good to be with you. i am katy tur. we are following two big stories today. in just a few minutes the president will formerly announce his pick for the supreme court. he will introduce ketanji brown jackson at the white house. we will go there once he begins. first, ukraine, here's what we know right now. it's 9:00 p.m. in kyiv where the capital city is bracing for battle as russian forces advance. gunfire and rockets and air-raid sirens can be heard across the city, and residents are being asked to stay home and prepare

molotov cocktails. ukrainian president, volodymyr zelenskyy, is still in kyiv and posted this video hours ago from the streets of his capital. he says he will not leave, even though he also says he's target number one on the russian kill list. his family, his wife and children, number two on that list. on a video call with eu leaders, zelenskyy warned it might be the last time they see him alive. meanwhile in moscow, vladimir putin appeared on state tv and commanded russian forces to overthrow the ukrainian government and battle what he called the gang of drug attics and neo-nazis who settled in kyiv and took all the ukrainian people hostage. and the vladimir putin raining

down terror in the form of missiles and rockets, the very vladimir putin that claimed he would not invade ukraine and is ordering his troops to overtake that country. the people of ukraine are either fleeing for their safety or preparing to fight. under martial law, all men under the ages of 18 and 60 have been directed to stay and fight. we're going to come back to this in just a moment. we're going to go back to ukraine. let us go to the white house right now where president biden will be announcing his pick for the supreme court. as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, i am here to fulfill my responsibilities under the constitution to preserve freedom and liberty of the united states of america. a daughter of former school

teachers, and a proven consensus builder, a distinguished jurist on one of the nation's most prestigious court. my nomination for the supreme court is ketanji brown jackson. a couple weeks ago, a friend of the court, a friend of mine, we used to work together in the senate, justice breyer announced his retirement. i promise the process to be vigorous, but i would select a nominee worthy of his legacy and decency, and the utmost character and integrity, which is equally important. i would bring to this decision my perspective as a lawyer, a

former constitutional law professor, and almost reluctant to say, somebody who has presided over more supreme court nominations than almost anybody living today, which makes me 28 years old. i started doing it when i was 32. who has devoted much of my career thinking about the kaoupbs tuition and the role of the supreme court. with that perspective, i carefully studied the candidates and invited senators of both political parties to offer their points of view, and i met with some of them, and i not only give consent but advice and consent, and i sought the advice of democrats and republicans, and i consulted with leading legal scholars and lawyers, and i have been fortunate to have the advice of vice president harris, and i mean that

sincerely, an exceptional lawyer, former attorney general of california and a former member of the senate judiciary committee. and looking at somebody like justice breyer knowing that the law must work for the american people, and understanding the constitution is a resilient charter of liberty, somebody with the wisdom to appreciate the constitution protects certain inaleable rights, and rights that fall within the most fundamental personal freedoms that our society recognizes, and somebody with extraordinary character will bring to the supreme court an independent mind, uncompromising integrity and with a strong moral compass and the courage to stand up to what she thinks is right. for too long, our government and our courts haven't looked like america. i believe it's time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our

nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications. that would inspire all young people to believe one day they can serve their country at the highest level. i have admired these traits, wisdom, character in the nominations, and today i am pleased to introduce to the american people a candidate that continues in this great tradition. judge jackson grew up in miami, florida. by the way, the mayor of miami, a republican, endorsed you. i thought that was interesting. her parents grew up in segregation but never gave up hope that their children would enjoy the true promise of america. her parents graduated from historic black colleges and became public school teachers. her mom, a principal. her dad a teacher that later went back to school and became a lawyer to represent that very

school district, that school board. judge jackson describes finding her love from the law from an apartment complex at the university of miami where her dad was attending law school. she would draw in her coloring book next to her dad's law books. she grew up to be a star student. elected mayor of her junior high school, and president of her high school class where he was a standout on the speech and debate team. it was after a debate tournament that took place at harvard when he was in high school that she believes she could one day be a student there. there are those that told her she should not set her sights too high but she refused to accept limits other set to her. she did go on to harvard undergrad school. she went on to attend harvard law school where she was a top student and editor of the prestigious law review, and then she alied for a highly

