state antony blinken, we're about to hit another briefing live from the pentagon this time, ready to give an update on the war in ukraine. all of it as a senior defense official says that the bombing of kyiv is getting aggressively worse. that is the microphone where we expect to hear from john kirby. the backdrop, this scene at the u.n. today. watch. >> result of the vote is as follows -- [ applause ] >> that was the applause after members of the general assembly voted to censure russia for its invasion. and as you just heard, announcing that he will head to brussels, poland, baltics to shore up our diplomatic support for allies. and we're also looking at the president on the road in wisconsin. he set to speak there just about maybe 15 minutes from now.

taking a state of the union pitch to a key battleground. we'll take you there with our team on the ground and with more on what voters want to hear. i'm hallie jackson along with our nbc news team. cal perry is in western ukraine. kristen welker at the white house. pete williams our justice correspondent. and we're also joined by a retired admiral, and our chief international security and diplomacy analyst. and as i've laid out, i'll apologize preemptively for interrupting you if we do see john kirby come to that microphone. cal, clearly whatever the messaging is, we'll want to hear it and we'll want to hear it live as the situation continues to get worse where you are in ukraine. and the refugee crisis, humanitarian piece of this gets worse too, cal. >> reporter: right. and we'll be looking for clarification from the pentagon on what exactly is going on in the eastern part of the country. the ukrainian army has been viewed here by the people here of doing a tremendous job, of

standing up the russian, of keeping them out of the capital, keeping them where they are. but the reality is also that the city of kharkiv is being pounded right now. there is intense fighting, there is intense shelling. and as you said, the capital seems to be under renewed shelling that we haven't seen before. residential areas seem to be getting hit, reports that the train station has been hit. so it seems like we are at another inflection point. and so it will be interesting to hear from john kirby about what is the state, not just of that convoy that we've spent so much time talking about, that 40 mile convoy and why it has stalled, but what is happening to these civilian areas and this shelling. it is something here that the civilians are obviously worried about, something that the military is worried about, the government is growing more and more concerned because of course it displaces hundreds of thousands of people which causes the refugee crisis to only grow. >> cal perry live for us in ukraine, thank you.

kristen, we just heard from secretary of state antony blinken who talked about the sweeping sanz s blinken who talked about the sweepinganctions that have been put on russia. here is what he said. >> president putin may have assumed that the united states and our allies were bluffing when we warned of massive unprecedented consequences. but as president biden likes to say, big nations can't bluff. the united states doesn't bluff. and president putin has gravely miscalculated. >> and the white house continuing to turn the screws up, more and more pressure, new sanctions even in the last little bit as we get ready to hear from the president in a couple minutes. >> reporter: that's right. and you heard that theme in the president's state of the union address really touting the enter national response. and we saw that on display at the u.n. general assembly today when the assembly voted to censure russia for invading ukraine. the administration also

announcing new punitive steps including new export controls on russia, on belarus as well as on export controls on its oil and gas industries. that is important. why? because the administration has not taken that big step of cutting off the u.s. from russia's oil and gas. they haven't done that yet. but this is a way that the administration is towing the line, signaling to russia that everything is on the table. in fact the president was asked this very question today, why not take that ultimate step and cut off oil and gas from russia. take a look at that exchange. >> are you considering banning russian oil imports? >> nothing is off the table. >> -- war crimes. >> we're following it very closely. it is early to say that. >> reporter: on the president weighing in on the latest situation just to give a little

bit more context to the oil and gas situation, about 8% of u.s. imports of oil or about 672,000 barrels a day come from russia. that is a figure from 2021. and i've been speaking with administration officials who say that the challenge in all of this is that they are also dealing with inflation. record high prices on everything from gas to groceries. and so if you take a step like that, it only makes dealing with inflation that much more complicated. at the same time though, the fact that the u.s. as well as its allies have moved to cut some financial industries of russia off from the s.w.i.f.t. banking industry has also had an impact on the global economy. so it is something that is still being considered here in the biden administration. >> as we've talked about what else the biden administration is doing it, pete, you are covering it from the department of justice side. >> right, the president said last night that the justice

department would be taking action against russia over the sanctions and today the justice department laid that out announcing the formation of this task force that will look at anybody who violates the sanctions, anybody who violateso violates redescriptions on russia banks and anybody who tries to use crypto currency to evade the sanctions. and the justice department says even though they may target people that can't be arrested, nonetheless the justice department can use civil or criminal asset forfeiture to seize their assets in addition to bringing these charges. and the government says that it will use not only the assets that are in the justice department, that is the fbi and marshal service, but also other law enforcement agencies from throughout the government. the irs, postal inspection service, homeland security investigations. so this is a government-wide effort all under this name of what they now call klepto capture, that is the name of the

