you make the show possible. we pray for the people of ukraine, the innocent men, women, and children. and we hope that maybe somebody that has access to putin with a conscience and a soul realize you don't want to be part of this. let not your heart be troubled. mine is. laura is next. see you tomorrow. [explosion] [speaking non-english language] >> laura: welcome to "the "the ingraham angle." ukrainians are waking up to the ninth day of russia's ongoing invasion. one major city has already fallen to russian forces in right now europe's largest nuclear power plant located in southeastern ukraine is on fire after reportedly being struck by

russian artillery. the plant has six nuclear reactors but sources are telling fox tonight there's no sign of elevated radiation levels at this point that is surrounding the site. the strike does lay bare the current state. the white house says there are no plans for president biden to speak with vladimir putin in the near future, the russian president phoned his french counterpart earlier today. emmanuel macron takeaway: russian forces won't stop until the entire country of ukraine is conquered. he warns that the worst is yet to come. are we starting out to get some sense of what that might look like? as russia makes gains in the south of ukraine including an attempt to suffocate the port city of mariupol, they have started raising towns on the outskirts of ukraine capital. the showing reducing many business including residential ones to rebel. we in kyiv where trey yingst is

standing by. it's been very hard to watch. the refugee situation unfolding, civilian casualties mounting. how dangerous right now, are people worried about this attack on the power plant given the stakes? >> yeah, laura. it's extremely dangerous right now. tonight there was a battle of a nuclear power plant in the southern part of ukraine. just north of that area you talked about the russian forces now control. this plant has six reactors. three of them were off the grid today. three of them were on the grid and they were connected to power. so it's significant because although there was no fire, we now have learned of the actual reactor the fact there was a gun battle and shelling in a nuclear facility, the largest nuclear power plant in europe, that supplies 25% of power to ukraine. it's significant and it shows how much the collateral damage

can affect a civilian population. it has the chance to unravel into something so dangerous for the people here in ukraine. it comes as ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy today is calling for talks with russian president putin. we were part of a small group of journalists invited to meet with the president here in the ukrainian capital of kyiv. he talked about a variety of issues including the desire to implement a no-fly zone over his country and also the need for more weapons. i asked him about his conversation on tuesday with u.s. president biden. he had this to say. >> you spoke this week with president biden. how would you describe your conversations with the u.s. leader? 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. it's a pity that began after the beginning of this war but we have it and my appreciation to him and to his team. >> i want you to take a look at

some of this drone video from just west of the ukrainian capital of kyiv. we are talking just miles away from where we are standing right now hit by russian shells today, missile attack still throughout this country. the russian forces are continuing their invasion, and you can see the destruction and damage to civilian areas. the russians say they are not targeting civilian areas with these images tell a different story. throughout the capital of kyiv, there are a roadblock set up every single block. forces are in the streets even today trying to do everything they can to slow what is expected to be a bloody urban offensive by russian forces in the coming days. laura. >> laura: trey, given this situation at the power plant and also the shelling your hearing on the outskirts of kyiv, any sense of the timing of when the russian forces will be making their way into the city proper? >> so we know about the russian

convoy just northwest of the city. it's currently situated about 1. the concern according to u.s. officials is that it would be used ultimately encircle the city. when they do that, it's a city of nearly 3 million people so they can't immediately move in because they are going to face some fierce resistance not only from soldiers but also civilians who have taken up arms. but it's significant because when you talk about what that's going to look like, we are talking about days away. really within the next week is the expected timeline for all of this to happen. today at that meeting in kyiv, we asked the president whether or not he felt ukrainian forces could ultimately push back the russian offensive. how much more time, they hold out? he simply said he doesn't know because there's a real understanding despite the support from the international community, if we see such a heavy bombardment from russian forces, not only from the air but also these artillery units in the ground, it could be extreme the to hold the city.

laura. >> laura: trait -- food, fuel, artillery. you need it all. you need a lot of it. this is very, very tough to watch. thank you. stay safe. >> i hope to see again. home. i hope that all of us will stay alive. i really hope that my husband comes back home. >> laura: the woman you just saw was a ukrainian youtube. like many people in kyiv, she hunkered down in a bombshell term in the city's strict curfew goes into effect. elaina joins me life from that bomb shelter. alayna, we just heard you talk about your husband. i know he's out there and i know he's prepared to fight. one was the last time you talked to him.

