i'll be back three hours from now live at midnight for a special edition of "360" in the overnight hours. let's hand it over to wolf blitzer and cnn tonight. wolf? >> anderson, thank you very much. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, and this is "cnn tonight." we're watching history unfold before our eyes, the largest invasion in europe since world war ii is now around 24 hours in. president zelenskyy says at least 137 ukrainian soldiers already have been killed so far, another 316 wounded.

he says he suspects russian sabotage groups have already infiltrated the capital of kyiv and have marked him as their target number one. president zelenskyy has ordered a general military mobilization, and he's banning all male citizens ages 18-60 from leaving the country. it was this very hour last night when russia started its full-scale invasion of the sovereign nation, bombarding cities with missiles and long-range artillery, targeting military installations at airports like this one in southeastern ukraine. >> russian ground forces invaded the country from three sides, from the north, south, and east. among the targets seized today, the chernobyl power plant in

northern ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster. cnn's matthew chance had an up-close encounter with some russian forces at an airport about 50 miles from the capital of kyiv. >> reporter: these two -- failed russian airborne forces. they have taken this airport. you can tell they're russian. they've got that orange and black band to identify them as russian forces. i've spoken to the commander on the ground within the past few minutes, and he said they are now in control. >> ukrainians are now living in a very, very different nation than only one night ago. some subway stations have become makeshift bomb shelters in kharkiv, ukraine's second largest city. many citizens don't know what to do or where to go or how this is going to end, as they told cnn's cla clarissa ward. so, what can the world do to

stop vladimir putin? president biden assures this. putin is now a pariah on the international stage, he says, and russia will pay a very heavy price. >> putin is the aggressor. putin chose this war. and now he and his country will bear the consequences. america stands up to bullies. we stand up for freedom. this is who we are, make no mistake. freedom will prevail. >> president biden announced a new series of strong, very strong, sanctions that you're about to hear more about from the white house. he's also sending some 7,000 more u.s. troops from the united states to europe to help bolster nato's defenses. biden says nato is now more united than it's ever been. and when this dark period is looked back on in history, he says russia will be left weaker and the rest of the world stronger. but there's so much stuff we're

in right now, and the future of ukraine is very much uncertain. so, let's keep focused on that and get the latest from the frontlines and moscow and the white house. let's start with clarissa ward, joining us from kharkiv. what more can you tell us about this dire message from the ukrainian president czeh l zelenskyy tonight? >> that's right, wolf. he said he is target number one. his family is target number two. but he also said he is not going anywhere, that he intends to stay in the capital city of kyiv for the moment. one can only imagine how difficult a position that will be to maintain as we continue to see russian forces continuing with this assault. here in the city of kharkiv, wolf, you can see it's a very different scene than it was last night. last night this is the big middle of the town scare behind me. it was tense and it was quiet, but nothing like it is today

because we're just over 20 miles away from that russian border where there's been that huge buildup of artillery, armory, also purse ml. they have been engaging with the army, and the people here now are basically waiting to see at what point they potentially arrive at this city. and nobody knows what will they do if they arrive at this city. will they surround it? will they try to lay siege to it? will they potentially try to enter it? we've heard from the mayor there's a curfew in place from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. they've also been asking people, wolf, to donate blood, obviously foreseeing the war situation. 400 people came out today reportedly and waited in long lines to go ahead and donate blood. the city is so quiet right now. and it's deeply eerie because people just have, as you said before, no sense of what's to come and where to go. the thing that was so striking

walking around these streets earlier on today, mostly deserted. but a few people sort of wandering around with suitcases or bags of groceries. and you almost had the sense, wolf, that they didn't really know where to go. they didn't really know where is safe. i asked one woman, do you have a car? is there somewhere you can go to? she said, i have a car, but where is safe in ukraine anymore? that really stuck with me, wolf, because i think it speaks not just to the fear and the anxiety but the confusion here about what is actually happening, wolf. >> clarissa, inside a subway turned bomb shelter where citizens were sheltering from the attacks. what did they have to say? >> reporter: you know, wolf, these scenes, to me, were like scenes that i've seen of world war ii and the blitz and people hunkering down underground for hours on end, trying to keep their families safe. there were so many families down

