♪♪ hi, there. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is 9:00 a.m. on the east coast, 4:00 p.m. in kyiv, 5:00 p.m. in moscow. it's thursday, february 24th, a date that will go down in history. as we speak, we are in the opening hours of a massive invasion. overnight, russian troops launched a full-scale attack on ukraine, pushing across the border from multiple directions. we saw pictures of tanks crossing into ukraine from belarus in the north and crimea to the south.

take a look at this map because it shows just some of the locations where explosions have been reported. they are literally across the country. so far airports and military installations seem to be the primary targets. this video shows russian helicopters flying over an airport just outside of kyiv and you can see smoke rising in the distance. the video appears to show a missile hitting another airport roughly 350 miles to the west. as far as the big picture, it is still a little early to know exactly what's going on. russian media says ukraine troops are dropping their weapons and abandoning their posts as those russian forces move this. the ukrainian military says exactly the opposite. it's reporting heavy battles under way with, according to ukraine, multiple russian planes, tanks, and helicopters destroyed in the process. an adviser to the ukraine president says more than 40 ukrainian soldiers have been killed so far and that there are

civilian casualties. we're also getting video from all over ukraine of people fleeing cities, flooding train stations, jamming roads out of town, just massive miles-long traffic jams. overnight, ukrainian president zelenskyy urged his fellow ukrainians to stand and fight, telling them anyone who wants weapons e will get them. the impact on this country still coming into focus this morning, but the initial reaction from wall street has not been good. dow futures down more than 800 points with the opening bell half an hour away. president biden now a war-time president just a year in office, and set to speak to the american people in a few hours. i want to bring in matt bradley in kyiv, keir simmons in moscow, melinda herring, from the eurasian center, james stavridis, former commander of nato and alexander vinman, former director of european affairs for the national

security council. i appreciate you all being there. matt, you're on the ground. what are you seeing and hearing? >> we're not really seeing much. we have been hearing quite a bit as this low rumble of explosions from pretty far away. but the city streets here are empty. my colleague, erin mclaughlin, in kyiv was reporting that there's been this exodus of people leaving the city here. it's not really the case. everybody seems to be hunkered down. most of the stores appear to be closed. we're hearing that the military, the russian military, is mustering just outside of the city, in fact, that they're engaging with the ukrainian military. we've heard from the ukrainians that they've managed to destroy about four armored vehicles just outside the kharkiv city limits. so there has been some fighting, and the russians are closing in on this russian-speaking majority city. now, why aren't people here fleeing? i can't explain the difference

between here and kyiv, but i imagine here a lot of these people believe that they are with putin or that putin believes that they're with him. that's because this is a russian-speaking city, the second largest city in ukraine. and when vladimir putin and his successive speeches has talk ted about the russian identity of ukraine, he's talking about cities like this one. these are places he believes in his warped ideology are going to be sympathetic towards him. but the people i talk to here, they're willing and ready to fight once the russian regulars actually move into the city center. when they do, that could be really, really dangerous. we've started to see people are lining up and banks, trying to get money out. they're lining up at grocery stores trying to get food. we've seen cars extended down the street waiting to fill up on gas. people are preparing for the worst. it hasn't hit yet, but it could in the coming hours or days. >> admiral, we are seeing bombs and missile strikes, tanks and

trucks rolling in. explain the military activity we're seeing how and what you think is next. >> well, unfortunately, this is right out of war college, invade a country 101. you start with a massive campaign of air strikes and knock down the air defense system so you control the air completely. you couple that with degradation of the command and control, the ability to direct those ukrainian forces in the field from their headquarters, their version of the pentagon, for example. you couple that with cyberattacks against military command and control but also -- and chris, this is quite critical -- you use cyber to degrade every aspect of day to day. so you want to go and withdraw money from the bank, you can't because you're under cyberattack. you want to go through the checkout line in the grocery store, you can't because the internet isn't working, et cetera, et cetera. you create waves of refugees

that are going to be the responsibility of the zelenskyy government. all of that creates the very open ground for shock troops. you have elite russian units that are going to cross into ukraine soon. i think this is going to go on for a while. our job on the nato side is to reinforce our nato borders, reensure our nato allies, do all we can to help the zelenskyy government, which may end up being a government in exile. so, many challenges ahead here. militarily, this is exactly what i would expect as step one of what's going to be i think a significant invasion. >> melinda, do you have any sense of the kind of fight ukrainian forces are putting up or at least what they're capable of? they claim to have shot down at least four russian helicopters. >> that's right. they've shot down helicopters and airplanes. we're still waiting for a greater update.

