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a very good day to you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to "alex witt reports." president biden is authorizing $200 million to ukraine. the white house made that announcement a short time ago. the aid will come from the secretary of state and department of defense aenlg include defense articles, military aid and training and it comes as russia and ukrainian agree to open 14 safe corridors. but those cease-fires have been fragile with residents of irpin trying to escape as the city came under fire in evacuations and this hour a flurry of diplomatic activity. french president and german chancellor spent 70 minutes on the phone with vladimir putin. according to germany they urged an immediate cease hif fire and not disclosing the further

details of the conversation. earlier they spoke with ukrainian president zelenskyy and he asked them for help to secure the release of a local mayor he says kidnapped by russian forces. zelenskyy appears to be hopeful of talks with russia and not too optimistic that nato will do more to help ukraine and new comments of vice president kamala harris where she spoke about the ukraine invasion. >> russia's invase threatens not just ukraine's democracy. it threatens democracy and security across europe. and by extension, when democracy is threatened anywhere it's threatened us all.

and the ocean that separates us will not leave us untouched by this aggression. >> let's head overseas and check in with the teams of reporters starting with molly hunter. the russian forces bombarding the cities. what do you know about the latest stats and what's new from president zelenskyy today? >> reporter: that's right. we have been so focused on the 14 corridors that have apparently agreed on. last weekend six and not that much progress in the cities to get humanitarian aid in and civilians out. the state emergency service says 2,000 citizens evacuated from the suburbs of kyiv, a hot spot to watch today. and then the ministry of defense

has just said in the last 15 minutes seven people shot dead including a child on the corridor. ukrainian ministry of defense claiming the russians attacked this corridor. where they knew civilians would be evacuating on purpose. the russians are not holding the fire. where it continued to fail all week is mariupol. city on the black sea belt where the russians are trying to consolidate the power. that city is completely surrounded and focusing on it because president zelenskyy is sending aid in and that's not reached. no evidence that civilians able to get out. part of the talks is that agreement that humanitarian aid goes in but as the talks are ongoing at multiple levels there's a tiny bit of optimism

today. >> translator: a group of ukrainians and russian representatives they are discussing certain issues. they have discussed real things and not just throw out maintenance tasks. i know that there should be fundamentally different approach and it should be so. i believe that our western partners are not sufficiently involved in that process. >> reporter: that sounds cautiously optimistic and an accusation that western powers are not sufficiently involved. we should say this talk by president zelenskyy was released before we learned of macron and scholz speaking with putin. i'm in the west of the country and this city is operating

relatively normally. in response to 2.6 million people that left the country, 2 million people displaced inside the country. the mayor of this city 200,000 extra residents are here. i think looking around though and knowing how many millions of people fled from the east all the numbers are higher in reality. alex? >> thank you so much for that report from lviv. now ellison barber from craw cow. poland feeling the weight of welcoming the refugees. >> reporter: yeah. over 2.5 million people who have been forced to flee ukraine. over 1.5 million of those people have come here to poland looking for safety and oftentimes coming to bigger cities hoping to not travel from the border because they want to go home and just waiting hoping that this war will end sometime soon to return

to their lives, return to the husbands, brothers, fathers who they left behind to fight. what we are seeing in to lapd is cities doing their best to meet the demand. regular people stepping up and just offering the help they can. and hearing that it is becoming too much. too many people too fast and the resources be it government resources or volunteer led efforts cannot meet the demand and they say long term it's not sustainable. they need more help. how much coordination has there been between groups like yours and the polish government? >> unfortunately, i would say the polish government stepped back so they're doing pr jobs. going to the border but not visible. here this krakow they do some

stuff on the border but mainly like the actual job is done by volunteers so there is no -- i wouldn't say there's government on site. >> reporter: and another concern according to those nongovernmental organizations we have spoken to if there's not a more organized approach from the federal government down they say it puts vulnerable people the refugees women and children in more vulnerable positions. they say the government needs an organized approach making sure that housing options, shelter, rides offered and vetted antido have a situation where vulnerable children in a country not speaking the language and don't have money and means they aren't taking rides or moving in with people looking to do their harm and there have been some reports of that happening here. talking to volunteer groups the way to be prevented is for the

