♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] a tv president now trying to keep his promise in realize as well. he has taken on the most challenging role of a lifetime. that of a wartime leader. a parked that he very likely hoped never to have to play. a true servant of the people. and on that note, i wish you a very good night. thank you for staying up late, i will see you at the end of tomorrow. ♪ ♪ ♪ the capital of ukraine's western neighbor. hungary. we are going to start tonight on the other side of ukraine though, the eastern side in the city of mariupol. is a port city of about half 1 million people, look at the autumn app, it's only about 30 miles from the russian border,

and it is a largely russian -speaking city. it's one of the biggest cities in the donbas region of ukraine, which is an area that russia has trying to been prying away from ukraine for years. russian and ukrainian forces have been engaged in fighting there for years. many observers thought that if there any place that is going to be potentially receptive to a russian invasion, it might be a place like mariupol. but last month, just two days before russia did in fact launch its invasion of ukraine, this was the scene in central mariupol. a large protest, dubbed, mariupol's ukraine. residents turned out with ukrainian flags and anti-putin placards. the site they chose for those patriotic protest is called theater square, the main building, you can see it there, is this theater which dates to the late 19th century. the mariupol trauma theater. it's a mariupol landmark. once the invasion began, and as mariupol has been besieged by

russian forces, and come under relentless russian bombardment, this theater became a shelter for civilians in mariupol whose homes were destroyed or who tried to escape the constant russian shelling. this video was posted by the azov battalion, it's a far-right military unit that has become part of the ukrainian national guard, it's been trading civilians for self-defense. this video was taken last thursday, and shows the mariupol theater full of young families and young children. the image, from satellite company max are appears to show the mariupol theater on march 13th. on both sides of the theater residents wrote the russian word children, you can see it on the ground, large enough for any russian bomber satellites to see from the sky. now, we maxar says this image was captured two days ago. this is the theater today. reduced to rubble.

mariupol city council said it was the work of a russian bomb, dropped well hundreds of people, including children, were believed to be sheltering inside. city officials said they could not, immediately, go into assess how many people have been killed or injured, because russia was continuing into a shell russian areas. the toll of this bombing remains unknown. video from a local official shows a sports center a couple of miles away, also used as a civilian shelter, apparently also hit by a russian strike. that is according to cnn. the situation in mariupol is, by all accounts, hellish. city officials say about 11,000 people were able to leave the city, today, but surrounded by russian forces, most of the hundreds of thousands of residents of mary opal or unable to escape the constant bombardment. the city has no electricity, and little food or water. ukraine officials say civilian casualties are in the thousands, and been buried in mass graves.

that was before these latest attacks on civilian shelters. at the moment, the apparent russian strike hit the mariupol theater, ukraine's president was addressing the united states congress by video link, telling lawmakers that his country needs more help and needs now. in the midst of a speech, he played a video for the american lawmakers showing some of this suffering and destruction that is people are experiencing. we are going to play you a bit of that video, but i have to warn you, it includes graphic and disturbing images, including bodies of people killed by russian attacks. so again, this is the video, the very disturbing video made by the ukrainian government, and shown today to the u.s. congress. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ that video, from the ukrainian government, and it on these words. close the sky over ukraine. another plea from president

zelenskyy for the u.s. and nato to implement a no-fly zone. salons he then ended his address to congress in english. >> and as the leader of my nation, addressing president biden, you are the leader of the nation of your great nation -- i wish you would be the leader of the world's. being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace. thank you. glory to ukraine. [applause] >> but shortly after zelenskyy's speech. president biden announced a new

