i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york. it is friday, march 18th. as the situation within ukraine grows more dire with every passing day, any moment now in washington, an extraordinarily consequential phone call will take place between president biden and chinese president xi jinping. it's a conversation with potentially massive implications for this war. biden is expected to warn president xi directly of the cost of helping vladimir putin, concerned that china might give russia military equipment. if you want to know how china feels about this u.s. pressure campaign, check out today's op-ed in the cheese communist party's official newspaper. it's titled "washington: the world's biggest bully."

back in ukraine, the attacks have expanded to the very city where hundreds of thousands of ukrainians have sought shelter. this morning, smoke is rising from the western city of lviv just 50 miles from the polish border. the closest strike yet to the center of that city. the mayor says missiles fired from the black sea hit multiple repair facilities near the airport. lviv had been seen as a safe haven, its population increasing from about 700,000 to close to a million people as they arrived after fleeing their destinations and the devastation further east. gabe gutierrez spoke to one pastor who turned his church into a makeshift shelter. >> it seems surreal. it's like, i don't know, like except you see real people suffering, come here shaking, and when they take them from train station to safety, they're getting out of car and they hug me and they cry, and they can not believe bombs are not falling on them.

>> in mariupol, we just got word about the fate of some of the people who were hiding in a bomb shelter under this theater when it was bombed. a separate attack hit a shopping center triggering a massive fire. at least one person died trying to put out those flames. now, the official number of civilians who have been killed in kharkiv is 250. but judge big the number of bodies that have been collected, it may be four times that many. people are lining up for nine, ten hours to get free handouts of food, some still coming away empty-handed. in kyiv, russians deliberately attacked food supplies including one of the largest storage facilities in the country that had 50,000 tons of food before

it was destroyed. the mayor of kyiv took a walk through the wreckage of the attack on residential buildings and spoke to reporters earlier today. >> one more, one more fact. this war against civilians. i doesn't see military people here. it's not a military base. it's just apartments, apartments for civilians. if you live in mariupol, if you look in kharkiv, if you look in other cities, chernihiv, where the civilians are, the city destroyed. expect the russians do it exactly the same way in kyiv. >> in fact, the ukrainian military says russia is trying to send more troops in the direction of ukraine, but it's been slow going. british intelligence saying that incessant ukrainian counterattacks are forcing russia to pull large numbers of troops away from forward positions in order to defend

their supply lines. and logistic problems are preventing the russian military from getting basic supplies, food and fuel for its troops. general ben hodges, forming commanding general of the u.s. army in europe currently with the center for european policy analysis. michael mcfaul is a former u.s. ambassador to russia. and nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel is inside kyiv this morning. richard what's the latest on the situation there? >> reporter: once again, russia has attacked civilians in kyiv, bombing an apartment complex, killing at least one person here, wounding more than a dozen, but if you look at the scale of the attack, the bomb landed right in the middle of this complex damaging all the apartments around, also a school, a supermarket, a kindergarten, the death toll could have been far worse. and this is happening every day now. not just in kyiv but also in kharkiv, in mariupol, in

chernihiv where civilians are being attacked without any military targets in the area. and since it continues to happen, why is russia doing this? there must be a reason they're hitting only civilian targets. first of all, it's a terror campaign. it terrorizes the people. it makes them feel unsettled in their own homes because just being in your home now can cost you your life. this attack happened 8:00 in the morning as people were having breakfast and suddenly their lives changed forever. it is also a way to pressure the ukrainian government by putting pressure on the civilian population just as peace talks between russia and ukraine are intensifying. turkey, which is emerging as a major mediator between russia and ukraine, is starting to reveal some of vladimir putin's

demands, first of all that ukraine never be part of nato, and president zelenskyy has already more or less accepted that in principle russia is also demanding that this country accept a de-nazi-fication campaign, and putin since the beginning has said that this country is controlled by a nazi regime, which of course it isn't. that would be a more bitter pill for president zelenskyy to swallow considering he's jewish, he's had family members lost in the holocaust. but there could be a workaround with some general statement that ukraine rejects all forms of extremism. the hardest sticking point is about land. according to turkish mediators, russia still wants ukrainian territory, unspecified territory many the east, and it seems lit continue to bomb civilians and

