late. a lot of what will and rachel and i have discussed are the worst case scenarios in this. if you want more, go to fox fox nation, we have a small piece called the worst case scenario which goes through. foxnation.com. will: check it out. pete: thank you very much for being with us. take a nap -- rachel: join us at 5 a.m. tomorrow. good-bye, everybody. ♪ >> mr. president biden, if you stop russian aggression,you stop aggression of vladimir putin right now with a very serious, with a very concrete decision to intervene immediately with all the needed forces and prevent genocide and prevent catastrophe and prevent third world warsh you will be the best man in the world. you will be a part of this

history. the president who stopped the global catastrophe. neil: a week ago today at this very hour she was a guest on this show, and she is electrified a world. her comments made, well, wildfire reaction not only in this country, but as i said, in all countries. the plight of a young mom with three kids, her husband off to fight the good fight, sheltering in her home in ukraine. back with us today. because the good fight is on, and right now it is heated. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. this is "cavuto live." we are on top of fast moving developments including a ceasefire that seems to be coming apart. we'll give you the latest on that, also the latest on what president zelenskyy had to tell and is telling u.s. senators, two of them, a republican and a democrat, with their reactions to what he was saying. remember that no-fly zone that

he wants to see addressed? of course, nato, the united states said we just cannot do that. he's not too pleased about that, but the reality is what it is, and the good fight continues. we've got the latest on that in kyiv with trey yingst. hey, trey. >> reporter: neil, good morning. we've just returned from a city just outside the ukrainian capital where fighting continues at this hour. i'm hot sure if we have the images here, and it appears we do. you can take a looked at what the front lines look like. we just returned. black smoke billows up across the skyline. many of the city's 60,000 residents are evacuating as russia attacks from the air and ground. what can you tell the world about what's happening here? >> it's a war, it's a real war. you hear the real war, you smell it, you can feel it and, of course, it's fear. reporter: this woman plans to go to kyiv's central train station before heading west to lviv.

others haven't thought that father -- far. they need to get out of the line of fire. they are leaving their entire lives behind. whatever they can pick up, you see the bags and the pets and the belongings. they understand this war is getting closer and closer to their hometown, and he was to get out of the way. as civilians are rushed to safety, ukrainian soldiers reload and head back into battle with rpgs, anti-aircraft missiles and trenches in place, they're defending their homes and people. if you can hear behind me -- [gunfire] as people try to flee the front line each hour is moving as russian forces advance on the ukrainian capital. >> as you can see, these are not military people. they're normal people who wanted to leave peacefully. they can't because with as you can hear, explosions everywhere. over there tanks, all other military vehicles are burning, are fighting. >> reporter: the uniteed nations says more than 1.4

million ukrainians have fled the country since this invasion began. that number is expected to rise. neil? neil: trey, thank you very, very much. now back to a woman who last week at this time on show started a wave that got global reaction, talking about a young mom with three bile children trying -- beautiful children, hiding out in a shelter, hoping against hope that the bombing would stop, the russians would think twice. a week later that is not the case, but some good news here, she did get a chance to reunite ever so briefly with her husband. we're going to detail in -- that in a second. first, to one of the bravest human beings i certainly know and have had the pleasure of talking to, elena's back with us. how you doing? >> hello. doing all right, all of us. neil: how are you holding up? >> well, it's difficult, you know? it's day number ten and we're

still here. i think ukrainians are doing very well so far, but i don't know for how long we are going to stay like this. people now like in the first days people felt accentized. right now i think many people are becoming tired, you know, like exhausted with what's happening. and everybody wants these nightmares to come to an end as soon as possible. of course, especially children are tired of all of this. neil: kids will be kids. they're beautiful children, olena. how are they doing through all of this? >> well, just before the show a psychologist that had some classes at school, she contacted and proposed to have, like, anything with children using zoom so they have talks with a psychologist. she volunteers to help children who stay in shelter and suffer

or and gave some useful advice to children. and she told -- [inaudible] and it would be wrong to pretend that nothing is happening as we have to clearly explain to children what's happening and talk to them as many times as possible. neil: you had a chance, because your husband is fighting the good fight, but you've had a chance to briefly reunite earlier this week. i think we have video of that. how was that? that had to be a special moment. >> yeah. he rushed into the shelter yesterday morning, and i think he did it because he was afraid that the situation escalate too far and the situation becomes very bad. now, in the beginning he really believed that they will not touch civilians, but what he saw later is that if putin cannot take the cities, he has levels

the cities to the ground and -- it looks like if kyiv will not surrender -- and kyiv will not surrender, that's for sure -- the only thing that is left for putin is to, you know, level kyiv to the ground. and he has some really, really bad weapons, right? and basically i joined the voices of other ukrainians with my president zelenskyy, and i ask for the no-fly zone because ammunition is great and our people they are doing a great job as men and women, you know, if i didn't have my baby, i would join units too. but we have ammunition on the ground. putin has missiles and airplanes, and bombing, bombarding the cities from the air a, and that is the most -- the worst part of the story m he

can just with, you know, level to the ground here because he doesn't here. he destroyed our main pride. he hit the tower a station, tv tower station in kyiv. he almost -- [inaudible] which is our main pride is city center, 1,000 years old cathedral in the center of kyiv. doesn't care about our infrastructure, about our ca cathedral, our everything. he just, you know, wants to take kyiv by any try. and we've tried to, you know, our life. neil: last week at this time you were hoping against hope that maybe nato would consider a no-fly zone and enforcing it over the skies of ukraine. as you know, that's not happening. what do you think of that?

>> can i ask you a question, do you think it will never happen? neil: i don't know. that much depends on where this goes, i guess, right? >> me neither. i just know that i do whatever i can to make it happen. because if i do nothing -- at least i will know that me and my children and my family, we did everything we could to save ukraine. and i don't know, maybe you told very big words about me like i'm brave or something. i mean, it's just me with three children. if i have enough courage stay here and face putin, maybe the world leaders, maybe president biden, maybe the presidents of nato countries, maybe they will find enough courage to face the situation because putin is not the person with whom you can discuss anything, you know? it's not the person whom you will try not to provoke or to escalate because ukraine was not escalating. ukraine just happens to be a

neighbor and was a vulnerable neighbor. this is why putin attacks. if ukraine was a part of nato, maybe putin would not have attacked. but this time he knows. eight years ago he tried and he wasn't punished. this time he takes another bite and away gets, nothing but sanctions. he doesn't care about ukrainian people, he doesn't care about russian people. the russian people suffer because of economic sanctions. and putin continues to enjoy the blood and enjoy the war and enjoy the feeling that he is the most powerful person in the world, and everybody's afraid of him. neil: ohena, you're -- olena, you're probably aware, and i don't know how much gets to you, because you've got enough on your hands just watching those three beautiful children, but the skisfire -- ceasefire, as temporary as it was, there were reports that russia was hitting the people on those humanitarian

lines and that that has since been shut down. so he does not appear to be honoring that agreement. what do you make of that? >> i mean, i do not trust this person. like, we cannot believe any single word of putin. i think he was lying. all the time. how you can negotiate with him? i don't understand how you can trust anything, what kind of ceasefire you can have. it's already happened, you know in times when he's promised something, he didn't do this. i mean, he was saying to everybody, you know, to the world leaders openly that this is just military training. he is not going to attack, and he attacked. later he said that he will not do military operation, they won't kill civilians and then thousands of civilians already killed in ukraine. look how he bombarded the second biggest -- [inaudible] and look what he tells to the russian people. russian people right now they

