we understand that it took 40 people and ten vehicles, now, from the ukrainian special services, to put out the fire. the fire now, we understand, was in a training building behind the plant. but look, not any less alarming when you look at that video, and you the plant. the other thing, there is nothing to, to guarantee that won't be some kind of russian counter attack. we have seen this time and time again, two russian tanks, two armored personnel carriers and it took civilians standing in the room to stop them from progressing and came back 12 hours later and we saw the sustained fire fight. in the last few minutes, we're hearing from the united kingdom prime minister boris johnson, in the last few hour, putting the entire continent, putting all of europe at risk and similar words from the ukrainian president, releasing a video on telegram saying it was time for europe to quote wake up. we've seen sustained attacks on civilian areas in the past 24

hours, in especially in the northern part of the country, where the region says it is hell on earth, there is no power and no water and no heat. as civilians continue to bear the brunt of this war. >> cal perry, thank you. with that, let's bring in our expert, peter baker, chief white house correspondent from "the new york times," tom nichols harvard extension school and michael mcfaul former u.s. ambassador to russia at msnbc international affairs analyst. tom, what sticks out to you tonight, in what we're learning about this nuclear plant? >> one of the things that's very striking to me is the cert tude that a lot of folks have that the intention here was to destroy it somehow. my guess is they're trying to capture that part of the grid, shut off the electricity, you know, people have to remember, that if there were a disaster at this plant, most of that would blow into russia, because of the

way the winds go. so once again, the thing i'm struck by is the recklessness and incompetence of the russians in this, you know, iron-fisted attempt to seize you rain and to intimidate -- ukraine and to intimidate its people. i don't think, at this point, i don't think the goal was to destroy this plant. but you know, this is classic russian military play book, the classic russian military play book of being completely reckless, around very dangerous things, like nuclear plants. >> and we just got word moments ago that the fire has now been completely extinguished. that is enormous relief. peter, whether or not the fire is extinguished now, the broader picture now, what does this attack tell you about the kremlin's strategy for war now, where they're going? >> i think one of the things it reminds us is that the kremlin doesn't play by the same rule

books that other countries do. that when the united states goes to war, there are rules and sometimes they're violated, sometimes, you know, we have consequences, they go wrong, but they are at least supposed to be rules about the kind of targets you can kind of lit that have precision weapons for a reason, and nuclear plant obviously would be under no, under the no hit list for any normal country. for russia, either by intent or by accident or incompetence, that wasn't the case. and it just shows how dangerous this war really is, how quickly it can get out of hand, how something unintended or at least unimaginable could occur at any moment. and i think that's a reminder of the russian way. and i think in the previous hour, we talked about chechnya, the reference to chechnya, i was there as a reporter after the second war, at the end of the second war, and they had destroyed the town. that was the capital of chechnya that was revolting against moscow, they carpet bombed it

worse than anything has seen in europe since world war ii and we see that kind of brutality there, we see it here here, and we're seeing it in ukraine day after day. >> ambassador, to peter's very point, we shouldn't be surprised to see vladimir putin breaking international norms, but when we sit here and say, you know, this could constitute war crimes, this is unprecedented, or yesterday, when the u.n. general assembly condemned this, urged russia to change course, does any of this matter? are we speaking a language that means nothing to vladimir putin? he was never in it for the norms. >> great point. after world war ii, we wrote down a lot of norms, we created the u.n. security council, one the norms was thou shall not an ex the territory of thy neighbor, that's how world war ii started through an ex nation and 2014 and a couple of weeks ago and then an unprovoked war

with no threat whatsoever, to russia, from ukraine, and that remains me of september 1st, 1939. so you're absolutely right. he doesn't care about the norms. but i do think, both tom and pete are talking about the part of the way russia fights which is reckless. we keep using these words precision-guided missiles. maybe they're not so precise in the russian arsenal, as we think they are. i'm not convinced that they're trying to attack a plant. this could be something else. we need to be careful, we're all guessing that we know what the intentions of what happened here. but the reckless part, we have a lot of evidence of and the terrorist part, we have a lot of evidence of. peter, we witnessed, go, everybody, and google the photos of chechnya, in 1999, 2000 and then add to your search aleppo in 2016, and you'll see what the russian disthere, deliberately,

