and in terms of a cold war that depends it's going to be a cold day for russia the idea you don't see a whole lot of peoe coming to his defense. >> president biden talking tough as russian soldiers move closer to ukraine's capital plus new reports on civilian casualties and where things stand now 36 hours into russia's massive military mission >> the russian military was quick to take control of c

chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in history and new guidance to states on mask mandates that millions have been waiting for. we're also covering breaking details about an imminent decision of president biden's supreme court nominee. a busy friday ahead. "early today" starts right now >> good morning. i'm steven romo. >> and i'm cori coffin ukrainians are in day two of their new reality. sirens and gas at least 137 of his people have been killed and hundreds have been injured those numbers are likely higher this morning this video here was posted hours ago by an advisor to interior minister of ukraine. it shows damage to a building in kyiv a russian aircraft was shot

down here in the united states, meanwhile, president biden was holding russia's vladimir putin accountable for the chaos by vowing severe economic punishment >> putin is the aggressor. putin chose this war we will limit russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pound and yen to be part of the global economy. >> the pentagon says russian troops have advanced 20 miles of ukraine's capital. it captured the chernobyl reactor. that site sits along one possible path to capturing kyiv. matt bradley joins us from kharkiv. and tell us what's been happening on the ground there. >> reporter: i want to tell you a little bit what's going on the ground in kyiv we haven't been able to verify this but some small arms fire in

the northern part of kyiv. that looks like it's the big story of the day is the incursion of the russians into the capital. where i am now i wouldn't say quiet but the streets are empty, but we're still hearing regular rumbling not to the north but to the west of bombings i spoke to people taking shelter in metro stations down here. these are very deep stations, built by the soviet union really with the intention to avoid bombings by the u.s. and i spoke to some of them. they were cowering in fear, hoping for some sort of instructions from the government here's what they had to say. were you surprised when you started hearing the bombs? >> surprised, not really because we knew it can happen, but i was just shocked there's danger and i'm hearing the bombs close to my house and windows are shaking. yeah, quite surprised but not

shocked. i have a child 1.7 years old and a sister we don't feel safe with our kids so for now we're here. >> so i don't know if you can hear that before, there is still that low distant rumbling of bombings out where i am here in kharkiv, and this is very far from the capital of kyiv but understand the military has moved within a couple ofmiles north of where we are, the russian military they've taken up positions and engaged with some fighting with ukrainian defenders. we know in kyiv it looks like they're going to make a play to move in and try to take over the government there whether or not they come into here in kharkiv, ukraine's second largest city, it remains to be seen >> matt, we want you to stay safe >> and the white house responding to the russian

invasion of ukraine. president biden unveiling tougher sanctions. brie, how could the response from the west affect russian president vladimir putin >> reporter: good morning, steven well, president biden addressed the nation on thursday and discussed those sanctions against russia >> i'm authorizing additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported to russia this is going to impose severe cost on the russian economy both immediately and over time. >> reporter: these export controls of key products from the u.s. and its allies to russia are designed to block russia's ability to obtain technology essential for defense, aviation and other critical sectors cutting half of russia's high tech import. russia's largest bank will be targeted, cutting them off from the u.s. financial system and restricting investors from dealing with russian banks and

companies. they'll also freeze all u.s. assets held by russians with close ties to vladimir putin members of congress from both sides of the aisle are speaking out about what they think president biden should do. senate minority leader senator mitch mcconnell shared his thoughts >> i have some advice. ratchets the sanctions all the way up, don't hold any back. vladimir putin is a bad guy. he's an authoritarian. he yearns for power and we need to do everything we can to stop it >> reporter: but what would tougher sanctions would look like the president was questioned why the sanctions did not remove russia from the s.w.i.f.t. international banking system here's what he had to say. >> the sanctions have more copsequences than s.w.i.f.t. and that's not the position the rest

of europe wishes to take >> reporter: but house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff has strong opinions on this option he shared his thoughts on msnbc. >> i favor going further i further exposing sanctions directly on vladimir putin i think it's merited here. >> reporter: and president biden is set to meet with nato leaders in a virtual summit to discuss the ongoing security situation in and around ukraine. steven >> thanks so much. >> if russia doesn't abandon its course there, there will be a, quote, complete rupture in u.s.-russia relations, president biden says vladimir putin's reign as either president or prime minister of russia spans decades there have been five u.s. presidents in that time, but putin's invasion of ukraine

