captioning sponsoredy newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good eveng. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the state of the war. president biden announces a ban on russian oil, as sluggish evacuations continue and ukrainians fortify the cities russia could attack next. then, ukraine's long road. we examine the critical events that led up to russia's invasion amid rampant revisionist history coming from the kremlin. and, in search of equality. on this international women's day, a new united nations report details the gender discrimination women still face around the world, and how they are fighting back. all that and more, on tonight's

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and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president biden today announced a u.s. ban on all imports of russian oil, a move followed quickly by the united kingdom. the president said it would ratchet up the pressure on russia's economy, which has come under withering pressure from sanctions and other moves by the u.s., european union, and other nations. >> we're banning all imports of russian oil and gas and energy.

that means russian oil will no longer be acceptable at u.s. ports, and the american people will deal another powerful blow to putin's war machine. this is a move that has strong bipartisan support in congress, and, i believe, in the country. >> woodruff: the torrent of companies leaving russia continued today, too: american icons coca-cola, pepsico, mcdonald's, and starbucks said they would suspend operations in russia. mcdonald's has more than 800 locations, and employs tens of thousands of russians. meantime, leaders of u.s. intelligence agencies said today they believe president putin underestimated the strength of ukraine's resisnce before launching the invasion nearly two weeks ago. they spoke during a congressional hearing on global threats to u.s. security. but, director of national intelligence avril haines added that, despite russian setbacks, putin may intensify his assault. >> our analysts assess that putin is unlikely to be deterred

by such setbacks, and instead may escalate, essentially doubling down to achieve ukrainian disarmament neutrality to prevent it from further integrating with the u.s. and nato, if it doesn't reach some diplomatic negotiation. >> woodruff: meantime, the war in ukraine continues at a brutal pace. the united nations human rights agency said today that it has recorded 474 civilian deaths in the conflict, including 29 children. they believe the real toll is much higher. and, the pentagon today said that it believes somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 russian troops have been killed in the fighting, though they gave that estimate little confidence; the ukrainians claim they've killed 11,000 russians. and, now more than two million ukrainians have fled their nation, most heading west toward the rest of europe. it is on part of that march where we find nick schifrin tonight, in western ukraine. >> schifrin: today, finally, a

rescue... for families who've been living in fear, for hundreds of trapped foreign students, for residents in this northeast city, besieged by russian shelling. this is what they fled: the destruction of their homes. the fear of losing their lives in a russian onslaught that clearly targeted civilians. the buses also headed to another corridor in the southeastern city, mariupol. but today, for the fourth straight day, there was no promised rescue, nor russian restraint. residents have had no essentials for nearly a week. all they have is despair. >> ( translated ): we don't have electricity, we don't have anything to eat, we don't have medicine, we've got nothing. >> schifrin: the bombardment drives them underground. babies barely older than the war; parents, so traumatized, they can't offer comfort. >> ( translated ): why shouldn't i cry? i want my home, i want my job.

i'm so sad about people and about the city, the children. >> schifrin: in kharkiv near the russian border, a russian bomb reduced a hospital to rubble. the world health organization said today, at least 16 health facilities have been attacked in 12 days of war. but, in a nearby hospital, a small miracle-- a child named vova survived, despite a piece of shrapnel in his skull. after surgery, when the doctor woke him up? vova whispered, "i am fine.” but there was no relief outside kyiv, in the suburb of irpin. residents who've been shelled for days, braved russian threats to cross under a destroyed bridge. a senior u.s. defense official today warned, russia is still advancing on the capital, from the north, west, and north east. ( crying child) some of those fleeing in irpin have lost homes for the second time in less than two weeks. >> ( translated ): we've got nothing. we had to run away. at our house, the temperature was ten degrees, and it was

decreasing. that's why we are fleeing again. >> schifrin: but the flight to safety is often as harrowing as the violence they escaped. we met this family when they reached a safe space at a shelter near the polish border. six-year-old nikita insisted on staying in his grandmother olha's arms. >> ( translated ): people got out of the bomb shelters, all dirty in dust, and they got on the train. the people who got on the train, they were crying. and then, the train station was being shelled, so we all had to wait. >> schifrin: to get to safety, they traveled through the kharkiv train station, overwhelmed with people desperate to leave. th'd fled an area with constant explosions in the eastern district of donetsk. >> ( translated ): we were very close, and the kids were very scared. we were sitting in the bomb shelter all the time. the air raid alarm went off all the time. both the kids would run into the bathroom, cover themselves with

a blanket and stay there the whole night. our kids were prepared for that. they weren't too scared. right now, when we call back home, there's no food in the grocery stores, people don't have money, and if they do, the's nothing to spend it on. nothing. >> the economy is a bit broken. >> schifrin: what's also broken? russian military equipment. ukraine said today it shot down three russian fighter jets and a cruise missile. but in moscow, president putin raised pensions, a sign he may be worried about popular opinion, and claimed, falsely, that all russian troops in ukraine were "professional.” >> ( translated ): i'd like to emphasize that conscript soldiers do not and will not participate in the military operation, and there will be no additional call-out of reserves. >> schifrin: this war's far less formal commanr in chief, despite death threats, showed off his office for the first time. >> ( translated ): i stay here in kyiv.