which is terrorizing civilians to try to bring them into submission and tragically, i think that's the chapter we've now entered with putin's war against ukraine. >> ambassador, this recklessness you speak of, who pays the price for it? is it putin? it's ukrainianen running for their lives and losing them. >> well of course ukrainians first and foremost, second kind of, you know, everybody go look at their map, too, and look at where this power plant is, and how close it is, as tom said to russia, it's a lot closer to russia than it is to poland, and so obviously, disregard for his own people, and remember, a lot of these cities that he's attacking in the east, they're predominantly russian speakers and ethnic russians. as there are a lot of ethnic russians in kyiv as well. so remember, he has disregard for even his own people. the big question i think you're hinting at, will there be some

moment in the course of this war where because of sanctions, because of disgust, with this war, back home in russia, that they'll actually try to do something about it, and of course, we don't know the answer to, that but this will add to the debate, there's no doubt in my mind, it already is on my twitter feed, just so you know, stephanie, i tweeted russia quite a bit these days, there is already people saying what are we doing here? this is crazy. and those are russians saying that. not just ukrainians. >> tom, do many people dismiss the impact of sanctions too quickly? you can't see sanctions. due see it in the street. -- you don't see it in the street. but what it is actually doing to russia, to the russian economy, it is strangling them. we are engaging in warfare, economic warfare. >> the problem with sanctions is they can't bring immediate end to military activity. i think people expect too much from sanctions in that sense. war breaks out.

we impose sanctions and we assume that the enemy in this case will just say well, we've been sanctioned i guess we have to stop doing what we're doing. sanctions take a long time to work. i think americans have an almost undue faith in sanctions. with that said, sanctions can impose a huge amount of pain on the people that putin has thought of as, you know, the kind of underbosses and those he relies on. some of the oligarchs that are being sanctioned are not people putin particularly cares about and the russian people who are going to bear. so brunt of these sanctions, people doesn't care about them at all. but, sanctions are really important in that for those, for those people out there that are worried, right wing, that putin could seek a wider war. this is really undermining his ability to continue. this mires down, this bogs down

his economy, which undermines his ability to make war, it undermines his ability to have a stable homefront, so sanctions do have a lot of impact, they just don't have the immediate impact that people wish they would have, and that they wish they could immediately see, in some kind of immediate cessation of hostilities. >> but there is immediate suffering, we're looking at it, we're looking at images on the left-hand side of the screen right now. because of that, peter, how much pressure is this white house under to do more? >> well, i think it's under enormous power, obviously, these pictures are devastating to look at. this kind of devastation, any country, much less in the heart of europe, is heart breaking and tragic, and it has an impact of course here at home, too. now there's a lot of mood in america right now that's not very interested in overseas issues, that says it's not our problem, somebody else's problem, and that's a challenge

of course for president biden to explain to them why it isn't just other people's problem, why it does impact and mean something to america, even though the bombs are falling so many thousands of miles away, and he is in fact made a point in the last nine days of ratcheting up day by day the pressure, each day, squeezing even further on russia, tom's right, it hasn't had impact on the immediate actions being taken by russia, but it is having an impact absolutely in russia, and you know, the ukrainians are suffering more than anybody. but what is also going to happen as a result, is that russia itself is going to be cut off from the rest of the world and tens of millions of russians who nothing to do with the war, who didn't want this war, opposed the war, are facing a country with what little freedom they have left is being squashed even further, and where their abilities to leave the country is being cut off, their ability to live part of the world is being cut off, they're retreating behind an iron curtain and that has

consequences for the rest of the world as well, and suddenly, they are more isolated and more of a pariah state, and imagine north korea on the scale of 11 time zones with the nuclear arsenal and the capacity that russia had, that's not looking for world security. so a lot of consequences coming out of this and a lot of uncertainty ahead, as to what it will mean in the future even beyond the immediate crisis on the ground in ukraine which is devastating. >> isolated from information as well. ambassador, earlier today, when we heard from russia, from putin saying things are going exactly as planned. we obviously know that's not the case, but is he saying that because he's speaking to the russian people who have such limited information, in a country where the government controls the media, that they really have no idea what's happening in ukraine? >> well, yes and no. actually, there was two giant events that happened in the last 24 hours, that hasn't gotten enough attention and precisely about this, that the number one

