♪ ♪ >> trace: continuing coverage and the fox news alert, russia ramping up the war against ukraine and taking on europe's largest nuclear power station, a major threat that one official learned the mike warrants could lead to crisis similar to the chernobyl crisis.

at least 5 million ukrainians are expected to flee their homeland in the coming days. a tentative agreement with moscow will allow ukraine to set up safe corridors for their evacuation in the coming days. hello come everybody come on trace gallagher coming to you from los angeles where it's 11:00 p.m., 9:00 a.m. in the morning and the capital city of kyiv. the ninth day of the battle for ukraine's freedom. 95% were told of russia's invading forces have now reportedly crossed ukraine's sovereign border. there are now few corners of the country that have not been scarred by vladimir putin's campaign of terror. let joining us now, fox news correspondent out of the pentagon, we be getting more on the fire the largest nuclear power plant in europe and are correspondent jonathan hunt standing by in the western city of lviv. jonathan. >> très scum of the people of ukraine waking up this morning

to the news of this potential nightmare and wondering why russian troops would be engaging in this. you're looking at three options, one that this was a planned attack and the basis of that being taking control of what is the biggest nuclear power plant in europe and one that supplies something like 25% of this country's power on top of that scum of the russians might think they can strike psychological terror into the hearts of ukrainians by saying, hey, we have this nuclear reactor and imagine what we can do. another option is that it was poorly planned and actually just stupidity on the part of the russian troops who came across ukrainian troops and took them on, shelled the position, then realized it was a nuclear facility. the other more concerning option perhaps was that it's another act of pure evil that they intend to break up those nuclear reactors if they can get into

the confinement boxes and if they can break down the cooling systems and call some nuclear winter. that's the most likely have the options unless you talk to president zelenskyy of ukraine who believes that that's exactly what the russians want to do. listen here to president zelenskyy. >> we are issuing a warning. no country has ever shot and nuclear blocks except for russia. first time ever. for the first time ever in our history in the history of humankind, the terrorist country has reverted to nuclear terror. russian propaganda had warned of the past to cover the world in nuclear ash. if now this just isn't a warning, this is real. >> the finding on the ground and in the air as well continuing, trace, the southern city over toward the eastern side has been a major target for russian artillery and russian troops on

the ground. that's another of the southern cities. you look at the map, they are to control and then you come all over to the western end of the southern section of ukraine. there is the port of odessa. i just spoke to one source in odessa who told me that at this moment there are no russian troops in that city. that person is aware of. that's interesting because we heard that yesterday they're on their way via the black sea, but if they are, it appears they're sitting offshore from now but nobody's letting their guard down in odessa or anywhere else as ukrainians fight for every inch of their country. it trace. >> trace: i wonder, jonathan, if the source believes those troops may have to leave to actually go to odessa or would they come in from the black sea.

>> i think probably the thought would be that they would do both, trace, depending on how easy it is for them to hold the. they made move troops across because they are in essence creating a land bridge to enable them to do that, but obviously we know that there is russian warships in odessa and we know that they have amphibious landing craft and they would almost certainly come in from that direction as well if and when they choose to do so, trace. >> trace: great stuff as always, stay safe and we will see you again. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken in brussels for a friday morning meeting with the secretary of of nato. fox news correspondent standing by in the belgian capital. good morning. >> good morning, trays. secretary of state antony blinken will begin his date in brussels shortly. a host of meetings with european officials as they try to find a

way both diplomatically and with sanctions and other types of military aid in the western europe to try to respond to this invasion of ukraine. we've got a series of meetings, this is belgium, the capital of the european union that's here, nato is here, so you've got a whole host of meetings here to deal with the response from the west. belgium, nato has bolstered the forces especially along the russian border areas. poland and the baltic countries, on sanctions the united states and european union and the united kingdom has implemented almost a daily list of sanctions against russian leaders, oligarchs, sectors of the economy use of the united states joined europe and their sanctions against the oligarchs. then there is discussions on accounting for possible war crimes. antony blinken says there is going to be accountability at some point after this especially the apparent shelling and the targeting of civilians and

