hands. >> bret: newsy week one week. join us this weekend for "fox news sunday" harris faulkner host guest condoleezza rice jewish your committee member amy coney barrett of minnesota. i will be on sunday 2 to 4. doing it fair, balanced and unafraid as always. "jesse watters primetime" starts right now. jesse? >> jesse: still unafraid. >> bret: yes, sir. >> jesse: thank you, bret. ♪

>> jesse: we start again in ukraine where the sounds of air raid sirens are piercing the sky as russia rages war. missiles and exmolestations raining down on the capital of kyiv while putin continues vicious assault on neighbor. russian forces have surrounded the city. there are reports indicating sending on the military airport 20 miles south of kyiv. and just moments ago ukraine's president made a sobering statement and, quote. tonight is the night the enemy will storm kyiv. our enemy will use all the forces at its disposal to break our resistance. vile, harsh, and not human. you cannot lose the capital. the ukrainian people are listening. they vow to defend their homeland with iron and blood. like two brave border guards who chose death rather than surrender.

>> jesse: defiance runs strong on the ukrainian people as they refuse to let their country be ravaged. when a strategic bridge was in danger of falling to russian forces, one brave marine decided to take it down, even if it meant sacrificing his own life to do it. and it's not just the military. ordinary citizens are taking up arms and making molotov cocktails. according to reports, ukraine is banning all males between 18 and 60 from leaving the country as they prepare an army of civilians to defend their democracy. but these brave men and women are following the example set by their president. >> we are all here. our soldiers are here. the citizens are here and we are here we defend our independence,

that's how it will go. >> >> jesse: ukrainians have brave blood. even former ukrainian president poroshenko is rallying resistance fighters. today he sent this message to vladimir putin. >> we in ukraine are not standing in line for the bread or for the cash from the bank machine. we are standing in line for the weapon. we are standing in line to give our blood. >> how long do you think you can hold out? >> forever. >> jesse: it looks like the ukrainian's people resolve is working as president zelenskyy's spokesman says that the two sides are in talks about where and when negotiations should take place. fox news correspondent trey yingst is live in kyiv, ukraine with the latest. trey? >> jesse, good evening. a few moments ago we just heard a massive explosion in the northern part of the city.

all day we have been hearing these blasts and small arms fire as russian forces continue to advance on the ukrainian capital. ukrainian officials say those forces have already breached the city limits in some areas. this is significant because as we talked about yesterday, jesse, we do expect to see street fighting as these forces make their way into the ukrainian capital. there have been really reports of civilians and citizens going under ground and so we followed those reports and actually met some of them today and people here are terrified. they don't know what comes next. many women and children doing everything they can to stay out of harm's way and any man who is currently in this country ages 18 to 60 must pick up arms and fight. that according to a general mobilization order by ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. to say give you a sense though how patriotic some of the people here are. we spoke to a member of parliament today and he told me that he will go tomorrow to fight the russians. he had a weapon with him and he

had just picked it up from a local police station telling me they were giving out weapons like candy. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy tonight is encouraging the civilians to use those weapons and fight alongside the armed forces as they look repel that russian attack. jesse? >> jesse: so, trey, you have gotten a lay of the land there in the capital. if urban warfare does break out, what will that look like? is it high rise? skyscrapers? is it residential? and are there leaders within the civilian unit who could possibly design, ambushes and things of that nature? >> >> ambushes are going to be a big strategy for the ukrainians if those russian force was do make their way into this capital city of kyiv. we have been talking to people about their preparation to fight the russians if they do indeed make that offensive. and every indication right now is that they will. the president is warning that

tonight could be the night and you just heard the explosion behind me there which indicates based on how close that was and there is actually flashes, i'm not sure if you can see it on the screen. but there are flashes of explosions behind me and we have not actually seen that in the past. we're just hearing them. so that is a big indicator it's getting closer and closer to the city center here. and back to what we were talking about though, these civilians, they say they will do anything to fight tooth and nail to keep the russians out of this capital and keep them from overthrowing the government. we spoke to one man who actually came up to us today subpoenaings in english. these were his words. he said i'm not good with weapons. but i will use a kitchen knife and i will slaughter the russian pigs. that's how he described the russian forces that are currently inside this country. again, the explosions behind me indicating they are making their way toward the city center of this capital. jesse? >> jesse: what kind of -- because we can hear those. what kind of munitions are those?

>> we don't know what kind of munitions those are the russians have been using everything from cruise missiles to ballistic missiles, to even mortar fire and artillery fire as they work their way across this country. and, remember, it's not just here in the capital of kyiv. it's also in the east and in the donbas reasonable and luhansk and donetsk. it's also in the south just over the border from crimea an area of land that was annexed by the russians in 2014. also the second largest ukrainian city of kharkiv. so this is a multiprong offensive by the russians. the ukrainians say they will fight to the death in order to keep the russians from taking over this capital city. but the reality on the ground is dire. and it is why you have seen the ukrainian president involved mere zelenskyy pleading with the international community not only to push more sanctions on the russians to try to deter them from furthering this offensive into ukraine but also the request to deliver weapons here

