i will see you back here next weekend as always for more "american voices." right now i hand it over to mehdi hasan. >> hello, alicia. it is a crazy time. all of us are putting our efforts into covering this horrific conflict. have a great rest of your sunday. tonight on "the mehdi hasan show" senator elizabeth warren is here to discuss the situation in ukraine and the ripple effects we're feeling back home, especially gas prices. plus, the winner of the nobel peace price on putin's call to place his nuclear forces on high alert. and you want to see what real cancel culture looks like? i'll be joined by a top russian journalist who has had to flee his country for daring to speak the truth about the invasion. good evening, i'm mehdi hasan, it is 8:00 p.m. in washington, d.c., 2:00 a.m. in ukraine. the early hours of what is now day 19 of russia's war against

ukraine. an american journalist was shot and killed on sunday while reporting in irpin, a town outside kyiv that has seen heavy shelling and fighting in recent days. brent renaud, age 50, was killed gathering footage of refugees. a short time ago "time" released a statement saying we are devastated by the loss of brent renaud. as an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, brent tackled the toughest stories around the world often alongside his brother. in recent weeks he was working on a time studios project focused on the global refugee crisis. our hearts are with all of brent's loved ones. it is essential that journalists are able to cover this ongoing invasion and humanitarian -- nbc just confirmed reporting and no word on what kind of weaponry or

if the request was filled. we'll have more ahead live from ukraine on the situation on the ground in just a moment, but i want to begin tonight with mounting calls for intervention. something that's not getting talked about, given the mounting calls for intervention. is the leadership, leadership in the u.s., we don't tend to talk about it that much. yes, while we have been discussing the comedian who's turned out to be an astonishing war time commander, volodymyr zelenskyy, the president we have not talked about, at least until right now, is someone who has had to deal with those growing calls for a no-fly zone and poland saying we don't want to deliver the fighter jets to ukraine, how about you do it. an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with millions of refugees continues to build. and trying to avoid a nuclear confrontation with docket. with all that on his docket, shouldn't we be grateful that we have safe and sober pair of hands right now as commander in chief.

>> we will not fight a war against russia in ukraine. direct confrontation between nato and russia is world war iii. something we must strive to prevent. >> he's right. and it's worth remembering at a time like this that joe biden, was, of course, a member of the senate foreign relations committee for three decades. he was the ranking democrat on that panel for several of his six-year terms. thank god we have an experienced grownup in the white house right now who knows what he's talking about. i have my criticisms of joe biden on many, many things, as you know. as regular viewers of this show know. but i think it's worth saying what he brings as commander in chief at a moment like this. i think it's strange that more democrats don't say this, don't point this out. you'd think they'd rally around the head of their party and point out the leadership he's undeniably demonstrating. if you need a reminder of what we could have been having right now, you don't have to go back

two or three years, you just need to go back two or three days. take a listen. >> biden, every time he gets up, he says they are a nuclear nation. he should say we are a nuclear nation. and you know, i rebuilt our whole nuclear arsenal. stronger, bigger, better than ever before. it's better and it's bigger than russia. he should say we are a nuclear nation, and we don't want war and we don't want to wipe out anything to do and we don't want to wipe out russia. this is the way he should be talking. instead he's saying we don't want war, we're not -- you know, he doesn't talk about our nuclear capability. >> yes, that's the way to resolve this crisis, threaten to use our nukes against putin. you know what else president joe biden thankfully does not talk about? biden doesn't raise the idea multiple times of using nuclear times to stop hurricanes from reaching the united states. remember that? the source told axios about that surreal 29 briefing of president

trump. you could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. people were astonished. after the meeting ended, we thought what the eff? what the eff indeed. yet because the trump administration was filled with enablers who never challenged trump on his lame-brained ideas like this one, they only told him they'd look into it. the former guy still thinks he knows what he's doing and still can't bring himself to even criticize vladimir putin. >> but it's just a total lack of respect and it happens to be a man that is just driven. he's driven to put it together. you look at it and it's just so ridiculous and so centralist and so horrible. >> he just can't help himself. even when he's trying to be tough on russia, donald trump manages to praise putin. he's so driven. only someone as inconsistent as trump could both suck up to and threaten nuclear weapons against a fellow world leader in the

