at helpfosterchildren.com good to be with you this afternoon. i am aaron gilchrist in for katy tur. putin is speaking on state tv after the kremlin announced he will recognize the independence of two break-away regions in

eastern ukraine. this announcement followed an extraordinary televised meeting of russia's security council in moscow, and it's a move moscow could use for a reason. there's new nbc news reporting about ukraine's president and what could happen to him in the event of an invasion, specifically plans to relocate him out of kyiv. meanwhile in washington, president biden gathered with his national security team inside the white house, including defense secretary, lloyd austin, and mark milley. nbc news obtained a letter that reads in part, we have

creditable information that indicates russian forces are creating lists of identified ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation. the kremlin spokesman denning the report calling it, quote, absolute friction. those tensions are the new backdrop of the new diplomatic effort by france to bring putin and biden together in the summit, and that's only if russia does not invade. >> from the very beginning of the crisis we are clear we are prepared either way. we are spend to respond decisively if russia invades ukraine, and we are prepared to respond diplomatically. every indication we see on the ground right now in terms of the disposition of russian forces is

they are, in fact, getting prepared for a major attack on ukraine. >> joining me now, nbc news correspondent, erin mclaughlin in kyiv, ukraine, and moscow producer, matt bod inner, and mike memoli, and courtney kube. matt, we are watching putin speak and potentially announcing what the next few hours could bring here. >> well, i think everyone right now is watching their televisions for what appears to be an extraordinary speech capping off what has already been an essentially extraordinary day. we did see the kremlin put out a read outdetailing his conversations with french president macron, and german chancellor, schultz. obviously there were a lot of

questions about specifically what does it mean, and there are issues of geography and claimed territory. right now what is happening on russian state television seems to be something historic, i have to say. president putin is giving a speech addressing the russian people directly and explaining to them as he began why the ukraine issue is important. here's some of the things we have heard so far. i stress, this is ongoing and we still don't know where he's going with all of this, but he's saying russia and ukraine, the peoples of russia and ukraine are more than just neighbors, they are essentially brothers, and right now the nation is getting a history lesson on why that's true, the soviet political history going on. i just was texted by our producer saying he's still going on with this, saying, quote,

ukraine never had a consistent tradition of being an independent nation, and not rooted in its history and culture. these are, of course, very concerning things to hear in the context of all the warnings we are hearing from the united states and the western allies of what putin's intentions might be. we will have to see where he takes it from here, aaron. >> so much of it seems like an airing of grievances as i have seen translations coming out of the speech that the president of russia is giving there. if putin recognizes the regions as we expect to happen, couldn't that be the pretext u.s. officials have been warning about? is there any going back after this? >> it's one of the possible steps of the pretext people have been talking about. much of what we've heard from the false flag or pretext attacks are things that occurred -- or the russians are

claiming occur in some of the separatists areas, so bombing, attacks against russian-speaking people, and those kinds of things. what is different about this one, this would potentially lay the ground work for vladimir putin to send in the troops to this area. if there's an attack that destabilizes a region, that russia now recognizes in this way, then vladimir putin could say, well, to protect the people in that area specifically the russian-speaking people in that area, i need to send in troops. he could even call them peace-keeping troops if he wanted to. it's a way of not calling this a military invasion. actually having what he would claim would be a legitimate reason to send military forces into these areas. it's one of the things that u.s. officials have been warning about for several weeks. this vote is not a surprise, it's not a surprise the way it looks like it has gone here, and it's something that we have been

hearing about for several weeks and seems to be coming to pass, aaron. >> erin mclaughlin, there's new reporting this afternoon about trying to relocate ukraine's president in the event of an invasion. what are you hearing? what do you know about that? >> according to the people familiar, biden administration has been in conversations with zelensky in the event of a invasion, zelensky would move 50 miles from the polish border. i spoke to president zelensky's spokesperson about this reporting and he denied any such conversation took place between president biden and president zelensky, although he could not rule out lower level officials having this kind of conversation. i can tell you at this hour

