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nord stream 2 pipeline with a new set of sanctions. and on cnbc, an official saying that russia is ready to go now. now, we're about to hear from jen psaki and john kirby. mike memoli covering the white house. and the former ambassador bill taylor and andrea

kendall-taylor, former intelligence officer for russia, richard, let me start with you and mike on the ground. where the action is happening, right, the new sanctions from president biden on nord stream 2, it seems as though from listening from the state department that the game-changer on that something that the president had not done to this point was germany going ahead and making the first move less than 24 hours ago. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, hallie, the white house trying to analyzed strength of preparations getting to this moment. key allies like germany able to act so quickly on nord stream 2. that's the biggest action. formalizing in a statement, president biden saying that russia has given our allies every incentive to end the independence on oil. a senior official was more blunt saying this is an opportunity to end europe's addiction to russian oil. one of the main points of leverage at this point.

and some republicans have been critical of the president for not going far enough. white house officials emphasizing something that appears to be a chess game. wanting to match russia's moves piece by piece and reserve the option to go further. we heard from ned price at the state department in the last hour, let's take a listen. >> this is the beginning of our response, if putin escalates further, we will escalate further, using additional sanctions and expert controls which we've yet to unveil but are fully prepared to implement with allies and partners across the globe. >> reporter: and now as we await jen psaki's briefing in the next moments, something like an uneasy calm. we did see that reporting from courtney kube that russia could act at any moment. giving out warnings to ukraine. and cyber attacks wanting to see what putin does next, while all along reserving that option for

diplomacy. as the president indicated he hopes he's wrong about russia's imminent attack coming at any moment now but there is that option to speak to potentially de-escalate the crisis. >> by the way, mike, i should note that the white house briefing not until 3:30 we thought top of the hour. same with pentagon. richard, let me just go to you, mike just laid out both of the buckets. the sanctions buckets on the nord stream 2 pipeline. the military bucket from what we're hearing from behind the scenes from senior officials, and what we'll here 26 minutes from now on camera from john kirby, what's it like in ukraine given the developments? >> reporter: it's getting significantly more tense. if you remember, and we talked about this on air there was criticism of the ukrainian government and of president zelenskyy specifically, that they weren't taking these threats seriously. that they were brushing them off. that they thought russia

wouldn't invade. that kind of attitude is gone. they are now drafting a state of emergency. they've called up the national guard. the state of emergency, according to the draft text will allow them to seize property, to change private industry and turn it for wartime purposes. to impose curfews. so, they are now bracing collectively, that they may need to fight for their very existence. that this country's diplomacy is at stake. that the thousands of citizens are at stake. that the people not being driven from their homes, that millions of refugees are potentially at stake. so they're absolutely taking this seriously. and they're calling for more sanctions, one of the things that president zelenskyy said specifically today that he wanted to make germany with sanctions permanently and take that off the books. and the ukrainians are finally starting to see what they have been calling for.

they wanted to see sanctions put in place before russia took its most dramatic steps. and so far, they are seeing that with european capitals and washington gradually ramping up sanctions. >> matt bodnar, let me go to you, mike and richard both mentioned the new warning from pentagon here, that russia, in their words, literally to go now. what are you seeing in moscow? >> reporter: thank you, hallie, to be honest, we're seeing more of the same. today was actually a national holiday. defenders the fatherland day. we saw president putin come out and give a strong speech in support of the troops. no hints in that speech. president putin has laid it out very plain for all of us, in the national security meeting on monday in the speech on monday. we also saw remarks from vladimir putin yesterday. but the situation basically now from the russian side, you look at the state media. we're continuing to see story after story, alleging ukrainian

attacks on luhansk, and the separatist areas. atrocities, genocide. we saw an op-ed -- like an opinion piece put out by the russian ministry spokeswoman a few hours slamming all of us in the west not believing the history of genocide, calling hypocrites, not accepting the same language that the united states used in the pat as she put it to justify the sovereignty of other states. so they kind of continue to throw out all kinds of narratives but there's a calm here in moscow today. we're just at this point waiting for some allegation on russian state television, perhaps from russian officials that ukraine has attacked these newly recognized independent states. russia has recognized them, therefore, justifying whatever it is president putin has