>> in the evening. right now it's early morning. we talked before the night. he said that he was fighting. >> laura: you are clutching your baby in your arms. i know there's so many children especially in the underground, in the metro area that's being used as an extensive bomb shelter for tens of thousands of ukrainians. basic questions about food and milk and supplies, medicines. do you have those basic necessities tonight, as you don't know how long this is going to go on? >> for today, for tomorrow we have enough. we have enough. maybe even for a week we have enough. but i don't think we have more.

>> laura: those ukrainians tonight, those ukrainians tonight who have not had the chance to reach their loved ones, their brothers or their own goals, their husbands, it's unspeakably difficult. not knowing what happens next. how hard has that been for your friends and others who've perhaps lost touch with those who remained to fight? >> i think we know what's going to happen next. somebody already told to you, yes, that they are going to arrange a massacre here. so i think we know what's going to happen. we know that we have enough food just for one week. we know that we have the water

enough for one week. that's going to happen. we know that putin will not conquer ukraine. if he conquers ukraine, he won't be able to hold it. this is why he's going to just kill the most of the population who is left who didn't run away. this is how he's going to hold ukraine. he is going to make here a genocide, a massacre. we know what's going to happen. >> laura: did you try to leave ukraine? did you make a decision that you were not going to? >> i had enough fuel. we had a car. with fuel and everything but we decided to stay because if we run away from our home, you will not come inside of us and protect our home, right? first of all, our responsibility to protect our home.

if i left and left all these people behind me here in the city, all these women, children and men because for me, the life of men and women is equally important. i feel pity for everyone. women and men. if i left all of them here and did not everything possible to save them, i just wouldn't be able to live with it anywhere. in the u.s., in france. it's good to travel for vacation. but not just run away and know that you left behind your people to die. i wouldn't survive with it. i wouldn't want my children to live with it. i stay i do whatever it takes. i still hope that we will be saved. that we will win. we need help. we really need urgent help.

no fly zone. something like this. if you guys are afraid to make putin angry and provoke him, you see ukrainians were not provoking anyone. he just attacked. >> laura: do you think this situation was needlessly provoked, that putin was provoked by desire for nato expansion? or some type of failed leadership along the line? >> no. this is what i'm saying. we were not provoking putin. it was not provoked. it was just -- he just doesn't want ukraine to be an independent country. he doesn't believe ukrainian nation exists. he clearly said. if we say okay we are not ukrainians, will be russians,

only in this. he is not provoked. it's not a conversation. it's not a negotiation. it's just, i want you to obey. i want you to be under my control. and if you are not under my control, i will kill you. >> laura: you know, we are all praying for you and we are praying for the ukrainian people and your children. >> thank you. prayers are not enough but thank you. >> laura: you need supplies and you need ammunition. thank you. we're going to have more. >> if i have ammunition. it would be great to have a no-fly zone. and a gun in my hand. thank you. >> laura: thank you. we're going to take a look now

at what our own leaders are up to because there's a lot happening on the homefront that is affecting what's happening overseas. so we are going to get all of that. that means "the angle." pretend warriors, that's the focus of tonight's angle. >> tonight i say to the russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who built billions of dollars off this violent regime, no more. >> leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those whose criminal acts enabled the russian government to continue its unjust war. speaker you're going to see irs agents, department of homeland security, fbi, the marshall service pooling our efforts to ram this task force. >> laura: as you see things quickly spiral in ukraine, the biden administration wants you to believe they are engaged in taking strong action to pressure putin by creating a doj task force with a really cool