task force. >> pete, thank you. i think that we have cal perry still with us in ukraine. i want to go back to you on this question that has come up. and we've heard it in conversations here on this show whether russia is committing war crimes. this referral to the international criminal court to determine that very question. tell me more about what you are seeing on the ground, how ukrainians are telling you about what they are experiencing in the eastern part of that country. >> reporter: well, they are telling horror stories of indiscriminate bombings and shelling. and it does seem to be something that has picked up in the last 24 hours. people were keenly aware that this would be more than a possibility. you look at what they did in syria. and so people were sort of prepared for it. one thing to be prepared for it, but another thing to see it and live with it. and again, depending on how this goes, if russia starts targeting more and more civilian areas, partly their way of breaking the national spirit that exists here. i spoke to a young couple here to volunteer in lviv and you can

tell from their voices that they are becoming more and more nationalistic. take a listen. >> we will stay until the end. we will protect our country as we can. >> what happens if the end is something horrible, what happens if putin keeps coming and coming? >> i think that we will protect the people who want to protect our country. the men who take weapons to protect their family, their cities. so i think that we will stay until the end. >> yes, we will stay until the end and we will fight because we don't want russia, we don't want to hear putin, we want to hear ukraine. this is our country, our home. and we don't want another nation

here. >> reporter: one of the first things that president biden said last night in his state of the union was that as the russians came in here, they met the ukrainian people. the problem of course is civilians are becoming soldiers and soldiers are dying. and so what you have here is the civilian defense forces which are defending the country, but they are now moving toward those front lines and they are becoming more and more exposed as the russians again start what seems to be an indiscriminate shelling campaign. >> cal, thank you. admiral, let me go to you because defense secretary lloyd austin was talking to lester holt, and it gets to this question that was raised by i think cal right at the top of this discussion of the ukrainian resistance and how long they may be able to continue to keep russian forces stalled. we're already seeing a bit of a change it seems. here is what the defense secretary said. >> we've been watching this convoy that has got the world's

attention. it was reported that it stalled. should we read too much into that, is it still a potent fighting machine? >> i would just say that there is a lot of combat power that the russians still have available to them. so they have a number of options going forward. you know, one of those options by the way, lester, is -- that putin can choose, he can choose to deescalate. and he can choose to pursue a diplomatic solution. and we hope that he does that. but again, just based upon the combat power that we see that he has left, he can still do a number of things. >> what do you make of that, admiral? >> well, lloyd austin knows that of what he speaks. he is a former four star general, pretty good guy, west point graduate. i know him well.

we're rough contemporaries. and he commanded u.s. central command and so has seen more than his fair share of combat. so when he says that there is significant combat power in that long, long convoy, i agree. the other aspect is i see a target. and the u.s. isn't going to go after it, but if we can put in the hands of ukrainians the kind of javelin anti-armor, anti-tank that have been quite effective thus far, that is a big tempting target for the ukrainians to go after. i'll close here by just pointing something out about casualties. i'm seeing increasingly reliable reports that the russian death toll is edging north of 2,000, maybe as high as 3,000. ukrainians claim 5,000. let's stipulate that it is the bottom end of that. 2,000 killed in action. worth remembering, in 20 years in afghanistan, the u.s. lost

2,000. for russia to have lost 2,000 in seven days, that will push back on vladimir putin both at home and within those units forward. >> admiral, thank you so much. as promised, we'll take you over to the pentagon because press sent john kirby has just begun answering questions on the invasion in ukraine. >> -- confirm or deny, written by phil golding. he wrote this book after he left, but he says something here about the pentagon press corps that i think suits not just all of but certainly bob burns to a "t." so just indulge me. and the responsible members of the underrated press corps sit in their grubby and pore over

statements checking them, their dog eared copies, the posture statements and dozens of volumes of congressional testimony are underlined and indexed by their own work. and the margins are annotated. while they do not understand -- sorry, while they to understand the hardware of weapons systems, good ones are also experts on the nato alliance.to understand the hardware of weapons systems, good ones are also experts on the nato alliance. several know more about nuclear strategy than some of those who write on the subject. i think that that is a perfect way of describing mr. bob burns. particularly that stuff about the nuclear strategy. he spent an awful lot of time reporting on our nuclear capabilities and our nuclear training, our nuclear readiness. so with everything going on today, stuff that we just -- i just opened with and the tensions in ukraine, the meeting with the crown prince of bahrain in the middle east, all that

