>> mike mcfaul, i have a feeling we'll be listening to more of you in the next hour or two but my hour has come to an end. katy tur will continue coverage right now. i'll see you with more "meet the press daily" tomorrow. we are waiting for the president to deliver remarks. good to be with you. i'm katy tur. we are on the precipice of a dark era on what the west is describing as world-changing aggression from russia. after a day or so of waffling, the white house is being clear, russia's troops which moved into the regions of eastern ukraine over the past 24 hours are not as russia has called them peacekeepers. they are soldiers and it is an invasion, according to the white house. that is a big deal because that word invasion triggers a fleet of economic sanctions.

we are expecting president biden to address the sanctions and announce them any moment now. nato allies are doing the same. germany took steps to halt the nord stream 2 gas pipeline from russia, something only a few weeks ago the country seemed hesitant to do. germany's new chancellor olaf scholz called vladimir putin's actions a serious break of international law. now there are also real concerns the unmarked military vehicles that began arriving in the streets of eastern ukraine overnight may only be the beginning after declaring the regions of luhansk and donetsk as independent states, vladimir putin announced he would recognize the breakaway regions, a much larger piece of territory than russian-backed separatists currently hold. adding to all of that tension putin received approval from his parliament today for use of military force. so far, though, he has stopped short of announcing an immediate

military operation. joining me now is nbc's matt bodner in moscow, scott perry in poland and peter baker. so, matt, i do want to start with you and what is going on in moscow. russia is calling these troops peacekeepers. the west is not buying that. germany has already said no to the nord stream 2 pipeline. the president, president biden, is about to come out and announce a fleet of economic sanctions. what are you hearing there? >> thank you, katy. >> reporter: there's a lot of activity. the past 24 hours i've seen significant developments in this story. we saw vladimir putin this evening being granted an authorization to deploy the russian military beyond russia's borders. that was, of course, a curious move. a peacekeeping deployment was

envisioned, laid out in texts in the bilateral treaties signed by russia and the self-proclaimed rebounds of luhansk and donetsk and orders that came out yesterday that recognized the two states. we saw authorization for the use of force authorized with no real details on what they entailed. when you read the fine print the russian parliament gave vladimir putin a blank check to essentially do whatever he wants within the limits of the russian constitution. in terms of scope, timing, it's all up to the russian president now. we've seen him speak since then. he has gone out and declared the dead and he's calling on ukraine to disarm and create neutrality, issuing demands directly to ukraine. this is no longer this big picture discussion necessarily

between russia and the west where this all started in december. this is russia making direct demands calling on kyiv to directly talk to the leaders of the self-proclaimed rebounds. and that's basically where we are at now. one more point, did announce an hour ago it was evacuating all diplomatic missions in ukraine. >> matt, another question for you. we so infrequently see vladimir putin or see him talk in moments like this, but we've seen him a couple times in the past few days. what do you make from his appearances, his tone and the words he used? >> reporter: this is a serious, angry vladimir putin. it was one of the emotional

retellings, list of grievances at this point, and it was quite aggressive and painted a dark picture of where he might take everything. it came after he held this very clearly choreographed national security meeting in which he essentially polled one by one his 2 dozen or so national security advisers basically asking them to sound off on whether or not they would support the recognition of luhansk and donetsk as independent states, and they all said yes. there were two to three that seemed to hesitate and vladimir putin pushed them away from that. and that was, frankly, an incredible thing to watch and then today he's out again after receiving permission from the russian parliament to do what he wants with the russian military. again, making even more direct comments about the status of donetsk, about the status of luhansk, and what now is required in his explanation of

kyiv and basically, if i'm going to sum it all up, we've seen vladimir putin in the last 24 hours roll out his case for a possible intervention in ukraine, presenting it to the russian people and it's been amplified in the russian media. i really don't know how else to explain it at this point. >> that is clear, matt. part of what vladimir putin has been angry about and clear about is the expansion of nato. he feels, he says, that nato is right on his doorstep, and you are in poland right now, which is pretty close to russia's doorstep. what is it like there? how are troops preparing, and what are they preparing for exactly? >> reporter: well, to the north of poland, that aside, poland is hoping to avoid being on russia's doorstep and that's what this is about. when you look at the map poland is the eastern most nato ally, and so it is feeling particularly vulnerable today, certainly when we talk about that speech that we heard from

