speaker. they're testing that part, too, in case there's no internet, television, or radio. a scenario that could happen, of course, but still seems at odds with the reality here. thanks so much for joining us. ac 360 starts now. >> president biden calls it the beginning of a russian invasion of ukraine, as he levels the first round of sanctions against the money machine that keeps vladimir putin, his cronies, and their kleptocracy running. john berman in for anderson. tonight, unlike when we left you last night, there's no longer a question whether putin moving troops into ukraine would be considered an invasion. also, all to make the case that vladimir putin is not getting away with a slap on the wrist. >> who in the lord's name does

putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors? this is a flagrant violation of international law and it demands a firm response from the international community. we're implementing full blocking sanctions on two large russian financial institutions. veb and their military bank. we're implementing comprehensive sanctions on their sovereign debt. starting tomorrow and continuing in the days ahead, we'll also impose sanctions on russia's elites can their family members. they share in the corrupt games of the kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well. >> senior administration official elaborated telling cnn, quote, this is the beginning of an invasion, and therefore, this is the beginning of our response. secretary of state blinken appearing alongside ukraine's foreign minister said thursday's meeting with his russian counterpart is off. he cancelled a meeting with

sergey lavrov saying russia has not been serious about diplomacy but left the door open if it might prevent all-out war. meantime, germany put certification of the nord stream 2 pipeline on hold. germany is russia's largest gas customer. f-35 fighters and apache attack helicopters already in europe are being redeployed to the baltic states and poland, and u.n. secretary-general gutierrez called russia's actions so far a violation of ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and characterized russian forces as a, quote, perversion of the concept of peace keeping. back home as well, politics entered the equation with mitch mcconnell and others saying the administration's botched pull-out from afghanistan signaled weakness and encouraged vladimir putin's aggression. we have a lot to cover tonight, starting as only cnn can, in all the hot spots. clarissa ward is in kyiv. contributor and criminologist jill dougherty in moscow, and in

lviv, jim sciutto. clarissa, i want to start with you in kyiv. what has the reaction been in ukraine among officials to the sanctions announced and the canceling of the blinken/lavrov meeting? >> well, i think there's no secret that there have been some daylight between the u.s. and ukraine on the issue of how to respond to this threat that putin has been posing. the ukrainian point of view was always that if you know it's going to happen, this invasion, you should levy sanctions early. now, however, we're seeing a much more united stance. president volodymyr zelenskyy saying how grateful he was of the u.s., the eu, germany in particular for canceling that crucial nord stream 2 pipeline agreement which has such huge geopolitical and strategic consequences. zelenskyy also went on to say that he is now not mobilizing the army, but he is calling up reservists, and this is

happening, john, as we are hearing from nato that russian troops are arriving in that don bas region. and the real question now becomes do their attempt along with those prorussian separatists to push the front lines to the borders that they believe constitute those two breakaway republics. if they were to go ahead and push forward with that, that would result in major fighting and particularly in major metro metropolises, a port city, and so you have the sense here that really the city is on something of a knife edge as people wait to see what will play out. president zelenskyy and the foreign minister both saying today still the first choice of action, the first course of action is a committed pledge to diplomacy and trying to deter president putin from going any further. but they also finished off by saying but plan b, if plan a

doesn't work, is to fight for every inch of our land, john. >> so let's go to moscow. jill dougherty, what is putin's likely response to the announcements that were made today with the sanctions? >> well, you know, interestingly, john, the kremlin said they were a little too busy to be listening to president biden. they had a meeting, the president had a meeting. so that's kind of the mood here. you know, it's really kind of a sense of inevitability that there's a plan unfolding. you had president putin recognizing those breakaway regions. then today on tv, there was a big vote, several votes on -- giving the president the green light to deploy troops outside of the border of russia because of donbas, and then you had president putin in a quick news conference saying, you know, ukraine really shouldn't even think any more of trying to become a member of nato.

and i think one significant thing, too, pushback on the sanctions, the former president of russia, dmitry medvedev, i believe it was in a tweet, he said get ready. this is the new world. sorry, welcome to the brave new world where europeans are going to have to pay a lot more for gas. so there is this feeling, and you certainly heard it when the secretary of state was asked, did we underestimate, did the united states underestimate vladimir putin, and he said no, that actually, we were revealing his playbook, and that is what is being played out now. >> jim sciutto, this package of sanctions, this took a long time for the united states and its allies to work this out. how did they arrive here exactly, and what's your sense of what they truly expect to happen now? >> so let's start with your second question. it is still the view of the u.s.

