>> correct. >> dennis diaz, thank you for being with us. let's keep in touch. let's keep in touch. i want to stay with your journey. i very much appreciate your time. thank you, dennis. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. follow the show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. craig melvin picks up with more news right now. and a good thursday morning to you. craig melvin here. and i want to start this hour with an image. look closely. in this image captured by satellite, it appears to show a theater in the city of mariupol, in ukraine, this is a theater there. if you look closely, we highlighted it for you there, you can see their words on both sides of that theater.

they're visible from the air. those words in russian, "children." ukraine says hundreds of people, mostly women and children, were sheltering inside that theater. but ukraine says russia struck it anyway. and you can see the damage, the smoke, the flames. in just the last hour we got an update on an attack at is secondary school and a cultural center overnight, also not military targets. at the time authorities said there were no casualties but that they were assessing the damage as they remove the debris. now kharkiv's regional prosecutor's office is reporting nearly two dozen casualties. to note, nbc news is not able to independently verify this claim but in stories like this that are only bolsters a blunt new assessment by president biden. he is calling vladimir putin a war criminal. the kremlin in response is

denouncing president biden's words as unforgivable. any minute now president biden is going to be holding a virtual summit with the irish prime minister on this st. patrick's day. we're going to keep an ear on that to see if he says anything about ukraine. but right now there in ukraine, evacuating civilians the major priority. the country's presidential office says nine humanitarian corridors have been set up today. the disruption this war is causing is in sharp focus when you hear stories like the one this 15-year-old girl who is battling leukemia told one of or correspondents. >> translator: it's horrible, she says. instead of fighting this disease we have to leave loved ones behind. it's hard to see her suffer, lara's grandmother says. >> let's get right to our team covering the latest developments. courtney kube is at the

pentagon. clint watts is at the big board and kelly cobiella is with us. chief foreign correspondent richard engel is inside kyiv. >> reporter: aid stations have been set up to evaluate victims. they say the vast majority of the casualties they're seeing are civilians. scorched earth, bombing now every day apartment buildings in kyiv. on the edge of kyiv this morning in a hospital in brovary, katerina, who sold yogurt and milk at the market, said she came out of her basement for a moment to wash the blankets when a missile exploded. it blew out her leg and sent

shrapnel through her back, piercing her lung. before i had a house, a job and now i'm disabled and have no home, she asked and began to curse russia. one city is bearing the brunt, mariupol in the south. many of the images from a hospital here are too graphic to broadcast. every selling means torn apart hands and legs and falling bodies. it's unpleasant but you have to listen, she says. now we can't bury the bodies. we can't get people with wounds and broken bones out of their houses because they're trapped in basements. and appeals to avoid killing civilians has been useless. new satellite images show mariupol's main theater, in front and in back are signs in russian that read "children."

they're large enough to be visible from the air. ukraine's government said hundreds of people were sheltering inside. russia struck the theater anyway claiming it was a military headquarters. it's unclear how many may have been killed or injured. russia may be bombing mariupol with particular ferocity because it wants to keep it in an eventual settlement. they could give them a potential land bridge to crimea but russia is destroying the very prize it seeks to own. and ukrainian troops aren't taking this lying down. the "new york times" citing american intelligence estimates reporting ukrainian forces have killed around 7,000 russians so far, more than the u.s. lost in afghanistan and iraq combined. but president vladimir putin may be willing to lose many more. in an angry sounding speech, he framed the war as an existential right for russia's survival and accused the ukrainian

government, calling them nazis of working with the united states to develop nuclear and biological weapons, including covid. he said russia had no choice but to strike first. ukrainian officials say the shelter under that theater in mariupol appears to have remained in tact and that as they're clearing away debris, survivors are emerging. >> chief foreign correspondent richard engel in kyiv. courtney, billing off what richard is reporting from ukraine, you got your own reporting on increased naval activity by russia near odesa in the south and defense secretary lloyd austin just represented comments in slovakia. what are you learning? >> reporter: we just in the last few minutes heard from secretary of defense lloyd austin. among the questions they got were about a no-fly zone, big topic of conversation for the past week or so.

