they think every corner, every house is a possible death trap. then this can work. >> josh spencer is the chair of urban warfare studies at the modern institute of west point and host of the podcast urban warfare project. jonathan, thank you for being with us this morning. do not go anywhere, another hour of a special edition of the velshi begins right now. velshi begins right good morning, i'm ali velshi. it is 9 am on the east coast of the united states. it is 4 pm in kyiv. as ukraine enters of entering its fourth day russian attacks. the death toll continues to rise. the ukrainian humans rights commissioner says over 210 ukrainians have lost their lives since the invasion began. and, over 1100 have been injured. around 368,000 people have now fled ukraine in search of safety in neighboring countries. that's according to the united nations refugee agency.

the numbers continuing to rise. just this morning, emergency crews were on the scene of an explosion in the northeast neighborhood in kyiv. as the exact's continues, the capital city is still under ukrainian control. according to the head of the ukrainian state administration. this comes as russian forces push into the second largest ukrainian city of kharkiv. overnight, russian forces blip a gas line in the eastern part of the city. that's according to ukrainian officials. they say russian vehicles broke into the city sunday morning, saying now, quote, that kharkiv is back under our control. meaning ukrainian control. ukrainians minister of defense praised both the army and the thousands of citizens who have taken up arms to defend their homes. earlier, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy appeared to people around the world to join the resistance. he said, in part, this is not just russia's invasion of ukraine, this is the beginning of a war against europe,

against european structures. against democracy. against basic human rights, against global order of law, rules and peaceful coexistence. that comes as the lewinsky signals that his country is ready for peace talks with russia, but not in vladimir putin's proposed location of belarus. that's also comes as the u.s. and its allies move to call out certain russian banks from the swift bank messaging system, which acts as a network that facilitates international payments. that is in addition to the sanctions that biden unveiled last week. they include a freeze on putin's personal assets, as well as assets belonging to the foreign minister sergey lab ravi and other ministers. meanwhile, in just the last hour, u.s. secretary of state tony blinken has announced that the u.s. will be giving an additional millions of dollars on humanitarian assistance to those affected by russia's further invasion of ukraine. joining me now, from lviv, in far western ukraine, is nbc's

cal perry. cal, good morning, good afternoon to you. what is the update from where you are? >> here in lviv, we've got a situation where you certainly at a city that is starting to fill with refugees. i'll give your weather update, because it's very important to them thousands of people sleeping outside. it is cold, snowing and that wet here. i'm about 50 miles from the polish border, but we understand there is a backup of cars that is over 20 kilometers long. at least 15 miles, at this point. you have folks that are now in a position where they either ran out of gas, or they didn't have a car to begin with, and they're starting to walk toward that border. some folks will inevitably bc being outside. this is part of the growing concern, the growing humanitarian concern, from this conflict. as you said, as least 350,000 people have already fled the country. according to the unhcr, they are doubling their efforts along these areas. poland, moldova, for example, to get these camps up and running because the fighting is fares. as you said, the funding has been fierce for three days now in kyiv.

the mayor there saying that russian forces are not in the city, that the ukrainian forces have held that area. he's talking about a lot of credit being due to those civilian defense forces that have been brought up, have been handed those weapons. he's crediting them with a lot of that defense of the city, ali, as we continue to watch these pictures from the east. it is that video that has a lot of people continuing to be on the moon. >> cal perry in ukraine. joining us now is nbc's matt bradley, he is in dnipro ukraine, it's on dnieper the river. it's west, southwest of where he was stationed in kharkiv. matt, you have suddenly heard some sirens, just a few minutes ago in your city. >> that's right, ali. we were at, basically, a donation center for civilians, who are giving food, medicine, other supplies. donating it to the military, to those civilians we keep hearing about who are just joining up, trying to defend ukraine.