800 million dollar h package to ukraine. including hundreds of anti aircraft systems. thousands of shoulder mounted missiles, thousands of small arms like machine guns, and drones. we'll have more on that in a few minutes. after the speech, a reporter asked the president if he was ready to call vladimir putin a war criminal. at first, biden said no. but perhaps he didn't hear the question, because a few seconds later he returned to that reporter. president biden, today, calling boot in a war criminal. the kremlin expressed great outrage and in aviation it about that today. there is no doubt that the situation in ukraine is a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions. it is the death and injury and destruction, the russian invasion has created millions of refugees. unicef said today that one and a half million children have

fled ukraine since the start of the war, equating to about 55 children flee in the country every minute. those are, of course, the lucky ones. presidents alone ski says more than 100 children have been killed in the invasion, the united -- the men security council will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow, to get a brief from agencies on the worsening humanitarian situation in ukraine, and the status of refugees. russia's military appears to be making little progress in capturing military, in fact, ukraine says that its forces have launched counter offenses against russia's forces in the past 24 hours. and as skeptical as everyone remains of the ongoing cease-fire talks between ukraine and russia, both sides expressed some optimism, today, about a potential deal. but for now, the war grinds on. under constant russian bombardment, the civilian toll in ukraine is increasing by the hour. i want to go to cal perry, who

is standing by in the ukrainian city of lviv. cal, i know we've already spoken a lot about this attack in mariupol, both the theater and the reported attack on the sports center, both of which people were taking shelter in. what more can you tell us about it, it's so horrific that, i think we have to talk a little more potent. agreed, i think this is starting to become the face of this war. it's the worst that humanity has to offer, -- we have a third side that i think we need to talk, but that's the hospital in the city. russian forces moved at the hospital yesterday, and they are in control of the hospital. they're using the patience as human shields, and if you flushes out a little bit, you get an idea of how bad the urban combat is. there is a number of reasons why there in the hospital, for one, they can be assured that, because of the pieces there that the train forces are gonna fire on them in that hospital. two, you are deterring any man who's fighting on the front

from seeking metal coal treatment at the hospital. and three, you are terrorizing the civilian population. it's emblematic of what we're seeing across the country, and america will, in that city, you have this hospital in theater, you have a place where people are taking shelter. you have a picture of a city, not just under siege, but a city that is slowly dying, even without the violence. a place that is running out of food, water, i will remind our viewers a week ago that the president of ukraine said that a girl in that city died of dehydration, since then there have been no aid convoys that are made to the center of the city. and again, the men are at the front. so, there are going to be children who are being killed, and children who are being left alone because their parents are gone, and that is the reality of the situation in that city, which, again, seems unrelenting, like there is no letup from the russians at all. >> i know people in ukraine have other things to do than listen to speeches, but their

president is making a lot of them. he is addressing parliament, after congress, on a daily basis, and it does seem to be rolling morale inside ukraine. where are you hearing about how president zelenskyy is doing in his efforts to convince western leaders to do more in a country's fight against russia? >> so, he is speaking to a variety of audiences. he speaks to the americans, today, to congress he's able to speak their language, the language of geopolitics, language of russia as a threat, the language of how nato plays into this. he switches to russian later in the day, post a video where he speaks to the parents of those soldiers in russia. then he speaks in russia to russian soldiers, trying to tell them to surrender. by the time he is done with his day, and he posted a video to the -- they've seen their leader able to speak to all these different audiences, and then when he tells the ukrainian people is a variation of the same thing which is, if gone is on our side, who could be on their

side? we are fighting for our country, we are fighting for our freedom, we are fighting for our homes. the russians don't know what it is there fighting for. this is a man who is in an increasingly difficult position when it comes to the negotiations, because no one wants to negotiate with a country that is in other -- as their citizens under meyer. at the same time, as we have chronicled there are people dying, all across the eastern part of the country. so any chance of a cease-fire is something they have to look at. i was grabbing a coffee headache volume are, earlier, today, i turn to the person sitting next to me and said. look. it sounds like zelenskyy is going to take a pass on nato, what is your feeling about nato not even a nato, as a way of stopping violence. the person said, who cares, after everything we've done here, nato is going to want to join us. after all the weapons that are committed to this country, the way that we've stood out said the russians, we are the new nato. he has tapped into that feeling, he's tapped into this idea that ukraine is on the frontlines against russia, and the west.

