>> 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 but it could be 10 miles.

meanwhile, president volodymr zelenskyy released a new video message urging resistance while criticizing the lack of support from western allies. this comes as russia continues they're all out land air and sea assault on ukraine. lets go live now to steve harrigan on the ground and kyiv. steve. >> trays, daily 2 of the russian invasion of ukraine and at this point still controlling its capital city of kyiv. we heard a series of loud sharp explosions and they wear short range ballistic missile attacks and we are hearing a different sound now, much more regular, much steadier, and the very distance it sort of like a low thunder. it sounds like artillery fire. it means the battle is coming closer to kyiv between russian armored vehicles and ukrainian forces. u.s. military said the forces from russia are within 20 miles and as we can hear, in the

distance they are inside 20 miles now. the question is whether they will try to take the city street by street or the goal will be to simply surround the city and send in forces and "decapitate the leadership." we have heard air raid sirens earlier this morning and we saw some major fireballs overnight, one appeared to be a plane taken down by a surface to. that explosion said a residential apartment on fire and the fire is now out with. as far as ukraine's president go, zelenskyy said he is staying here. he gave an impassioned address to his people. here is zelenskyy. >> according to our information, the enemy marked me as the number one target, my family is the number two target. they want to destroy ukraine politically by destroying the head of state. >> here in kyiv, he fully

expects the russians to try to destroy him. his family also remains inside ukraine. first days fighting in ukraine admitted to losing more than 130 soldiers. more than 160 missile attacks carried out by russian forces here inside the capital. though seem to be targeted at the military targets and military headquarters command and control centers, new reports of mass casualties from those strikes in the capital. back to you, trace. >> trace: steve harrigan live for us on the ground, thank you. president biden announcing 7,000 more service members will now head to germany. 14,000 american soldiers have been repositioned since the beginning of the ukraine warrant, and while there is nearly 100,000 american soldiers stationed across europe, president biden says none will fight in ukraine. rich edson live at the pentagon with more on this. good morning. >> good morning, trace, the pentagon and the biden administration have been stressing this, no american troops are heading to ukraine to fight their.

there is major difference between countries and nato and those that are not two ukraine start in nato and they are not part of the treaty that's is an attack on one is an attack on all. you mentioned there are 7,000 americans that are headed to europe, at least elsewhere in europe, not ukraine, they are bolstering forces there. officials save the americans are first going to germany. the final destination is unclear. unclear. nato says the troop movement in europe is designed to prevent a wider war. >> this is a prudent and defensive step to protect and shield our nations during these crisis is. it's in response the massive military buildup, we have strength in our collective defense. all land at sea and in the air. >> trace: nato's atlantic council representatives from all 30 nato countries scheduled to meet later today. they're expected to consider activating a 40,000 strong

response force. the situation in ukraine, the senior u.s. defense official says russia has every intention of decapitating the ukrainian government and installing one that favors russia. ukrainian the domain president appeared and no short video promising that he and his family are staying in ukraine despite being atop the russian target list and that a new iron curtain is falling in europe. ukraine's foreign minister is returning home. he spoke to bret baier's pleading for military hardware so his country could defend itself. he's asking the world to send weapons like missiles that destroy tanks and aircraft, and there are videos of ukrainians fighting back across social media right now. one apparently showing the ukrainian air defense shooting down a russian aircraft over kyiv.

there's more reports of more intense fighting around the city as the u.s. military believes that that is one of the prime targets for the russian forces as they look to decapitate the government there. trace. >> trace: you and others, rich, mention that in fact that ukraine's not a country. what are the 40,000 nato forces doing and what are their obligations right now? as the war gets closer and closes all my clothes are. >> it's to protect nato countries. the 30 of them mostly across europe, u.k. and also canada. but it is first off to bolster the defense forces and then to really and a show of force showed that nato is defending and prepared to defend its own territory. this is not a situation that will be tolerated by nato countries if there happens to be an attack on one of those countries stressing what's known as the article five portion of

the nato founding of the nato treaty which says an attack on one is an attack on all. >> trace: our understanding, the nato forces are not to be in any kind of force used unless this war spills outside of ukraine into nato countries. >> nato come in the united states other countries and nato, they have said that they are not getting involved in the fighting in ukraine. that these are simply forces in nato countries that will be staying in nato countries for defensive purposes. >> trace: rich edson live for us from the pentagon come back to you as the news breaks. president biden brief to both democrats and republican leaders including house speaker and nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell on the island going situation ukraine. we are joined by tyree skinner, fox national security contributor and as you watch what's happening on the ground and kyiv in ukraine, was the

