wondering if a cruise missiles going to head and that tells you and thinking about it at that moment. >> shannon: it's tough to get rest and if you can get peace and quiet to also to be able to quiet your mind. we are exceptionally grateful for our folks working around the world so we can bring you this information. that's it from washington and our special coverage continues with trace gallagher. for bret baier, i'm shannon bream. have a good night. ♪ ♪ >> trace: there are new rounds of explosions and sirens hurried in kyiv as russian's assault on ukraine entered its second day, russia now unleashing air strikes and sending in tanks from three sides of ukraine's border. russian troops now reached the outskirts of the capital of kyiv. ukraine presidents is the first day of fighting left dozens dead and thousands of people stuck in traffic jams as they desperately tried to get out of kyiv and other ukrainian cities. hello, everybody, i'm

trace gallagher and continuing live team coverage of the coverage in eastern europe. 10:00 p.m. here in los angeles, 1:00 a.m. in new york, 8 in the morning in kyiv as the conflict in ukraine intensifies. the u.s. is issued new sanctions on russia and deployed 7,000 additional troops to europe. in the coming hours, we will be joined by our fox news team of correspondents. we have steve harrigan on the ground in ukraine, rich edson is at the pentagon, kevin corke standing by in washington with reaction for our nation's political leaders, but we begin live here on the ground in ukraine with steve harrigan who's in the capital city of kyiv. it sounds like the russians are moving closer and closer. >> it is, and you can actually hear them on the outskirts of the city and it sounds like steady tank fire in the distance. for right now, we are not hearing anything 8:00 a.m. in

the city of 3 million people. it should be rush hour now and if you look around the city, there is practically people out on the street, deadly silent. it's a very strange situation right now. earlier today, we did hear air sirens just after dawn and before that a major explosion in the sky a real fireball. a plane was shot down, not clear whether it was russian or ukraine plane and it's not clear who shot it down. but it's clear that some of the debris because an apartment building to go on fire. as far as the president goes of ukraine, he is still here in the capital and he says he's not going anywhere. he says it's clear that the russians intend to target him. here is zelenskyy. >> [speaking non-english language]

>> he says he's enemy number one and his family's enemy number two and the russians he expects will attempt to kill him 44-year-old president and former tv actor and comedian says he's staying put here. he had one day of invasion from the russians, they are not in control of the capital yet. according to u.s. intelligence, they are less than 20 miles out. we will see if they do come into the city with armored vehicles vehicle back to you. >> trace: that's a very good question because you talk about 20 miles. they could be in the ukrainian capital well we are still on the air and i'm wondering if you see any preparations for that. are there stands being made and are there barricades being put up? what do you see happening in what we believe is right before the russian tanks arrived? >> in the part of the city where we are, it's a ghost town. it seems like a post nuclear war, nobody's even outside at

all. there has been real firefights outside the city, especially around airbases. that have been the real battle zones. if they're going to bring in forces, special police to occupy major cities, they need to bring them in by plane. trace. >> trace: steve harrigan live for us, thank you. as strikes take ukraine by land, air, and seek, russian president vladimir putin issuing a threat to western nations if they attempt to interfere. watch. >> those who could be tempted to intervene from outside, whoever tries to hinder us and even more so to create threats to our country, to our people, should know that russia's response will be immediate. and it will lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history. >> trace: joining us now, national executive director and association of the u.s. navy, jason has national security

expert. how serious should these threats be taken and what level of force is putin willing to use against the west? >> thanks, trace, great question. i think first of all we have to take him seriously. vladimir putin is saying this after having committed this violent atrocity rolling into the ukraine. he made good on that promise and he has to be condemned. he has been condemned by the world, so right now he doesn't have much to lose. don't forget that our rhetoric is similar, we threaten sanctions that they have never seen before. you have seen what has happened since then, the european union has not been able to stick those a significant degree. what president putin has done is he made a very serious threat. we don't know the level or extent he's willing to go, but we should be very careful and cautious about trying to ratchet up the rhetoric here. >> trace: when you heard the clip earlier about