competitive clerkship on the united states supreme court and she was selected. the justice who thought she was worthy of this high honor was a young lawyer, was none other than justice steven breyer, whose seat i am nominating her to fill. not only did she learn from justice breyer himself, she saw the great rigor with which justice breyer approached his work, and she learned from his willingness to work with colleagues with different viewpoints. now, years later, she steps up to fill justice breyer's place in the court with a uniquely accomplished and wide-ranging background. she served both in public service as a federal public defender, a federal public defender and a private law practice with a prestigious law firm. if confirmed she will join

justice sotomayor has the only other member in the supreme court that has experience as a trial judge, and once again, she became the only member of the court that previously served as a member of the united states senate seat commission. she brings additional perspective to the court as well. she comes from a family of law enforcement with her brother and uncles having served as police officers. that's one reason i expect by the fraternal order of police said today, and i quote, there's little doubt she has the temperament and legal experience and family background, and they went on to say, she will treat issues related to law enforcement fairly and justly. incredibly, judge jackson has already been confirmed by the

united states senate three times. first, to serve on a u.s. senate seat commission. the bipartisan commission i helped design to reduce the unwarranted disparities in sentencing and promote transparency and fairness in the criminal justice system. on the commission, judge jackson was known for working with democrats and republicans and found common ground on issues, and secondly, she was confirmed by the senate on the federal district court to administer justice in presiding over trials. third, she was confirmed with bipartisan senate votes to serve on the u.s. court of appeals for the district of columbia, and considered the second most powerful court behind the supreme court itself, and the court she once argued cases before as a distinguished advocate. when judge jackson was nominated to the circuit court, one of the distinguished retired members,

judge griffith, a george bush appointee to the court said he backed her enthusiastically, hailing her exemplary legal career in public and private practice. he went on to say her careful approach as a trial court judge. judge jackson's service for the d.c. court of appeals is another suburb qualification for service on the supreme court. three of the supreme court justices served on the d.c. circuits. she's tethered to precedent and respect how the law impacts everyday people. it doesn't mean she puts her thumb on the scale of justice one way or the other, but understands the broader impact

of her decisions, whether it's addressing the rights of workers in government service, but she cares about making sure the democracy works for the american people, and she listens and looks people in the eye and she strives to ensure that everybody understands why she made a decision, what the law is and what it means to them. she strives to be fair, to get it right, to do justice. that's something all of us should remember. it's something that i have thought about throughout this process. as a matter of fact, i thought about it working over here with her. one floor below, we have several displays celebrating black history month. one of them includes a judicial oath of office taken and signed by justice marshall himself, an oath that will be once again administered to a distinguished

american will help break the next chapter in the journey of america. her husband, patrick, he's a surgeon, a doctor. patrick, stand up and let them see who you are. there you go. they met when they were undergrad students at harvard and he's a distinguished cancer surgeon in georgetown. and like so many other women in the country, judge jackson is a working mom. she had her oldest child when she was in private practice, and she had her second child, leyla when she was serving on the sentencing commission. stand up, leyla. i asked her if she would like to be president, and she said, i don't know about that. anyway, leyla you are welcome to be here. thank you so much. and welcome your sister, who is up in school in rhode island now. i have children and grandchildren. let me tell you, judge, you are always a mom.

that's not going to change no matter what you are doing. whether you are on the supreme court or not. i always had a deep respect for the supreme court and it's an equal part of the government, and so today i am pleased to nominate judge jackson who will bring her extraordinary qualifications deep intellect, and she deserves to be confirmed as the next justice of the supreme court. i met with ranking members the senate judiciary committee committee, and i hope they will move promptly and i know they will move fairly. judge jackson, congratulations. the podium is yours. let me pull this out for you. there you go.

see, presidents can't do much. >> thank you. >> thank you thank you very much, mr. president. i am truly humbled by the extraordinary honor of this nomination, and i am especially grateful for the care that you have taken in discharging your constitutional duty in service of our democracy with all that is going on in the world today. i also offer my sincere thanks to you as well, madam vice president, for your invaluable role in this nomination process. i must begin these very brief remarks by thanking god for delivering me to this point in my professional journey.