president zelensky's attention is trained on what president putin has been saying addressing not only russians but also in that address, ukrainians in terms of where he's going to go next with this conflict. will he formerly recognize the donbas regions. we know that following that national security council meeting that putin had earlier in the day, he had talks with the german chancellor and the french president, and he's planning his own address in a very short while. we've heard from the ukrainian prime minister calling for calm and saying it's an emotional time for ukrainians but cooler heads need to prevail at this point. >> i would imagine there's a monitor in the situation room showing the speech is giving

right now. what is the posture of the white house this afternoon? the president, we know, is meeting with his national security council? >> yeah, it's striking, the contrast and the choreography, everything happening in public view with russia and putin publicly speaking to the citizens, and they are getting live updates about things on the ground. you also had the vice president, of course, and the secretary of state in munich meeting with many of our allies, including the vice president's meeting with zelensky. what i am looking for at this stage, if president biden will be making the same kind of foreign leader calls we know he has been holding over the weekend as well. he has spoken multiple times with the french president and the fact that emmanuel macron and prime minister schultz have

spoken would vladimir putin would suggest that a call with biden may not be far behind. evaluating what president putin is saying today and preparing to respond in kind. i would remind you what we heard from the president when he addressed the country last week, vladimir putin giving a history lesson, speaking about russian's fear of influence, and last week the president offering his own history lesson, warning putin invading ukraine compared to what russia experienced in the past was a defense of its territory and making it clear that the consequences would be different than what we saw then. >> mike, i want to talk about the warning from the administration to the united nations that russia could kill or imprison ukrainians if it invades. the white house has to be

incredibly confident to be laying out the intelligence to the world in the last days and weeks. >> yeah, maximum transparency from the administration throughout the situation. and when we saw the annexation of crimea, there was little notice for what ended up transpiring, and not the kind of robust response on the part of the west to russia's conduct there, and it's a very different posture at this point. we have seen an incredible number of intelligence being declassified and aired publicly, and this comes with risks and the white house made the calculation to try and counter the misinformation, the propaganda coming from moscow with everything they know and had been predicting and as

secretary of state antony blinken told chuck todd on "meet the press," everything they said so far has been playing out publicly. it's a tactic they engaged in with some risks but feel it was important to do so at this stage. >> thank you to our panel, for covering the situation in ukraine. thank you all. joining me now is the president of the foreign relations, and the author of "the world: a brief introduction." putin is still talking at this hour and began his address speaking about the history of ukraine and its strong ties to russia, and some described what we are hearing from putin as an airing of grievances. what are your thoughts about what we are hearing today? >> what we are hearing today is

100% consistent with the essay that putin published in july. it's the politics or foreign policy of grievance, arguing that ukraine should be understood as being linked to russia. what he seems to be doing is the physical action that follows up on that. >> so we expect that he's going to recognize these two break-away regions, and this is a violation of the minsk agreements as we know. >> it's the continuation of the dismembering of ukraine. we start with crimea and now this. it's not going to stop there. i think it's highly, highly likely that the so-called leadership of the two republics, quote, unquote, would invite in

russia for protection, and the ukrainian government is going to go have to decide if they will let it be or attack. to me the bigger question is whether if and when the russians go into the eastern republics, whether that's a prelude to something much larger, and that's bad, and in this case, it could get much, much worse. >> what is the next course of action for nato and for the biden white house after the announcement from russia if things play out the way you suggested there, what happens next from the allied side? >> several things. basically much of what we have been threatening should come to pass. sanctions should be introduced, maybe not all of them, maybe keeping some on reserve should russia invade the entire country. we want to strengthen ukraine's ability to exist and continue to transfer arms as well as money.

we obviously want to strengthen nato, and we also want to get our story out. putin is speaking as we speak, putting out his flawed narrative about what quote, unquote, justifies what he has done. i think it's important that the united states and nato and ukraine, we look at all the social media and media we can access to get to the russian people that this is a war of choice, and not as putin is suggesting that it's a war of necessity. >> you suggested the other countries continue to need to fortify ukraine. is there a scenario where russia and ukraine go to war and ukraine itself comes out on top? >> basically not. russia is simply too strong. the most you could have is a situation after russia wins, if you will, the opening phase of a war, you then face a long

occupation and you have decentralized guerilla-like bands that attack soldiers, and the geography, and given the asymmetry and power, there's no way ukraine could hold its own against russia. >> what does that mean for the rest of the region? other countries nearby watching this unfold, and even the nato countries in that area i would imagine would be worried about where russia physically goes or tries to go next. >> absolutely. as bad as this is, again, things could always get worse. i think it's unlikely that russia would take on nato directly, but we learned with mr. putin we can't rule anything out. what we want to do is resist any russian aggression, and we should prepare ourselves for whatever mr. putin might put up.