we know the ukrainian troops are highly motivated, so the other military experts on this panel will tell you that the russians have far more troops, far more airpower, and far more ships. you have to bear in mind that the ukrainians have been fighting for eight years. they know their territory. they're highly motivated. they might not have as strong a gear, but it won't be a cakewalk for vladimir putin. we know that for sure. >> keir, the first exploengss were heard as vladimir putin was addressing the country. what is the russian government telling its people about this invasion, and what kind of reaction are you hearing? >> reporter: chris, president putin made his televised address before 6:00 a.m. in moscow. people woke up to it being replayed again and again on russian television across the television channels. it was rambling. it was unscripted. it went from issue to issue to issue, nato, kosovo, iran, libya, syria. he even touched on political divisions in the u.s. and called

the u.s. an empire of lies. he said this is not an occupation but, you know, chris, at times he sounded delusional and chilling. one particular moment in the speech, he says russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states, in this context, there should be no doubt for anyone that any potential aggressor, appearing to address western leaders, will face defeat and ominous consequences if it attacks countries. he appeared to address the west and saying don't intervene. but, you know, chris, we've been on the streets talking to the russian people, people who have seen their currency collapse. we've seen banks, people trying to take out dollars and finding there are no dollars left. person after person coming over the us telling us they want to talk to us, many of them, not all, but many of them telling us they are to posed to this conflict. take a listen. >> it's a disaster.

i don't like it and i don't want it to be like that at all. >> i'm scared. i'm scared of this because i'm afraid that something will happen here, and i'm afraid of people who live in ukraine. >> reporter: you're afraid for them. >> yes. i have some relatives there, and i'm afraid of them. >> horrible. it's horrible. it should be done the diplomatic way. >> reporter: of course, chris, it is crucial for president putin to take his country with him. i think today it is not clear that he will be able to do that, although he does, of course, have a lot of support. the televised appearances, the press conferences that were planned for today, that were scheduled not in relation to the launch of this conflict, those so far have been canceled. my understanding is that president putin has been meeting with oligarchs and with that small group around him who advise him, although ultimately, once again, it is president putin making decisions here.

>> colonel, among the other things that president putin had to say when he gave that address, one you heard keir say was both delusional and chilling, he said his goal is, quote, demim triization of ukraine. i'd like, colonel, to get your reaction to that and anything else that stood out to you from putin today. >> these objectives were clear to me months ago. that's why i was so adamant about taking the appropriate actions to avoid this catastrophic situation. the admiral laid out textbook scenario of how things are going to unfold. i would say they're not going to plan. i'm shocked actually by how limited the strikes have been and how little effect they're having on ukrainian ability to resist and to affect the ukrainian morale. if the u.s. were conducting these operations, we would eliminate all of the strategic nodes, we would degrade the

ground forces before going in. the russians clearly don't have that capability, and now they're suffering losses. they're prepared to take losses. they've lost aircraft. they've lost armored personnel carriers. now they're moving into cities and will sustain even heavier casualties. but the geopolitical ramifications of this are the ones most interesting and the ones that will haunt vladimir putin to the end of his life. sweden and finland will join the nato -- the nato council and they'll participate in that discussion and potentially start to seriously consider participation in nato. germany has provided early signal ls of the fact that it's going to wake up from its deep slumber and start to rearm. it has a massive economic potential that will change the european security landscape. these are the things that are going to haunt vladimir putin in addition to significant russian casualties in addition to the

visuals of him attacking ukraine. and right now this administration is seriously considering highly punitive actions, sanctions, but we need to go beyond maximalist 100% blocking sanctions. we need to support ukraine through logistics and provision of weapons that look like they'll be effective at punishing russian's aggression. we need to think about economic support, long-term economic support. this is turning out, frankly, a little better than i thought it was going to. some early signs that this is a huge blunder for vladimir putin. >> so, admiral, you and i have talked over the last several days about how the unintended consequence for vladimir putin has been the strengthening of nato. we've seen nato already beefing up air, land, sea resources. what does it look like right now? >> you will see today the north atlantic council activate the

