hi, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. if you're just joining us, welcome. if you're still with us, thank you for sticking around. it's 4 clook p.m. in the east, devastation in the city of mariupol where ukrainian authorities say russian forces have bombed an art school that was sheltering hundreds of people, including women and children. the video shows the destruction of another school, officials say was targeted earlier on this week. this latest building in the east of the city was destroyed just hours after russian forces besieged the crucial port city, officials saying, quote, peaceful civilians are still under the rubble. and as those bombings continue across the nation, i want to

show you just how tragically common these attacks have become for the people of ukraine. here's a snippet of my interview with alexandra, head of ukraine center for civil liberties less than an hour ago. >> i'm sorry, my colleague told me there is a huge explosion and maybe after several seconds we can lost connections. >> i want you to be safe wherever you are right now, so if you have to go, if you have to seek safety because of this explosion you just mentioned, please take the time to seek safety. are you okay to keep talking or do you need to go? >> i'm okay. i am okay. >> all right, so lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as well as the nato secretary-general were quick to slam russia's escalating brutality against innocent ukrainians. take a listen to what they had to say to my colleague chuck todd on "meet the press." >> putin is paying a high price for this totally unjustified and

senseless war against an independent sovereign nation, ukraine. >> the brutality here increases, the united states will contemplate and consider every possible range of actions along with our nato allies. >> our involvement in this war is going to increase if their tactics targeting civilians also increase. >> and just a short time ago, russia's military said it had launched another round of hypersonic missiles on ukrainian facilities, hitting a fuel depot near the black sea port. nbc news is still working on verifying the latest claim from the kremlin but it's the second day in a row that russia has reportedly used this weapon which is capability, by the way, of striking targets more than 1,000 miles away. ten times faster than the speed of sound. all of this as the president gears up for a week of european travel to reaffirm america's commitment to ukraine and peace talks. he is set to attend the nato and eu summits in brussels which would focus on deterring and

responding to russia's worsening aggression and their war tactics. we'll have a report with the latest on his agenda in a couple minutes. we want to begin with new information out of mariupol. city council officials reporting hundreds of elderly refugees, women, children, are trapped under the rubble after russian forces bombed an art school that had been converted into a shelter. nbc's ali arouzi is in lviv reporting on this. good to talk to you once again. president zelenskyy has now accused russia of war crimes. what are we knowing, what are we learning about this latest attack? >> that's right, yasmin. he's accused them of war crimes, he's accused them of deliberately targeting civilians. last week, he said his heart is broken by what the russians are doing to mariupol, and it is a desperate situation there, as every day passes it seems to get worse and worse. so the latest news, as you mentioned, out of mariupol is that the russians bombed an art

school where around 400 people, mostly women, children, and elderly, were shelteric from the relentless russian attacks. the city council say the building has been destroyed and that many people are stuck under the rubble there. and of course, because there is such heavy fighting going on in mariupol, that is hampering rescue efforts. and it's been a devastating situation there. we have seen them bomb a children's hospital, destroy apartment buildings, shell churches, which are orthodox churches which are very sensitive to the russians, but that doesn't seem to matter. and mariupol now lies in ruins. i can tell you, yasmin, everybody we have interviewed, all of the accounts we have heard out of mariupol, just paints a horrific picture of what's going on in there. people about 300,000 people are trapped in that city without food, without water, without

electricity. babies don't have formula there. so it's a very desperate situation. only several thousand people have been able to get out of mariupol every day on those humanitarian corridors, the rest of the people are essentially being held hostage in that city. >> in your time in lviv, you have been speaking to dozens of displaced people that have sought refuge and safety in that city. i know that you spoke with one woman, i'm sure amongst many, that has a direct message for the russian president. what did she have to say? >> that's right. we have spoken to many people here in lviv. i have to tell you, yasmin, it's very interesting. i have been speaking to many people every day here in lviv, and none of them are from lviv. they have been displaced from other places. these are all people at random we have spoken to, and none of them have anything good to say about vladimir putin. most of their comments are laced with expletives.