putin last night when he talked about a broader russia and the mistakes made. these things hit home. poland was occupied by russia for a long time, one of the first european countries to stand up to the soviet union. there is a great deal of concern here. it is why the united states has doubled its troop presence, reaffirming its contribution to nato both here and romania. it is why they are shifting troops from germany here and germany to romania, and it is why, katy, they are doing it very overtly. i was there in fort bragg when they boarded the planes and i was here on the ground talking to them through a chain link fence. they are doing it in the open. it is clear this is something the u.s. president can hold against vladimir putin, when putin talks about the expansion of nato and the threat to russia. it is something president biden can speak to today. it is one way to reassure allies but is certainly a message that he is sending visually to vladimir putin that the troops are here to stay and that russia -- nato is stronger. that is something we're hearing from all of the nato allies,

that this has reinvigorated the mission. just an administration ago in the united states and today it is a remarkable difference because of what we are seeing russia carry out in ukraine. >> peter, we're expecting to get a fleet of new sanctions. we've seen some sanctions levied by european nations including the uk, germany putting a stop to the nord stream 2 pipeline, which is a very big deal in terms of russian energy, monetary losses, also cost increases for the german people. what are you expecting to hear from president biden in just a moment? >> reporter: well, obviously i think we will hear pretty strenuous denouncement of what the russians have done now in eastern ukraine. they have been effectively occupying anyway. this is, in fact, a fresh and renewed invasion of a sovereign

neighbor. he may not accept it. president putin may not accept it, that ukraine is an independent state, but the rest of the world does and, therefore, this is an illegal invasion. you'll hear president biden talk about the financial measures to try to squeeze the russians and make them pay a price for this intervention probably going short, though, of the mother of all sanctions, the phrase that has been used in washington in which they use the full arsenal of economic measures. i think they want to calibrate it so they have something left in their stock if they need it, if putin goes further than he has already. to serve as a deterrent to further action. you'll hear them basically begin the process of cutting russia off from the outside world at least in terms of finances. and there are some real, you know, tools here for the west in terms of banking, in terms of financial accounts in western countries. you wonder, and i don't nope the answer, how much russian businesses and cronies of president putin have done in the

last few months in anticipation of this to pull their money out, to protect it in some way or another. and that will hurt the average russians as well as the elites. >> what about the government in ukraine, peter? your paper reported this. american intelligence has what it believes is a kill list. and who they will target if they go into ukraine. you have to wonder if president zelenskyy is on that list and if president zelenskyy ends up leaving ukraine and stationing himself in poland if there is a full-scale invasion, how does the u.s. government react to having to acknowledge a government outside of the country, a government in exile. how does the united states deal with that diplomatically? >> reporter: it smacks of world war ii all over when poland's

government relocated after the nazis invaded in 1939. that was the officially recognized government as far as the west was concerned. the government in exile. if that happens here there is a history and it would not be surprising. i think there are conversations about president zelenskyy's safety, his security, about what he does if they come to kyiv. the troops that russia has stationed in belarus right now are really just about a two-hour drive away from kyiv. it could happen very fast once they decide to pull that trigger and obviously the president's security is a pretty important one because they want to keep the government alive and not allow russia to install its own government and pretend this is somehow the will of the ukrainian people. >> matt bradley is in eastern ukraine. matt, part of what vladimir putin argued the other day was the eastern parts of ukraine are really russia. it is one nation, one people.