military that, well, one, russia maintains an enormous force, three-quarters of its conventional armed forces postured against ukraine, and that russia's plan remains an invasion far beyond what we saw today with some forces moving into the east. a full scale invasion. that is the u.s. intelligence assessment. not clear on timing, but that remains the intention. the u.s. and nato answer two questions today. one, would they after russia's first move stick together? would they stick together and respond in lockstep? which they did over the course of the day. you saw germany start the day suspending nord stream 2. that is no small move. you saw the uk announcing its sanctions. you saw the 27 member nations of eu announcing theirs, and then the u.s. announcing. and then the second question they answered was, would a step short of a full-scale invasion trigger that unified response? you know, putin is a master of the half measures.

the death by 1,000 cuts. and you can imagine he was testing nato's resolve, nato's unity, by starting small to some degree, and then you might say that the u.s. and nato called that bluff and said, no, for that relatively small step, we're going to respond in kind, and then ramp up. that was part of president biden's message today, if russia moves further. this is quite a dangerous game of poker, if you want to call it that, or chicken, that is playing out here with very real consequences ahead for ukraine and frankly given how maximalist putin's statement was in his speech last night, perhaps for europe. >> 40 million people caught in the middle at least. clarissa, including where you are in the capital of kyiv, where some 3 million people live. what's the mood been? how has it changed over the course of the last 24 to 48 hours? >> i definitely feel that the mood is a lot more grim. it's not panic, and you're seeing ukraine's leaders,

they're stopping short of calling this an invasion. they're trying to keep people calm. but there is a sickening sense of dread, i think, developing among many people. you hear anecdotally of a lot more people looking into potentially leaving or at least exploring their options. and i think the question that some have now is that while ukrainian leaders say they still favor a diplomatic peaceful solution, it's not clear at this stage what the off ramp is. how on earth does this situation now de-escalate? we have seen that meeting canceled between blinken and lavrov. what is the next opportunity for diplomacy to play out? because at this stage, there's no real inkling that russia any longer has an interest in participating in that process. >> and jill, vladimir putin said some outrageous things on tv, speaking to the russian people and the world. i'm curious, and the russian stock market fell today. there have been sanctions issued today. i am curious what the reaction

among the russian people has been. >> the russian people seem to be probably i would say half are supporting this, actually, because they believe, they have been told, especially the people who are watching tv, young people don't watch that much tv. but most of the population do, and they believe that it's russia that's under attack. that ukraine is being used as a tool by the united states and the west to bludgeon russia. and that russia is really in grave danger. you had president putin actually make a pretty outrageous comment that ukraine actually might eventually be able to put together a nuclear weapon because remember, they did have nuclear weapons in the old soviet union, which they gave up willingly at the end of the soviet union. but yeah, the rhetoric is very strong. but some people are actually following it. >> jim, just quickly, what's the

next thing you are looking for here? the next move that you think will tell us where this is headed? >> the next move would be military action, both inside the donbas and perhaps beyond. the u.s. still sees preparations for that kind of military action. they're taking it very seriously, watching day by day. listen, it is a tense situation here. lives are at stake. the pressure has not been let off from the perspective of the u.s. and nato. it's going to be a crucial few days and weeks frankly with consequences far beyond ukraine. >> jim sciutto, rest that voice if you can. clarissa ward, jill dougherty, we appreciate all the work you're doing. thank you so much. perspective now from cnn military analyst and retired army lieutenant general mark hertling. thank you for being with us. we heard at the top of the show that the united states is moving u.s. troops and equipment to strengthen the baltic states and poland. this is on nato's eastern flank

and also sending in f-35s and apache attack helicopters. what does this tell you? >> the military forces in europe, john, u.s. military forces under the command of u com, do this all the time. when i heard the president say that, that he's moving forces to the baltic countries, i have been there multiple times. the forces train there multiple times. this is not something new and it's relatively easy to go from poland to the baltics, from the baltics to romania and they practice all the time. the last year i was in command in europe, we did 400 different exercises in a year with 28 different countries that were in europe. that's not a big deal. but the interesting piece is it gives a little bit of safety and a feeling of camaraderie to the baltic countries, estonia, latvia, lithuania. they are the most concerned about this because they're right on the border of belarus, along with poland, so they see themselves in the cross hairs. especially when mr. putin says yesterday that he's taking over

ukraine because of the russian speakers that he needs to protect. there's a bevy of russian speakers in those three baltic countries and even in poland. they're very concerned about continued expansion by the russian president. >> you heard president biden and others say, jim sciutto just reporting, the administration fully expects russian military action to continue and intensify, including and up to a full scale invasion. how bad would that be? give us a sense. >> it would be horrific, john. what we're talking about, i have heard a lot of analysts and commentators talking about comparisons to 1945. it will not compare to that at all. the lethality of modern weapons, the type of weapons being used, especially artillery and munitions, and what they aim at they hit and destroy. except for artillery, when you're talking about the russian use of artillery, their doctrine is to put a heavy barrage of fire on the ground in front of moving troops.