secretary austin saying the biden administration is against be a part of a no-fly zone saying it would draw the united states into a direct conflict with ukraine. they were asked of the idea of slovak i can't providing s-300s to ukraine. we heard zelenskyy asking for more missiles. the slovakian defense minister said they're open to the idea of providing these to ukraine, but it's all that they have for their own defenses and he talked about the potential for some sort of a back fill or some other country, potentially like the united states, providing a capability gap, meaning the united states bring in a similar capability to defend slovakia.

secretary auston said he could not commit. kwt eis does the united states even have those to provide. the secretary was asked what was happening right now, the graphic images in richard's report of civilians being targeted by the russian military. he was asked does this represent a war crime? yesterday the president called putin a war criminal. he said attacking the united states is a crime and the state department is looking into some of these allegations right now. craig. >> it would just certainly seem just based on the images that we're watching every day that the war crimes are obvious. stand by for me. clint, drawing on your military and regional expertise, help us understand russia's latest moves

and what they could mean and how the aid we're sending ukraine is going to help. >> it's really interesting, craig, as we get into week four, we're coming to the end of the first month of the invasion. it is really about logistics at this point. that's where you're seeing remarkable things happen. and kyiv, very little advance by the russians in the last couple of days. just note the logistical problems that are happening. this is a fuel convoy that was trying to more on that access, completely destroyed. tanks use tons of fuel, armor convoy, tons of fuel. if they can't get fuel going, they can't do things like food. separately in the east, they've been working over the last three weeks to try and encircle several different towns here. kyiv. if they can't siege it, they

cannot take it. the other thing to look at is what i call man versus mud. in the coming months when the thaw occurs, you're going to see armored formations like this, this is a russian armored formation completely buried in mud. these tanks can be easily destroyed, they can't advance and then it becomes a bigger question of logistics. key points to watch is what's really going on in the south. down here in the south you do start to see the beginnings of logistics coming in by sea. they now control the sea of azov but again it's not going that well in other parts of the country. they did this advance here. last week could not go to mykolaiv. they lost a battalion crew, that's hundreds of men, in

voznesensk. it comes to the point from the pentagon today seeing what looks like russian naval forces going towards odesa. it's an extremely complex operation and you see the russians talking about already 7,000 dead. you see them redeploying from places like armenia or going to foreign countries like syria. entire battalions have been dissolved and they're trying to reorient them. two weapons we really got to focus on that the biden administration said they're going to plus up, the javelin over to the left. you can see it in some of the videos, troops going out. this is a top down, fire and forget weapon that is devastating russian armor convoys. for the russian aircraft flying

too low, you've got the stinger missiles. they have do remarkably well destroying aircraft. president zelenskyy said how do they go after aircraft and things like cruise missiles. that's that s-300 system we were talking about from slovakia. this is a weapon designed to intercept those cruise missiles. most of what you're seeing right now is coming in from inside russia into ukraine so they need much more advanced weapons system if they're going to stave off this indirect assault. >> standby. you said something i want to come back to, the sheer number of losses, more than the united

states lost in iraq and afghanistan. you're in warsaw poland. more than 30,000 refugees have come in just two weeks. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: just an astounding number, craig. the number of refugees who have come into poland is now greater than the entire population of warsaw, the biggest city in the country, 1.5 million refugees in poland. warsaw is coping but struggling to cope with these huge numbers. we're at the west train station. they've set up quite a good system here now where they have busses that are taking refugees to a reception center where they can get more help in terms of longer term shelter, matching

with host families, potentially jobs, register as refugee, et cetera. so that's good. we're not seeing a lot of people sleeping in the train stations, which was happening about a week ago when they had this huge influx into the city. the number of people is still growing. 60,000 people came in yesterday, refugees from ukraine came in yesterday. there are huge, huge numbers. a lot of them are going beyond warsaw now and into other cities and countries. some people want to go to the united states. we spoke to a 72-year-old grandmother about a week and a half ago. she has grandchildren in chicago. they wanted to bring her there on a tourist visa so she would have some place to stay. she desperately wants to go back to ukraine. they started the application process and we heard from her today and she said the application's been denied. it's a tourist visa. we took a closer look at the paperwork. it hasn't been denied but there's another obstacle. she now has to make a five-hour