many have russian passports. they speak russian. in your interactions with people out there, what do they say to that? >> reporter: yeah, that was an interesting part of the speech. we were hearing from vladimir putin about his main bugaboos, the violence in the east. he talked about those things. then he turned to this bizarre rambling history lesson which kind of leaned on sort of an ideological irredentism. it's true a lot of people do speak russian as a native language. they have relatives in russia. but they're not -- they don't consider themselves to be russian people and if vladimir putin thinks he can roll into this part of the country and people will rise up and support him, i think he's going to be very surprised. we were just out a couple of weeks ago here in the center of the unofficial capital of

eastern ukraine and it is like a majority russian speaking city. i spoke with one woman, i would die for ukraine. there's a trend we've been seeing within the last 48 hours on social media, young people getting up on social media and saying i'm a native speaker of russian but i'm going to start taking ukrainian lessons. we were starting to report out the story about ukrainian language skills, getting an increase in the number of people who want to go and learn ukrainian because they want to speak ukrainian in their day-to-day lives. they're not rejecting their russian identity, but they want to be part of a nation they see on the up and up and that's westward looking. this is a real trend. there are a lot of people and vladimir putin, there will be an element of truth.

there is a population in the two enclaves we've been talking about all day long who have a lot of affection, a lot of nostalgia for the soviet era. those people are mostly older. they're not from this younger generation of people who really are westward looking. when you think about the history of this country, this war has been going on for eight years. people will talk about the broader understanding of ukrainian history which points to hundreds of years of intimidation and oppression by russia, and that's something they remember here. >> it has been going on for quite some time. that is a good reminder for all of us. one more question to you, peter baker, on the subject of china. china has been, in some ways, a variable here. will china support vladimir putin if the west cuts him off and does levy the mother of all sanctions? we haven't really heard much from china on how they feel about russia's move. we heard a little bit. what should we expect in terms

of chinese reaction? >> reporter: i think you see this really interesting balancing act they're taking right now. so president putin went to visit president xi at the start of the olympics. they presented this common front. they released this 5,000-word joint manifesto, the long-discussed possible beijing/moscow access. at the same time this is something that troubles china. the idea of using force, the sovereignty of ukraine is something, again, they put out a statement saying ukraine's sovereignty ought to be respected even as they agreed with russia's complaints about nato expansion. it's an odd position for them to be in. there's the issue of taiwan which is central to beijing's concerns. does the situation in ukraine provide precedent in terms what have would happen with china's long-standing interest in reabsorbing that island into mainland china and the same government of beijing.

that's something a lot of people are watching. and so i think you'll see them play a cautious role right now while they're trying to figure out where their best interests lie. >> peter baker, thank you so much. matt bodner, max bradley and cal perry, thank you. why an expert who advises the government and the military says xi is not going anywhere. plus, guilty. a jury finds the men who killed ahmaud arbery, killed him because he was black. more on the outcome of that federal hate crimes trial. and later, they're going to get paid. u.s. women's soccer wins a multiyear fight for equality on the playing field. t for equalit t for equalit the playing field. ♪a pair of jeans that fit just right♪ ♪and the radio up well i've seen the sunrise...♪ get 5 boneless wings for $1 with any handcrafted burger. only at applebee's

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that feeling of patriotism is broadly shared. my next guest is a ukrainian security expert who advises the government and the military, and she says she is not packing up and is not leaving her country. the director of security programs at the foreign policy council ukrainian prism, a ukrainian think tank. hannah, thank you for joining us. i just have a two-minute warning for the president, so if i interrupt, i do apologize. i do want to hear from you. why are you not leaving? >> you know, it is not only me but i am talking with my colleagues all around the country and the mood is the same. it is our land, we are defending our country and probably after all these years of intimidation ukrainians are tired to be afraid. it's not that we are sure our international partners will come and fight for us. no. that is probably our history of

croatia for the russian federation when we know this intimidation can come again and again and if ukraine would not defend its land so nobody would do it instead of us. >> what do you want from the west right now? the united states has said we're not going to go in. we're not going to take up arms against russia. that would be world war iii. there are sanctions. what do you want? >> first of all, real sanctions because what we heard before, for example, yesterday not to have business with the up recognized republics is funny because there has been no business with these territories so it would not hurt anybody. we have seen that the russian members of parliament were still acting as they act today, allowing the use of military force against an independent state. that is first definitely very strong sanctions. >> hanna, i'm so sorry to