the other day i spoke to a woman who had escaped mariupol with her family, her mother who had lived through the second world war. she said every time mariupol was shelled, her grandmother would swear at putin and say i hope he has the same destiny as chal ches cue and hitler. yesterday, we spoke to another woman who had escaped kyiv. let's take a listen to what she had to say. >> i decided to make my manicure the day before the attack. and obviously, not everyone was convinced this is going to happen. and i was thinking just in case, so i will be able to show my middle finger to putin when i have the chance. i really hope that i will still have this chance, to be honest. >> and you can see, she had painted her fingers in the color of the ukrainian flag, which she said she wanted to show her middle finger to putin. and it just goes to show the resilience, the resolve of the people in thiscountry.

they're all so tough. they refuse to be defeated. a lot of people think that putin is trying to bomb them into submission. but none of them are having any of that. i spoke to somebody else last week, i said are you worried that the russians may take your country over? she goes, the only way they're going to take this country over is if they kill all of us. >> unbelievable. their resolve amidst all of this tragedy. ali arouzi, please stay safe and thank you for joining us. >> so we have some signs that polish nationals are preparing for the worst. record numbers are applying for and renewing their passports. claudio lavanga is joining us now from warsaw. the implications of this would be devastating. it would be the beginning of a much bigger war if this invasion, if this war were to pour into poland. that being said, it seems like

people there are preparing for just that. >> they are, yasmin. let me just give you the picture here. we have been told by the region near warsaw that 28,000 people, polish nationals, of course, have applied for a passport in the month of february alone. that is a lot more than the 9,000 people who applied for a passport in the whole of 2021. that's a massive spike which of course is an indication that the polish nationals here, polish people are hoping for the best but they are preparing for the worst. so today, we went out in warsaw, in the center of warsaw, and asked some of them whether they are concerned that the war will spill over into this country. let's listen to what they answered. >> we are very frightened. it's a real risk. we don't know what would happen

in the near future. it's very uncertain situation. we would like this war to stop as soon as possible. our son is living in london, but perhaps we should leave warsaw and go to london which is safer. >> very worried. >> the mayor of a district here in warsaw confirmed to nbc news that since the start of the war, he has seen long queues outside of the passport office, starting from 4:00 in the morning. and that he thinks that people are rushing to renew their passports or apply for a new one because they want to be ready if they need to evacuate the city at short notice. >> what about the ukrainians there? 2 million or so that have fled to poland amidst all of this. do they also feel as if this war will bleed into poland?

>> well, all the ukrainian nationals that have arrived here and fled the war, they have the right to stay in poland for at least 18 months. they have the right to apply for jobs, send their children to school, to have access to medical health care. but what do they want? do they want to stay here, do they want to move elsewhere in europe or abroad? we went out in the town again and we asked some of them, and this is what one refugee answered us. >> i don't want to, like, move permanently to europe or another country. i want to go home. and i honestly really hope that i will be able soon. we are all kind of in the state of we don't want to start build new life wherever we are because we want to go home. >> well, her wish to return home probably reflects the wish of so many other ukrainian refugees here who are stuck in limbo

essentially here in poland. but the question really is, yasmin, when will they be able to return home? will they be able to return home? yasmin. >> claudio, thank you. >> i want to talk more about this and the refugee crisis overall with that jason joining me, he's the media team leader at the red cross. thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. we look at the millions of people that are leaving ukraine, and the amount, the needs they have. young children, the elderly, the medicine they need, the food they need. they need to go to school. mothers, fathers. it is a massive undertaking. let's put up a list of the countries, poland, slovakia, hungary, moldova just to name a few. how is your organization helping organize the needs of these refugees? >> you just named a very long list, and it was quite comprehensive, and you're right. all of those things become massive needs for each one of