and as this ideology that is working, and it's getting people to the front, and it is really, i think, making a huge difference, here especially amongst the civilian defense forces, ali. >> cal, can i just ask you about the humanitarian situation? i'm on the other side, obviously, of the scene, where i see people coming into hungary. but lviv's western ukraine. it's very close to poland, you are just a few dozen miles from the polish border, and it is the main point through which are many people who are traveling out of the country to the west will go. are you seeing a shift in sort of the flow of humanity, as these attacks get more severe, and then as the humanitarian crisis grows? >> so, it seems like for many people, hundreds of thousands of people to stop. it's a stop on the way to poland or hungry, where you are, it's a way to avoid the actual physical confrontation of this war. a way to avoid the explosion so far this city itself has been spared from explosions. there are concerns that will

change. the city itself is running out of room and resources. it is being taxed, there is no more room in the dormitories. there's no more room and hotels, at the train station you. have people sleeping outside. the authorities here are trying to move people on from the city, because as of course, flowing the other way you have weapons and fighters. they just want to keep the logistics moving. i think one of the, things and i know that you are spending a lot of time looking at this. down the road for these refugees is going to be something awful. the exploitation that happens once people flee, wednesday and up in foreign countries, wednesday end up in foreign cities can be horrible, and it is that after a fact that we're now starting to see, again this situation only gets worse as time gets worse. who gets more and more difficult to find, the weather gets worse the longer you sleep outside. that's over only thing we need to worry about because the numbers on imaginable, two and a half million people have fled, and you will number internally to this place. it's an overwhelming humanitarian crisis.

>> yeah, it's cold as we report on these stories, but we don't live outside. people are outside for days or hours, there's price gouging there is extortion going on. cows are only job is to bear witness, and you and your team 's are doing this admirably, thank you for doing that. nbc correspondent cal perry in lviv, i want to bring into the conversation marion sublot ski, a member of the ukrainian parliament, thank you so much for joining us, particularly at this hour. is the middle of the night, but i do want to get your reaction to president biden's announcement after president zelenskyy's presentation to congress that he is sending more military aid to ukraine more anti-tank aircraft, more anti tank weapons, and more anti aircraft weapons, more armed drones. is this going to help you? >> this is extremely welcomes, i'm we're very grateful to american people, to biden, to american taxpayers to

supporting us. we understand the united states had their own problems, and 14 billion dollars of aid to ukraine still matter a lot in the eye to states. but here we will go a long way, it will alleviate suffering, and help us fight supposedly one of the biggest armies in the world. of course, president zelenskyy's right that the u. s. is the only country that can lead the free world, and stop the global rules that were written down after world war ii from changing. after world war ii veteran thought that changing borders by force or something of the past, now this man and kremlin tries to change at. where the front lines of this, this is not only a fight about ukraine this is a fight about -- we do ask the american people and for president biden to lead the fight. >> --

what more do you have to say to the world when they say to you, as cal perry just reported, that you are making that argument that you are the frontline of democracy, near the front line against russian imperialism, near the front line against rules that we all agreed many many years ago we don't break, about changing borders. why do you feel that the west is not completely embracing that, and saying that this is the war, and we need to get into it? >> well, i think the west has done quite a lot already, and it's very difficult for me to criticize any country for not doing enough. i just need to do say that we need to do the maximum, there are a lot of dictators around the world. a lot of countries with no democracy, and currently every single one of them is watching,. what is the cost of actually trying to challenge the rules. one of the costs for invading other countries, and how will they be punished for that? we need to set the precedent

that the costs are all the maximum potential consequences so all the countries can do -- we cannot return to pre-world war ii world, where one country invades another country and they tried to reach a sort of agreement about the changes to territory. otherwise the world will turn into chaos, and we will step in into world war iii one way or another. >> however, there are negotiations that start and stop between russia and ukraine. negotiations made a deal. how do you feel about the idea that ukraine may end up making some concessions in order to get peace in the face of an unprovoked invasion of your country? >> it's very difficult to understand what will putin end up agreeing to, and what he can agree to. what we understand now is that he's playing to reach some sort

of agreement, it was not existent before the war. he was absolutely 100% invested in's idea, that he will rig the country over the course of days or weeks. by now, in his mind, the country should have already been conquered, and there was no one to negotiate with. how soon can you come to the reality that he actually needs to come to a table, he should admit that his plans of failed already. can't reach what's he wants with military needs is a debatable question. so i just think we have to wait and see for that. >> let me ask you about the reports, he's very disturbing reports about the attacks continued attacks on civilian infrastructure, including this theater in mariupol in which it is believed that there are people taking shelter.