might be the biggest crisis in decades between the united states and the russian federation i'd like to bring in molly, a writer specializing in u.s.-russia relations. and if we have molly, good morning, molly president biden yesterday wouldn't comment on the idea of a new cold war only saying it would be a cold day for russia, so -- all right, we're going to hold with molly here for just a moment, and we'd actually like to turn over to weather. we've actually got, molly, all right. we're so happy we've got you because you provide great insight. the president not entertaining a cold war with russia he said it would be a cold day what would a new cold war with russia look like, though >> i think the problem is we're already in a new form of war with russia and we have been for some time. and i think until we get our mind-set sort of wrappedinto ben

from wha doing >> molly, you specialize in information warfare. who is currently winning that war do you think right now >> i think russia is doing a very good job of trying to project its military dominance and the situation in ukraine, and i think we all need to push back on that more because ukraine is not doing as badly as russia would like. they are defending key targets they have had success against specific on slots from the russian side ukraine is fighting, will continue to fight, and we all need to think about what resources we can all help bring to support the defenses of ukraine, not just punishing russia for what it is doing. >> that's the big question i'm glad you mention that, molly, because i think that's the big question, is what can we average americans do to help ukraine from this current

onslaught? >> i think -- you know, from a citizen perspective support ukraine, and you're posting if you're online help people understand what's at stake in ukraine which is fight for democracy, a fight for values which we in the united states have supported our entire history. that is being attacked by an adversary that wants to erode this history and take it away. so we need to as a nation call on our government to bring more resources to this fight, to help ukraine resist, to help ukraine take back its country and to find new ways to keep vladimir putin from attacking neighbors as if this a normal course of business, changing borders by force in the 21st century in europe >> and we have heard from ukrainian's president volodymyr zelenskyy saying who will help ukraine? turning now to things closer

to home and a big winter storm hilting millions this morning. nbc meteorologist michelle grossman in for janessa. happy friday, michelle >> happy friday, guys. and we do have that winter storm we're watching we're looking at a much quieter weekend. we need to get through this morning because we're looking at a big winter storm we have snow, sleet, heavy rain in spots you can see that trailing cold front all the way down to the statement of texas, also louisiana. we're going to continue to watch as we go through the morning hours. back behind it, though, dry air. and we're looking at a lot of sunshine across the country tomorrow today, though, 87 million impacted by your winter storm alert. a winter storm advisory in your white. here goes that low pressure. we're going to have a slippery morning commute along the i-95 corridor, could see a foot of snow in some spots especially in boston we could see 8 to 12, burlington, 6 to 12, albany 8 to

12 also looking at a very tricky situation in the middle of pennsylvania state college down to northern west virginia where we could see some power outages, some very trickyld as we were i days all right, guys, so we have that winter storm we're watching but looking at a quieter weekend we'll look at that coming up >> that sounds like excellent news a black woman could soon make history as a member of the nation's highest court two sources have confirmed to nbc news president joe biden has decided on his supreme court nominee. as a presidential candidate he pledged to nominate a black woman to the supreme court for the first time in u.s. history

the opportunity came when justice steven breyer announced he'd be step down at the end of the current supreme court term earlier this week two sources said the president interviewed three finalists. >> quite the busy news day ahead we'll go live to london for a look where global markets will head today. and up next the impact and human toll being felt by ukrainians just trying to get out of harms way stay with us it goes on clear. no mess just soothing comfort. try new vicks vapostick. ordinary tissues burn when theo blows. so puffs plus lotion rescued his nose. with up to 50% more lotion, puffs bring soothing relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. america's #1 lotion tissue. plaque psoriasis, the tightness, stinging... ...the pain. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis...

