speech on the russian television, he openly threatened the west. even referring to russia's nuclear capability and says, warns western leaders not to respond. >> keir simmons, thank you very much for that report. our breaking news coverage now continues with ali velshi. ow continues with ali velshi. >> good evening i'm ali velshi with the continuing coverage of the crisis and ukraine. tonight, the russian leader valid amir putin has announced that the kremlin has decided to carry out a quote special military operation and quote in ukraine. there are now reports from our teams on the ground, hearing explosions, even in the capital city of kyiv, far from the disputed areas in eastern ukraine. joining me now is the former ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. michael you have been discussing this all night long

before we had confirmation of explosions and the idea that there are troops. you were listening to vladimir putin basically announcing to the world that they are starting this military incursion to protect russians and russian speakers inside of ukraine. a premise that you and i have discussed many times. >> yeah it's such a tragic day, before we talk and analyze putin i just want everyone to understand how horrible this is this is a democratic and free country and the heart of europe they did nothing to deserve this. they have not provoke vladimir putin this is not about the stupid nato expansion debate that we have been having in this country for weeks now. as it that was precipitate. this is an unprovoked war, it reminds me of september 1st 1939 when hitler invaded poland. we need to be crystal clear and not go back to that debate. number two listening to putin

it's just completely preposterous what he is saying. let's be clear, they are not nazis running ukraine today presidents ellen ski gave a very brief speech hours before putin's speech. and his decision to invade and he called out he was speaking to russian people. he is from the eastern part of ukraine. his first language is russian, i just hosted him here several months ago here at stanford. and he talked about the cities that putin claims to be trying to protect our the cities that he grew up in, there he is, thank you for showing him. and this notion that he is a nazi, his families have jewish. his father fought, or his grandfather excuse me fought in world war ii. he fought the nazis and i think we need to come to grips, we have been talking about all this calculation, is he a rational actor or not? putin is not a rational actor the things he evoked today to say that they needed to do this

war are completely preposterous. and you know i just pray for the people of ukraine tonight. >> it is a very difficult night and ukraine. if you look on that map, in that disputed area towards the east of ukraine. just to the south of it on the sea of as of, is a city called mariupol. and we see richard angle who has been there. he is live there now. what is the situation there richard? >> there are lots of reports coming through from the ukrainian government officials that there have been numerous airstrikes in different cities. in kyiv, the short answer is we're not hearing very much. there have been numerous reports from ukrainian officials talking about strikes and kharkiv, in kyiv, and mary opal. also there are reports from the government of troop -- troopers they describe them, finding in odessa. which is also in the south here. but aside from some faint explosions about one hour ago and the distance on the edge of the city.

here in the center of mariupol which could be potentially right in the line of fire. according to vladimir putin's understanding that he needs to protect the people of donbass. we are not seeing much. just now the light is starting to come out in this city, the day is beginning. very few people are on the streets, people are nervous, they are watching their television, television is the, long power is still on. they are trying to gather news. but what we can see and our eyes this morning is just empty streets as the day begins. >> richard, how obviously it has been nighttime here. why all this has happened. where vladimir putin had made this announcement, he has talked about sending troops in, you heard michael mcfaul talk about the fact that this was a pretext that was actually used to start world war ii. the idea that a country goes on to protect its people who live in a different country. how is this all playing out in the last 72 hours and mario poll? which is part of the so-called

disputed area. >> so let's get right to -- while we wait to get more clarity on the military side of this. which apparently is some sort of rolling start, because it is not the massive shock and all campaign that this country, and i think many people have been bracing for. the basic justification that vladimir putin laid out tonight and has been laying out for sometime, is that this government in ukraine which took over and a democratic revolution in 2014. almost exactly eight years ago. is a nazi government, is a fascist government, putin talked about the campaign and now to d.c. not sci-fi the government here. which is preposterous it's not a nazi or fascist government but that has been the rationale that a extremist government that is carrying out extreme nationalist policies, atrocities, a genocide against

the russian speaking part of this country. there are two languages in ukraine, ukrainian and now here in the east russian. people here speak both languages, people here converse and both languages. there is not repression against the russian-speaking people in this city. i've been speaking with many of them. all day people converse, and operate in russian, and there are no reprisals against them. last night i was at a demonstration -- two nights ago, i was at a demonstration in the city. and people said specifically, we don't need protection. we don't believe this pretext. putin don't come in here claiming to be defending the people of the east, we don't need it. so that basic narrative, that putin needs to defend russians against the fascists is simply preposterous. >> richard, standby, i want to go to erin mclaughlin in kyiv. erin, earlier this evening you

had heard some things that we had been reporting, loud noises, booms, banks and ukraine. you are also mentioning that there is a siren system, an alarm system that is supposed to go off, that had not gone off in kyiv. have you been able to determine anymore about what those noises, those explosions were? >> hey ali, we actually just heard another boom to my right in the distance. an adviser to the minister of internal affairs confirming that there have been missile strikes here in the capital of kyiv. saying crews and ballistic missile strikes are underway out of the control centers in the capital. targeting so far airfields and military headquarters. this as we have heard from the ukrainian foreign minister, this is the first authority that we heard from on twitter. tweet out, putin has just launched a full scale invasion of ukraine, peaceful ukrainian cities are under strikes. this is a war of aggression,

