breaking on msnbc, four u.s. marines have been killed after their plane went down during a nato exercise in europe. we'll have the very latest. plus a new warning from the uk ministry of defense, expect more civilian casualties as russia changes its strategy to fend off ukraine's fierce resistance. breaking this morning, the russian ministry of defense says it used a new weapon for the first time in ukraine. we'll tell you all about it as putin brings the war closer to nato's doorstep. plus president biden heading

overseas next week for a nato summit in a show of solidarity against russia's invasion. this after a call warning china. and ukraine seems to be winning the information war. how president zelenskyy is beating putin at his own game. good morning and thanks for waking up with us, saturday, march 19th. i'm vanita nair. the russian defense ministry says it fired hypersonic missiles describing a ukrainian arms warehouse. nbc news has yet to independently verifying this. black smoke rising over the previously untouched city of

lviv, russian forces hit an aircraft facility and a new statement from the uk defense ministry saying russia failed to achieve its objectives and has been surprised by the "scale and ferocity" of ukrainian resistance, russian forces appear to be increasingly targeting civilians. drone footage of the destruction brought to an apartment complex in kyiv after it was reportedly hit by a russian missile and now a warning, the images of mariupol and southern ukraine are a glimpse into the depravity of war, dead bodies awaiting burial and makeshift crosses after a residential area came under attack, as president biden warns china's president xi there will be consequences if beijing provides material support to russia, as 6.5 million people inside ukraine have been displaced since russia's assault began days ago on top of the 3.2

million refugees who already fled ukraine according to the u.n. for more we turn to gabe gutierrez live in lviv, ukraine, and msnbc reporter gary grumbaugh at the white house. gabe, what you can tell us about russia's assault on lviv and new reports a u.s. aircraft crashed overnight during a nato examiner in norway? >> reporter: good morning, vanita. more than a day ago where this russian attack and air strike at an airplane repair facility near lviv's airport raised a lot of eyebrows that russia's assault was expanding to include more of western ukraine, 40 miles from the polish border, from the nato border essentially. one person was injured in that attack and, but since then

there's not been a major attack on lviv. a short time ago we heard air sirens, long considered a safe haven. another reminder this is a country at war. you mentioned this nato exercise, that happened yesterday. there were four servicemembers on board an aircraft conducting a cold weather exercise in norway, and when it went missing, it was supposed to land at 6:00 p.m., it was reported missing at 6:30, we have since been told the aircraft has been located, though the status of it and the four servicemembers on board the aircraft is unclear at this point. we should point out, vanita, that this particular exercise defense officials say is not related to the invasion of ukraine by russia, this cold weather exercise had been

announced eight months ago. still very concerning that the status of those four servicemembers are unknown. i also want to mention one other thing. you mentioned that russia for the first time has just admitted to using hypersonic missiles as part of its attack here, that is also considered very concerning because these types of missiles travel at ten times the speed of sound, also very difficult for air defense systems to penetrate as well. the use of hypersonic missile was used to destroy an underground munitions depot that belongs to the ukrainians. so this is escalating conflict here. there is grave concern especially for the cities in the eastern and southern parts of ukraine, mariupol continues to be under siege and as you mentioned, more than 6 million ukrainians have been displaced. >> gary, i want to turn now to

you. we hear the words hypersonic missile and the back of the hair on your neck stands up and all eyes switch to president biden, traveling overseas next week to attend that nato summit and the g7 meeting on ucrepe and russia. we heard about the 110-minute call with chinese president xi yesterday. what can you tell us? >> reporter: president biden and president xi held a nearly two-hour video call. it was direct, substantive and detailed, the president laid out what the u.s. stance was on the crisis and the focus of this was on the concern that china could be providing material support to russia in terms of weapons or any other type of support and the u.s. was very clear about this, according to the read-out that was produced by the white house. biden said there was implications and consequences, a direct quote if china were to do that and provide that support.

