humanitarian cease fire today was about to expire. it was to allow people in gaza to go out and purchase food and other supplies, nbc news veteran middle east correspondent martin fletcher joins us life now from tel aviv. so martin, let's start with the developing news of this cease fire around 11:00 p.m. eastern time as mentioned. what is the situation you're hearing as far as if this will hold up, previously with the temporary cease fire, israel and hamas fired several rockets just prior to that one. >> reporter: the humanitarian truce started this afternoon and that lasted five hours, and that was fairly successful. the story of the moment, the cease fire negotiations continuing after hamas rejected the egyptian proposal. well, it's not dead, there's still negotiations going on in egypt, and there were reports that tomorrow morning local time, 6:00 a.m., as you

mentioned, a full cease fire, an end to the fighting all together would go into effect. that was quickly denied by israeli officials and also by hamas. but it does appear that in cairo, israeli officials hamas officials are in talks. >> that was -- play what we just heard regarding this truce deal, which you mentioned is the same proposal that we heard from egypt and that was accepted by israel on tuesday, hamas of course rejected that deal. here's the egyptian foreign minister just today. >> the plan instills an immediate cease fire so as to avoid an escalation of the military activity to protect the palestinian people in gaza and it also provides access to border crossings, unfettered

access to meet the needs of the humanitarian needs of gaza. >> and one of the other developments overnight, martin, i would like to get more information on this, israel says hours before that temporary humanitarian cease fire, that it captured a dozen palestinian fighters who had actually tunnelled under the border? >> they have didn't capture them, they attacked them and killed not sure how many they killed some, what happened was that in a secret tuchbl that hamas had dug from gaza into israel, israelis say 13 palestinians went through the tunnel, very well equipped, apparently with explosives, rocket launchlaunchers, weapons the israelis say their goal was to attack a place very nearly where the tuchbl came and exposed and went into the air, into the open. the israelis say they spotted the palestinians before they were able to do anything and

they released video showing little black figures going back into a hole in the ground and then you see an israeli air force rocket hitting them. the israelis said they killed some and they were able to get through the tunnel back into gaza. israel says it's victiming a tragedy yesterday that took the lives of four palestinian children. our nbc news crews recorded an israeli mortar shell smashing into a gaza city port without warning in broad daylight. a young group of cousins playing on the beach ran for their lives. second later another israeli shell hit. four young boys ages 9 to 11 were all killed. several other boys were wounded including one who managed this boy, who crawled to a beach, to a nearby hotel from the beach. he was rushed to the hospital. it was a heart wrenching scene

as parents started to arrive at the hospital. meantime, in the hospital, the wounded boy talked with -- >> reporter: i was with my cousins, then they died. >> with know now in studio, is council again for israel. i'm sure you heard their parents say, they were children simply playing on the beach, they were not hamas. >> i think you said it correctly, this is heart wrenching and obviously we're not happy to see images like that. but at the same time, we remember that hamas is responsible for every palestinian fatality and casualty. hamas is constantly perpetuating the suffering of their own

people, not to mention the fact that hamas is deliberately instructing palestinians not to comply with israeli early morning. this is war, and this war was imposed on us and we do whatever we can to protect ourselves. you know, only 100 miles from there, 170 thourngs people lost their lives in the last four years in syria, 170,000. this is not a pleasant situation, but we have to do whatever we can to protect our people. >> let's talk about the developments regarding? truce deal, the same deal that israel rejected. you have the egyptian foreign minister saying the plan has been widely endorsed by the arab league and the european union. are you confident? let me ask you, what is your confidence level after ten days and hundreds of lives, many of

