good evening to you, i am ayman mohyeldin, it is 9 pm here in new york, and 4 am now in the besieged city of mariupol, where earlier today efforts to evacuate civilians had to be suspended, after russian forces reportedly violated that temporary cease-fire. and agreement that had actually been reached. the stunning move pushed the state department to call on all u.s. citizens, living or traveling in russia, to depart immediately. it seems any hopes the situation on the ground may stabilize where misplaced. and earlier today, ukraine released a remarkable video that officials there claim shows ukrainian armed forces downing a russian military helicopter with a missile. nbc news has not independently verified the authenticity of that video. we're gonna break down all of the very latest information out of ukraine in just a moment. but first, i'd like to introduce you to a young woman, named all examined raw. she is 25 years old. she lives in kharkiv, ukraine.

and yesterday, she spoke to the bbc about how her mom and dad back and moscow didn't believe her, when she told them russian forces were attacking her city. i didn't want to scare my parents, but i started telling them directly that civilians and children are dying. her parents responded that the russian army would never target civilians. that it's ukrainians who are killing their own people! oleksandra explain her mother just repeats the narrative that she hears on russian state tv. now, keep in mind, now that putin has signed a law that criminalizes any independent news reporting about the invasion, a lot of it criminalizes any public opposition to the invasion. a law that effectively criminalizes then near recognition of the invasion. there's simply no way to counter the kremlin's propaganda inside russia. you only have state media, and their big lie. there are no reports of missiles hitting apartment buildings, and hospitals, and kindergartens on russian tv. there is no talk of russia

shelling a nuclear power plant. there is no discussion of skyrocketing russian casualties. in fact, there is no mention of the word, war. now to be clear, putin has lost the global information battle. he's been routed. he's almost embarrassingly pathetic, in how he's been carrying out his propaganda campaign that has unfolded on the international stage. but at home, he's actually one. he has created his own reality, once so more twisted then oleksandra's own parents who choose to believe the chills on their television, over the pleadings of their own daughter. joining me now, msnbc correspondent, cal perry. he's on the ground in lviv for us, with a check of the reality that is taking place right now. cal, we're getting reports of thousands of ukrainians, pouring into lviv. as you so my colleague report from neighboring countries about the plight of some refugees. how is the city firing under all of this pressure? >> look, it's hundreds of thousands certainly have flown

through here. and have travel through here, i should say, on train, in vehicles. i'm only 50 miles from the polish border. so this has become a major way station. and it's in both directions. you've got refugees fleeing from the fighting, and you have this very incredibly emotional scene where fathers and brothers are taking their families to the border, and then turning around to fight. if you are between the ages of 18 and 60, and you are male, you are required to stay in the country. you're not allowed to leave. you are expected to go to the front. and the fighting at the front is horrifying. as you have laid out, it is the civilian populations that are now being targeted, especially in the southern part of the country. just north of crimea, we are seeing these towns get encircled and bombarded and really, this attempt on behalf of the russian military to break the back of the civilian population. and it is of course, so many civilians who are fighting, and so many civilians who are caught in the middle. now, look, the humanitarian effort is starting to step up. we're starting to see that in motion, but it isn't overwhelming sea of humanity

that is playing that part of the country, ayman. >> all right, nbc's cal perry in lviv, ukraine for us. kyle, thank you so much for starting off this evening. for my saturn at fallon to discuss this. professor to american university school of international service. bobby gauche, editor and communist for bloomberg opinion. and ben collins, nbc news senior reporter. before we get to the media blackout in russia, i just wanna get your reaction, elise, to the reporting we've been hearing from our colleagues about the plight of refugees getting to neighboring countries to safety, including from cal and ali velshi. what do you make of what we are saying play out so far in the humanitarian front in all of this? >> i mean, ali, it's horrible to see those people having to leave their country, and going somewhere else, they don't know whether they're gonna be back. some woman giving birth and a bomb shelter, and in some of the stories are just -- we've seen stories over the years, but some of the stories, particularly as they're fleeing

