today, we're continuing to follow the latest developments in ukraine as the country and its western allies try to bring an end to russia's invasion. right now, russian forces are working to surround the ukrainian capital of kyiv while cities across the country are under siege, being bombarded by shelling and missile strikes. earlier today, french president emmanuel macron and german chancellor olaf scholz demanded an immediate ceasefire during a phone call with russian president vladimir putin. but a french official reported that putin gave no sign that he would stop the war. and earlier today, ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy floated the idea of meeting face-to-face with putin, possibly in israel. >> translator: i'm not even talking about technical meeting, but about meeting at the level of heads of state and maybe israel could be such a country, especially jerusalem. that's my opinion. and this is what i told him. as for details, his talks with

the russian president, i cannot talk about that because he should, first of all, talk about those details and discuss with his own community. i don't have the right to do that. even though i know some things. this is why we have a positive attitude. >> amid all of these diplomatic efforts is a humanitarian crisis as ukrainians are trying to flee the country for their safety. more than 2.5 million people have fled so far, and many are facing violence during their journey. ukrainian officials are reporting that seven people, including a child, were killed after russian forces fired on an evacuation convoy in eastern ukraine. president biden today authorized additional aid to the besieged country, up to $200 million to cover weapons plus other military services and training that could help ukrainians repel russian forces. and vice president kamala harris

made new comments about the invasion today. harris telling the democratic national committee in washington that russia's threat on ukraine's democracy is a threat to all of us who believe in democracy. we're going to begin in lviv, where nbc's ali arouzi is standing by. ali, russia is expanding its bombing campaign westward where you are in lviv could soon be next. that would threaten the lives of thousands of people, including many who have fled to lviv from other parts of the country. how is that city preparing? >> reporter: well, joe, the battle for kyiv is pivotal in this war and the fear is that if kyiv was to fall, lviv might be targeted next, and that's why over the last two days, as the bombardment has moved west, you constantly hear air raid sirens in this city, sometimes at the crack of dawn, forcing people that have already been displaced to scramble for air raid shelters. at 10:00 in the evening here, there is a strict curfew. they don't want anybody out in the streets, and the city pretty

much goes dark, joe. most people turn off the lights in their apartments, draw the curtains, there's a telecommunications mass behind me, all the lights on that are off. on the outskirts of the city, makeshift checkpoints have been set up with sandbags and they're being manned by volunteers as well as soldiers. on the buildings and hotels and apartment buildings in lviv, you see some of them have boarded up their windows in case the bombardment starts here so the glass doesn't shatter into their homes. and then you're seeing all sorts of different efforts in this town itself. for example, there's a gun shop in lviv, and that only usually sells guns with a license for hunting, but they're selling guns to anybody who wants to buy one right now, who wants to defend their home and their country. there's a beer factory here in lviv, and for the last two weeks, they haven't been producing beer. they've been producing molotov cocktails in case the russians come here so they can throw it

at them. there are steel and metal factories in here that would usually be making cutlery or industrial metal. instead, they're making hedgehogs, which are these massive metal spikes that they would try and throw down in front of the russian tanks to immobilize them and stop them from breaching the city. and then there are all sorts of other efforts being made. we met a young lady called lilia the other day. she lives here in lviv. she's been picking up displaced people from lviv and driving them over to poland, and she's been doing that because the men are not allowed to leave the country, so a lot of women have stepped up here. she's told me she goes into poland, drops off the refugees, and then brings back a van load of humanitarian goods, and she says as she's traveling back into lviv, she sees van and van and van after van with women driving refugees out of the country, picking up supplies in poland, and then bringing them back here to lviv to be

disbursed around the city. and then there are the other people that have been displaced that we met. we met a young man called eugene who left kharkiv because his building had been bombed. he's living in an office building here in lviv, but he's not just sitting around idly. he's a data engineer, and he says he's doing all he can do to help the economy in this country. he says it's essential for everybody here to keep on working, to keep the economy propped up so this place doesn't collapse financially. and other little bits and pieces. you see people are making soup, bread, potatoes in their kitchens to give to soldiers to take to the front lines with them. so, it's a massive community effort here in lviv as they wait to see what could await their fate here in the country as this bombardment moves westward. >> just incredible, ali, to hear that long list of just all the different ways that people can stay back and help out. now, i know you've also had a

