. >> a good afternoon. this is a special sunday edition of andrea mitchell reports, continuing our breaking news coverage of russia's unprovoked attack on ukraine, i ukrainian

officials say more than 350 civilians have been killed including 14 children since the start of the russian assault. thun security council last hour voting to hold an emergency general assembly session tomorrow with russia's ambassador blaming ukrainians for starting the conflict. we know that is gnaw true. as president biden and his national security team follow the developments and earlier, vladimir putin announced he was placing his nuclear deterrent forces on high alert, as russia and ukraine agree to hold talks on the belarus/ukraine border. ukrainians defended their capital on this fourth day of russia's assault with air raid sirens going off, desperate refugees fleeing in difficult trips to neighboring nato nations. today, the european union closed its air space to russia and the uk's british petroleum dumps its nearly 20% stake in the oil giant. that's on top of some russian banks getting kicked off the s.w.i.f.t. banking system providing it's approved by the

belgian system running that. joining us, matt bradley and keir simmons in moscow. matt, you heard sirens going off earlier, you had to hide in the bunker. what is the latest happening where you are, and let's talk about the agreement to talks between russia and ukraine on of all places the belarus border with apparently lukashenko giving -- promising safe passage to the ukrainian delegation. >> yeah, i mean, i can tell you, i'll start off with the talks. there's no reason for zelenskyy, the president of ukraine, to trust alexander lukashenko, because of course, belarus was used as a staging ground for these invasions that are happening right now. one of the main columns bearing down on kyiv was coming from belarus. and a lot of the military exercises that were so threatening in the days and weeks preceding the invasion were staged in belarus with the participation of alexander lukashenko. and indeed, lukashenko has

become with his belarusian state, almost like a subsidiary state to russia. to moscow. they call it the union state. it's almost a part of this idea of putin, of having reconstituting the ussr and a greater russia. but you asked what happened to us today. first, i can show you from you see our surroundings, as you know, you work for msnbc, normally we would come to you with a beautiful vista behind me, but now i'm just in a hotel room. that's because we can't point our cameras out of our balcony at the lovely city because we were told yesterday by armed men who came up to our room, police officers who were polite but heavily armed and said that we can't point our cameras out of the window, out of the balcony or our lights, because this city is in a blackout, like every city here in ukraine. they're trying to avoid getting pelted with bombs by the russians. so they have turned out all of the lights all throughout the

city. and even though we haven't seen a lot of bombs here, i haven't heard any real explosions since i arrived, we were earlier today, we were going to a place where a lot of volunteers were dropping off donations for soldiers who were on the front lines and people who are volunteering to fight, and in the middle of this really exuberant scene, this patriotic moment for ukrainians, we heard an air raid siren go off, and people were scrambling for cover. it was a really panicked and emotional scene. i saw tears in people's eyes as they were running away. we had to run away, too, and we went down to, it wasn't really a bunker, it was more just the parking garage underneath this hotel. we put on our gear, and you know, we took cover there. i have to tell you, we did that two more times over the course of this evening. once, we actually just came from down there in the parking garage where we were sitting around with everybody else, you know, there wasn't a particular amount of fear because there wasn't the sound of bombs dropping, but we're to understand this city,

which has avoided the worst so far, could be run over, could be attacked like the cities to the north, kharkiv, or to the south, within the next 24 to 48 hours. and when you walk around the city here, you see police on every corner. and the threat isn't just bombs from russia. if you're a man between 18 and 60, you could be caught out, told you need to be forcibly conscripted and press gangs into going to fight. it's a risk a lot of people are taking and a lot of people it seems are choosing to remain indoors. >> matt bradley, please stay safe, and thanks for everything you have gone through to give us that report. from somewhere in central ukraine. >> and keir in moscow, how serious was that nuclear threat from putin? it surprised probably some people in his own inner circle. including his military. >> yeah, very likely, and actually, we have just heard