it was a very exuberant scene. they were really spirited, they were really working very hard to bring all the stuff together. while we are there, we heard an arid siren. the first emirates i ran that we've heard since we got here, to dnipro about 48 hours ago. that was startling. we haven't heard any explosion since then but, i have to tell you, i was then kharkiv, but you're talking about just a moment ago, i.e. were talking about how it is the scene of pretty blistering street fights. we were there just 48 hours ago, and we left after we heard bombardments that hit close to the center of the town. i think we talk about this recently. this is a pattern that we are worried about here, as we take a few steps in front of the russian forces, as they advance through eastern ukraine. it seems as though these bombardments are kind of tenderizing the situation, ahead of a troop advance that would make it into the center of the city. now, kharkiv it seems, has

managed to resist any troops any actual incursions, by russian footsoldiers. instead, it just a lot of bombardment and fierce fighting on the outskirts, and closer into the city. here in dnipro, we're waiting for the other foot to drop, because we understand there's other troops coming up from zaporizhzhia in the south, and from down from the north. if they decide to skip kharkiv and moved south down the dnieper river, the highways there, they could be he in dnipro in the next 24 to 48 hours. that is another issue that we're very attuned to hear, the civilians that we're seeing fleeing, today, from that donation center. they're aware of that, as well. it's a very scary situation, and one that we are very worried about. a lot of these people that were there were so spirited a moment ago, we saw them fleeing in tears when they heard that a red siren. >> we are talking, when you are in kharkiv, we are just talking to matt bodner who is now

across the russian border from there. it's very obvious to you, because it's so close to the, border where the russians were coming from if they were doing that. dnipro, which is not on the map that i'm showing right now, but is very close to the east and ukraine in the middle of the map. where those troops coming from? it's much more eastern ukraine, but as much more in the middle of the country than kharkiv is. >> yeah. we don't know if there are any troops here. we know that the troops that were coming from the north, from kharkiv, we're coming from belgrade, exactly where bodner it is at the moment. in the days that were leading up to the assault on kharkiv, coming over that border, we saw something unusual. a lot of the intelligence, people intelligence watchers, on twitter no other social media, we're looking at tiktok images and stuff like that. taken by russian silva lint civilians and uploaded. it showed a mysterious the z on

buildings that have been building up on the area, just across the border from kharkiv. those zs are now all over -- i managed to get contact from one of the waiters at our hotel, i'm in touch with him on telegram. he says that in kharkiv you can see it, all of the military vehicles moving around have that z on them. it's interesting, because there is no z in the surreal alphabet, the russian alphabet. it's another call sign, that looks like one of the signals that was used for all of the vehicles, all the equipment that was moved over the border into the kharkiv access. one of the main axes of attack that the russians have used on the east side of the country. kharkiv is a large country, second largest in the country, but it's also russian-speaking, just like dnipro here. so, vladimir putin may have thought that the population of kharkiv or dnipro may have not

risen up and resisted. it was obvious when we are there that nobody wanted to accept the russian soldiers with open arms. it's no surprise that he has been repelled from their. >> the sirens are scary. whenever they go off in a country, they're scary. when i'm talking to one of, you are reported there, and it happens we often just not to listen to them. because for our viewers it's not as common to be in a city where you hear that. but, is it softening up the population? or is it having the opposite effect? everything we're hearing, maybe it's elective, but we're hearing from people are saying i'm staying, i'm fighting, i'm learning how to fight, i'm getting a gun. i'm figuring out these ways to stay. is it possible that is having the opposite effect? >> well, yeah, when it's doing is it's part of this whole esprit decor. that's what we saw on the ground. these are people that were there because they believe, because the ukrainian military believe enough to give them donations, organize on their

