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 ukraine with reports of intense

fighting across the country. in kharkiv, a priority for russia, a massive bombardment of missiles, video captured the city center being pummeled by explosions. ukraine's interior minister estimates dozens were killed and hundreds injured in that attack alone. video released by ukrainian forces show soldiers helping themselves to russian equipment after a counter attack over took a column of russian military vehicles. there's also a convoy spotted toward kyiv, and the tanks and troops have not yet made it into the city. the flow slowed by the ukrainian

resistance, and video shows people making molotov cocktails preparing to fight. the times of london reports a private army of 400 mercenaries known as the wagner group is on the ground ordered by vladimir putin to target members of the government including volodymyr zelenskyy, and to lay the ground work for russia to take control, and many are sheltering in basements, newborns wrapped up and laying on the floor. a young child trying to sleep on the couch. a family huddled on a blanket. the images are hard to see. while it might be easy to demonize russian soldiers, during a an emergency meeting, ukraine's ambassador said what he said was a text exchange between a russian soldier and his mother right before that soldier was killed.

>> here's an actual screen shot from somebody who is dead already. >> translator: how are you doing? why has it been so long since you responded? are you really enduring training exercises, asks the mother of the killed soldier. moments before he was killed. mom, i'm no longer in training sessions. where are you then? papa is asking whether i can send you a parcel. what kind of a parcel, mama, can you send me? what are you talking about? what happened? 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. then he was killed. >> delegations from ukraine and belarus are meeting today, and ukraine's president had said he was not hopeful. joining me now is nbc news chief correspondent, richard engel in

kyiv, and richard, you are in kyiv and tell us what it's like there right now. >> reporter: every couple of hours now the air-raid sirens have been going off, and two hours ago there was a large explosion to the west of the city. i saw a large fireball in the sky, and could hear subsequent explosions and it's the same as what ukrainians are saying is happening in the city. it's a ground assault and they are watching the large convoy of military vehicles outside the city. you described it as three miles long. there was an investigation by "the new york times" using satellite imagery from yesterday that says the convoy could be as long as 17 miles long and that in certain places it is three vehicles wide. a very significant force still 30 miles from the city, but a

kind of force that we have not seen in action in this war so far. people here are worried that that, if it's not coming to the city right now, it could be mobilized and trying to take on the city. that's what they are bracing for. we're seeing people putting barricades in the roads, and setting up sandbags and arming themselves and looking for weapons they can make, including molotov cocktails. we're told russia already has operatives in the city, and in some neighborhoods they described them as special forces russian forces or hired forces or collaborators. they are not sure. they do know in certain cities on hill tops that could be dominant terrain, the volunteers say they are fired on and that they try and fire back.

they worry there are already elements in the city trying to soften it and take potentially high points, or certainly identify strategic points for this major column of armour making its way here. >> richard, do you have any idea how many people are left in that city? >> reporter: very hard to know. i was thinking about this earlier, and estimates of the city's population vary. it's between 3 and 4 million, but many people have been leaving, just friends and contacts that i have, a lot of them have gone to the far west. they have gone to the mountains and some left the country altogether. it's not an uninhabited city by any means, and today there was a brief opening when people went to pharmacies and grocery stores

and it has an air of normalcy for a minute, people were out and happy to be going through the rituals of daily life while there was a break in the curfew, but once they got the supplies they went back home and there are air-raid sirens sounding every now and then. >> a moment ago you just heard air-raid sirens? >> yeah, and it's not clear why we are hearing those air-raid sirens here. one of the running theories is maybe it's connected to the system nationally, and maybe when they go off where richard is they are going off here because we are more than 350 miles from kyiv. while i think this nation is shocked at the scope of this war, it would be a real development if russians were to put planes in the air or trying to do something so close to the border with nato and the border with europe, the european union.

