you see, a heart-warming standing ovation. senator lujan it's great to see you back up on capitol hill. tomorrow on "special report," we will talk live with the president of finland following his meeting with president biden. world leaders coming to "special report." thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this show, fair, balanced and still unafraid. "jesse watters primetime" is right now. hey, jesse. >> jesse: hey, bret. thank you. ♪ >> jesse: we start tonight with a fox news alert. two major stories unfolding right now in ukraine. reports of a fire at the country's largest nuclear plant. where fighting has been taking place for hours. and news that could be a major blow against the russians. the a.p. reporting that a top russian general has been killed. national security correspondent jennifer griffin following the story of that general joins us live from the pentagon. >> hi, jesse a top russian general as you mentioned major

general andre sukovets scmplet i. one of russia's elite special forces group was killed in ukraine earlier this week according to a.p. he was reportedly killed by ukrainian sniper. president putin confirmed that a russian general had been killed in a speech to the russian people today on the progress in ukraine. he told french president emanuel macron on a phone call today that russia would achieve its goals no matter. what the killing of such a high ranking russian general during fighting in ukraine will be a bitter blow for putin and a morale blow to russian troops. the general was a respected paratrooper and had been decorated for his role in the annexation of crimea. his death was confirmed by a local officer's organization in the cause that darr region in southern russia. sergei, a deputy of the combat brotherhood russian veterans group wrote on social media,

quote with great pain we learned the tragic news of the death of our friend general andre sukovetsky. we express our deepest condolences to his family. he took part in russia's military two orders of courage from the kremlin. he was also a deputy commander of russia's 41st combined arms army by far the most senior russian figure to have died in the conflict, a big blow to the russian military. which took the unusual step ever announcing today that 498 russian troops have been killed in ukraine. 1597 wounded. ukraine says the number is likely 10 times that. there is no way to know exact numbers. jesse? >> jesse: thanks so much, jen. and we are going to be keeping our eye on this fire at the nuke plant we will bring you the latest on that not just

difficult being besieged by russian forces. all across southern ukraine in on the major's major cities. kherson where the population of 300,000 people has become the first ukrainian city to fall into russia's hands. their mayor is claiming hundreds of brave residents have been killed with many of their bodies unrecognizable because of putin's barbaric weapon. and unfortunately kherson is not alone. about 250 miles east, the critical port city of mariupol has been engulfed by russian forces. invading troops have the city surrounded by both land and sea. and a raining explosives down on the innocent people trapped inside. the city's deputy mayor detailed the horrors. >> style of war to serious injuries. we have continuous shelling for 26 hours. 26 hours they are destroying our

city. so from all the weapons from artillery from airplane and from rockets, from multiple launch rocket systems situation is bad. >> jesse: they will connect crimea directly to their forces russia proper and the break away east. this land bridge allows them to move troops and weapons across the entire southern half of the country. without interference. this isolates and traps ukrainian forces. and chokes off ukrainian supply lines. russia's immediate goal is to continue their march to the west with their eyes set on two additional port cities. mykolaiv. odesa being the crown jewel key port. if they fall, ukraine will be completely cut off from supplies and support coming up from the

black sea. land locking ukraine's forces. while odesa could also be used as the launching points of any invasion of ukraine's neighbor moldova directly borders a nato member, romania where forces are stationed right now. the heroic people of ukraine refuse to give in to russia's aggression. but this is going to be a long and drawn out battle, russia has no plans to stop this ferocious assault any time soon. and is spewing propaganda, brainwashing its own people. >> i will never forget my conviction that the russians and the ukrainians are a single people even though ukraine are intimidated and many of them are with the nationalist propaganda and we are fighting for nazis. the detach. it's which include foreign

fighters including from the middle east use people as a human shield. >> bret: while russia commits war crimes putin blames ukraine. he also keeps repeating that ukraine is under nazi control. russia's foreign minister was challenged by abc over this. listen. >> president zelenskyy the first jewish president of ukraine whose families were killed in the holocaust is a nazi? >> i there the neo nazis manipulate it's hard to account how president zelenskyy can preside in a society -- over society when neo nazis [inaudible] >> jesse: obviously that's preposterous. on the sidelines of this real war there is an information war going on and it's wild. depending on what country you live, in some people have no idea what to believe. sources are now even telling fox

