always said that something around $80 a barrel they would view as fair, supporting their economy and not driving demand down too much. so there's going to be a balance in there, but the reality is, until this war stops, russia is having a hard time selling its oil and it exports probably 8 million barrels a day of crude, plus refined products and that's a lot of oil and products to make up, and if they are short by a few million barrels, well, we are seeing the consequences. >> secretary, always good to talk to you. thank you for joining us and explaining two very important, complicated issues to us. eric moniz is the former united states energy secretary under the obama administration. don't go anywhere. another special hour of "velshi" from the hungarian-ukrainian border begins now. ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ good morning. it is saturday, march the 5th. it's 9:00 a.m. on the east coast of the united states. 3:00 p.m. here on the border of ukraine and hungary. i'm ali velshi. this weekend i'm in beregsurany, hungary on the western side. terns of thousands of refugees from ukraine have been streaming into this country, some by foot in the middle of winter to flee the ongoing war. on the other side of this border is a nation transformed. it's only taken ten days to drastically alter the landscape and makeup of the nation of ukraine. many of its biggest cities have been attacked by projectiles, debris lines the abandoned streets and high-rise buildings have been torn open and ordinary citizens have been turned into resistance fighters, taking up arms and making molotov cocktails to protect their hometowns. according to the refugee agency, more than 1.3 million new

refugees have fled to foreign lands. more than 157,000 of them have fled to hungary and those numbers will continue to increase. earlier, a temporary cease-fire in the city of mare upol and volnovakha, and russia had violated the cease-fire agreement. russian forces now have control of the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a fire that had on edge. it was unlike anything we witnessed before in history. volodymyr zelenskyy has been raising alarm bells to the threats and rallying the world for his cause. this morning, zelenskyy is

scheduled to meet virtually with the u.s. senator. we will be speaking with the senator tim kaine. we'll bring you more on that as it develops. while the russians have made some progress in southern ukraine, notably capturing the city of kherson, the capital of kyiv is still standing and in ukrainian control. in russia the kremlin has been cracking down on foreign media. vladimir putin signed a new law yesterday that could imprison reporters for up to 15 years for veering from the government-approved line about what's actually happening in ukraine right now. it's also blocked facebook from their internet, further closing its citizens off from the world. thousands of russian protesters have been arrested across the country for demonstrating against the war. the fallout from the war and the sanctions imposed by many nations is causing severe outcomes. the ruble, the russian currency

have plummeted and businesses have pulled out from doing business with rush a the banning of ikea including the paralympics and the world cup and the paralympics is under way right now in beijing. i want to go to my colleague nbc news correspondent erin mclachlan who is standing by in lviv in western ukraine. erin, good afternoon to you. what more can you tell us about the cease-fire that appears to have collapsed already. it was negotiated between russia and ukraine. it was supposed to allow medicine in and people out. ukraine says the russians didn't stop fighting. >> yeah, that's right, ali. ukrainian officials putting a pause on plans to evacuate ukrainian civilian, elderly, women and children from the besieged cities of mariupol and volnovakha and this was a badly needed evacuation throughout the week. i've been receiving messages from countless numbers of

ukrainians desperate to get the word out, desperate to get help to those two besieged cities. i was speaking to one woman who was telling me she hasn't been able to reach her parents for the last five days. the phones have been cut, the wi-fi has been cut, power also reportedly cut, and she said the only indication that she has right now that her parents -- of the condition of her parents was posted on a forum. ukrainians are so desperate, specifically about the situation in the town of mariupol that they have a forum on which they share what little information they've been getting out of that city, posts, she saw of a building next to where her parents lived that showed the building had been bombed, and the last time that she spoke to her mother, her mother told her that she was very sick with covid. following that, all communication was cut. she has no idea what happened next. i can't tell you how many people have reached out to me with

similar stories. it is a desperate situation. so the news that this cease-fire is no more, that the evacuations of citizens is no more is devastating for so many people here in ukraine right now, ali. >>. >> erin, you also have news, i was talking about the city of kherson and it was the first major city to fall to the russians. what's new from there? >> yeah, that's right. i've been speaking to the people in kherson all week. as you say it was the first city to fall under complete russian control. it was being occupied by russian forces earlier in the week. the mayor of kherson struck a deal with the russian military laying out the terms of the occupation saying that only two people were allowed together out on the streets of the city at a time as well as a strict curfew. however, in a tremendous act of defiance this morning, hundreds,