my access to the violence that richard is witnessing himself is to see it on the faces of the people traveling through here. this city, lviv, is a passageway through here, and numbers fleeing are going to be low compared to the internally displaced people. i spoke to a woman that left kharkiv a few days ago and she was in a car with her husband and 8-year-old son, and they had to drive through kyiv on their way here. it's more than 600 miles. here's a little bit of her story, katy. >> yes, we were standing in traffic and we could hear the sirens and we could hear the shelling and everything, and that was after the night when we actually saw shelling and you saw the explosions in kyiv. we also have a child, so for five hours we 2 kilometers

during five hours. it was just like standing there during the shootings and during everything. i just told my husband, like, just cover him with your body, talking about my son. i said just cover him with your body whenever it starts. >> reporter: so we're hearing these stories as people try to flee, they are being caught insert places. kyiv is one of the places where they are getting stuck on the highways and violence is happening around them, and some are leaving their belongings and cars behind and going the other direction, you have kids headed to the front, headed to war, and you have people meeting molotov cocktails, and so that's what they did. while in the east of the country where richard is, you have violence and horrible fighting. it certainly is the entire country now, katy, at war. >> cal perry in lviv, and

richard from kyiv moments ago. now i have a guest who is in ukraine. do you have any idea what is happening there? >> it's incredibly painful for me to see the footage that you have shown, because i have seen these places with my own eyes, my city in kyiv, and hearing all the explosions and then i saw, like, people crying. yes, unfortunately many people are forced to leave. i could never imagine that, as a refugee it would be applicable from ukraine, but unfortunately many ukrainians are becoming refugees. it's becoming incredibly painful. talking about negotiations today, of course, that's very

good process that finally they are at some negotiations but we are not very hopeful. we understand that putin wants more, he wants to occupy. he wants to get all of ukraine, and that's an idea of the president and the government and replacing it with a marionette government, and that's hard to believe in the 21st century, but it looks like it's true. the number of the sabotage groups working all-around ukraine, including the rest of ukraine is increasing and it's very scary. i don't think that anywhere in ukraine you could call that there is a safe place right now. but who did that? russia. putin. >> it's scary to think there's not a safe place considering what you are saying about the separatists groups growing.

you are talking about how vladimir putin wants to kill the government and install his own. we got a report about a mercenary force ordered by vladimir putin to find zelenskyy and other members of government and take them out. do you have any reason to believe that as a member of parliament you are on one of those lists? >> i'm sure that probably it's true because if there's an idea to replace especially active members who are patriots, and most of us, a majority of ukrainians very, very are devoted to ukraine, and we are very well self organized and we are defending ukraine, and that's not putin's plan, so you know, of course he would like to get rid of us but it's not going to happen. we're going to fight until the end to defend ourselves. actually to defend also the world. we are very happy that finally

the support that we get from the western countries, from the united states is increasing. we feel it. we hear it. it's in this terrible moment for us that it's incredibly important and we are very grateful. >> we're just looking at images as you were talking of bodies in the street and that's what it has come to, bodies in the street. ukrainians are becoming refugees. a member of parliament, thank you so much for being with us today. >> thank you. >> we wish you all the best. >> thank you. talks between ukraine and russia wrapped up just hours ago with no clear agreement on a cease-fire but the two sides did agree to keep talking. an adviser to president zelenskyy did not seem optimistic, saying the russian side is still biassed regarding the destructive processes it

launched. joining me now, former ambassador to ukraine, william taylor. putin said after the talks that he's still trying to de-nazify ukraine. how can you negotiate with somebody that is saying something not true, you are de-nazifying a place like ukraine, and president zelenskyy is a jew. >> a lot of people are concerned about putin's mental capabilities at this point. and president putin and many russians don't really understand ukraine. they don't understand the determination, the patriotism, the will on the part of ukrainians. the russians don't understand

that at all so they thought as the ukrainian ambassador to the u.n. read that out, they thought they were going for an exercise and they thought when they went into ukraine, the ukrainians would welcome them. it's ludicrous that they could have that thought. so don't understand ukraine. they are not -- it's not obvious -- we can't tell if that's a serious negotiation or not. >> ambassador, in looking at vladimir putin right now, you say -- many say he doesn't seem like a rational actor at the moment. what might happen if he feels backed into a corner? they are not being greeted as liberators, as putin had promised. not the entire world, but much of the world is trying to tighten its grip around russia and they are being cut off left and right from cultural interests as well as financial

interests, and switzerland has even gotten involved, notorious neutral switzerland. if putin gets backed into a corner and has nowhere to go, what do you worry about? >> i worry the people around him won't take action. people around him, they know, they can tell, they understand that he's not acting rationally. you can tell from some of these videos where he's talking to his people or he's talking to somebody at his base and he's contorted with hatred. you can tell he's not well. you can imagine there are people that noticed this and want to be sure he doesn't do anything crazy. i am also sure that the u.s.

officials, the chairman of joint chiefs, they probably have been in touch with their counterparts in moscow to tell them what to expect and to tell them there's no intention of the united states or nato of threatening, and if they want to take action they would be encouraged. >> i am running out of time, but i want to show that image again, that's vladimir putin meeting with top military leaders, and you can see he's at a distance from his inner circle, his top leadership in the country, and that's presumably a covid protocol, and they could get pcr tests, and what do you make of the image of vladimir putin being literally separate from everybody else?