biden has been supportive for weeks of a diplomatic solution to this crisis, we're told that he made that very clear to china's president. we're also told that conversations between officials on both sides are going to be continuing in the weeks ahead. president biden this morning is waking up in rehoboth beach, delaware, where he's spending the weekend ahead of a very busy weekend. he's headed to brussels, belgium, where he'll participate in conversations and meetings with a number of allies from nato to g7 to the european council and this is really a show of force of the allied support for ukraine by all these countries across europe, but the u.s. officials are still resistant to what president zelenskyy and ukraine really wants which of course is the no-fly zone over the country. >> gary and gabe, thank you so much for your reports. for insight and analysis, former u.s. army brigadier general peter zlack, and former u.s.ment

bass for to poland and former secretary of state daniel frye. good morning to you both. overnight the uk defense ministry is reporting russia failed to achieve its original objective and surprised by the scale and ferocity of ukrainian resistance. the defense ministry goes on to say this will result in "the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increased civilian casualties, destruction of the ukrainian infrastructure" a grim assess the of where things are headed. where do you believe russia's strategy goes next? >> thank you for bringing me on and good morning, ambassador frede. i think it's true. i think that the russians are i would say almost aghast at the

intensity and ferocity and the nationwide resistance of the ukrainian, i'm not even going to say military but population, a solid core military, about a quarter million and another 300,000 plus or minus of what you call territorial national guard type forces, home guards and militias that know how to wield kalashnikovs and the old rpg-7 rockets, not to mention the late model stingers and javelins. this is happening nationwide. the russians came in i think around 200,000 and the mission is too big for their forces to take down major cities. no major city, whether kyiv,

kharkiv, even mariupol is still in a tragic and heroic fight on the black sea. so the russians are in. they are caught and now ferocity they are hitting, coming in with everything from dumb bombs to precision and beginning to go through their stocks. now we've heard about the kinjau cruise missile hypersonic that putin thumped his chest in the 2018 russian state of the union and talked about that and five other weapons systems as much to push back at the world. yes, the russians are in. they are trying to finish it, and the more they push and the harder it gets, the more intense ukrainian resistance is, with a lot of help, with a lot of weapons coming in from up to four different countries on its periphery. last thing, lviv. i asked the listeners just to

take a second to look at a map of ukraine, and look where lviv is. it's just an hour or two from the polish border, and very close to several nato countries, and it's getting very, very close, if you will, to nato. back to you. >> if the russians are caught and remember' hearing now more and more that they need help, ambassador, i want to ask you about the two-hour call yesterday with the chinese president. we heard biden say there would be consequences if china provided russia more aid in the war in ukraine as state-run news media appears to be shifting its own tone focusing less on russia's military might and more on the civilian toll of russian strikes. what is behind the shift in tone and do you think china now after that 110-minute call will actually heed biden's warning? >> you're right to focus on

biden's clear warning to the chinese. there would be consequences if they provide material support to putin's war against ukraine. the american threats are credible. the sanctions the u.s. led against russia were stronger than most people anticipated. they were very strong indeed and it is credible now that biden's warning to the chinese to impose sanctions should china send military equipment to russia, or help russia violate the sanctions are credible, that may have an impact on the chinese. i'm not a china expert. i spent my time on russia and the old soviet union, but the chinese cannot be happy with the fact that putin has dragged them closer to a conflict that they would like and putin has shown his military to be let's say

ineffective against an opponent that they were expected to dominate. president xi know what he doesn't like, that's the free world, the united states and democracy, but he's now, he may not like to be tied to putin's war especially when that war is not going well. >> you look at china and what's happening there right now, stock market is slumping, gas prices are soaring, covid new cases, we're hearing all about this lockdown. you said you are not certainly an expert in china but a lot of people are wondering could this be a dry run if china stays in in for a potential invasion of taiwan? do they have other metrics that they're looking at right now? >> i'll defer to the general on the military feasibility of any near-term chinese military move against taiwan. they don't have a land border with taiwan. that's a naval operation.

the united states has the seventh fleet and we have been carefully ambiguous about what we would do and doing nothing is probably not in the cards. so i think that the staunchness of western response to putin's attack against ukraine shows that the west is not as weak divided, self-absorbed as the authoritarian powers in this world may have assumed. >> general, quickly want to ask you about poland. could a strike in poland bring nato into this war? >> yes. i don't want to split hairs, but that's going to be, if it happens, god forbid, that will be a moment where nato will go into deep consultation.