first thing that strikes you? are you surprised at how well that the ukrainian forces are doing? are you surprised at how fast some of the russian troops will move? what stands out to you? >> i think what stands out to me is what many of us have expected to happen. that the ukrainians are determined to defend their territory, their way of life, their freedom, their independence. they will be fierce fighters. they have already in the first day, but we will see more. they're going to fight until the last man, and i said, those are my words, those are their own. i think the russians understand that this will be hand-to-hand combat. if they are forced to have the ukrainians go into some kind of guerrilla war.

it's quite remarkable, no one wants to see this kind of conflict happen. europe saw the fight of much of world war ii, and it was the bloodiest war in world history. there are memories that are still quite raw from many parts of europe and the rest of the world. the ukrainians are prepared for this conflict. and as you've already reported to, in the past year, the russians have been consistently and methodically building up their forces. this isn't new, this is an unexpected. i have said on air and recently that the russians were probing to see what the west was preparing to do. it seems they took the measure of the situation, the putin forces and here we are. >> trace: here we are and i wonder what you think of the

fight in the pushback from the e.u. from the united states, the sanctions. are they tough enough and will they be effective? it might take 30 or 45 days. your estimation they'll eventually be affected? >> not really. i was a senior member of the state department during the final period of the trump administration, and i remember the conversations around sanctions around to venezuela. i was struck by the fact that when you talk about sanctions all the time, you really do not have a policy. sanctions are a tool, they are not a policy. we are at the level of tactics now, and that is very troubling, because on the one hand, the biden administration said american troops will not be fighting in the conflict and this is not a nato country, we do not have article five protection. we will use sanctions and that

sanctions will deter putin from his activities. they did not determine all. then we imposed some sanctions. we hear from the white house that we still have more sanctions to roll out. we didn't use all that's in our arsenal. this doesn't really add up to a grand strategy, to a policy. has not worked as a deterrent. now he expected once russia has gone into ukraine to pull out of the country, because more sanctions are coming. russia had a full year of the biden administration to help make itself sanctioned proof. for putin, his cronies, and others that are involved in the industrial military activities of the states. also, as you've already reported tonight, and the relationship between russia and china provide

some sanction proofing for putin as well. they are big trading partners on energy, technology, and this will only continue to grow. i think the sanctions discussions means we are almost no where. and a lot of people were surprised when the president came out today and said that he believes that the sanctions are severe and as powerful as tanks and missiles and bullets. congresswoman democrat from michigan tweeted the following "congress has a role in the coming days. we need to finalize a package of sanctions, grease the skids for more military aid to ukraine, and make clear that despite our differences, reasonable democrats and republicans are united in condemning russia's unwarranted aggression. "it feels to me like at some point in the next several days t congress will have even toughere and now might be a good time for them to get on the same page.

>> they need to be on the same page, and we have a white house that is not on the same page with itself and the american public. we are asking while the legislature but you're right, two big tracks some tough decisions to make. one, a spending bill that will include more defense spending. stomach for the u.s. to support europe. as it attempts to combat russia's maligned behavior. then sanctions activity, it's been divided on both of these since biden took office. it's hard to see them coming together now, but the package of sanctions is really important despite the fact that we do not have a policy, we have to do something. i agree with using them, i agree with more defense spending, but there is some members of congress who think that ukraine

is not in our national interest and that's another conversation that the white house needs to have with congress and the american people. needs to explain why ukraine is a poor interest for the united states. talk about democracy, that's nancy pelosi recently, talking about sovereignty and, but what does it mean in terms of you as the long run and how far are we prepared to go to defend those principles? >> what about the covers, the whole thing that a lot of members of congress saying ukraine did an extraordinary job it and it's important to u.s. security. what about the flip side, what happens when congress starts to push the president to try to get more involved in this and do more in this. do see that in the coming weeks? >> i do, they are's skittishness of among some of the members of congress reining in the executive power and taking some of the power back in the

