as vladimir putin says ukraine may lose its statehood. >> they have ruined my city. destroyed many houses. >> thousands huddle underground. >> please, we don't have enough food for my baby. >> ukrainians fill the streets with protests. and continue their fierce fight on the battlefield. >> we are fighting for our freedom. >> western nations, though, reject president zelenskyy's call for a no fly zone.'s >> there are no other ways to stop this war. >> plus, the refugee crisis. some 1.5 million already fled the country. >> maybe we will never see them

again.ag >> ukrainians leaving everything behind. >> my husband, my home. my dogs, my cat. my life. >> amid the crowds, charges of bias against some refugees. my guests this morning, secretary of state, antony blinken senator manchin of west virginia, former ambassador nikki haley and we will have reports from kyiv and the polish forces. and the first post-invasion poll shows a bignv bounce for presidt biden. are we about to see a change in our domestic politics? joining me for insider analysis are, hallie jackson, and eddie glaude jr.ar welcome to sunday, and a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is a special edition of "meet

the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. we have seen the world rally around ukraine, moved by a fierce resistance and moments like this one. this is what ukrainian officials say is the shooting down of a russian helicopter. it's true the worst of this war is yet to come for ukraine. vladimir putin threatened yesterday vladimir putin in a pretty menacing way threatening you a crane with a statement, bombing military targets and civilians alike laying waste to cities, violating some small humanitarian corridors. people are jamming rail stations in kyiv desperate to get out before a full assault on the capital. russia does control areas in the south and east of ukraine and are aiming to cut ukraine off at the sea and trap its military internally. meanwhile, putin making it a possible crime in russia to call

this what it actually is, which is a war. with the russian economy crippled by sanctions, putin is now calling that a declaration of war. there are growing concerns that a cornered putin could lash out and widen the conflict beyond ukraine's borders. we will start with two reports from the region. kelly cobiella near the poland border, reporting on the 1.5 million ukrainians who have fled the country and first we will kick things off with richard engel who is in kyiv. a lot has happened overnight. what is the latest from your perspective? >> reporter: chuck, second attempt to evacuate citizens by opening up the humanitarian corridor has collapsed with both side, the russians and the ukrainians blaming the other for the breakdown. it means the people are still trapped in that city still under fire and without food, power or water.

here in kyiv, russian forces are advancing towards the city. they are making slow advances in the northeast around the neighborhoods and i smoke with the mayor of kyiv a short while ago and he told me that roughly 10,000 people have been killed so far according to figures he had on both sides of the conflict. i asked how long he thinks kyiv can hold out and he said frankly he doesn't know but believes it can be a long time because the people here have a lot of fighting spirit and they are not fighting for the will of one man. >> richard, a little bit of the russian side of things is a bit opaque obviously with the crackdown they have on the free pass, but just from the operational standpoint, it looks like the russian army is not performing very well. what do you know? >> reporter: so sources have been telling me, sources that are well connected to the

russian security services, that the offensive is not going well, that some special forces, the russian pesnaps are furious because they've been sent into battle without proper support and many have been killed. they said the national guard forces and the regular army, which includes the chechen units, the two are not coordinating, and that the plan is somewhat disjointed, that it's partly a plan for war and partly a plan for peacekeeping and so-called denazi-fication in this country that has led to the lack of cohesion. a lot of this goes back to the man who is behind it all, vladimir putin, who i'm told is increasingly isolated, is just taking advice from his inner circle that there are only about three people that matter right now, and that speech, you mentioned it a short while ago that putin gave yesterday, a

bizarre location, speaking in to a group of flight attendants, he sounded incredibly angry. he sounded detached. he was talking about how the ukrainians here are machine gunning people, that they're driving around in cars packed with explosives jihadi style, and he went very deep and repeatedly on this theme that they're fighting against the nazis. it's the angriest i've ever seen him. >> richard engel in kyiv. richard, a reminder this is putin's war more than it is russia's war at least right now. kelly cobiella is on the border of poland. on the polish border with ukraine. the enormous number of people crossing over, how is poland going to be able to handle this? are we going to see refugees flown out to other countries because poland can't handle everybody coming over its border? >> reporter: chuck, the numbers are just astounding. we saw the numbers yesterday from the polish border guard.