>> there's a story that russia plans to kill or jail ukrainian dissidents. >> i am not sure the word behavioral norms translate into russian. i think it's highly likely they would do something like that, pick off local leaders. if russia wants to avoid the emergence of the armed effective opposition in their presence, that would be the way to try and preempt its emerging. >> ambassador, we thank you for sharing your perspective on this, and i trust we will talk more on the days to come and we will continue to follow the developments on russia and ukraine here on msnbc and update you as we learn more. still to come, the men who

killed ahmaud arbery already face a life sentence, but will the jury find the murder was motivated by racism. and plus, lifting the last covid restrictions a day after the palace revealed the queen tested positive for the virus. then a fight breaks out between two basketball college coaches, and now one of them is facing suspension. suspension. we'll look at what you've saved, what you'll need, and build a straightforward plan to generate income, even when you're not working. a plan that gives you the chance to grow your savings and create cash flow that la along the way, we'll give you ways to be tax efficient. and you can start, stop or adjust your plan at any time without the unnecessary fees. we'll help you go from saving... to living. ♪ play all day ♪ trelegy for copd.

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closing arguments are under way of the federal hates crime trial for the three men that killed ahmaud arbery. the three men were motivated by racism, and the prosecutor told the jury today the defendants were driven by hatred when they chased and shot arbery when he jogged through a subdivision two

years ago. they face life sentences if they are convicted on top of the life sentences from their state trial. joining me now, blaine alexander in georgia, and civil rights attorney. what did we hear in today's closing arguments? >> reporter: right now we are hearing the final words in the case. the final prosecution the government is giving its rebut annual, and we heard from all three defense attorneys and after this case wraps up this case goes to the jury. the three men already were convicted of the murder of ahmaud arbery. the three men on trial, it was argued, are vigilantes and they took the law into their own hands, and a number of witnesses came forward and digital pieces of information came forward to

show they made racist remarks about black people and the government is making the connection and saying that shows they connect criminality with black skin and that's what made them shoot ahmaud arbery. the defense says their beliefs are not what is on trial here, as disgusting as they may be, the attorneys have said. they said that doesn't prove why they followed arbery, and they are saying they were concerned about recent crime in the area and that's why they followed him. >> they presented the racist statements, the social media posts, and they were not about ahmaud arbery, and will that be enough to build a case of racism and get a conviction here? >> there's enough to build the case and whether or not it's

going to prove the case, you have to put it into perspective, they did more than use slurs, and not that that should not be bad enough, and they called black people monkey and used the "n" word, and they said they have no problem taking action against criminals. when you put those things in context it makes it easy to prove what they have to in this case, and that's not that they killed ahmaud arbery because he's black but the way they chased him down the street the way they did because he's black. in this case you have three black jurors and a hispanic person that can relate to what that evidence means. >> prosecutors called about 20 witnesses that testified these three defendants had lengthy histories about making those remarks about black people, as

you laid out there. the defense called just one witness. does that signal anything to you, david? >> what it signals to me is this is a case where if you wanted to have a fighting chance, either you have to put your clients on the stand and they have to own all the terrible things they said and do something to put it in context for the jury to justify not convicting them, or they have to turn on each other, which i think could have worked well for those that did not pull the trigger, gregory mcmichael and bryan. anything they say here will be used in the appeal in the state case, where two are serving life without the possibility of parole, and this was just going through the playbook to continue the state appeals even though

they are not likely to succeed. >> we will leave it there for now. thank you both. we are about to have another week of roller coaster weather around here. parts of the country are going to see unseasonably warm temperatures over the next few days. not going to last, as you might expect. a cold front will usher through another winter storm, and drop the temperatures and depending on where you live, even more snow. a helicopter crashed into the water packed with swimmers. but first, howard now facing suspension after throwing a postgame punch at a rival coach. . ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it.