if not thousands of people turned out to protest the russian occupation. we are seeing some incredible scenes from there. people climbing on top of russian tanks waving the ukrainian flag. in one video posted russian soldiers were firing shots in the air in an attempt to disperse the crowds, but ukrainians persisted. an incredible act of defiance and an illustration of a fundamental problem that russian military has with this invasion. they may be able to take some of these town, but it's going to be very difficult to hold these towns, to govern these towns given the fact that the vast majority of the population do not want russian troops in their cities, in their villages and in their towns and they're willing to fight and do whatever it takes to get them out, ali. >> erin, stay safe. you are in lviv, east of where i am, but it is still a city under threat. erin mclachlan, my colleague in lviv.

joining me is aaron taylor ambassador to ukraine under the george bush and obama administrations and the former charged affair at the u.s. embassy in kyiv in 2019 currently vice president of the institute of peace overseeing rausch and europe. good to see you again. i want to ask you about the conversations you've had all morning with people. you had written in foreign affairs a few days ago to truly contain moscow and prevent it from attacking other european countries, washington and nato must take every available measure short of putting boots on the ground aggressively sanctions russia's energy sector and the rest of the financial industry and the west needs to impose measures to extend beyond sanctions cutting off moscow's propaganda and staging cyber attacks against the russian military. i was asking you about this because i was talking to jane harmon and moniz a few moments

ago. vladimir putin said that everything you just suggested would be an act of aggression against russia and he's been nuclear saber rattling. tell me how you would be more aggressive without engaging in a war with russia? >> so, ali, we have a moral and strategic obligation to the ukrainians and secure that requires us to be very strong in support of ukraine and very strong in support of european security. this is nato's responsibility to defend its own members, but it is also our responsibility to protect the rule of law, protect ukraine, protect the ukrainians and sovereignty. they don't want much. they want to be able to live as a normal country and the russian invasion is denying that.

so, yes, we should take tough measures and we should not be importing russian oil. we should certainly protect humanitarian corridors. we should take active measures, active measures that will support ukraine. >> let me ask you, though, there has been concern that if vladimir putin decides that anything is an act of war, he can decide it's an act of war, there are generally people who understand what nato is, but they're perplexed by the fact that the west can somehow allow an independent nation to be invaded. we maybe didn't take this as seriously in crimea in 2014, but at this point we're seeing the consequences of that. what is the answer for countries that are not members of nato? is the united states still the leader of a global alliance to prevent countries from running over other countries? >> ali, i think the answer is yes. we have all seen that the united states has stepped up in this

crisis. the united states has led a coalition, not just nato coalition, but a european-american coalition and a worldwide coalition. we saw it in the u.n., 141 votes to 5, there is a worldwide coalition to support ukraine and to oppose this invasion, to oppose president putin's aggression against as you say, a sovereign nation, a u.n. member. this is what we are leading and this is what the united states is leading and we should. >> ambassador, you are a former military man and a platoon leader. you understand the military side of things, as well. is there a way for nato and for western countries to sit there and stand in defense of ukraine with as you call active measures and make it clear, and we're not looking to get into a nuclear

war with you, but we will do everything to protect other countries. can that be done? can that line be established? >> it can, ali. it can be done. in two ways and we've been doing a lot of this and we should do more. we've been moving troops. one of my old units was the 82nd airborne and that's been deployed to poland and in defense of nato allies. so that continues. that demonstration that we are prepared to defend every nato ally that has signed up. >> number two, we are providing and should be providing more weapons, ammunition, support to the ukrainian military to allow them to defend themselves. they are having a very hard time, they are defending fiercely, heroically, but they need help. they need support. they need more ammunition. more aircraft if we can provide that and they need more support and air defenses.

