to both of those chefs. >> we have important. tomorrow on "special report." final preparations for the president's state of the union address. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight and every night. that's it for "special report," fair, balanced and still unafraid. "jesse watters primetime" is great show. it's up next. hey, jesse. >> jesse: thanks so much, brett. i appreciate it. ♪ [gunfire] [explosions] >> jesse: tonight we start again in ukraine where russia's

sickening assault on neighbor continues for a fifth straight day. ukrainian forces have been slowing putin's advances. it's david vs. goliath as they follow the example of their brave president. >> when i was running for the president, i would say that each of us is the president because all of us carry the responsibility for our country, for our beautiful ukraine and now it happened so that each of success a warrior. a warrior in his or her right place. and i'm sure that each of us will win glory to ukraine. >> jesse: today the nation's second largest city of kharkiv faced intense barrage of bombing as russia looks to close in on the country's key population centers. the move mirrors their actions over the weekend where several cities were also shelled with russian rockets. putin's forces are being accused of targeting innocent ukrainian neighborhoods as the death toll continues to rise.

and, unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. new satellite images show a major build-up of russian forces just miles outside of the capital city of kyiv. and earlier today, u.s. officials addressed this movement. >> clearly, we continue to see russian forces move on or move -- try to move closer to so they can move on kyiv from the ground. we still assess that they are outside the city center. mr. putin still has at his disposal significant combat power. he hasn't moved all of it into ukraine but he has moved a majority of it he still has a lot that he hasn't moved into ukraine. it's combined arms. and it's not insignificant. >> jesse: putin is making his move into kyiv with even more troops waiting in the wing as the city prepares for a bloozy siege this follows putin's announcement yesterday that he was putting his nuclear forces

in to special combat readiness. a heightened alert status that brings back memories of the cold war. the state department evaluated this move earlier. >> this sort of provocative rhetoric, more than being unnecessary, it is dangerous. it adds to the risk of miscalculation. it should be avoided. we are assessing president putin's directive at this time. as i think you have heard us say. we see no reason to change our own alert level. >> if the face of all of this the world is rushing. u.s. and germany send stinger missiles to allies. while germany joint european union and switzerland says it's going to freeze russian assets going against the nation's longstanding position of neutrality in conflict. luckily these sanctions are

having annual effected as russia's economy crumbles. nearly half of russia's central bank assets have been frozen in the last 24 hours the value of russia's currency the ruble is in the gutter. hyper inflation could be around the corner mother russia. is fighting and sanctions intensify, negotiations took place in belarus. but piece was hard to find as russia continues to demand official recognition of its control of crimea. while insisting ukraine can never ever join nato. foreign correspondent trey yingst is live from kyiv with the latest. trey? >> >> jesse, good evening. there is a real sense here in ukraine that the worse is yet to come. we see the skyline behind me very dark in certain places because officials here are telling residents keep your lights off. and if you can stay under ground. it's why so many civilians tonight are living in the metro

system of kyiv. they are worried about a continued russian air campaign. we have heard sigh lens throughout the day. small arms fire in the distance and these satellite images, extremely concerning showing a large convoy stretching for more than 17 miles of russian troops and trucks. they are preparing according to u.s. defense officials to target an encircle this city. we do know over the weekend at least two civilians were killed here in the capital after a russian missile slammed into a residential building earlier this evening. we heard russian missile hit complex out of the city limits. >> all of this significant because have you that vulnerable civilian population here that's doing everything they can to get out of harm's way and negotiations today taking place on the border of belarus between the russians and ukrainians, you can see just by what they were wearing how the countries are prepared at this moment. the russians came in suits and ties. ukrainians in military fatigues. left of center a it phone call between russian president vladimir putin and french

president emmanuel macron. putin laid out terms for what he would see as a reasonable cease-fire deal or negotiation. he talked about the ukrainians demilitarizing and also recognizing an area of crimea that he annexed back in 2014. both nonstarters for the ukrainians. jesse? >> jesse: do you feel like the russians are hitting strategic buildings in the city or is it more indiscriminate bombing in your estimation? >> they are definitely trying to take out military targets on the outskirts of the city but they are also hitting critical civilian infrastructure. the ukrainian health ministry estimates that more than 350 civilians have died since the start of this invasion. they have been killed by russian shelling and strikes and it's only going to get worse. those estimates are likely very low. because we have seen new videos today in the second largest city in ukraine. kharkiv indicating that more civilian were killed as the russians continue this blood i can't understand aggressive