same week. he did it with kim jong-un too. one minute he was mocking his weight and the next minute they were exchanging fawning letters. do you want the pendulum where at one end it's i love you and the other ending is playing a game of chicken risking nuclear war. this map shows the missile ranges that russia has near ukraine and eastern europe. i'll take the grownup with experience in foreign affairs every single time, thank you very much, no matter how boring they may seem. and it's not just trump who's all over the place, it's his party too. on the one hand they keep going on and on about inflation and gas prices. on the other hand they were pushing for joe biden to ban russian oil, so he did. so now they were blaming biden for rising gas prices. meanwhile, guess who gets off scot-free? not just putin, but the big oil and gas companies. one woman who has got a plan for those oil companies and their

ginormous profits is senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts. senator, welcome back to the show. thanks for joining me this evening. let's start with ukraine. the president has held firm against a no-fly zone and supplying polish jets to ukraine and risking world war iii against russia. do you agree with him on all of that? >> i do. i think that you start in the right place by saying we need to give joe biden some real credit here. we need to give him credit for what he's done quietly and behind the scenes, and that is pull all of our allies together. remember that just a few weeks ago, vladimir putin was sure that if he invaded ukraine that nato was going to be in disarray, that we wouldn't all be able to hang together. and in fact everyone has held together. and i put a big part of the credit for that with joe biden. the second thing is that biden is trying something that is historic, and that is when there is a military invasion in a

country like ukraine, instead of saying our only option is to go to war, he's trying economic sanctions at a level they have never been tried before. and he's pulled all of the allies together and basically cut russia off from the formal banking system. and perhaps as importantly, cut off the oligarchs from the formal banking system. he is really cranking down on the sanctions. you notice other countries have come along with this and companies within the united states. mcdonald's has said that's it, we're out. we're not going to do business with russia. that has a profound effect on the russian economy and on putin's war machine. so biden is really on two fronts doing a good job here. >> so i want to come back to the oligarchs and the sanctions in a moment, but i wonder, senator, do you worry as i do that as more and more people in ukraine

tragically die and if kyiv falls in a particularly brutal way to russian forces, there will understandably be an outcry here in the west, in the u.s., and more calls for the u.s. to do something, to get more directly militarily involved with all the risks that entails? how worried are you about a scenario like that? >> look, it is important that we do what we can to support ukraine, but there are limits in a world where we're dealing with an unstable dictator who has nuclear weapons. we are working together with the other nations of the world to try to find ways to hem him in, to push him back. but not to trigger a nuclear war. the consequences, what it is that putin's got to be able to threaten the rest of the world with are so enormous that it's important that we take measured

steps and it is one more reason that i am glad it is joe biden sitting in the white house right now. he's calm, he's in control -- >> yes. >> -- and he's keeping us together with our allies and not unnecessarily brashly triggering a response from putin that could devastate the entire world. >> so you mentioned the comprehensive sanctions and the oligarchs. >> yes. >> you yourself, senator, have been crafting legislation to try to prevent russian elite from using cryptocurrency to get around financial sanctions. it's a good idea, but given the senate is the place where bills go to die these days, do you have republican support for this? do you think you can get it through in a bipartisan way and get it done fast? >> actually we're talking with republicans about it. i've got good support right now on both sides. i am hopeful that in a time like this, in a moment of crisis, that we will give the treasury department the tools it needs

not just to do through the formal banking system, which they have already done, but to patch the hole in that bucket so that the oligarchs can't say, okay, i can't get the formal banking system but turn around and go through the crypto system. by the way, same point with russia itself. remember, putin may be looking to crypto in order to finance much of his war machine. three-quarters of all of the ransomware attacks, money, goes through russia right now. and the idea that foreign countries use crypto to evade sanctions is not some theory. it's happening in practice. in fact we've documented it. the treasury department has documented it. north korea, iran are using crypto to evade sanctions. so as we tighten around russia these economic sanctions, it's