behalf. i was an unbiased position, because these are people who are very patriotic. on lawless nationalistic, you could say. that is kind of a derogatory term. people who believed in this mission. but they fled when they heard that, because it was a warning sign. they didn't want to be killed by incoming, obviously, artillery fire or shelling. it was a very frightening situation, and we saw the civilians, men, women, children, scattering and rushing for the nearest bomb shelters. we did the same, and of course through on our armor. most of the civilians who were there don't have the benefit of having armor, like we do. we had our helmets on. it's been about an hour since that happened, in the city is quiet now. and we haven't heard any explosions. but, it could come at anytime. it could come from anywhere. when i spoke with, heard that shelling, in kharkiv, we are very relaxed. it had been a while since we heard some really close, we have never actually heard close shelling. that was the first time. it was very alarming. >> well, i know you've heard close shelling in your life and

your career, and you and i have talked to a lot of it. so, please be careful and please make sure your team stay safe. what you are doing, in bearing witness on this war for the world, is crucial work. thank you. nbc's matt bradley in dnipro, and ukraine. joining me now is the congressman -- from new jersey. he's ahead of the homeland security committee, which is important in its own right. he was born and communist poland during the height of the cold war. when he was six, he and his mother fled to the united states. he was also had a great deal of experience and u.s. foreign policy. congressman, we appreciate you being the anger. particularly the deep understand you bring to the situation. i'd like to get your view, i've been looking for you for a couple of days, to get your view about what has unfolded in terms of the european support for ukraine, after this invasion. >> it's a complete sea change, in just the last few days. kudos to the biden

administration for building this coalition before the invasion and managing it so well, these last few days. we've seen germany now not only canceled it nordstrom pipeline, but announced that they are going to massively increase spending, get up to 2% of their gdp spent on defense. something the united states has been trying, in vain, to persuade them to do for a very long time. you see total unity within the european union, even including putin sympathizers like war von, these past sympathizers. denying this denial of the swift system, for russia. the harshest sanctions that anybody could've possibly imagined. this is absolutely more than what putin would've expected, at the start of this invasion, and it's going to be very effective. >> that's business about getting nato countries to spend on defense, as necessary. it's been an american complaint

for many, many years. donald trump took it to a different level, and sort of ended up putting a bit of a rip on the fabric of nato while he was there. it does appear that joe biden has tried very hard to repair that rip. have we done that? is nato back to being the most important military alliance in the history of the world? and, can it take a strong position to repel russia, at this point? >> yes and yes. i know the sounds like a talking point, a cliché, something the diplomats say all the time. but it really is true. nato has never been more united, in the face of an external threat or crisis, and it's history. if you go back over the last 50 years, in every crisis there have been divisions much much deeper than the minor ones we saw at the beginning of this one. right now, we are in exactly the same page as the europeans.

i was really impressed by the sanctions announcement just yesterday. not just swift, not just the central bank, but the creation of this aggressive transatlantic cask force. to go out and find the russian oligarchs and their yachts, their villas, and their private planes. and to actively seize them. this is something we have never seen before in sanctions enforcement. it's what ukrainians need to see, on tv. it's what russians need to see. they need to see these people who we have been enabling, in the west, we have been complicit and their corruption. they need to see police taper and their villas, they need to see the yacht sold at auction. frankly, i don't hope the money that we get from the proceeds of the seizures to go directly to help the ukrainian people. >> congressman, thank you for talking with us again. tom landscape is a democrat, from new jersey. we've got more velshi in a moment, we'll be right back.

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commercial break, just like that. i am old enough to remember when he would have to find a phone that was plug-in, call someone, hope they were there to pick up the call. but i want to take you back to a time before texts, emails, answering jeans or fax machines, to the days of the tell ex. i want to show you a machine, this right over here is the telex. it looks like a big old typewriter, it is also known as a tele-type, or tele-printer, and first common way to reliably send messages. now unless you're at certain age, you might have never seen one of these telex machines. they were created and used in the post world war ii period. the telex was not a household item, by the way. telex, not just the machine, but the system that he worked on was the network used to send written messages between businesses and most commonly,