independent television station was taken off the air, and the iconic echo of moscow, a radio station, but also a multi-media organization, also was shut down, one of the most important sources of independent news in russia. so both of those events happened today. that's not a consequence, right? putin's doing that because he's worried about news. and by the way, i was on both of those programs just in the last five days. they don't want people like me talking about this war in russian. they cut them off. at the same time, it's a demographic thing, right? the older you are, the more rural place you live, the less educated you are, the more likely you are to listen to putin's national television stations, and when you listen to those people, i just watched a clip of a dozen of those people being interviewed, they all support putin's war, they all say this is the right thing to do, we have to eliminate nazis just as we did it before. so there is a much bigger divide i think in russian society about

the information they receive, and therefore, the way they perceive this war. >> you've been all over u.s. tv, but to your point, you've been on russia tv over the last -- >> and ukrainian tv. >> are you worried about your own safety? >> well, i was also on ukrainian tv and i just want to say, i really appreciate by the way that you have ukrainians coming on your show tonight, and earlier tonight, some of these, these are people i know, i think the ukrainian voice in this debate needs to be louder in our country so people can understand and listen to what they're doing, i applaud that, i hope do you more of that, i was on tv today, with ukrainian journalists broadcasting from the big television station, that big tower in the middle of kyiv, that was literally just bombed, you know, i think 24 hours ago, right next to bobby r, i can't remember the time is all

blending to me so it is hard for me to worry about my security when those people are being brave, to try to bring information in their country, the least i can do is to participate in the discussions in ukraine, but especially in russia, because that's my -- my ukrainian friends, they say, please, please, please, help us get the message of what's happening on the ground here in ukraine into the people of russia. >> there has been certainly a message across here, peter, i see you nodding your head, you lived in moscow, you want to elaborate. >> i think that's exactly right, to see the cloud falling in basically on russians is tragic, because they are going to be shut off from information. the russians who are paying attention, many of them do not want this war. they are out there risking their freedom and their lives in some ways, protesting against it. there's talk about legislation being put in the russian parliament, that would punish people who protest by con

scripting them in the army and sending them to ukraine. people are literally telling stories about the police knocking on their door saying we hear you're against the government. this is returning to a different age. you know, it's not been a free country under putin to begin with. but increasingly, what was small bits of freedom were still there, what shreds of freedom were still there, he is trying to snuff out at the same time because he knows i think that if the russian people as a whole had access to free information, this isn't something that they would want to see. these are their shra vick slavic brothers. they think of ukraine as part of the family as you will, and to see their own children, their own sons shooting at their, you know, slavic brothers i think it is something that would deserve state a lot of russians if they're showing these pictures that you're showing right now. >> tom, before we move on, we are talking about different supports we're offering ukraines, when nato offers weapons and support, get technical with it us. how does it get there, who

organizes it especially because of so much of what is happening in ukraine is run with civilians and a race against time to get ukraine supplies but who is running this race? >> well, before i talk about that, and you know, even if i knew the exact way the weapons were getting there, it is probably not something i would want to talk about, but there's something really important to point out and something that mike and peter just said, which is this generational divide. the first time i was in the former soviet union was almost 40 years ago, and you could seal off the country like that. putin does not understand. you cannot seal off the russian federation from the rest of the world from pictures and from information, and from telephones and communications. he can try. he wishes it was the soviet union of 40 years ago. but i just don't think he's going to be successful in that. as for how things get there, you know, there are, the country is not under some kind of russian quarantine or embargo. this is still a country that's capable of moving goods and services and people and weapons

between its neighbors, and other places in europe. so there's a lot of different ways that weapons can get there. but this isn't, we're not at the point yet of some kind of, you know, russian kind of cuba-like quarantine where they somehow seal tup. we keep talking about russian control of areas, in ukraine, but i really want to emphasize that right now, the russians are occupiers. they only control the areas they happen to be standing in at any given moment. this is not, i think we have to be careful about assuming too much about what the russians are capable of. it's not like they're marching into town after town, and the locals are saying okay, you win, you know, run the city, set up a tent, that's not happening. the russians are basically marching in, and trying to control the streets and the highways, that they're on, mostly for their own safety. >> tom ny koshlgs peter baker,

ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you very much for coming back and staying up late with us. we will turn to the other big story we're following right now. the flow of refugees out of ukraine, more than a million forced to flee their homes. ali, let's go back to a train stain in budapest, the people you're talking to, the clothes on their back, a suitcase or two, do you think they will be going back to ukraine any time soon or plan to be gone indefinitely. >> that's a really good question. i have spoken to people who seem very hopeful that they will go back. some say in a month, some say three months. some are relocating. some are going home to countries that they came from, people who are not from ukraine but been there studying or on visa, some have family, you know, in eastern europe, there are people with connections in different places, in hungary, or in poland, or romania or germany, so some people are going to resettle with some of their relatives. there are some people here, most

people are gone but since we last talked there are some people here looking for final plans how to get to places. you can see here, there are people with the red cross, there are church groups, helping people out, i will be clear, stephanie, there is no official government presence here at all. there are police, they've been very helpful, but they're just budapest police. there is no government presence here at all. these are hungarian civilians, who have come out here, there is more food than they can even handle. they have too much food. too many donations. >> how are they living -- >> i asked several times, it is self-organizing, there is nobody running these organizations, there are various groups dealing with accommodation and with transportation and with food and medical needs. somebody here didn't have a euro to buy a train ticket and somebody walked up out of nowhere with a little wallet that had train tickets and gave them the train ticket and said where are you going, they showed them on their phone and they walked them to where they needed to go. there's a sign over here, that says warming bus. if you don't have a place to go, it's cold, right, the sun is

just starting to come up, but there are buses just to wait on, while you get warm. there's hot soup that they're giving out to people. there's tea, there's coffee, and hot chocolate, none of this makes up for it, none of it makes up for the fact that somebody's country is being invaded but in all of they don't spare and horribleness, there is some strength of the human spirit, and warmness about people who are coming out here, to help strangers whom they don't know. the languages are not interchangeable. ukrainian does not understand hungarians and vice-versa, entirely different root languages but people out here see this is wrong and helping their fellow people and not going to stop the war in ukraine and not helping those displaced from their homes and it doesn't matter how nice the hungarians are to them, they had to leave their homes and you have seen images to them, crying and desperate and sad and they're stunned but it is worth it to see that there are people who will come out and said, come into my home, come into my country, let's do what we can to try and at least make this a little bit right in the

horribleness that we're seeing. >> and i'm sorry to tell you mr. velshi, you're mistaken, there is one organizing force behind all of this. they're being led by love. ali, thank you. >> something that is very evident right here, stephanie. >> love, compassion and humanity leading the way. ally verb -- verb -- coming up, ambassador mcfaul just said it, ukrainian voices are critical and next we will have one, we talk to a member of ukraine's parliament about what is happening in her country right now. she is not fleeing. she is there defending her country. sh e is there defending her country.

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ukraine's state emergency service said tonight that the fire has been put out near europe's largest nuclear power plant. officials say the fire broke out in a training compound behind the plant. we are joined now to discuss by

a ukrainian member of parliament, she joins us from washington, d.c., thank you so much for joining us, very late this evening. what can you tell us about the situation at the plant? >> well, as long as i know, and what has been reported, is that the fire was stopped so far. but unfortunately, and to be honest, this is, what we have been telling to the world, might going to happen one day. we have four nuclear plants in our country. one of them is totally occupied by the russians already. it's chernobyl that everybody probably knows about. one is in the area, the biggest nuclear factory plant. in europe. unfortunately, unfortunately, we cannot control the russian missiles. and that's what we keep begging and telling the world is we need to have a no-fly zone and to shut down the sky, because otherwise, one of the rockets, one of the missiles, one day, is

going to hit one of the nuclear stations, and this is going to be the world's next disaster. >> you didn't evacuate, you happen to be in the united states traveling when the war broke out, what is this like for you, despite how dangerous this is, does some part of you actually want to be there right now? >> yes, actually the first day i saw, when putin invaded, i told my husband, i have to go back home, and his first question was, how? we have all of the airports, already bombed to ashes and there's no way to even come back home. and i'm supposed have a baby in a month, and you know, there's just one dream that i have, and this baby sees poland and sees what it looks like right now when we're rebuilding. >> so how do you think you're going to get home? i don't know at the moment. but i know for sure we're going to win.