those children, we could be at a point where the tensions will die down here. >> my government showed restraint and willingness to end the hostilities, we entered the situation because hamas made the decision to escalate the situation on the ground with the stated goal of bringing peace and stability to the area. so i know that my government is willing to accept the egyptian proposal as we did two days ago, it was hamas who declined to accept it. and by the way, should we mention that even during the five-hour window described in the media as the humanitarian cease fire, hamas still kept on firing rockets and launching rockets to israel. >> it was believed not long ago that secretary of state kerry would be in the region and would visit the middle east and perhaps help facilitate there deal, that did not happen, were you disappointed in that news? >> well, you know, the situation

that we're still in competition with hamas, tomorrow at 6:00 a.m., the cease fire, we have no knowledge of that, so we will have to continue to fight, unfortunately. >> thank you so much for your time. we greatly appreciate it. >> we have new details this morning about a violent bank heist that turned deadly after a high-speed chase and shoot-out in california this morning. two alleged robbers and a hostage are dead. it all started yesterday afternoon when police say three men who were armed with ak-47 rivals robbed a bank and took three female hostages and attempted to escape. joe, as i understand, these individuals even tried to use one of the hostages as a human

shield in an attempt to escape. >> yeah, that's what police are saying during this entire shoot-out, police do say that the one woman 40s stahostage wh was used as a human shield. only one of those suspected survived. police say he is 19-year-old jamie ramos. they released his mug shot this morning which shows a good sized injury on his right cheek. he is now in custody. police say the other two suspects who were killed in this shoot-out were documented gang members who lived in stockton. they were 27 and 30 years old. meanwhile relatives are telling us more about the hostage who died. relatives say she was a 41-year-old wife and mother. >> i can see the car getting blasted. >> reporter: a scene that seemed like an action movie played out.

>> cars were just kind of mangled and all of a sudden i heard a pow, pow, pow. >> reporter: police say that three men armed with ak-47s robbed a bank and then took three hostages with guns to their heads. minutes later they fled in an suv that belonged to a bank employee and the chase began, first on the highway, then a shoot-out in a residential neighborhood. >> the gun fire from the assailants was so reckless that multiple uninvolved residences and vehicles were struck. >> reporter: two bank employees were either thrown or pushed from the vehicle. after the chase, the third hostage, a bank customer was found dead inside the suv. police believe the systems used

her as a shield during the shoot-out. >> i got down on my hands and knees and i hid behind the lawn mower. >> reporter: police say one suspected was pronounced dead at the scene, the second s was take on the the hospital where he was later pronounced dead. the third suspect is still in the hospital and is expected to survive. >> during my 18 years as a law enforcement officer, this is the first time i have seen this here in the city of stockton. >> reporter: dozens and dozens of shots were fired during that high-speed chase, at least 14 police cars were hit, but no officers or bystanders were hit. those two hostages who escaped, police say that both of them are expected to survive at this point in the investigation. it is unclear who shot the woman who was killed during this incident. >> terrifying, thank you very much. and new controversy over hillary clinton's six-figure speaking fees a new report says a public university paid 275,000 for one

speech our first read calls it, quote, ex-president money, but will this hurt a possible 2016 run? also ahead -- >> do you know that was a bus with ymca kids. >> they were sad too, i apologize, i was leaving when i saw those. >> a republican lawmaker is now on damage control after his embarrassing mistake of going after a bus full of ymca campers. we told you about this story yesterday, he thought they were undocumented children. we have got new comments on how he attempted to explain what he did. plus, nasa scientists say they are closer than ever to finding a alien life. well, how soon could that happen? i'm going to talk life with one of our favorites, bill nye the science guy. and you can join the conversation, you can find my team, give them a follow and a shoutout online at news nation.