there, so many children, babies. people brought their pets there, their parents. just desperately trying to escape the strikes that have been falling down. some people were angry. many of them were sad. but mostly, honestly, wolf, they were just scared. take a listen. >> we never believed that our, like, neighbor can just come and just grab our land and tell us what to do. and we are a country ukraine, and we are not the same as russian and we don't want to be a part of russia or any other country. excuse me, i'm getting very emotional. >> reporter: and you see, wolf, people are overcome honestly. it's so much stress, and so few people here ever imagined that this was actually going to happen. we've been talking about it for weeks if not months. but for ukrainians, there really was a state of disbelief.

they couldn't believe that russia could do this. another man i spoke to, valid mere, said russia is our brother. but what kind of brother treats his brother in such a way as this. and some of these people are still sleeping in that shelter tonight, wolf, waiting to see what tomorrow will bring. >> from president zelenskyy on down, people of ukraine didn't want to believe russia is capable. putin is capable of recoorderin this kind of invasion. clarissa ward in kharkiv, appreciate it it ververy much. let's turn now to cnn's nic robertson. he's joining us live from moscow. nic, what's been the reaction there in moscow to putin launching this totally unprovoked war? >> yeah, there were protests later in the day, not just here in moscow but in more than 50 cities across russia. and we went down and witnessed some of those protests. more than 900 people arrested by

riot clad police. the government said these protests weren't allowed, that there was no authorization for them. indeed the government went beyond that, it warned people that if you come to the protest, you could get arrested. and if you get arrested, then you could end up with a criminal record. and if you have a criminal record, then that is going to blight your future job prospects, your work prospects. so, it was a really harsh message from the government. and it seems very clear from what we saw that president putin is not brooking any dissent from people who disapprove of him going to war in ukraine. and i spoke to some of those people who were down there, and they were desperate. they were frustrated with their government. they were angry with their government. they didn't know what to do. they didn't expect the country to go to war. they don't want it to go to war. they don't want to be at war with people in ukraine who are they feel are their brothers and

sisters. one young lady told me, she was close to tears, she said, i want to leave. and i said, you want to leave russia? she said, yes. she said, it's my country. i'm heart broken, but i just don't support this leadership. i have to say, wolf, despite the fact that there were so many people arrested, there's still a large percentage of the population here, 50% or more maybe, that actually support president putin and support what he's doing in ukraine. but, again, this number of people getting out on the streets tonight, short notice, knowing that they could be arrested, that's still quite a relatively large number from moscow and the rest of the country. >> that's quite a statement indeed from these folks in russia. president biden announced more sanctions against russia, says putin will be a pariah on the international stage.

does that resonate, those kinds of words, where you are in moscow? >> you know, he met with members of his business community today. so, we can read into that, oligarchs included. potentially some of those have been targeted with sanctions themselves. and his message to them was, look, we knew this was coming. there's going to be some economic hardships. but we need to stick together and remain united on this. that is, you need to be patriotic. we're all going to suffer. and it seems that, you know, that's the message from the top-down. this is the war that he's chosen, and it does seem that a lot of his security officials were not really -- were not really listened to in his calculations here. and it doesn't seem that he's going to put up with much dissent from the business community. and as he said today, you know, russia -- a new iron curtain cannot be put up to keep russia

behind it. and what he means by this is, you know, the sanctions are going to come, but we will continue to survive, wolf. >> nic robertson in moscow for us. we will of course stay in touch with you as well. right now i want to go to the white house. our white house correspondent mj lee is on the scene for us. the president announced this draft of sanctions today against putin and russia. but the white house had to clarify some of his remarks. tell us about that. >> that's right. the remarks that white house press secretary jen psaki tried to clarify was when president biden said during his remarks that nobody really expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening. those comments when they were said were a little bit puzzling given the fact that this is a white house that has said for so long that the threat of sanctions, they hoped, would serve as a deterrent. this is the reason, actually, why we didn't see sanctions