and offensive and defensive systems, air systems that could protect the capital as these fighter jets continue to fly over and target ukraine. jesse? >> jesse: take care of yourself tonight. we are going to have you back later in the hour. thank you so much, trey. now we're hearing that ukraine's president zelenskyy is trying to arrange a sit-down with vladimir putin, major issues time and place. here with some insight on that, christopher cox, co-founder of consulting group global partners llc. chris, we are hearing reports they are going to surround the capital. they have already pushed saboteurs inside. at some point a negotiation has to take place. what are you hearing from intelligence sources about what that negotiation is looking like? >> well, you are absolutely right, jesse, it's great to be on with you tonight. what i'm hearing from my european sources are that the zelenskyy group and the putin

group they have been talking and they have been trying to come up with a place and a time to meet and discuss. now, of course, the putin's to gain as much leverage as he can and that's why we are seeing increase in military activity around kyiv tonight. he wants to increase his leverage with a big break through around kyiv, surround president zelenskyy and really force negotiated settlement on him. i think that's putin's plan. and i think tonight we will see the will of the ukrainian people. they will fight back hard. and if they repel that attack, that will elevate president zelenskyy and his negotiating position. and what i have been hearing ised that the negotiations have come down to where these two groups should meet. president putin, of course, has suggested mink, home game for the russians and president zelenskyy would prefer somewhere else, warsaw, jerusalem has been suggested as well. that would be more of a home game for him. i know the israeli ambassador has been involved with helping with these negotiations, i think we are going to find out very

quickly how this is going to end. does putin want an off ramp or is he absolutely crazy and want to be the czar of russia and impose a military solution on ukraine? >> jesse: so, zelenskyy has to decide, he could either go down fighting or he could broker some sort of settlement. do you think that zelenskyy team trusts putin? if he leaves the country and goes to a summit outside of ukraine, is there a chance he might not come back and what kind of leverage does he have once he leaves the capital? >> absolutely. i think that's very much a fear of his. as we have seen mintz and del reduce not a place safe putin to go. even if you fly over belarus they have been known to force down airplanes and take civilians who oppose putin off those aircraft's. zelenskyy is right to fear mintz or not want to go to mintz. it's a much better idea for him to have an anegotiation

elsewhere and i think quite frankly, this will come down to the ukrainian people. they're a strong people. we have seen how ukrainians have actually blown themselves up to destroy bridges to prevent the russian advance. if that will persists through tonight and the days ahead. putin will be in for a very difficult fight. already the russians have lost over 28 servicemen. to put that in context. the united states lost 4400 servicemen over the entire span of the war in iraq. putin cannot withstand body bags coming home to moscow. that will weaken him domestically and significantly help zelenskyy. >> jesse: all right. thank you so much for that great insight. chris cox, we appreciate it. >> thank you, jesse. >> jesse: as russia continues full scale war against ukraine, a lot of the people are wondering, what's next on putin's agenda? his goal is to reignite russian power and expand and there is nothing he hates more than nato moving closer to his buffer. if putin establishes control of

ukraine, the baltic states could be next on his list. lithuania, latvia and estonia, these are nato countries making this a very serious situation. nato secretary general first time in history blul at this national force with a force around 40,000 air maritime and land special operations personnel. listen. >> we are deploying the response force on land the united states, canada and european allies troops eastern part of the alliance. >> we have over hundred jets on high alert. operating in over 30 different locations. and 20 ships from the high north

to the mediterranean. including three strike carrier groups. >> jesse: even with the additional forces being deployed it's clear there is a lot more nato needs to do to hold putin in check. joining me now brigadier general blain holt. blain, our sources are saying that if he does secure ukraine, he may go north and try to sever the baltic united states toe countries from poland. what would that take and what can nato and the united states do to prevent that? >> well, it's a pleasure to be with you, jesse. what i would say is although that's a low probability because he will trip the trip wire with nato, and he understands full well what that will mean, and even if he is calculating that nato at this time and united states leadership is weak, which i believe is what gets him into ukraine in the first place, he

is probably not going to be looking at that direction initially. he may do it with cyberattacks but i do think that he won't stop with ukraine if he is successful in this drill. he probably would look at more lower hanging fruit initially like moe moldova or georgia. >> let's take a look at that map because those seem like easier pickings black sea andy vert his attention down to odesa and take his eye off the ball around some of the cities in the central and northern and eastern region of ukraine? can we do that? >> we can and you raise a great point. it's time to complicate vladimir putin's solution. and it needs to be a multilayered approach. and while i like a forced presentation that shows him capability, and let's be honest. he is not having a cake walk in

ukraine. it only gets harder for him militarily from here. but back honestly economically, we can absolutely start drilling, pumping and flowing oil into the economy tomorrow to start dropping his strike price and an array of thing that we can do around the world to make it much more complicated pathway for vladimir putin's true strategy. >> is there anything we can do militarily just to show of force? it doesn't have to be troops on the ground. it can be naval vessels, it can be maybe air power? something just scramble some jets, maybe? take his eye off the ball? show him it's not just the sanctions definition. because right now he is saying to hell with the sanctions, i'm moving. is there something we can do that shows a little more strength? >> so this is where i hope our leaders are having very serious consultations tonight both here at home and in nato. vladimir putin is going to keep going until he has found