ukraine will defend itself and will win, and must stop putin. the time to act is now, and i was just. i heard another boom to my right. >> this is currently going on, you will still hearing voices, you are some distance from the russian border. due north of where you are, it's roughly where belarus meets russia. belarus is not a nato country, is a pro russian country, but russian troops have been there. so we're trying to establish, i'm going to ask my control room to give me the map of ukraine. so you can see the cities that are in there. >> another one to my right. >> you just heard it again, and i guess the question i'm asking. trying to figure out. i'm not sure you would know this as not being a ballistic expert. how far would explosions have to be for you to hear them? these can't be at the border you're too far away from that. >> exactly, they do sound like they are pretty close to me. and again we now have a confirmation that they are hitting the capital with missile strikes.

residents here in kyiv reported their windows shaking when they woke up this morning to these booms. at around four or five in the morning. so this is certainly something that an attack that seems to be ongoing. the city does have an air siren system, and speaking to officials this week. they said they had run tests of the siren system those tests were silent we couldn't hear the testing. no one here in kyiv has heard a sirens so far and yet we are getting confirmation from the ukrainian authorities that kyiv is under attack. >> that is remarkable, you're hearing from the ukrainians that there are missile strikes on the ukrainian capital of kyiv. i want to be clear that's what you're telling us? >> that is according to an adviser to the minister of interior. he made the posting on a chat group to journalists.

so yes that is what he is saying at this time. we have yet to hear, i read to the tweet from the ukrainian foreign minister. he did not explicitly say in that tweet that keep us under attack. but certainly that seems to be the case, given what i am hearing. >> and you are hearing the things that sound like explosions at intervals of a few minutes in between? >> i would say the explosions are all about 15 minutes apart at this point. earlier in the hour i was hearing explosions to my left. now i am hearing explosions to my right. in terms of what is happening immediately behind me, it is pretty calm and peaceful scene in the capital. the streets are mostly empty, and it is worth pointing out that authorities had thought that any attack on the capitol or military operation in general would start with cyberattacks. with start with electricity

being cut, power being cut, communications being cut. you can see ali i'm talking to now i am getting text messages and phone calls on my phone. so none of that has happened. all we are hearing right now in kyiv is explosions, and confirmation that missile strikes are happening in the capital. from this one adviser to the minister of interior. >> got it, and richard was saying and mario poll, the power is still on. and people are still watching tv, we're looking at live pictures of kyiv the power is on there. however when we did hear from ukrainian officials that there had been some cyber activity. there were a denial of service attacks on a number of websites. there seems to be something going on on the cyber side. >> that's right, just yesterday there was a number of attacks, denial of service attacks on a number of government websites. that kind of thing is not uncommon here in ukraine. just last week, there was a cyber attack targeting banks, and the ministry of defense

website. that attack was bigger than the attack that we saw just yesterday targeting a specific website. so that when we try those websites, we were able to access them. it seems like the bigger cyber attack actually happened last week. again, this is a country that has been dealing with hyper warfare tactics for the past eight years. hybrid warfare tactics designed to create instability. designed to create confusion, there have been bomb threats called on metro stations on a regular basis. even elementary schools, we were talking to parents a couple of weeks ago, that have to regularly take their kids out of school due to bomb threats being called in. ukrainian authorities later tracing those bomb threats to russia, and the gru. so this is something that people here in ukraine have been dealing with for quite some time. the hybrid warfare tactics of course, missile strikes is a whole whole different level, ali. >> yes it is an entirely

different level. erin, we always remind you and you know this, stay safe, we can see of course you are wearing your flak jacket and your helmet. and you are in the capital city of kyiv. stay with us erin, i want to bring in keir simmons who is standing by in moscow. this isn't a stealth thing, vladimir putin went on tv today and telegraphed that he has authorized a special military operation to protect the people of ukraine. russian speakers that russia is claiming as its own. what are you hearing in moscow? >> well it's just after 7 am here in moscow ali. and people in russia as far as we can still most are replaying that statement from putin. so keep in mind, many people will be seeing that for the first time. we haven't seen those russian

commentators that you see so often. beginning to try to explain, it justify it, i can tell you for sure. that there will be russian journalists, russian officials, ordinary russians waking up this morning here in moscow. and across this country stunned, concerned, with one former official with close ties to the kremlin before this all started told us yesterday we are on a road to hell. and that was before they started. with a clear picture that this was a very likely to happen. that is the actual speech itself is being quoted by russian news agencies and pieces. so the russian people will be having to pick through to understand what their president has said. just going through that speech though ali, a couple of things i would just point to.

