tv Andrea Mitchell Reports MSNBC March 11, 2022 9:00am-10:00am PST
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we're also seeing it in russia, painted in st. petersburg and used in a russian propaganda video. right along on all these t-shirts. this is broken down on twitter by nonpartisan think tank to say this is where it's being used. our social news gathering team is keeping an eye out for all these things and tell you what it means to have verified video. >> thank you for lifting the veil. that's going to do it for me this hour. coming up press secretary john kirby is going to talk to andrea mitchell. that's all right now on "andrea mitchell reports." ♪ >> good day, everyone. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington as the russian convoy is on the move with forces heading towards kyiv.
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they're surrounding the out skirts so they can lay siege to the capitol. a crisis for civilians is already raging on two front. with millions fleeing west to neighboring nato countries, carrying almost nothing with them but one bag of food and emergency supplies and millions more bunkered in subways and basements between air raids. president biden, in coordination with nato allies and after a phone conversation with president zelenskyy, laying out a new laundry list of penalties against the putin regime. . >> going to make it harder for russia to do business with the united states and doing it in unison with other nations to makeup half of the global economy will be another crushing blow. we're also taking the further step of banning imports of goods from several signature sectors of the russian economy, including sea food, vodka and diamonds.
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we'll seek to deny russia the ability to borrow from leading multinational institutions, such as the monetary fund and the world bank. putin is an aggressor. he is the aggressor. and putin must pay the price. >> the president's comments come as vice president kamala harris continues her trip through eastern europe, meeting earlier today with u.s. and polish troops stationed together in warsaw. that's part of a force securing nato's eastern flank. and today in moscow, president putin meeting with his neighboring dictator to show the flag of the attackers to their home audiences. moments ago, at an emergency u.n. security meeting called by russia, russia's representative to the united nations accused the u.s. and ukraine of funding programs to strengthen biological weapons inside ukraine. u.s. ambassador linda thomas greenfield firing back, accusing russia of being the aggressor.
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>> russia is attempting to use the security counsel to dejitmize the situation. fwrrs r and china has been spreading disinformation in support of russia's outrageous claims. i will say this once. you crane does not have a biological weapons program. there are no ukrainian biological weapons laboratories supported by the united states. not near russia's border or anywhere. >> nbc chief foreign correspondent, richard engel filed this report. >> reporter: russian forces are closing in after vladimir putin signalled he has no the tension of stopping and russia was foreign minister refused to acknowledge that russia has even invaded ukraine, saying russian troops are merely carrying out a limited operation to defend
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russia from ukraine. russia opened new fronts overnight, attacking two ukrainian cities. blitzed in the north and central ukraine for the first time. while russian troops are accelerating their advance on kyiv. satellite images show the 40-mile long russian convoy stalled for days on the out skirts of kyiv because of fuel shortages is back on the move. dispersing and redeploying. u.s. officials warn russia is now actively trying to encircle the capitol. but ukrainian forces are not going to make it easy. they're on the offensive too, trying to push russian troops away from kyiv, in tanks and on the ground. u.s. officials predict it could take one to two weeks for russia to surround kyiv and another month to occupy the city. across the country, it seems the entire population is on the move or planning for it.
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as of this morning, 12 humanitarian corridors have been set up to evacuate people out of cities being attacked by russian forces, often moving those internally and precariously displaced to cities that may soon be attacked. in addition to the nearly 2.5 million ukrainians who have been bcome eastern europe's latest refugees, the most since world war ii. one ukrainian city remains largely cut off. maurope mariupol in the south. as a residents have been forced to bury their dead in mass graves, the red cross warns vital medicines have run out. russian president vladimir putin seems unphased by it all saying russia will overcome sanctions and pointing to rising gas prices in the united states. russia is accelerating the propaganda war and veering into dangerous territory.
