freedom and liberty, expand fairness and opportunity, and we will save democracy. >> president biden gets tonight 's last word. battered yet resilient country that has now wedged a week-long battle against russia's unprovoked invasion. in an address to his country this morning, president zelenskyy called on ukrainians to keep up the fight and told the russians to go home. he said they will not ha they will not have food, they will not have one quiet moment. the occupiers will receive only one thing from ukrainians. resistance. we are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy. ukraine has put up a much stronger fight than many thought they were capable of. secretary of defense lloyd austin telling nbc news lester holt today that at this point it is actually hard to predict which way the war will go.

when you think of it is, that is a stunning statement considering ukraine is fighting one of the most powerful militaries in the world. >> we are all in this mired by what we, from not just the ukrainian force, the ukrainian people. it is hard to predict which way things are going to go. i'm sure the russians would never have predicted they would be in the place they are in at this point. our focus is to make sure that we do everything possible to provide as much support to the ukrainians so that he this can defend themselves. >> austin warned that russia has a lot of combat power left to use. blasts were heard early this morning in kyiv, and 82% of the forces putin originally staged at the board remember now inside ukraine. ukrainian and russian delegations are meeting for a second time in an attempt to try to get to some kind of peace talksof but nbc reports that

ukrainians aren't really hopeful for a cease-fire. the russians are closing in on kyiv with the infamous 40 mile convoy we are seeing images of, stalled outside the city, dealing with shortages of food and fuel, and while russia's attack might be taking longer than expected, it could be a slow motion catastrophe in the making for kyiv, russia has been bombarding ukraine with missile strikes, destroying neighborhoods and even infrastructure. russia has claimed control of the h strategic port city of kherson where tanks have been seen rology through the streets. and the country's second largest city of kharkhiv has been under assault, the u.n. estimates the death toll in the hundreds and the real number is believed to be considerably higher. they are reporting that one million people have fled ukraine since russia's invasion, more than 2% of the country's entire

population in the first week. they're calling it the swiftest exodus of refugees this century. meanwhile, two western officials tell mbs news that russia has lost nearly 6,000 troops so far, nbc cannot independently verify those numbers. if true though, it far exceeds the number of u.s. troops lost in iraq in more than a decade of war. this comes as putin is increasingly isolated on the world stage. look at the u.n. for example. 141 countries voted to condemn putin's act of aggression, only four country, belarus, north korea, syria, and eritrea, voting with russia, joining me now are nbc news foreign correspondent in moscow. and cal perry in the western part. it is great to have all three with you. let me start with you in moscow this morning. because we've beenos asking you

daybe in and day out about the information flow there, what messaging is coming out of russia,g how the government the is handling all of this, and we've gotten some insight into the first round, if you will, of official death tolls, from the russian, government. how are the russians on the street, the people you're talkingpe to, hearing from, how are they handling the new reality ofg what is happening the war, plus these crippling sanctions? >> on the sanctions front, ordinary russians are finding their economic reality has been turned upside down in thety las couple of days. as to the value of the ruble collapses, prices here are just absolutely skyrocketing. on everything from car parts, to just groceries on supermarket shelves. we're hearing from a lot of young people that they're looking to get out of thisle country, they don't want to spend the next couple of years of their lives in what is basically looking like it may be an economic crater as a result

of these sanctions. but getting out of russia is not easy right now. if you go to one of moscow's international airports and you look atin the departure boards, all you see is a sea of cancellations because flights to europe, flights to north america, are all called off. now, in terms of what the russian people are hearing from their government, as you said, they have finally been given a death toll, 498 russian service members killed in the first week of fighting in ukraine. that's according to the russian defense ministry.di as you said, the real figures potentially a lot higher. we are not detecting any signs at all that this war has any popular support, here in moscow, at least, and alexey navalny, the imprisoned russian dissident has called for people to take to the main squares of cities across russia, in the coming days, to protest against this war. remember, navalny isst a russia nationalist.an he isn't some bleeding heart human rightsdi liberal. this is a proud russian