put pressure on ukraine until it gets it. >> thank you so much, richard engel, for your reporting. general, if we're in a situation -- and it was chilling to hear richard put it this way, you could lose your life just being in your home, you see those civilian targets bombed and russian troops who are being forced to use their time and effort just to try to resupply as opposed to moving forward, is this where this war has settled into? just indiscriminate murder, indiscriminate bombing and shelling? >> richard does such a good job as always describing on the ground what's going on there. we are in a decisive phase of this campaign. i really believe that in the next seven or eight days the momentum is going to shift because the russians are in trouble. they cannot sustain what they're doing. as terrible as it is right now, and thousands more ukrainians are going to be hit just like

what we're seeing, the russians cannot sustain this. that's why they're asking china for help, why they're recruiting syrians to come in there, they're having to protect their own supply lines. what we've got do in the next seven days is something on the scale of the berlin airlift delivering the capability that ukraine needs to strike back at the ships in the black sea and the long-range fighters shooting into kyiv and other cities, now is the time we have to be pouring it on. honestly, i don't feel the sense of urgency coming out of washington right now. >> be more specific if you can, general. what exactly are you talking about? >> okay. so most of the damage that's being done is coming from rocket launchers, ground launch systems or cruise missiles that are being fired from russian navy vessels in the black sea and sea of azov. so we can provide intelligence about exactly what the point of origin is for these systems and then give the ukrainians the

capabilities that are needed to be able to reach out and touch a black sea fleet vessel, for example, put one of them on the bottom. that would change a lot of what's coming out of the russian navy. same thing, the rocket launchers that could engage russian artillery and rockets joupt side of kyiv. this is what they need. there's not much happening from airplanes that are in the sky over ukraine. even the russian air force is launching weapons from their own air space. the emphasis has got to be on reaching where these things are shooting from. >> that reflects critics in congress. there's a sense the administration is too timid. the longer russian forces fail to make gains on the ground, the longer that vladimir putin essentially feels he's being

backed into a corner, do you worry increasingly he's going to try to do something more horrific, whatever that is, to change the dynamic? >> well, anybody -- everybody should be worried about those things given what he said about threatening to put his nuclear forces on alert. that was two or three weeks ago. so we should be concerned and listen to him. but we shouldn't use the threat of escalation as a reason not to do everything that general hodges just said. i think et's crazy. putin is unhinged, he's mad. i've listened to the guy forever and he's definitely very upset because he's not winning the war, but he's not suicidal. this idea if he's stuck in ukraine and not winning in ukraine, that he's now going to lash out against nato and attack nato, the greatest alliance in the world right now, angered by the greatest military in the

world right now, the united states of america? i think that's cheap talk. and i think rather than worrying about escalation, we should do exactly what general hodges just said right now. the only way there's going to be peace in ukraine is if they fight to a stalemate and they need the forces they need, ukrainians do, to fight the russians to a stalemate. >> and there's a piece, ambassador, in "the new york times" today by david sanger that talks about president biden, quote, personalizing this conflict by calling putin a war criminal, calling him a murderous dictator. does that matter to putin at all? does that add fuel to the flames or serve as a warning? >> you know, it is what it is. you know, maybe it was not the right diplomatic thing to say, but just look at what richard just reported. how can you not look at the way they are conducting this war, which seems to be all aimed at civilians and hardly aimed at ukrainian soldiers, by the way,

very little evidence of the russian army actually attacking ukrainian soldiers, how can you look at what we're looking at right now and not call it a war crime? i'm not an international law expert, but i think you need to call it out for what it is. i know people worry how are we going to negotiate with putin in the future, if there's moment for that, there will be a moment to do that. i think it was the right thing for president biden to do. >> we only have a minute left, general, but there are two very different views of where this is. putin who sounded almost angry on his speech wednesday and calling his opponents gnats and worse things than that. you had alexei navalny saying the consequences of this war will lead to a breakdown, the collapse of our country. where do you see this is going right now? >> look, i believe, and

ambassador mcfaul knows russia so much better than me, but i have seen so many indicators of things that there is a domestic pressure below the surface. i think a lot of russians understand what's going on maybe more than we think. and we should be spending just as much time and effort on information trying to reach russian families as we are trying to get javelin and stinger to ukrainian armed forces. 130,000 russian families have to send their sons to become conscripts in the russian army. it's an obligation. if 10% or 20% of families said hell, no, my son won't be folder, that would be an earthquake in russian society and would give courage to other people to push back as well. >> i want to let you all know the conversation between president biden and president xi started exactly ten minutes ago. but let me ask you, ambassador, in our closing second to pick up on what the general just said.

