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tv   The Rachel Maddow Show  MSNBC  February 28, 2022 6:00pm-7:00pm PST

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this thing where he bizarrely pivots other topics. he will talk inside about the 2020 election, or the southern border. it's clearly not something that's fund a lot of crime. they expect the talks about it, he talks to complain about his own political faith. >> betsy swan, always a pleasure. that is all in on this monday night, rachel maddow shows right now with my old friend rachel maddow's. >> good evening chris welcome back how is your time away. >> it was amazing, it was sublime it was warm i was with my family and it was strange this awful thing was happening in the background. we it feels sort of proper invigorating in a weird way to be able to do some useful worker. i'm glad to be back. it's always lovely to get. family >> having seen snapshots and been in touch with you all in a way i'm profoundly grateful that you got that time away. i'm profoundly grateful that you are back. part of this is that when this happened late last week. a lot of a sprang into action
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and all sorts of different ways. it's been an intense five days since. having you here with franchise and french, is a blessing cause this is gonna come on for a while. >> good to be. back >> thank you at-home for joining us. it's a city on the southeast coast of ukraine. it's not far from marriott poll, were richard engel has been for for these first few days of the war. you could see there on the map married poll on the right just on the southwest of it on the coast. this other port city to tad about 100,000 people. it's got a small naval base. there we berdyansk, forgive my pronunciation. i can't get it right. the clothes that can get is -- this time last night the mayor of berdyansk, the mayor of that town. made a public announcement that the town was now under the control of russia. he said quote, sometime ago arms shoulders enter the executive committee building and introduce themselves as
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soldiers of the russian army. they informed us that all administrative buildings were under their control that they were taking control of the executive committee building. the mayor told all residents of that report found that they needed to hide in shelters. he says that the russian soldiers told town officials that they should stay at work, keep conducting their work, but he said that he and other tout employees did not want to do that. they did not want to stay in town office buildings working under the control of armed soldiers from a foreign government. and so they left. but again that was this time roughly last night. the mayor of berdyansk in rush -- telling his town that they've been taken over. and now russian shoulders are running the place. that was last night. then this was today. >> [noise] >> even if you have
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less language skills, fewer languages than i do in this circumstance you can understand what they're saying. there berdyansk is ukraine, berdyansk is ukraine. and they are yelling it. the visual here is important they're yelling that right in the face of these russian soldiers. who are indeed occupying their town. turns out the people of berdyansk, they do not intend to stay in shelters like there may or advise. they are out in the streets. screaming in the faces of the russian soldiers. hey, this is ukraine you need to get out. you're in the wrong country. regular civilians. which is astonishing to see. but it's the kind of bad news, good news, good news worrying news that we are getting out of russia's war in ukraine today. i mean you deuce at a human level you want to get up and
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cheer at those angry mobs who are out there on afraid yelling in the face of those russian soldiers. that really they need to leave, they're in the wrong country. this is ukraine, buddy get out of here. you want to cheer for them, right? there's something in us that recognizes that and thinks, god if that were in my town, wouldn't die -- and at the same time there is a professional up alarmed mechanized army in control of the most devastating weapons on earth. standing against those. people and i'm not talking about hopefully unusual russian weapons that russian has like nuclear weapons. i'm talking about the stuff they've dragged with them over the border into ukraine. just the missiles, rockets, ammunitions they very well can shoot at civilians and they've started to. angry civilians not taking it and saying no. in this kind of context it is the type of heroism and personal civilian bravery that we are just wired for.