between banks. so between 1930 and about the mid 70s, if you needed a transfer, or to wire money to someone, basically this had to happen on a telex. without getting too technical, this is how the process work. you went to the bank, business, maybe an insurance company, to about the message on the keyboard, which was transferred to a piece of tape, which was coated. then, you would use a rotary phone it to call the bank receiving your transfer. when they answered, your message went through a tape reader, the person on the other end, manually took the message down, and the rest of the transfer goes on from there. as you can imagine, this was far from a foolproof system. it was hampered by low speed and security concerns. sanders had serious crime every transaction in detail, sentences which were then interpreted and executed by someone else. it was the perfect storm for human error. then, in 1973, the swift system was created. it stands for the society for worldwide inter bank financial

telecommunications. it is a messaging system that links more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries, and territories. it is the reason why transferring money overseas is so easy these days. the difference between swift and telex is in the technology. swift uses unique codes which are sent from bank to bank. let me show you how this works. let's say you are a chase bank customer in new york, you need to send money to a friend who thanks at bank popular in france. all the out to do is walk into your local chase bank, with your friends account number and swift code, of the paris branch, you could do this increasingly on the banks website or app. the message is sent, the bank will credit the money to your friends bank account in france, and it is done. now keep in mind, swift is only a messaging system, it holds no funds or securities.

but without it, there's no other way to alert bangs when transactions are going to occur from country to country. most of us do not use, i can't overstate how important this is for countries and businesses are buy and sell goods or services. very few countries are not on this system. and the ones that are not our isolated and poor. without another system in place, and there are virtually no other systems like it in place, it would be economic calamity for a country to be removed from swift. there will be no effective means for trade outside of its borders. now, some people think that it is time for russia to be entirely removed from swift. the u.s., european allies and canada did agree this weekend to remove some key russian banks from the swift system taking russia out of the swift system would be the harshest financial punishment against russia, short of an actual physical embargo. and an unprecedented move against one of the world's largest economies. it would damage moscow's economy immediately, and in the

long run. so why not do it? well, there are a few arguments. it would really hurt russia, but would hurt other economies as well, including some european countries that depend on russian oil and gas. also, if russia can't receive foreign currency for selling things, being off of the swift system means it also can send currency to buy things from other countries. the u.s. and germany stand to lose the most because their banks use swift to communicate with russian banks more than any other countries. the last time the west dangle this option, during the invasion of crimea in 2014, putin said it would be equivalent to a declaration of war. alienating russia from swift is considered a nuclear option. one that is being considered, because there is no turning back after pressing that button. the explosion would destroy russia's economy, something that some see as a punishment for invading the same sovereign country, twice in eight years. but the economic mushroom cloud

would contaminate nations around the globe. nation around the globe

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is underway this weekend for the supreme court nominee, judge ketanji brown jackson. jackson will be working with a team assembled under the former alabama senator doug jones, to help prepare her for personal minutes with senators, the judiciary committee questionnaire and her upcoming public hearings. judge jackson is highly qualified for the position of supreme court justice, given her years as a federal judge, a district court judge, a public defender and a law clerk for justice stephen breyer. however, she still has to get confirmed by the senate. these, days being supremely qualified for the job and duly nominated by the president doesn't mean you will be adequately recognize with the votes. because, if it did, merrick garland would be sitting on the high court today. instead, republicans didn't

gamma vote at all because they refused to let another justice nominated by a democrat on to the bench. they held the seat open until donald trump could put a nominee in that they like better, in a flagrant and unprecedented abuse of power. democrats are in control of the senate, just right now. so judge jackson will get a vote. let's not forget, senators susan collins, lisa murkowski and lindsey graham all voted to confirm her as a federal judge on the u.s. court of appeals, for the district of columbia, last year. but, their vote is not guaranteed this time. all three of them have publicly stated that they will not make a decision until thoroughly vetting jackson's records. with democrats razor thin majority in the senate, it's not hard to imagine a scenario in which this nomination becomes endangered. on the other side of the break, all be speaking with the most senior member of the senate judiciary committee, the committee from watch this historic nomination will launch. there is standing by, senator patrick leahy of vermont.