name. by the way, complete with sophisticated asset tracking and lots of sexy video. >> welcome to televisions on challenge authority on wealth, prestige, and success. >> the biggest yachts in the maldives reportedly are russian owned. >> in france, authorities have seized a yacht. >> they have seized two russian yachts. owned by a ceo. and also in germany a yacht seized. >> laura: of course these moves are about as effective as cloth masks on a cross-country flight. we just got finished with covid response theater. now they are starting up with ukraine response theater. these are all choreographed moves to make it appear as though the government is working hard to keep you safe and the

people of ukraine safe but it's all your rooms for masking a hidden agenda. a few points to keep in mind. first, the freezing of assets is nothing new. the department of justice has always had the power to deny international criminals and fraudsters access to their own wealth, including any ill begotten gains. when not abused by out-of-control prosecutors, asset forfeiture laws are powerful tools against crime and corruption. but as we side with ukrainian people against russia's barbaric, hideous invasion, should we expect our own government to act under established and fair legal criteria? >> how is the white house choosing which oligarchs distinction? do you start with the richest ones or the ones with the closest ties to vladimir putin? >> one of the big factors was the proximity to president putin. we want him to feel the squeeze. we want the people around him to feel the squeeze. i don't believe it's going to be

the last set of oligarchs making them a priority and focus of our individual sanctions is something the president has been focused on. >> laura: now, is the governing legal standard, the feel the squeeze standard? i must have missed that one. perhaps the new supreme court nominee can extend how such classification is constitutional. asset freezing. it also means that you have to find the assets, which are often hidden in shell corporations, partnerships, things like llcs. this requires time, manpower, forensic work, significant resources. >> earlier that you want to feel the squeeze and the people around him to feel the squeeze. how does the administration feels these things will change his behavior? >> what we are talking about is

seizing their assets, seizing their yachts and making it harder for them to send their children to colleges and universities in the west. these are significant steps that will impact the people who are closely around president putin. >> laura: okay, these significant steps also take international cooperation and time, and we know time is not on the ukrainians' side. you just heard alayna speak out. even if we could expeditiously freeze every oligarchs luxury assets wouldn't really stop the suffering of the ukrainian people that is happening right now? do we think putin is going to wake up and say next week, he's going to get up there and say you know that chalet was so important to me. i think i will call zelenskyy and send the troops home. no. more importantly we have to ask, is there a possibility this could all backfire and make things even worse for ukraine?

is anyone in the biden administration even gaming any of this out? you wonder. let's be real. as satisfying as it may be to see these 400-foot luxury liners padlocked, chasing down oligarchs is like swatting away mosquitoes when a cobra is about to strike your leg. as "the angle" has been telling you, the biggest threat they think free people everywhere is china. russia would not be able to do what it's doing now without china providing a financial cushion, buying its energy, buying its wheat, and so on. china's decision yesterday to ab measure demanding the immediate withdrawal of russian forces from ukraine, that sent a clear message that president xi is fine with putin's campaign of terror. this begs the question. if they really want to get a putin funding source, why is by not clamping down on chinese corporations and xi's inner

circle. three under 40,000 tiny students starting in the united states right now. biden team brags about plans to put the squeeze on putin and his pals, as the biden administration gives hugs to xi and his. remember, they are going to help us on climate change. isn't that john kerry's point so we can get them upset at us. right. the fact is without xi support and tacit approval, putin couldn't have pulled this off, period. in the years leading up to this moment, nato missed an opportunity and so did the u.s. maybe could have avoided this unfolding before our eyes. and we give up our energy independence and oil and gas and biden and germany empowered russia with nord stream 2. meanwhile, the globalists propped up china by letting them into the wto and off shoring our manufacturing and millions and millions of american jobs. we also failed to strike a deal with russia over nato expansion.