planned. >> matt bodnar, richard engel, mike memoli, thank you for your reporting. ambassador, in addition to andrea, what is your impression of the sanctioning of the nord stream pipeline from the white house. in 23 minutes we're going to see the white house briefing start to get on camera from the white house press secretary, i would imagine? >> this is a good move. the nord stream pipeline should have hit well before this. good thing it is now. i'm sure the reaction in kyiv is very positive. they've been calling for this for some time. this is a very good move. we haven't yet seen president putin put into a fight with ukrainian soldiers, his russian soldiers, that is, we haven't seen any actual combat yet. he's gone into crimea in 2014, didn't lose a soldier. he has lost a couple of soldiers

in donbas but he's suppressed that. he's clearly worried about the effect on the russian people of losing soldiers. and he hasn't challenged ukrainian military yet either. so, this is something you've got to question what he's up to. >> ambassador taylor, andrea, i have more questions for you. i have more for the conversation i'm going to ask for your patience in standing by. we got to get to other breaking news on another topic. nbc news confirming new information into the investigation of the trump organization and the former president. why we've learned two top prosecutors have resigned. and what it now means for the future of the investigation. our tom winter is scrambling to a camera as we speak. plus, we've also got new reporting that nbc news has confirmed about which one of donald trump's children is now in talks with investigators. stay with us. we'll be right back. back. ll pr? reduces inflammation?

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we've got a couple pieces of

breaking news just into us. we told you about them right before the commercial break. first as it relates to the january 6th insurrection, nbc news confirming that ivanka trump is cooperating with the investigation. and might have information about his thoughts what he was doing that day. we have breaking news that we're going to get to in a moment involving the manhattan district attorney. let's start with ali vitali on capitol hill. ali, brings up to speed on this one -- we don't have ali. we're going to juggle breaking news. the other piece of breaking news from the manhattan district attorney, nbc news, again, listen, this is coming in the last few minutes has confirmed two top prosecutors resigned from the office. a spokesperson said that the investigation is ongoing.

we're grateful for their service. let's bring in tom winter all over the story. danny cevallos is joining us, too. two top prosecutors, related to the investigation, very actively, what is going on here? >> right. so a couple of different things, hallie, the prosecutors, kerry dunn and mark pomerantz very important for two reasons. kerry dunn has been part of the investigation, he's the attorney, part of the team, but really the person who shepherded this case through the supreme court when it came time to try to fight for it. remember, we talked about it often the subpoena over trump's tax returns and the tax preparers masars usa. and he's been an important part of this.

last summer, in july when alan michaelberger was charged. he was about 20 feet in front of me, when he delivered kind of a blistering opening to his case, detailing what weitzelberg, the person on the screen, as to what the administration did and why they're bringing the charges. dunn has been a big part of the picture. as far as pomerantz, he's been steeped in his knowledge of complex tax and fraud-type cases. he's somebody we previously reported was involved with interviewing some of the key witnesses in the case. somebody conducting a lot of the questioning in this. people might be wondering where's all of this going to go. so, over the past, i would say, two months, things have been

quite quiet. towards the end of the year there was a flurry of activity we were today, a reporting involving the grand jury, actually a reporter had come public that he was called by the grand jury. that happened at the end of the year, a new district attorney, alvin bragg, former federal prosecutor, it's normal i and other reporters didn't blink twice where there were several weeks fairly quiet because, of course, you've got a new person in the investigation, obviously wants to get up to speed, figure out what's going on. that makes sense. however, over the last few months, there's been crickets, as far as new steps in the investigation. additional people called by the grand jury. anybody receiving a subpoena, we typically hear about that through the rumor mill, we've tracked that down. a couple other things, we'll have to piece together to see what they mean but the two top people handling this