my life has been blessed beyond measure, and i do know that one can only come this far by faith. among my many blessings, and indeed the very first, is the fact that i was born in this great country. the united states of america is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known. i was also blessed from my early days to have had a supportive and loving family. my mother and father who have been married for 54 years are at their home in florida right now and i know that they could not be more proud. it was my father who started me on this path when i was a child, as the president mentioned. my father made the fateful decision to transition from his

job as a high school history teacher and go to law school. some of my earliest memories are of him sitting at the kitchen table reading his law books. i watched him study, and he became my first professional role model. my mother, who was also a public high school teacher provided invaluable support in those early days, working full time to enable my father's career transition while also guiding and inspiring 4-year-old me. my only sibling, my brother, kataj, came along a half of decade later and i am so proud all that he has accomplished. after graduating from howard university, he became a police officer and detective on some of the toughest streets in the inner city of baltimore. after that he enlisted in the army, serving two tours of duty in the middle east. i believe that he was following

the example set by my uncles who are in law enforcement. you may have read i have one uncle that got caught up in the drug trade and received a life sentence. that is true. but law enforcement also runs in my family. in addition to my brother, i had two uncles that served decades as police officers, and one of whom became the police chief in my hometown of miami, florida. i am standing here today by the grace of god as testament to the love and support that i have received from my family. i have also been blessed with many dear friends, colleagues, mentors, law clerks. i could not possibly name all of the people to whom i owe great thanks. but i must mention specifically the three brilliant brilliant j.

court of appeals judge bruce selia in rhode island, and last but certainly not least, associate justice steven breyer of the supreme court of the united states. justice breyer in particular, not only gave me the greatest job that any young lawyer could hope to have but he also exemplified every day in every way that a supreme court justice can perform at the highest level of skill and integrity while also being guided by civility, grace, pragmatism and generosity of spirit. justice breyer, the members of the senate will decide if i fill your seat, but please know that i could never fill your shoes. to my dear family, those who are

here with me now and those who are watching from home, i am forever indebted to you for your love and support. to my beloved husband, patrick, thank you for being my rock today and every day during these past 26 years. i love you. to my daughters, talla and leyla, you are the light of my life. please know that whatever title i may hold or whatever job i may have, i will still be your mom. that will never change. there are so many other people i would love to be able to address and to thank, but time is short so let me end by sharing an interesting coincidence that is actually meant a great deal to me over the years. as it happens, i share a birthday with the first black woman ever to be appointed as a

federal judge. the honorable constance baker motley. we were born exactly 49 years to the day apart. today i proudly stand on her shoulders sharing not only her birthday but also her steadfast and courageous commitment to equal justice under law. judge motley's life and career has been a true inspiration to me as i have pursued this professional path, and if i am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the next associate justice of the justice of the supreme court, i can only hope my love of the country and the constitution and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation was founded will inspire future generations

of americans. thank you, again, mr. president, for this extraordinary honor. >> i forgot to introduce the first lady, dr. jill biden, and the second gentleman. it seems strange to say that, but they are both here as well. so thank you. thank you all. >> this is a special moment and a happy moment for any president even though it's coming on what is a dark day around the world. joe biden nominating ketanji brown jackson. i thought it was interesting when she just said to justice breyer, who she clerked for and who she might replace, justice breyer the senate will decide if i can fill your seat, but please know i could never fill your shoes.

joining me now is msnbc host and former chief spokesperson for vice president harris, symone sanders, and legal analyst and georgetown law, and a politics analyst, dolly hreut wick. tell us about the process to get to this pick? >> well, it was a long process, katy, that actually started during the transition. look, president biden and vice president harris have made it very important -- made it clear the courts are important to this administration, which is why this administration has put more black women on the federal court bench than any administration in history, and there are eight black women nominated, and five have been confirmed and three are awaiting nomination by the senate. the supreme court process is not

independent of that process. judge jackson is one of the judges that was recently confirmed and now serving on the d.c. court, the seat that merrick garland formerly sat in, and it started during the transition of compiling names and people. the president made that commitment two years ago today, that his nominee would be a black woman. there are a number of qualified black women on the list that the president was able to choose from. he had meetings and today we saw the culmination of the work. i will note lastly, katy, of the more than 3,000 individuals that have served on the federal bench, only 70 of those have been black women. it's not because black women are not qualified. there are a number of immensely qualified black women ready to serve, and today president biden made it clear -- he broke a