until this week because the white house had said all along we are going to wait until russia actually invades ukraine. and then we are going to roll out our whole slate of sanctions. the hope, again, was that the threat of sanctions would serve as a deterrent. so, when jen psaki, the white house press secretary, was asked to clarify this at the white house press briefing, she essentially sort of drew a distinction between sanctions as a deterrent and sanctions after they have already been rolled out. she said, of course sanctions could have a deterrent effect after they have been issued, so that is certainly the hope. and this is what u.s. administration officials are talking about now, that the sanctions that have been imposed so far could hopefully play some role in scaling down whatever putin's ambitions might be in terms of a military invasion. but of course the timing is an important piece of this too, wolf, because as president biden said himself, he said, these sanctions are going to take some

time to go into effect. and one of his advisers saying today that that really is up to putin, that he is going to have to determine how much sort of economic suffering he is going to be willing to accept in the coming woks and months. >> yeah, it will take some time to implement these sanctions but they are tough indeed. thank you very much. we're going to continue, of course, checking in on all of our correspondents on the ground in ukraine and russia and elsewhere throughout this hour. president biden says, make no mistake, freedom will prevail. but how would vladimir putin be stopped? and what role will u.s. troops be playing with nato states as more prepare to head overseas? i'll ask the former u.s. defense secretary chuck hagual, there you see him. we'll discuss when we come back. . unlike regular turmeric supplements ququnol's superior absorption helps me get the full benefits of t turmeri. the brand i i trust is qunol.

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part of the russian plan has been to put kyiv in danger, to assault the capital, to go after other major cities. we're seeing forces come in frot north, from the east, from the south, and that's all part of the plan we've laid out for the world in recent weeks. >> you're convinced putin is

going to overthrow this government. >> i'm convinced he's going to try to do that. >> that's the latest rather grim assessment from secretary of state antony blinken, as russia continues its multipronged assault on ukraine. the u.s., in turn, isn't just responding with sanctions but adding additional military moves as well, deploying another 7,000 u.s. troops from the united states to europe. let's get some perspective from the former u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel, the one who oversaw the defense department when russia invaded ukraine in 2014, took over crimea. just a few days ago, you expressed hope for a diplomatic offramp, and yet here we are now, ukraine in the middle of a full-scale russian invasion. what do you make of this moment? >> well, when we look back over the last two weeks and what the president has said, secretaries blinken and austin, what our intelligence has shown us that

it was pretty clear where he was going. i think a number of us, including the president, secretary blinken, had hoped that there could be some offramping at the last minute to avert this disaster. but it was not to be. so, mr. putin has started something that he can't control. and every time that you start a war, you start an invasion, you start any type of military incursion, you lose control of it. and everything becomes hair triggered. it's like handling nitroglycerin. and that's particularly dangerous here because there are so many uncontrollables, nato countries on the eastern border of europe that were formerly behind the iron curtain of the soviet union. you've got issues, economic issues, trade issues, energy issues. the world interconnected now. so, nobody is going to get out of this without -- without some difficulty. and the economy is going to be a big part of this, wolf.

>> certainly is. and as you heard, secretary blinken says he's convinced moscow is going to try to actually overthrow the ukrainian government. president zelenskyy says he's target number one. his family is target number two. do you believe putin's end game is a full takeover of ukraine? >> i do believe that's his end game now that he's started this. that would require his taking kyiv, installing his own government, a government that was supportive of russia, a puppet government. that means there's going to be an awful lot of bloodshed for the ukrainians. but there will be bloodshed for the russians. and there are going to be a lot of dead russians sent back home. and mr. putin's going to have to deal with that as well as all the other economic consequences. and the fact that he will be and is a pariah, international

