♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, search and seize. as russian forces increase their attacks on ukraine's people, the u.s. is going after the oligarchs and their luxurious lifestyles. >> if you're trying to evade our sanctions, we are coming for you, and we're coming for those assets. >> but will it work? plus, ivermectin. the controversy over the drug and the doctors who promote its use for covid. >> there's no clinical evidence that indicates that this works. >> even though major health organizations warn against it. now fueling a booming online business. >> interesting. >> offering easy access and generating big profits.

why one e.r. doctor says it's time to put down the prescription pad. >> we're fighting a war. and it's an information war. in new york city, ♪ ♪ there's always something new to discover. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ come be a part of it. plan your next vacation at iloveny.com ♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. the white house is closely

monitoring the fire at ukraine's largest nuclear power plant tonight. the facility coming under artillery assault from russian forces. all of this unfolding as today the u.s. is ramping up efforts to influence putin and potentially stop the war. charging the men who control 30% of all of russia's wealth. this is the tragedy of war. the bombed-out carcass of a city once filled with life. now a mosaic of the structure. a post apocalyptic nightmare. tonight, russian attacks striking civilian areas. a devastating attack 90 miles north of kyiv. dash cam footage capturing the moment a projectile strikes. 33 killed, 18 wounded, according to the city's emergency services. if confirmed, it would be the largest single loss of civilian life in this conflict so far.

across ukraine, the numbers are staggering. as of today, more than 1 million ukrainians fleeing for their lives. as russian forces decimate their homeland, moving ever closer to the capital of kyiv. but as russia's crushing grip on ukraine tightens, so too is the world tightening its grip on russia, executing even more sanctions. hitting its coffers from every direction. >> today i'm announcing that we're adding dozens of names to the list, including one of russia's wealthiest billionaires. >> reporter: the latest sanctions announced by the treasury department today, impacting 19 individuals including 47 of their family members and close associates. eight members of russia's elite are now fully cut off from the u.s. financial system, including putin's spokesperson, dmitry peskov and one of putin's favorite on the ground leg gaurks. he and his private jet worth at least $350 million, now barred

from intrigue into the united states. the government saying his kremlin ties have enabled his luxurious lifestyle. part of that, his super yacht estimated at upwards of $600 million. osmonov pushes back on sanctions calling them, quote, false and defamatory allegations and that he'll use all legal means to protect his reputation. >> the goal is to maximize the impact on putin and russia. and to minimize the harm on us and our allies and friends around the world. >> the sanctions are also hitting the russian economy. the ruble is collapsing. supply chains are being disrupted. things are becoming less available. and the cost of living is skyrocketing. >> reporter: "forbes" estimating russian billionaires have lost at least $126 billion in wealth since mid-february. often referred to as oligarchs, russia's billionaires are thought to control roughly 30% of the country's wealth

according to the national bureau of economic research. >> oligarchs have acquired their wealth in often brutal means in russia. and they control mostly the natural resource sector of the russian economy and the production. >> reporter: officials have their sights set on russian assets around the world, seizing them to put pressure on russia to end the violence. and it's not just sanctions. the doj says they will actively pursue anyone with wealth and close ties to putin. >> the message to oligarchs ought to be very, very clear. if you're trying to evade our sanctions, if you're engaging in money laundering, if you're using corrupt proceeds to purchase that yacht, we are coming for you, and we're coming for those assets. >> reporter: deputy attorney general lisa monaco is leading that effort. code name "task force klepto capture." what is task force klepto capture? >> what this task force is, is a commitment from the department of justice working across our

department as well as across the rest of the government and with international partners to focus on the challenge posed by the efforts of oligarchs and putin's cronies to evade sanctions, to launder money, then using our law enforcement tools where we can trace the purchase of those luxury items to criminal activity like sanctions, like money laundering, to go and seize those assets. >> how does going after the elite help to stop the war in ukraine? >> i think the point of going after putin's cronies and russian oligarchs who seek to violate our laws and shield their assets is to say that nobody is beyond the reach of our system of justice, beyond the reach of our work in cooperation with our allies. and that these cronies and oligarchs who seek to support and bolster the russian regime shouldn't be able to get away with that while people are dying. >> reporter: the news comes as