>> i agree. i think if you think of the components of the war, strengthening nato, i think we've done really well. providing military assistance, i would like more and different kind of weapons, but i applaud what the administration has done. sanctions, fantastic. the weak piece is the information piece. we are not getting our message -- the photos you're showing right now are not reaching russian citizens or russian mothers of those sons, and we've got to do a better job to communicate that within russia itself. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, lieutenant general ben hodges, thank you both. coming up, their lives were normal until suddenly they weren't. we'll go back to ukraine where we have a deeply personal look at how putin's bombs have shattered the lives of future generations and how they're coping. first, we're remembering an american from idaho among the

civilians killed by russian forces on wednesday. jimmy hill's sister says he was waiting in a bread line after he travelled from kyiv to chernihiv to seek medical care for his partner who was battling ms. >> this last trim, he was getting special medicine organizing that. he really loved her so much. and it's -- you know, in this world it's hard to find consolement, and that's how he referred to ira, as his soulmate. >> in a final series of posts on facebook, he wrote monday, we could try a breakout tomorrow but ira's mom doesn't want to. each day people are killed trying to escape. but bombs falling here at night, risk either way. i only have wi-fi a few hours a day. we have enough food for a few days. jimmy hill was 68 years old.

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slowness and bureaucracy has caused delays and ultimately a chaotic and shifting plan to deal with the refugees. here in the u.s., in spite of increasing pressure from congress, the biden administration is still considering what it says is a range of options. right now the number of european refugees the u.s. can accept is capped at 10,000 for the current fiscal year. these concerns only escalating as lviv considered by many a relative safe haven, is now clearly in russia's sights. among those seeking safety, young ukrainian professionals whose future is now unclear at best. nbc's jacob soboroff had an intimate conversation with a group of young ukrainians who find their lives and now i guess, jacob, their futures on hold. >> reporter: yeah. there's no doubt about that, chris. you know, those air strikes, that attack on that aircraft maintenance facility in lviv happened about four miles from

where i'm standing right now talking to you. last night i went over to an apartment basically that seven young ukrainians are now sharing. they're sharing two apartments. they fled here from kyiv just three weeks ago when the war began. and what they told me is exactly what you would expect. their lives are upside down. they don't know what to do, where to go next, what tomorrow will bring. they sheltered this morning when the air raid sirens went off in the hallway of their apartment because that's safest place they believe that they can be at this time. and like i said, there is so much unknown for them. we talked a little bit about that. take a look at this. >> so, i was a lawyer. >> you're talking in the past tense, i was. >> yeah. because i'm not anymore. i have no job today. >> reporter: even pastimes are a thing of the past. 30-year-old jenna's passion was music. >> before the war i was a deejay. and since 21st, i can't listen to the music at all. >> that's what you love.

that was your job. >> also you have to hear the alarm. >> reporter: the alarm meaning the air raid siren. editor tetyana, 27, around marketing manager dmytro, 29, shared videos of their life in kyiv before the war. now his future could be taking up arms. >> if i have to fight, i will fight gladly. it's not a thing that i would run from. >> sometimes i feel like it's a dream, just the most horrible dream, and tomorrow i will wake up and everything will disappear. >> reporter: that air raid siren you heard there on the piece of tape, chris, is something we've heard on a daily basis since i've arrived in this country. dmytro, who said he would take up arms, is putting his money where his mouth is. he's already on his way back to kyiv today to begin the process of enlisting. >> unbelievable. jacob, thank you for your reporting. vladimir putin is speaking,

we're getting the translation in, but i'm told that he just said the purpose of the operation, meaning the war that he is conducting against the people of ukraine, he says to save people from genocide when, of course, the pictures that we're seeing each and every day show what a tremendous lie that is as the number of people who died, the amount of destruction continues. up next, disturbing new details in that texas crash that killed nine people this week, a 13-year-old behind the wheel, a 13-year-old behind the wheel of one of the vehicles. we'll take you to texas next. mm. [ clicks tongue ] i don't know. i think they look good, man. mm, smooth. uh, they are a little tight. like, too tight? might just need to break 'em in a little bit. you don't want 'em too loose. for those who were born to ride there's progressive. with 24/7 roadside assistance. -okay.