reports of that coming out of ukraine. antony blinken will also visit poland and moldova were hundreds of thousands of ukrainians have led to they will assist the countries with the refugees crossing the border. the department of homeland security's going to extend what they call temporary protected status, basically if you're ukrainian, staying in the country, you otherwise would have to leave the united states, while the u.s. is suspending that and letting ukrainians to stay within the u.s. here. the trip ends in the baltic states and you talk to baltic leaders, you talked of the diplomats of the united states and what they've been talking about not only in the lead up to the war, but for really decades in the u.s. is a concern about russia. they were among the first states to leave them a break away, find independence after the soviet union was dissolved in the 1990s. this has been a concern for them and that's going to be a part of

the trip come in the secretary blinken ends up there before returning home early next week. >> trace: remains a concern, rich edson life for us and in brussels. and zelinski warning about catastrophe with russia now targeting ukrainian meat nuclear plants and now with us a ukrainian parliament member. i just want your thoughts really quickly and what you're hearing from your people. when you heard that the russians may have targeted the nuclear power plant in your country. >> actually, they did it for the whole day yesterday. yesterday, russian occupation was shelling just nearby, and then killed the power plant.

>> trace: we are going to try to improve her audio if we can, just a minute. we want to look right there, you can see those are ukrainian nuclear power plants across the country. the zaporizhzhia's what we're talking about, six reactors. it's in the eastern -- the southeastern part of the country and three of those reactors were online. three of them were off-line, we have been told by authorities that the fire that was in fact a burning has now been put out and none of those reactors were breached. remember, if you go up the chart they are back in 1986, the most destructive in the worst nuclear accidents in world history happened right there at the chernobyl power plant and it was the beginning of the conflict russian forces came down and they held and took the chernobyl power plant. they may still hold this to this day and you've got speculation

and military analysts saying they believe that with the six reactors was in fact targeted. you know, i ask you about this and we talk strategy and we will come up but i will ask you about this because it's concerning. we had dan hoffman on of short time ago and he literally said that the nuclear power plant attacking it is part of russia's war both. and makes you wonder if that's part of the war book, what is not part of it? >> yeah, i think that you've got to assume he's right on that. i don't think it's an act of targeting some other facility that was in front of them. the fact that as you mentioned just one minute ago, this was 25% of the electricity of the entire country. the largest nuclear reactor in the entire continent of europe. i feel confident that their intent is to capture it so they

can take their electricity off-line which will cause significant problems across the board for ukraine and make it much more difficult for them to defend themselves. my goodness, what a tremendous risk they are taking. i'm grateful that none of the reactors were actually hits in the fire was not in one of those, but it doesn't matter. all it takes is one stray shot from either side to end up on a reactor and you've got catastrophic mistakes for the entire area. you realize it could be the whole country drifting into russia, all the other countries around. this is really a major escalation i think on the part of russia. >> trace: president zelenskyy said it could be ten times as bad as chernobyl. here's more sound from president zelenskyy and i will get your response on the other side. >> only immediate action can stop the russian troops. don't let europe die in the nuclear catastrophe. no country has ever shot a nuclear blocks except for

russia, for the first time ever in our history and the history of humankind. the terrorist country reverted to nuclear terror. >> trace: he's right on one thing, there certainly raises the stakes if nothing else, we are not saying there is a breach there, but this certainly raises the stakes and i'm wondering how the world looks at this. >> ali will tell you, i totally got president zelenskyy what he's doing. is trying to make it sound like they are was a breach like everything's on the line and nuclear catastrophe is going to happen. because he wants the west to come in, he wants to give them the no-fly zone. he wants more military help and, look, we have to make sure we do not escalate this beyond where it is right now because right now we're talking about a potential nuclear reactor problem. if we go too far, we could be talking about a nuclear military exchange with missiles and that would be -- i mean, that would be orders of magnitude worse than this.