president putin saying the consequences and i'm quoting "greater than any you have faced in history." president biden was asked about that today and he was asked specifically if putin is intending for means of nuclear weapons. watch this back and forth and i'll get your response on the other side. >> that the rate he gave the west will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. is he threatening a nuclear strike? >> i have no idea what he's threatening. i know what he has done. >> trace: the question becomes if we do not know whether or not he would use nuclear weapons, we truly are in territories. >> by the way, that was very purposeful why vladimir putin said it that way. he knows that the west does not know how to read him. we said that, we have indicated we had enough intelligence to read this as an invasion, but being frank that's not as much intelligence as it is

observation 120 or 90,000 troops on the border doesn't constitute very secret information. vladimir putin is pulling the leverage hand to its fullest extent and on the ground, he's going to be looking to get as much negotiation and arbitration as possible. while leaving uninstalled pro putin government inside the capital. we have yet to see if that happens with victor reporting on the ground right now they have suggested they limited themselves from going inside the city. we have to remember that you don't just roll armored tanks into a city and it's over, that's a bloody house to host street to street urban combat fight. by the looks of it, vladimir putin is not ready to risk that level of carnage yet. >> trace: i know you're well-informed on the sanctions, the e.u. united states put in place decay and allow the people said that when putin started amassing troops on the border and ukraine, march 2021, the sanctions should have been put in place 70,000

troops end of the sanctions were put in place when years ago, the russians would be feeling the pinch severely today. your thoughts on that sir? >> i think sanctions are one thing, but those again, russia has been patient and preparing for the sanctions since 2014 crimea building alternate systems and redundancies. they also have the oil that holds europe in the palm of their hand. what we should have been doing is applying more of the antitank and anti-helicopter missiles bestowed, the stingers, the javelin missiles. you can see the success of those from the ukrainians were able to knock out the air security that russia's trying to carve out. our real leverage is getting them 200, 300, 400 pieces of equipment on the ground over the last year. we ramped up some lethal munitions, but it was not enough. by the way, that would have changed the calculus for president putin. unfortunately, we miss the opportunity and it's late to get there now. they sanctions are not enough

and vladimir already planned for those. this puts us in a very bad position. >> trace: when you talk about calculus and one day into the work we are one day and now, sir, how do you believe and think that the ukrainian forces are holding up? how are they doing? better than expected or are they standing their ground better than expected? >> very well and i think the accommodation of what president putin was hoping to do and also the resolve and the spirited fighting force of ukrainians. they do not want to give up their ground and they will fight this to the last man or so it appears here because they've done a pretty good job and i think the death toll has been limited. if you're looking at an absolute full scale invasion, other words the sort of dramatic world war iii that people have talked about, we would be looking at deaths in the neighborhood of the ten thousands. we have not seen that in the hundreds, we've seen russian casualties and give credit to the ukrainians. everybody knows this is a little bit. once you start the campaign, it's about supplying troops and

moving weapons, food, blood, moving things to the front line and that means you've got to have air superiority and the airports, got to have logistics wraps. when you cover this much terrain, that makes you vulnerable to harassment, guerrilla warfare, insurgencies, to every man, woman, and child with a rifle that's within hearing distance of the russian troops. they are not in a great position to look for some ratchet up violence in the next two days with a vladimir putin if he intends to get it over with. >> trace: that's a good point about air superiority because there was a battle today at boryspil airport which is just a few miles outside of kyiv. reports that russians took over the base and then later in the day the ukrainians took the base back. is key, sir, because ed has extremely long runways and it is one of those places where you can land anything. that would allow russia to be able to land huge military equipment and troops and so

forth. maintaining that base like we go back to the bagram air base in afghanistan, maintaining that base would be pivotal. true? >> absolutely true and one of the reasons you see these pieces are first in the battle friends. the airborne commandos that came in from russia, but again, ukrainians credit they know exactly what the strategic targets are. those are not easy to hold, and holding them it can slog the russian forces down for quite some time. but again, this is where the united states missed the opportunity to get more of the antitank and antiaircraft missiles on the ground in the hands of the ukrainians, because they would have made this short work in a few days if we had to. >> trace: i'm running a little low on time. i want your final assessment, we talked about the sanctions and on the ground, is it your belief that the leftists a showing enough strength so far in the conflict? >> not even close, i think the