zelenskyy and either killed him or detained him. and this is very serious and the atrocities that we are seeing on the ground indicate to us how far they are willing to go. so while there may not be an article 5 from nato in our future. there is certainly nothing to stop the united states from checking his power with air pair. space assets, cyber assets. shows of force. president zelenskyy asked for a had no-fly zone. i'm not sure that our leaders have that on the table. certainly we should be looking at our -- one of our greatest strength is american logistics and we should be absolutely resupplying all classes of stock to the ukrainians tonight. >> jesse: all right. i agree. thank you so much. it should be on the table. maybe in all of this vladimir putin thinks his quest to take back the russian empire puts him in the same category as peter the great. when we watch as this ruthless battle unfolds, putin is looking more and more like ivan the terrible. the russian tyrant who conquered

vast amounts of land, killed lots of people and eventually lost his mind. in an op-ed, my next guest writes this. the more of the country putin tries to seize the more resistance he will face. if he tries to seize the whole thing, then he risks igniting an even greater conflict. perhaps in the coming days, the question of crazy will be answered. arthur douglas murray joins me now. so, do you think he is crazy or are we about to find out? >> >> i think we bore to find out. it's been always a discussion for more than 20 years with vladimir putin. i find that article in the "new york post" a conversation that condoleezza rice had about 8 years ago where she recalled one of her last meetings with putin who said to her you know us. you know what we always need a strong man, alexander the ii, peter the great and she said she wondered whether he had vlad the

great there somewhere in his mind. and she said then in i think 2014 she said there is a 5% chance that he is not rational at all. the problem with putin is in one way what is he is doing by his own entirely rational. he laments the loss of the soviet union. he believes he should be able to put it together. he pretends ukraine isn't a country clean-up it is. he believes he can just roll into it and murder the citizens until he gets his way. and by his own life that's rational. in another way it isn't at all. because it's perfectly possible that what vladimir putin is doing is a massive overreach for him, for the russian armed forces, for the russian economy, for the russian people. none of them need this none of them need the russian economy tanking, none of them need these further rounds of sanctions and the locals of hundreds, perhaps thousands of russian troops in the ukraine. but that one of the things that's possible as it is

possible that he fails in his mission. so as i say, this question of is he actually rational or not may well be answer ntedz coming days. it. >> jesse: it will be answered when we see how the siege at the capital plays out. if he does this strategically surrounds it, squeezes zelenskyy, maybe forces him to the negotiating table somewhere, and then just gets concession after concession, that would make me think is he rational. but if he goss goes in bloodthirsty and puts a bullet in this guy's head in front of the entire world, that tells me this guy is sick in the head and we're dealing with a maniac. do you agree? >> yes. i do. there is other signals to that his absolutely deranged speech from the kremlin this week. he gave a totally fantastic call version of history. just filled with falsehoods that only vladimir putin can believe.

he has been hold up in the kremlin for the last two years trying to dodge covid. he has a greater fear of covid than queen elizabeth the ii at the age much 95 doesn't allow anyone within 40 feet of them. sprayed with chemicals before meeting him. i wouldn't trust the chemicals that the kremlin sprays. so he has been in this isolation. he gave this speech filled with just mad versions of history. but here is one of the worrying things. it was also blood curdling. these threats he has made about outside forces if they dared to step in, these were blood kurd ling threats from vladimir putin. he is coming up to the age of 70. all sorts of rumors about his health. he seems to think that this is perhaps his legacy. there is enormous amount of pain coming for him and everybody else if he pursues this path. quite understandably referred to the baltic states and here we get into real trouble. it's true that the whole debate

about ukraine and whether or not they should be or should not be in nato has been a very tricky issue for the european for many years now. but, of course, the baltic states are in nato. if they were to be threatened, if they were to be yet alone invaded by putin article 5 nativity toe treaty demands all of nato come in and defend the country. at that point, of course, we get into a whole different scenario. that's the world war sen in favor ofio. >> jesse: you don't know how unstable is he because he seemed to suggest that he was willing to use nuclear weapons if anybody interfered in the conquest. >> he did. >> jesse: which really changes the calculation. douglas murray, thank you so much. >> a great pleasure. >> jesse: let's bring in lucas tomlinson live from lviv, ukraine for the very latest. >> jesse a curfew has been put into effect for the first time in this city in western ukraine, expires at 6:00 a.m. no one is allowed on the streets. the mayor says he is cooking

doing this because is he afraid that the russians are going to send agents to potentially blow things up here. earlier vladimir putin and the russians asked where is ukrainian president zelenskyy. here was zelenskyy's response i'm here huckelberry. >> the president is here. we are all here. our soldiers are here. the citizens are here. we are here. we defend our independence. that's how it will go. >> senior western intelligence officials increasingly think putin is not well. he might be sick or something, jesse, the point has been swirling around moscow for some time like your last quest said. latest performances we have seen have intensified the concern is he extremely isolated. putin has changed for the worst. for the last two years. he was already not easy to deal with putin's speech was sullen, dark, extremely bitter rant laced with victimhood and resentment and unhinged statements of course. here in ukraine, hundreds of thousands came flooding out of the country.