i don't hide, and i'm not afraid of anyone. i will stay here as long as it's necessary, to win in our patriotic war. >> schifrin: to win that war, ukraine is lining up civilians, and trying to turn them into warriors. young men, who feel at ease; older men, willing to fight alongside their own children. they're called the territorial defense, volunteers who've mostly never served or held a gun. learning urban warfare, as long as it takes. they take an oath to the military and country. they're just one unit of 100,000 across the country: ukraine's newest weekday warriors, hardened not by battle, but by necessity. what were you doing 2 weeks ago, before the invasion? >> i'm an it specialist, i'm chief marketing officer for a huge i.t. company. >> schifrin: 30-year-old eugene lata is one of this unit's medics. unlike most volunteers, he's seen combat. in 2014 he filmed, and witnessed some of the worst fighting in

eastern ukraine. now, he prepares for more battle. >> i believe the war will come to odessa, because i don't believe that putin will stop. he will not stop. >> schifrin: his job is to modernize the unit's medicine, and build updated first aid kits. >> schifrin: that old? >> it's older than my mother. >> schifrin: nearby, perhaps the youngest volunteer. valeria ruanova is in charge of the uniforms... and is 19. >> ( translated ): i am from crimea. i came in 2018. i know what russia is, and what putin is, and i don't wish any of that on ukraine. >> schifrin: in 2014, russian soldiers invaded crimea. moscow annexed the peninsula, and persecuted or even killed anyone not deemed sufficiently

pro-russian. >> ( translated ): these are young guys who were not afraid to say something. and then their bodies were found in the forest. they made us relinquish our ukrainian passports, and accept russian citizenship. after, life in crimea changed significantly. crimea was destroyed. most of the young people realized we did not have a future in crimea. >> schifrin: before the war, she says she hung out with her friends, and was a barista. but her dreams of becoming a teacher, now deferred. >> ( translated ): in the future i'd like to go back to school. but right now i'm not thinking about that, because we are thinking about protecting our ukraine. >> schifrin: do you have faith that you, the army, the government, will be able to protect odessa, protect the country? >> ( translated ): i have no doubt whatsoever. because no one expected that our people will stand up and fight, that we are so strong, that we're all united with one goal. and i have no doubt whatsoever. >> schifrin: lata was born the

same year an independent ukraine was born... 1991. he is tied by birth to his country's fate. >> right now, everyone involved, in every single city in every single town of our country, everyone involved in this war. and people know and people understands that if we... if we lose, then we don't have a country, we don't have a nationality. and that's why we are fighting here-- not for odessa, not for the kyiv or kharkiv. we are fighting for the whole ukraine, and we are fighting for the independent country. >> reporter: today, president volodymyr zelensky addressed british parliament and borrowed from shakespeare, comparing the fight against russia to world war ii against germany, vowing we will fight in the sea, the forest and fields and on the streets and acknowledge the

threat posed by russia to kyiv is existential and asked the question for us is to be or not to be. judy, the answer was to be. >> woodruff: and you could see that in the answers of the ukrainians you spoke with. nick, a question -- how meaningful is it seen, the humanitarian corridor, as it existed today? >> reporter: some 5,000 people were able to escape sumi, both residents and many trapped students, and some humanitarian aid was allowed to get into sumi, but president zelensky said that represents 1% of what needs to be done. thousands of cities across ukraine don't have power, electricity or basic services. hundreds of thousands are without power and without access just to some of the basics of life.

to give you a sense of how bad things have gotten in mariupol that we featured earlier, city authorities said they were about the to start digging the mass graves. >> woodruff: it's hard to hear this. nick, we know the u.s. was warning today about what's to come? >> reporter: yeah, as we heard at the top to have the segment, we heard -- top of the segment we heard from the director of national intelligence today say at putin would be undeterred by some of the settlebacks and bill bird the director of the c.i.a. went further saying putin was angry and frustrated and is likely to double down with no regard to civilian casualties. we're already seeing the huge convoy outside of kyiv, bogged down, hasn't moved in four or five days, and we've seen indiscriminate shelling across the country, already. >> woodruff: nick schifrin reporting tonight from western ukraine. thank you, nick.