talks between ukraine and russia today reaching another impasse. my colleague, ian pannell, at a press conference with ukrainian president zelenskyy at a secret location today. >> how long can you hang on? >> reporter: "i don't know, i don't know how long. it doesn't depend on time, it depends on us." but this war is largely in the hands of one man whose authority has stood mostly unchallenged for more than two decades. >> when putin came to power, he wanted to get rid of the on the ground leg gaurks. at first we thought it was a sincere desire to normalize the country. turned out that his objective was just not to normalize things, but he wanted to become the biggest oligarch himself. >> reporter: bill brower is an author and financier who spent years amassing a fortune investing in russian companies. >> i moved to moscow in 1996 to set up an investment fund to invest in the newly privatized companies of the former soviet

union and russia. it turned out to be a wild west time to be there. and my investment fund grew to become the largest investment fund in the country. i discovered a large amount of corruption going on in the companies that i was investing in. oligarchs were stealing from everybody, stealing from each other. it was totally unpredictable. but in the early days, it was also kind of exciting. >> reporter: at a time, he hoped to expose the bad business practices and corruption of senior officials at many russian companies. it was vladimir putin who was his ally in exposing that corruption. until, he says, putin realized wealthy businessmen were a threat to his power. >> when putin first came to power, he wasn't all-powerful, from my perspective as an investor. he became very valuable stepping in to a number of these highly contentious anti-corruption fights that i was waging against these oligarchs. as time went on, it became more

and more obvious there was something off with him. >> reporter: he eventually fell out of favor with putin and was forced to leave the country, eventually accusing the government of attempting to steal millions of tax dollars from his company. he became the anti-corruption activist, a champion for the passing of the "netnitsky act" which allows the u.s. to sanction foreign government officials for human rights violations. >> there's an expression, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. that's what happened to putin. as he got richer or more powerful, the oligarchs were effectively a nonentity to him action with one simple exception which is that he needed a place to put his own money. >> reporter: now scrutiny is on other businessmen, even those who haven't been sanctioned. roman abramovich, one of the richest men in russia, recently announced he would sell chelsea football club, one of the premier soccer team this is the world. saying in a statement the proceeds from this sale will go to the victims of war in ukraine. but some uk officials have threatened that he could be

sanctioned next. >> russia is not a diversified economy. and these oligarchs control the key elements of an economy that is not really poised for the 21st century. by cutting of their wealth and cutting off their access to technology, it is an absolutely devastating blow to the coming decades in russia. >> reporter: perhaps this is just a small comfort, as more russian bombs fall. more ukrainian cities are destroyed. more lives are lost. and still the world braces for whatever comes next. up next, the miracle covid drug that wasn't. why business is booming for ivermectin even though most medical experts say it does not

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♪ ivermectin has not been shown to be effective in treating covid-19. yet it is still being touted as a useful drug against the virus. here's abc's steve osunsami. >> come here. my brother, he called. he said, i got diagnosed with covid. he said, you know -- i tracked down a doctor who got me some

ivermectin. >> the controversy around ivermectin. >> ivermectin. >> should ivermectin be used to treat covid-19? >> there's no evidence whatsoever that that works. >> reporter: people want to believe in miracles. >> people just come in, oh, do you have ivermectin? pay for it and go. >> reporter: one of the latest false hoops is in a drug that every pillar of the medical community says should not be used to treat covid outside of clinical trials. but there are popular voices suggesting that it works. >> i feel pretty incredible. >> there is this treatment in ivermectin. >> reporter: what joe rogan and others are saying hasn't been proven, but in this divided world where people are fighting over how to respond to the pandemic, the explosion of interest in ivermectin has led to a booming online industry. where we were able to legally buy it with home delivery without ever seeing, talking with, or even hearing from a doctor.