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fled we understand some of them are still in odessa. how are they doing are they safe? >> reporter: yeah, let me first apologize for this loud routine test capitol police are doing that is going on a loop here so, yes, i have some family left in odessa and like millions of others in ukraine trying to flee because they're afraid of the bombs escalating toward the region and i spoke with my family members because they were trying to move from where they were in center city. it's on the black sea and a major port city, and we have reports the black sea is also being surrounded by russian trips. so really people there have nowhere to go, and they're hoping when they do go they can come back to ukraine, the place where they always know >> you did mention, julie, this

ation and the history of ukraine is incredibly complicated. your family is also backlash for putin to refer to one of his reasons for attacking ukraine as the de-naziification of the country, what do you say to that >> i think most expert analysts would agree that putin uzwas simply saying whatever he had to justify, of course the notion ukraine is run by neo-nazis is a complete fabrication and putin was trying to talk about this period of ukraine where neo-nazis invaded some ukraine nationalists joined with them and persecuted some of the jews that lived in ukraine including my own family members.

it's a justification to take over the ukrainian government, and he thinks this is something that will convince the russian people to side with him. but so far it's not clear if that propaganda is working >> such valuable insights. thank you for fighting through that loudspeaker >> we really hope your family is staying safe in that area. still to come, if you own a ford listen up, you'll want to hear about a new recall ansardd tuay marks a somber day. ten years since tray von martin was killed. that can cause heartburn. so don't fight heartburn, block it with prilosec otc. does your vitamin c last twenty-four hours? only nature's bounty does. immune twenty-four hour plus has longer lasting vitamin c. plus, herbal and other immune superstars. only from nature's bounty. better skin from your body wash? try olay body wash with skin care super ingredient collagen.

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on wall street investors shaking off the russian invasion bouncing back this morning and could russian oligarchs be turning to crypto to skirt u.s. sanctions? let's turn to cnbc's karen cho live from london this morning. good morning let's start with the markets what's the latest? >> good morning. we had a very strange trading

session where investors knee jerk raekeaction to the invasiof ukraine. later in the day we saw stocks turn around particularly on the nasdaq, and this was down more than 3%. so the biggest percentage point swing in the height of the day due to the volatility of the pandemic the dow not as much as they started to price in aggressive rate hikes may not be on the table now. futures suggesting we may see a slight pull back we're still seeing oil escalate. we're above $100 per barrel. so off the highs we saw yesterday, but, still it is a much better trade. also developments in france this morning. paris is seeing a meeting of european finance ministers they held off on stricter

sanctions around using the s.w.i.f.t. payment system to block russian fearing it may see the russians turning to a chinese payment system instead that is one sanction we're watching chosely, one the market anticipated and the fact it didn't come through means sanctions were not as tough as it could have been but also brings into the equation what happens with crypto currency. it wasn't a safe harbor for investors. also a mixed picture on regulation with the bank of russia wanting to ban crypto, but the russian federation, the government deciding to just pursue regulation here which of course is used by a lot of wealthy russians and oligarchs >> we know the ruble is down significantly, historic numbers. michelle grossman tracking some treacherous weather this weekend. the and a very shocking melt down on the tennis court wow. a tennis player smashing a racket against the umpire's chair.

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a jury found three officers guilty in the murder of george floyd. they were all convicted of depriving george floyd of his civil rights by not giving him medical care keung and tao were also found guilty of not stepping derek chauvin from using excessive force. the those are scheduled to beic court facing state charges in june saturday will mark ten years since the death of drayvon martin a black teenager fatally shot by a neighborhood watchman while he was visiting his father in florida. although he was acquitted of second degree murder in 2013 martin's death sparked protests and a social justice movement that would eventually bacblack lives matter flo's house of representatives passed the controversial don't say gay bill that measure would prohibit

primary schools from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity at all. the bill now heads to the republican-held senate where it's expected to pass. critics say the bill could censure and harm lgbtq youth today the centers for disease control and prevention expected to ease indoor mask guidance according to sources familiar with the cdc's plan the change comes as covid cases have been on the decline across the country. last week cdc director rochelle walensky announced a change to federal mask mandates was in the works. now, while most states have started to relax mask mandates, it is not clear how the new federal guidelines will affect face covering requirements on public transportation. an outbursts has one of tennis' top stars out some

serious cash world number three alexander zverev was fined $40,000 and withdrawn from the mexican open after striking the

crisis in ukraine the deepening. russian forces now surrounding the capital of kyiv. the key moves president biden is now making in response. plus -- >> i want to be able to have a choice to wear a mask or not in a classroom. >> kicked out of the classroom for not wearing masks. what a north bay school did that has students protesting. >> and things are expected to warm up this weekend, but not too much. meteorologist kari hall tracking your weekend forecast as you make those plans. this is "today in the bay." it's friday