must have access to the same information, already a lot of brainwash. you know, this is just a military preparation, and this is the word between ukraine grabs and ukrainians, and russians are coming to protect the ukrainians. people from nazi regime, and over there in russia people believe in this thing. and if they don't believe, they get 15 years of imprisonment if they say the truth. i mean, this is what he is doing. i mean, he cannot be trusted. he's a criminal who needs to be arrested. he needs to be taken to the international court. neil: in the meantime, how are you and the kids doing for food? >> well, as you can see, katia's very angry. she wants to say that she's very angry with putin, and she's just asking why is he doing this bad things. she's started to use very rude

words about putin, and i can understand her. [laughter] neil: understand as well. olena, thank you very, very much. she did have a brief opportunity to reunite with her husband who's back fighting, as they say, the good fight here. determined, determined to make sure vladimir putin fails in his efforts to take over that country. a couple of developments in that regard i want to pass along before we take a very, very quick break, aeronot is halting all international flights to belarus. aeronot has already been verboten around the world. saying the only place we'll fly to is belarus. also we're just learning that samsung has suspended all shipments of phones and computer chips to russia. it becomes the 112th international company to say we

are no longer doing business with russia. all of this as russia has branded the likes of the bbc, voice of america, radio-free europe and radio liberty as one -- unwanted and unfair to be in russia. they have cut off those news sources to the russian people. the understanding here seems to be so as not to share is all of this news of what's going on in ukraine with the russian people. but sometimes they have a way of finding out on their own not through any means of social media, but through long bank lines and the limit on how much money they can take out of those banks, savings that have been reduced to rubble because the ruble has been reduce to rubble. -- reduced to rubble. now worth less than a penny on the dollar. so the russians, one way or another, are finding out what's going on. they're finding out the hard way. stay with us. because platforms this innovative aren't just made

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neil: learning a little with bit about what ukrainian president zelenskyy is saying to u.s. senators right now via zoom call. he's done this around the world, but this particular audience is quite crucial, telling them that we need more lethal aid. he didn't get what he wanted, certainly, on policing the skies, but he is pushing for still more and a lot more powerful lethal aid. we're going to talk to a republican and democratic senator about this. remember, we always aim for balance here. we want to hear there everybody. senator steve daines, montana republican, and senator gil gains -- tim gains, virginia dea democrat. that's coming up a little bit later in the show. in the meantime, keeping track of the president of the united states, he's in wilmington, delaware, this weekend. and part of what he was talking about with the labor secretary of the united states is that the jobs report and how to generate still more of those jobs. alexandria hoff with more from

wilmington. >> reporter: hi, neil. yeah, this is a way better than expected jobs report that came out yesterday for the president, but with the crisis abroad he had little time to toast. also yesterday he sat down with the president of finland who visited the white house and then appeared on "special report." take a look. >> we are very surprised. something almost are impossible has taken place, no one could have imagined that in europe in 2020 something like this would happen. and it seems to continue. it is, it's a tragedy. >> reporter: you can hear the pain in his voice there. finland shares 830 miles of border with russia and is considering nato membership even though russia has threatened them if they were to do so. finland is a major purchaser of russian energy, and the biden

administration maintains the u.s. is not. >> what we know is that, you know, from the u.s. economy we don't import a lot of russian oil, but we are looking at a options that we can take right now if we were to cut the u.s. conception -- consumption assumption of -- consumption of russian energy. what's most important is we maintain a steady supply of russian energy. >> reporter: the white house saying severing a tie with them would hurt us more than them. the administration believes sanctions announced against russia this week will serve the biggest blow to putin's power structure, but there is a biopartisan -- bipartisan call right now to certificate that that tie completely, stop purchasing russian oil. and in doing so, democratic senator joe manchin said we might need to revisit domestic drilling, that is something that the white house has said they are not ready to do but still that all considerations are on the table at this point. neil?

neil: all right, alexandria, thank you so much. with the president in wilmington, delaware. we're getting a little more of this ongoing phone call that president zelenskyy is having with united states senator, two of whom will be joining us shortly. he's asking for more aid, more lethal aid. the issue of the no-fly zone came up. he's bitter wily disappointed that nato has decided not to enforce a no-fly zone, our argument in this country was that that would invite world war iii and spread way beyond you cane -- ukraine. nevertheless, it did come up. he is also running through what he terms are killing the shillings of civilians that are ongoing, did refer as well to that humanitarian agreement that fell apart because the russians are strafing the very areas that were going to provide an exit for ukrainians trying to leave the country and for humanitarian aid to come into the country. the russians have said that none

of that is going on here but, again, whatever, you know, big deal was made of this humanitarian gesture in the second day of so-called peace talks is not being honored and is not happening. we'll have more after this. ges to your financial plan. bill, mary? hey... it's our former broker carl. carl, say hi to nina, our schwab financial consultant. hm... i know how difficult these calls can be. not with schwab. nina made it easier to set up our financial plan. we can check in on it anytime. it changes when our goals change. planning can't be that easy. actually, it can be, carl. look forward to planning with schwab. schwab! ♪♪ out here, you're a landowner, a gardener, a landscaper and a hunter. that's why you need versatile, durable kubota equipment. psoriasis really messes with you.

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neil: not policing the skies over ukraine, john, are we policing the skies around ukraine? >> yes. we already have had for a number of years a baltic air policing mission under nato's umbrella in those baltic states, and that continues, and the united states continues to add aircraft to that mission. neil: all right, that was a very kind of a unique read on what's going on. you often hear about this no-fly zone over the skies of ukraine,

but that does not apply to the sky cans outside ukraine where john kirby, the pentagon spokesperson, was telling me earlier this week nato and u.s. planes still supply. -- fly. he didn't exactly reveal how closely they fly, but obviously along the polish border, the romanian border may be close enough. so the bottom line is that the ukrainian president, zelenskyy, who just edged what was a zoom -- ended what was a zoom call with united states senator, has said that the far more effective no-fly zone would be one others the skies -- over the skies of ukraine. he was pushing for more aid, more powerful aid, lethal aid as he liked to call it and was saying the sooner the better. we're going to talk to two senators, democrat steve daines -- i'm sorry, democrat tim kaine, republican steve daines on what else president she zen eleven sky had to say. in the meantime, to kurt volker, the former u.s. ambassador to

nato, special representative to ukraine for those talks about eight years ago. ambassador, good to have you. >> thank you very much for having me. neil: you can't blame president zelenskyy for wanting this no inform -- no-fly zone. that looks really unrealist. he's a hard guy to take no for an answer a, understandable, but he is looking for lethal aid. >> first off, i don't think we should give up on the no-fly zone. i think there's a way to do it and communicate about it that we can set the lines for protecting civilians. it's a humanitarian mission to prevent bombardment of civilian populationings. you limit the area, and make clear to the russians that we will not be attacking anything, no russian ground forces and no russian aircraft unless you come into the zone. i don't think we should give up on that. neil: ambassador, to that point, les a distinction here. the russians are strafing ukrainian positions, and we have

this graduated no-fly zone presumably for humanitarian purposes, those planes wouldn't stop that type of activity? >> well, i think they would come into contact with our aircraft. we should try to escort them out of the zone without lethal force, but if we are fired upon, then we'd have to return fire -- neil: that's world war iii. isn't that world war iii, ambassador? >> i don't think the russians want world war iii. i think that they might test us, but i don't think it needs to escalate beyond that. and, again, we make clear this is about protecting civilians. this is not about attacking russia, this is not challenging russia -- neil: no, no, i understand that, ambassador, but it would have the risk of that, right? any false trigger move, no pun intended, all bents are off. isn't that the fear of nato, fear of some prominent republicans and democrats that it escalates way beyond ukraine? >> yeah, that is the fear. but the problem is, yes, we have an obligation to defend nato

