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 jose diaz-balart picks

up breaking news coverage. good morning, i am jose diaz-balart, happening right now a phone call that could be crucial to ukraine. president biden is speaking with chinese leader xi jinping. this after biden slams putin as a, quote, murderous dictator. we'll talk to congressman adam smith. we'll take you to our reporters live on the ground inside ukraine where there had been more russian attacks on civilians. russian missiles reached the city of lviv where thousands are sheltering. and now in ukraine's capital russia hit a residential complex and elementary school and killing one person and injuring dozens including four children. ♪♪

day 23 of russia war on ukraine. 726 civilians have been killed including 52 children since this conflict began. the u.n. admitting those numbers are much higher. we are learning more of another civilian casualty, an american man jimmy hill had been killed while waiting in line for food. meanwhile, in kyiv we are getting a closer look at the devastating after math of another night of intensive shelling. a kindergartener, a playground filled with children four weeks ago now decimated. thousands are still trapped in a theater of mariupol after

russian forces bombed it. officials tell reuters at least 130 have managed to escape so far. nbc news have not verified that number and many others remained unaccounted for. joining us now from lviv, gabe gutierrez and molly hunter. gabe, you have been talking to families hiding out and trying to take shelter from the con conflict conflict, what's going through their minds? >> reporter: hi there, jose, less refugees are coming to lviv because they are heading to other cities. certainly jose a lot of concerns about the airstrike that just happened over night, the mayor saying one person was injured in that air strike in the facility near the airport. the airplane repair facility, the mayor says that six missiles

were shot but ukrainian defenses shoot for of them and still two missiles destroyed the airplane facility and one person injured. i spoke with the mayor a short time ago. he said there was no purpose for that air strike other than destruction. i asked what secretary of state blinken yesterday warning russia will likely target local mayors throughout the country and kidnap them and replace them with puppets. take a look at what the mayor of lviv had to say. >> i am optimist. >> reporter: do you fear for your life? >> i am 50 years old.

everything i am concerned about is the future of my country that i want to be proud of ukraine. it is one of the best countries in the world for the next thousands of years. today you are witnessing the birth of the union nation. >> of course lviv is the city in western ukraine that so far have been untouched by this war, all of these refugees are coming here into places like poland and other countries and europe. as you can see behind me things are going on as normal here despite that over night airstrikes, certainly a lot of questions about what this airstrike and russia's onslaught could expand further west as this war enters another week. >> gabe, how close to the center was this recent air strike? >> well, it was definitely

outside the center. it is near the airport on the out skirts of town so this appears to be a targeted strike, the mayor said everyone had been cleared out of this facility. you mentioned one person was injured. this does not seemed to be in other parts of the country, russia seems to clearly targeting civilian sites. this is not quite that. still very concerning that just like another strike several days ago over the weekend where they struck a site even closer to the polish border. this airstrike happen relatively close to lviv. so much we'll be hearing about these horrible airstrikes occurred in the other part of the country, east and south, certainly raising a lot of concerns when people woke up to news of that airstrikes.

only one person injured and no casualty but overall very concerning. the mayor reiterated what he said before that he thinks the u.s. and nato intervened in this conflict earlier weeks before perhaps this country would not be in this position. he came out strong saying there was no purpose for this airstrike other than pure destruction. jose. >> molly, just like gabe had been telling us, far different situations going on in mariupol. >> reporter: yes, jose, that's right, i have been in lviv several weeks now. that airstrike is 4.5 miles from where i am. this city has been the destination from anyone fleeing from the east and departure point and in the last couple of weeks, jose, i have not met any refugees from mariupol until last night. up until a couple of days ago it was blocked. you could not get out. everyone single humanitarian

corridors have failed bus the russians blocked any buses picking up civilians. people got into civilians and packed with neighbors and friends, and 4,000 of them headed out of mariupol. last night we spoke with two women, a mother and her daughter, yulia, about how they decided to leave and how they got out. i want to share what she told me. >> because i was too scared. i had to decide to leave or to stay or to be killed. because they say 90% of the buildings here are damaged but when you know it any moment you can be killed and you can choose

to be killed moving from this town or to be killed sitting in a room. >> reporter: and jose, we'll have a lot more from people who evacuated. people who have escaped from mariupol, two brave associated journalists have been sharing photos with the world. that's why we know what's happening in mariupol. now we have firsthand accounts and we have people who survived the last three weeks in the basements and got out and telling us their firsthand testimonies what they went through and what happened to them. this woman yulia told me they would start fire out and cook in buckets and she didn't know she could survive without electricity and heat for as long but she did. lviv has been safe haven. 20 miles from here like this airport repair depot, as these