in addition to the energy sanctions announced today by the president, inside russia, the economic shockwaves continue. the central bank has now set a limit on withdrawals of dollars from banks. the limit is now $10,000, with the rest paid out in increasingly worthless rubles. to discuss the russian war, the american and allied response, both in aid and sanctions, i spoke a short time ago with victoria nuland. she is the undersecretary of state for political affairs, the department's fourth-ranking official. undersecretary nuland, thank you very much for joining us. i first want to ask you about the news this afternoon that poland will be supplying mig 29 fighter jets to ukraine through germany. i know you said that you -- the u.s. was not informed ahead of time. but what do you know about the mission? >> judy, i have to tell you that

i have been with senate friends for the last couple of hours, so i'm not fully informed beyond the polish press release. we have been saying that, obviously, these planes belong to poland and it's their sovereign right to do with them as they will, and the ukrainians have been asking for them. >> woodruff: do you believe they can be in position soon enough to make a difference in this war? >> you know, i don't know what the arrangements are to figure this out. i would note that the ukrainian air force has actually not been flying very much, nor has the russian air force. they're both afraid of surface-to-air missiles, and what did has been most effective in this fight have been these surface-to-air systems that the united states and many of our allies and partners have been getting into ukraine at high volumes to protect them against not only russian aircraft but also russian tanks and other systems. >> woodruff: so would you say the fears that we're hearing

from all quarters about where these planes are, how vulnerable they would be to being shot down, your belief is that that may be overwrought, overdone? >> look, judy, only the ukrainians can decide how best to fight this war. it is -- what we are trying to do is give them the means that they need to deaf-blind themselves, and they have been -- defend themselves and they have been fighting incredibly bravely. i think if you had asked anyone a month ago whether they would have been able to hold out as well and strongly and flank the mighty russian army the way they have and slow them down and sludge them up, nobody would have believed it. that's a testimony to them and the support they have been getting. >> woodruff: president zelensky has been speaking to the public every day, we have been listening to him. he is asking, as you know, for more support, including more

surface-to-air missiles. he's also asking for a "no fly" zone, and there are a number of former arounds to europe saying there's a way to do that in a limited manner. is the u.s. even considering something like that? >> judy, we do not believe it is possible to put u.s. or n.a.t.o. aerospace over the skies of ukraine now without coming into direct contact with the russian military and making this a n.a.t.o.-russia or u.s.-russia fight and, thereby, broadening this war, which we don't want to do. in addition to that, there are serious russian air defenses over ukraine. so i think that is not the right way to go. but, as i said, these surface-to-air systems that we have been helping the ukrainians get have been highly, highly effective at the threat that they are facing. >> woodruff: so you're saying that even a limited form of "no fly" zone is not in any way on

the table? >> not unless we want to end up in a fight between the united states and russia, which the american people don't want and which president biden doesn't want either and which does not help ukraine to widen this war. we need to end this war. >> woodruff: i just listened to you testify before the senate foreign relations committee, and there were a number of points when you spoke about additional aid. the u.s. is talking with ukraine about providing. can you shed light on what that might be? >> i think continue to provide defense systems and air defense systems. we are providing ammunition and other things, but in general we don't talk about these thngs publicly because it doesn't help the cause. the ukrainians need a degree of strategic secrecy in the way they're going to beat this russian military, and they have been successful so far. >> woodruff: president biden did announce today that the

united states will no longer purchase russian oil. there's a complete ban, now, from the u.s. how much of a difference is it going to make? it's not going to make much of a dent in russian sales, is it? >> well, judy, what has happened now is 70% of the oil russia produces has come off the market as a result of the kinds of sanctions that president biden just put on and that other countries are putting on and the fact that there's market skittishness as a result of these kinds of things. so that is 70% of the revenue that he would get from oil that is not going into his coffers. and as president zelensky has said, every drop of russian oil sold is a drop of ukrainian blood spilled. >> woodruff: and in connection with that, pressure the biden administration putting on our other allies in europe, germany, and others. we just heard the german chancellor say earlier today

that it affects the security of europe to continue to depend on russian energy. >> well, i do think that our european allies and partners who are more dependent on russian oil and gas really have had a very difficult wakeup call through this conflict, and i think it will accelerate some of their choices to move away from oil and gas from russia, but it's not going to be quick and we're going to have to support them in that. in the meantime this, even as we impose this oil embargo, some of our allies and partners are not going to be able to do that right away unless they want the lights and heat to go off in their homes. so as we build this coalition and stay united, we also have to be flexible with each other tht there are some things we can do they can do and some things they can do that we can't do, so that's the unity we're seeking to build and president biden did consult with allies and partners

before doing this and make clear to them we understood some of them would have a longer transition. >> woodruff: we're also hearing today ability major american corporations that do a lot of business in russia from coca-cola, mcdonald's, starbucks and others, and this is on top of credit card companies like visa, no more business with russia. are these the kinds of things that are going to have affect ultimately on vladimir putin? >> well, obviously, it has affect on russian financial coffers, but, more importantly, it has an effect on the psyche of the russian people to whom putin has been lying. he's trying to, just as he tries to turn ukraine into rubble, he's trying to turn russia back into a prison. as you know, the last of independent media has been cut off, he's trying to control information, but when russian citizens especially in the big cities of moscow and st. petersburg see that they can no longer get money out of their