129,000 people arriving in this country in one day. most of them are women and children. they're arriving with nothing. they need a tremendous amount of support, not just in food, medicine, a place to rest, a place to live, but also emotional support. a lot of them are deeply traumatized by what they've been through. the volunteer groups who have been organizing the response over the past nine days or so say they are now starting to get overwhelmed. just when they catch their breath from a wave of refugees coming across, there is another day and another wave. and people really are determined to get here, chuck. we spoke to a family just a few minutes ago who arrived today. they arrived from kharkiv. they said they were waiting on a train station. they saw what they thought was a missile strike and nobody dove for cover because they were that desperate to get a spot on the train.

these people are still in disbelief as to how they've ended up here. one woman, i asked, what do you need most? and she said, i need the war to end so i can go home. chuck? >> kelly cobiella in poland for us. just a reminder, two weeks ago these people were living very first world lives. joining me now from muldova is secretary of state, antony blinken. second blinken, welcome to "meet the press." i want to start with some of the acts that president zelenskyy made of congress, asks that president zelenskyy made of congress, and i'm assuming he made some similar asks in his phone call with president biden. we have bullet points here. no fly zone. lethal aid, a ban on oil imports. i want to start with the no fly zone. let's start with the planes. it seems close, it seems, this idea of planes, u.s. fighter jets to poland. in exchange poland sends russian-made jets to ukraine.

is that going to happen, and how quickly can it happen? >> first let me say this. president zelenskyy has been a remarkable leader. he's been the embodiment of the ukrainian people and everything they're doing to resist this russian aggression and president biden is in regular contact with him as he was just yesterday. on this question of planes, yes, we're talking very actively about this, looking at what we could do to backfill poland if it chooses to send the migs and the planes that it has to ukraine, how we can help by backfilling what they're giving to the ukrainians. that's so a very active discussion as we speak. >> you said if. that's a poland decision, not a nato decision? >> it's a sovereign decision by poland if they choose to do it. we want to make sure we can help them and, again, backfill what they are giving so they don't have any loss in their own ability to provide security. >> so if any of these nato

nations who have these russian-made planes donate them to ukraine, we're going to backfill them if they're nato allies. >> we would have to work on each case on its own merits, have to make sure we can do something if that's what the country is requesting in return for sharing the jets that they have. >> let's start with the ban on oil imports. i know as late as last week, there was still -- the administration was saying, no, we can't do the 100% ban. has your mind changed? has the administration's mind changed on this? are you looking at a full embargo on russian gas and oil? >> chuck, i spoke to the president and the cabinet, the leading members of the cabinet about this just yesterday from europe. and we are now in very active discussions with our european partners about banning the import of russian oil to our countries, while, of course, at

the same time maintaining a steady global supply of oil. the actions we've taken to date have already had a devastating impact on the russian economy. we see the ruble in freefall, we see the economy heading into a deep recession, we've already had a major impact. but we are looking, again, as we speak, in coordination with allies and partners at this prospect of banning oil imports. >> it's interesting you added the "in coordination." we will not do this unilaterally, the united states is not going to do this unilaterally? >> a hallmark of everything we've done to date has been in coordination with allies and partners. we are much more effective across the board when we're doing things together in as close coordination as possible. there are instances where we each do something a little bit different, but it complements the whole. in the first instance, we want to make sure we're acting in coordination. i'm not going to rule out taking

action one way or another irrespective of what they do, but everything we've done, the approach starts with coordinating allies and partners. >> all right. another way of ratcheting things up on the russians is zelenskyy suggested terminating russia's status. preferential trading status, most favored nation status. is that something we're considering? >> look, chuck, let me say this. there are a series of things that are out there that we're looking at to continue to ratchet up the pressure on vladimir putin for the purposes of getting him to end this aggression against ukraine, to stop this war, to stop the killing, to stop the suffering. and there are, as i said, extraordinary measures that we've already taken. we said many months ago, when all of this started, and we warned that putin was threatening this aggression. we said if he pursued it, there would be massive consequences for russia, and we've delivered on that promise. you see it again in everything that's happening to the russian economy.