they don't care what's on the ground that that artillery hits. that's area fire weapons. it's not precise. it means it covers a large area. and the russians, truthfully, in many conflicts in the recent past, have not cared that much about civilian casualties. so you're seeing not only a president in putin who is invading another country against international law, but i think you're going to see if there is an attack, and god help us if there is, that there will be multiple casualties in the civilian populations throughout ukraine wherever they strike. >> we have about 30 second left. one of the possible areas of attack would be along the southeastern coast, an amphibious attack. what would that look like? >> imagine the opening scene, if people have seen the movie "saving private ryan." it would look a lock like that, except you would not only have the amphibious assault ships. they have six ships down there already that can deliver troops, but it would also have overhead

fire from six wing aircraft jets, helicopter assaults too, a whole bunch of helicopters coming in. they depend on that not only for transporting troops but also for delivering weapons. you would see a scene from "saving private ryan" on steroids along the coast in the sea. and that's, i anticipate that might be one of the next steps that mr. putin might execute. >> pretty chilling thoughts. general mark hertling, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you, john. >> next, i'm going to ask russian pro democracy leader garry kasparov whether he thinks this round of sanctions will be enough to deter putin and whether he's overplayed his hand already. >> later, the repercussions of what could be the biggest foreign policy challenge, and not to mention republicans who find themselves splits between internationalists and isolationists.

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today's u.s. and allied sanks on russia are a piece of what our next guest has long advocated. he's russian pro-democracy leader garry kasparov, chairman of the human rights foundation and renew democracy foundation. he tweeted, putin runs a mafia. treat it like one. they hide assets with family, body guards, chefs. they buy politicians to protect them. expose it all, kick them back to the putin police state they helped build. along with tweets like that, he's also the author of winter is coming, why vladimir putin and the enemies of the free world must be stopped. thank you so much for being with us. you have seen the sanctions that they have laid out. do you think that they are enough to make vladimir putin think twice? >> i think it's too late for them to think twice. and i think he made very clear in his ranting speech that he did not recognize ukraine as an independent state. he's not done with ukraine.

and it's very important that the response from the free world would make the cost prohibitive to putin or at least it will lead to some inevitable changes inside my country. yeah, as for sanctions, it's less than i wanted but much more than putin expected. and yesterday, i have to admit, i was depressed hearing noises from the administration saying, oh, the latest annexation was not qualified as invasion. but today, it has changed. president biden made a very strong speech. and as far as i understand, it's a first package of sanctions. more to come. but even what we saw today, it's enough to make other people think in russia, others that always stamp putin's decisions, others, as we saw in some phenomenal footage from russia, voted for this decision, but

they were scared because they knew what was coming. >> so more than putin expected. not enough to stop him in ukraine right now. but enough to cause problems for him domestically, if i'm hearing you right. do you think putin in some ways overplayed his hand, then? >> every dictator sooner or later overplays his hand. and i don't think he had much choice because he needs ongoing conflict. and ukraine is a natural target. he has to cover his failure of running russia. and of course, independent, sovereign, democratic, and prosperous ukraine is the deadly threat to putin's dictatorship. so that's why his aggression against ukraine, as many acts of aggressions that he committed throughout his 20 years in power, they were somehow in his nature. and now, after so many years of

having no consequences for his crimes, he decided he could do whatever. and i think he was -- i wouldn't say surprised, but he was probably confused by seeing that the free world now eventually getting its act together. >> how do you hurt putin? >> look, i don't -- yeah, i read enough history books to know that all dictators, they go through probably the same process of thinking and making their decisions. and i think that now he reached a point where he's not listening to voice of wisdom . and i think his view about the world is sick. that makes the situation even more dramatic. the previous guest talked about the cost of russian aggression