attacks getting closer and closer, that's a calculation for residents and people here are going to start to change and maybe see an uptick of people heading to different borders. >> molly and gabe, thank you for being with us. my colleague chuck todd will talk to the kyiv mayor klitschko today right here on msnbc. president biden is speaking with china's leader, xi jinping. it is the first time they spoken since the invasion began. u.s. officials warned china against aiding russia's war efforts. that'll put a further strain between the relationships of the world's two large economies. joining us now is janice mackey

frayer. >> reporter: going into this call, it was china that wanted to talk. also to let it be known that china is not open to threats. china wants to appear to be a neutral player in this, jose, which many people see it debatable. china/russia ties have deepen in the years that xi jinping and vladimir putin have both been in power, just less than three weeks before the russian invasion standing side by side declaring a friendship with no limits. from the chinese perspective, they tried to explain their partnership with russia as one of strategic convenience and that they are aligned together against the u.s. and much of the west because of sanctions and nato expansions so in that

sense, president biden is not going to be able to sway xi jinping from that strategic direction. however the u.s. may have some influence in limiting the degree of closeness of the china/russia relationship as it relates to ukraine and perhaps get some sort of agreement or task commitment from china that it won't out right support russia in its war effort. this of course is coming as there are concerns among some u.s. officials that moscow had asked beijing for help and beijing may be considering it. >> janis mackey frayer in beijing, thank you. joining us now is richard haas and eugene daniel. richard, i want to start with you, what's your reaction to this call, how important is it?

>> as janis said the early agreement when china/russia talked about a no relationship. there are some limits to it. the real question is whether president biden can convince xi jinping not to be the economic and military lifeline for struggling russia here. i think the message if you do it, you will cement in this country what's long emerging which is real suspicion or animosity towards china. there is a lot at stake in what you do and don't do in ukraine, that has to be the message. china will make its own choices obviously. there could be no uncertainty but not only sanctions in the short run they could be facing but a hard chinese policy coming out of the united states one with bipartisan support. >> yeah, i mean richard, the

fact is that this was a call apparently started by the united states so china just by saying yes does not agree to anything. before the invasion when the united states did have conversations with china, china apparently shared that information with russia. richard, is there anything when you look at the relationship and the history of the chinese reality and the united states maybe this could have an impact? >> well, things have not gone the way, not simply what vladimir putin expected but xi jinping. this is not good for him. he wanted to have a good olympics and this fall he wanted to get a green light for his third term president, instead his economy is not growing and he's not nearly as fast and he has not figured out a way to unlock chinese cities given covid and we are beginning to

see in social media and elsewhere in china, we are beginning to see publications criticizing china's tilt towards russia. you can't criticize xi jinping directly but by criticizing the policy there is some backing of this administration. he made a bad strategic choice and in the long run china needs the united states and europe much more than it needs russia, particularly a weaken russia. i think how china will balance its position it made, this is a leader of china never wants to admit he ever made a mistake. the united states and europe represents half of the world's economy. >> interesting. what does the white house say about what drove the president to reach out to china now? >> one, you started to see and other reports that russia was reaching out to china for aid and some type of way in this

invasion there was something the united states is 100% against. we saw the national security adviser for the president talked to his counterpart and gave him a warning about that. yesterday secretary blinken said similar things that they were told that china, and the thing that we are going to hear from president biden to xi jinping is that he wants to use the relationship to pressure xi jinping to end this invasion or stop being so quiet. the administration wanted him to not be quiet, and complicit by not saying anything. president biden is telling china do not help russia or there will be consequences. the administration have been meeting behind the doors about what those consequences will look like but there would be

something out there if that were to happen and you know china also benefits like the united states and europe and most of the world with global stability being the case on the planet and the gas is high in china and stock market drops 40% briefly because of the invasion and so the president is going remind china about how this invasion is not really good for anyone and hoping that he'll be able to convince xi jinping to do something whether that's going to happen, that was outlined lie richard because of the relationship that china wants to have with russia. it is what the american president telling him right now. >> eugene daniels and richard haas, thank you for being with us. an attack on the coastline, plus, some member of the ukrainian parliament joins us

with the council of europe, what the members told her, coming up. you are watching "jose diaz-balart reports." "jose diaz-balart reports. and along the ride, you'll find many challenges. ♪ your dell technologies advisor can help you find the right tech solutions. so you can stop at nothing for your customers. refresh italiano subway now has italian-style capicola on the new supreme meats and mozza meat. just like my nonna makes when she cooks! i don't cook.