investigation, the only criminal investigation that we know about involving the president's finances directly involving his company are out in this investigation has been quiet for at least a month. >> so, there are two obvious questions that i think come from what you just described. tom. danny one of them goes to you, one, tom, goes to you. if you cannot answer and the answer is we don't know, or no, tell me, that's okay. i know we got to be careful here. i know people will go, wait a second, you've laid out well these two prosecutors, their involvement in this investigation, how, apparently, critical they were to some of the moving pieces here. >> sure. >> do we have any idea why these resignations now? >> i haven't had a chance to speak to either one of them. >> okay. >> before that happens, i wouldn't want to answer the question in full. totally fair, second question goes to danny, which is after everything that tom has laid out, danny, what does this is a to you, where the investigation goes and what happens next? given the different data points

that tom has delineated, help us connect the dots if you can? >> we're just drawing inferences at this point. anytime you have a wide range investigation captained by a particular prosecutor, in this case, two prosecutors, anytime them abruptly quit, and we saw this in the last several years where prosecutors, federal prosecutors, were disappointed in the direction, and the investigation was going abruptly, often, that abrupt resignation is a sign, a message being sent that they're dissatisfied with the way those above them are treating the investigation. we don't know if that's the situation here, but an abrupt sudden leaving of the job could suggest that. and it could be sending a message, possibly, that the new -- the new d.a., alvin bragg, that his view of the case is different and probably he has less appetite for it than the

prior d.a. that's just a possibility. but if so, it would explain why these two lead prosecutors quit so quickly. >> tom, to perhaps state the obvious here, but i want to be crystal clear on this, this is separate and apart from another investigation we've talked a lot about over the last couple of weeks which involved the new york attorney general letitia james. >> that is correct. however, the attorney's office has several people involved on the criminal side with the manhattan district attorney. it's not as though there's a chinese wall referred to, between the two offices, i want to be clear on that. yes, the thing we've been talking about, getting the president to sit for a deposition, it's different. >> yeah. danny, this interesting breaking news that tom has brought to us on the air. danny. >> the worst case scenario for the manhattan's d.a. office is they abandon this long-range

investigation, leaving just the new york attorney general who is not going to bring criminal charges. she has a civil case. believe me, anything she uncovers in the civil case would go to the manhattan d.a. by all accounts, they are still moving forward, whatever that means but the new york attorney general's civil action also moves forward and shows no sign of letting up. >> danny cevallos, tom wynter, great reporting. back to the other story we talked about, ivanka trump now in conversation with the january 6th committee, apparently to cooperate with the investigation. as promised we brought back correspondent ali vitali. it seems like the breaking news happens at 3:00, good for us, but tell us what you hear. >> reporter: yeah, hallie, you've got great timing for breaking news. in this case, it's no exception, we are just learning in the last

few minutes our colleague peter alexander confirming that ivanka trump is in talks with the january 6th committee to cooperate. you'll remember several weeks ago from now, the committee requested to talk with the former president's daughter and senior adviser. the deadline they had thrown out as potential dates they wanted to see her, those have long passed but they exercise patience when they think they're going to get cooperation. clearly, this could be one of the circumstances where that might pay off for them. just to refresh, some of the things they wanted to talk to ivanka trump about, they laid all of this out in a lengthy letter several weeks ago when they reached out to request her to cooperate. among those things are conversations she had with then vice president mike pence, as well as with her father president donald trump on january 6th itself. they also want to hear about conversation she had providing obstruction and counting of electoral votes also the conversation with her father and white house staff while january

6th was unfolding up here on the hill. of course, they want to hear about whether or not president trump ordered the national guard to respond to the events of january 6th, as well as the activities following the 6th. they've had testimony from other senior administration officials from the trump era including keith kellogg who said they believe ivanka trump could be a mitigating factor on this day. she could have been one of the people to tell her father that he needed toway in and stop the violence. and they have testimony from kellogg, didn't they say to mark mcenany, that he said that his daughter, yes, he believes ivanka was the only one. this is another move that the committee is trying to make trying to get in that inner circle. knife been stone walled before. but this would be a big get to get her in front of the committee. >> tell me if i'm too blunt in

