♪ yamiche: war in europe. anda a historic -- and a historic supreme court pick. >> putin chose his war and now he on his country wi bear the consequences. yamiche: russia launches a full-scale invasion of ukraine, and america and its allies impose strict economic sanctions. >> whoever tries to stop us, russia's response will be immediate and lead to such consequences you will never -- you have never seen in history. >> vladimir putin ominously warns the west not to interfere. meanwhile, the new war in europe rattles the economic markets and sends oil prices even higher. plus -- >> my nominee for the u.s. supreme court is judge ketanji jackson. yamiche: president biden

nominates the first black woman to the supreme court, next. ♪ >> this is "washington week." ♪ corporate funding is provided by -- consumer cellular. additional funding is provided by -- te estate of arnold items -- the estate of arnold items, the u.n. foundation, committ to bridging cultural differences in our communities, sandra and carl d., rose herschel and andy shreve's, robert and susan rosenbaum, the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> once again, from washington, moderator yamiche alcindor. yamiche: good evening and welcome to washington -- welcome to "washington week." tonight, we have two lead

stories, russia's invasion of ukraine and the historic nomination of the first black woman to the supreme court. first, we begin a broad. this week, the world is seeing the largest military attack in europe since world war ii. russia is attacking several of ukraine's major cities by land, sea, and air. the assault has left hundreds already injured or dead. in response, president biden and nato leaders announced new sanctions aimed at stifling russia's economy. president biden promised the world will hold putin accountable. >> we have now sanctioned russian banks tt together hold around $1 trillion in assets. between our actions and those of our allies and partners, we estimate it will cut off more than half of russia's high-tech imports. it will be a major hit to put in's long-term strategic conditions. yamiche: the ukrainian president is pleading with the u.s. and the west for more help. >> this morning, we were

defending our country alone, just like yesterday, the most powerful country in the world looked on from a distance. russia was hit with sanctions yesterday, but these are not enough to get these foreign troops off our soil. yamiche: the mood in ukraine is panic and resolve. some rushed to banks, withdraw cash, in the hopes of fleeing the country. others took shelter in underground subway stations, using them as bunkers. residents were encouraged by ukrainian officials to take up arms to defend the country. there are growing concerns the democratically elected government in kyiv will be toppled. joining me tonight to discuss this and more are peter baker. the chief white house corresponded for the new york times. david martin. national security correspond for cbs news. and ann simmons. moscow bureau chief for the wall street journal. thank you all for being here. what do we know about the latest about what's happening on the ground in ukraine, and also,

what is vladimir putin hoping to achieve both in the short term and in the long term? >> well, it's clear there's an all-out assault on ukraine by russian forces. by land, by air, basie. -- by sea. mr. putin has made clear his end goal is basically regime change. he wants to take the ukrainian capital of kyiv. he wants to get rid of president zelinski. and he wants to install basically someone who would be more favorable to the kremlin. yamiche: you are talking about sort of him wanting to install someone and take over the democratically elected government there. quickly, briefly, also, when you think about the rationale behind this, how he wants to be viewed by the history books, take us behind putin's thinking on that front. >> it's really difficult to get inside his head. that's for sure. the one thing that is clear is,

he wants to make russia great again. he's always made that clear. he wants to reestablish russia and the global stage as a superpower. he has always thought that there are only two countries that the world should be listening to, or at least should have a say, in terms of the world order -- and those countries are russia and the united states. there was a great humiliation after the demise of the soviet union. mr. putn was a kgb officer -- putin was a kgb officer. he felt the russian empire still needed to exist. he has been trying ever since coming to power to basically reestablish russia. ensure russia still has respect on the global stage. yamiche: and david, ann is talking about russia making great again, you have been covering the pentagon, a few years after the soviet -- since a few years after the soviet union collapsed. how quickly could ukraine become fully under control of russia?

what happens next, and how long could this occupation go forward? >> well, the original fear was that kyiv could fall within a day or two. the russians are not advancing as quickly as they thought. the ukrainians are fighting and the russians may well have underestimated the opposition. that they are receiving from the ukrainians. but we shouldn't fool ourselves here. russia has only committed about a third of those 150,000 plus troops it had amassed around the border, so it has much more firepower that -- that it can roll in against ukraine. what russia caused the correlation of forces still heavily favors putin's side.