we've got to be strong and not escalate this beyond the borders of ukraine and if putin continues to go on the direction, there's room for us to take this a notch up in diplomacy and consider other options beyond sanctions for putin. but again, expanding beyond that to our war with russia and the west, it could end everything that we know. >> trace: i'm wondering, you said we can't go too far and push this because a war with russia would be unimaginable, but at what point do you say he can't go too far. how far can he go before the west in the world finally stand up and says okay, look, enough is enough. i'm not saying they're firing weapons on him, but at some point do they just adjust what they can do? maybe not the no-fly zone but there's got to be adjustment there. >> that's why the risk it continues to escalate here, and you know when you start going

here and will go a little bit more and the other side goes out. where does it stop? i can't reiterate enough the danger to everybody if it goes beyond, but if putin himself escalates and takes it beyond the border, now you've got another problem we do have a choice and we've got to respond to. we have to make sure it's not us that takes it beyond a. >> trace: if he uses a nuclear weapon, colonel, it's not like the u.s. holds a bunch of meetings and hearings to decide what to do. there is an immediate remedy, am i right? >> out there are processes, not exactly immediate unless there's missiles heading towards the united states, but it's pretty close to that, yeah. >> trace: i'm wondering, and i want to get your quick take on this before we go. vladimir putin says the plan, the battle plans going exactly the way he planned. final thoughts on that? >> yeah, that's wishful thinking to the extreme. we can't underestimate that he's

absolutely laser locked on getting this done. even though he suffered tremendous losses with tanks and armored vehicles and people, he keeps pouring in more because i think he's already committed in and he's going to continue pushing until he gets when he considers victory. >> he is committed. >> trace: good to see you tonight, thank you. u.s. calls to ban russian oil. what is the white house saying about that? lee by about 15 million barrels of oil every month from russia. add that up, oil is at $108 a barrel. that's a lot of money. more continuing coverage. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> trace: president biden spoke with ukrainian president zelenskyy late last night, he issued a statement saying europe and the rest of the world needs to wake up as europe's largest power plant was attacked by russia. white house correspondent kevin corke live from washington with more on this. a good morning. >> good morning, we are keeping a close eye on this. as we monitor, jonathan hunt monitoring hopefully things are improving in that circumstance.

a precarious moment if things get worse in that particular area. here in the states, the white house continues to insist that, yes, importing russian oil and energy despite the fact that critics charge this basically helps vladimir putin is a good thing because it will keep the price of energy from rising dramatically. it let's take you to the white house to hear what jen psaki has to say about that and white house press briefing. we don't have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy. she went on to say they're trying to do other things that would help curtail this consumption of russian energy. still, curious offering by the press secretary considering it was the biden administration that just last year scrapped major u.s. oil pipeline projects. there you go, meantime on capitol hill, this may surprise you, there is actually bipartisan agreement that may be it is time for the u.s. to find

more sources of energy. it may be domestically even. it any way to get away from importing all the oil from russia. here's nancy pelosi the house speaker talking about the prospects of ending russian oil imports. i'm all for that. then it. although she did not turn around and say she packs the keystone xl pipeline or anything like that, still that was a start. meanwhile, the white house today announced more sanctions. part of the nato pressure campaign we've been talking about against vladimir putin's inner circle. the latest round will target members of seven influential families that will be cut off from the u.s. financial system, the assets in the state will be frozen and the property will be blocked from use. >> severe economic sanctions on putin and all the folks around him. all access to technology as well cutting off axis to the financial system. and had a profound impact

already. >> had a profound impact already, especially on those who are close to vladimir putin. a couple of the oligarchs as recently as yesterday have individual called on vladimir putin to end the aggression in ukraine. by the way from the white house's perspective, the thinking is by ratcheting up the pressure on those in putin's inner circle by proxy will ratchet up the pressure on him and we will see if that strategy turns out to be the right way to go. trace. >> trace: we will indeed come a kevin corke live for us in d.c. thank you. white house facing bipartisan calls to ban russian oil imports and boost domestic production. in the u.s. by 650,000 barrels of oil from russia. it do the math, 30 days about 1.8 million barrels $108 a barrel roughly $4 billion a month going into russia's pocket. leading critics to the u.s. saying that it's partially