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senator patrick leahy of vermont. he is the senior most member of the judiciary committee that will work to conduct judge jackson's confirmation hearings, in the near future. senator, it's good to see. you have a piece of breaking news that i want to address with you, however. we are just getting news that vladimir putin has ordered the nuclear deterrent forces in russia to be on high alert.

what this means is that those forces, which of course are very familiar with, are getting into a state of combat readiness. obviously, the united states and russia always have nuclear deterrence with respect to each other. this idea of a balance of power, mutually guaranteed destruction. if anything were to happen. but, what do you make of this? the united states and nato forces, none of whom have threatened or discussed using nuclear force against russia. generalized broken to have said that the u.s. won't even enforce the no fly zone over ukraine, for fear of getting into a battle with russian jets that could trigger something bigger. now, vladimir putin is announcing on television that he is putting his nuclear forces on high alert. what do you make of that? >> i'm hoping it's just a -- you have to understand, putin is becoming less and less stable.

i think he has miscalculated the united states. he was able to lead donald trump around like a puppy dog. so much so that trump even referred to him as a genius. he is not, he's an evil man. he wants to go back to an era that he thinks existed, a former soviet union, the russian empire. which is not the wonderful place that he tries to make it seem. he has killed and imprisoned people who opposed him. he's become one of the richest people on earth, with the money that he and his cronies have stolen. i think that he has become surprised at the resistance to moving as he has now. i think, president biden and

tony blinken, secretary austin and others, have done a superb job working with our allies to get the solid opposition to putin. i don't think putin expected that. earlier on the show, you gave probably the best explanation i've heard anybody give of swift. the fact that we can get all of our allies to join with us on that, that has to be something that putin did not calculate. maybe what they're bragging about with nuclear weapons is somehow trying to detract from that. it would be worldwide cataclysmic, to have nuclear war over ukraine. i would hope that nobody would be that insane. but we saw that almost happened

during the cuban missile crisis, until people realized that you have to back off from that. but that is of great concern. >> yeah. in our business, not much gives me chills. but the idea that that announcement was even made this morning, gives me a level of fear that i have not experienced in a long time. the idea that we are talking about one of the world's two most powerful nuclear nations activating its nuclear forces, on high alert. >> bob i have certain lines to the presidency. the kinds of briefings, things i hear, it's cause for concern. it's cause for concern because, with putin, you have somebody who is not the genius that trump said. he is a man that has become

engulfed in this vision of returning to an era of grandeur, with himself as the saar, it's not going to exist. >> it's remarkable. all right, senator. let's talk about the thing i brought you on here to talk about. that is the confirmation of associate justice of the supreme court. it seems like everything is in order, she is highly qualified. generally speaking, even many senior republicans have supported the idea of a black woman being brought to the supreme court. the job of the judiciary committee is not actually to choose whether you like or don't like the nominee, but whether or not the president has nominated somebody who's qualified to take the job. all seems to be in place, pending any more vetting and questions that you on the committee have to ask. what do you see happening, and what is the timeline? >> some people tried to talk about it. we have one republican senator who said the most outrageous

thing i ever had. he said, this is terrible to have a black woman, what does this say to these qualified white man who may want to be on the court. i suggests he goes and walks over to the supreme court and walked in the halls, look at the 250 years of pictures of white men who have served on the supreme court. it's time to have the court look more like america. judge jackson is enormously qualified, she has been confirmed three times by the commission and the district judge and the court of appeals judge. i have been there for every single nominee since john paul stevens, since gerald ford's time. i have a very hard time finding someone more qualified than she is, who will have a hearing.