ceiling today and i know a number of people look forward to judge jackson being -- getting a fair hearing and confirmed very quickly. >> i know the ideological idea will not change. >> president biden said he was looking for somebody with a brilliant legal mind and he really found it in ketanji brown jackson. i am so excited for the court. she clerked for justice breyer and is loved by the breyer law clerk family, and you could hear her reverence for him in what you were talking about, katy, i could never fill your shoes. i think she's somebody who is a consensus builder like justice breyer, and she's not somebody to go and antagonize people or anything like that. what that means in practice with a court that is so far right

leaning conservative, she may be able to avoid big losses by respect, personality and brilliance. the second thing, at a time when the court is so polarized and is losing according to polls, somebody like her can help rebuild the legitimacy of the court. she's an unbelievable person. she has such grace about her. she's an incredible communicator. lawyers are not exactly known as being warm and fuzzy and normal people, but she is. like justice sotomayor, i think she will have a public role in going to high schools and elementary schools and stuff like that, so both inside the court and outside the court, this is a phenomenal pick by the president. >> i thought it was interesting, she talked about her family and her father being a role model and her mother helping her get

there, and her brother and uncles being in law enforcement, but she mentioned one family member part of the drug trade and is serving a life sentence. that's the sort of thing that in the past i can't imagine nominees or people being lifted to high positions would want to acknowledge because of the controversy surrounding it, but it does feel like times are really changing. talk to me about her deciding to use this moment to mention that. >> it's so interesting. i was really struck by the same thing, katy. it has been reporting extensively about her uncle and the drag conan sentence. she has not commented on it, and i thought there was a certain grace, to use neal's word, just saying that happened as claiming this is my life, this is my story. i was really moved by the ways

in which she is kind of on both sides in a moment when we are so polarized. she has family in law enforcement, and family that served in the army and yet an uncle that was incarcerated, and she was on the sentencing commission, and she defended guantanamo detainees. this is not a person that has taken a straight line, so it's a piece of the larger theme of life is complicated. if your story is the kind of cartoonish right-left story, you are not really going to understand what ketanji brown jackson is all about. >> her confirmation hearing for the d.c. circuit last year was 53-44, three republicans voted for her. lindsey graham, susan collins and lisa murkowski. is it your expectation it will be the same for this vote?

what you do you think? >> it will be tough for them to change positions, and she has done nothing to suggest she's more polarizing. i think it's really important to president biden and to the democrats to kind of keep that sense that she has bipartisan support. one other thing about that confirmation hearing, they didn't really lay a finger on her. the attempt to discredit her was so kind of thin and it went to you defended a detainee in guantanamo, and you believe in a living constitution. there was not a good argument against her there. she's done nothing a year later that suggests there's a better argument against her now. >> one last question to you, a

white man with a black woman vice president and a black female as a nominee for the supreme court, the first if she gets seated, and he also did it in the cross hall. why that location? >> that's a historic location. i think there are a number of places this could have happened at the white house. you have seen the president and vice president come out and give comments in the roosevelt room, in the east room and in the state dining room. this is an iconic location for a powerful moment. it was not lost on me and i don't think it was lost on folks across the country. i will say this, though, this is a great historic moment. i am basking in the glow here sitting in my hotel room, but i put nothing past republicans in this united states senate to even though they just recently confirmed judge jackson, to put her through the ringer in the confirmation, and i don't think the white house is expecting a cakewalk. they are expecting a fair

hearing and also anticipating antics. that's why folks mobilized and i spoke with folks from the black caucus today, and president biden said he would fill the seat if given the opportunity, and they are ready to forcefully defend this nominee, and it will defend against members of congress, republicans, and also defend against the media for any racist or sexist attack. >> it's a big day for the president to announce a supreme court pick, nominate somebody and to fulfill his promise two years to the day that he would choose a black woman for this role. thank you, everyone, for being here with us on this big story. we want to turn back now to the other breaking news story we have been following this afternoon and have been following every day now for many

