we begin this morning with breaking news and a world facing a new turmoil. ukraine says the russian military has started their invasion thanks for joining us. i'm steven romo. >> the assault the world feared is starting in ukraine at this very hour. before dawn ukrainians waking to the sounds of explosions and then sirens. the blasts started very soon after russia's vladimir putin announced his nation would start what he called military operations in eastern ukraine.

as all this unfolded ukraine's foreign minister was at at emergency meeting of the united nations pleading for help. >> we need to use this last chance for action and stop russia where it is it is clear that president putin will not stop by himself distinguished representatives, the beginning of a large scale war in ukraine will be the end of the world order as we know it >> president biden spoke with ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy overnight and in a statement said the world will hold russia accountable. >> this is something that should have never happened. this would not have happened during my administration, and it's a very sad thing for the world, for the country and it's certainly very sad for a lot of people that are going

to be needlessly killed. >> as the world wakes up to these stunning developments in ukraine we're also seeing financial markets reacting around the world the stock futures plunging about 2%, and oil prices seeing a 5% spike already. let's turn now though to the volatility on the ground this morning. nbc's matt bradley joins us from kharkiv, ukraine tell us what you're seeing now >> reporter: i can tell you we're still not seeing anything, nothing at all no one in the streets, shops are closed there's lines in front of some of the shops and grocery stores and lines in front of gas stations this city is waiting and watching for signs the russian ground force will soon arrive here because we are only 25 miles away from the border, but i can bring you some local news from the battlefield we are hearing that according to the general staff of the armed forces four tanks of what they call the russian occupiers are burning on the bypass road

toward here in kharkiv and they said that about 50 russians -- it is just called happiness in english that's the name of the town. it's nearby to here. in addition another plane of the russian federation was destroyed. that's the sixth plane the ukrainian military are saying they have shot down. i've got to tell you, guys, we are only getting information from the ukrainian government. they're the ones reporting on the status of the battlefield. we are not getting any reports from the russians, so it is very lopsided, and it is totally unverifiable for our viewers you should know this is lopsided report ukraine military is saying, projecting that they are winning a fight against an enormous military that is making an incursion into their state it's hard for me to say that this is accurate i wish i could tell you that, but we have to wait for a couple of hours until we get a much, much sharper picture of what's

going on so right now that is what we're hearing from the battlefield right around where i am in ukraine, the second largest city out east that's just as i said about 25 miles south of the russian border guys >> and matt, we know the ukrainian government has declared marshall law. do we have any indication whether or not they're going to be able to help their people as they urge people to flee the city or stay inside? >> reporter: i can't answer that i'm sorry. i don't know what their capabilities are i have no vantage point in terms of what's been going on. i've been stuck in front of the camera all morning i can tell you the ukrainian governments from the sounds we're hearing from their statements, they're determined to fight that is going to be very, very dangerous especially as the russians come in as hot and as hard as it sounds like they are so far the military capability on the side of the ukrainians does not speak well for their

conventiontal fight. and what i've been hearing from people in government and recent members of the defense ministry here is that the main plan is they're most likely to be overwhelmed by the russian military, and that they will try to launch a sustained campaign of harassment, guerilla fighting and insurgency, if you will, the kind you've seen against american forces -- very effectively used against american forces in afghanistan and iraq so the ukrainian government can really make an effort to tax the russians once they occupy. but we heard from vladimir putin last night he deliberately said he does not want to occupy this huge country he said he wants to demilitarize it and de-naziify it i can tell you there is no nazi government in kyiv there are no nazis running this country, but it sounds as if vladimir putin with that kind of language intends on some sort of regime change. >> a note volodymyr zelenskyy, the president of ukraine happens

to be jewish, and those comments coming from putin. and you mentioned the eerie silence that you were experiencing there in ukraine, second largest city. what is it like out there now? we see just a few cars out there behind you actually, matt, we're hearing we have to wrap you and move on right now, so thank you so much for that report. and turning now to this next phase of the story while ukraine is facing its biggest crisis since independence president biden is also facing possibly the biggest test of his presidency the white house is promising harsh sanctions against russia the question is whether or not that will be enough to stop the aggression against ukraine i want to bring in peter baker he's the chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," and a political analyst for msnbc. peter, president biden promising those harsh sanctions, but putin, of course, no stranger to sanctions, and what do you think the reaction will be does putin even care about these sanctions? >> well, he should care.