over 50,000 according to recent estimates. their lives will never be the same. putin's war has changed everything here. fighting and large scale combat this economy has not seen since world war ii. this american woman got emotional talking about it all in her ire for putin. >> what are your immediate plans. >> none. get to the u.s. down the line. where to go what to do what they think is best. a train to i don't know crack call maybe. i can't believe nibble would be so evil. >> lirl saturday morning in lviv. universal town. normally students stumbling at home right now having a good time. the bars the restaurants would be packed. tonight, everyone is home and many are afraid. jesse? >> jesse: are the university students packing any heat? have they got in on the civilian defense situation? >> that's a good question, jesse. i didn't see anybody today

packing heat. nationwide president zelenskyy says every able-bodied man can. i spoke to a parliamentarian tonight on the phone he said he had a carrying around and even some five star hotels that's what we're dealing with. 5,000 rifles handed out to defend the capital. second amendment is alive and well in the capital, jesse. >> jesse: as it should be. stay safe. russian forces just miles from the center of kyiv. it's poised to take the city within days we are told. but, still, the pentagon said earlier that the russians are advancing slower than expected. despite the fact that ukraine is outnumbered by russian forces. they are putting up a pretty good fight. but, for how long? joining me now senior fellow at the foundation for defense democracy bill rougeio. so, bill, i don't know if it's disinformation that the russians are slow to advance or they are actually slow to advance

ukrainians are putting up a really great fight. what do you think? >> i don't understand the pentagon's motivations for saying this but i don't believe this is true whatsoever. kyiv is 90 miles from the belarus border and the russians made it there in his than two days. there is fighting on the outkurtz of kyiv. stickily in the south in crimea. things are stalemate in the donbas region. i suspect that that is merely a faint to tie down ukrainian forces. on the other front in between on the i would call it the northeast, they are making moderate progress. so i don't understand 90 days if u.s. military took an entire month or three weeks to reach baghdad, sure the distance is three times further than the

capital of kyiv. at this rated you are saying the u.s. should have reached baghdad in six days? i don't understand where the pentagon is coming from. where they make this estimate. the russians certainly couldn't believe that this thing -- that they would have advanced on kyiv in one day instead of two. >> jesse: well, either the pentagon has intelligence that said that the russians planned on getting there faster or this is pentagon disinformation to just kind of make the russians look weak and slow and inspire the ukrainian defense. could that be a parts of that? >> that certainly could be a possibility. i would say it would be more likely to be a disinformation campaign or that the russians realized that there is a leak and they fed the u.s. bad information in order to play with u.s. intelligence. that certainly is a possibility as well. >> jesse: how do you see things going in the next, i don't know, three days in the capital? >> i believe that russian forces are probably going to surround the capital within the next

several days. the real question is will there be a siege? willed russians attempt to take the capital by force? will the government surrender the city in the government itself surrender or possibly move further west closer to the border with poland? but i think with regards to kyiv, i think within the next several days you should see the russians surrounding, if not all of the city surrounded on several ses. go. >> jesse: bill roggio thank you so much for your insight. >> thank you very much. >> jesse: as the biden administration considers next move nancy pelosi is already calling their actions brilliant. >> i think it's really important for people to understand the brilliance with which president biden is conducting this. >> jesse: those were her words, not ours. biden made a few moves and the lead up to this crisis that weren't the smartest. reporting from the "new york times" saying that americans presented chinese officials with

intelligence on russia's troop build-up in hopes that president xi jinping would step in. but were repeatedly rebuffed. and then the article points out that the chinese just turned around and handed that intel over to russia. gave our biggest enemy intelligence on our second biggest enemy and didn't expect them to share it with each other? that's not brilliant. it's pretty stupid. china has already lifted restrictions on wheat import. blunting the impact of u.s. and eu sanctions. they are not the only asian nation choosing to side with russia over the west as india is reportedly sitting on the sidelines? today, both china and india abstained from a u.n. security council vote condemning the invasion of ukraine. it looks like they have chosen their allegiances. here now to react is former deputy assistant defense

secretary eldridge. all right. secretary, can you believe that they -- we would share intelligence on russian movements with the chinese and not think that that was going to just be handed over to the kremlin? >> well, that's bad enough, jesse. what's actually worse is nigh at a at best or collusion, maybe thinking the chinese are going to help with us the russians. chinese are an even bigger threat than russia is. why are they going to solve our problems. there is pathetic pleading quality of going to china to help us with russians. i imagine the chinese must have been kind of shocked by the approach. >> jesse: shocked at the stupidity. what does that say about the capacity of the biden brains to kind of play one another off of each other? i mean now we have pushed both of them, you know, towards an alliance, the chinese and the russians and it's not like we

have done any strategic thinking. do you think we are aware of what we are doing or think we are kind of praying right now? >> well, you know, jesse, here's the basic way to look at it the facts of the matter are china and russia are closer than they have ever been. vladimir putin has decided that now is the time to invade ukraine and who knows what the chinese are thinking. so i mean the proof is in the pudding. you are absolutely right. we need to be strategic. we need to look at ways to drive wedges between the russians, the chinese even as we stand strong. we have got to prioritize china but stand strong and help the europeans and help the ukrainians defend themselves and sanction russia. but, being tough on the russians is not incompatibility with trying to drive wedges between them and the chinese. that's not where we are at all. i think the problem with the policy coming out of the administration right now is it's kind of inflexible and sort of moralistic. cutting the defense budget in real terms.