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and yet, a 20,000 strongman army bearing down on even the bravest civilians. that is a story that has an apocalyptic ending, not a happy ending. and that's where we are. and part of our trying to understand to look at this. now it's game five, and frankly u.s. officials said at the upset of this war that the ukrainian capital city of kyiv, would fall maybe as early as day one of the war. at the outside, the best-case scenario the set may be key could hold on until day for. well it is day five today and kyiv is still standing. and russia actually holds no major population sectors in ukraine. russia hasn't even achieve domination of the airspace over ukraine. something we believe they thought they could maybe do in day one or day two. it's day five in ukraine still has aircraft of its own, they still have considerable antiaircraft power to use against russian aircrafts. whatever russia thought it was
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gonna do with its ground forces, well this is what some of it looks like right now. ukrainians have been making the most include a making the most publicity possible out of the russian military vehicles that had to be abandoned by russian troops. russian military vehicles that have flown out of gas or ukrainians have disabled them, or they blown them up. one writer's photographer today climbed into a destroyed russian alteration infantry moat mobility vehicle. this is in the city of kharkiv, look at this shot. can we drop that lower third so you can see that right there. look at that, got inside to show what it's like destroyed. that's a russian vehicle destroyed in the streets of kharkiv. we if you're watching this in terms of david standing up of alliance. that's heartening. but then there is this. outside kyiv, today, a convoy of russian vehicles. this was today bumper to bumper, see all those little blips
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those things that look like little ants, those chiclets. that's a convoy of russian military vehicles that stretches 17 miles long. that's outside of kyiv. if this is david versus goliath we are wired as humans to cheer for david and believe in david. but david is going to need help against a military like this. the western world is trying to help and is doing more together and more quickly than anybody believed was possible. in a way that dovetails with the russians peoples own pronounced anger and dissatisfaction over what their government is doing. the number of russian citizens arrested for daring to protest inside russia against the war has reportedly already topped 6000, 6000 russians willing to be arrested in their own country in order to protest this war. even as their government threatens that they'll be treated as terrorist rioters they'll be locked up for years. anybody arrested protesting or will have their entire lives
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ruined. the russian government is using language like that to threaten people not to protest. 6000 russians already been arrested protesting. and it keeps going on every day. russian opposition leader alexei navalny, criticizing the war against prison as they try to lock him up for another 15 years. the opposition movement that supports him which putin has declared a legal, today calling for civil disobedience. mass civil disobedience in russia to show the world that russia does not want this war. in the sense that the russian people don't want this war, it's just putin. it's just the dictator who runs that country. that said, he doesn't have to listen to the people of russia. because he is a dictator. and therefore whatever they do he's happy to stand against them. they'll be no consequences for him. the russian people -- dissatisfaction. that said, the distance between putin and his people had a crowbar shoved into the seam today. when the financial sanctions against russia got turned up to
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11. putin knew in advance that he was gonna do. this he has been laying the groundwork for this for a long time. he knew there would be economic sanctions against him if he did something like this. one of the ways that he tried to make russia sanction proved in advance of this invasion, was by building up a huge pile of foreign currency in the russian central bank. basically as a rainy day fund, something that the russian government could live off of for a long while until the rest of the world calm down and let them -- resume business as usual. they built up a reserve currency fund, between 607 billion dollars. well today, russia lost access to its rainy day fund. when new sanctions targeting not just more individual russians, not just more individual russian banks and institutions, today new sanctions hit the russian -- bet central bank. which never happened. sanctions are never that steep that that means in immediate order russia has no access to his catch resources. and sure, they still got
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through polls, they still have their own currency but as of now are ruble is worthless. the ruble crash today. literally down to zero. a rule now is worth less than a penny. their national credit rating is downgraded officially to john. russia has one industry oil and gas, but their oil and gas technology is terrible. in part because the companies are terribly run by putin cronies who run them like organized crime families. that basically run them like gangsters. russia's oil and gas industry is the one industry they've got, but they need western oil companies in order to competitively operate their one industry. in order to actually function in the modern sense. we'll say goodbye that as of today divvy bp the, singalongs foreign stakeholder in the russian economy pulled out. and they pulled out of their giant multi billion dollar state in ras nafta. in short order, shell pulled out from the joint operation with them as well. exxon is apparently still there.
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someone should perhaps check on that. yeah -- but bp and shell pulling out. the russian oil gas industry we. rather than see what was gonna happen in the russian market today, russia actually disclose them all to gather. literally they did not allow their stock market to open. because they knew what it was gonna look like. and again, it's sort of good news, nightmare news, heartening is, worrying news. it is heartening for ukraine, it must be to see the whole western world act -- in a unified way to stomp on russia economically so fast. i mean even switzerland, famously new thrift with with their land got in the sanctions say, they never do that. you can imagine all the gala guards and -- who may have been worried about sanctions anywhere else in the world. they were surely comfortable the knowledge that whatever they had to get out of it. this was back half ounce would be safe. sorry, the swiss bank account as of today are frozen with no
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warning. and again, switzerland never does. that so, it's not like they would've anticipated it was gonna happen and move their stuff out before they could get hit. that kind of surprising action, that unifying face in the western world. that has to be heartening. . if you are ukrainian. or if you support ukraine and what they're going through. but, the other side of that is this desperation this may create on the part of putin. on the part of the mad man who started this whole nightmare. he's not winning in ukraine the way u.s. intelligence says he believes he would. his people manifested hate this, no matter how much he threatens to stop speaking out against him. they won't stop. he is officially cratering his economy, the ruble went to zero today. he's creating's economy and not for the long run. but catastrophically and for today. he's now personally sanctioned in a way that he has never been personally sanction before.