these individual families. these millions of families that have been displaced internally or have moved over the border out of ukraine. so in the short term, what's most important? well, if you need medicine, your medicine is the most important thing. then clean water, food, and then finally shelter. you have seen images, video of these corridors where people are seeking safe passage, sometimes you'll see dozens and dozens of buses. we have led, our team at the international community of red cross has led some of the buses out. and then once the family gets to a safe place, the next question is, okay, thank you. but now what do i do? where am i sleeping tonight? where am i sleeping next week? and like you said a moment ago, how are my kids going to school? where can i get money, where can i get medicine? it's all these unanswered questions. >> and so, what's next? what is the long plan? you gave me the short.

what is the long? >> the long plan is that a whole host of organizations, including the entire red cross family, not only the icrc but now individual red cross associations and each one of these countries also working with the entire u.n. system, there's a huge international architecture that is able to respond to this, unhcr, to name one human organization, will be putting these plans in place and finding places to stay. i live in geneva, switzerland, and we have a neighbors and friends right across the border and i can tell you that families even this far away are now welcoming ukrainians into their homes, so you're seeing this replicated all across europe, but i couldn't summarize for you how large of an undertaking it is, but i think together we're making a point. >> talk to me about the situation on the ground. the u.n. estimating nearly 1,000

civilians killed. you have teams on the ground inside ukraine as well. what type of correspondence are you getting from them from what they're seeing and experiencing? >> well, there's just an overall sense of panic, of course. and the people who are there in places like mariupol, your viewers now know, are living through hell. there's another dynamic to this. that's the family members who may not be in mariupol but they have family who are there. and they're also living through their own hell. i get calls, i get personal calls on my own phone, i get emails. we had thousands and thousands of calls. people who are extremely worried, where is my family member? can you check on them? we need an update. there's a small child in the house. and of course, this is extremely difficult work. in a war zone, an active conflict zone. there's one story i would like to share with you, i just learned about it today. in mariupol, we were in contact with a woman who had a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. and she was living in her

apartment by herself, and she was sheltering in between the narrow passageway in her hallway near the bathroom. she would be in the basement, but the basement was completely full so there wasn't room even though she had two children. the worst part is she was telling us she was putting out sheeting to catch snow melt off of her balcony, but then at some point, there was no more snow. she had to risk going outside. it was about a mile and a half to the nearest river, the nearest water source, and getting water, and then now the question is, does she leave her 4-year-old and 2-year-old in the apartment by themselves? does she take them with her throughout the streets? and it's these kinds of daily life and death choices multiplied times tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who are stuck there and are fighting for their lives, food, water extremely scarce. the situation for civilians all across the city, and increasingly across the country

is just heartbreaking and unfathomable. >> do you know where she is now? is she okay? are her children okay? do you have any idea? >> she is. this particular woman is in western ukraine now. shared the story in person with us in our offices away from the fighting. yes, there are these small pieces of good news. large convoys that come out, they're filled with good news. every member, thousands of people leaving the cities, you know, that flight to safety is something they're going remember for the rest of their lives, right? so we can celebrate those moments. >> but those decisions. >> yeah. >> those decisions you have to make in war time to get just something basic like water for your young children. and having to leave them behind, 4 and 2. >> and even the decision to flee

the city, well, is today the right day to leave the city? people have said this to us. should i go today, tomorrow? which day is it going to be safe? >> i'm sure so many of them have seen that image of that family that fleed on that day who were shot by russian forces. and so that probably is something that has been seared into so many ukrainians' brains and so many of the memories and brains of people watching this whole tragedy play out. jason, we thank you, and we thank you for the work you're doing right now. appreciate it. >> all right, president biden and nato leaders meet in brussels to discuss what to do next to stop vladimir putin. we're in brussels next with a preview. still ahead, children of war. more than 1.5 million children have fled ukraine and we spoke to some about how they're handling their lives being upended. >> i started to value everything i have. as much as i never did before. i worry about everyone now.