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for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com 21 past the hour, in four weeks of war, russia forces suffered a string of setbacks. they're expanding attacks by air. the u.s. have seen russian ships off seas, off the coast of the city of odesa.

the u.s. is not seeing imminent signs of an assault on odesa from russia's joining us now from odesa, hanah siles. thank you for being with us, what are you seeing and living through odesa right now? >> odesa is definitely comparing to other parts of ukraine is quite a safe place and we have experienced the serious difficulty neither for the supplies in the airstrikes and even that each day i hear how the air defense system works because it is very flat area so the sound can be heard quite a wide destination. the last three weeks the risk of the airstrikes been around the week. we definitely see of the pcture

in the beginning. they're not in the territory of ukraine. they're out of that. they're staying there of the last 48 hours. >> there has been a shift in the past 48 hours. i am wondering what does the russians taking over the coastline means for the conflict? >> definitely a lot, strategically because for ukraine more -- export is going by sea. 90% of our grain export is going by sea and ukraine is in three biggest exporters of grains in the world. you can imagine these in the last month will influence the food security. that's why it is important not only for ukrainians. but at the same time we are very

strategic as we a bordering -- definitely ukraine was the biggest city in the russian empire, odesa was the biggest city and that's why for russians capturing odesa has an emotional meaning. >> it is an extraordinary city and as you say so important strategically for access from ukrainian goods to the exterior and the whole food chains. how are you dealing of what's going on in your country, how do you feel what's happening in your country? >> we are exhausted and still living with a adrenaline.

you understand it is not some kind of a dispute or conflict or something but you are just protecting your land and people from the open aggression and against the war crimes, you will understand and you have this moral support especially that's important because you feel the moral support of other people. that's definitely what the russia's president is trying to present that ukrainians are divided. it is completely different. ukrainians are supporting each other in each part of the country and business supporting arm forces and regular citizens supporting as a territory defense and army is supporting the people. and also support from the international community and the ukrainians abroad because immediately all my colleagues abroad started asking how they can help and many of them are working in the international organization just to help with

humanitarian aid to ukraine. that matters for ukrainians because we understand we are not alone and we know what is the truth in this situation, this conflict is really black and white and sedom in the current nation. >> clear as water. hanna, thank you so much for being with us this morning. up next, congressman adam smith joins us live to talk about new legislation just passed in the house to help protect ukraine. you are watching "jose diaz-balart reports," congressman, it is good to see you. reports," congressman, it is good to see you. and now we're providing 88 billion dollars to support underserved communities... ...helping us all move forward financially. pnc bank: see how we can make a difference for you. to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer

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congressman, it is a pleasure to see you. with this call between president biden and the chinese leader going on as we speak, what do you want the president to tell xi jinping? >> i want him to put as much pressure as possible to china to make sure they don't help russia. china did not know what to do. putin was not honest with him about his intentions. they certainly want to maintain a strong relationship with russia because they see russia being on their side in term of weaken us. putin is devastating civilian population, president biden needs to make it clear for xi, this is a choice, whether you are on the wrong side or right side. the rest of the world will judge china. they'll not let putin get away with this type of a crime. >> if they are seen helping

putin, what's the west, specifically the united states could or should do to china. >> that's a complicated question. certainly there are tariffs we could impose or try to get allies against them in a variety of different ways. up front president biden is taking the right approach, let's try to get china doing the right thing without having to get into a broader conflict with him. that's the approach we can take. the best thing we can do is shine a light of what's happening in ukraine which is being done but also expose china and make them take a clear stand on this. this call is very well timed and good mood by the president. >> and talk about this bill cutting normal trade ties with russia and belarus, how effective or significant is this? >> it is significant. it is not as significant as the banking sanctions that we have

imposed. it is another layer of under minding putin. force him to start making different decisions, to see his interests differently. higher the cost the more likely it is putin and those around him will try to find a different path and stop the violent attack they are currently engaged in. what's the possible outcome of this for putin. how do you see it? what are the options he has going forward? >> it is really difficult. this is not gone the way he's expected, he's bogged down in a terrible situation and the economy being undermined and not being successful on the battlefield, i think he's got to rethink what those aims were. keep in mind when these things started, his aim was to make ukraine, simply absorb it into russia. he now knows it is not going to