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he's now personally sanctioned the way the new leader of north korea's. and that's not something you come back. from even before it got this bad for him economically today he was already threatening this weekend that he was gonna maybe use his nuclear weapons. well, the economic sanctions that so freaked amount to that point this weekend they may triple today. what is he's gonna threaten? next what's gonna do next? questions, right. is there any military help coming for david facing that goliath. is there any military help coming to ukraine? can there be military help that does not set off a wider war but rather helps ukraine stand up for a longer and perhaps indefinitely? what is putin's nuclear threat is that just crazy talk? or is it crazy talk that need some kind of response? speaking of crazy when u.s. intelligence and diplomatic
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sources expressed concern that putin might actually have gone crazy, like he may be around the bend. how does that affect the world's realistic options in pushing him back right now? in terms of how to not just punish putin but help ukraine, today ukraine's president asked for the european union to admit ukraine as a member. i know you don't do it this way, but i think we're a special place. please admit us. he made a formal application for that today. that's something that takes years, months, if not decades. he wants that. now should the european union do that? in terms of the international cards here. in terms of the international options here. who might help russia, will china be an escape hatch for russia in terms of evading sanctions. in terms of helping the whether all this appropriate from the western world. day five now. there are heartening things happening, yes if you're ukrainian. the fact that they have made it
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the day five, is it in the -- they're also nightmare apocalyptic scenarios on the very near horizon that are realistic. i have a lot of questions. i also i'm happy to say i have a good person to ask them. former secretary of state hillary clinton just published a new piece in the atlantic with -- called a state of emergency for democracy. in it she argues that putin's war on ukraine's quote, part of a long running shadow war to destabilize free society and discredit democratic institutions around the world. she argues quote we need strong democracy in the united states. to win the global argument with a toxicity. he really raw time clinton, and secretary thank you so much for making madam time to be here today. secretary, thank you i appreciate you accepting our invitation. so much, i appreciate you accepting our invitation. >> happy to talk with you tonight. >> first, let me ask you if we are asking the right questions
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here. when you look at this war, we look at the past five days, do you think is the most important thing for the american people to understand? >> i think all of your questions are really important. but, i would put a big umbrella over them, rachel, for the american people. really, for citizens of all democracies, that this may, at first, be somewhat confusing for those who are looking at it from the outside. but make no mistake, this is not just an unprovoked, aggressive invasion by russia. it is an effort by putin and those who prop him up and enable him to really wage war on the rule of law and democracy, on freedom. it's critically important that as we've seen in the last day, the democratic governments and people rally to support ukraine
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in the struggle, because it's also our struggle. >> in terms of the western response, i will not be the first observer to know that the speed and unanimity of the western world's response has been a surprise. the idea that the russian sanctions at this point would be multi lateral, that even banking sanctions would involve countries like singapore and switzerland, of all places. that the russian central bank would be sanctioned. that countries like germany, which for a very good circle reasons, don't send weapons abroad, will be sending weapons directly to the ukrainian people. i think it is a remarkable shull of single purpose by the western world to help. it also feels like, simultaneously more than we can imagine, and also not enough. how do you view the western
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response to this far? >> i agree with you that it is remarkable. i give president biden and the biden administration a lot of credit for leading the world to this point. the strategy of disclosing intelligence, to demonstrate very clearly that putin was trying to do once again what is done before, he was this information, false flag operations, also order to try to justify an unjustifiable invasion was incredibly smart. unprecedented, and it seems to have really woken up so much of the world and stymied protein. ringing not just europe but as you say, countries as far flung a single for, even japan and others understand that this threat was global. it certainly is a direct threat to western democracies right in
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the heart of europe, but to let an autocrat do what's putin decided to do is something that everybody has a stake in trying to stop. so, up until now, the kind of economic pressures that have been brought to bear, i think are not only remarkable, but seem to be really biting. and the second point you make, providing necessary weapons to ukraine has begun. it needs to be accelerated. ukrainians need stinger missiles to shoot down russian aircraft, they need javelin missiles to stop tanks. they need a lot of ammunition, they need as much support as they possibly can be given. because it is a two-pronged approach now. the president zelenskyy, who has been extraordinary and deserves the thanks and gratitude, appreciation and admiration of all of us, is
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trying to operate on two levels. he's trying to continue to rally people, to fight the russian invaders, but he's also saying, look, i'll talk to you. i don't know what can come of it, because that is a possible way out. if the ukrainians, with our held, can impose enough economic pain on putin and, sadly, the russian people, combined with providing weapons, that that might be the only way that right now i can see is getting into a stalemate that might save the ukrainian people from even greater tragedy. >> madam secretary, one of the things that's happened in recent days, its people spent time with putin, who sat across the table with him in negotiations and talks over the years say that as much as they might have disliked or thought that putin was ruthless before, he seems different.