another desperate plea of the u.n. security council from ukraine saying so far 16 children have been killed, accusing russia of targeting suburbs, saying the maternity hospitals are struggling to operate, and accusing russia of open nuclear blackmail for that announcement by vladimir putin that his nuclear forces are now on high alert. we don't actually know what that means, because russia is a nuclear deterrence is always in a state of readiness. the u.s. and other western capitals trying to figure out what it is that president putin exactly is saying he is doing. i suspect that much as there is a war in ukraine, this is part of a propaganda war, but it does have people worried, andrea, because of this continuing concern that there could be a direct clash between russia and nato, an accidental clash that might drag nato and the u.s. into this conflict directly, and of course, russia and u.s. being

two nuclear powers. you'll know yourself, of course, andrea, that at the u.n., the diplomatic talk is important to russia because it wants its allies to be able to explain and support and so those negotiations between ukraine and russia were brought up, for example, by the chinese, who pulled for avoidance of escalation and welcomed the dialogue. i have to tell you, people i speak to here, including those with close contacts with the kremlin, are fairly suspicious that those negotiations will lead anywhere. andrea. >> especially if putin still holds to his position and to the lavrov position throughout all of their talks previously, conversations with president biden and with secretary blinken, and in lavrov's case, hold to their position that were nonnegotiable, where nato would have to change its whole posture in order to, at this point,

ukraine would have to back down and turn over power to vladimir putin. >> that's exactly right. and you know, one person who, one former russian official with close contacts to the kremlin described it, frankly, as russia trolling ukraine, pointing out that it's a former culture, russian culture minister who was leading that delegation said if you're really serious about negotiating, you wouldn't have a former culture minister as the person leading that delegation. that just adds to the concerns that this situation in ukraine is about to get worse, that russia may be preparing more firepower and we talked about it last hour. just in the past few hours, the embassy here in moscow telling u.s. citizens they should consider departing russia immediately via commercial options still available. that's as the european union closes air space to russian flights. there is this sense, andrea, of

a new iron curtain going up around russia, but of course, if president putin has his back to the wall, that then makes people concerned about what he might do. >> absolutely. keir simmons, thank you so much. and joining us now, again, is former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon, jeremy bash, and former state department russian sanctions lead, edward fishman. jeremy, what does this nuclear deterrence escalation by putin mean? is this just rhetorical, an empty threat? how do the u.s. and western allies prepare for something like that? >> andrea, normally, devoid of this context, you know, it would be seen as innocuous saber rattling. in this context where you have nato allies very focused on the situation in ukraine, and we have a combat situation unfolding in a country on the doorstep of nato, i don't think anybody can downplay the

significance of this. i think this is part of russian military doctrine to escalate, to include the use of their cyber unconventional and nuclear capabilities. what i worry about, andrea, is there could be some horrible miscalculation here. you know, a russian ballistic missile attack could go over the border and hit a target in poland or in romania, and then of course, under article 5, under our nato treaty requirements, united states and our allies would be duty bound to defend the territory of our nato partners. and then we could be looking at a nuclear confrontation the likes of which, of course, we have never seen in our history. so we have to be very careful, very deliberate. i think it's absolutely critical we have some red phone dialogue with the russian military, either through our joint chiefs of staff or through some other mechanism or maybe through some other third party country. i think this could escalate to a very dangerous situation, but it all points up to the fact this is not going well for russia, because if it were, they

wouldn't have to escalate. so i think actually this is a huge opportunity for the united states and the west to grind down the russian federation and in effect deal them a very significant blow. >> so interesting. edward, talk about sanctions. you were at the state department working on sanctions. what is the importance of what was done on s.w.i.f.t.? would it take a while to see exactly who they're carving out exclusions for? because those are the banks that have energy contracts or energy accounts? we don't really know how comprehensive it's going to be. >> that's right, andrea, but i think irrespective of the details. these sanctions mark a dramatic escalation of economic pressure against putin. and we're already seeing the consequences in russia. even before these sanctions have been enacted and as you mentioned, all we had yesterday was an announcement. you haven't seen the sanctions imposed, and we're already seeing the begins of financial panic in russia. bank runs, banks running out of hard currency.