we need to provide the ukrainians with the ability to defend themselves. they are on the front line, ali. they are defending us and we should support them. >> that's a point that the ukrainian president continues to make, that this war is on the world's doorstep. ambassador, good to see you again. thank you for joining us. william taylor in kyiv. joining me is tim kaine in virginia. a member of both of the senate arms services and the foreign relations committee. senator cane and the rest of the senate will meet via videoconference with volodymyr zelenskyy. senator kaine, good to see you this morning. thank you for your time. volodymyr zelenskyy continues to ask for a no-fly zone over ukraine and i spoke with a ukrainian member who said nato keeps saying no, and all i hear is not yet. somehow he'll convince nato leaders including people like

you in the united states government that i need more than what i'm getting, what are you expecting and hear and what can that response look like? >> he will get more than what he's getting right now. just as an example, the u.s. has provided $3 billion of military aid to ukraine since 2014. a billion dollars just in the last year and in congress we are likely to approve an additional 5 to 8 billion dollars of military aid in the next couple of weeks and this is aid that's very, very critical to the ukrainian forces as they battle soviet aircraft, russian tanks, et cetera. we'll do a lot more. i'm expecting that when we talk to president zelenskyy at 9:30, he'll talk about the no-fly zone issue and how to do it. we've done no-fly zones before. we tend to do it in areas where there's not contested airspace. they protect humanitarian

evacuations and this is very contested airspace. the russian air force is one of the most powerful in the world and there's probably no way to do or announce a no-fly zone without it involving direct combat between the u.s. and russian aircraft and that can escalate it to a much, much broader war which we are trying to avoid. we want to end this war and not escalate it and that's why the combination of sanctions, canceling the pipeline, delivery of military assistance, putting our troops in nato countries, pressing putin as a war criminal before the icc. that's what we've come together on with our allies thus far, but i know my colleagues and i are anxious to meet with president zelenskyy this morning. >> senator kaine, you've been around for a while and not long enough to have first-hand knowledge and back in 1979 and 1990, russia went into afghanistan to prop up a pro-russian regime there and the united states congress funded the use of stinger missiles

which is to great effect, the mujahadin would use to take down helicopters and russians ultimately left. what's the difference between giving ukrainians stinger missiles and javelins for them to fight with u.s.-made weaponry against rugs versus a no-fly zone in your mind? >> well, it's just really the direct involvement of u.s. troops. you're right. the aid that we provided to the mujahadin enabled them to kick the soviet union out of afghanistan, very, very powerful and much of what we're doing now with ukraine is exactly the same, and in fact, i think you'll see, ali, when we approved this next package which i think will be between $5 billion and $8 billion of military aid, the mixture of what the weapons will be, we're going to do the mixture that is most potent in helping the ukrainian defense force, but the direct involvement of u.s. troops -- when president biden

sort of sets his own red line, he said we will not have u.s. troops battling russia. russia would sort of like to paint this as the u.s. against russia and shift the focus away from illegal russian invasion of a sovereign nation. we need to keep the eyes of the world on russia as the sole cause of the war and do everything we can to undercut vladimir putin even at home as you're seeing runs on banks and the atms and the ruble is devaluing and the russian stock market closed and we'll keep the focus on its misbehavior. i don't think that's in ukraine's interest or in ours, but i'm looking forward to this visit with president zelenskyy and hearing his perspective on this. >> senator, always good to talk to you. thank you for being with us this morning and we'll be very interested in the conversation that you've had just moments

from now with will haved on mir zelenskyy. tim kaine is a member of the arms services and foreign relations committee. >> with russia's swift invasion of ukraine, smaller nato countries may be worried about their fate in this region. the ambassador from latvia joins me next. joins me next. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs, or if you plan to, or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save.

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stretches into its second week, there's renewed focus on the nato countries in eastern europeans baltic region. latvia, lithuania and estonia, they're all independent, nato states, but that was not always the case. these three baltic states were invaded and occupied by the soviet union in 1940. these countries did not begin to gain their independence until 1991 during the dissolution of the soviet union and russia ended -- russia officially ended its military presence in the baltics in 1998.