important that they not be able to escape through crypto. >> so gas prices are up big-time at the pump. >> yeah. >> it's become a major issue politically here in the u.s. the biden administration is calling it putin's price rise. the republicans are saying it's biden's price rise. aren't be missing out on the companies that are price gouging? why aren't we doing something about them? >> well, i've got a plan to that. senator whitehouse and i have introduced a windfall profits tax. if you're out there price gouging, you're going to have to give up a big chunk of your ill-gotten gains. that's the best way i know to be able to push back against these oil companies. you know, this is a problem we've got, and that is that when something happens that may cause the cost of the supply to go up just a little, we're watching

giant corporations, oil companies but also we're seeing it in food, for example, that companies swoop in and say, hey, while we have the opportunity, they go ahead and raise prices even more. that's why we're seeing not just that prices are going up, but that profit margins are going up and going up dramatically. >> i find it bizarre, senator, that our solution to avoid buying oil from one foreign autocracy that abuses human rights is to go and buy oil from another foreign autocracy that abuses human rights. saudi arabia just mass executed 81 people yesterday, the largest mass execution in modern times. yet there are reports the biden administration wants to go hat in hand to the saudis for more oil. at what point do we focus on renewables at home and not more oil from abroad? >> well, we have to remind ourselves, if we had focused more on renewables at home

starting 15 years ago, russia wouldn't have the power that it has today. so okay, i don't have a time machine, we can't go backwards. but please let us use this moment to concentrate our focus on the need to get ourselves off a fossil fuel economy. this is the moment that we need to be investing and doubling down, and doubling down again on solar, on wind, on hydro, so that russia does not have the power. and the same is true for other countries. we shouldn't put ourselves at risk for how it is that they get their money through a fossil fuel economy and then how they use it to try to disrupt the worldwide economy. this is a moment we need to be saying, yeah, this is why all of us need to go green. we need to make that investment as a nation, now. >> senator, if americans are

getting hit hard by oil prices, why not offer them some financial relief? why not do what the president promised to do on the campaign trail and instead of doing endingless pauses on student loan repayment, just cancel $10,000 in student debt as he promised. i know you want him to go further and cancel $50,000. why isn't he doing it? why is he breaking that pledge which he has the power to enact by executive order? he doesn't need joe manchin's vote on this. >> today would be a great day to cancel student loan debt, mr. president. remember, 40% of the people that have student loan debt do not have a college diploma. they're people who did exactly what we asked them to do. they tried. but they had babies, they were working three jobs, their mom got sick, it didn't work out for them. and now they earn what a high school graduate earns, but they're trying to deal with college loan debt. also remember what it's doing to

the racial wealth gap. african americans, latinos borrow more money to go to school, more money while they're in school and have a harder time paying it off. if the president cancelled $50,000 of student loan debt, he could cancel the black/white wealth gap for those with student loan debt by 27 points. think what that would do for racial equity in this country. and i'll just mention about women. two out of every $3 of student loan debt is owned by a woman. we struggle more to pay for college and have a harder time to pay off the debts when we get out. cancelling $50,000 of student loan debt would help tens of millions of americans. people whose only sin was to be born into a family that couldn't write a check for them to go to school and who nonetheless got out there and tried to get an education.

so i think this is the moment to do it. the president has the power -- >> yes. >> there's wind in his sails. tens of millions of people want him to do it. so, mr. president, now's a good time. cancel $50,000 of student loan debt. >> i hope president biden and his team are watching, senator elizabeth warren. thank you so much for your time tonight, appreciate it. >> thank you. a russian air strike on a military training base near ukraine's border with poland killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 100 others on sunday according to local officials. the attack came after russia threatened that it would target foreign weaponry shipments. poland is a key location for ferrying western military aid to ukraine appeared the base has been used by the u.s. and other countries to train ukrainian military personnel. joining us live from ukraine is nbc's cal perry. cal, thanks for joining us. lviv has been a place of relative safety in western