do you think this changes the argument. do you think this changes the willingness of the world to get involved in a different way, when they continue to see these humanitarian -- but might end up being warcrimes. >> of course, it changes the attitude of ukrainian people as well. on where you're seeing right now is actually much worse than what you can see -- i just returned from kyiv a day ago, and i listen to a lot of stories from members of parliament, who helped people get out from the worst affected areas and you do hear the stories about how refugees, those people who escaped fighting or talking about actual violence, the murder of civilians, it's absolutely heartbreaking. so, it's one thing to see it on the video, that zelenskyy presented to watch for people, at the hospitals. it's another thing to hear the stories of violence, and see the videos of violence. it's actually much worse in

that, and this is something that ukrainian nationals will never forgive never forget for generations to come. >> for generations to come indeed, where we on zelenskyy is a member of the ukrainian parliament. but we say this evening, but some of the night for. you thank you for your time. >> well, president biden today announced a new package, as we are discussing, of lethal aid to ukraine, including, for the first time, armed switchblade drones. can they help turn the tide of war? we are going to discuss with ukraine's former defense minister, after this. ter this as a professional bull-rider i'm used to taking chances. but when it comes to my insurance i don't. i use liberty mutual, they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo

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volodymyr zelenskyy, gave an impassioned address and, a virtual address to u.s. lawmakers. he once again requested a no-fly zone over his country, and pleaded for more security assistance in his conflict with russia. a no-fly zone remains off the table, a few hours, later president joe biden authorized a new package of $800 million in military aid. this is in addition to the $200 million he approves over the weekend. now, the new aid packages include more of the javelin anti tank and stinker actually aircraft weapons -- and which have been used to great effect against russian troops. the administration is also sending 100 of what they referred to as what they referred to as tactical unmanned aerial systems. two congressional officials told nbc news today, those

tactical unmanned aerial systems are actually something called switchblade drones, similar to the ones that you would see here. they are portable, low cost, single use weapons, that can strike enemy targets from miles away, and fly much faster than the turkish drones that ukraine has been using to date. these u.s. switchblade drones are also small enough that they cannot be detected by most air defense systems. now, these weapons are coming at a crucial time for ukrainian troops, who, today, according to ukrainian officials, began launching counter attacks against russian forces outside of kyiv. in the russian control in southern city of -- these are aerial images of the russian occupied, kherson airport. tonight, ukraine's military defense reported that they destroyed several helicopters that were parked there. joining us now is andrea zakharova knee act the former ukrainian minister of defense

the cofounder and chairman of the security think tank, this centered fence strategy. thank you again for being with us. i want to ask you about the fact that you and members of your current government continue to ask for greater air support, no-fly zone's and airplanes. while, there's not much movement on that, it does seem that the constant requests do get some response, in the case of the switchblade drones, or the $800 million in new assistance that was announced today. tell me how far these incremental things go in helping ukraine in its fight against russia? >> well, of course, any help, especially that substantial like 100 million, in addition to 200 means there's a lots of equipment coming which enhances their abilities, of course it's a big deal, it's something that helps us fight, especially if this is the high tech stuff like javelins and stingers and the switch plates. but, we need to understand

we're dealing with thousands of tanks, we're dealing with tens of thousands of russian soldiers which are in our land. so, we have a huge, colossal challenge. and while this is a system that is very interesting and effective, and it helps, and it was developed originally for special operations forces and it's helpful to work with small groups which is our tactic, of course. and it's helpful in the battlefield but up for talking about 100 or something like that. , that doesn't resolve the problem we have now. we're dealing with a huge force which is currently in ukraine, and we are succeeding. we are doing quite well. so, we do need support, additional support, absolutely, with equipment. >> let's talk about these guys, and the stinger missiles. stinger missiles are also very