latvia, lithuania and estonia joined nato in 2004. because these three countries were under soviet rule for so long they're populated by many ethnic russians and russian speakers to this day. about 7% of lithuania's population speaks russian. 27% in estonia, 33% in latvia. we know vladimir putin's ultimate goal is to protect russians everywhere, not just within the borders of his count preep that's not conjecture, he's actually said that. vladimir putin said in televised comments that moscow needed to defend russian speakers in ukraine's east as well as its own interest. some may be now wondering, what's next? small countries like latvia, lithuania and estonia would have good reason to be worried about an actual russian expansion into their countries even though they are nato members. joining me now is the permanent representative of latvia to the

united nations. andres pilkovich. thank you for joining us. i want to ask you that your neighboring baltic countries have expressed great fear and concern about the fact if russia succeeds in its invasion of ukraine, countries like yours are actually at risk and others would say, but you're a nato country. you can't be invaded by russia if they tried anything with you, all of nato would have to come to latvia's defense. >> thank you so much for having me. indeed, we don't think that there is a clear and present danger or imminent danger to the baltic states right now, but of course, this russian attack and the aggression against ukraine is the biggest military war since the second world war. in this regard we are extremely worried and extremely concerned and we do the utmost to support ukraine at this difficult moment. >> what do you make of the

speeches that vladimir putin has been giving in recent years, but even this year in the last two weeks about the idea that there is an obligation that russia has to protect russian speakers wherever they are because you have russian speakers in your country. i imagine in your view in latvia people are latvians or under the protection of the latvian government. how do you see this when vladimir putin says latvians are also his problem. >> we reject this notion and we say all people living in latvia belong to the latvian republic and they're under the protection of the european union law and we are a member of the european union since 2004 and by far the european union, in terms of the legal protection and the insurance of human rights, this is the highest standard in the world, so we say no to these

statements of president putin. we reject any notions of the spheres of influence and we reject any limited sovereignty which russia wants to impoesz on the neighbors, be it ukraine, be it georgia, muldova or any country surrounding the russian federation. >> and georgia and muldova both have some areas which are russian controlled as a result. there has been the activation for the first time in nato's history of a defense force, an active response force and some of it which will be in the baltic nations and tell me what that's about and how do you feel about that? >> we believe that of course, given this dramatic change of the landscape and the conditions and the war which is ongoing from russia against ukraine, we think the whole eastern flank of

nato and the european union should be reinforced and we should be prepared for any kind of emergency situations, so we have to be ready for -- for the deterrence of the nato territory, and i want to remind that we've been members of nato for 18 years since 2004 and before russia's annexation of crimea, was there no nato military footprint in the states and until this conflict, until this war of russia against ukraine, european and nato countries have been the largest, russia's trade partners, russia's partners and the eu in general and we certainly have been able to co-exist and cooperate and president putin is aiming for something different. he wants to re-create the russian sphere of influence and we reject that. we believe that this is the past.

this is 19th century. big or small, we're all members of the u.n. and we have to be equal and we have to be sovereign. so russia's expansion is unacceptable so we have to defend ukraine and we have to defend the u.n. nato allies by any means. >> ambassador pildegovics. he is latvia's permanent representative to the united nations. >> thank you. by now we've seen the countless heartbreaking images of families and children fleeing ukraine. according to the united nations high commission of refugees, more than 1.3 million people have so far fled ukraine and that number is expected to rise many times over. we'll talk next steps with dr. irwin leonard next. dr. irwin leonard next

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ever >> we are here at the hungarian border in ukraine. a family has just walked across. where have you come from? [ speaking foreign language ] >> where are you going go? [ speaking foreign language ] >> do you have family? these are your children? >> all right. well, welcome to hungary. this -- this woman waved at me as she was coming on when we were in the commercial break.

she seemed excited. we were the first people that she had seen and she had a look on her face that sort of said what you imagine one would say when they come across the border. that is the border with ukraine. this is not a train station or bus station. these are people being driven to the ukrainian side and sometimes they're meeting people and you've probably seen busses that are picking people up, but you can see a constant movement of cars. we have seen a few families on foot. that's the first time i've seen that, a woman with her children carrying virtually nothing, and unfortunately, my language skills are such that i could establish what she was saying, but sometimes you don't need the language. you can just sort of see the looks on people's faces and the look on that woman's face as she came across and made eye contact with us. remember, that's the border back there. so if you walk in through the border you don't see anybody until us. this is the closest that the

police are letting us get to the border and the look on that family's face says -- i don't know what. things are not great, but at least they are free. more than 1.3 million people like that have left ukraine for neighboring countries like the one i'm in after russia launched that invasion ten days ago. according to unicef, this is important because you saw that that woman had little children with her. that number, 1.3 million includes at least 500,000 children. let me just show you on a map where these people have gone to. these are the countries taking in refugees from ukraine. so if you're talking about 1.3 million, and i just heard from the unhcr that that could be much larger because they don't track the people that come across. that family we just say may not be counted by anybody. 55% of the people who left ukraine, 756,000 people have

