s and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call... to receive fifty percent off installation. and take advantage of our special offer of no payments for 18 months. hey, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. it is 4:00 p.m. in the westminster, 11:00 p.m. in ukraine. a lot of breaking news to get to this hour. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy in his latest national address, moments ago, calling on citizens to, quote, go on the offensive. saying, every small victory against the russians is a chance

at life for the ukrainian people. it comes amid a new urgent warning from the u.s. government to americans in russia, saying, leave immediately. and amid reports that russian officials have detained 31-year-old american basketball player brittney griner. the customs service saying hashish oil vape cartridges were found inside her luggage. griner's agent now speaking about her detainment in russia. we're going to have more on that in just a bit. also, putin's threats against the west reaching new heights today, saying any declaration of a no-fly zone over ukraine would be taken as a, quote, participation in the armed conflict by the kremlin. a short time ago, president volodymyr zelenskyy on a bipartisan call with u.s. congress members pleading, again, for the consideration of a no-fly zone, stressing barbaric murders of his country's civilians at the hands of russian. meanwhile, israeli prime minister neftali bennett meeting

with putin today for three hours and israeli government official telling nbc news that bennett coordinated with the u.s., germany, and france before that meeting, coming just hours after ukraine's deputy prime minister announced russia had violated its temporary cease-fire agreement, briefly put in place so civilians in two separate cities could, in fact, evacuate safely. regional police announcing six people had died, including a child. in a russian air strike of a village southwest of the capital city. and all of this is happening as more than a million ukrainians and counting flee to neighboring countries. half of those refugees are kids. my friend, ali velshi, on the ground in hungary, one of the nations opening their doors to desperate families. he spoke to some of those desperately looking for safety today. >> reporter: a family has just walked across. where have you come from? where are you going to go?

they think someone's coming to get them? >> 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 who are coming from the ukraine and if they prove to be a negative, then they can go further down into hungary to meet their families. >> reporter: okay. well, thank you. i hope you get what you need and i hope you get to safety. >> all right. i want to go now to the latest on the ground in ukraine. that's where we find nbc's cal perry in the western city of lviv, just a short ride from the polish border. cal, my friend, as always, good to see you. glad you're safe. we have been speaking over the last week or so in lviv, it seems, day-to-day, has been changing significantly. what's been happening on the ground there. talk to me this hour about the sense you're getting right now as to what's happening in that city.

>> reporter: it's remarkable what's happened in just ten days. i know that's obvious, but ten days ago, people in this country didn't think a war was going to happen. you had washington saying russia was going to invade and the president here saying, that's not going to happen, we've been at war with russia for eight years in these provinces. now now have a population that has come to terms with the fact that not only has russia invade, but they're doing so in that kind of old russian playbook of very, very crudely bombing these cities into submission. you mentioned the cease-fire. a couple of cities near the major city of mariupol along the black sea, there was supposed to be a cease-fire today to get a humanitarian corridor in and out because people there have been trapped for 72 hours without power, without water, without any heat in basements as they are slowly watching the city crumble around them and the cease-fire fell apart because the russians would not cease their bombardment of the

civilian areas so people in the western part of the country are not sure this city will always be safe, that lviv will always be safe. we had some air raid sirens today, no indications of any strikes. we haven't heard any jets. i am 350 miles from the capital, but you have, again, this growing realization that in the same way we saw the russian air force slowly destroy the syrian city of aleppo, we are now seeing the russian air force in places where they control the air slowly destroying ukrainian cities that have civilians in them. this air battle is interesting. a lot of people are talking about this on ukrainian tv. there was, according to the ukrainian government, 40 russian jets shot down since the beginning of the conflict, 39 helicopters. there's dramatic video on ukrainian television of this helicopter being shot down outside kyiv, but it's an indication that the air war is not settled, that nobody controls the air space, which is why we continue to hear president zelenskyy appealing to the international community, appealing to u.s. senators, appealing to nato for a no-fly zone. obviously, the politics of that,