in one part of the speech, just to say, this speech is from a russian president. and thinks he has to say frankly are in his own head, talking about the de-nazify of ukraine. which is nonsense. by a president who is trying to come up with excuses on what is happening. in that speech there are pointers to what might be a head for ukraine. just for example, president putin says he addresses the ukrainian people. then he addresses the ukrainian military and he says to the ukrainian military do not follow putin's orders. i ordered you immediately to lay down your arms and go home. all servicemen who comply with this requirement will be able and go to their families. so that suggest which is described as a area bombardment

from the russian military. that there is planned a ground assault of this time in some part of ukraine by the russians since says he is calling on the ukrainian military to surrender if you like. and another aspect of you like full frankly it's chilling. and i think it needs to be and that is where president rushes nuclear power. and he is clearly speaking to western leaders. d he is and he warns western leaders to not take action in russia in response to all this. that russia is a nuclear power. a chilling speech from president putin and a stark conflict which many people here in russia have told us that it wants. and remember, there are

millions of ukrainians living here in russia there are deep connections between russia and ukraine. they will tell you we, spoke to one russian on the streets of moscow just a few days ago, said my parents live in ukraine, why would i want a war. so for many russian people, again, it is now quarter after seven in the morning and for many russian people, they will be waking up now to hear this for the first time. and trying to understand what it means to them. >> that is an important point. for most people in ukraine and in russia, this has all happened overnight and they are waking up to news of this. text messages and television reports about what is going on. thank, you we will come right back to you, i want to go to the pentagon, courtney kube he is standing by. courtney, this is something that you have been reporting on. that the administration has been warning, as late as this evening. with lester holt, where the secretary of state said that he thinks before the night is over, russia will have conducted its

operation and it began. now, what is the response going to be from the pentagon? >> that's right. there's a couple of things that we should be looking at. what is not just a response here at the pentagon, but what is the nato response. we've heard in recent weeks as this nato response force could be activated in the event of a large scale invasion of ukraine. we heard that the united states announced that they had about 8000, 8500 troops that were on this heightened state of alert, ready as part of this response force. the big question is, does nato, and specifically the north atlantic council, activate that force and send not only these thousands of u.s. troops, but other thousands of nato allied troops into the baltic region. into that area around ukraine, as a show of presents, a show of force and more than anything else, as a deterrent, if there is any idea, any notion in vladimir putin's head, that he might move beyond ukraine's borders into some of those nato allies neighboring in the area. that they will be there and

that they will show that they have a deterrent effect on being the. the united states just announced yesterday that they are sending some more capabilities in fact that region. a couple of them that really stood out to me and the announcement were f-35s. some of the united states most advanced fighter aircraft. apache helicopters. 32 of these attack helicopters. that was very telling to me, it sends a signal to russia that the u.s. is bringing in this capability to pull on and some of those neighboring countries. these are the kinds of helicopters, as one u.s. official put it, they are tank killers. if russia were to decide to roll across the border into any of those allied nations, the united states would have those capabilities there to respond and help defend their nato allies. >> polo courtney is that that hasn't been threatened yet. at no point has vladimir putin suggested that he is going into poland or one of these nato countries on the border.

but he could come right up to the edge. >> absolutely. this initial and expectation in quarter into the assessments, this initial onslaught will be focused mainly on the eastern part of the country. as we've heard of ambassador mcfaul, russia and vladimir putin's ultimate goal is to take the entire country and that is all the way up to the border with poland. we are seeing it now. ukraine borders a number of nato allied nations. and the expectation and the major concern is that russian troops will ultimately work to take back that entire country bordering some of those nato nations and the real reason that is such a concern, is that maybe he wouldn't move across the borders today or tomorrow or this year, but what about five 10:15 years from now. and there is one area of russia and you can see on the right now. there's been a long-standing

concern. >> courtney just interrupt you, just to point out. if you go to the north of ukraine, just a left, that little red spot there that courtney is talking about. the countries that are around and there are poland and lithuania. there has been a long-standing concern, by both of those nations and by other nato allies, that ultimately russia will try to create land bridge. take some of the areas from poland and or lithuania down towards belarus. you see that dark green, dark green nation right above ukraine. that is one of the concerns. if he takes all of ukraine, that he is just going to keep pushing further and further west into some of those nato nations. >> courtney, i want you to stand by. i want to go to eastern ukraine now and bring in matt bradley. matt and i spoke a little while ago and you hadn't heard anything yet matt, now you have? >> yeah ali. back when you and i spoke, that was before vladimir putin gave his chilling speech to the nation, sleeping russian

nation. and then it was really, really interesting. just moments after that speech ended, we started hearing explosions here in kharkiv. i almost could not believe my ears, that it was just in that sort of troubling succession. the speech ended, he dropped his hand, and the bombs started falling. that was exactly how it went. we've heard a couple of explosions in quick succession, about an hour and a half ago. and we heard one about an hour later. then we heard one just a couple of minutes ago. they are so distant from where i am right now, here in central kharkiv. we don't really know where they are, and it is impossible to know. if they're hitting targets that are way outside of the city. i would imagine that they are very far from where i am now. but you know all, this is an interesting spot, because this is the largest russian majority in ukraine. it is the second largest city in ukraine. and this is the kind of place where vladimir putin might expect to get some sympathy from this russian speaking

population. these are the people who live here, who he claims to protect. who he says are the subject of oppression and even genocide at the hands of the government in kyiv. but i've been here for several weeks, been around, talk to a lot of people, they speak in russia. and they say that they are willing to fight and die for ukraine. they are not interested in vladimir putin's historical ideology. where he basically cast out on the very existence of ukraine as a nation in that speech just a couple of days ago. and this idea that they need to de-nazi find the country, which is what we heard just a couple of minutes ago, or hours ago from moscow. that is something that is going to shock people here. they do not recognize the government in kyiv as being a nazi government. they don't see themselves as being oppressed by the ukrainian speaking majority. so it is unclear whether vladimir putin, with his tanks, and we've just heard from an in visor to the government that the tanks are rolling in across the border now.