maybe that was possible. we'll never know. speaking of trade, right now even with the humanitarian catastrophe that we have been documenting on fox news all day long. for several days. aided and abetted by china, both russia and china tonight still enjoy the same trading privileges with us as the u.k. even canada had the good sense to revoke russia's most favored nation status. they did that today. my question, what are we waiting for. i can tell you who is not waiting. china. they formed an alliance of convenience with russia and we let it happen. but at least we might get some cool yachts out of it. that's "the angle." joining me now is chris swecker, former fbi assistant director. chris, what did i get wrong on this issue of the oligarchs and their assets in the big new task force and all the showboating about how they were

going to get the boats? >> laura, as someone who oversaw all of the fda's criminal investigations, including russian organized crime and autocracy, i'm afraid this big announcement is what they call in texas all hat and no cattle. i believe they are overpromising something they can't deliver without the due process they are talking about. these oligarchs are unquestionably part of putin's power base. they are cronies. they skim, they bust out, they buy companies and bust out and they do all kinds of things that generate illicit proceeds which they parked in the united states in real estate in new york and miami almost angeles in cleveland and north carolina where i am. they have been doing it for decades. my question is, what took you so long? haven't we been going after them before now and all things russian? there's nothing vladimir putin's government is doing that isn't

to the detriment of the united states. these oligarchs are just a way to project that here. >> laura: the point that i was trying to make is these people are suffering terribly now. whether we can do much about it, given what's unfolding right now. i don't know. i will leave that to others to say. but the idea that seizing some yachts in the mediterranean or a few condos in new york, i find that insulting. you can do that anyway if it's for or criminal activity. the ill begotten gains from some enterprise. that's already on the table. they could already do that. it's kind of a fraud the government is perpetrating on people to make it look like they are doing something, anything, to kind of even out the situation. that's my problem with it. it's just phony. >> clearly i agree, it's not going to have any immediate

effect. but again, i come at it from a law enforcement perspective. they've learned about these oligarchs for years. we know they've been part of that power base. my concern in my commentary is why haven't we done it before now? it's not going to have any immediate effect. the big announcement, overpromising and under delivering is almost guaranteed. >> laura: don't you think they've already moved off a lot of their assets? they knew this was coming. they're not billionaires because they are complete idiots. they probably have moved quite a few of their assets into other corporations, et cetera. >> they are in the names of corporations. nevis, st. kitts, panama, the isle of man, cyprus, their daughters, sons, cousins, violinists. we have given the warning. they can just burrow in even

deeper. that's another one of my concerns. why announcer going to do this? just do it. >> laura: yeah, chris, thank you. for one brief glimmering moment today nancy pelosi seemed to see the light. >> i am all for that. ban the oil coming from russia. >> laura: hold your applause because there's always a catch. >> the president has already talked about releasing oil from the... as he already has done. i am not for drilling on public land. >> laura: okay. she just had a joe biden moment. did she not know it was the strategic reserves? that's right, she wants to ban russian and american oil. democrats are so committed to the green because they would

rather send cash to anti-american regimes than drill another well. do you think i'm exaggerating? here is mayor pete today. >> could the president possibly consider authorizing the keystone pipeline, working something out with iran? >> look, the president has said all options are on the table. >> laura: joining me now, arkansas senator tom cotton. he sits on the senate armed services committee and the intel committee. senator, we are getting oil from despotic regimes. we've basically neutered ourselves in new energy production and refining. but apparently we are supposed to get up and clap because mayor pete wants us all on bicycles. >> yeah, laura, the democrats are blind ideologues when it comes to oil and gas. i'm glad nancy pelosi has finally come around to what i've been saying for weeks and with so many republicans say, we should ban the import of russian

oil and gas. tens of millions of dollars to vladimir putin's war machine yet she wouldn't replace it with american oil and gas wood which just means higher prices of the pump for americans. or you have pete buttigieg is proposal, ban russian oil and gas and plays with iranian oil and gas. send billions of dollars the ayatollahs who chant "death to america." that's how ideologically oppose they are to american energy. at a time where isolating vladimir putin in every way, joe biden is personally relying on vladimir putin to negotiate a bad nuclear deal with the iranians. >> laura: yeah, and russia is brokering it, correct? >> absolutely. they are sitting down at the negotiating table. vladimir putin is essentially acting as the lawyer and the banker for the ayatollahs chanting "death to america" and joe biden is hoping he can get a bad nuclear deal to get more