happening today and then to be able to talk about a guy of bob burns' caliber fixing to retire after 45 years, i think just really, really appropriate. and personally, i'm going to miss him. i'm really miss bob burns. and we'll take questions. bob, i think that i have you on the phone. >> thank you, john. thanks for those very kind words. i appreciate that. kind words not just about me, but about the whole pentagon press corps. thank you very much. i to have a couple questions for you about the situation in ukraine. you've described the last few days the status of this large russian convoy that is north of kyiv. i think that you've described it that it is either bogged down or stalled.

can you explain, has it moved at all in the last day or so, have ukrainian forces begun attacking any part of it? and then as a send question, can you give a picture of what is going on in the south, are the russian forces amid the amphibious landing, are they expand something. >> on the convoy, what i will tell you is that we still assess that that convoy, but more broadly speaking the northern push by the russians down towards the south towards kyiv, remains stalled. from our best estimates they have not made any appreciable progress geographically speaking in the last 24 to 36 hours. again, nothing very significant. it is difficult for us to know with great specificity all that

is going into this stall, if you will. but in general, we believe that there is a couple reasons for that. one, we believe the russians are deliberately actually regrouping themselves and reassessing the progress that they have not made and how to make up the lost time. two, we do believe that they have experienced logistics and sustainment challenges, challenges that we don't believe that they have fully -- that they fully anticipated. and, three, they are getting resistance from the ouagadougouians. -- ukrainians. we gave some indications that the ukrainians have in fact tried to slow down that convoy. and we have no reason to doubt those reports. but again, we can't speak to it in great specificity.

in the south, the russian forces appear to be experiencing in general less resistance than they are up in the north. that said, the town of kherson which we knew they were moving on, that is in our estimation still a very contested fight. i know the russians have claimed had they have the town of kherson. we're not in position to call it either way. it appears that the ukrainians are certainly fighting over that town. to the northeast, we knew that they were advancing on mariupol. we believe that that advance is ongoing. we don't believe that they are in the city center. and we have every indication that mariupol will be defended. so they are sort of branching out if you look at crimea and go north, they are branching out to the northeast and the northwest. but they are beginning now, our

assessment is, as they get closer to these two population centers down in the south, we believe that they are facing more resistance. anybody here? >> have any efforts been made toward the nuclear forces, higher alert level, and secondly, while the convoy is stalled, there are indications that maybe the window is closing to get aid into cities that may become undersiege. what is the u.s. and nato partners doing to maybe maximize the amount of aid that they can get in while there is still a window open? >> so on the second question, i would just tell you that security assistance continues to flow. not just from the united states, but from many of our allies and partners. as recently as the last 24

hours. so we are making every effort to get as much security assistance as we can to the ukrainians as fast as we can. and on the humanitarian side, again, we'll continue to work with international organizations and ngos to try to stem and assist in whatever way. not from a military perspective, i'm talking about from an administrative perspective. we estimate -- or we have seen numbers coming out of the u.n. of more than 500,000 people now leaving the country as well as perhaps tens of thousands if not more internally displaced. so clearly mr. putin is causing humanitarian crisis as well. >> and on the posturing? >> oh, i'm sorry. so first i'd say this delayed test is not affecting our strategic nuclear posture and

our deterrence. it is just not. it is not canceled. we're just moving it to the right a little bit. and i won't talk about the specifics of our deterrent posture except to repeat what i've heard the secretary say many times, that he is confident that the strategic deterrent posture that we have in place is up to the task of defending the homeland and our allies and our partners. >> john, what will the u.s. government do if president putin's soldiers kill or harm president zelenskyy, what will be consequences be? >> well, look, i'd rather not get into individual hypothetical scenario, jen. clearly we know that mr. putin wants to topple this government and replace it with his own. and he has already caused the loss of life of innocence. he's already caused destruction

of civilian infrastructure. and all that blood is on his hands. and any more blood that is shed is still going to be on mr. putin's hands. but i won't speculate about particular outcomes with respect to individuals. >> you can authenticate the videos that are circulating of russian soldiers who are being held as p.o.w.s? >> i can't. i'm sorry, we've seen the same videos that you have. we have no reason to doubt them, but we can't independently verify them. >> we hear a lot about false flags leading up to the invasion. are you still seeing any indications that -- of false flags? one specifically that is sort of out there today is a local mayor in luhansk. i know it is difficult to talk about specific cases, but have

