tonight on kqed newsroom, as the war in ukraine continues, californians find new ways to support those under attack from russian forces. >> we focus a lot of our efforts on first-aid and tactical medicine. >> we speak with a former senator about u.s. involvement in the conflict. a look at the priorities president biden laid out in his state of the union and what they mean for california. plus we take a close-up look at a 30 foot oakland mural honoring the women of the black

panther party. hello and welcome to newsroom. as the second week of war in ukraine unfolds, california support for sanctions has grown. governor newsom called on the state's largest public retirement funds to stop investment in russian companies and institutions which would then curb the flow of money from california into russia. and apple has paused sales of its products in russia, joining other bay area tech companies such as google, meta, and twitter, that are limiting access to their services in the soviet country. air bnb has offered free housing to 100,000 ukrainian refugees. ukrainians who live in california have also been rallying to support their homeland. we spoke this week with the cochair of the bay area-based nonprofit nova ukraine.

>> my entire family except for my wife and my kids, all are back in ukraine. my wife's entire family is still in kyiv. a lot of people have asked if my family is safe and i don't believe there's a safe place right now in ukraine. we see rockets and bombs hitting civilian buildings and destroying them and hitting kindergartens and hospitals. most people i know, including myself never thought a full- scale invasion would happen but basically the worst thing happened, bombings in every major city, troops advancing. we are an all volunteer organization. everyone donate their time. a lot of people are lacking basic things like food and

water and we focus a lot of our efforts on first-aid and tactical medicine that can provide help for people who are injured in the war action so things like tourniquets. we are trying to secure a plane right now to send medical supplies. one thing that could really help is everyone who has access to things like where houses, shipment facilities, anything like that or even medical supplies. if people have those kind of connections and they can share those connections with us, those would be helpful. we see a lot of support. every rally we do we see more and more non-ukrainians. i can't thank enough to the world for standing up with us. i'm sure we can do more and everyone can do more and this is what one of the things we are trying to achieve, we are trying to raise awareness, suggest action and mobilize people of the world to stop the

war. >> in addition to private humanitarian aid, the white house is also seeking congressional approval for more money to help the people of ukraine. the administration says it wants authorization of a $10 billion package for additional humanitarian security and economic assistance in ukraine and the neighboring region in the coming days and weeks. to discuss the government response to the conflict in ukraine we are joined now by barbara boxer who comes to us by skype from palm springs. thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much for inviting me. >> we have seen that russia has just taken control of the largest nuclear power plant in europe. what are you most concerned about right now as you are watching events unfold? >> i will be totally honest with you, my heart is breaking as i watch this war unfold. it is getting harder and harder

to watch, but we have to, and we have to help. i think the fact that russia is in charge of a nuclear power plant is very nerve-racking because really what it's saying is that they're going to try to be in control of everything that the people need, whether it's power or water or food. this is what they want to do is just choke off this country and its people so it is a bad turn of events and we all know how dangerous a nuclear power plant can be if there are radiation leaks and so on. there's a lot of fog of war around what exactly happened úand i think there are some who call it a war crime that it was actually a fire at that site so it remains to be seen what all

the details are and regardless of that, this whole thing is because of one man's desire to re-create the soviet union and it's very important that the world stand against it. >> do you think that america should be doing more to end this invasion? should we ban the import of russian oil to the u.s.? >> there are two parts to your question, should we be doing more to stop the invasion? that lies in the hands of vladimir putin and there are varying reviews of him right now as a human being, whether he's isolated or whether he has lost it. i don't believe that the sanctions are going to make him stop, but i think what they will do is make the oligarchs around him so angry and so

upset that the more sanctions we do, the better, and yes, that would include stopping russian oil and that means we need others to step up and produce and i know that the biden administration is working on that. this is in the hands of a man who is ving in the past and it's very dangerous. >> we have started to see some limited reports of dissension in those ranks among the oligarchs around putin. californ as a state has tried to take a stand where it can. governor newsom is trying to stop the flow of california money into investments in russia and some tech firms have said they will limit the sales of products and service there. do you think we can have an impact with these actions or are they mostly symbolic >> california definitely has an impact when we decide to do something, because we are larger than many nations

population, our buying power and everything else and all of the leadership that comes out of this state from our university, silicon valley and the entertainment sector so yes i think governor newsom is right to step up to the plate here, and whatever we can do to get the people around putin to say, enough, you are destroying our way of life. >> every day, russian forces are gaining more ground, if ukraine falls to the russians, do you believe we will regret not sending american military forces into ukraine? >> here is the situation and i thk president biden has stated it. we know ukraine is not in nato and we have a sacred and moral obligation and a contractual obligation that if a nato member is hit, we will be in it, but let's be clear about this, if we get into this war, it is world war iii. i think what we must do is help

ukraine. they have the second largest military in eastern europe, they have 250,000 members of their military, they need more help. they need more help so they can shoot some of these missiles away, they can go after these aircraft flying over and antitank equipment, they need all of that and yes, i think we need to do more of that, more than we thought we would. >> let's look at the history here, you were in the senate as america went to war in iraq and afghanistan, are there any úles you see as applicable to our current situation? or perhaps would you compare this more to the cold war following world war ii? >> every single situation is different. there are similarities, but this whole situation is at the