federal government to take a more organized approach to make sure safeguards are place so vulnerable people are not targeted by people wanting to do them harm. >> a horrific prospect. thank you so much. let's go to hadley gamble from istanbul and were in turkey for the big meeting and asked a pointed question not surprisingly to the russian foreign minister. first what can you tell us about the big flurry of diplomatic activity? do the relationships with putin and the business relationship make them strong contenders to broker a deal to end this conflict? >> reporter: thank you again for having me. you have to remember that macron since the departure of office of merkle taken the world stage as the leader of europe but today

it was 75 moneys long. he and the counterpart of germany asking for an immediate cease-fire and the background chatter if you will is that president putin showed absolutely no sign in any way focused on ending this conflict. that should be something everyone takes into account. president biden said he'll pump $200 million to ukraine for as is tans and why it's interesting that in the conversations that i have been having last thursday they spoke with president putin on thursday and got nowhere. the first high level conversation they literally got nowhere. i spoke with ukrainian foreign minister after the talks saying i was looking at lavrov and

talking about mariupol and everything he denied it and said i'm not here to negotiate this and that. i have to go back to the kremlin. reading the ukrainian foreign minister to say i don't know why he is here telling me he isn't able to negotiate. taking a step back it is great to see folks willing to come to the table to have a conversation but going nowhere the talks you have to wonder what realistic chance they have. >> you think about the pressure that everybody's under. you have to wonder if they're there to check off we are there and tried to engage a conversation. might be cynical but unless we see something different that might be the case. let's get to this big forum this week and playing a question you posed to the russian foreign

minister laf ro. >> how can you probably justify the bombing of a maternity ward and children's hospital? do you agree that's an atrocity? and also, for the russian people themselves today russia faces a $40 billion default. that's worse than we have seen the russian economy since 1917. how do you justify it to the people at home you wrecked the economy for an invasion that frankly the rest of the world doesn't believe should be happening? thank you, sir. >> spot on with the questions. i know he gave a long response. within that -- >> he did. >> did you get a decent explanation from him? >> reporter: yes and no. what you saw there in the long response as you say is an insight into the kremlin's mind meld and insight of vladimir

putin and they literally have been disconnected from many channels with social media, able to get news from sources outside russia. for a sense of the answer, the first part about the attack in mariupol, the children's hospital. he said that this is basically fake news. this is something that they had denied from the beginning and the complex taken over by radical fighters and a target for that reason. second part of the question on the economics very, very interesting going on and on with the relationship with nato and encircling russia and will not rely on western organizations, he said make no mistake about it. we will survive this and never rely on the west ever again for

fair treatment if you will and a stark reminder the folks in the kremlin, russia are pretty much cut off from western media and what's happening on the outside and understand they're being encouraged to have a war-like mentality and the ideas of being under attack from the west. >> what about turkey which was -- has offered to acted to be a mediator? >> reporter: doesn't seem to be progressing. it's interests that the turks that the israelis say they want to make a difference. same thing in turkey. the next day the nato secretary-general was here. for president erdogan, turkey is at the whim of its geography. east and west. they have a strong relationship with the kremlin and ukraine.

coming from ukraine and you have to remember that when it comes to natural gas russia is a big supplier to turkey. strong relationship based on businesses for the two countries and within turkey's interest as a member of nato keep the conversation going but affecting progress is anyone's guess and seemed with sergey lavrov's conversation he doesn't believe that anything is moved forward. and after that presser saying to me the same thing. >> what about the president, biden i'm speaking about, announcing sanctions and u.s. companies going out of russia. reporting a run on mcdonald's. no lines since 1990 when they first opened them there. putin says that russia will emerge stronger and more independent as a result. do you see that happening?