chance to speak with people who are in lviv fleeing the violence. what are some of the things they've been telling you? >> reporter: so, we were at lviv train station this morning, joe, and wave after wave of people were coming off the trains, on to the platforms, and then getting on to buses to be taken either to other parts of ukraine or to be taken into poland or germany. we met one family that had escaped, they'd left their father and their husband there. they were there with some very small kids. they had come from sumy. they had very little with them. they had very little money. they had a small bag between them. they didn't know what their next move was going to be when they got to warsaw. they didn't have a network of people to look after them. they just wanted to get away from the fighting. you could see the children were very distressed. the mother said that they were anxious, they weren't sleeping, they were crying at night.

they didn't know what was going to happen to their home, their belongings, their father who had stayed back to fight, so it's a very heart wrenching situation you see, and one thing everybody had in common at that train station that had been fleeing the east, they had this thousand-yard stare in their eyes. they just didn't know what was to come, what the future was going to hold for them, and sadly, you're going to see wave and wave of those getting larger and larger coming into lviv as it's the last safe point in this country and the fear is that if lviv gets hit, where are all these displaced people going to go then? >> it's hard to imagine what's going through the minds of all these people, especially the kids. nbc's ali arouzi in ukraine, thank you so much. for more on this, let's bring in a member of the ukraine parliament and has been with us often over the last few weeks. thank you so much for being with us. cities like lviv have been relatively safe since the start of the war. that's why more than 200,000

ukrainians have fled there. we're seeing journalists there. they're increasingly at risk as forces expand, going westward. how prepared do you think the ukrainian resistance is for russia's intensified bombing campaign? >> well, the army has definitely been preparing very well. you did see in the report how kyiv is preparing for potential invasion. we still hope that that will not happen, because ukrainian forces did have some success in pushing them further from the capital, particularly on the northeast. of course, we do understand that putin's main goal is to get into the city of kyiv, and that is why he will do everything possible in order to get into the city. we do hope that the fortification of the city that have been made during the last two weeks will help. we do hope that the russian forces will not be allowed to close to the city because in the city of kyiv, as the mayor has recently reported, 2 million people are still in there, and 2 million are still living in the city of kyiv.

so, that would be a disaster. we do hope that we shall be able to avoid the street fights in kyiv. it's unimaginable. i can't even think. i can't imagine about the city that i love so much being destroyed by russian. but right now, you are showing the pictures of my native city of kharkiv where i grew up and where i went to school. they have destroyed that one. that is what they are capable of doing. so, right now, we are doing everything in our power to prepare, but of course it's extremely difficult to do so. we are doing well on the ground, but the air is still the biggest problem, and we are also seeing that the russians are expanding in terms of the areas where they bombard the cities. two days ago, we did see a bombardment in two western cities, and they're capable of doing anything. no one is feeling safe going to bed no matter where in ukraine you are right now. there is no single safe place in ukraine right now, and that is

terrifying, and just, well, it's extremely difficult to accept and to live with this feeling for a very long period of time. but we do hope we shall be able to fight back, but the russians are not standing still either. the russians announced that they will conduct referendum in kherson, which is south in ukraine, that is the single regional center that they managed to capture, and they are now announcing they will conduct referendum similar to the one they kind of conducted in crimea. pronouncing the kherson people's republic over there. and that is after two weeks of thousands of people in kherson going to the streets to protest against russian tanks in their city. so, that is what the russians are doing. they just came to our land and claim it to be part of their territory. they are putting russian flags on the mayor's office. they abducted a mayor of a town and now we are hearing reports that he is being tortured.