campaign. jesse? >> jesse: it looks like it's getting worse and worse every night. thank you so much. stay safe out there, trey. we will get back to you later. here now senator lindsey graham. all right, senator, you have seen all of the reports about this massive convoy. >> right. >> jesse: that's coming in and loading up and encircling the city. is there anything that the united states can do now that we are not doing in order to kind of blunt this siege? >> absolutely. so i just met with ukrainian ambassador to the united states. she is a real champion. there are 20 senators in the room. she was begging all of us to go after russian oil and gas. 40% of the russian economy comes from oil and gas. we should go after that. hit them hard. heavy russian barrel of oil full of blood. she was begging to us sanction the oil and gas sector of the russian economy to make it real to putin he is not going to get away with this.

secondly, she talked about their petition and hague make putin a war criminal. i'm going to make that my cause. here is what i will tell you. she believes the russians are going scorched earth. that the ukrainians have fought very well. they have slowed it this down. let's not kid ourselves, putin son track to destroy this country unless we do everything we can to change his mind and we're not doing everything we can to change his mind. we need to crush his oil and gas sector. destroy the ruble and open up american oil production. what the biden administration is doing on the energy front at home and abroad is unconscionable. they need to change policy now. >> bret: do you think slapping massive sanctions on russia's energy sector could actually stop the siege right now on the capital? >> i don't know. but here's what she said. she believed it would do the most damage to putin possible. whether a could we do to hurt putin the most and help ukrainians the most?

more weapons for the ukraine. more food, more fuel. economic assistance. what could we do to hurt putin the most. until we do that we have not done everything necessary to stop this man. if we had the same will to hurt putin economically and destroy his economy as the ukrainians have to stand up to tanks this thing may end nothing is going to change the equation in putin's mind until he suffers more and the economy of russia is virtually destroyed and the only thing to destroy their economy, in my view, their economy is oil and gas sanctions. >> jesse: maybe he is not doing that because the europeans aren't taking the lead on that but who knows? do you thinked that the stingerr we're providing and javelins that we have also provided we have seen how effective they can

be against the russian tanks situation? do we need to load up more stingers and javelins into that country right now because, you know, they put up a good fight so far but i don't know how long the ukrainians can hold out. >> that's really a great question i asked that very question. how much longer can you fight? they're going to fight to the death by the way. they said if they had more stingers and javelins they could make it harder on the russians. the longer this goes, the more public opinion turns against putin at home and abroad, the better off we are the eu did a brave thing. i want to be bipartisan. they asked israel no, bigger than of are lindsey graham israel said no.

i will get on the phone with israel. we stand up for israel iron dome. putin a thug and war criminal. he is destroying a sovereign nation called ukraine. if we don't get ukraine and russians right they will move on taiwan and ukrainians will break out for a bomb. it's in everybody's interest for the ukrainians to prevail here. >> jesse: why is the biden administration negotiating a return to the nuclear deal with the iranians? does that make sense to you. >> i'm trying to measure myself here thank you for having me on the show. we're working together the best we can i'm all for lethal aid, economic aid. it's unconscionable to me that america is not leading the charge to sanction the oil and gas sector and they're completely tone deaf when it comes to iran. trump put iran in a box and about to let them out of the box. money flowing to the ayatollah

war machine hezbollah and hamas destroy the mideast. trump had energy independence mode and biden has taken off the take all the things president trump did to make us energy independent. i know you don't like trump. i understand you won the election. i accept the results of the election. but i'm begging the biden administration to adjust course. open up american oil and gas reserves to help our allies, to lower gas prices here and crush putin's oil and gas economy. that's where the war machine gets its revenue. if they're not willing to do those two things. then they are not really in it to win it. >> jesse: i think we will find out if they're in it to twin tomorrow night during the state of the union. lindsey graham, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> jesse: russian portions have been launching vicious rocket strikes in second largest city kharkiv throughout the weekend killing dozens. just today the rockets killed 11 people in a residential neighborhood many citizens have been seeking safety by moving

into bomb shelters to avoid the heavy shelling. joining us now is a 16-year-old student who lives in kharkiv zheng co-living in and out of these bomb shelters liza, what do you have to survive in the bomb shelter right now? >> hello, america. my name is liza. i'm 16-year-old citizen. now i spend more time in bomb shelter than at home. almost every night i spend in the [inaudible] because it's the safest place in the i sleep on the escalator with my own family. i don't remember the i slept the last time. even in the night when my family decided to respond to home sleep