president admits to that. his hopes he heard today was that the sanctions would work over a long time if you're the ukrainian on the ground, your heart tonight is a little bit depressed from hearing that. we know the left hasn't had a lot of resolve to keep putin from doing what he's done and now we are in the position of almost wait and see. my hopes are that this will limit itself to political and military sort of conquest, but we don't know where this ends at this point. we need more days to understand what putin's willing to risk. >> trace: lastly you talk about wait and see, but we have been waiting for ten years. russia has shown aggressive behavior now for ten years with almost zero consequences. >> this is why it's a shame that we have here, we've had time to plan against this. the ukrainians had been hopeful of coming to nato and frankly that's probably not on the table for many of the western leaders. so, there should have been lethal munitions on the ground

throughout that time. again, we missed the mark to get in front of this and now we are behind it. putin successfully has done this in georgia and crimea 2014, now kazakhstan recently, belarus. all he is doing is running out the playbook on his side and we will get in front of it. >> trace: jason beardsley, great insight and thank you for coming on. we appreciate it. >> thank you for your parting. >> trace: president biden announcing 7,000 more u.s. service members will head to germany to go 14 american soldiers have been repositioned since the start of the ukrainian crisis. while there is nearly 100,000 americans soldiers stationed across europe, resident guidance is not a single soldier will fight in ukraine. rich edson life for us at the pentagon with the latest. good morning to you. >> good morning, the perspective from the pentagon u.s. officials are saying that what russia's operations goals here are to conduct an operation that's going to decapitate the elected

ukrainian government, then install a government there that is more friendly towards russia. we have heard from the elected ukrainian president volodymr zelenskyy shot a short video previously basically saying he and his family are staying in ukraine even though they are his numbers one and two on the russian list they are. he says a new iron curtain is falling. ukraine's foreign minister is leaving united states. he spoke with bret baier this evening pleading for military hardware so that his country could defend itself. >> the amount of tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters that russia through henri ukraine is unimaginable, and we need more javelins, we need more systems to extend to continue fighting. trust may come of the world cannot allow russia to prevail in ukraine.

if it does, then we will wake up to a completely different world and that day. >> videos are finding are emerging across social media. one shows a massive explosion of her kyiv. there is claims it's of ukrainian air defenses shooting down a russian aircraft. the biden administration stress no american troops are going to fight in ukraine. ukraine is not a nato member and therefore not bound to the treaty that says an attack on one is an attack on all 30 members. still, the pentagon is sending dozens of u.s. troops to the region to bolster the natal blog. they're heading first to germany, and the next destination is unknown. nato says it's trying to avoid a larger war. >> we are increasing our presence, but the defenses are measured and we will not see confrontation. we want to prevent the conflict. >> kyiv mayor says that russian

president vladimir putin has "lost reality." he said it to a british publication, that he's prepared to join the fight against the invasion. he and his brother vladimir are former boxers, heavyweight champions of the world. he says ukrainians across the country are fighting now as they face overwhelming russia forces. >> trace: hall of fame boxer, rich, i'm wondering if you listen to nato and you listen to others. i'm wondering if the pentagon is concerned or believes there is a good possibility or at least a possibility of this thing, this war spending outside of the ukraine into nato countries. >> any time you have a battle space like this, when you have this many operators in such a small space, there is always a chance or problems, a mistake,, and issue and this is not a good scenario for a number of reasons. that's just one of them. if you look at where this is

going, you've got ukraine which is really down the front lines between the west and authoritarian russia from beyond that, you really do not have too many nonnato countries. nato -- ukraine is not part of nato here in that part of the world. you've got countries like georgia, not part of nato and invaded by russian 2008 looking at the scenario. >> trace: we hear steve harrigan talking about the fact that you've got russian tanks that are moving as close as u.s. intelligence 20 miles from the capital of kyiv. as much is the president of ukraine wants weapons, he wants more ability to be able to fight, easy also asking or is there any sense that he needs advice from the united states or some of the nato countries to try to get through this thing? >> that's part of the consultations to cover really in the lead up to all of this and for the last decade and really beyond here, the foreign

