welcome back to our continuing coverage of the russia invasion into ukraine. i am andrea mitchell in washington. here are the top stories at this hour. russian troops are being met with strong resistance from ukrainian forces but ukraine is now bracing for an expected second wave, an onslaught. belarus and that country's military joining the fight. and president zelensky linking ukraine to the west by normally applying for member to the european union. president biden spoke with

allies this morning after the u.s. hit russia with new sanctions today, including massive interest rate hikes. the pressure has been put on vladimir putin as the global community condemns his actions at the united nations holding a rare emergency special session of the general assembly. joining me is richard engel in kyiv, cal perry in laviv and keir simmons in moscow. a top adviser said the ukrainians are open to more talks after the discussions today on the border of belarus but added that the russians are extremely, quote, biased in their rhetoric over what we're seeing on the ground. i'm taking from that that it was no agreement to a cease-fire demand from ukraine. >> reporter: well, clearly not because shortly after the talks concluded, there were more

strikes on the outskirts of kyiv and ukrainian officials just announced a short while ago that a radar installation to the west of the city was one of the targets that was hit. but it is a fairly good sign that at least ukraine is open to more talks. ukraine was going into this meeting with very low expectations, saying that -- president zelenskyy sending someone so he could not be accused of not wanting peace. it has been a relatively quiet night compared to others, aside from a handful of explosions on the outskirts of the city, things are quiet. it is completely empty. it's a surreal or eerie feeling to be here right now. you can hear the cars, if there are any cars, occasionally a single car will drive by and you can hear the tires on the road from maybe a kilometer away.

so it is a city where people are inside, they are bracing. a lot of people have their lights out and they are waiting for more air strikes and what they're most concerned about, what people are preparing for is a ground invasion. they are watching what's happening in kharkiv, where russian troops have intensified their assault and throughout the day people have been preparing, militias on the street setting up fighting positions, setting up sandbags, people out with shotguns, hunting rifles, getting ready for a possible assault. >> and cal perry, we're starting to see new images from the border towns, where thousands of refugees are waiting to see what is happening with their country. you've got some of those shots. what are you seeing from your vantage point? >> reporter: we just heard from the polish government that at least 300,000 people have

crossed from ukraine into poland, more than 125 different nationalities according to the polish government. it's a deteriorating situation. what we're seeing is the result of the fighting that richard is witnessing in the form of human traffic. we're talking now of hundreds of thousands of people displaced, if not millions. so many are making it to this city of liviv. some people are abandoning their cars and trying to walk to the border but that is dangerous because the conditions are getting worse and worse. it's going tock hungary and

moldova. it is happening on multiple borders all at the same time and seems to be getting worse. there is also a growing concern that they left family members behind, exactly what richard is saying, that maybe that window to leave the capitol has closed so there is a great deal of concern about people who remain behind and what is to come, andrea. >> and keir simmons in moscow, president putin met with his economic advisers, another long table there. mostly doesn't have the answers for inflation and the ruble collapsing and the sanctions that came over the weekend and built to more sanctions this morning against the central bank. >> reporter: you're right, andrea. and that long table when he met with his defense minister so the distance between him and even his inner circle. i want to share a little bit of what their perception is of the trouble the russians are having.

they are saying that the air defenses were not taken out, ukrainian's air defenses were not taken out on the first day and that is leaving russian helicopters vulnerable. they're also saying the ukrainians have been effective in denying bridges to the russian forces. and very interestingly they're pointing to a long diatribe that putin put out last year about the ukrainian and russian connections. they're saying there was a misappreciation by the russians for ukrainian support of russia and they think that misappreciation which they cite president putin for went into the planning. in other words, president put be thought that the ukrainian people would support him and he is being disabused of that thought. and of course at the same time it does appear he did not republic or did not aes --

assess the levels in the west. interest rates doubling to 20%. today we saw people lining up at a atm trying to get ruble and foreign currency. a crash in the value of the russian currency, the stock market suspended for the week. just to finish off, i was talking to two women in their 30s, musicians. one of them studied at m.i.t. saying they don't know now whether they'll get visas for the west. they've had trouble trying to get currency. they have friends whose savings they are watching being depleted. the middle class is absolutely shaken. your point about that long table between president putin and his advisers. the question is is that question getting through to president putin himself? >> keir simmons, thank you.