nationalist. and he is saying this war is leading russia into disaster. meanwhile, we are seeing an intensified crackdown on the few remaining independent russian media outlets. earlier today, a very popular radio station, which split its time between music and news, one of the any course went on the air and said we're going to stop reporting the news, because we are forced to tell you lies at the behest of the kremlin, and a statement decrying the media crackdown, russia's engaged in an unprovoked war on ukraine. at home, the kremlin is engained in a full assault on media freedom and the truth and moscow's efforts to mislead and suppress the truth ofts the brul invasion are intensifying. but i will tell you, despite the official narrative going out on russian state media, people here are under no illusion that this

war is not going well on the battlefield, that these sanctions that have beenba impod by the western countries have the potential to devastate the russian economy, and as you said, a moment ago, that vote at the u.n. shows ordinary russians just how diplomatically isolated their country is. the bbc is saying that traffic to their russian language web site has tripled over the last couple of days, and that i think isd an indication that ordinar russians are really trying to get at the truth of this war that's been carried out in their name by vladimir putin. >> isolated from the information, economically, even physically, when you consider the air space that is being restricted and closed to russian vessels. isabel, you're where people are fleeing over the last couple of days, a million people as of this evening have crossed out of ukraine into neighboring countries. how safe is that city? and what are people there telling you?

>> yeah, i think the city is considered safe for now. it's sort of a transition point, a place you go to on the way to the next t place you want to go to, and that might be europe, you know, countries like poland, romania, moldova, or maybe you know they go there and try to find a way into germany or the czech republic. but there hasn't been a lot yet and you have seen the city fortify itself because it is seeing what is happens to kyiv, and cities just to the south and there is no lines at the grocery stores or atms but a line at the gunshop and lines of territorial defense. and all store windows are being fortifiedow with sandbags. you have a curfew here. you've seen people with guns.

anyone looks suspicious, you might be askedyo to show your paperwork. yourow documents. so you know, it's safe for now, but there is definitely a sense of what could be coming, and people aren't really getting ready here, and that is a man who said his family, who sent his family to odesa and the moldova county and making molotov cocktails to help the resistance. >> you spoke to the mayor of kharkiv, sustaining a lot of shelling there, what did he tell you about the situation in that city, and whether or not they anticipate there to be any advancements by the russians into the heart of the city after the heavy bombardment it sustained? >> well, i spoke to the mayor yesterday morning, and he said the situation was pretty grave, that the casualty count was expected to go up, and i don't

think anyone expected for rush ta to bombard kharkiv of all cities like this. it's a city with a lot of russian speaker, 95% of the city speaks russian first, so especially for the russian narrative, you know, russian speakers in ukraine are oppressed, it is really goes against, i think people expected russia to use a little bit more care with kind of its shelling of its city like that. you know, even there's power outages around the city, they're trying to get t food and medica cities to people around the city,ti but the constant shelli makes that much more possible and it is difficult to get an act casualty count. >> as we can imagine, information about what is happening isgi coming up slowly given the challenges of documenting all of those figures. cal, i know youof spent a few ds at thet border with poland, speaking of figures, as of this night, the united nations has reported that a million refugees

has passed through ukraine's borders into neighboring countries. i knowbo you're out speaking to people,ki trying to get out, getting out, what is it like for those people who are making that journey? >> we're hearing just harrowing story, we've been talking about kharkiv and the heavy bombardment there, i'm 600 miles from, there and we've seen so many people flowing from that city, from that part of the country,pa and of course, in orr to flee from there to here, you have to go through the capital which is under heavy bombardment. i spokeer to a young woman 24 years old, spent five years in the u.s. which is why her english is so good and i asked her to tell her story, the journey of getting here. >> twojo days ago, when things t worse, my house got burned by a bomb, and my loved ones died. >> who died? >> my grandma. in the basement. they were hiding in the

basement. because right now, it's so hard, that they use some new kind of, new kind of forbidden bombs that destroy everything in a big distance. so it's very much done. my whole city is just dust. >> anything else you want to say? >> please do cherish clear skies. every time you see the clear skies, cherish every moment of your life. >> that number from the united nations,er one million folks wh have left the country does not account for the internally displaced people and you can expect that number to rise. the other thing that has happened is males between 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country and witnessing scene, people dropping the families off at the border of poland, 20 miles from the border where folks are walking and this city