because you know, i remember the first days when the war started, everybody was saying the phrase, if we win, today, everybody says when we win, so this is the matter of time. and unfortunately, the matter of life. how many lives have to be put down there, first of all, for the united states, for nato, and for other countries, that give promises, sign the treaty with us, that when we gave up our nuclear weapons, that they would step in and support us in our freedom, if something happens. unfortunately, we gave up our weapons 20 years ago, a little bit more than 20 years ago, and today, when we are in danger, when our civilian population is being, let's be honest, executed in front of the whole world, because the cold war is flourishing 24/7, how ukrainians are being killed, how their cities are being erased.

now, when we need help, the international community does not want to step in and support us with basic equipment, to shut down the sky. which is called a no-fly zone. we need the iron dome, so-called that israel has, the no-fly zone so the russians cannot go through the ukrainian air space. putin is psycho, in the first two days he was shooting the airport, and the army bases now and he is shooting exactly the civilian objects and you can see it now on the screens, because he wants us to lose as many lives as we can, so that the government, and the president, sit down at the table for negotiations. he doesn't know ukrainians. it's not going to happen. we're going to fight until the last blood. but we are not giving up our freedom. and unfortunately, so far, the world's response was very weak. everybody keeps talking about

all of these sanctions, these sanctions were partial. we were asking for sanctions for their banks and unfortunately, if you look at the s.w.i.f.t. off, it was switched off for search out of 300 banks in russia, which means they just look to turn to a bank. and if you look at the sanctions on the economist actors, sanctions in the energy sector, which is the main pocket for putin, we have installed sanctions on oligarchs but for some reason the person who owns chelsea football club and has a lot of conditions here in the united states, he has three steel companies in the united states, he is not on the sanctions list, so we keep begging the world to be stronger in their reaction. but unfortunately, so far, we see that everybody's trying to protect their economies, that

are worth more than ukrainian lives. >> perhaps joe biden, the president of the united states, is watching, what is your message to him? >> please support ukrainian children, women, who are dying right now, thousands of them, are dying right now, we need to have a no-fly zone, just to protect our civilian population. we don't need people to fight for us on the ground. we don't need american or nato soldiers. we can do that on our own. and we had already proved it. against one of the biggest armies in the world. but if you don't shut down the sky, and don't help us with this equipment, ukrainians are literally going to be executed in front of the whole world. >> and what is your message to vladimir putin? >> you know, i don't want to phrase it, i can just say exactly the same things that our soldiers did, and one day, this criminal psycho will be responsible, and will die for everything he has done to the

world. >> wow, thank you so much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. and good luck to you. >> thank you. when we come back, more on the attack on the nuclear plant in southern ukraine, when the 11th hour continues. when the 11th hour continues.

we've been following the situation in southwestern ukraine where the fire at a nuclear power plant has been put out. i want to get to nbc's raf sanchez for some reaction from

moscow. raf, we know the information to the people in russia, are they aware of what has happened tonight at this power plant? >> stephanie, no official response from the kremlin yet. it is a little after 8:30 in the morning here. we normally get the daily briefing from vladimir putin's long time spokesperson about midday but people know here because of what they're seeing in russian state media which in some ways throughout the entire war has been our best window to try to figure out what it is the russian people want the people to hear and the state media has been consistently playing down the fact that there is a fire burning outside the largest nuclear power plant in europe. they have not been making much of a connection between the fighting and the fire. they're certainly not acknowledging that it looks like it was russian fire that caused this. at one point, they actually quoted jennifer granholm, the u.s. energy secretary, saying we're not seeing any alarming