joining me is the ambassador, permanent representative to estonia to the united nations who was in new york for the general assembly meetings and the debate over that resolution. i want to hear what we played from the u.s. representative of ukraine when discussing vladimir putin. >> if he wants to kill himself, he doesn't need to use nuclear arsenal. he has to do what the guy in berlin did in the bunker in may. 1945. we do not accept the russian logic that the security council was enabled to act due to one-sided and unbalanced approach. the only guilty party is the russian federation. ukraine's ambassador has been very pointed with his sharp comments to the russian ambassador when he was sitting as president of the security council of course on friday. so give us a sense of this

debate and the importance of this resolution in support of ukraine. >> well, thank you, andrea, for having me here. i think this is a moment that most u.n. member states understand, that this is a defining moment for the organization. actually, the future of the u.n. charter and the organization itself depends on what we are doing right now. if you remember the fall of the league of nations that was created after the furst, then it failed because soviet union and germany attacked poland and finland. but we are at a 1939 moment. when i listened to the secretary-general, i think in the history of the organization the secretary-general of the

united nations has never been so clear how dangerous the situation is. >> and from the perspective of the baltic states, newer members of nato and certainly on the front lines here, do you have everything that you need? are you getting everything you need from germany, from the u.s., france, u.k. in terms of built l building up your military? how worried are you about this spilling over? >> i think at the moment we see a real development of understanding where we are. the unity that we are seeing at the moment is just spectacular. i think the potential that european union had for for example, it's being visible now. this is a time for unity. and we are seeing this. there are massive moves of more equipment also to support the eastern flank of nato and when

and we can right now see how wrong he was. this is exactly what is happening right now actually. what he didn't want to see. and at the same time, you know, we have a military support coming in but there is also if you look at the sanctions and everything, i think can you really during the last few days, we can see how much people understand where we are. i was a bit frustrated a few days ago or a week ago when we were talking about sanctions and there was a lot of talk how the sanctions will hurt us as well. and i was always saying of course it will hurt us as well. but if we understand what kind of a defining moment it is, we have to remember what winston churchill said in 1939, he promised blood, toil, sweat and tears but he also promised we

will prevail. when i'm looking at the ukrainians who are fighting and dying for all of us and at the united nations, when we talk about unity, it shouldn't only be among countries, but i think we are too polarized, both here and in the united states but also in my home country, in european countries. i think in this kind of a situation, we have to understand small victories that are so normal in a normal democratic situation, we should forget them and stand united against a great evil. >> we've seen a big change in policy in germany arming ukraine and now switzerland agreeing to the financial sanctions, something they've never done before. now zelenskyy has posted a

picture of him signing and posting his application for eu membership. i know he is years away from nato membership, the consensus there. what does he have to do to get eu membership? >> well, eu membership finally is a long process. we went through this. eu is a very complicated organization. but at the moment what i think is really necessary is to get a strong signal from the european union that ukraine is welcome in the european union, to start the process. if we remember then actually in 2014 where it all started was that the ukrainian people wanted to have a european perspective. and it was pressure from moscow, took a step back and finally that led to everything that we are seeing right now. but at the same time, what

russia also has to understand in this context is that when they don't want nato to move closer to their borders, then actually nato is not moving anywhere. it's countries who want to join. i was ambassador in washington from 2000 to 2003 and trying to convince washington and also other nato members to accept us as a nato member. and i remember how hard it was to fight even the language when people were talking about nato expansion. it was not nato expansion, it was nato enlaurjment because krs and putin has to look into the mirror and ask himself why do all his neighbors want to join? and if you look at around russia, russia has bad relations with all its neighbors. not one of them, not two of them, not even three of them.

the only country that we could say maybe they have normal relations is a country that is not even sovereign anymore and that is belarus. how much of a sovereign country is belarus at the moment? but i think for normal success for the european union, it is a very long process. but i think ukrainians have got this right, they have earned the right with the heroic fight they are doing right now, they have earned the right with their blood. >> well, ambassador, your perspective is so important. thank you. i should just point out there's just been reported poland's foreign minister has tweeted that they support the ascension to the eu by their ukrainian colleagues and all of you border countries are being so heroic. thanks so much, ambassador. the next option, the military option, is that the only choice

left for ukrainians and russians as they feel the pain sparked by this war. plus the challenges getting supplies into ukraine. we're live in russia and we'll speak to the supreme allied commander of nato next. >> and world renowned chef is doing his part to help ukraine. he joins me ahead from poland. you're watching a special extended edition of "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. this is msnbc. tions like i am, you should know that there are millions of people across the country using singlecare to drive down the cost of their prescriptions. so whether you have medicare or you don't.