this is the kind of people that we're dealing with, and i'm absolutely sure and that's a harsh truth, but i need to tell this. putin is doing that because he wasn't punished enough for what he did in crimea in 2014, when he just annexed part of our territory, took it away, and he was not punished. he started the war in donbas, and again, he wasn't punished enough, and now he escalated. so every time we hear this argument that, let's try not to escalate, for putin, that is a sign that i can go further, and he will go further. he will go into poland if he's not stopped here in ukraine. >> is he being punished enough right now? i mean, nato has made it clear a no-fly zone is a nonstarter. do you see any way that could change? >> i really hope the world will come out of this denial stage. it's very scary thought, thinking that we have a hitler of our time present and he is activated. that is the truth. and we just should accept this as a scary truth and for what it

is. he will go further. i'm calling for the whole world to understand that and please stop him here in ukraine. we are willing to do that with our own army. we just need the technology to be able to stop him. the no-fly zone is so very crucial to us. if we have the superiority in the sky, if we stop those terrifying mind-numbing bombings of our cities, i believe we can win. i'm sure we can win on the ground. we do have this chance, but the whole world just needs to realize this is not just the world of putin against ukraine. this is the world of putin against civilized world, against the idea of democracy, just like your president said and i need the whole world to understand this is the world of putin against the whole world. the whole world should step up and fight with ukraine. >> inna, we know you have a lot to do with right now so we appreciate you taking time to speak with us. take care and stay safe. >> thank you.

coming up, some at fox news are playing right into russia's hand to spread a false narrative. russian state television even using clips from his show, tucker carlson's show, to help their cause. we're going to do some fact checking after the break. e goin checking after the break refresh italiano subway now has italian-style capicola on the new supreme meats and mozza meat. just like my nonna makes when she cooks! i don't cook. wait, what? it's a good thing he's so handsome. subway keeps refreshing and refre- (vo) small businesses are joining the big switch. save over $1,000 when you switch to our ultimate business plan for the lowest price ever. plus choose from the latest 5g smartphones. get more 5g bars in more places- switch to t-mobile for business today. (music throughout)

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all right, welcome back. now to a story of russian addition information that has been quickly embraced and amplified by some in america's right-wing media. what state department undersecretary victoria newland confirmed this week that there was bioresearch going on in ukraine. critics say that tucker carlson of fox news took those remarks out of context. >> you mean, secret biolabs, like the secret biolabs ukraine definitely doesn't have?

ukraine has those? yes, it does. >> the truth behind those claims was even pointed out on carlson's own network. >> jennifer, what we do know, victoria newland admitted that labs existed. what exactly they're for, we never got clarity on. >> well, we do have clarity. i have a fact sheet. that's what i was just reading from here at the pentagon and it is a long program that has existed where the pentagon had partnered with these biolabs. that is part of this effort to try and clean up those soviet-era labs and make sure that nothing escapes from those labs, and so the u.s. has been very open about its involvement there with that. >> the critics and fact checkers say carlson and some others in the right-wing media continue to spread the false narrative that something nefarious is going on, an effort that did play right into russia's hand, even leading to a u.n. meeting in which the u.s. got to confront russia

directly about the lies. >> translator: on the territory of ukraine, there was a network consisting of at least 30 biological laboratories to study the possibility of spreading particularly dangerous infections using migratory birds. >> i will say this once. ukraine does not have a biological weapons program. we're not going to let russia get away with lying to the world. or staining the integrity of the security council by using this forum as a venue for legitimizing putin's violence. >> all right, joining me now is glenn kessler, fact check columnist for the "washington post" who wrote about this. glen, good to have you with us. you gave this one four pinocchios. we heard jennifer griffin from fox news. she did a little bit of this in our intro, but can you expand on the truth behind these labs and the u.s. involvement? >> right. these labs are essentially

somewhat equivalent to labs at the centers for disease control. so, they're to study the emergence of pathogens such as there's a problem in the -- in pigs in that part of europe called the african swine fever, and they study those viruses. and you know, they also employed former soviet scientists, now ukrainian, or also in georgia and armenia and other countries like that, who had been part of the soviet bioweapons program. and the russians have been trying for about ten years to seed the narrative that these are actually bioweapons labs. it's something they have regularly, you know, written about, and i write that it's actually out of the soviet playbook. this is what the soviets did, constantly accusing the u.s. of having bioweapons programs when,

in fact, it was the soviet union that had bioweapons programs, just like russia today has such programs, because they have tried -- putin has tried to kill some of his opponents even outside russia using biological weapons. >> you point out that donald trump jr. was among those even claiming that newland's testimony was some sort of gotcha moment. is this surprising at how quickly some on the right have been embracing this narrative? >> i think it is surprising because the strange thing about donald trump jr.'s tweet is that, you know, the trump administration in 2020, when this came up yet again as part of the russian disinformation effort, and it was then echoed by china as a way to distract from scrutiny of the origins of the coronavirus, the trump administration issued numerous statements saying this was a lie. so, you know, i guess don junior didn't know that or he just wants to, like, jump on a bandwagon.