the bombing are just terrible. but it's also even worse, some of these people can't get out. they're trying to get out of the country. they're under attack, and so, this is really one of the largest, i think, humanitarian catastrophes that we are going to see. i mean, as bad as it looks right now, it's only going to get worse. and so, a refugee expert here say that this is gonna be one of the biggest refugee crisis since maybe, the end of world war ii. and that is really scary. and then you have to think of what is gonna do to some of the other countries. but the plight really about this people, then leaving their country, they have no idea when they're going to be back, and the pictures are just really horrific. >> ben, let's talk about the information war for a moment, because earlier this evening, the national security council released a statement, slamming the kremlin's move to shutter independent russian media outlets. they've blocked access to social media. they restricted access to

international press agencies. what do average russians make of this total information blackout, based on what you're able to track? >> look, rt an internal russian propaganda always resisted within russia. but however, more than -- they have had the ability to see things outside of russia. to see independent journalism. and in fact, the people of done independent journalism within russia, in places like tv rain, they didn't doing a good job by tracking things. tv rain, for example, identify people from within the troll farm that attacked the united states in 2016. they found people and said, which one accounts for the attack? it was like from an gop or whatever. and they found those out, and they reported them specifically from russia in russia. and that's how twitter and facebook, they work backwards from that in a lot of cases.

to find flags internally in their systems. to see what was coming from that building at st. petersburg. but now, those places are shut down, they're gone. places like tv rain, they're not allowed to broadcast. the truth anymore. you can say the word war right now, when you're referring to which russia is doing in ukraine. it's only a special operation in ukraine. so they had problems for year coming through our social media networks. for example, facebook. now, you can't use facebook and russia anymore, it's banned. look, this was a place that had access to some pre-press. now they have access to no free press. i'm sure it will be a little jarring for people, even if they generally believe in what the government is putting out. >> bobby, putin reportedly planned on capturing ukraine in just a couple of days. at least, that was the assessment made by some in the west. his strategy seems to be untethered from reality, we're not only the second week of

this war. what do you make of that reading of this conflict, that he was expecting to take it quickly, and how we can expect the conflict to change, going forward? look, i'm old enough to remember the 2003 war, where america took 23 days to topple baghdad. and that was going up against an army that have been depleted with sanctions for years. and certainly, it was not getting any kind of stinker or anti tank mines and help. but they were able to take back that in 23 days. are you surprised by how this is playing out? >> [inaudible] -- they face much tougher opposition. you made the right analogy with baghdad. there was another element in 2003 in iraq, which was the population have been repressed by a dictator for decades. and didn't really want to fight for him. you've got the iraqi army not

killing the population. it's different now in ukraine. the ukrainians are standing and fighting with their leader of their country. against an enemy. this is very, very different from iraq in 2003. the russians still have [inaudible] we learned in previous operations, in places like chechnya, we should be worried that -- until still probably thousands of people. and the refugee crisis that we're seeing now will get worse. the problem -- the conversation he had with french president macron, which suggest that he was going to stop at keep, and that you wanted to get all of ukraine. that should send -- i suggest that there's a much, much bigger calamity to come in the days ahead. >> at least, can you walk me

through what life will look like in russia, as these sanctions truly start taking effect. we're seeing them being ramped up by the day. news today visited mastercard announcing they're shutting down services. not official sanctions, but no doubt, having a massive impact on the day today lives of people transacting in that country. >> i mean, it's really just incredible, amen, over the last couple of, you know, and the last week. the sanctions -- companies are shutting down, not doing business there. russians can't even fly, because russian planes can get out. i mean, these people are really going to be locked, and it's gonna be hard to get supplies. and this is just the beginning. the u.s. is talking about oil imports, banning oil imports, which, you know, is a very controversial issue. but once that starts, it's gonna be even more difficult to raise money. and it's hard for them to do

banking. a lot of the banks have been shut off from the international banking system. i mean, the russian people, we always talk about sanctions, and how it's gonna take a while for the countries to really feel with haim. russia is already starting to feel the pain, and they're going to feel a lot more pain. and this is one of my concerns, because it's really the russian people that are gonna feel it. yes, it's gonna be difficult for vladimir putin. but i think the hope is that he's gonna feel the pain so much, that he changes course. we've seen that chant sanctions do not deter him. not only does he not care about the ukrainian people, he doesn't really care about the russian people. so to what extent does this disaffection among the russian people, the war is already unpopular. does the economic pain that they're going to continue to feel, some people feel it could like be the beginning of the end for vladimir putin, but unfortunately, it's gonna be a lot more pain for the russian people. just to get every day goods,