and the power, military power that russia can launch, but let's not forget, putin has his finger on a nuclear button. though i think we're far from the moment where he could consider it, but the fact is he talked about it is sending a signal that he lost the sense of reality. and that's a price the free world, the whole world is paying for 20 years of appeasement and 20 years of ignored warnings about the danger from the kgb who became the leader of russia two decades ago and who believes sincerely the collapse of the soviet union was the greatest catastrophe. >> antony blinken canceled his meeting with sergey lavrov as a result of this. if vladimir putin has lost touch with reality, what's the point of diplomacy at all? >> diplomacy is needed, but not with putin. what is happening now is that we

are witnessing the end of the post world war ii order. international security and cooperation was based on a core principles of territorial integrity. there was only one annexation, saddam hussein and kuwait, not counting putin's annexation of crimea. and now putin demonstrated to all of the dictators and terrorists around the world that borders can be ignored if you have enough strength and the free world had no power to stop you if you are brazen and swift. and i think now we need to reconsider the idea of international security infrastructure, but it should be done not with putin but against putin. and that's why i think it's very important for america to redouble its efforts to unite the free world, european allies, and actually allies around the world to make sure that this act of aggression will be treated

with utmost seriousness and the actions will follow the words. because it's not just about putin. it's about the whole infrastructure that he's sitting on top of. and even if he commands his army to cross the border, body bags coming back to russia, they could actually shatter the foundation of his power. >> it is the post world war ii era and order we're talking about, to be sure. garry kasparov, really appreciate talking to you tonight. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> up next, as president biden imposes tough new sanctions to punish moscow, republicans appear split in their criticism with the former president, donald trump, praising putin today. we'll have the details next.

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president biden unveiling the first round of new sanctions against russia today, as he faces pressure both in the u.s. and abroad to punish moscow for what he described as the beginning of a russian invasion. but as the president navigates a major foreign policy challenge, maybe the biggest during his presidency, he's also facing criticism as the nation watches how he handles the conflict, especially from some republicans who say biden's former policies emboldened putin's actions. >> i don't believe vladimir putin would have a couple hundred thousand troops on the border of ukraine had we not precipitously withdrawn from afghanistan last august. >> it looked not only chaotic, but it looked weak. and so they are pushing the limits everywhere in reaction to the perception of american weakness and loss of resolve. >> there is a divide in the republican party's view of the conflict.

today, for instance, the former president praised vladimir putin. >> so putin is now saying it's independent, a large section of ukraine. i said how smart is that? and he's going to go in and be a peacekeeper. that's the strongest peace force. we could use that on our southern border. that's the strongest peace force i have ever seen. there were more army tanks than i have ever seen. they're going to keep peace all right. think of it, here's a guy who's very savvy, i know him very well, very very well. >> joining us, cnn plolitical analyst maggie haberman, and gloria borger. i want to leave trump aside for a moment and talk about what mitch mcconnell said. how much do you think the messy withdrawal from afghanistan is shaping the administration's approach here? >> well, i think you would have to say that even biden partisans remember those terrible pictures and understand how badly that played out on their television

screens. when it came to the withdrawal in afghanistan. i think mcconnell is being really hyperbolic here, however, and i do think this is a completely different situation. in this situation, president biden is trying to stop a war. he's not trying to end a chaotic, messy war of many, many years. he's trying to prevent one from happening. and what he is doing is trying to gather allies together on the same page, which is incredibly difficult, particularly coming after four years after a trump administration when nato couldn't agree on anything. >> maggie, we hear mitch mcconnell, and you also heard people like tom cotton, lindsey graham, ben sasse, critical of the biden administration's response, saying it's not strong enough. then you hear the former president praise vladimir putin, mike pompeo has praised vladimir putin in different words, and tucker carlson, much the same

thing. there really does seem to be a split now in the republican party. what are the implications of that? >> john, i think that to be clear, i do think that what the current president is doing is more important than the former president. but there absolutely, at least in this regard, there absolutely is a divide within the party about how to handle putin, and you see it in the commentary you just described. one thing to have a television host like tucker carlson saying what he's been saying and it's entirely something different to have the recent former president who is an old show leading if he wants to be the republican nominee again, so i put that in a different category, but it is striking that i think republicans -- and this has been going on predating trump, where there has been an effort among some republicans to suggest putin is not that bad, and it's not as if there has been complete consistency among democrats on this as well, before the trump era and before the hackings in 2016. but i do think that you have