portable, and they're useful for low flying, relatively slow aircraft. everybody got familiar with how the afghans use them against a russian helicopters. your government is discussing the acquisition of s 300 anti aircraft missiles. this is much more like patriot missiles, that we are used to. tell me what you think the likelihood of getting them is, and what difference will make in the fight. >> well, because we are currently very -- bombarding are cities with missile strikes, airstrikes against our city, particularly the civilian infrastructure. today we had a horrible case in mariupol where the theater was struck and was full of civilians. so all these things are done, and something like a stinger

missile has nothing to do about it, so this is absolutely out of its reach and it's out of the reach of the operator. so, for example a few days ago beloved facility was shot by the missiles that were launched from the black sea, which was like several hundred kilometers away from the target. so, for that, we need a totally different system. and this is the 300, this is about patriots, and that's sort of type of air defense. so, these are different challenges and different types of air defense equipment. and one cannot place the other one. >> thank you sir, as always for your time, andriy zagorodnyuk, a former ukrainian minister of defense. we appreciate you joining us as always. as president zelenskyy was getting a standing ovation from the u.s. congress, vladimir putin was giving one of his most frightening speeches yet, warning russians that they must follow the party line or else. so, how does the u.s. confront an authoritarian leader who seems more emboldened than ever to put an end to democracy as we know it.

the great historian and applebaum joins me after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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special operation was developed especially in accordance with preapproved plans. he claimed the invasion was a fight for russia's sovereignty and said the west is trying to split russia into parts. the authoritarian leader wanted to make sure he was clear. "we will never allow ukraine to become a stronghold of aggressive actions against our country." he also delivered the starkest of threats to russians who oppose him and his so-called special military operation. putin said, "the russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew into their mouths. i am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country." those startling comments come after the u.s. senate form relations committee held a hearing yesterday on

combatting authoritarianism. the committee called the pulitzer prize-winning historian anne applebaum, an expert on authoritarianism, to testify. she said that the u.s. needs to do more to combat russia's authoritarian leader. >> western sanctions alone have no impact on autocrats who know that they can continue to trade with one another, accusations from human rights organizations mean nothing to dictators. -- instead of always reacting to the latest outrage, we need to change the rules of the game altogether. >> joining me now is anne applebaum, a staff writer at "the atlantic" and pulitzer prize-winning historian. thank you for being with us, ms. applebaum. you said change the rules of the game, that we have to stop being reactive. in this context of the russian invasion of ukraine, how would you have seen it going differently and how, in the middle of the game, do you change? >> so, there is

the famous irish joke about, if you want to get to dun laoghaire, you don't start from here. so i would have pushback not just against russian kleptocracy but also russian kleptocracy many years ago. we could have changed our laws to make it impossible to buy and sell property anonymously in our country and in other countries, we could've thought differently about how we communicate with the russians and others. in the middle of the war, it's a much more difficult prospect, though i do hope that this war is going to give us some ideas for how to proceed in future. in the middle of the war what i think we need to do is change our thinking. i think that's made beginning to happen in washington. we need to begin to think that just about damage limitation or about how to grind down the russians slowly. but about how we are going to help ukraine win. and by

winning i mean expel the russian troops from their country and create some kind of stable, long lasting permanent peace. and that is a very large ask from -- but if we make that our goal and then work backwards, which arms do we need to give the ukrainians in order for them to push out the troops? what kind of final settlement will achieve what we wanted to achieve? we are not looking for a second best outcome. we are looking for the best outcome. if we start to think like that, that will help guide us and our policy from now on. >> and there is complexity when we talk about the west and the u.s., obviously. and volodymyr zelenskyy was appealing very directly to the united states congress and the president. but there is a strong appeal to