minister was just here in the united states for meetings meeting with the united nations down here in washington, d.c.. that something that's a role that washington and nato have been playing throughout this and the lead up as ukraine has sought to move closer to the west. >> great stuff. >> trace: went back to you as the news breaks and mean times in the days leading up, the invasion of ukraine, president by then threaten bosco with sanctions he would said would devastate russians economy. move and administration would help to deter putin but when pressed in the press conference, sumy admitted that the warning likely fell on deaf ears. watch. >> nobody expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening. it has -- it's going to take time. we have to show resolve. he knows what's coming and so the people of russia know when he's brought on them. that's what this is all about. >> trace: here with us now, former foreign policy advisor.

good to see oh, the president during the press conference at the sanctions were never meant to deter. you could have fooled the vice president and jen psaki and john kirby because they all believed and in fact that's exactly what the sanctions were supposed to do. deter aggression. your thoughts? >> things for having me on the show today, and i watched the president's press conference live this afternoon. i have to say, i think the press conference was an absolute disaster really. it does not instill in the hearts of the russians, and it would have been greatly disappointing i think to our ukrainian allies. it's heartbreaking to see what's happening in ukraine with this barbaric russian invasion of a free sovereign nation. here you have the president of the united states talking about a new wave of sanctions, many of which will take a very long time

to take set. last year -- week in munich, sanctions would stop by russian invasion. contradicting everything that biden said today. the conference was confused mess actually. i don't that he's going to do anything whatsoever to slow the pace of the russian invasion of ukraine, which is already a moving forward at a very significant speed. >> trace: a lot of people talk about the timing of the sanctions. today, there was a question about the power of the sanctions. i want to play back and forth between our own peter doocy and the president and get your response. >> your confident that these devastating sanctions are going to be as devastating as russian missiles and bullets and tanks? >> yes. russian bullets, missiles, and tanks in ukraine.

yes, i am. >> trace: yes, i am. russian bullets, missiles, and tanks in ukraine. that's a bold statement and if you're the ukrainian president right now watching that, you have to be a little taken aback. >> i think biden, you know, he's very confused actually. he's all over the place. this was a press conference that was a train wreck in many respects. the reality is that sanctions are not going to stop russian tanks rolling into the capital city of kyiv, another ukrainian decision. the sanctions the president spoke about the day, they the toughest sanctions that could be implemented. as we know, russia will not be eliminated from the swift international system as a result of the sanctions. basically, biden is kowtowing to european opposition sanctions,

the germans are moving towards moscow because it's so heavy energy independent. biden's going out of his way to appease opinion in western europe, largely. let's face it, the germans, the french, the european union have done nothing sought the mic what's offered to stand up that the russians. great britain, poland, the baltic states frankly. this is another approach that's week by biden and going to embolden the russians and having the opposite effect actually. we know as well, the russians are linking up closely with china and we have the two great close ties in the biden era. biden doesn't seem to have any strategy to confront the russians and the chinese. this is a president in crisis. he's leading a superpower in

decline after the humiliation after the afghanistan withdrawal over the ukrainian invasion. biden has barely lifted a finger to stop the russians going into ukraine. he had a long time to work and he spectacularly failed. >> trace: when i can stand by if you would come i want to get your opinion on the breaking news and we were going to take a quick break. stem bio, will come back to you. if we are joining us, we are told by steve harrigan on the ground that russian tanks are now as close as 15 or 20 miles away from the capital of kyiv, continuing coverage of the war in ukraine breaking news next. ♪ ♪

>> trace: continuing coverage on the wear of ukraine, back with former foreign policy advisor nile gardiner. think you were standing by with us. the whole concept that u.s. intel is saying these russian tanks can be 15 or 20 miles away meaning they can be in the capital of kyiv sometimes in the next hour or two hours. they will not be welcome with open arms. this could be very bloody and it could be a very long and ugly battle, and the question is all that nato, the united states can do is just sit back and watch. it's a very helpless seeing it appears.