warmaking authority than the legislatures already have from a constitutional perspective. but i believe that congress will have patience that will grow thin. we are headed there, and i think there's something like a consensus that this crisis is crisis number one that russia needs to be out of ukraine and that ukraine should be cool and sovereign. but in terms of how we go about that, i think we may see more of the creative solution making from the legislature. we have seen delegations of members going to ukraine, deciding for themselves. the same way they have been visiting taiwan as well. they've got to act more decisively. i think more will happen there then a white house that seems unable to move. >> trace: fastening inside, kiron skinner, think you so much for coming on and we

appreciated. coming up, breaking information on russia forces taking control of the chernobyl nuclear plant. why did they seize it and why is the location important? analysis next. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> trace: well, sanctions against russia will be in place and that they will be severe and work. the question is how effective will they be and let's go back to the white house with kevin corke standing by live. kevin. >> trace, a time when americans are contending with so much, we had a chance to talk about this where we are facing incredibly soaring energy costs and paying at the pump i saw a picture tonight where there was $6.65 per gallon gasoline in california. you can imagine how people there and all roll around the country are feeling when they hear the president say i know you're going through a lot, but prepare for even more costs as the government tries to thwart vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine. plenty of for him to browse after hearing that today, but still you had the president in the east room saying that the sanctions he's talking about today are the toughest yet and

jose rebuffing of the russian leader >> putin's actions betray a sinister action for our world. one nation takes what they want by forest. with the vision that the united states, the freedom of the nation, will oppose with every tour the mic to a. he will test the resolve of the west to see if we stay together, and we will >> will talk more about whether or not the west can stay together, but first, biden said he will do the following. block assets of large banks, and also sanction russians oligarchs. he also said the u.s. will be deploying additional forces to germany and other points east in europe to bolster nato after the invasion of ukraine which you pointed out throughout the night is not a member of the defense organization. by the way you're wondering about the numbers, we are

looking at perhaps 7,000 additional u.s. troops and may be more sent. >> the only thing i'm convinced of is if we don't stop now, he'll be in bold and. if we don't move against him now with the significant sanctions, he will be emboldened. >> he said those were significant sanctions and that should stop him, at least hurt him. meantime earlier in the day, mr. biden convened with the national security council to hold russia to account. i should point this out for the folks who did not get a chance to see it, reporters and the east room were absolutely ruthless and peppering mr. biden with tough questions about his handling of the crisis. he was asked by peter doocy as he pointed out earlier if he actually underestimated mr. putin. he was asked by peter alexander at nbc that if you had more sanctions in your quiver, why

not use those arrows right now to try to really inflict some pain. you pointed out earlier, it takes a while. there is a ramp up time for sanctions to actually make a real impact and there's been plenty of critics out there who suggested this is something that should have happened weeks ago. we are where we are today and we can only hope for the very best for the folks in ukraine, trace. >> trace: surprising when the person that comes and says no one will give the sanctions even if they're totally approved and put in place, we will take a while for them to take effect. he said if they do not go in effect, he will feel emboldened. oak at the president of russia feel more emboldened that he does right now? while i've got you here come i want to read this because it came into was, this is president zelenskyy's latest address to his people this morning, and he says part of a here quoting "the second morning of a large-scale war 4:00 a.m. russia forces continue to launch missile strikes in the territory of ukraine. they say civilian objects are not a target for them, this is a

lie. in fact, they do not distinguish in which areas to operate. this is yesterday, the military and civilians are equally under attack. the purpose of the attack is to put pressure on you will come of the citizens of ukraine, to put pressure upon our entire society. i emphasize in all ukrainians even more than yesterday and one bold thing where he says russia's attack continues and the expectation with the expectation that our forces will be tired, but nobody is tired. "you know the white house is watching and listening to every word that president zelenskyy says. does it change the tone and the tenor at all, or are there hands really tied until the sanctions take effect? >> i think the latter is probably true, because ultimately this has to happen then concert as we pointed out earlier the g7 leaders. you do not want this to be a

u.s. versus russia thing. you wanted to be the world in a global community against russia's aggression against ukraine. that said, the timing of this is interesting because we know how reliant germany and for that matter much of europe is on russian energy. how long can they hold out if the sanctions take a while to ramp up. i think the last thing people should be mindful of here is if you know anything about vladimir putin, you know that sanctions do not mean a whole lot to him. he is well-positioned to withstand sanctions and he's got his contact inpatient. i'm not sure how well this will hold him back. we can only hope for the very best. >> trace: he's got his hands on the natural pump of nord stream 21 going directly into germany. that swath of europe, and he can ease that singh left anytime he wants to and that would be very painful for europe.