and we saw this video of secretary of state blinken walking across the border today into ukraine, the politics of that are impossible. nato says they do not want a war with russia and there is concern, and we've heard this voiced by nato secretary general that that could be the beginnings of world war iii so you have people here, i think, starting to settle in for the long haul, starting to feel like we are just now entering week two of a war that could last weeks, months, years, yasmin. >> it's interesting, cal, you and i speak the same language in that i was thinking about aleppo a lot recently because i think it speaks to the mentality of russian president vladimir putin. scorched earth mentality, right? he's in it to win it. and he will win at all costs, it seems, at this point. and you think about what happened with aleppo and you apply that to ukraine as you just did and what may be to come, how you said they're settling in for the long haul, which is just an incredibly kind of sad fact about this war. and i asked you this a few days

ago, and i'll ask you again now, because you said at the time, it may likely change, which is, do they feel as if they're alone? the ukrainians there. that they are just alone at this point to fend for themselves? of course, with being given the military aid that they need, obviously the weapons that they need, the humanitarian aid that they have, but otherwise fighting alone. >> reporter: so, there's an understanding that the sanctions are historic, that we've never seen sanctions like this before. there's an understanding that weapons are flowing across these borders, interestingly enough -- it's not interesting. they're not doing that in the open for obvious reasons. there's military reasons to keep that stuff concealed, but we keep hitting these dark markers that we see in conflicts around the world. refugee camps outside, a dark marker. orphanages. i'm trying to think of another one. but we keep hitting these dark moments where you start seeing this war spreading quickly. i mean, again, this orphanage

popping up here in lviv is an indication that people are dying in great numbers at the front. fathers saying good-bye to their families. you have this forcible separation that's happening that the russians are forcing the ukrainians to take part in, but that's also this voluntary separation because people want to fight for their country and many are willing to die for their country, but millions are not. the other thing that's happening here that is hard to get a handle on, but that we need to, the world food program now says that 5 million people in ukraine are in need of food. they are now under the crisis of not having any food. so you have hunger starting to creep in. these are all things, of course, that happen in conflict zones. we see them happening. they happened in syria. they happened in grozny. i'm talking about russian engagement. but they're happening here. the war is arriving for people individually. >> and by the way, we're only ten days in. just want to remind folks, we are ten days into this thing and who knows how long this is going to go on. this is really, it seems, just

the beginning of this atrocity. and as the russian president said himself, this is going to get worse for ukrainians. cal perry, as always, my friend, thankful for you and happy that you and the team are safe. all right, want to go now to julia mendel, who is a former spokesperson for president volodymyr zelenskyy and joining me now. julia, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. what a stunning op-ed that you had in the "washington post" talking about the personal impact this conflict has had on you and your memories as you put it. i want to read that for people. the russians are now occupying my hometown and also it seems my memories. the mall where we shopped is a smoldering ruin. another video showed corpses in the park where i used to go as a kid with my mother and my class to feed the swans. as local officials warn of an impending humanitarian catastrophe, i receive videos and messages from relatives and friends. they tell me the russians shot

an apartment buildings, homes, and a school. russian forces have -- are occupying, have captured, iuliia, your moment. just stunning images to see. >> thank you for having me here. >> so heartbreaking. >> yeah. thank you for having me here. yes, actually, reading my words and all the time i was writing this, i was crying hard. because my parents, my aunt and my cousin and his three kids, his wife are there. all my family, actually, and they stay in different parts, but mostly in kherson. it's fully blocked. so what russians did, they blocked the city, which they bombed before that, and they do not allow anyone to go out and they do not allow anyone to get anything, like i cannot send any food. i cannot send any clothing, and i cannot even send money to my parents because atms are absolutely empty, and what they

did, they did not allow to have any humanitarian aid from ukrainian side, but they brought russian humanitarian aid from crimea, and so this is how they try to pretend that they save our land. also, they switched off all the ukrainian tv and switched on russian one that could show how these people from russia come to save ukraine. you know what? my khersonian citizens, they didn't take anything from russian humanitarian aid. they said, bring us ukrainian food. you are our enemy. you are destroying us. you're killing us. today, i posted a video from kherson, there were around 2,000 people rallying in the center of the city with ukrainian flags, and talking in russian to russians, explaining them that they are occupying the land and that they are not welcome here. and this video is actually very popular. it's already got over 400,000 views, and i think it will get more, because ukraine is very