this is only going to escalate. pretty much irrespective of what the details of the sanctions package are. the thing i would say that's really been noteworthy to me, and that's really different, categorically, from what we experienced in 2014, is european attitudes have had a sea change in really the last 72 hours. we have seen the european union go from frankly a bit of laggards on sanctions to really being out in front of what everyone else is doing. banning overflights, or banning russian planes from landing in europe today is a significant move. bp decision to sell off its shares, norway coming out and saying it's going to divest from russia in its sovereign wealth fund. this is a dramatic change in european attitudes. from the beginning of the crisis, i said if putin were to actually launch a full-scale war on ukraine, we would be on a conveyer belt to iran style sanctions. i thought that would take months to get to its conclusion.

now we're looking like days or weeks. that's a really dramatic change of events in the whole situation. >> and ambassador mcfaul, what about the protests in russia? is something changing there? >> yes, and it's not just the people on the streets. i mean, ed is absolutely right. these sanctions have gone really fast. and a lot of uncertainty as a result of that, right? so the sanctions haven't even been announced. i was just on the phone with a very senior person connected to russian elites. we call them oligarchs. they are panicked in moscow today. completely panicked about what happens tomorrow. so there's uncertainty amongst the elites around putin who are connected to him. and at the same time, you have massive protests in the streets. remember, this is a place that just arrests people and throws them in jail for protesting. alexei navalny is about to get 15 more years for innocently protesting, yet you did have

thousands of people arrested, and that means if thousands are being arrested, that means that tens of thousands of people have the same views. they just don't want to get arrested. this is a war that's extremely unpopular. i think putin has grossly underestimated how willing his people would stand behind him. andrea, including the soldiers in ukraine. i just watched a dozen videos of various soldiers that have been captive. they're there, they have no idea why they're there. they have no idea what this war is about. they didn't listen to the president's hour-long rambling speech that was supposed to rally the troops. that is another reason why this war is going bad for him. the people of russia are not supporting this war. >> and there are close familiar relationships often between the russian population and the ukrainian population that outsiders might not well understand. >> absolutely. and there are many of ethnic russians, the city of kharkiv, i have been to the city of

kharkiv. the language -- the language that most people speak there is russian. there are -- i don't know exactly off the top of my head, but there are tens of thousands of ethnic russians in the city of kharkiv that vladimir putin is now attacking. he's now killing russians in eastern ukraine, and people are wondering why are we doing this? this phrase, what is this war for, is being asked time and time again when i interact with russians. >> mike mcfaul, jeremy bash, and edward fishman, thank you all so much. rapidly developing story throughout events throughout today. and who better to have than the three of you? and ambassador mcfaul, if you don't mind staying with us. >> but first, the unthinkable. nuclear devastation not seen in generations, but could it become a reality now? former energy secretary ernest moniz joins me next with a lot of context on this special weekend edition of andrea

mitchell reports. edition of and mitchell reports once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. if you have advanced non-small cell lung cancer, so it was a happy ending... your first treatment could be a chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works differently. it could mean a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread, tests positive for pd-l1,

and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. together, opdivo plus yervoy helps your immune system launch a response that fights cancer in two different ways. opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more time together. more family time. more time to remember. opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to harm healthy parts of your body during and after treatment. these problems can be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have a cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; irregular heartbeat; diarrhea; constipation; severe stomach pain, nausea or vomiting; dizziness; fainting; eye problems; extreme tiredness; changes in appetite, thirst or urine; rash; itching; confusion; memory problems; muscle pain or weakness; joint pain; flushing; or fever. these are not all the possible side effects. problems can occur together and more often when opdivo is used with yervoy. tell your doctor about all medical conditions including immune or nervous system problems, if you've had or plan to have an organ or stem cell transplant, or received chest radiation. here's to a chance to live longer. ask your doctor about the combination of two immunotherapies, opdivo plus yervoy. thank you to all those in our clinical trials.

