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tv   The Ingraham Angle  FOX News  February 24, 2022 7:00pm-8:00pm PST

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invasion of ukraine by russia. we have a lot of news happening, even as we speak at this moment. we know the bombs are going off inside of the capital of ukraine at this minute. let your heart not be troubled. laura ingraham, the ingraham angle will pick up the coverage. thanks for being with us. >> laura ingraham: welcome to the ingraham angle. russia continues an assault on military and energy installations. 130 ukrainian soldiers are dead tonight and 300 wounded in the first day of these attacks by air, land, and sea. explosions are being heard throughout the city of kyiv. at this moment and they there are reports now that russian
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troops are moving en masse into the city. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky has ordered a full military mobilization. all men 18 to 60 have been ordered to stay in the country and promised to arm all of its citizens. reporters are on the ground in ukraine and in washington along with military experts to explain the national security and financial damage that this invasion will cause along with the needless human suffering we're beginning to see already today. we're going to speak in moments with the ukrainian member of parliament who says even though he's not a trained soldier, he's ready to fight. but also questions tonight loom regarding the effectiveness of biden's sanctions and the reluctance of nato to really squeeze russia. and what role is china playing behind the scenes? and what should we be doing right now to blunt russia's ability to affect our people and our energy supply? and finally, was putin's
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military attack truly as inevitable as the administration would have us believe? we'll answer all of that and more. but first, we go live to fox's trey who's on the ground in kyiv. what can you tell us as of this hour? >> laura, good evening. last hour, there were two large explosions here in the capital of kyiv. we're getting new information about what they might have been. the ukrainian interior ministry advisor, anton garashenko share avid you and claims that ukrainian air defense shot down a russian aircraft. i want to make sure we're clear with the attribution here. this is coming from the advisor to the interior minister and is being widely reported in local media. this advisor to the minister who has in the past during this escalation discussed a lot of movement in terms of the ukrainian military, someone with knowledge of the situation. again, it's claiming that the
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ukrainian air defense has shot down a russian aircraft. we don't know what kind of aircraft and we have not independently confirmed this report. but it would be a significant move by the ukrainians and it would also highlight the fact that ukraine has air defense in play. the russians have talked about in the initial hours of their invasion into ukraine took out all of the ukrainian air defense, but the videos that are going around on-line indicate this was indeed some sort of interception and we will get information about what was intercepted. it comes as there have been a couple of cruise or ballistic missiles fired at the ukrainian capital tonight. we're getting more information on those. and the second largest city in ukraine, kharkiv is taking a lot of fire tonight. the major concern is this city could be choked off amid a
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larger push by the russians in this larger blitz of the city. if that does happen, you will likely see a number of waves of attacks so that the russian forces can work their way to the capital. make no mistake, there are not only ukrainian forces and civilians say they will stay and fight even if this battle turns into a more urban guerrilla warfare style of war. laura? >> laura: we've been seeing heart wrenching video today from the underground subways in kyiv and other places, other areas that civilians feel certainly more safe in. people taking, obviously, their children, some belongings, some food. sometimes their pets. and it's -- it's difficult to watch. but this is what war ends up looking like, especially in the early stages where civilians try to find cover wherever they can. and a lot of the women that were interviewed said we don't know where to go.