and, you know, they are not communicating strength. this is just, you know, i think congressman jim banks just pointed out, you know, look, the world is more stable when america is strong. i mean, another guy, karl, the famous strategist said the best strategy is to be very strong. that means military strength. that means energy independence. that means getting our allies to do the right thing. and meet their obligations in terms of defense. that's not what we're doing right now. that's what we need. >> jesse: do you think we could see a two front situation maybe china goes after taiwan while we are refocusing here now on the eastern flank of nato? >> absolutely. it's very possible. i mean, we are within the window where two front war could happen. and the best time if you are china to act is now. i'm not saying that they are necessarily going to go. i don't know what is in xi jinpingens mind people who saying what's in xi jinping's mind are probably not telling the truth. the relate is, jesse, we have to

make sure that we maintain the capacity to defeat chinese invasion of taiwan. nato help the ukrainians and that's a tough problem. we have had years of spending less on defense than would be necessary to do it. not being focused despite the work we did in the trump administration to try to focus on this problem. we are in a really bad way. the key is we need to be clear-minded and strategic and frankly, look, we are the good guys but we need to bring a little bit of ruthlessness and rigger and clear headedness that our opponents are sometimes willing to bring even as we stand up for right and justice. >> jesse: i will drink to that he will bridge, thank you. let's bring in trey yingst. what's the latest you heard a lot of bombs going off. >> the president valdz zelenskyy says tonight will decide the fate of ukraine. the ukrainians have intelligence that russian forces are going to launch a multipronged offensive

tonight on this capital. we do know according to ukrainian officials there are russian forces within the city limits already. earlier on your show, you heard those explosions behind me we could see the flash. this indicates close. ukrainians are running out of time. the reality is if russian forces are able to make into this capital city and overthrow the government, they have a lot of control in finishing what they sees a the job to do here. taking over their neighboring sovereign country. every indication right now is that there is no diplomacy behind the scenes that's actually working. we saw these reports earlier today ukrainians being willing to come to the table and try to cut a cease-fire deal the thing you have to remember about russia is they are known as negotiators at face value but behind the scenes they continue to plan and operate their military directives. we see it all around the world in places like syria where the russians still even this week

were fin t. continuing operations alongside the regime of bashar al-assad. if you are in the ground in ukraine the important thing to remember if they get into the city it could get quite bloody. we do expect a number of resistance forces including civilians to fight back. we talked about this earlier. but the interior minister here ordered people to be armed. they are calling on every military-aged man 18 to 60 to back alongside the armed forces. there are still resistance pockets in places where the russian forces have already taken over. we know near crimia, russian forces have made their way through some of the smaller cities that we actually visited earlier in the month. they controlled this area but it does not mean that the battle is over. there will be an insurgency against the russian troops. even if they're able to occupy land across ukraine. and even in a capital city like kyiv. it will not be easy to simply just walk through the city and take over. they will face resistance. again, not only from the armed forces but also the civilians

here. jesse? >> jesse: before we let you go, how exactly far away right now are the russian soldiers, not the saboteurs that have been inserted already into this city, are they two miles? five miles? give us some perspective. >> they are within 10 miles of the city. i don't want to give an exact number because they have been moving and the frontline moves each and every hour. but they are close. they are getting closer by the minute. there are reports, also, that in the south there are russian troops trying to land and basically make their way from another direction. it would be very, very difficult to basically take this city and corner it without seeing any resistance from the ukrainian forces but, again, the russians have an estimated 200,000 troops participating in this offensive. only about a third of them are actively in this initial phase in ukraine. but, if they need to, they will send in more troops. and the satellite images that we saw today from max r

technologies in belarus taking these new photos of the border indicate that there are attack helicopters on stand by. this is a new development. but these attack helicopters could be used in an offensive against this city. so, tonight, may be that offensive. that volod mere zelenskyy is talking about. if that does take place expect both ground and air fire from the russians as they try to take this capital of kyiv. jesse? >> jesse: great reporting. thanks so much, trey. peter doocy is here to tell us more about the white house sanctions being launched against russia. peter? >> the white house had threatened sanctions and started putting sanctions on. putin kept advancing and today the announcement was more sanctions we don't gospel hear anything else from president biden tonight though no matter what happens in the ukraine and no matter what about to the ukrainian government and that is

because president biden is not here. about two hours ago we watched him walk out to marine one. i tried his attention, and i was shouting tout him loud enough that i think i'm very confident that he heard. asking if he is worried about zelenskyy because earlier today he spoke to zelenskyy for 40 minutes or so. and zelenskyy keeps asking him for assistance. keep offering help with defensive measures and rallying the world around an anti putin p.r. campaign. but, that's it. for tonight. i did also -- because the president is going it be in delaware unless the plan changes tonight, tomorrow night, and then into sunday. and i had a chance to ask the press secretary earlier today what biden white house plan as this russia crisis has unfolded very slowly has actually worked?