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♪ ♪ with a bit more thought we can all do our part to keep plastic out of the ocean. more breaking news from ukraine in just a moment, but first we want to check in on the top stories at home. moderna has asked the fda to grant emergency use authorization for a second booster of its covid vaccine for all adults. that comes as the cdc is keeping a very close eye on what's known as va.2, a subvariant of omicron that's dominating cases worldwide and makes up nearly a quarter of new covid infections here in the u.s., even more than that in new york and new jersey. disturbing new details

emerging in that fiery crash in texas that killed nine, including seven members of a college golf team. federal investigators now say a 13-year-old boy was driving the vehicle that struck the team's van. let's go to nbc's morgan chesky in texas. morgan, the obvious question is what was a kid doing behind the wheel of that truck? do investigators have any answers? >> reporter: yeah, chris. that is the question. we immediately asked it when we heard the update come in yesterday from the ntsb. they say this is a very active investigation, there are still are a lot of questions they are trying to answer, but right now we don't know that. we don't know why a 13-year-old was behind the wheel of that pickup truck that veered into the oncoming traffic and slammed into that university of southwest golf team, leaving nine people dead. we do know there was a 38-year-old, a man, also in that pickup with the 13-year-old. authorities have not revealed the relationship between those two. we know both of them were killed at that scene.

but right now, there is still a lot to be learned here, chris. we do know that they scoured that fiery scene covering both sides of the road after both of these vehicles caught fire in hopes of gathering more evidence. they did share with us, chris, that it appears there was a spare tire on the front left side of that pickup that appeared to have a blowout shortly before this collision took place. of course we know the danger that blowouts can have. the speed limit on this road about 75 miles an hour, with many spare tires, chris, it's important to know they're not recommended to be used far long period of time or at very high speeds. there is much more to come out of this investigation. but i did have a chance to speak to the parents of jackson zin. he was a 22-year-old golfer at the university of the southwest, a very promising young athlete there. and i asked them if these new circumstances surrounding this collision changed how they felt.

here's what they had to say. >> we're so proud of him. he was so great. we want everybody to know who he was because we were so blessed to have him. >> i want people -- it can't be in vain. it can't. if you knew him, even if you learn about him now, he's going to inspire you, going to challenge you to be better, to be second, he was second, always put others first. >> reporter: as gut-wrenching as the past several days have been for that campus and community, there is a bit of hope today. two students that survived that crash and were airlifted more than 100 miles north we are told are slowly but surely recovering. >> your heart breaks. thank you, morgan chesky, for that. still ahead, president biden speaking right now to chinese president xi after the u.s. warned china do not come to

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happening right now, president biden speaking with chinese president xi jinping. we told you the call got under way at 9:03 eastern time, less than an hour ago. the white house says the call was part of an ongoing effort to maintain open lines of communication between those two countries. but of course it comes amid growing u.s. concerns that china could try to send military help to russia. so far, china has refused to publicly condemn the russian invasion and says the kremlin has legitimate security concerns that have to be addressed. you might also remember these pictures of the two meeting before the opening ceremony at the beijing olympics, a show of russia/china unity and their increasingly close partnership. joining us now, nbc's carol lee covering the white house, jannie

mackie frayer and the author of "the coming collapse to china." carol, what are your sources inside the white house telling you about this call? what's the another's goal here? >> reporter: the president's goal overall is to further isolate russia on the world stage, and what the white house has said is that this is an opportunity for the president to assess where president xi stands when it comes to the war in ukraine, specifically the white house wants to ensure that china does not provide russia with military aid, which u.s. officials say that russia has asked china for along with economic help to bail russia out from some of those punishing sanctions from the west. and so one of the things that they're ultimately looking for is for china to come out and condemn russia's actions in ukraine. that's something that china has not yet done. another question, chris, that's hanging over this is whether there's some role for china to use its influence with russia to

try to ultimately end the violence in ukraine. now, when it comes to those costs that the u.s. said they will impose on china if it were to supply russia with military aid, u.s. officials have not detailed exactly what those would be. it's worth remembering, though, that china has a lot more economic leverage over the united states and europe than russia did, and we already saw the u.s. and europe having some jitters about taking certain steps because there would be blowback on the economies in the west. and so this is something that the u.s. is trying to navigate very carefully. this is a very important call coming at a very critical moment in this, chris. >> janice, what is xi hoping to accomplish with this call today? talk about the tight rope that he's walking. >> reporter: well, carol mentioned the economic leverage that's at play here. china certainly valuings its relationship with moscow, but its trade relationship is dwarfed by the ties that china has with the u.s. and the eu.

so in walking the tight rope it wants to honor, if we want to use that word, the ties that it has to russia but also not want to aim yes nate the u.s. or the west. so xi jinping wants to go into this call with president biden appearing to be a neutral party, although many believe that's debatable. ties between china and russia have deepened under xi jinping and vladimir putin. these are two men who have met dozens of times and stood side by side declaring a friendship with no limits less than three weeks before the russian invasion. from the chinese perspective, it's less that they're ally bus more so strategic partners in that they're strategically aligned against the u.s. and the west when it comes to things like sanctions and nato expansion. so in that sense, president biden is not going to have much luck in trying to change xi jinping's strategic direction.