about 25 miles from where i am. and they might be coming soon. it is unclear if they're going to get the kind of reception that vladimir putin seems to think he will get from the russian-speaking people here in the east of the country. >> you are in kharkiv, the second largest city in population in ukraine. you are at the northeastern part of ukraine. we just spoke to richard angle, who was at the southeastern part, also in an area that russia claims. he had similar words to what you have. has gone out and talk to people, russian-speaking people, people who have lived there for a long time. he did not run into people who were looking for russia to come in and take over their country. >> ali, i should say, just to catch that, there is going to be a population of people here who have nostalgia for the stove yet area. when times were simply, when prices were lower, when they didn't have these complicated political crosscurrents to deal with. there is a population like that

here. and there's a population like that, especially in the areas of the east that are dominated by these russian-backed separatists. but for the majority of the people here, and we see this in poland, it's not just anecdotal evidence. that is not the feeling. they look to the west, not to kyiv, not to moscow. they are not asking vladimir putin to her rescue them, they do not need salvation from russia. >> matt, we are going to stay in touch with you, thank you for this, matt bradley for us in kyiv. you are looking at that map there, matt is at the top of it, richard was at the bottom of it. where the sea of azov's. and you can see that the separatists hold some territory around the cities of donetsk and luhansk towards the russian border. but both donetsk and luhansk are central to provinces. or provinces called don't ask and luhansk. and vladimir putin has declared both of those provinces now to be independent states. saying that they have requested military assistance from russia,

which is now what russia says it is providing. military assistance to protect russia inside with russians has decided as two independent republics. nobody in the world recognizes those places as being independent republics. i want to bring andrea mitchell and, foreign correspondent. obviously, andrea, this is a very difficult situation for the world, the united nations, the state department. because the united's entire nation was set up on the promise that countries do not roll into other countries and decide that they are there. >> exactly right. and our ambassador, linda thomas-greenfield, was speaking at the security council and interrupted herself to say, this counsel has been brought together to bring peace to the world. and i had to tell everyone, but right now, president putin has just ordered this invasion. and this was an emergency meeting, call by the ukrainian foreign minister who was there. and of course, the russians were denying that this was an attack. that this was self-defense.

and you heard mike mcfaul earlier saying, the preposterous statement from vladimir putin, that this was an attempt to drive the nazis out of eastern ukraine. want to drive the government out of ukraine. when zelenskyy is from ukraine. his grandfather fought in world war ii against the nazis. well he is half jewish. this is not a nazi government in ukraine. it's an independent, elected government. and it's the kind of democracy that vladimir putin is afraid of. frankly, on his border, and wants to stamp out. and all of the russian claims have been so wrong. and the russian misinformation. president biden pointed that out. tonight he is going to be meeting with the g7 leaders tomorrow. that had already been scheduled. but obviously, this is an enormous challenge for the united states. because ukraine is not a nato country. we've not made a commitment, we

will not make a commitment to defend ukraine. so, we are given defensive weapons, supplied them a $650 million of weapons this years alone. but we will not cross that border and send our troops and. that has been repeated by all of the officials, by the defense secretary, secretary of state. secretary blinken was on with lester holt on nightly news and said, will the start tonight, because we had every indication from the pentagon that this could start tonight. that putin had everything assembled. all of the troops that he needed, on all sides. he had those ships, which are apparently landing troops now. the russian troops are in -- a dozen warships with very large landing ships as well. and of course, he had more than 100, 000, 150,000 troops. as many as 190,000 total. but at least 150,000 troops and dollars to the north. able to fire and send artillery

shots through. they were able to be hit by the land, the sea, and the air. as has been described, this was exactly as has been briefed to us by the white house and the state department in the pentagon. and a series of steps, this is phase two. it will be the final stage, the tanks. but it was the misinformation, the disinformation, the false flag operations, claiming that they were under attack. the russian speakers in eastern ukraine. the cyberattacks which have been periodic. involved and identified today. has already been said by the white house, against the ukrainian ministry, the former history, the tanks. typical of the russian operations. soft enough ukraine and the angle is to topple the government in ukraine. clearly the military analysis, the russian conventional force will overwhelm the brave

ukrainian fighting men and women. the 150,000 of them, who are largely in the east, which is their frontline. the barrier against the russians. and they are likely going to be defeated in days. at least they will conquer kyiv. that is the main objective and the belief. but it is going to be a long resistance. these people are going to fight bravely. and insurgency as well. and the betting is that russia's taking on a lot more than they can true. and the analysis is that this could be the end of vladimir putin's search for a historic role in his legacy. already, it is just incredibly tragic to see this happening. >> and it is happening in front of us right now andrea. thank you. i want to go back to southeastern ukraine now. richard engel, nbc's chief foreign correspondent is live in marion poll.