and she said that they have had great success in rallying the world around ukraine and in making sure that putin feels the pain, financial pain for his decision to go into ukraine. sanctions are no longer about deterring the invasion. now they are saying they don't think these sanction brs ever going to stop the invasion. it's more just punishment now that he is in there so as for what comes next since the sanctions aren't going to have any bite for putin in about a month and people in ukraine might not have a month, we don't know, jesse. >> jesse: are you getting a sense that the jewels might be disappointed in the president of the united states zelenskyy. i'm sure he asked for specific things to help as he has now been surrounded do you know what he has been asking for and what

we have not given him. >> he has been on social media saying is he grateful for the u.s. assistance. two things are very interesting. number one we know as recently as this weekend when he went to germany to that munich security conference, it was the u.s. that stepped up to provide security detail. a protected detail for him while he was in germany. but now that he is back in ukraine, he is on his own because we have committed the united states has committed not to send any troops in. so while zelenskyy publicly is saying everything is okay and he is getting everything is he going and thankful for from biden there are several strong protests outside the white house right now. they pushed them back further than probably can you hear but they chanting to biden they are very unsatisfied. they are saying stand up for

ukraine and block russia from swift. they are seeing these sanctions and they don't think it's enough. >> jesse: you can't hear them because is he in delaware. peter doocy, thank you so much. here now is ian bremmer, group president and author of the upcoming "the power of crisis." you heard our conversation there with our very own peter doocy, white house correspondent. if he gets his throat slit, zelenskyy, that's got to weigh heavily on the president of the united states so so far has given stinger missiles and anti-tank weaponry and some sanctions but besides that i don't think rallying the world while the world does nothing really means much. do you agree? >> well, it doesn't mean enough to stop putin, right? i mean, he has not been

deterred. and the question is there anything plausible that the americans and their allies could have done that would have stopped putin and i have to tell you that, on the basis of the fact that there was no one plausible in the democratic or republican leadership that was saying that ukraine should be brought into nato or that they should be provided with american forces to defend them and no other allies were saying that either. in terms of sanctions the americans actually don't have enough allot of economic. mostly about europe. and frankly the europeans are doing okay. they are doing more than some people thought. less than other people hoped. certainly zelenskyy is not happy with it once putin made that decision he cares a hell of a lot more about ukraine and the americans and ukrainians do. that's not a surprise. putin knows it. that's the problem. >> jesse: i agree. it's sad though. you have to think if they knew because they were reporting that they saw the satellite images of

this massive build up for about a month. even longer. several months, at which they shared with the chinese. so if you know that he is going in and he has got everything lined up, wouldn't you preposition weapons of all kinds in neighboring states, maybe build land bridges to kind of funnel things to the people, the military to make this even more costly and so maybe the civilians and the ukrainian military could hang on a little longer and bleed the russian army dry. that would have been something that would have occurred to me. do you think it occurred to this administration? >> i think it occurred to the administration. i'm not sure how much consensus there was to send a lot of weapons to the ukrainians early. i know that the biden administration was working very hard to try to convince the europeans that military action from putin was actually likely your honor means didn't believe

that until quite late. the intelligence was coming and the u.k. was faster than most but the french, the germans, the italians know. though in the weeks leading up to the russian attack you did get a strong and consensus willingness to preposition forces to all of the frontline nato states. i'm talking about the pomed. u.k., denmark, spain, france. especially when three months ago the french government was talking about it autonomy and still reeling and upset about the defense pac. the french have been more on board with the americans than you might have expected all things considered. going back to your initial point, jesse, it's not enough. and you know, i would go back to 1994, i'm sure you remember it. when, you know, when we told the ukrainians that if they gave up their nukes the u.s., the u.k. and russia said we defend their territorial integrity. the fact is that was never

implemented. never put in place the pocket of doing that. the ukrainians are pretty angry. >> jesse: yeah, bill clinton 199. who could forget. i was about 14. you know what i'm talking about. ian bremmer, thank you so much. great stuff. >> good to see you, jesse. >> jesse: as the russians close in on kyiv, residents are fleeing this besieged city and scenes like this are breaking out at train stations. watch. [gunshots] [screams] >> ukrainian guards firing off blanks at warning shots do to do crowd control you could see how chaotic that was. as the fighting continues are we going to see more scenes like this? let's ask one of those ukrainian residents fleeing the country.

who looks like she might be driving her car. are you okay? >> >> yes, everything okay, thank you. >> jesse: thank you very much. what's going on right now? >> you know, now it's [inaudible] this night very, very important for our country. the russian troops circled the kyiv. [clearing throat] and they want to kill all citizens in the kyiv. all residents in kyiv. so. >> jesse: so you have left the city. >> yes, no, i'm not in kyiv. now i'm in west part of ukraine. i ask all the world to help us. >> jesse: what would you like to

see done by the world? >> can't even imagine [inaudible] i want to say if you can stop them, they will come to your land not only ukrainian land. what did you for us. [inaudible] our skies to help with us troops. to help us with weapons. to help us with military, to help us with [inaudible] >> jesse: well, the world is listening. and may god be with you. stay safe and we love you. >> thank you very much. thank you so much. and please, pray for ukraine. for ukraine and for kyiv now. >> jesse: we will. all of us will be praying tonight. >> thank you. >> jesse: thank you very much. president zelenskyy says tonight