nato response force, which is tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen, tanks, kroops, warships. they're going to flood the zone along the borders of russia really for three reasons, chris. one is to send that symbol, that signal to vladimir putin. two is to reassure those allies who are along that border that nato stands with them. and thirdly, very practically, to deal with the consequences if there is a massive refugee flow out of ukraine, for example. so the alliance will be very active, doing all the things that vladimir putin doesn't want to see. and by the way, if i woke up this morning in stockholm, sweden, or helsinki, finland, i would want to be inside the nato alliance, not outside of it. watch for that move. >> so, melinda, talk to me about the impact of this war on the countries right around russia, for example, lithuania declaring

a state of emergency. what is the biggest risk to those countries? is it economic, military, from refugees? take us through it. >> sure, chris. so, experts say that they expect 2 million to 3 million refugees if this crisis really continues as is. the united states was using a figure of 5 million at the u.n., and that sounds a little high. i've heard 2 million to 3 million was the figure i was given in kyiv. another issue, though, if we get ukraine wrong, if vladimir putin wins in ukraine, this could easily turn into a world war. that's another fear. and i think the other big fear is that if putin is not put in his place, that china will begin its bad behavior in the south china sea. i think its immediate neighbors are very nervous. i'm in poland now, and they're gearing up for refugees to come in. you've seen many, many fooages of clogged streets in kyiv. they're going to lyviv, probably

one of the safer places. people will also begin crossing into poland. the baltic states are worried, but president biden has been real real good on our article 5 guarantees. that says that if a nato country is under attack, that nato will come to its rescue. so i think those guarantees are ironclad. i'm not worried about the baltimorics, frankly. i'm worried about getting putin to stand down. i don't think another package of economic sanctions is going to convince him. it will take a lot more than that. >> admiral, you know nato inside and out. you know how outgunned, outmanned putin would be to go up against nato. but given his psychology, given his history, do you rule out he would try to pick a military fight with nato with an invasion beyond ukraine? >> i think it's highly unlikely

he would try to cross a nato border in anger because we outspend him, we outtrain him, we can outfight him once we get our collective will together and get our troops positioned. those are things that need to be done, you know, paragraph one about why are we moving troops to our bodders right now. i think what is concerning is vladimir putin deciding i'll roll into poland, i think what is more concerning is a miscalculation on the ground. in other words, an incident of some kind where a russian plane is overflying a u.s. destroyer in the black sea and the destroyer shoots it down or a russian missile takes a turn and lands in poland but kills a bunch of american servicemen on the ground. those kind of miscalculations happen in war, and that could ramp things up quite significantly, so that's another

danger we have to be cognizant of here. >> admiral james stavridis, alexander, melinda, keir simmons, matt bradley, thank you. coming up, when we hear from president biden later today on the situation in ukraine, what does he need to say? how does he make the case to the american people? that's next. e to the american people? american people? that's next.etting passengers wrap their arms around us, could we put little handles on our jackets? -denied. -can you imagine? i want a new nickname. can you guys start calling me snake? no, bryan. -denied. -how about we all get quotes to see if we can save with america's number one motorcycle insurer? approved. cool! hey, if bryan's not gonna be snake, can i be snake? -all: no. it's still the eat fresh refresh™ so subway's upping their avocado game. we're talking just two great ingredients. perfectly ripe, hand-scooped hass avocados and a touch of sea salt.

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welcome back to our breaking news coverage. right now we're waiting for president biden to address the american people directly after he convened that meeting of the national security council this morning in the situation room to discuss these latest developments in ukraine. overnight, the president issuing a statement condemning the russian attack as unprovoked and unjustified and vowing to impose severe new sanctions on moscow. president biden also spoke with the ukrainian president, breeching him on the steps the administration is taking to, quote, rally international condemnation against russia. that includes meeting with g-7 leaders this meeting to assess the situation, discussing a new round of sanctions on russia. a white house official describes those sanctions as significant. joining us now, kelly o'donnell at the white house, courtney kube at the pentagon, and a nurlds from-in the biden administration and david rhodes, executive editor.