>> it's an indication, katy, that he is separate and in a cocoon and he's not getting advice, and people are not willing to give him the true picture of what's going on in ukraine. i imagine he's amazed and surprised and probably angry at those people in the room that they have not been able to wrap this up. he thought they would go in there and take ukraine in one day, and it's five days and ukrainians are fighting back hard and they don't want to tell him that. >> ambassador william taylor, thank you very much, as always. and then half a million refugees poured into neighboring countries and it's just beginning. also, the kremlin arrests thousands of anti-war protesters and announced new penalties for those that demonstrate. later, as putin puts nuclear deterrence troops on alert, what

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more than half a million people have fled ukraine, most of them are entering neighboring countries like hungry, romania and poland. the united nations refugee agent says the number could rise if the conflict continues. kelly, what are you seeing in

poland? >> reporter: katy, another train just arrived about an hour ago carrying anywhere from 1500 to 2,000 refugees from ukraine, keeping in mind it's 30 degrees out right now. these people have been traveling with very little, the clothes on their backs and warm clothes, a backpack and maybe a suitcase if they are lucky, and they are arriving in the freezing cold temperatures in some cases traveling for one or two days, and they are having to basically start from scratch. here behind me there's a huge voluntary effort mobilizing here in poland in addition to the help from the state, which is fairly sensitive, and people are getting warm drinks and clothing and a place to stay, and it's extremely traumatizing, and not only are they leaving behind and leaving a war zone, but they are also leaving in a lot of cases

their relatives. we have spoken to people who have been separated from their husbands, and the men are being kept back in ukraine to fight. also people who come here and left their elderly relatives behind because they could not make the trip, katy, in some cases people having to walk long distances or stand in line, for example, at the border crossings. you would have to stand in line just to have your passport process, just to get through the border check for a day, sometimes two days. it's a very traumatizing situation. people are still coming, katy. people are still lining up at the border trying to get on these trains to come to poland and the other bordering countries. >> so hard to see. kelly cobiella, thank you so much. coming up next in free fall, the russian economy struggles under the weight of cripple of

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the u.s. expanded sanctions on russia's central bank today blocking americans from doing any business with it and freezing any assets in the united states. several rounds of crippling sanctions from across the globe were already being felt. the value of the ruble is in free fall, and interest rates in russia climbed 20%. all the while protests continue across that country where it can be illegal and frankly dangerous to speak out. international monitoring groups estimate nearly 6,000 demonstrators have been arrested there. the voices are echoing throughout the world as well, where massive crowds show up to say no to war. in lithuania, several thousand women held signs calling russian mothers to stand up to the invasion. joining me now from moscow is correspondent, keir simmons.

we were talking about the fractures, and they might be small, but the fractures that seem to be showing within the kremlin and within the society at large in russia. what are you seeing today as we hear more and more about more and more sanctions from all over the globe? >> reporter: yeah, the fractures inside the kremlin are fascinating. it's classic criminology, isn't it, you remember that from the days of the cold war and soviet union, and it's hard to know what is happening behind those kremlin walls. i was talking to western officials today asking that question about who is in the circle, and they tend to be guarded about that. certainly is a tight-knit group. and something interesting happened today, katy. president putin met with his central bankers and finance minister, and once again he was sitting at a long table and

covid distance away from them and it paints a picture of this isolated president, and western officials telling me today they believe the statements he made last year that he suggested the ukrainians and russians are kind of brothers, that was his idea that the ukrainians would rise up and welcome in, and that idea was baked into his military plans and helps to explain why it is that the russians don't seem to be making military progress. you have to wonder if he really foresaw the kind of sanctions you are talking about, the extraordinary -- increasingly extraordinary united front the west is putting up. the russians here today, they see their interest rate double to 20%. we have seen people going to

atms trying to get currency, and not able to get foreign currency, and the russian stock market suspended. we mentioned the distance between vladimir putin and his officials. there's a big difference between president putin and his people, and so if the people are suffering will president putin even notice. i think it's important to point out, first of all there are lots of russians that support president putin, but if the middle class in cities like this, in moscow, are really shaken, i think we are seeing signs of that, then that's dangerous for putin because he needs russian support despite him being an autocrat. >> we just saw images of him being at a distance between him and his advisers, and one is with his military advisers and the other is with government leaders, as you mentioned, again, at a distance.