it won't necessarily be automatic based on what happens, but certainly the russians are playing with fire. if they play this hot pursuit game or go cross border, it's threats right now, but it is very significant for russia, and it's beyond when we talk about nato, which is the core alliance of our world right now, you also have neutrals, eu nations that are all now kind of really, really watching what's going on here with great intensity and sort of i think what both of you have been talking about, this is more than growing about russia, u.s., nato, ukraine. this is eu. this is europe. this is like-minded nations in the world, which is also what china worries about, because the ambassador touched what's happened, this russian

aggression adventure has coalesced the like-minded world in a way that neither any of the major autocratic wannabe totalitarian nations are shocked i believe including the people's republic of china >> general and ambassador, thank you for your time and insights. a fascinating conversation. coming up this morning on msnbc, growing concern about a new tactic russia may be using to keep control of its cities it captures by kidnapping mayors. ukrainian officials announcing several such incidents. as putin widens his attack in ukraine, there are ominous signs the nation's third largest city may be his next target. what happens at if odesa falls? we'll ask a member from the ukrainian parliament, who is

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welcome back, with russian

forces facing stiff resistance in ukraine, secretary of state antony blinken is now warning the russian president vladimir putin will likely order the kidnapping of ukrainian officials in an attempt to replace them with puppets. this alert from the state department comes after the mayor of melatopol was kidnapped and subsequently freed. >> reporter: as russian air attacks ravage more cities, putin's playbook will likely increasingly include the systematic kidnapping of local leader. >> this is a terror tactic. grab local officials, depose local governments, put proxies in their place. >> reporter: ukrainian authorities say four mayors have been captured, one released as part of a prisoner swap. the mayor of melitopol in southern ukraine whisked out of city hall wearing a bag over his head. subsequent release and use of

expletive made president zelenskyy crack a smile. [ speaking in foreign language ] but fear is spreading. today this refugee told us the mayor of her city in southern ukraine was in hiding in another town about 75 miles from kyiv the mayor is surrounded by armed guards. many ukrainian leaders defiant. today we spoke with lviv's mayor hours after a russian air strike blew up a repair facility near the airport. >> the mayor has to be together with his community, whatever happens. >> reporter: the kremlin has not commented on the kidnappings. >> this is essentially what the soviets did in eastern europe during the cold war in east germany in czechoslovakia and the other warsaw pact nations, and what i'm suggesting is it won't work in ukraine. >> for more on this we turn to alex gonkhairenko, a member of

the ukrainian parliament. we've entered a new phase when you are talking about kidnapping mayors. are you concerned about the warning that more officials in ukraine might be kidnapped by russian forces? >> definitely the new tactics of terror try to influence mayors and officials to work for russia by the threat of death, but not something absolutely new, unfortunately, because for example me personally in 2017 russian secret service was preparing my kidnapping and thanks to secret service of ukraine, that was stopped and then those who try to do this, were taken by russians, by putin in exchange of ukrainian war captives. so it's like the kgb tactics and

putin is a kgb agent. he couldn't do anything with ukrainian army which is holding the ground, that's why he's terrorizing civilians and trying to make operations like kidnapping of officials and trying to get them to their side. >> i want to read you something, speaking to "the washington post," odesa's mayor warns putin's next target will likely be his city. the mayor says "our concern is that the city could be surrounded. we need so many things, i don't know where to start. we appreciate your help in preventing a humanitarian catastrophe." you're based in odesa, you're very much in the battlefield. what does the city need right now just to defend itself? >> reporter: yes. definitely for putin, there are -- it's sebastopol and crime extra which is temporarily occupied by russia.

speaking about odesa, which is very important is the ukrainian army fighting in the southern part of nikolaev, not giving the russian forces the opportunity to get to odesa. they were preparing from occupied part of moldova, from land operation and sea and the main attacks should be from the land, but for these they need to cross kherson and nicolaev region. i was with the army liberating one of the villages, several villages in the kherson region and pushed russians from nicolaev, there was a counter attack there, something which is keeping odesa safe. odesa is a target putin. we'll do our best not to let them there. fwlu mentioned the regions. i think it's important for our

viewers to give them a sense what it represents, the third largest city, a major seaport and been critical to receiving and disburing aid. how high are the stakes when it comes to defending this third largest city? >> it's not only third largest city. what is very important that odesa is the biggest city on the black sea at all. so not only in ukraine but at all. this is the capital of the black sea which putin tries to make his. odesa was the third biggest city of the russian empire in the 19th century after st. petersburg and moscow. that's why it's symbolic or putin and his crazy conspiracy ideas of history. it's a big economic, cultural, intellectual hub and all