>> reporter: yeah. well, all right, for an idea of what's happening at the moment. downgraded the russian bonds from b to c and junk territory. thed of oimf said a default is imminent. inching toward it and add vanszing rapidly. there's no way that the russian economy will bounce back from this any time soon even if they decide to say that the invasion is over. pulling back. they have to go to the imf and what they continue to do and cutting themselves off from an assistance. but the organizations like that. in the sense that what this has done to the russian economy taken his own economy out and that was why i was pressing sergey lavrov. not just for the exodus of foreign businesses but devalued the currency, the market is

closed. there's no way for that $600 billion in reserve from tight fiscal policy to save them because they can't access the funds. >> when you heard or quoted lavrov saying fake news, it made me wonder will we forgive donald trump to promote that phrase time and time alone and used widely easily as a cover for telling lies? that is a rhetorical question. everybody should think about it. all right, hadley. thank you so much showing you video of a siege in ukraine is one thing and a journalist was in the middle of it. his reflections next. with 27 vitamins and minerals. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. ♪ ♪ as a struggling actor,

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we are learning more about the devastating losses in

ukraine. president voodymyr zelenskyy calling it a war of annihilation. "rolling stone" journalist is back in the u.s. after traveling across the country witnessing first hand the worst of the carnage and incredible acts of courage on display from the ukrainian people. joining me now is "rolling stone" correspondent and contributor jack crosbie. i know last week you told us about the harrowing escape from kharkiv. what was traveling inside ukraine like overall? what are they up against? >> thank you so much again for having me. you know, traveling across this country changed since the war began. i spent plenty of time in ukraine previously in 2015 and

did many trips there. used to be really accessible. high-speed trains went across a lot of the country. sleeper cars to take. roads and highways at least along major routes pretty good and just a drastically different picture now. hundreds of thousands, millions of people trying to make the way across the country. and what struck me is just the uncertainty of every possible form of transportation right now. train routes are disrupted and inconsistent and just absolutely jam packed with people. the roads are plagued by extreme traffic. traffic jams for miles at checkpoints and everywhere you go there's uncertainty both the physical saferty and what you find on the road next and only thing getting people through

this is every day generosity and kind of collective spirit of people traveling the routes. >> those folks who have not come under attack yet, how do they prepare? what is the emotional state? >> yeah, you see it all over the country. my first strom from kharkiv is the river city of dnipro in southern ukraine and not come under direct attack by russian ground forces yet. they're still outside the city and it did suffer some severe bombing and missile strikes in recent days. i spoke to a museum curator, part turned into a makeshift center for aid supplies and

sleeping bags and filling molotov cocktails around the city. the museum director said the body armor and helmets on a display kem rating the earlier war was redonated back to the military for use on the front lines so it is sort of a profound entire societal shift in how people across the country are prepare for war and expecting it to come to them. >> can you imagine? placed in historical museum like that being -- we have to put them to good use and get them out to the military. extraordinary. what about the blog post you write the humanitarian aid to ukraine so far is woefully inadequate and only seem to be using force. what do you think nato countries should be doing to help the

humanitarian crisis that they're not doing already? >> just anything. vastly more. when you look at the sheer numbers there's over 2 million refugees that left ukraine. over 1.2 million are in poland a nato country and you just saw in ellison's reporting and the previous blocks they're not set up to take in the number of people. biggest refugee crisis in -- >> not at this speed. it's happened so fast. exodus is just alarming. looking at pictures of cars backed up but the flow over the border, sometimes 12 hours to get through the border. >> absolutely. things that militaries can help with. the core strength like the united states and the nato

power, the core strength is in bureaucratic organization and logistics. they're good at moving people from place to place and equipment and doing this. i don't see why nato generals and commanders are not thinking more as to how to alleviate human suffering with the resources. nato's budgets are almost irrelevant considering the well over $700 billion the u.s. puts into its military every year. why are we not using this? why don't we have flights landing in warsaw and krakow every day setting up camps and providing relief to the polish border guards. the crossing i crossed on foot is two people checking passports

or hundreds of people. two people in the customs office. we were packed in there. standing room only. mostly women and children. i don't see talking about what nato can do in this crisis and just no-fly zone. >> practical help to do. >> think about it more. >> the international criminal court has opened as you know an investigation into potential war crimes by russia. the violence that you have witnessed, do you think they're war crimes and putting something that putting war crimes together as if the act of war is not a barbaric crime but nonetheless have you witnessed war crimes? >> i think the deliberate attack on civilians in mariupol, like kharkiv and then much smaller