much proud of 30 years of independence and what we have here. i know that the recent -- in several more cities and this is the thing that ukrainian authorities are trying to solve really hard. they were negotiating with russia, and russia even provided the opportunity of five hours to have a green corridor when you can take those who suffer from -- in, like, mariupol, kherson, other towns with humanitarian crisis, and bring in food. but instead, they started shooting again, this corridor, and we know this from the experience because back in 2015, they promised a green corridor to our army and turned this corridor into corridor of death. so, this is what the situation now. >> you also write in this op-ed, and i think it's important for people to understand this. vladimir putin's justification for this invasion was, as he put it, the denaziification of

ukraine. and you write in your op-ed, russians claim they have come to save khersonians from naziism. we don't know what naziism is as the mayor of that area says. can you talk more about that, iuiliia? >> of course from history, we know what naziism is, but when it comes to reality, ukraine is so peaceful country that shares western values, and this is ridiculous to talk that we have nazis or light-scale nazi, any kind of nazis here in the country that people must be defended. you were correct to say that there were over 100 nationalities in my region. but actually, kherson is also a region where there is a very large community of jews, and our president, actually, is of jewish background. it's just ridiculous to say that there is any kind of naziism.

what putin actually means is that we have so large and so probably nationalistic culture that he wants to say that we offend russian speakers and this is fully ridiculous, because they entered russian-speaking cities. half of ukraine speaks russian and this is their native language. all these people say in russian, go away, leave our country. we are russian-speaking ukrainians. it's a very good example because so many nationalities, so many people speak english all over the world, but it doesn't mean that english speakers try to invade each other nowadays. this is the same with russians. so many countries speak russian, and ukraine has its one official language, ukrainian, and of course we have 44% of ukrainians that know russian well, understand it, speak it, and it's absolutely fine. so, there is no -- any background for this absolutely absurd justification, let's say,

or so you know, this is just a full invasion because ukraine is the biggest territory of freedom and this is the biggest democracy with 40 million people, and this means that it can scare putin who made such a large dictatorship in his country. >> iuliia mendel, former volodymyr zelenskyy press secretary, we appreciate you joining us. we wish you the best, you and your family, and please do stay safe. >> thank you so much. for more on the situation on the ground, everybody, in ukraine, i'm joined now by anders, a contributing at the center for european policy analysis. anders, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you are saying now that you believe russia realizes it's losing this war. why do you think that? >> yeah. i believe it first because i've lived in this country now for 13 years almost, and i have seen

ukrainian mentality at, example, europe and how they stand up for their values. it's very much what she just spoke about. i connect with her completely there. i was planning to mention kherson, but now she told you about it. i was out today, and i passed a local recruitment center for volunteers. some days ago, there were long, long lines there. now there are shorter lines. but i'm very happy to see that now these mostly men but some women are not only armed but they also have protection gear. that warms my heart. on the other hand, we have ukraine now more volunteers than weapons, so the need for weapons is still very great need for weapons. and as i continued my walk, i went -- i'm staying with my mother-in-law because it's a little bit safer apartment here in kyiv, but i walked home to my own apartment to pick some things up and i met a woman there with a child and i greeted her, and she smiled back, and greeted me back.

no fear, very calm, enough social feelings for a smile. it's very nice to see. people are very calm, and they're very determined, and i see this malicious all over kyiv, and i also know that ukraine have its best units, military units, in and around kyiv. i foresee, just as iula did, that this country will persist to the bitter end and russia has not yet entered kyiv. they are in the outskirts, but they have not -- they went in with the paratroopers but were beaten back. they have not entered kyiv. this city is 40 kilometers in diameter. and it's not a typical american city where you have large suburbs with one, two-floor houses. no, these are concrete blocks,

10, 15, 20 stories, and there are old factory areas left over from the soviet union. this city is perfect to defend. perfect. and with the ukrainian mentality, they will defend it. >> anders, contributor at the center for european policy analysis. we thank you for joining us. up next, everybody, a new warning from the state department to all americans in russia. and vladimir putin's stark warning about a no-fly zone over ukraine.