and you've already seen reports, we're seeing reports, obviously, of ukrainian refugees leaving the country. russians are trying to flee the country because they know that that pain is going. >> bobby, you have spent some time in europe. obviously, you know it better than i do. are you surprised by european reaction to this, because i think a lot of people are watching how quickly europe has come together, have also noted some very important, you know, perhaps pivots by some countries. germany, perhaps reconstituting its military. sweden, finland, perhaps trying to get a little bit closer, if not fully integrated within nato. and that probably has to come to a surprise to people, like you've watched here for years, fumbled their way around a cohesive security, or european security policy and architecture. >> absolutely. just a year ago, russia was able to force germany to return to -- [inaudible]

that is going to be the single most worrying thing that germany has basically abandoned the 50, 60 years apostle that has taken towards russia. another very very important development, switzerland. switzerland announcing -- now for these countries, germany and switzerland, they're present in 180 from the positions they have to. positions they have to [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> whether that means he will

change his calculus about what he does in ukraine, we should see. but it has got to be -- this has gone far beyond what was possible. don't forget, this is not just about this week and this month. germany has changed -- means for years and years to come, they've invested tens of billions of dollars in military spending. and a lot of that will be directed eastward, and the direction of russia. russia has become a less safe place for all kinds of reasons. and that's one more reason and that's something that people in the kremlin should be very worried about. >> i'm glad that you brought up the issue of switzerland, that has been remarkable as well, when you think of all the people that have been storing money there for years, taking that they were going to remain safe. at least you wanted to jump to -- >> it's not only countries like germany and switzerland, but you look at something like hungary. i mean, victor had this kind of

kinship with vladimir putin. and in the last couple of days, he has even turned around. you saw poland today, president biden speaking with president zelenskyy, and now, it looks like poland is going to be sending aircraft. and on the border, on the border with ukraine, so many fears about russian aggression against poland. i mean, as bobby said, you know, not only is, you know, countries conscience really hurting him, and saying we have to be on the right side of history. but you know, vladimir putin betting with him is not a safe bet anymore in these countries, they're hinging now. they're saying it's really a little bit of a paperback to go to the west. hungary was really surprising. >> certainly. all right, my panel, stick around. we've got a lot more to talk about after the break. still ahead, american wnba star brittney griner is detained in moscow on drug charges. plus, stories from the ground

in ukraine, as hundreds of thousands flee. >> [speaking foreign language] >> it was, it was most scary words i've heard in my life. i'm still, i'm still scared. i'm still afraid that i can't see her anymore. see her anymore. rgy in just two weeks! (sighs wearily) here i'll take that! (excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. when you shop with wayfair, one gram of sugar, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life, and save in more ways than one.

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that russian authorities have arrested american wnba star and lgbtq icon, britney reiner, for alleged drug trafficking. she is reportedly been held for three weeks, but we've only just learned about this today. and we see news correspondent katie bet has the latest. >> as new details emerge in this case, there are still many unanswered questions about the situation that britney reiner is facing. we know that she has been in custody, since that security camera footage was taken. which is in the month of february. but i don't know if that works weeks ago or days ago at this point, or how much longer she will be detained. will she have a court hearing? those are things we don't know at this point. we do know that she's been criminally investigated for drug trafficking, and that cartridges containing cannabis oil were confiscated from her luggage in that security checkpoint investigation.

now, her agent, the wnba, have all expressed real concern about her health and well-being, saying they love and support brittani. they're doing everything they can to try and get her home. but this is an ongoing case. we don't know if this, if she was coming to russia, or going from russia, but we do know that the for the past seven years, she has played basketball it wintertime there. it's very common practice for wnba players. the salary is significantly higher and russia, so a lot of women to take advantage of that. she has done that for the past seven years. we did reach out to the state department to get some kind of confirmation from them. they gave us a statement, but did not refer to grind her by name, and simply said when americans are arrested, they tried to do everything they can to help expedite their legal process and get them home safely. they did not mention her case specifically, or any direct

involvement. so at this point, the real concern, given the rising escalation between the u.s. and russia, is will her arrest be now used as a political tool, or some type of leverage in these ongoing discussions? that is really the situation here, as she is a celebrity. she is an athlete. will this be used in some political way, moving forward, given the climate that we're facing right now between russia and the u.s.? amen? >> all right, nbc's katie back, thank you very much, katie. when we come back, we're gonna continue the conversation about brittney griner this detention. less, the race to escape ukraine's, with hundreds of thousands nothing more than their clothes on their back. >> i came with my mother, and now i feel like we are homeless. exactly, we are homeless at this moment. and we should handle basic scenes. we have no stuff. we have no money.