weeks. russian forces are closinging in on kyiv. with the country under a state of martial law, all men ages 18 to 60 are being called on to fight. cal perry, who you see there, spoke to a 19-year-old who is facing an uncertain future and a ukrainian woman crying for the children who will be sent to war. >> reporter: so will you go and fight? >> if need. >> reporter: if you need to, will you fight? >> yes. >> are you afraid? >> just a little. >> translator: i don't want to see our boys and girls die. >> across the country, ukrainians, both soldiers and civilians are showing singular bravery citing an audio communication, a small group of agents guardy a tiny island where that red dot is, told an

oncoming russian warship, and this is a quote, to go f itself before russian opened fire and killed them all. and then evacuating newborns to a bomb shelter, newborns from the nicu. e nicu >> joining me now is nbc news correspondent, matt bradley, and cal perry in ukraine. the nicu bomb shelter is hard to see there. why are you not any longer in

kharkiv? >> we started around midnight your time and i went about the business of telling our audience how quiet the seats of kharkiv are, and in the midst of that we heard very loud, very close, five or six successive explosions that we later learned were grad class rockets that landed close to that city where we were. we heard after that the rat atat response of anti-aircraft fire and that was closer to our position right in the center of that city. then we went down into the basement, in the parking garage below the hotel with a bunch of hotel guests and other journalists and made the decision it was not safe. we decided this was a warning shot, a shot over the bow for the whole city. remember, our colleague, courtney kube said from an official just this evening, that russia has not taken any

population centers despite the massive offensive from three major axis across the country. we decided to make the drive where you saw that "new york times" footage of the babies who also sought refuge in a makeshift shelter. people are trying to find solace with each other and safety, and we spoke with people in the metro stop near where we were and here's what they had to tell us. >> translator: everyone will be traumatized after this. the children will be most traumatized. >> i have fear about future days because i don't know what we should do. should we stay here or should we move? >> reporter: so a lot of those people have no idea where to go

next. tphaep row is a little safer, but that intelligence assessment and the battlefield assessment, the problem is the russians are not making the advances they thought they would make and the ukrainians are fighting back, and the issues for civilians like the ones we met and are seeking shelter across the country, the real problem is the ukrainian military is not dissolving and it's fighting back and that means the russians will have to keep fighting even harder and that's probably going to cost quite a few civilian lives before this is all over. katy. >> cal perry, you are in law sraef. tell me what you are hearing and tell me what happens next? >> you have this tragic juxtaposition at the train station where i am reporting from. it's soldiers headed to the

east. some of them are happy to be going and fighting the russians and others feel like they are being forced to do so. your point about 18-year-olds up to 60-year-olds, and if you are a fighting age you cannot leave, you will go to the border and be turned away. some want to fight. then you have families fleeing the violence, coming west and trying to get as far west as they can, bringing what they can, and not expecting to get back anytime soon. while the russian army may not be making advances on the ground like they thought they would, and what is playing out on tv screens here are tanks rolling over civilian cars and fire fights in the streets of kyiv, and disinformation campaign perhaps on the part of the russians, the russian military figures are taking ukrainian army uniforms and switching and

there are places like where i am can see insider attacks. the city that i am in now is 350 miles from the capital will go under the curfew tonight. the street presence of military has doubled here. the current wait to get to the polish border is 36 hours, and it's a seven-mile wait for cars. people are getting out of the cars and making that walk, and it's rarely single mothers, and it's mothers with children and the elderly, and the men are having to stay behind and fight. you have the dramatic and emotional scenes playing out at the train station where you can see a country at war in one spot. the city continues to disintegrate, and the city i am in they are running out of food and the restaurants are closed and the humanitarian crisis is at the doorstep. that's where we are right now. >> you do start to think about the basic logistics of staying

alive, food and water and when a country is being cut off, how do you get that to the millions of people in that country? 44 million people in that country. cal perry, thank you so much. matt bradley, thank you as well. let's bring in military analyst, and retired four-star general. what is your assessment of the situation right now? >> well, look, there's -- up front it's a great tragedy, particularly for the population caught in the fighting areas, and the refugees caught in poland. there's no way around it. this will be a monumental humanitarian disaster. the global community will have to step in and help them, probably mostly polish authorities, and they will see a great influx of refugees in the next few weeks. it's impressive to me to see the