news that russia's federal security service has drafted plans to conduct public cushions in ukrainian cities once they have been captured. putin's unpredictable and capable of anything at this point. he has threatened nuclear war. he staged coups, bombed civilians, poisoned political enemies. conspiring with china and has launched multiple and issues ground invasions, this is what the people of ukraine are up against. putin is digging in for the long haul here. even insisting his invasion is going according to plan. french president spoke with vlad putin today by phone and the russian leader told macron it's going to get a lot worse from here. and that he is going to take the entire country of ukraine. so what's next? here now h.r. mcmaster, former national security adviser,

hoover institute fellow and author of "battleground, the fight to defend the world." all right. so, general, we had petraeus on last night. and he said it's a race against the clock. he said the sanctions are so devastating that the economy in russia could collapse and that could bring a halt to russia's war machine. do you see that in the same way or do you think putin has a little bit longer to go here? >> well, sadly, i think he has ally with the longer to go, jesse. and, you know, of course he is running out of options. right? he thought this was going to be easy. he thought he could do it in a few days. he thought the ukrainians believed his own propaganda and disinformation, which you just covered so well. and so what's he left with? he is left with -- this follows kind of the playbook of the russians. i mean they have enabled serial episodes of mass homicide in the syrian civil war.

and if you think back to chechnya, the chechnya interventions in the 1990s, putin presided over the last one in 1999 where they essentially dealt with chechnyaen rebels by leveling the city. i mean, there is tough times ahead for the ukrainian people. all the support we can give them but i don't think, you know, i don't think russia is going to be able to accomplish its objectives but certainically inflict a heck of a lot more pain and suffering manned make what is already a humanitarian crisis much worse. >> jesse: you said he can't accomplish his objective. let's just take the first objective which is securing full and total control over ukraine. do you think vlad can control and submit ukraine or at least control the cities? >> jesse, there is no way. especially with the amount of force he has there. you know, it sounds like a lot of force, right, when you talk about 160, 170, 180,000 troops. you have to divide across these

multi-3e8 axes that this offense is being conducted along, and then you have to realize only about one third of that number of troops are close combat troops. and they are facing very determined resistance with ukrainians who have some pretty significant close combat capabilities. what they don't have and what have you covered here is they don't have control of the air, right? and that hurts they can't really contest the air very well. and they are losing control of the sea lanes and the sea ports. and so what you have is really the ability of russia to slowly choke ukraine out but they won't be able to control the territory and control the ukrainians. and i don't think they are going to be able to sustain the losses that will be inflicted upon them over time. >> jesse: so if they lose control of the dnieper river, they lose the port cities and they are kind of choked off from resupply lines, is there any way we can load them up with these drones because i think the turkish drones were lighting up some of these convoys earlier but i haven't seen them light up any convoys the last couple

days. is there anything we can do in that regard? >> well, this is where the russians are very vulnerable, flight you saw all of the satellite imagery of these columns. they lined up on these roads. lined up because they ran out of logistics. ran out of fuel. a lot of vehicles broke down. and they can't get off road. the ground is thawing. he helped out xi jinping by delaying the offensive until after the olympics now he can't maneuver across country very well. if they have long -- more long range fires capabilities generally, including drones and artillery and could lose that artillery without really the chance of almost immediately counter fire by the russians, i think that these forces are in a very vulnerable position. and to concentrate to be able to conduct an offensive, you know, into some of these defendant urban areas i don't see how they combat power to do it effectively. of course it's going to be extremely hard to see in kyiv

what we have already seen in kharkiv and the east where russians bumped up on the its desvictim that the use of fire and the murder of civilians to try to it civilians i'm afraid we will see more of that across the country. >> jesse: i think you are right, it's going to be really, really sickening to watch. watch that unfold on television and not do anything about it. that's going to be a tough call for the to make. h.r. mcmaster, thank you so much for joining "primetime." >> thank you, jesse. >> jesse: so how do we beat the russians without triggering world war iii? that strategy is next.