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as russian troops continue their military attack against ukraine, russia's people are feeling the economic and the social effects of this ongoing conflict. earlier today historically neutral switzerland announced it was freezing russian assets, putting switzerland in line with sanctions imposed by the

european union. switzerland is not an eu member and has never taken this step. and the olympic committee suggested banning belarusan athletes. >> reporter: there's a lot of anxiety here in russia about the ruble and about the effect of sanctions. some people are panicking and some are just fatalistic and resigned to it but everyone has essentially a negative opinion. they're seeing their savings erased and runs on currency in

atms in certain places. people have become accustomed to a certain living. a lot of russians are alarmed their country may be retreating from the world after 30 years since the fall of the soviet union. i've spoken to several, especially younger russians, who are terrified they'll never be able to get out. they don't agree with what's going on. they're seeing their livelihoods being destroyed and they have nowhere to go. that are feel doomed to liching under a regime that has committed a war that they don't want. a lot of emotion around this. there are of course people who do support vladimir putin and may support what is going on in ukraine. they are typically older and they follow the russia state media but i don't think they're any more comforted by it. there's memory of the financial collapse in the 1990s and

collapse of the soviet union as well. there's this general shock compounded by no one believing that their president was going to attack ukraine. >> and there's been an offer of amnesty and money to russian soldiers if they give up their weapons. is that at all likely? there's so much nationalism in russia that it's hard to believe, though there were reports that russian soldiers were confused as to why they were fighting because the messaging has been so distorted from the russian perspective. >> reporter: exactly. i mean, we're kind of at this phase in general now i think in russia at this point. what effect does the russian messaging still have on people, there's such a disparity.

we've been seeing indications even in what's left of the russian independent press that soldiers, at least some of them, up until the final hours and days until the invasion truly thought they were just on exercises in belarus and that they have now been sent into a conflict they don't understand, they don't want against people who speak their language who are yelling at them obscenities in their language. it must be confusing for at least some of them. >> indeed. thank you very much. russia has now launched more than 380 missiles since its full scale invasion of ukraine began days ago according to a senior pentagon official. now ukrainian officials say they suspect russia used a cluster bomb during its attack on the city of kharkiv. joining me is admiral starvidis.

>> they were used in chechnya and the city of grozny. they are absolutely lethal to civilians, to anybody that comes in their path. unfortunately, i suspect they are and it's part of a whole bag of dirty tribs that putin may choose to pull out. again, we've seen him do this in syria. it could be barrel bombs, it could be the cluster munitions we're discussing. it could be at the back end of

the spectrum nerve agents. i wouldn't be surprised to see him reach into that dirty tricks bag. >> let me talk to you about the resupply of weapons, which nato and the u.s. has approved, u.s. is part of nato and unilaterally as well. they have that long land border which they can have their convoys which are still getting through despite the contested airspace. what happens if kyiv falls and the government falls? then they have to worry about sending weapons in that russians could grab and use again ukraine. >> my military mind says that the zelenskyy government will hold on as long as it can as for to the east as it can, kind of to the right side of the country. if the russians succeed in continuing to push them back, they take kharkiv, they'd then take kyiv and odessa itself.

it's a big country. i think the zelenskyy government and their armed forces could compress down, become an even harder target for vladimir putin. here's the punch line. they're right on the borer of poland, and he will not cross a nato border. look for the united states to get weapons into lviv to the far west and if things really got terrible, even in the west, i think that's less likely. zelenskyy could then simply hospital across the border. now he's in a safe zone in a nato country and he'll continue the fight as the leader of the

resistance like charles de gaulle did in the second world war. >> and his response to evacuation efforts was conveyed by their ukrainian ambassador in the u.k., i need ammunition, not a ride. so he's going to stay as long as he can. i want to ask you something that ukraine's ambassador read at the u.n. today. it's a powerful text message. an exchange from the phone of a russian soldier who had died. >> translator: mama, i'm in ukraine. there is a real war raging here. i'm afraid. we are bombing all of the cities together, even -- even targeting civilians. we were told that they would