a.t.m.s, they can no longer travel easily, they can't get their big macs, they can't get pieces for their iphones, that he is throwing them back to so to times and they are making their voices heard and he will have to deal with the dissatisfaction of his citizens. >> woodruff: undersecretary of state victoria nuland, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: and, in the few minutes since undersecretary nuland and i spoke, the pentagon has rejected the polish plan to send its soviet-era fighter jets into ukraine, saying the plan to have "nato" jets fly into ukraine at this time was not "table." >> woodruff: in the day's other news, there are signs that north korea has resumed construction at a nuclear testing ground. as of mid-february, a maxar technologies satellite image

showed the site remained inactive. now, a new image taken last week appears to show two structures built in recent days. the site was declared closed four years ago. a texas man was convicted today in the first trial stemming from the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. a federal jury in washington found guy reffit guilty on all counts. they included carrying a handgun on the capitol grounds, interfering with police, and obstructing justice. to date, more than 750 people have been charged in the riot. a leader of the proud boys extremist group is now charged with conspiracy in the january 6 investigation. henry "enrique" tarrio was arrested today. he was not at the capitol during the attack, but federal prosecutors say he helped plan it. teachers in the minneapolis school district went on strike today. they marched outside schools, demanding higher wages, caps on

class sizes and more mental health support for students. supporters honked car horns, as union leaders urged officials to compromise. >> and we want to be very clear that what they're doing isn't working. they are driving families out of this district. they are driving educators out of this district. and we are here to intervene. >> woodruff: the strike stopped classes for 29,000 students and nearly 3,300 teachers. in florida today, state lawmakers approved limiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. republicans pushed the bill to let parents sue school districts over what they view as inappropriate lessons for young children. democrats warned, it sends a message that there is something wrong with being l.g.b.t.q. republican governor ron desantis is expected to sign it. jury selection has begun in grand rapids, michigan, for

four men accused of plotting to kidnap governor gretchen whitmer. federal prosecutors claim the 2020 conspiracy was meant to be retaliation for whitmer's covid-19 restrictions. the trial is expected to last more than a month. on the pandemic, a world health organization panel now says it strongly supports vaccination booster shots. it says they are needed to protect against the omicron variant. that marks a reversal from last year, when the w.h.o. urged wealthy nations to delay boosters and, instead, donate the doses to needier countries. the u.s. senate voted this evening to pass the postal service reform act and send it to the president. it aims to lift burdensome budget requirements that kept the agency deep in debt. it also mandates mail delivery six days a week. the house already passed the bill. and on wall street, stocks were up and down, buffeted again by

surging oil prices and other fallout from the war in ukraine. in the end, the dow jones industrial average lost 184 points to close at 32,632. the nasdaq fell 35 points. the s&p 500 slipped 30. still to come on the newshour: we examine the critical events that led up to russia's invasion of ukraine. how women and girls are fighting for equality on international women's day. plus, much more. >> woodruff: now, let's look further at the potential impact of president biden's move to ban russian oil in the united states. stephanie sy is here with some analysis of that decision. >> sy: judy, russian oil and petroleum accounts for only

about 8% of all u.s. energy imports, but the ban adds another level of pressure and stress to a strained global market. the price of crude oil topped $130 a barrel earlier this week. in the u.s., the average price for a gallon of gas is now $4.17. we look at the ban's impact here in the u.s., europe, and russia, with daniel yergin. he is the author of several major books on oil and energy, including "the prize," and most recently, "the new map: energy, climate and the clash of nations." he's the vice chairman of s&p global. mr. yergin, thank you so much for joining us. sincrussia invaded ukraine two weeks ago, gas prices have gone up 75 cents per gallon. so i want to start with what most americans are going to be wondering after this ban. how much more pain should consumers expect at that time the pump? >> i think you will see at least another few cents increase because, although the russian oil is a relatively small amount, it helps make some of

the refinery operations more efficient, and refiners will be scrambling to find replacements for those supplies. >> reporter: well, let's talk about that. the u.s. gets less than 700,000 barrels a day of oil from russia, but what does that mean as far as where we're going to get the gap? does the u.s. produce enough? does domestic supply fill in for that? does it have to look at other countries such as venezuela for more supply? >> there have been obviously been talks to resume imports from venezuela to make up for it. you can use other grades of owl but they're harder to process. the supplies are around to do it. this is not a major hit, but it just means these systems will not run with the same efficiency because these refineries all get fine-tuned to different grades offoil. >> reporte when you look at u.s. production, president biden was keen to point out there are