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will. >> jesse: russia continues bombard neighborhoods as ukrainian refugees have now fled the country. let's go to the big board now with "special report" bret baier. >> bret: in the past few minutes crossing the wire. the nuclear power plant, one of the biggest in europe, the biggest in ukraine zapeoizhzhia is saying they are coming under shelling nuclear plant that is a big, big deal. forces surrounding mariupol here and you heard from the deputy mayor in your broadcast. they have taken over the iaea the director general said the situation was critical and called on the russian military to stop attacking a nuclear power plant. now, we saw there concern with

chernobyl up in the north and west but this is really tough situation. i will go closer here if i can to this area. this is exactly where the power plant is right here. and you know, the possibility for a lot of negative things happening was shelling of a nuclear power plant. this area along the coast and odesa is the next, we think goal for the russian forces. they are surrounding mariupol and trying to control as you mentioned earlier this southern portion. as you go around the country up towards kyiv, we have had the bomb bartment here in the city itself. we have heard from our guys that convoy we continue to talk about right here not moving some of

them taken out from drones and ukrainian air efforts. it just has not moved. this convoy and it's coming close, it's about 15, 20 miles outside the centered of kyiv. but the thought is that the eventually they will resupply and try to circle each one of these big cities and then continue to bombard if it goes as the playbook in past russian severity gone in grozny and syria and other places. jesse. >> as i said "special report" later in the show. go down. stay with "primetime." thank you. >> jesse: russia's chokehold on ukraine's largest cities is getting tighter. also seized a key port city kherson. zelenskyy is pleading for more help from nato.

pleading. countries across the world have been sending in military aid but some of the damage is already done. >> you spoke this week with president biden. how would you describe your is, of course,s with the u.s. leader and do you believe the americans waited too long to give ukraine the support you need to push back this russian offensive? >> we have good contact. i can tell the truth and it began after the beginning of this war but we have it my appreciation to him and his. >> jesse: it is a pity. biden had intel for months showing russians amassing at ukraine's borders. why did he wait so long to speed up the javelins and the stinger missiles and the arms and ammo. a lot of these vital supplies are still in transit. and there is no time for the delay. one day could make all the difference. ukrainians are rationing their resources because they don't

know whether that's munitions are going to arrive. one key to ukraine's military success will be in the sky though. we won't set up a no-fly zone over ukraine because that would meannato having to shoot down russian aircraft. but zelenskyy is begging us. >> how many more people have to die? if you don't have the strength and courage to clothes sky, then give me the planes. if we fall, god forbid, next will be latvia, lithuania, estonia. >> jesse: some military officials say the best warplane for ukraine is the a-10. these american thunder bolt fighter jets were critical in the gulf war operation dessert storm and would be perfect for the european theater. in fact, many are already stationed there in europe. nato has already said no to sending in fighter jets, worried

doing so lead us into world war iii. how do we walk this fine line while still helping save ukraine? joining me now the marathon initiative co-founder and former deputy assistant defense secretary elbridge colby. a-10s i'm hearing is the way to go elbridge and they have got to get them there and get them there fast. because that convoy is sitting there and kyiv is close to being besieged. >> hey, jesse. great to be with you. i think the a-10s are a good idea. i also wonder under estimate the anti-tank, antiair missiles. other forms of logistics and supplies, ammunition. i mean, in this kind of capacity, where the russians do have a bigger air force and army, a lot of it is just going to be shredding the russian forces as they come through. that's helping the people of ukraine continue to courageously fight for their independence. but it also helps us. and i think we should push forward. as you said, we have already lost too much time over the last year or more. and even days that go by or

hours that go by are precious in this kind of context. we can't afford it lose any more time. >> jesse: biden hesitate stated and now people are dying shoulde started in earlier. assault rifles. apgs, the west has stockpiles of these kind of things. they have got them in germany. we have them in poland. we have them in romania. anything counts at this point. i mean, not only that don't you think we could be doing something in terms of cyber that maybe we don't have our fingerprints in on it. do you think the president of the united states is demanding options for these types of covert and overt strategies. >> well, i think he should be pressing hard to make sure the ukrainians get whatever we can give them in this -- the vein that you are talking about any of those kind of munitions or capabilities. look, frankly, people are worried about escalation. but we can't be spooked at our

own shadow. they do have nuclear forces. look, a lot of us watching this show i'm sure as well had families that served in vietnam and korea. those are soviet made ak-47s. those were soviet-made sam's. those were soviet made pgs they did it to us. that was a while ago. that's a precedent. we don't know how these situations go. we should put forward. this is legitimate they have done it to us. i know we can turn the coin around. >> jesse: they send weaponry to north korea. they send it to the iranians. i mean, hell, they give advanced weaponry to the your honorrens and iranians are blowing up american gis in iraq. they did that for awhile. the gloves are off. you have to finesse it. i'm not saying set up a no-fly zone and go in boots on the ground. just finesse it. we know what we're doing here. >> don't give them an opening americans fault but make as it hard as possible. we don't have to be scared of our own shadow here.