ukraine, a city where refugees have been fleeing to before making their way across the border into poland. is that sense of relative safety shaken tonight because of this attack on this military facility? >> yeah, i think so. i think this was, and it was the first time that people in this city since the start of the war were woken up with the sound of explosions. they were distant explosions, they were faint explosions, but nonetheless people here in this city did have their windows rattled just before dawn. it was eight separate rockets that hit this military installation. as you have laid out, this is a place where nato has in the past been training ukrainian soldiers. u.s. soldiers have used this base quite a bit in the past, so have the pols, so it was a known site, a known quantity, and the russians were efficient and effective in taking it out. the thing about lviv, though, as you know, you have more than 300,000 refugees in this city. so today the city was bustling,

the restaurants were full. it's a city that is bursting at the seams and running out of room. so you have this sort of juxtaposition where people are trying to go about their normal lives, they're trying to evacuate their family members from the east, they're trying to plan that trip to the polish border. i think in the next few hours, if we hear those alarms, those sirens go off, i think for the first time since the war began you're really going to see people go into those shelters. the concern is that there are other targets in this city, that putin will widen this air campaign to include some of these resupply routes. as you're pointing out, there are any number of places there are weapons and military aid coming in from the polish border into ukraine. it is those sites that i think really have people worried. >> cal perry, thank you for that update and please do still stay safe. my next guest is a winner of the nobel peace prize. she spent her life trying to get

rid of the world -- get rid of nuclear weapons from this world. i'll ask her about the current threat from russia which still has the largest nuclear weapons stockpile on the planet. later, i'll talk with a russian journalist who was threaten wed jail time for speaking the truth in his homeland about the invasion. he since had to flee russia. stick around for that. or that. wk s every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose.

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as the war between russia and ukraine intensifies, so have vladimir putin's threats to use nuclear weapons, or his implied threats. late last month putin ordered his country's nuclear forces to be on higher alert. some leaders said he's just bluffing, including president zelenskyy of ukraine. putin has increasingly become backed into a corner and a corner is a dangerous place to put the thin-skinned russian autocrat. how might he decide to save face?

if we escalate our intervention, will he lash out with nukes? i can't help but think how different this all might look had ukraine not given up their part of the soviet union's old nuclear weapons stockpile 30 years ago in return for now pointless security assurances from moscow. but how do we deal today with our nuke-filled world? earlier i spoke to beatrice finn, the executive director of the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, which won the nobel peace prize in 2017. beatrice, thank you for joining us on the show this evening. how worried are you that given the conflict in ukraine and given vladimir putin putting his nuclear forces on high alert from the very beginning of this conflict, the world may now be closer to a nuclear exchange than ever before in our lifetimes? >> well, i'm really, really worried. it's a very dangerous situation and the kind of confrontation that we haven't seen since probably the cuban missile

crisis to be honest. and it's extremely worrying, not just because we see russia threatening to use nuclear weapons in case of anyone interfering with his war on ukraine, but also because it hinders us from helping in ukraine and makes us sort of paralyzed, making us just watch. the consequences of any nuclear weapons used would be not just catastrophic where it happens but also for the whole world, so it's really -- i sense a lot of fear around the world, a lot of anxiety about this, and it's really real. >> beatrice, do you think people, especially younger people in the west whose only real experience of observing wars in recent decades has been the u.s. taking out small, weaker nations like afghanistan, iraq, libya, do you think they understand what it means to escalate possibly via a no-fly zone against a former superpower like russia which still has the largest nuclear weapons stockpile on the planet, the risks that are involved here? >> this is where we see nuclear