i didn't sleep because i wasn't [inaudible] in order to run for the subway in case of shelling. russia is shelling houses, residential areas. they are shell on the playground. two days ago, when i went to the supermarket, i saw four tanks with russian soldiers drove through my home -- through my house. my district was shell [inaudible] people are being killed right on the street but the worst is the russian military killed -- even killed the doctor. the doctor who has taken the

wounded to the hospital. every night i receive message from my friends from different parts, the area bomb their houses are left without windows from. we are fighting hard for our nation. but we need the u.s. to protect our airspace to stop russian planes from bombing us ukrainian [inaudible] putin help. i'm scared. i'm really scared. people understand what's going here and help.

>> jesse: the president of the united states has received a request to enforce a no-fly zone and he is considering that according to reports. are you making any attempts to leave and run and drive out of the country or is it just not safe? >> now it's almost unreal to leave. i know lots of russian military people who tried leave kharkiv. who tried to they killed whole family. >> jesse: wow, it's unbelievable. liza, please, please be safe and we wish you and your spheanel the best of luck we are praying for you and our heart goes out to you. thank you for joining us in these really really tough times.

>> thank you. >> jesse: america hears you. a massive russian military convoy making its way to kyiv just miles away from the capital. bill hemmer joins us now from the big board with the latest on russia's ominous push, bill? >> bill: amazing interview. that town of car chief which she is coming from got 1.4 million people jesse, like the size of san diego. san diego, california has 1.4 million people. phoenix, arizona is 1.6 million. that gives you a sense of the relative size of kharkiv in the northeast. this town has been pounded over the last two days. jesse you were just showing video there a moment ago residential areas. just about every single one of those buildings has some sort of shot real will he remarkable stuff. all this clears put at risk.

just watched that story. what i did for you jesse here goes back to last thursday. february 24th. car kyiv, down here put the map in motion day by day. jesse, it's not signature casts. it just very saultz. everything you see in red. this is friday. i know it's suggestion, but it's significant when you are trying to advance in war like this. and that 27 of february. again, the north, the northeast, and the south here. what we are seeing here it advances one more time here. so this is kharkiv the town i described. 20 miles on the near side of russia. jesse we saw satellite images taken on thursday. show enormous military staging area. the russian military has the

capacity to go back and forth over the border and resupply if it wants to hit this town even more. to the north capital city of kyiv right here. if i can get this thing going here. this the border. belarus right there turns into russia at day break earlier today one of our big stories on "america's newsroom" where the peace talks, i should call them truist talks that were underway in belarus what came of them, it's a little uncertain but they did agree to talk again near the belarus polish border. here is the capital city down here about. 160 miles, jesse, from the border here is about 90 miles. this is really, i mean, that's been the push from the north. for the russian army to get on these roads. stunning, lined up two across for miles. sometimes three across for miles

wonder at what point they are able to breach this city how much power the russian army takes with this into the capital city of kyiv. take you down here just in crimea and the south, this was really an uncontested battle here. there is an irrigation canal that separates crimea from the rest of ukraine. once that canal is breached by tanks. pretty much on behalf of ukrainian army. and any of the reporting we are getting here suggests that's the case of the russian army is right across the crimea and ukraine and do what it wanted. and go in any direction it wants. and so i would just say, jesse, in the days to come, mary poll is a mariupol.

port city population about 450,000. and then if you -- if putin wants, he could eventually try and connect the donbas region, which is where we were back in 2014 over to cher shan into odesa. watch that story to come that bridge put into place tactical maneuver hard to stop it? >> would be a big russian victory you are right. >> jesse: thanks so much, bill. fox news alert. ukrainian ambassador to the u.s. is claiming russia used a thermobarak weapon also known as a vacuum bomb today during its invasion of ukraine. clean-up is actually prohibited by the geneva convention. vac could you bombs among the most dangerous and powerful nonnuclear weapons in the world. they have the power to vaporize

bodies and cause large scale casualties. cnn spotted one of these russian vac could you bomb launchers right near the ukrainian border this weekend. joining me now to talk strategy commanders kirk lippold. all right, commander, this thing seems to be a game changer in what capacity would they use something like this because that's a war crime. >> jesse, the only reason they would use something like this is because they felt they were up against forces that were all military, civilians weren't involved, and they needed such a large scale area where they were entrenched to wipe them out quickly and in total. that doesn't exist where they are operating. and so consequently. if this weapon was, in fact, used i guarantee civilians were killed as a result and that's what makes this a war crime because they are now targeting civilians in addition to the military. >> jesse: this is already an insurgent situation there would be no use for that in that