you heard anything on that and more on the false flags? >> i haven't heard anything about that particular one. i'm happy to take a look and see if we have anything on that, but that is the first i've heard of this particular report. we did see false flags. i mean, car bombings and that kind of thing before he launched his invasion. not to mention just the ridiculous ludicrous claims that they were making in their own state run media about ukraine being a threat to their security and claims of being shelled by ukrainian forces in the joint operations area to the east. so we did see them run that play on false flags. i'm not aware that there is any such false flag operations going on now. not to say that they couldn't or wouldn't do it. but he has already tried and failed to create a pretext to go in, so he just decided that he's going to go in. and he's done that now. >> and should we take anything from that, whether that was some sort of a reciprocal action in

that that you saw any indications that that is what vladimir putin may be planning here, any kind of a missile launch, nuclear missile launch or anything like that? >> no. obviously as i said in my opening statement, we'd certainly like to see moscow reciprocate by taking the temperature down on rhetoric about nuclear posture. we certainly would like to see him deescalate by coming to a ceasefire. and deescalating and moving those forces back home and getting out of ukraine. but this decision was the secretary's decision and it was based on making sure that we were being very clear about our responsibilities in the nuclear realm. so, no, it was not tied to a specific action or inaction by mr. putin, but, rather, a decision by the secretary to make it clear how responsible we are going to behave in the nuclear space.

let me go over to dave. >> russian forces have been described as risk averse. how does that translate on the battlefield? what does that mean? and you said that the russians are encountering less resistance in the south. is that the only reason for the fact that in the south they seem to still be making progress, or is there something else about the -- >> yeah, so on the south, i mean, you also have to remember they started out on those two southern legs, they started out in crimea. so those lines of supply and sustainment are short. and they have been in crimea since 2014. so they had already built up a pretty sophisticated and healthy architecture to support their operations. and i would add a quick look at

the map will show that you they are not that far from their base of operations in crimea. so we'll see how this goes. they are meeting resistance in kherson and they will meet resistance in mariupol. so i think that we just need to see how this plays out. you know, i saw the comments about risk averse. i would just say that -- and you can see for yourself, i mean, this is not stuff that you guys aren't seeing in imagery of your own. we're seeing vehicles abandoned. we're seeing sustainment problems in fuel and food. we're seeing indications early on that though they have sophisticated combined arms

capabilities, that they are not being necessarily fully integrated. and so they -- they have made some missteps. and they are working their way through that. i want to -- i want to be clear as we've been before, that we have to be as we look at this, we have to be pragmatic. the ukrainians are fighting bravely and creatively. the russians have a significant amount of combat power applied in ukraine, and they still have some significant combat power that they have not engaged in the fight. and we just -- we need to be mindful of that. as i've said before, they will try to learn from these missteps. and they will try to overcome these challenges. jim. >> is it just a matter of time before the russians --

>> i think that that is too soon to make that argument. they have been surprised by the stiff resistance that they are facing by the ukrainians. and i don't believe that they fully factored that in. so i'm certainly not going to be one to call it one way or the another here. ukrainians are fighting for their country and they are making a difference. jim. >> first i second everything you said about bob burns. and second, are you seeing the russians bring in reserves from outside the areas that they had concentrated in before? are you seeing them bring in more aircraft, more troops perhaps to apply to the invasion in ukraine? >> no, jim, we haven't. we haven't seen any indications

that mr. putin feels the need to bring in additional reinforcements from elsewhere in the country. he began to build up this combat power starting in the early fall. and has at his disposal more than 150,000 troops. more than 120 battalion tactical groups. and while we assess that the majority of that combat power is now in ukraine, that doesn't mean that he doesn't have stuff that is not committed and it doesn't mean that what he has in ukraine has been diminished. they have lost a sense of momentum here. but that doesn't mean that they still don't have the power at their disposal. the ukrainians also have retained a lot of their combat power our assessment is. and as i said, they are fighting back. they are fighting back bravely.