weapons being used, not in how people traditionally describe it as to preserve peace and stability but really to blackmail the whole world. we're seeing that putin is using it to get everyone to stay out, meaning that we would have to watch these events unfold. it triggers this incredibly difficult questions for us. for example, how much are we prepared to watch ukraiians suffer before we dare to intervene. of course things like no-fly zones, i want to help ukrainians right now. i feel frustrated watching this unfold and terrified about what the consequences would be for ukrainians. but the fact that the west has nuclear weapons means the stakes are so high and would you risk nuclear war? what would you risk nuclear war for? and nothing would really justify nuclear war. >> and you mentioned blackmail, which is a good word. on the one hand what's happening in ukraine is a reminder of the dangers of nuclear weapons, for

one man to blackmail us and possibly end life on planet earth. but on the other hand is it not an incentive to smaller countries like iran or ukraine itself to get nuclear weapons in the future to protect themselves from the bigger, nuclear-armed powers like russia or like. u.s.? >> it really depends on how we respond to this crisis. if we continue to legitimatize nuclear weapons and behave like this is rational behavior and fine for a leader to do, we're going to encourage proliferation. if we survive this current crisis, we will see it again and again and again. every time we will push closer to the time a nuclear war will start. but there's a massive reaction against it. in the u.n. general assembly, we saw countries condemning russia

to use nuclear weapons. by allowing nuclear weapons to have this power and exist, we also leave the power with individuals like putin. who is going to do this next time? >> yes. and one last question to you, beatrice, on that issue. you are pushing the treaty on nuclear weapons. is it a fantasy to talk about total nuclear disarmament given the state of the world today? how utopian a vision is a nuclear weapons-free world. >> i am fully convinced that we will see nuclear disarmament. the question is really are we going to do it before or after we see nuclear weapons used again. there's really no options. are we comfortable in allowing people like putin, like xi, like kim jong-un, for example, but also trump. we were super worried just last year about trump using nuclear weapons. how long are we going to keep

doing this? so we have options. the treaty is an instrument that bans this type of behavior that putin is doing right now. and i think that's really the future. we can choose to do it now or after nuclear weapons have been used and i know which one i would prefer. >> yes, i know which one i would prefer too and i'm glad you reminded our viewers who's in charge of those nukes. donald trump was a man who once had nuclear weapons and still talks about using them. beatrice finn, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. next, there's a chorus of republican voices singing the same lie about rising gas prices. give me 60 seconds to set them straight. that's after this short break. don't go away. don't go away. i've always focused on my career. but when we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. lavender baths always calmed him. so we turned bath time into a business. ♪

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the 60-second rant. start the clock. why do we have such high gas prices? the republicans say it's to do with our lack of production and biden's war on american energy. these are not putin's prices, they say biden's. official figures suggest we're on level for record production but it is the reality unlike the gop's gaslighting. the keystone xl pipeline republicans keep moaning on about wouldn't be open until 2023 even if biden hadn't cancelled it. and it was to get canadian oil to refineries mostly for export. the biden administration approved more than 3500 permits. the energy companies are sitting on more than 9,000 permits which they're not using because they find share buybacks much more appealing. the industry already has permission to drill on area 55,000 square miles which is roughly the size of the state of georgia. you want energy independence?

go for renewables. you want to blame someone for high prices at the pump? blame the energy companies. ahead, what real cancel culture looks like. you won't actually find it in america but it's become almost endingless in russia. but it's bt endingless in russia mah lt to se for herself that dove breakage remedy gives damaged hair the strength it needs. even with repeated combing hair treated with dove shows 97% less breakage. strong hair with new dove breakage remedy. number one beauty brand not tested on animals. 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. ♪ trelegy for copd. [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on by... ♪ if you've been playing down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day,... ♪ ...it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy.