>> jesse: right. what do you think is the one thing that the ukrainians need more than anything else. is it the javelins? is it the anti-tank missiles? is that what it is and how many have we given them so far and i'm sure we have more on the way. how much more of them do you think we have? hard to know the stingers anti-tank in the air. antiair system. bang for your buck. because that's the source of russian dominance is going to be the air and those armored vehicles. and if the ukrainians can chew those up, you know, running around even single other oa couple of guys, that's a big problem for the russians chairman mcmaster was pointing out. i think that's the highest impact. look we are not the only ones, europeans even the germans and swedes, let's all get in this channel it in the smart way that you point out. turn on the spigot. >> jesse: turn it on and have a to go guerrilla pretty soon.

send them night vision goggles and some vests. that's what they need. thank you so much, elbridge. >> thank you. >> jesse: when we come back, a major story unfolding, fire at the nuclear power plant in ukraine where fighting has been taking place all day long. ♪ i'm alphonso, and there's more to me than hiv. there's my career,... my cause,... my choir. i'm a work in progress. so much goes into who i am. hiv medicine is one part of it. dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. with just 2 medicines in 1 pill,... dovato is as effective as a 3-drug regimen to help you... reach and stay undetectable. research shows people who take hiv treatment as prescribed... and get to and stay undetectable... can no longer transmit hiv through sex. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients... or if you take dofetilide. taking dovato with...

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>> jesse: fire breaking out at ukraine's largest nuclear plant. this is about 200 miles north of crimea. fighting has been taking place there all day. you can see the tracer bullets shooting across the sky. but in the last few minutes, witnesses reported that the russian military started dropping bombs on the building's power unit. and then they started to hear explosions. joining me now retired four star general and fox news senior strategic analyst jack keane.

general, it seems really risky to be shelling a nuclear power plant, what is the objective here? >> yeah. it's absolutely insanity when it comes down to it, jesse. i mean, their intent, likely, is they want to take these nuclear power plants so they can shut the power off in the major cities and the rural areas. 15 nuclear power plants in ukraine at four different sites. but the conduct combat operations in and around nuclear power plants with the obvious safety issues that took place, which were not only hurt and harm the ukrainian people but it would hurt and harm the russians. it doesn't make any sense. certainly shutting the power down is something we expected to take place in these cities a number of days ago. and using cyber warfare to do that, which would obviously a lot cleaner than conducting combat operations in and around nuclear power plants.

insanity. >> jesse: maybe they're those guys in high school. they just act so crazy, you don't even want to come near them. you know what i mean? that's how crazy they are acting. tell me about the russian strategy, it stalled in the north. you know, they are making progress in the south, they are creating that land bridge, but to me it doesn't seem like they have as many soldiers as they need. are they going to start throwing reinforcements at this thing soon? >> >> absolutely, it's already happening. the campaign in the south is largely succeeding finally. it took a while to get going properly. but they are going to control and cut off the ukrainians from the black sea and the sea of they will own all the parts. they have a eastern ukraine. that is one of their major objectives. those troops there are from the southern military district. they are better trained than the troops from the north.

and they have been operating together for a number of years as regiments and as divisions. their bases aren't that far away. but that operation i think will succeed and meet their objectives. the operation in the north is failing. the troops that they brought in that they are use not guilty northern sector are a hodgepodge of units that went all the way to the siberia. they don't train together. they don't operate in large units together. and we're seeing the results of some of thatlights the ukrainian resistance are obviously crucial here and stalling what has taken place. two encirclements around kyiv have failed. they opened up a third one today, they stalled that one and shut it down. there has been two encirclements around their kyiv that was khar. pump ming it with aerial tact weapons. they have begun to call up