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the russian defense ministry spokesman accused the pentagon of funding biolog weapons laboratories in ukraine in order to stealthly spread dangerous pathogens. they worry russia may use chemical weapons and try to blame ukraine for it. russia says it's approved the use of foreign volunteers to supplement its ranks and it's already received 16,000 applicants from the middle east riddy to fight. >> pentagon press secretary john kirby joins me now. thank you very much, john, for being with us. let's start with the situation on the ground. the convoy moving, breaking up, moving around. tell us what you think the strategy is. are they trying to encircle kyiv as is being reare ported and how long might that take? >> we do assess that the russians are in fact trying to encircle and eventually force the surrender of kyiv, which we
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believe they expect could involve actual fighting inside kyiv. they're making some progress over the last 24 hours. i don't want to over state it but to the east, there's somewhere between 20 and 30 kilometers away from kyiv and to the northwest, where they've been trying through the failure of the convoy to move closer, there's still about 15 to 20 kilometers to the north and northwest of city center. but they have made a little progress over the last 24 hours and as richard very rightly reported, they're running into even more aggressive ukrainian resistance. they're going to fight hard. we've seen them fight hard. we expect they'll continue to fight hard for their capitol city. >> we know estimates are they could take kyiv in two to five days. clearly that has not worked. putin is losing on the ground. we knew he was going to regroup. he's now breaking up the convoy
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and he's making progress on the ground, certainly from the south. as well. can you describe the way he is trying to cut off the south and pinser movement, if you will. >> essentially moving on multiple lines of access. we talked about kyiv in the northwest and the northeast angle. they are also moving up from crimea and they're splitting to the northwest and northeast. against mariupol, as rich 3rd reported. we assess mariupol is isolated. they moved into and out of the city to the northwest out of crimea. we're not exactly clear where their next step is going. it could be to make a left turn and put pressure on odesa, on the northern black sea coast. they're moving mostly to the east and on multiple lines of effort. and they've started to gain more momentum over the last couple of days, as they've tried to address logistics and
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sustainment challenges they've been facing. in the major population centers, which we know they want to take, they've met with a stiff ukrainian resistance in kharkiv, mariupol and just to the north up the coast from odesa, they're facing a stiff ukrainian resistance. >> we heard the assessment this week from the intelligence community that they would then turn to grind down the resistance. how long do you think the ukrainians can resist, especially in the capitol? >> right. it's difficult to be perfectly predictive. we need to be careful talking about timelines. it's clear he expected to have made much more progress and he doesn't have a lot to show for it, other than the death and destruction and casualties he's caused in ukraine. so, it's hard to be perfectly
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predictive. it is clear the ukrainians are serious about defending their country and people, their sovereignty and they're going to continue to fight on bravely. we in the west and certainly the united states, are going to do everything we can to continue to help them defend themselves. >> as you know, there's huge precarer, not only from president zelenskyy. they want air power. but huge pressure from the hill, from senators romney, graham, from democrats and i get that the pentagon is saying that to create a no-fly zone, you have to take out russian air defenses, which means attacking russia proper and bringing us into the war. i understand that fully but explain why there's nothing that we can do that against the bombing raids. >> it's not that there's nothing we can do. we're actually doing a lot. and the kinds of material they are getting, the antiarmor, the
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air defense systems that, not only the united states but 14 other nations are flowing into ukraine are helping them do exactly that, to defend their airspace and country and they're using the tools with great effect, including surface-to-air missile systems. we're doing a lot to help them defend themselves and the airspace. the airspace is well covered by russia surface air missile systems. so, it's a very contested bit of airspace. if you put american pilots in that, you're basically going to war with russia. i participated from the ship in a no-fly zone effort over northern iraq. it is combat. there's no way to do that without being willing to shoot or be shot at. it's combat. and it's certainly not in ukraine's interest to get in a war in their airspace. >> let's turn to the potential for false flags in russia. we saw the u.n. security council
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meeting russia insisted on to create the false claim that u.s. is doing something and ukraine on biological and chemical weapons, when it's russia that has used this in the past. do we have evidence they're planning to or just the appearance what they've said before and they've used false flags before and chemicals? >> you're right. this is a country with a twisted history when it comes to using chemical and biological weapons and they have a program. i don't want to get into an intelligence assessment here but we have seen them do this in the past. we've also seen them use pretexttural arguments for something they might want to do in the future. no indications to speak to certainly on tv but i would tell you we're watching this very, very closely and it's utterly absurd claim that we are helping ukraine develop bio weapons. that's just not true. it's laughable.
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but that they would use such a claim for some sort of pretextural event in the future, that's something we're concerned about. >> why does the british prime minister and foreign secretary, who wo i interviewed yesterday, why do they talk so plainly about war crimes? they're petitioned among 39 countries to the international criminal court. why is the u.s. so reluctant to call a spayed a spayed. we saw what happened with the maternity hospital. why not call it a war crime? >> we support the ongoing investigations into war crimes. we believe that's a valid investigative endeavor. but again, we want to make sure that what happens here is that the war stops. that's what our focus is on and we still think there could be a diplomatic path forward and we think russia should be held accountable for any war crimes they may conduct and there's an investigative process going on and we want to respect that.