trip from where she is at the border up to warsaw for a visa appointment to take this to the next step and see whether or not she can actually come to the united states. so it just highlights the difficulties that people are having in adjusting to being a refugee, being far from home with nothing, a lot of times not speaking the language, no transportation. there are lots of volunteers helping, as we said before, but it's so incredibly difficult. craig. >> you would think we would be able to expedite the process, make it easier for some of these folks. kelly cobiella in warsaw. we're talking about 7,000 russian troops lost so far and, quote, pentagon officials say because of that number, a high and rising number of war dead can destroy the will to continue fighting. the result, they say, has shown up in intelligence reports that senior officials in the biden

administration read every day. one recent report focused on low morale among russian troops and describes soldiers just parking their vehicles and walking off into the woods. talk to me about how a long-term decline in morale among russian troops, how that factors into this conflict or could factor into this conflict and perhaps get putin to end this thing? >> i think that's going to be a huge factor, craig. you cannot use disinformation to make 7,000 dead vanish. eventually the people back in russia, regardless of what they watch on russian tv are going to find out about this. and there's another factor, which is officers. there's a report that a fourth russian general was killed here m melitopol. back home, officers get funerals. in this, they don't.

there could have been dozens, if not a hundred dead, you see the ukrainian military throwing bodies, some of them booby-trapped. and even in the north, in these convoys decimated, they are sending them back to russia and taking all the spare parts and remaining people left in those units, throwing them together with new officers or different officers and telling them to go back to battle. they don't want to fight with or for each other once they get to that point. morale is a huge factor. and the last part is food. you see looting in the street, logistical issues in the military. unless they pull off a logistical miracle, the russian forces have a huge power with food, power and disinformation. >> that's poignant.

clint watts, courtney, thank you for that new reporting as well. meanwhile, more than 3 million ukrainians, more than 3 million, have left their country since the war started, forced to flee. but what are things like for the people who stayed behind? i'll talk to a ukrainian journalist on the ground in western ukraine. first, though, president biden announced $800 million in new military assistance on wednesday. but could more be done? could congress push for even more? i'll talked to a member of senate armed services committee about what they're considering next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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this morning president zelenskyy criticized germany's delayed response in imposing sanctions on russia. that speech coming just a day after president zelenskyy pressed u.s. lawmakers for more aid. president biden followed up president zelenskyy's address by promising $800 million in new aid. the $800 million is part of the $13.6 billion in aid passed that

omnibus spending bill. do you think that's going to be enough, senator? >> we're going to need to continue to provide the kind of support that will help the ukrainians fight back. so especially after the address yesterday by president zelenskyy, as far as i'm concerned and for my colleagues, it very much firmed our resolve to provide that assistance. 14 billion is a lot, 800 million in military support is a lot but we need to maintain that kind of support and i believe we will. >> as you know, relevant committee chairs, members of senate leadership got this classified briefing wednesday on russia and ukraine. i know you were not in that room but i would imagine you've been able to glean some things. what more can you tell us? >> i just came out of a

classified briefing and all of us have been receiving senate-wide briefings as well as briefings for our committee. it's really maintenance of effort. i can't talk about what was discussed but suffice to say that we acknowledge how heroic the ukrainian people are and that president zelenskyy is a profile in courage. and we are doing everything we can, as i mentioned, and we will continue to do everything we can to provide support. but clearly president putin is not think that this was going to take this long, and your previous speaker talked about the deaths. the russian people are not getting any of this information, but at some point they're going to conclude that their sons are not coming back. the russians are even resorting to cremating their dead in the field. >> senator, president biden, as you know, said on wednesday that