(announcer) are you stressed out? have back pain? frustrated with belly fat? have no energy? now, there's a simple solution, the aerotrainer! you're supported on a cushion of air for maximum muscle activity. four exercises in less than five minutes is all you need. stretch back, shoulders, and legs, safely do the ultimate crunch, tone and shape your entire body. then, relax, stretch, and melt away the stress. the aerotrainer is only $49.90 and you get free shipping! that's aerotrainer.com.

as we have been reporting, president putin has put his nuclear forces on high alert, he says, causing concern in ukraine and of course around the world. joining me now is former secretary of energy, ernest moniz, co-chair and ceo of the nuclear threat initiative. thank you very much, mr. secretary. we talked in the past about nuclear weapons but never in a situation like this, with a hot war in the middle of europe.

>> right. well, i think president putin's statement was really reckless, reprehensible. and also ironic, because just last month, he signed along with the leaders of the united states, china, france, and great britain, the so-called p-5, he signed a statement reaffirming that nuclear war cannot be won, and should not be fought. so this step of going to high alert when one already has situations of really inadequate times to make decisions with regard to nuclear weapons use is very, very dangerous. we're talking here about miscalculation, blunder, fog of war, fighter jet strays over the poland/ukraine border, or other things occur, which of course, are not part of the plan, that happens a lot in war. and this could escalate very, very badly. >> you have been involved in a

lot of high-stakes negotiations. you were part of the team negotiating the iran nuclear deal in 2015. all of the technical aspects of that. we're now at the precipice of the administration possibly buying into iran rejoining and the u.s. rejoining and iran being in compliance. a lot of critics at home and certainly israel saying you need a lot more because they have gained so much knowledge in the years that we have been out of it because of president trump and they broke out of it as well, accordingly. you have that. you have north korea firing off a missile today again, their eighth in just a month and a half. i mean, we have enough proliferation in this world to worry about, and now he starts talking about using nuclear weapons. we're not using, but putting them on alert. >> right. and in particular, i think even if we can hopefully get a standing ground in that -- in the nuclear space, frankly,

damage has been done because it has elevated after a lot of progress towards nonproliferation, it has elevated again the role of nuclear weapons in the minds of leaders' security strategy. and so frankly, we have already taken a couple steps back. we have to get back to the wheel and put our shoulders to it in order to continue to have nuclear weapons viewed as more and more surely a deterrence against nuclear use. putin has no threat to him, frankly either conventionally or through nuclear use today, so this is really a very unnecessary escalation. it frankly also brings up what has long been speculated, not fully confirmed but speculated i would say, as russian strategy to sometimes perhaps use a

so-called small nuclear weapon as a way to escalate on the path to de-escalation. that's another very, very bad judgment if it's correct, if it's true. because a nuclear use has much more probability of escalating than of de-escalating. >> i covered all of the nuclear noegations between ronald reagan and mikhail gorbachev and saw multiple agreements on long range and intermediate range and short range weapons as well, theater weapons. so that we thought we had the u.s./soviet and now u.s./russia piece under control. relative control. >> well, we have said before that we think that the risk of nuclear use is higher today than it has been since the cuban missile crisis. that was a statement made before the ukraine escalation and putin's alerting of his nuclear

forces. so you can imagine that level of risk is even much, much higher. and it's very, very important that we stand down, certainly from this nuclear precipice, that we are way too close to today given putin's statement. again, i stress, in a situation in which he has zero security risks from either conventional or nuclear forces. >> at this stage, nuclear weapons would be unthinkable since 1945. unthinkable for any commander, any president, any head of state. do you think it is -- what he is doing is normalizing the potential that anyone at any level would even think about that as a legitimate weapon of war? >> well, that's exactly what i meant earlier, andrea, that the statements made have already done damage by putting -- by