happen. we have got reporting he's not too well. he's sort of backing down on what the expectation was as far as what he would ultimately settle for. i don't know. i do know this. he can't succeed in ukraine. ukraine must continue an independent democratic state and that is what we have to make sure we have to help them in every way we can to maintain that. force putin to make a different decision than the one he made when he decided to invade. >> congressman, what's the lesson here for how the united states or the world should deal with authoritarian or dictators? >> well, there is two lessons. number one we should not kid ourselves. it is difficult. we don't want conflict, we don't want war and authoritarians and dictators, don't care. they will push as hard as they can because they are not afraid

of conflicts and they're willing to engage in conflicts than we are. second, alliances matter, no countries can do this alone. imagine where we would be if we pulled out of nato as rumored that donald trump wanted us to do. we need to build alliances and certainly in europe and across the world and we are working closely with japan and india and austria and others. alliances are absolutely crucial if you are standing up of this type of brutality, you need much of the world with you. that's the philosophy of president biden. it certainly pays off and it helps. >> congressman, thank you for your time. >> thank you. what's really happening and who's behind the wheel during

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and get the best deals on every smart phone. 46 past the hour and this is just in. we received the read-out of xi jinping and president biden. let's go right to beijing, our janis mackey frayer. what did the chinese media say? >> reporter: well, it is unclear at this point if the call between president biden and president xi jinping is still ongoing. it got under way just after 9:00 by video. some initial lines that are being reported from the official state agency. conflict is not in the interest of anyone. peace and security is the most treasured thing of the

international communities. these are believes that we were told that would be china's position going into this meeting. china wanted to be known that it was the u.s. that had initiated this call and here in beijing it was being viewed very much as a sign that the u.s. needed china in order to stop the conflict in ukraine. what president biden is looking for of course is some sort of commitment from president xi that china will not offer any sort of tangible support to russia that would advance the crisis in ukraine. it is not entirely clear this sort of commitment that president biden may walk away with. we know that the china/russia relationship is one that deepened in recent years and one where president xi and vladimir

putin standing side by side defining a friendship without limits. china is not going to abandon russia and its strategic partnership and certainly not taking sides with the u.s. whic influence from the west. >> janis from beijing, thank you so much. >> meanwhile the u.n. says nearly 3.3 million people have fled ukraine. that humanitarian needs are rising. poland accepted 2 million of those refugees. joining us now is kelly cobiella in poland. you told a woman who had her application to the u.s. rejected. what are you hearing today? >> reporter: yeah, that seems concerning. ukrainian refugees who do have family ties in the united states are not able to get to the united states even over the short term that woman was

applying for a tourist visa and the visa was rejected on the basis she did not have a permanent home to come back to. she's from a small village in ukraine wants to return to ukraine but has no idea when she will be able to. we spent some time with the mayor of warsaw and we talked about the strain of the public services there because of the number of refugees. we talked about whether financial aid was enough in his opinion. here is what he had to say. >> we need the united states to be more open and to accept those ukrainians who want to join their families. i think when i talk to my american friends, people do understand that. of course we all hope that's temporary that it is for a few months. these guys when you talk to them, they are incredibly proud and kids behind us, they want to go back. >> reporter: secretary of state

, antony blinken says they are working on something but so far today no changes in the policy. >> ukrainian hungarian border. it's good to see you. last time we spoke, you had been traveling across europe looking to build support for ukraine. what have you heard from officials you have spoken with? >> i just crossed the border from hungary to ukraine, and i can tell you i'm impressed but how does it feel to be back home to ukraine. it's a great feeling, and there is good weather but i know that this land unfortunately has the war. my meetings in europe went, i believe, very well, and we are very active having offline and online meetings, trying to explain what's happening and i see that europe has never been so united as it is right now. however, the speed of some

decisions could come faster. and this is what is very important for us is if it's not possible to close the sky, then we should introduce alternative measures that could protect ukrainian security. we need cooperation with responsible state and responsible governments that will ensure that our territorial integrity is protected and the european also borders are protected. >> what exactly do you want to see? >> well, i want to see new alliances, new cooperation, new security cooperation, military assistance where we will be able to protect our side and to have less victims because as you know, even today in kyiv, in a historical district, there was explosion. there was an airstrike.