together it makes it an important goal for putin, maybe the second biggest goal after kyiv >> i want to ask you what you make of some of the comments the russian propaganda, all sides really want to move towards a cease-fire, but what is your sense especially with putin having spoken now making mention of traitors of what it is he wants right now. what's his end game, do you think? >> yes, he's speaking about national traitors, and it's very interesting the words by adolph hitler, putin is like the hitler of the 21st century even in terminology. watch speeches of hitler and you'll see they're equal to the things that putin is saying now, it's absolutely unbelievable. i don't believe in peace negotiations. with hitler, was it possible to make peace with hitler? i am not so sure. hitler wanted everything and

putin wants everything. he's not going to stop on ukraine. he's going to go forward to the baltic states, georgia, poland, moldova, other countries. so yes, i want peace very much, but to tell you the truth, i don't believe in this now. only force which putin understands. so more weapons to fly to ukraine, that's the way, how real peace negotiations can happen especially aircraft. >> i think after these overseas air strikes, a lot of people are actually echoing some of your sentiments. alex, thank you so much. coming up after the break the city of lviv struck by russian missiles for the first time since the invasion began bringing the war closer to a relatively safe haven in western ukraine. within miles from the border of a nato ally. we will have a live report on the ground next. mm. [ clicks tongue ] i don't know. i think they look good, man.

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welcome back. let's look at some of the other top stories we're following. alaska's longest service congressperson, don young has died. he passed away traveling home to alaska. the blunt-speaking republican was first aelected to the house in 1973. he described himself as intense and less than perfect but wouldn't stop fighting for alaska. don young was 88 years old. moderna is following pfizer for authorization of a fourth

dose of the covid-19 vaccine. pfizer's would be for those 65 and older, moderna for all adults. ba.2 spreads throughout europe and other parts of the world. crews are battling a deadly wildfire in texas this morning, which officials say killed at least one person and burned through 50 homes. you can see the destruction in the community of car bonn. harsh winds are making it difficult to contain. governor greg abbott made a disaster declaration in 11 counties but says more could be added. russian forces are escalating missile strikes on the city of lviv in western ukraine usually a tourist destination. it's become a hub for displaced ukrainians seeking safety and shelter, their future more uncertain. as the russian strikes land closer to the city center, lviv's mayor reported several missile strikes hit an aircraft repair plant near the airport

early today. nbc's molly hunter is live in lviv, which is just 40 miles from the polish border. molly, it feels like lviv is trapped. people trying to get out, you have aid that is trying to get in. what are you seeing this morning and how are refugees reacting to those new overnight attacks? >> reporter: vanita, good morning. way tonight ratchet down the temperature a little bit. nothing has hit lviv. lviv is not under attack. everything is quite far away from where i am relatively far away. the most recent strike was yesterday overnight yesterday it hit an airport repair depot next to the airport, it was about in our and a half miles. colleagues staying on the other side of the town could see the smoke rising and hear some of the booms, it was early, early ned morning. last night around 1:00 a.m. we heard a series of booms, we have no idea what the sounds were, what they were targeting, those were outgoing/incoming, and around 11:00 a.m. so just about

an hour and a half ago or so we heard air raid sirens. this is getting increaingly close and this western city has been the safe haven. this has been where everyone fleeing the violence of the east has come and the departure point for anyone going off into poland and elsewhere. hundreds of thousands of people who have decided to stay in lviv, don't want to leave the country and become refugees, who believe in their country and for various reasons want to try to wait it out. as at tacks get closer and closer to the city as they start to move more west, that security calculation, that risk calculation for a lot of people will start to change. what is interesting in the last couple of days, vanita and the people we're starting to meet for the very first time are residents of mariupol, people who fled that besieged city in the southeast of the country. for the last three weeks, i hadn't met anyone from mariupol. we've been talking to evacuees, to people going on to poland and

asking where they are from. we hadn't talked to anyone from mariupol. now they are. estimated 35,000 managed to escape that city and getting firsthand testimony, accounts of what it was like when they were trapped. what's interesting is they're not getting out on humanitarian buses or icrc convoys even though the humanitarian corridor has been discussed and agreed and according to ukrainian officials it has been agreed today. what's happening is people are getting in civil yar cars lining up by the thousands, getting out of mire yew poll and getting on trains and coming to the west of lviv where they feel safer. >> it's nice to hear there is a place where they're feeling more safe. thank you. coming up, messaging versus munitions. ukraine may be outmatched on the battlefield but it is winning the information war and why that matters. as we go to break, footage circulating online appears to show a man in military uniform