the state department today issues an alarming new travel warning, tell all american citizens in russia to get out now. that's a stepped up warning from the past several weeks when the u.s. was encouraging american citizens in ukraine to consider leaving but was not explicitly telling them they need to leave immediately. but now, with dwindling ability for u.s. diplomats in russia to come to the assistance of american citizens, if they were to become detained and less and less options for americans to fly out of the country, the u.s. says it's time to leave. >> all right, that was josh lederman in brussels for us a short time ago. the staunch warning from the state department following reports that brittney griner was detained in russia after a search of her luggage found vape cartridges and then new comments

from russian president vladimir putin earlier today raising tensions further after issuing a threat to western nations that consider a no-fly zone over ukraine. joining me now, anastasia, a russian-born writer and social historian, also the author of "russia: putin's playground, a concise guide to russian history, politics, and culture." anastasia, thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. i was speaking to a former senior intelligence official here in the united states who told me, essentially, vladimir putin is close to not having an off-ramp. he is doing irreparable damage to himself domestically. not only to the domestic audience that he has but to his small inner circle. what do you make of that? >> i think that we -- the big question right now is what's the end game of all of this, right? and when you talk about the end game, you look at the key

stakeholder groups in his circle but you also look at how the game is going so far, and the simple answer to that, the game is not going well for either constituency in his circle, which we can talk about the strongmen and the oligarchs. and what it means is that the blitzkrieg that was planned, obviously, this was planned as a short engagement with limited troops. that plan didn't work. kyiv still stands. ukraine still stands. president zelenskyy is a leader of a nationwide resistance, and so this means that there were some key strategic miscalculations in the original game plan. the miscalculation about how strong the ukrainian resistance would be and, you know, plenty of people on your program have already talked about this. but basically, this they are

rallying around their president, their land, and their fears, resistance. the other miscalculation, in my opinion, is that the -- how strong the western response would be. i mean, vladimir putin holds the west in deep contempt. he believes that the west is weak and they will just look the other way at what he is doing, and that's not what we are seeing happening, and the reason for that is that, you know, what happened on the 24th of february is not just an attack of russia on ukraine. this is really all of us in the free western world awoke to our collective nightmare that everything that we love will be destroyed, that our loved ones would be taken away from us, and he really pushed us into his -- into our worst nightmare, and this means that the west is not going to be looking away, and

the sanctions that are imposed are pretty significant. they are crippling the russian economy, and they are hurting the key stakeholder of his regime. he's not just one man, you know, even though it may seem like it. it is a regime that consists of various factions, and -- >> and you bring up -- i didn't mean to jump in, an anastasia. i can't help but think even if vladimir putin is able to negotiate his way out of this or whatever the end may look like, he's not necessarily going to be in a good place when the people surrounding him, the oligarchs, the wealthy, and his greater population, the people that he thinks like him inside that country, look at the russian economy and see it completely obliterated. >> nobody's going to be in a good place in this current scenario, and particularly the oligarchs. i mean, look, you know, they can't use their yachts, their

planes. this is real wealth being seized by the western sanctions, and who's going to like that in is? that is really impacting, i believe, the key stakeholder in the -- in his circle. the oligarch is. >> anastasia edell, thank you for joining us. for more than one million civilians, escaping the war zone in ukraine. the new strain this puts on countries taking them in and what's being done to help them. that's ahead. e to help them that's ahead (vo) small businesses are joining the big switch. save over $1,000 when you switch to our ultimate business plan for the lowest price ever. plus choose from the latest 5g smartphones. get more 5g bars in more places- switch to t-mobile for business today. so, you found the no7 then. it's amazing... hydrates better than the expensive stuff. i don't live here, so i'm taking this and whatever's in the back. it's already sold in the us. but i'm not taking any chances.

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in this desperate pursuit of safety. ali velshi has more on this. >> reporter: at platform 10 of budapest's rail station, anguish arrives by the hour. >> i feel absolutely awful situation. without any idea, good ideas, why. we say, why? because bomb, rockets, every time we're afraid. >> reporter: 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. we just met.