he's keeping himself away from everybody. keir, thank you so much. president biden said his goal was to make russia an international pariah until vladimir putin appears his war, and that appears to be working so far. huge news. historically neutral switzerland today said it would match the eu's sanctions, and the swiss hold an estimated 11 billion in russian assets. following that announcement monaco said it would do the same. 39 nations are taking actions against russia, and that includes almost all of europe, but others like japan, singapore and canada. good to have you back. we talked over the weekend about sanctions and the limitations, and we have seen new sanctions,

we see monaco getting involved and targeting the wealth of the oligarchs, and is that going to be effective? >> i think you probably already started to see the ripple affect. it's amazing how much it has changed in a couple days. the stock market imploding. it's now not trading until, i think, march 5th. but what you are really seeing over the news room in the weekend is two of the oligarchs that have been associated to putin for years actually spoke out against war. i had a fascinating conversation with a source in moscow that said there was a meeting in the kremlin on thursday with some of the biggest business leaders and he basically summoned everybody,

made a speech and would not allow anybody to ask a question or even speak and then left. just more evidence of how he's isolating himself, whether or not -- not only the middle class but the oligarchs will finally want to do something about this. i think that's going to be something really interesting to watch. i think a half a dozen were hit with sanctions at the eu this afternoon, and they are not allowed to travel on their planes the way they are accustomed to, and it's fascinating to watch and the rallying around the world against putin and russia is just unprecedented. >> we were talking about how it's so hard to get to a lot of this money and the value of vladimir putin himself, the wealth he has is estimated, and you probably know this better than i do, $100 billion, and who knows where it is and how to get to it. when it comes to the oligarchs

around him, and the leaders around him and his inner circle, there's lot of property around the world. there are a lot of yachts and et cetera, and to try and figure out who owns what is difficult, and the sanctions in place right now, and there's a law being passed in the uk, will that allow things to get more quickly through those layers? >> i think it will be hard to get to those specific layers, like i said the other day. but does that matter? i don't think we are going to see these people not be wealthy anytime soon. i think the uk announced the moves they were going to try and make to track those much more thoroughly. it's going to take time to unwind. i think blocking their access, you know, blocking their ability to travel on their jets and on their yachts and just getting the scrutiny, i think it's going to definitely weigh on them. but i think the bigger picture

is that the whole banking system is basically being frozen so they can't access some of the stuff they have. again, i don't think any of these people will lose -- well, we had a couple billionaires who are no longer billionaires, but they still have plenty of millions of dollars. we'll see. we'll see. i don't think you will be seeing them handing over, you know, billions of hidden assets. i think they will be able to hold on to some of it, but it is having shock waves. >> luisa, thank you so much for joining us. also a lot of cultural cutoffs from fifa and the champions league. number two, yes, they have faced setbacks, and they have

faced resistance. you got to hand it to the ukrainians who have been fighting very hard for their country, and making an impact and making a dent on mr. putin's abilities. but they will learn, the russians will learn from this. we expect they will -- that they're -- we have not seen a change in their desires to move from ukraine, and they have suffered certain setbacks, but they will try and work through these -- the resistance and work through the challenges they have had on the logistics and sustainment front. >> any new threat to article 5 nations from russian forces? >> no. we have not. tara? >> russia said it will now hold

accountable any nation that supplies to ukraine that lead to the death of its own forces. is there a risk this could escalate if russia decides to -- >> tara, there has been a risk of escalations since before putin decided to move in with tens of thousands of troops and tanks and aircraft and ballistic missiles. you want to talk about escalation, let's talk about escalation, putin is escalating this. we are going to help to find ways to help them defend themselves. >> do you have any -- [ inaudible ]. >> i don't have anything on that. >> thanks, john. is dod coordinating air defenses

partners, and can you confirm eu offering -- >> i can't comment on the eu offer, and separate and distinct on that, and this gets more at your first question, we absolutely remain in close consultation and coordination with allies and partners about security assistance, and i don't have a coordination mechanism to speak to like all of it is being funneled through a single point or that kind of thing, but we continue to coordinate about allies and partners about the continued assistance the ukrainians continue to get not just from us but them as well. yeah? >> the ukrainians with advanced weapons, they are not shy in revealing what type of weapons they are providing to ukraine and the west has been reluctant

in providing lethal weapons, and is this because of intelligence reasons or some might say you don't want to -- what is the reason that the u.s. will support the ukrainian forces and we will continue to do that as you said and other officials, but what are the specific side of these weapons? >> i don't think we have been inconsistent at all. i can't speak for what other nations are saying and doing, and they can speak with the assistance they are providing the ukrainians which is welcomed and certainly encouraged. we have been pretty consistent about, a, acknowledging we're doing it and are going to continue to do it. b, given the sense of the size and scale and scope of it in terms of the dollar figures applied to it.