>> trace: indeed, remember when president trump was offense, they talked at length about being energy independent and now you wondering knowing how this is sort of changed at least this feeling is certainly as domestically, you wonder is there not more that we can offer and maybe it's a part of the calculus and may be the u.s. has an energy producer can really crank it back up and then hopefully be able to help alleviate some of the slowdowns and the potential bottlenecks that may befall europe especially if russia decides to make moves with the energy pipelines an end other sources. when you're tied down as we learn to back in '9070s, when you're beholden to a folder power with reject the mike respect your energy, it can be incredibly impactful. >> trace: when you're looking at the last digit of your license plate in order to get gas, you know things are bad. thank you, my friend. russia forces have taken control

of the chernobyl power plant sparked new concerns over a potential nuclear disaster. with us knows national security and military analyst dr. rebecca grant. you know dr. grant, thank you for coming on and we appreciated. i want to invite ken a little bit more of this and i was finishing up with kevin corke and this is part of the zelenskyy address to his people this morning. he ends by saying terrible explosion in the morning sky over kyiv, bombing, hitting the house, all of this reminds us of the first such attack of our capital that took place in 1941. it was 1941 and everybody remembers what happened after that, there is symbolism to when he's trying to tell his people, dr. grant. >> yes, president zelenskyy is my hero, he's a hero to the world. he's the one who is standing up against russia and of course he's referencing the horrors of

world war ii, which frankly putin is bringing back. from a military angle what we see russia doing, they're still working phase one attempting to attack ukrainian command-and-control and integrated air defenses. in part so that zelenskyy cannot control and move around the forces that aren't defending and trying to fight off russia. at the same time parties underway with the ground forces moving to their terrain objectives. i think kyiv and ukraine must feel so alone and i'm so amazed how zelenskyy is rolling his people and leading the world and standing up to putin at this point. >> trace: dr. grant, what you make of the russia forces seizing the chernobyl power plant? is there a reason for it or is the fastest way to get the key? >> chernobyl, that really caught my attention. we remember that big nuclear disaster in what could go wrong

now. i think partly is because on their path. chernobyl has 100 square miles exclusion zone around that, and russia needs to have control of that in order to have a smooth pass down toward kyiv. russia does not want the ukrainians to be able to use that exclusion zone is in the area to continue to resist. part of why they had their taking agency load look like how everything in ukraine's running normally. the reactor that caught fire and imploded the back in 1986 is covered in a huge sarcophagus. there's other nuclear facilities up there in those appeared to be running normally at this point. i think taking chernobyl is tactical on the part of the russian forces. as horrible as it is. >> trace: a couple over the go u.s. intelligence was saying russian tanks were about 20 miles outside of kyiv and we've been talking to steve harrigan a few times this morning, he's on the ground that

he hears sounds in the distance. he believes the difference is a lot closer. when they get there, dr. grant, what do you believe is the first order of defense. do they surround the city, do they go toward the capital? are they there for fighting per business initially or are they waiting for more enforcements to come in? >> hard to say, but it's very likely. the tanks will have a particular objective and right now trying to do with attack. most of all, they would like to see the zelenskyy government collapse. i do not think that the government is cornered, that doesn't mean it's over for ukraine. initially, the attacks will try to drive a really fast with their objectives, but then coming to that pause in the other forces on the flank moving up to support them.

a governable moment. we have seen reports of the fighting around the airport where russia and crane took it back. we're in a intense fighting pagt now. >> trace: it's parallel with the airbase and russians claim they took control and now in the ukrainians have said that they have pushed the russians out and they now have control again. that's keeping is it's only a few miles outside of kyiv and edson airbase with an 11,400 plus runway, which means that you can fly virtually anything in and out of there, and that would be a base that russians couldn't blow it up and bring in heavy equipment and bring in troops, it would be an invaluable piece of real estate to have in a battle like this. >> yes come up with and specifically complained about the u.s. who helped ukraine

build up some of its airbases. this is a big one and really hot fight right now. what happened i think with russia trying to keep to take it quickly without many forces ukraine was able to push them off but i'm afraid russia will come back. you see it back in 2013, '2015 long time ago now. they were able to try the hold the real estate and it does throw a spanner in the work of the russian timetable. the more that ukraine can slow down the defense, the better. russia's forces hav practice, but they have not done it for real and it's different when the ukrainians are shooting back at you. >> trace: any sense and how do you believe they are executing these missions right now? >> i see two things, one right about now the russians are looking over their data from the first and second line of strike and things and the damage they intended to do.