financing vladimir putin's war. and here's white house press secretary jen psaki during thursday briefing, watch. >> we don't have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy. that would raise prices at the gas pump for the american people around the world because it would reduce the supply available. as simple as less supply raises prices. >> trace: joining us now tyron skinner who was also a research fellow at the hoover institute as well as a visiting fellow at the heritage foundation. great to seal. i do the math and i listen to jen psaki and she's very fond of saying, look, we only get five or 10% of oil from russia, that's a lot of oil and a lot of money put into vladimir putin's pockets. now, you know, you've got bipartisan calls to say turn off the oil from russia now. >> i hope jen psaki and the white house listen to the

bipartisan calls. when you've got nancy pelosi sounding like many of the republican leaders who have been talking about sanctioning russia, withdrawing our use of oil imports, it's really a new day. the white house needs to begin to catch up to where the american public is going, to where the legislature is going and the reality of russia for jen psaki to say that we have those strategic interest in reducing the global supply of oil, we need to hear from her about the strategic interests in stopping vladimir putin. the strategic interests in domestic energy supply that helps insulate the united states from dictators like vladimir putin. this just doesn't really make sense given what has happened

today in the war against ukraine. >> trace: when you mentioned by the way, i want to play because nancy pelosi said this about oil to russia watch. >> i'm all for that, ban it. >> ban the oil? >> bend oil coming from russia. >> trace: she said ban the oil, a lot of others have joined in on that. i want to move on quickly, we establish the fact that there is some reason they're not going to ban the oil right now, but president zelenskyy took out a veiled swipe at president biden with what he said he should have acted sooner when it came to those sanctions. i think we know that the sanctions are eventually going to bite russia fairly decently, but the question is there a knock at the stop the war machine but have they been put in place one year ago or six months ago, it would be entirely different story today on the ground according to almost every military analyst we have talked to. >> yes, i agree.

many of us had been talking about the need to take strong action against russia at the early part of the biden administration but it didn't happen, obviously. it will take time. what happened in the past year while the biden administration refused to move, the cronies of putin and putin himself have had the opportunity to do some sanction proofing of their own lives. so even though the white house is determined now to move in on about seven families and putin himself in terms of punishing sanctions. i believe there is still money that they've got squirreled away to protect themselves. i don't think they will be on the streets anytime soon. >> trace: we have found iran, north korea have gotten around the sanctions and there is a way russia will get around them at least to a certain extent as well. great to see you thank you for coming on. >> thank you.

>> trace: in the meantime, the percentage of ukraine begging the world for help and zelinski warning about catastrophe with russia now targeting ukrainian nuclear plants. with us now, let's go back to the ukrainian parliament member we lost her audio and we think we've got it fixed. if you are just about to tell me about the fact that this nuclear power plant was targeted. you think it was targeted as early as may be before yesterday. >> yes, actually, the russian occupation where hitting the city, that was next to the nuclear power plant. the whole day yesterday, big caliber weapon. they had a warning for ukrainian striping to stop it because they can cause a nuclear disaster. but the russians kept shelling and as a result, yesterday in

the middle of the night like one or 2:00 a.m., the power station came on fire. actually, i'm sorry i didn't sleep this night because this was like a real alarm not only for ukraine, but for the whole world. you can imagine what happens of the nuclear power plant explodes. it's man-made, catastrophic of a global size. actually, now it just looks like in absolute nuclear terror and there is no other way i can call it and i can describe it. >> trace: i want to quickly get your take because the associated press and the country is now reporting that the russians have taken control of the zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. what are your thoughts on that? >> this is true.

but the thing is that it might have very bad consequences because it was on fire yesterday and ukrainians rescue service tried to approach to the nuclear power plant to put the fire down. russians kept fighting and kept actually shooting on our guys. they behave absolutely irresponsibly and they are dangerous not only for ukraine, but for the european continent. they are unpredictable and so no one can actually foresee what they will do with this nuclear power station. they also captured another nuclear power station, chernobyl, in the very beginning of the war. i want to actually address all the responsible political leaders that this is not a game anymore, this is really dangerous. a lot of people not only in

ukraine but neighboring countries, the whole european continent may face a huge ecological catastrophe. it is time to think about jumping in and providing a no-fly zone above ukraine. i address the american people to actually talk to your governors and talk to your politicians. if they can't make the decision yourself, you voters can help them think about protecting democracy and protecting children and women and the innocent civilians in ukraine. >> trace: thank you for your time. a best of luck to you and i know you have two children. we are praying for you and your family and your people. thank you so much for coming on. meanwhile, the biden administration formally asking congress for a $10 billion in aid for ukraine. coming up, we will speak to a ukrainian minister of parliament about where the money is most

