♪♪ >> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." we go now to russia's ambassador to the united states, anatoly antonov. good morning to you, ambassador. and thank you for coming on the program. >> good morning. thank you very much for inviting me. >> brennan: i'll get right to it. president biden says that president putin has decided to invade ukraine. is he correct? >> there is no invasion and there is no such plans. it was fixed in russian documents that we convey to our american friends and state department russia has publicly decided -- declared its

readiness to continue the diplomatic efforts to resume all outstanding issues. russian troops are on sovereign russian territory. we don't threaten anyone. >> brennan: respectfully, ambassador, you have troops in belarus, you have troops in m moldova. this is not your territory. >> yes. when we're talking about belarus, i'm hoping there will be an opportunity to discuss it. we will discuss joint drills that are on going. >> brennan: they were supposed o end today. are those troops staying in belarus indefinitely? >> you'll see that as to the united states, you have so many military bases in various countries. as to us, we have just only a few. and we can't see any

contradiction to any legal norms. >> brennan: it looks like intimidation. you have over 190,000 personnel in and around ukraine. you've got it surrounded on three borders. your words and your actions don't seem to match, sir. >> again, again, i would like to say to you that we have our legitimate tries to have our troops where we want on russian territory. on russian territory. and i would like to say that we are not a threat to anybody. >> brennan: president zelensky says he wants to meet with vladimir putin. if you're interested in diplomacy, why doesn't that meeting happen? >> today's problem is not ukraine. the problem is what kind of work order will be in the future. whether we can, together, establish a firm security, guaranteed for everybody,

attacking very important principles of security for everybody. it means that you have no right to strengthen your security at the expense of a russian configuration. and we also have no such right -- >> brennan: mr. ambassador, you didn't answer the question -- you didn't answer the question about presid president putin and ppresident zelensky. is a goal to try to get the rest of the world to recognize crimea as part of russia? is that what this is all about? >> the issue of crimea is closed for us. it is a russian territory, and we don't want even to discuss this issue at all. it was not -- how to say -- military operation by russian forces. it was a decision by people who live in crimea.

>> brennan: is russia ultimately trying to get the rest of the world to give that portion of ukraine over to the russian federation? is that what you're trying to do here? >> we are not trying to take any territory of a foreign country. i would like to confirm that donbas is a part of ukraine. >> brennan: do you think your policy right now is affective, given that the reaction to russia's military buildup has been for nato and the united states to just pour more money and weapons into the area. isn't that the exact opposite of what you say you're trying to do? >> you'll see that we are very much concerned what the united states and other nato countries are doing. they are. [indiscernable] .[indiscernable]

>> brennan: you have the largest buildup since world war ii. how do you expect nato to react. >> you will see that we gave the order to withdraw ta lot of troops from the border. and nobody even said thank you. at the same time, we see five ways of expansion of nato. nato has started its exploration -- the military technical operation of ukraine now. it is not possible for us to swallow. >> brennan: you know that president biden has said ukraine won't join nato in the near future. and the german chancellor said it is ridiculous for there be to a war --

>> we would like to put everything on the paper. we would like to seek legally-binding guarantees for russian security. so we sent our proposals, what should we do? we don't want to see the next wave of expansion of nato. >> brennan: you have the largest nuclear forces in the world. you have hypersonic missiles. why are you so threatened by an offensive alliance -- >> we have not consulted ukraine -- >> brennan: it is a defensive alliance? >> come on, it is not a defensive alliance. it is political military machinery. we would like to stop such expansion. we would like the united states to withdraw their

troops and their weaponry from those states because it is our lives, our guarantees of security for our people. >> brennan: mr. ambassador, thank you for your time and thank you for coming and answering questions this morning. we'll be right back. ve downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters.

oh, man, that's a whole lot of wrinkly. at least my shoes look good! help prevent wrinkles with bounce wrinkleguard, the megasheet with three times the wrinkle fighting ingredients. >> brennan: our interview with the russian ambassador was taped earlier this is morningctuay received orders to invade. we turn to the ukrainian ambassador to the united states, oksana markarova. welcome back to the program. >> good morning. it is always glad to be here. >> brennan: given what we have learned, do you believe there is still a window of opportunity to actually stop russia from invading? >> well, we were workday and night to make use of any possibility to still prevent russia from invading. but unfortunately what we see during the last two days, or three days now,