villages that don't make the news. there's a village on the donbas that used to be a major check point, 20,000 residents, not a mayor city and almost entirely wiped off the map and other cities in ukraine razed to the ground. it's a war crime. there's always going to be collateral damage in war. civilians are harmed. but the scale at which that is happening and the intent and deliberate application of that force to civilians to see from the russian military is unquestionable. >> you just said something about civilians being harmed and a train station you saw. international students with darker skin than ukrainians shoved aside by guard and police to get the country men out. putting the word countrymen in quaets as if you tell somebody's

skin would be able to tell if they're a citizen but can you tell us more about that? >> this was described to me by a couple of sources. one specifically a nigerian student i was talking to. we met in person and something well documented. this is a very sort of difficult predicament. these are extremely high stress, extremely high pressure situations. people trying to board limited spaces on trains. sometimes under direct fire. at kharkiv last week you're standing on the platform ab hearing artillery hundreds of meters away. and i think the ukrainian border guards there, it is difficult. most of the time the people on the trains are women and

children and for many of the foreign students just as much right to try to leave the country these are young men, young women and i think that -- i can't excuse that behavior but it's the conditions of pressure are you can understand why this is happening. and i think these situations bring out the worst in people and have seen it applied to people that don't look the same as ukraines. >> i'm glad you're home after the experience. a line from the most recent article writing it seems like every single person was in a stage of grief. think about that. every single person you have met. thank you so much. big developments to tell you about. new fears about the ukraine power plants.

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with 24/7 roadside assistance. -okay. think i'm gonna wear these home. -excellent choice. if you are just joining us, following the breaking news as attacks by russian forces intensify. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is accusing russia of kidnap b a mayor. while in the south ukrainian officials accuse russia of shelling a cancer hospital according to the hospital's head doctor. fortunately no one was killed. plus a new voice today joining the calls for the end of the violence in ukrainian. pope francis pleading in a tweet never war. think about the children, those deprived of the hope for a

dignified life. in the name of god, stop! now to the stories of sacrifice from those escaping the violence in ukraine. the u.n. estimates 2.5 million people fled the country. ali velshi joins us again from zahony. every person that gets off a train has a story. what are they telling you? >> reporter: yeah. it's remarkable. it never grows old. even though they're escaping the same thing. a group of children and mothers waiting for a train. it is cold outside. they wait outside to have a comfortable seat, seated together with the kids. look at the belongings in the bags. they come here. they get some food and medication and translation and plans. a woman got off the train earlier coming in from ukraine

and then i asked her how are you? she said i'm alive. i asked her what happened to start the journey. >> russians knock at our door and they say you better go out because it will be hell in two hours. it will be hell here. >> reporter: okay. >> okay. we jump in the car and we try to find a safe way. they were exploded. we were jumping from bush to bush. we were crawling through the forest. no road. nothing. i have seen a lot of burned russian tanks. >> reporter: wow. >> it was the only good news. i have seen dead bodies. just like trash laying in a

beautiful place. they don't belong here. they are -- okay. i can say they are not humans. this is something like a movie. movie. some creatures. coming from space. from some other planet. nothing human on their faces. they didn't allow us to have pictures of what was destroyed by them. anyone who had pictures they smashed the phone. >> reporter: wow. >> from time to time they smashed the faces of the people because they had some good pictures of what they had done. >> reporter: the damage. alex, you know what else? she's not -- traveled a loan. came from outside of kyiv, irpin seeing the attacks.

traveled alone. the kids she hopes follow soon making other arrangements. when i said what is your plan? she said i'm alive and i have my hands. there is a spirit that's tragic and people are prepared to do something to make their lives something of a success of this but every last one is not talking about going somewhere else but when they can get back to ukraine. >> among the remarkable things it was absolutely appalling given the russians to smash the phones and trying to get rid of the evidence and probably renders them imoperable and only way to communicate in some way with the loved ones. wow. appalling. ali, remarkable. >> reporter: i do keep on meeting people who can't be in touch with the loved ones. the husbands stayed behind and no sense of where they are so

that tragedy is a separate part of it. >> yeah. all altogether. we'll see you again tomorrow. thank you so much. stay safe. joining from ukraine is misha zelenskyy. good to see you again after a horrowing week and reporting from lviv. they have been heading there. but the safety of western ukraine is broken. give me a sense of the mood in lviv. is there concern that it could be a target? >> you're right. creeking from the volume of peop getting to the border. so there's over 2 preponderate 5 million people. what i have noticed is that city's under stress is traffic that wasn't here.