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welcome back. a busy week ahead for president biden as conflict in ukraine escalates. he is set to attend this week's nato and eu summits overseas in brussels which will focus on deterring and responding to russia's worsening aggression in ukraine. josh lederman has the latest from brussels. >> hey, yasmin. the big diplomatic focus in the ukraine war will shift this week

to here in brussels when president biden arrives for his visit to nato, where he will meet with nato leaders and other top foreign officials, as the world tries to figure out what more they can do to help ukraine in fighting the russians. nato allies looking at whether they can boost ukraine's missile and air defense systems, including potentially having individual nato countries like bulgaria or slovakia give advanced anti-missile systems to the ukrainians. but nato as an alliance still very reluctant to get drawn into what could potentially be a major european war that involves nato, the u.s., and russia. they say that cannot happen. in part because russia is nuclear armed, so they're insisting this meeting will not lead to nato deciding, for example, to impose a no-fly zone over ukraine. but what it may lead to is a new agreement amongst the u.s. and nato allies about how to best insure the defenses for the nato

countries. to that end, nato says they're looking at moving significantly more troops to the eastern flank countries, as well as increasing air and missile defenses, hardening cyberdefenses. and having more combat strike groups and submarines persistently positioned in the area around nato to make sure that these countries are ready to defend themselves. nato secretary-general telling chuck on "meet the press" today the exact format for the meeting on thursday hasn't been decided. he also said that it's a little too early as of now to judge the progress in the diplomatic talks on ukraine. but we do know that president biden is still figuring out exactly what his visit is going to look like with the white house not ruling out that he may visit an additional country after he's here in brussels, potentially one of russia's neighbors, but ruling out the possibility that president biden will go to ukraine itself, given the fact that country is now in the middle of a very violent

war. white house spokeswoma jen psaki saying biden doesn't have plans to visit ukraine in the near future. >> thank you to josh lederman on that. >> andrea mitchell reports will be live from brussels all this week. it gets started at 12:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. >> the exodus of moscow, after building itself up for decades, the russian middle class fell apart in days after putin launched his invasion. i'm going to talk to a reporter about the exodus and how russians really feel about this war. we'll be right back.

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journalist marina ovsyannikova, i hope i said that right, who ran on set during russian state tv broadcast with a sign that read in part, they're lying to you. spoke out this morning on her decision to stay in russia after publicly refusing an offer from france for political asylum. let's take a listen. >> translator: very worried for the safety of my children, first and foremost. now, i believe in the history of my country the times are very dark and very difficult, and every person who has a civil position who wants to make that civil position known must speak up. it's very important. >> however, given russia's treatment of those who speak out, it is no surprise the country is seeing a mass exodus, as moscow correspondent anna nemsova reported for rolling stone and he joins me. thank you for joining us. i want to read in part some of

your piece from the rolling stone talking about the mass exodus that you are seeing for russia. you write this, the russian middle class as we knew it took decades to grow. it fell apart in days. and the exodus began, journalists, popular tv presents, pop stars, some of russia's most talented professionals are fleeing the country. tell me more about this. >> well, the russian middle class has been wincing political repression and persecution for years. opposition leaders went to prison, aleei navalny went to jail for years. people were detained in political protests, but the majority of the russian middle class saw if they played by the rules and keep quiet and don't criticize the kremlin, they can continue to grow richer and enjoy all sorts of comforts.