levels of radiation, that is not something russian state media does, quoting american officials as sources of authority but in this one stance, what a member of joe biden's cabinet said what russia wanted to hear. and boris johnson and president biden, the british are calling for an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council, in light of this fighting outside of the power plant. the british prime minister said the reckless actions of president putin could now endanger all of europe. stephanie? >> why wouldn't they want to own up to it? they were actively shelling the plant. is it because, we just had the map up there, that power plant is very, very close to russia, if there was radiation, and the winds were blowing in one direction rather than the other, it could be dangerous to the russian people. is that why they don't want to admit it? >> i think that's definitely, it

could be part of it. memories of chernobyl are strong here. i think another part of it, stephanie, the russian people are being told day after day, this is a limited military operation, in the east of ukraine, to protect the russian speakers there. they are not being told the reality. this is a sprawling invasion of ukraine, across multiple fronts, and this power plant, it is close to russia, but it is also far-ish from these two break-away republics that the russian media are saying are the source of the, the reason the russian forces are inside ukraine. and i think there is a general unwillingness to admit to the russian people quite how big this war has become, quite how, you know, difficult it is to see how vladimir putin is going to wrap this up and get his forces out. stephanie? >> thank you so much, raf sanchez. >> this russian attack on the nuclear plant, the fire may be

extinguished but it raises a lot of concerns. let's bring in our experts joining us now, frank, former cia director of counter-intelligence, the author of the book "the fbi way" and host of the podcast, the bureau, and former assistant secretary of state. the danger from the attack has passed in the short term but what's your take-away from tonight when you think about putin's recklessness? >> no question, stephanie. very reckless. very anxiety-producing. you need only look across social media tonight to see americans' reactions. in fact, global reaction to this. but i also see this, stephanie, as a teachable moment. so when i looked at what was happening tonight, and the video that we were able to get our hands on, i saw this through the lens of my experience and training, domestically here in the homeland with regard to defending and protecting against attacks to existing nuclear power facilities in the united states. what i saw on my screen was not

what looked, what it would look like if you're trying to penetrate, to try to do catastrophic damage, to try and release radio activity, or cause a meltdown. what i saw tonight was an attempt to either take over that facility, because of its obvious strategic importance for power, or to simply have them power down. and no more heat tomorrow, for ukraine. and send a message. it's still unclear quite frankly where the russian troops have gone, what this was all about, but i didn't see what a lot of people were panicking about, and that's because this is a teachable moment. here in the united states without going into a great deal of very sensitive detail, i can assure you that number one, an extra, an attack against a nuclear power plant here, and this is really true around the world, would be resisted fiercely by every federal resource and 24/7 robust security, guarantee that, and number two, it's extremely hard to do catastrophic damage via

external attack to a very hardened nuclear power facility. internal, sabotage, mishap, a chernobyl accident, you bet. external attack, extremely difficult. so that's not what i saw. >> so you have been involved in several white house briefings on this crisis in ukraine, take us to tomorrow. will tonight's attack on the power plant, will it change the calculation, the position this white house is taking? >> well, stephanie, the white house is very measured in the way it's dealing with this situation, as well as with vladimir putin's threats about advancing a nuclear war, as part of a military tactic, but you know, this is a crossing of the rubicon, what vladimir putin did by having his tanks showing, a nuclear, shelling a nuclear facility, is violating international law, violating his own commitments to ensure to the united nations, to ensure that there would not be attacks and that one would not attack a

nuclear facility, that's of civilian use, and so he's kind of crossed the rubicon, and really put us into a whole other zone of strategy. now, he's probably, yes, trying to terrorize clearly the ukrainian civilians, cut off their power, create civilian pain to lever some victory because he's failing in battlefield but this is a different level of fear. there are nuclear power plants all over the united states. they are also 47 in china. 38 in russia. once this pandora's box is opened, and it has been tonight, it's hard to put it back in. and that's a very deep danger to global security and something that we should not take lightly. >> thank both for joining us this evening. i appreciate it. coming up, millions of children are waking up day nine in the middle of a war. some in a war zone. others thousands of miles from

home. we'll be speaking to one of the people who's trying to help with this refugee crisis. is refugee .