>> as i mentioned earlier, it's heartbreaking to see what's happening in ukraine. i was here a few years ago meeting with government officials and it's a big city with 3 million people. nearly the size of a city like berlin actually. one of your lips biggest city here certainly the russians are going to face resistance and very difficult for the russians to occupy a city on the scale of kyiv or a very long period. i think the ukrainians are incredibly courageous people. they will fight like lions with tremendous bravery and courage and at the moment unfortunately they are fighting alone. they are up against a truly barbaric and evil russian regime. i have grave concerns about what the russians are going to do to military personnel that they capture, but also of course the

civilian population. he doesn't care one bit for human life in ukraine. we could see 10,000 people killed and mass slaughter by the russians. they are capable of tremendous inhumanity and brutality. we could be looking here at an absolute humanitarian catastrophe in ukraine as a result of putin's actions here. putin is a dictator, a tyrant who is capable of behaving with tremendous savagery. we can see that in ukraine, but these are incredibly dangerous times, not only for ukraine but for the whole world. if putin succeeds in his occupation of ukraine, he will set's eyes next on the baltic territory which reinforces the nato eastern flank, we need more

forces on the border. we need to send a message to putin that on the ground, russia will be hit very hard. there can be no room at all here for any complacency. putin's embolden right now and he believes that biden is weak, he believes that the united states is in decline. he's becoming more aggressive and assertive. >> trace: i want to get your very quick take here because we are going to move on with a few seconds that we have left. the president of ukraine zelenskyy believes he is target one are the target though might russia and his family started two. if the russians go after, but does that change the dynamic how nato and united states approach this? >> that's a good question, zelenskyy is an incredibly brave man and staying on the ground there. the russians goal of courses

decapitate the ukrainian government, the democratically elected government and put in place a pocket regime. you know, there's a real danger i think of, you know, major human rights violation being carried out by the russian or the ukrainian territory if they seize kyiv and if they capture government officials here. anything could happen. you know, we cannot allow this kind of evil to take place. we have to confront the russians over this, we have to stand up to what is a monstrous evil here on the part of the russian regime. >> trace: is vladimir putin and international outlaw? >> he certainly is a pariah. he's an incredibly dangerous figure. he's also in my view, increasingly absolutely unhinged as well with this invasion of ukraine. is a deadly combination of pure evil with a balance of complete madness as well.

he's incredibly dangerous figure. yes, you should be treated like an outlaw frankly. he's committing war crimes right now on ukraine and he should be held accountable. >> trace: many people share that assessment. nile gardiner, thank you for coming on. meantime, cyberattacks against government websites in ukraine added to the confusion of russia's military assault thursday knocking hundreds of sites off-line and president biden says we are prepared for this. watch this. >> if russia pursues cyberattacks against our companies, our critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond. for months, we have been working closely with our private to private sector to hard in the cyber defenses, sharpen our ability to respond to russian cyberattacks as well. >> trace: joining now via skype, vice chair of the senate for american security fdi and former chief of staff at the national security council, great

to see you again. you talk about the cyber attack that happened yesterday. we know ukraine went after them again today. how do you think ukraine so far is withstanding these attacks, and in your estimation, how important are the attacks in war in 2022? >> welcome a trace, this is modern warfare we simply do not prepare the battlefield with artillery. we tried to disrupt the country that is being attacked with cyberattacks. trying to interfere with communications, with computers, with power. it's differentlis with the cyberattacks it may not be wiping computers clean which is what we have been hearing recently, but it's different sabotaging infrastructure come out water plants, power plants, communications, and when it happens, it's harder for the government to operate in the heart of for the military to operates, easier for the attacker to succeed.