allies, and if russia were doing this to warsaw, to prague, to budapest, we would be in there doing this and defending them. we don't have an obligation to ukraine, but we do have a moral obligation to protect civilians when we see what is happening there. and if we don't treat that moral obligation seriously, then we are complicit in this. neil: you know, in the meantime, ambassador, getting word that this ceasefire that was going to allow for humanitarian aid to come in and those who want to leaf the country to get -- leave the country to get out has already blown up. it's not being honored, we're told, by the russians. are you surprised? >> not at all surprised. putin -- we have to understand here putin has launched a massive military operationrd in to -- in order to troy the state of ukraine. and he is using indiscriminate means, attack -- bombing cities, launch. ing missiles, or apartments, schools. he's already caused a million refugees, thousands of deaths. and i've been in touch with

friends in ukraine this morning, and it is ongoing. putin is not letting up. and we need to recognize that if we -- he continues here and we lose ukraine, he will keep going. moldova is next door, that's on his list, we have to be concern about georgia and nato allies like the baltic states that we must if defend. so we need to stop putin's appetite as soon as we can and stop him in ukraine. neil: ambassador, vladimir putin said that moscow would consider any third party declaration, just a declaration of a no-fly zone over ukraine as a participation in the armed conflict. what did you make of this? >> well, i'm surprised that he would say that. -- i'm not surprised. he is trying to dissuade countries from doing anything to help the ukrainians and to protect them because he wants to win his war against ukraine. so of course he's going to say something like that. the ukrainians are putting up an incredible fight. they have held the russian

ground forces off for ten days now. they have protected cities. they have done everything that is humanly possible and are going to continue to fight, but they need more assistance. and they need to make sure that a russia does not gain full air superiority. neil: ambassador, thank you for joining us on a saturday. we very much appreciate that, sir. we'll stay up on these developments and some of the worries that you outlined including this idea of maybe that a no-fly zone with a democratic senator, republican senator who just wrapped up that zoom meeting with the president of ukraine and what president zelenskyy had to say about something maybe that could compensate for the lack of air support. right after this. no one deserves the american dream of homeownership more than veterans. at newday, you can buy a home with no down payment. and they're holding the line on purchase loans

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the distribution centers and volunteers are standing by. we need your help now. your emergency gift of only $45 will help rush food, water, medicine and emergency supplies for one jewish family in ukraine. please call or go online now. neil: all right, russian -- i should say the ukrainian president certificate hen sky has wrapped up that zoom meeting with united states senators. we're going to talk to a democrat and republican, what he had to say and their reaction to what he had to say and how much they could make good on some of the things he's requesting. right now we have senator steve daines of montana, sits on the senate energy committee, senate finance committee, crucial player in the nation's capitol. senator, very good to have you. what was president zelenskyy asking for, first off?

>> well, neil if, i've been on a lot of zoom calls. this was one i'll never forget. zelenskyy spoke from the heart. you've seen images of him already, he had a military green t-shirt on, there was no script. he spoke from the heart. he referred to the united states as the most powerful and the biggest hope. he talked about russian soldiers, these 18 to 20-year-olds that they've captured, he says they're young, they're afraid, they're shocked they ended up in ukraine. he said one ukraine soldier equals 5-10 russian soldiers. he talked about how they're targeting six nuclear sites. he says these are devils that are doing this, referring to the russians. he said the they were to -- if they were to explode or melt down, it would be an environmental catastrophe for europe. but here's what he asked for. he said he supported the oil sanctions to ban the russian oil. he says they need more planes, they need more drones, they need

even tougher sanctions. he asked specifically on visa and mastercard, they be suspended in russia, and he also asked to close the skies over russia as well. he said lithuania and poland are next if we don't stop russia now. neil: you know, that had been his argument as recently as yesterday, to sad -- advocate for nato, the united states implementing a no-fly zone over ukraine. did that come up again? >> you know -- yeah. the no-fly zone, shutting down the skies tame up. -- came up. and, neil, that's a real concern because that is an a escalation moment. so we've got to proceed with standing firmly with the ukrainians. the senate and the house, democrats and republican, were on this call today. so we're unified in our support for ukraine. we need to pass this $10 billion relief package that'll have humanitarian aid, but it'll also have half of it will be military

aid. they need more force on the ground. but to shut down the skies, escalating it to a point where we risk going to the next level of a war that we do not want to go to as it relates to a world war. neil: so the agreement on upping the sanctions and the ante against russia, but similarly, senator, was there unanimous agreement on this no-fly zone matter? >> i haven't had a chance to go back and forth with my colleagues, but i think generally there's a real concern about that. i want to make one important point here, neil. i wish there was unanimous support on both sides of the aisle for expanding u.s. energy production. we're getting behind shutting down the russian oil, but keep in mind why isn't president biden and our democrat colleagues saying let's build the keystone pipeline, let's increase u.s. oil production, let's make sure we don't have some of these crazy idealogues in the biden administration who want to shut down financing for

the oil and gas industry? one of -- the reason we're here, we're at this moment in terms of russia and putin invading ukraine, it goes right back to the first day biden was sworn in, shut the keystone pipeline down, stops new oil and gas leases on federal lands and then he gives a green light to putin for the nord stream nord stream 2 pipeline -- nord stream 2 pipeline. the ukrainians were in my office in september, a group from odesa and former members of parliament were pleading with me to convince the president to shut down nord stream 2. that's one thing that -- neil: and that did not happen, to your point, senator. but you don't mind, you referred to a key port city in ukraine that might or might not be you should russian control -- under russian control now. but you were touching on president zelenskyy and barring, you know, getting air support he did call for more lethal aid. he also called, you know, for visas, some of these other financial concerns, to cut off

all ties with the region, with russia in particular. what else was he asking for? >> well, that was, close the skies, more planes, more drones, more sanctions, shutting down the oil. i was, feverishly writing down kind of his ask list, so i think that encapsulates the basic list that he had. it was much gratitude for the united states for standing firm with the people of ukraine. and i know we have disagreements back in washington, but it was nice to see both sides of the aisle standing firmly with ukraine, and that's a strong message to send not only to president zelenskyy and the ukrainian people, but also to vladimir putin. neil: how many senators were in on that call? all 100? >> there were so many people on the call, i just looked at the apartments -- participants, 285, neil. and we have that many on a call, you can't see everybody the way that zoom works, who's on the

call. neil: increasingly tiny little boxes, aren't they? each one gets to be tinier and tinier. but that says a lot. i'm wondering where you see it going, senator, we're getting word, as you know, that the russians might have torpedo, no one intended, the humanitarian gestures that were made to open up a path for ukrainians who want to leave and for foreign aid to get in. i don't know if that can be regrouped and redone, but it doesn't look good. your thoughts. >> well, this is why zelenskyy referred to the russians as devils. when the russians are actually going after these nuclear facilities, it's no wonder they're also going to go after humanitarian supplies. these are, these are war crimes being committed before our very eyes. i was disappointed to see some of my colleagues and president biden -- these are war crimes, neil. let's be very is, very clear what's going on. s this is evil manifest if before our very eyes and a