kelly, take us inside the white house. what are president biden's next steps? >> reporter: officials have told us that the president has been receiving updates in the late-night hours and this morning. he did convene that national security council meeting, so that meant the top people in his government have arrived at the white house for those in-person briefings, so you have the secretary of defense, the cia director and so on coming here to give the president the latest on the intelligence that the u.s. has about what is actually happening now as this is now in an active military operation, war is actually happening, going from predictions to realities. we also are told to expect that the president will be having additional phone calls today. they have not laid out which leaders he'll be referring to, but you could guess that it could be some of those countries in the eastern flank, for example. the president also has on his schedule right now convening a virtual call with the g-7

leaders, and that is critical because the european partners and the top economic leaders are going to be key for having international support for ukraine and setting sanctions in motion and ratchetting up the pressure on vladimir putin. there was a time, chris, you and i remember, when it was the g-8 and russia was part of it and they were expelled after it annexed unlawfully crimea in 2014. so those who remain in the group of seven are meeting with the president right now virtually and talking about next steps. then we expect sometime early this afternoon the president will address the american public, talk about where things stand. again, shifting from the predictions to where things stand now and what the public should expect in the next days when you now have the potential for refugees, you now have casualties on the ground, and the potential for additional steps from the united states not only sanctions but other ways the u.s. can support through military reinforcements and

humanitarian aid. >> let me ask you about the president talking to the american people. he already braced the country for higher gas and energy prices. of course they're already hurting from other sources of inflation. i think it's one thing to explain what's going on and to explain why the american people should feel that they're engaged in it, why they should essentially pay for it. your job, at least part of it with president obama, was strategic communication. how does president biden address this today? >> well, i think he has to lay out the gravity of the really seismic events that we witnessed take place over the course of the last 24 hours. this is a major war in europe the likes of which we have not seen since world war ii. and the reality is nobody wanted this to happen. obviously, nobody in the united states wants to deal with the economic fallout from the types of very significant sanctions that are being considered, potentially to include the

russian financial sector and the russian energy sector. but the reality is i think what he can lay out is those costs are coming anyway because of what vladimir putin's done. he is the one who has destabilized the geopolitical situation. he is the one who has created this crisis. the costs are coming one way or another. and this is a moment when the united states has to stand behind the principle that ukraine should not be under this assault. and i think he has to elevate this to the kind of core issues of what do we stand for as americans, the capacity of countries like ukraine to make their own decisions, the capacity of countries not living in further fear of russian invasion. the reality is when you're president, you don't get to necessarily obviously select what crises you have to deal with. this is going to be clearly the defining crisis of the biden presidency for the foreseeable future. the united states is implicated because of our interests, because of our allies, our

values, and there will be costs here, but the costs ultimately rest with the decision that vladimir putin has made and if we don't take a strong stand together with the rest of the world, the rest of our allies, those costs will continue to grow anyway. it's more imperative we take this stand right now. >> david, speaking of our allies because obviously it's not just joe biden who has to do this balancing of what to do against vladimir putin but at home. the e.u. has their own critical balancing act over energy, but places like austria and germany are concerned about sanctions on cross border banking. italy doesn't want to hurt its luxury goods market, which thrives in russia. what will you be looking for from the eu? >> i think that there's a separate crisis here. i agree with ben. the refugee flows we're talking about are enormous. it's important for people to realize the scope of the size of

ukraine. i covered the war in bosnia, a small country compared to ukraine. ukraine has 40 million people. that's twice the population of syria. and when the crisis in syria happened, anywhere between half a million and a million refugees fled into europe. earlier, you remember talking about 2 million to 3 million people fleeing ukraine. these ukrainians enjoyed their democracy. it wasn't perfect. there was corruption and economic problems in ukraine, but many ukrainians are not going to want to live under vladimir putin's iron fist, to be blunt. so, i do -- i home we see very severe sanctions from the europeans because they're going to face economic challenges either way. this has all been the cause of vladimir putin. i think he personally should be sanctioned, but you'll have a massive outflow of millions of refugees bigger than the one from syria into these european countries. and they need to push back aggressively right now against vladimir putin.