they have great aviation, great high speed trains, restaurants, but everything changed earlier this month when russian authorities decided to crack down on all dissidents and punish with 15 years in prison everybody who spread fake news after putin sent troops to ukraine. so many people felt like their world was folding up, like a house of cards. first, they could not withdraw any money from bank machines. then they could not fly to countries where they used to fly, where they have property in europe. and they realized that the window of opportunity for them to escape was growing narrower and narrower. since early march, around 200,000 russians who were, you know, that kind of environment

where investments from foreign investors to come to russia, these people, that part of city, very active and important part of society, they left russia. they were flying to turkey, flying to egypt, some flew to mongolia even. some crossed the border with finland. they traveled to st. petersburg, and tickets became extremely expensive. at some point, they could only fly for $2,000 to st. petersburg. it was a panic and the exodus began. >> these are the people with means. as we saw during the green movement in the middle east, the people leaving in that time and/or protesting were the people with means. and then there are the others that are still in moscow, still in russia. do they have support for what vladimir putin is doing from your reporting? are you finding they continue to support the russian president?

>> well, many people just grew quiet. people who were active users of social media, they had millions and millions of followers, celebrities, well known public figures, they enjoyed freedom on social media. and now they cannot have any access to instagram, to twitter, they cannot make money on youtube. many of them have businesses on social media, and they lost them. they are scared. the thing is, you need to understand, russian history has dark pages, and every russian who has read russian literature, who has read russian history textbooks knows that a neighbor can tell on you and the same night a black car will pick you up and take you to gulag. so now, these kind of ugly page, it seems, is back because we

already see lists of enemies and traitors. these lists are created by some bots and social media, russian social media users. they're not official lists yet, but people don't know how this crackdown is going to be and how many people are going to be arrested and put in jail for 15 years for spreading fake news and saying the word war, which is considered to be one of the fake news. >> so anecdotally, i have heard of russians having conversations with their own children inside ukraine who are fleeing this war, who are fleeing the violence and saying why are you leaving? putin is doing the right thing in your country, right? i wonder, anna, from your reporting, if you feel as if these people are communicating that because they're scared for their own safety, they feel as if their conversations, their communications, their emails, their interactions with their family members are being monitored? >> absolutely. people are scared of saying

things on the phone. they are terrified, many just stopped using political language, but at the same time, we see very brave voices. we see people trying to, like ms. ovsyannikova who you quoted on the show, who are mothers, you know, women especially, they talk about children dying in ukraine, little coffins with children, which is terrifying. so this discourse is taking place. and many, even those who are on the list of enemies and traitors, they continue to speak out and pull for the public for the society, for the active part of society to step to the side of light. they say it's enough.

you know, there's enough blood on our hands and our children and grandchildren's hands. let's just switch to the side of light, of life. >> despite the dangers they face. anna, thank you so much for your very important reporting. we appreciate it. >> so while some russians are running away from president putin amidst the country's invasion of ukraine, some in america's right wing are seemingly embracing him, but where does this fervor for putin stem from? many would say it comes from a former president who never shied away from complimenting the leader. >> i have been saying over the years and as i campaigned, getting along with russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. >> president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> putin's a killer. >> a lot of killers. we got a lot of killers. you thnk our country is so innocent? >> putin called me a genius. putin said donald trump is a

genus. >> trump praised putin's initial aggression towards ukraine as genius. and in the past few weeks since the invasion, far right figures have been pretty clear about where they stand. >> this is an eight-year-long smoldering conflict in which peace agreements have been routinely violated by both sides. >> is he trying to snuff out christianity, does he eat dogs? these are fair questions. and the answer to all of them is no. vladimir putin didn't do any of that. so why does permanent washington hate him so much? >> remember that zelenskyy is a thug. remember that the ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and incredibly evil and it has been pushing ideolideologies. >> let's bring in tara setmayer. excuse me, tara, i got a little thrown off by the last one. senior adviser for the lincoln project, former gop communications director. tara, as always, great to see you. want to read a little bit from what you had to say on nbc op-ed.