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>> as always, thanks. you're a busy man. thanks for taking time with us. and so, let's go to the white house and kristen welker, the cohost of "weekend today". lawmakers from both parties are so frustrated. pressing to get the polish jets. it is a suicide mission and would expand the war to u.s. and russia. >> reporter: that's right and based on conversations with administration officials, there's also a sense that ukraine does actually have planes in its possession and the concern within the administration, as you just heard john kirby talk about, the president reference this earlier in his remarks is that it would essentially escalate this conflict. and the big concern is to try to prevent that from happening. the president laid out, in some of his starkest terms yet, that the concern surrounding intensifying this and having this lead to world war iii and
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so that is why the administration has not moved to strike that deal with poland. that's why they say the no-fly zone is off the table and there's lawmakers who say let's do a limited no fly zone and the pushback is you really can't do a limited no-fly zone. ultimately it would become a military conflict. and all of this under the back drop of the president calling for an end to the most favored nation status. he needs congress to approve. he has bipartisan support to move forward with that. this follow as long list of steps that the u.s. and allies have taken to punish russia economically, to turn it into a pariah and you heard the president announce he was going to sanction a longer list of oligarchs close to vladimir putin. so far this has not deterred putin. the question is what will?
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will it be the fact he's not achieving the military goals and expectations. this is, at this point the strategy to ramp up the financial and economic pain on vladimir putin and russia to get them to back down, andrea. >> thank you so much. and fuelling worry, rapidly climbing gas prices straining americans and the world. we'll talk to the former secretary energy about that. what can be done next. first, outside of kyiv, amid relentless shelling. alex crawford introducing us to some of the residents that have escaped to relative safety under ground. >> translator: we're just waiting for victory for everything to be good again, she says and trying not to cry. these are the bravest of women, tending to some of the community's most vulnerable and most frightened. vulnerable and most frightened. vacation hi! book with priceline. 'cause when you save more, you can “no way!” more.
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as president biden has been warning the bans on russian oil has pushed gas prices to how to heights. the average hit a staggering $4.33 before the embargo has been fully felt at the pump. joining me is former secretary energy, the cochair and ceo of the nuclear threat initiative. i want to talk to you about the threat and power plants.
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but first consumers, the pain at the pump, rising gas prices. should americans plan on prices to continue to go up? do you think congress should declare a gas tax holiday that would be about 18 cents a gallon, guess? >> first of all, i think it's less about less going up than volatility. we're in for a bumpy ride where prices keep responding to many, many sigthals. what we're seeing today. price went up to $130. now it's back to 110. when the president, for example, makes a statement about imports, the price goes up. when the uae headaches a statement about opec producing omore, the price goes down. i think the issue is about the united states government working as hard as it can to address
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both the supply and demand sides of oil. on the supply side, the clearly a lot of new production will require many months to come on but the fact is we're a million barrels a day below where we were covid. for example, a number of wells have been drilled but not so-called completed. we could advance that. talk to the financial establishment about providing the financial services needed to expand the oil production. on the demand side, perhaps we should take actions to do things like extend the covid-enforced working virtually. to chop away at the demand requirements. i think there are a mb of things we can do but none of this, i think, disguises the fact we're
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in for a rough ride with a lot of volatility, prices going up and down. >> i do want to talk to you about the nuclear power plant. they've been trying to track what's going on at chernobyl but that's less of a problem than the active ukrainian plants and now one of the plants they tried to take over, they're claiming they have taken over, there are soldiers inside according to the energy company running the plant. russia has told those forces they're now in charge. there are russian soldiers there. what are your concerns about the exhausted staff that had been under siege and the safety of the active nuclear plant where there are, i believe, acres of spent fuel rods under coolant water. if there is an accidental electric outage or other interruption in the coolant. >> well, the spent fuel, which contains very, very large
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amounts of highly radio active materials, that's common for chernobyl, which is not operated, and the operated plants. >> i understand from the iaa at a lower level of radiation than the active plants? >> yes, iaea has said chernobyl should have adequate cooling capacity, adequate water to avoid any catastrophe there. at the other plants, there are many systems that are not hotted the way the reactor core is, which are at risk of back-up generators and electricity supply, the fuel supply for the back-up generators. you can go on and those are -- if war returns to those sites, one could have very bad accidents there. but you put your finger, i think, on a very important thing and that is that the staff are
