attack overnight from multiple directions. explosions and heavy gunfire can be heard in kyiv. ukrainian officials confirming russian troops are within the capital city's limits. hello, i'm griff jenkins with continued live team coverage of the crisis in eastern europe for 3:00 a.m. here in washington, d.c., and ten in the morning in the kyiv. u.s. official said that the invasion has been slower than

expected with russian troops meeting in strong resistance and the empire state building lit up in blue and yellow as the world and the u.s. come together to show solidarity for the people of ukraine. we begin this hours coverage with fox news correspondent steve harrigan live in kyiv. good evening. what are you seeing? >> griffith, it's quieter right now since the dawn. we've seen brief gun battles, just short range flights ranging 30 seconds to a minute. really showing that what a creamy are saying, small groups of russian soldiers are moving to the very center of the city. intermittent shelling on the edges of the city but ukraine's president warned that last night would be the night the russians make their big push to take her not take the city. there has not happened. still in control of the city and the president here posting

regularly to show that he has not left the city. here is president zelenskyy. >> we are all here. soldiers are here. citizens are here. we are here. we defend our independence. >> at least one more civilian apartment building was hit by missile overnight. not sure on the number of casualties. the russians are reporting they have taken control of the first major population center, marita insoutheastern ukraine paired te big battle of kyiv hasn't happened yet and still in control of their capital city. >> griff: you've got a lot of experience in these sort of situations and one of the places that come to mind is movement within the capital. how restricted has movement become and how is it for the innocent ukrainians caught in the cross fire? >> martial law is in effect. officials have been pretty clear

telling people to stay in their houses. it's really hard to predict when fighting will break out, where the russians are, when they are going to come. people are told to stay in the house and for the most part it does look like a ghost town. you'll see somebody walking their dog but mostly people if they have not left, they are staying put. griff? >> griff: one more follow-up. are we starting to see any patterns in the last 24 hours as you take notice of what you are hearing and seeing around there in terms of the attack because we are hearing from you is officials, steve, that perhaps things aren't going as quickly as they thought. >> i'm really hesitant to make predictions. we've heard so many in this crisis about when the attack is going to come, where it's going to come and how effective it's going to be and a lot of people are saying the russians are bogged down. that worries me pair the russians are holding back considerable amounts of force. which most people hope they

continue to hold that back. we don't want to see buildings rumbled here in zelenskyy but it might come that that, griff. >> griff: stay safe, give it posted. steve harrigan live for us in zelenskyy. thank you. here in the u.s., stepping up security aide as ukraine desperately tries to battle against the russian invasion. let's turn a senior national correspondent live at the pentagon. good morning, rich. >> good morning, griff. white house says the president is instructing the state department to release something hundred $50 million in additional security assistance to ukraine. we aren't sure exactly what it's going to mean but the state department official tell us that they'll have more specifics on that in the weekend. that'll be the grand total the past year insecurity. the pentagon says the united states is also examining other ways to try here to help ukraine as its fighting, this

russian invasion. that could include additional training. while the u.s. boosts assistance to its ally, the white house stresses that help will not involve american troops fighting in ukraine. >> we are doing, the president is doing nearly everything in his power to lead the world and stand up against the actions of president putin. what he will not do is send u.s. troops to fight in ukraine because he's not going to put the american public, the american people, or the united states in a position of fighting a war with russia. >> more american troops are moving to europe to bolster nato's eastern flank. 7,000 u.s. troops are going first to germany, the next up is unclear. they will likely join the nato response force. yesterday, nato mobilized that force for the first time in its history. it consists of up to 40,000 troops. nato said it has up to 100

warplanes on high alert and 120 ships at sea. >> are partners around the world have joined us. we must stand ready to do more. even if it means we have to pay a price because we are in this for the long haul. >> at the united nations security council yesterday, the west failed to advance a draft resolution calling on russia to halt its invasion and withdraw. russia has veto power on the council and it vetoed this resolution. china is interesting here. it abstained from that vote. it has largely blamed the west for what they are calling "starting the fires in europe" and not doing much to address that, even though china has refused to outright criticize here, the country that invaded ukraine. >> griff: i want to come for a minute if i can where you started our report on the