escaped over the border to poland. about 157,000, nearly 12% have fled to where i am, hungary. roughly 8% have found sanctuary in moldova, 5% to slovakia, 5% to romania and russia and those are russian-speaking people who have sought safety in russia. volunteers are doing their best to bring in sense of normalcy, one refugee camp in romania, emergency services personnel managed to throw a surprise party for a 7-year-old ukrainian girl. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday, dear irina ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> joining me now is dr. irwin

redlenner, founder of the new york city's children's health fund. an msnbc public health analyst and you've seen irwin on tv a lot and we've relied on his expertise when it comes to covid-related matters and he was part of joe biden's task force when he was elected to figure out thou deal with covid and i've known irwin for a lot of years and his specialty is something else. he's a pediatrician with extensive experience working in child advocacy on the national and international stages particularly as it relates to children in crisis. some of those crisis involve children being refugees. irwin, i thought of you a lot in budapest the other night when i was on the train station and the children would get off the train and there were volunteers who had food and medicine and they had toys and stuffed animals to give those children. it must be something to be 3, 4, 5, 6 years old, get off a train or walk across a border like those people i just saw coming across. irwin, what do we need to think

about when we think about half a million children already of which there are many more to come? >> no, it's absolutely extraordinary, ali. children are highly vulnerable especially as they get older, interesting. so a 3-year-old with parents who are embracing them is probably less in danger of trauma than a 7-year-old, a 10-year-old or even a teenager. there's already, by the way, been at least 30 deaths among children that have been in ukraine or are trying to evacuate and at least, 100 to 150 people who have been injured and the bigger picture here is that this is a crisis evacuation, meaning that people are leaving in a hurry through a very dangerous zone. the russians were supposed to be ensuring a corridor of escape for ukrainian citizens to get to the countries that you just

mentioned, but then we just heard this morning that the russians were violating that corridor truce and presented even more danger, but what happens when large numbers of people need to evacuate, among those people will be many, many and especially on the adult side, at least half of them may be on some medication for chronic illness. where are they going to get those medications? how are they going to get health care if they have a heart attack or some other problem exiting ukraine? and then there's children with asthma and diabetes and other conditions that must have medications to keep them safe, and all of that becomes jeopardized in this kind of evacuation, and the other thing, too, is that when they get to wherever they're going, whether it's romania, muldova, poland, where are they going to be? yes, there may be temporary shelters, but these children will need to go to school and they'll need medical care and their paernts will need to get

support and i think we're looking at incredible crisis that will create longlasting traumatic experiences for a lot of children and families and this is a real problem and not to mention other things. you mentioned my work on covid. well, there are people with covid that are trying to evacuate that will be crowded in trains, in busses, wherever they're going when they get to their host country and this presents yet another danger for people, an expansion, a surge of covid throughout this crisis. it's really a very sad and traumatic event for everybody trying to escape this horror story in ukraine, ali. >> irwin, thanks very much for joining us and thanks for the work that you continue to do. we'll, of course, sadly have to talk to you more on this. irwin redlenner is the founder of the center for disaster

preparedness. today i'm in beregsurany, hungary and ukraine is on the other side. on thursday i was in budapest at the city's main train station as refugees arriving, fleeing the war in ukraine. some of what i saw there after the break.

we're back live from the

hungary-ukraine border. since arriving in this country a few days ago i've seen countless, men, women and children escape here from ukraine. some with a destination in mind and some getting out of dodge. as people flee the russian invasion i've witnessed so many strangers helping strangers answering the humanitarian call. one thing has become apparent in hungary, helping your fellow man has become the number one priority. at platform 10 at the budapest rail station anguish arrives by the hour. >> absolutely awful situation. without any idea -- why? i must say why? because bombs, rockets, every time we are afraid. >> she and so many others have made the thousand-mile journey from the heavily shelled city of kharkiv. here, there is safety.