>> trace: i wonder if you believe the united states now that the sanctions are about to be in place in vladimir putin may strike back with cyberattacks on the united states and on the european union? >> you know, i've been hearing that for about a week now. i do not understand why putin while he is invading ukraine would also attack the united states with cyber. i think this is fearmongering by the biden administration. i'm not disputing that the russians have been behind some severely substantial attacks on the united states, but i don't get the logic why the russians would do that right now. why would it provoke the united states more? i think it's simply an effort by joe biden to distract from his other problems. >> trace: when i was going to play this with nile gardiner earlier, but when the play for you and it's a full screen and an nbc news op-ed. it's talking about sanctions and the power that they do or do not have. it says in the record income of the risk for president biden at a time when his approval rating

cratered is that you'll be seen as powerless of sanctions do not alter putin's behavior. well security aspects and both parties saying biden has it done enough, it's not clear that there is any actions he could take short of war that would turn russian forces around. is not right? >> i think it's right. we should be sanctioning putin. the problem is if biden had been sanctioning him from the beginning and did not live sanctions on nord stream two pipeline and did not have such a weak foreign policy, we would not have this catastrophe in afghanistan with the withdrawal. i don't think what's happening in ukraine would have occurred. we have been hearing for the past couple weeks that biden's threats of sanctions are going to stop putin from invading. that did not work. now that putin has invaded, he's already factored in the reality that he's going to be hit with very hard sanctions and i think

this nbc piece is right. the sanctions will likely have more than likely no effect on putin right now, but i think we have to build up a case to pressure putin a possible future provocations. >> trace: mike pompeo said the sanctions will not do anything and for the two things putin cares about. one is himself staying in power and two, continuing to expand russian power. their assessment? >> i think that's right come up there is one sanction we can implement that really will have an effect that we denied putin the money he's using to fuel -- to pay for his military. that would be to completely reestablish u.s. energy production. joe biden's not going to do that because of his fanatic on the environment, his desire to get away with the gasoline powered to engine, but i mean, by doing that it has been a windfall for

the russian economy, for the russian military. if biden would turn that around to it would have an effect on the russian economy. >> trace: why not say to the far left i get the whole green new deal, but the bottom line is we are in a time of war and this is a very serious situation for the united states and everybody else. right now, when our priority is is turning the spigots back on and making sure that the energy flow so we are not dependent on anybody else. it'll increase the national security and that has to be paramount in these types of situations. >> that's exactly right and that's with the trump administration argued, but the green approach to governing is a religion for the democratic party, pushing vehicles and if you watch the super bowl, throughout all the ads for pickup trucks that are electric, i know guys who drive pickup trucks. they all think their because of

the terrible range, they cannot carry anything, but their government is forcing our auto companies to make these things. this is part of their religion of climate change and of the green new deal that joe biden is simply too attached to think about. >> the governor wants everybody to have electric cars but the post office just bought 44,000 gas powered trucks because they cannot play them in every two hours. they cannot stay and plug them in every two hours, all day moving. great to see you sir, thank you for coming on. it's been a very busy 24 hours for president biden to say the least. kevin corke live from the white house with more on this. kevin. >> good to be with you, my friend, a time when americans are already contending with soaring energy cost and historically high inflation. the very suggestion today by joe biden and then americans will also have to endure a cost

for our government's efforts to thwart vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine has been met with many are for all of the brow. nevertheless, he laid out what the white house is called its toughest sanction yet. in the hopes of rebuffing the russian leader. >> putin's actions betray his sinister vision for the future of our world, one where nations take what they want by force. but it is a vision that the united states and the freedom of united states never approached with every tool of our considerable power. he will contest your resolve to see if we stay together and we will. >> president biden, he will say that they will block u.s. assets with the large banks and impose expert controls and definitions high take needs and sanction the business oligarchs, the president said he will be deploying additional u.s. forces to bolster nato after the invasion of ukraine, which i

should point out is not a member of the defense organization. we are talking about 7,000 or so additional u.s. troops are expected to be sent. >> the only thing i'm convinced of is if we do not stop now, it will be a moment. if we don't move him against him now with the significant sanctions, he will be in bold and. >> trace: earlier into the day the person that conveyed the security council and also met with the group of seven the g-7 layers snowing again the importance of the collective's efforts to hold russia to account. i should also point this out. report is by the way she is in the east room by way. among them, he was asked by doocy if he underestimated mr. putin. he was also asked if he had more sanction arrows in his quiver and why not use them all now?