interrupt. let he is hear what president biden has to say. yesterday vladimir putin recognized two regions of ukraine as independent states and bizarrely acertaintied these regions are no longer a part of ukraine and their sovereign territory. to put it simply russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of ukraine. last night putin authorized russian forces to deploy into the region, these regions. today he asserted these regions are actually extend deeper than the two areas he recognized claiming large areas currently under the jurisdiction of the ukraine government. he is setting up a rationale to take more territory by force,my view. and if we listened to his speech last night, and many of you did, i know, he's setting up a rationale to go much further this is the beginning of a russian invasion of ukraine as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from his douma.

let's begin -- i'm going to begin to impose sanctions in response far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners implemented in 2014. and if russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further with sanctions. who in the lord's name does putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors? this is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community. over the last few months we've coordinated closely with nato allies and partners in europe and around the world to prepare that response. we've said all along and i've told putin to his face more than a month ago that we would act together. and the moment russia moved against ukraine, russia has now undeniably moved against ukraine by declaring these independent states. so today i'm announcing the

first traunch of sanctions in response to their actions yesterday. they will continue to escalate sanctions if russia escalates. full blocking sanctions on two large russian financial institutions. veb and their military bank. we're implementing comprehensive sanctions on sovereign debt. that means we've cut off russia's government from western financing. we can no longer raise money from the west and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or european markets either. starting tomorrow and continuing in the days ahead we'll impose sanctions on russia's elites and their family members. they share in the corrupt games of the kremlin's policies and should share in the pain as well. because of russia's actions we've worked with germany to ensure nord stream 2 will not,

as i promised, will not move forward. as russia contemplates the next move we have our next move prepared as well. russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression including additional sanctions. the united states will continue to provide defensive assistance to ukraine in the meantime and will reinforce and reassure our nato allies. today in response to russia's admission that it will not withdraw its forces from belarus, i have authorized additional u.s. forces and equipment, already stationed in europe, to strengthen our baltic allies, estonia, latvia and lithuania. these are totally defensive moves on our part. we have no intention of fighting russia. we want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the united states, together with our allies, will defend every inch of nato territory and abide by the commitments we made to nato.

we still believe that russia is poised to go much further in launching a massive military attack against ukraine. i hope i'm wrong about that. i hope we're wrong about that, but russia has only escalated its threat against the rest of ukrainian territories including major cities and against kyiv. there are over 150,000 russian troops surrounding ukraine. and as i said russian forces remain positioned in belarus to attack ukraine from the north including warplanes and offensive missile systems. russia has moved troops closer to ukraine's border with russia. russia's naval vessels are maneuvering in the black sea to ukraine's south including amphibious assault ships, missile cruisers and submarines. russia has moved supplies and blood and medical equipment into position on their border. you don't need blood unless you plan on starting a war. over the last few days we've seen much of the playbook that secretary blinken laid out last

week in the united nations security council come to pass. a major increase in military provocations and falsifying events along the line of contact in the donbas. dramatically staged venal on camera meeting of putin's security council to grandstand for the russian public. and now political provocation of recognizing sovereign ukrainian territory in so-called independent republics in clear violation, again, of international law. president putin has sought authorization from the russian parliament to use military force outside of russian territory. and this set the stage for further pretext, further provocations by russia to try to justify further military action. none of us, none of us should be fooled. none of us will be fooled. there is no justification. further russian assault in ukraine remains a severe threat in the days ahead. if russia proceeds, it is russia

and russia alone that bears the responsibility. as we respond my administration is using every tool at our disposal to protect american businesses and consumers from rising prices at the pump. as i said last week, defending freedom will have costs for us as well and here at home. we need to be honest about that. but as we will -- but as we do this, i'm going to take robust action and make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the russian economy and not ours. we are closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption. we're executing a plan in coordination with major oil producing consumers and producers. this will blunt gas prices. our feeling at the gas pump this is critical to me.