>> on the nuclear issue, two questions. in addition to this announcement and about what you said about the responsible behavior in the nuclear realm, is there any contact now with the russian counterparts on the nuclear issue to try to bring down the tension and on ukraine, does the pentagon assess that russian forces, whether they have basically met any of the objectives of the -- of this operation so far on the seventh day, did they achieve anything that they wanted to based on the schedule that they might have had? >> on the nuclear question, i have in order communication to speak to. i think that the secretary's decision today speaks volumes. on the second question, you have

to forgive me for not having perfect knowledge of the russian plan. all i can do is tell you what we're seeing as best we can see it. and they have not taken any of the major population centers that they appear to be wanting to take. again, we think that there is a variety of reasons for that, not least of which is the bravery and the skill and the creativitity of ukrainian fighters. in the back there. >> thank you, john. you talked about the situation in kyiv and south of the country. and i think their main concern is western ukraine. many believe that it is safe there. what is your estimate about the western ukraine and any signs that russia is preparing to

attack or capture western ukraine or are they concentrated on kyiv and south only? >> again i'll be careful here not to anticipate russian moves. all i can do is tell you what we're seeing. and we're seeing a continued desire to advance on kyiv, fighting in kharkiv, fighting in -- i'll probably not pronounce it right, but cherniv and what i drived in the south. largely the effort appears to be to north of kyiv and to the east and rest of the country. i don't know what russian designs or plans are for concern ukraine. so it is hard for me to predict. >> two questions. first one, is there a date that is going to be postponed or is it postponed indefinitely until tensions simmer? >> we don't have a rescheduled date right now. >> and second thing, in your

answer, it sounds like that you were parsing a little bit in terms of the attack on kyiv or directed toward kyiv. seems like that you were making a distinction between the convoy and everything that you are seeing. is there a second portion of what russia is doing toward kyiv that you are seeing? just because all the attention is focused on the convoy, it seems like that you were parsing a little bit in your language there. >> i assure you i never parse. what i was trying to make the point -- the point i was trying to make, and i know there is a lot of interest in this convoy, i'm not clear -- we're not clear that you can segregate the convoy from their advances on kyiv or what they are trying to do on kyiv. we don't have perfect visibility into every vehicle that is in this convoy. and what their intended destination is or may be. but on the face of it, it appears to be a chance to contribute to the advance on

kyiv just based on geography. so what i was trying to do, perhaps in-elegantly, was to broaden this out a little bit and rather than just stay focused on a convoy, try to look at it in perspective here. it is a piece of what we believe their desire which is to take kyiv. >> you can speak on the larger picture of what you are seeing from the north? >> i'm not afraid that i can't give you more than what i have. we're somewhat limited in our ability to know and understand everything. we still believe it is mr. putin's desire to topple the government. in order to do that, he believe that's has to take kyiv. that advance has been stalled. they are working through that we think right now. and a big reason why it is stalled is ukrainian resistance,

which continues right up to this hour. in the back there. >> two questions for you. one, you have outlined all these different populations as being targets of the russian advance. is there anything that you are seeing to maybe connect the dots in some of those, potential -- between the population centers, efforts to kind of -- and second thing, you mentioned how the ukrainians are resisting slowing things down. tactically speaking, would you define them as defensive maneuvers or potentially offensivemaneuvers that they are using? are they, you know, are they waiting to be fired on are they taking more aggressive measures? ukrainians? they are defending their

country. and every shot they take, every maneuver that they execute, is designed to defend the sovereignty of their country. it is -- it is about defense. and they are fighting a very strong defense. on your other question, again, i have to confess to not having perfect knowledge of mr. putin's planning here. but on the face of it, as we see what we see happening on a daily basis, it appears as if they are moving along what we would describe as three main axes of invasion. one is from the north down toward kyiv. there is northeast and northwest kind of coming down on kyiv. one avenue through belarus and one avenue through russia. there is also a southern advance that we've already talked about that is branching out out of crimea to the northeast and to

the northwest. and then we see a push from what we would consider sort of the northeastern group that is moving on kharkiv. kharkiv is valuable because it is such a big city. it is a major population center. but it also could give mr. putin -- again, could, i'm not an expert on what they are planning to do -- but could give them an avenue of approach toward kyiv if the plan was to advance on kyiv from multiple directions, then that direction might be one credible one that they could use. >> you are seeing this as a potential multifront advance, no the trying to carve until country with all the various population centers? >> we can definitely see an effort to move on the capital. difficult to know with certainty what other moves inside ukraine mr. putin trying to achieve.