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being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace, peace in your country doesn't depend anymore only on you and your people. it depends on those next to you. >> an historic moment ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy making a direct appeal to congress earlier this week asking for more help over live video, came with reinforcements showing this video that had graphic footage of death and destruction, left lawmakers visibly shaken, a communication strategy pushing since the start. he received a standing ovation from the european parliament and spoke to german lawmakers and next week japan. he posts daily updates on his own social media accounts which of course reach far beyond ukraine's borders.

zelenskyy understands the shift from conventional warfare where the focus is on munitions so media, messaging and persuasion. sean, thanks for waking up early with us. >> it's a pleasure to be here, thank you. >> you look at the two leaders and it really is, they are as disparate, 44, former actor and comedian who speaks to you and connects with you, the other 69, former kgb, almost always in a formal suit. what is the difference in how they present themselves, the strategy behind their communications and who is more effective right now? >> there are two generations. you have putin, the ex-kgb, son of the cold war from the ashes of world war ii. that's how he views the world is strength and sneakiness, and then you've got this young comedic tv star who almost accidentally becomes president,

and he understands how to communicate to people. he understands what moves people and he's a child of the information age, unlike putin, and that informs their strategy. >> i want to ask you about that rally yesterday in moscow. we saw putin there. he did not have his suit on. he certainly was trying to relate. he calls this what he wanted to be almost talk about the special operation in ukraine. there are now reports several state reports some of the state employees were actually forced to attend even though you see all of those flags waving. does this win him any points in the information war? it seems almost like a slight pivot. >> it is. he's been pivoting. he assumed as we all know that his march into ukraine would be greeted with welcome as it was when he took crimea in 2014. he was not prepared for the resistance. he was not prepared for zelenskyy, who has really risen above any expectation, and so

what he's been doing now is zelenskyy created a foreign region and so putin is creating a foreign legion of people who he's paying for, like mercenaries. zelenskyy's on tv showing this sort of churchillian cool and putin is trying to rally the same thing but forcing people to show up as a publicity stunt. it's pathetic, and zelenskyy and others will dig into that. they'll exploit this. it looks like an elephant ballerina. it doesn't work well. and so it's really playing against his long-term interests whether he knows it or not. he's not from this information age era. >> it is so true when you read some of the tweets zelenskyy is quick to get out there and help people respond to them. i want to turn back the clock. when you think back to 2016, russia used disinformation and memes on social media to stoke some of the divisions among americans, and now it appears, you know, they cannot win the pr

war on the global front. is he losing the information war and where is that so-called troll factory now? >> yes. so first of all, putin and others are still trying to subvert us from within using disinformation. what's amazing is that you know, if you think about it, autocracies are not built -- they can wield disinformation but don't have the genius to create it and as we have seen recently with putin in the stadium, looks ridiculous, and so what's amazing is that russia was the disinformation superpower, and now they're meeting their match with ukraine, not just zelenskyy, all of ukraine, who are flanking russia using information, not disinformation, but information, and this is the secret about how warfare is changing. this is why putin is on the back heel here, is that we live in an

information age. we have for the past 30 years. the next 30 years will be increasingly so, and warfare in an information age, information matters more than just sure lethality, and putin is going in there with world war ii-style tactics of tanks and artillery, and that's, you know, that may have worked in 1939. it doesn't work in 2022. yes, we need to provide munitions to the growing ukrainian resistance, but information matters more than just fire power, and that's what ukraine is doing, and this is the little engine that could and this is why it can't. >> it's great you say the little engine that could. superficially it's the t-shirt, it is the continuous posting of all of these individual videos, immediate responses, it feels like a leader who is far more accessible and this is information.

sean mcvay, thank you for your time. >> thank you. after the break, russia state tv says a moscow court extended brittney griner's detention until late may. "washington post" columnist jason rizzian who was held in iran for 554 days fears the wnba star is being used as leverage. we will join us next. doug. we gotta tell people that liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need, and we gotta do it fast. [limu emu squawks] woo! thirty-four miles per hour! new personal record, limu! [limu emu squawks] he'll be back. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner with access to financial advice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love.