reinforcement. you put your finger on exactly what they need. they're calling up reinforcements. listen to this, jesse, from a far away fast east of russia. takes almost a week by train according to the people that know more about this than i do. but it gives you a sense now they -- another thing to watch here, jesse. they have only brought up a limited amount of reserves and they are in belarus, some of them may have moved. in we initially thought that would probably be used as an occupation force. but putin, we got to understand putin will pull out all the stops, i mean, all the stops to take this down. he is not going to tolerate the ukrainians preventing him from occupying these major cities. he will use whatever resources he has to accomplish that so, look for and see if there is going to be a much larger

reserve call up or even general mobilization. >> jesse: wow. >> we don't have any evidence of yet. yet. but given the situation in the north and the fact that they are still failing there, despite the increase in forces, they have committed to it tells me got do something else there it's not going to work unless they put more forces into this thing. >> jesse: unbelievable they might call up the entire country full moneyization. probably the last time that happened was, when, world war ii that is nuts. >> we don't have any evidence of that. but, look, it's got to be an option that he is considering, jesse. because of the failure that they are experiencing. >> jesse: absolutely. with the way things are going right now. he is running out of time thank you so much general jack keane. >> good talking to you, jesse. >> jesse: lucas tomlinson joins me now with new reporting on that fire we just talked about at the nuclear power plant. what do you have?

>> well, jesse, that's not just the largest power plant in ukraine. it's the largest in europe. top 10 largest in the world. so these reports are fire there are very serious. you just heard from general keane about in this is clearly an attempt by the russian forces to plans shut down power watching imagery right now. doesn't look like we see flames -- we are seeing flames right now my colleague is telling me there are flames at the reactor. going back to what the general said about those troops in the far east, jesse. russia is 11 time zones. those forces coming from the far east sea of japan. 11 time jones, speaking of that convoy that's been stuck in the mud and having some logistical issues it shows personified the issues that have been plaguing

the russian military from the start. as the general mentioned. vladimir putin is certainly doubling, you tripling down calling up reserves. what i'm hearing from sources on the ground is that the food is terrible, many of these food items are expired and what is happening. those russian soldiers are lewding grocery stores. i have spoken to locals who have family members who russian troops have gone to their house, jesse, to take everything off the shelves. >> jesse: we are also hearing some reports a former army engineer and contractor said it looks like all the tires were blown out. and a lot of these vehicles because they weren't maintenanced garbage stalled out and can't move and there is no tire resources that they can just call in and switch them out. they are cooked. so that could explain why they have been just dead in the mud for almost a week.

lucas tomlinson, thank you so much for that reporting. we appreciate it. thanks to the war in ukraine, the price of oil is skyrocketing. we are about to hit $120 a barrel. and people are already feeling a lot of pain at the pump. i'm putting in a lot of money for gas alone. for this to be going up the way it is going up, it is ooof, it hurts. it hurts a lot. >> jesse: it's about to start hurting a lot more. we are already being warned that gas prices could climb, you ready, towards $5 a gallon. russian oil is the only thing that is financing their war. america should ban russian crude imports and increase american oil and gas production and exploration here at home. democrats seem to be on board with half that plan. here is nancy pelosi earlier today. >> push by some democrats to ban

the import of russian oil. where do you stand. >> i'm all for it ban it. >> ban the oil. >> boy the oil coming from russia, yeah. >> jesse: joe biden is sitting on his hands and he won't put a ban in place. jen psaki is here to explain why. >> we don't have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy. and that would raise prices at the gas pump for the american people around the world. because it would reduce the supply available and as simple as less supply raises prices. >> jesse: jen doesn't understand supply and demand. sanctions have already taken a ton of russian oil off the marketed. those companies can't legally buy it. and the ones that can, don't want to. doing business with russia is toxic. so why doesn't america increase the supply of oil and gas to make up for the short supply. more supplies, lowers the price.

remember, jen, we okayed the keystone pipeline, we would be producing more oil a day from rickenbacker. hit putin in his war chest. simple. but mayor pete is worried this might disrupt his long-term. >> the president has said that all options are on the table. but we also need to make sure that we're not galloping after permanent solutions to immediate short-term problems where more strategic and tactical actions in the short-term can make a difference. >> jesse: do you even understand whether a that said. do you even understand what he just said right there? that's that ken zi consulting mumbo jumbo. instead of a permanent solution that lowers prices for americans, creates american jobs and hurts the russian war machine saving lives? the biden administration wants short-term solutions.