the sun is fully up there. richard, you have been monitoring with the russians have been saying about this. we were talking to kyiv a few minutes ago. they're actually describing it to russian news consumers as a full scale invasion. as andrea was saying, that is not quite what it is just yet. >> no it is not. and i think that there is a psychological component to all of this. if you read the russian news accounts, they talk about beach landings taking place in mariupol. and i can see the water from where i am right now, and i am not seeing russian ships here. we would not miss a beach landing in the city. and there could be an element here of psychological warfare. putin's speech said that the ukrainian military should lay down their weapons, that they should surrender, that this goal is to save the lives of the ukrainian people and the lives of the military. and so far, listening to what you've been talking to about math and kharkiv and in kyiv.

it sounds like there is a fairly pinprick, specific attacks on military locations, that are relatively far from population centers. and so, there could be much more coming. and at this stage what russia is describing on its news agencies as a massive onslaught, including beach landings where i am, does not seem to be corresponding with what we are hearing and it sounds like they're very specific airstrikes, outside of the population centers. and when you listen, when you read the news coming from ukrainian officials, they are talking about airfields that have been hit, command and control centers that have been hit, but we are not seeing or hearing extensive damage in the center of this city at the very least. >> can you just describe for viewers who are unfamiliar with the recent history of that region. the region you are in right now. you are right on the border of a region that is controlled by

russian separatists. you are completely in a region that vladimir putin and pro putin people say is not russian, but is independent of ukraine, not ukrainian. >> so you are asking me one of the most fraught questions right now, because putin is in the midst of trying to reinterpret and rewrite this history. from russia's perspective, and i will start with that, because that is the one that russia is trying to impose and reimpose right now, this area that of ukraine is a mistake, as far as putin is concerned. that this land was part of the soviet union and was part of greater russian before that and that it deserves to be reunited with russia, particularly the russian-speaking people who have been denied their identity. now ukrainians see it completely differently. ukrainian see this country as their homeland, they have an independent language, they see that yes, they had a shared

history under the soviet union, but they see that as a terrible history. a past that they want to break from. when ukraine was under the soviet union, people here faced famine and imposed itself and force famine by stalin. and when people complain about the famine, stalin blamed them for college in the family and caused a repression that is described as the -- in which several million, 3 to 5, most people around 4 million, people died. then there was the chernobyl attack. and it wasn't until 1991 that ukraine broke away and has been pursuing a path of democracy and pursuing a path away from russia. now it seems like russia is trying to pull them back. and now we are having a discussion, going back to the earlier points, does not seem that right now russian troops are pushing as hard as they possibly could to pacify this

country, destroy its military infrastructure, it seems more like that there is an implementer campaign. and putin has come out and declared that the government must collapse. ukrainian soldiers must hand over their weapons and save their own lives. but we we have seen, and where my colleagues are describing, fairly specific attacks on infrastructure that are not necessarily right in the city. and that could change in a moment. and maybe has changed since we spoken. but that is what i'm seeing here. >> let me ask you this, for the people that you've spoken to, the russian speaking, ukrainians speaking, who do not want an invasion, who do they think is going to help them. and i understand that there is a ukrainian military that is determined and enthusiastic, but they are no match for a russian military. ukraine is not a nato country. there are not nato forces, or u.s. forces within thousands of miles from where you are.

who do you think should help them? >> ukrainians believe that they are going to have to help themselves and they believe that there are roughly 40 million people in this country. and many are determined to fight and defend their homelands in any way that they can. whether that is fighting in the military, or joining the reserves, or creating some sort of resistance movement. but there are divisions inside of society. and some of these border areas, there are people who themselves support russia, people who have been listening to the russian media. who believed vladimir putin's legacy. this is also a very poor part of the country and people who do not have jobs, people who are underemployed, they think that will maybe a change of government is better. maybe putin is right. and that if he came in here, there would be more jobs, cheap gas, and people would be back to their remembered past of the soviet union. because some people here remember the great famine of the soviet union and remember

the chernobyl and repression and others remember a time of a full albeit simple employment. >> richard we are going to stick close to you this morning as it starts. as we get any information, can always wait in front of the camera, we will go right back to kyiv now. we've heard a large explosion in kyiv, i want to go right back to air mclaughlin there, and what do you got? >> yet a now they're large boom. another indication that this capital is under attack. again, we heard from an advisor to the ministry of interior. cruz and ballistic missiles are being fired at kyiv. targeting military installations as well as airfields. another boom, just heard to my right. we are hearing reports that residents here in the capital are fleeing in the distance. and i can hear lines of traffic is essentially leaving the city.