ukraine's neighbors on the west, including hungary, where i am, where they are saying, we are okay with sanctions, we are not touching the energy thing. the responses from different central and eastern european countries are different, depending on their experience and relationship with russia. the baltic states are very concerned about russian expansionism. poland is very concerned. hungary less so. how did these nato nations, these ukrainian neighbors, align themselves to be more impactful? >> it's important to remember that in this context, hungary's actually the outlier. hungary is the only one of ukraine's immediate neighbors where the leader of hungary has had a personal and probably corrupt relationship with russia for some years. and there is a major russian energy investment in hungary which probably involved the hungarian ruling party. and he is an outlier on many issues in the european union and also somebody who has chipped away at democratic institutions in his own country. and so he is less worried about the impact of autocracy at home because he is working on creating a small one

himself. there are those differences between countries. i think it's actually quite miraculous that the eu, which contains a lot of countries with different political entries, from spain, which is many miles away, to lithuania, which is much closer -- it has managed to hold together quite a broad coalition, hungary being one of the exceptions, partly because europeans have realized that this is partly a hinge moment. that the direction that this war goes will affect not all of us for a generation. it will affect the way democracy see themselves, the way the united states is perceived, whether democracy feels like a political system that it is expanding in rising or whether it feels like autocracies winning that contest. i realize that that is a little oversimplified. there

are many kinds of democracies and autocracies. we are not in the cold war and there are not two clear camps. but nevertheless, there's been a trend the last few years of liberal democracies and democratic institutions receding. and this war will have a big impact on what direction that goes in. i think the europeans mostly realize that. >> i understand that short tv segments mean we have to simplify things. but your books have been a master class for me in this and not in simplified terms. so, i would recommend that people read them. and thank you, as always, anne applebaum, a staff writer for "the atlantic" and the author of many important words about this part of the world. thanks for taking part of your time. tonight the ukrainian city of mariupol is perhaps the ukrainian city in the most dire straits tonight. we will talk with someone in ukraine you trying to get medical help to you mariupol and other parts of the country. stay with us.

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doctors without borders, has been sounding the alarm that the port city of mariupol, in the southeastern quarter of ukraine, is in particularly dire straits. they warned then that many were lacking basic needs like running water. since then, things have only gotten worse. this is a phone call between doctors without borders and one of their staff members in mariupol, this past saturday, march 12th. [inaudible]

>> that was saturday, today, that already terrible situation escalated dramatically. variable city council said today that a powerful russian bomb hit this building, a theater, where city council believes that hundreds of civilians were sheltering. city officials could not immediately assess how many people were killed or injured, because the interest of the bomb shelters been blocked by rubble so, what does this mean for the already precarious medical situation on the ground in mariupol, and what does medical care look like in all of ukraine right now? joining us now is alex wade, he's an emergency coordinator with doctors without borders. he spent the last few weeks traveling all over ukraine, to leave even the west, to the central ukraine city of dnipro, that's where he joins us tonight. thank you for joining us this evening, i know you in the world are particularly concerned, right now, about the city of mariupol.

prior to today's news about the bombing at a theater there that has been used as a shelter, what made mariupol situation worse and other cities? >> for us, one of the most concerning things is that we've been completely cut off from being able to access mariupol. we also lost communications with the hospitals there, we had been in contact with them and we had been donating supplies to. the last communication we had was that we were receiving an increased amount of wounded, and there are worried about running out of supplies because the medical supply chain in the entire country has been disrupted due to this war so we are worried about the situation in the hospitals but for us also we have staff and colleagues of us who are there in mariupol who have been reporting shows the conditions and they're truly horrific. they're saying it's a living nightmare, they're saying as hell on earth they reported the lack of water and food in the

city. they reported to us the dead bodies littering the streets and the stories of neighbors having to bury the dead bodies of their own neighbors the people who started dying due to lack of access to medical care, people with chronic conditions with access to insulin, meeting dialysis. and also the, many many people who die from the violence and shelling inside the city. >> alex, doctors without borders, or msf, medecins sans frontieres, as you call it. they've had a lot of experiences with taking doctors into some of the worst places in the world in terms of atrocities and dangerous. you are facing a situation, where not only is your medical supply chain in peril, but