reinventing this false idea that nuclear weapons should be at the heart of one's security strategy, as opposed to a deterrent that we hope eventually to be able to eliminate. and of course, countries in general, including the united states, have never made clear sole purpose statements that the only purpose of nuclear weapons is to deter the use against one's self, and in that situation, with the possibility of not just nuclear use but of hybrid warfare, of massive cyberattacks on infrastructure, et cetera, again, miscalculation is an enormous risk. things can just escalate out of control to extraordinarily -- to extraordinary bad consequences. so it's very important that

putin take those nuclear forces in particular out of control, and of course, we need to stop the entire invasion of ukraine and hope that some of the scheduled talks can work, despite, i would say, the lack of confidence in that being the outcome of those discussions. also, i might add that we all know, and president biden has said so, that the possibility of ukraine entering nato anytime soon is essentially nonexistent. for a whole variety of reasons. and consequently, the grounds for a negotiated diplomatic settlement should be there. you mentioned, for example, your experience during the reagan/gorbachev years. well, when frankly in the trump administration, when we ended the intermediate nuclear forces treaty, the inf treaty, that

leads to instability which can come into play right now. on the other hand, there is every way that the united states, our nato allies, and russia could affect the inf treaty, even without a treaty again. but affect it in an executive order such that we don't have any of those intermediate range missiles, let's yourals all the way to the ocean. there are many things we could negotiate right now to improve the security architecture, address some of russia's concerns without, of course, trying to resolve issues of political principle that really aren't going to change, frankly, on either side anytime soon. >> very good -- very good reminder there were some arms control proposals on the table that were presented a month ago to vladimir putin by secretary

blinken and delivered by our ambassador in moscow. >> yeah, and frankly, again, that p-5 statement i mentioned was one positive step, it seemed, in addition, following the biden/putin summit several months ago, we had resumed strategic stability talks with russia. those are now suspended, of course, as well. so we really have taken a big step backwards because of president putin's reckless behavior. >> thanks to you and former senator sam nunn for keeping this front and center on your agenda. thank you to both of you. >> and coming up next, confirmation countdown. democrats hoping to have the president's supreme court pick approved by early april. is that realistic? this is a special weekend edition of andrea mitchell reports on msnbc.

crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond.

i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! (sighs wearily) here i'll take that! (excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

biden now with the white house beginning try to win confirmation for the president's first supreme court nominee, u.s. court of appeals judge ketanji brown jackson. joining us is linda greenhouse, of course, the legendary correspondent covering the supreme court and yale professor as well. what types of conversations do you think are happening behind closed doors in the senate this week? >> well, i think on the democratic side, i'm sure they're strategizing how to present her with the fabulous record she has. and on the republican side, i think they're going to have to come up with reasons to oppose her, and the reasons they have come up with, lindsey graham with the radical left, that kind of thing, you know, i certainly don't think can fly and bring over a single democratic voter.

and of course, with all of the democrats and the vice president, we don't need any republicans, i suppose. >> you know, earlier today, on "meet the press," it was suggested a lot of her decisions had been overturned by one of the contributors there. what kind of legal record does she have? i don't know what they mean by overturned, her judicial record over nine years? >> yeah, she's had hundreds of opinions. you could fly speck anyone's judicial record. it really, you know, they're grasping at straws, really. and it's going to be a lot of verbiage, but i think at the end of the day, it's not going to amount to very much. >> she did get three republican votes when she was confirmed eight month ago for the u.s. court of appeals and that included susan collins, lisa murkowski, and lindsey graham. now lindsey graham, and i

understand he favored his home state senator -- home state judge, federal judge, michelle childs. but at the same time, how can he suddenly not like the record of someone he voted for just eight months ago? >> you know, it's hard to make it sound as if it makes any sense. so we have seen this before. you know, it reminds me of when president obama's first nominee, sonia sotomayor, was put forward. and it was widely expected a number of republicans would vote for her. she had 17 years on the federal courts. you know, excellent academic record. judicial record. and once mitch mcconnell told his conference, you know, my highest goal is not to allow president obama to accomplish anything, they all melted away. and i think she ended up with seven or eight republican votes.