in the last few days i've been in constant contact with european leaders including with volodymyr zelenskyy. vice president harris met with leaders in germany over the weekend at the munich conference including president zelenskyy. at every step we have shown the united states and our allies and partners are working in unison, which he hasn't been counting on, mr. putin. we are united in our support of ukraine. we are united in our opposition to russian aggression. we are united in our resolve to defend our nato alliance and our understanding of the urgency and seriousness of the threat russia is making to global peace and stability. yesterday the world heard clearly a full extent of vladimir putin's twisted rewrite of history. going back more than a century, as he waxed eloquently, noting that -- well, i'm not going to go into it -- but nothing in his remarks indicate any interest in

pursuing real dialogue on european security. he indirectly threatened territory held by russia including nations that today are thriving democracies and members of nato. he explicitly threatened war unless his extreme demands were met. and there's no question that russia is the aggressor. so we're clear eyed about the challenges we're facing. nonetheless there's still time to avert the worst case scenario if people move as suggested. the united states and our allies and partners remain open to diplomacy if it is serious. when all is said and done we're going to judge russia by its actions not its words. and whatever russia does next we're ready to respond with unity, clarity and conviction.

we'll probably have more to say about this. i'm hoping diplomacy is still available. thank you all very much. >> sir, are you still open to meeting with vladimir putin, sir? a fleet of economic sanctions levied against russia, russian banks, including the military bank, russia can no longer try and raise money from the west on their debt. they can't trade on their debt in western markets. also going to sanction vladimir putin, the elites and their family members. this is not alm of the sanctions president biden was quick to say because they are going to levy more if vladimir putin goes further. let's bring back hanna sheles. those sanctions, do you think they will be enough? are they effective? >> first of all, we definitely

need to see details because the word elite is very vague. the united kingdom announced sanctions against elite and three oligarchs. while there are more supporting the regime of vladimir putin, also children, it's interesting to say the least because many of them and wives of these russian members of parliament, for example, who have the u.s. citizenship or french citizenship or british citizenship, these facts are well known and public. we've never seen any actions against such presence and such activities. so definitely will it be enough? that's the real question. we understand when we speak about economic sanctions they don't have immediate effects today. maybe the change will show some numbers by tomorrow but it is more of the long-term for the

russian economy. >> what do you want to see more from the west? i know that you're saying maybe these sanctions are enough, you want to see more details in the sanctions. are sanctions ever going to be enough for vladimir putin given how ingrained a lot of russian money is in a lot of europe, frankly, looking at london, for instance, given how ingrained in property in london. is there ever going to be something that the west can do to fully -- fully hit vladimir putin and his allies, the elites, fully hit them in a way that actually hurts financially? >> the aggression of sanctions that they should hurt not only financially. financially is important because it's just sometimes lack of money that should be spent for weapons but at the same time think about sanctions as a political act. for vladimir putin what is dangerous is when the west is united, when washington and

berlin speaks as a single voice. his december proposals were aimed to dissolve to break this unity of the nato allies, and that's what he's doing with many other actions. we hear even those countries have been seen as pro-russian by the moscow leadership are saying the same words as the hard-liners against the russian federation. that's very important. that's the narrative about the first and second class members of nato. also as you ask what we want, first of all, it is very strong diplomatic support within the international organization. for example, within the united nations, within the european union, within nato and it is helping with the sanctions but bringing ukraine to the family of the european countries. because of the russian action and that's what, unfortunately,

some of the american politicians sometimes are calling for asking ukraine please become neutral. maybe putin would not attack anymore. but military support as well is very important. 75% captured in crimea in 2014 and now we have a lot from kyiv in maritime so restoring and helping with our defense systems and for helping with controlling the black sea because we see the last few weeks the russian federation increased their actions, aggressive actions, in the black sea and that's where our nato partners can come and with allowing the ships to come to ukrainian force because ukrainian not only security but economy will also depend on it. >> hanna, stick around. i want to bring in our correspondents from the white house and the national deputy