as i have to say is interesting to say, it is under strict curfews and biding by it and there are checkpoints and we are 350 miles from the capital, it's now starting to feel one week into this like the entire country is at war. >> cal, there have been some reports that foreign studentseen ukraine and others, nine ukrainian residents -- nonukrainian residents in ukraine, are having a hard time getting out. what have you heard and what are officials saying about it? >> so in talking to people at the train station here in lviv, it was something important to us we wanted to find out, we have seen a number of social media videos out there showing this problem and the government has reacted as you said and they have reacted by saying this, and this is from the foreign minister, quote, we have established an emergency hot line for african, asian and other students wishing to leave ukraine because of russia's invasion and they need to have

equal opportunities to return to their country safely.eq this is a direct reaction to these videos that we've seen where they've been separating people out, at times, by race. and pushing folks off the train, and it is something the government says they are concerned about, that they will look at, i will say that this government is completely overwhelmed on any number of fronts,um dealing with refugeess certainly part of that, and so they're going to be trying to reach out to the home countries but it certainly doesn't make the situation any better and the scenes of people fleeing are incredibly ugly when you add the extra element into it, it is all the more ugly. >> u.n. officials have been saying as well everybody who wants to leave the war zone needs to be allowed to leave immediately. thanks to the three of you for joining us and starting us off this taevening. the russian incursion has lasted seven day, something that president putin certainly had not anticipated. president biden during tuesday's state of the union address noted

that putin had an underestimation of the ukrainian people. >> he badly miscalculated. he thought he could roll into ukraine and the world would roll over, and instead he met with a wall ofst strength he never patented or imagined,er met -- he never anticipated or imagined. he met the ukrainian people. >> let's bring in former u.s. ambassador to russia and msnbc international affairs analyst michael mcfaul. hank you very much for your time. we are entering the second wee week, did second week of the russian invasion of ukraine and putin is frustrated by the escalation, and what should he expect given potentially targeting civilians and hospitals? >> well, i think he had one strategy at the beginning, a kind of shock and awe, bomb a few cities and he thought that the ukrainian army would run, zelenskyy could be in poland and he would occupy these cities, especially in the east and put

his ownst governors in and everything would be fine. obviously that didn't happen. he didn't, he's frustrated. you can hear it in his voice. the way he talks about the war. so he's pivoting to this other strategy. and the strategy that we've seen before. in chechnya, in 1999, and in syria, especially in aleppo after he used his air force there to crop up his dictator ally mr. assad and that's what it feels like and it was heart wrenching to hear that eyewitness account from kharkiv, a fantastic city, fantastic people,ti major educational cenr for the country, second largest cityr in ukraine and as you pointed out, most people there speak russian, there are lots of ethnic russians there. putin is killing russians when claiming to liberty ukraine from the neo nazis. andth he's doing it through terrorism of civilians. look at what you're showing right now. that's not a military target.

and i fear that's the next phase that we'res going to be talkin about for the next several days orne weeks. >> what scare mese is we're about to see perhaps a carpet bombing campaign like the one he unleashed on syria. in that event, what does the west do as they watch vladimir putin, air desperate man, lose control and unleash the might of thele russian military, in an uncontrolled manner? more than what we're seeing. >> you know, i'm in touch with lots of people in ukraine, we've had 300 people come through my institute from ukraine overop t last two decades, training programs, so we have a wide network of people there. the number one thing they say, everyone o says, more military staens assistance, stingers and javelins and no-fly zone. you just heard itja from the ukrainian that you had on your program just a few y minutes ag. i don't see a scenario under which president biden does a no-fly zone in ukraine. i think he's made that clear. so that means that everyone in