already some 9,000 permits oil and gas companies have approved to produce more oil and make up for this shortfall. would you expect that the higher prices are going to compel oil and gas companies to start drilling and ramp up domestic production here? >> you know, the 9,000 really doesn't make much sense. i think we really need to avoid a blame game here and instead focus on collaboration and cooperation in what is turning into a serious crisis. 9,000 leases out there. first, you don't know if there's any oil there. you have to move equipment there. by the way, it takes a year or so to prepare a well and drill it and, on top of that, the same kind of shortage also that are affecting the rest of the company, of people, pipes and things like that, is affecting the oil and gas industry. we are seeing production going up and that should have been acknowledged in the president's remarks, you go up by almost a million barrels a day, but there's not a light switch to turn on to do that and you don't

know, until you drill, whether there's actually commercial oil there. so that's why i say what we really need is to focus on the practical things that can be done, encouraging production. yes, the u.s. is a signature source of additional oil over the course of the year, but it doesn't happen overnight. >> reporter: so what types of collaboration and cooperation and policy, specifically, is called for here? >> well, it's the same kind of cooperation we had in world war ii and the korean war and the suez crisis in 1973 and 1-9d 1991. we need a strong, constructive dialogue between the administration and the industry to understand what's happening in logistics, where the barrels are, where the supply is, how you can fix them, how you can get it into the system. the system really needs to work together, and we've got to get out of this kind of contention and argument that we've seen and we have to regard this as a serious crisis and do what we've done in the past and we've done it successfully. we have a strong industry, we have a capable gernment,

they've got to cooperate, and there has to be a much stronger dialogue than has existed in the past. and i think here in our conference in houston, we see the dialogue going on bute're not going to deal with the problems unless there's ally cooperation and dialogue and really tight coordination. >> reporter: the u.s. is doing the oil, coal and liquefied natural gas ban largely on its own. the u.k. says it will ban russian oil by the end to have the year, but the -- by the end of the year, but the rest of europe will continue to be customers of russian energy. will that at all minimize the impact on global oil markets? and you mentioned the commodities as well. >> what's happened is that, already, a lot of rusian oil is actually not getting to market. it's being disrupted anyway becae of people just -- you know, ports in england saying we won't accept russian oil, that's happening, or people can't get insurance to insure a tanker.

but it is a different situation because europe has been heavily dependent on russian oil as it isheavily dependent on natural gas. it has alternatives. they're in a different position than the united states as they don't have the same flexibility that we do. if you remember, the original sanctions when they were put in place explicitly carved out oil and gas so as not to disrupt the flow of energy to europe, but it's happening. i think european countries are scrambling. they've turned to u.s. l&g. the u.s. is the biggest supplier of natural gas to europe and in emergency plans that the e.u. came out to to replace russian gas, l&g imports loom large and the u.s. will be the largest export of l&g this year, so we have a very important role in helping the europeans reduce their spendens on russian oil and gas. >> reporter: but again they are not part of the ban so they will continue to get russian oil.

what does that mean as far as how big of an impact the u.s. ban will have on president putin and his aggressions in ukraine? >> well, i think president putin at this point demonstrated he doesn't care. he doesn't care he ruined what he spent 22 years building up the russian economy, he doesn't care about the people that are being killed and maimed and suffering in ukraine, he doesn't care about his own soldiers being killed, all he cares about is victory and conquest, so he will just look at u.s. banning russian oil as another irritant in the strange mental map he has now that has caused him to launch this war. but i think, as more russian supplies get disrupted -- and they are going to get disrupted because banks won't finance them, tankers won't pick up russian oil or if they do they won't be able to land it -- cumulative impact that this is going to hit his major force of foreign earnings. so there are a lot of miscalculations putin has made, one of which is the dependence

of europe on russian oil and gas mean they would have a very passive reaction, it's had the opposite. >> reporter: daniel yergin, s&p global and author. thanks for joining the "newshour". >> thank you. >> woodruff: in explaining why he launched this invasion, president putin falsely claimed that ukraine was always a part of russia. and, jt as he did the first time he invaded ukraine, putin made bogus assertions about pro-russian ukrainians being under threat. to help sort fact from fiction, and gain a better understanding of how we got to this point, the newshour's ali rogin looks at the history of ukraine, and of its people's political independence. >> reporter: in 1991, at the beginning of the end of the soviet union, ukraine declared

independence, after nearly 70 years under moscow's control. and, when russian president vladimir putin took power a decade later, he began trying to get it back. ukraine, he says, is part of russia's family. >> ( translated ): we will believe that ukraine is not only our closest neighbor, but is indeed our brotherly republic. >> reporter: at a nato summit in 2008, he reportedly told then-president george w. bush that ukraine was not even a country, and he repeated those claims last week, before launching the invasion. >> ( translated ): ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood. modernkraine was entirely created by russia. >> reporter: that claim ignores the centuries of history through which modern ukraine took shape. it was first home to the kievan rus people, who were scandinavian traders and russia's namesake. over time, it was absorbed by poland and lithuania, and then the russian empire, then austria-hungary. a post-world war i treaty briefly recognized its