seen a number of people in the republican party, either identify with quote/unquote perceived strength or suggest who cares about ukraine? then you have as you said, the flip side. you have people like tom cotton who want to be more aggressive. i think that's where most republican leaders are. >> gloria, you know, that said, i want to show you something the house republican conference tweeted out today after president biden's speech. and republican adam kinzinger's reaction to it. you can see the gop house conference tweeted a picture of biden walking away from the podium with this quote, this is what weakness on the world stage looks like, unquote, and kinzinger reported, as still technically a member of the house republicans, let me condem this damn awful tweet during this crisis. you can criticize policy, but this is insane and feeds into putin's narrative, but hey, retweets. am i right? >> yes, he's right. he's 100% right. i mean, there is the president of the united states who is just talking about the fact that

ukraine being invaded by russia, and what do they do? the president has just told -- spoken to the country, and he's walking off the stage. i mean, i'm old enough to remember when something like that would be considered a disgrace by any official arm of the republican party. but obviously, you know, that's not the case anymore. there are people who believe, and i think obviously for political reasons right now, that there is no bar that is too low to criticize biden on foreign policy, whether it's we ought to take a harder line, or this isn't our problem, whatever it is, the official line will be, as you just saw in that photograph, that biden is incompetent and can't do anything, and whatever he does will be wrong, even if it is against vladimir putin. >> and then, maggie, another thing you do hear from republicans and allies of the former president as well, putin didn't invade donbas, didn't

send troops into this region under trump's watch. it's happening under biden. >> i think you're going to hear that lot, john. i have certainly heard it a lot from sources in the last day. i expect it to be a continuing line. i think it becomes a tougher case to argue when the former president is praising what putin is doing. it's hard for it to be both that putin was somehow fearful of trump and worried about the quote/unquote madman theory and trump's unpredictability and have trump saying this is a good move. we should do the same on our southern border. i think the inherent logical consistency of these arguments don't really matter. i think basically it's going to cleave along the lines of republicans saying biden is wrong somehow and trump is either right or republicans would be better. >> it would be better if all parties were concerned with the 40 million ukrainians caught in the middle of all this. that should be the primary concern. thank you both very much. in a victory for ahmaud

arbery's family, the three men convicted of his murder were found guilty on federal hate crime charges today. ryan young has the details next. ♪ “all i do is win” by dj khaled ♪ ♪ everybody's hands go up! ♪ karaoke singer: and they stay there. and they stay the, up, down, up, down. never lose confidence in how you run your busiss. intuit is bringing quickbooks and mailchimp together to help you set up and grow. dj khaled: man, i love this scent. unitedhealthcare medicare plans offer more... like the “visit a doctor anywhere our rv takes us” plan. and the “zero copays means more money for rumba lessons” plan. find the right plan for you from unitedhealthcare.

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determining they chased arbery because he was black. it was an emotional day for jurors and the family. ryan young has the latest. >> victory. >> holding their hands high outside a georgia courthouse, another victory for the family of ahmaud arbery, nearly two years after his murder. >> i knew wood weget victory on the state level and in the federal level. >> i give all glory to god. and we got justice for ahmad. >> a jury found travis mcmichael, his father gregory mcmichael, and william bryan guilty of all counts in their federal hate crimes trial. the mcmichaels were also each found guilty on affadditional firearms charge. the mcmichaels and bryan are already serving life sentences for the felony murder of arbery after a separate state trial in november. only bryan is eligible for parole after 30 years.

but these new federal convictions could add more life sentences. >> we got a victory today. but it's so many families out there who don't get victories. >> this is a federal hate crime case that almost did not go to court due to a plea deal with the defendants which was ultimately rejected by a judge. arbery's mother expressed her outrage with the u.s. department of justice today. >> i told the doj that yes, they were prosecutors, but one thing they didn't have, they didn't have a son that was lying in a cold grave. and they still didn't hear my cry. what the doj did today, they was made to do today. >> the u.s. attorney general reacting to today's verdict and wanda cooper jones' comments on the doj. >> the justice department has a legal obligation to prosecute hate crimes. i cannot imagine the pain that a mother feels. to have her son run down and

then gunned down while taking a jog on a public street. >> and remember, today's decision and the previous convictions almost did not happen. glen count apolice and local prosecutors did not arrest or charge arbery's killers after they chased and fatally shot him on february 23rd, 2020. when the video bryan recorded of the encounter came out nearly 2 1/2 months later, the georgia bureau of investigations intervened and arrested the mcmichaels first and later arrested bryan. >> we waited without any arrest for 74 days and now today that we're actually here with another guilty verdict, i mean, it's great. >> john, you know, in the state case, you got to see this play out across the world, but in this case, it really was up to us, the reporters, to tell you what happened in court. as i was sitting back in the rows, i'd can see travis mcmichael almost bend over when they said guilty after guilty.