people here are waking up absolutely terrified and worth keeping in mind that this is something that people here would be absolutely unthinkable. even military experts, up until yesterday, were telling me that they did not think that russian president vladimir putin would go after the ukrainian capital. they were well aware of the military presence, some 30,000 russian troops moved into the neighboring belarus. which is about 3 to 4-hour drive from here at the border. and so they knew that the threat was there, they just never thought that this would actually happen. and it is a stunning reality in the ukrainian capital of kyiv, in a flak jacket, telling you that this capital is now under attack. and once again, people here are absolutely terrified and scared. >> it's remarkable, you and i have talked every single day for more than the past week and one of the things that you are commenting on, there does not feel to be the urgency in kyiv. maybe people believe what was

going to happen in eastern ukraine, because that has been going on for a long time and they are accustomed to some degree of tension on the eastern border. but in kyiv, when they ousted the pro-russian government. it did seem like people were trying to convince themselves that he was not going to be a target, despite reporting in the last week that has said that the russians will go for kyiv in some fashion. >> and speaking to people here, they have been making preparations. they have been taking this are extraordinarily seriously. even though, in recent weeks, the ukrainian government had been downplaying the threat. saying that a full scale invasion would not happen. people here were taking those western intelligence assessments extremely seriously. they were preparing for the worst. and i was out in a suburb in kyiv one evening, watching as you ukrainians were learning things, such as having first

date. how to evacuate the wounded, how to fire a weapon. and speaking to people there, they were saying we are preparing for the worst. but we really do not think they are going to go after the capitol. better to be safe than sorry. and they are facing a completely different reality right now ali. >> you've been reporting all evening, that you've not heard, you've not heard the sirens. he does have that siren system. matt bradley had the same thing. he has already on the government provided any explanations as to why they are not activating sirens? as things are exploding and keefe. >> we have yet to hear from city officials reacting to events of this early morning. i was speaking to city officials prior to today, as early as this week. they were scrambling to get the city ready for a possible attack. dusting off bomb shelters,

creating evacuation plans, creating plans for contingency plans for elementary schools. critical infrastructure, trying to locate satellite phones. the city official telling me that they needed 500 satellite phones for critical infrastructure sites. they did not have those yet. they could not get them in ukraine and they were appealing to the u.s. embassy for help with that. they were waiting for those satellite phones. and so this is sort of the basic preparations that were underway, just as early as this week, even though they had known that this threat was looming for sometime. i have been told by city officials that they had tested the siren system, although nobody could hear it, they said that they tested it to make sure it was working. they said that it was. but again, we have confirmation from an adviser to the minister of interior, that there have been missile strikes and in kyiv, at airfields and military installations. and we have yet to hear a single siren hallie. this is an important point. >> courtney clearly was talking

to us earlier, and the russians what they could do in the rest of ukraine, beyond the eastern side, is attacked those things that would cause the ukrainians difficulty in defending themselves. airfields, military installations and certain government installations. would more likely be the target then residential or commercial enterprises. yeah, that is right, we've yet to see any reports of any civilian infrastructure or anything like that have being hit so far. but again, we are continuing to hear explosions, really on all sides where i'm standing, i heard explosion to the back. to my left, my right. this is been going since the early hours of the morning. and we are waiting for even more clarity from authorities here. >> you're camera staying on, your shot staying up, let us know when you have more information we will come right back to you. stay safe and mclaughlin in

kyiv for us. i want to go to white house correspondent in washington d.c.. obviously, the president fully informed about what is going on here, what is the latest? >> yeah ali, we've been getting periodic updates from white house officials throughout the night. my colleague peter alexander just shared a significant development. i think that president biden is on the phone right now with ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy. obviously, an important consultation at this later. in washington from. but at the very early hours there in kyiv, to show support for our ally at this critical moment. just before we learned of, that the white house president jen psaki tweeting that the president had just convened a secure phone call with his secretary of state tony blinken. the defense secretary lloyd austin. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley. as well as national security adviser jake sullivan. earlier, they said that they were monitoring developments throughout the night and getting updates as they continue. trump jake sullivan. the last we heard from the

president, was in the form of a paper statement, just about an hour ago, which began that the thoughts and prayers of the entire world war with the people of ukraine. and then we heard in that statement from the president, much of what we have been hearing from the president from the last few weeks. laying this entire conflict, this entire conference, square at the hands of putin. saying that it is putin who has chosen to make an unprovoked and unjustified attack. that this is putin who is alone responsible for death and destruction at this attack that it will bring. and then biden signaling how he will respond. saying that the united states and its allies and partners will respond in a decisive way. and what is next in terms of the presidents schedule, we know that tomorrow morning he is scheduled at 9:00 eastern time to have a meeting. a virtual meeting with the leaders of the g7. and this was actually a meeting that was on the presidents schedule for sometime. germany is set to fully assume the presidency of the g7 tomorrow. but obviously, this gathering now squarely focused on the

developments in ukraine. and then a white house official sharing that after that meeting, sometimes in the early afternoon tomorrow, the president will again come to the camera and speak directly to the american people about the situation and how the u.s. will move from that point forward. ali, the story throughout the day has been whether the initial sanctions that president biden announced, just about 30 hours ago now, were strong enough to match what we know putin was capable of. the indication from the white house, and the president statement tonight, is that in his remarks tomorrow, the president will go further. and as he has said throughout, we will judge our next response based on how putin proceeds. in the last 24 hours really of the white house, we have been hearing from white house officials, that yes everything that they are predicting has come true so far. and they are predicting at that moment, an imminent invasion of what we are seeing unfold. hoping that they were wrong, clearly there are not, but there are now prepared to go even further.