the history of ivermectin isn't really that long. doctors around the world have been using it since the late '80s to change lives. but only as a drug meant to help people suffering from head lice, or used to safely treat pets and livestock. in the middle of the lockdowns, within a few months there was a run on ivermectin around the world. >> our next speakers are the hero doctors going against the grain of what the establishment wants them to do. >> reporter: despite a warning from the fda, there was now a community of american doctors, like dr. pierre cory, with wild claims. >> it basically obliterates transmission of this virus. if you take it, you will not get sit. >> reporter: sitting in his white coat before congress he called it a "miracle cure" for covid infections. >> there is a drug that is proving to be of miraculous

impact. when i say miracle, i do not use that term lightly. >> reporter: that so-called miracle didn't work for dr. kory when he caught covid months later. >> even though ivermectin is a good drug for parasites, it has not been shown in a well-controlled, placebo-controlled trial to be effective for covid. >> reporter: dr. kory is not alone. >> we are america's frontline doctors. >> reporter: there are small but loud groups of physicians that are encouraging drugs like ivermectin online and discouraging vaccines. and there's money to be made. abc news obtained this email from another group that sent this to recruit new doctors last summer, telling them, we have positions making tens of thousands of dollars a month, and that it's all cash pay. and remember that the fda and every other health agency is saying that this is not the way to treat covid, but sales are blowing up anyway. in this chart from the cdc, you see the spectacular rise in prescriptions being filled for ivermectin. at one point, nearly 25 times

what was normal. >> i think it is time to stop the vaccines. if anything out there in covid-19 needs to stop, it's the vaccine program. >> reporter: this is dr. peter mccullough, a texas cardiologist from a group called, the truth for health foundation. he tried to tell me that a person's chance of dying from the vaccine is actually greater than getting covid and dying from the disease. >> you don't believe that the covid vaccine is actually helping us, and that's the -- >> no, there's -- well, there's no evidence of that. >> reporter: but there's plenty of evidence. public health experts say in just one year, the covid vaccines have saved more than 1.1 million lives in america alone. and that people who aren't vaccinated are 14 times more likely to die of covid. he still argues that instead of the vaccine, doctors should be encouraging early treatment with medicines like ivermectin in combination with other therapies. and he says he's hopeful about a new drug to treat covid from pfizer. >> just like with any other medical problem, we will move on

to better drugs as they come along. but historically, hydroxychloroquine played a big role in year one, ivermectin in year two, probably pfizer and merck in year three. >> reporter: the growing outrage now from the overwhelming majority of the medical community saying that these doctors are dangerously spreading misinformation. the message is the same from the cdc, fda, nih, the american medical association, and the world health organization. that covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and that the benefits far outweigh any risk of left arm. like dozens of randomized trials before it, there's a new reputable study of 500 patients in the journal of the american medical association that found, quote, no evidence ivermectin works in reducing the risk of severe disease. >> welcome back, it is "the phil valentine show." >> reporter: conservative talk show host phil valentine pushing

repurposed medicines like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, preaching against the vaccines. >> i've never seen a drug so vilified in my life. >> reporter: he was unvaccinated, got sick with covid last fall, and tried ivermectin. weeks later, he died. do you think that taking the ivermectin gave your brother false confidence? >> i think it made him feel better. >> you still firmly believe in the efficacy of ivermectin for use? >> i -- i do. >> reporter: at the same time, his family tells us they now wish he had taken the vaccine. >> i was unvaccinated until this thing happened with phil. >> you were? >> i was. i can take you to about 12 houses in this neighborhood where people got vaccinated because of what happened to phil. >> reporter: although legally doctors can prescribe ivermectin to treat covid, congress is still investigating. >> we are significantly

concerned. we think there are millions of dollars being made by various groups selling misinformation. >> reporter: it's all too much for emergency room fit nick sawyer in california. he leads a group of doctors called, no license for disinformation, helping to report doctors to their state medical boards, doctors they say are spreading things that are untrue. >> we started a website. and we have a place where people can look up a physician's license by their name. and then go to the specific state where they can file a complaint. >> reporter: and the state medical boards are getting an earful, reporting a 67% increase in complaints about medical providers accused of sharing false or misleading information on covid-19. >> we are fighting a war. it's an information war. and it's based on this understanding of what we're seeing in our hospitals. the unnecessary suffering and death of people who were

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finally tonight, sounds of hope. at ukraine's border with poland. ♪ an italian man drove all the way from germany with his piano to soothe the souls of those who have lost so much. ♪ and that's "nightline" for this evening. thanks for the company, america. good night.