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seventh graders reading tony morrison. the u.s. has contorted itself into the repressive love child and a communist gulog. just take a listen. >> now is your time to stand up. now is your time to usher in a renaissance time of freedom. >> i've got news for you, school board president, your power does not supersede that of the u.s. constitution. and the first amendment rights of the citizens of this great nation. >> attention, board members. our nation is a republic. we are the people. we have a voice. we are americans first and we will be free always. >> wow. how stirring and inspiring. how patriotic and brave. watching that i realize there's perhaps no more abused word in contemporary american politics

than freedom. everything nowadays from covid vaccinations to being asked to use a trans person's correct pronoun is a pitched battle between freedom and tyranny. it's bonkers, of course, but it's also oh, so infuriating because if you want to see what actual tyranny looks like, all you have to do is look at what's going on inside of russia right now. some 14,000 anti-war protesters have been detained in the last two weeks. the kremlin has outlawed public opposition to the invasion. you can't even say the word "invasion." independent news outlets are being shut down and journalists are freeing the country. russian dissidents are risking life and limb to speak out against actual totalitarianism. here in america you have liberals bemoaning the rise of cancel culture on college campuses while conservatives are pathetically engaging in revolutionary cost play at their school board meetings, acting like they're on the front lines of the battle of democracy because they don't want their

12-year-old to read about racism. let's be clear. this, this right here is what a real struggle for freedom looks like. that woman is being arrested for holding up a blank sign. i repeat, a blank sign in public. there is no anti-war screed on the poster unless it's written in russian invisible ink. how orwellian is that? that's happening in russia. so respectfully to all of those who say america is no longer a land of liberty, that it's been lost to cancel culture or cdc-woke dictatorship, i say go to moscow and then tell me what fighting for freedom really looks like. after the break, i'll speak to the editor in chief of tv rain, russia's last independent tv station that was just forced off the air by russian authorities. stay with us. uthoriesti stay with us is the number one heart failure brand prescribed by cardiologists and has helped over one million people. it was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby.

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>> that right there was swan lake and if you weren't expecting to see it on your television out of the blue, you're not alone. about a week ago it was the last thing russian viewers saw on tv rain before the independent news outlet, which had tens of thousands of paid subscribers and millions of monthly online users was shut down by the kremlin. it was a provocative final gesture. the same ballet was broadcast on soviet state television in august of 1991 during the attempted coup against mikhail gorbachev. it's synonymous with russian political turmoil. i spoke with the editor in chief of tv rain about the kremlin's totalitarian pivot and his own decision to flee his homeland. thank you so much for joining me on the show this evening. can i start by asking you, is tv rain now done? is it completely over, or are there plans to revive it abroad

perhaps, broadcast for another country? >> well, it is done for now unfortunately because of the military censorship in russia. a lot of our journalists are not in russia anymore. but since we -- for example, me, i don't know how to do anything else, only journalism. and since we understand that we have a huge responsibility to our viewers who were supporting us over these last 12 years, so definitely sooner or later, rather sooner, we will continue something new somewhere else and of course tv rain will somehow be back. >> tikhon, what was it like not just to have to suspend broadcast of your channel and your work, but to then have to leave your own country too? i can't imagine what that must be like. >> well, i would say that it's really humiliating because we

are not criminals. we did nothing wrong. we were just doing our job. and i believe that we were doing our job good, while our audience was growing. these first days of war we had 25 million views on youtube every day. so a lot of people, they were coming to tv rain to get real information. and because of that, our tv station was shut down. we were receiving threats. and we were actually forced to leave the country, because with this new law we would face up to 15 years in jail. so it's -- it's not fair. it's humiliating because we are sure that real patriots and we were doing good things to our country, but the government of our country decided to make our life harder and harder.

>> yes, it did. and i wonder, tikhon, what do ordinary russians now think about the invasion of ukraine, even though you're not allowed to call it an invasion in russia. have they been completely cut off from the world in terms of information, in world in terms of information, in terms of reporting of what's actually happening on the ground of ukraine? >> i would say there is no thing as ordinary russian. all the russians are different. there is a group of people who each understands everything and opposes the war. there is a group of people which watch state propaganda tv stations and does not understand what is happening there and thinks that russia is saving ukrainians from neo-nazis and all this propaganda nonsense. there is a group of people in russia which doesn't care because for years it was this unofficial agreement between the