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when you were coming through this? [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] [interpreter] it was really scary, and then, when my mom conflicted me, it was all good. of course, of course. i want to go back because my sisters and brothers are there. and the daddy and the kitten, i love them all. >> what did you say to your brother when he -- [speaking foreign language] [interpreter] i told my brother, my brother, i really love you. i love you very, very much. >> you're very brave. did you know you are so brave?

>> yes. [end of translation] >> that was nbc's alison barbara earlier today. now more on brittney griner who has been detained by russia, reportedly for three weeks, the two-time olympic gold medalist have been held on suspicion of alleged drug trafficking. russian customs officials say she's trying to board a plane with a vague cartridge containing cannabis oil. but why did it take so long for russia to reveal her arrest? and could it become a political chess piece for vladimir putin, as he pushes back on western opposition to invasion of ukraine. let's bring in our panel once again. elise labott, bobby goes, ben collins. elise labott, i'll start with you. britney reiner has been in russian custody for apparently three weeks. now we're just learning about it today, and they're just telling us about it today, i don't know. it is a scary situation, but i have to wonder about the timing of it. what do you make of it? >> i think, putin has been

holding her. obviously, this is going to the top, and he is holding a moment of opportunity. you see the sanctions are really starting to hurt. he saying that the sanctions are an act of war. and now, he has a chess piece. the question about whether she's going to be used for leverage, of course he's going to be used for the leverage. obviously, this is not gonna be a chip in him stopping the war. but that he needs certain things from the united states. you saw that the state department announced that they let a plane arrive in the united states to take some russian diplomats out, accused of espionage. i mean, those are little things that they can use as chips. but this is not the first time that u.s. officials have accused russia of detaining and sentencing americans on charges. and so, this is obviously an effort where -- it could also backfire, ayman,

because it's another signal for companies to get the hell out of russia. the state department already said, americans, leave. we don't know if there could be some retaliations against you. this is just another reason force companies to say, it's not safe in russia, i'm backing up and going. >> bobby, she brings up a good point about americans in the past being detained there. the new york times reported today that it is in trying that has been happening in recent years. russia has been detaining and sentencing american citizens on what the u.s. says are trumped up charges. what is your read on the situation? could this arrest have been politically motivated? >> well, when the fighting actually started -- so we don't know. but as elise points out why would putin not have this as one of the many guards that he hopes he can play. remember who putin is. he is a cold warrior. he came from the kgb. this is what the kgb do all the

time. they take hostages, trade hostages, americans for russians. usually in old style, but not always. so this is an old trick that putin is very familiar with. and of course, in more recent times, he has seen other countries use it. look at the iranians at how they have used hostages from not just the united states, but european countries as well, to try and extract some sort of concessions against the sanctions that they've been good on this. so, you know, for whatever the actual reason, why she was taken to custody, now we have to assume that putin will see her as one of many cards that he can play in this game, that he's trying to work against the west. >> ben, you've been following russia's censorship and use of social media, to put out disinformation. how hard is it to get real facts and a case like britney's right right now, because obviously, there's gonna be a

lot of interest in it from the u.s.? we have a hard time accessing from russian outlets right now because they're being blocked. how does even one get information on it from outside of russia? >> i think the fact that you wouldn't even know that this happened until now is a pretty case that we're gonna see out of here. putin is obsessed with the olympics. he's obsessed, for some reason, he's very into sports. and doing things directly at the olympics is not the only time he ever timed military action around the olympics, and backed. so, if you read kharkiv, for example, and some of the russian athletes being banned from western countries, from playing western countries, they call that sports genocide on rt. which is a ridiculous thing to say, considering what they are currently doing in ukraine, but that's the level of which they view this stuff. and you know, american athletes, specifically american basketball players, they go to russia all the time. because they get paid four times as much as the maximum