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clearly working in a very, very tense situation. probably exhausted. operating a plant at the point of a gun is not part of the standard oprailerating procedure, to put it mildly. and if something does go wrong, with the russian military probably having no clue whatsoever about what 23 takes to sustain safe operation, they could make mistakes in a highly stressful sitquation. there's plenty of reason to be concerned and get military activity out of those plants and frankly out of ukraine entirely, and find a way to resolve the political situation for this unprovoked invasion. >> secretary, thank you very much. really appreciate it. and help is on the way. the red cross workers who are braving the ongoing russian
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thousands of residents have no food, water electricity eor medical care. the red cross team reports people are attacking each other for food. the deputy mayor on "morning joe" said there's no way for people to leave. >> no way out. anyway out, russian troops do not allow even for humanitarian help, even children, even child, even women, adults not allowed. they shoot and push to go back to mariupol. >> joining us now is the spokesperson for the international committee of the red cross. we want to thank you for jumping in there. we know it's too risky for them to get on with us, the people on the ground. tell us what is happening in mariupol, because it's heartbreaking to watch. >> heartbreaking is a great word,and reeau. the situation is dire but that
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word doesn't incapsulate how much suffering, how much worse the situation has been getting. i think the most frightening thing, probably now is the water situation. it's clear that families are starting to run out of clean water. our own team there, they say they're going to run out of water tomorrow. so, at that point, where do you go to find water? the shops have been opened up, people have taken food, beverages to keep themselves alive and now we go into the a period where we head for worst-case scenarios at a mass aive scale and that's what we're most concerned about, the food, water situation and the danger people face from ongoing fighting. >> and we've heard there's some sort of a black market going on for vegetables. residents melting snow for water. desperate efforts. >> exactly. it's survival situation. and some people are doing what
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they can. and others. now the question becomes if you're an elderly person. if you happen to be sick. if you happen to normally be in the hospital? you don't have access to the black market for vegetables and importantly, as i said before how do you get yourself clean water? one of the stories that really stuck out and to be honest we've been flooded with calls, people looking for family members, looking for assistance. one of the stories that stuck with me and all your viewers can imagine the situation inside their own family. is a pregnant woman, who's by herself living alone. actually, she has a small child but she is due to delivr soon and the question is where do i go? is it safe to move? because there's a conflict outside? and that's a really frightening situation for her but just gets
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multiplied times thousands of situations across the city. >> it's terrifying. we saw the pregnant women coming out of the maternity hospital there. it's just -- it's wrenching. i don't know how your people are holding up. there's no way out, right? >> it's a difficult situation for everybody. you're right and what we're doing is, at very high levels on all sides, both sides of the conflict, are conversations aric taing place. we're working urgently. the leadership of the international committee of the red cross to try to find a way, to try to urge an agreement where we would have a safe passageway where the definitions would be very clear. so, it wouldn't be sort of a messy situation we've seen elsewhere. when would a safe passage corridor be available? when would it close?
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because there are so many people, 10s of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands that head to to get out. this is something that will take a long time. but if something like this doesn't happen or if supplies are not allowed in, if clean water and food and medical care is not allowed in, we're heading for some extremely, extremely heartbreaking news at this large scale. >> thank you so much for everything you and your teams are doing. thank you, jason. >> thank you. >> and gas lighting the world. russia calling for a u.n. security council meeting today, as vladimir putin tries to turn the spotlight away from his war crimes. and nick martin in odesa. what used to be a yacht club where they're preparing for a russian assault. >> 350,000 sand bags have been filled by these people in the last two weeks alone. while they're doing that, they
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fear out there in the black sea, there is a build up of russian military and navy that have plans to try and mount some kind of amphibious assault on the beaches of odesa. s assault on te beaches of odesa like the splash they create the entrance they make, the surprises they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. ready to style in just one step? introducing new tresemme one step stylers.