but it's a little jarring to see people on the right like this embrace something which is, with just a little bit of checking, you can see it's a longstanding russian disinformation campaign designed to distract from russia's own involvement in biological weapons. >> and when it comes to that campaign, i mean, tucker carlson's commentary on this issue has actually been playing on russian state tv. what does that say, how big of a win is it for russian misinformation to get something like this on board playing in russian media? >> i think it's a huge win. i mean, what i documented in my article was the russian foreign ministry made a statement about newland's testimony and tucker carlson, that evening, then echoed it, you know, just followed up on it and said virtually the same thing, and then the next day, russian state media displays tucker carlson, american commentator, confirming

the disinformation. so, i don't know if tucker feels good about this, but i don't think it's something to be proud of. >> i'm guessing -- have you reached out to him and fox and have they been saying anything about this and some of the blowback from this? >> no, they have not. they just -- in fact, the very next day, tucker carlson doubled down on it yet again. you know, he's not particularly apologetic about making errors of fact. >> all right, thank you to "the washington post's" glenn kessler, who very much cares about facts as a fact checker. we appreciate you being with us on this saturday. take care. >> you're welcome. still ahead, fleeing devastation. >> all the bridges were exploded. we were jumping from bush to bush. we were crawling through the forest. >> a harrowing story but once ukrainians escape their country, where do they go? later this hour, i'm going to speak with the harvard students

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to see if we can save with america's number one motorcycle insurer? approved. cool! hey, if bryan's not gonna be snake, can i be snake? -all: no. we meet 7-year-old sofia four days after she was ripped away from her home near kyiv, and her nurse has been by her side for the last two years. with her lollipop, she's receiving dialysis, awaiting a kidney transplant. it took her 24 hours to bring sofia and 14 other very sick children by train from kyiv to lviv. and that's bunny who also traveled from ukraine. the western ukrainian specialized children's medical center is skroefr run. it is the triage hub for the country. dr. kaslova runs their pediatric oncology ward. learning your child has cancer is the worst day of a mother's life, dr. kuslova explains.

>> but this situation, when they must leave her town. >> reporter: but having a child with cancer amid a cruel war is a hell no one should have to endure. single mom aina's 8-year-old son was diagnosed with blood cancer on february 5th. then, the war started. three days ago, they fled the besieged city of kharkiv in an ambulance. everything? >> translator: it was full-scale war. everything was bombed. we were living in the basement all the time. >> reporter: what does it feel like as a mother just to have all of this out of your control? >> translator: i have to be strong, she says. >> reporter: i'll do whatever it takes to get him the treatment he needs. >> our thanks to nbc's molly hunter for that report from a hospital in ukraine. now, the vast majority of ukrainians fleeing their war-torn country, more than a million and a half so far, have

sought refuge in neighboring poland, but now the mayors of poland's largest cities are warning they cannot sustain the large wave of refugees coming into their cities and they're asking the eu and u.n. to step in. joining me now from krakow, poland, is nbc's ellison barber, so ellison, what are conditions like for these refugees in poland, especially as these cities are getting more and more crowded? >> reporter: as we have walked around krakow, as we have been in the train station here, speaking to refugees, what we are unfortunately seeing is a lot of people who have come here and then not been able to find any sort of accommodation, so they're laying out cots, sometimes, oftentimes, with their young children, having to sleep there overnight as they try and figure out what they are going to do next. what we have heard from local leaders, both here and in warsaw as well as volunteer-led nonprofit organizations, is that simply there's such a massive influx of people coming into these cities so quickly that the system is struggling to keep up.

not only are they having difficulty finding accommodation for people, but they're also having difficulty making sure that resources are available to those who need it in addition to people who already live in these cities. they are asking other countries for help, for the u.n. to do more. they are also, at least when we speak to nongovernmental organizations here, saying that they feel like there needs to be a more topdown approach when it comes to aid and that the polish government needs to do more to help after people have crossed into the country and made their way to some of these other big cities. another thing they're worried about looking ahead? human trafficking. they are talking about this situation where if you have some of the most vulnerable members of ukraine coming to this country, women, young children, needing help and then not having anything vetted, safe and available to them, that they could be victim to people looking to prey on them. listen to what he said.