salary in the wnba. that's exactly what's happened with brittney griner here. so there were many opportunities to do this sort of thing. vladimir putin has done this in the past with an israeli citizen, who took charges about smuggling drugs in their luggage. and he wanted to trade that citizen for a russian hacker who israel had detained, and they have already sent that russian hacker over to the u.s. in exile. so, this is a thing that they do. it's unclear if this is what happened in this case yet. we simply don't know yet. but i can tell you right now, we're getting information that situation is going to be hard to come by. except these official channels. >> bobby, are we in a new cold war with russia? and i mean in this new cultural space, where we're seeing calls for russian athletes, and you

know, russia to be boycotted. we're seeing members of congress here introduce legislation to call on a divestment of russian companies, the sanctioning of a government. are we entering a new era? the russian foreign minister put out a statement for the russian embassy, warning people of russia phobia. and they're gonna be tracking it, and monitoring it closely. but have we begun and new era of the cold war between the west and russia? >> [inaudible] i'm old enough to remember with that cold war was like. and you have the amplifying effect of social media. so the russia phobia, it will be ramped up and projected and broadcast on social media for ordinary people. during the cold war, the u.s. government, against the russian government. so it was militaries against militaries. it was very different back then. russians didn't get to face

many -- that has changed. we live in an international globalized economy. you have russia much greater now than before. and the opportunity to express yourself, it's all about writing -- how can you go on twitter and on facebook and express yourself. we've seen so many other instances, work and bring out the worst and people. right now, we've seen a lot of positive stuff going on about people raising money, for humanitarian aid for ukraine, using social media to do that. that is the good side of social media. but ask an asian american in this country about the hatred that has been directed against them over the last couple of years, and you began to get a sense of the darker side of social media and what that can represent two people. and not just russians, anybody with a russian name. and that means a large number of people all around eastern

europe. they have got to feel a little bit nervous now. >> yeah, i know, absolutely, that is a very good point -- go ahead, elise. >> i mean, look, between what ben was saying and what bobby was saying, and the whole idea that questions are being cut off from the international system, not just the financial system. you look at those list of companies that are being sanctioned, you look at all these cultural between law nation, bbc, anywhere from america. eurovision, some contest, every cultural organization right now is shutting russia. and then, you put on top of that the fact that the internet is being really restricted, and russians are gonna get the situation where russians are totally isolated. in the span of a week, russia is becoming like the new north korea, where not only are its citizens isolated, but the complete state. so this is just the beginning of ramping up against russia. you know, those russian people

against we get back to where we were at the beginning of the hour. these russian people are really going to feel the isolation on the economic, on the social, on the information, and on the cultural front. it really is and you arrow, and just in the span of a week, pretty amazing! >> when we come back, i'm gonna ask you about whether or not this new era is gonna actually make a difference in putin's calculation. coming up, putin is insisting on continuing his invasion inside ukraine, despite global economic pressure, leaving many to ask, why and what's next? >> awful situation! without any idea, good idea, why, just why? why, just why? allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. ♪ ♪ ♪a little bit of chicken fried♪ ♪cold beer on a friday night♪ ♪a pair of jeans that fit just right♪

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across. where have you come from? [speaking foreign language] where are you going to go? [speaking foreign language] >> they think someone is coming to get them. first, they have to take them to their shelter to get their children tested for covid. and then, there is a bus that is collecting the people who are coming from ukraine, to get them tested. and if they are proved to be negative, then they can go further to meet their families. >> okay. well, thank you. i hope -- >> that was msnbc's ali velshi, earlier, reporting from hungry, where more than 150,000 ukrainians have fled their alone. meanwhile, as we've been reporting, these and mastercard both announcing just hours ago that they're going to

immediately halt all operations inside russia, in response to u.s. sanctions on russian entities. they are among a growing list of companies now around the world, who are limiting holding business with russia. this week, russia's central bank, more than double the country's key interest rate, as its currency, there will be, hit a record low against the dollar. my panel is back with rt me. ben, let me start with you. he recently wrote an article about twitter banning accounts pushing the hashtag, i stand with putin. tell me a little bit more about that, because this is opened a very interesting, with some are saying, a pandora's box about free speech, and certainly in the middle of a conflict. but what do you make of this push by twitter to ban that hashtag? >> yes, basically, they banned 100 accounts for what they called coordinated inauthentic behavior. that's the word, working together in concert. using fake accounts, using fake profile pictures, generally fake stuff that push something into the trending box, so