reminder to the world a very dangerous place. and we have got to get back on the track of national security and energy security. this battle that we're seeing, this war with russia and ukraine, this is not going to end in the next several months. this is a long-term battle we face in the world with our adversaries, and that's why it's so important, i want to see both sides of the aisle calling for american energy dominance. it is absolutely one of the great weapons we can use to keep the world safe and insure that we have our economy protected and the world protected. because i'll tell you what, when they stop the russian oil company, oil's going to go to $150, $108 a barrel. we could see $7-8 a gallon gasoline. elle tell you what, it's a shame that barack obama started shutting down the keystone pipeline. we've got to get rid of these woke climate change idealogues like john kerry who's talking about climate change being a much bigger threat than what's going on right now in the

ukraine. and that is why it's important here that we have a shift in our overall strategy for this nation going forward. we need global american energy dominance. it's very dangerous to not have that. remember, russia is one of the leading oil producers in the world. and we've got to change this course. neil: senator steve daines, thank you very, very much. montana republican in on that phone call with ukrainian president zelenskyy. fair and balanced now, a democrat who was also in on that phone call, the former vice presidential candidate for the democratic party of virginia, democrat tim kaine. senator, good to have you. >> neil, very glad to be with you today. thanks. neil: senator, apparently president zelenskyy, he brought up the whole no-fly zone thing. obviously, he's maybe given up on that, frustrated by that, but he was asking for more lethal aid. did he spell out to you what lethal aid would be? >> neil, he didn't, but i think

we know what he needs. you know, we've done $3 billion worth of defensive military aid to ukraine since 2014, a billion in the last year. but you're going to see congress likely in the next two weeks probably do another $5-8 billion of military aid. in the last year it's really switched heavily towards anti-tank and anti-aircraft defense capacity. but we're going to dramatically increase that, and i think there is strong bipartisan support for that together with the sanctions, u.s. troops and the nato ally countries, you'll see much more defensive aid flowing to ukraine very soon. neil: senator, much has been made back and forth of how far we go with sanctions. there's been a wit of a rift in your -- bit of a rift in your party about, for example, russian oil. the president does not seem, at least at this point, to cut it all off. nancy pelosi's open to it. where are you on this?

>> i think we should, the u.s. should shut down imports of russian energy. we should do that. we can do it unilaterally, and we ought to do it right away. there's also discussion about the sanctions against russian energy projects, companies. we need to -- on the sanctions side we're so much stronger when we act in tandem with our allies. the current sanctions have shown that. so rather than do additional unilateral sanctions on energy, need to work with our allies on that. but i think we should shut down russian oil imports asap. neil: why don't you think the president hasn't done that? >> i don't exactly know, but i think with the growing, you know, voices in congress about it, i think it's likely to happen. i suspect the president is worried about the potential inflationary effect of the price of gas at the pump if we shut off russian imports which are 4-5% of what we import in the united states.

neil: right. >> we dramatically reduce those imports over the last few months but, look, i think this is something we need to do to help deprive russia of resources. neil: senator, when president zelenskyy was talking to you and your colleagues, did he mention, again, any push for, you know, peace talks, additional peace talks? i know a third one is plannedded next week. and what might be some of the things that ukraine could offer to stop this? and, of course, vladimir putin has said the government cannot be the government that's there right now, so president zelenskyy would presumably have to step down. did he talk about that? and did he talk about what he might offer to counter this? >> neil, he didn't. and, but i don't -- look, putin's statement that the legitimately elected government of ukraine has to step down, that's ridiculous, you know?

if he can take a flying leap if that's whoo he's -- what he's interested in. zelenskyy shouldn't do that. this is a legitimate government that was elected by the ukrainian people, and he was elected after ukraine had seen what russian come nance -- dominance of the donbas has done. what vladimir putin has done with these breakaway puppet states is convince every single ukrainian russian speakers with family in russia, he's convinced every single ukrainian we don't want that. putin has turned all ukrainians toward the west in his request that zelenskyy or the government step down. that's a non-starter. so we didn't really talk too much about peace discussions. i think the way peace is going to happen is pressure on putin internally from these economic sanctions with the oligarchs and others around him. and with everyday russian citizens, you know, running on banks and atms to get their monies out, i think it's going to take that internal political

squeeze for putin to change. it's not going to be done just at the negotiating table. neil: you know, senator, do you have any idea how much the russian people know what's going on? russia's now, you know, pushed out the bbc, voice of america, radio-free europe. their access to outside sources, which was always limited, especially so now, but you raised a very good point about how they don't necessarily need access to social media to know they're waiting on long lines to get their money out of banks and a limit on how much money they can get out of banks. is it your understanding, sir, that the hope of zelenskyy is on russian frustration building in the next week or two enough, enough to slow putin down or maybe invite, you know, an overthrow? >> neil, that was my sense, both my own intuition but also in

talking with president zelenskyy this morning, he was very complimentary of the force of these economic sanctions in russia. you're right. putin controls all the media. the last independent media in russia has been shut down as well as all the foreign media that's tried to give some independent voice. they've all been shut down. however, the ruble is devaluing very fast. the russian stock market is closed. the u.n. general assembly overwhelmingly voted to censure russia. putin is being held up as a war criminal before the icc. this information does get out, and russians are going to banks and atm ifs to try to take out money. that's the beginning of a tough, tough political reality for vladimir putin, and we also have some suggestion that the oligarchs around him who are having assets and grants and condominiums seized, they realize this is a massive blunder. so my belief is we keep up the

sanctions and up them further. we ban imports of russian oil, we keep flowing military aid in greater quantity and greater lethality to the ukrainian defense force. but i think it's going to be the bite of these economic sanctions that is ultimately going to change putin's calculus. it may not happen fast enough for us, but i do believe they will change his calculus. neil: senator, yous mentioned keeping the sanctions up and going, and i'm wondering how long they would be infect. let's say this does get resolved, hopefully peacefully, and then the question becomes if vladimir putin is still in power in russia, would you keep those sanctions on? in other words, would sanctions and economic punishment, senator, be contingent on him leaving? >> neil, you've asked a really good question, and i'll tell you, this has been a little bit of a problem with u.s. sanctions

policy generally, is that we kind of have triggers about when to put them on, but we don't nosily think -- necessarily think through in advance when they should be relieved. and i often think they have a better deterrent value if you communicate up front if you do x, y and z, then these sanctions will be lifted. now, what we have with us is we have a menu of sanctions, but we don't have -- it doesn't have to be all or nothing. so we could potentially see those, you know, the lifting of some of the sanctions on the energy sector. you know, we could keep some on the financial sector. the president, together with our allies, has a lot of flexibility here which sanctions to keep on or keep off. and you're right, if the economic bite ends up changing putin's calculus, the discussion that a we have about which sanctions might come off, when and in which order, that could be a really important part of the peace negotiation and

discussion. neil: your republican colleague, lindsey graham, has said maybe someone should kill vladimir putin and the problem goes away. he dialed that back a little bit. what did you think of that? >> well, it's classic lindsey. [laughter] i mean, i know lindsey graham and you do too, that's the just the kind of thing he would say. i don't think it's that helpful because if you start talking about assassination of another nation's leader, well, then people around world say is, okay, that's an appropriate avenue of foreign policy, so why don't we talk about an assassination of zelenskyy or an assassination of biden. if you open that door, you can't assume that it's just being opened to the leader of one country that we don't like today. it suddenly becomes, okay, well, american leaders think that's an appropriate tool. that's a pandora's box that should stay closed. neil: finally, senator, and i appreciate your patience, i wasn't in on this meeting, you