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we're going to the only place we know is safe, and others are already fleeing across the border into poland where they're being allowed to go tonight. so, that's what we're seeing as far as the civilians on the ground in the vulnerable areas. >> it's heart breaking to see the images and scenes play out in the ukraiian capital. people are having trouble wrapping their mind around what is taking place. these are things you expect to see out of a world war ii documentary. people underground in the subway system trying to get away from air raids. over the past 24 hours in this city, a european capital air raid sirens blaring as people run for cover. and an air campaign against a european city is just something that is such a major escalation. and something that really even those ukrainians who believed would happen and would be some level of invasion, no one
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envisioned it would be like this. it's the worst case nightmare scenario. and you can see, civilians doing what they can to get out of the way going underground if they can and having the resources and ability to make it to the polish border, laura? >> laura: very quickly, i've been through kyiv and other parts of the ukraine very extensively. and the historic landmarks, not that's that is the most important thing right now, but the historic churches that speak to the heart of what kyiv is, there was some talk on another network tonight that those could be targeted. do you have any sense that is actually the case tonight? >> we don't have any information about churches or any sort of religious facilities in this city being targeted. one thing to keep in mind, though, is that this has been really a source of strength for people, having the churches here when we arrived in kyiv a few weeks ago, we went to one of
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these beautiful churches and spoke with an older woman who was praying and she was praying for peace. and it was just a place for her to feel comfortable and hopeful. and still even at this hour, we expect if there are troops ever coming into the city, it's a real possibility that the churches could be a place where people feel safe and could be way from the streets in any military operation that might take place. >> laura: thank you so much. stay safe out there, please. for the latest on the biden administration's response, we turn to peter doocy who's live at the white house. peter, what has been the reaction thus far after president biden's appearance today at the press conference where you got a few really good questions in? the response from some of your colleagues -- i know you all talk -- about the president's inability to really give us answers about what china's response has been to this. and even india's response has
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been to russia's aggression. >> peter doocy: it's interesting. the response, once you -- especially once you go back and figure out what people are asking of the president versus the press secretary is that a lot of folks did not getting the answers they were looking for from the president because they had to follow up with basically the same exact questions to jen psaki which is why isn't the president doing more? why isn't he sanctioning vladimir putin directly? what's really remarkable about the president's event earlier today, earlier this afternoon, he basically said, we're going to stick with the sanctions, even though we know that it's not going to have vladimir putin throwing up his hands and saying, okay, i need to stop right now. fast forward a couple of hours to tonight. we've been able to confirm that when lloyd austin went to capitol hill to brief senators about the pentagon plan from the biden orders to the military
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chief, they are trying to figure out how to train ukrainian forces to fight russians remotely. and, so -- >> laura: what? >> peter doocy: they're trying to figure out -- it's a very 2022 things to do it remotely. but it's in line with president biden's promise to figure out how to beat back the russians without putting any u.s. troops in ukraine to fight russians. so, that is brand new. but otherwise, the headline is just sanctions, sanctions, sanctions. we have a short sound bite where i asked the president, basically, if he is sure that that's going to work. >> president biden: i think that his ambitions are -- are completely contrary to the place where the rest of the world has arrived. >> you're confident that the devastating sanctions are going to be as devastating as russian
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missiles and bullets and tanks? >> president biden: yes, russian bullets, missile, and tanks in ukraine. yes, i am. >> laura: that was -- >> peter doocy: he spoke with us when he got off of the big zoom with the rest of the g7 leaders. so that's the plan. >> laura: peter, looks like the g7 begat the conclusion that not all nato countries were for removing russia's ability financially in the world. germany didn't want to cut russia off. yand is being silent, which speaks volumes. he couldn't answer your question. the answer was not an answer. to say that what they're doing with sanctions the same as tanks or -- or aramis sill attacks on ukraine, what? >> peter doocy: a lot of the
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coverage with this, because we have not done a ton on ukraine in the last couple of years, it requires you to look at a map. when you try to figure out the biden response to this, you look at a calendar. he's saying it might take 30 days for some of these sanctions to really bite putin. but based on all of the coverage that our teams have been collecting on the ground, it's not entirely clear that the people in kyiv have 30 days to wait around for financial punish m to kick in. >> laura: peter, unbelievable to watch today at the press conference. thank you so much. get some sleep, i hope. joining us is senator tom cotton who serves on the senate armed services committee -- intelligence committee, excuse me. senator, you just heard peter doocy. the report that lloyd austin told senators in this briefing, the administration is now looking at ways to train ukraine forces remotely.