people see it. basically, that was an inauthentic trend. you know, that could be a troll farm, it could just be spam accounts, it could be people trolling. but they were doing it in a concerted effort, as a way to push it out there as a deterrent. but the other issue is, here with russia, it really got pushed, up and people started denouncing. that's why it got pushed up the trend box even further as people were saying, i don't do this. i don't stand with putin, using the hashtag, still. that's in the still overarching being here. russian propaganda, worldwide, has rolled around the last few weeks. facebook, for example, took down a bunch of fake accounts, gradually, the very same troll farm that attacked u.s. in 2015, 2016. the same people who pushed that. they were on a website called ukraine today, with fake identities, fake pictures, ai generated profile pictures, or these people on facebook. the thing is, you know, even after they were taken down on facebook, they kept posting through it. they kept posting on their

website. and i think they were posting whereas if russia had already won this war. as if, you know, people in ukraine had just instantly folded. and they were posting manifestos for the new ukraine. and guess what? that's not what took place here. russia is trying to figure out what to do here, from a narrative site. they did not expect complete defeat in the situation war, externally. and now, they're really reeling, frankly. >> but i gotta ask you, one person, who has not said that he will take down russian new sites is elon musk. i don't know if you saw that. you know, he's been providing ukraine with starlink, basically internet access, and some have asked him to take down russian access, or shut down access to russian news websites, or propaganda websites. he says he will not do that unless at the point of a gun. your thoughts? given what ben was describing. >> elon musk comes from the humanitarian tradition, so i'm

not surprised that he's taking the analogy of a point of a gun and interesting one. he's a man who lives very much in the social media world. and, you know, social media pressure will build on him. that's a different kind of weapon binded, pointed at his head. if there is substantial social media outcry against him, we see that he does amend his behavior, according to what is trending on twitter, and what is trending on facebook. it wouldn't surprise me if down the line, he is obliged by public pressure to change his mind. at this point, it doesn't really move a needle whether or not he leaves those sites up. the problem is not russian propaganda directed at the west. now, most sensible people, if they come across a video that is extolling putin, or putting down the ukrainians, have already figured out that that is to be regarded with suspicion, because we have so many other sources of information that we can

triangulate. the real problem is what is happening within russia, as we've been discussing throughout this hour. what has happened is that russians no longer have, or actually, they have very limited access to real information going on outside their country. now, that has been choked off even to a greater extent. so a colleague of mine described this as a digital iron curtain, to use another old cold war term. and and that is what happened. basically, putin is hell-bent on the information bubble. and essentially is keeping his people in the dark. over a long period of time, we've seen this before. over a long period of time, people will stop trusting the sources of information that they have. where they start to realize that the war, in a couple of weeks or longer, people will be due to question him and, push

back a little bit. but that may take time. and then a country like russia, they're pushing back, and maybe thrown to jail, or worse. it's gonna be a much higher hurdle for people to jump across, when that moment comes. >> elise, as we've been going through, and i think we have a list of some of these companies, we've seen a list of companies, as we've been talking about throughout the course of this week. big names, chanel, microsoft, expedia, shell. you see some more on your screen. they have decided to cut business with russia. they span all types of industries. culturally, you have companies that have bad movies like the release of batman is not gonna come out now and russia. you have cultural and sporting events, as we were talking earlier with fifa, saying they're not gonna let russia compete or participate in the qualifiers for the world cup. putin has leveraged his image, because he cherishes his image so much, and the image of russia. today, there was a turn.