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he doesn't seem like himself, he seems like there must be something wrong with him. that he might be nuts. we heard that from people who have been in diplomatic also discussions with him before. ana to get your take on that both with somebody who has spent time with them, but also your take on whether or not that should factor into how we strategize against him now. >> it's a difficult question to answer from afar. obviously, i think the reports coming out said just both his temperament, his paranoia seems to have increased dramatically. his vindictiveness, his dictatorial approach with people around him including his own military. leadership seems to have gone further and deeper than anybody has ever seen before. people have also suggested they might he might have physically faced health challenges. i think it's important for
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leaders, intelligence agencies, to get the best information they can. but ultimately, the people closest to putin, those who have to deal with him. those who is keeping at the end of 40 foot tables while he issues bizarre orders. they are the ones who need to act. they need to act for the good of russia. they need to stop him, whether or not this has turned into some kind of physical, or mental problems that he either had or in some way come down with, we don't know. but his behavior is dangerous, and it's dangerous for the future of russia. so, my hope is that for the people who are watching him, those to get close enough to see in person's behavior, which is so erratic that they can try to prevent him from doing things that will not only be
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tragic for ukraine, but tragic for russia, to. this should be stopped for russia's sake. >> secretary, i've a couple other questions i would like to ask you because, in part, i feel that the last time we spoke, you are raising a red flag about a security concern that people were not paying enough attention in this country that might actually be an escape hatch for russian president vladimir putin. when asked about that, and a few other things on the other side of the break if you can stay with us. >> sure. >> we'll be right back with hillary rotem clinton right after this. after this. rotem clinton i noticed i wasn't as sharp as i used to be. my wife introduced me to prevagen and so i said "yeah, i'll try it out." after this i noticed that i felt sharper, after this and i thought, yeah, it works for me.
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former secretary of state, first lady, senator, presidential nominee, hillary clinton. thank you for being with us. on ask you about something sort of remarkable, something from a different era those announced whether greening government. they now say they're going to
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set up, essentially, the equivalent of a foreign legion, inviting anybody from anywhere to come fight with them against the rational terry. of course, 1938, the united states as a country wasn't ready to go fight hitler, but in the spiny civil war, anti fascist americans want to spain themselves and fought the fascists there as individuals. it sort of seems impossible that we'll be back to that as the only way ukraine can get foreign military help. but, we want to get your reaction to that, i want to ask if you think that you have any other countries, any other nato countries, who ought to be sending in troops tell became will carry? >> you know, rachel, the idea of a lincoln brigade for ukraine i know has been discussed. it may well be that some people will go into ukraine to help fight the russians. i don't think it's a good idea
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for that to be a government sponsored effort. i think people who go should be made aware that they are going on their own. it is heartbreaking to see ukraine standing alone against russia, although they are doing, so far, an amazing job in rallying their citizens. i don't think you'll find any country right now that will do that, but remember, the russians invaded of ghana stan back in 1980. and, although no country went in, they certainly had a lot of countries supplying arms and advice, and even some advisors to those who are recruited to fight russia. it didn't end well for the russians, there were other,
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unintended consequences as we know. but the fact is, a very motivated and then, funded and armed insurgency basically drove the russians out of afghanistan. obviously, the similarities are non ones that you should bank on because the terrain, the development in urban areas is so different. but i think that is the model that people are now looking towards. and if there can be sufficient armaments that get in, and they should be able to get in along some of the borders between other nations and ukraine, and keep the ukrainian, both their military, and their citizens, volunteer soldiers, supplied. that can continue to stymie russia. now let's be clear that russia
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has overwhelming military force. but of course, they didn't afghanistan as well. they also brought a lot of air power to syria. it's a years to finally defeat syria in terms of the insurgencies, the democratic forces as well as others who battled the russians, a syrians, and iranians. so, if you're fighting for your homeland, you're fighting for your family, you're fighting for your ideals, thus far more powerful than sending in these poor young russian soldiers who didn't even know where they were going until they cross the border and people were screaming at them. and they realize they were in ukraine. so, i think we have to watch this carefully. we have to provide sufficient military armaments for the ukraine military and volunteers. and we have to keep tightening