350 million that the president is allocating to ukraine. i know, we don't know fully exactly what it entails, but do we get the sense that it's going to be what president zelenskyy has called for? we've seen him saying that he's not getting getting exactly what he's needs. >> what ukrainian government is asking for here, they want more stinger missiles, they want missiles that are going to disable tanks and aircraft. that's something that the united states has made available to them in the past. it's unclear if this is going to include more of it as this fighting goes on. it becomes more difficult here, in particular as russia takes more control of this country, at least what officials were telling us really into today, into yesterday that the russian military hadn't fully gotten control over the air space the ukrainian military had an effective air defense missile,

getting some of its planes in the air, but delivering assistance becoming more and more difficult. there are routes options available, routes along land borders by the nato goes right up to ukraine, it goes to ukraine in a number of different places. that could be... it's only 2-3 days here. as this conflict begins to emerge from all the way in which the united states and the west can directly help ukraine is also going to change. >> griff: it's going to get much more difficult. great live for us at the pentagon. rich, thank you. now let's head over to western ukraine where we check in again with mike tobin on the latest in lviv. hi, mike. >> the first sunrise we've seen now since the invasion began. the ukrainians are still very much in this fight. they have commanded down that command and control. the russians do not have air

superiority. everybody here in the ukraine we have talked to are willing to pick up a weapon and fight. some in ukrainian army taking up their positions in lviv. one of the things we've seen an indifferent conflict you'll see soldiers walking around or they won't have their magazines in their weapon. what we've seen here in lviv that the weapons are loaded and very much ready for combat as they took a position here in lviv. the fighting thus far has largely to bend to the east up here. there was fighting in the capital city of kyiv overnight which manifested itself largely in the form of small arms fire going street to street. artillery fire. we know there were some missile strikes in the capital city of kyiv. the fighting has been pretty intense in the area -- i should say lviv, the fighting is intense in the area around kharkiv, that is close to the

city of kyiv. the russians have advance from three sides. from the north of the border of belarus, up from the crimean peninsula, and they've come west from the border with russia and that's where you get that intense fighting that has taken place around the city of clark kharkiv. you see the flow of refugees as people try to get away from all that fighting. the road that goes from kyiv to where i am now in lviv, it's usually a six-hour drive. it's taking up to 18 hours now. the committee on refugees say that more than 50,000 refugees have poured more over the border of poland and will dole we know they've established a medical train to take the injured to hospitals where they can get some care. and we've got some new images of people crossing the border which is south of where i am now and that is the border into romania.

also we know as far as the resistance goes, the effectiveness of the ukrainian resistance, we have reports that two russian il 76 transport planes were shot down to the south of lviv. those would've been filled with paratroopers with insertion points in the south part of kyiv and there were about 30 miles apart from each other so the assumption is they were bringing some paratroopers to join the ground offensive as the russians are attempting to tighten the noose around the capital city of kyiv and encountering a great more deal of resistance and they had expected. riff? >> griff: i was asking steve harrigan about movement in the capital of kyiv but they are in lviv and you describe people getting out to evacuate peer but can people move around? how restrictive is it? are you seeing the locals there in lviv sticking around or are

they getting out as well? >> it's a very different picture here in lviv and that's because the fighting is not so intense here in lviv bay there have been air strikes in the north and south of lviv and every day we've heard the air raid sirens' warning. as the sun is coming up, people are coming back out pit heading to the banks, trying to withdraw money. they had to the atms. i can see one atm from here and a couple of people are at it but by and large i've seen the atm lines of gone away because the atms themselves have run out of cash but i attempted to withdraw some money and i could get about the equivalent of a dollar 50. getting money out of an atm is a little bit futile. initially when the invasion started, the foot traffic on the street looks normal. when you talked with people, there is always different because the reality of the invasion was descending.