again, hard for me to speak to a plan that we don't have perfect visibility on. so the idea of carving ukraine up, i can't speak to that specifically. it is entirely also possible that what they are doing in the east could be an effort to fix ukrainian armed forces in that eastern region so that they can't come to the defense of others. but again, they have not achieved success in the major population centers to date that we see them trying to move on. tony. >> you mentioned earlier that the russians hadn't fully demonstrated an integrated combat arms capability. this is something that the u.s. practices all the time at the national training center and marines do also. what are you not seeing that would demonstrate seamless combined arms capability by the russians? >> again, i don't want to speak too much specifically on russian

operations. it is just when you look at -- when you look at what is happening, i would just say it doesn't appear that ground and air operations seem to be very well connected. based on what we're seeing happening. >> and richest man in the world elon musk successfully brought starlink into ukraine. the vice premiere showed a picture of this. did the pentagon help at all in the transport of the starlink internet terminals and are you seeing any impact in terms of either helping ukrainians with tactical military operations or keeping the population connected basically as russians attack information nodes in. >> no help from us that i'm aware of. i'm not sure i understand the second question. >> are you seeing any impact in terms of helping ukrainians with tactical -- >> you mean from the starlink?

that is really for the ukrainians to speak to, not the u.s. military. i know of no involvement of us in respect to that. >> president biden said that the u.s. will join allies to close the u.s. air space to russian planes. the civilian aviation course, we know that the u.s. military has part of civilian air space under its control and russian military and cargo planes cross into that air space from time to time. any plan to employment russian military assets in northern syria where the u.s. air force controls? >> i'm not aware of any such plans. as you know, we are in syria for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to counter the isis fight and that remains an active fight. and there is a deconfliction mechanism with russian military

forces in that part of syria that has worked. that is as far as i can go on that. let me go to the phones here. i haven't gotten to anybody. "new york times." >> today at the emergency special session of the united nations general assembly, u.s. ambassador linda thomas-greenfield said that vacuum bombs are banned. and also i assume she meant fuel air explosives or other forms of thermobaric weapons. so what is the status on the review of the policy and can you say whether the pentagon believes that cluster munitions and thermobarics are banned. >> i don't have any updates for you on the policy reviews with respect to cluster munitions and i'll have to take your question

on the geneva conventions, i'm afraid i'm not an expert on that. so rather than spit ball it, i'll take the question and we'll get back to you. abraham. >> hey, john. two questions. number one, how much coordination is going on between the united states air force, nato and the ukrainian air force and second question, is the u.s. air force continuing to fly isr and other aircraft in international air space over the black sea, and if not, why not? thank you. >> i'm not going to talk about flight profiles. we don't have any aircraft manned or unmanned flying in ukrainianian air space. and the question about specific coordination or communication with the ukrainian armed forces is better put to nato. what i would just tell you, our support for the ukrainian armed

forces right now is very largely in the form of security assistance which continues to flow and gets in to their hands. >> can i just follow up on the question from the "new york times"? is the u.s. a signatory to the 2008 cluster bomb -- >> no. >> and if not, why not? >> we aren't and again, we're still going through a policy review on this, so i don't have anything to update you on that. >> phil stewart, reuters. >> hey there. real quickly, what message would you have to american citizens including retired u.s. military personnel who may want to go and fight in ukraine and also could you comment on the "new york times" report about an apparent russian request -- chinese request to russia that it delay the start of this war until after the olympics? thank you. >> on the second question, phil,

i don't have a comment on these reports that there was a request by china to wait until after the olympics. i think that that is an excellent question for president xi and his administration to speak to if they made such a request. we tried hard to prevent the war through diplomatic engagement. there was no need for it to happen. not to happen on a certain time line or after a certain olympic event. it shouldn't have happened at all. there was no reason for it. it was unprovoked. ukraine was never an aggressor to russia or anybody else. so the issue of time, i think that is one that mr. xi should answer. and on the other question, i mean, what we would tell americans who want to help ukraine is to find ways to donate and contribute to the many nonprofits that are already working to three to get humanitarian assistance into the people in need.