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we are back with a lot of talk over the latest revelation about hillary clinton's speaking fees. the former secretary of state received $275,000 for her speech at the university of buffalo last fall. for the first time, we're also learning new details about mrs. clintons requests for new speaking engagements. her contract says according to is speaker, remarks are not permitted and the school pays 17 -- the post was one of the

first to reveal these details. so great to have you on she's bringing in ex-president money. 14 million cracks in the glass ceiling, why doesn't she deserve this speaking fee? >> and i think that's a question a lot of people ask, particularly women, right? i mean here's someone who is one of the most accomplished women in the history of our country, and so, sure, she at least by the market, is able to command these high speaking fees. i think politically, there are some questions as there always are around a candidate or possible candidate who wants to run for air forcoffice, whether means they are out of touch, whether voters will judges them harshly because of their bank

accounts. if you look at congress, for instance, a lot of the people in congress are multi, multimillionaires and it hasn't been an issue for them. clinton handled this question very well, saying it's really not about me, it's about young people and whether they will have the same economic opportunities she's been able too v. >> they say costs are financed entirely through ticket sales, sponsorships and endowments to support the distinguished speaker series. so they emphasize that point. but there were students who were unhappy at unlv where officials have raised tuition by 70% over the last four years and some of the student government leaders wrote a letter to clinton asking her to return that $275,000 fee to the university and if she did not they intended to protest

here. so who is managing hillary clinton's image, particularly on these money issues, which will come up again to your point? >> they'll come up again, this is against the backdrop of elizabeth warren talking about student debt and these high hikes in student tuition and fees. i think maybe that is a question for the university of buffalo, you know, how are they spending their money? but she does have to figure out whether or not there's going to be any long-term damage around these speaking issues, because she wants those activists on college campuses there stumping for her if she decides to run, particularly in states like nevada. it is an issue, i did hear chuck talking about this, just an image problem. but i also think something that's interesting to me here, is you look at what hillary clinton is going through, i think it is routine that presidential candidates get questions about their wealth. but i think we also don't know

whether or not hillary clinton, because she is a woman, has sort of a higher costs to pay because of her wealth. you heard donna brazil say why she can't command higher speaking fees. next oakland, california is taking a bold step to help african-american boys. details on the encouraging signs of success from a new program, msnbc.com's tremaine lee takes us inside this program and we honestly discuss, is it necessary to have a special program just for black boys? plus this -- >> i had a number of people on my campaign who had --

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living the life of dreams... dreams... there's no monsters down here, [music fades out] dreams...dreams...dreams... it's just mr. elephant. come on, let's get to bed. welcome back, the white house is addressing concerns with my brother's keeper initiative helping young men of color stay on the path of success. according to "the washington post," town officials say -- activists calling for the inclusion of girls. and while it's clear aspects of the president's initiative are still being worked out, one city has been making strides with its own similar program. about four years ago, school officials oak -- the district hired new teachers to serve as mentors teaching critical lifestylife skills to these young men.

for hundreds of the boys involved, they have seen encouraging results. joining me national reporter tremaine lee who spoke with several of the people involved. tremaine, let's get to how this reporting works. break it down for us. >> each day hundreds of boys go into classrooms that are instructed by black male teachers, more than anything else they're creating this brotherhood, this brotherhood of accountability and respect among each other, where there may not be a father or positive male role model, they can depend on the teacher. if you come to class hungry, they are bread and peanut butter and jelly. oftentimes it's not necessarily getting their gpa up, but getting them to feel good about themselves in a society that largely criminalizes these young men, and when these young men

feel left out, neglected and feared, they can come to this cross room and feel whole and be themselves. >> former nfl player, william black well, he told you, we know their lyn lingo, i tell them, you belong to me, don't act up in my class, don't embarrass me, some of them have not had anyone talk to them like that. the graduation rate has gong up 10%. i mean, you know, reading those words that they have never had a man talk straight up to them like that, it's very powerful. >> when you think about in these communities and so many of us are so removed from those communities where there are bullets flying every day, they're stepping over bodies, they literally are dealing with the trauma of seeing gun

violence straight up in their families and in their neighborhoods, and so many times other institutions in the community, the churches, the older folks step away from these young men because so often they are the perpetrators as well as the victims. to have a black man in their lives to say i expect more, a lot of these young men are children, 14-year-olds, a-year-olds, 16-year-olds, just because we have an outside fear of them, downtown make them less children. so when mr. blackwell step into their lives and say i really am demanding and expecting more of you, the response has been great. >> that age group, 14, 15, 16, that is the critical age group, because you are ever so close to if you get in trouble, you are not a juvenile, you can depending on that crime, face adult ramifications, so that is that last point almost tremaine before things can turn tragic in a young man's life?