which was just ridiculous. but they all have a track record of, you know, acting this way, and i think it's important not to put a patina of a rationale on it. it's pure politics. >> wow, we're going to have to watch a lot of politics play out, but the betting is that barring something that is completely unexpected, that they'll be able to hold the democrats, which is at least the 50 votes. there used to be a time when supreme court nominees would get both sides would get large votes, you know, liberals would get votes, we'll have to see what happens in this case as well. thank you very much. in any case, it's an historic nomination. fascinating to watch. >> virtual warfare. could a cyberattack drag the u.s. into the russian conflict? you're watching a special weekend edition. this is andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. s andrea mitchell repo on msnbc

so more businesses can do more. mike's bike shop! downloading up to 10 times faster. whoa! is that already... (mike) yeah. (vo) hello business on the go. bye-bye public wi-fi. 5g ultra wideband is faster and safer. would you look at rhea's real estate game? closing in low lag, crystal clear hd. it's a new day for more businesses! 5g ultra wideband is now in more and more places. verizon is going ultra, so your business can too.

senate intelligence committee chairman mark warner warning against a russian cyberattack and what that could mean for the u.s. and our allies this morning on "meet the press." >> if you suddenly see american troops get hurt because the power has been shut off or polish citizens die because the hospitals go down, you're very rapidly approaching what i think is article 5 violation. >> article 5 meaning a declaration of war, a state of war by nato against the russian cyber warriors. joining us now is richard stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, and msnbc national security analyst clint watts. clint, how soon would you expect to see some kind of nato allied reaction to a cyberattack? we have already seen cyberattacks from russia. cyberwinds and our election in

2016, but we never considered it an act of war before. >> yeah, andrea, i really think it comes down to severity and scale. and then i also think it comes down to what would we do in return. the question has always been, what essentially is deterrence or what is rational response to a cyberattack. and this is where it gets very confusing for us in the west, because we're more worried, we have more loss we could take on a cyberattack. more surface area they could attack, so creating really that mechanism by which we respond in kind is difficult to understand. you might remember there was the cyberattack that got out of control many years back. many of these attacks can't be controlled. i think for the west, determining what is a legitimate target, that might be the russian military. that might be parts of the russian government. and then how do you contain that if you're going to do it, and i think it comes down to coordination. across our european allies and nato, obviously, communication has gotten really tight in recent weeks and it's been very

productive, but how do we make sure everybody knows what's going on in cyberspace so we don't inadvertently cross over each other. >> and richard, what about the russian propaganda and disinformation campaign? there are words you can't use, they are not at war, they haven't attacked. this is not an invasion, this is a military, what is it, a military situation? there's all kinds of ambiguous strange phrases that have to be used by the russian media. >> yes, andrea, but the russian messaging machine is struggling. they have multiple audiences. you're talking about their internal audience. part of the problem with messaging to their internal audience is this stubborn thing called reality. they're actually not doing it that well. they're not covering it 24/7. we're covering it much more closely than they are. the other messaging russia cares about is messaging to ukraine. that also is being denied by reality. the russians are saying hey, the

ukrainians are giving up. zelenskyy has fled. all of these things are wrong. and then there's the wider messaging that they're trying to do to the outside world, to the west, and that isn't going very well either. there's the strong sanctions, there are protests around the world, where it is seeing protests in moscow and around russia, so the vaunted russian messaging machine is coming up against reality and it's losing. >> and richard, partly -- part of what they're showing on russian tv, russian state tv, is donald trump praising vladimir putin, secretary pompeo, tucker carlson. you know, with his praise of putin and denigration of joe biden. that's part of their propaganda. just wanted to show you -- let me show you what mitt romney had to say about that this morning. >> how anybody in this country which loves freedom can side with vladimir putin, which is an