c, we have been pretty, i think, transparent of what is generally in the package. we are not going to give you an inventory list and not putting that out to the public, and we don't think there's a value to operational security for the ukrainians to have that out in the public, what the shopping list looks like on any given day. i don't see a value in doing that. we should always think about operational security in this case certainly on the ukrainians' part. the kinds of material that are going to be in these security assistance packages going forward, you rightly said with detail it will be weapons that can support them on the ground as well as weapons that can support the airborne challenges they have. i think we feel comfortable going that far. >> the images coming from the satellite images that extends for 17 miles. do you believe the russian

forces are advancing on kyiv are planning on basically encircling the city or to storm kyiv? this type of troops and army of this size, are you able to draw any conclusion from what you are seeing? >> i think the main conclusion we can draw gets to leah's question, is that they continue to want to move on kyiv, to capture kyiv and take kyiv. although we don't know everything about this convoy, it's certainly in keeping with what we believe to be their intent with respect to the capital city. how they are going to do that, whether it's encirclement or bombardment or street to street fighting, i don't think we have the level of insights of what they are planning on doing. that's what we are seeing now. we are seeing the ukrainians

putting up a stiff and determined resistance, and they have made it difficult for the russians to continue to move ahead. we believe, based on what we know of what their plans were, they are behind schedule and they have faced a stiffer resistance than they anticipated. >> do you have any information on efforts of conflicktion, or have there been close calls where there would be a need for a tactical deconfliction. have been there calls from the white house to establish that? >> i would say there's no de-confliction in place right now. certainly we understand the importance of deconfliction.

we are exploring options for should there be a de-confliction mechanism, we are exploring those options right now. >> the pentagon? >> the pentagon, yes. somehow could nato be the one -- >> sure, that could be part of the calculous. we are exploring the options right now and we don't have any indication right now from the russians that they would also be interested in exploring those options, and it has to be a two-way street, and we are having discussions about what that should look like and could look like, and one option is that it's done inside the alliance rather than a unilateral thing. >> so at this point russia has shown no interest in establishing the -- >> that's a safe bet. yes, ma'am. >> now that we have seen the

targets -- inaudible? >> no. >> to -- could you give us an update on the troops that deployed and the nato response force? >> there's no additional request for allied support that i am tracking, carla, and this is a fluid situation and we are certainly going to continue to talk about that. i don't have any updates for you on the nato response force or the troops that we have contributed. the president spoke to the 7,000 that were going over there. there could be elements of our contribution to the very ready joint task force that the nato is working on putting together, but you do really have to talk to nato and the alliance there

in brussels and their plans for that. secretary austin has been clear from the beginning, should it be activated, we want to make sure we're ready. that's why we sent additional forces to europe to be postured and to be ready should that be the requirement that comes from the alliance. we have not gotten specific requirements laid out yet for us. as for the troops that we already repositioned and or deployed unilaterally, they continue to work and train with the host nations as well as other nato allies wherever they are, whether it's in the baltic region or whether it's down in the southeastern flank, hungry, bulgaria, romania, they continue to work and train with their host nations and allied partners. then in poland, you know, the 82nd is there as a reinforcement

force, and they are there to assist with any evacuation in assistance for americans coming across the border, and there has not been a need to do that, and there has not been a large outflow of citizens from ukraine. and those that have come by in a vast majority, they did not need assistance, they made plans and know where they are going and good transportation available to them in poland. >> that's spokesperson, john kirby at the pentagon. i want to bring in a guest, currently a global fellow with the wilson center. thank you so much for being here. let's talk about what kirby was just saying. don't assume he said that because russia's military has been slow that it will stay slowed. there are also worries now with the number of troops currently trying to get down to kyiv that russia is going to try and siege