>> no, you know, in this -- >> in this type of situation. >> we help each other. >> reporter: 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 shelter in private homes across budapest. >> we don't know when exactly the train comes, and it's really bad because two days ago, there was -- we were here until 2:00 a.m., and 900 people just came in. we were like, oh my god, it's 2:00 a.m. how can we manage this? and even at 2:00 a.m., we find accommodations for them. >> reporter: they disembark in a new, unfamiliar place. as we reported live on our first night in hungary, a woman stopped me in the station. >> there's an -- i'm sorry. i'm sorry, i don't speak -- i speak english. >> what's the name of the train station? >> reporter: this train station, the name of this train station.

i will -- this train station named -- david, what's the train station name here? niyati station. nugati station. that's correct. >> thank you, thank you. >> reporter: 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 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 transport. >> reporter: you need transportation. >> okay. >> reporter: so you go and you'll get transportation. you will get some sleep. good luck. >> thank you to ali for that. with me now to talk about this, and the growing crisis, is james elder, chief of communications at unicef.

james, you and i have spoken before and this has been a growing crisis over the next few days, ten days now into this war, a million or so refugees having left ukraine to seek safety. how much worse is this going to get? >> seems like it's getting worse every day. the images you show, i was at the polish border today, again, just seeing a sea of sorrow, exhausted people. you see -- i see grandmothers pushing prams. i see old women stop several times to lift bags. we all learned in that situation, help those old ladies. walk 50 meters, there's another 20 behind me, moms carrying babies that are exhausted. these are families leaving the country. right now, tonight, it's almost midnight here tonight, there are thousands of children in bunkers, terrified for their life under the very real threat of missiles in a conflict. >> i can't help but think about

the emotional damage that will be done for years to come. especially to these kids, not having the safety and security that children crave. unicef releasing these photos of a makeshift maternity unit, babies being born into conflict, their mothers already exhausted. how are they getting the supplies they need in this wartime? >> well, it's triage at the moment. the need is just so great, as your images show. luckily today, or luckily with a great deal of support from people around the world and a lot of effort, we've seen a convoy come in, a unicef convoy come in today to ukraine that was fantastic. it's full of surgical equipment that will go to hospitals around the country, doctors working in terrible conditions. it's obstetric equipment, midwifery equipment, sterilization, first aid kits. it is life-saving equipment that we will just continue to pour

across this country, but we do need the fighting to stop. but it's here now. more will arrive tomorrow and in the coming days. >> james, how do people help that are watching, so many people, you know, trying to get in contact with me, people watching our program, obviously. people across the country are watching this and saying, how can we help? what can we do? >> it's so many great people working here, and i'm struck every day by ukrainians and their selflessness and their hard work. and international organizations like unicef who have supply routes and ways of working efficiently and effectively so unicef usa is a very good place to start for anyone who can dig into their pocket. it's coming to those children we're seeing every day, the ones we're not seeing in bunkers, and we're just so very appreciative. >> my heart just aches for those babies as i see those images, not knowing what's actually going on in the world around

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welcome back, everybody, some breaking news out of russia, wnba superstar brittney griner has been arrested by customs officers in russia and is being held in moscow after customs agents say they found hash oil vape cartridges inside of her luggage. nbc's katie beck is following the story for us and joining us now. katie, thanks for joining us on this. we're seeing videos sent by russia that appears to show griner at customs. what do we know about her whereabouts and what exactly happened here? >> reporter: there's certainly a lot of questions that are unanswered at this point. that video obviously pretty

disturbing to see her getting stopped there and not have the answers to how long has she been detained, when will she be released? are there upcoming court hearings? these are things we don't know at this point. what we know is this stop happened sometime in february at a security checkpoint. those cartridges filled with some kind of cannabis oil were the reason for the stop, and that she has been placed under criminal investigation and is detained in russia. we don't know whether she was coming or going from the airport at that point. we do know that she's been playing basketball in russia for the past seven years during the wintertime. it's a very common thing for wnba players to play abroad in places like russia. the earnings are quite high. it's a good chance for them to make extra income so many of them do opt to do that. she has done it for the past seven seasons. she is quite an accomplished basketball player and is very beloved by her team and by the wnba, who has put out a