capacity. and also, russian president vladimir putin warned about a -- he calls it a non-excla tore or deescalatory nuclear strike in what capacity would vladimir putin use a nuclear weapon against ukraine or any of the nato allies? >> jesse, i will tell you right now, a lot of people like to throw around the term tactical nuclear weapon. there is no such thing. any nuclear weapon. even a small battlefield nuclear weapon has strategic implications. it is a threshold that the world has not crossed since world war ii hiroshima and nagasaki. when president putin under the ante by putting alert on his forces what he was really saying is i'm now going to raise the

ante when it comes to what we are going to do in ukraine. one of the premises that we had with the soviet union when you really had two major nuclear powers the united states and the soviet union is that we never blufd. we always knew there was that unwritten rule that you never that up ante unless you are going to use it the fact that vladimir putin is going to do that puts the entire world in danger that threshold if crossed weenge a small nuclear weapon means all bets are off and at this point we can't afford it the key at this point is not to escalate it but in fact make sure that our forces are ready to respond, which they are. but, by the same token, get back from the nuclear brink and make sure that putin knows. therefore increase sanctions for that statement. handle properly so far. sanctions as a reaction to it. but he didn't escalate in terms of nuclear brinkmanship, would they use that type of low yield

tactical nuclear weapon in ukraine and then expect the united states, france, which is a nuclear power. great britain which is a nuclear power not respond in any way and try to think they are just not going to do anything? we are going to maybe negotiate our way out of that? >> i don't think renegotiate, jesse. i think if you saw a tactical weapon used like that devastating effects that it would cause that the -- all these countries around there as a matter of fact, i would think that the entire world would then turn on russia and on putin and they would then demand an immediate deescalation and standdown at that point. if not, then i think you are going to see a very large conventional response and if putin were to up the ante, then i'm afraid that we would be headed toward that nuclear war that the world does not want to go into. but let's have large conventional response first. let's not try to create the crisis worse. we cannot afford to do it.

but by the same token, two things on nuclear policy rests on two things. capability and credibility does the united states have that capability? absolutely, yes. if push were to come to shove and our nation can is threatened with nuclear weapons, do we have the credibility to use those weapons? we have to have that because that's what the deterrence rests upon. this is why nuclear weapons policy is so important. >> jesse: it sure is. thank you so much, commander. meanwhile, european countries aren't sending troops to help defend ukraine, but they are beginning to send aid and weapon. that includes germany hasn't done so since world war ii. the germans agreeing to send anti-tank weapons and stingers. lucas tomlinson is live from lviv with a report. lucas? >> jesse there is a time after world war ii when the wuss did not want germany to build up military. right now germany is being applauded the german chancellor

last weekend about face announcing a massive spending increase on defense raising spending levels to 2% of g.d.p. starting with $100 billion influx. that's not all. the german chancellor announcing he was going to send 1,000 ante tank javelin missiles and 500 stinger anti-aircraft missiles to ukraine to help destroy russian armor and shut down those russian helicopter gunships. take a look at what else european nations are committing jesse, finland announcing it would take 1500 anti-tank weapons and send it to ukraine. norway 2,000 anti-tank missiles. sweden announcing 5,000 anti-tank weapons and denmark, 2700 anti-tank weapons and dozen other commitments. be consequence. supply weapons to ukraine. killing russian soldiers. safe to say, jesse. it's too late for that 4,000 russian soldiers have been

killed. fox news cannot confirmed that number. experts say it's likely way too high. western intelligence sources say it's over 500 though not insignificant. now getting those weapons here now is a challenge, jesse. there is no commercial air traffic or flying in here. those would have to come over ground or covered aircraft. now right here in lviv and western ukraine there is a curfew. not seeing many people behind me. a few cars. in fact, a check point just saw got set up down the road of ukrainian police checking identification passing through they are worried about russian saboteurs, jesse. putin, invasion not going as fast as he would like. >> this is going terribly for vladimir putin and his forces. they designed a flawed concept with multiple axes of -- they haven't waited the main effort into kyiv, the capital after all the main objective is to topple the government and replace