independence, lo enough to spark ukrainian nationalist movements. the ukrainian socialist soviet republic was born in 1922. under soviet rule, ukrainian identity was under constant threat. in 1932, soviet leader joseph stalin deliberately imposed famine there, killing at least three million ukrainians in a single year. indeed, by world war ii, some ukrainians welcomed nazi occupation as a way to challenge soviet control. but the nazis slaughtered more than 1.5 million ukrainian jews. millions more non-jewish ukrainians were also killed or put to hard labor. by 1954, the country that exists today was part of the u.s.s.r. the final piece was crimea, a peninsula on the black sea, which soviet leader nikita kruschev transferred from russia to ukraine. but, even after ukraine declared independence in 1991, pro-russian political elements remained, which putin exploited. ( singing )

in ukraine's 2004 presidential elections, he supported the pro-russian prime minister, viktor yanukovich. >> yushenko! yushenko! >> reporter: yanukovich ran against viktor yuschenko, a pro-western opposition politician. >> ( translated ): it would be a great mistake if ukraine misses a train bound for europe. >> reporter: yanukovich won, but international monitors said the election fell short of its standard, and yuschenko's supporters took to the streets. they sparked the orange revolution-- so-called for the campaign's colors-- holding protests and storming parliament. the ukrainian supreme court deemed the results invalid, and yuschenko won the next election. during the election, yuschenko became ill, and his face became disfigured. it was found to be dioxin poisoning. his supporters blamed the pro-russian government. >> ( translated ): who is responsible? the ukrainian authorities are, who have been doing everything not to let yushchenko win.

>> reporter: he did win, though, and continued pushing west. >> ( translated ): there is policy and rhetoric. the political goal is the final integration to the european union and nato. the main question is not in the direction of movement, but in the speed of it. >> reporter: but in eastern ukraine, support for russia remained strong. in 2010, yanukovich ran again, and won. >> ( translated ): my task is to make sure that russia-ukraine relations take a radical turn in the right direction. >> reporter: one of those radical turns came in 2013. yanukovich stopped trade talks with the e.u., instead pursuing a similar agreement with russia. ( chanting ) >> reporter: that night, crowds gathered in kiev's maidan, or independence square, which continued to grow into a sprawling camp. >> ( translated ): we are ready for war, but we're hoping for the best. a government should be afraid of the people, not the people afraid of the government. >> reporter: but the head of the russian government vilified the ukrainian people. >> ( translated ): in my view, this is an attempt by the

opposition to shake the current and-- i want to emphasize-- legitimate authorities in the country. ( explosion ) >> reporter: as 2014 began, authorities grew more violent. in late february, ukrainian security forces shot and killed dozens. then, the opposition and government reached a truce, and yanukovich fled-- reappearing a few days later, in russia. >> ( translated ): i intend to keep fighting for the future of ukraine, against those who are using fear and terror to seize the country. >> reporter: but the one trying to seize ukraine was putin. he sent unidentified armed men to occupy airports in crimea, which putin has long said was stolen from russia. putin denied sending in troops, but said he would, if asked-- setting up a pretext, just as he did for this invasion. >> ( translated ): what can be a reason to use the armed forces? this is, of course, the last resort, simply the last resort. if we see that lawlessness starting in eastern regions, too, if people ask us for help, we reserve the right to use all options at our disposal to protect those citizens.

>> reporter: those so-called requests for help soon followed. on march 6, the crimean parliament voted to secede from ukraine and join russia. days later, a public referendum, rife with alleged fraud, passed with 95.5% of the vote. that july, the u.s., e.u., canada, and other allies imposed sanctions on russia. more unidentified vehicles arrived in crimea, escorted by russian police cars, and russian troops took over more buildings. as it is today, the putin regime said it was helping crimeans defend themselves-- with little evidence they needed defending. >> ( translated ): will russia be able to remain indifferent to the situation, when, in the neighboring ukraine, russians are facing a deadly threat? the answer is simple: no, russia cannot remain indifferent and it will not remain indifferent. >> reporter: two months later, ukraine elected its next president: pro-european businessman petro poroshenko. >> ( translated ): we will take