what there isn't is certainty. this train carried 500, some more, others less. they're both young and old, a mixture of those ukrainian by birth and others who are not all now refugees. >> you guys know each other? >> no, no, no. >> absolutely not. no, you know -- >> we help each other. >> inside the train station. there is food, medicine and small comforts. all of it arranged by volunteers like these women who scour lists on laptops to pair the weary travelers with temporary travelers in private homes across budapest. >> i don't know when exactly the train comes and it's really bad because two days ago because 900 people just came in. oh, my god. it's 2:00 a.m. how can we manage this and even at 2:00 a.m., we find

accommodations. >> they disembark in a new, unfamiliar place, as we reported live on our first night in hungary, a woman stopped me in the station -- oh, i'm sorry. >> i'm sorry, i don't speak -- english. >> what's the name of the train station. >> the name of this train station -- i will -- this train station named, david, what's the train station name here? nyaty station. nyati station. nugati, that's correct. >> okay. thank you. >> yes. >> okay. >> thank you. >> good luck. >> a snapshot, perhaps of the million plus lives forced to flee, some with no known destination. this woman, marina, hopes to make it to munich while the world wonders when the fighting will end, she's just wondering about her next step. >> what do you want the world to do? >> now i need a transport.

>> you need transportation. okay. so i know that there are people making the arrangement. you go and you will get transportation and get some sleep. good luck. >> right now, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy meeting with members of the united states senate and it comes hours after zelenskyy issued a desperate plea for nato to enact a no-fly zone over his country. remember, we're in a nato country and that ends 500 feet behind me and a live report from nato's home base which is brussels, after this break. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash. ♪♪ three times the electorlytes and half the sugar. ♪♪ pedialyte powder packs.

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this morning two cities in ukraine say they had to postpone planned evacuations of civilians because russia had broken a cease-fire that was announced just hours earlier. the two country his agreed to a temporary halt in shelling early today in the cities of mariupol

and volnovakha to allow for humanitarian corridors. shelling remained. volodymyr zelenskyy is speaking out against nato failing to establish a no-fly zone over ukraine. top u.s. over ukraine. top u.s. officials say doing so would escalate tensions, could lead to all out war across europe. joining me, josh letterman in brussels. antony blinken spoke from there today. this idea continues to be flown and nato continues to say it is a nonstarter. >> reporter: that's exactly right, ali. there are growing calls in europe for a no-fly zone. when we were at nato headquarters yesterday, we could hear from headquarters chants from protesters outside of nato demanding to protect the skies over ukraine, but both nato and

the u.s. very clear that that would involve basically bringing nato and the u.s. into a potential conflict with russia, saying there's actually an obligation for the west not to allow this to morph into a european continent wide land war, and in fact, in some comments that president putin made a little while ago in russia as he was speaking to employees of the state-run airline, he underscored what some of the challenges are for the west to do that. president putin saying that any country that imposes a no-fly zone in ukraine would be making themselves a party to the conflict, so while that seems to be off the table for now, the u.s. and nato allies focus on shipping significant weapons, lethal weaponry to the ukranians, $350 million of security systems from the u.s. that the pentagon says has been almost all of it delivered in the last week, including

anti-missile, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank weapons, anti-armor and ammunition. the other big focus from the u.s., addressing the refugee crisis. secretary blinken in poland today, a few minutes ago visiting a refugee reception center in the polish side of the border, due north of where you are now, ali. he had this to say as he spoke alongside poland's foreign minister this morning. take a listen. >> now the very ideals that bind us, freedom, democracy, peace, security are under threat in this region as never before, certainly not since the second world war. the people of poland know how important it is to defend freedom. so do americans. and we will stand together as we have been standing together in support of ukraine and against russia's unprovoked,

unwarranted, premeditated invasion. >> reporter: the other big question hanging over the west's response now, ali, whether to impose energy sanctions on russia, something the west hasn't yet done, with the u.s. saying they don't think it is in america's strategic interest to reduce global supply of energy, particularly because it could, a, drive up costs in the u.s. and elsewhere, and b, if it leads to higher energy prices could pad putin's pockets further. so as you know well, there's a lot of question about whether that would be a smart move. meantime, the u.s. saying they're focusing on finding ways to diminish russia's energy dominance in the future, such as shutting down that. >> let me interrupt you a second, josh. i want to show you a picture i've got now, this is a group of people that have come across the border, refugees from ukraine who have come across the00 garian border. they're going back toward the