tells us that contrary to what mr. anatoly antonov was mr. saying, not only has russia amassed all of these troops around the border, but through illegal arms started a series of provocations. they started shelling objects. they have already two people dead, 11 people wounded and it keeps going as we speak. >> brennan: was it significant that he said that part of the east is part of ukraine? >> well, donbas is part of ukraine, crimea isart of ukraine -- >> brennan: he disagreed -- >> absolutely, but he disagrees with us and the rest of the world. >> brennan: president zelensky called for a cease-fire this morning. what can you tell us about what is actually happening on the ground and in some of these diplomatic talks? >> well, president zelensky's main concern is to preserve the country

but also preserve every life of ukrainian citizens. while preparing to defend our country, we're pursuing every opportunity to pursue the diplomatic path. from the u.n., to vienna document, the budapest memoranda -- we're calling not only on the aggressor, which is russia, but on also all of our friends and allies to get together to deter russia from invading. >> brennan: your president was very sharp with his words yesterday, and he made clear that the west is not doing enough in his view. what are you asking washington to do right now? >> we're very grateful to the united states, to everyone, to president biden, vice president kamala harris, secretary blinken -- we're very grateful for all of the support, military support,

political support, strong messages. even more important, with the leadership in getting the trans atlantic communities behind it and everybody getting together to support us. what we see right now is all of the strong messages are yet to get russia not only to get out from the borders of ukraine, but they also, during the past three days, started an fa offensive -- >> brennan: your president said it was appeasement. >> we are at war. and should sharp sanctions that were place in 2015, maybe today we would be discussing the rocket launch that was restaurant from the ukrainian companies or some other more peaceful items to discuss. but unfortunately today we are starting this morning

as people who are being shelled at in ukraine. >> brennan: you were previously ukraine's finance mys minister, and ukraine has come under incredible cyber-attacks over the past few years. and you expect them to start up. you already had the largest in your k.'s country'shistory in the past we. what do you expect them to do in the next f few days? wenow, ain, o ow de-classifying and putting out publicly a lot of information about the prepared terrorist acts on the uncontrolled territories. and also warning about potential cyber-attacks. on the cyber front, we learned our lessons in the past eight years, and wer specifically protecting our financial and electrical and critical systems for ukraine.

we can already see that a week ago, when we had one of the largest attacks on our financial banking system, contrary to 2015 and 2016, when these attacks resulted in massive breaches of security and some of the banks had not been operational for days, this time the majority of banks were not even affected. and some of the banks were bak up ptty quckso, ags we're working a lot on the cyber protection and prevention. >> brennan: there have been a number of reports that u.s. intelligence had evidence that russian intelligence is creating a hit list of ukrainians and other active political leaders living outside of the country. are you concerned about your own safety? >> um, a difficult question but i think we all are concerned about

ukraine. and there are so many ukrainians that are ready to resist and fight for ukraine in ukraine. but also outside of ukraine. we have a great community here in the united states as well. so that, you know, whatever they are willing -- whatever crimes they're w willing to commit in order to kill some of us, it will not stop others and it will not help their cause. >> brennan: ambassador, thank you for your time today. >> thank you. >> mthank you.>> brennan: we'lle back in a moment.

>> brennan: u.s. intelligence officials said friday that russia was behind this past week's cyber-attacks in

ukraine, knocking banks and government websites off-line. now there is a warning that american companies need to be on the alert. for more we go to cyber security expert and analyst chris krebs. good morning. >> good morning, margaret. >> brennan: the treasurey department sat down with some corporate leaders, from citigroup and some other institutions. what doas the most serious threat from cyber-attacks that happen from a country 5,000 miles away? >> the u.s. government has been meeting with critical infrastructure partners now for many months. so it hasn't just been the last couple of weeks. it has gone back as far as november or even earlier. what they've done is look back over the last several years of where russian security services and cyber-actors have targeted

u.s. infrastructure. and that's energy, transportation, logistics, and, of course, finance. and they're combining it through a series of war games and scenarios playing out how the russians may respond to any sanctions we could impose. and that's, i think, where we get to the financial services industry. and so that is probably at the top of the list, as you consider some of the sanctions we've talked about. and that would probably the countermove by the kremlin in some of those security services. >> brennan: two distinct threats: one, unintended consequences that pill spillover and the other if russia decides to target the united states. what cen is the doctrine of the united states? >> i think that is unclear. it is probably a continuation of the previous administration where we enable the cyber-commanders and other

actors to in list in engagement, to get into the networks of our adversary, to understand where they are and where they're going, and to put sand in their gears, so to speak. so they're too busy cleaning up their mess over there rather than coming here. i think we're seeing a bit of that defense forward mission manifesting in some of the recent disclosures. >> brennan: the white house briefed on this friday, and the cyber-director said while there is no credible threat at this exact moment, if the u.s. is hit, we are prepared to respond. the president himself sea if american companies are hit, we are prepared to respond. would we every know it happened? >> i think that's a great question, whether it would be overt or covert. you may see economic measures. you may see diplomatic measures in response to any sort of cyber-activity