the secretary of state has been nothing but consistent over these many weeks that oouks is ukraine is not a good place for americans to be right now. carla. >> thanks for doing this. on belarus, just can you give us an update about any indications of belarus, their military getting involved, and also we've all seen this video of the belarusian president showing a map of the ukrainian invasion. what is the pentagon's take on this map? it seems like some of the attack was directed toward moldova. what are the possibilities of this war spilling over to belarus or moldova? >> we've seen these images too. i can't speak to this map. i can't validate it. we don't have perfect visibility

into russian plans for ukraine beyond what we believe to be their desire to topple the government and to supplant it with one of their own. so i think that the belarusian president should have to speak to this map and so should president putin. what we continue to say, this war didn't have to happen. and putin can still choose to agree to a ceasefire. he can still misdemeanor move -- move his forces out and he can still deescalate. and i believe that quite frankly, the future of ukraine should be up to the ukrainian people. and they are making their choices pretty clearly known through their resistance that they are offering to this unlawful and unprovoked invasion of their country. and i forgot your first

question. >> first question about the indications has the pentagon seen any indications that the belarusian military is getting involved in the fight or preparing to get involved. >> no we have not. yeah. go ahead. >> thank you for taking my question. so one question direct and another a little wider. first is on reports that some people are reporting that the russians may be preparing thermobaric devices for use within ukraine. and i'm wondering if you can say anything to that. have you any indication of that, can you substantite that? >> no, i cannot. >> and second one is about the global posture. you can talk about readiness on the more global scale, has anything changed in terms of our readiness worldwide? >> in terms of our ability to defend the nation elsewhere,

outside of europe, we remain confident that we can do that. there has been no diminution of readiness around the world. knoe number of troops that we have added to the european theater and that we've moved around inside it, but a sense of perspective is important here. we already had more than 80,000 troops permanently deployed to europe or on rotational orders. so just to give you a sense of perspective there. and nato members themselves have nearly 2 million troops in their combined militaries. so i don't know of any permanent posture changes that will come as a result of this in europe or elsewhere. we're focused on the problem at hand and the problem at hand is making sure that the ukrainians can continue to defend themselves against an unprovoked invasion and, too, that we're continuing to assure our nato allies. and that they know that we take article v very seriously.

okay? yeah, mike. >> do you have any sense that the russians are able to or at least have been attempting to reconstitute any of these units that have been damaged that have been hit by the ukrainians? >> i don't have specifics in terms of their -- >> videos of the ukrainians dragging away, you know, russian tanks with tractors? >> sure, i don't know. i mean, the convoy that everybody is fascinated with could be a part of this effort to replace damaged vehicles and to get their momentum back. but i don't have anything more specific, mike. >> i was wondering with the closure of u.s. air space to russian flights, you can give us a sense of how that would work if a russian flight attempted to approach u.s. air space, is that norad or how would that play out? >> norad is perfectly postured. this is their mandate to protect our homeland, north american

homeland and air spais and they space and they are ready to do their contribution. i'll leave it at that. >> and i have a quick -- >> you have been listening to john kirby delivering an update from the in i will taker's perspective on the crisis in ukraine, russian escalation. and on the postponement of the icbm missile test launch that had been planned, the department of defense will postpone that until a yet to be scheduled date. essentially to send a signal to russia. and also on the assessment of russian troop movement, that there has been no appreciable progress. we've been showing images of that 40 mile long convoy that is stalled. and you see on your screens the reason for that. according to kirby's assessment,

that the russian military in the eyes of the u.s. military is regrouping and reassessing trying to figure out how to make up for lost time basically. they are dealing with logistical challenges, and then you have the resistance from ukraine that is also slowing the approach. i want to bring in barry mccaffrey. now at msnbc military analyst. good to have you on. give us your takeaways from what i listened to. >> i listened to secretary blinken and admiral kirby. look. i think one thing we ought to say is the russian military operations in ukraine are balled up. i mean, just using the word convoy, this is the movement to contact in combat of armored units and they're parked bumper

to bumper three lanes across. i don't see how they can unravel it. at the head of that are ukrainians fighting for their lives. so the russians have a real problem and may also be a logistics problem. i don't see how they get by the stalled units. it is surprising to me. at a tactical level they haven't made a significant attempt to capture kyiv. they are trying to take with ground combat forces and the cities in the south under heavy combat. what will happen in the next 72 hours, putin won't back out. military is in trouble. we'll see what they do. >> you make a point that i think is important to emphasize on the map to keep up on the screen for another second if we can where russian forces are and have

been. you see the northern and southern front and things are going more poorly for the ukraines on the southern front than the northern front. is that to be expected from the resistance of ukraine and where russia directed their troops? >> yeah. probably an accurate assessment. they have not captured mariupol. they had a shorter supply line from crimea for two operations. they used the amphibious forces and in combat and not doing well down there either. the 40-mile long column of stalled armor and soft skin vehicles, they had a short attack distance from belarus down to kyiv. it is astonishing how screwed up they are on this.

i think they hoped the ukrainians would cave in and the units to be able to capture kyiv by walking in on it. that didn't happen. if they go into this center of a 3 million person city and fight block to block it could take a month and the russians could sustain enormous casualties. conversely it would destroy the capital and cause tremendous harm to a civilian population. >> i want to play for you as the pentagon press secretary speaking we were keeping an eye in the control room on what president biden was saying at his speech in wisconsin post state of the union. as he did last night he nodded to the crisis in ukraine and to the importance of presenting a united front with the nato allies to russia. let me play what the president had to say.