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i don't mean to laugh at this. but what's your reaction to that? >> one more example of how the biden administration is on the back foot and ceding the initiative to putin. president biden has creeded the phone the allies on the sanctions we impose. you mentioned kicking russia out of the international banking system known as swift. apparently there are nations like germany that don't want to do that. we're not going to kick them out of swift. likewise, oil and gas are the two largest exports. europe is one of the many places beholden to russian oil and gas. biden's reckless policies have driven up the price of oil and gas in the last year. but even he and the administration is admitting they don't want to impose oil and gas on russia because it will add to what we've added.
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how about we impose sapgss and lift restrictions on american oil and gas so we can drill on federal lands again and put out new leases and reopen the keystone pipeline that brings more oil from america every day from canada than we import every day from russia. that's what we should be doing. >> laura: to your point, isn't this the moment where you show some flexibility, even if you're a climate change fanatic, show some flexibility and concern for your fellow americans on this? but john kerry, frankly, continues to embarrass himself in this country and the world stage with his comments today about what to do next. >> john kerry: massive emissions consequences to the war, but equally importantly, you're going to lose people's focus and certainly big country attention, because they will be diverted and i think they could have a damaging impact. so, i hope president putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.
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>> laura: now, senator, what are the chance, one to ten, ten being the most likely, that vladimir putin is up tonight worried about really meeting john kerry's climate goals. >> tom cotton: yeah, yeah, it's a number somewhere below zero, laura. those are the rantings of a diluted ideologue. most americans are not ideological about these matters, they're clear eyed, sober, and understand you should not disarm your own energy production when a brutal dictator uses energy as a weapon against our partners. and then invades an innocent nation and creates some of those scenes that uh you played earlier of children screaming and families scrambling to subway stations. americans know it's basic common sense we want to protect our own energy supply and supply europe the energy it needs to get off of russian energy. >> laura: i want to talk about
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the idea that i grew up understanding when i worked for president reagan of peace through strength. a weakened america, senator cotton, what does that tell the rest of the world? our southern border is wide open. we don't have the media coverage of that. all of that carnage, the result -- the southern border, the economy, inflation, high energy prices, and all of the rest of the nonsense with the covid mandates and everything. what does that tell the rest of the world? and what did it tell putin and xi? >> tom cotton: putin was told he could build up troops on the ukraine border and invade. if we don't bring the hammer down on putin. if we don't turn them to a pariah state and cripple them economically and socially, it will tell jiping he can do the same. his economy is ten times larger than russia's. it's creating permission around
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the world for our adversaries to try to press against our interests, try to undercut our partners and allies, and ultimately put our own safety and freedom and prosperity at risk. >> laura: good to see you tonight. thank you so much. as you heard senator cotton mention in the last segment, a powerful economic weapon that biden is yet to invoke is basically throwing russia out of something called the swift banking system. that is basically a telecom network. and it kind of connects thousands and thousands of financial institutions around the world. and, so, if you cut russia off from that, it would mean no more money from all of the oil and gas exports. and that makes up about 40% of their budget. that would be crippling for russia. so, surely one could make them think at least twice about pressing on in ukraine if they didn't have access to that. so, why aren't we doing this? this is biden's excuse. >> president biden: the
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sanctions we imposed exceed swift or anything that's been done. the sanctions we imposed have generated 2/3 of the world joining us. they are profound sanctions. >> laura: oh, okay. what's really going on is biden is bowing to the wishes of berlin and brussels. for starters, you polled most of the $30 billion in foreign capital parked now in russia. they need the swift system in order to easily access their money, their investments. otherwise, they could lose it all. plus, europe still plans on buying energy from russia, by the way, using ukrainian pipelines no less. no wonder germany's chancellor add adamantly opposed to removing russia's ability to access the swift banking system. why are we ceding our authority to germany? they sold out economies to russia and china. they don't devote the amount of