statement saying they are well aware and monitoring her situation. they're in constant contact with her family and her attorneys, those representing her. her health and safety is a primary concern to them at this point, but in terms of details in her ongoing case, as i said, still a lot of ongoing questions about exactly how long she's been is there. we know it was in february, but that could have been days ago. that could have been a full month ago. we're not sure exactly how long she's been there. but given the escalating tensions between russia and the united states, i think the main concern a lot of people have now is, will she be used as a political bargaining chip? will this become more of a political situation with vladimir putin possibly asking for easing sanctions or releasing of another russian on our side? so, these are the questions that remain and at this point, the state department has not offered much. we did ask them for a statement. they sort of came back with something pretty vague, saying that they always try and assist

when an american faces legal challenges abroad but did not specifically mention her name or her case. so, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, but her case is certainly becoming more to the forefront, given what we're seeing in russia and the ukraine and how sensitive this subject is. >> all right, katie beck, thank you. we appreciate it. i want to bring in kimberly st. julian vernon, ph.d. student who specializes in race and the black experience in ukraine. thanks for joining me on this. talk to me first about the specific concerns that you have when it comes to hearing of brittney being held now in russia. >> it's incredibly concerning, and i think one of the key things is she is well known. she has played basketball in russia since 2015. but she's also a visible minority. she is a black woman. she's also openly gay. she's lgbtqia community member, and she stands out. she's very tall, so all of these

do not bode well for her in terms of being locked up in russian custody, moreover, she's facing incredibly serious charges. these aren't your typical possession misdemeanor charges. she is facing charges for large-scale transportation of narcotics. she's facing five to ten years in prison minimum in russia. so i think when we kind of talk about this case, what really concerns me, you see in the video, she's signing something, and i don't know if brittney griner speaks russian or if she reads russian, but i'm very concerned that they had her sign something, and i didn't see any representation there for her. >> what do you think the u.s. needs to do? >> this is tricky. i mean, besides the fact that we have an active war in ukraine, there are also two other high-profile american cases, paul whelan and trevor reed, both american citizens who have been arrested and imprisoned in russia. they're currently serving very long prison sentences. so -- and actually, the united

states is talking to sergey lavrov, the foreign minister, about this in january before the escalating tensions in ukraine, and the, you know, the war that's going on right now. so, unfortunately, brittney, there is a precedent for this and it has not looked good. those two americans are still in russian custody .. we don't know how long she'll be arrested. we don't know if she's going to have to have a trial and these things move slowly in russia so i think we're going to have to have some expedited diplomacy, but she has been held for at least two to three weeks so we don't actually know what has been going on behind the scenes, so we have to be very careful with how we speculate because we don't want to do anything to jeopardize her case. >> kimberly, i want to briefly just talk about what's happening at the border between ukraine and some of the countries in which we see refugees going to. we have heard reports of black and brown individuals trying to leave ukraine and seek safety elsewhere and being turned away. at the border. what have you heard of this?

and are you surprised? >> i've been hearing a lot of this, actually. i was in contact with a student from gambia who was pulled off a bus multiple times trying to get to -- from lviv to poland on the border. the only reason he made it on to the bus because a ukrainian woman grabbed him and said, this is my husband and they had to let him off and he was the only person of color on the bus. so, we have a crisis at the border with the mistreatment of black and brown residents of ukraine, but as i said earlier, we have a crisis throughout ukraine with people of color not being able to get into transportation, to even have a chance at getting at the border. so, i also know now that the ukrainian foreign minister has set up a hotline. people are aware of this and a lot more ukrainians and poles are paying attention to what's happening at the border and are trying to help a loft of these people of color, so hopefully we'll see less instances of racism, but they definitely are still happening.

>> kimberly st. julian varnen, we thank you. okay, ukraine's president taking a desperate plea for help straight to u.s. lawmakers. straight ahead, we're going to go one-on-one with representative susan wilde who was on that call. we'll be right back. wilde who was on that call we'll be right back. ♪ limu emu and doug.♪ and it's easy to customize your insurance at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows several different whistles. doug blows several different whistles. [a vulture squawks.] there he is. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty♪ inner voice (kombucha brewer): as a new small business owner, i find it useful to dramatically stare out of the window... ...so that no one knows i'm secretly terrified inside. inner voice (sneaker shop owner): i'm using hand gestures and pointing... ...so no one can tell i'm unsure about my business finances.