do they have to do with re-strikes? there at the point really where they can pull the operation together. it's a more complex and more diabolical campaign than anything russia has tried to do before and it depends on getting all the commanders synchronize together. it is not that easy. i think they are meeting more with distance than they expected and not a battle of the airport is just as good example of what's going on. ♪ ♪ >> trace: use a more resistance, they expected -- does not often lead to the insurgencies and guerrilla wars that go on often for months and maybe years. >> oh, occurred, we can see ukraine fighting back right now. did like take as much steam under the russian defensive as possible and think about it for a minute. only putin really wants the work, and i can't imagine that

the russian forces are keen on it and they cannot believe the anti-propaganda and everything putin's putting out. they're very tough, strong military condition and the fight hard but the werther planning to is slow down and they have to re-hustle and make conditions. the mark hadley that will take some of the momentum and i expect ukrainians will fight as long as necessary and i hope that we are able to help with intelligence and everything that we can do, clandestinely and overtly the help russia a flight off and help fight off russia. you've got to did die putin. >> when the president sends 7,000 more troops to germany to reinforce the nato structure there, we do you believe their obligations are? do they sit and wait for some odd chance that the war spills over into a nato country?

>> job one for the new forces is to deter and strengthening the destruction for the nato partners. i think they also show putin he doesn't have a chance in the eastern flank. putin is far crazier than any of us knew and so it's really important to continue the deterrence on nato. we need those aircraft helicopters f-35's, stealth jets come out ground forces there. eastern allies and nato are scared and they should be at this point. we need that deterrence and that's the number one job of the u.s. forces there. >> trace: a lot of people are asking and we get questions all the time what exactly are the 40, 50,000 forces doing right now. there clearly on-call but this could be a very long time if this thing spills over into somebody's border. it can be a very long battle inside ukraine and then what? what did they do then?

there called back home? >> good points, and this would be an active reserve that native can deploy up to romania if they want the threat they are be able to move flexibly along the eastern border. we have no idea how long this fighting ukraine may take. the longer it takes, the worse for russia, the better for ukraine. armed forces to keep it going and the invasion going. long terms what it means is that there is no question. the uss to participate in rearming and guarding europe. that makes more forces in europe on the long-term base of right at a time when we know we need to focus on the threats from china and the pacific. either way we looked at added. >> trace: great to have you won, thank you. when we come back, oil prices surging and a wild day for global markets. what is russia's invasion of

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♪ ♪ >> trace: continuing now our ongoing coverage of the war in ukraine, russian troops are now

less than 20 miles from the capital city of kyiv as they continue their full-scale invasion of ukraine. let's go back quickly to steve harrigan live on the ground in kyiv with more. steve. >> trays, each hour it seems the sounds that we hear in downtown kyiv is changing a little bit. we are hearing smaller arms fire like either automatic rifle fire or a .50-caliber guns, but certainly much closer. yesterday it was missile attacks, then earlier today it was tank and artillery. no we are hearing smaller arms fire. the battles moving closer to the capital city. as for the president, he remains here and he fully expects to be targeted. the big question is whether they will encircle the city or try to come in the street by street. day one, ukraine still in control of its capital and the president still here in kyiv. back to you. >> trace: steve harrigan live for us in kyiv, thank you.

welcome a russians invasion of ukraine affecting financial markets around the world, oil prices spiking up almost $2 per barrel just this morning, and we are joined by john dryden and the economist and former naval intelligence officer. good to have you and not often we get to speak with the economy somebody who's good at the economy and naval intelligence. great to have you on. i want to read this if i can because you talk about the turmoil and the markets, and this is from bill adams the chief economist for comerica bank's he says the bigger the conflict gets, the larger the impact will be peer the lecture they drag on the european economy and the larger the potential drag on u.s. exports d conjunction spending will be. we talk about oil prices and it's lickety-split to john because out the back door in the past in the three or two days, gas has gone up $0.47 a gallon and do you think i'm not sure if