>> the united states of america stands with the ukrainian people. we stand with them. [ applause ] vladimir putin -- vladimir putin's latest attack on ukraine is premeditated and unprovoked. he's rejected repeated efforts as diplomacy. he thought the west and nato wouldn't respond. we were ready. we sent countless hours unifying the european allies. we countered russia's lies with truth by letting them know what was being planned and the now free world is holding him accountable. putin is isolated from the world more than ever and we'll continue to aid the ukrainian people as they defend their country and help ease the

suffering in the process. when the history is written ukraine will have left russia weaker and the world stronger. >> not altogether surprising that president biden nodded to that and getting word exclusive nbc news reporting from the team on the ground that the u.s. delivered hundreds of stinger missiles to ukraine. this is according to two congressional officials briefed on the deliveries. how much of a game change every is that the ukrainians? >> i assume it's organized by the cia because getting it out of to lapd and ukraine may be possible and then distributing to ukrainians fighting units in contact is much tougher go. but that's good news. the javelin anti-tank missile, fire and forget, an hour to train it is devastating.

up to 3 kilometers. the stinger will bring down russian aircraft under 11,000 feet so this is good news. but president biden now i might add is under pressure to declare a no fly zone over ukraine. it would be an open war with russians the u.s. air force and the brits and the french could driver they will out in a week but take on s-400 anti-aircraft missile defenses, stationed in russia with a 400 kilometer range. so do we want to go to war with russia at this point over ukraine? the answer is clearly politically no. but the military option is there. >> general, let me ask you about your read on the other news from the pentagon briefing which is postponement of the icb missile

test launch. >> thank god we have the experienced pragmatic group of people in the national security structure. we had the russian foreign minister talking about nuclear weapons in a threatening manner. what is he thinking of? you can't win a nuclear war. first strike on the united states would be with russia vaporized. makes no sense whatsoever. talking about tactical nukes on the ukrainians? i think dialing back the rhetoric and having u.s. and allies careful in the public optics of nuclear weapons is the right thing to do. this is nutty behavior by putin and the senior people. >> thank you so much for your perspective on the news and the developing news coming in.

thank you, general. other breaking news on capitol hill, told you about what we're watching and judge brown with the last meeting of the day with senator chuck grassley. i think we have the video to turn around. hit the highlights for us. >> reporter: yeah. so today she's met with the inaugural meetings with chuck schumer follow id by senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and then two heads of the judiciary committee, dick durbin and as you see on the screen ranking member chuck grassley. this is the beginning of going to be probably a week and a half at least of a lot of meetings that ketanji brown jackson on capitol hill to convince democrats that have praised her tremendously for her tremendous credentials but also republicans as well. she ran into one republican conservative senator kennedy of

louisiana in the hallway and he gave her a hug saying -- telling her congratulations for the nomination. but we also got some news about the schedule. senator durbin the head of the judiciary committee said the hearings for nomination start in the judiciary committee on march 21st. they will last four days and he still on track he says to have her confirmed by the april recess around april 9th which is a very quick process for president biden's first nomination for the supreme court. >> live on capitol hill with that new rorting, new developments on the timeline and the process, thank you. thank you for watching us on mus nbc reports. i'll see you at nbc news reports in an hour. "deadline: white house" starts right now. ♪♪

hi there, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. it is day seven of the russian invasion of ukraine. where millions of people facing enormous and growing peril adds russian forces encircle cities there and ramp up the attacks on civilian areas. at this hour the city of kharkiv under siege from russian forces. missiles struck a university dorm and police headquarters. official says 21 people at least were killed. in southern ukraine russian forces seized control of the port city. ukraine officials tell "the new york times." first major city to fall to russian control since beginning a week ago. a massive russian convoy. still stretches for miles and continues to pose a threat to kyiv.