the senate judiciary committee has been working this weekend on that, we'll have a hearing. but, i would hope, before easter, she is being sworn in as a supreme court justice. sworn i>> does it matter to yoi mean, she might get some republican votes, even ruth bader ginsburg got 97 votes in the united states senate, they were clearly a lot of republicans who did not like her politics. does it matter to you, if ketanji brown jackson gets 51 votes or 96 votes? >> i wish she would get a lot of votes. because the credibility of the supreme court, it is being diminished. it is being looked at more and more through partisan eyes, i think, the three nominees by trump, in the way the republican leader was willing to violate the senate rules and

traditions, and rush them through, most republicans, democrats, thinking the supreme court has become a lot more political, partisan independent. for the sake of the country, we have to get back to where it is seen as less partisan, less political. and a solid vote from her would help that, for the good of the country. i have voted for both republican and democratic nominees, some of other people, i chose if they were qualified, and i want the american people to see some support. i already know, we are going to be hurt as a nation if we lose faith in our u.s. supreme court. it could take years to repair the damage. >> senator, we thank you for your time this morning. i appreciate it. good to see you again, senator patrick leahy is a democrat of vermont.

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covering breaking news just developing. president vladimir putin of russia has put his nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. but u.s. as you know that maintains russian balance of power of nuclear missiles. that we mutually assured the destruction of either one, if one were to launch it. this is interesting, because a few moments ago, i was telling you about the swift system, and removing russia from the swift system. one of the reasons it has not been used is because it will be such a strong sanction, that people have referred to it as the nuclear option. except, it is, not it does not have any nuclear weapons associate with, it is that serious. it does seem under pressure, it's easy to clear option is going to remind the world about this in the face of growing sanctions and opposition to the invasion of ukraine.

now joining me is ruth bender, a professor of history at new york's university, she is the author of the book, strong men, from mussolini to the present. natalie, this is brand-new news there been people who over the last few days talk about things lines that the u.s. and nato will not discuss, so as not to trip into accidentally world war three. particularly, a war between nuclear powers. vladimir putin mention is nuclear arsenal the other day, in declaring the invasion of ukraine, they suffice and people so what do you make of this news? >> >> it's interesting how quickly he got this out, he did warn about it. this is a perfect storm for putin. and if you know about the psychology, none of this is, excuse me, none of this is surprising this badly

miscalculated he has elevated zelenskyy to a world figure leader of democracy. he is giving you prestige and resolve to nato, so two words, ali. elite defection. so is oligarchs have started to speak out against him abramovich, friedman. this is a huge deal. those people are just as transactional as he is. but this shows his power, what he fears, why he did this on this occasion, is not stable. you have reports of russian functionaries, state functionaries resigning. and of course, the protests in st. petersburg, in the square. so the nuclear card is showing. it's a logical that autocrats become highly destructive and desperate, we saw this with coffee. but i think there might be some

intervention at the highest level if this nuclear posturing goes on. >> the white house has issued a response to this immediately saying, in every step of this conflict, putin as manufactured threats to justify more aggressive actions. he was never under threat from ukraine, or from nato, which is a defensive alliance that will not fight in ukraine. the only reason his forces face a threat today is because they invaded a sovereign country, and one without nuclear weapons. this is yet another escalatory and totally unnecessary step. this is true. there was no threat to russia from ukraine. there was never any threat. russia invented, and various times, you and i have talked about this for weeks, a threat that nato has been a coaching upon them, a threat that there are nazis running ukraine. the idea that there is a genocide of russian-speaking people in donetsk and luhansk. none of this is true.