the semantics, in talks to cooperate sounds differently than currently cooperating, no? >> absolutely. that's an important distinction. it's not to say that she's already to go before the committee to talk. it's talking about what it might take for her to cooperate with the committee in some forum. i do think the words are important here, but at the same time, this is clearly ivanka trump leaving the door open to cooperating when many others in the trump orbit -- although her situation is different, it was a request and not a subpoena. many have made it clear from the get-go. ivanka trump's decision is different because it's a request. she's open to cooperating right now. >> ali vitali live on capitol hill. thank you. when we come back, all eyes set to happen, really any minute, updates from the pentagon and white house, maybe simultaneously, on the ukraine

and russia crisis. we'll have that for you live when we come back. t for you live when we come back. (mindy) yep! (vo) verizon is going ultra, so you can too.

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the press secretaries of both respective buildings. since we've learned about a couple of key developments in the crisis in ukraine. specifically, the president biden is ratcheting up the sanctions on russia, now targeting the nord stream 2 pipeline. and over they pentagon, this very urgent warning from a senior defense official telling nbc news russia is literally ready to go with a large-scale invasion of ukraine. so, there's a lot. we're going to learn a lot in the next 30 minutes depending on when both of these briefings start, mike covering the white house, bill taylor and andrea kendall-taylor former deputy intelligence officer at the national intelligence council. first of all, thank you both very much for your patience. we've been juggling a lot this hour. i'm sure we're going to do that for the rest of the afternoon. andrea, to you, you have extensive experience in this field. we've talked about the sanctions. talk about the warning coming in

from the pentagon, we've seen this administration aggressively can declassify information over the last several weeks intended to show clearly how russia is going to use in their view a false flag operation agency a pretext to declare war. how do you see this fitting into the bigger picture? >> i think this latest warning is going to be particularly weighty. i see that in large part because for the first time, we're really seeing a convergence of what's happening in the military space and what putin is saying explicitly. for several months now, president putin said he's interested in negotiating that he would draw forces back from the border. that's all changed with his fiery speech on monday, talking about the fact that ukraine has no existence -- no right to be in existence. and so, now, we're seeing a convergence of this forced posture of 190,000 troops with these concrete statements coming from the kremlin.

after putin's speech, you know, he went ahead and recognized the independent of donetsk and luhansk. he has since deploys russian forces to those regions. he has now received approval to use force outside of russia's borders. he continues to make very aggressive threats against ukraine, sayingthy must recognize russia's right to crimea and demilitarize. and these two things coming into alignment. we talked earlier in the segment about the growing palpable tension growing outside of ukraine in the state of emergency. the concern is we're getting ever closer to the incursion that the administration was warning about. >> ambassador taylor, russia is also emphasizing diplomatic staff. what does that say to you. >> looks like you'll get to a

conversation. >> i'll let you finish your thought. i assume that press secretary john kirby at the pentagon will start with this. let's listen in for a second. ambassador taylor, andrea, please stay close. >> -- at his direction, secretary austin ordered the additional movement of u.s. forces that were currently stationed in europe, to continue our support for nato allies and the defense of eastern flank. now, these forces, comprised of aviation elements and some ground forces, will move within inside the european area of operations to nato's northeastern and southeastern flanks in the coming days. and we expect them to be in place later this week. they include an infantry battalion task force of approximately 800 personnel moving from italy to the baltic region. it's a movement of up to eight f-35 strike fighters from germany to several operating locations along the eastern flank. a battalion attack aviation,

specifically 20 ah-64 helicopters from germany, again to the baltic region. and attack aviation task force which is 12 ah-64 helicopters. will move from greece to poland. the additional personnel are being repositioned to assure nato allies, deter any potential aggression against nato member states and train with host nation forces. and, of course, they'll report -- continue to report to general to wolters. these moves are temporary. i want to stress that, temporary in nature, they are part of the more than 90,000 u.s. troops already in europe, both there on rotational as well as permanent orders. of course, as you know, u.s. maintains significant numbers of combat capable forces in europe. relatedly, europe and africa