he thinks vladimir putin is a war criminal. secretary of defense lloyd auston stopped short of that a few minutes ago overseas. what say you? is it obvious to you that vladimir putin is in fact a war criminal? >> yes. but i do also acknowledge that finding someone a war criminal is a process. but i think we see what's happening and you would conclude that the indiscriminate attacks on hospitals, on schools, et cetera, that that is the kind of thing that a war criminal would do. and i know that president biden spoke as a caring human being and he certainly was expressing the values of our country in that regard. >> senator mazie hirono, thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> a critical food warehouse destroyed by russia. we'll get a sense of what it's like to live in ukraine as it's under siege right now. we'll go to nbc's gabe gutierrez. in lviv, talking to people who left their homes behind. >> reporter: among their baby's first words. >> boom, boom. >> reporter: she's ten months old. ten months old. [limu emu squawks] woo! new personal record, limu! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...the itching... the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®... ...most people saw 90% clearer skin at 16 weeks. the majority of people saw 90% clearer skin even at 5 years. tremfya® is the first medication of its kind also approved

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>> reporter: russia has now clearly resorted to siege warfare. it has surrounded the city of mariupol. and here in kyiv it wants to starve people out. this was one of the biggest food facilities and it's completely destroyed. there were 50,000 tons of food here. food would come from all over the country, be stored here, trucks would pick it up and then distribute it to the areas all around kyiv. and it wasn't just bombed once. this was no accident. you could say, well, maybe the russians hit it by accident, it's a large place. it was hit twice and then another food storage facility just about a mile from here was also attacked. so three strikes seems like it could not have been a coincidence and that russia is attacking civilians, it's surrounding cities and trying to starve people. >> our chief foreign correspondent richard engel.

>> i want to bring in olga, an independent journalist based in ukraine and a nonresident fellow at the center for european policy nan al sis. olga, you're in western ukraine. how are you doing, first of all, and most importantly and what are you seeing? >> hello, thank you for having me. i'm currently based in western ukraine but i lived in ukraine for 20 years and i had to leave. the residence area bombed today in kyiv is the area where my apartment is. watching those images of destroyed apartments, i can easily imagine my own apartment being destroyed. my heart is breaking seeing these images and knowing a lot of my friends are still staying in kyiv, some journalists who continue reporting, doing the very important job, risking their lives. but there are also others who are staying out of resistance period. they do not want to leave

because they say this is our city, this is our country, we are not going to leave, we will live in bomb shelters literally but we will not leave. here in western ukraine, the situation is more calm compared to the rest of the country of course. we are hearing sirens, air raid alerts daily and this night again had to spend several nights in a bomb shelter. my baby, child, is already used to sleep there. she's fallen asleep in a bomb shelter. somehow it has become a part of our routine already. however, the most dire situation is in mariupol, is in areas that are temporarily under russian occupied air control. it's very heartbreaking to see the news from mariupol of constant bombardment of russia hitting facilities where people are hiding, drama theater, swimming pool, lots of

residential area. local authorities say 70 to 80% of the city has been destroyed due to russian air strikes. russia is not allowing humanitarian aid to reach the city and does not allow people to evacuate. only about 25,000 people were allowed to leave the city in the last 48 hours, but the population of mariupol used to be around 400,000 before this full-scale invasion. >> olga, why have you decided to stay? >> in ukraine. >> yeah. >> well, you know, as a journalist, feel i have to be here to report on what is happening. i have to be close to my people. and also probably i'm lucky, you know, to have a base here in western ukraine, have people who are hosting me. we are sheltering other idps from kyiv and other areas. we are currently 12 people under the same roof including children and pets. until it is safe, i'm staying here and continue reporting from

ukraine. it's also my contribution to this resistance effort, which is going on on so many levels it's not just ukrainian soldiers who are defying russian attempts to occupy the country, it's a lot of civilians who are volunteering, collecting funds and sending food and medicines to the front line and civilians stuck in the area affected by the fighting. these civilians are also giving shelter to idps but 3 million have left and the same number almost are internally displaced. there's a lot of work to be done for those remaining. if i can construct to this resistance as a journalist by informing the world about what's happening in ukraine, i will. >> we'll be checking in with you periodically. thank you. stay safe. thank you so much. >> we'll have much more on the war in ukraine coming you,

including how americans are getting ready to welcome refugees here. first, though, we're going to go live to capitol hill. members of congress have been listening to testimony this morning from a senior pastor at mother emanuel church in charleston. what he and other people have said about the targeting of black institutions from churches to universities. we'll do that next. m churches to universities. we'll do that next into their p. -not those two. -yep, they're gone. -forever? -yep. that there is progressive's homequote explorer website, where i compared home insurance rates. we don't need to print the internet. some are beyond help. i will give you $100 if you can tell me what this is. -scotch egg. -it's a meatball. progressive can't help you from becoming your parents, but we can help you compare rates on home insurance with homequote explorer. we've got a lot of work to do.