i know that in your piece, you describe oakland as camden, new jersey of the west. a little piece of detroit nestled on the wrong side of the bay bridge and being in the shadow of silicon valley and san francisco. >> and part of this storyline, i think this is what gets kind of mucked up and muddled in the story line of so many of these communities. when you say detroit, that's shorthand, when you say east oakland, that's shorthand and even though they're played with pathology and violence, there's also hope. when you tie in my brother's keeper and some of the other initiatives across the country, it's changing that narrative, not just as a country, but how do you change narratives with these young men's lives themselves. how do they view themselves. because they're shorthand for -- that fear that we have of these young men is so pronounced it impacts them so. a lot of this is changing these

narratives. >> we said that with the initiative being pushed by the white house to focus on boys of color, you have people saying what about girls? i spent my afternoon yesterday with girls, all victims of domestic abuse, they have never had anyone tell them they were of value, what about those girls, what about kids who grow up in depressed areas, white and black, they need their focus, they need their plan too. >> people that work in these spaces are very concerned about this kind of competition of the oppressed, competition of the sub jew gaited. it's not just young men, young girls need as much help as they can get. but the black boys, if you look at the empirical date that, they're far more likely to end up with a bullet in their heads. when we look at the school to prison pipelines, it's filled with black and brown boys. anyone i talked to who works in

funding these organizations, it's not either or, it's where do we begin? because the outcomes are so bad, it's black boys that are being hurt. >> tremaine, your piece is outstanding and yet again, you just bring great information to the table and i appreciate you joining me. and i can't wait to see what you come up with next. thank you. and new nbc news poll from battleground states, but the poll shows new obstacles for governor chris christie, just ahead of his visit to hyde idaho saying little about his presidential rung. >> you're running? >> yeah, such a great question. so, who's the republican front runner, mark murray is here with his take away, plus an arizona republican is on damage control after protesting the

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territory. let me bring in aviation expert john cox. as we know, this comes about four months after malaysian air 370, the plane that's never been found, presumed crashed, now we have this new information, not linking the two, but both malaysian airlines, 777s and crashing over ukraine? >> reporter: this is a real tragedy, the information that i've been able to pull from the internet has not been verified but usually from a good source, indicates this was a 777 flight operating at 33,000 feet at its last report. that's about it. that it was from amsterdam to malaysia and that's about all we know. >> those are the details that we have right now. let's talk about a little bit about this boeing 777 and some of the issues in recent reports

that have been discussed. >> reporter: the 777 as an airplane type is very well regarded, it's been in service something over 20 years, it has a very, very good safety record, it is considered a state of the art airplane. so the airplane, other than the malaysian 370 mystery, which we don't know what happened there, it is it has had only one other serious accident which was in san francisco. but the ntsb ruled that the primary issues there were flight crew delays. >> the information that we have is that this airline, again, was en route to amsterdam and descended about 50 kilometers before entering russian air space afterwards, it was found burning on the ground inside

ukrainian territory, i don't want to put you in a position where you're forced to speculate on what that means, but that's a little bit of information that we at least have coming in right now to give us piece of the puzzle that we know will start to come together here in the next few minutes or hours, about what happened here. >> one of the things to remember from about 30 years of doing accident investigation is early information is often times partial or in fact sometimes often times even wrong. so we need to go very carefully, there are reports that appear to be substantial that the 777 -- >> let me -- captain cox, let me get you to hang on here because i'm now being told that the associated press is reporting an advisor to the ukraine interior minister has said the plane, the passenger plane was shot down. this is the information that is