he said that these type of sanctions are actually a declaration of war. and i think that may have even caught some people by surprise. what did you make of putin saying, these sanctions, the sanctions imposed by the west, are basically a declaration of war? >> well, because if you look at putin's whole modus operandi, is to create this big image of russia around the world. not so much because he cares with the world things, but because he cares about which russians think. and by and large, over the years, dissent has been growing. putin has always been able to project this image of power to the russian people. now, you see protests inside russia. and as much as he doesn't like protests in ukraine, he hates them even more inside russia. so this, in putin's name, this only goes really survival. so when you see russia being choked off from the international system, when you see them being banned from the olympics or from these cultural

institutions, and now, as we've said, putin and russia are the new kim jong-un and then you north korea, this is, this really goes to the heart of his survival, and whether the russian people will stay with him. by and large, they always have. and now, he's not only fighting this war in ukraine, but he's also fighting it at home. and just, very quickly, on the information front, this is a two prom war. it is a hybrid war. it is a military component, but a lot of this is being fought, you know, digitally, not only do you have this russian disinformation, but now you have this ukrainian, this i.t. army of ukraine, which is really this kind of ragtag band of 300,000 or so, hackers, most of them in ukraine, but also from around the world, working with the ukrainian government to take down russian infrastructure. and so, this is some -- he thought it was gonna be a lot easier, but now, these are

all the things that he thought he had in this arsenal. the military, the information, it has all backfired. >> bobby, real quick question for you. 30 seconds. yesterday, i spoke to a member of the ukrainian parliament who told me it is inevitable that the united states or nato will get into a military conflict with russia over what is happening in ukraine. and they should seize the initiative by imposing a no-fly zone. your assessment of that we now? >> i think maybe a little bit of wishful thinking, which we may understand under the circumstances. but nato allies have said repeatedly that it's not on the agenda, they will not impose a no fly zone. because imposing a no fly zone is not like you press a button and voila, the airspace is closed. you have to put up military chance to prevent the airspace being used. that's effectively putting nato forces into play over ukraine. they may not be boots on the ground, but there are planes that they air. and nato does not want that. nato leadership has said over

and over again that it is not advised. >> all right, my all-star panel, thank you so much for joining us tonight. greatly appreciate it, we'll be right back. right back with big bills and 5g maps that are mostly gaps— they're switching to t-mobile for business and getting more 5g bars in more places. save over $1,000 when you switch to our ultimate business plan... ...for the lowest price ever. plus, choose from the latest 5g smartphones— like a free samsung galaxy s22. so switch to the network that helps your business do more for less—join the big switch to t-mobile for business today.

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pay your staff and know where your business stands. new business? no problem. yeah. success starts with intuit quickbooks. >> what do you want the world to know about ukraine? >> he tells me he wants the war to stop, so that you can go back home. he's hoping to be adopted. >> anything you want to say to anybody, any of your friends back in another region?

>> reporter: his answer is so crushing. i want to stay alive, i don't want to die. >> that was nbc's tom llamas, speaking to an eight year old boy at an orphanage. his name was dimitrius, or his name is dimitrius. he is from lviv in ukraine. as we've noted on this program and others, we have almost 1 million child refugees that could potentially flee that country. here in the u.s., the biden administration has announced that it is offering temporary protected status to ukrainians who have been living in the u.s. without legal documentation. secretary of homeland security, alejandro mayorkas, we fought to the russian invasion as a premeditated and unprovoked attack on ukraine that has resulted in senseless violence. in these extraordinary times, he continued, we will continue to offer our support and protection to ukrainian nationals in the u.s.. the s now joins canada and that

you eu who are now similar protections this week, an estimated 75,000 ukrainians are eligible for the protection, which will allow them to stay and apply for work in the united states for up to 18 months. and that is great news, but it's worth noting, there is a double standard here. immigrant rights groups have pointed out people from countries like cameroon, ethiopia, afghanistan have been pleading for months for some protection. in many cases, they were not granted shelter, and were even deported into environments of violence and persecution. listen, there's a difference between what accountability -- when we should commend president biden's decision to protect ukrainians here in the united states, we should also count on our government to advocate for other refugees around the world, who are facing oppression and fighting for their way of life. thank you for making time for us. come back tomorrow night at nine eastern on ayman for more insight into the russian invasion for ukraine. for now, stay tuned for more of msnbc's continuing special coverage of the invasion at the

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how not to be a hero: because that's the last thing they need you to be. you don't have to save the day. you just have to navigate the world so that a foster child isn't doing it solo. you just have to stand up for a kid who isn't fluent in bureaucracy, or maybe not in their own emotions. so show up, however you can, >> hello, i am alicia menendez. for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com welcome to the special hour of american voices. as we track the very latest from ukraine. there is the latest as we know it. visa and mastercard announcing they are suspending operations inside russia, which means their cards won't work inside russia. the cards issued by russian banks no longer work outside