solutions that mayor pete or joe biden have never even described so far. that's where we are. here now senior fellow of the hoover institution victor davis hanson. did you even understand what mayor pete even said? >> yeah, i did. i think he is saying that he called thousands of lives that are being lost in ukraine a short-term problem and a security of europe itself and our nato allies a short-term problem it's not going to get in the way of ideology of green energy that's going to replace carbon fossil fuels as quickly as possible. really strange, jesse. we complain and i have been guilty of it captain of the green party. you go back and look at februarh schultz the chancellor. that was all the energy we can

we are going to import it and raise our defense budget and our president is more captive of the squad and the green new deal and the greens buttigieg and crazy people than the germans are the green party. we have to accept that the other thing is, jesse, we never appreciate how a moral these people are. they have these ideologies that they are never subject to the consequences of themselves and they don't really care about -- they care about humanity but they don't care about humans and the here and now, the everyday guy who has to fill his tractor or truck up or keep warm at night or the ukrainians that are freezing to death because this petro gorge machine is killing them. they don't really care about that. i we have got to really talk about the more rattle of this and very different terms than we have. and if we don't, these people -- i mean, they are crazy. they are crazy here in this country. we have the ability, if we wanted to, if we get -- he should have a zoom conference or

go down to texas in the dakotas and the gulf and say we can do 16, you know, 16 million barrels a day. let's get going. this is a world war ii war production challenge we can do it. that way we can flood the world with oil and lower the price and stop putin's income and cut him off. and help us in the process. i don't know why they are not doing that other than they are slave to an ideology that is abjectly immoral. >> jesse: it is immoral. they talk about the world ending in 10, 13 years. the world is ending now if you are ukrainian. it's ending that people are dying now. and they are worried about what the weather is going to be like in a few decades? it's siminess. y silliness. >> it is. they had a conference with the russians. we knew when the price of barrel of oil was about $90 or 80 in november and october and we knew

this was coming and this is the energy book end to not supplying the ukrainians with thousands stingers andafter lynns which we should have been doing in november and we should have been pumping up and ratcheting up. not hard to predict what was going to happen. joe biden and ukrainians are saying you are scaring us. he kept saying we're coming, we're coming. if he believed that why didn't he flood the world with weapons and energy. now it's now it's sort of we don't have to do anything because it wouldn't do any good because it's a long-term project. but, you know, the chechen war lasted 8 months. 8 months. it took them two months to flatten grozny. they killed 20,000 people. but they held out for two months. we could do things right now that might even if they take weeks, they might kick n a month. but, you know, sit on your hands and say, you know what? steven choose the vision of european priced oil united

states 8 or $9 a gas is what we really want. i think that's what it is. what we see is a crisis and a complete human catastrophe they say well, we have to break a few eggs to make an omelet and you know what? if this is what it takes, it will remind people that fossil fuels are just too expensive and now green energy is competitive. and that's how they think. i think people don't realize just how bankrupt these people are. >> jesse: yeah. it makes them complicit in what's going on right now. >> it does. >> jesse: if you think about it. >> perfect active. >> jesse: thank you very much vdh for enlightening us as always. >> thank you. >> the russian oil war may lead us toward an energy crisis. the likes of which we have not seen since the 1970s. it's not just embargoes hurting russian oil companies private businesses aren't buying russian oil because the banks won't do the deals because of the sanctions. plus it's just bad for their reputations to do business with

countries that are run by war criminals. jp morgan estimates that 66% of russian oil can't find buyers. and that crude prices could reach, are you ready? $185 a barrel. by the end of the year. if russian oil remains disrupted like this. this could be the worse crisis since the arab oil embargo. remember the iranian revolution in the late 170s? remember how bad it was then. the gas prices soared and people waited in line for hours? just to fill up the tank. i don't remember but my dad does. well will those days be back? let's ask michael shellenberger, president of environmental progress and author of "apocalypse never" mike, is this coming and a lot of people' are saying and wall street this could be coming. >> yeah, thanks for having me on, jesse, you just described it really well which is that the dilemma. for policymakers is do you buy