pariah, this is -- as all of your correspondents have said and you've said, wolf -- this is the first time since world war ii that one independent nation has invaded another independent nation. we are at a very defining time in history. i think that's going to come home to more and more people in understanding why we're involved, what's the big problem, what's the big deal. i was born in 1946, the year after my dad came home from overseas world war ii. everybody who was born since world war ii has lived in a world where the united states has been the dominant factor in everything, economics, security. the last 20 years, that started to change. that doesn't mean that's bad. in fact, that's good. that's the world order that we had built and we had hoped for, common interest. let everybody rise. but we've seen things over the last 20 years that have led us

to this moment. and finally you have a leader in putin who is a kgb, shaped, molded, thought provoking leader that specializes in disinformation, misinformation, that thinks that this is the time that he can strike. i think it's a gross miscalculation. i think there's going to be an awful lot of suffering. but in the end, i think it's uncertain where we go. but i do believe what president biden said today. this will end not well for russia and mr. putin. >> you think putin is a war criminal? >> yes. >> should he be tried as a war criminal? >> i think he should. i think he should. we have been -- the west -- very lenient over the years. and, again, when i say this is a defining moment, a defining time in history, in world history,

this will be one of the questions that will have to be resolved when this is over however it comes to an end. it will come to an end. >> president zelenskyy said that tonight so far only been one day, 137 ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the invasion began. how much longer do you think ukraine can keep up this fight? they obviously don't have the capability to defeat a superpower like russia. >> well, i think they'll be able to put up a good fight for a while. they have an army today that's -- that they didn't have in 2014, for much more sophisticated, much for advanced, much more capable. but the overpowering weaponry and military and cyber capacity that russia has will overwhelm them, i'm afraid, unless something stops that, unless something intervenes.

that could happen. but eventually if this thing is moving more and more toward the military decision of how it ends, then the ukrainians will not be able to sustain it. and i think that -- i think that mr. putin wants more than just kyiv and ukraine. as he said in his demands of nato, all those countries, bulgaria, romania, poland, the baltic states, i don't -- i don't want them as a nato country close to my border and threatening me. well, that's not going to happen. those nato countries will be reinforced. they're being reinforced right now with more american troops, more nato troops. and i think mr. putin's not going to be satisfied. and i think this will be part of the reason this ends. moldova, for example, as he tries to militarize that as well. so, who knows? the question -- the way this ends, the consequences that we know are coming.

i don't think anybody can predict. but there are some certainties that we can see that we are aware of, we know, and we control. and putin doesn't. >> the president today warned russia again that if it engages in cyber warfare against the united states, the u.s. will respond. how worried should u.s. industries, the infrastructure, the national security apparatus be about a major russian cyber attack on the united states? >> well, i think we need to be worried about it. we need to be prepared for it. the president said today we've been working with business not just this year, last few months, over the years, last few years, to harden their capabilities on cyber attacks. and we have -- we're not perfect. we have kinks in the armor. there are pieces that we don't have that we wish we did have. i fully expect, wolf, that this will go cyber. i fully expect that the russians

will use their cyber capability, as we've seen them in the past. they're excellent cyber warriors. we're very good. i think we're the best. and i think americans need to be aware that we're not going to be untouched by this wlrks it's cyber attacks, whether it's gasoline costs right in the wake of inflation from covid and supply chain problems. no, we're going to be affected as well. >> yeah, i've been told by u.s. officials that they're bracing for a major russian cyber attack. and the president said today, if russia pursues cyber attacks against our companies, our critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond. and he says the u.s. has sharpened -- and i'm quoting him now -- our ability to respond to russian cyber attacks. that could be a major, major development. secretary chuck hagel, thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. all right. we're following the breaking news. matthew chance is joining us once again.

he's in ukraine. mat matthew, i understand you're hearing explosions once again. what's the latest? >> reporter: yeah, we've heard one big explosion here shatter the calm, such as it's been over the past several hours in kyiv. not quite sure where it's come from. it seemed to have come from this direction over here, which is to the south of where i'm standing right now. i'm not sure what kind of -- what there is over there. but clearly it comes 24 hours almost to the minute after those barrages of cruise missiles targeted air defense systems and military sites around the ukrainian capital. at the moment it's an isolated explosion that we've heard. we've heard a smaller caliber weaponry we think fired as well. but we're not -- we're not sure whether that's from a different location or whether it may have just been a sort of nervous reaction to that explosion.