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fireworks but nothing definitely quite like this. and this morning we are finding out this may have all began when one of the teams called a time-out. >> they are going at it. >> yeah. >> chaos on the court. when a postgame handshake erupted into a college basketball brawl. >> howard just threw a right hand. now we got a scrum. >> a scuffle between the wisconsin and michigan coaches clearing the benches for a big fight just moments after the final buzzer. from this angle you can hear the two coaches exchanging heated words and the confrontation ignited after michigan's guard grabbed howard who was slow to shake his hand. just moments later, howard appears to hit the assistant coach in the head. howard played for the wolverines

in the '90s, but then over 19 seasons in the nba. >> that's what angered howard, and it spilled over into this. >> after sunday's scuffle, howard said he was unhappy about wisconsin's decision to call a time-out with a 15-point lead and just 15 seconds left in the game. >> because of the time-out, and for somebody to touch me and that was uncalled for for him to touch me as we were verbal eyesing and communicating with one another, and that's what ended up happening and that's what escalated it. >> he agreed, saying the time-out was -- >> i will leave it at that and the tape will show the rest. >> online, debates growing on whether howard should be sidelined for the season. wisconsin's athletic director now calling for the big 10 to

take action. >> i expect the league will act swiftly and aggressively. >> the school is reviewing the incident, adding in a statement there's no excuse for any of our staff or student athletes to get into a physical altercation with others regardless of instigating factors. >> oh, jajuan howard just threw a right hand. >> they are promising to investigate saying they will bring swift and appropriate disciplinary action after reviewing this case, meanwhile the ncaa has yet to comment. the fda investigating a crash that happened on saturday afternoon at 1:00. it missed the packed beach and people in the water, and if that crash happened 50 yards closer

to land, it could have been a mass casualty event. the cause of the crash is not known and the occupants are all expected to survive. boris johnson lifts covid restrictions in the uk one day after the queen tested positive for the virus. paositive for the virus.

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our liberties. >> today's announcement comes one day after buckingham palace announces queen elizabeth tested positive for covid. the 95-year-old is said to have mild symptoms and she's the third member of the royal family to test positive in recent weeks, and prince charles is back out after having recovered. and a lot of countries are starting to ease covid restrictions at this point but the uk does seem to be doing away with the mitigation efforts and all the measures they had in place altogether. >> that's right, aaron, the message from prime minister boris johnson is it's time to learn to live with the virus, and his way of doing that is starting thursday here in england, if you test positive for the coronavirus, you are no longer legally required to self

isolate. that effectively rel agates the virus, and it's something you have to make your own personal judgments about without the government getting involved. take a listen to what he said in parliament earlier. >> we will remove all remaining domestic restrictions in law. from this thursday, the 24th of february, we will end the legal requirement to self isolate following a positive test. and we will remove the legal requirement for close contact to those not fully vaccinated to self isolate. >> the rational here is the omicron we've is mostly behind people here in the uk, and hospitalization rates are low, and vaccination rates are high, 81% of adults here in england have had their booster shot, to say nothing of being double vaccinated.

that's what has given the prime minister confidence to move ahead with this now, aaron. >> what do the people think about this? what has the reaction been there in london with the idea of lifting the restrictions and having the queen's diagnosis coming at the same time? >> we have been talking to folks at buckingham palace and people are acutely aware of the optics of this, a day after the queen tests positive for the coronavirus, the government is saying it's safe to roll back all the restrictions. opinions are next. the opposition labor party is saying this is going too far too fast. they are worried about people with weakened immune systems especially if cases tick up after the restrictions are lifted, and then the financially vulnerable people, they want to do the right thing and stay home if they get the coronavirus, and the government is saying we are taking that out of our