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money they should be under the nato agreement to their military. we're seeing the cost of all of this. remember when people are getting on trump for asking nato nations to step up and do their fair share with their military budgets. they're saying, oh, you're making waves in nato. trump was right. we're seeing the results of this nonsense now. he's the only one to hold them accountable. so biden should put americans first here. but i'm not holding my breath. joining me now is walid farris, national security and foreign policy expert. you know this region. you heard me mention the deal that germany just doesn't want to cut russia off from the swiss banking system. i don't think they ever will. there's too much money on the line for germany. so, they're now the most furious impediment, along with a few other nations of our really being able to fully choke off russia's money supply. and i think russia knows it. your reaction? >> russia knows, this is the code, actually. the russian leadership, in order
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to conduct this operation in ukraine did an analysis and realized through this analysis that this administration is not willing to confront them. on the strategic level, just mentioned a very important point, there's a major financial game between germany, other european countries, and russia. we're partnering with both. we -- this administration, germany, russia, are part of what, the iran deal. and the iran deal is not just about $40 billion, but $150 billion and even more than that. so, the calculations in moscow are since you are sitting at the same table with these partners, including our administration and the biden administration is so much dead set on going back to the deal, therefore, their calculation will not going to confront them. there's a second reason, laura. they saw what we've done in afghanistan, that we have withdrawn from afghanistan and cut the deal with the taliban leadership. and that, in the eyes or in the
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mind of putin or the russian leadership means that we're not ready, this administration is not ready to confront them in ukraine as well. >> laura: there was another question asked today at the press conference when biden came out and addressed reporters in the country on this. and he was asked a question by a journalist, i believe from india, on what one of our most important allies is saying about this conflict and what's happening there. and i thought it was revealing. let's watch. >> india is one of your partners, is india fully in sync with the united states on russia? >> president biden: we're in consultation with india today. we haven't resolved that completely. >> laura: we haven't resolved that. isn't that one of the many conversations, one of our most important allies in the middle east in that region, we have not resolved what india thinks of
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all of this? what? >> you know, laura, this indicates this administration and the partners and the western partners and probably india were not ready for what russia has done. they're not ready because they didn't calculate russia would do so. the reason behind that, i go back to the first point, there are financial interests world-wide put together through the iran deal, through the trade in europe and russia, through the energy issue, nobody thought that putin is going to do it and calculate exactly that we're not going to react the way we should. >> laura: walid, thank you so much. we appreciate it tonight. we're going to bring you the latest from the ground in ukraine. plus, in moments, we're going to speak to a member of ukraine's parliament who's ready to fight for his country, no matter what. don't go away.
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>> laura: few people understand vladimir putin's strategy better than our next guest. joining me now is general hedges. good to see you tonight. what can you tell us about the way vladimir putin has approached this conflict
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militarily, tonely, you know, with what he said yesterday about anyone attempting to interfere with this operation? >> good evening. i think his menacing speech is a direct threat to nato countries and anybody else to get involved. unequivocally, he's prepared to say he's prepared to use strategic weapons, nuclear weapons, to deter that. so he's looking to isolate ukraine militarily by using that threat. and now within ukraine itself, he's looking to encircle -- looks like he's trying to encircle kyiv and give too many points of pressure for the ukrainian armed forces to deal with by coming to the east and from the southeast out of crimea as well. >> laura: general hedges, the
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issue i keep coming back to -- two-countries i keep coming back to, china and germany. tonight, germany, a phone call to president biden, could say, you know, we're going to have to sacrifice in the short term. we need to cut russia off from the swift banking system. they have explicitly come out against that. your reaction to that given how much kounthryes are asked to sacrifice here to help ukraine in their hour of need. >> the source of sanctions like that is outside of my expertise. from the sanctions perspective, i would say at the moment, the most significant sanction being imposed on vladimir putin is the casualties and the ukrainian armed forces that are putting it on that government. and i think the -- the strength of the resistance and those
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casualties will cause problems at home for putin. so, with respect to what we do to the outside at the moment probably the most important cost imposed on putin from the domestic support is being imposed by the ukrainians themselves. >> general hedges, a country of about 44 million people, ukraine, how difficult would that country be to occupy? if you're russia and even with all of your might, occupying a country of that size, is that really something they could do for a long period of time? >> i don't think so. the population itself voted overwhelmingly to lean toward the west, to join the eu in due course and nato. i think if he intends to or tries to occupy and subjugate the country by military means, that will become a very long and very bloody task.