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masks, according to a source familiar with the situation, but it comes as the world health organization warning that the increase we're seeing in global coronavirus cases is just the tip of the iceberg. cases started rising last week. now there are lockdowns in asia trying to contain the virus. experts say the jump is largely in cases of the omicron variant and a subvariant. also this morning, the department of justice reached a $127 million settlement with some families of the victims of the 2018 parkland school shooting. that attack left 17 people dead. attorneys for the families say the fbi failed to act on information it received about the gunman before the shooting. also, right now on capitol hill the house homeland security committee is holding a virtual hearing on, quote, the targeting of black institutions. nbc's ali vitale has been

listening to this one for us. walk us through what you heard this morning and what do we know about the timing, why the committee is holding this hearing right now. >> reporter: craig, it comes against the backdrop of a rise in violence against black institutions, from colleges and universities to churches. and that's even just in recent weeks, frankly. last month we had universities here in washington, for example, howard university closed because of bomb threats. and of course the tragedies that we have seen in past years. in fact, this is not even the only hearing of this nature happening on the hill today. there is another separate hearing focused specifically on the recent threats on hbcus. all comes with increased violence. at the emmanuel church, nine people killed in your home state of south carolina. that reverend spoke to the committee today. listen to what he told them. >> one of the things that we

have been kind of slow to do is to work through an active shooter scenario. just by virtue. fact that this is still a crime scene and many members are still traumatized, even when they see yellow signs that are on the outside of the church. >> reporter: so you're hearing there about the lasting impact of this kind of trauma and tragedy. of course there's also a focus of what can be done to help fix these kind of things going forward. several suggestions have been made, a lot of them hinging around increasing funding for hbcus. the head of the naacp suggesting that the people who propagate these crimes need to be tried and prosecuted for hate crimes, calling them domestic terrorism, talking about the need to take them more seriously in terms of the way that we deal with these

things in court. i have to say that i was struck, even chairman bennie thompson in introducing in panel was talking about his own experiences, referencing coming of age in mississippi where he said white supremacists attacked black churches with impunity, firebombing them, and they are by no means new, craig. >> they're not. ali, thank you. president biden has said that the united states will welcome ukrainian refugees, quote, with open arms. but when could people start getting here actually and what do we need to do to help them? coming up next, we'll talk a look at how some refugee resettlement groups are preparing and what they say they need to help. preparing and what they say they need to help in only 8 weeks with mavyret i was cured. i faced reminders of my hep c every day.

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we're meeting at a moment had demands on unity in the world are really accelerating. we have to be united and we certainly are. but putin's brutality and what he's doing and his troops are doing in ukraine is just inhumane. >> meanwhile, in ukraine we're seeing more families having to leave their homes to get to somewhere safer. gabe gutierrez joins me from a church shelter in lviv. tell me a little about the folks there, the families receiving help and what you're seeing this morning. >> reporter: hi there, craig. yes. this is one of many churches in lviv, one of many shelters helping these refugees. we expect more of them to stream into this room in the coming hours. right now more than 40 people expected to spend the night here and the pastor of this church

tells me that other church members have been taking some of these refugees into their homes. and i'm joined by reverend igor, who has been a pastor here for seven years. we were speaking about how long >> it's been nonstop. what's been the hardest part about helping care for these refugees? >> for me not being able to keep my word and fulfill and answer to each request because there are so many. >> reporter: and there seems to be no end in sight. the u.n. say there's more than 3 million stlat already left ukraine. how surprising is it that so many people have left so quickly? and as you hear news of what's going on in the bombings in