the world should provide more military assistance to those that are fighting alone. and i want to be clear about this. i feel very ethically and morally uncomfortable, because weor cheer ourselves, for all o our ununity, including the state of the union address and everybody stood up together, wonderful to see, democrats and republicans united but onecr ofy ukrainians said to me on the night this war started. we're all united on the sidelines. they are fighting putin alone. and i think people need to understand that, that if you feel, as i do, as helpless as i do, as my friends literally tonight are being bombed, i'm worried if i'm going to be able to talk to them tomorrow, we should do all that we can to help them fight if we're not willing to fight ourselves. >> i'm sure you've seen the news, ambassador, in the last hour, the state department put out aur statement in response ta media crackdown inside russia. russia's government is

throttling platforms and tens of millions of citizens rely on, to access independent information. on top of thatnt you had an announcement that one of the more respected independent voices, if you will, inside russia, tv has been shut down, the managing editor i believe is going to leave the country controversial to social media posts, is this a sign that putin is worried about his own people, or that his incursion is backfiring internally? >> absolutely, it's a sign. by the way, i was telling the tv, the russian word, five-minute interview and 1.5 million views in a few hours and that's whyin they're shutting tm down, that's exactly why they're shutting them down. and remember even before the war began, 2021 will go down i think in russian history post-soviet russian history, as the most

brutal crackdown year ever in the history of the country. and including the arrest of course of the main opposition leader alexey navalny, that wasn't by accident, putin was preparing for this war, he was cracking down, and now that he is seeing he has to go further with the measures you just talked about, obviously that means that he's worried about sentiment inside russia regarding this war. and again, like i said, i have lots of friends in ukraine, i have lots of friends in russia, too, think about the courage it takes to light a video of me, number one, by vladimir putin on tv, and 1.5 million people did that in like two hours. that shows that they are fed up, that they do not support this war, and you know, from friends ofno mine, that i've had for 30 years in russia, to people that are very rich in the country, nobody supports this war, as far as i can tell, except for one guy, vladimir putin.

>> sbad dor mcfaul your voice one of the most essential ones in all of this. thanks for joining us. i greatly appreciate what you are doing and saying. much more to come including breaking news in the january 6th investigation. we are going through a legal filing that january 6th investigation just released. stay with us. we'll tell you about it. n rele. stay w ith us we'll tell you about it.

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if you've been following russian president vladimir putin's regime for the past few years you might recognize this guy, russian foreign minister sergei lavrov, essentially the russian secretary of state, a job that not many people have had, especially since sergei lavrov has been russian's prime minister for the past 18 years. russia's first-ever post-soviet foreign minister was a man named andre, the guy you see here, in the front of this picture, the man behind him is you may recognize, a young sergei lavrov, last week on the day the u.s. and the eu sanctioned

officials including lavrov, andre tweeted this picture with the caption, lavrov rightfully sanctioned by the u.s. and eu, was my deputy in the 90s, used to be have my back, and today i would watch my back if he was behind me. joining us is former russian foreign minister andre, mr. minister, thank you very much for your time. you're someone who has been in the upper echelons of power inside of russia and based on your experience, do you think that sanctioning top officials and oligarchs will have the desired effect of putting pressure on putin to end this war and reverse course? >> good day. definitely. but that's not the most powerful tools which the west has, and i understand that the see change happened in europe, which was reluctant to do exactly that, and great britain, so america is

now not ahead of others in this field. they need probably to do more, all of them, because not yet every oligarch, and not only oligarchs but ethnic bureaucrats who are making decisions, of course, they made decisions, with putin, but others have to implement, make tactical decisions, so to say, and all of them, almost all of them, have money, have families, have property abroad, including miami, where i am now, and new york, and of course, london. so that is a very powerful instrument.

if people are not integrated -- >> what kind of power, if any, do russian oligarchs have? i think that is the question tonight, because you know, do they have an ability to leverage, or any leverage, to get him to change his actions, or does putin have all of the leverage? people are really wondering whether or not these people that are outside of russia, or at least they have leverage over him, to say you have to stop this? >> of course, as i said, especially the government official, but also the men of money, which we call usually in russia oligarchs, of course, they profit from his policies and they help one way or the other to implement those policies. so if you don't have the army to implement your orders, there is no offensive. it includes the military, and it