it's not clear whether there's some sort of start to some kind of battle for kyiv. although i have to say that we do know for a fact that there are russian forces, special forces that have been air lifted into streategic positions aroun this -- around this city. and, you know, the concern is and the belief is amongst ukrainian officials is that within the -- within a short period of time, the russian plan is to encircle kyiv, to capture the city, and to target the leadership of it. president zelenskyy, the ukrainian president, issuing a sort of national statement on his social media platforms earlier today saying that this, according to our information, the enemy has marked me as target number one, and they've marked my family as target number two. they want to destroy ukraine politically by destroying the

head of state. this is the information they've got of enemy sabotage groups that have already entered kyiv. so, a lot of concern, even amongst the ukrainian leadership right now from -- including the top person, the president of the country, that they will now be targeted by russian forces in the capital, kyiv. wolf? >> yeah, and u.s. officials for days now, as you know, matthew, they've been saying that the russians, that putin, has a hit list or a kill list, not just for zelenskyy and his family, but of many other ukrainian officials they want to go after and either kill or send to camps, put them away. we're going to watch that very closely. be careful over there, matthew. we'll stay in close touch with you. our breaking news coverage of the war in ukraine continues. retired lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, there you see him, he's standing by live. we will discuss, and i'll ask him what he sees as putin's end game.

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our team in the ukrainian capital of kyiv now reports hearing two large blasts in the central part of the city and a third loud explosion in the distance. just a little while ago. matthew chance is on the scene for us. he's keeping us posted. remember it was right about this time last night that the invasion, the russian invasion of ukraine, began. we're going to go back to kyiv right away as new information comes in. stand by for that. also just in, a new audio recording has emerged per porting to show an exchange

between ukrainian soldiers on an island in the black see and an officer of the russian navy. i want to show you a transcript of what was said. an officer on the russian warship apparently approached the island and told soldiers, this is a russian military warship. i suggest you lay down your weapons to avoid bloodshed and needless casualties. otherwise, you will be bombed. to which a ukrainian responded, russian warship, go f yourself. it appears it may have been the ukrainian soldier's last words. we're told all the ukrainian soldiers there -- all of them -- were killed. we want to bring in the european affairs alexander vindman. colonel thank you so much for joining us. what's your take first of all on this state of the battle and how

much longer can ukrainian forces hold off this massive russian assault? >> you know, wolf, i wrote a lengthy piece on this and kind of laid out much of this scenario. i saw this coming for definitely quite a few weeks. and one thing that i certainly got wrong was how -- maybe overrated to be a good way to put it, the russian forces were and underrated the ukrainian forces are. the russians were supposed to land some massive blows, really disrupt and destroy a lot of the command and control, political leadership. they have not been particularly effective there. and the ukrainians are putting up a massive resistance. and this is going to be a slog. i don't think this is going to be as easy as the russian -- russians think that it is. and frankly i don't know if this is going to turn out the way vladimir putin thought it would,

certainly not without the costs. the costs now seem pretty heavy, even amongst his domestic population. there are protests on the street. and then the story of her rowism emerging from that snake island transcript you just offered or the ghost pilot that's flying over ukraine, may have destroyed 46 russian aircraft. it's pretty amazing how hard the ukrainians are fighting to defend their homeland. >> having said that, colonel, how likely is it that russia eventually, a few days or few weeks, whatever, will take the capital of kyiv? what will that mean for this conflict? >> so, it's interesting. once the first shots are fired, the geometry changes. and it's really very difficult to see how things unfold. do the protests in russia, the unexpected protests in russia, materialize into something far more challenging? do the ukrainians put up such a significant resistance that it