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>> laura: at one point today, we understand that one point of entry at a port, a russian vessel came upon ukrainian soldiers when basically when asked to surrender told them to bleep off, this is being reported tonight in "the new york post." they were given the opportunity to surrender, the soldiers flipped them off. they were summarily executed. >> i've seen that reporting as well. my perception, i've been speaking to a number of ukrainian people our armed forces and some part of the territorial force in the last few weeks and these people are prepared to stand, fight, and die for their land. and actually the russians themselves should know this, because they've had to do it themselves in their own history. and i think what we're sealing right now is that level of
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resistance and determination. you know, a man will fight for his own home much harder than an invading person not fighting for his own home. >> laura: general hedge, glitch the report that there's been at least one russian aircraft down by ukrainian fire, we don't know what type of weaponry was used, we don't know whether it was an unmanned drone or more significant aircraft. would that surprise you given the capabilities ukraine now has from the united states and others? >> no, i'm not surprised at all. i mean, i think the -- the russians have been trying to neutralize a lot of the air defense systems, but some of them will be small hand held, difficult to target and very oefktive. and i think the russians will have deployed a lot of the aircraft, fixed wing, fast jets, and also rotary wing and i'm not
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surprised that a number of them are being shot down. >> laura: we appreciate your joining us tonight. thank you so much. the sun is coming up in two hours in kyiv, ukraine. people are blaising for more attacks. we're lucky enough to have him with us tonight. lucas, what's the latest? >> laura, secretary of state tony blinken thinks the russians are trying to overthrow the ukraian government. . the pentagon is less diplomatic, think they're trying to decapitate it. the full scale invasion began with 160 ballistic and cruise missiles being fired at targets throughout the country, north, south, east, and even a few targets here in western ukraine. tonight, ukrainian president zelensky said the russians have sent a hit squad to try to kill him and his family. zelensky is not going anywhere. he's staying. he ordered a full mobilization
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of able-bodied men. the interior minister ordered rifles to give to the citizens to defend the capital. passing through here in lviv. this is a university town. the university is going to send students home to free up the dorm and apartment space. no sign of russian forces here. many of the citizens we spoke to today are nervous about what comes next. laura? >> thank you, we'll check back with you. joining us now is ukrainian member of parliament, alex vuchenko. what is the situation right now? >> right now, in kyiv it's more than 5:00 a.m. now and it's the first 24 hours of the invasion as passed. i can tell you the putin's blitzkrieg has failed. he wanted to decapitate ukraine just in one day.
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and he failed and to say truth, now he has no significant to success on the territory of the country. there was a missile attack on kyiv. 3 million people city, ukrainian capital now in kyiv. ukrainian systems, they work to edged. they interrupted many of the missiles. but, one there is one hit in houses with people and civilian houses with the civilian people. that's the situation for the moment. as i know, the aircraft that you were speaking about, it is very new, russian aircraft, which is bomber fighter. it's not a drone. so it was carried by the pilot and it is downed by ukrainian aircraft in the air fight.