>> the scope of the potential humanitarian crisis boggles the mind. courtney, i want to talk about president biden making it clear the u.s. is not participating in military action in ukraine, but we also know thousands of u.s. troops were sent to eastern europe in recent weeks anticipating this attack. what are you hearing from the pentagon about next steps? >> reporter: that's right. thousands have been sent in. that's more of the unilateral mission of the military, making an agreement with host countries to send things forward like paratroopers. now we have some advanced aircraft, f-35s. there's attack helicopters, 32 apaches. they've moved into the baltic region. that is significant. what we can expect in the coming hours most likely is some sort of acknowledgment, the north atlantic council met this morning. we've heard from the nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg about that. there's a lot of discussion about whether they will activate

the nato response force, tens of thousands of nato ally troops that could be moved forward to the baltic region to support those areas, more of the bolstering of the defense of ukraine's neighbors, particularly those that are members of the nato alliance. the united states component would be 8,500 troops brought forward from the united states to shore up the defenses of those nato allies. but, you know, i have to point out, a lot of this has unfolded over the last 12 hours or so in a way that the u.s. intelligence expected, but there are some things that have not unfolded that way. the things we were expecting include the russian military attacking airfields, air assets of the ukrainian military, trying to stop the air force from responding, striking their air defenses, ammunition depots, lines of communication. the things that they didn't do or they did that were surprising to me, again, in these early hours, they didn't conduct a wild spread electronic warfare

campaign. that's jamming. so they didn't stop ukrainian military and the civilian population from being able to communicate with one another. and we're seeing some of that play out in how the ukrainian military has been able to respond here. there was a belief that the russian military would completely cripple their ability, to communicate with one another. the fact that they didn't do that is one of the reasons we're seeing the russian military already take casualties, some of the pictures that we're seeing of the russian military, the ukrainian military being able to respond. i think that's a direct correlation to the fact they didn't take those measures. and you could make the argument that the reason vladimir putin decided not to do that is because he lacked the element of surprise throughout this entire last several weeks. he didn't lay out, didn't provide this element of expectation with large-scale cyberattacks and jamming. he just started with the air strikes. but we're seeing the ramifications of that in that the russian military is facing

even more of a resistance than we even expected to see. >> courtney cube, kelly o'donnell, ben rhodes, david, thank you all very much. up next, members of the senate set to be briefed on russia's invasion of ukraine today. and after failing to agree to sanctions of their own, how unified are members of congress in support of administration actions? senator chris van hollen joins me next. me next. ♪a pair of jeans that fit just right♪ ♪and the radio up well i've seen the sunrise...♪ get 5 boneless wings for $1 with any handcrafted burger. only at applebee's ever wonder what everyone's doing on their phones? get they're banking, for $1 witwith bank of america.ger. the groom's parents? they just found out they can redeem rewards for a second honeymoon. romance is in the air. like these two. he's realizing he's in love. and that his dating app just went up. must be fate.

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it's given me my health back. there's an amazing life out there if you do something for your health now. back to our top story, and we have late updates from ukraine after russia launched that attack overnight. dozens of military and civilian casualties are being reported by the ukrainian military with the mayor of kyiv telling residents train stations should be used as bomb shelters. this is video from maripul. ukraine is also saying the russian military got help from belarus, where russian troops have been deployed for months. this is video that was posted online by the ukrainian government showing what it says

are tanks and armored vehicles entering ukraine from belarus earlier today. we're also getting new video of the aftermath in kharkiv. a local resident says his apartment was hit by an explosion early this morning, breaking windows and shooting debris everywhere. let me bring in democratic senator chris van hollen of maryland. thanks for being with us at this serious time. a lot of people waking up to this news. what's your reaction and how bad could this get? >> well, chris, it's good to be with you. and putin has blood on his hands now. this is an unprovoked cold-blooded attack, and it's essential now that the united states together with our allies impose the most punishing economic sanctions that we have, to make clear to putin and others who are watching that you cannot invade a democracy, another country, violate its sovereignty without pain v paying any price.

we also need to be providing weapons to the ukrainian resistance. the key, of course, is to do this in unison with our allies, and i want to commend the president for having worked for weeks to prepare for this moment. >> well, you did issue a statement saying that putin must be made to rue the day he unleashed this unprovoked violence in the heart of europe. seen similar comments from some of your colleagues, mark warner warning putin he'll pay a steep price for reckless ambition. we've talked about it that no bipartisan agreement was able to be reached after weeks of work you all did on sanctions. so what needs to happen now? and has the calculus changed given what's happened in the last 12 hours? >> well, chris, i do think you're going to see strong bipartisan support for the president's actions. i travelled to the munich