>> imagine i went to the train station where, like, thousands of people every day, and there was a guy with flag of germany, it was like printed on a printer, and he was like, saying, only for ladies, i will give you a villa and accommodation and job and money. so, you know, the police catch him but there are predators just waiting for prey on the train station. of course, this is the government to be blamed for this situation. they are not providing safety and safe aid for refugees. >> reporter: and one thing he said is that that issue, that concern and the police have talked about this as well, someone was arrested, accused of sexual assault, specifically preying on ukrainian refugees. he says that this is something that gets back to the polish government needing to do more beyond just helping people as they cross the border initially

and making sure that resources, homes, transportation, all of those things are vetted so people needing help in their most vulnerable moments in a country where they don't speak the language, so they do not fall victim to predators. >> ellison, this is a challenge for poland, but are other countries willing to take in large numbers of refugees themselves? >> so remember the european union unanimously voted to give temporary protective status, if you will, to refugees, people who have fled ukraine, ukrainian citizens as well as people who had permanent residency or protected status in ukraine. and essentially, what this means, it's a directive that was established after the balkan war, and it means that refugees going into european union countries, they don't have to apply for individual asylum cases, at least for a year, potentially up to three years. they can access housing, education, other social welfare programs like that, but big picture, joe, what people are

telling us here locally is that it needs to be -- there needs to be a coordinated effort to help people relocate to other places further away from ukraine if they want to, because right now, people are getting to cities like krakow, like warsaw, and there's not transportation, really, to help them get to other places, so you have just this massive grouping of people staying close to ukraine. and in part because they're hoping they can go home soon. joe? >> that's a good point. they're hoping they will be able to return to their country. ellison, thank you so much. coming up, we're going to break down the latest russian military maneuvers as those forces continue their push. plus the key to the ukrainian forces' successes. retired u.s. army general peter zwack is with me. y general pete zwack is with me . hey there, i'm ayman mohyeldin. at 8:00 eastern, igor novikov, former advisor to volodymyr zelenskyy will join me live. we're going to discuss what he is seeing on the ground and

zelenskyy's part in leading the resistance. join us for "ayman" tonight 8:00 eastern right here on msnbc. in 0 eastern right here on msnbc. ♪ ♪♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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try parodontax active gum health mouthwash. at this hour, ukraine's third largest city is bracing for an onslaught from russian forces. odesa is a major southern port on the black sea. people of odesa think they could be vladimir putin's next big target. as nick martin of sky news shows us, they're preparing for a fight.

>> reporter: on the beaches of odesa, they're preparing to defend themselves. they know the russians aren't far away now. ♪♪ >> reporter: and who could have predicted this? a choir provides a watertime serenade to volunteers. everyone here just wants to survive. odesa is a major port on the black sea. strategically important to vladimir putin. his invasion, though, has brought life to a standstill here. and precious monuments are now shrouded in sandbags. just a little over three weeks ago, it was bustling here. you know, odesa's famous for its cafes and its restaurants and its sort of boutique shops. but now, it's absolutely deserted. and the one thing that strikes you on every street corner are the barricades.

and behind me is the famous opera house here in odesa. the last time it was protected like this was the 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. >> odesa no go russian. no go. >> reporter: they'll not get through? >> back in russia. >> reporter: daniel was born in odesa. his wife and children have now fled, and he is staying to fight. do you think you can hold back this russian offensive? >> sure, sure. we've already shown since 24th that we are holding back, and we kicked some ass, sorry, but we kicked some ass. >> reporter: in odesa's trendy food hall, they've turned it into an aid station. inga, a lawyer, is organizing the effort. what's your message to vladimir putin? >> only one message. stop the war. it's our country.