includes the top level of the security apparatus, so of course it changes in a big way. i've been trying to drive a car, if the motor is not working, or slowing down, there's no way. >> that's a really good point that you bring up, to put it in that context, i think one of the other questions people are wondering is whether or not vladimir putin is a so-called rational actor, whether he's capable of making rational decisions, and whether he's been isolated too much, whether he knows how to weigh the costs and the benefits of the actions he is undertaking, do you think he is operating with any kind of strategy, in the right mindset right now? do you think he is a rational actor? >> well, i think the main problem is in saying a sense

that he can do anything, that he can get away with this, and unfortunately, the week, exposed to his actions, and the last years against ukraine, they have kind of spoiled him. so that's number one. number two, he probably hasek co, has echo chambers and probably believes his own propaganda, that the west is too weak, and kind of reluctant to act and the same with ukraine people, that there are no ukrainian peoples, that ukrainians are fools or cohorts of that. both of them have now been proved wrong. and if the west continues to prove it wrong, like they do,

and his speech, for instance, especially the reaction of the congress, of president biden, i mean the state of the union address, with this overwhelming support, bipartisan support, that's a good sobering signal. i don't think that he's mad in a medical sense. >> former russian foreign minister, thank you very much for your time. greatly appreciate it tonight. we're going to go live shortly to the ukrainian polish border where a flood of refugees are trying to escape the invasion. but next, big breaking news out of the january 6th investigation this evening. what they say is that is new and important about the former president's role. stay with us. t about the former president's role stay with us ow. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts so you both stay comfortable all night. it's also temperature balancing so you stay cool. and now, save up to $600 on select sleep number 360® smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 36months. only for a limited time.

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so big breaking news this evening from the january 6th investigation, and it involves this man, john eastman, an attorney for president trump, seen here, pumping up the crowd at trump's big january 6th rally just before the attack on the capitol. the january 6th investigate has described eastman as quote a central player in the development of a legal strategy to justify a coup. now eastman infamously wrote two memos for president trump outlining a legal path for vice president mike pence to toss out electoral votes from several states that joe biden had won and thereby handing the 2020

election to trump. eastman and trump pressured by pence to follow these -- mike pence to follow these plans to toss out the electoral votes when it came time to preside over the election of january 6th and pence as we know did not bow to the pressure campaign. january 6th investigation, naturally, had a lot of questions for john eastman. but when they subpoenaed him, eastman pled the fifth. he asserted his right not to incriminate himself under questioning. "politico" called it quote an extraordinary assertion by someone who worked closely with trump that to attempt to overturn the 2020 results. to get his testimony, his eastman records were subpoenaed and emails from his time working with trump to overturn the election. mr. eastman has been trying to block the investigation from getting those emails, claiming that he was acting as donald trump's attorney, and therefore his e-mails are protected by

attorney-client privilege. here is where things actually get interesting. tonight, the january 6th investigation has filed a motion in court, making its case for why those emails are actually not protected by attorney-client privilege, and what they are saying is that the attorney-client privilege is void if both the lawyer and the client are communicating about is doing something illegal or fraudulent. under the law, you and your lawyer can't just simply plan something illegal and then claim attorney-client privilege to shield all of the evidence of that crime. in the january 6th investigation, it is now saying to the judge tonight, we believe donald trump and his lawyer john eastman were engaged in crimes. let me read some of this is for you. from tonight's filing for the january 6th investigation. evidence and information available to the committee establishes a good faith belief that mr. trump and others may have engaged in criminal and/or fraudulent acts, and that

plaintiff's legal assistance was used in furtherance of those activities. the president sought to use the vice president to manipulate the results in his favor. had his effort succeeded, the electoral vote would have been obstructed, im peelded, influenced and at the very least delayed all without any genuine legal justification and based on the false pretense that the election had been stolen. there is no genuine question that the president and the plaintiff attempted to accomplish this specific illegal result. the select committee has a good-faith basis for concluding that the president and members of his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the united states by interfering with the election certification process, disseminating false information about election fraud, and pressuring state officials to alter state election results and federal officials to assist in that effort. the conspirators also obstructed a lawful government function by pressuring the vice president to violate his duty to count the