the combat was largely avoided, the refugees, you don't see them in the center of town. if you look at a map, lviv has a beltway so the refugees are going around the city of lviv and heading for one of the borders. either poland, moldova, and as we now see heading into rome ro. >> griff: live for us in lviv. mike, thank you. as russian forces make their way into kyiv overnight, ukraine's defense ministry issuing a stark warning to russian troops disguising themselves as a member of ukraine's armed forces. joining us, john hannah. thank you for being up in the middle of the night as we cover the crisis in eastern europe. take me if you will into the discussions, the president and his team are having, and what concerns them most at this hour?

speak up thank you. the president now, i think his team understands that with the united states and nato, they are not actually going to intervene militarily in ukraine that the struggle for ukraine even though it's going better, i think, then people would have ever imagined, that the russians appear to be having some trouble taking down kyiv and getting that puppet regime into the ukrainian capital, the struggle now is going to be one of weeks and months and even years. and therefore you've seen the escalation and the sections to really begin to try and strangle the ukrainian economy. they still have some of their outer drive. they haven't imposed this with the sanctions which would

completely cut off russia from the international financial community and probably begin to cripple russia's critical energy exports which are absolutely vital to its foreign currency reserves and the ability to operate and import items into that country. i think they are looking obviously at how do they sustain lethal support to the ukrainian insurgency, particularly when russia begins eventually to grind away at the ukrainian army and take control in the capital? they all want to figure out how do they now sustain for weeks and months and years legal equipment, explosives. humanitarian aid, support to a genuine full-blown ukrainian guerrilla insurgency. we need to focus on what the president is going to do on tuesday in that state of the union. it's going to be an absolutely

critical speech for president biden. >> what would you be advising to say? what does he need to hit in that speech on this crisis? >> i think he needs to hint that the post cold war era is over. the central assumption of the post-cold war era where there is no russian conventional military threat anymore to europe. the whole horse invasion of ukraine with 200,000 russian soldiers has put in end to that. biden putin speech put in end to thats to reestablish the russian imperial empire don't end at ukraine. they extend much further than that, to the old frontiers of the russian empire. so i think the president is going to have to say something about our own defense budget. whatever budget they had in place, they've got to throw it out and we've got to see a

significant increase in our defense budget and a return to some kind of doctrine of being ready and willing to fight on two major fronts in both europe and china. >> griff: in the last 30 seconds we've got, i want to ask you, ukrainian americans protesting the taking to the streets from coast-to-coast asking president biden to do more. the short answer, is there more the president could be doing right now? >> for sure on sanctions. he can go to swift and cut the russians from the international financial community and really begin to cripple their oil exports, oil and gas exports which is going to hurt us and hurt americans and our pocketbooks, not to mention our allies in europe. >> griff: former national security advisor up late or early, depending on how you look at it. thank you very much. republican senator marco rubio praising senator

rubio also saying transparency from the biden administration is a big step in helping to get build global trust peer but not all republicans are pleased with how the president has handled the situation. we are joined now by former white house official rome at the raleigh thank you for taking time. i want to get your thoughts. we heard forever that politics stops at the shore. what do you make of what rubio was saying? >> thank you for having me on tonight. i would just start by saying that we really are keeping the people of ukraine in our prayers today and we fully support the fierce fight they are putting forth right now. it's very important to realize that russia's invasion is pure evil and would never have happened under the leadership of

president donald trump. i won't speak of the entire republican party. there is obviously going to be some disagreements in what has happened over the last few days with u.s. leadership in the situation but it is extremely serious that the entire world right now is not viewing america as a leader and because of that we are seeing our allies taking advantage by really just the worst of our adversaries overseas. >> griff: we saw president zelenskyy throw little shade, trying the throw him further action to help ukraine and could a united republican message help in this moment help ukraine? >> i think the message needs to be what it was over four years of the trump administration and that is one of peace through strength. we have to present ourselves as