go away. just do anything with your russia. everything you want. but never come again ukraine. we hate you, and all the politics. we don't need your support. >> reporter: and then, a reminder of the dangers here. so, while we were in here about to do an interview with the air raid sirens have gone off so everyone's been asked to go down into the shelter so they're leaving this area now. a guy grabs a guitar and begins to play. ♪♪ >> reporter: no one here knows what's going to happen next. nick martin, sky news, odesa. >> our thanks to nick martin for bringing us that report from odesa. with that, i want to bring in retired army brigadier general peter zwack who served as attache to russia and is currently a wilson center global fellow and author of "swimming

the volga." first of all, i just want to get your sense of russia's strategy so far, from their push right now toward kyiv to extending their attacks west, their continued refusal to comply with ceasefires. i mean, what are your thoughts on everything that's unfolding right now? >> good afternoon, joe, and your viewers. the russians, in my mind, have grotesquely underestimated the capacity and will of the ukrainians to fight. this, i think, in part, led to a flawed russian strategy, probably a direction from the kremlin, but not precise objectives within, other than the capital city of kyiv, kharkiv, and of course the push along the coast. but i think that when we look at the russian organization and

planning, there was -- terrible overconfidence. the military, which had developed sort of a little bit of a mystique as being vaunted, has proven to have clay feet, at least in ukraine. strategy? yes. first night, we remember, there was a move, the special operations in airborne, to capture a -- an air base and then to make a quick push through that into kyiv and capture it. it didn't happen. it was foiled. it was blocked. and then the russians now have been in some -- they're sort of almost in methodical disarray, meaning they're moving and there is a momentum, and it's slow and it's been ugly and we've all heard about that 40-mile convoy from hell. but they are now in the suburbs and pushing. but complicating that strategy is you've got a lot of russian

soldiers, including a 30, probably, percent of draftees that don't want to be there and can't believe they've been put into this situation. and the fact that they've been lied to. in the east, coming in is the town of kharkiv. million and a half. fought, battled over this second world war, the nazis and the soviets, taken and retaken. this is an historical place as well. the russians have been pushed around it, tentatively. they just lost a general there. their third general died in ukraine in the last two weeks. and so, kharkiv, right on the russian border, just a few hours, still holds. and then we go south to crimea and odesa and mariupol and that is what the russians, the nationalists would say is

novorussia, new russia. katherine the great basically pulled that in for the empire, including odesa, in the 1700s. and that's what you're reading now. and they are pushing their way through there. i was in moscow in 2014, and we all worried that they were going to push on mariupol then when they initially took crimea and parts of the donbas. they didn't. but here it comes, and again, yes, it's been horrendous, but the unexpected ukrainian resistance has, again, messed their plans up, and then of course odesa, the pearl of the black sea. you saw those guys on the beach, if you will, the sandbags. they worry about a naval landing and not just an attack from along that coast coming from crimea. >> very quickly, i want to ask you, president biden approved the 2 hundred million dollars in aid but a senior russian diplomat warns planes are legitimate targets. how does the u.s. military move

forward if they are targets? >> well, it depends how we define legitimate targets. if the russians have the temerity to put a missile or something into systems in poland or wherever in eastern europe within nato, then the -- then that is a -- that is an act of war. and we're going to move into article v and nato land. i want to make one point, joe. when we talk about u.s. and nato, this isn't just that. it's europe. and there are other -- there are eu nations and neutral nations that also have a major, major stake in it. the russians want to make it a nato-russia thing. no. this is europe in a like-minded world thing against russian aggression. >> retired army brigadier general peter zwack, thank you so much for joining us.

up next, millions of ukrainians are desperately seeking refuge in neighboring countries. that alone is hard enough, but they're also faced with finding a safe place to stay once they cross the border. up next, two harvard students who created an app to link refugees with host families. apk refugees with host families. (music throughout) real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪a little bit of chicken fried♪ ♪cold beer on a friday night♪ ♪a pair of jeans that fit just right♪ ♪and the radio up well i've seen the sunrise...♪