worth noting that the g7 that you are talking about, used to be the g8, as we are used to be in it, and during the administration, there were efforts to get russia back into the g8 by that administration. we will keep in touch with you on this. i want to go to ambassador mcfaul, i want to point out for those watching markets, obviously they are tumbling around the world. oil prices, when crude oil we use here in america, that has topped $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014. and our crude, the u.s. crude is on its way up there, $97 a barrel, this is of course important, because the one thing that russia has in the one cudgel that russia has over its european neighbors's oil and gas. >> that's right. sorry, was just reading various different columns from ukrainians. i was not listening to the oil and gas part. but you are right, oil and gas prices are rising, that is going to be good for russia, that's what they said.

and they are not afraid of sanctions. we've had a lot of conversations on sanctions. and i suspect that we will see massive comprehensive sanctions tomorrow morning, once they are all coordinated. between the biden administration and the rest of our allies. but because of the fact that you just mentioned, we are not going to see the effects of sanctions on the russian economy immediately. and i think that will take months or years before it has any impact. but ali, i just want you to know, i travel to ukraine a lot, i know hundreds of ukrainians and i am looking at five messages from different ukrainians right now, fairly senior people that i am not going to have their permission to port on. but i think that it is important to know, i am hearing from people that would be informed, that all airports around kyiv and their communication systems are now being attacked. from him from somebody else that is saying that panic is already here. people are leaving kyiv and other people in different parts of the city, they are hearing explosions. and i want to say that, because

it is hard to know that we are in the very early stages of this military invasion. and i think that we should be careful that we do not proceed suppose that we know what ultimately is happening here. i think we are just in the early stages and i think that there is tragically going to be a lot more to come. >> yeah. we are looking at a large picture of kyiv right now and you can't see any of that. but to the point that you make, there is a way, there is a strategy. the white house has been pretty accurate all along about what the russians were going to do to this point. and they seem to think that the russians have designs on stuff that goes far beyond eastern ukraine. the area that they call disputed. >> that's right. and mr. putin said it tonight. how do you do not suffocation. in his view i want to remind

people that there are no nazis in ukraine running the country. scattered little groups. mr. zelenskyy is not a nazi. by the way, mister zelenskyy was not part of the quote unquote coup d'états from 2014. you want to free and fair election in 2019. anyone almost every single region. so everybody understands, this is not, i hear that it's a divided country, everywhere but a few places out in the west. so remember that before we get to that other part. when he says the not suffocation, and the military is a sure, what i think is going to happen and i think it is already happening, why watching my twitter feed and various platforms i'm on right now, is that the russians are attacking military installations. they have air superiority. so they are going to do that first before anything else happens. but he not suffocation in putin language.

in his lingo. meaning the collapse of the government. and i don't think there's any other way to understand that. how he's gonna do, that i was gonna pull that off, i don't know what his plan is, but that is most certainly the objective that he has stated for this military operation. >> ten minutes to 7 am in kyiv, where we are showing on the left side of the screen now is a highway, a major route, in which people are leaving the city now. you can see that. you can see the lights. you are now seeing a remarkable traffic out of kyiv. ambassador, are you able to shed some light on this did not suffocation stuff and why vladimir putin thinks that would be useful to talk about and who is susceptible to? i remember in 2014, there was also an effort to undermine the opposition to the then-pro-russian government, by saying that they are antisemites and they are nazis. what is the provenance of this

discussion? >> that's when he started using the phrase, the two words as we called back in 2014. and there is, to remember, there is a history of some ukrainians fighting on the nazi side. because they were occupied by the soviet union. let's remember, they consider themselves a colony. a very small group. one should not exaggerate it. pulling on the string, that threat of history, to say that what you had was a neo-nazi usurpation of power. that's what he said in his rambling speech from two days ago, when he went on for an hour to explain and justify. and he is appealing to russians. he's trying to explain this to russians. and you know, we've seen the polling, the majority support him. majority support these independent republics becoming independent countries. there are some a legit reporter

pulling on the. but a couple of things to remember, one, polling in authoritarian countries is hard to do. one incentive, does anybody have to tell you what they really think. even of all of its calls you up on the phone from moscow and says hey, i'm doing polling here, when you think of this operation? everybody needs to be cautious about that and i interact with russians every single day. i don't see any enthusiasm for this war. like why are we attacking them. he tells them that we are from the same nation, but we are attacking these nazis. and the nazi leader, allegedly is this guy zelenskyy, and i want to remind everyone, zelenskyy's first language was russian. we had a long conversation about it when he visited me last august. he was a very popular television personality in russia. okay? and so when he --

it's hard for russians to look at someone's again say that he is a nazi. and i think that is why putin needs this argument. that is who he is appealing to. he needs a justification for this incredibly unjustified war. not for us, but for his own people back home. >> if the goal is to cause people to fear and expansion of germany in the late 30s, the interesting part of this, which i heard you bring up earlier this evening, is that it was september 1st 1939, under the guise of protecting germans in poland, hit learn rated, and that started world war ii. >> it did, and by the way, two weeks later, moscow invaded pull into. so people need to remember that small fact about 1939. that aggression happened on both sides. >> i'm gonna ask you to stop for second. i want to go to kharkiv, matt bradley is here, he's hearing shelling in the background.