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oil in her luggage which could carry up to ten years in prison. she plays for a russian basketball team as a way to make extra money. her detention is extended to may 19th. joining know is jason rezaian, held hostage by the iranian government for 544 days. thank you for waking up early with us. >> thanks for having me. >> this all stems from a mid-february incident as we mentioned, at the moscow airport, they charge her with a large-scale transportation of drugs, potential of ten years in prison. you have firsthand experience of what it is actually like to be in this level of isolation. what is it like for her right now? what goes through your mind for her? >> well, first of all, i think there's so little that we know about the conditions that

brittney griner is under. there's no reason that we should necessarily believe anything that russia puts out over the air waves. i fear she might be held in solitaire which is a form of torture. i'm very concerned, as of course the u.s. government is now, that she's being denied consular access. i made that point as soon as we learned about this case more than a week ago. that's a big, red flag. and in that void of information and ability to connect and communicate and defend yourself, all sorts of terrible things are possible. >> i want to ask about the piece you wrote for the post. you're saying more americans are being detained wrongfully abroad especially moments of tension or conflicts, which we are in right now. right now three americans are current being held by russian authorities, so what do you

think the administration should be doing to get these americans released. >> until we don't have deterrent measures that are credible and effective, it's going to happen more and more, that's what we're seeing, our reporting at "the washington post" opinion tells us, this is a practice on the rise by authoritarian governments, russia, iran, china, venezuela, and a handful of other states. we saw this in the case of some foreign nationals being released from custody in iran just this week, there are americans, brits, germans, austrians, french, all being held in iran at this moment. i think the global community of democracies, led by the united states, the uk, canada, need to come together and have a collective approach to deal with what is, really, hostage taking.

>> your piece was eye opening in that sense, it makes you realize how sadly common this situation is. i want to ask what we're hearing about ukrainian prosecutors we're learning a ukrainian journalist has been abducted and detained by russian soldiers, we have been not been able to confirm this, but what will happen in the court procedures that follow something like this. >> first of all, court proceedings could happen quickly in the form of a sham trial. you might hear forced confessions from this person. you don't assume that a prisoner from a country that you're currently at war with is going to get a free -- you know, a free and fair trial when they do have their day in court. but as we're seeing in brittney griner's case, it could get dragged out and authoritarian regimes use these pretrial

detentions which they extend in month long, two-month long increments to give a veneer of a real judicial process. well, all they're doing is prolonging the unfair treatment of people who have rights. rights that they're being denied. in the case of the ukrainian journalist being detained by russian forces. we know that journalists have become a major target for authoritarians so there's no indication that their treatment will be just or humane. >> it's really sad to see that we're at a place where people could be used as leverage. thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> my pleasure. >> thank you. up next, another problem growing more urgent in ukraine. finding enough food. but first we are learning more about the american killed in crane. minnesota james hill was looking

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millions of people are waking up in ukraine with empty stomachs and no shelter, the food supply situation growing more dire by the day. jacob soboroff explains how the world food program is making sure supplies get to the cities in need. >> reporter: the situation here is desperate. millions of ukrainians without a place to live and increasingly

without food to eat. irina fled, she said the only food is bread and even that's rare. the conditions, especially dire in mariupol. aid workers have called it apocalyptic. food is running out and humanitarian convoys haven't been allowed in. it is cruel this woman says, my child is hungry, i don't know what to give him to eat. getting supplies to ukraine's bombed out cities is growing more dangerous by the day. this warehouse used to hold food, it was hit not once but twice. lviv, food is still sold on the street for now. >> president zelenskyy has encouraged you not to stop producing your food. will you do that? >> reporter: maria tells me, if we're alive, healthy, we'll continue to do this. if the food supply is further disrupted or markets continue to be attacked, things are going to

look different. hundreds of thousands have sought refuge in this city. and world central kitchen is trying to feed as many of them as possible. >> we have this network of chefs, restaurants and delivery drivers. >> reporter: these friends fled. what about to have a hot meal like this every day? of course, we're so happy she says, in our city there's no gas, no water, nothing. today a cloud of smoke rose from behind another world central kitchen in lviv, the aftermath of a russian strike nearby. it didn't stop the work of feeding the hungry. jacob soboroff nbc news lviv. >> we want to thank you for watching nbc reports. i'll be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. velshi starts right now, live from hungary.

good morning, it is saturday march the 19th, i'm ali velshi at the train station in budapest, hungary, where thousands of refugees continue to arrive daily from neighboring ukraine, where russia's brutal invasion is continuing for a 24th day. ukraine's prosecutor general says 112 children have been killed since russia's attack began and over 140 wounded. although the kremlin's ground invasion is largely stalled, according to nato officials ukrainian cities remain under fire from constant air attacks. the russian ministry of defense said for the first time in the operation it deployed a hypersonic missile, a type of missile that's harder to detect and interception. nbc news has not independently verified that claim. according to local ukrainian officials several missiles demolished buildings on friday