security adviser and msnbc political contributor. ben, since we're focused now on analysis of the sanctions i want to start with you. what do you make of what the president just laid out? >> reporter: well, it's a significant step forward in building the types of sanctions they've been foreshadowing. it doesn't encampus all they've foreshadowed like export controls but what i take from this announcement is, first of all, they've decided the die has been cast and it constitutes an invasion. yesterday we saw fairly incremental sanctions focused on luhansk and donetsk. this is the elite inner circle and beginning to target russian financial institutions. the enforcement of these sanctions, there's a lot of effort that russia has been engaged in and putin's inner

circle to hide money, to launder money, and invest in western economies in ways that can make it difficult to get at those resources. the message communicated here is that if you are in vladimir putin's inner circle you are personally going to pay for what he's doing. that elite structure around him is going to pay a high cost, potentially lose their lifestyle, their status for what he is doing. and then the broader banking sanctions, again, that's the kind of thing that will take a hit over time. a broader effect. there's no indication, in the near term because of sanctions. >> we've heard of similar sanctions, the elites and their families in the past, how are these different?

>> reporter: it seems like they're defining putin's inner circle, bringing in family members as well. that has helped finance putin and his corruption. you are going to pay a price. vladimir putin doesn't seem to care. he knew these sanctions were coming. they communicated to russia the sanction that is would be coming, so i don't think he's caught off guard by this announcement. can you try to erode the sources of support, affect his inner circle and the russian public that is concerned about pocketbook issues than what's happening in the donbas and eastern ukraine. that can have an effect on putin over time. i'm not certain it will have an impact on the short term. >> i wonder when you talk about

over time, how long is the white house planning on drawing this out. listening over the weekend from experts talking about how vladimir putin might try to take some of these regions, much as he took crimea and hold on to them for long enough for the world to move on, for the news cycle of the world to move on, for governments to move on, and, okay, he did that and i guess that's the way it's going to be, but let's try to move forward and deal with him in the future. how long is the white house willing to hold this hard line against russia. >> the white house has tried to be very clear and 2022 is not 2014. you're not going to see the annexation of crimea and some sanctions and sitting back. he's willing and eager to deter president putin from going

further. it was interesting, though, to hear what the president said at the very end of his remarks. there had been some signals, a question whether the president might use this speech to officially call an end to the fact that secretary of state and tony antony blinken would be meeting. the hope it is possible and ties back to what he said, the first tranche of sanctions. that minor incursion that president biden referred to about a month ago. significant sanctions, though, still at this point that they've moved forward with. the possibility of more to come. interesting, katy, the president's remarks were delayed. he was working on his remarks, short of an in-person meeting, which still feels unlikely at this point. the president did use the opening of his remarks to speak directly to president putin

talking about the arrogance of him. he spent most of his career dealing with the cold war when that was the primary issue. he spent a career building towards and you can see mindful of the geo politics but the domestic politics, the impact on gas prices at home and the steps that he's also undertaken to try to keep some stability in oil prices. >> how long is the white house willing to keep this going, this hard line? how long is the west willing to keep this going? how long will nato be willing to keep this going? germany shut down nord stream 2, all but shut it down. it's going to be financially difficult for the german people in terms of energy prices. there will be financial hardships in terms of energy and other ra arenas. how willing the west is going to be to remain united for the long term?

>> reporter: the preliminary signals are quite strong and frankly what you didn't have in 2014 is months of buildup of military forces along the border coupled with the biden administration very forthcoming with intelligence about what to expect. that allowed them to line up a set of sanctions that could be announced by different countries including the united states but germany with nord stream 2, the uk with some moderate sanctions it imposed. here is what i think, though. putin's play is limited to these parts of the donbas. it will be harder to maintain sanctions in europe and the united states. if, however, we see something, it goes far beyond anything we see here but in 2014. if we see a recognized russian invasion of ukraine, we see thousands if not tens of thousands of casualties, an effort to topple the ukrainian government to move on kyiv, that, i think, will compel the continued unity of the alliance and the absorption of some of