conference over the weekend with a bipartisan, bicameral delegation, the senate delegation who released a joint statement after that in unity, both with the, you know, president's actions and the need to respond with everything we have when it comes to economic sanctions against putin. i should stress the fact that president biden has at his disposal all the sanctions authority he needs, both what we call primary sanctions, so sanctioning russian entities, as well as secondary sanctions, sanctioning those countries or other people or organizations around the world who are helping and aiding and abetting putin. so the president does have those authorities. i do think the congress on a bipartisan basis will support the president deploying all those economic sanctions. >> our correspondent in moscow said that as he watched putin's speech overnight he seemed

delusional. look, you've condemned, world leaders have condemned this attack in the strongest possible terms. but given the kind of actions that we've seen, will anything do you think at this point get putin's attention? does he have a pressure point? >> well, chris, it's clear that economic sanctions by themselves are probably not enough to deter putin's actions. you know, the u.s. military, the president have been telegraphing for weeks that putin, you know, planned this invasion. we need now to raise the price, the cost to him, his cronies, and to russia of the invasion. and that's important both to respond to putin but also others around the world including other authoritarian leaders who are watching closely. now, what the response by the united states is, what the response of our allies will be, at the end of the day, it's

going to be very difficult for putin to occupy a country of 40 million people who don't want him there. and that's why continuing to support the resistance here to provide weapons to the resistance will be important, because as you indicated, the final test will be at the end of the day, whenever that may be, this needs to be seen as an epic miscalculation by vladimir putin. >> senator chris van hollen, we appreciate your time on this day in particular. thank you. >> thank you. still ahead, the dow just opened and it is weighed down 760 points right now. the price of oil is up big time, over $100 a barrel after russia launched that military action. stephanie ruhle will break it all down next. stephanie ruhle will break it stephanie ruhle will break it all down next.

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let's focus our attention on wall street because moments ago the markets opened and they are reacting badly to the news overnight that russia launched an attack on ukraine. look at the dow, down 800 points. and the price of oil, a key russian export, of course, jumping above $105 a barrel for the first time since 2014. it's a kind of economic piling on coming as the global economy faces sustained pressure from supply chain issues, u.s. consumers facing some of the highest inflation we've seen in years. stephanie ruhle, nbc senior business analyst, and the host of the 11th hour. >> i'm familiar with this hour. >> you've been here before. >> my alarm clock still works. >> it never goes off because you never go to sleep. a lot of people are looking at their 401(k)s and they're sick to their stomach. >> does that mean it will be terrible in the long run? not necessarily. people should remember when we

have had world events, in the short term very bad for markets but over the long term things play out. what are they doing now? they're down in a big way. they were down in asharks europe, and now here in the u.s. it's not a surprise. it's also worrisome at the gas pump. jen psaki last night said this administration is sensitive to what we're paying at the punch, but it's going to get worse. we know that crude oil is up around $100 a barrel. we have not seen that since 2014. the average price of gasper gallon is $3.50 in this country. it could go to four bucks. you have that. these supply chain issues are a real problem. it's not like russia is a huge importer but wheat and corn, we get an awful lot from russia and ukraine. that means things will cost more at the grocery store. when you have any sort of disruption, and this is a disruption, it hurts the global supply chain, which has been a driver of inflation, worsening the situation we're already in.

>> you have contacts with the big players on wall street. what will they be watching for in the coming days that will influence this? >> remember, what do the markets like? they like predictability. good news or bad news, they just want to know what the weather will be. take a look at vladimir putin. do you have any idea what he'll do? the answer is no. he's not acting rationally and investors don't like that. >> he may not even know. >> it's fun to be back. >> next wednesday you can catch stephanie as the new host of "the 11th hour" on miss incomes. you do not want to miss it. coming up, russia's invasion causing panic in ukraine. look at these long lines of cars, people taking shelter after multiple explosionings overnight. we've got the latest on the ground, so don't go anywhere. ge subway's refreshing with better ingredients, better footlongs, and better spokespeople. because you gotta