part of society and the government that you guys sit and shut up and we give you a comfortable life, et cetera, et cetera. but even in this situation, it will look at the pulse remembering that there is no sociology in russia. even if we look at pro-kremlin institutions, their polls say that 29% of russians opposes the war, opposes the war. which mean every third russian does not like this war, which means that if it is a pro-kremlin institution that in reality this 29% could be 60%. and i think that a lot of russians, they are just confused. their minds are so -- are so destroyed by the propaganda over the years that they just don't understand what is happening

there, but still they could get information with television, with social media, with vpn, et cetera. >> on that note, is it possible for putin to turn russia into a north korea, into a hermit kingdom, if you will? there are reports on russian channels, pundits on air have been mildly beginning to question the war in ukraine on air. >> i think that it's hard to do because it is hard to build iran in russia because there is no ideology in russia. it's hard to explain to people how come that yesterday they had their iphones. they had the ability to go to mcdonald's, to buy clothes in nice magazine shops, et cetera, et cetera and now the economy is

destroyed and they lost all this comfort they used to have. so i think that it's really hard and it's too early to predict and these times it's impossible to predict anything. i think we should wait and see how these sanctions would work and how the situation on the ground in ukraine will develop. >> we will have to see what happens and we will have to leave it there. thank you so much for your time tonight. >> thank you so much. >> please do stay safe. >> thanks. and coming up at the top of the hour with ayman mohyeldin congresswoman susan wild will discuss her trip to ukraine and the increasing pressure the u.s. is putting on russia. that's at 9:00 eastern. we'll be right back after a short break. to support underserved communities... ...helping us all move forward financially. pnc bank: see how we can make a difference for you.

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thanks for watching, everyone. technically not done for the night. i will be back at 10:00 eastern for msnbc's continuing coverage of the war in ukraine. now it is time to hand it over to my colleague ayman mohyeldin. before i go, i watched your friday night commentary over on peacock about the newfound moral clarity so many politicians seem to have when talking about war and war on ukraine inspired in part by a comment from jen psaki this week. listen. >> does the white house support the ukrainian's people's right to resist the occupation by any

means necessary. >> we certainly support the rights of the ukrainian people to fight back. >> i'm all for saying that ukrainians have the right to fight back because they do. i just wonder do other occupied and oppressed people around the world have the right to fight back against their oppressors and invaders too because often when they do it is the u.s. government that's the first to call them terrorists. could that be moral clarity or moral consistency from the u.s.? >> to be honest, we can only hope. but honestly, let's also hope that it becomes a moment of clarity not just for the governments but for private corporations and big tech companies as well. i'm sure you saw this headline that must have raised a few eye brows when people read it this weak. meta, the social parent media company of facebook and instagram has reportedly modified its guidelines to allow

posts against russian soldiers and allowing posts calling for the death of the head of state in vladimir putin and the president of belarus. it is also allowing users to post praise of the azob baaal on, a far right militia in ukraine that has connections to neo-nazis. can you imagine facebook allowing for violence against western troops viewed as invaders. i'm old enough to remember what the past 20 years have been like for people who like a post over concern it would be branded as -- they would be branded as supporters of terrorism or supporting hate speech and now you can call for violence against russians while supporting some neo-nazis because facebook says it's okay to do so. >> ayman, i think i can speak for a lot of brown people that looked at the headline earlier this week and said, sorry what?

you can call for violence against certain people, russian invaders. there are a lot of people around the years who are bound to be worried about what they see on social media or even actually i come from the u.k. where people have been arrested for posts on social media glorifying violence abroad in various conflict zones. it is a thorny issue. you know, sometimes we don't want to be encouraging such calls. as we started this conversation, i just wish we had some consistency here rather than, as you point out social media companies and governments kind of making it up as they go along just in the context of ukraine. i'm wondering, let's try and make this a universal, global moral moment, if we can. >> yeah, i know. absolutely. thank you very much for that. and great interview with senator warren. very eye opening as always, my friend. >> thank you. >> we'll see you in a little bit. good evening. i'm ayman mohyeldin. today marks the 18th day of russia's invasion of ukraine. we begin tonight with some breaking news. ukraine's state border guard services have announced