iranian oil to replace all the american oil that he won't produce. it would be very simple to do what i propose yesterday in the senate which is to start producing more oil and gas in america. you heard at the state of the union a lot of talk about making it in america. we can make our own oil and gas in america and joe biden refuses to. >> laura: i hope people understand what's happening. we are about to buy oil from iran. we buy it from russia. but now congress is going to vote on billions and billions and billions more in the way of age and so forth for ukraine when we are sending billions of dollars to russia and to iran, both enemies of the united states. whatever you want to call it tonight. this is literally the definition of insanity. senator. >> it's dangerous and it's naive and we are sending all this money to russia. the same time that we just learned today from the democratic chairman of the

armed services committee we are not sending real-time targeting intelligence to ukraine that we have available that they can use to target russians who invaded their country because joe biden is afraid it would be provocative or escalatory. it's another example of the half measures that have brought us to the point of this barbaric invasion in ukraine. >> laura: senator, cia director, former thank goodness, john brennan, made an earlier comment earlier today that was stunning. >> this is only going to lead to i think putin's unraveling in terms of his position in the russian government. what's going to be the tripwire in terms of pressure on oligarchs and pressure on the russian people and commodities and other types of things? it's unclear but i do believe that putin's days are numbered, maybe in the double digits. >> laura: is there any intel but you know that putin's days are numbered questioning lindsey graham earlier tonight we did basically someone needs

to "take him out." maybe i am paraphrasing. basically saying someone should assassinate putin. i am not sure why a sitting u.s. senator would be tweeting that out. that seems dangerous and stupid. that's a stupid comment. but brennan as his days are numbered. >> i'm not aware of information that would support that. vladimir putin has ruled russia with an iron fist for 20 years. all of those oligarchs are beholden to vladimir putin. and for that matter, they probably hold the same barbaric, ruthless views that he does as well. they all came up together the kgb in the late soviet era. so i'm not aware of any such information. obviously throughout russian history, things often seem impossible until they quickly become inevitable. but i think it's a kind of wish casting by democrats who think something like this may just suddenly happen and absolve joe biden from the past year that signaled weakness to

vladimir putin and emboldened his long-standing imperial ambitions in ukraine. >> laura: do you think your colleague should have been tweeting out that putin should have social -- should've been assassinated? >> what we should be focused on is getting russian troops out of ukraine and saving as many as ukrainian lives as possible. they can make their own decisions by themselves and not have it be imposed on them by vladimir putin. >> laura: and hope not to start a nuclear war in the process. we appreciate your voice. thank you. let's bring in newt gingrich, fox news contributor, former speaker of the house. the showboating on the oligarchs were just going to make zero difference with putin. the russians and the chinese are pulling in tens of billions of dollars every month because they have the same trade status most favored nation status as the u.k. has with us. if we really want to have an effect, isn't it the best course to remove msn from russia and

the other companies helping them like china rather than putting padlocks on yachts? >> that would be a step. the fact is after watching the disaster in afghanistan, i wasn't convinced that it was possible for the american government to be even dumber, more destructive and more dishonest. this is now worse than afghanistan. you want to help people of ukraine, get them weapons. get them weapons tonight. give them weapons through the cia. get them weapons through covert means. get them weapons by contracting with private contractors. the biden administration is doing is an absurdity. if they were going out of their way to weaken the united states, they could hardly do a better job. punish the american oil and gas industry, try to buy oil and gas from russia and iran, our mortal enemies of the present time. and at the same time, ask the

russians to take the lead in vienna and cutting a deal with the iranians. if you were putin and you are watching all of this and you know the americans, the american government wants to buy your oil and you know that the billion dollars a day you're making out of oil finances your entire worse who cares about sanctions. this whole thing is an absurdity. it is dishonest. it is intellectually corrupt. frankly it's embarrassing to have the defense department that is incapable of giving aid to the people of ukraine. with reasonable amounts of the equipment, things like targeting information for ukraine is could dramatically raise the cost of the russians. you're going to have to do that. i will tell you flatly. the russian doctrine is to win. they are going to escalate as much as i have to. they are going to do whatever they have to pay that means taking out a nuclear reactor,