coming in right now, according to the associated press as we well known as we well know, there's a crisis in ukraine. >> this information not to put this together. the results of this crash, this happening in the in the region, this is the latest information at least from the associated press from the ukraine interior minister, that this passenger plane carrying 280 souls, 15 crewmembers on board. they are reporting that it was shot down. >> that would be a real tragedy -- >> reporter: it's an exceededly

rare event, if the associated press reports proves to be true, it's a trajs of almost unimaginable proportion. >> 295 people on board. again, this aircraft crashing in ukraine, near the russian border. we are waiting to get more information here regarding the viewpoint. this may be devastating news if this turns out to be the case here and i'm waiting to get more information because obviously your expertise results to if this were a crash of some sort, but if this information is that the plane was shot down, that is beyond obviously your expertise and i don't want to put you in a position where that would affect the accurate information that you will then provide -- at this

point, the associated press is reporting that the adviser to ukraine minister says that this passenger plane carrying nearly 300 people was shot down and we are waiting to get more details. i think that at this point, we may have to take a break and just recoup here and get more information for our audience. captain, thank you so much for joining us, we're going to take a quick break, we'll be back with more of this breaking.

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fact shot down, this is an advisor to ukraine's interior minister. malaysian airlines has sent out information via twitter, saying it lost contact with mh-17 from amsterdam, the last known position was over ukraine air space. the airline says more details to follow. we are told that this passenger plane had left amsterdam on its way to kuala lumpur, this is the information we have right now, of course many of you are fully aware that it was a malaysian airlines flight that disappeared four months ago, more than two hours after the flight had taken off to kuala lumpur headed to

beijing. that w here we are getting at least in early reports that the ukrainian interior minister is saying that this aircraft was in fact shot down. i don't know if we have john cox on with us. >> reporter: yes. >> let me get anthony roman, who is a former pilot. are you there? >> i am here. >> obviously i can't stress enough, we are working to confirm these details. initially when you hear a plane has crashed, one's mind goes to technical, mechanical, what's happened here, but within the last few minutes, we have received information from the associated press that this plane may have been shot down. they are flying adjacent to or near.

near a war zone, so the possibility of getting shot down is real. the russian government and the ukrainian government have issued some warnings to commercial aircraft overflying this general vicinity that extreme caution should be taken. its much, much too early to speculate on whether this aircraft was shot down from its cruising altitude, which is 5 1/2 miles high or whether or not it encountered mechanical difficulties. so either option has to be considered and it will proceed once this aircraft is located. >> this is information that i'm just getting, an advisory says the passenger plane carrying 295 people shot down. now the advisor said on his

facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters, that's around 33,000 feet, when it was hit by a missile fired from a buck launcher. sorgt to the associated press, she was last seen near the eastern ukraine town if i'm pronouncing that correctly, earlier thursday, so this is a -- it is far too early to say this is the absolute definitive reason this plane has come down, but we cannot ignore these details coming from ukraine's interior minister, regarding the possibility that this aircraft was shot down over a town in the east part of that country. >> well, there is press dent for commercial airliners getting shot down, and that is very regrettable. back in the reagan presidency, a

korean airlines was shot down by a russianing my flying over some disputed territory, and all personnel and passengers are the aircraft were lost, regrettably again, the united states shot downing an iranian passenger jet during an episode in which there were high tensions and an american naval vessel had recently been under attack. there are precedents for mistakes like this happening and tragedies like this happening and i'm very hopeful that it has not happened. >> and talk to me again, having been a commercial pilot, what kind of warning would be usual for a pilot to receive particularly to your point, if you are flying in a region where there is conflict? >> well, both as an investigator and a former commercial pilot,

pilots have very specific routing that they must follow during the course of their commercial flights. now these are preplanned, preissued, so all of the air traffic controllers along the routes, understand that this aircraft is there -- so we don't know what happened in this particular case, whether or not it was felt that there was a previous threat, intelligence had developed the information concerning a possible threat or whether they felt this was an aircraft that was gathering intelligence or a simple mistake. anything can happen. >> let me pause for a second