the sanctions could have an impact on russia's economy, russia's ability to interact with the rest of the world truth is he's already factored this in. hew knew exactly what the west was likely to do if he were to take this step, and now the west will do it that means he knows he's going to pay a price it's not going to be a deterrent. the question is whether the punishment can over time inflict enough harm it causes, you know, a change in his behavior that seems unlikely at the moment what we've got here in russia is a leader who thinks he's acting to history he's reassembling to some extent the empire that broke apart in 1991 and that's a really hard thing to influence when you're talking about sanctions and deterrence it's hard to get inside his calculation. >> and peter, does the white house expect they might need the

support of congress in order to be able to act what is it going to take in order for the president to take that next step >> well, the president already has quite a lot of authority already, been dug into him by congress obviously i think we'll see a lot of action on the part of the members of congress wanting to get in on this because they would like to express their condemnation on this, so i would imagine you would see the house and senate move relatively quickly in the days to come to advance even further sanctions beyond what the president is authorized to. you have a pretty bipartisan consensus in washington despite the fringe on the left and right that believes that, you know, putin here is an aggressor that needs to be confronted doesn't mean they want the united states to go to war or they don't necessarily want to get the united states in the middle of this conflict, but they believe allowing putin to go unanswered and unpunished is a bad sign for the international order where you cannot use force to rewrite the lines on a map of europe >> and peter, talking about the

political consequences for biden, he's already tried preparing the country interest for an increase in gas prices, energy prices already rising what does that outlook like? >> russia is one of the largest energy producers in the world. assuming the sanctions do a lot to cut that energy off it'll have a pretty big impact on energy markets we don't get a lot of energy directly from russia ourselves that's a bigger concern for germany and europe you'll see them go up around the world. you're already hearing talk of $100 barrel oil in initial hours after this conflict has begun. you're going to see markets react to that when they open up this morning here in new york. you're going to see quite a lot of uncertainty that will affect international business whether they can do anything to calm those markets in the days to come, that's a big question i think there's a lot of uncertainty there in the part of

international business and investors, what it will mean for -- for countries outside of the russian orbit. i think that's still to come >> peter, what are the chances of this becoming a defining event for the biden presidency in the sense he's talked about the struggle between democracy and autocracy. now, if the russian autocracy destroys biden's. >> the idea this is going to happen on his watch with the largest sort of battle on european soil since the end of world war 2 in 1945, that has to be defining and it's going to have a political impact. it's not as much politics at the water's edge kind of feeling anymore where people rally around a commander in chief in a moment of crisis you see a lot of people criticizing president biden already.

there's not been any kind of pause in that politics the public in the polls have shown a tempered response to president biden's leadership we'll see whether he begins to turn that around today when he gets in front of the cameras around lunchtime >> we are expecting more comments from the white house as well peter, baker, thank you. turning now to weather back here on our shores nbc meteorologist michelle grossman is in for janessa with yet another winter blast good morning, michelle >> good morning to you both. we were watching our next winter storm. this is our second one and we're watching 72 million americans under some sort of winter weather alert we're seeing some snow, sleet, heavy rain and even some thunderstorms. let's take a look at the maps because we're taking a look at a lit up radar this morning. continue to see that today also tomorrow looking at winter weather alert. 72 million americans under some sort of alert. your winter storm warning is in the pink, and the winter storm

watch in the blue. that's for parts of the tear yr northeast and also new england your snowfall forecast anywhere from 6 to 12 inches in parts of new england. 1 to 3 inches in new york city we're going to continue to follow that closely. your iceorecast we'r f southeast, holding onto that warmth 86 in orlando, 86 in tampa, and 85 in jacksonville all right, guys, we'll continue to watch this winter storm and look ahead towards the weekend it's a little quieter so we'll talk about that coming up. >> a little bit of sunshine and good news. >> yeah, we'll take it all right, michelle, thanks. 'rcoinngwee ntui to follow the dire situation unfolding in

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welcome back we continue to follow the crisis in ukraine, and we head to moskow now the kremlin, of course, has the justify these military actions to its own people. matt, how is vladimir putin going to explain this all to his own country? >> reporter: thank you, steven well, we're seeing a very interesting counter narrative emerged compared to the one that our colleague matt bradley just laid out which he's hearing from the ukrainian defense ministry we're now starting to hear from the russian defense ministry hours after, of course, vladimir putin announced this to the russian people they continue to insist this is not a war, it's a special military operation aimed at de-naziifying ukraine and liberating the donbas region, the region those two break away states we spent so much time talking about in recent months and so some of the things we're hearing from the russian defense ministry are denials that ukraine has shot down any