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. welcome back, everybody. earlier today more than 300 u.s.

lawmakers spoke to president zelenskyy virtually, the wartime president making a plea to congress for urgent assistance including a ban on russian oil, increased lethal aid and substituting a no-fly zone, which nato had already rejected. i want to bring in one of the lawmakers on the call joining us now from poland. congresswoman, thanks for joining us. i just ticked through some of the priorities of the ukrainian president laid out for you and your colleagues during that phone call. are any of them feasible at this point? >> we think all of them are feasible. thanks for having me. i'm here in poland about 12 miles from the ukrainian border. i was with a smal group of lawmakers here in poland today. we have spent the entire day

meeting people and talking among ourselves as bipartisan members of congress. we are frankly in agreement on every single thing that needs to get done. this may go down in history as one of -- >> you're saying that you agree with everything the president says that he needs, president zelenskyy says that he needs. i'm assuming you mean no-fly zone as well. no? >> i said that we have all agreed on what needs to be done. we are not going to impose a no-fly zone. however, we are prepared 100% to make sure that ukraine has the planes that it needs. president zelenskyy has asked us for air cover. that air cover is best provided by providing him with migs and old russian fighter planes that poland actually has in its

possession. the problem is poland is reluctant to give up those planes because that would cut into their inventory. we have been talking to the folks in poland about making sure that we back fill that supply for them so that once they turn over those planes to ukraine, they can be used to clear the skies over ukraine and then make sure that they are replaced to poland very, very quickly so they too are safe. >> congresswoman, what's the contingency plan if zelenskyy is run out of ukraine, if they're having to operate outside the borders of ukraine if the capital city is taken? >> we haven't talked about a contingency plan because we're focused on getting this done as quickly as possible to make sure that doesn't happen, that this

isn't happening from outside ukraine, but that president zelenskyy is able to remain in ukraine and protect his country. we are there with them. i will tell you the polish people have been amazing. the country of poland has been amazing. we are here to express our thanks to poland, to provide them with the support they need to make sure they can continue as the nato nation closest to ukraine, that they can provide ukraine with the support they need. poland has been a country that has been invaded hundreds of times. their people have had to flee many times. what has happened here is that now we see people fleeing from another country, and the polish are opening their arms to them. the united states and all nato allies have an obligation to make sure poland can continue to do that and will be safe itself. >> congresswoman, is there ever a point where the calculation

changes where we see this humanitarian crisis growing, more people dying, russian takeover of a capital city where the west looks at the situation and says we need to get more involved? >> that's a huge concern, obviously. right now as of tomorrow morning, a million ukrainians will have crossed the border into poland. imagine that, a million in a week and a half. so, yes, of course, the longer this continues, the more dire the humanitarian situation becomes. although poland has been incredibly welcoming and there are tremendous resources here at the border, the problem is that no country can withstand that for too long. so we have to make sure we wrap this up quickly, that this is brought to an end as quickly as possible. the best way we can do that is by providing lethal aid to ukraine via poland. we are all on board to do this.

we have four democrats, four republicans on this trip. we are absolutely ready to get this done. >> congresswoman, susan wild, thank you very much. that wraps up the hour for me, everybody. i'll be back here tomorrow. 3:00 p.m., politics nation. 3:00 p.m., politics nation wrap their arms around us, could we put little handles on our jackets? -denied. -can you imagine? i want a new nickname. can you guys start calling me snake? no, bryan. -denied. -how about we all get quotes to see if we can save with america's number one motorcycle insurer? approved. cool! hey, if bryan's not gonna be snake, can i be snake? -all: no. it's still the eat fresh refresh™, and subway's refreshing everything like the new baja turkey avocado with smashed avocado, oven-roasted turkey, and baja chipotle sauce. it's three great things together. wait! who else is known for nailing threes? hmm. can't think of anyone! subway keeps refreshing and re- if you have advanced non-small cell lung cancer, your first treatment could be a chemo-free combination

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