they're getting ahead of this, but something is happening because gas is going crazy in california. >> i would expand on that not just looking at the spatial dimension in terms of the bigger it gets, it is the longer it gets, because that affects market expectations of consumer behavior. the longer it drags on, the worse it's going to be and the more disruptive it's going to be for energy markets. >> trace: that's a fair assessment. one more, this from ryan dietrich the financial chief marketing strategist. russia invading ukraine added to an already tense year investors selling first and asking questions later. it's good to know that past geopolitical events were usually short-term market issues especially if the economy was on solid footing. this economy is not really on all that solid footing. inflation's going crazy and we do not know this is going to be short-term. it can be going on and on and

on. every day it goes on, you've got vladimir putin controlling the spigot for the natural gas going into europe, or at least a lot of it. that's a big factor in all of this, john. >> that's exactly right, trace. this is not just any geopolitical shock, it's a type of geopolitical shock that involves energy and one that involves energy are the very different character in terms of how they impact the macroeconomic environments. specifically in the u.s., consumer spending is about 70% of our gdp. so when you start to see energy feed into that, gas prices, not just gas prices, it ekes into every part of the economy. it takes energy to manufacture plastics are oil-based products. you dealing with a type of energy shot that's not just going to affect us in terms of gas prices, but also going to affect european markets as well because you're looking at gas

prices in terms of real gas, not gasoline. impounding their markets and that can have a cascading effect on us here as well and still out globally. this is not just any macroeconomic shock, it's a very specific strike. >> trace: i went to play despite robert o'brien talking about green energy and i'll talk about your your thoughts on the other side. >> president biden is a patriot and we've got to go back to scranton joan looking out for the working man and working woman of the country, and he wants to see the alliances do well in europe. we have to make it a priority and he's been taken hostage by the green energy folks. we want green energy and it'll take time for us to get there. >> he makes a fair point. some point in time the president might have to say i get it, i get everybody's wanting the green energy in the green new deal. but for the time being, there's

a war going on and the words impacting us. we might need to kind of loosen up some of the regulations and get energy going in the country. >> absolutely do that, up but putin saw this coming and putin understands that biden's focus is domestic and the hasty withdrawal from afghanistan so he could declare a win on the anniversary of 9/11 for political purposes. he understands western democracies are creatures of public opinion. he could trust the energy spigot and right now the current administration is held hostage by the green movement scum of the far left at the democrat party that will not permit biden the steps to bring down energy s and protect the american economy and public from what's in essence economic blackmail by president putin. >> trace: listen, you talk about the whole fact of who this involves and who it's affecting, and this country we know that

gas prices and natural gas prices and so forth are all skyrocketing. it's really a tax on the middle class and these are the people that democrats keep saying over and over again we care about you. we are trying to improve the environment and climate for you and they're the ones paying for all of this, or at least the most affected and impacted by this. >> absolutely. every day americans paying for this and i would even characterize it as we will have a lead with the wages of weakness and this is the price we pay when we started this in afghanistan. we talk about the weather geopolitical offense and discrete separate things. the message around the world that we sent was biden cared about domestic politics and was a willing to sacrifice american politics to do that. this will embolden president g in regards to taiwan and the south asian c.

biden's weakness and inability to confront the far left of the part need to do what's necessary to bring energy prices down and come back putin, because the russian speaker and the russian expert if there is one thing to really understand dealing with russia, is all about energy prices which is about 20% of the gross energy product. >> trace: take up your economist had for just a second and put the intelligence hat on for a second. i want to flip topics because we have been playing this breaking news steve harrigan saying first it's 20 miles, the intel agencies saying that tanks are 20 miles off of kyiv and now he doesn't know how close, but the question becomes intelligence knows, right? everybody has a good idea of where the russians are going and where their plans are basically our vehicle my plans are to anybody who listens, what's the plan with the tanks when they get to kyiv in your estimation?

do they go to write to the capital and surround the city? is there somebody that believes they will sit and wait until more reinforcements come in? us it seems like an odd scenario to have tanks leading the charge and going right into our up to the steps of the capital. >> yeah, yet another great question. it's unlikely -- in my estimation, they'll proceed into it. you look at the battle for the airport and we talked about it last night and why it was so pivotal. the russians launch a special forces attack and the idea reading a way for them to bring in large numbers of infantry which is what you need for urban fighting is in for tree more than armor. they need to bring in large numbers of troops to penetrate the urban environments of 2.8 million people safely. tanks going along the streets in small numbers is a very dangerous place. the russians have experience in