but the bottom line, is this strategy, or should we be worried about vladimir putin, and his state of mind right now, because he does have nuclear weapons? >> we should be very worried, because we are worried because we're living through this history and as putin is in my book identified him as vulnerable in the paperback version that came out in october, because he -- you know, when you've been in power so long and wield this kind of absolute power, you lose track of reality. we saw these recent meetings, these absurdly large tables with a lot of distance between himself and his security council and this showed me very isolated, perhaps not getting good intelligence. nobody wants to, you know, to say things they doesn't want to hear and this san autocrat syndrome and then they do these things out of vanity, out of, you know, delusions of grandeur

and what ukraine was. if it backfires, worst thing for an autocrat be humiliated. things directed at putin personally, all viewed as humiliations and get into a very bad state of mind. you only hope those around him with power recognize that and many times in autocratic history study mussolini removed by his.grand council, there are solutions to when an autocrat gets too derangeded. >> well, let's hope that those solutions come to pass now, because i was not expecting to talk to you this morning about russian forces going on high russian, russian nuclear forces on high alert. professor good to see you. professor of history at new york it university. author of "strong men: from moose l

mussolini to the present." more about russia arming nuclear forces, having nuclear forces go on high alert right after the break. stay with us. t after the break. stay with us.

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nbc news senior international correspondent live from moscow. keir, can you put meat on the bones of this story. we obviously know russia is nuclear armed and know how many nuclear arms they have and surprised vladimir putin mentioned it the other day declaring his invasion of ukraine but this move, is it symbolic or is it a reaction to the sanctions? >> reporter: yeah. around 6,000, just over 6,000 nuclear warheads. not all on missiles at the time obviously. a similar number held by the u.s. both russia and the united states are by far the largest nuclear powers in the world. we know that. i think, ali, this is a point where we just have to kind of ratchet back highhigh -- and frighten people and what's happening here, this kind of

threat from vladimir putin, putting his nuclear forces on high alert, that will be aimed at sending a message to nato. what that will be about, and it's possible that the russian president believes that there is a threat from nato. he has in his speech, as you mentioned earlier in the week, when he launched his assault on ukraine, threatened the west, and the threat went something along the lines of don't intervene, otherwise i will unleash destruction on you. again, your question really is, is this posturing, and clearly, it can be read that way, although you always want to be careful when it comes to nuclear weapons. so ultimately, what we do know is that the, in 2020, russia published a document where it laid out its basic principles of nuclear deterrence and that is very clear about the

circumstances in which russia would use nuclear weapons. so just as the united states has careful policies about the potential use of nuclear weapons, russia does, too. you have to go back, really, to the cold war and soviet union to kind of understand why it is that there is such concern about the potential for nato and the u.s. and russia to end up in a direct conflict. it is because of nuclear weapons, and both sides understand that. so i think clearly it is a worrying thing for the russian president to do. it will be worrying western capitals, and it will be worrying people in washington, but it is -- the russian president likes to make threats, and quite often they are just threats. >> keir it is necessary context you have provided us with and we appreciate that. i should remind people that on a

scale of 0 to 100 between conflict, between nato and russia and, or the u.s. and russia and 100, which is nuclear, we're at 0. there is no current conflict between nato and russia. so it is a bit surprising that vladimir putin would bring up nuclear weapons. also we assume both countries have, are always on a state of alert with respect to nuclear weapons. so we're going to have to make a lot of sense of this and going to through the course of the day. response from the white house and have a united nations emergency counce meeting at 3:00 p.m., and that is important what you say and context you bring to us, keir. this only means that the people who staff russia's nuclear weapons have been given a higher level of alert right now. we will continue to follow the story with great care, and we appreciate that you do that as well. keir, thank you for doing that. keir simmons, nbc news, senior international correspondent in moscow. that's it for me.

thank you for watching "velshi" catch me next weekend from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. afternoon and jonathan capehart pakes up coverage now. ukraine pubs back, reclaims second largest city from russians but reports vladimir putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. reactions from senators amy klobuchar and chris coons. >> then the new supreme court nominee and gives a preview of president biden's first state of the union address. and donald trump can quit putin. >> the problem is not that putin is smart. which, of course, he's smart, but the -- real problem is that our leaders are dumb. >> i remember when republicans stood up to russia. i'm jonathan