zelenskyy knows this. he is telling his people that tonight could be the night that decides the fate of our country. the question is, is the fall of ukraine, deposing the zelenskyy government, installing a puppe regime, is not going to be enough? or is putin going to be compelled to eliminate every last pocket of resistance in ukraine? in which case, this battle could go on for certainly days and weeks. yamiche: you said russia has more power, is there a thinking that he could be moving possibly into nato territories later on? does that change the calculation for american military troops that are going to defend the

country's sovereignty? >> i don't think there's a fear that he is going to move into nato countries. because that is a whole different ballgame. but the concern is that he is going to permanently stationed troops in both ukraine and belarus. that will radically redraw the military map of nato. that is why the u.s. and other nato countries are activating this response force, to put thousands more troops up closer to what will be the new frontline, with russia, in countries like poland and romania, and the baltic states. yamiche: peter, as we talk about the military options here, sanctions have now been imposed

personally on vladimir putin, from the u.s. and from the eu. can you talk a little bit about what especially president biden hopes to gain from the sanctions and what is the next step is to thanks continue to deteriorate and the sanctions don't change russia's calculations and actions? >> i think going after president putin is a big step. it is something that wasn't done even during the cold war. you traditionally don't sanction heads of state, it has been done before, but usually in very limited circumstances with rogue states, not with something as large as russia. what they are saying is -- they are going after put in where they think he is most vulnerable. and that is of course the gains he is believed to have stashed in various places around the world. the trick here is that president putin knows that this is what the west would or could do. he has known that for weeks. and he's already figured that into his calculus. when he made the decision to go into ukraine, he already figured

this was a trade-off he was willing to live with. while the sanctions may serve as a punishment, and maybe increase the cost of his action by president putin, they are clearly not a deterrent, they are clearly not going to stop him at this point. we heard president biden say a couple of days ago -- a day ago actually, seems like forever, that he was going to give it a month or so to see how the sanctions are affecting russia. we will see whether that changes the calculus. but the moment -- this is something president putin expected and is willing to live with and it will not change the actions on the ground, it looks like. yamiche: talking about sanctions, you told our producers that russia has gone to great lengths to makes its economy sanction proof. how we have -- have we heard anything from vladimir putin and response to him being personally sanctioned? what are the domestic challenges for him one you think about the fact that there are protests in russia and there may be body bags coming back to russian

communities? >> this is not good for vladimir putin. of course, he needs the public on his side. he has made very clear that he feels that many russians, most russians are behind him. in the beginning before the invasion, polls showed that more than half the russian population actually agreed with giving independence to eastern ukraine, the eastern ukrainian donbas region, which putin recognized as independent, two breakaway regions there, so he feels that yes, i have thrussian people on my side. nevertheless, it also depends on what russians are actually seeing -- state media here has basically jumped on this narrative that mr. putin is pushing, that russians are at risk, they are at the right in ukraine -- they are at threat in ukraine. they are discriminated against.

and that really does play to russian sentiment. on tv, you do see that there was shelling of cities in ukraine. but the commentary is that the targets being hit are unknown targets. and definitely that the commentary is that russians are -- sorry, that ukrainians, the ukrainian blic is not being targeted, that civilians are not the target or in the way of russian forces. mr. putin is taking a bit of a gamble here, because there have been some protests on the streets. on thursday evening, for example, there were at least 2000 -- almost 2000 arrests of people -- or detentions i should say, of people that went out to the streets to protests and say no to war. this was across -- around 58 different cities in russia. 900 detentions alone in moscow. those people are very brave. because it is not possible --

it is very dangerous to protest in russia. there's repression, there is a crackdown. there is this underlying kind of fuel among russians -- feel among russians that not everybody is buying into the narrative. there has been a petition on change.org basically calling for no war, andhat petition is growing, it shows that there is this wave and rush of people who say no to war and is is not what we are doing, we don't deserve this, it is the government, it is not the people of russia. yamiche: yeah. david, i want to come to you, because in his speech, announcing the military actions toward ukraine, president putin talked about the fact that the people who are trying to try to interfere with separate consequences, like we have never before seen in history -- obviously, russia is a nuclear power.

talk about sort of the concern there, when it comes to nuclear -- even the threat of nuclear weapons being used. >> that was an obvious threat, to use nuclear weapons. it was certainly not a coincidence that in the days before the invasion, he conducted a nuclear exercise, and he made sure it was seen on television, observing the exercise. he has deterred the uned states from intervening to stop this invasion of ukraine. because of the threat of nuclear weapons. the u.s. it is just not going to risk the fact that he might use a nuclear weapon to defend ukraine. we support ukraine, but the president made it very

clear from the start, u.s. troops were not going into ukraine. even to rescue trapped americans. just on the chance that they would somehow get caught in the crossfire between russia and ukrainian forces. the u.s. has been using economic sanctions, in an attempt to deter putin from invading, but the country that's really been deterring here is the u.s., with the threat of nuclear war. yamiche: peter, when you think about the other challenges president biden's facing, there is the economic challenges, how can this invasion possibly impact americans, especially at the gas pump? what does the white house plan to do about that, briefly? >> it's not a good timing for president biden. he would like obviously to get the economy doing better,