the economic pain that will come from sanctions. what putin is calling on six months, one year out, normalize whatever circumstance and facts on the ground he creates. imposing new sanctions but the enforcement of existing sanctions because it takes work to get after the wealth of these individuals and oftentimes workarounds are created and i'm sure russia has been talking to china about workarounds and then waivers to minimize the economic sanctions on us, the impact as well on russia. i think putin understands he's going to take a hit in the short term. the scale of the hit will depend on what he does because if he keeps on moving i think you're going to see more announcements not just from washington but europe as well. what putin is banking on not that a year from now the politics may shift. people may lose attention and that sanction regime can fray. >> he's banking on it being

normalized and everybody is start to go fracture. courtney, troop movements. the president announced he will be sending more troops to eastern nato nations. >> reporter: that's right. these are moves, troops that are already there in europe so what the military would call an intertheater movement, force that is will go to estonia, latvia and lithuania. we don't have the numbers or what the units are. i spoke with a couple of defense officials about this. they made it clear that this is what they call a bilateral move, so it's the u.s. essentially making this decision in conjunction with these allies. this is not part of the larger nato movement we had been hearing about for several weeks, the nato response force. that was in the enabled of 8,000 troops that could be sent forward if it is activated. we still haven't heard whether nato has decided to activate the force and all the signals from

nato officials, u.s. officials and other allies that would only occur if vladimir putin invaded. the question is what does this new recognition and the potential for the so-called peacekeeping troops, would that be enough of an invasion for nato to activate the force. so far it does not seem that's the case. there are more than 8,000 u.s. troops in the united states that are on this heightened state of readiness but if the response force is activated they could be sent forward this is more of the shoring up and bolstering these nato ally defenses, reinforcing them as this threat from russia continues. >> joining us now, richard, what is it like there right now given what we've seen overnight? has anything really changed? >> reporter: ukrainians have

been calm, sanguine for weeks and were hopeful the worst wouldn't come. after last night's speech, i think a lot of people in this city in particular started to change their minds. what they heard last night from vladimir putin was an angry speech. it was putin telling ukrainians that their country not only doesn't exist but shouldn't exist, that it was a mistake made by soviet leaders going back to lenin and this country's democratic revolution in 2008 set it on a dangerous path in which it was dependent on nato and according to putin and his defense minister that ukraine is determined to pursue a nuclear weapon. it made people here think this is personal.

and then it got worse because not only did yesterday, vladimir putin recognized these two separatist areas calling them independent countries. today he clarified what exactly the terrain are supposed to cover and included much more than just the land the separatists currently hold. that pink area you are showing on the map right now but according to vladimir putin it isn't just the area in their possession. it is the region's provincial boundaries, the parts that are showing in brown. and that includes the city of mariupol, the area in brown on the map are controlled by the ukrainian government. the areas in pink are not. the areas in brown have a significant portion of the ukrainian military based in

them. recognizing an area that russia already controls where there are no ukrainian troops is one thing. after saying ukraine doesn't have the right to exist but recognized in large areas that are heavily populated, heavily militarized, where russia does not control to many people in the city, put a significant degree of fear in their heart. >> it was a fiery speech and, as you said, he did try to say ukraine does not exist but should not exist. deputy national intelligence officer for russia, current lip with the center for a new american security. andrea, thank you so much for joining us. putin's end game. we hear president biden saying he's going 10 shore up nato forces in nato countries. what is the concern this is going to bleed over ukraine and perhaps threaten a nato aligned

country? >> yes, i think we should be clear there are immediate risks. i think as you're suggesting there are certainly risks that if russia does escalate militarily that some of the conflict could spill some of the conflicts could spill over into nato states. so that is a clear and present risk. there's also a risk if the united states does continue to implement increasingly harsh and costly sanctions on russia, that president putin would choose to respond and escalate the situation, including cyber attacks and other things that could affect the united states. so, i think in the immediate term, there are risks. but longer term, if he does, indeed, take all or part of ukraine, we should expect is that now he will have russian troops that are pushed right up on nato's border. we also know that the troops, the russian troops that are located in belarus are also unlikely to be removed in the immediate term.