will be kick off the exercise in march 13,000 participants from 13 countries. sabre strike has been held every two years since 2010. this is the next year for it. it is scheduled during the wintertime to help demonstrate the ability to operate until austere conditions. and in conducting sabre strike now we believe demonstrates that u.s. forces in europe can simultaneously support ongoing operations and regularly schedule training without any degradation of support to allies and partners. trainings like sabre strike were planned well in advance and this one was and demonstrate that we're stronger together and operating exercises get stronger together. lastly, i think you may have seen that the secretary did approve a couple of requests for national guard support here in the capital region. approved that request yesterday. those requests came from the d.c. government.

their emergency management agency, as well as the u.s. capitol police. all told, among the two requests about 700 guards personnel and about 50 vehicles. they are designed for traffic support in anticipation of potential challenges to traffic healer in the d.c. area, surrounding some potential protest activity. i want to stress again, that it's a relatively small number here. about 700. and they will be supporting traffic support, means that's their goal. that's their in additio mission. and with that, we'll take questions. >> john, people are talking about this potential invasion by russia of a large scale being imminent. you can talk about what the u.s. has seen today that may be different than what it has seen in recent days? why this has become sort of now imminent? have you seen russian troops

move into luhansk and donetsk? have you seen them move into that donbas region and have you seen them move further beyond ukraine? >> okay. a lot there. on donetsk and luhansk as you've heard administration officials say before, we do believe that that marks the beginning of an invasion. we certainly believe that additional russian military forces are moving into that region, not beyond that region that we've seen. but we can't confirm with great specificity or the numbers. as to your question, about the timing, only president putin knows the timing here. i will tell you we continue to see him form his capabilities in

such a way that leads us to believe that we are potentially close to some sort of action. again, what that action is going to be, and exactly on what time line, we can't be sure. but what we see is that russian forces continue to assemble closer to the border. and put themselves in advanced stage of readiness to act, to conduct military action in ukraine. again, virtually anytime now. we believe that they are -- they are ready. i'll just put -- leave it at that. they're ready. >> john, there are reports of a chemical plant in crimea that's been evacuated.

this is the kind of location that was described to us by secretary blinken as a possible staged provocation. are you seeing reports of any sort of preparations either for an attack on a chemical plant? or what part -- what are you seeing? >> i don't have any specifics on that claim. but it is of a piece of the kinds of ridiculous claims that we have seen the russians make in recent days. of alleged provocations or assaults and attacks unprovoked on their people. so, again, no knowledge of this particular one, but, again, we've been seeing this over now recent days, these claims of -- whether they're acts of terror or acts of violence, unprovoked. shelling of russian forces or russian separatists, all again, of a piece of the playbook that we have seen the russians use time and time again.

i have no specific knowledge about this particular report. but, again, it fits perfectly into the russian disinformation playbook. >> did the u.s. government help protect the ukrainian government from this denial of service attack, the cyber attack? did you help them with preparation for how to rebut -- to get back online quickly after such an attack? >> first, i don't think we're in a position to attribute these cyberdisruptions that you're talking about, i assume you're talking about the various government websites that were taken offline. what i will just tell you broadly speaking, jen, is that we have provided some cyberresilience training and assistance to the ukrainians. and i won't go beyond that in terms of these specific attacks. again, not in the position right now to the attribute them to any one entity. i would just say that, again,

this is another piece of a russian playbook which is to disrupt in cyberspace. let's see, anybody else? >> jenny. the intentions on ukraine that lead to crimea, you had said to invade ukraine, what would the u.s. do if russia were to use nuclear weapons in this invasion? what would be the attack on the korean peninsula? because there is a fear that korea would -- any comment? >> yeah, i'm going to avoid speculating and getting into hypotheticals particularly about the potential use of nuclear weapons. what we've said all along, two