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therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. we are back with some breaking news and we get it from richard engel, who is on the ground in ukraine. he ukraine. he writes, an adviser to ukrainian interior ministry says russians entered chernobyl and fighting there destroyed a nuclear waste storage facility. there you see that tweet from richard engel. this is the breaking news. we have many other new things to tell you about in this breaking story. there are brand new pictures we want to show you here. take a look, images from the western border between ukraine and poland. these are cars lined up with people trying to escape there. we also have scenes out of la vooef. that's a line for atms. they're backing into cars to get out with whatever money they could take with them. that's where we find nbc's cal

perry, also retired army four star general barry mccaffrey, msnbc military analyst and ivana straddler. let me start with you general. the adviser to the ukrainian interior ministry says russian forces entered chernobyl and destroyed a nuclear waste storage facility. >> hard what to make of it. chernobyl, of course, one of the great nuclear disasters. it will be on going for another hundred years. to back off on the larger picture, chris, what we're now seeing is a surprisingly slow motion, not chicago and awe, deliberate, precision targeted attack throughout ukraine. it appears as if, to some extent, russian forces are crossing nearly unopposed out of

belarus, headed south, presumably to encircle kyiv. but the big battle will take place in the east. that's where 50% of ukrainian armed forces are currently dug in in world war i trenches, facing the two separatist regimes. what will happen as thousands of russian armored elements enter the country, they'll try to encircle those forces and get them to vendor. it doesn't appear that russians are intent on an immediate takedown of the urban areas. we're hearing no reaction whatsoever, no reports of actual russian marines landing in odessa or mariupol. this may slowly play out over the coming days. the key thing to watch is what will nato do. it is not clear to me we'll see muscular reaction from nato

forces flooding the zone and putting a lot more forces up in the eastern nato countries. the u.s. has put significant forces on the ground as a political trip wire. so final question, will the ukrainians fight or not? to some extent they already are. the jury is out on whether this will be a serious resistance, yes or no. >> some embassies have been moved from kyiv to where you are. what are you seeing on the ground. talk about the safety of where you are right now? >> lviv was always the backup plan. it's unfortunately the backup plan for civilians who will be on the move in great numbers. it's hard to convey the emotion happening on the ground. we take a step back and you see ukrainians standing in these

lines at atm machines trying to make the impossible decision, do i leave? how do i get my kids out? should i stay and fight? tens of millions of people are going to be on the move. there will be a refugee crisis happening on the border with poland. the u.s. doubled its force protection in poland, working to prepare for these refugees. they're dropping some of the requirements for americans to cross. we've heard along the borders, dropping requirements for ukrainians to cross. for example, if ukrainians don't have a covid test, they will still be allowed to enter but have to quarantine. all of this is completely overwhelming in european cities. where i am in lviv, in 2012 they hosted the uefa championships. we heard air raid sirens this morning, the first time one had blared here since world war ii. the losers of this will be civilians, the people trying to flee for their lives, and

weren't they're able to get into countries is still a question. ngos are stepping up their efforts. the politics are not easy. a refugee crisis in 2015 changed the face of governments across the continent. it is as serious as it gets here and we still don't -- we know there's fighting 16 miles from kyiv at an airfield where russian pair troopers have landed on the ground. that's terrifying for the population that lives in the capital city. >> understandably so. we talked about the military aspect. ivana, talk to me about the cyber warfare aspect of this and what you're watching for. >> yes, absolutely. what we're seeing is really nothing new for russia. russia has been using a symmetric way of challenging ukraine since 2014. this is absolutely part of putin's playbook.

we've already seen over the past two weeks that russia attacked -- launched several cyberattacks again the ukrainian government and will continue to do so for two particular reasons. one is definitely to stop all those governments to perform their duties, but also to scare people and to show that ukraine is not able to defend its own people. right now i have to admit that cyber is really a secondary thing for ukrainian government given you know already critical infrastructure have been struggling with a kinetic use of force. i expect for the russian cyberattacks for particular -- for those two reasons that i mentioned before. and actually, the united kingdom emphasized the fact that they might help ukraine. the european union has to be on board. that is going to be the most

difficult part of the ukrainian struggle because it can really lead to a direct conflict with russia. so we need to be very careful. >> thanks so much to all of you. that's going to wrap up this hour. i'm chris jansing. jose diaz-balart picks up breaking news coverage right after this break. after this break

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good morning. 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific, 5:00 p.m. in kyiv. 12 hours since russia launched its invasion in ukraine. just before dawn local time russian president vladimir putin announced what he called a special military operation. he said the goal is to demilitarize ukraine and warped other nations they could face great consequences if they interfered with the operation. within minutes, explosives were heard in cities across ukraine

as russian forces