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it's okay, it's okay. >> very horrible sounds every night. >> stories like that being told across eastern europe. united nations high commissioner for refugees says 2.6 million ukrainians have fled their homes, seeking safety. the images are hard to watch. countless numbers of broken families leaving their homes uncertain of their own future and uncertain about the fate of those who they've left behind. they often leave not knowing where they'll sleep that night. stories like that prompted two harvard university freshmen -- freshmen -- to use their technical skills helping to place families in need with people who have the means to help. the result, a website called "ukraine takes shelter." the students describe it as a free scaled-down version of airbnb for refugees needing

shelter. those students are with us to tell us more about how it got started and how it works. avi shipman and reek i don't bernstein. i understand the idea came after attending a pro-ukraine rally, hosting a late heat night tweet. what more can you tell us about it? >> sure. so i came up with this idea to help ukrainian refugees find potential hosts in neighboring countries. i called my friend marco, an amazing web developer at harvard, and we did not sleep for three days, we grinded this website out. we tried to finish it as soon as possible to get it into the hands of refugees. >> marco, you're being called the coding wiz of all of this. tell us more about how it works. >> you know, i really think avi and i make a great team. when i got the call from avi, we basically sat down and tried to do this in the most efficient and streamlined day possible.

at the end of the day we're not the target end users, we're trying to reach people in ukraine. the fewest button presses, the lightweight website, it's not going to take forever to download, see it from their perspective. we have the site translated into over a dozen languages to help people all over world. >> how can the refugees screen the host families? >> we have a lot of different things in place. so underneath the contact information, we have a list of how should a refugee contact a host safety? a refuse gy can report the listing. we have anti-bot things in the background to make sure that no web scraping can happen, no bots can attack the website, anything like that. >> most of the hosts live in countries surrounding ukraine, but you've listed families around the globe, israel to the united states. how are the refugees able to get to those families offering shelter?

>> that's a great question. our number one priority is trying to get hosts in contact with refugees and the difference is -- the way they're going to connect is going to depend on their different circumstances. we have seen hosts offering things like airfare, numerous success stories from the host side and the refugee side of people getting in contact and ultimately getting to shelter. we've been extremely grateful for all the ways our hosts are helping bring our refugees to safety, helping with funding and things like that. >> i'm sure you've both been moved by the stories of the refugees. avi, i'll ask you what stands out what have you heard from people you've been able to help? >> sure. i remember last night i had this email from this person in the netherlands who posted their listing and was asking how to mark it as filled because so many refugees were trying to contact them. they already are hosting a ukrainian family because of our website. that was just one of the many, many, many stories we've been receiving. it's incredible. >> when you hear that, what do you think? how does that make you feel to know you're making a big

difference? >> i think it's really cool that we're able to work on a website in the united states and have it be used as a direct practical tool across the world in a country i didn't even know existed until a few months ago. >> marco, what would you like to say to the people of ukraine right now? >> you know, i think the really important thing for everyone to know, both people in ukraine as well as people watching this broadcast right now, is really the website isn't just about me and avi, it's not just about ukrainian refugees. it's about all the hosts and translators and ui testers and cybersecurity experts who have helped bring all of this together. you can look at the crisis in ukraine and see it as something that's terrifying, something we should be afraid of. i think you can also look at how everyone around the world is responding and seeing it as a great source of hope and inspiration. so we're extremely grateful and extremely humbled by the response. >> avi, have you thought of any other apps that might help people in ukraine right now? >> so i've been working with the h habbad, they have a big reach all over europe. we're going to be potentially

working on transportation and food and shelter, all different kinds of things, and getting the website directly into the hands of the people who need it all over europe and developing it as it goes further. a lot of people have come with requests, hey, this should be a great label, a way to search, filter on the website. we add that. we're constantly evolving the website. the benefit of us not being a big company with bureaucracy is people can come with a request, we can code it, and it will be live in moments. >> two bright men with a bright future making a big impact. avi schiffman and marco bernstein, thank you for everything you guys are doing. i'm joe fryer. watch me on "weekday mornings" on our streaming network, msnbc news now. reverend sharpton and "politics nation" is next. and 5g maps that are mostly gaps— they're switching to t-mobile for business and getting more 5g bars in more places.

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♪♪ good evening and welcome to "politics nation." tonight's lead, ripple effects. right now, the third week of russia's war on ukraine has the world recoiling in horror. a major russian offensive has pushed west, launching air strikes deep into western ukraine. the u.s. embassy now urging americans to get out of kyiv.