things. mr. putin has a lot of capability at his disposal right now. as i said earlier, they are ready to go. and, number two, if he decides to conduct a full-scale invasion here, again, bigger than what we've seen in just the last few days, this will be a war of choice. that doing so would, you know, with diplomacy and options still left on the table. and it won't be bloodless. there will be suffering. there will be sacrifice. and all of that must and should be laid at his feet. because he's doing this by choice. how he does this, when he does this, we don't know for sure. but if he does this, this will be a war of choice. and totally unnecessary. and as for the impact on the region, i just -- i couldn't

begin to speculate. nothing's changed, obviously, about our commitment to our south korean allies and we noted that the south koreans also came out publicly yesterday with a statement of support for ukraine. that was certainly noticed by the whole international community. back there, abraham. >> a couple parts to this question. you described a lot of different parts as moving to the eastern flank. is there any consideration of those forces going under nato command and why not? and does the word as temporary, it's prominent there is there a time frame for temporary? and is there any talk of the nato rapid response, forces getting activated? >> yep. there's a lot there. right now they're under the command of general wolters in his command hat.

temporary, i don't have a time on this. i want to remind you they're simply repositioning elsewhere in europe. i don't have a time frame how long that repositioning is going to be. except to say we believe it's as long as necessary. and the new host nations that will be hosting these units are willing to continue to have them. so this will be a constant discussion with each host nation that they end up in. about where they go. how long they stay. and what kind of training opportunities they're going to conduct. this is really all about reassuring allies and partners. and demonstrating that in tangible ways. on your -- i lost your third question, dang it. >> what was the time? >> that's a better question for nato, abraham. that's not a question for the united states. that's for the north atlantic council, not just the united states unilaterally, of course. what i will tell you that as you

know the secretary has put on a shorter alert tether, our contributions to the nrf, the nato response force, so they're more ready to go if called upon. but what i can't give you any sorts of timing or certainty about whether the nrf is going to be activated. what i can tell you in certainty, if it is our contributions to the nrf will be ready to go? >> for the united states. >> tony. >> within the pentagon or the national security council, have there been discussions that with putin is a grand game of brinkmansship. he has no intention of invading, he wants to show his muscle and wants nato to not commit into the alliance. in other words, a game of brinksmanship bluffing? >> we've seen in indication of that, tony.

>> is the group thinking -- you're all thinking, just assuming he's going to do this? or do you skeptically look at was this just a bunch of b.s. brinksmanship grand scale? >> tony, we've been looking at this for months. and the secretary was just in brussels last week meeting with all of the counterparts and alliance. it's not just the united states who is deeply concerned about the potential of war on ukraine. other nato allies feel the same way. we've all been looking at this. i hope, we all hope that we're wrong about this. but every indication we have is that he's poised to attack ukraine again. and this time, with what could be significant military force. i mean, we are talking about more than 150,000 troops that he has already against that border. and as i said earlier, we

believe they're at a state of readiness where they could attack anytime. that's what we're seeing. and we've been talking about this very openly now for weeks. we've seen, sadly, and unfortunately, no indication that he's willing to de-escalate, move those troops back home and actually get to some serious diplomatic solution. every indication that we see is quite the opposite? >> may i have a china-related question is there any indication that the presidency has given his tacit or explicit approval for invasion? do you recall the speculation that the invasion wouldn't happen until the olympics are over -- the olympics are over now -- 93 indication that china has given its wink and nod? >> yeah, i will put you back to the february 4th statement that xi put out with putin, we take it as tacit approval for what mr. putin is doing.

you can point also to the concerning comments by the chinese foreign ministry yesterday that made it clear they weren't going to support what they called unlawful unilateral sanctions against russia. and then blamed the united states for contributing security assistance to ukraine. somehow, blaming us for this issue. no mention whatsoever, in their statement, about the 150,000-plus soldiers and the threats that mr. putin has been lobbying against ukraine, now for many weeks, including just yesterday. we wonder, can it really be the chinese policy now to support separatist movements over the sovereignty of nation states? that's an interesting twist, isn't it?