but if there are things that remain to do to increase the pressure, if he's unwilling to stop the aggression, we're going to do them. so we will look at each and every one, decide together with our allies and partners what's most effective, when we should do it, and we'll proceed in that way. >> i want to talk about the no fly zone. let me quote president zelenskyy on telegram on friday. he essentially sent this out on social media. all the people who will die starting this day will also die because of you. he's addressing the west. because of your weakness, because of your disunity. today the alliance leadership gave the green light to further bombing of cities by refusing to make a no-fly zone. i understand it's an emotional statement. i understand you've had different conversations there. why not rule out the no fly zone? why not make putin think it's possible? >> first, again, my admiration for president zelenskyy has no

bounds. if i were in his shoes, i would be asking and looking for everything possible from everyone in every place around the world. and as i said, what we've already done is extraordinary, and just to remind people, over the past year alone, from the united states alone, more than a billion dollars in security assistance, lethal defensive weapons that are being put to very effective service by ukrainians now in defense of their country, and other measures we're looking at going forward. just in the last week alone, chuck, we have delivered more than $200 million worth of security assistance into the hands of ukrainians. all of that is ongoing, all of that is continuing. the president has been clear about one thing all along as well, which is we're not going to put the united states in direct conflict with russia, not have american planes flying against russian planes or our soldiers on the ground in

ukraine, because for everything we're doing for ukraine, the president also has a responsibility to not get us into a direct conflict, a direct war with russia, a nuclear power, and risk a war that expands even beyond ukraine to europe. that's clearly not our interest. what we're trying to do is end this war in ukraine, not start a larger one. >> let me ask you this -- >> keep in mind -- again, keep in mind what a no fly zone -- just so people understand, too, what a no fly zone means. it means if you declare a space no fly and a russian plane flies through it, it means we have to shoot it down. >> let me ask the question this way. we're getting towards the end of the second week of this conflict. can this still end diplomatically with vladimir putin in charge of russia? >> you know, how this ends is an important question, and i wish that we could see signs that

president putin was willing to engage diplomatically to bring this aggression to a close. right now we're not seeing him. he was on the phone, president putin, with president macron of france a couple days ago, and by all accounts, according to the french, he's digging in and doubling down. and i think we have to be ready that this could go on for some while. the sheer force that russia can bring to bear, the manpower, the expanse in its military, has the potential to keep grinding down these incredibly brave and resilient ukrainians. but here's the thing. winning a battle is not winning a war. taking a city is not taking the hearts and minds of ukrainians. what we've learned the past couple weeks is they will fight to the end for their country. if it takes a week, if it takes a month, if it takes a year. he has no plan, putin, for how this actually ends on his terms. he can't impose his will and russia's will on 45 million

ukrainians. they've clearly demonstrated that. but it may take some considerable time to play out. we want it to end as quickly as possible with ukraine having its independence, its territorial integrity, its sovereignty. but i think we need to be prepared for this going on for some time. >> secretary antony blinken, i know you're busy, i know you have yet another plane to catch. thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you, chuck. good to be with you. joining me now is democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia. he chairs the national resources committee. senator manchin, welcome back. >> thank you, chuck. >> you were on this zoom with president zelenskyy yesterday. before i get into the details, what was that like with him? what did he say to you guys? >> it was so surreal, but to have a person on the front lines taking mortars every day and basically seeing his people being slaughtered and willing to withstand all of this and fight back and all he asked for was

basically just help me. i'll fight my own fight, just give me the tools to do it. and for us to hesitate or anyone to hesitate in the free world is wrong. and he said that. he says, if ukraine falls, europe may fall. where do you want to stop -- >> what does that mean for you? would you support a no fly zone? would you support doing this which could trigger a wider conflict? >> i understand that, but right now you don't signal to your nemesis. this is putin's war, this is not the russian people's war. this is putin's war and quests for anything it might be. but to take them off the table because we've already used things is wrong. i would take nothing off the table, but i would be very clear we're going to support the ukranian people in every way humanly possible. zelenskyy was very clear. he said, we don't need you to fight our fight. we don't need you to fly our planes or fly your planes into our war zone. we need planes we can fly