zelenskyy with someone pro-russian. they failed to integrate ground capabilities. not achieving combined arms effect of artillery. their logistics are a mess. >> jesse: what does putin's war machine do next? bring in author of a reckless gamble on says stech and emeritus professor of war studies at kings college in london. sir lawrence freidman. so have you seen the five days in action. we keep hearing from the western media that things are not going according to plan faster or is this the traditional slow and brutal and sloppy russian slog that we usually see out of that country? ?i think they would thought it would go fascinating aspects the

extent to which the rash now he developed for launching the war in the first place ukraine will artificial by the west manipulated by the west without its own national identity would mean that it would fall quite quickly it was reckless. proper support. and themselves into trouble. to i think finance classic mistake of they under estimate their opponents. >> jesse: they didn't think you would have a real fierce insurgency. they didn't understand the country and kind of went north to south casually more casually than he should have going towards the capital. does he recognize that now and is that now why it's becoming

moringly and plowing von i have see more vicious air power or see more reckless bombardment of this city soon it wasn't casual. they moved quite quickly. they will didn't do basic things like deal with ukrainian air power. deal with ukrainian air defenses. they left their people exposed. as a result of that they have got a problem because morale is not good. ukrainians are mobilized which they weren't particularly at the start of the war. they are already to fight and then we have seen how tough they can be if he wants to make progress as well as military progress he needs to be prepared. i'm not sure that the russian army is very keen on. that was what we maybe see and

cautious here is a difference sort of strategy which involves making life as miserable as possible for the people in the cities as we heard from that young girl in kharkiv earlier. keeping them stuck in their shelters shortages of food, medicines and so on developing. essentially a siege rather than trying to enter the city for -- if he tries to enter the city with how many tanks he has got. narrow streets remove those sorts of advantages, a lot of advantages to the defenders. it's going to be very messy for russians and not good for youngsters forced into services told that they were going on exercises. prime minister pretty bitter resistance. real dilemma. s.

>> jesse: sir lawrence freidman, thank you for sharing your expertise. >> jesse: air raid sirens went off. >> air raid sirens pierced ukraine once again. it had been quiet for a hour or two. facing threat not only for the air max r satellite images as well and we talked about earlier jesse. we had been told thed that the convoy 17 miles long. they have reevaluated the images and 40 miles long a lot of russian headed to capital city. intense shelling and second largest city of kharkiv, we will continue to follow this story throughout the night. the latest here on the ground in ukrainian capital air raid sirens sounding once again as the people await in bomb.

>> as we monitor that situation in kyiv. reporters on the ground are dealing with the situation firsthand. joining me now local kyiv reporter and journalist at independent media. what are you seeing there right now? >> war. >> and now it's quiet. it was in kyiv. and it was and what we saw today in kyiv is burning cars around the streets, and some of them with dead bodies. already because it was some bottles last night and night

before and also some buildings are under shelling also. we hear also some bombs in the northwest part of kyiv. russian troops came try to dom kyiv and they're getting closer and closer. now the last information that russian troops come in and want city on the south part of ukraine. near the -- >> jesse: have you seen or heard reports of russian soldiers inside the capital engaging in gun battles with civilians or ukrainian military forces? >> [inaudible] ukrainian army. for example last night but it's

very adventurous for civilians and we can't even go there. it's comment in time and you can't go anywhere except bomb shelters. in my case it's under ground parking in my housible people here we can't go in some streets. shelter and go back to our -- yeah, we saw this burning car like what was happening after this fighting. but today everything was [inaudible] with this. >> jesse: thanks, sophia, we appreciate it. be safe. vladimir putin has been threatening to invade ukraine and he did that so, what does he want now? what's his end goal?

will he stop with ukraine or move to poland? or the baltics? my next guest predicted that putin would invade ukraine in his book the next 100 years. joining me now is george freidman, founder and geopolitical futures. george, if you look at the map of europe, it's not just going to stop at ukraine from what we have heard restabbing the empire. it's got to go to the baltic sea. south toward the black sea. what moves do you see him making next and why in your been? >> first we have to recognize that he has made massive failure and it wasn't ukraine. nato. he was hoping that germans russian fuel would not participate.