electoral certificates from certain states of the apparent objective of these efforts was to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. and declared donald trump the winner. in this way, the conspiracy aim to obstruct and interfere with the proper functioning of the united states government. so again, tonight, let's be clear about this. the january 6th investigation, has gone to court, to say that donald trump's lawyer can claim attorney-client privilege for his communications, because, can't claim it, because he and trump and others on trump's campaign were engaged in crimes. joining us now is former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan barbara mcquade and last week she published a model prosecution memo analyzing charges against trump pressuring mike pence to overturn the election and incredibly the two crimes that she thought may have been commited are the two crimes the january 6th investigation names

in this filing tonight. conspiracy to defraud the united states, and obstruction of an official proceeding. barbara great to have you with us. thanks for joining us. and as a person who kind of, you know, using this word here, predicted that these might be the statutes that trump violates, what's your reaction to this tonight and how significant is it? >> i think it is a significant filing because it is the first time the committee had said outloud what the crimes may have been and pulled together the evidence of what the crime may have looked like. i think that any prosecutor who looked at that evidence in the way i did, and the way that a former prosecutor leading this investigation for the january 6th investigation, that they are doing, it really jumps out as fairly obvious potential crimes. details of the evidence matters here but one of the things that they do in this filing that i think is so significant is they document all of the evidence that they have that is beginning to come into focus that have

been gathering from all of these sources and we no from public statements that donald trump was pressuring mike pence to refuse to certify the election but one of the things that is coming into view, with the hard part, to show that donald trump knew that it was false to say that he had won the election. and the document lists all of that evidence in this filing. >> i was going to ask you if you can lay that out for us a little bit. the investigation has told the federal court, it has a good faith reason to believe trump, eastman and others have committee federal crimes. ex -- have committed federal crimes and do you think the case is a convincing one. >> i do. obstruction of a proceeding or intent to defraud the united states, have different elements but the key factor that is elusive is proving donald trump's intent, that he knew that what he was saying was fraudulent, that what he was telling mike pence you should change the outcome of the election, he knew that was based

on a lie, based on fraud, so they document all of the ways that he knew that this was false, number one his own cybersecurity, the department of homeland security, said so publicly, and william barr the attorney general said so publicly, the director of the office of national intelligence, johned are cliff, his appointee, said so publicly. barr's successors at the justice department said repeatedly there was no fraud. there was an internal memo for the trump campaign concluded there was no fraud. and 61 of 62 judges in the court cases out of the cases across the country found no fraud and the one case that the trump campaign won was an unrelated issue related to affidavits and one judge said there is not a scintilla of evidence that there is fraud. and willful blindness in the jury statements, that you can't

turn a blind eye when someone tells you it is true, and if someone tells you that the world is flat when you are told that the world is round in repeated evidence and you are shown photos and you are convinced that the world is flat -- >> the point is you can't plead stupidity and ignorance and say i didn't know despite the overwhelming evidence that was presented to you. i want to ask about the january 6th conference, and the oath keepers pleading guilty to seditious conspiracy in the attack on the capitol which in and of itself is pretty significant. what does that mean and how big of a deal is it? >> it is a very big deal. i think the seditious conspiracy is a charge that is used rarely because it requires not only a use of force to interfere with the government authority, but it requires that it is the authority of the united states. and so what they argue there, in that case, the allegation was that they were using force to stop the lawful transfer of

presidential power. we know the defendant in the group of oath keepers who did said yes,i did do this and also importantly he is cooperating and this particular defendant was with roger stone on january 6th earlier that day so his cooperation promises to be potentially very fruitful. >> incredible. two significant developments today from the january 6th committee. barbara mcquade, a former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, barbara, always a pleasure, thank you very much. greatly appreciate your expertise tonight. up next, we will talk live with a u.n. official working on the ukrainian polish border. stay with us. r. stay with us

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in ukraine, it is like hell. we don't know what to do. that's why we cross to another country. so we don't know what will be tomorrow. so we are running.