were. we're learning that president zelenskyy has told you and your colleagues if you had started sanctions months ago, there would not have been war. now, it's very easy to play monday morning quarterback here, but do you think yourself, senator, that had sanctions, much more forceful ones, been in place much earlier, none of this would be happening? >> well, it is a good question, neil. and i know it's -- these sanctions really work when they work in tandem. if it's just the u.s., they weren't so strong. but here was something that i noticed going back into early november if when i was meeting with my e.u. counterparts at security conferences or when they were in d.c., they viewed putin's intentions very different than the united states did. we were seeing the same facts on the ground, movement of troops, etc., etc. but while the u.s. was saying, hey, look, putin's going to invade ukraine, even zelenskyy and some of the other european leaders were saying, hey, don't

panic, we think it's an exercise, we think it's a show of force: so there has never been during my time in the senate a wider gulf between the u.s. and our allies about what might happen than there was with respect to this question of what putin's intentions were. and as long as our allies didn't believe he was going to invade, it was very difficult to get them onboard. so just to use one example, we really wanted the nord stream pipeline to be canceled. that was very, very tough for germany to do. the biden administration was able to get the germans to commit. we won't cap sell it, but if russia invades, okay, we'll cancel it. that took a lot of work at the front end to get them to make that private commitment, but they carried through on it as soon as the invasion happened. so, you're right, had we all seen the intel the same way and had everybody reached the same conclusion the u.s. did that a there was going to be an invasion, yes, earlier sanctions might have worked better, but we

weren't on the same page until the invasion happened. neil: senator tim kaine, thank you very much for joining us. i appreciate it. >> great to be with you, neil, thanks. neil: senator kaine, of course, the democrat vice presidential candidate in 2016. let's go to mike tobin right now in lviv, ukraine. this is a tumultuous day, to put it mildly here, where we're told the russians are not observing a ceasefire. mike, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, if you were skeptical about russian agreement for a ceasefire to establish humanitarian corridors, you were right to be skeptical. that ceasefire, the humanitarian corridors were agreed to when the ukrainians and the russians met in belarus those two times. that was the outcome. they were established so these people who have been getting hammered in mariupol can it cape the fighting and begin the trek west. the corridors were supposed to

last from 9 a.m. to p.m., but -- 4 p.m., but they quickly fell apart. the deputy prime minister of ukraine said there was renewed shelling. the people who were supposed to yet out of these embattled towns were warned to seek shelter again. >> translator: we are addressing the russian side, stop shelling, return to the ceasefire regime and give the possibility to realize a humanitarian corridor. if so that children, women and the elderly population can leave the area. >> reporter: we've got remarkable video northwest of kyiv showing a russian helicopter taken out of the sky by an anti-aircraft weapon, probably a stinger missile. this is part of the military aid sent to ukraine. germany, for one, sent the stingers. the u.s. u.s. sent $350 million worth of aid invest last two weeks, our jennifer griffin reported that it had already made it to the fighters. u.s. defense officials say they're really impressed, really

unprecedented the speed with with which the ukrainians are getting the equipment to the people on the front lines and very impressed at the effectiveness with which the ukrainians are using this weaponry. neil? neil: just amazing. mike tobin, thank you very much. going to take a quick break here. do want to pass along an alert from the state department now telling americans to depart russia immediately. this is a follow-up alert on a similar warning they issued about a week ago. they said do not travel to russia dow -- due to the unprovoked attack in ukraine and possible harassment of u.s. citizens by russian government security officials. so the latest word is don't even think about it. get out. we'll have plaintiff after this -- have more after this. an. that's why you need versatile, durable kubota equipment.

neil:...

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it's me, and my three children. if i have to stay here and face putin, maybe the world leaders, maybe president biden, maybe the president of other countries, maybe they will find enough of courage. neil: all right. and she's not a hero, she's just a mom, trying to do what's right for her country and save her country. her husband off to fight the good fight. and this is a fight, maybe more than vladimir putin thought would be the case. trey yingst is in ukraine and trey. good morning, as russian forces advance on kyiv, civilians are caught in the cross-fire. we were outside of the ukrainian capital. >> black smoke billows up across the skyline, many of the

city's 60,000 residents are evacuating as russia attacks from the air and ground. what would you tell the world about what's happening? >> it's war. it's a real war. this is a real war, we smell it, you can feel it, and of course see it. >> she says she plans to go to kyiv's central train station before heading west to the city of lviv. others haven't thought that far. >> they're leaving their entire lives behind. whatever they can pick up, you see the bags, pets, belongings and they understand that this war is getting closer and closer to their hometown and they have to get out of the way. >> as civilians are rushed to safety, ukrainian soldiers reload and head back to battle with rpg's, anti-aircraft missiles and trenches in place, defending their home and their people. >> you can hear behind me, shots going off as people try to flee. the front line each hour is

moving as russian forces advance on the ukrainian capital. >> as you can see, these are not military people, they're normal people who wanted to live peacefully. they can't because you can hear explosions everywhere, over there, tanks. all other military vehicles are burning, are fighting. >> the united nations says more than 1.4 million people have fled ukraine since the russian invasion started. that number is expected to rise. neil. neil: trey, thank you very much, my friend. tray trey yingst, following that. it's not just ukrainians protesting. russians are as well. two examples now, and they're protesting what russian president vladimir putin has unleashed, and welcome to both

of you. if i may begin with you, what message do you want to send your fellow russian citizens? >> i would say that here in russia right now, we really tried to protest against this war and the majority of russia, they're against this war, but at the same time they're scared to protest because the policy here you can face just immense, immense measures and right now, i see how the department of my friends, how people get detained for no reason, how people get arrested and fined for no reason and of course, you get really scared and, but i would say right now, president putin has started war in ukraine and our fellow

ukrainians, were our colleagues, friends, relatives, they're dying right now, they're dying from russian army, they're dying from our invasion and i would say that we really need to protest now, we really need to take that responsibility. i know how scary it can be right now that i'm scared to protest. really, i understand right now that i can be in prison for 15 years for just for sticking up and being against this war, but still, i feel like it is my moral obligation and i would say to my fellow russians to be afraid, but still go in the streets, rally and protest peacefully because it's-- it's just the thing we need to do right now. it's the right thing to do and we really need to do this together. neil: and you talk about the great risk you've taken and that's probably an understatement. but how do russians find out

what's going on? how much do they know what's going on? >> yeah, i think that the people do understand the situation because we read everything on the internet and trying to just vpn and stuff like that and all the people having a lot of problems with that because they're watching tv and they were brain washing people for eight years, talking that ukraine was nazis and talking that they're killing people in dombas and lying a lot. and people have been brain washed for eight years and, yeah, it's kind of difficult for them to believe that russia starting a full scale war and they are shocked now, i think. they just don't understand what's happening, maybe because a lot of they're just shut down and talking everything. so now, with every day getting

more and more difficult to get information because like they have new laws and they want to prohibit to call this war a war, that saying it's a special operation, and that saying, we don't kill people in ukraine, it's just a special operation and we want to free ukraine from that. but the problem is that now we are the nazis, the country that defeated nazis in 20th century now is being nazis. neil: polina, it seems like few russians know what's going on and difficult for those with access to social media is young, but even that president putin has taken down to make sure they won't. back home, what kind of support does vladimir putin have. >> i would say that of course, like the people from the major cities of russia, like moscow,

we have this access to independent media and we just statistically use our laptops and just, yeah, most frequently, but russia is really big and there are a lot of regions and people like the level of living in other regions, in different regions of russia is different from moscow and it's different dramatically. because of that, people don't have access to like digital things. they don't have access to macarthur books or lab tops or tablets. because of that, in russia you don't have tv channels, which are not owned by government. they are all owned by government and several independent media, but they're different regions and sometimes it's like, really difficult to get this information and so