particularly on inflation and energy costs. there's a risk that will go the other direction. you see the markets boiled in the last few days coming to the price of gas coming up at the pump. and the president has waed americans they are going to absorb a little pain here. russia is one of the largest energy producers in the world. we don't get a lot of it here in e u.s. from russia directly. most of that goes to europe. they are obviously more on the front line in that regard than the u.s. is. but the world energy markets are fungible. if the price goes up elsewhere, it will go up here as well, and that is a problem for president biden because he's already sort of lagging in the polls, in the mid 40's and the approval ratings, and he would have liked to spend this time focusing on curbing covid and getting the economy in better shape rather than confronting russia and looking for the economic sosts here at home -- costs here at home. yamiche: there's also a humanitarian crisis playing out in europe, look forward for a bit about the new world order we are singling out before our eyes. >> iis certainly turning out

-- turning into a geopolitical disaster. and a humanitarian crisis. because you have at least a one million you carrion's -- one million ukrainians on the move. it will not be contained. if this work continues, there is doubt that other countries are going to be involved, drawn in unwittingly, unwillingly. this is really iortant. yamiche: very scary and something we will continue to be covering. thank you so much, david. for joining us and for sharing your reporting. on friday, president biden announced he is nominating judge ketanji brown jackson to the supreme court, a miami native and graduate of harvard law, the first black woman to be nominated to the supreme court in its 233 year history. >> i am truly humbled by the

extraordinary honor of this nomination, and i am especially grateful for the care that you have taken to discharge her constitutional dut in service of our democracy with all that is going on in the world today. yamiche: joining us now to discuss president biden's take is juana summers. political correspondent for npr. thank you for being here. what made president biden select judge jackson? talk about the significance of this moment. given the fact that black women's for hundreds of years were blocked from even being nominated to the supreme court. >> it's hard to ignore the history of the date president biden made this announcement, it is exactly two years from the day that president biden on a debate stage signaled to the country and the party that he would name a black woman if he was elected president, to serve on the supreme court. that is frankly a big deal now. judge jackson has been at the top of the list of names for some time now, she is known for her temperament.

the president was looking for someone who had the same temperament as justice breyer. judge jackson also looked for him one she was younger back in the late 1990's. one of the things that is interesting about her background is that she was a public defender, a background she shares with president biden, who also did so briefly -- that means she is infirm to theigh court, she will be the first justice on the court to have extensive terminal justice experience -- i'm sorry, criminal defense experience since thurgood marshall, and that is very in sync with the priorities we heard from this white house as well as then candidate joe biden on the campaign trail. yamiche: the other thing that's happening with the historic pick is historic -- as republicans are going after her. -- is republicans are going after her. we had the gop calling her radical. what's the white house plan for pushing back on the? >> -- on that?

>> one of the things we heard that's really interesting and the remarks from the president's and he pointed out the fact that she has come from a family with extensive law enforcement. one of her brothers was in law enforcement here in the city of baltimore where i live. there was a growing statement -- glowing statement that came up from th head of the fraternal order of police that made the point that judge jackson, they believe she will rule fairly. a lot of ads are pointing out she has a bipartisan record of being focused on theact -- in her most recent confirmation, she got through republican votes. this has been a bipartisan record of supportinghis judge. they are really going to lean into that here. that she is someone who is fair. she does not see things in black and white. she can navigate the shades of gray. in a manner that is nonpartisan. yamiche: peter, the is a history that you've talked about on the show about -- thinking about identity, when you think

about nominating a supreme court justice, this was not the first president to do that. talk about that history briefly and how quickly is the white house trying to get this confirmation done? we have about a minute left. >> there's a history of course of looking for supreme court picks, reagan said he would appoint the first female justice, he did that with sandra day o'connor, presidents have made similar promises over the years and fulfilled them, it is not a unique situation. mitch mcconnell had no problem with president biden making that promise and fulfilling it. that doesn't mean he's going to support her. president biden would like to get this done quickly and he would like to get the win. he would like to get this settled when you have a 50-50 senate especially. they can change the dynamic s in a very quickly. yamiche: do you think it will get republicans voting for her? >> through republican state, probably one or two of them, lindsey graham sent a mixed message today, he was

disappointed it wasn't judge childs from his state. yamiche: there's going to be talk about her, history, what she did, sort of her judicial history -- it's going to be interesting to watch her navigate this process. thank you so much to peter, juana, sharing your reporting. i will continue our conversation, we will continue our conversation on the washingtonweek extra. find that on our bsite, facebook and youtube. and tune in monday for the author underground reporting on russia's assault against ukraine. finally, this week marks the 55 year anniversary of washington -- of "washington week." the program has had nine moderators. this is the longest running prime time news and public affairs program on tv. we are very proud of that. after a week like this one, i personally am proud to keep gathering with our guest journalists every friday. thank you so much for joining us. good night from washington. ♪ >> corporate funding for "washington week"

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