>> so we are running. that woman is one of the nearly one million refugees who have fled ukraine in the past seven days while the war rages on. the refugee crisis is quickly becoming what the u.n. refugee agency is warning is on track to become europe's largest refugee crisis of the sentry. freezing temperatures and days long journey, thousands have fled to poland and hungary and moldova, romania, slovakia and other eastern european countries. the refugee agency expects four million to leave ukraine in the coming weeks and months, the agency also reports that those in war-torn ukraine have waited up to 60 hours, in freezing temperatures to cross into poland with many spending days on the road waiting to cross. the u.n. commission is expecting to approve protection up to three years for displaced ukrainians pave the way for them

to get residents and work permits in eu countries. and while that is all encouraging and good news, there are troubling reports about a double standard for refugees based on race and ethnicity. a 24-year-old nigerian doctor who fled from western ukraine told "the new york times" this week while trying to make her way to poland the guards were letting ukrainians cross but blocked foreigners. she told the times, quote, the ukrainian border guards were not letting us through. they were beating people up with sticks. they would slap them. beat them. and push them to the end of the cue. it was awful. and whenever a black lady would try to pass, they said our women first. and nearly a million displaced people who have left ukraine the humanitarian crisis is exploding. the u.n. refugee agency, the high commissioner for refugees, has been ramping up its response to help those displaced by russia's attack on ukraine. the agency has said that the volatile situation and the security concerns, as you can imagine, are posing major

challenges for their aid workers. joining us live from poland is chris meltzer, a senior spokesman for the u.n. refugee agency. thanks for joining us. i know it is early your time. i understand that you got to poland a week ago, right when this crisis started unfolding, what is your assessment of this situation there on the border a week into it? >> well, it is a terrible situation for many people. so as you have mentioned, so many people fled ukraine and we have officially passed the one million mark, about half of them went to poland and the people are waiting, in freezing cars, women and children, men stayed behind, to cross the border, and people are desperate, of course. they don't know what comes next. and they don't know what will happen to their country. we try to help these people but it is a major crisis right now.

>> from the people that you have spoken to, what do they need the most? what is the most urgent need right now? >> first, everything that has to do with the war, and sleeping bag, and the people in poland provide for them. what is more important then is accommodations. there are reception facilities that people can stay there for a couple of hours or maybe one or two days but what comes next? many ukrainians have relatives here, so this network, they found somewhere they can stay, but on the long run, we need more accommodation, i'm quite sure. and we have talked to so many refugees, and when we asked them, what do you need most? what do you want most? the answer is home. we want to go home. >> yeah, you bring up an interesting point. are you worried about the capacity to provide services here, to the support of the refugees, as these numbers

increase dramatically day upon day? >> yes, take a look at the number. one million people, this is unprecedented in europe, over the last almost 80 years. not even the invasion of russia and ukraine, in 1956, not even the balkan crisis produceed so many refugees in such a short time, and in less than a week, more than a million people, half of them in poland, the solidarity is probably not endless here, really the situation deteriorates, in ukraine, and more people are fleeing and then of course, the challenge will be bigger, and we need more capacities here in the neighboring countries. >> you talked about the importance of solidarity. i have to ask you quickly about, have you observed authorities engaging in any discrimination based on race and ethnicity and letting people in to neighboring countries? >> we have heard from the reports, and we have confronted

the authorities, they deny that there is any kind of situation, and we have investigated, we talked to many people, and also, so-called third country national efforts, many of them told us they had absolutely no problem to enter, and there may be problems like they have to stay 12, 24 hours, or even longer. and at least no one was sent back. this is very important, but yes, we are concerned about this report. >> senior spokesman for the u.n. refugees agency. thank you for being with us here tonight. we'll be right back. r being wite tonight. we'll be right back.

that does it for us on what is a very busy night. we will see you tomorrow. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. our train stopped in the middle of kyiv and they, were you know, they were shooting, and we heard guns, flying all over and planes. and this particular moment, i can die, and i just prayed, and i said, goodbye, everyone. >> how did you survive? >> i don't think i did. we all are just, mentally, we are broken. >> that's a ukrainian woman who fled her home in kharkiv days ago. meanwhile the fighting intensifies as the russian invasion e