eastern and southern parts of ukraine, what goes through your head some >> i have no point of reference. it's like watching movie except you are part of this movie. we just go day by day and try adjust and learn new way of life and do what has to be done. >> reporter: you were telling me earlier this is surreal. as you look what's happening around the world. you saw president biden speaking with other world leaders in the u.s. yesterday president zelenskyy speaking to the u.s. congress, asking for more resources. many refugees we've spoken with here in ukraine want to see a no-fly zone or other countries doing more to help ukraine. do you think the rest of the world is doing einemanufacture to stop this invasion? >> i hope they do more than news. but we're grateful to the world for being our support.

and we really feel that. we feel it from strangers, from people that we know. that you feel our pain and people become aware more and more of what's really a happening here and we see more help coming in and if the world would be able to really protect our sky from bombs fall aing on civilians, that would be all we need. >> reporter: thank you so much for speaking with us. thank you for are what you're doing here. it really has been incredible the last several days to speak with some of these refugees. we're expecting more to stream into the this room in the coming hours and it will be another long night. rrs back to you. >> thank you. and please thank the reverend for putting his faith in action. god's work, indeed. stay safe. here's another story a that we're hear aing. one ukrainian refugee says she travelled more than 600 miles

from hard-hit eastern ukraine to poland with her cat. >> it's my son. i will love him and i never lost him in kyiv. i think that's one reason of my life. >> meanwhile, in the united states, refugee resettlement groups are gearing up to help families heading to our country. nbc in ohio. this is in the cleveland area. so, the governor set to meet with resettlement groups today in a summit. what do we know about it? >> reporter: well, we know we'll expect to hear from many of the resettlement groups in the cleveland area. groups saying they're ready to accept more refugees. you saw gabe's report. there are people in the united states that have family in

refugee communities and refugee areas in ukraine and poland, who are asking the tederal government to let those family members come to the united states. and to that point, you have many groups saying they have the infrastructure ready, the support needed to house these refugees and feed them. and they're asking for the federal government expedite the process. specifically for those that have already been approved. we know the united states has been accepting ukrainians for several years at this point, especially after putin's invasion of crimea and annexation of crimea. they're asking the federal government to act quickly to expedite their cases. that's something you'll hear at the summit. i have conversations with one of the groups that we'll hear from at the summit. listen to what she said. >> we have a family a arrive two days before the invasion and we had three more cases that were scheduled the following week. those three cases weren't able to fly.

the airport was destroyed before they could get out. >> reporter: how many other ukrainians seeking refugee status, how many are there already in the pipeline? >> hundreds. >> reporter: hundreds of people in the pipeline who these groups are saying are ready to come to the united states and the groups say they're ready to help them. >> shaquille brewster, on the next part of this story. shaq, thank you. up next an update on star brittney who's been detained in russia. star brittney who's been detained in russia ng their bread game. we're talking artisan italian bread, made fresh daily! the only thing fresher than their bread is the guy reading this. subway keeps refreshing and refreshing and refreshing and re- inner voice (kombucha brewer): as a new small business owner, i find it useful to dramatically stare out of the window... ...so that no one knows i'm secretly terrified inside. inner voice (sneaker shop owner): i'm using hand gestures and pointing...

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new dove men. a restorative shower for body and mind. before we go this morning, a major update on wnba star, brittney griner. she's currently detained in russia and now russian-state media reports a moscow court has extensions her detention until may 19th. they also report she's sharing a cell with two other people and the beds are too short for her 6'7" frame. she was arrested weeks ago for possession of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. she was there playing for a russian basketball club in the wnba off season. that's going to do it for me this hour. up next, state department

spokesperson, price will join andrea mitchell and "andrea mitchell reports starts now. this is "and rea amitchell reports." rescue crews are evacuating survivors and satellite pictures clearly show the word, children in large russian letters for anyone targeting the building to see was on both sides of the building. russia claims it was a military headquarters. >> we've all been shock fwhied brutality that we continue to witness. day in and day out. we call on mr. puten to cease these horrible actions. again, these are civilians and not combatants and they should not be targeted.