the strong leader nation that we are in america or you are going to see more of this terrible invasion happening with different adversaries. it's russia first. it could be china next. and by the grace of god we hope that iran is not the third on that list. this is not what we need to be experienced saying. as a country we have enough going on as a nation here at home to focus on. it's important that we take back the power as americans. we need to be energy independent. absolutely no reason that we should be relying on russian energy, russian oil, when we have all the resources right here in our homeland. >> griff: we have to leave it there. thank you for your time tonight. continue to check in with you as the story develops. thank you very much.

after the break, we'll bring you the heroic the good samaritans helping them. don't go anywhere. covering it live at 3:00 a.m.

a must in your medicine cabinet! less sick days! cold coming on? zicam is the #1 cold shortening brand! highly recommend it! zifans love zicam's unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam. zinc that cold!

as a small business owner, it shortens colds! your bottom line is always top of mind. so start saving with comcast business mobile. flexible data plans mean you can get unlimited data

or pay by the gig. all on the most reliable 5g network. with no line activation fees or term contracts. saving you up to $500 a year. so boost your bottom line by switching today. get the new samsung galaxy s22 series on comcast business mobile and for a limited time save up to $750 on a new samsung device with eligible trade-in.

>> griff: people around the world have been showing their support for ukraine. some taking to the street like these protesters on friday condemning russia's invasion. the global landmarks were lit up in that countries flags color. joining us is brian stern, he's in ukraine helping americans and other citizens get out of the country. thank you for taking time. where are you and what is this status of the operation right now. >> i'm east of the romanian border, north of the mold over the border, south of kyiv. kind of the left and middle of the country. the status of our operations are ongoing. we have bus across the border go back a few minutes ago.

oh go off today, the lines at the border crossings are absolutely terrible. it took our current bus almost an entire day waiting online. >> griff: how many americans do you estimate stayed behind, did didn't heed the early warnings and you are doing a heroic effort to get them out? >> we don't know how many. at any given time depending on who you talk to, there's about 50,000 american citizens in the ukraine that any given time. having said that, the majority of them we think have evacuated. however also having said that, i haven't checked the numbers in a few hours, but we have i think in excess of 1500 request for evacuation currently registered in our website. >> griff: you did this in

afghanistan so very recently and you are now doing it in ukraine. try to give us a sense of the difference in the difficulties and the challenges you are seeing. >> the big difference that we need to understand is that context. the afghanistan and evacuation was a closing chapter of a 20 year war appear this is the first chapter of a potentially 20 year war. the situation, the infrastructure is different, the threat is different. the taliban the cyber mobility was nominal at best, minimal at best. while the russians cyber ability is superb. the taliban didn't have missiles, the taliban didn't have the big columns of armor in a meaningful way pair they had armor but not much. it's just... it's a whole different... the threat dynamics are completely different. having said that, doing evacuations at the end of the day is a logistics calculus

equation and a mousetrap. you have a start point, a midpoint, and a rally point can we wind up in the end and you get people from where they are to where they need to be safely and legally. >> griff: for anybody watching this right now who have a family member stuck over there trying to get out, brian, how do they get connected with you? how do they get them help? >> if you go to our website, projectdynamo.org, there are two very important buttons. the most important button is the donate now button. we are all volunteers, nobody gets paid. all you get paid go to a rescue operation to rescue lives period. it's that simple. there are thousands of people who need the help. every dollar counts. the other button is the ukrainian evacuation form button. that's the mechanism that informs us that you need help.