this in 1956 during the hungarian uprising when molotov cocktails and all kinds of various things and especially now in the 21st century, tanks unsupported by large numbers of infantry and the urban environment are at great risk. there will be a pause probably by the russians that attempt to bring up additional forces to try to open up some sort of dialogue with zelenskyy governments, because entering kyiv could be a very expensive and political move for a a for a president put in. 's be when you go back to the airport, boryspil airport, the airbase ukraine says it has control of again. russia said it had control of the airbase and no ukraine says no, no, we pushed out and we have destroyed the russian forces. we have been independently verified that so we do not know if it's true, but in fact that is true, john, they do have control of the airbase, is in a blow? it's got to be a huge blow to

russia. >> yeah, it's not necessarily as important a whole intros and at the moment. the fact that control of the airports at the essence. if one side doesn't absolutely control it, that means it's unusable for u.s. foul russia to bring in troops. you cannot bring in airplane into fighting because there's debris on the runway and bullets are flying. has to be that the runways have to be swept, control tower has to be occupied to come out all the other citizens running the airport have to be brought online by technicians so that af airplanes in troops. >> trace: we saw this thing in iraq and afghanistan. if you had the airports and the 11,000 plus runway that you can bring into the mud by the way,

named after the airplane maker which makes the biggest planned in the world to come up with the question is you have the ability to fly anything you want in there, and if you've got tanks that are surrounding the capital of kyiv, and the actual capitol building, you have some kind of control, it makes it a lot easier to be able to transfer things in and out which is a huge benefit as we saw in afghanistan by giving up the bob graham airbase. it's a huge benefit to have that kind of a platform to be able to base. >> absolutely, you've got to control it and such that the control is not contested. there is not actual fighting going on in the airport perimeter. the russians would have to sweep those runways otherwise you risk what's called foreign object damage in airplane engines which can disable them. you have to control them a little bit -- you have to have complete uninterrupted the control of it for it to be

useful momentarily. >> trace: i wonder why vladimir putin while he's watching this, the worsening there in moscow, i wonder if he is wondered or figured out yet exactly what he's wants because i don't think anybody has articulated exactly what he wants from all of this. does he want to replace the regime with a puppet regime? what does he want? does he want all of these independent states to become like belarus. they do not want to really put or run the states. they want to have the political regimes and in their degree what moscow says because we haven't gotten a great answer from that. >> it's a head-scratcher because at the outside of this, putin's goal was to make sure ukraine did enjoy nato and to deal with the allegedly ukrainian atrocities. i say alleged because it's a

matter of opinion. they wanted to do that and once they recognize that and brought in these so-called peacekeepers to control that, then literally putin stated then goals were already mad. remember to join me nato, you have to have unanimous like a country club. you can be blackballed by any one member. there is never really a risk of ukraine joining nato without russian intervention. by putin's own terms and statements, when he had occupied, he had already achieve those goals. when he saw with she further as you point out unclear. but it is clear that occupying with 200 million trips is problematic at best. >> it's problematic and that's the whole thing especially a country that size. we have known it many times that this country is relatively the size of texas, right? with a population of california,

44 million people. the lan mask of texas and 230 people. you look at three stadiums getting out and that's 200,000 people. it's a lot of people, but when you talk about that type of land mask, unless you have mass resources that are able to land in previously or air wise to come in and give you a tremendous amount of supports. so far, we have not seen so far those types of events. >> no, we haven't. the only other thing putin could hope for in this case is installing a puppet regime, but then how the longest a the puppet regime last? you have to have a sufficient force or within the population to sustain such a new resume. i think right now looking at the events on the ground, it's difficult to see. >> i've got to go but are you

surprised about the fight that ukraine is putting up? i know you say that the russian forces are not strong enough or en masse enough to take over the country but are you surprised? right now it what's happening on the ground in ukraine. >> somewhat last night when we talked, it was all in the balance in the initial strikes by russia were to sever the ukrainian military units one from another end to their national command authority, to sever zelenskyy's ability to communicate with the world and the military looks like russia was at least partially unsuccessful in that. the recurring answer mounting a resistance. the worse it goes on, the worse it is for russia. >> trace: got to go, good to see you my friend. up next, life breaking updates of the situation on the ground, the war on --

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>> the u.s. issuing new sanctions on russia, but russia is not letting up as we enter the second day of russians invasion of that ukraine. russian troops have now reached the outskirts of the capital of kyiv. good at good morning everyone. continuing life team coverage. it is midnight here in los angeles, ten across and we have team clogs coverage of the attack on ukraine. we are live on the ground t