shelves were empty. a degradation and the city is under stress. i was at the border watching people cross. awful seeing the horrific stories of people taking the bags salvaged from the homes destroyed in kharkiv. it is shocking but the relative safety is on the slide. for those that don't know lviv is the capital of ukrainian independence. independence movement started in the western part of ukraine and the idea for putin to leave it along is fanciful. we have seen the airport which i went up there a few days and a rumor that a russian spy had been arrested for giving intelligence about the airport and the movements there and then

itself was bombed. the airport here is not struck but the situation of experts is there is likely a strike. when not if. it is enormously concerning now. looking at russian behavior it is difficult to strike because it's a civilian town. not a lot of military installations and seen from the russians is increasing amounts of bombing of cities so the idea that it is off limits is sadly not true. >> yeah. what do you know about the russian troops edging closer now to kyiv? hearing a 15-mile radius trying to ring the city. how confident are you that the ukrainians can hold the capital? >> they have held the capital for three weeks so putin had the

view to knock over the zelenskyy government within 24 hours and control of the nation. they haven't managed that. kyiv is a land mass. it is 13 times the size of manhattan. so the idea that you can easily encircle it is enormous. entering the city trying to penetrate and the ukrainians fought valiantly to hold them off. they have tank killing propulsion technology received from the united kingdom and allowed them to level the score with the russian army. tanks to have move in the main part of the street and heavy artillery and have to go out in the open so you can take them out. last 24 to 48 hours seen the large column of russian troops

and military heavy artillery moving to the city. the concern is now coming more from the east and the reports are that a huge amount of tanks destroyed by not just rocket technology but drone technology that the ukrainians have so they're outmanned and outgunned but a hard land mass to take and the ukrainians using it to their advantage. >> okay. excellent reporting and perspective. let's try to get you back on next weekend for another review. thank you so much. a ukrainian city that experienced horrors in world war ii prepares for vladimir putin's fury. next odesa summons the courage for a fight. a fight. a goal to work toward, or the freedom to walk away. with 200 years of experience, personalized advice, and commission free trades on an award-winning app,

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voltaren is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren, the joy of movement. irony amid tragedy as russian forces bombarded the city. kharkiv art museum is scrambling

to save priceless works many by russian artists. the windows blown out there making it impossible to control the temperature and humidity which is so important inside the galleries so staff and volunteers are removing the works and shelter them. the museum say it is collection remains intact at this hour. ukraine's third largest city expecting an onslaught. nick martin of sky news shows us people are preparing for a fight. >> on the beaches of odesa, preparing to defend themselves. they know the russians aren't far away now. ♪♪ and who could have predicted this? a choir provides a wartime serenade to volunteers. everyone here just wants to

survive. odesa is a major port on the black sea, important to vladimir putin. his invasion though has brought life to a stand still here. precious monuments are shrouded in sandbags. a little over three weeks it was bustling here. famous for the cafes and restaurants and boutique shops but now absolutely deserted and the one thing that strikes you on every street corn irare the barricades and behind me is the famous opera house here, the last time it was protected like this is second world war. history really is repeating itself. on the street we meet an elderly couple and i want to know what they think about russia's chances here. >> no go. no go. >> reporter: they'll not get through? >> only back in russia.

>> reporter: daniel was born in odesa. his wife and children fled and he is staying to fight. hold back the russian offensive? >> sure, sure. we have shown we kicked some ass. sorry but we kicked some ass. >> reporter: in the trendy food hall it's an aid station. inga a lawyer is organizing the effort. what is your message to vladimir putin? >> a message. our country. go away. just do anything with your russia. everything you want. but never come again to ukraine. we hate you and all the people. we don't need your support. >> reporter: then a reminder of the dangers here. while we were in here ant to do an interview the air aid sirens have gone off. everyone is asked to go into the shelter. leaving the area now.