that europe would fragment and therefore be resistance. what happened was exactly the opposite. germany at first appeared to be talking quietly about not doing anything internally the public demanded that they join the action. it is now part of the sanctions on russia. it is now definitely getting weapons it is involved. now nato is united like it hasn't within since the 1980s. united in terms of military operation. it is united in terms of sanctions. the sanctions on russia are massive. japan has joined it. every country joined it russia's ability to with understand this is questionable. right now we see two things. three things. first, he failed nato

completely. second, he has not succeeded in kyiv. and ukraine. he has not done that. and third, he has amassive sanctions on him that involve even the germans whom he was counting on to split the -- you see why he might start dabbling about nuclear weapons. he is massively lost in just -- he has massively lost in just a few minutes a few days the advantage he thought he h so now he is desperately thinking about whether a to do. but all long term plans would go on the way. nato is back, very dangerous from his point of view, sanctions on top of him. and he doesn't know his next move. >> jesse: do you think even more dangerous now is he a wounded animal? he is cornered that's why you hear him talking about nuclear a retaliation?

do you think we should be even more nerve. country a disaster. but we don't have any clear idea of how they replaced putin or anything like that. the problem with nuclear war, while we have never had one is a nuclear war your children die. your grandchildren die, the people you love. it's not far away like ukraine is from the americans. and the people in russia know that, too. so the issue is how you control -- the russians have on putin. returning to the question of putin tried something, failed, has no exit, is there any force inside of the russian elite. one of them ole divarks. huge amount of money. they met with him yesterday we

have to take our eyes off putin and talk about the people around him risking enormous amount for his ego. >> jesse: a coupe would be the rest scenario and god do i pray that happens that would save a lot of lives. george freidman, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> jesse: russian convoy continues to grow by the hour. now 40 miles long. it looks like u.s. sanctions on russia haven't stopped vlad one bit russia is now warning that the u.s. can expect, quote: a strong and painful russian response. so what does putin have up his sleeve or is he just bluching? here for some insight senior fellow at the hudson institute peter rowell. you just heard the last interview with george freidman, peter. if he is really cornered and out of options just getting murdered by sanctions what would be a

retaliatory step? i'm not talking about a nuclear strike. what else does he have up his sleeve that perhaps we don't see coming? putin cannot max the west economically. he did not go tit-for-tat. the russian economy is about the size of spain's. so if the united states and europe are united it really is a one sided coalition of forces in the economic sphere. putin may move this into a domain where he feels there is parody cut him out of the financial system he could engage in cyber enabled warfare and try to shut down the financial system all together. another military sphere already today or yesterday we have seen the russians amass artillery on the polish border and threaten this nuclear escalation that you have been discussing for the simple even there san in which he thinks he might be able to

cowell the west. a number of steps putin can take all the way up to the most drastic cut under sea cables that run across the atlantic and account for trillions of transactions daily. these are the steps in the military and cyber sphere where putin thinks can he push back on economic campaign. >> jesse: explain what you mean cut under sea exables, would that lop off internet access near in the united states? does that affect banking transactions near this country? >> essentially all of that russian military submarines have been snooping around for example norwegian john coast. mysterious cuts of cables in that vincent. russians may conclude unable to fight on the economic front. this is a final move that putin would take to try to break out from a sanctions strangulation that's taking place against his economy. >> jesse: could you see any sort of commodity warfare. they ship out so much wheat.

so much steel, palladium, oil, you know what we're talking about here. it's like, you know, the biggest commodity exporter in the entire world. could they pull back and just send everything to china, send everything to india and kind of starve the economy and just rip apart supply chain. >> we are no longer in the unipolar american moment. might think that off ramps are options in particular burgeoning economic relationship with xi jinping and china. met with xi olympic games a few short weeks ago. beyond that in the first 24 to 48 hours after putin launched military in ukraine. the west bought something like 600 or $700 million in natural gas and oil and in mineral and metals from russia. so it is a commodities power house. ukraine is as well. which is in part why he has his eye on ukraine and so by, for

example, in the area of rare earth all the way to key metals and minerals denying the rest some of these commodities he might west deck can a dent and cave and lift sanctions and he can escape through that escape hatch. you know, he may have miscalculated. to date we have seen a pretty robust response europe under the encouragement of the u.s. >> jesse: i don't think he was as sanctions proof as he thought he was. peter, thank you. >> thanks. >> jesse: tomorrow joe biden will give his much anticipated state of the union address. already a presidency in crisis. putin's aggressive land grab in eastern europe already rocking the stock market and energy market. for the american people. so, what can we expect in this pivotal speech? for that we bring in the co-host of "america's newsroom" and co-host of "the five" dana perino. >> hi.