welcome us, and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass. they call us fascists. mama, this is so hard. >> in several moments he was killed. >> that's a devastating message. the ukrainian ambassador has been so effective in conveying what's happening on the ground. >> i think it's part of a larger success story here on the part of the ukrainian government. i would say president zelenskyy, you quoted him a moment ago, i don't need a ride, i need more ammunition. he also said when the russians come for us, they will see our faces, not our backs. it's because the ukrainians, not only do they know they have right on their side, they're fighting for freedom, for democracy, but pragmatically,

they're fighting for their families, their spouses, their parents. they are saving their civilization, if you will. they have the moral high ground here in every sense. to that russian soldier, there are a lot of reports flying around right now, we don't know the precise number but i'm seeing increasingly reliable estimates around 4,000 russians killed in action. if that's true, andrea, contemplate this. in 20 years in afghanistan the u.s. military lost 2,000. 4,000 in a few days, that's pretty remarkable. and if that's true and those body bags start flowing, vladimir putin will have more challenges at home. >> indeed. and more tragedy for russian families. >> oh. >> admiral, thank you very much. and up next, more on the crisis of the ukrainian/polish border

as one world renowned chef does his part to feed those in need. the chef is here from poland after the short break. you're watching a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ell reports" on msnbc. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® 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 rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to the possibility of lower a1c with rybelsus®.

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- [female narrator] they line up by the thousands. each one with a story that breaks your heart. like ravette... every step, brought her pain. their only hope: mercy ships. the largest floating civilian hospital in the world. bringing free surgeries to people who have no other hope. $19 a month will help provide urgently needed surgery for so many still suffering. so don't wait, call the number on your screen. or donate at mercyships.org. thousands of refugees from ukraine continue to flee their country by car, by train, even on foot, as russia's invasion intensifies. according to new numbers released by the u.n. this

morning, more than half a million refugees have now fled from ukraine into neighboring countries to include poland, hungary and moldava and romania. member states are asked to grant temporary asylum to all ukrainians for as long as three years. the state department announced an additional $54 million for humanitarian assistance for food, water, critical health care for children. these stories have been desperate. you've also been covering mothers being reunited with their children who had been separated, husbands, brothers, sounds being separated from the women folk because of the draft essentially, the order that they return and not flee with their

families. >> reporter: just heart breaking stories, andrea, of families being separated because of all of this, because of this war in ukraine. we just heard that another train has just arrived here at the station at this small border town. these trains carrying anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 people from ukraine. most of them are women with children. those are the people who are being prioritized by the ukrainian border guards on the other side. when one of these trains arrives here and a similar thing happens at the pedestrian border, there are people, relatives, friends of families waiting to receive them and it's very difficult a lot of times for them to know whether or not their loved ones, their friends are actually on the train. take a listen to what man told us earlier today. he had been waiting for hours. take a listen. >> they started the trip two or three days ago because i am standing here since two days here. >> reporter: two days you've

been waiting here? >> yes. train by train i'm waiting when they will be. and i hope they are here. i don't know. i'm not sure because we cannot call because she does not have her line. >> reporter: oh my gosh. so you can't even communicate? >> no, because since they passed the war, we have no contact. >> reporter: so you just stand and wait and look. >> yes. >> reporter: and hope. >> and hope, yeah. >> reporter: andrea, remember, they're arriving with nothing. we've heard today some people are leaving belongings on train platforms just to squeeze on board. the situation is that tight on these trains leaving from lviv. they're coming here with nothing. poland and other countries are doing what they can to provide food, shelter, warm clothing and for now poland is coping but the numbers keep rising every day. >> kelly, thank you so much for your reporting.

we really appreciate all that you've been doing. and we told you before that the humanitarian crisis in and around ukraine is escalating. hundreds of thousands of ukrainian refugees, 500,000 now, encountering extremely long wait times in freezing conditions, waiting well over 30 hours at times to cross some borders according to u.s. officials. joining me is a chef and activist, who is in poland with his nonprofit world central kitchen serving thousands of meals, including hot meals for those in need. i saw you in washington two weeks ago. i think you're working with the caritas nuns as well who have done such great work around the world. >> i came again here 24 hours ago. and this is the situation very