hungarian border. here's an issue. this is what we understand to be the case. they have come across and they've been sent away from being able to get shelter earlier. the family i spoke to a few minutes ago coming across, i see them walking toward me. there are many other people walking with their belongings back toward the border. i don't understand what has happened. they gained admission to hungary, they're going back toward the border with ukraine. they headed toward a shelter that is not too far from where i am, but they've been rejected there. they have not been given help where they are. they are now walking toward the border. i don't know if this means they're going to try to get back into ukraine or they're at the border trying to get help. one of the things about this border crossing is it is less, less of an operation going on than what i saw at the budapest airport.

this is the family, in fact, that was just with me a few moments ago. they're back here. what can you tell me about this family? >> they're waiting for bus, coming from ukraine, they are refugees and they're waiting for their connection toward wherever, trying to get to someplace, but they need transportation. >> do they have any plan? do they know someone is coming to get them? >> translator: they've got family in hungary already because they already left ukraine. >> at the moment, do they think someone is coming to get them? >> translator: first they have

to take them to the shelter to get the children tested for covid and there's a bus that's collecting the people coming from ukraine to get them tested, and if they prove to be negative, they can go further into hungary. >> okay. thank you. i hope you get what you need. i hope you get to safety. >> translator: thank you very much, they say. >> that's the situation here for us on the ukranian/hungarian border. are we taking a break, is that what the executive producer is saying? we're not taking a break. good. we have stuff to tell you. i want to show you new video into the newsroom. this purports to show a russian helicopter shot down by a projectile north of kyiv. take a look. that's a helicopter going down on the right side of the screen. this is according to ukranian officials, shared on social media by local politicians and

the ukranian armed forces. once again, i have to tell you this applies to almost everything that's going on with video that we get in. we are not independently verified whether the helicopter in question is, in fact, russian, but it appears a helicopter has been hit by a projectile. cannot tell what the projectile is. we have been talking about stinger missiles, something used in the past. we know the u.s. has been providing ukranians with stinger missiles and with javelins. it is possible that was a stinger missile, but we don't know. this is a small snapshot what is happening across the border. this is kyiv, in the middle of the country, several hundred miles from where we are. russian troops are said to be surrounding the city. there are three potential approaches for russians to kyiv, from the north from belarus, from parts of eastern ukraine, and from the south, from the black sea and sea of azov.

the thought is russians will gather around kyiv. we talked to a member of parliament that says they're preparing for a siege where they can't get clothes and supplies, that's why they need help from the west. right now, this moment, the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy is meeting virtually with members of the united states senate, he is asking, has been begging nato. he said this war is on your doorstep. you don't want world war three creating a no-fly zone over russia, it is here. he is asking for a no-fly zone. the problem is nato ends 500 feet from here. nato has no authority beyond that border. ukraine is not a nato country. so the idea there could be a no-fly zone has been interpreted by vladimir putin as an act of war, and because russia is a nuclear armed country, the west is alarmed by the idea that vladimir putin would use

references to nuclear weaponry in response to something like a no-fly zone. however, if the missile that shot down the helicopter, if that was a russian helicopter, if in fact that was an american missile, there's a lot of conversation going on now about what the distinction is. what's the difference if ukranians are shooting down russian aircraft with american made missiles and american or nato forces patrol the skies over ukraine to allow the ukranian defense to help itself, to allow the ukranians defense forces to defend themselves against what is very clearly russian air superiority in the region. that's the situation. we'll keep you posted. we'll continue to try to verify those kinds of videos. at the moment, they're unverified. that does it for me. thank you for watching. i will be back here in hungary tomorrow for another special edition 7 to 10:00 a.m. eastern and through the week. tiffany cross picks up coverage

right now. good morning, everyone. welcome to the cross connection. this morning, ukranian president volodymyr zelenskyy is addressing u.s. senators right now in a closed press meeting over zoom, shortly after the embattled president called out nato for refusing to institute a no-fly zone over ukraine. it has been ten days of constant bombardment as you've seen all week as russia made its way across the nation, capturing the strategic port city of herson. they posted video this morning, you can see what they say is a missile shooting down a russian helicopter. and ordinary ukranian citizens are fighters, taking up arms, taking on russian artillery, making mol