trace. >> another one of the questions that peter doocy asked was are you confident with the devastating sanctions i sanctions i get the fact that the white house is trying to sell the sanctions of severe, as devastating trying to talk them up even though everybody knows they will take a wild to take effect and then everybody went on to say are the devastating as russian middles as bulletproof vehicle they said, yes, devastating is russia bullets, missiles, and tanks which really lost -- if you read the analysis from across the board, and lost a lot of confidence of people who are just kind of buying into the severe sanctions. >> i must admit it's one of those moments where it's an out-of-body experience of your press secretary or if you're on the comms team because the second he said it, whether you believe in the president or like the president, voted for him or did not, the second he made that comment i think it's one of those comments, that will reverberate around the globe and frankly come back to haunt him at the ultimate moment where he

could have said they are different, but we are doing all we can to try to save the people you've ukraine help the globe avoid another devastating problem like we saw in world war ii. unfortunately, you kicked that one and would like to have that one back. >> trace: especially if you're sitting there in kyiv and you really need tanks and missiles and bullets. you know the two are nothing like each other. kevin corke, great to see you think you. coming up, continuing coverage and why -- have you seen the news today? have you know something in russia? have not seen this since vivaldi come of the protest where went back in jail. vladimir putin's biggest enemy, and now you're seeing brand-new protests in moscow across russia, protesting the war in ukraine. will work. what will it take to turn the rest of russia's public opinion

was matt coming up, continuing coverage continues. ♪ ♪

>> trace: the russian assault of ukraine under that second day as rocket strikes the sun on the

capital of kyiv. steve harrigan on the ground for us. good morning. >> good morning, trace, it's listening now to try to figure on the mic out what's going on in the capital of 3 million. to my west and north, there seems to be study low-level explosions. it sounds like artillery fire. u.s. officials several hours ago said that russian forces where inside 20 miles from the capital. from the distance we are hearing now, it may be cut in half at this hour about 12 miles out and there's intense fighting going on in an airstrip over there. in the darkness we saw a large fireball in the sky and that was a play being shot down from what appeared to be a surface to air michelle. conflicting reports over whether it was a russian plane or a ukrainian plane. it's clear that the debris from the plane sent an apartment building on fire. as far as president zelenskyy, he is still here in kyiv.

he said openly he expects the russians to try to take him and to try to kill him. he said he will be number one for russia and his family and still also in ukraine. they are going to be number two. as far as the fighting kokomo russians claim they have destroyed more than 70 military targets in advancing on day two to the capital city. back to you. >> trace: as we look at the live picture on one camera and looking at the live cameras on the other, we see cars and there is no minor traffic jams but you see cars kind of driving around. you mention, who knows, the russian tanks may be 10 miles outside of the capital city and i'm wondering if anybody is in the know of what will happen when these tanks actually arrive. will they go to the capital? while they surround the city? is there any kind of sense that anybody is giving you what happens next? >> martial law has been declared and that's why the streets for the city of 3 million are eerily

quiet for the most part. people have either fled or in their basements right now or in the subway system. there's two things that can happen, they can stay outside the city and sent in paratroopers or special forces to try to capture leading politicians to change the government, or they can come in if they have to invite street by street which will certainly be a bloodier. >> trace: steve harrigan, they give very much and we will see you soon. thousands of russians have taken to the streets in moscow in protest of president putin's attacks on ukraine. riot police are threatening with charges. james carafano now with us. great to have you on. we talk about the russian protests and your kind of watching the video today and we have not seen anything like this since alexi and of all they he's vladimir putin's enemy and he went to prison and there were