needed. that is next. ♪ ♪ at pulte, we build homes that think ahead to everything you'll need. like a dedicated office space with wi-fi for you to stay focused. hard wired internet outlets for more gaming. an oversized pantry? yes. with more space to fit everything. or, just enjoy more outdoor living. at pulte, we build homes that think ahead to tomorrow, so you can build the life you're dreaming of today. pulte homes. more life, built in.

♪ ♪ >> trace: us the kremlin escalates the attack on ukraine, requesting further support from the people of the war-torn nature. money will not resolve the greatest crisis since world war ii, and there is speculation that vladimir putin may pull back if ukraine were to suddenly find itself a member of the european union. which could now -- ukrainian minister of parliament, thank you so much for coming on. we appreciate it. the money come in $10 billion of aid, what would it be used for and what's the most severe need right now? >> bad news coming in for the last week.

ukraine now fighting for its survival. it's badly in need for any sort of assistance, and of course the financial assistance is crucial as obviously the financial system, the economy in general, the population of ukraine has been in dire need for basics now. we have been receiving financial aid from european neighbors, the government has accumulated the resources to ensure that people have all the necessary food and other supplies, however we cannot hold for too long with the news about the possible assistance is very timely to stabilize the financial system and ensure ukrainian people that we are not alone and that we will get the assistance. >> trace: i want to know, are

you of the sense that the supplies and food are getting in and that the civilians are getting out if they need to? >> this is one of the major issues right now. we are not happy with the way the organization's work. if we address the red cross, the united nations with requests to do everything in their power to force russians to provide these so-called green cards and humanitarian ways for civilians to leave the zones of heavy shelling of war. it's not very successful. we understands the concerns that these organizations have about sending their people into the zones, however, this is exactly what they are designed for, this is exactly what we expect from them. we are in negotiations with the russians, and hopefully we will

get the succession assistance from the international organizations to pull out the civilians who are still there in the areas of heavy shelling. >> trace: the humanitarian corridors, they were negotiated today. i wonder if we feel like there was any progress in the talks with russians yesterday and will there be more talks in your estimation? >> there definitely will be more talks of the russian delegation obviously doesn't have much to offer in terms of negotiating any sort of conditions for a cease-fire but never mind peaceful resolution of this war. however, we are hopeful that the humanitarian issues will finally be addressed and we will finally actually see that happening on

the ground where people are allowed to leave these areas. but now, we are getting very disturbing reports about russians deliberately not allowing people out. if there reports where people were told to sit home and await for russian convoys to lead them out. what we are afraid of is that they're going to start putting people in the military vehicles as they progress toward kyiv for example. we heard about a few of those happening. using people as human shields and of course now it's getting all the attention from the world to address this issue and let the russians know that we are watching them very closely and we will not allow them to do that. >> trace: the attention of the world is focused and i will guarantee you that. thank you for coming on and best of luck to your people. thank you sir. >> thank you for having me. >> trace: experts warning vladimir putin may grow more

aggressive in the coming days ramping up russians attack on ukraine. when we come back, we will talk to an afghanistan war veteran and medal of honor recipient about what ukrainian forces can expect on the ground. what putin strategy may be. ♪ ♪

are you taking a statin drug to reduce cholesterol? it can also deplete your coq10 levels. i recommend considering qunol coq10 along with your statin medication. the brand i trust is qunol. ♪ ♪ >> trace: experts say russian

vladimir putin may get more aggressive as he continues his invasion of ukraine. putin may also launching cyberattacks against western countries if they aid ukraine. it let's bring an afghanistan war veteran and medal of honor recipient. general jack keane said earlier tonight that putin's main push in the north of the country is not going well and that he could pull out all the stops and all the weapons to get this war back on track. he said except nuclear weapons and then you find out the nuclear plant was attacked tonight. it appears over things on the table. >> yeah, i mean, i don't see nuclear weapons coming into the play here, right? maybe i'm being optimistic. i'll be up front, i didn't think putin was going to invade, but i think nuclear weapons, i'm not concerned about that. just a simple fact that his troops are there, right? i don't think he's going to go