much in every entry point, not only here in poland but in the other countries. it's almost the same situation. it's a place where the refugees arrive where you have random people, random organizations that they are there waiting for them with food, with edicines, trying to give them a ride. we have identified places that are really in need of the most food. like, for example, one of the places where there is the biggest number of refugees coming into poland. but the town now, i have behind me another refugee center where people arrive. they give them a number and then they put them in busses to take them to other parts inside of poland. and there behind me you see these people from churches or random restaurants that they will open a stand behind me, i

have the firefighters, who they are doing these amazing kitchens and amazing soup where it will be hot and be able to have delicious food. everybody is in poland is making sure the people of ukraine when they come to safety are taken care of. i've never seen anything where it seems from school teachers to firefighters, everybody here in poland is in service of providing relief to ukrainians or other countries that are desperate to leave ukraine. >> and how do you get your supplies? how do you manage the resources to poland to have the busses, to have the food, to have what you need? >> well, i'm not saying what the entire poland is doing. what i'm saying is it's

organized chaos. we see already hundreds and hundreds of thousands every morning where you've been giving a report, the number just keeps getting bigger and bigger. and what i'm only saying is it seems everybody in the border here in poland is at the service of helping. and then you learn amazing stories. i got reports they were not letting in people from african countries. maybe this happens somewhere but i spoke to many people from different countries in africa, nigeria, mozambique, and everybody told me they were treated with a lot of respect and they were all let in. at the same time this woman from nigeria was describing this to me, jennifer. at the same time a group of ten young men were crossing from poland into ukraine with a young american that i didn't even have

the time to ask him for his name with only one mission, to go inside ukraine, to go and support their army, to go to defend their country. these are stories in every corner, every man, every woman has a story. and this is what you see. >> what can americans do to help? >> obviously it's different organizations trying to do, you know, god's work. one program is announcing that they are trying to be going into ukraine to start bringing relief in cities and maybe the next day they're going to be starting to run out of food. today i was trying to go myself but at the end for different reasons it got very late, almost an hour and a half to two hours and if i didn't have enough gays, i didn't want to late in

the day but tomorrow i will try again. we do need to identify what the red cross is doing and the central kitchen is doing. this is a good -- america has to be on a front against one person who is bringing mayhem to this part of europe. these people don't deserve it. there's no reason why to be doing this. so there's all types of things americans can be doing, from supporting with money and asserting pressure on our leaders. you still see children walking for hours, if not for days. i'm freezing cold myself and i have the comfort of a room and a car. we cannot have those children be suffering in the hands of one

person that all he's looking after is himself. >> jose andres, thank you, my friend. stay safe. and continue god's work. we really appreciate it. >> god bless you. pray for the people of ukraine. >> indeed. >> and coming up here at home, the supreme court confirmation fight to come. what the next steps look like as justice ketanji brown jackson or judge ketanji brown jackson preps for the high-stakes battle to make her a justice, first black woman to serve on the bench. you're watching an extended edition of "andrea mitchell reports." extended edition of "andrea mitchell reports.

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what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. the confirmation process for supreme court nominee ketanji brown jackson is going to get under way this week for real as she vies for a spot on our nation's highest court, the first black woman to be selected

as a nominee. her first meeting will be with senate majority leader chuck schumer on wednesday. she'll be guided through the confirmation process by a so-called sherpa, alabama judge doug jones. judge jones told cnn today they are aiming for bipartisan support. >> we're not going to take any vote for granted one way or another. we're going to try to meet with as many senators as possible. our objective is to get as many votes as possible. in a different time and different place, i think this lady would get incredible support across the aisle. to preview that process, our expert supreme court team, nbc news john mccain correspondent pete williams, scotus blog founder and publisher tom gold steen and who hosts of the sisters-in law podcast, kim ber

live atkins and legal analyst joyce vance. pete, the process starts for real when judge jackson starts making the rounds, as she will. she was overwhelmingly in this day and age confirmed for the court of appeals. three republicans. that said, one of those three may be peeling off because lindsey graham has been publicly critical of her. >> he said it was a victory of the radical left. the other two said they're keeping their options open. she'll meet with the leaders of the senate and chairman and ranking member of the judiciary. one thing that will be a little easier, one of the most time consuming things they have is to fill out that big questionnaire, listing every speed and every