russian oil and finance their war in the ukraine or do you not buy it and then see a pretty sharp increase in oil prices? i mean it could go up to $200 a barrel. if that happens, then there is very significant risk of recession. we could be seeing energy, electricity and food shortages before the end of the year. that is very bad situation. that's why policymakers like biden are reluctant to do that. it's like we may see biden impose restrictions on u.s. oil exports. but then that would strengthen the hand of putin use oil and gas to basically bribe countries to let him have his way. so the underlying problem when you said we haven't had enough supply. we should have been producing much more oil and gas over the last five years. i and others over the last week have been pointing out the fact that it was the secretary general of nato himself who pointed out that russia was financing anti-gas fracking activist groups in europe which

had basically prevented europe from developing its own natural gas 15 years ago europe produced more natural gas than russia. today russia produces three times more natural gas than europe consumes. so it's really been a product of this pro-squares city, pro-renewables, antinatural gas, antinuclear movement in europe that allowed putin to be able to we would the power that he is w. >> you are saying that russian money was funding disinformation and green campaigns in europe natural gas. scare them out of fracking. do you think they are fansing that type of disinformation campaign here? do you think the greens in america are taking dirty russian money to scare americans out of fracking and energy exploration in this country? >> well, there was some research into this. i have looked into it to some extent. it's hard for me to say one way or another. i haven't really seen the proof

of it. but you had both the secretary general of nato and secretary of state hillary clinton both confirming that russians were funding antinatural gas fracking activities in europe. you know, shale, which is where we get a lot of our oil and gas from the united states exist in europe, too. there is a big shell in great britain that they have not tapped for its oil and gas. you just saw an overall impression of oil and gas exploration in europe around the world due to climate activists. the consequences we are using more coal this n. this year than we did in past years and we are at the risk of a very, as you said, the worst energy crisis since 1973, strong possibility as is the risk of recession because that's what happens every time there is a big increase in oil prices. >> jesse: germans just came out today and said we are going to start burning a lot of coal. they go i don't care about the politics. i'm a green guy. i'm a green socialist. we are going to burn coal, because that's pragmatic. and right now we need action. we don't need ideology.

and if the germans think like that, why can't joe biden? i don't get it michael shellenberger, thank you so much. good stuff as always. an update >> jesse: on that breaking news unfolding at the nuclear power plant in ukraine. ukraine's foreign minister now saying if this plant blows up, it will be, quote: 10 times worse than chernobyl. ben hall is live in kyiv. ben, what are you hearing? >> jesse, very worrying news indeed. we don't have a lot of details or many details at the moment except that russian troops tried to take over the town near this power station and moved into the station itself, the station has reportedly been shelled and now fire has broken out there. we don't know exactly where in the station where this fire is. the spokesman for the plant said this. he said there is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy plant in europe. this plant accounts for a quarter of all ukraine's power

generation. as you just said the foreign minister also responding in this quite recently tweeting this: the russian army is firing from all sides upon zaporizhzhia and pp. fire has already broken out. if it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than chernobyl. russians must immediately cease the fire, allow firefighters in. and establish a security zone. but, frankly, that seems very difficult at the moment. we know that fire firefighters have tried to put the blaze out earlier and had to pull back because of shelling and at this point everyone watching incredibly closely. i would imagine the russians would like to keep this power plant operational. an accident a shell in the wrong place could easily end up in disaster. jesse? >> jesse: so, ben, if they hit a kill switch at the plant, do we know which ukrainian cities would get their lights shut out? >> i'm afraid i don't know that, jesse at this time. i wonder -- imagine it feeds into the grid and potentially it

could be any of the sectors. there have been reports of power lines also going down. and there are cities already facing power shortages. so, this would only make the whole situation worse. it's the dead of winter right now. it is freezing cold here in ukraine and power cut out from homes would just add to the humanitarian disaster that we are seeing here. >> jesse: describe to us in some detail. if you are in the middle of a war zone and some of your biggest cities are being encircled and you are getting shelled and it's freezing cold outside and then the power goes out, for long period of time, what kind of humanitarian catastrophe are we going to be looking at? >> well, first and foremost, people fleeing. people having to leave. if you don't leave, you will starve. 1.1 million people have already had to flee this country in the last 8 days alone. but the other issues that they may not be allowed to leave. vladimir putin has weaponized for some time. he has used it in the past and

frankly if is he not able to bomb into submission. is he also willing to cut off food and supplies to them. you put on top of that freezing weather no, electricity, and that leaves people in horrific conditions. you know, if you leave some of the cities here in ukraine, there is quite a lot of some of the poorer rural areas that don't have a lot of heating. they won't have a lot of insulation. this would absolutely devastate them. for some different reasons, this could be a true, a true catastrophe. greater than the one we are already seeing. >> jesse: and we are just seeing reports that one of the ukrainian ministers just spoke to one of the wire services and said that they are seeing elevated levels of radiation now. out and around that besieged nuclear power plant. that is incredible that they. benjamin hall, we are going to stay on this developing story because this could get pretty, pretty horrible, pretty, pretty quickly. thank you so much.