is the night russia will storm kyiv. let's bring in bret baier to tell us more about what we can expect to see in the next coming hours. >> bret: hey, jesse, that interview is powerful as she is making her way. this is difficult here. likely she is heading this way to lviv as a lot of the folks are trying to get out to poland. you know, we have been talking about these russian forces as they are trying to get to kyiv. we saw marines landing at the port. this force had been moving from crimea. and we have the donbas forces. we had forces coming in this way. and then the forces from belarus. we talked about chernobyl yesterday. they secured that. and then they are making their way to the capital city. the real question here is how fast is that going to happen? this is kyiv. and you can see this is the office of the president. we know he is in kyiv somewhere. we don't know where but is he somewhere. this is the air base. there was a big fight yesterday with this. the russians took it over.

the ukrainians took it back the russians are now in control of it it's about 20 miles as the crow flies from downtown. our guys in that hotel as they look north it's the obolon district. a lot of fighting in this area. as you look at how the russians are getting the support. they have a lot of bases. one is in belarus and the other is belogrod. it's massive. attack helicopters. military trucks a field hospital. tents. just yesterday 18 attack helicopters in this one base just over the border. so the question is how long does that take all these red dots are airstrikes or fires. there is a lot of pushback by the ukrainians, but the russians are going to make their way to kyiv at some point and it might be tonight. and it could get ugly, jesse. >> jesse: so keep that map up for one second, bret.

it's interesting if you can just see that this was probably in the making for many, many years if you go in and see the eastern provinces. then you have that push directly from east to west of. and then you have crimea. then that takes care of the naval asset. and did you go south to knot and then you have your puppet in belarus which brings the hammer down hard from north to south. it's just amazing to think that he tell graphed this thing, geographically for years and years and years. we all saw it coming and all we have left is sanctions. >> bret: what's amazing is 190,000 roughly around belarus and all around here on the outskirts. but we estimate that military does, that only about 60,000, 70,000 russian troops are had inside the country currently. and he hasn't really dropped the hammer on the airstrikes as of yet. there has been a lot of them. there has been more than 200.

but, there is still a lot of pushback from the ukrainians and the russians are taking losses. so how the ukrainians fight and if this becomes an insurgency, this could be really messy for the russians and for putin in the long haul. >> jesse: absolutely. i think we have to make it as messy as possible for as long as possible. thank you so much, bret baier. >> bret: we will see you, buddy. >> jesse: let's bring in nationally syndicated radio host dana loesch. all right, dana, your reaction to what have you seen in the last 24 to 48 hours? >> oh, goodness, jesse, my heart goes out to all of these people standing and fighting for their country. despite all of the narratives that we have seen media kind of promote throughout our country, one of the things that i keep hearing in coverage and i have had a lot of people across the country who listen to the radio program point this out. ukrainians aren't asking for american boots on the ground. ukrainians are saying we are going to stand here and fight it's our country and responsibility. if you want to send us some firearms and munitions and supplies that would be great.

that's one of the things that i have heard consistently. other thing, jesse, that i'm hearing from people all across the country and have you covered it quite extensively yourself is this dumbfounded reaction that the administration has had. you just talked with bret there about how long this has been in the making. everyone here in the united states, you don't have to have gone to westminster. you just have to be a taxpayer pays attention what happens in your country and goes on with the world. can you see that this administration passed every single opportunity to enforce diplomatic change. whether it was the keystone pipeline to get the united states in a little bit of more of a secure energy position. whether it was maybe back in 2011 when biden was then vice president, take a little bit more of an aggressive stance against the nord stream two pipeline and protect ukraine's position as a transit country so things could maybe calm down and deescalate. this administration hasn't done any of that and, have, jesse, it's reflecting -- his lack of leadership is reflecting in the polls. you didn't think approval of

biden could plummet any further it is whether it's rasmussen or gallup or symptom of these progressive entities that have been polling likely and registered voters. democrats are now having to deal with this because americans are watching a situation that has been made worse by a toothless president that actually these sanctions that is he implementing they are actually not working because russia is still selling us 7% of crude and they are making bank off of that and we could be doing that instead, jesse, we are sacrificing our national security at the altar of this climate change and this green tech that this administration has been pushing too fast, too soon and now you can see the result of it. >> jesse: green is not ready for prime time. everybody knows that by now. everybody except the squad. i'm getting some new information here. we talked about some of the saboteurs, the russians, that had gone in early into the capital. they are now, we're hearing, dressed as ukrainian police. so, again, that just adds

another layer of. >> little green men. >> jesse: espionage. that's how they went into crimea. you don't know what kind of soldier they are. >> we have sketchy. >> we have suspicious. and very alarming. >> facing the fight with the ukrainians. >> jesse: makes it more complicated as that could possibly turn into an urban warfare situation at dark. people that are not trained, these are civilians with firearms. so, soldiers from russia dressed as ukrainian police. it could get very complicated. i know you know better dana than anybody when you have a loaded gun in your hand anything can happen. >> well, and to that point i'm waiting for the anti-gun lonnie to ask ukrainians do they really need that many rounds. that's going to make many on the left angry it's still true nonetheless. i know what i know and i know what i don't know. i appreciate the military strategists out there. i have had them on my radio program. and i have listened to many of them. one of the things i have heard consistently point out, jesse