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tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. the un. security council meeting accusing them of biological weapons against russia. what the white house is dismissing as a false flag to mask what putin might be planning. because he's not hesitated to use chemicals before in his homeland and in syria against rebels fighting the regime. our cia director and joins me now. thank you very much. do you believe putin is perhaps planning to use chemicals if he is cornered in ukraine? obviously the ground war, until
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now, was not going as well as he hoped. >> it's quite clear that mr. putin shows no compungz at all from the youngest child to the most elderly. it reflects his moral depravity in this military operation, as he calls it, in ukraine. and claims there are chemical biological labs in ukraine and the united states is involved. it is highly concerning this provides a basis for mr. puten to-use them and claim they were used locally by the ukrainians. i think his intention is to try to suppress, as quickly as possible and as widely as possible in ukraine, any opposition. and these not only have devastating effects on the health of individuals, and the psychological impact can be quite powerful. >> the cia, the rest of the intelligence community has
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really done unusual things in releasing information and telegraphing his moves. clearly putting him off stride. how difficult is it for the agencies to keep doing this as the war progresses? >> well, i think it's the clear intention of the biden administration to push out as much intelligence as a possible to expose what russia is doing inside ukraine. and so, if there's intelligence available about russia's plans and intentions to use chemical biological agents against the local population, i think the biden administration, and i know intelligence community leadership, would be very inclined to release that information as a way, once again, to reveal what russia is doing. they don't want to compromise their ability to continue to collect intelligence. but at the same time, i think they feel there's an overwhelming need at this point to be as transparent as possible
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about the awful, awful crimes against humanity being perpetrated by russia and ukraine. >> what are your concerns given their overwhelming ground force and the fact they're able to use the air, even contested airspace, about the mismatch here and how long ukraine can resist? >> well, again, since they're not showing concern about killing civilians, i think the remote attacks with artillery, missile beraujs, air strikes, they're going to pummel as much as they can, the areas of ukrainian resistance. now that the convoy is moving forward, i think they're probably going to increase the intensity of strikes against population centers and forcing ukrainian to accept the russian invaders. something i don't think the ukrainian resistance is going to do. i think it's going to get
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bloodier and very close hand-to-hand combat i think the ukrainian resistance forces are really geared up to try to punish as much as possible these russian invaders. >> are we going to be able to keep supply lines open to the resistance? >> there are four nato countries that border ukraine. slovakia, poland, and romania. i do believe that in addition to the thousands upon thousands of weapons that have flown -- flowed into ukraine to date, i think there's going to be amp aal opportunity to continue to supply the ukrainian resistance, again, coming from the west, to cross the road systems, networks in ukraine. they have the benefit of knowing the local area and they're going to work with local civilians to be able to insure they're able to bring those weapons in and to be able to use them with great effect. i am confident the supply lines
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are going to stay open. >> the russian ambassador, as you've been speaking, has been denying bombing buildings. we saw what happened in mariupol. he's showing images of the so-called biological facilities. which, according to linda thomas-greenfield in her statement and testimony today, for covid and other public health reasons, that we have long helped civilian labs in ukraine. youtube executives, by the way, and the information war says they're going to block russian-state funded media channels globally. they're still on in the u.s. but -- which could be a big blow to the disinformation efforts. but they're still dissuading their own public of the fiction, that this is not a war; that they did not attack. >> putin couldn't tell the truth if their life depended on it and
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i think they believe their life depends on it and telling the false hoods. we need work with allies and partners around the globe to get as much accurate information as possible to the russian people. because they're being fed this disinformation as a way to support putin's war. and the more we can erode that wall against accuracy, accurate information we're getting in, i think the better hope we'll have that putin is going to face the domestic pressure as a result of his wanton disregard for humanity he's showing with this military invasion of ukraine. >> john brennan and right now the president in philadelphia speaking to the democratic caucus about ukraine. >> bravery and courage. but the security assistance that you provided has been critical, critical in their defense. second, i want to thank you for showing the unified front to the world. when putin unleashed his assault, he thought he could divide nato, literally divide
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this country, the west, the united states in terms of the parties. i know a former ambassador knows that out there. he thought he could divide democrats and republicans at home but he failed. he failed. for months the united states has worked tirelessly to keep our allies and partners together. as our former ambassador, you see on television a lot, thank god, will tell you i've spent literally hours and hours and hours and hours keeping the alliance together. the eu, nato, and all of our allies, including our asian allies. as result, we've been able to amp up pressure on putin and further isolate russia on the global stage. german, canada, frangs france, italy and the united kingdom, we moved -- which i know you wanted to do initially and nancy would
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say i drove her crazy. [ applause ] i know i've occasionally frustrated with you. but more important than us moving when we want to is making sure all of nato is together. they have different vulnerabilities than we do, just like in the oil embargo. a lot of them could not. i think you know, weeks to work out. we're going to block oil. are russian oil and energy. week consume 15% of it. they rely totally on it. without russian oil, they're going to find themselves in a position where they get choked off in a way that far exceeds anything we do. and so took a long time, sitting with my counterparts and saying look, we're going to block oil but i'm not going to ask you to
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do it. i'm going to say to you you do what you can. i'm going to explain why it's not rational for you to do the same thing. in the heentime, we're going to help you get energy through liquefied natural gas and other things. it's made it harder for russia to do business with the united states and in doing it in unison with our allies has kept together makeup half the global economy. half of it. it's a crushing blow to russia. along with our partners and allies, which stepped up pressure on corrupt russian billionaires. we're increasing coordination among the g7 countries. trrls and to target, capture, the yachts. some of these yachts 450 feet long. i'm serious. hundreds of millions of dollars in value. they're luxury apartments. totality of our economic sanctions and controls are
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crushing, rushing russian economy. the ruble has lost -- i know many of you know this in detail, lost more than half its value. you know what the value of a ruble verses a dollar? you need 200 rubles to equal $1 today. 200. moscow stock exchange is closed for a simple reason. why is it closed? because for the last two weeks because the moment it opens, it will be disbanded. hear me? it will blow up. credit rating agencies have down graded russia's government to junk status. junk status. the list of private businesses and international corporations leaving russia is growing day by day by day. i want to be clear though we're going to make sure youukraine has the weapons to defend themselves from the invading russian force.