where the u.s. may have some influence is this is the degree of closeness of the china/russia relationship as it relates to ukraine. heading into this call, the chinese side wanted it to be known that it was the u.s. that wanted to have this call, that china agreed to have it, to have the opportunity to tell the u.s. how they should be handling this, so from beijing's perspective, from where we stand, this call is seen as a sign that the u.s. needs china to stop the conflict in ukraine. >> gordon, if china wants to be seen as a neutral party, you wouldn't know it from the headline in the communist paper "people's daily," which says "washington: the world's biggest bully," saying, quote, the air rho gant minds of the white house have long undermined international rules, coerced others to pick sides and retaliated against whoever refused to comply. if this is china's view, what does the president need to do on the call right now?

>> i think the president needs to warn china but to say more important that we are imposing sanctions right away, because we have had decades of american presidents issue warnings to china and very rarely do we follow up. so we have taught beijing to ignore what we say. this is an opportunity for president biden to break that decades-old pattern that has not been working for united states. and since you mentioned "people's daily," we should also say in may 2019 people's daily, the most authoritative publication in china, declared a, quote, unquote people's war on the u.s. that hostility has appeared in those pages up to this day. >> you have a fascinating piece in "newsweek" that looks at china's financial ties to russia right now. the u.s. has warned china not to help compensate russia as it's hit with western sanctions. you also write this, though -- "xi jinping's role in ukraine is far less than vladimir putin's, but make no mistake, china is

also a combatant in the war." you say china should, quote, pay the price. elaborate on that. >> first of all, china has been buying more and more commodities from russia, therefore financing the attack. ambassador -- and this is something which is behind the scenes, and that is that china's been making its financial services available to sanctioned russian entities, in other words, backfilling, making sure that our measures don't work. china's propaganda, which is really important, because we americans, we sort of ignore it, but china's propaganda machine now is amplifying these ludicrous russian notions, and chinese diplomats have been put at the service of moscow. also reporting says china is providing military information to russia that enables the russians to target ukrainian drone operators. so you put all this together, it shows that china is a combatant in this conflict. >> in our closing minute, how's

china viewing the war in ukraine in terms of its aspirations regarding taiwan? >> i think that they took a lot of heart in the sense that there was a failure of deterrence, but also they look at the ukrainian people, they see the heroic resistance, and i'm sure are saying taiwanese people will do the same thing, especially because taiwan has much better topography for defenders. that must be giving second thoughts to them. >> thanks to all of you. coming up, about 1.8 million refugees have fled to poland the since the war began. ellison barber got a close-up look next. in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control®. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost® today. ♪ everybody dance now ♪ ♪♪

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- common percy! - yeah let's go! on a trip. book with priceline. you save more, so you can “woooo” more. - wooo. - wooo. wooooo!!!!! woohooooo!!!! w-o-o-o-o-o... yeah, feel the savings. priceline. every trip is a big deal. more than 2 million people have poured into poland from ukraine over the past three weeks. nbc correspondent ellison barber and her crew have been there, visiting all eight border crossings and spending time with the mostly women and children searching for safety after leaving their beloved homeland behind. that includes family, friends, and for many literally everything they've ever known. here are some of their stories from ellison.

>> reporter: along the polish ukrainian border they are eight official crossings, lifelines for the sea of refugees fleeing the devastation of war. our team has been to every one. this is the northern most border crossing on the polish/ukrainian border. the only allowed vehicle traffic is like this bus. we met 15-year-old yuri, whose father sent him to poland with his mother and young siblings. what did he say to you? >> told me that i must protect them. >> reporter: instead of separation, a reunion at the gates between a father work in poland and his wife and little girl. it was quiet on our side but on the ukrainian side, a 20-hour wait to cross.