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the screws. you've seen in the last few days some of the so-called oligarchs beginning to speak out. actually criticizing the move into ukraine. i think that kind of pressure at the highest levels of the ukrainian military the russian financial kleptocracy, it's certainly important as well. so so, right now we're 56 days and it's very unpredictable. the steps that the west as vague and under the leadership of the biden administration. i think they're where we can be right. now let's keep ratcheting up the pressure. and everybody should ratchet the pressure. i was disappointed to see that some of the so-called crypto exchanges, not all of them but some of them are refusing to end transactions with russia. you know from some i don't know libertarianism or whatever. everybody and there has to be
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legal or regulatory pressure. everybody needs to do as much as possible to isolate russian economic activity right now. that pressure will absolutely impact putin. >> the last time you were here madam secretary, raise that point. i hadn't asked you at all. but you wanted to put a spot on the name for the crypto market specifically for national security purposes. so, that they couldn't serve as an escape hatch in the case of multilateral action to try to lock people out for specific urgent for national security reasons. in this case crypto is looking like it could potentially be an escape hatch as even the russian central bank is sanctioned as we've seen multilateral action. i need to ask, since you've been raising those concerns, have you seen the biden administration or if indeed other governments around the world start to take that seriously in terms of how the crypto markets could be
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undermining and national security environments like this? one >> well, i think they're starting to take seriously the need to figure out the market. and to provide guardrails as you definitely should with any kind of large financial market. but this has become in this specific case of ukraine, i do think that the treasury department. the europeans should look hard at how they can prevent the crypto markets from giving it an escape hatch to russia both governmental and private transactions in and out of russia. i would hope that they would do that. because it's so ironic, rachel, for people who live to make money if they're making it legally, if they're not just a device or an excuse for money laundering. they should not want this invasion by russia to stand.
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they should figure out, we don't need to be descending into some kind of global conflict. where dictators can decide that they are going to try and take over countries just because they wake up one morning no provocation at all. so, it's really in the interest of everyone who wants to be legitimate business. to try and end this conflict as quickly as possible. and one of the two pillars that we can rely on right now is economic pillar. so, i would hope someone at the treasury department is trying to figure out how they're gonna rain in the leaky valves in the crypto market that might allow russia to escape the full weight of the sanctions. >> hillary rod i'm captain, former secretary of state, presidential nominee, first lady. it's a real pleasure thank you for making -- with >> thanks rachel. thanks for being back.
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morning in ukraine. the russian attack was concerted and terrible on ukraine's second largest system, kharkiv today. kharkiv is close to the russian border. the russian forces didn't succeed in taking kharkiv today. even though they attacked it including civilian areas. russian forces haven't taken any major city in ukraine as of this point. the capital of kyiv is clearly in the sides. this was the view in kyiv in the overnight hours. continuing to see explosions, large explosions, smoke rising over the skyline. this is less than 100 northeast of k. the aftermath of heavy shelling there today. ukrainian government said that this russian attack hit residential buildings and a
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central market, a candle garden. andra -- these are images we showed you before from a private satellite firm that show a miles long convoy of russian military vehicles heading towards the capital city of kyiv. they're heading in from the northwest. in the capitol who continues the ukrainian civilians arming themselves with small arms and homemade molotov cocktails. preparing whatever they can to fight the russians as civilians. once those additional russian troops arrive. joining us now from kyiv is nbc correspondent richard engel, richard thank you for staying up with. as i know it's very early, tell us about the decision to move from merrick pole into kyiv and what the nights been like in kyiv tonight? well >>, it's snowing. so, that sort of nice. in a way as opposed to snow all week. but there is a lot of fear here. the city hasn't seen that much violence thankfully thus far.