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[ applause ] and we will send money and food aid to save ukrainian lives. we're going to welcome ukrainian refugees with open arms if in fact they come all the way here. [ applause ] and as we and as we provide this support to ukraine, we're going to continue to stand together with our allies in europe and send unmistakable message that we will defend every inch of nato territory. every single inch with a united, galvanized nato. that's why i moved forces along the borders. they move once, granted the response is world war iii but we are a sacred obligation on nato territory, article 5, and we will not, although we will not fight the third world war in
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ukraine. putin's war in ukraine must never be a victory. we are showing a strength and we'll never falter but, look, the idea, the idea that we're going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with american pilots and american crews, just understand, don't kid yourself no matter what y'all say, that's called world war iii. okay? let's get it straight here guys. that old expression don't kid a kidder. i'd like it speak to our broader audience here today, remind everywhere we were a year ago, where we've gotten since, the direction we're headed in and all of you know that today is the anniversary -- >> and you heard a rigorous defense of his decision not to
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supply those migs, not to get into an air war over ukraine. he said don't kid yourself, that would be world war iii. joining us now, i can't think of a better guest, richard haas. you've studied this, worked at the state department at the white house, you've written about this. where do you stand on this and where we stand with russia today in. >> where we stand is we put together an impressive what you might call indirect policy, andrea. indirect military support that's extensive to ukraine. you just heard the president articulate why direct military support isn't there and i agree there.
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diplomatically we've left open room for diplomacy. he seems more than likely to suffer the military sanctions and costs and he's pressing on and attacking indiscriminately ukraine cities and population centers, causing millions of internally displaced refugees and he may well be contemplating escalation. even though i think our policy is quite impressive, if thegoal is to get this war to stop, we're not necessarily even close yet. >> do you think it is possible that russia could be planning to use nuclear weapons? >> look, one of the things we've learned about mr. putin is to be very wary of assumptions.
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russians have been associated with chemical weapons used before. if the goal here is to depop late ukraine and reduce the possibility of a population-based resistance, then yes. >> the chinese ambassador to the united nations of security council just now has supported russia. does that means that president xi, because of his discomfort, help media or pry to persuade putin to back down or try to plug the holes in the sanctions? >> i worry that china will offer to some extent an economic lifeline for the russians.
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i worry they'll get caught up in secondary sanctions. they're going to want to appear, i emphasize the word appear, to be helpful diplomatically, though i don't think they're going to do a lot of heavy lifting here. it gives china more of a free hand, at least in their own mind and asia. the question for the administration is a difficult one, can we put things on the table both positively and negatively to get china to rethink its position. can china make the case for china that your interests, xi jinping, are not in the long run served by so closely tying yourself to this guy who is going to bring his own country and in some ways the world economy to ruin. we're not there yet but that's the possibility. >> richard haas, thanks for summing it all up for us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports."
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if it's friday we are standing by for an update from the pentagon this hour. u.s. officials warn that russian troops are moving into position to surround kyiv. president biden announces more sanctions. all of this as ukrainians continue to flee brutal attacks by russian forces, indiscriminate bombing campaigns on civil infrastructure, attacks on the western part of the country and the you warnings by the ambassador to the u.n. that russia is laying groundwork for possible chemical weapons attack. and we're speak to the mayor of warsaw. and we'll hear from the reporter from kyiv about the human toll of this deadly conflict.
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