courage of the ukrainian political people that you have been interview, zelenskyy in particular. the ukrainian army is fighting and if they recaptured the kyiv airport from air troopers from russia, that's an astonishing look at military effectiveness. the bulk of the military facing east will be from the separatist area. how will they deal with mobile warfare? the other question that bothers me, katy, if you want to defend kyiv or kharkiv, but kyiv is a city of 3 million people, you can't possibly defend its parameter, so the notion of sucking in russian armored forces in the city and fighting them with molotov cocktails and

sniping at them is one way to give a bloody nose to the russian army and it's a way to massively cause casualties among the civilian population. will zelenskyy declare kyiv an open city as macarthur did with manila, or will they fight street to street? the jury is out. our ability to influence events inside ukraine now is duh minimus. nato is standing to the task, and i am very proud of the announcement today to activate the response force, and u.s. troops is flying to europe, and the third infantry decision is deploying today, and the 137th airborne, so a strong support by nato. >> what do you think of vladimir putin saying that he wants to talk about de-escalation? >> well, you know, we used to count on the russians being

analytical and chess players and cold-blooded and objective, and so to some extent they were easy to negotiate with as opposed to jihadists or somebody of that nature. mr. putin is acting really strange. his language on russian tv is bizarre. drug addicts, nazis and calling on the ukrainian armed forces to overthrow the government. he's facing growing opposition at home. these are brave russians that will go out and get beaten senseless and arrested opposing mr. putin. but this lad, it looks like he's off his rails. it's going to be very difficult to deal with him. >> general, thank you very much. coming up next, protests in russia. vladimir putin now arresting his own people for opposing the

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♪ ♪ as russian forces close in on kyiv, it's not just the west that opposes the war on ukraine, a lot of russians do as well. russians turned out by the thousands overnight and today again, and every one of them defied warnings from the russian government they would face jail time for their opinion. nato has activated elements of its response force in the coming days. short of war nato has limited options to protect a non-nato member, and experts warn that

none of them are good. joining me now is mr. sanchez from moscow and peter baker. give us the latest from russia. >> reporter: we are seeing russians out protesting for a second night tonight and that's despite the massive crackdown you described last night. some 1,700 people across 50 russian cities were arrested, and needless to say, if you go out and protest vladimir putin's war in russia this week, you are doing so at great personal cost, not just the risk of arrest on the night, but a criminal record that could follow you for years and years and make it very difficult to get a job. one placard we saw tonight said peace for ukraine and freedom for us. katy, there's a widespread feeling here in russia that people thought they knew vladimir putin. he has been in charge of this

country for two decades, but they are as baffled as many people in the west about what putin is trying to achieve with the strategy in ukraine with no exit plan. vladimir putin today appealed to the ukrainian military to rise up and launch a coup against volodymyr zelenskyy. he describes them as neo-nazis and drug dealers, which gives you some sense of his mind-set. ironically at the same time he's calling for a coup against president zelenskyy, and he's offering the ukrainian government the offer of peace talks, and you can make up your mind if that is being offered in good faith or not. >> peter baker, let's talk about the u.n. security council.

they are supposed to be voting today, meeting today to vote on a resolution condemning russia and that resolution is likely to be veto because russia has the decision to make. russia is bombing portions of the country. there are apartment buildings with civilians that have come under attack. we have seen this. how can you have a body like the u.n. and have a body like the u.n. security council when one of the nations is flagrantly defying world order? >> yeah, this is, of course, the problem with the united nations. the charter is to prevent exactly what is happening now, and the president, this month of the security council, it's the actor, russia, the actor that the u.n. in theory was created to stop. it's a measure of the limitations of the world body

that we have seen over the years and it's brought into high contrast in stark relief today. the night ukraine's ambassador, he said here's the piece that putin just declared war on my country. it can't be brushed under the rug or be a function of eastern europe where the country is paying attention. >> thank you. the united nations estimates more than 100,000 ukrainians left their homes and are currently seeking safety. they are appearing in neighboring countries like poland and hungry, and if russia's aggression continues, the u.n. continues 4 million more could follow. joining me now from odessa is anna shealist, director of the