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there have been airstrikes, there were few airstrikes today. but what this city is bracing for is a whole different level of violence. with that 17 mile long convoy to the north of here that is heading this way. 17 mile long that's hundreds of armed vehicles, artillery pieces, tanks and presumably thousands and thousands of soldiers. it is a convoy that is designed to do one thing, to put a city under siege. and to potentially topple it. people here are very, very nervous about that. the move from mary opal which is a city that's also now under siege and facing attack. -- was frankly because of the population. i think i got this war wrong. i thought putin was gonna go for the smaller option. i thought he was gonna take a piece of donbas, i thought maybe he would go for a land
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corridor. when i placed myself in mary opal because i thought that was the best strategic place to cover that kind of conflict. but he decided not to. he decided to take down the whole government and attack from everywhere. so, after staying in mary opal two more days it became clear that mary opal just part of the story. that the real objective is here is the jack decapitate the government to get zelenskyy, to do nazify the country which is by the way not run by nazi's. we need to come across country to travel hundreds of miles across the entire breadth of this nation. and got in here, luckily before it is completely surrounded by russian military, the next phase could be a very dark. one >> richard, what do you make of this sort of thing we're seeing in both sides of
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it at the same time. one the incredible threat of the russian military both in terms of the scale of their ambitions. with you describing. they're not going for the smaller option, they're going to try to come to the capital city there attacking everywhere all at once. the size of that convoy, the amount of military personnel that have that they're bringing -- on the other hand five days have been ineffectual given what u.s. intelligence says with their expectation and their goal throughout the first few days have gone. they both seem incredibly fearsome. they have apocalyptic intentions. and it seems like they haven't been very good at what they've done this. for how do you balance those? >> well, i think the russians. first of all know they haven't been very good at what they're trying to do this. far we've seen them try this sophisticated modern military technique. which is to use precision airstrikes to go after military targets. and then for some bizarre
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reason, not saying all other forces in at once. but just sending small units into combat, and carry out the small forays into cities. and small unit tactics in which russian forces had the overwhelming majority in terms of numbers and technological spirit. we are taking advantage of it they were sending -- little call -- into weird faces fight against ukraine and in some cases ukrainians destroy them. and they were forced to come back. so, they try to do this technique which hasn't really worked for them. they had logistical problems, they've had supply issues, especially when it comes to fuel especially colder getting lost and now unfortunately it seems like we saw this in kharkiv today. and with this convoy, it's quite clear that they're going back to a more traditional
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russian approach. more of the -- approach. which is go enforce, put your troops in a line, attack from the front, attack from the back. and just siege and attack. so, the more sophisticated approach seems to have been something of the past for now. so, i don't know exactly why they did it. clearly vladimir putin isn't happy the way things are going so far. nbc news to you for a skunk respondent angle, and the capital of kyiv, let's get to have you here, my friend, stay safe. when richard describes the grossly approach, he's talking about the russian approach to the than breakaway chenchen republic when putin sent in -- at the start of his reign, sends and russian forces to the capital city grows knee in chechnya, and essentially leveled it. essentially braise that. if that's the plan for kyiv,
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kyiv is a metropolitan taryn area of 4 million people. that would be apocalyptic, to say the least. more hunters tonight, stay with us. us. more us. moyou sell high commission investment products, right? (fisher investments) nope. fisher avoids them. (other money manager) well, you must earn commissions on trades. us (fisher investments) never at fisher investments. us some hidden and layered fees. (fisher investments) no. we structure our fees so we do better when clients do better. that might be why most of our clients come from other money managers. at fisher investments, we're clearly different. ♪ it's the most wonderful time of the year ♪ get fast relief of your worst allergy symptoms, including nasal congestion, with powerful claritin d, so you can breathe better. feel the clarity and make today the most wonderful time of the year. claritin d. >> woman: what's my safelite story? i'm a photographer. and when i'm driving, i see inspiration right through my glass.