they're going to take it out. that means using barbaric weapons against innocent civilians, they're going to use barbaric weapons. just look at chechnya and look at what putin did there. >> laura: newt. i don't think is find to back off of the question is given the situation as it exists right now, what can the united states do with everything else that may come? everyone wants the ukrainian people to survive and thrive and be free. but we also do have one of the most powerful nuclear arsenals on the other side of this. if putin is as nutty as all the senators are claiming, then that's a gamble. we have to all admit what this is. it's a gamble if we decide to go in there big and heavy militarily. targeting people. targeting information is different. >> look, i don't think we should -- i agree with what

lindsey graham said earlier. i don't think a single american soldier or sailor or airman should go into ukraine. but we have lots of sophisticated equipment we could get them tonight. we have a lot of capabilities in terms of intelligence assets. we can start giving them tonight. there are a lot of things we could do to help them win tonight. not -- none of this nonsense of six months from now or a year from now or five years from now. my point is the russians deliberately sustained tactical nuclear capability that we gave up deliberately. we have a doctrine that says you never go nuclear unless it's literally in defense of the homeland. they have a doctrine that says you use whatever system works. there is no threshold of russian doctrine. the bigger point is there going to use whatever level of power they have to use, and they are going to kill whoever they have to kill to win. that's the point of putin

talking to macron today. he ain't backing off. so we are either going to defeat him or he's going to win. we need to understand that. frankly doesn't care about yachts. when he gets done he'll take the billion dollars a day we are sending him and he can buy yachts for all of his oligarch friends and he doesn't care. we don't understand the russian mentality. it's a much tougher system than we are. >> laura: yeah, you bet. thank you for your expertise as always. great to see you. in lviv, ukraine, that's where lucas tomlinson is standing by with the latest at the nuclear power plant. lucas. >> laura, we just learned this been no change in the radiation levels from officials of the nuclear power plant in southern ukraine. none of the equipment including the six reactors have been affected by the damage. what is concerning is their ongoing hostilities. earlier tonight between russian

and ukrainian forces, small arms fire and even tank rounds. we know none of the six reactors have been affected. this nuclear power plant is not just the largest in ukraine. it's the largest in europe, one of the top ten largest in the world and supplies about a quarter of the energy to the ukrainian people. a fire broke out earlier near the power plant but not at the reactor. an administration building boy from the reactors. the reactors are very robust but the situation is serious enough that president biden called ukrainian president zelenskyy to discuss it and the energy secretary says they are being shut down safely. >> laura: thank you. kentucky congressman thomas massie is one of the three republicans who have been harangued for opposing house resolution supporting the ukraine. the congressman reasons for voting against it were not only valid but is asking why more

republicans didn't oppose it. congressman massey, explain how this unfolded. it so that we understand exactly what the resolution said. >> absolutely. thank you, laura. i want to give my colleagues matt rosendale and paul gosar to chance to be harangued as well because they were the only to join me in voting this way. we fully support the people of ukraine for the right to self-determination. that was the title of this resolution. this resolution ended up to be seven pages. i think it runs the risk of escalating the conflict in ukraine and drying the united states intimate. for instance, it is guaranteed that we will have defensive security assistance to the ukrainians. what does that term mean? it is so broad that it could mean boots on the ground or some of my colleagues in the house and the senate have already called for a no-fly zone. can you imagine that? the u.s. would be engaging russian megs and shooting them down to oppose a no-fly zone.