people, they're being brain washed for years and years. they're being brain washed and around the annexation of crimea and so these people in the regions, they've watched the tv on a daily basis and they're being brain washed on a daily basis and they don't have access to the other stories through the independent media. and because of that, they really start to believe vladimir putin. to believe the government and i would say that it's not there for how things are in russia and i would say that vladimir putin, he has this some proportion of support here in russia because there are the people who don't know the truth and that don't have the possibility to know the truth,

to learn the truth and because of that, there are, of course, some people who think that this war can be justified because it is the official agenda of vladimir putin and of our government that it can be justified because we're doing the right thing, and that's how some people in russia see it because it's not their opinion, it's just the opinion from the tv. >> do you think that putinen should be overthrown? >> of course and sooner is better because what he's doing is a crime against ukrainian people, against russian people, of course, because our lives every day is getting harder and harder and i'm not talking about economy. i was an activist for three years and three years ago i started to strike like members,

think it's the only way to protest in russia that allowed from the russian government and doing that, and it was scary then. i was afraid even though i was 24 years old. i was afraid and very, very scared for me and then two years ago when this started, they start today arrest people even from single pickets and they started tried to poison navalny, and then they arrested him and they started to arrest everyone, like they declared navalny just for fighting corruption. they started to arrest all political activists, all activists, so scary now to speak up against this. and they were trying to scare people for years and years, and that's why we don't have protesting in russia now, like for thousands and thousands of people, like in europe, like a

lot of activists for in the u.s. or in europe, they're organizing strikes for hundreds of thousands of people and i was organizing my single pickets. it's change, but it's realty in russia that people are afraid and they have reasons to be afraid. because if you're protesting, your family can have problems, you can lose your job. they can expel you from university and you can lose everything that you love so it's so difficult and dangerous to be activist now that i can people are afraid to protest, but of course we do not have choice because our lives are collapsing, economy is collapsing, and they're killing everything and we don't have the option not to protest so people in russia trying to protest every day even though almost all of our opposition leaders are in prison or are in other countries. neil: you're a remarkable

couple. thank you for giving us an inside look what might be going on in russia. we just don't hear about it, but thank you both very, very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. neil: i want to get reaction to this with blayne holt, the u.s. brigadier general to be with us. general, that russian couple might have hit on maybe the solution to all of this, growing russian frustration with what's going on and despite putin's best efforts to keep this from the russian people, it's leaking out, as if it needed leaking out when they realize they're in long lines to get the money out of the bank and they can't get as much money as they want. what do you think of that. >> neil, a pleasure to be on with you, what an inspiring couple and they're reflective of the russians i know and i'm talking to every day now. there's this very great concern and worry that what they've fought 33 years for since the

cold war ended, to get into the world community, and to experience western prosperity, and to have that snuffed away, so that vladimir putin can assuage his ego and have this war with this state that he started really eight years ago. and the horrors are getting out through russia, so, yes, it's a good thing to wake people up, but i really applaud the russians who are so brave in stepping out and standing up and calling this what it is. neil: general, we know that president zelenskyy, i've spoke with u.s. senators a short time ago, he's frustrated, obviously, about the no-fly zone issue and that we're not going to be policing the skies over ukraine. but he did ask for more aid, more lethal aid, and essentially was saying time is of the essence. that growing impatience and the fact that the administration apparently is trying to cobble together a $10 billion aid

package, that takes time. how much time do you think the ukrainians have? >> they don't have a lot of time and you know, the government needs to get very flexible very quickly, so instead of chasing the $10 billion bogey out there to get it perfect and just right, starting in incremental flow, they do need lethal aid. they need medical aid and here is the inspiring thing, just like we saw the fall of afghanistan, with all of these private groups, ngo's, veterans groups to rush in to go save american lives, we're seeing groups come together much like this, that are actively working below the surface to get material into the ukrainians hands, but i certainly understand president zelenskyy and we absolutely have this in our vital interests now that they're attacking nuclear power plants. neil: this humanitarian gesture, i guess, that was made

was apparently short-lived to provide safe passage for ukrainians to get out of the country and aid to get into the country. and we've been told there's strafing around odesa, a key port city. do you think that the russians are doing it as much to make life difficult for the ukrainians, but making sure no aid gets in humanitarian or otherwise? >> the russians are lying about everything because they want to create headlines that can get parroted back to their audience. and they don't want anybody to escape. they're targeting civilians. these are the crimes against humanity. and we have to decide is this where they stop?

i'm arguing, no. and targeting nuclear, they're effectively dirty bombs, and we have to look at how the war is running and what the true equities are and i don't think that merely holding up an n.a.t.o. membership card to say, we're not going to protect this country. i think we've gone beyond and we need to look at how europe and the united states are threatened. neil: general, i want to thank you as well for your incredible service to this country. appreciate it on both counts, sir, thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much and thank you, it's an honor. neil: in the meantime, alexei joins us, ukrainian member of parliament. you know. >> you're quite literally putting up the fight, risking your life as many, many of your colleagues and friends and not going to take this lying down. i'm wondering where things stand today on news that this

humanitarian agreement, whatever you want to call it, has already fallen apart. are you frustrated? >> definitely, because it's a question of lives of people and children, women, and as brigadier general just told, i heard him and he's absolutely right. russians are committing genocide. and that's something awful in the 21st century in the middle of europe, just so awful things they're doing. again, mariupol, people don't have heat, electricity, mobile connection and there was an agreement to make a humanitarian corridor and today thousands of people are ready to move, but russia started to again to fire and to shoot at the places where it was considered that people will be gathering. so, that's a new world crime

that happened and i'm very much frustrated. that's why we're so desperately in need of air relief. you know, we're speaking about help from america and the united states in air, but the possibility of humanitarian airlifts which were done not once by american, by u.s. aircraft just to give medicine, things which people need to those who are suffering right now, not to fight russians in air, but just help those who are suffering, that can help us enormously. neil: alexey, the russians said that was not a deliberate attack on the nuclear facility, but they came within 1500 feet of hitting the nuclear reactor, which could have been chernobyl

on steroids if that happened. do you think that was intentional mood? >> it was absolutely. they definitely knew what they're doing, definitely. so, they are barbarians, but you know, but they're not people from the 13th century. they know what is nuclear power plant and russian federation has nuclear power plants in their own country, so they know what it is. and when they shoot from tanks at reactors of the biggest in europe, nuclear power plant, they definitely knew what they're doing. so, that's an attempt to put terror to people all around, but i just want to ask, is it something which the world just can watch and no reaction? i don't think so. because it's something which can influence everybody in the world. are they interested in this or not? but that can influence everybody. that's a crime against humanity

as a whole. so, that's something that we need to speak about and that again takes us to the position that we need to stop putin now before he did something which will be, you know, without possibility to take back the situation. so, that's -- that's what i think about it. >> worse case scenario, alexey, vladimir putin wins, installs a puppet government. what will you do? >> i will fight in kyiv, if they penetrate to kyiv, and with my compatriots, and join the militia and we'll do our best, many of us don't have military experience, me, too, but we will do our best to protect our capital and to protect ukraine. now, i believe that that will not happen, but if it will

happen, the question is only one, it's not the question, what will i do or somebody else, it's the question what he will go further, and that will be a third world war. so he already started it. so we need to stop putin now and that's in the interest of every person on this planet. neil: alexey, godspeed. >> thank you. financial boost? the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value and take out up to $60,000 or more. give them a call. veteran homeowners, newday wants to help you use your va home loan benefit to get more. more cash, more savings, more peace of mind. the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value. up to $60,000 or more. veterans are saving an average of $615 every