responsibility and it's up to you to make that call. >> a lot of ways to look at this and be concerned about the pandemic and virus that is still spreading. daisy, we learned the queen tested positive yesterday. we what do we know about how she's doing? >> the palace has been tight-lipped, and yesterday they said she's suffering mild symptoms, and she can take on light duties, and that's what she's continuing to do. it's interesting, listening about the public opinion and the reaction, and one of the things that i have been struck about today is how most brits, or people in london, she's 95-year-old and she has coronavirus and she should not

be doing work at all, and she would be drinking soup. it has been interesting. i think what they wanted to be reassuring as in some ways made people concerned that she's working too hard. >> i want to ask you quickly, has this illness changed the palace's thinking about her schedule, how much work she's doing, especially given that she's in her 90s? >> she had cut back on the more taxing events she had to go to, and william and charles took on that, and her medics said she had to slow down and rest and she did not go to pop 26 and various other events. i think we could see more of that, because for now what people want to hear is good news, and in the next week or so she will be back on her feet and test negative and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. >> we appreciate you both. thank you. >> pleasure.

back here in the u.s., big cities across the country are rolling back mask and vaccine requirements as covid-19 cases plummet. according to an nbc news tally the average number of new daily cases has dropped by 67% in the past two weeks. this is welcome news in cities like philadelphia, washington, d.c. and seattle, they are all lifting their mandates indicating a clear shift away from the enhanced covid response prompted by the omicron wave. with me now is a senior scholar at the johns hopkins center for security. new york stated just dropped its requirement for businesses, for all businesses to demand proof of vaccination or mask wearing in all indoor venues, and governor hochul is saying it's time to adapt. do you agree with that thinking that now it's time to adapt? >> i do agree with that thinking, because when you look at where we are in 2022 versus

where we were in 2020, what tools we have and what knowledge we have and the status of hospitals and the hospital capacity, i think the public health measures can be dialed back because they were in place to prevent hospitals from getting overrun and to increase capacity, and that's what we should not see anymore, and hopefully we are on a good trajectory and i think the public health measures should reflect that. >> the cdc is expected to update its mask guidance as early as wednesday, and it's taking a while for the agency to do this. what do you make of that? >> the agency will lag what is going on with the real world, and we have seen that in much of the guidance where people came to about the science. what metrics make sense.

there was very different conditions in the hospitals than reflected in the number of cases because of the decoupling going on. i think there's room for the cdc to look at what the metrics are, and that's what is going to help us move forward in the pandemic. >> variants will continue to emerge. should we expect to get the masks back out and vaccine cards back out when there are future variants that come about? >> i hopefully not. there are definitely going to be more variants, and because of the tools and the immunity and the population we won't see that into hospitals getting crushes the way they did with delta and omicron, but certainly four people, high risk individuals may keep their masks handy when

high risks is going on, and masking is going to be something governed by risk tolerances rather than centrally planned. >> thank you. we want to turn back to the breaking news out of russia at this hour, where the president there, vladimir putin, just signed a decree that recognized two regions in ukraine as independent states. this is a move that western allies have warned putin could use as a pretext for an invasion of ukraine. joining me is matt bodnor. >> well, one of the immediate questions is what do we mean when we recognize the independence of those areas? the rebel groups do not control the entire, kind of official areas that you would consider --

on ukraine's map, there's a question there, are they just recognizing the parts that the rebels currently control or is this justification to push the ukrainian military back from the line of contact to essentially the formal boundaries of the region. i want to back up to the actual signing ceremony itself. this come at the end of a very long fiery speech, and it's something truly incredible to see from putin. i have been covering him for a long time now, rooted in historical grievances. i am not sure there's more of a key takeaway from the speech other than saying we have kind of been wondering when the case would be made to the russian people for action in ukraine. i think this speech was it. he openly questioned ukrainian sovereignty, basically described it as a historical mistake, and russia has been taken advantage

of over the past 30 years by the west. grievance was laced throughout the speech and it was quite astonishing. it's clear everything we saw today to some extent was choreographed from the early reports this morning from the ukrainian on russia's borders proper. this led to statements made in the security council meeting that vladimir putin held earlier today, and now at the end of the speech he stopped talking and panned out to the a room. he was on one side of the room and the two separatist leaders in the other. this was all a big show. what he does now we don't know, but he's made his case. >> he's made his cautious and he's painted a picture for what may come next that we've all been hearing about for now. matt, thank you. up next here from medical alert bracelets to home security alarms, how the devices you count on every day may be impacted when 3g networks are