in hrebenne, time was on the mind of this woman. she may never returned to her beloved ukraine. >> translator: in my heart, it's painful. i miss ukraine already. i want -- i just want to cry. >> reporter: at border crossing number five, children played in sand spread out for a makeshift refugee camp. they used suitcases as tables to draw, and somehow managed to smile. do you want to go back home? >> translator: of course. of course i want to, because my sisters and brothers are there, and the daddy. >> reporter: we watched bus after bus arrive, babies crying, travellers weary. >> translator: the children, they need to sleep, they need to

be washed, they need to do everything that they normally do. but instead, they are sleeping in cars. >> reporter: at the busiest crossing, some comfort, volunteers offered hot food. >> nice and warm! >> reporter: we met dania and his soon-to-be named monkey. over 1.8 million refugees have fled to poland in three weeks, most of them women and children. the youngest ukrainians and the oldest. >> translator: this is 68 years of my life in these bags. one, two, three. >> reporter: each carrying the weight of what's left behind to a future unknown. >> our thanks to ellison barber and all of our colleagues who are there and continuing to bring the truth to us. in her case, reporting from poland. thank you. still ahead, we've talked a

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[copy machine printing] ♪ ♪ who would've thought printing... could lead to growing trees. ♪ people around the world, around the world are on edge this morning as the war in ukraine stretches into day 24. since it began, we have shown you an endless stream of

devastating images including the unimaginable, the maternity hospital shell in mariupol last week. in the same city children and women killed in the theater despite the fact it was clearly marked it was children. ten people killed in chernihiv while people waiting in line for bread. this is just some of the cruelty we have seen over the past month with more shocking details emerging each day. this is from the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. >> local officials have told families to leave their dead relatives lying outside on the streets, exposed to the world. because it is simply too dangerous with the bombs and shellings to hold funerals. >> all of this taking a toll on

the mental health of course there but also here at home so what can we do about it? let me bring in doctor at nyu, medical center and aboard certified psychiatrist and someone who has worked and led the program impacted by 9/11. it is good to see you. explain how traumas split life in this distinct before and after and the long-term impact that can have. >> kris, great to see you, it is so difficult, we know trauma chips away and erodes our moral, our sense of safety and competent and capability and our sense of hope. that's to me is what's most devastating. they are the physical losses and there is deaths and devastation on so many levels but even in cases where our physical needs are provided, our sense of hope

and comfort have be taken away. this is really hard for us to see anywhere in the world even if we are not in it, we feel like apart of us is. >> a conversation we had just a couple of months ago about covid and turning into this war. americans gone through years of real trauma of isolation and death that was brought on during the pandemic. is there such a thing as cumulative effect because i feel like from people i know and talked to that's how they feel that they're having even more trouble dealing with this just because it is been so much year after year after year. >> definitely, kris. and absolutely you are correct. the layers on layers of stress, when this all first started, the two of us had conversations two years ago about covid and the

impact and it was a matter of days. we had no idea what we were in for and how long we are going to be in it for. human beings just really need to have certainty, they need to have closure and need to know okay if this is going to be bad, how long will it be bad for and when am i going to reemerge to my normal life. the last two years, kris, every time we thought we are approaching a new normal, it was something throwing us for a spin and tell us nope, we are not ready to go back to normal yet. something bad is happening. the feeling of real cruelty and something so sinister and evil. as a physician with science and facts, as a human being, i can't help feeling it is so painful when you feel your home, your life, your livelihood is being threatened in an intentional way. that plays a big part into

trauma. >> that's really hard for children. it is hard to keep images away from kids and they can feel when their parents are stressed. >> that's so important that we have to take care of our mental health as adults because we'll be useless to anyone else in the family if we don't. that starts with self-care. you want to ensure a few things that somebody has adequate shelter, food and basically medical health, medical care is provided. even here in the united states, just make sure all the basics are intact. on top of that i want to say having certain routine and structure and if that involves having certain breaks during the day that can be helpful.

we know after 9/11, people around the world were impacted and they did stress surveys and calling people hundreds of miles away, and you know i am having difficulty sleeping during the day. channelling any of these negative energy into donations or raising money for ukraine. it gives you a sense that i am apart of this and there is something i can do and reclaiming our agency. when it comes to talking to children, saying to them i want to know what you are thinking, what are you concerned about? sometimes we project our fears onto children and their fears may be different than ours. is my school going to be closed and what does it mean and are we under threat? reassuing them and providing them structure and laughter and maintaining normalcy for us and the kids.

>> dr. sue pharma, thank you so much. we want to give you something to think about. we are going to end the show on a lighter note. a major upset in the first full day, 15 seeds, st. peters knocking out the kentucky's wildcats and handing the hall of fame coach john kally perry. here is the call. kentucky one of six. seven seconds left. >> wow. wheeler gives it up. brooks, the jumper, you can feel the madness! >> that's what they call it march madness. today the mayor of kyiv will be live on msnbc so watch that. right now