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>> when you look at human rights abuses and all of that, in the middle of an ongoing attack, vladimir putin must just shrug his shoulders. >> what the human rights counsel is doing, it does mean

that evidence will be collected and one day it will be given to a judicial tribunal and that tribunal will hold individuals responsible for the attacks on civilians in ukraine for the attack on the power station which is against the geneva convention, in addition to the human rights counsel, the international criminal court has decided to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in ukraine, steps that will eventually lead to individual responsibility and accountability, not just for president putin, but for his generals. neil: the british ambassador to the united states saying england wants to lead the way on war crimes investigation into the actions of vladimir putin, that she had termed brutal and something we should not ignore concurrent with getting him the heck out of

ukraine. joining us from the former ambassador to ukraine and thank you for coming. >> this is happening at the same time we're learning this humanitarian agreement that was supposedly made between ukraine and russia has been blown up because the ukrainians say that the russians are strafing of those on the humanitarian passageway out of the country and the way that aid would come into the country. what do you think of all of this? >> well, i think it demonstrates that putin is still trying to scare, intimidate, bomb, strafe the ukrainians into unconditional surrender. everything is still devoted to that one specific goal. >> how important-- we had a russian couple on, sir, talking about the slow, but steady realization of this sinking in, with what's going on in ukraine, among the russian people. they're locked out of social media yesterday putin kicked out the last remnants of that.

but they're finding out, and they're also experiencing it, i'm sorry, along lines outside of banks, et cetera, that could be to them, at least, the turning point here, the russians just throwing up their hands in total frustration and aghast at what's going on. what do you think of that? >> there's no question that this is simply's putin's war. the russian people don't want it. polls prior to this massive russian invasion showed that russians did not want their soldiers fighting ukrainians. we saw that putin's own close advisors seemed to be unhappy with his decision to send this large invasion force to ukraine and to play games with russia's nuclear status. so putin, it's in putin's interest to make sure the russian people don't get real information about the barbarous campaign he's conducting and the casualties and spreading

false information about ukraine in russia, his thread to send protesters to the russian military are all designed to control the information. it's a wonderful thing that is, as russia's created problems for the ukrainian internet. ukrainian communications, elon musk is talking about helping ukraine be able to communicate with itself. be wonderful if such capacities were turned into giving a chance for the russian people to get real information, maybe mr. musk has greater ambition. neil: i'm sorry, ambassador, is that the way to stop this, to have putin lose support at home, maybe even prompt his being overthrown? >> i don't think that's the only way, but i think that's an important factor. i think the other thing, which is extremely important, is for us to provide every means possible to help ukraine resist this russian invasion. and we need to send far more weapons. the administration made a serious mistake when it did not

meet ukraine request for coastal missiles to attack ships and real anti-aircraft capacity. we've had to fix that now and get the missiles to kill ships to ukraine while ukraine has a black seacoast, and that the stinger missiles and that that are in the hands of our allies into the hands of ukraine. neil: reporting this hour, russia demanded that russian sanctions over ukraine would not prevent it from trading with iran under a revived nuclear deal. what do you think of that and if that is indeed true, whether that deal is making? >> i think that's clever on moscow's part. they know how anxious the biden administration is to make a deal with iran and they have some influence there, but the

assumption of your question is absolutely right. the greatest danger right now to global security and u.s. security is moscow's invasion of ukraine. we should not let whatever interest we have in reaching that nuclear deal with iran enable moscow to complete its invasion successfully. and you're right, that the iranian deal is just not worth it, we'd be foolish to pursue a relatively minor interest and give up a major interest and that's makes no strategic sense. neil: ambassador, we're hearing from vladimir putin, and maybe this is a warning to european governments, that any who consider any third party declaration, just a mere declaration of a no-fly zone over ukraine as a participating in this armed conflict? what do you think? >> i think that putin is a

master of intimidation and frankly up until the mass invasion of ukraine that tactic particularly with our european allies. i sawer-- saw your interview, and understand how dangerous it would be for russia to take a step in that direction. that's intimidation to prevent us and prevent our european eye lies to protect our interest in helping ukraine defeat moscow in ukraine. neil: ambassador john herbst. thank you for talking to us on a saturday. john herbst former ambassador to ukraine. in the meantime we should let now that the count now is about one and a half million people who are making their way out of ukraine and it already represents the largest, fastest displacement of people in europe since world war ii. and it keeps going on and going

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together. neil: all right. a russian couple speaking out against the war going on in ukraine and specifically vladimir putin, and that the guy has to go. in the meantime, he's still in power and he's still leading this vicious, horrific war that has ripped ukraine apart and led to the exodus or hoped-for exodus of some 1.45 million refugees making their way through poland, romania, any way and place they can. alex hogan is in poland with that part of the story. alex. >> hi, neil, i'm in poland, the train station where people are being welcomed after fleeing ukraine of the roughly 1.4 million refugees who have left the country. about 700,000 of them have come through poland. the country says it's opening its doors, welcoming anyone who niece refuge here and this is exactly what we've seen, person after person, they are carrying everything that they now own.

they've left everything behind. children, women, of course, not as many men because all men between the ages of 18 to 60 must stay behind and fight. again, a lot of tearful faces today. exhaustion, many of them have been travelling such a long time to get here and most of the people that i've talked with say that they came from the capital. >> in the basement. scary, so scary. we wouldn't know what would happen and that's why we decided to leave. >> so again, they decided to leave. they came here and again, it's one of the one families of 1.4 million people who have decided to do the same thing. if you take a look, this is what you'll see off the train, created by volunteers to speak many languages, to decide where to go, given food, hot water,

trinks drinks, coffee, tea, and people are holding signs, crossing the continent willing to drive the refugees wherever they need to go and people here comforting children, dressed up as mascots, handing out toys and doing whatever they can to try to make this nightmare for them a little more bearable. neil. >> alex, thank you, very much for that. with us now, the fellow trying to handle this refugee process, and that's the thing when you're talking close to one and a half million people, that's a herculean task. and with an organization, they shepherd this process along. i don't envy the challenge you're under here. how is it going? >> good morning, neil.

we are from the national and we're supporting the relief agency. relief. and we're helping to evacuate the students and other people from all nationalities. today we have received approximately 10,000 requests and we helped action approximately 32,000 people to evacuate to nearby borders of poland, hungary, slovakia. and we have volunteers standing at the borders to helping people coming through the borders and help with the humanitarian, with our resource toss support them to have a better life and then to have some kind of peace in their

mind. neil: we're just learning today of course that the temporary cease-fire for humanitarian aid to get in and for those to get out fell through. the ukrainians saying russians were attacking those positions and the routes have been shut down. is that true? how does that complicate what you're trying to do? >> yeah, this is a conflict, and any kind of conflicts need to be discussed, and through a diplomatic means, and needs to be, and the kind of attack, a kind of, which is creating problem for the humanity. what we would like to have the conflicts need to be resolved. >> all right. please keep us posted on this, but it's very difficult work what you're doing, but for

those one and a half million people and more to come, you are a savior for them. so godspeed to you. as we wrap up here and go to a quick break here, we want to make you aware that a russian plane that's coming to the united states. your first reaction would be, didn't we close down the air space to prevent that from happening? this is a plane from president putin's fleet en route here to pick up diplomates who were expelled. we're monitoring extremely closely, we don't know how many are going to board that plane, but it's just an exception to allow for these diplomates kicked out to get out. we'll keep you posted. thanks for coming. now when it comes to a financial plan this broker is your man. let's open your binders to page 188... uh carl, are there different planning options in here? options? plans we can build on our own, or with help from a financial consultant? like schwab does. uhhh... could we adjust our plan... ...yeah, like if we buy a new house? mmmm... and our son just started working.