because i think you provided incredibly valuable information, but let me also bring in the former ambassador to russia. are you there? >> yes, i'm there. >> michael mcphaul, we have had you on during this crisis in the ukraine, your extensive knowledge of the ukraine and what has happened here, now we have this information from an individualanned -- >> this is a buck ground to air missile, was used to bring down this aircraft, carrying 218 passengers achblds 15 crew. the official anton -- >> it's an awful tragedy. i'm just looking at the same twitter feed of officials from kiev and now even some reporters

from russia saying the same thing. it's hard to believe it could be anything other than just recaln planes have been shot down in the last two weeks in the same area. these were military aircraft, of course, carrying soldiers, ukrainian soldiers, to eastern ukraine. and, of course, we don't know the full details, but it looks like they mistakenly thought this was probably another ukrainian -- >> ambassador, we have just coming in to us video of the aftermath. as i understand of the crash itself. this is -- and i am hoping that you are able to also see this video. again, ladies and gentlemen at home, this is some of the early video of the aftermath of this plane crash itself. you saw the huge plume of dark smoke in there. it appears to be the tail of this aircraft. ambassador, i apologize for

interrupting you. this would be a devastating development. here we are a day after new sanctions announced against russia, and if this plane, whether it is mistake or deliberately targeted brought down with 300 passengers on board, this would be a devastating development here. >> absolutely. and as you rightly pointed out, whether a mistake or otherwise, of course, we have to assume it was a mistake, but it's a mistake because of a military operation that russia is running. it's a mistake because russia is shooting down airplanes in eastern ukraine that it shouldn't be doing. and i think it underscores the incredible cost of this illegal, illegitimate military campaign that russia is running now in ukraine. >> and here yesterday, following the announcement of more sanctions against some energy companies, banking institutions in russia, the response from

vladimir putin was that these sanctions not only hurt russian companies, it also hurt american companies. but other than that, and these -- i should say dribs and drabs of information in reality, even though the crisis in ukraine has not been on the front page yesterday because of the sanctions perhaps it has been pushed to the back burner as this crisis has continued to simmer and boil at different points, ambassador. >> yes. you're right. and yesterday was a major escalation by the obama administration. i don't think it's going to hurt american companies the same way it will hurt four of the biggest russian companies. but this disaster today, this tragedy, i mean, this will have giant implications for how the united states and the rest of europe think about russia's behavior there. remember the kl fight 007 as

your previous guest was talking about. that turned into be a big confrontation between the united states and the soviet union. i suspect we're going to see the same here. >> ambassador, if i could please ask you to hang on a second. my colleague jim maceda may have new details for us coming in. jim, are you there? >> yes, tamron, hi. can you hear me okay? >> yes. what have you been able to gather? >> we're gathering, obviously, it's very early day here so we're gathering bits and pieces of information and some of this you may have already heard. it serves its purpose just to recap what we know so far. according to interfax. now interfax, there's an interfax agency in russia as well as in ukraine. this is coming from ukraine. it's important to keep that in mind. that agency initially reported a malaysian plane with 295 passengers on board, passengers and crew, i should say, inside ukraine they reported, but near the russian border crashed.

the plane was mh-17. a boeing 777. on that scheduled flight from amsterdam to kuala lumpur, malaysia. now malaysian air confirmed losing contact with that plane independently. lost contact on its radar but the malaysian government is saying that it has no further information about the airliner. now that interfax news agency went on to say that the plane was shot down. again, this is a ukrainian source. without give anything more detail, except to say the plane was flying at 10,000 meters, about 33,000 feet, when it was allegedly hit. that it did not enter russian air space when expected, which was around 1725 local time, i believe. instead, it crashed inside ukraine. we know as mike mcfaul just said that this is a very volatile part of ukraine cross border violence has been going on between ukrainian armed forces