major court decision. she just did this eight months ago so it's not going to take too long to update it. >> that and your finances and all this other stuff. it can be incredibly complex. let's talk about her record. she's already being pilloried as too progressive, radical left. that is not -- that doesn't comport with her being described as not only a clerk from steve breyer but someone in the mold of steve breyer, a consensus voter. >> i think that's right. her record is one of she is on the left in the judiciary but she's not a radical by any means. what you're getting is attacks from conservatives in the same wave you're getting support from the left in the country. in truth, the president picked a nominee here who he was sure could get through confirmation just as she did to the court of appeals without actually being able to be tagged for centrist

democrats as someone who was outside the mainstream. >> joyce vance, i wanted to talk about her background as a public defender because that makes her unique among the supreme court justices or among the supreme c justices and nominees. that had a big impact on his choice among three very qualified possibilities. >> it's clearly an important metric for the biden administration, because across the board they have a commitment to putting people on the federal bench that have something on the defense side of the criminal work. it's worth noting that judge jackson's experience here is that she was an appellant federal court so in addition to her sentencing commission work where she focused on sentencing issues, she'll have encountered

some of the most complex appellant issues that have become before the supreme court and the supreme court's docket is heavily criminal. this will add a dimension to the court, and it's something that is long overdue. >> of course this confirmation process will reveal all aspects of her personal and professional history, married to a surgeon and having already talked about her background in terms of her father and uncle was in policing, and another uncle was jailed, you know, somebody on the other side of the criminal justice system. >> yeah, she has very personal experience with all aspects of the criminal justice system, and joyce is right, that's a big part of the supreme court docket and it brings the diversity of

the experience on the court, and since thurman marshall, nobody had that experience as a public defender and not a lot of people on the u.s. supreme court has that personal story as somebody of somebody that grew up -- she grew up in florida, and she will be introducing herself to the members of the senate and trying to get that bipartisan support, and i am sure she would want and it's so important for the president. i think it's interesting that senator graham of all people, somebody that likes to boast that he voted in favor of confirming justice sotomayor and kagan is now saying this, and i think it's about that biden did not choose his home choice.

i hope they have support to back this justice, and if everything goes like in the past they should be able to get that. >> if not for the ukraine war going on right now, the supreme court nomination would be the be all and end-all and what we are all talking about and still a big play in the state of the union. i would not be surprised if she's a guest sitting in the gallery near the first lady. >> i think she won't be. i wonder if the senate would consider that a little too forward, and one thing that will be different to watch the confirmation hearings, as you know seeing so many of them, what is your opinion about abortions, and roe v. wade, and if they uphold the mississippi law that would ban the law after

15 weeks, it may take the dynamics. >> it will remain a 6-3 court. maybe some of those questions are less important because she's not going to change the political makeup of the court? >> i think they would be more important if she were to change the political dynamics of the court, but i still think they will be important. >> if you compare her time on the bench, nine years on the bench, head of the harvard law review and all the rest in terms of how she stacks up against the experience of other nominees. >> i think very, very well. you are talking about somebody, as you said, has been on the federal bench almost a decade and practiced in front of the federal courts before that and was a law clerk in the supreme court, and she has seen the judiciary, she's dealt with the

full gamet of issues. there's some complaint from conservatives she has not been on the court of appeals for very long and there are justices that were not on the court of appeals at all and there are republic appointed justices that had nowhere near her experience. >> i wanted to point out to you and other colleagues, a judge lewdic just endorsed her, and he is a judge that advised mike pence. i guess they will try to start to show she does have credibility with more credible jurist. >> what is going on is the president did take into account she had just been confirmed for the court of appeals, and there was a possibility of getting a couple republican votes, and that's all a democratic

president could hope for these days, because the process is so polarized. >> we will be talking to you all a lot more in the coming weeks. the anticipated hearings could certainly begin a month ago. before we go, tune in to the state of the union coverage, my colleagues will break it all down, the highlights of the night, and that's tomorrow starting at 8:00 eastern on msnbc. and chuck todd and chestin welker will stream on the nbc news. that does it for this special extended edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online, on facebook and twitter @andreamitchellreports. katy tur picks up after a short break. katy tur picks up after a short katy tur picks up after a short break.

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good to be with you. i am katy tur. it's 2:00 p.m. in new york and 9:00 p.m. in kyiv. here's what we know right now. much of the world is trying to tighten its grip around russia to get vladimir putin to back off ukraine, but so far that is not working. according to the pentagon, 75% of the troops that russia massed around the borders are in