against u.s. infrastructure. but at a minimum, what i would expect is, again, targeting of the systems, the infrastructure that the russian operators use to conduct their attacks, and make it so they cannot do a followup attack using that same known infrastructure. >> brennan: how -- you know, more broadly, in terms of the strategy of the biden administration, what do you think of their decision to declassify this cyber attack, which they did pretty darn quickly, and some of the other intelligence that they've picked up? >> well, first i think it is worth pointing out that as i mentioned earlier, they've had a fairly forward-leaning engagement effort with infrastructure partners, with industry to protect domestic businesses here at home. the agency i led in the last administration released their shield-up campaign, which provides

resources to protect systems here in the u.s. but more importantly, and i say this as a former counteractive measures fiofficionado in the government, i've been impressed with how they can called out the bad activity, the maligned activity, of the russian government to, again, delay some of their efforts. this is a rapid declassification, that in years past, particularly on cyber-activities, has taken months, if not a year or more. we're seeing it happen in a matter of hours. it is dedicated effort. it is purpose full. i hope we see more of it in the future. >> brennan: how would you assess nato's ability to respond to a cyber attack. you heard secretary blinken say it is something that will be addressed. what would nato do? do they even have a plan? >> well, nato has capabilities. and they've declared that

cyber falls under -- a cyber attack, rather, under a member would fall under the article 5 provisions, that would enable them as nato is keen to respond to an attack on a nato member. but it is not clear what that looks like in practice yet. the language in article 5 is about restoring stability and restoring security, as well as the threshold matter of an attack would have to be intentionally and dedicated likely on a nato member. so at this point, not ukraine, but instead perhaps poland, the u.s., or anyone else. but in the meantime, nato can provide support teams for defensive purposes, and the u.s. has been supporting ukrainian cyber-efforts for quite some time to help bolster some of those networks, improving their cyber

security. >> brennan: chris krebs, thank you for the warning to be on alert. we want to take a look at the impact of the ukraine crisis could have on our economy if russia escalates. cbs business analyst jill schlesinger joins us. jill, we just laid out a lot. but in terms of the threat to american corporations and the uncertainty that we now have confronting the u.s. economy, how do you think this plays out? >> well, i think this has a far-reaching economic consequence potentially. and it really starts with the flow of everything from petroleum products to maybe agricultural products, like wheat, or maybe iron or aluminum. these products, these commodcommodities, have been

soaring in price. now, when we talk about the businesses, businesses truly have a real issue here because they may pull back on their spending. they may be worried about the supply chain. we just heard chris krebs talk about these cyber security threats. all of this put together weighs on so much of the economy. and i think what is clear is that investors have really started to pay attention to this over the last week or so. markets have been selling off earlier in january. but we have seen a real escalation of fear creep into the marketplace. right now the s&p 500 through friday's close is down about 9.3% from the high reached in early january. very close to the correction. i think these jitters are really going to keep some folks up over the next week or so. >> brennan: how do you think this will impact the federal reserve's decision on interest rates and the fight to get control of inflation? >> well, i think this puts the fed in a pickle

because we are looking at a situation that could slow down all of the progress, the economic progress, that we've seen. it could slow things down in the future. and yet the ukrainian situation is inflationary at its core. and that means that the 40-year highs that we've seen inflation here in the u.s., those high levels are due to persist. no wonder the federal reserve chair, jay powell, said they're monitoring the situation closely. i think they're in a tough situation, margaret, in that they're truly forced to raise interest rates next month to contain prices, and yet that could be happening as the economy is slowing down. >> brennan: jill, it will keep you busy, i know. thank you for your analysis today. we wiwe'll be right back.

>> brennan: that's it for us today. stay with us on cbs, on the broadcast network and our cbs streaming service, as well as cbsnews.com, for all of the latest on russia and ukraine. for "face the nation," we'll see you next week. i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs

♪ ♪ news." good evening. thanks for watching. tonight, americans and russia are being urged to have an e evacuation plan out of the country. the u.s. embassy warns of the threat of attacks in public places, including moscow and along russia's border with ukraine. that's where the kremlin has amassed a massive military force in advance of an expected invasion of its former soviet neighbor. cbs news has learned that russian commanders have received their orders to attack, and they are getting ready for battle. today, russian military exercises in belarus near ukraine's northern border were scheduled to end, but they have been extended.