ourselves. >> you heard secretary blinken, and that deal seems to be in motion, right, the trading of jets with the poles, right? >> yes. >> you heard zelenskyy saying, we're in favor of it if the entire alliance does it, too, which sounds like there is an interest in doing it unilaterally. is there support in congress for unilateral? >> i would say this, the people in my state of west virginia think it's foolish for us to keep buying products and keep giving money to putin to be able to use against the ukranian people. that's exactly what he's doing, so why wouldn't we leave? why wouldn't we show the resolve we have? i understand we have more in the world. but here's the problem, we have the ability to ratchet it up and give them the backfill. we are a million barrels short a day and we can do certain things, and we don't have to put any more pain on the american people already suffering from inflation right now, but i think the american people would if they had to seeing that they are

saving freedom and innocent lives. >> some polling indicates for now, let's see what happens with $5 gas. >> well, look at the gas now at $4. it wasn't because of this. inflation wreak has vock on it now. and basically, we're going to continue this and it might go up more and it might go up anyway and we haven't done anything. and i would say do something and we will ramp up our energy and produce the oil and the natural gas and build the pipelines. we can do both, chuck. we can do the energy that we need as far as in this world that we live in, and do it cleaner than anybody else in the world with innovation, but we can also transition to a cleaner technology. >> now, is this the price of your involvement, and you talked on the reconciliation bill with democrats and with the president, meaning like look, you sort of outlined some tough language. you said, he needs to lower the deficit, prescription drugs and if there is anything else left,

we can talk about other things. you had a big circle around energy. does that come, you want to see an increase in energy production before you sit down with biden? >> let me say the most important thing that i'm worried about every day is inflation right now. it's affecting every west virginian and every american i know of. the high prices they can't sustain and it's hurting people working the most, people trying to make a living. they need help, so inflation is the number one thing. basically supporting ukraine and saving freedom and democracy around the world, because it will permeate if we don't stop it. next of all, we can do all of this, but you have to get your financial house in order. my grandfather always said, joe, unmanaged debt will make cowardly decisions out of you. we have to get that under control. >> is this war in europe make it harder to do this deal with the president or easier? >> i think it makes it more realistic. this is the real world. we keep talking about aspirational things we want to do, whether it's the far right or far left.

whatever it may be. forget aspiration. we live in the current world. global climate is global. it's not north american, it's not the united states only, it's global. we have to look at what we can do. our energy that we produce in america is better and cleaner than anything else in the world. anything we backfill will be better that they produce. the gas we can send over, we've got basically requests for permits that are still standing and we haven't been given. i've got a mountain valley pipeline in the state of west virginia that will take 2 bcf, 2 billion cubic feet a day into the marketplace immediately. it's 95% done, i can't get it done. >> what do you say to those who say if we continue to use fossil fuel infrastructure, it will be harder to clean? >> let me tell you one thing. the pipelines. those can eventually transition into hydrogen pipelines. we can do so much with that. it's a clean technology we're going for.

it's almost like if you don't stop this, you won't do this. that's not right, chuck. >> who are you negotiating with, the president or senator schumer? >> there's no formal talks going on right now, i will assure you. >> you threw it out there. >> we voted against the 2017 republican tax cuts. we thought they were weighted unfairly. if you have one thing you're united on, fix it. >> senator manchin, democrat in west virginia, we appreciate it. >> thank you. when we come back, we'll talk with former u.n. ambassador, nikki haley. a possible 2024 presidential candidate and has been a bit critical of president biden's handling of the war so far. stay with us. stay with us

at xfinity, we live and work in the same neighborhood as you. we're always working to keep you connected to what you love. and now, we're working to bring you the next generation of wifi. it's ultra-fast. faster than a gig. supersonic wifi. only from xfinity. it can power hundreds of devices with three times the bandwidth. so your growing wifi needs will be met. supersonic wifi only from us... xfinity.

breaking news at this hour, multiple reports that russia has announced a cease-fire and opening of humanitarian corridors in several ukrainian cities. according to the reports, the corridors would be open in the capital city of kyiv, as well as the cities of karkhiv and

mariupol and all have faced days of bombardment from the russian military, it is unclear if the cease-fire applys to the entire country. having multiple incidents where russia failed to cooperate with humanitarian corridors over the past few days, nbc has received confirmation from ukrainian authorities. again reports that russias a announced a cease-fire and the opening of humanitarian corridors in several ukrainian cities, and according to the russia's military of defense, in the corridor of kyiv as well as kharkiv and mariupol, and much more ahead on "way too early" and stay with msnbc for the latest. welcome back. nikki haley spent six years as a senator, and the u.s. ambassador to the united nations under former president trump. often mentioned as a possible running mate in 2024 or a presidential candidate hersz.

welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you for having me on. >> let me start you with the last question i asked secretary blinken, can this crisis be brought to an end with putin still in power in russia? >> well, i think putin will try. he will drag this out as long as he can. he's committed and he's an evil tyrant and will not stop until he can form the soviet empire. the lesson in all this, when tyrants speak we should listen, and he said he would take ukraine, and he is. and china said they are going to take hong kong. they did. poland and the ballot ticks. we should believe them. and china said they are going to take taiwan next. . we should be ready for that. iran says they want to destroy israel, and every time a tyrant speaks we need to remember they told us we need to listen. >> you sound like somebody would be in favor of a no fly zone over ukraine right now. if putin is what you describe

him as, i guess what guardrails should we be putting on the nato alliance right now? >> no, i am not in favor of a no fly zone right now. what i am in favor of is the biden administration stepping up and doing the things that will matter. we know the one thing that punches putin in the gut is to hit his energy sector. there's no reason we should be taking money from an enemy, and we should sanction all of the energy companies right now and remove him from the international banking system and we should be coordinating intelligence in real time with the ukrainians, and we should be leading with nato telling them to give the planes to ukraine. we should be making sure we are moving forward on giving them the missiles they need. they said they don't have what they need, they need javelins, anti-air, and anti-tank mifrls to do this. we should have done all this before putin did his first move. we were late to the game and we are still late to the game and it's not too late now but we got

to get on the ball. >> one can argue there has been 20 years of appeasing putin, that there was a belief that he could be part of the world order. was that a mistake from the get go? >> no, i always said that you cannot trust russia. you cannot trust putin. you can't trust xi and china. it's common sense. i dealt with them at the united nations. you never negotiate, you never deal with your enemies. you can't trust them. i was mortified biden asked china for help with russia. you never ask an enemy for help with another enemy. i never told china anything that i didn't want russia to know because you know how they coordinate. it's the same reason it is unthinkable that biden would be coordinating or even thinking about getting back into the iran deal with the russians and chinese at the table. why are we negotiating and trusting enemies. you don't do that. that's the first start to being

strong in america is understand who your enemies are and make sure that you let them know that you understand them. >> so if you treat -- you would not -- there's one thing -- you would treat china as an enemy, not as a rival, if you will, you would not work with them diplomatically with them at all if you were in charge right now? >> do you know what, i mean china right now has coordinated with russia, and biden went and told china what was going on with russia, china ran and told russia. those two countries are getting close. they don't like each other or trust each other, but they both want to destroy the west. why are we waiting for that to happen? china, when they take taiwan, this is going to blow up. right now taiwan's manufacturing half of the semiconductor chips. americans use phones, computers and drive cars, and all of that

will be disrupted. why are we relying on china to give us medical supplies when we saw how they handled covid in the world. we have to be smart. we have to wake up. we have to be smart in dealing with these tyrants. we can't continue to let them run all over us. >> let me play something that former vice president pence said on friday. i am curious for reaction to it. he said there's no room in this party for apologists for putin. there's only room for champions of freedom. as you know there have been some quotations on the right with putin, although ever since he actually invaded some of those folks have taken some of those things back. for those that have said nice things about putin, including your former boss, president trump, what do you say to them? >> my first speech to the united nations was in support of ukraine and hitting russia, and protocol at the united nations was to meet with the russian ambassador first and i purposefully threw protocol out the window and met with the

ukrainian ambassador first. putin has shown he is an evil tyrant and proven that time again that he is evil. what i will tell you about president trump is as much as what everybody else wants to talk about what he says, what i look at is what he did. he sanctioned russia, and he build up our military and made us energy dependent. all of this countered with putin in russia. this never would have happened under trump. how do we make sure this doesn't go further under biden? this has been a terrible mistake that started with afghanistan. one thing after the other we have done nothing but show weakness. we have got to show strength. what i can say is you can talk about past presidents all you want, but the last thing you need to be doing is looking for the tv remote when your house is burning down. we have to start dealing with the situation at hand.