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and low blood sugar. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may lead to death. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. and don't take it if you are on dialysis. take aim at chronic kidney disease by talking to your doctor and asking about farxiga. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪far-xi-ga♪ real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ now to that big broadband transition that will impact all of us. the official switch to 5g.

now the wireless networks have been slowing rolling out 5g for years now, and starting this week at&t says it will go full throttle shutting down its older 3g networks for good, but some worry that will put the health and safety of millions of 3g users in jeopardy. >> reporter: 5gy stands for fifth generation of broadband, and it promises much faster connections and downloading for everyone, and major carriers have been rolling out 5g since 2019, but to get it fully turned on, they have to turn off their older 3g networks and that's what's happening as soon as tuesday. critics want this switch delayed because they are worried it could put millions of lives in danger. >> it surfs the web and downloads data twice as fast. >> reporter: remember when 3g was a human breakthrough over a decade ago offering unthought of advances like video conferencing and mobile maps. now, major carriers are shutting down 39g networks to make way

for the much faster 5g. at&t is the first phasing out its 3g on tuesday, t mobile by the end of march and verizon by the end of the year. >> 5g is relative and more power sufficient meaning it will support more users on a network, two, it's more secure and third, performance. probably 100 times fast sneer because both use the same networks fully enabling 5g mean many carriers have to disarm 3gy and the 5g for some people might not work and that could put help at work. if people have a fire alarm system with a 3gy device and a smoke detector goes off, no one will know. if they have a 3g cell phone and try to make a phone call they won't be able to. >> reporter: carriers say they have been tracing customer off for years.

less than 50% of its mobile traffic run on 3gy but too many homes use 3gy mostly through at&t networkses a 80% of those customers are seniors. now the alarm industry and many others are petitioning the fcc to delay the 3g shutdown in the end of the year giving customers more time to upgrade customers to 4 and 5g. >> the companies have had three years to make these changes, what's the holdup? first we've had covid that delayed us for a year and then we had the challenge of the supply chain, and the inability to get devices. it's really been a perfect storm. >> reporter: meantime, the fcc has measures in place to make sure that 3gy still works through the transition. y in device over three years old using wireless technology, a phone, a car, home alarm, medical alert system might still be using 3gy and upgrading it to 4 or 5g needs you may mean to

replace it entirely or need a company tech to install new parts. the best way to know if you're using 3gy still is to call the manufacture's customer service number and ask. guys, back to you. >> that is it for me today. i'm aaron gill grist. i'll see you tomorrow at 11:00 eastern on nbc news now. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. s now. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. is now a good time for a flare-up? enough, crohn's! for adults with moderate to severe crohn's or ulcerative colitis, stelara® can provide relief, and is the first approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc. you, getting on that flight? back off, uc! stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths,

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switching wireless carriers is easy with xfinity. janssen can help you explore just lean on our helpful switch squad to help you save with xfinity mobile. they can help break up with your current carrier for you and transfer your info to your new phone. giving you a fast and easy experience that can save you hundreds a year on your wireless bill. visit your nearest xfinity store and see how the switch squad can help you switch and save. switch to xfinity mobile and get connected to the most reliable 5g network. talk with our helpful switch squad at your local xfinity store today. what does a foster kid need from you? to be brave. to show up. for staying connected. the questions they weren't able to ask.

show up for the first day of school, the last day at their current address. for the mornings when everything's wrong. for the manicure that makes everything right, for right now. show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com as we come on the air, a major provocation by russian president vladimir putin and an infliction point it seems on the crisis in the border with ukraine. putin on national tv in russia not too long ago appearing to formally recognize the independence of a slice of eastern ukraine. we're talking about areas around doengts and luh ha nsk. pro-separatist regions where 200,000 people live and we're seeing an excalculation in violence which could be the russian pretext for wa