>> jesse: pete hegseth is over here at the maps. let's take a look at what pete has drawn up for us. pete hegseth. what have you got? >> pete: things are changing rapidly as you are talking about tonight. this is a map from yesterday, march 2nd. look at the areas controlled by the russians. just move one day forward, not a lot of movement on the maps, but the airstrikes continue. and increasingly indiscriminate. one detail that has not gotten as much coverage as it okay zelenskyy asking civilians to take up arms could be a rationalization, a twisted one, a justified one, that putin could take to target civilian areas saying you are combatants now. we are seeing that in places like mariupol and kharkiv which are encircled and being targeted tonight. that nuclear plant that you just mentioned jesse, in the south of ukraine. it is part of the encroachment, the offensive advantage that the russians have shown in the last 24 hours especially prominent in the southern part of the country. we know about all of the axes of advance. in the north, car which kyiv, in the disputed areas in the east,

and through the south. but in the south they have made advances if in ways that we haven't seen in the north. there is ha reason for that, jesse. part of the reason for that, let me clear this map and clear the scanner. part of the reason for that is that down in the south, you see that -- we're going to advance it one more time. crimea, which we know was taken by the russians 8 years ago. it got significant basing down there. they have the ability to project troops. in the north they had military exercises in belarus and elsewhere where they can't project the logistics and as someone who has been in these types of situations if you don't have the food, the fuel the logistics to move it forward, things will stall and they have stald quickly. in the south they have not. they have moved -- they are moving toward odesa, taking over kherson. the flag of ukraine still flies over kherson may give you a sense even though it's within taken over by the russians. vladimir putin may not want to occupy. may want to pacify and bypass which we have seen in kherson and then, of course, as you talked about all night the land

bridge to the additional portion in the east could give them a logistical advantage. they want, as you talked control the black sea and these bombardments of these populations likely meant to create an opportunity where they can punch through. where do they want to punch through to? they want to punch through to the ultimate prize which where there have been some developments when key showed march 2nd to march 3rd, jesse, one of the things that has changed is significant movement, just to the east of kyiv where they have -- now these forces are minimal. i don't want to overplay that they are not the large tank columns that we see stalled outside the capital and some moving out in the east, if they can move from the south this is python type of approach. we know russia has not been able to completely control the sky but they still have overwhelming combat power and capabilities. i'm hearing the same thing, general keane talked about. they are deploying troops from across russia, as far as off as the pacific.

which means they are all in on this, which is precisely what emmanuel macron said today. they are in and they are not backing off. >> jesse: do me a favor pull out wide to the map so we can see the whole country for us. i haves inned something and you have probably seen the same thing. if they come up from the east and they come up from the south and they come down from the north on the eastern section of this country, at some point the ukrainian forces are just going to get swallowed. >> pete: exactly right. >> jesse: they will be completely surrounded on all sides as they move up the river from the south to the north. they are going to be surrounded and then it's just ungodly. >> that's part of the strategy. at the beginning of the conflict, 60% of ukraine's forces were in the east fighting a war there for eight years. what percentage of those hasn't moved west to reinforce? we are not quite sure. with the russians want to do is cut it in half. >> jesse: if they cut it in half they can't flee west and

they are going to be strangled like an anaconda. >> you can also cut this off, which stops the ability to reinforce the west. >> jesse: you can see it playing out in real time. thanks so much, pete hegseth. developing situation with the nuclear power plant, radiation detected. terrible. tucker is up next. expert watching "prime time." ♪ ♪ >> tucker: this is a fox news alert. there are new reports into fox news that russian forces have broken through and then entered ukraine's largest nuclear facility. a firefight is now underway there. it is the largest in europe. sources on the ground say that facility is currently on fire. so this looks like potentially a disaster. in kyiv, ukraine, just after -- things were joining us, what you know? >> a disaster if something were to go wrong here, this could be