feet of one man, vladimir putin. it's his not willing to accept the world order that came into play after the cold war, and he wants to reconstitute the soviet union. so what have we learned from the engagements we've been involved in? certainly it's more of a lesson for vladimir putin, you can' occupy a country. we tried to do that and we got burned whether you go back all the way to vietnam or afghanistan, iraq, when you are in the middle of a civil war, it's wrong, and he has united ukrainians, so the future for his people there is just terrible, because they are now hated, from the little children all the way up to the 85-year- olds in ukraine, they are united against russia so the

message is, you are never going to have success there. there's going to be blood on your hands, not only for the ukrainians killed, but the russians killed. you can see what vladimir putin is doing now trying to shut down any type of free media so it's very tempting to say, this is just like something else. if i were to compare it to something it would be more compared to hitler who went to one european country after the next thing this is the only one i'm going to do, so we need to step up with our help to the ukrainians and we have to be clear eyed as long as putin is around the world has to unite against him. >> you've tweeted a few times in recent days about president trump's influence on the war in ukraine. here's one you wrote recently saying the ukraine tragedy as

putin's fault but what it emboldened him? four years of an autocratic american president who kissed up to him and dumped all over nato. do you lay the blame for vladimir putin's invasion at president trumps feet? >> no, it's at the feet of vladimir putin, but you would have to be kind of without a heartbeat and a pulse if you didn't notice that trump rered putin, said he was great, and trump also did dumped all over nato, was awful. one of the first things that president biden had to do when he got into office is call every single world leader, but particularly those in nato, saying, america is back. he actually said that, america is back. because under trump, his favorite leaders were these dictator tyrants whether it was

in north korea or russia, you name it. it was a very dangerou time and i shudder to think of what would happen if we didn't have a leader like joe biden right now. >> i want to turn to a different topic. you served for many years alongside senator dianne feinstein. in fact, you two were elected together to the senate in 1992 and you were the first female pair of u.s. senators representing any state at the same time and sadly, her husband passed away this week, do you have any thoughts or memories you would like to share about him? >> he was a person who really made it in business and was very generous and gave back all over the world he was known for being so charitable. of course he served on the regency and he was so proud of

the uc system and what i remember most about him is how supportive he always was of his wife, and if he heard someone in their face about it. s right he was loyal and true and proud and not afraid to be proud of a very strong woman. i loved that about him. >> thank you so much for your time and insight. this week, president biden gave his first state of the union address, he praised the people of ukraine for fighting back with pure courage and celebrated joint sanctions from western countries on russia. president biden also made strong statements in support of america's police officers saying that we should not defund the police, but rather fund them wi the resources and training they need to protect our communities. joining me now are cohosts of kqed's the california report

and the politics senior editor, thank you both for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> scott, let's start with you. in his first state of the union address, president biden promised to quote inflict pain on vladimir putin and he was flanked by two san franciscans displaying once again the role that californians play in our federal government. so what were your takeaways? >> that image was so striking, two women, both from the bay area and i think the other thing that struck me image wise is that they weren't wearing masks and biden lingering afterwards and talking to people and getting up close and those images saying the country has turned the corner. >> he went for head to for head at one point. >> he was talking to jackie spear and literally, and that's

him,i think he enjoys that and it sends a nice message that things are returning to normal. substantively it was two speeches, the top was ukraine and the speeches get put together for months and months and to have something like the ukraine war break out is sort of chaotic. >> everything had to change. >> so by putting that at the top where it belonged he got republicans on their feet cheering and there was a moment of unity and then he went into the domestic policies but the ukraine part of the spee really gave him a way to show all the work they have done in uniting nato and getting everybody on the same page which is no small feat especially when you contrast it with the previous president who was criticizing nato very often and going his own way so i think that contrast was appreciated, certainly by democrats but a lot of republicans were on their feet

cheering that part of it. >> in addition to addressing the war and talking about covid, president biden also clearly stated his support for police offcers and saul, i want to go to you here, what are you hearing in response to that portion of the speech? >> i think that's very much in line with changes in the national conversation over crime and violence in society, across the country and across the state of california. i know here in los angeles we are in the middle of a mayoral race and there are five or six major candidates. none of themhere are talking about deep cuts to the lapd, if anything they want to add anywhere from 200 to 1500 officers. up in your area i cently talked to the chief of police of oakland and i asked him, what has changed in the last year when it comes to this issue of cutting funding for úy basically night and day, he doesn't worry about it in the same way he did a year ago and a lot of people in the oakland city council who were supportive of big cuts to the

department no longer, at least for now are talking that way. >> that has changed very dramatically within the last year. moving to the state level, governor newsom wants to stop using pension funds from three of the states largest pension funds, stop them from using any of that investment money into russia. can you tell us more about the funds he's targeting and how he thinks this will help? >> those two alone are about $1 trillion and that makes them by far the biggest public pension funds in the country. there is in a whole lot of investment currently in russia, maybe one and a half billion dollars and what governor newsom is sang, he's not saying divest, he saying let's not put any more money, let's not by any russian debt or send any money to russia, those investments have dropped about 25 percent in the past few weeks and people who care about