no matter how many statements they put out condemning putin's invasion of ukraine, the republicans cannot escape trump's role orthe role of their fave rth right wing media personalities in carrying putin's water for years. expand on this. >> i have to tell you, yasmin, it's so frustrating and infuriating to watch members of the republican party, the party of reagan, who was the cold warrior champion, right? go out there and shill for vladimir putin. without a resounding condemnation. yes, here and there you'll hear some of the republicans say, well, you know, we don't agree with that, or whatever, but it's not a coordinated effort to boycott tucker carlson, let's say for example, with the ilk that he spews on his program every night. he's out there as putin's number one propagandist here in the u.s., where the russians are state media constantly shows clips of his show. why do you think they're doing

that? because he's doing putin's bidding. is that purposeful? why would any republican who claims to stand for democracy, who claims to stand for what the brave ukrainians are fighting for, which is their democracy, and self-determination, why would any republican ever step foot on fox news or tucker carlson ever again as long as he continues to do this? and then you have others that are schilling, that are shamefully schilling for putin, like madison cawthorn, like marjorie taylor greene, gosar, and others who seem to think that it's better for them to use this as a criticism of joe biden, to somehow twist this and question joe biden's leadership as a bait and switch to take away from the fact they're once again using -- being used as useful idiots by vladimir putin. it's shameful. >> i have to say, the similarities between donald trump and vladimir putin are astounding, tara. you have americans asking the question of why it seems some

russians, right, believe vladimir putin and what he's putting out there. and i can't help but wonder, do they not remember the 2020 election and the big lie by donald trump? do they not remember the 2016 election and how he launched his initial campaign when he was then candidate donald trump, the same thing has happened here in the united states that are happening in russia. >> yeah, it's extraordinary. and in the piece, i say that a lot of what they're doing is smoke and mirrors. pay no attention to the man behind the iron curtain and the former president's desire to be putin's bff. we all saw it for years and years. and it extends even beyond trump's obsession with putin and russia extends years, back to the '80s when trump wanted to become an ambassador to moscow, for goodness sakes, and wanted to do business there. there was no secret here. yet republicans cast all that

aside. they made excuses and rationalized it during the years that donald trump was a candidate and as president, where his most shameful display came in helsinki when he stood next to vladimir putin and took his side over our own intelligence agencies. it's extraordinary to watch this rationalization happening now that the world has been unified, democratic world has been unified by president biden in our resolve to help ukraine and then you still have the republican party trying to have it both ways. they need to be called out for it and consistently held account frbl it, and hopefully democrats can turn this around and use that in the upcoming midterm elections to show who's on the side of democracy and who isn't. >> tara setmayer, thank you. we'll be back with other top stories including a mass shooting in arkansas.

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welcome back, everybody. a look at other top stories this

hour. police in arkansas now saying one person is dead and at least 28 people were injured including six children after a shooting broke out at a car show in dumas. police say they have made one arrest that is unrelated and are searching for a possible second suspect. >> a massive wildfire has burned more than 50,000 acres in west texas and destroyed at least 50 homes. authorities there saying the fire is around 30% contained so far. >> then in belgium, at least six people were killed when a car drove into a group of carnival performers. ten others were seriously injured as well. >> liz cheney telling "meet the press" the january 6th committee will reveal new details about the capitol insurrection. she also said the committee will make on criminal penalties for officials who they say failed to carry out their duties and it's the eve of ketanji brown jackson's historic supreme court confirmation hearings. and republicans are already gearing up to oppose her, even those who happily voted her onto

the d.c. circuit court barely nine month ago. senators lisa murkowski, susan collins and lindsey graham may have supported her last june, but these days are singing a different tune. take a look at their statements on her scotus nomination. it's not exactly the bipartisan display you might remember from last year. and nothing in comparison by the way to what we heard last week from tucker carlson who recently demanded jackson's lsat scores. funny how he never asked for amy coney barrett's scores. as we now discuss all that and what we can expect from conservatives next week and the overall confirmation hearings. the senior editor of law and policy. great to see you. thanks for joining us on this. so we just put up some of what we have been hearing from republicans when it comes to the confirmation of ketanji brown jackson. i want to read for you some of what we heard actually about amy coney barrett before she was confirmed to the supreme court. murkowski saying she has