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>> laura: in an air fight. it was surface-to-air. you gave us information we didn't already have. >> as i know, it happened like this. >> laura: mr. gunchurenko, i understand, you're not a soldier, correct me if i'm wrong. you said your willing to take up arms and fight in any way that you can and if you're called to do so. i know there are so many of your contemporaries, you're a young man, at your age, they're not going anywhere no matter how dangerous it%s in -- it becomes in ukraine. tell us about the willingness to sacrifice for the independence of your country. >> yesterday i was receiving the weapon, together with me hundreds of kyiv citizens of kyiv received weapons. not only in kyiv, it's throughout the country. not only in kyiv, more than 10,000 rifles were distributed to people who want to defend the
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city just ordinary people, to civilians like me. some of them have some experience. some of them have very little experience like me. but we are eager to fight for our city, for our capital, for our country. and we want to stop putin, because we -- that's our land and we're not going to give it up. >> laura: i'm so grateful that you joined us tonight. i want to tell you that i spent some wonderful time in ukraine when i was younger than you are. in 1983. and along the river. i was speaking russian back then. the ukrainians didn't want to speak russian but they were forced to. so they reluctantly did have nice conversations. but it is a beautiful place we nowhere mouse history, enormous history of suffering as well. but, alex, we appreciate you joining us tonight. and --
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>> thank you very much, thank you for covering. be with the ukrainian people. we're fighting not only for ourselves but for the whole free world. >> laura: alex, thank you. a dhs source is telling fox today that the cyber threat to the united states grid and to our banking system is real. senator mark warner talked about this and says it's still very active. if the grid is penetrated, intelligence estimates show that it would likely take one to two weeks to get it back on-line. joining us now to discuss this is former fbi assistant director chris sweker. i know you're familiar with these types of cyber security threats. our grid is always under some type of assault. usually we're able to prevent -- it's being successfully hit. but how much of this is real?
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this threat in your eyes and should our government do more to prevent these ongoing attempts. >> no question that russia under putin has the capability and does launch exploits on a day-to-day basis to russian cyber criminal organizations. they'll hit the financial institutions first, i believe, laura. in retaliation for sanctions. his own gru don't have the same capabilities as the criminal organizations. so since they're doing these things day-to-day, he presses them to service as needed for his own needs. so i see a real threat here, my sources tell me that the threat -- the actual attacks on the u.s. are at a pretty normal level right now but they launched a cyber attack, a fourth attack vector against the ukraine, you mentioned land, air, and sea. they're going at ukraine hard right now from a cyber standpoint. >> laura: we're going to get back to cyber in a second.
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but i should report that it is breaking that russian forces are rolling through ukraine to kyiv in ukraine, 20 miles out right now. that's obviously extremely significant. there's a huge population inside the capital city. many of them now underground, driven underground. there's enormous amount of fear in the country, which will probably heighten this entire moment for us versus russia, given the cyber threats that are out there, chris. how significant is it that it looks like they were rolling into kyiv pretty soon? >> yeah, they're committed to taking over kyiv. they'll take over the entire country. i think we see that handwriting is on the wall there. i'm not real impressed with the resistance so far. i mean, they are -- they are against overwhelming numbers. putin appears to be committed to this. this timing is not accidental,
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laura. this is a dictator, a mob boss that has sized up our president and he looks at him and he sees opportunities. there's opportunities here and opportunities in other areas of the world. and his goil -- goal here partly is to make us look weak. that's another goal of the cyber attacks to show he can retaliate for financial sanctions and makes them look powerful and us vulnerable. >> laura: thank you for your expertise. you heard me talk about china's silent hand in all of this. are they working behind the scenes to bolster putin? it looks like it. and in the process hinder any efforts on the part of nato and the united states. we'll explain all of this, next.