the city. >> thank you for the question. time is not on the kremlin's side. i say it that way, the kremlin's side. yeah, yeah, the russians certainly will be committing what we call their second echelon, which is part of that long column that everybody is reporting on. but they've got to get to kyiv. if they encircle and try to besiege kyiv, if they have time, they could save a lot of casualties. but they don't have time. and meanwhile, they have long supply lines developing. you know, you have supply lines running from washington to philadelphia now. and along those supply lines, they are not just energized ukrainian forces that are

standing by, but also angry citizens. and when we talk about javelins and stingers, javelin antitank, this is the stage even cold war era rpg-7, rocket-propelled grenades that they held for us in afghanistan and then, they will knock out anything that isn't a tank. so the russians are in a bind now. the harder they push, the quicker -- the more casualties they get. their population increasingly in moscow -- excuse me, in russia, i think, it's dawning on them. their military in ukraine, i think, are getting wobbly. they're beginning to see this indignation, old ladies getting in front. the russians are in a tough position and this is, i think, as you reported, going to be an

issue, not just in the domestic population, but also in the kremlin as the free world, as the like-minded world puts an anaconda economically around them, diplomatically, societally and arms are being passed to the ukrainians. again, they could be basic arms that will really, really create a toll. at max, in my mind, the russians will amp up maybe to a quarter million, 300,000. if they go all in, it's not enough to take down a beehive that ukraine has become for them with all -- 44 million people, probably 35 million that are completely in support of the ukrainian government. >> lots of people who are making molotov cocktails, preparing to

defend the city of kyiv if necessary. thank you so much. appreciate it. russia has been relentlessly pounding ukraine's second-largest city. kharkiv saw intense shelling today. 25 miles from the eastern border, it's a primary objective for russian forces. it's a focus of the ukrainian resistance. russian troops controlled it over the weekend and then ukrainian forces quickly took it back. joining me now from ukraine is "rolling stone" correspondent and msnbc contributor jack crosby. last time we talked to you, you were in an underground parking garage kharkiv. how did you get out? >> i had been in kharkiv since the beginning of the war. last night was a relatively quiet night by most accounts. there were still isolated shelling outside of the city. but we thought that there was going to be a lull in the

fighting potentially because of those peace talks beginning on the belarusian border. that was not the case. at around 9:30 in the morning this morning, there was heavy shelling on the outskirts of kharkiv and in the city center. the team i was with made the decision to leave and so we sort of loaded up in our cars and made a quick beeline out of the south of the city. one shell landed probably no more than 300 meters away from us, and there were some videos that haven't been geo located yet of casualties in the city center. but the majority of the shelling was indiscriminate rocket attacks along suburbs. >> and you were talking about what you saw as you were trying to get out. what are you seeing in terms of

civilians that are trying to take up arms? we've been getting reports that individual ukrainians are going out and using their bodies to block russian tanks, forming a line of bodies in front of russian tanks, trying to block them from passing. >> yeah, i know in kharkiv, specifically, there was a russian incursion into the city center itself. i believe two days ago. no, i'm sorry. yesterday morning. it's been a long four days. this has kind of blurred together for me. yesterday morning, a russian incursion made it into the city center and was repulsed by the ukrainian military and by newly armed civilian defense members. we've seen those -- as i was leaving the city and moving around the city in prior days, both at checkpoints inside and out of the city, i think the key things that some of those units have been tasked with now is that in kyiv and in kharkiv, there have been various

different curfews on the streets, no one is allowed to leave because of those civilian defense units and the military regulars are searching for russian saboteurs that are trying to orchestrate similar types of attacks that kind of has seen and kharkiv saw yesterday morning. >> jack crosby describing it for us. jack, so happy to see you safe and well. we're going to check back in. >> thanks so much. and that right there is going to do it for me today. i'll be coming to you from washington, d.c., tomorrow for special coverage of the state of the union along with the russian invasion of ukraine. hallie jackson is next. of ukra. of ukra. hallie jackson is next well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. that'sy, right there! we're literally riding together. he gets touchy when you talk about his lack of friends.

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♪♪ any minute now at the white house, we'll be getting an update on president biden's response to what is day five of the russian invasion in ukraine. you see him live right now. he's been doing a black history month event. so far, no questions taken, no topics on what we are seeing with the crisis there. although we are keeping an eye on that as that live shot gets ready to wrap up. we're getting ready for the briefing from white house press secretary jen psaki as russia keeps up its all-out assault on big cities across ukraine. our team in kind of saying they're hearing more and more air raid sirens. on capitol hill, you have congress coming back to washington today with the senate, that is on the left side of your screen now, coming back into session as we s