oppressor, a dictator. he kills people. he imprisons his political opponents. he's been an adversary of america at every chance he's had. it's unthinkable to me. it's almost treasonous. >> that was, of course, mitt romney speaking with my friend dana bash on cnn. i wanted to bring that to you, richard, to tee up your answer. >> yes, and let's remember it was mitt romney in 2012 who said that our greatest threat on the world stage was russia. but what we're talking about here is an old phrase called fifth columnist, people inside a country who are helping an enemy. look, that's all protected by the first amendment. and i would never say that people cannot say that. but it is giving comfort to people who are our sworn enemy and who may come into confrontation with american soldiers in the region and as clint mentioned, be susceptible

to their cyber warfare as well. >> thank you for being with us today. americans have been quick to show their support for ukraine and the extraordinary resilience and courage of the ukrainian people. you're looking at live pictures from chicago, home to a large ukrainian american community, just one of many demonstrations happening across the nation with the blue and yellow flags, and d.c., supporters gathering outside the white house unfurling a giant ukrainian flag. supporters chanting usa stands with ukraine. similar scenes this afternoon in new york's washington square park. overnight, the empire state building lit up in ukrainian colors and our friends at "snl" replaced their usual open with a solemn tribute sung by a ukrainian chorus of new york. yok

this is the sound of nature breathing. and this is the sound of better breathing. fasenra is a different kind of asthma medication. it's not a steroid or inhaler. fasenra is an add-on treatment for asthma driven by eosinophils. it's one maintenance dose every 8 weeks. it helps prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing, and lower use of oral steroids. nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. fasenra is designed to target and remove them. fasenra is not a rescue medication or for other eosinophilic conditions.

fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. this is the sound of fasenra. ask your doctor about fasenra. ♪♪ energy is everywhere...

even in a little seedling. which, when turned into fuel, can help power a plane. at chevron's el segundo refinery, we're looking to turn plant-based oil into renewable gasoline, jet and diesel fuels. our planet offers countless sources of energy. but it's only human to find the ones that could power a better future.

well, tuesday night will be the president's first state of the union address. white house press secretary jen psaki talked to my colleague jonathan capehart about the defining moment this morning. >> what presidents do is lead during crises. they lead the world during crises. and that's exactly what president biden is doing, so you can expect the american people can expect to hear him talk about that as well. standing up against president putin, standing up against autocracies, that will also be a part of his speech. >> joining us now is nbc news

president his torial, michael beschloss, david ignatius, and once again, michael mcfaul. michael beschloss, according to the latest poll, not good news for joe biden, more than half the country says the president's first year in office was a failure. what is he up against in this speech? how does one speech, especially one now dominated by a foreign crisis, when most americans are really more worried about inflation, you know, how does that help him get the political lift that presidents want to get from this annual speech? >> doesn't help as much as it did during the time of let's say john kennedy. kennedy oddly enough in those days, presidents still gave state of the union messages at midday. they didn't care about getting a primetime audience. nonetheless, in those days, they had a big impact because you had, of course, three tv networks, probably 90% of the people watching tv, heavily

covered in newspapers, and kennedy gave a first speech that was called a state of the union, although he was only in office five days, 1961, to congress. then came the bay of pigs. then came the soviet union surpassing the soviet union sur united states in the space race. kennedy thought he was in bad shape. he went back to congress 25th of may and gave what he called a second state of the union address. he did that announcing this little item which was that the united states would land someone on the moon before the end of the decade. that got all the attention, gave an enormous second wind to his administration. >> do you think they can change the subject, ambassador mcfaul? they've got to talk about ukraine. how does he turn that into something that rallies america? >> well, i do think you can't ignore this giant crisis, this