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>> laura: we're back with a fox news alert. ukrainians bracing for more attacks from russian forces as reports are that russian troops are headeds a close as 20 miles out from kyiv tanks and other vehicles making their way to the capital city. trey, what's the latest? >> concerning reports of russian troops 20 miles of the ukrainian capital of kyiv. it comes as the last hour there
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were two large explosions in the ukrainian capital. we are still tracking down exactly what happened. there are conflicting reports, some say it was a russian plane shot down. others say a ukrainian plane. some say a cruise missile in the fog of war. sometimes this information can get messy. so we'll hold off on reporting what it was. but it appears that the ukrainian or even possibly russian air defense shot down something that was flying over the ukrainian capital and there are images coming out of the ground in the residential apartment building that receives some of the shrapnel and damage from whatever was shot out of the sky. this does come as missiles have targeted kyiv tonight. a number of times we heard those explosions in the distance. we know there are a number of battles taking place on the outskirts of this city and the outskirts of many cities across the country of ukraine. following the russian invasion, russian forces and ukrainian
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soldiers were engaged in heavy fighting, especially in the second largest city of kharkiv, the northeastern part of ukraine. the reports of the russian troops within 20 miles of the capital city are extremely concerning because it aligns with the western intelligence analysis that indicates kyiv could be the next target for the forces to choke off the city and come in by land. what that will look like is really anyone's guess because it could have a hybrid war situation where you can see the ukrainian forces in some sort of guerrilla warfare trying to cut off the russian troops trying to move in. also civilian. we know today up to 10,000 weapons were given out to civilians according to the interior minister to help to fight off invasion into the city. back to you. >> laura: trey, thank you so much. what's our more serious rival? china. think of russian's invasion of ukraine. did xi get a heads up at the
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olympics. did he ask vladimir to wait until after the olympics. they said they would continue to buy oil in that olympic meeting. for starters, china refuses to call this an invasion. that's telling. they're blaming the united states for ramping up tensions in the region. china's assistant foreign minister said the u.s. is fueling the flame, fanning up the flame. how do they want to put out the fire? joining me is mike pillsbury, the director of hudson, author of the 100 year marathon, and gordon chang, senior fellow author of the great u.s. china tech war. dieing to talk to you and gordon for the last 48 hours. china, china, china. it is critical, so few people are talking about it. only a couple of questions touched on this and president biden's press conference today. give us your assessment so far, mike? >> as you know, laura, in the
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last -- in the last few days have the american media and our congress dropped the ball on the china threat. president trump was first, obviously, and joe biden embraced the trump strategy toward china. frequently president biden said china was the main threat, the main competition, all of that seems to be out the window. and obviously without having to eavesdrop on the chinese leadership, it's obvious they're enjoying this. they're seeing the two tigers fight, to use a chinese proverb. in the terms of the economy of china, 10 times bigger than the economy of russia. that means in terribles of protecting putin's economy, loans, investment, purchasing more russian energy products, other kind of products, china is in a position to really support putin as he faces these sanctions. the other thing i'm worried about is china is drawing lessons from this. but if they were to invade
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taiwan, the level of sanctions and punishment they would get if it's like what biden has done about putin and ukraine, very light sanctions that china could afford. likely to receive increasing chances of war with china attacking taiwan in the next two or three years. putin was protected by the size of the chinese economy. these are dangerous trends i think, laura. >> laura: richard haas, gordon, wrote in the new york times that the biden administration should step up the private diplomacy with china, highlighting the economic and strategic risks including financial punishment and increasing anti-china sentiment in the west. gordon, talk about, you know, china closed the barn door after the horse already ran out. is this -- is this approach going to drive a wedge between china and russia to tell xi, you know, you should really think
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about this? isn't it a little late for that? >> well, certainly, it's not going to work. that february 4 meeting between vladimir putin and xi jingping, they announced a $117 billion in new oil and gas deals, and just a couple of days ago, they announced the sell of $100 million metric tons of coal. so, china is financing the war against ukraine. and the united states warned china not to do this on february 3. they did it anyway in beijing. so, i think the united states needs to impose those hard sanctions, not just on the russians but also the chinese. diplomacy allah richard haas is just not going to work. his proposals are ludicrous. >> laura: it's embarrassing, but as gordon said, this is the same refrain we hear from the one worlders or the globalists,