>> you imply it was biden's weakness on afghanistan, and the trump administration, they tried to roll back sanctions in 2017, and tried to lobby congress to weaken russian sanctions and legislation in 2017 and tried to remove sanctions on russian oligarch companies in 2018, delayed chemical weapons sanctions that were required by law in russia and let's not forget holding ukrainian aid hostage for a political stunt. you don't think any of those things sent a message to vladimir putin that the west is divided and america is divide and he can get away with whatever he wants? >> you said it in every one of those things. you kept saying he tried, and all i know is what he did. i was personally there at the united nations when he got out of the iran deal and when he sanctioned putin and expelled diplomats, and refused the nord stream 2 pipeline. i watched what he did. he did stronger things against russia than republican or

democratic presidents before him. this was something that putin knew not to mess with the united states. putin needs to know that again. we need to start standing up. why are we even ho-humming around the fact that we are still taking russian oil? why are we doing that? why would we take money from evil dictators? you never sleep with the devil because the devil then owns you. the europeans are finding that out now. we need to be smarter than that. >> thank you for coming on. hope to have you on again. very quickly, does donald trump's 2024 plans impact your 2024 plans? >> i have said if president trump runs i will not run. >> ambassador, thank you for coming on. appreciate it. when we come back, we will talk to experts on russia and the military and where the war may be headed and how the west can help ukraine. stay with us. ay with us rns out,r speaks like that all the time. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years.

for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, go with the general.

welcome back. western nations rejected volodymyr zelenskyy's call for a no fly zone. as we did last week, we brought together a couple experts to discuss the war and its implications. a former allied supreme allied

commander, fiona hill, the author of "there is nothing for you here." i want to start with you and respond to ambassador haily and what she said about the trump administration's record on russian sanctions. she kept saying that, well, you know, he tried. how would you describe his efforts when it comes to punishing putin compared to the administration? >> well, i think just the one point that sums everything up that you yourself touched on. president trump at a pretty critical period withheld military assistance to ukraine that was desperate for it at that junction to get zelenskyy to do a personal favor. >> what message does that send to putin? >> that sends a motion to putin

that ukraine is someone, that nobody is really serious about protecting ukraine. and that was ultimately a sign of weakness. it's our political divisions, and our party infighting that was on full display now. and putin is quite shocked now that we have some collective action together. >> we want you to listen to a member of the ukrainian parliament about the no-fly zone zone. >> we all know that also the next step that we see is a no-fly zone over ukraine. i know that everybody is saying, no, no, no, the third world war will start. i will be very blunt with you. it already started. >> we have the map up. logistically, how doable is this and why are so many folks in the united states adamant about not even attempting that? >> let me start with the back end because i think it's the important question. it's quite obvious that if we

put u.s. nato jets in the air enforcing a no fly zone, they will be going nose to nose with russian fighter aircraft down that path, the potential for a miscalculation in a war between nato and russia and a war between russia and the united states rises significantly. i implemented a no-fly zone. i know how to do this. i did it in libya in 2011. can we do it? sure. should we? not yet. final point, chuck, what we ought to do is give the ukrainians the ability to create a no-fly zone, more stringers, more missiles that can go higher than stingers, and above all get the mig-29s in their hands. >> do our nato allies, against the russian jets, have enough of them to give the ukrainians a chance at air superiority? >> yes. take a look at nato combat aircraft.

we have over 25,000. russian combat aircraft, 5,000. we outnumber them five to one as an alliance. we outspend them 15 to one. we outnumber them in ground troops four to one. he's not going to cross a nato border in anger. but we ought to do all we can to support the ukrainians. >> the tweet heard around the world was the lindsay graham tweet having to do with hey, somebody has got to take him out. frankly it's something that plenty of people have talked about it, and we talked about the julius cesar solution on a podcast a couple weeks ago. do you expect putin to leave russia if we -- if this war ends? >> look, i think we have to be very careful for the same reasons the admiral is talking about taking extreme care with the no-fly zone with this kind of talk now. one of the reasons vladimir putin is engaging in this appalling behavior in ukraine is

because he's worried about his own position. he has to be re-elected in theory and in practice in 2024. we're running up until his own presidential time clock here. if he fails and looks weak, it's disastrous at home and not just abroad. any loose talk about taking him out regime change. he thinks we are in that business, and he looks and it with what the united states have done, in iraq and afghanistan and he looks at that and thinks i will not let that happen here in russia. he's extremely paranoid about this and one of the reasons he wants to destroy ukraine is because he thinks we would use it, as a launching pad for something like this. we have to be extraordinary conscious about how we talk about the conflict. we have to be careful when talking about war with russia and regime changes because he will double down further.