we shouldn't be playing chicken with a nuclear power and we certainly shouldn't be shooting down jets that they have. expands the u.s. a commitment to belarus. it condemns the leader belarus. implying we should overthrow him. can we get through the situation ukraine before we expand the conflict to belarus? i would hope so. finally it calls for crippling sanctions on russia. look, the sections we have now, i agree with your previous guests on this. they are really not going to affect russia that much but if we have crippling sanctions on russia, number one you run the risk of alienating those protesters who are pushing against putin. if we end up serving them out. number two, do you think -- you think inflation is bad now hurting the poor in the united states, wait till you see what happens when we no longer bring in fuel. >> laura: i might part ways with you on the most favored

nation status but the other points i would agree. reagan didn't trade with russia. i lived in the soviet union as a student. we couldn't get any american goods. they were hungry for them. china gets all the benefits of america's trade to under minus 24/7 and do everything that china does to support russia. so i mean, so i don't know about that. i think yeah, everything is a risk in the game of life i guess. i want to read something lindsey graham tweeted earlier today. that i mentioned briefly to newt gingrich. "is there a brutus in russia? is there a more successful colonel stauffenberg of the russian military? the only way to them is for somebody in russia to take this guy out. you would be doing your country in the world a great service." sent that out a short while ago. your reaction to that tonight? >> i think it's insane. did he suggest it should be a secret plot and tweet that as

well? our goal here should be to de-escalate the conflict between russia and the united states hear and resolve what's going on in ukraine. hopefully to the benefit of ukraine people as soon as possible without dragging american troops into this order without wasting our dollars over there. >> laura: congressman massie, it's an important conversation to have. we appreciate the fact that you joined us tonight. what if our own foreign policy establishment and not vladimir putin is partly responsible for what's happening in ukraine right now? that's what the university of chicago political scientist john your chamber thanks and for years he warned that peeling ukraine away from russia with promises of nato and e.u. membership would end in disaster. he reiterated that view in a recent new yorker interview saying if russia thinks ukraine presents an existential threat to russia because it is aligning with the united states and its western european allies, this is going to cause an enormous amount of damage to ukraine.

that of course is exactly what's happening. the strategically wise strategy for ukraine is to break off its close relations with the rest. if there had been no decision to move nato eastward to include ukraine, there would be no war in ukraine. joining me now, dinesh d'souza. it looks like -- seems like there was a lot of wisdom in what he said but of course the foreign policy establishment is trying to gloss over all of that and basically expiate itself from any culpability in how this all on unfolded. was this inevitable? >> not at all. i think that point represents the realist school of thinking about foreign policy and of the realist school is an important voice to listen to because russia is not quite in the same

boat as china. with china, you have a communist party, you have a marxist, leninist ideology that's transmitted through the party in the schools. in russia you have more of a gangster regime. that means these are guys who respect the language of power. that's what the realist analysis is all about. give a large country, russia. then a grizzly bear and then you have this small little puppy dog, the ukraine right next to it. essentially what mearsheimer is saying that it imposes on the ukraine. learn to get along with this big grizzly bear. saying that the neoliberals in the west have now for 20 years been sort of urging the ukraine to poke the bear. poke the grizzly. we are on your side. you join the west. we are going to form an invincible alliance. putin is on his way out.

so ukraine goes yeah, yeah. bite, bite, snap, snap. what mearsheimer is saying is there is a kind of lack of respect for the normal facts of geography, our politics, and in a sense, i don't agree with him that the united states or the west are to blame for what happening in the ukraine but what he is saying is he's made -- we've made the conflict more likely by pursuing a policy of illusion rather than realism. >> laura: the quick way of saying this is there may have been a possibility to cut a deal with putin. is that what you're saying? >> yeah. i'm saying we've got to understand that when you have a country. the united states is stronger than russia, i agree. but the united states is not stronger than russia when you're doing with the conflict that's right at the russian border. it's not easy for us to engage the russians over there. nor are we willing to make that kind of commitment. so to lead on the ukrainians in

the thinking listen, be tough guys. we'll be behind you. then when the fighting starts we suddenly start resorting to all kinds of symbolic nonsense like pouring out russian vodka and preventing a russian singer in performing and telling them we will give them lessons in fighting by zoom calls and skype. this reveals the unseriousness of the western approach. >> laura: back to mearsheimer. he has been sounding the alarm on this for years. you paid attention to him and he basically predicted this in 2015. >> we are encouraging ukrainians that they will ultimately become part of the west. because will ultimately defeat putin. the ukrainians are almost completely unwilling to compromise. with the russians. the end result is that country is going to be wrecked. and what we are doing is in effect encouraging that outcome. >> laura: he is saying that