protests. one of the protesters had the following "this is the most shameful and terrible day in my life. i wasn't even able to go to work, i hate to putin and what else should be done to make people open their eyes?" it seems to me, james, something like 40 years ago there would have been severe consequences for that kind of reaction. >> on the one hand, this is no surprise. russian mothers and families don't like to see body bags. they didn't like them coming from back from afghanistan, from syria, and they are certainly not going to be happy about -- this is what the russians go through extraordinarily lengths to disguise the level of their casualties and honor russian done when they come home. but russians know essentially they're attacking their

brothers. much of ukraine is ethnically russian, the rest of slavic. there consider family and its family attacking family. nobody believes the propaganda that putin's liberating ukraine from fascists or protecting the russians from ethnic, nobody believes that. they talked of each other all the time and they know the difference between reality and propaganda. on the one hand, it's unsurprising that people would go to the street. is it likely it will lead to anything and the answer is probably no. putin has been arrested several hundred people, but they decided to crack down at this point because they're not looking for a big distraction. all the instruments of government and it's very unlikely that the protests themselves would cause the government to change course. >> trace: and winter at what point do we change the course of things.

at one point does public opinion in russia, a number of body bags or because you know every time there is a battle, a bloody battle ukraine's going to announce it from the highest building exactly how many russian soldiers were killed. at what point does it start to make an impact and resonate with russia where there may have been some impact because of this and some change because of this. >> much like during the soviet union with a actually reached strategic overreach years and the suffering, really because the infrastructure to implode, but that is a couple things. one, that's fire down the road. probably after ukraine is over. and that is if the west is in a concerted manner continues to batter the russian economy. there is something going on here that did not have been with the soviet union and that's china.

china has been the number one enabler and the power for the russians. china once a week and then divided europe. putin's during president xi's work for him. at one point, do the chinese just bail out the russians? bail them out in the way they bailed out other people, which is just essentially buy rush up. this is to rerun on one. >> trace: i'm wondering when president xi said he's against this invasion of russia, do you think he is lying? >> okay. that's nonsense, when the war broke out in the chinese foreign ministry blamed the united states for this. the chinese are completely happy about this. it's another sign of the failure of the biden administration, because there doing nothing about that. china as an enabler and supporter and its enabling a war

crime. u.s. is silent on this. should be talking about punishment for china for supporting russia and we are not not, but that shows how unserious the administration really isn't dealing with the crisis. >> trace: are they happy because they believe this somehow weakens the west? are they happy because president xi has one eye on taiwan thinking you know what, this could be easier than i imagined. >> i do think from a grand strategic perspective, putin's plans are absolutely the dream scenario for china. putin wants to read host, and he wants the control over a century. a weekend if i didn't europe, he wants united states to withdraw and be isolated. that's the best strategic situation that china could possibly have which is why those people are saying hey, the real enemy is china, i agree with you, but putin is china's

soldier. if you are not serious about dealing with russia, that actually means you're not serious about dealing with china. >> i just wonder, james, just to kind of get an assessment. you investigate, you research a lot of the stuff. how do you believe the russian forces did and they? it seems tell me like this is not going to be easy for russian troops coming in ukraine. >> there's a very famous general during world war ii. i've been through too many wars now. you just cannot take the reporting that you pick up in the field and really get a true sense of that. the unsatisfying answer is that we will have to wait and see. i completely believe that the ukrainians will fight really hard for their country.

there are also facing overwhelming force and again, they cannot fight back, they can't attack russia. no one's coming to their aid so if putin has a free lunch, it's a tough military and situation to in. >> it's tough to hold the city and the insurgency might be a different login. about 15 seconds left. >> remember, making money off a hundred dollar barrel of oil a day, but this word is not cheap and the occupation of ukraine will be expensive, protracted, ugly for russia. >> trace: unite has said the situation will escalate if that changes. next. musical musica

>> trace: welcome back to our continuing coverage in the were on ukraine come on trace gallagher. are continue live stream coverage with the crisis in ukraine. 11:00 p.m. in los angeles, new intelligence reporting that russian forces are now less than 20 miles outside kyiv. we talked to steve harrigan earlier and he believes that may be 10 miles, because he can hear some distant noises. he does not know how far they are