cataclysmic event, the biggest war in europe since 1939. i think it would be a giant mistake to skip over that in a paragraph. i think president biden needs to use this incredible moment to explain to the american people what's at stake here, that this is not just a face between putin and a country where most people don't know where it's at, but this is a fight for the future of freedom, for the future of the international system. and he should -- without sounding too arrogant, applaud himself that president biden has become the leader of the free world in a way that is i think quite remarkable. i think he should focus his attention to explain to the people what's going on and then to also explain to them why he has taken such a strong courageous stance that i think is having a great effect. >> david ignatius, you were writing that president vladimir putin has effectively awakened the ghosts of war in europe, also tightened alliances of our

western allies. how is he defining all these -- with all apologies to michael beschloss. i'm taking you into history. >> i will defer to michael and future books, but this is a hinge of history. there's no question about it. the post cold war order really is coming apart. vladimir putin is shredding it. he's making a head-on knowing attack. in terms of how biden communicates to the country in the state of the union address, my feeling is that biden is at his best when he's 'em empathetic, when meme have lost loved ones, biden goes into a different gear and draws on the suffering in his own life, the

loss of his first wife, his children, his son most recently, and i think that, joe biden empathizing with the people of ukraine suffering under this terrible bombardment, completely outrageous, unprovoked attack on them, president zelenskyy of ukraine, an unlikely hero at this moment, if biden can evoke those people who are living under the bombs and make them real for the american people, i think he'll go a lot further than talking in the abstract about the new world order and the rules-based this -- he's tried that and i just don't think that's the card that really resonates with the american people now. >> michael, you've said this moment reminds you of another time in history, the cuban missile crisis. what can we learn from history there? >> that a president has to save the world on occasion. john kennedy in october of 1962, the soviets slipped missiles into cuba.

kennedy had to decide what to do. thank god he was a big reader of history and read "the guns of august" by barbara tuchman. what was the message? world war i started because of a lot of accidents, miscommunications, miscalculations. kennedy said i want to know everything that's said even by some mid level official. if a plane goes the wrong way near the soviet border, i want to know about it. just one of those things might convince nikita khrushchev, the soviet leader, he might try to preempt and that would be the end of it. in the missile crisis there was an american plane that accidentally crossed the soviet border near alaska. kennedy managed to stop it. if he had not, if there had been a nuclear war we could have had 50 to 60 million people incinerated. many of us on this panel might not be here. >> mike mcfall, thank you for

being with us for two hours today, and we also, of course, saw you this morning. can you bring it all together for us? how do we appeal to what seems to be an illogical leader like vladimir putin, isolated and illogical? >> i say two quick things. first, i completely agree with david about the messaging. i worked with the vice president, now the president, for three years -- five years actually, three years at the white house. that's when he's at his best. i would remind you that ukrainians, polish americans, lithuanian player cans, they live in those places that the president knows well, places like pennsylvania, ohio, wisconsin. he can connect to them. he knows those people. the second thing i would just say, it is a very dark, dire moment in history because putin has unleashed a heinous war with no justification. now he's threatening to use nuclear weapons. we need to -- the president needs to explain why we're

engaged here and also the things that he's trying to do to make sure we stay safe including i think reaching out through quiet channels to reach putin and as people to make sure this doesn't become any bigger than it already is. >> that does it for us for this special weekend edition of "andrea mitchell reports." i'll see you tomorrow at noon eastern. follow us online, facebook and twitter. "politics nation" with reverend al sharpton starts right after this. after this my husband, sam, we've been married 53 years. we love to walk on the beach. i have two daughters and then two granddaughters. i noticed that memories were not there like they were when i was much younger. since taking prevagen,

my memory has gotten better and it's like the puzzle pieces have all been [click] put together. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? once-weekly ozempic® can help.

♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabetes zone. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems.

looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription.

♪ ♪ good evening and welcome to "politics nation." tonight's breaking news lead, red alert. right now ukrainian defense forces are trying to hold on to the country's capital kyiv as blasts continue to ring out in now the fifth day of the russian invasion of ukraine, and the world holds out hope that larger global confrontation can be