>> hey ali, we are hearing from some shelling in the background. we are kind of trying to figure out where it is. i'm not sure if you can hear. >> i can hear, yeah. >> it still sounds pretty distant. but it is ongoing. again though, ali, this city, you just don't get the same impression of my colleague would say. you don't get the same impression that people are fleeing. you are starting to see public transportation working. it's don here, taxes are circulating in the streets. but we are still hearing the distant sound of shelling. this place is a little different, this is eastern ukraine, people here are a little more ready for war. they are expecting this to happen. and they are russian speakers. they may have the belief that vladimir putin's military will not come in here and attack civilians. because they believe, that vladimir putin believes, that this is russia. that this population here will go with moscow. and so a lot of people here, people in kyiv, they didn't believe that the russians have

ever attacked kyiv, a lot of people here have been living with that reality and that expectation for quite a long time. and they have thought that this wasn't going to be targeted at civilians, because putin sees them as russians. >> what is going on in the streets behind you, there is not as much traffic as i might have assumed for this hour of the morning. but what is happening? there is the city waking up and operating as normal? >> the city is waking up. as far as i can tell, the city is waking up and operating as normal. i do not see columns of cars leaving. i do not see traffic. i'm seeing off to my left here, you can see it, just a regular bus, a city bus operating slowly, lumbering along in the morning. i guess bringing commuters to work. things seem to be sort of moving as normal. but, it's hard to know how this is going to happen and we are waiting for more information from the ministry of interior. the ministry of defense, because we were right over the border from belgrade. and this is a place that we have already started to see a

lot of hardware mustering and a lot of troops must during. some of the big items, like sequoia jets, attack helicopters, battle tanks and self propelled howitzers. these things, we are expecting them to come over the border, we did hear one report that we are starting to hear troops coming over the border. mostly we are hearing that in the far south in odessa and marriott poll. but we still need more information and there's a lot of uncertainty. we are just waiting for more information from the government at this point. matt, standby, of course, if you hear anything or see anything, wave your hand and we will put you right back on. i wanna go to keir simmons, who has new reporting in moscow. and vladimir putin's decision to begin this incursion. >> that's right hala, we've just been speaking to a former russian official with very close ties to the kremlin. before i tell you what he told us, i want to set, i think we need to borrow a phrase from previous european wars. the fog of war.

be many elements to this that we will hear in the hours ahead, that will turn out not to be true. it will turn out to be true. that is the nature of the conflict. and this conflict is just getting started. and what i've been told by this former official who is close to the kremlin. is that president putin has made the final decision at 3 am here in moscow. it's coming towards am in the morning, his televised address to happen at 5:45 am. told that prior around this decision being made, that president putin made, a number of phone calls to his security council. and whether that is the case, we have to find out in the hours and days ahead this statement from president putin. that televised address.

it is not clear whether it was live or recorded. very likely it was required of. but that raises the question of course, how bitterly was recorded. prior to broadcast. right here, in moscow, across russia, on state television, in the main television channels, they're replaying that statement from president putin. that chilling statement. a couple of things, i told earlier, from that statement, i think worth marking. sacrum frankly some of the, or just to kind of a televised tirade again, where president putin again talks about nato as you've mentioned. talks about the denazification of ukraine. the claim for justification for this action, that is without merit of course. but in that statement from president putin, there are elements that i think rays are browse and perhaps point to what is ahead. he talks directly to the

ukrainian military and says that i urge you to lay down your arms and go home. all serviceman of the ukrainian army who complied with this requirement will be able to freely leave the combat zone and return to their families. so that suggests, from what president putin has said there, and i take into account that is of course an element of psychological warfare, that the russian military and russia's leader will be trying to terrify the ukrainians. but it does suggest from that statement, that aside from this air campaign if you like, there may be a ground defensive ahead. and in fact, that former russian official, who has close contacts to the presidential administration, i said to him, we are seeing no sign, reporting just a short while ago, seeing no sign of any kind of ground offensive. that he says is coming, it's coming. so take that as you will.

i also asked him, former official, i asked him if president putin is directing this himself. and he said yes, that is how it is going. that is not surprising. we know that president putin makes all of the decisions. in the end, he will have had advice from that small clique around him, that ultimately he is the decision-maker. and another element of his televised address, which to reiterate, if russians will be stunned by. waking up and seeing now, another man from that televised address, which is chilling frankly. is that president putin requires russian's nuclear capability. and clearly, openly threatens western leaders. even after the collapse of the ussr, losing a significant part of the nuclear potential. today, russia is one of the most nuclear powers. and he says,