changes the calculus and putin recognizes that you may not be able to achieve objectives or risk some sort of issues at home. i think those things are difficult. but yes, the numbers are on russia's side. russia's been preparing for this for years. frankly this conflict was inevitable. whether it was now or later, it was inevitable because for more than two decades, putin has preyed on his counterparts. he's preyed on his western counterparts. as a case officer, he's identified hopes and he's identified fears. for the hopes, he promised greater cooperation, greater -- a russian integration. and for the fears, he does what he always does. he does the sabre rattling to indicate there's potential risk of nuclear war. and frankly that's what's keeping the u.s. position so mild at the moment. yes, we're levying sanctions. but in redwral this is a democracy struggling for its survival, struggling for security in europe. so, it's way bigger than that. it's going to have a

geopolitical impact. it's going to have impact on the u.s. population. it has a high possibility of spillover. and i really think we should be doing everything we can to support the ukrainians. but i think there is a deep fear of russians somehow, you know, spinning out of control, escalating, which is a false premise. i wrote an article in "the atlantic" today. the russians have no more interest in a confrontation with the u.s. or nato than we do. they are deathly afraid of a war with the u.s. they know they would lose. they don't want to go in that direction. there's evidence to substantiate this. when the russians attacked us in syria, we killed 300 of them without a response. but we are still succumbing to that response because that case officer understands where he can prey on us and where we're vulnerable. >> ukraine's president, as you know, colonel, president zelenskyy says there are already russian sabotage groups that have entered kyiv looking to target him and his family. do you think he is an immediate

danger? >> absolutely. i think he's in immediate danger. i think there's a target list of various priorities, folks in government, the minister of foreign affairs, heads of security services. they're in danger. their families are in danger. but also civil society, the folks that made this country what it is today, the folks that mobilized the street in 2014 and resulted in the revolution of dignity, the folks that are dragging ukraine or pushing ukraine towards the west. those are all on the target list. we don't really understand how the russian mindset is here. they're going to be barbaric. right now it seems they're actually being restrained because they think they could achieve they're objective without significant casualties or collateral damage. as soon as it turns rough for them, they're going to the do the things they did in syria, bomb churches, mosques, bomb churches, they'll bomb schools,

they'll bomb hospitals. this will be a brutal campaign. >> before i let you go, colonel, putin has used explosive words in describing what's going on in ukraine. he says his effort is simply to protect people in ukraine from genocide. he says that he's working to denazify the country. he's talking about nazis in ukraine right now. president zelenskyy, as you know, he's jewish. what do you make of what putin is saying? >> it's patently absurd. it's meant to influence his domestic population. there is really no merit. of course the ukrainians have been struggling for independence under the soviet union, under the russian empire, and most recently, and there are radical movements that try to exploit that. but you pointed out that volodymyr zelenskyy is jewish. the prime minister is jewish. there is only one other country in the world, israel, that had a jewish president, prime minister.

the jewish community embraced and there's nothing to this nazi narrative, fascist narrative. >> even the u.s. holocaust world museum condemned putin for uttering those kinds of words. lieutenant collinette vindman, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me on. the breaking news coverages of russia's invasion of ukraine will continue right after this break.

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the white house is now saying the united states will accept ukrainian refugees fleeing the country. but tonight refugees are flooding into neighboring poland. cnn international correspondent scott mclean is on the scene for us. scott, what are you seeing there near the border? and are they relocating with expectations of actually staying in poland? >> hey, wolf. it is cold. it is miserable. it is 3:30 in the morning. and the people who are crossing this border, could not be happier to be on this side of it, fleeing what's going on in ukraine. let me just show you around here really quickly. you can see people are gathered here after having crossed the border. there's a little cafe there. people are huddled inside. you see a lot of men here. some of them are driving taxis. some of them are trying to get rides. most of the men here are

