we are underscore with emphasis that we're committed to increasing the trust between law enforcement on the one hand and the communities they serve on the other. >> thanks to cnn's athena jones for that report. earlier cnn legal analyst

and criminal defense attorney joey jackson spoke to wolf blitzer about the troubling story. >> reporter: concerned about the tactics. concerned about the measures. concerned about the strategy. concerned about the message. concerned about the attitude. concerned about the culture to continue. the bottom line is we have to ask ourselves what motivates that. what is it about the black male that makes people believe that there are people who don't love them, who don't support them, who are not in tune with having them be the best people that they can possibly be in communities. why is it that they are, right, african-american males, that we are targeted in a way that looks like this. police are out there, wolf, doing some very good things, protecting communities. this does not have anything to do or ultimately does not bridge the gap between trust between african-american communities and police. we've got to do better. we have to send a better message to our youth and to our community. >> the internal affairs community says it's

investigating the fight and the police response to it. we'll be right back. mucinex lasts 1212 hours, so i'm good. now move! kim, no! mucinex lasts 3x longer for 12 hours.

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and prefr sweats to dress pants, you're in the majority. a pew research center found 60% of people who work from home want to stay working remote. up from 54% in 2020. as they shift to more flexible work, belgium will let employees choose a four day work week. they'll have the right to ignore their boss's emails after business hours. britney spears may be back in the limelight in the future not in vegas but on capitol hill. the pop star said she was invited by members of congress to speak about conservatorships. spears fought a very public legal battle to be freed from her own 13-year arrangement. she posted the invitation on instagram and wrote in part because of the letter i feel like i am heard and like i matter. first time in my life. she didn't say whether she'll actually go to washington. victoria's secret's new model is making history.

24-year-old sophia jurau is the first person with down syndrome to be a model. it will feature professional and nonprofessional models. this is part of victoria secret's attempts to rebrand. well, that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." i'm kim brunhuber. "early start" is next. you're watching cnn.

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and it's only available to comcast business internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities.™ good morning, everyone. friday, february 18th. it's 5 a.m. here in new york. thanks so much for getting an "early start" with me. i'm laura jarrett. christine romans has the day off. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. we begin with the charge we've been discussing all week. russia's vladimir putin building a pretexts to start a war in ukraine.