the financial stewardship of that money will say you don't sell after you've lost a lot of money so he's not proposing that, but there are some republicans and democrats in the legislature who do want to see those pension funds divest, take the money out, sell it. i don't know how far that will go but there clearly is a sense that california doesn't want to do anything to help russia at this time and punish them in whatever way they possibly can. >> we heard earlier in the show from the ukrainian organizer who is rallying support for family members and friends and others back home in the ukraine and i know as you've been covering southern california news for kqed, you' been speaking with leaders of the ukrainian community about the expected influx of refugees to california, can you tell us more about how they are preparing? >> they are talking about preparing right now and that's the big challenge. in a lot of these groups, up

until a few days ago they were dealing with cultural issues or they were programming singers or music or things like that and now they're turning into forms to talk about refugee issues and to talk about how to help refugees, so that is the challenge they face because some number of ukrainians who have fled ukraine proper are probably going to end uphere in california, so that's the challenge they face. how did they make that pivot turned to doing what they were doing two weeks ago to helping a pretty sizable influx of refugees. they are also trying to open up lines of communication to other eastern european groups here like in the la area in particular, talking to romanian groups to try to get their help and form this kind of alliance of assistance here in california for the people when they arrive. >> i want to turn to a plan that governor newsom put forward this week to assist

people living in california right now who need help and he's calling it a care court, this is a way to move people who are struggling with dental illness and other issues off of the streets and into supportive services. we are just hearing out this this week, does it seem like this plan is workable? >> clearly is meant to address a big problem, we've all seen here in the bay area and throughout the state, people who are having mental health problems. just yesterday i saw a person who had been screaming at somebody on the sidewalk walk into a starbucks and i think there's a growing consensus that there is nothing compassionate about allowing folks who need help to stay on the street and sleep on the streets so what the governor is proposing and he would need the legislature to pass this, is to create these care courts in all of the 58 counties in california where there would be an opportunity to place for people who have severe mental

health or addiction problems to go if a family member or outreach worker or the court system says they can't care for themselves and then they would be compelled into treatment and they would also be assigned a public defender which would address some of the civil liberties concerns and that in the past is what has struck down these efforts to compel people into treatments. saying that this could lead to abuses but assigning a public defender, someone to advocate on their behalf in the courts might help and i think there's a growing consensus that something needs to be done, that what we have tried before, so much money gets spent on this problem and it has not gotten better, if anything it's got worse so we will see what form this takes in legislation in the coming weeks. >> you were on a call earlier today with major mayors of major cities here in california and you are hearing support for this concept.

>> the mayors of all of california's largest cities were on this call except for the mayor of san francisco, but everyone said we strongly support what the governor wants to do here, a lot of them share their own experiences like we've all seen people having mental illnesses on the street, a lot of them had stories fresh from this morning when they encountered somebody who was having some sort of a problem mentally and all of them feel it is necessary, and the question that i asked them that they weren't able to ask or answer comprehensively at least right now is, what do you plan to do as a city? what can cities do? what will be your role in this versus the state, versus the county, particularly at a time where you are also trying to solve the homeless crisis generally and with some successes but also with some setbacks and failures, so how do you put this additional thing on your plate and get it

all done? >> perhaps provide an additional tool in that toolkit. let's talk about gas prices, because gas prices are now averaging more than five dollars a gallon for the very first time in california history. you've been talking with residents and business owners about the cost increase, tell us what you are hearing? >> and going to the gas pump personally. i think this is an issue where an abstract issue like ukraine and international oil prices really hits home. not all of us, but all of us go to the pump once or twice a week and that price is clearly marked on a big sign the way other prices are not so you react to that. i think it's going to become a huge issue, you are already seeing a lot of commentary on twitter from elected officials about whether this would be a good time to suspend the state gasoline tax that is now about $.51 per gallon of gasoline, opponents of that say no, that's not what you want to do because that money is really

important to funding california's infrastructure projects so expect as the crisis continues, that's not going to go away anytime soon, expect this to be a huge issue in a very auto reliant california. >> this has been such an insightful conversation. saul gonzales, thank you for coming to us from los angeles and scott, thanks for being with us tonight as well. it is time now for the final element of this evening's show, something beautiful. this evening we are taking a trip across the bay to oakland where a public art installation at the west oakland mural project is highlighting the vital role women played in the revolutionary about black panther party. let's take a look.[ music ]

and that is the end of our show for tonight, thank you for joining us. kqed newsroom is on twitter and facebook . we love hearing from you, so please get in touch. we will see right back here next friday night, have a great weekend.

captioning sponsored by wnet sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, march 6: the russian vasion of ukraine continues as a second attempt at a limited ceasefire and evacuations fail. a look at how the war is playing out globally. and taking stock of ways to help reduce methane. wshour weekend.”xt on “srcent. >> "pbs newshour weekend" is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. leonard and norma klorfine