boarding buses. they're going to reception centers. the authorities have been handing out these papers which says if you're ukrainian and if you're crossing the border, you're allowed to come here and then giving them a little bit more information. a lot of people who have been crossing the border, wolf, they don't know where they're going to go. they're just happy to be on the side. most of the people who we've met do not expect to start a new life in poland. they think they're going to be here temporarily, maybe a week, maybe a month, maybe longer. but all of them expect to be going back. down this pathway, that's toward the border. the reason that you don't see more people, i mean, there is a steady stream of them, but the reason you don't see even more is because they are all stuck on the other side. there are two check points on the other side of the border. there is the ukrainian one, where you get your exit stamp, and then the polish one where you're entered into the european union in the eastern flank of nato. the holdup is that the ukrainian

side, we know the ukrainians are no longer allowing men to leave the country between the ages of 18 and 60. as i said, the men we've met so far have been foreign or held foreign passports. they are letting the women and children through much quicker. and so we've seen mostly that. and i am amazed, wolf. i have to tell you, i am absolutely amazed by the resilience of these people. women with children, most of them very young, really difficult conditions. they've been waiting in line for several hours, many of them, have i and not heard one single child cry or complain. they're just happy to be here, and they're all just getting through a very, very difficult situation. >> good point, scott mclean on the border between poland and ukraine. thank you very much. a former nato commander fears scenes like the one you just saw are only going to grow and grow with ukrainians facing a humanitarian disaster.

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nothing seems to be working to deter russia from the onslaught in ukraine. for more on that, i want to bring in retired four star general. john allen. the author of the book future war and the defense of europe. there'sth book cover. considering russia's full scare assault, how far do you think putin is willing go? >> well, only he knows. i'm sure that the campaign plan they're executing is a faith campaign plan. they appear to be striking in to ukraine on several different ax is. one out of belarus. one towards don bas and crimea. moving into the heart land of ukraine. and if he's to be believed,

putin, his intention is demilitarize the country and denazify it. a ridiculous term. he doesn't believe ukraine is a real country. this combat power there's a chance his intention is to eliminate it as a country that can stand against him or be a western out post. >> as you know, other bordering countries such as estonia for example are nato allies. do you think putin is bold enough, crazy enough for that matter to try to cross into one of those borders? >> always reluctant to ascribe lunacy to any world leader. he's operating off his own set of values. his own time line. but he's been warned by the president of the united states and the secretary general of nato. that nato is a absolutely solid alliance right now. it's committed to the defense of every square inch of nato. and putin would cross over a

nato boundary a frontier at great risk. because i don't think there's any am guty there. that article 5 of the washington treaty indicates an attack on one is attack on all. bringing the combat power of 30 nations led by the united states to defend the nato territory is a pretty daunting and awesome threat to putin. i think he would great risk cross over a boundary into nato country. >> yeah. it would be enormous risk. he's launching cyber attacks in ukraine. with nato see cyber attacks on one of his members as an act of war? there's some concern if he launches major cyber attacks in western ukraine it could spill over and affect poland. a nato ally. >> 21st century multi-doe nan war fair cross domain warfare has been a feature. i'm not talking tanks only.

airplanes and ships at sea. i'm talking about operations in the information space. information in the cyber space. putin has been operating largely with impunity in the cyber space for some period of time. softening up ukraine. hopefully the democracy of the west. now that to your question specifically, is a cyber attack an attack that could trigger an article 5? we have to see the size of the cyber attack. that remains to be determined. if it's a major attack on critical infrastructure that causes dramatic harm and loss of life. we'll have a conversation in north atlantic counsel about whether that cyber attack could trigger article 5. >> i think you're right. general allen. thank you so much for joining us. we'll take a quick break. much more of the special coverage right after this.

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our breaking news coverage continues right now with don lemon tonight. >> thank you very of. see you tomorrow night. our breaking news russia waging war on ukraine. 24 hours ago the war broke out while we were on air. now, the second largest country in europe after russia itself is a war zone. kyiv under curfew. cnn teams there reporting hearing heavy explosions just a few minutes ago. president zelensky saying russian sabotage groups entered the city. this is chilling. >> according to our information, the enemy marked me as target number one. my family is target number two. they want to destroy ukraine politically. by destroying head of state. we have information that enemy sabotage groups entered kyiv. >> that is happening as white house is condemning russia over what they call credible reports. civilian staff a