then i focused on ahmaud's family. you can see the pain and at the same time the joy they were experiencing from finally getting this verdict. then i looked up to the jury, and it's the jury that showed so much emotion. you could see several of them crying. especially the jury foreman. a black man who was crying over and over again as they were talking about this verdict coming to an end. you think about the pain this community has experienced. let's not forget, before this video was put out, people watched this and decided not to put any charges on these men until so many people started fighting to change that. john. >> ryan young, our eyes and ears in the courtroom. thank you for being there. >> just ahead, a look at what should have been an easy layup for senate republicans holding an open seat in a very red state. instead, a controversial candidate could win the party's nomination giving democrats a chance. details ahead. certified from headlamp to tailpipe.

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and blackmail is is the frontrunner for the party's nomination. >> reporter: the allegations were stunning. the governor was accused by his former hairdresser of coercing her into oral sex and threatening to blackmail her with nude photos of her to cover up the affair forcing him to resign after republicans threatened to impeach him. now he is trying to revive his political career joining a crowded gop field filing papers for the senate on tuesday and stands a chance of emerging as the gop nominee. >> has he been exonerated? >> absolutely not. it was deplorable and brought shame and disgrace on our state and is really disgusting.

>> not that he is not electable, but we are go to spend $50 million to try to drag him across the finish line. >> he was unfit for office then and now and he was not exonerated from that. >> he is defiant and dismissive, calling the allegations made up and full of lies. >> none of that was true, the blackmail allegations. >> reporter: you know those were lies and what is great for us here we are and god is good. that pain will come. the suffering will come. the -->> reporter: a criminal charge was dropped by a democratic prosecutor in st. louis and an fbi agent investigating the republican was indicted for lying about his interview with the accuser. a missouri ethics board found no wrong doing.

find his campaign for not contributing contributions but the accuser never retracted the allegations of sexual assault as he taped her hands and allegedly took a picture of her with her pants down. >> you will find out there is no exoneration because it shows his basic character in a way i think would be shocking to the average person. there are a lot of questions left unanswered when he left. >> reporter: it has been a decade since the last gop nightmare in missouri. >> ten years ago missouri lost a republican season. what are folks saying that it could be a repeat? >> i think that is absurd. >> reporter: democrats are hoping to take advantage.

what type of impact will it have in the election? >> i think it it will be good for us. >> reporter: donald trump is still neutral in the race but has been actively following what is going on talking to a number of the candidates the past week. how badly do these republican candidates want the trump endorsement. none other than one pushed back on the bogs on notion trump peddled that at this time 2020 election was stolen and billy long was wearing a tie signed by donald trump and had in the breast pocket of his jacket, $45 bill. whose picture office it? donald trump. >> in a moment we head back to a live report from russia border from ukraine on the movement of russian troops in the wake of

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>> more now on the breaking news. president biden now promising more sanctions if russian troops encroach further into ukraine. in ukraine in the areas controlled by the russian-backed separatists. what is the latest you have seen in recent hours? >> reporter: certainly it was extremely interesting and insightful to go into that area right near the board er with ukraine and at the border with the region of the separatist republic vladimir putin just recognized. we saw russian soldiers in every village and a lot of military technology, a lot of military gear and hardware there on the ground from troop transporters and from a lot of soldiers on

the ground to heavy duty hardware as well. we came across a column of tanks, armored vehicles and artillery. one of the things the u.s. is saying they are not concerned about just the concentration of the soldiers but the way they are fanning out to the border area. that is something we saw on the ground. you didn't see soldiers in bases. they were in their vehicles on the side of the road. that is something the u.s. indicates that an attack could be imminent at any point in time and it appeared to us to be an army that would be able to strike at any time. vladimir putin said that is not the case and that his army will not go into the -- they said what we saw today is actually less hardware than they have seen in the past couple of days and they believe troops might have crossed the border. right now anything to support

that is circumstantial but that is the vibe and it is certainly a tense situation. >> thank you for you and your team who have been there giving us a very unique perspective on what is going on. and stay with cnn for the latest from ukraine. the news continues and let's hand it over to wolf blitzer and cnn tonight. >> thank you very much. >> closer and closer to ukraine's border along with the construction of the new field hospital. dozens of tents have appeared recently according to images taking over belarus 25 miles from the ukrainian border. the area was completely vacant just a few weeks ago and it is only heightening concerns about vladimir putin's