according to the official information we have in all of this week in kyiv is not so much bombarded as other places. there are already around 1,000 wounded people, and dozens of schools are destroyed, buildings without windows. the humanitarian situation in other places is disaster. >> yeah, i mean, mariupol is really in a crisis situation, and it's only getting worse. i'm wondering, lisa, as you cross back into your country and you breathe that air, what are you thinking? what do you have in your heart? >> well, i have a dream that it will end soon, but i understand that putin went already too far, and i don't know how we are going to recover from this. it's a very deep tragedy. existentially it's very hard, because, for example, chernihiv, the city from the north of kyiv,

near the belarusian border, at least 40% of chernihiv just simply doesn't exist. mariupol, as you know, is in a terrible situation. it will take years to recover not only from the infrastructure and building infrastructure, but the traumas that our children already have, the traumas the people have. it will never go away. it will never go away, and i'm sure that russia not only did a huge mistake and a war crime but russia also said no to the future of russian people because so many russian people were building so much also for their economy but now everything is destroyed by the war crimes that are committed by putin. >> lisa yasko, thank you for being with us. take care, let's stay in touch. >> thank you. up next, what's behind putin's biggest lie about why he launched the war with ukraine?

we'll ask a former u.s. ambassador to ukraine about it. you're watching jose diaz reports. g jose diaz reports.

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putin is marking the 8th anniversary of russia's annexation of crimea at a celebration at a moscow stadium. he has repeated false claims that the ukrainian government is taken over by nazis and his invasion was launched to denazi fi ukraine. joining us now is the director of the eurasia center at the atlantic council and former u.s. ambassador to ukraine under president george w. bush. ambassador, good morning, can you explain this unjustifiable justification that putin keeps using? >> it is both preposterous and predictable. every russian child who was born after world war ii was taught that the great russian historical achievement was

defeating hitler, hitler and naziism. when moscow began its war on ukraine in 2014, it stressed the notion that ukraine was controlled by fascists and nazis, it's preposterous, especially now that ukraine has a jewish president, and a few years ago when shed a jewish prime minister. this is a theme which resounds to russians but only if they are kept ignorant of the actual facts of what's going on in ukraine. >> it's been eight years since russia annexed crimea. looking back, were there some things, the lot of things that the u.s. and allies could have done to prevent what we're seeing today? >> western response to kremlin aggression in ukraine has been consistently late and weak. that was especially true in 2014. obama famously refused to send javelin antitank killers to ukraine because it would be provocative. we have seen the biden

administration recently to allow our allies, if we had pushed hard in support of ukraine against kremlin aggression seven, eight years ago, this major invasion. >> president trump threatened zelenskyy withholding aid. >> i'm not defending what trump did. >> no, no, i'm just pointing out that it seems that there is a pattern regardless of political party of not dealing directly with situations like the annexation of crimea eight years ago, but what happened in syria, what happened in grozny, it seems as though there really hasn't been any, there's bipartisan agreement on that bipartisanly no one's done much. >> i would say that congress, both democrats and republicans have been stronger in urging support for ukraine, but it's the administration which of course controls the policy. this has also been a factor in this problem. equally important, though, is we

have been late to understand that moscow's aims go beyond ukraine. they want to establish and control across all the countries of the soviet union. that includes our nato allies in the baltic states. it's a great danger to us, too. >> so should ukraine have been accepted to nato? >> i don't think our partners in europe are willing to accept it. we should push back hard with more force, more military supplies to ukraine fighting against moscow's aggression. that was true over the last eight years. things are better now, not as good as they should be, but better. >> thank you very much for being with us. appreciate your time. >> my pleasure. that wraps up the hour for me, i'm jose diaz-balart, reach me on twitter and instagram @jdbalart. thank you for the privilege of your time. craig melvin picks up with more news right now. p with more news right now

and a good friday morning to you. craig melvin here following new developments with the war in ukraine. right now we have our eye on the white house because president biden started a phone call with china's president roughly two years ago. at this point, we do have a readout from the chinese government of that call. right now, we're waiting for an official readout from the white house. this is the first direct conversation between president biden and his chinese counter part since november. secretary of state blinken says that the president is going to be making clear that china will bear responsibility for any actions that it takes to support russia's aggression. earlier in russia, president vladimir putin speaking during a concert in moscow marking the 8th anniversary of russia's annexation of crimea. there was a peculiar moment, the feed