>> how does this end with him in power? >> i think it's increasingly hard to see that simply because of the behavior we are seeing with war crimes. let's call it what it is. when you bomb civilians and attack a nuclear power plant, you are committing war crimes and increasingly that is going to have to be taken into account as this ends. how does it end? let's look back at the balkins. as we look back in history, we had similar kind of situations, there's differences but similar -- >> we were never going to go in though, and eventually we went in. i was just going to say i have been thinking about that a lot. we said we would not go in and i remember the pledges and we could not stand watching the humanitarian crisis. >> this is precisely what is unfolding and maybe the biggest weapon we have is truth, is showing the russians what their leader is creating in their

name. >> well, will the russians see the truth? >> what we will have to do is try and keep on pushing this at every possible junction that we can. there are a lot of oligarchs, and we have to work on the broader world of public opinion in the united nations. we have to get the chinese. i know there's skepticism about that and indians who have been sitting on the fence to push this, too. this is an atrocity that the world cannot stand by and watch. that's where we will have to focus right now to see what we can do to get this to stop. >> thank you both. >> thank you. when we come back, the government reported robust job growth last month, but watch out for the up and down revisions. boy, are they coming. trust me. stay with us. stay with us

welcome welcome back, data download time. friday's february jobs number provided good news on the economic front for the biden administration. they crushed expectations. by adding 768,000 jobs in february. but how real is this february figure? we may have to wait and see what the resized numbers look like next month, because guess what? in 2021, we saw a lot of monthly numbers revised dramatically. march, 200,000, in june, nearly

300,000, and july, nearly 250,000. we also had massive upgrades. in january of 2021, almost half a million upgrades. in november, another half a million upgrades, and in december 400,000. in 2021, they had to revise, if you took all of the revisions into one thing, they were short essentially 1.4 million total jobs. a lot of it is pandemic driven, and it's a poll folks, it, too, has a margin of error. when we come back, as the war in ukraine changed the trajectory of the biden presidency? presidency i can't. ah, my toes! turns out, it is hard walking a mile in someone else's shoes. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. i gotta go, ah. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, go with the general.

♪ i'm gonna keep on lovin' you ♪

turns out everyone does sound better in the shower. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, go with the general. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities.

welcome back. the panelist with us, hallie jackson, and steven hayes, the founder of the dispatch, and robin, contributor and columnist for the new yorker. i will quickly show you some biden polling but i want to focus a little bit more on the war, and we're seeing here hallie, very quickly, this one fully after the invasion. i don't think it's the state of the union, but it's the first of what could be the rally around post ukraine. his approval on the handling of ukraine above water. could be an outlier.

we may be in the middle of a shift in politics with it being driven by ukraine. >> based on what we're seeing on the international realm. we need more before we start to extrapolate from it. it's not their primary focus. what has struck me, what has happened in ukraine and we talked about this, penetrating to people who might not otherwise care about economic issues. this is visceral. this is in front of everybody. this is in front of newscasts every single morning and every single night and this is a different level than when we talk about some of the other internal domestic stuff and folks get a little lost in it, and it feels more post-ukraine than state of the union. >> is anybody writing about this? amazing. robin, i was intrigued with the conversation i had with the admiral about the balkans. i remember in 1994 and 1995, we

weren't going to go in, in kosovo and serbia, and it changed, and we were not going to do certain things and the pictures changed public opinion. to hallie's point, the world may push us to do that? >> for the moment that's not going to happen. there are too many calculations. russia's war has never just been about ukraine, but the competition with the west. the big question is where does putin stop? does he push beyond ukraine? that's where you might see the united states taking a stronger position setting up the kind of defensive mechanisms challenging militarily any kind of putin aggression, and for now they are not going to do that. the real question is can you change the balance of power in the air? if you can do that, suddenly you change the dynamics across the board whether it's giving the ukrainians fighters so it can take on the convoys we see outside of kyiv, or providing