intellect discipline and the built to hold the place in the supreme court. graham saying she has intellect and judicial disposition. tucker carlson, amy coney barrett represents everything that made this a great country. amani, your reaction. >> i think it speaks to the highly partisan nature of the supreme court. you know, there used to be a time where a republican president could nominate a justice and not expect that person to rule lock step with the other conservative justices. not expect that person to rule in lockstep with thou federalist society would like them to rule. so the fact we're seeing such disparate reactions to the nominations of amy coney barrett and ketanji brown jackson is just, i think it just highlights the sort of bad faith that we can expect from republicans. but it's also in a sense very expected. i wouldn't expect lisa murkowski

or susan collins or lindsey graham to come out swinging for ketanji brown jackson, but i think it's a little bizarre that they're opposing her now. >> let's look ahead. let's get away from the vitriol for a moment and talk about what we can expect from this confirmation hearing, which in fact, by the way, is historic. the possibility of the first black woman to become a supreme court justice. >> i think we can expect republicans to behave in a way that lets them escape any sort of accusations of racism, but i think that we can expect this sort of simmering sort of undercurrent of racism will be there, just in terms of the questions they're going to be asking her, they're going to be throwing around acquisitions that she's soft on crime, that she didn't sentence child sex offenders, that she defended gitmo detainees when she

shouldn't have. if you look at these issues carefully, she's upholding the constitution. she's representing gitmo detainees to uphold the due process clause. so we're going to watch them be racialized but try to pretend that they're not being that. >>mani, we thank you. our coverage of the russian invasion of ukraine continuing with a look ahead with a look at the children of war, and church bells across england ringing out at the same time as those in lviv in a sign of support for ukraine. wayfair's got just what you need to be outdoorsy. your way! shop the biggest selection of outdoor furniture and furnish your habitat from your habitat. get a new grill and cook over an open flame.

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welcome back. putin's war on ukraine. has devastated communities across the country. it's children in particular who continue to bare the brunt. more than 1.5 million refugees who fled ukraine are children. according to the a number gets bigger every single day. msnbc reports. >> reporter: when you watch children playing in the makeshift refugee shelters now scattered across poland, you see

a lot of smiles. talk to the same kids and you get the sense that they laugh and play not because they're unaware of the horrors they survived, but because it is their way to survive those moments in hell. >> what is war? >> so the war is when everybody is in a battle. and they are fighting. >> and we saw equipment. we saw then i don't remember anything. >> blood. it's loud noises. it's terrible. >> it's hard to talk about scary things, isn't it? >> yes. we don't have our house anymore. >> over three million refugees have fled ukraine. >> what's her name? >> unicef says half are

children. >> before all of this started, what were you doing? >> my plans were to go out. to hang out. to study. but not to leave. i want to be an actress. >> how have you changed in the last two weeks? do you feel like you had to grow up? >> i started to value everything i have. as much as i never did before. i worry about everyone now. i worry about my relatives, my loved ones. >> reporter: for the older kids there's a determination. necessity. to help. >> look out for my little sister and brother. help them. >> has that been hard? you're just a kid too. >> not so hard.

>> pain. instead of fuelling hate. galvanizing compassion. >> how do you find love in the middle of this? >> because we remember what you had before. before the war. you remember what kind of life you had. and you start missing it. >> what do you want other kids who might watch this to know? >> i want to wish them happiness and i want them to live good life. and clear safe sky over their heads. >> before we go, i want to say -- to all of you out there celebrating the persian new year. with love and blessings during an incredibly difficult time. "politicsnation" starts after a quick break. quick break. no wonder clients rate ameriprise 4.9 out of 5

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good evening and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lead a somber season. the first day of spring is supposed to be a moment of renewal. but, the days remain dark in ukraine. where russia continues its brutal invasion campaign.