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virtually all were in on it, that is the call and he did express frustration with the no-fly zone that would be ruled out from n.a.t.o. and saying that the danger of this expanding sort of like a third world war were such they didn't entertain it. he asked for more lethal aid and the sooner the better. mark meredith is at the pentagon with more. >> good morning, neil. the biden administration as well as officials pat the pentagon they believe the u.s. is going a heck after lot to bolster the ukrainian government and provide humanitarian assistance while trying to avoid a war with the u.s. and russia. and they've been getting a briefing from zelenskyy, he asked for the no-fly zone to be set up. the u.s. has no intention of doing that fearing it would escalate tensions further and the they said it could be

direct conflict with russia, a nuclear power and we know that vladimir putin talked about the no-fly zone insisting it could have catastrophic consequences for europe if it were set up. we heard from florida senator marco rubio, that ukraine's air force is doing a good job. russia has multiple shootdowns and dead, and see if the pentagon has a reaction to that. the u.s. is deploying military assistance into ukraine even though the hostilities have gotten so large in the last few days ap the administration is asking congress to provide additional $10 billion to boost that exact effort. >> we have been the largest provider of economic and humanitarian assistance, we've rallied the world to stand up against vladimir putin, we're not watching-- >> what i can tell you what we can support and what we're doing is looking for ways to continue to get security

assistance into the hands. ukrainian armed forces and we're doing that to a fair thee well and doing that in expediting the recent drawdown package that the president approved. >> that's one thing we've been hearing from the administration, as well as officials at the pentagon in the last day or so, they believe that the u.s. has really been trying to step up assistance back to 2014, some $3 billion, sent out a billion within the last year alone as' woo talked about, neil, more money likely on the way, given the remarks from congress already today, neil. neil: to your earlier point, time is of the essence, but we're learning that zelenskyy in his remarks to senators had been saying that ukrainian forces were holding key cities in the central and southern parts of the country. can the pentagon confirm that? has the pentagon indeed agreed with that? >> well, the pentagon's latest statement that we got from them late yesterday afternoon was

indicating that the convoy remains stalled as it's trying to make its way closer to kyiv. we're talking how large of an area that kyiv is, it would be difficult for russian forces to be able to control a city of that size, but you were talking specifically about the southern cities where we've seen the rusians making advances the last 24, 48 hours. and mariupol and eventually with odesa, and whether russia's navy will assist the forces coming on the ground through the crimea region. we'll see whether the pentagon has new reaction from those from zelenskyy. one of the biggest things we hear what needs to happen next. senator ben sasse from nebraska believes they need more jets and we'll see the reaction to

those demands and as well as members of congress. neil: mark, any reaction from the latest threat from vladimir putin, any declaration, particularly in europe, of support for a no-fly zone, is tantamount for being in the conflict? what do they think about that. >> the u.s. officials say they were not interested in doing that. we're hearing the calls directly and more publicly for the ukrainians to do that. and president putin felt he needed to get out why it wouldn't be feasible. and interesting in president putin's comments why russia is doing this, why it's important for them to go into ukraine in a satisfaction with a flight attendants for russia's national airlines, a bizarre photo op, president putin seemed light hearted in

comments not really concerned what's going on on the ground in ukraine, and this is coming from the russian side of things, so there may be happening more behind the scenes. but interesting to hear president putin's comments warning europe there would be consequences for the no-fly zone and acting as if things were just normal, neil. neil: surreal, you're right. mark meredith, air right. at the pentagon. letting you know that that flight is tracked. it's a chartered flight by the russian government being allowed in is a one-time only event to pick up and fly back home russian diplomates who have been expelled from this country. but everyone's monitoring it and tracking it, every mile it takes to get to washington. we'll keep you posted. the last thing on my mind. hey mom, can i go play video games? sure, after homework. thankfully, voya provides comprehensive solutions and shows me how to get the most out of my workplace benefits. what's the wifi password again? here...you...go.

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along a story coming from nbc news that all star wnba player brittany greiner is being detained in russia, we don't know why, there are a number of athletes and even actors and entertainers who are still in russia, getting out as the state department recommended for the second time this week. an urgent appeal to get the heck out of the country. apparently she was trying to leave, but has been detained in russia. and anastasia join us now, a world fitness champion, fitness expert in ukraine right now has no intention of leaving ukraine right now, in fact, wanting to lead the fight in ukraine. very good to see you. i believe you're in kyiv. how are things there? >> hi, guys. so far i'm alive, i go he is -- i guess that's the most important. to be honest, frustrated and exhausted. neil: i can't blame you. why are you there? you could have left. you're a celebrity in that

country and icon. you could have left some time ago, you chose not to. >> could leave, but since my family is quite big, you know, we have like i have my parents, my siblings and i have two kids, and to be honest, that's was kind of a -- we were not sure exactly where we're going on to be honest, like on the first two, three days. even when we heard the bombs coming and you know, things were going crazy, we still doesn't believe it was actual like full on war, like full on attacks going on. like we were just hoping it was kind of provocation that's going to end in a couple of days and you know, we can just live our normal life, but, yeah, it didn't happen. and-- >> do you have any idea when

this, i'm sorry, when this all started did you have any idea, nine or 10 days later this is where you'd be? >> no, absolutely not. absolutely not. yeah, we were all sure until the last moment, i think for the first three, four days, we were sure it's going to end soon. we had no idea, it's going to go so far, yeah like literally seeing an explosion every day behind the window and hearing the sound of guns, you know, like full on action. like in the action movies. neil: anastasia, you know, the peace talks, we're told there are another attempt next week and the third time that ukrainian and russian officials to talk peace, but given the russians may have blown up

humanitarian issues, do you have any hope at all? >> for peace talks? yeah, it seems like it takes a while for them to discuss anything at this point and it doesn't seem like it's going anywhere at all. and from what i understood already, they don't hold their word. for example, today there was agreement for the people to leave in peace, you know, from mariupol and were destroyed almost completely at this point, and russian soldiers last moment, they didn't let them go, they started to shoot in the city and the buses and didn't let them go. so the mission was blocked. they were supposed to hide and wait until the next moment, and wait until they will let them

bring them to other cities, a little more safe compared to where they are now. so it seems like whatever discussions they do, it doesn't bring anywhere, it doesn't bring us anywhere at all. it just kind of waste of time, you know. i'm not quite sure. neil: it's frustrating. i hear you, thank you. thank you very much. please be safe and your family, as well. >> thank you so much. neil: and it's probably an understatement. we are finding out by the way a little more about this wnba player, brittany greiner, who has been detained in russia. the russians are saying that she'd been detained after finding an oil in her luggage. we don't know much about that, but the state department urging all americans to get the heck out. the second urgent message of

the state department and we they may be saying, we're really not kidding here, and we don't know if it's in the timing of that. but the russians maybe getting an inkling of that ayn maybe not like what they're hearing. continuing coverage of the ongoing war with ukraine next. >> oh! >> ukrainians cheering and clapping with joy as what seems to be a russian plane shot out of the sky, another small victory as they battle to keep their homeland out of russian hands. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy asking more lethal aid and embargo on russian oil in a meeting with u.s. senators.