>> jesse: dana perino tomorrow night is going to be humongous. everyone is going to be watching what do you anticipate him doing with ukraine crisis and how does he insert that into the state of the union which was already a high wire for this guy? >> well, i missed you today on "the five" i'm glad i get to be on your great show informative tonight. here's the thing. president biden got news today that the abc poll has him at 37% approval. that is what he is looking at. so it's not just that americans have an opinion about him but they have formed a judgment as you say it was a very high bar for him to clear anyway. i expect that you will see some grace notes, some attempts at unity and he will be able to introduce, again, to america his supreme court nominee kentanji brown jackson who had a pretty good rollout the other day. that said, just imagine you and your sister, jesse played monopoly on the weekend. all the pieces on the board and everything is going well and

neighbor kid comes over and kicks the board over. that's basically what vladimir putin did to the state of the union speech. these speeches usually take several months to put together because you are talking about one, you want to say what are my accomplishments and two where are we going? i think on those two fronts it's very difficult. there are in my opinion three elephants in the room. one is inflation and that leads to energy policy and we have seen what it is like to have a european nation have to deal with the fact that their energy policy has made them so weak in the eyes of vladimir putin that now they are having to take drastic action, historic action to try to right that wrong. biden is going to have to deal with the fact that people are paying so much more at the pump and at the grocery store and for everything else. that's number one. number two, i mentioned accomplishment. aside from the infrastructure bill, i don't know what else he can talk about where people are rise up. can't really talk about hear that phrase tomorrow night. the third thing is jesse about "the five" i said the

administration should not wait until the state of the union address to announce that these mask mandates are over. they did wait. those have been announced over the last couple of days and all these blue states and now by the federal government and it is so nakedly transparent that it was political. that it wasn't backed by science and, believe me, i don't think the covid moms of 2022 are going to forget it. >> jesse: if only he had listened to dana perino. >> dana: don't we say that every day? >> jesse: telling him to watch "the five." thank you see you tomorrow. >> dana: bye-bye. >> jesse: go back to the big board with "special report" anchor bret baier. >> bret: hey, jesse. there is a lot of activity happening over the last 24 hours in ukraine. you can see all these cities. that's where there has been some activity. we are seeing the ukrainian army defense forces push back significantly. you know, they are facing this armored column t-90 tanks as a part of that also, the russians have these surface to air missile systems. one of these was actually taken

out today in the city of vonkiv just northeast of kyiv. and ukrainian defense forces take this thing out. it's one of the reasons why you are seeing despite the fact that ukraine has pretty small numbers in comparison to the russian forces they are taking out some of these armored columns. you just heard from trey about this long armored column that the russians have. it's past the gostomel air base here and goes about 40 will miles. office of the president from downtown. can you imagine this column is continuing. but they are going in to small choke points to get into the center of kyiv. and they are being taken out by both javelins and other arms that the ukrainians have. the javelins are flowing in from the u.s. and the estonia and

latvia, and taking out armored personnel carriers and tanks. so the ukrainians are showing a big effort to take out the way that these armored columns are moving; however, just the shear numbers, jesse, eventually, it's going to be tough for them to hold on. >> jesse: if we had just given them a little more of those javelins they might have been able to light up that von i have a little harder. have you heard anything about the ukrainian air force because if you are looking at a 40-mile long armored convoy, heading into your capital, scramble some jets. >> bret: right. it's sitting targets. this long convoy of armored vehicles. there are still planes flying. making 29s the ukrainians fly and they are still dropping bombs and engaging russian forces. the most amazing thing is that russia does not have control of the airspace. they don't have control that's part of the problem. also having resupply issues with

some of those troops. >> jesse: i'm wondering why the russian superiority isn't superior. i don't know if you heard my last guest, he said they didn't even neutralize any of the ukrainian surface to air missile system before they went over the border belarus to kyiv. they left them out there and they got engaged pretty heavily. a lot of mistakes made by this russian war machine. bret baier, thanks so much for drawing our attention to all of that with the map. we appreciate it. >> bret: sure. >> jesse: ukrainian families and children among the thousands of innocent civilians caught in the middle of this war zone. my next guest is a high school student in ukraine who has witnessed the attacks and explosions firsthand. joins me live from ukraine.

where are you and oh my gosh what are you doing to keep yourself safe? >> hello, i live in explosions our basement our military bases. and of course remind you like a nightmare but unfortunately it's our reality. reality for ukrainians and that's it. >> jesse: if had you an opportunity now as you do to say something to vladimir putin, what would it be? >> i would say that ukraine is not russia. ukraine has its own culture, its own history, it's own nature. i want to say that the war

should be stopped. of course it's very painful people are dying here it and very painful for me and for my family and my friends. so, i hope that everything will be okay that's it. >> jesse: we are hearing reports of people handing out rifles and pistols to citizens there. have you been handed a weapon and if you were handed one, would you take it? >> for example my friends would take it, of course i am not a [inaudible] i would say it's very stressful. >> jesse: all right. thank you so much. stay safe and i hope you and your family have a very safe rest of the week. it's going to get ugly we're hearing. we love you and our hearts go out to you.