stingers and javelins. that's really the critical next step. >> the next question is is the administration everything it can do? this goes back to the public opinion question. people will be favorable to the biden administration if there's the impression as we watch this play out on our screens, on our phones, that the biden administration is doing everything it can. i think there is a growing sense that they are not. if you look at what president biden said on february 24th when he announced this to the world, we are going to be doing something and be tough, and he said russia will be a pariah on the international stage. we are dealing with russia on the iran deal and on climate and the state department is giving guidance on the diplomats and what they will do with russia. they are not a pariah. we need to do more. >> it does seem, it's interesting, is this putin's war or russia's war, and there are some trying to create, hey, let's not punish the russian people but i don't know if you

can do that anymore? >> it's going to be difficult. war is war. we need to be clear about that. when war happens, every day and ordinary people that live there will be impacted. it's important to think about president biden is also dealing with a coalition, folks, that are impacting the kinds of decisions he makes. we were lauding him, celebrating him, for building that coalition to allow us to do what we have done so far, and that coalition also provides constraints, restraints and it's one thing to go it alone, but this is a war that impacts the way the west sees itself. i think it was clever that the biden administration went public with the intelligence it had gathered. and it made clear that putin was lying about what he was about to do and it created this gap, what he was doing, what the president

was saying and what the administration was saying in terms of the significance of this war, what it would likely mean, reshaping the way the western world operates and what we were doing. he was late on sanctions. he didn't initially sanction putin and lay down s.w.i.f.t. and didn't send the arms before the war that we're now rushing into kyiv. >> i think it's important, i was so struck by secretary blinken, he wanted -- >> it didn't make the news. it has been a shift in the thinking -- >> he's got to come out in favor of it. >> the question is are we just going to ban what the united states trades and are we going to sanction other foreign companies that do oil deals with the russians. and if we don't take that second layer, the first layer is symbolic. but remember, last year, putin made almost $120 billion off energy, when the price of oil was under $70.

now it is $115. it could go to $150. it could go, even as we sanction on oil, the rest of the world is still buying it. >> but to your point earlier, the question about where does he stop? we can affect where he stops. if we do this first, there was a statement put out on friday, that yes, they said we are trying to create clarity in our own markets on energy and we will take these steps until the end of june. if we do this now, we could lead. >> should we take some of the solace in the sanctions that putin is calling in on the declaration of war? meaning, oh, this really hit him this time? it's clear all the other sanctions were never that effective. these are effective. >> you talk about the no-fly zone. he's concerned enough to say if that were to happen it would be crossing a line into what he is seeing as a direct confrontation. there's enormous -- you can see

the pressure at him on home, and what you started your show today with chuck, and the crackdown on reporting in russia. >> there's something going on in the russian army at some point we have to figure out, can we harness this? can we harness this -- >> how many movies have you seen about the plots against hitler in world war ii, and they don't work. >> i was not going there. >> surely there's discontent. they don't know what they are doing, they're lost. i don't think anytime soon we are likely to see a challenge whether it's by the people or the military that changes putin. >> i joked about bringing up the state of the union. it's like nobody else is talking about it. one thing that surprised me about the president's state of the union, it was the lack of connecting, the fight for

democracy and freedom abroad and the fide for democracy at home, and today is bloody sunday. >> right. >> vice president there going to march across the bridge, and the second time without john lewis leading this. were you surprised? >> i was stunned. it was an easy rhetorical move. >> politically -- hate to be that crass about it. >> you have to address the question what is happening across the country in terms of the assault on voting rights. and we have to address the liberal forces in our country that are driving the challenge to voting rights. so i didn't understand it, and i thought it was a mistake. >> i think if we are going to get drawn in more we have to explain to the american people why this fight matters. that would have been one way. thank you, guys. before we go, a quick programming note, my colleague lester holt has a fascinating interview with bill barr. it airs tonight in a prime time special on nbc, at 9:00, 8:00 central.

that's all we have for you today. hang in there ukraine and president zelenskyy. we will be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." 'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." day 12, of the russian invasion in ukraine. a third attempt at a cease-fire is now under way. after efforts to evacuate civilians failed twice over the weekend. meanwhile, ukraine's president is blasting world leaders for their quote silence, as he warns of a new wave of russian attacks. three questions this morning. will the latest cease-fire hold? is russia preparing a new offensive? and what more is ukraine's president asking of world leaders? good morning. and welcome to "way too early" on this monday, march 7