as far and good business inside of russia when he's going to drop nuclear weapons on his troops, but what i believe it is think this might be his strategy, i mean obviously i don't think anyone can understand what putin is thinking at this point, but i think he might have sent in some guys and tried to do the splits attack across ukraine to see if he could get go in there and decapitates and get this taken over. but i would not underestimate what putin's going to do next. when i see him doing is kind of stalling right now. kind of stalling around the city's and i think you could be trying to get his supply lines caught up to where his troops are at before he goes on to the deliberate push and seeing, yes, the first plan of the easiest route was to do a blitz attack. obviously that's not working. but i would not underestimate when he's going to do next because i think he's going to wrap it up. >> trace: we know that vladimir putin lies about it but he's continuing to hit civilian targets. he's continuing all of the

country to hit the civilian targets and telling the people he's not. he's losing support so while some of the convoys have been held up for a couple days, three days, while some of the other missions have gone slowly, a lot of people in his country are losing patience. as much as we say russian has the upper hand, rush is on the clock here. >> absolutely. it's going to come down to how long can he sustain the war. like how long can he sustain -- how is he going to ramp up the sanctions. it will we continue to get more from him? i think there is no way that we need to put troops on the ground. i 100% them against that aspect of it. i don't think we need to go out and take the airspace over a period of i think it's part of the united states of america is that we need to try to help obviously unite with the globe and help the leadership position, but i'll tell you right now, i believe 100% that

if we get involved that if we go in there, if we step up and have any troops on the ground and weo into the airspace, i think anything is on the page and will ensure that we are in world war iii. >> trace: leslie, dakota, and went to get your take on what's happening in the south in the country. they captured the town, the third or fourth largest in the country and now there is word that they want to go after odessa. but to go after odessa, you have general saying they may need to take a lot of the forces and divert them to odessa, but that would be a big huge knock to ukraine because that would control the black sea and the black seaports. >> yeah, i mean, that would mean -- if he did that, i don't think you can take odessa and kyiv, right? i don't think you can take both of them. one thing that will ensure that will prolong his ability --

prolong his success or it ends up being the thing that decides how it turns out for him if he stretches to thin. >> trace: yep, that's a very good point. it dakota meyer, they keep coming on and we appreciate your. >> thank you. >> trace: major tech companies like microsoft and apple are cutting ties with russia. what kind of impact will that have? we will take a look at that next. ♪ ♪

for what is happening in the war because special operations of tl newness by the military and so, you are seeing this play out where the bbc, reactivated shortly and the radio transmissions to go along and broadcast media into ukraine. because of that overnight, they reduced bbc traffic with 17%. so the regulator can reduce essentially activity as you mentioned twitter, facebook. they do this very much historically as much as these

companies want to play a role in keeping people communicated to. >> trace: i wonder if that same in russia is listen if we can't control the message, maybe we control the machines that delivers the message. >> absolutely. and putin is ex-kgb guy where information warfare is probably one of his top favorite skills. especially trying to get information to demoralize those in ukraine, certain false information, false dichotomy happening with president zelenskyy. at the same time to put scare test sticks and the united states. these are tools he enjoys using but at the same time as more body bags are coming back to russia, there is a very obvious connection where he does not want those discussions to happen amongst the russian people. >> trace: i tell you if you

look at the country, these protests across russia, the word is getting out. dustin carmack thank you for coming on, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> trace: in the meantime president biden speaking to your cranium president zelenskyy late last night after russian attack on largest nuclear power plant. the planes hit there have been distinguishedph but now reportey ? yeah. the future is crunk! (laughs) anything else you wanna know? is the hype too much? am i ready? i can't tell you everything. but if you want to make history, you gotta call your own shots. we going to the league!

>> trace: continuing coverage fox news alert sirens player as russia with more against the war in ukraine. invading troops with europe's largest nuclear power station in the city of enerhodar. unleashing new fears not just in ukraine but around the world. good morning again everyone trace gallagher in los angeles. it is midnight on the mid c