and pro-russian rebels starting back in april. but which has been on the rise over the past week or ten days we've seen three incidents of ukrainian military planes just in the past week allegedly being brought down by russian missiles. so this is, of course, something the russian authorities have denied but there could be a connection between that and what we're seeing today. >> yes, there could be. thank you, jim. let me bring back ambassador mcfaul. you've heard and meksed this as well this accusation this ukrainian fighter jet was shot down ambassador by russian separatists. moscow is denying this accusation that russia has taken an active role in this four-month conflict. but if these reports, ambassador, turn out to be true to your point, whether this was a mistaken -- an incident of accident or if the malaysian aircraft was purposely targeted, this then puts the world's eyes

on moscow and although putin has denied an active role here, this -- i don't like to use that phrase, a game-changer because we're talking about 300 lives on that aircraft, but it would be. >> yes. and let's just be clear. you can't go buy these kinds of weapons in some market in eastern ukraine. clearly they are provided by the russians. and president putin will have to take responsibility for this. and again, i just remind you of the precedent before. this is not the first time that such tragedies have happened, that russia has been responsible for. this is going to put this, i think, this conflict into a different light. >> and for those again because this -- and it is one of tho those -- it's one of those things that happens with our news cycle where for many, many days, a couple of weeks, we were

discussing ukraine crisis and then the news cycle pivots to something else. but in these weeks and months that this has not been the headline, there has been no progress, to be quite honest. when we and many believed there would be some breakthrough with european allies and others joining the united states and perhaps facilitating some kind of compromise here. instead, the fighting has continued. >> that's right. in fact, it's escalated at a slow pace, but the russians, in particular, have continued to supply the rebels there. and in frustration, president poroshenko eventually ended his cease-fire and went on the offensive. the fighting has heated up. literally just in the last three or four days. so this, i think, is a consequence of our inability to resolve this conflict earlier. >> and you will have those who say the sanctions against

russia, some of the rhetoric coming, not just from the u.s. but other world leaders, hoping that vladimir putin would stand down and some kind of compromise would be reached here. that it has not been successful. as to your point, there's been an escalation in the violence there. and it was just this morning, on "morning joe" and i can't recall the guests at the time, discussing the worry that if this crisis continued, something of this magnitude, which we are watching, if this report is true, this flight was shot down, something of this magnitude would eventually happen. >> yep, and it has happened. i mean, that's -- wars always have lots of unintended consequences. and to think you can just turn off and on the level of violence that they want, and mistakes are made, accidents happen and this, i think, is a consequence of russia's behavior. i think that's the thing we have

to remember. this would not be -- this tragedy would not have happened had russia not been in -- militarily -- not intervening in eastern ukraine. >> and we will be turning over the coverage to my colleague andrea mitchell here soon, but with the information and the direct knowledge you have regarding the russian government, did you believe that this conflict would go on as long as it has? >> yes. to answer you honestly, yes. i think, unfortunately, putin sees it in his interest to let this thing continue and, despite efforts by the president and european leaders, he has not engaged in a serious negotiation about a cease-fire. >> ambassador, thank you so very much for your time. i'm sure you will be present on nbc and msnbc throughout this day as we learn more information. but again, the breaking news we are following is that a

malaysian airline carrying nearly 300 people, that would include passengers and crew, has crashed in ukraine near the russian border. according to the malaysian ministry of transport, the last contact, the last information they had regarding the airliner was over ukraine. it was to -- left amsterdam on its way to kuala lumpur. there's at least one ukrainian official, adviser, saying this aircraft was shot duown. we are getting more information, but i'm going to turn over the coverage, this breaking news coverage to my colleague andrea mitchell. >> thank you, tamron hall. as we continue covering this breaking news on msnbc, ukrainian advisers saying that the missing malaysian plane was shot down. something from russia. the malaysian airliner was flying from amsterdam to