>> reporter: but the events in >> ( translated ): we should do everything possible to bring european values to ukraine. >> reporter: but the events in crimea had inspired pro-russian separatists in two oer regions: donetsk anduhansk, collectively known as the donbas. >> ( translated ): we want to have an independent republic of donetsk. we want to be independent from ukraine. >> reporter: the political protests took on a military dimension. russian-backed separatists began an insurgency against the ukrainian military. there were diplomatic attempts to reach a cease-fire, but those never held. the fighting continued into 2019, when poroshenko lost re-election to tv star and neophyte politician volodomyr zelensky, who'd once played an accidentally-elected president of ukraine. he campaigned on domestic issues, but also wanted to restore peace to the donbas. >> ( translated ): most likely, if i meet mr. vladimir putin, i will tell him the following: "well, you finally gave us back our territories. how much money are you ready to give as compensation for the fact that you took our territories, and that you

assisted people who participated in escalation in crimea, donbas, and assisted them on the awful, cruel and disgusting path?" >> reporter: three years later, putin is forcing the ukrainian people further down that cruel path, while zelensky fights to lead them out. for the pbs newshour, i'm ali rogin. >> woodruff: and, we'll be back shortly. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for those stations staying with us-- at the grammys next month, singer brandi carlile will be up for five awards, including song of the year. jeffrey brown caug up with

her, for this encore story that is part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." (♪ "right on time" ♪) ♪ome back now even if you call me out ♪ >> brown: brandi carlile calls her new record, "in these silent days," a "pandemic album"-- born from a time of isolation with family at her rural home an hour outside seattle. a time to stop and reflect on her climb to stardom, and where it began, in places like seattle's paragon restaurant and bar. >> i remember coming in here, right around this time of day, when i knew i could talk to the manager, and it wouldn't be too busy. and i said, "hey, i've got a p.a. system and a guitar player. and if you give me, like, maybe we'll start at 6:00 p.m. on sunday nights, we'll do it for free for a month. and if, a month later, you've seen that you have an uptick on sunday nights, then you can start paying me, or feeding us, or..." >> brown: you might consider paying me! >> yeah, yeah. >> brown: gigs at local seattle

spots were the norm for years, along with busking for tips at the famed pike place market. the hard-working life of a >> i was really interested in things like printing and hanging posters, and busking and stopping people on the street and handing them a pamphlet and telling them about my show. it's a city that sort of rewards that, and values that. ♪ and the joke's on them ♪ >> brown: her stunning performance at the 2019 grammy's of "the joke," a ballad to those who feel marginalized, brought her national attention. now 40, carlile told her own coming-of-age story in a recent memoir, titled "broken horses," about growing up poor in rural washington state, moving from place to place, her father's battles with alcoholism, her mother's aspirations to be a country singer. a self-described "misfit," carlile writes of being gay in a community with few role models and a church that didn't accept her. from the beginning, though,

she was, she says, "addicted to performing." >> well, it's easy to get addicted to performing, because it's quite an adrenaline rush, you know. i would say that it was something that i experienced so young that, i just always wanted to do it. i wanted to do it! i wanted to feel understood and seen. >> brown: did you feel misunderstood and unseen? >> no... not for the most part, but i felt like i chose those moments to reveal myself. >> brown: her musical collaborators and soulmates: identical twins phil and tim hanseroth. phil on bass, and tim on guitar. they traveled for years in an old van, now permanently parked outside easy street records, another seattle music landmark, where carlile took us to browse the bins of her heroes-- some of whom have become close friends, like elton john. you wrote in your book about how you wanted nothing more in life than to be elton john, it sounds like--

( laughter ) --as a little girl. >> yeah. i fell in love with him when i was, like, 11 years old. and he was just such a magical beast to me that i felt a kinship to him. ♪ all of these lines across my face ♪ >> brown: what she did somehow know for certain is that she would make it, even if that took longer than she'd hoped. she writes of being 15 years into her career before receiving a first grammy nomination. and, only later did she come to see how gender and sexual orientation could be barriers to success. >> i definitely am still having to overcome it, and i definitely had to overcome it. i wasn't paying much attention because i was in a state for a long time of just euphoria, that these dreams would come true, and these things are happening in my life; not knowing that it could still have been bigger and better, and that it indeed was bigger and better for my male counterparts. >> brown: it's been particularly

true, she says, in her world of country and american roots music. >> i chose that album cover. >> brown: that's pretty good. she points to another musician who would become a friend: tanya tucker. >> are you guys ready to roll one? >> brown: in 2019, carlile co-produced a critically- acclaimed comeback album with tucker-- decades after tucker had fallen from favor for an "outlaw" image for which her male counterparts in the 1970s were celebrated. >> it made me realize that there are just two very different lanes, for women and men, particularly, in roots music. now, forget bipoc people or l.g.b.t.q.+ people-- there's not even a lane. i knew i wanted to get involved in that, because it's really challenging, and it made me feel like i felt as a kid in church-- like, i don't belong here, and that's why i'm going to stay, you know? it's an act of defiance. >> brown: today, carlile and her wife catherine are parents to two daughters. ♪ because i am the mother of evangeline ♪