programs at the ukrainian think tank. thank you so much. we have been checking in on you and tell me what it's like there today. >> it's different around the country, and the situation is almost each 30 minutes. you speak about the south so we have been -- 60 kilometers from the city. it's been the top -- in the city of odessa we didn't have shelling today. however, we had two foreign ships being targeted. they've been at the -- nearby the city in the sea. and we also had the attempt of the drones to monitor the situation. that's why odessa is expecting quite a heavy night. >> are you expecting an assault from the sea? >> yes, for sure because as for now, that can be done, especially considering how important is the seaport for odessa. during the day, our navy -- they

covered the mines -- some of them will be difficult for assault but some are quite flat and definitely the navy and the security forces are prepared for the assault along the whole line of the beaches. >> i was going to ask about that. i saw a video earlier of the mining of the beaches. there was a flag from somebody on social media and i take that with a grain of salt so i'm going to ask you, about how the citizens of odessa were not warned about this mining. can you tell me what the government, local government has been telling citizens as the country and as the military prepares for the invasion? >> no, we have -- everybody quite informing in the social networks. the mayor being today talking about the military people talking about this. and from the very beginning, they were notions about the seaside, that is the risk zone, the port and near the strategical, just like the port

because odessa port just in the downtown. it's literally in the -- to the main entrance and there are special cars and national guards around so they're not allowing people to be nearby. >> anna, thank you so much for joining us. we do hope that you stay safe throughout all of this. vladimir putin's aim, the u.s. has warned is to rebuild the former ussr. but as julia writes, even as his forces were shelling the entirety of ukraine north to south, east to west, putin made clear that his invasion wasn't really about ukraine. it was about the united states, about history and settling old scores and rewriting the terms of surrender 30 years later that ended the cold war. julia joins me now. the founding partner and washington correspondent of puck. thank you very much. expand on that. >> thanks for having me, katy. i was really struck watching

putin's speech when he declared war on ukraine, just as bombs started to fall on ukraine. which, by the way, that happened on thursday morning. it feels like it was, you know, months ago. so much has happened in the last 36 hours. but what struck me in that speech was that he talked a little bit about ukraine but it took him half of his speech to get there. he spent the first half of it ranting about the end of the cold war, about how the u.s. and its lackeys in nato basically were overly triumphant, overly swaggering and humiliated russia and didn't take its interests into account. and was talking about the bombing of -- nato bombing of libya, of the former yugoslavia, of the civil war in syria and it just struck me that, okay, you can have these gripes with the

u.s. and nato, but what does ukraine have on this. oh, he also brought up colin powell's now infamous speech at the u.n. security council where he was holding that little bolt of anthrax. again, what did ukraine have to do with all of that? >> so what is the end goal here? as far as you can tell, and it's very hard to get into vladimir putin's head, if not impossible. what is the end goal here for him? >> i think he's made it pretty clear and everybody in his government has made it very clear that they want to remove the current government of volodymyr zelenskyy and take over the country and install a puppet regime. they want to de-nazify ukraine and get rid of those people in power. there are no nazis in power. in fact, the president of ukraine is jewish. he is the first jewish president

and was elected unanimously. and the fact that they're accusing him of being a nazi while also it seems he is in direct danger of being imprisoned by russia and killed is not only deeply ironic, but just absolutely horrifying. >> so does it end with urgs crane? does it end with him trying to install a puppet government? >> i think that's the near-term goal. i'm not sure what follows after this. there's a part of me that is worried that he is inching for direct confrontation with the u.s., in part because he spent so much time talking about the u.s. he didn't even see nato as the main threat, like i said. he said nato is just a puppet of the u.s. and ukraine is a puppet of the u.s., in his view. this is not true, obviously. and i'm worried that that's kind of what he wants.

that it's almost like unfinished business from the cold war that moscow and washington have to go to war in some sense. and i want to remind your viewers that in his speech on thursday morning, vladimir putin said if the u.s. intervened in any way, in ukraine, he basically threatened the u.s. with a nuclear retaliation. that's what we're talking about. >> 20 seconds. tell me what you think of the protests in moscow and st. petersburg? >> i think it's incredibly courageous, the atmosphere politically has changed in the last year. it's become much more dangerous to protest like that, and it shows that the depth of feeling and discontent and disagreement. >> we just lost the end of your comments but got the gist of it. julia, thank you so much for joining us. that's going to do it for me today. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next.

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