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about a man we talked to on friday's show. president of kyiv, a strong or honor, he told us he was still in the capital city, but it is actually planning to leave after the show, after we spoke with him. he was not able to leave. his family can't get gas for cars. plus the trains are just packed. for those got to stay like alexander and his neighbors, they've been four said that over the last few days to make sure they're ready for what they think may be coming. this is some new video he sent us on the very cold underground parking garage where he and his numbers have been spending their nights. he tells us they did pick up some weapons this weekend, the ones that the ukrainian government have been handing out. neither he or any of his
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neighbors have any military training, that he said they are teaching themselves. they're now taking turns guarding their building. they're also making rounds to try to find food. alexander says he decided to get a special permit allow him to move around kyiv. when you got that permit, the government with these yellow markers on his car to alert authorities that he's clear to trouble, that he's not a threat. still, people manning checkpoints aren't again the chances. he has been stopped and checked repeatedly. in this case, he thanked armed forces left stop them, he took a photo with them, call them my guys. he's using his ability to crush drive in kyiv to drive neighbors of the train station, buying groceries, going to a nearby café to pick up food to donate. you can tell that not a lot of people have gone permits to move around, or not a lot of people have stayed if they can leave. the streets, as he showed us
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here, are empty. of course, that's the thing that the shots the silence are the sirens and bombs. >> they are attacking kyiv. we hear big explosions. we had a huge one. yes, we have to run because of their strikes. they just run up to the apartment to get some rust because there wasn't any bombing but you have to go no. >> alexander and his neighbors are still in that freezing underground parking garage, protecting themselves, trying to protect their building on trying to stay safe. they're keeping a couple of guns now even the fuel as they have nearby. that doesn't mean they want this fight. joining us again as kyiv resident, responds honor alexander, i'm happy to see you. i'm sorry you're still there, thanks for being with us. >> hi rachel. >> how have the last 72 to 2 hours men? >> it's been hard, because
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every time, the bombs are closer, the shops are closed. we heard the gunfire every night. the mass media is always telling us that there will be an airstrike again, and a, and again. but stone, we got used to it. and the thing is, we all became more united. we became together, and we supported each other, and this is so good. our nation has never been stronger than before the now. and, as you told previously, yes, i want yesterday, and there were huge queues to buy some food. and we couldn't. we want our restaurants, we took some food that we had there, and my friends also from the restaurant business, we all walked together. and we have some food, we
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prepared some food for the kindergartens, for the hospitals, for the army. so, basically, this time, i would say i don't want to leave. this is our land, and we don't want to run away. because, this is where we belong to, this is our homeland. this is ukraine, this is kyiv. >> are you worried about access to basic supplies, to water, to food, or even ammunition. it seems supply lines are in there, so what you've got you've got. >> yes, we are worried. but i hope and believe that our president and our major will cope with that. because, that will be a problem because yesterday, even to the drug stores and supermarkets, i couldn't -- my neighbor's got in because we were a divided but we talked to
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do, but we managed to get some food for the next week. we'll see what will happen in a week, but there's a lot of garbage on the streets because there is no cleaners. and the city looks like a mouse, but people, we strongly believe because of our president zelenskyy, he gives us so much hope because he talks to us, and every time he is saying what he did and how he did. and, you know, we've never been stronger than before. i would say, let's need to join us, not join nato. >> i think that sentiment is something that a lot of people can identify with right now. alexander, i know five in the morning right now, and this is
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a stressful time, but i'm going to warn you right now that we're gonna keep asking you to come back so you can update us on you and your friends. godspeed, thank you. >> thank you very much, thank you. >> we'll be right back, stay with us. than you. you. >> does it shoot off like a rocket? with us. with us. or maybe it takes on a life all its own. perhaps you'll come up with your own theory of where the stress goes. behind the wheel of a lincoln is a mighty fine place to start. with my hectic life you'd think retirement would be the last thing on my mind. thankfully, voya provides comprehensive solutions and shows me how to get the most out of my workplace benefits. voya helps me feel like i've got it all under control. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected.
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the first date of his union address for his presidency tomorrow, our special coverage will start 8 pm eastern for the speech. i'll be there along with joy reid and nicole wallace, i cast of thousands. we have scott mclain joining us, one of our guest interview. again, special coverage starts tomorrow night, 8 pm right here on msnbc. i will see you then. now it's time for the last