♪ when we love someone we take them to heaven ♪ >> brown: she's part of a country supergroup called the highwomen, formed in 2019. and, she speaks up as she sees necessary, including with the recent grammy nominations: she expressed gratitude, but also wondered aloud why her song "right on time" was shifted to a "pop performance" category, rather than "country" or "americana," where she sees herself. >> i think a lot of queer people are cognizant of, if not sensitive to being disenfranchised-- and the thing that makes that poignant is that there's so many american roots people, there's so many rural people in this country, people that live in not-downtown seattle, that are so systemically rejected by the correlating culture. country music, roots music has a vortex, it has a culture. anthere are country queers. and they need-- they need to

see acceptance, and affirmation, in those places, you know? ♪ ♪ ♪ >> brown: for now, brandi carlile awaits the grammy awards ceremony, and plans to take her pandemic-era album, "in these silent days," on tour-- ♪ ♪ ♪ for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in seattle. >> woodruff: on international women's day, we wanted to take a closer look at the state of women and girls worldwide. newshour's digital anchor, nicole ellis spoke earlier today with michelle millford morse, the united nations foundation's vice president for girls and women strategy, about the

agency's new report on gender inequality across the globe. here is part of that conversation. >> reporter: what are some of the biggest takeaways from this report? >> 2.4 billion women don't have the same legal rights as men. what this means is that globally and on average, girls and women only have three-quarters of the same rights that men do. we think that's outrageous. we think it's unacceptable. and we wanted people to know. >> reporter: 98 countries are not legally required to provide equal pay to women. so, is workplace inequality truly a fixable problem? >> absolutely. pay equality is a problem we can fix. companies can pay men and women the same amount of money for the same work, with no excuses. and, in fact, some of the companies we most admired have fixed that problem, and they fixed it in countries all over the world. but the pay gap is one of those gaps that has remained really stubborn over the past couple of decades.

but there's a lot that employers can do to create workplaces that work for women. they can make sure that they have women at all levels of leadership, in all levels of the company. they can make sure they have paid sick and family leave. they can make sure men also take that paid family leave. they can stop using diminishment and stereotypes in their advertising. they can pay women equally, and they can also make sure they have safe workplaces. that report you're quoting also points out that 50 countries don't have any laws against sexual harassment at work. that is yet another problem that we can fix. that's unacceptable, and it doesn't have to be that way. >> reporter: is there a disparity in the extent of inequalities experienced by women of color? >> oh, it is vast. it is vast. i mean, the reality is that the data that i'm talking to you about, ourlobal aggregate, these are global aggregate data about the experiences of girls and women across a range of challenges related to inequality. but those gaps are much bigger. they are bigger for black women. they are bigger for women of

color. these gaps are wider and steeper for trans women, for migrant women, for rural women and for young women. there are overlapping levels of discrimination. and so it's really important that when we talk about girls and women, it is okay. it is important, in fact, to cite global data about this experience, but we should also always acknowledge that not everyone is having the same experience. and for some people, these gaps are bigger and steeper, and we have to pay extra-- extra attention to that, and address those in really specific ways. >> reporter: and finally, you know, is there anything that can be done to stymie some of these inequalities? >> oh, there's so much that can be done. i mean, this is not a time for despair. this is a time to act. and luckily, there's a lot of things that people can be. the first thing i would point out is that inequality is a solvable problem. we don't need a leap in science or technology, we don't need any magic here. we need more political will. we need more solidarity, and we need better policy. that's the first thing.

the second thing is that gender equality is better for girls, women, boys, and men in all their diversity. it's better for all of us. and it's not about men versus women, it's about fair-minded people versus, you know, fair- minded people, actually. and the third thing is that we have found that your voice matters. one of the best things that we know about this challenge is, all over the world, movements matter. connecting with legislators and parliamentarians matter. i mean, those laws i was citing earlier, there have been 1,500 reforms over the past couple of decades, and in regions all over the world, and it is a credit to people who are asking their government for something fairer and something better. so i'd want, i want anyone listening to know this is a solvable problem. this is within our grasp. inequality is a choice. we can do something different. >> woodruff: and you can watch nicole's full conversation with michelle millford morse online, at www.pbs.org/newshour.

tonight. and that is the newshour for i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the landscape has changed, and not for the last time. the rules of business are being reinvented, with a more flexible workforce, by embracing innovation, by looking not only at current opportunities, but ahead to future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and again, for whatever happens next. >> people who know, know b.d.o. >> fidelity wealth management. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular.

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company." here's what's coming up. civilians are paying the price as russian forces pound ukrainian cities. we speak to the mayor of mykolaiv, one of russia's key targets. and -- >> the world is saying to russia, stop these attacks immediately. >> as america tries to reassure nato allies in baltics, the u.s. ambassador to nato joins us. then famed ukrainian author andrey kurkov and the role of artists in the time of war. also -- >> seize this moment and use it as the choice point to head

definitively in the direction of