there have been hospitals and medical facilities that have been hit, how does this affect the delivery of your services? >> it affects it enormously, because, indeed, we do work all over the world in conflict zones, but we do it with our principles of neutrality impartiality, negotiate with all partners, and the rules of international humanitarian law. we try to work in protected environment such as hospitals negotiating with all parties that is everyone's interest to have access to medical care as, as they're right under international law, it'll present we've seen that the rules of war have not always been respective, so far. there has been shelling in residential areas, there have been civilian casualties, innocent people who should be safe if they seeing their homes, or should be safe to choose to leave and seek shelter elsewhere. we haven't been seen, we've seen hospitals been hit, and there has been bombings in numerous residential areas.

so, it limits our ability to work very complicated, we don't have the guarantees we usually have in those zones, to have all parties respecting humanitarian access to the population. we haven't been able to have those sort of assurances and guarantees until now, so we haven't been able to access mariupol in the way that we would like to bring in supplies and personnel and to support the health system. >> what does that actually mean, alex, for the volunteers on which your organization exists. obviously, you get donations, we have doctors, nurses, health care professionals, and other volunteers who go into these places. they are going into a place where they do not have the normal guarantees they're used to. there are never any guarantees with anything that doctors without borders does.

how does that affect the flow of people that you need? >> i mean, you know, it affects our ability to send people to the places where they are most needed. so, we have many many staff and ukraine, who are operating in different parts of the country. but the staff that we have, currently, and mariupol are actually there because there was an ongoing project before the war started. it's a project that opened in 2015, when the conflict in the east again, and so its staff, who are already there with other ongoing activities -- we have teams ready to go, we have supply ready to go. if such passage opens up, until now it hasn't. we are unable to access places like mariupol, who have the highest needs right now. >> alex, thank you for what you do, thank you for all the volunteers that work with doctors without borders, and thank you for your time tonight. when we come back, a piece of good news amid all the tragedy.

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11-year-old, her son, a ukrainian refuse forcefully is home to escape russia's assault. so far, about one and a half million children have fled ukraine, and according to the united nations, for almost every second this war continues, another child becomes a refugee. hasan made his 600 mile voyage alone, traveling from southeast ukraine, to the slovakian border, with nothing but a backpack, a plastic bag and this phone number, written on the back of his hand. it was that phone number that connected him to siblings in slovakia. according to the slovakian ministry of the interior, hasan, quote, one over everyone with his smile, fearlessness and determination, worthy of a real hero, and quote. this was not the first time war displaced hasan and his family. the first time was about 11 years ago, when he was just a baby. hasan's siblings had to flee to escape violent conflict in their home country of syria. russia, of course, intervene in

the syrian conflict, with airstrikes to help the assad regime, striking both rebel held in the military outposts and civilians. at the time, hassan and his family fled to his mother's native country, ukraine. they have not seen their fathers since they escaped syria. the family says he disappeared in the fighting. after hudson successfully escaped russian violence, again, this time in ukraine, his mother, yulia, expressed her gratitude to slovakia in a video saying, quote, i'm very grateful that they save the life of my child. and you are small country, there are people with big hearts. yulia said she had to stay in ukraine to take care of her mother who could not move on her own, but as the intensity of the russian assault increased, yulia decided that -- and make it to slovakia. she succeeded. this week, she was reunited with their children, with the help of sinovac police officials. she got to greater children with a hug after war threatened

to separate -- this was the look on houston's face, one after weeks apart he got to hold his mother again. pure joy. now the family is safely back together, the slovakia police force says that houston's older brother is looking to secure a combination to the family, and set up schooling for siblings. they are beginning a new life together, defying the threat that war poses to all families caught in its path. that does it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow. u again tomorrow >> tonight, the unrelenting russian assault, targeting even more civilians in ukraine. and a theater sheltering up to 1000 people, women and children, struck in a city described as hell on earth. plus, president zelenskyy's emotional plea to congress today, resonating around the world. -- america's darkest days to drive home his message. and president biden calls putin a war criminal. the kremlin says that that is unforgivable. but will it change anything? as "the 11th hour" gets underway on a wednesday night.