>> thank you, john. is there any -- i'd like to go back to the movement for u.s. troops to the baltic states and to the eastern flank. is there any consideration of sending more u.s. troops, if they're even an invasion. and on a permanent basis, on this eastern flank of nato? >> there's nothing -- there's no expectation at this time, sylvia, that we're going to move to more permanent basing on nato's eastern flank. what we're talking about now are short-term temporary rotational redeployments, if you will. as for your first question -- i assume what you're asking is are we going to send more troops from the united states to nato's eastern flank. and, look, i have no such announcements or movements to

speak of today. but as i have said repeatedly, we're going to keep all options on the table. i'm not going to rule out that the secretary might want to consider that, should there be a need. we're looking at this day by day. and just yesterday, as you saw, we did reposition inside europe. and there are lots of options available to us to continue to look for ways to reinforce that eastern flank. >> but this will be temporary? you don't think about changing your posture in terms of engagement? >> right now, we're focused on reassuring the allies and we're going to be in constant contact with them and consultation about what that looks like and how you do that given the current tensions on the continental. it's too early to tell whether any of this is going to lead to some other longer term posture changes. certainly, we're just not at that point right now. barbara. >> you mentioned before that if

the conflict breaks out it would not be bloodless. so, i assume that's also somewhat of a caution to russia that it would not be bloodless for them and their troops. can you be any more specific as? is the russian military, to use the expression, really ten feet tall, or do you see some vulnerabilities for them here? >> so, clearly, if he chooses war, he chooses violence. which means he's deliberately choosing to put lives at danger. soldiers' lives, civilians' lives. and he's going to have to bear the responsibility for that. and i think, i would hope, that he understands that some of those lives at risk are going to

be his soldiers' lives. and he's going to have to answer to russian moms and dads about their soldiers that aren't making it back home alive or making it back with injuries. he's going to have to answer for that. and as for the ten feet tall, look, i think, you know, getting into qualitative assessments here of militaries is probably not the best exercise for me right now. they have as we have said for a long time, significant combined arms capabilities, arrayed against ukraine right now. and they are ready to go, right now. should that be the way that mr. putin wants to go. and we would obviously like to see that not happen. and we would like to see him de-escalate, we would like him to make a better choice here, which we still think there is

time to do and de-escalate, move the troops back to garrison, move them back home, keep them safe, and not pursue a war of choice -- totally on what is his whim. >> as we sit here today, are there still active functioning channels of u.s.-russian military to military communications. are you able -- is the secretary, the chairman, are you able to pick up the phone and will your counterparts talk to you in. >> i would point to conversations we have read out in recent days, the secretary spoke with the minister a few days ago, chairman -- >> i'm talking about right now. >> i know. i'm getting there. chairman milley had many conversations with his counterpart. and we have seen no indication that those lines of communication between those two leaders are closed.

i don't have any additional phone conversations to talk about today, or to announce, but we have seen no indication that there won't be that communication should it be necessary. >> how about more of like a tactical line of communication? you know, i don't know if deconfliction is the right term to use here, there is not a u.s. military component to this. they're not go to be flying over the same skies, but what about something that might deconflict tactically on the ground once russia moves in? it seems we keep hearing about the u.s. military moving more and more assets into that region, is it appropriate for general milley to be the one calling the general when we're talking about potentially very quick tactical moves on the ground? >> i don't think we're at a point now where that's needed. because there hasn't been a large scale invasion yet of ukraine. and hopefully there won't be. so hopefully there won't be any need for that kind of communication. but you get to a really good point.

which is the potential, if he decides to go in big in ukraine, that puts russian military forces right up against the eastern flank of nato, his western flank. and that's an eastern flank, by the way, that we're going to continue to reinforce and make more ready. so you do get into a potential there for miscalculation, and miscommunication. we're just not there yet, that we can speak to specific deconfliction mechanisms and hopefully there won't be a need for that. if does raise a larger issue, your question does, of the potential for miscalculation here. >> given the fact this is -- we talk about deconfliction, a lot of us think of syria, this is a different situation, in the u.s. military component inside the potential invasion area, right. >> correct. >> would it be more appropriate for dod or general milley or state, like, what would that -- who would be the one who would be responsible for establishing that mechanism? >> again, we just -- we're not