that these very experienced strategists and war fighters have said this is that you have two things you have to consider resources and will. you can have all of the resources in the world. if you don't have the will to match it, you could be outmatched. time is going to tell if that's something that is going to come true in this particular situation. i think everyone, obviously is on the side of ukraine and not on the side of a communist tyrant. i really really hope that ukrainians hold out. you know their will is strong. some of the stories we are seeing coming out of this country have done a lot to bolster that and bolster the morale. we will be watching. >> jesse: it's an inspiring story. everybody who has been watching has been inspired by what we have seen. dana loesch, thank you so much as always. with nato now sending significantly more troops to their eastern flank and russians closing in on ukraine's capital, what can we expect to see in the next few weeks? let's bring in the author of the absent super power, peter zion. all right, peter, give us the

next three weeks your projection. >> hey, jesse. well, first of all, the military side there is the push to kyiv. there is the move from the eastern provinces to link up crimea and then the troops in crimea going to be moving west to takes economic capital of odesa. if you do that you basically can start choking the ukrainian system both from a population point of view. an economic point of view and finally from a governmental point of view. that's what they're working on rights now. that is when things get really brutal. because once they have kyiv and odessa, they can move through whatever portions of the country at any time as they see fit. that's when we are going to see the pilgrims. that's when we are going to see the quiz lings, that's when we are going to see them going rank and file through the population looking for folks who are willing to fight. they are going to find them. when the united states went into in iraq and afghanistan. it wasn't nearly as difficult of a job as what the russians are

trying to do in ukraine right now. this is going to be a very bloody conflict. buff from the american point of view, it's all about europe. once the russians control some of these key pieces of frunkt, they are going to be able to louder that over the germans, the italians and the polls and say look, you can either stop or you can go without -- that's the fight that we are about to have. >> jesse: so they will seize odesa and they will get to the capital. and then they control the country and then hunt people down village town by town and then threatened western european nations to shut down the energy pipeline that flows through ukraine and say you know what? i dare you to do something about this? is that what the next step is. >> think about it from moscow's point of view. either the russians shut down the pipelines in u.k. or the ukrainians bomb their own pipelines once they are losing

their country. when that happens russians can say we have this lovely project called nord stream 2. why don't we ship gas through that once we get to that point, the russians will really be taking pry bars to the european relationships with one another and with the united states because at the end of the day, ukraine isn't the end of the game for russia. it's just step on the road. this started in georgia. it went to crimea, it went to kazakhstan. now it's in ukraine. we are not done. the next steps are estonia, latvia, lithuania and poland. and for that to work, you have to break the nato alliance. they can do that with ukraine. >> jesse: so you break the alliance through germany; is that right? if you threaten germany and you turn off that pipeline that goes through ukraine and you say it's time to restart nord stream 2, or you guys are going to be reading in the dark for the next couple months. does that. >> exactly. >> jesse: move i can't remember germany in the right direction or not the right direction but away from nato? >> absolutely.

i would underline not just germany. germany and italy. italians done a great job of being quiet this whole time. >> jesse: they have. they are letting germany be the bad guy but they are right behind them. also the baltics are in play. what kind of move would that look like because those are nato countries. are you saying moscow is not afraid of triggering article five? >> today they certainly would be. that's one of the reasons why they have to have nato apart first. if they can get to a position where the europeans are not on the same page and the americans for a mix of reasons might not trust the european partners anywhere, then they combine population of the baltics is under 8 million people. it would be far simpler to conquer than ukraine. >> jesse: and do you think that -- well i think at that point we would know the germans and the italians would be willing to sacrifice the baltics but would the british and the french and the americans allow a politic nato to do that?

>> that is absolutely the right question. from moscow's point of view, bush did nothing against georgia. obama did nothing against crimea. trump did nothing against general moves across the entire eastern front. and thought biden administration is finding that after 20 years of mall investment in the nato alliance it is not able to do anything in ukraine. so from putin's point of view, this is actually getting easier and easier rather than harder and harder from a geo strategic point of view. if they can break those relationships, specifically between washington and europe, then it really doesn't matter what the brits and the french do. >> jesse: excellent and your new book comes out, when peter? >> we are looking at june. assuming there is not enough paper shortage. >> jesse: sounds good the new book is called aptly? >> the end of the world is just the beginning. >> jesse: all right. you have predicted it. thank you so much peter zeihan as always. you just heard the strategy

right there that putin is going to play out. seize ukraine, cut off the pipeline to germany. split the nato alliance and seized baltics. hopefully that does not happen but we will see. that's all for tonight. our hearts are with the people in ukraine. tucker carlson is up next and always remember i'm watters and this is my world. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tucker: good evening, and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." let's say you really didn't care about the country you lead. let's say you want to do humiliate degrade it and undermine its ancient institutions. what would you do? you might take the single most important appointed position in the entire government and announce in public that you are filling that position on the basis of appearance. not on the basis of skill or wisdom or fealty to the founding documents of the