if you are in ukraine or your family is in ukraine, go to the website, please follow the instructions from a load of the documents, make it as accurate as possible so we don't have to do -- we don't have to burn calories trying to chase stuff down and we'll do our best to cover it. >> griff: brian, as someone who spent a lot of time in iraq from the time of the invasion all the way to 2016 in a fight for and absolute catastrophe. we are watching russia close in on kyiv peer and how concerned are you that the window could be closing to evacuating americans? >> very concerned, obviously. one of the differences with this particular conflict is trying to

read the mind of vladimir hooton and what his intentions are. the indicators, the capabilities are obvious. what are the intentions, what are the goals? what will he do next? is he going to blow up all the bridges around a particular city to close it in like a noose? we don't know. we are constantly shifting, lifting, adjusting, trying to respond or react to the actions. >> griff: from afghanistan to know ukraine, this has been quite a tough several months for you and your team. i want to ask you personally, why are you doing this? >> i spent my entire adult life doing my nations bidding in the military. i'm a very proud better income a proud service member, and i've had the privilege of working with some of the most amazing men and women in the entire world for over two decades. i wouldn't change a single day of it. even the bad ones.

in the military can we say we don't leave our people behind, we don't leave our people behind. it's not a metaphor. it's real. it's very real. the idea that american citizens in harm's way, undisputed fact at this point, and the idea that we are able to help them how could we watch it on tv and be spectators? how could we do that. i don't judge anybody, but for me i couldn't do it. we built project dynamo in my living room in mid-august. we put on aircraft, and pretty much the entire time we went from eight afghanistan rescue organization, a global rescue organization, we are even changing our logo. >> griff: amazing work. no man left behind is your real impetus there. the last 22nd we've got, how can americans watching this who want to help your organization, how do they reach out and help you?

>> number one, first thing is donate. supplies are short. i don't need anybody to mail me gasoline. i need money for gasoline. covid shots don't buy themselves. all the food, safe houses, all that stuff. we need financial support, the number one thing people at home can do. the other thing is what i'd asked the people are is to... we need to show solidarity. we as a country can be divided over politics and all that stuff. this is not the time for that. republicans, democrats, whatever community or group you are with or whoever it is, we all need to lock arms and say we are all humans, what flatware pollutant has done is absolutely criminal and the people of ukraine are just as human as you or i are and we need to be together right now. >> griff: we have to leave it

there. great work and thank you for your service, sir. a high-rise apartment in kyiv was hit with a missile. let's check back in the steve harrigan who is live in kyiv. what's the latest? >> griff, there were several incidents of street fighting inside central kyiv. mainly small pockets of russian special forces moving to the city and engaging with ukrainian forces. we have seen a number of different occasions the president of ukraine zelenskyy post a video showing his people that he is still here, he's not leaving. talk about possible negotiations between ukraine and russia. here is russian president blackman putin's response to that president vladimir putin's response to that. >> it's easier for me to come to an agreement then the us gang of

drug dealers and neo-nazis who have taken the entirety of the ukrainian people hostage. >> not leaving much hope for negotiations. overnight another civilian apartment building hit by a what appears to be a missile. not clear how many casualties from that attack and at least 50,000 people have left ukraine in the past 24 hours. poland is expecting to get up to a million refugees in the next coming days. a lot of people trying to get out there. a lot of questions now about what's going on in the southeast in the city of melitopol. back to you. >> that will be significant, we are preparing for what could be a very difficult situation to watch. the civilians in ukraine dug in

to try and fight. the resilience and message coming from zelenskyy to his people to resist the russians is obviously very apparent and are you getting a sense that we are possibly going to be in for a tough fight? >> yeah. after several hours of quiet, we are hearing shelling in the distance. appears to be a 5-6 miles off to my west so it might be starting up again here today. back to you. >> griff: stays safe. steve harrigan live for us in kyiv. thank you. we are calling del my following another big story. president biden has announced his new nominee. ashley strohmier has more. >> good morning. made his final decision, chose ketanji brown jackson. biden pledge to nominate the first black woman to the highest court. >> for too long, our government