at that point right now, courtney. it is difficult to answer that question. i'm not dodging it. it is just we aren't at that point right now. so i would rather not speculate about who would be in communications with whom. again, my answer to barb, there is no indication we have gotten there still isn't the ability at the strategic level for leaders to talk. jim? >> you talked about the -- to build on sylvia's question, you talked about the f-35s, and i guess 32 apaches. while it is not just an aircraft and pilot, how many people are associated with that -- with those moves? >> all told, if you add it up, you know, the infantry, the battalion we talked about, that's about 800. and another 200 crew, pilots, maintenance, that would go with those aircraft elements we talked about. so all told, the president's announcement yesterday equates to about a thousand people. i want to stress two things,

they're being positioned inside europe, not coming from the states, and, two, these are temporary moves. >> and if i could just build on courtney's question, doesn't general walters in his nato hat, can he speak to grazimov? >> i would suspect, yes. he certainly could. i know of no reason why he wouldn't be able to do that. the general is the chief of defense, so he is more appropriately general milley's counterpart. but can't imagine that there would be a reason why if general walters wanted to speak to him that he couldn't in his nato hat. yeah. >> given the fact that russians have brought the capabilities to the area, including cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, do you still think that the arms provided by the united states would help ukrainians to defend themselves against all these

capabilities? because -- >> we are providing, again, lethal and nonlethal assistance to ukraine. they have expressed their gratitude for that assistance. i would remind you that while a couple of things, 650 million just this year alone and we're still in discussions with them about what kind of support they might need going forward. and we're in constant consultation with them about their needs and what we can provide. it is not just us. that's my second point. other nations are as well stepping up to provide both lethal and nonlethal assistance to ukraine. let me go to the phones here. i haven't done that yet. let's see. mike, "washington examiner". >> thank you for taking my question. a little bit out of left field, but the 90-day period that general michael garrett had to look into the -- that expires this weekend, would you -- or

take the question? >> you broke up there, mike. can you just repeat the last part of your question? >> yeah, so the 90-day period for his investigation into the 2019 syria strike expires this weekend. could you provide any update or take the question? >> i know that he's wrapping that up, mike. i don't have a specific timeline of when that's going to be turned in and reviewed. i will take the question and we'll see if we can't get you a better answer. >> good afternoon. i have two questions. one on ukraine and one on the guard deployment. which would you like first? >> you can decide, tom. >> the guard deployment is the easier one perhaps. there has been reports of complaints and concerns by the district of columbia government, they don't have the ability to remove trucks, tow trucks that impede traffic situations. is there any defense department assets that could be made available to help them in this situation?

>> i don't really know, tom. the request that we got was for some personnel and 50 vehicles to help with traffic flow. there has been no request of the department for tow truck capability. and frankly i'm not sure that we have a lot of that. to be honest with you. i honestly don't know how many tow trucks we own, but i don't think it is very many. >> you have been watching pentagon press secretary john kirby brief reporters after a series of developments as it relates to the escalating crisis in ukraine and russia's provocations. with the administration it is calling the beginning of an invasion. you heard john kirby say clearly in the eyes of the pentagon, russia is ready. they are potentially close to some sort of action. this is a story we will be staying all over on msnbc reports. we're also, of course, watching that white house briefing that is still continuing. our team of reporters is in the room for that. we'll have updates throughout the afternoon. for now, "deadline: white house" begins right now.

hi there, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. the crisis in ukraine and the looming possibility of the largest ground war in europe since world war ii has quickly become an historic test of the united states and the western alliance with a steady drip of developments that suggest vladimir putin is intent on redrawing the map of europe by force. a senior defense official tells nbc news that russian forces are poised for a full scale invasion, that russia is, quote, as ready as they can be. earlier today a round of cyberattacks targeted ukrainian government sites and banks which are consistent with ones that took place last week that the u.s. blames on russia. preparations are under way in ukraine for an all-out conflict. the president declared a state of emergency and is urging all ukrainian nationals to leave russia. from the biden white house, a massiveipma