and i think we should expect they'll be there permanently. so this really creates a lot of new risks, particularly for nato-member states, poland and the balkan countries. that's going to make it much more difficult for the united states and nato countries to defend those countries. i think we're shaping up for an extremely long and intense confrontation with russia. >> richard, i know you've been in ukraine quite a bit. as you have reported there's sort of a peace among folk that, you know, they've been living with this for a long time. and that it wasn't necessarily a new thing that russia was going to come in and provoke a situation. that being said, given that it's changing. given that speech last night, did you see any form of unity yesterday or today, i should say, among the people of eastern ukraine in protests? >> reporter: so, the short answer is, yes. many people here believe that

when this crisis began, it was more of the same. they have been fighting against russia. and against russian-backed separatists for the last eight years. and the peak of that war with the separatists was in 2014. it's 14,000 people died in the fighting. so it was not a significant war. and there's still hundreds of people who are missing because of that fighting. so when russia started building up its forces again, they thought it was just another round or another escalation of what has become a low-level fight which was a fairly intense fight eight years ago. but now with nearly 200,000 troops around the border and vladimir putin putting this city, specifically, in the crosshairs, people came out on to the streets. and they came out to wave ukrainian flags. they were singing the national anthem. they were saying we will not surrender. we will not run away. we will stay here. we will fight. we will be proud of our nation

and defend our nation. and it wasn't a large demonstration, but it wasn't as small as the demonstrations i saw a week ago, two weeks ago. two weeks, there were 10, 15 people who would come out to an event like this and wave a flag. tonight, there were several hundred and they were there until late. >> so, hanna, i want to ask you one another question, i know you're staying in ukraine. the united states has presented intelligence to the u.n. security council that we believe that russia united states believes russia has basically a kill list, people they're going to target, if they do choose to, do choose to go into ukraine. the letter also says, these acts which in past operations have included targeted killings, kidnappings, forced disappearances, and use of torture would likely target those who oppose russian action

includes dissidents in exile. and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and lgbtq persons. that's quite a wide scope of people they would target. given the existence of this intelligence, does that make you concerned about staying in ukraine? >> this wide list is understandable because that is exactly the group that suffered in crimea, for example. as you see now we have 100 arrested or disappeared people, they're predominantly ukrainian ethnicity. or those involved in the religious organizations. the same in donbas. the first people who suffered in 2014 and '15, they were activists, they were religious leaders, especially among the groups. that is exactly the groups that the russian soldiers, russia itself is targeting.

the russian dissidents, you knew the case in germany for the attempted poisoning in salisbury, that so is the russian tactic, the most important, who is there. but the groups is no surprise for those follow the russian methods around europe. that would mean that all of us are going to move -- no, we still hope that against ukraine, both because of the international community. but also the outsourcing. mr. putin can have 200,000 forces but ukraine also have the armed forces that have been devout to them for the lat eight last eight years in january of this year and we see within this week now the lines of the young men are coming to the special offices where they can sign the contract to be in the reserve of

the territorial defense forces. so there definitely will not be the russian forces only out there. >> hanna shelest, ben rhodes, andrea kendall-taylor, mick memoli, richard engel. courtney kube at the white house. thank you all so much. hallie jackson brings up the breaking news coverage. she'll be joined by the chairman the senate foreign relations committee bob menendez. relatios committee bob menendez only at applebee's people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible... with rybelsus®. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7.

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♪♪ breaking news as we come on the air from washington, president biden announcing what he says is just the first round of sanctions against russia, hitting top russian banks and get ready to cut off some russians personally. promising this is only the beginning. >> this is the beginning of a russian invasion of ukraine. >> the president also making a big shift in u.s. troopers overseas. moving more members of the military closer to ukraine to help shore up nato allies, we've got the team standing by from washington, to moscow to ukraine. we're talk about what's next with the chairman of the foreign relations committee. we've got senator bob menendez, i'm