and courts haven't looked like america. i believe it's time that we have a court that reflects the full with the polyp she brings a perspective to the court as well. she comes from a family of law enforcement for her brother and uncles having served as police officers. >> if confirm she'd replace judge stephen breyer who will retire this summer. jackson currently sits on the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit. >> my life has been blessed beyond measure and i do know that one can only come this far by fate. among my many blessings and indeed the very first is the fact that i was born in this great country. the united states of america is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy of the world ever

known. >> judge jackson will start her visit with senators next week. >> griff: history being made. actually, thank you. what the white house is saying about our future diplomacy with russia and what they haven't ruled out. we returned after the break. stick with us. buried in receipts, invoices and other paperwork that's preventing you from doing what matters most? then get the all new epson rapidreceipt smart organizer to scan, digitize and organize your documents and receipts. receipts go in, and stress goes away. it's the only solution on the market specifically designed to extract and digitize key data trapped on receipts and invoices. and it integrates with financial software like quickbooks and turbotax. transform paper documents like contracts, tax records, warranties, wills, even recipes into searchable pdfs. so the information is always right

at your fingertips, safe and secure. you can even turn business cards into digital contacts, and it scans up to 100 pages at a time. even different sizes in one batch. with this exclusive tv offer, you'll get the epson rapidreceipt smart organizer and over $300 in added value! act now and save up to $100 for a limited time. this rapidreceipt has made a huge difference. it categorizes everything for me. it puts everything into the right files. i don't misplace a thing anymore. no more losing receipts means no more losing money. people everywhere love the epson rapidreceipt. organized at last and made so simple. you can use this for both business and household. that's the smartest move i ever made for my business. it even helps organize me for taxes and expenses. there's even a mobile rapidreceipt you can use when you're on the go! this has changed everything. as soon as i get a receipt i just scan it, and store it away immediately right here into the laptop, no matter where i am. with this

exclusive tv offer, you'll get a mobile or desktop epson rapidreceipt smart organizer, and over $300 in added value. act now and save up to $100 for a limited time. go online or call to get an epson rapidreceipt smart organizer delivered right to your door. i came, i scanned, i conquered. epson rapidreceipt - visit buyrapidreceipt.com or call. piece of cake baby!

>> griff: we are back with live coverage of the crisis in eastern europe. you are looking at the capital city of kyiv under siege at this hour. a remarkable thing to process and the major european capital under attack from multiple directions, explosions, heavy gunfire has been heard as we heard from steve harrigan. ukrainian officials confirming that russian troops are advancing from the east and the south that is very tense our, biden and his national security team are trying to figure out what can be done after round after round of sanctions can be

placed on vladimir putin as we hear from our team coverage with mike tobin in the west and in lviv near the border of poland about an hour away, we hear that the steady flow of ukrainians trying to flee, trying to get out of what's becoming an increasingly difficult and dangerous situation. thank you for sticking with us. it is now 3:41 here in washington but 10:42 there in the capital of kyiv and we are hearing from steve harrigan, heard some missile attacks from 5 miles from his position in the city center. many of the handgun officials yesterday that it appears that russia's advance is not going as quickly as anticipated but when you talk to reporters like harrigan in that city, you wonder why it is that russia is taking so long. also we are seeing a remarkable

act of affiant and resilience among the president volodymyr zelenskyy who has continued to do selfie videos saying we are here, don't believe i have left, i will stand and fight with my people. citizens of ukraine being armed with weapons. members of parliament posting videos, holding kalashnikov rifles saying if it comes to it, they will stand and die in defense of their nation. in remarkable story, a difficult and harrowing one playing out right before our eyes in real time. president biden has remained adamant that he will support our allies and impose sanctions with them on russia. the white house press secretary jen psaki confirming in her breathing that now is not the time for biden to be speaking to putin. >> why does he want to talk to