>> thank you very much. goodbye. >> jesse: quickly check back in with trey yingst any news with 40-mile convoy headed your way, trey? >> yeah, we are learning more about this convoy of trucks and it's significant because it shows that the russian forces are indeed looking to have enough manpower to circle this city and basically cut it off from the rest of the country. if they are able to do that and they are able to basically stopping any of the military forces in the east drop back to help the capital it will create problems from the ukrainian military as they get hit from the ground and the air. part of the reason you saw volod zelenskyy don't once again call for a no-fly zone to be created over ukraine and also why you have the ukrainian president pleading with the international community this entire week to send more antitank missiles. more anti-craft batteries and

fighter jets to help with this effort to push back the russian forces as they enter this country and these new satellite images indicating a 40-mile long convoy headed toward the ukrainian capital. jesse? >> jesse: thank you so much, trey. putin is on a ruthless quest to take back the russian empire and keep flight toe from expanding to its border. but, we didn't arrive at this point overnight. for decades, we have seen conflict between the west and russia with ukraine at the center of it. and while putin may have started this fight, it's never that simple. in an article titled "ukraine's deadly gamble." my next guest says it was americans that put ukrainians in harm's way by using their country as a weapon first against russia and then against each other. author and columnist for tablet magazine lee smith joins me now. we all heard about the obama coup in ukraine that pushed out

that pro-russian president there that seemed to be the beginning of this era in ukraine, american, russia relations. how did that start things off and where are we now? >> yeah, that's right, jesse. i mean, it was a coup in 2013, 2014, the idea was that the obama administration the american national security establishment and the europeans would be able to poke at putin and get away with it on the cheap, right? so what happened was interest was a coup. the president went into exile. the state department now back in the biden administration like victoria nuland helped assemble a new ukrainian government pro-u.s. and anti-russia. the problem is this that russia is extremely powerful neighbor of ukraine's. a buffer state in between two other more powerful entities is

to cultivate and maintain positive relations. you do not want to be used as an instrument against the powerful neighbor. so that's, i'm not making a pro-vladimir putin argument. what i am saying though is the u.s. national security establishment has sent out a client state an ally out against a very dangerous adversary and that's what we're looking at right now. this continued push against putin on his own borders this is in large part what has led us lehr to this moment. >> jesse: saying that as a buffer state, you know, ukraine is in between russia, petty powerful and the europeans, also pretty powerful and you want to keep good relations with both of these powerful neighbors who you are squeezed right in the middle of. again, we had the ukraine people involved in the 2016 election and the 2020 election how did

that play into. this the big take away from russia gate is what i have been saying for five years. i have been covering that story since we first started it to understand what was happening. as i said from the beginning this is not simply a political scandal. no matter what you think about donald trump, we are watching a national security disaster unfold and that's what we have right now. look at what has happened. we have the national security adviser to the president of the united states who was on the hillary clinton campaign and was pushing russia gate about vladimir putin we have russia analyst liked former obama ambassador michael mcfaul talking about putin's intentions. this man was talking about how putin controlled donald trump for five years. jesse where we are right now is u.s. national security establishment is flying blind because they made up stories

about vladimir putin. they made up stories about donald trump i have been saying for five years it would lead to this point. the idea that our officials in the biden administration, many of them who ran russia gate including president joe biden who was involved, the idea that they are actually able to understand what putin is doing is nonsense. >> jesse: if you read history, you understand what it was, you know, the russians have been invaded by, i don't know, the turks, the germans twice, napoleon, pretty much everybody so, and it's a dying empire. so they are just trying to create some buffers, reestablish the empire as their we have a 40-mile long convoy coming straight to the heart of

the capital. the intentions are know good. they have the city surrounded probably within the next 48 hours. they are asking for help. there is only so much we can do at this point. we will pray. tucker carlson is up next. i am watters and this is my world. >> ♪ ♪ >> tucker: welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." happy monday. no sane american approves of what russian has done in ukraine. we don't. on twitter you see democrats pretendinging their political opponents support this invasion. joe biden and his staff so mismanaged the world that