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whatever you want to call it, the rules based international order crowd. these are the same people back in august were saying that the fact that russia and china were doing all of these joint military exercises, it was interesting but on cnn..com, brad london wrote, both sides have differing objectives, like that was going to make us feel better. that was a warning sign back in august when he said let's hook up and do these exercises and we were asleep at the wheel. >> i agree, laura. and i think we all know there's a few hawks inside the biden administration, especially concerned about the china threat. but they seem to be lying low. they're overwhelmed on the one hand, john kerry and his quest for climate change. but they're also overwhelmed by the old richard haas, henry kissinger consensus on china that somehow in moments of
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crisis, we can turn to china for assistance. you saw president biden embarrassed by the question, are you reaching out to china to get them to help us and biden didn't want to answer. >> laura: yeah, can i buy a vowel, please? gordon, a simple question. it might seem too complex for this moment. but why are so many elites so willing to give china the benefit of the doubt and billions of u.s. dollars to build up the military while being singularly focused on the russian threat. not saying russia is not a threat. but why does china always get the free pass, always? >> a number of people in the elite do have economic interests. they view it meaning they're closer to the communist party in china than they are to their fellow americans. like richard haas, they believe united states and china can come to an accommodation. as china grows, they see the interest coincide with those in
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the u.s. this is five decades of ideology that's failed. and clearly, this is absurd. because we've seen by now there's no chance, there's no chance that x il jingping will come help us but he will help putin. he's already helped putin. >> huge miscalculation. bush, clinton, and obama. mike and gordon, you saw it all coming long ago. thank you. as part of ukraine's military mobilization to counter this russian invasion, they're calling for all citizens to take up arms. promising to provide weapons to those who will. but my next guest was deployed in ukraine and is speaking to citizens on the ground here. joining me now is jeremy hunter, former army captain, a congressional candidate in georgia. jeremy, the spirit of the russian men willing to take up arms seems very strong. however, they are outnumbers, outgunned, and slowly but surely
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surrounded. >> yeah, several of my ukrainian friends tonight, i've been texting some of them, they said we trust the will of god and we're going to fight for our country. that's the message they're sending me. it's inspiring. they want freedom so bad they're willing to give their life for it. they're taking up arms and setting all kind of territorial defenses. ukrainian men are standing up and defending their families and homeland. it's totally different from even the situation we saw in afghanistan earlier, where we saw images of men running and fleeing the country and hopping on them out. ukrainian folks are strong. we saw stories today of folks saying you can take my life but you're not going to take my home. it's just incredible. so my wife and i have been praying for the people of ukraine, all of the friends there literally giving their lives for their country. >> at the same time, the biden administration has sent a small amount of troops to the region. president biden has been clear,
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we will not fight russia in ukraine. but we will fight for every inch of nato territory. jeremy, at the same time, we have seen a clear reluctance on the part of our european partners, as they're called, to squeeze russia. if they're threatened by russia, if they're really threatened, they're willing to give russia billions of dollars to fund the military through energy and other financial instruments. >> that's right. it's really a cautionary tale for us here at home. we have to stay energy independent or else we too will be like germany dependent on russian oil, dependent on them for fuel and gas. i call on the biden administration right now. lift all of the ridiculous energy restrictions. lift -- reopen the keystone pipeline. even b in our district, i'm running for congress here in southwest georgia. folks in my district will pay
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$4, $5, $6 a gallon for gas and we could ease some of that if biden lifted some of the ridiculous restrictions. and it's for those of us running for office -- the green new deal and all of these ridiculous ideas, this should be the last nail in the coffin of the green new deal. we see what happens if we're not energy independent. >> laura: i have a quick question -- i have a really quick question. in all honesty, are your potential stitch 20s concerned about enforcing ukraine's border or having us enforce our border at home? >> well, what my constituents are saying, talking to folks around the district, what i'm saying is this, we want to have a country with a strong military, borders, and they want people with leadership in dc that stands up for us and actually projects strength. the reason why we got here is because biden -- our adversaries across the globe have seen
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biden's weakness all year. >> laura: we have to go, jeremy. but, a weak america begets a chaotic, dangerous world. that's what we're seeing play out. peace through strength, baby. jeremy, thank you. we're going to stay -- we're going to stay with the coverage in lviv. we'll be back. we have a correspondent on the ground with all of the breaking. details. stay there.
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>> laura: real expertise,
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gravitas, dignity, influence on the world's stage. we see what america, weak at home economically will do or not be able to do when the rest of the world goes haywire. this is a serious, serious situation unfolding. but, america, we've got to put our own oxygen mask on before we can help others. that's sadly the message tonight. that's it tonight. breaking news on fox. stay here. >> shannon: welcome to extended coverage on fox news at night. i'm shannon bream in in washington.

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