russian air crafts, damaged any russian vehicles, killed any russian soldiers they're denying the ukrainians are even fighting back they're claiming ukrainian soldiers are abandoning their positions and dropping their arms en masse. other narratives include this has all been conducted with precision strike weapons and that they're not targeting civilians. they are simply there to essentially liberate it's a liberation narrative at the end of the day we're seeing from the russian defense ministry i also want to point something else out russian opposition leader alexei navalny currently in prison ohut we all understand to be trumped-up charges he's now facing new charges for 15 additional years of prison. he just so happens to be on trial today and had a chance to speak, and he had something i want to read to you guys he says, quote, i am against this war i believe that this war between russia and ukraine has been unleashed to cover up the robbery of russian citizens and

distract their attention from the problems that exist inside the country, from the degradation of the economy this war will lead to a huge number of victims, ruined destinies and a continuation of the impoverishment of russian citizens the group that's now seized power -- he's talking about the putin government -- the fact they're literally starting wars for the sake of their palaces once again shows how right i was. i point that out because we're looking now who's going to speak out against this the main voice is in jail, but he's still speaking out. >> there's words from navalny, of course people will be ening to that. course the trial beint overshed by the news of th you were saying thiss much different situation than we saw in 2014 in crimea. your coverage on the ground there in moskow very valuable to us matt, thank you. still to come this morning and on "early today" thousands are fleeing the capital kyiv as russian troops are moving in >> and nexste dgt evsewick has

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the russian attack on ukraine is having a global impact on stocks, oil, gold, crypto currency and much more. let's turn to cnbc's steve sedgwick live from london. and good morning, steve. a lot to hit on here where to begin >> reporter: yeah, where to begin indeed look, this is affecting every asset claz as you can imagine. let me go through a shopping list for you as well and tell you where we were before this started and where we are now the u.s. markets were already on the back foot this year. we were bear market territory. we're now seeing futures which are taking us deeper into correction territory or deemer into bear market territory and the latest indication on the dow

another 1.6% lower that's over 500 points lower the s&p another 2% lower the nasdaq another 2% lower as well the indices are fall aggressively as well i checked a second ago the london home to many companies down close to 6% as well but the biggest market move we've seen today is the russian index currently down ha% in this session. back to you both >> all right, steve sedgwick, thank you for outlining that >> so much going on there. meanwhile meteorologist michelle grossman is here next as we follow yet another round of winter srmtos. and coming up the latest on russia's violent invasion in ukraine. well, did you know you that former pro football player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything?

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tremfya® today. now, today's top story ukraine is under attack at this hour with russia launching an assault just before dawn local time ukrainian's president has declared martial law for the entire nation. thousands could be seen fleeing the capital of kyiv where those sounds of blasts and sirens filled the air schools are closed bomb shelters are being readied. our reporturs on the ground say the targets so far seem oo to be primarily military installations and air fields as this attack began ambassadors from russia and ukraine had a tense standoff during an

emergency united nations security meeting >> the russian president declared a war should i play the video ofr president? ambassador, should i do that it is the responsibility of this body to stop the war >> the ukrainian ambassador there referencing a speech vladimir putin gave just before those blasts started he went on television to announce what he called a military operation in eastern ukraine. the u.n. secretary-general pleaded with putin to pull back his forces >> president putin, in the name of humanity bring your troops back to russia in the name of humanity do not allow to start in europe what could be the worst war since the beginning of the century

>> president biden released a statement saying russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring and said the u.s. and its allies will respond in a decisive and united way. mr. biden also spoke overnight with ukraine's president during that call he, quote, condemned this unprovoked and unjustified attack by russian military force he also avowed the u.s. allies and partners will be imposing severe sanctions on russia president biden is expected to meet with g7 leaders today as the world icwas up to this new global reality, the financial markets also rattled dow futures have plunged more than 2% since the attacks began. and oil prices have spiked 5%. we've been covering this latest breaking news for you all morning long we will continue to cover it right here on nbc, but for now we want to thank you for watching swaid i'm cori coffin. >> and i'm steven romo just a note about our coverage today. the reporters on the ground we have in ukraine and moskow giving us insights, hearing from

people on the ground we had our matt bradley speaking about the tense situation, so many people in their homes sheltering in place just waiting to see how all of this unfolds you can stick with nbc as we continue to follow these developments this morning. thank you for joining us

abouts. we will hold them accountable. >> breaking now at 4:30, ukraine under attack. explosions being felt in the ukranian capital of kyiv as russian troops move in. russian president vladimir putin sending a strong message to other countries including the u.s. to back off. our team is covering it all, including the damage already done, and the stock market impacts. >> plus, layoffs loom for hundreds of san francisco teachers. the reason their jobs are being put on the chopping block. >> and we're tracking freezing temperatures across the bay area. meteorologist kari hall tracking how cold it will be in your neighborod