they were led down a garden path and now it's a garden of tragedy and suffering. >> exactly. i think that we need to have more of this kind of debate. we are getting a trumpeted ideology and if you fall outside of the party line, you're supposed to be pro-putin or you are off the reservation. i think that the kind of discussion that mearsheimer is trying to have is not occurring right now. >> laura: the weird thing is that when you and i were in college, the lefties were defending russia, the soviet union. they were defending the soviet union back then. now it's very, very odd dynamic. switcheroo. thank you. who is running the war? the answer when we return. do you take aspirin? plain aspirin could be hurting your stomach. vazalore 325 liquid-filled aspirin capsule

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[speaking non-english language] >> laura: that's despicable but that's exactly what china is doing. they hope world leaders and all

of you ignore the fact they are propping up putin's murderous march through ukraine. the sad thing is it's working. the biden administration is zero interest holding china accountable for what's happening in ukraine. wall street doesn't want to do it. can't upset the markets. this is the ccp's war and it's time they were made to pay for it. joining me now is mike pillsbury, director of the center for the chinese strategy at hudson. mike, you've learned some new information about how china is currently aiding and abetting russia. what is it? >> several things. the most important is all the talk about the swift system and taking russia out of the swift system so they wouldn't be able to do transfers to 11,000 banks. that was going to really hurt russia. it turns out china over the last six years has developed its own worldwide swift system. it's called the cross world interbank system.

they are offering that the russians so it softens one of the major sanctions on russia. the second thing that's been going on is you find this amazing voting by the chinese that they are not condemning the invasion of a sovereign nation. this goes back to a xi jinping meeting with putin more than 30 times. xi jinping's first visit when he took over china was to go to russia. we have is wonderful, "the wall street journal" that putin said to xi jinping after first meeting, your personality is a lot like my personality. so is it friendship that has no bounds, as they sit at the olympics. now there's this new leak from a european official that putin actually had to surrender to a requester from xi jinping, please don't do the invasion of

ukraine until after the olympics is over. it's made it tougher on the russian military in ukraine because they were relying on the cold, hard ground to get their tanks across. >> judge jeanine: delaying two or three weeks before his friend xi jinping, you might say his backstage boss is complicating matters for the russian troops on the ground. there is a phrase. it means a backstage boss. that's kind of how the chinese see their role with putin. >> laura: how do you say it? say it again. >> [speaking mandarin] >> laura: [speaking mandarin] >> backstage boss. >> laura: i love how you purposefully -- mike speaks mandarin. i like how you purposely mispronounce putin's name.

i love how you do that. it's purposeful. you've been warning about this for years. behind you on that. the worst thing that could've happened was a china-russian alliance. and here we are. all the brainiacs at all the international think tanks and here we are. >> it's a geopolitical nightmare. >> laura: mike, thank you. great to see you tonight. i'm sure putin appreciate it donald trump bag a lot of rinos and one revealed today why he might be the biggest trophy of them all

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>> laura: former republican senator says all you little people need to accept pain at the pump. >> i hear people complaining understandably about gasoline prices in that kind of thing.

but it's a small price. it's a small price to pay for supporting a country that won't -- that has the same dreams and aspirations that we have and i don't think we are doing the kind of job that we need to be doing. >> laura: too bad trump didn't take him as secretary of state. that was a great loss. shannon bream and benjamin hall take it from here. ♪ ♪ >> shannon: hello and welcome to an extended "fox news @ night." i am shannon bream in washington. >> and i am benjamin hall in kyiv, ukraine. >> shannon: the largest nuclear power plant in europe is reportedly under attack. the facility and ukraine houses six reactors and part of it is on fire tonight. shelling by russian forces.

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