a guy grabs a guitar and begins the play. ♪♪ no one here knows what's going to happen next. nick martin, sky news, ukraine's nuclear power plants in the hands of russian forces. s in the hands of russian forces as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m... am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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station. reports that the staff is working under the barrel of a gun. joining me now, a distinguished nonresident fellow at the quincy institute and author of "nuclear nightmare: securing the world before it's too late." correct me on my pronunciation, first of all. i completely botched that one, but thank you. give me your gravest concerns about these two nuclear sites. what are the realistic dangers posed by not operating them at the appropriate levels? >> well, we have never seen this confluence of nuclear dangers in one place at one time. in addition to the threats of nuclear use, the exercise of nuclear capable weapons that putin did in his military exercise before the invasion, the threats to use these, we now have unprecedented occupation of nuclear power facilities and

nuclear waste storage facilities, chernobyl and zaporizhzhia. this has never happened before in history, so we're in uncharted territory. for example, the director general of the iaea has what he calls seven pillars of nuclear safety and security for operating facilities, including a steady supply of electricity, contact with the outside world, staff able to operate without duress. all of these are being violated at these plants so what you're worried about is at chernobyl, for example, and the ukrainians are increasingly concerned about this, not a meltdown. that's already happened. but some kind of fracturing of the containment structure that contains the radioactive material that melted down at the chernobyl disaster, intentionally leaking that material. you could see at the zaporizhzhia site, an operating nuclear power plant, a failure of the electrical supply, which is already happened, continuing

and resulting in overheating of the fuel rods there. you could see multiple accidents at both these facilities because the staffs are operating at gunpoint, under duress, cut off from communications, unable to have a shift change and now going on ten days at chernobyl. >> so, how would we be able to monitor if there were any radiation leaks? i mean, apparently, the iaea says that all of the monitoring systems, those are down as well. >> that's right. the iaea has been pleading for a ceasefire at these facilities so you can bring in inspectors so that you can restore the on-site radio logical monitor. what we do know from external sources, external radiation sensors, there has not been a significant leak of radiation yet from these sites, so so far, we've dodged that nuclear bullet. >> so what we're witnessing overall is the indiscriminate

russian bombing campaign. reports are suggesting that putin may be considering the use of biological weapons. pentagon spokesman john kirby saying yesterday that when asked if the u.s. has seen any changes on the nuclear front after putin put his nuclear forces on high alert, let's listen to his reaction. >> we are confident in the strategic deterrent posture that we have in place in order to defend the homeland, our allies and our partners. i can't -- i would not speak to anything specific on the russian side. i would just tell you that we've seen nothing that gives us cause or reason to change our deterrent posture at this time. >> okay. clearly, carefully parsing words there, but what is the deterrence posture that kirby's talking about there, and how does that change were putin to

actually launch some kind of nuclear weapon? >> right. what he means is that we haven't seen any observable change in russia's deployed nuclear weapons, so the mobile icbm missiles have not been flushed from garrison. we haven't seen subs going to sea, no loading of bombers with nuclear weapons, therefore nothing that requires a similar measure on our part. procedures require that if you see the other side mobilizing for war, you mobilize as well, and nothing like that has happened. you know, the trouble with the deterrent theory, however, is that it's based on rational actors on both sides. and in the heat of this war, with so much at stake, what you're worried about is the use of a nuclear weapon by miscalculation, by accident, or by madness, and now we have the additional threat of the use of chemical weapons. so you can see they're laying the groundwork for this by falsely claiming that ukraine has chemical or biological weapons. they do not. there is no truth whatsoever to that. but you're afraid that the

russians might repeat what they did in syria where they helped syrian sources use chemical weapons against the citizens of aleppo and other syrian cities. >> i'll tell you, god forbid on that front. joe, thank you for that. your book is clearly a book for this time. the title, "nuclear nightmares: securing the world before it's too late." thank you, joe. at the top of the hour, we have developing news, breaking, in fact, on the diplomatic talks. there appears to be at least a sliver of hope and the source of that news might lead you to believe it's true. ource of that news might lead you to believe it'sru te. saying hello gumwash with parodontax active gum health. it kills 99% of plaque bacteria and forms an antibacterial shield. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash.

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