biden? >> because he's invading a sovereign nation. i would say that a moment where a leader is beginning and in the middle of invading a sovereign country is not the moment where diplomacy feels appropriate. it does not mean we have ruled out diplomacy forever. obviously the president remains open to engaging from a leader to leader level but this is not the moment. >> the white house making it clear that diplomacy has not been ruled out forever but will it be too late, dr. rebecca grant international relations expert joins us now. it's always great to get your incredible insights. do you think the diplomatic road is shot? is that path, has a completely ended >> diplomacy is dead because biden chose war but what i really think about this is that the man who should be on

the lead in diplomacy is president volodymyr zelenskyy. zelenskyy said he's willing to talk the whole three years he's been president there. i think he's still willing to talk under the right conditions. my opinion right now, the world needs to get behind zelenskyy and let zelenskyy make the call on when and if the talk to putin. >> griff: what is your analysis on this offer by biden to meet? they were saying in the capital of belarus. perhaps it'll be in a different country for zelenskyy and putin to meet. should zelenskyy take that offer? >> that such a tough call right now and the right way would be to be a cease-fire before a meeting took place. but again, i just feel that really is zelenskyy's call. he ironically enough elected in part because he promised to

negotiate with russia a few years ago and try to get peace when the war was confined to the eastern enclave. it's got to be zelenskyy's call for he should be really suspicious and i'm sure he is of any of putin's offers. only he can make that call on the ground at this point. >> griff: what do you make of zelenskyy's defiance, his resilience, posting when dawn broke in. he put in a video saying we are here, we will fight. >> i am so impressed with zelenskyy. he's one of the reasons why we've gone to say that may be ukraine was not in our strategic interest but to saying that around the world we stand with ukraine. zelenskyy gets so much of that credit here and i'm so impressed with him. they are really taking care of him and protecting him. i wish he had a seal team in the living room keeping him safe but he's done so well, he comes

from, des peres he was an actor in a show where he played the president of ukraine and then was elected to lead the country. very brave, very effective leader. so impressed. >> griff: you are impressed with president zelenskyy but let's go back to putin for just a moment, rebecca. do you think is administration and most of the west misread putin? >> >> while the world loves zelenskyy, the world hates putin. it really was zelenskyy's turn towards the west and the e.u. and nato that has just made putin crazy about this. it's why he wants the zelenskyy government out of ukraine. but as putin, the ambitions go

beyond ukraine and putin is a major security threat to really the entire world and certainly all the countries that border him there in europe. >> griff: do you believe and it looks that putin could take ukraine that he'd attack a baltic state like estonia, lithuania, latvia, which is a nato country, which would raise the stakes. >> if he does take ukraine, god forbid. let's hope he doesn't. but the problem now is i think putin is battle fixated. russia triumphant in ukraine would embolden him to try and move someplace else because it would tell us two things. it would tell us that nato, u.s., and the world failed to stand with ukraine and stop putin there, and the next thing is that russia's military, if he

takes ukraine, really is able to go in and do a quick messy decapitation. to me, that raises the risks in europe. the baltics and other countries, they are nato members so it's an entirely different game as putin well knows, but no question we have to look to the defense of nato. i'm really glad to see if and when talking about possibly joining the alliance formally. >> griff: rebecca, thank you. >> thank you. >> griff: we want to go back now to lviv where mike tobin has been keeping tabs on everything going on. what's the latest to where you are? >> the latest that it's the third morning since the invasion began. the ukraine is still a nation. russia does not control the skies. the ukrainian air defenses are still intact and still operating. ukrainian command and control is still in operation. the ukrainian army is very much in the fight.

backed by a population filled with volunteers eager to join the fight. fresh video this morning of the ukrainian army here in the town of lviv moving into position. notice they don't have their helmets on because the fighting hasn't been very intense here in the city, but the rep weapons are in. you'll see soldiers moving around without magazines in their guns. the ukrainian regulars out here, the magazines are loaded. weapons are loaded, very much ready for combat. as far as what you see here in the city of lviv and around lviv, it's the flow of refugees trying to escape the fighting further east from here. the main route for egress or retreat, if you will, is through the west. the u.n. committee on refugees says as many as 50,000 refugees floated over the border yesterday.