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we're closely following the refugee crisis happening out of ukraine tonight. 7.5 million children all at risk. i want to bring in james elder, a spokesman for unicef, the u.n. agency that helps children worldwide. he's with us tonight. you have dealt with crisis

situations around the world. put in perspective what it's like in ukraine right now for all of these kids who have never known war. >> certainly, we've never seen the speed and swiftness of half a million boys and girls having to flee their country. many, many millions more fleeing homes across the country. there are bunkers, as a little girl told me, they're terrified, parents are fleeing, they're hearing bombs. >> for families who can't get out, you can help them from inside ukraine? >> yes, yes we can, we have supplies coming across the border almost as you and i speak, a convoy of medical supply, oxygen cylinders going into hospitals in kyiv, water supplies, even child protection experts that deal with trauma, we are seeing, but let's not forget there are some children who simply can't. i was in a children's hospital here in the western ukraine yesterday, we got little babies,

boys and girls on drip, very difficult to get them out of this conflict, and they're only, their only answer, their only prayer is the missiles stop. >> how do these hospitals, when i look at these images, and you hear about hospitals, now treating their patients in basements, how do they keep them clean and sterile? >> it's very difficult. i have to say that the selflessness, the relentless work of pediatricians and doctors that i've seen here is, it's extraordinary. but those set-ups are very difficult, they do everything they can, they even have a system whereby now when children come in, they put dots on them to see the criticality, a black dot heaven forbid, very, very bad, and yellow means priority q, so this is what conflict starts to look like. so they're pretty good when it comes to sanitation because they're experts and they're working 24/7, but it's not

possible to get it all as it should look for a child who needs emergency medical treatment. >> what are these children telling you, that you speak to, and their mothers? >> you know, it's heart breaking. i think it's very -- i've had hundreds of conversations, people are very willing to speak, they do not wants to leave their country, they love their home and their family. hard to have a conversation with a few sentences, they're not in tears, they're stressed, they left a loved one somewhere, maybe fighting, maybe in a bunker so they're just telling us they want things to stop. children sometimes sleep a lot more. sometimes they cry a lot more. sometimes it's the child who grabs their mum's leg and says mom it's going to be okay. so it's all a manner of things. but it is trauma that will stay with children longer than this conflict, and that is not what unicef want, and that's not what the world wants and ukraine wants and another nation of children who have come to learn

conflict, out of school and know what an air-raid sign is, i must flee my bed and get to a bunker, that's not childhood. >> when did you arrive in ukraine? >> almost a week ago. i walked across the border from romania into ukraine and got transported in lviv, a central point, about 50 miles from poland. >> you walked across the border and over the span of that week, it has gotten extraordinarily worse. what has this been like for you? did you think it would be this bad? >> no, no, i honestly didn't, as i said, we've never seen this in history, that the scale and speed of half a million kids, and people leaving, and no i didn't. it's traumatic. you shake. very hard to hear so many people have their hearts broken and watching their lives turn upside down and losing that power of control. i mean our job is to be here, and sometimes our job is to just

hug a mom. i get inspiration by grandmothers cooking and young people welcomes people, helping people from a train station, that warms and keeps us going, but our job, our job is to be here and hope, hope that these, you know, that the fighting stops, the conflict stops, and these children and their families get a moment and they're able to stay safe. >> you're doing a lot more than giving a hug. thank you. and for you at home, who would like to support unicef, and do what you can from here, please, go to unicef-usa.org. always remember, if you need help, ask for it but if you can give help, please give it. and right now, thir there are millions of people on the other side of the world that need ours. thank you so much for staying up late with me. i will see you at the end of the day tomorrow. t the end of the day tomorrow

fear of a nuclear meltdown, after russia attacks a ukrainian power plant, the largest in europe. president zelenskyy sounded the alarm saying western leaders needed to quote wake up and act immediately. this as russia continues to target major cities populated with civilians. three questions this morning. how soon the humanitarian aid reaches those in need? will anything come from the nato meetings now under way? and will vladimir putin take the ukrainian president up on his offer to meet face to face? good morning. and welcome to "way too early," on this friday, march 4