we know in poland there is temporary housing being set up for ukrainian refugees. they established a medical train to get any injured ukrainians the medical help they need and for the first time we are getting images out of the border to the south of here and that is the romanian border as you have refugees trying to get away from the fighting as well. the fighting mostly has been intense overnight in the city of kyiv. the capital city which still stands, remains under ukrainian control. remarkable video of a missile strike or rocket strike or an apartment building there and the aftermath, the extent of the damage in the apartment building, we don't know it. the fighting in kyiv manifest in the form of small arms fire going street to street, somewhat more strikes coming in from the air. the ukrainians fighting back now report that they have downed two russian transport planes, il 76

transport trains. you can compare them to the usc 17 that carry paratroopers. presumably these are filled with paratroopers that can carry as many as 100 troops at a time. these two went down to the south of kyiv. presumably they were heading to insertion points. another big blow to the russian forces bear the casualties appear to be mounting. they came and clearly not expecting as much resistance as they are getting. they have passionate patriotic ukrainian fighting force and civilian population very much engaged. >> griff: just quickly, i want to get a read with the mood there in lviv as the residents watching the defiance of their fellow countrymen and women standing up to russia in kyiv, the people in lviv looking to join this fight. >> very patriotic. we've talked with veterans we

are rushing down where they were able to collect weapons by the national police handing out weapons particular to any retired military. i've spoken with some retired military and they said they couldn't wait to get down to the office fast enough. we went down to where they were handing out the weapons and there was a long line where people eagerly are gathering their weapons, so much so that there was one ukrainian sergeant who was managing the flow of the traffic of people trying to get their weapons but we weren't able to show you pictures because an edict has gone out now that we aren't supposed to shoot the ukrainian military as they are operating here on the ground, at least not on the level but to answer your question, the >> griff: thank you very much. stay safe. and for some final words, joining us now again former national advisor john hannah.

thank you and thank you for being with us. i wanted to get final words because as we were talking with dr. rebecca grant a bit, a lot of folks looking beyond ukraine should putin god forbid take ukraine. it's the point where he might attack one of the baltic states next that would likely be a nato country? >> listen, putin has demonstrated that his ambitions rise all the way past a crane to resurrecting the russian imperial empire. he wants to seem to want a new cold war. i think we should be willing to give it to him and ensure that the result that we have this time is no different than the one we've had 30 years ago. i think that means getting putin bogged down in ukraine. it really does need to be the porcupine that he cannot

swallow. that means crippling his economy and bleeding his military drive through a massive effort to support ukrainian insurgency that is clearly now forming with millions of ukrainians to prepare the fight in defense of their nation and the defense of their independence from this russian tyrant. and america has every interest in doing that at the same time. flowing massive forces into our nato allies to make sure he understands that this stops at ukraine and goes no further than that. >> griff: john, obviously when the president was meeting behind closed doors with nato leaders, they must be talking about whether or not it should come to an attack on a nato country that

nato would actually be able to repel the attack. >> no question about it that we spent almost 30 years now allowing our capabilities militarily, even as we have countries to nato that we have article five commitments to come on that. that's why i think this speech on tuesday with the president, we've got to see what is he prepared to do on the defense budget? has he had the same kind of moment that jimmy carter had after the soviet invasion of and began to stand? >> griff: it'll be interesting. i hate to cut you off. thank you for taking the time. and more in the russian attack on ukraine is our coverage continues at the top of the hour. i'm griff jenkins bread stay with the fox news channel as you bring you the latest on this developing situation. "fox & friends first" begins right now.

[gun and missile fire] >> breaking overnight, a battle for kyiv. incredible fight for their capital city as russian troops come in and bring war directly to their streets. you are watching a breaking news edition of "fox & friends first." >> eight affiant president zelenskyy says he's staying to fight. >> we are following every