this is a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" live in brussels. president biden just held a news conference after the emergency nato summit. this is after the meeting today to consider emergency measures in response to russia's devastating attacks against ukraine, and how to respond if vladimir putin were to use chemical, biological or worst case, nuclear weapons. the president was asked directly about that response moments ago. >> if chemical weapons were used in ukraine, would that trigger a military response from nato?

>> it would trigger a response in kind, whether or not you are asking whether or not nato would cross, we would make that decision at the time. >> earlier today ukrainian president zelenskyy told the summit russia used bonds. >> russia has superiority in the skies and weapons of mass destruction, and you see how many people have been killed and ukraine has been standing firm in unequal conditions, and i repeat, in order to save our people and our towns, ukraine needs unlimited military aid like russia is using all of its unlimited arsenal against us.

>> "the new york times" first reporting today the white house assembled a tiger team of national security officials. they are tasked with playing out scenarios and responses to a possible chemical, biological or nuclear tack from russia. and as the war on ukraine reaches the one-month park, this is mariupol, a once thriving port in ukraine where the devastation can only be described as apocalyptic. in kyiv, air assaults destroyed neighborhoods and dozens of residents, and it has been a war against civilians. and richard engel spoke to those being treated by doctors and nurses in the air raids. >> it's a terrible trauma.

people without legs and without arms. >> a month into russia's war, millions of ukrainians have been displaced, including millions of children, and today u.s. officials announced the u.s. would accept up to 100,000 of those refugees, but could not say whether that means this year or even when. joining me now, nbc news senior white house correspondent, kelly o'donnell. president biden and others were hoping for some concrete action from the summit. have they produced it? >> they will have things to announce and they will have substantive things to announce, and will that be in the area of sanctions, and mitigation against russia using its central bank to find ways to finance the war, and they will have humanitarian and military steps, so there are concrete actions. the real question is what will the impact be and will it change the course of events for the

people of ukraine? will it satisfy president zelenskyy? will it stop vladimir putin? i think those are real questions. leaders coming together can produce results. certainly them having an opportunity to be here in person and talk about these issues in a face-to-face way is one part of diplomacy that can change circumstances, but it's a real question about how much more they are willing to do and how much more putin is willing to test them and that's a real question. >> the fact that they don't really use intelligence about vladimir putin, and how much has he been willing to take? the analysis is he's not going to back down no matter what it takes, and he has air superiority, and -- >> he's willing to wait longer. >> but he can't match their heart, their resistance.

it's the flip side of what we saw in afghanistan, if you will, no direct comparison, but it's the heart they are showing and that's what no intelligence agency could assess. >> they embodied a dream and they manifested a belief in what life to be, and they are paying with their own lives and their country's history in terms of the beautiful things we have seen destroyed, and they are inspiring and people around the world is supporting them, and then that is the real question, if vladimir putin has been put back in terms of not achieving some of his aims, the losses they are taking, is this a juncture where more support from the west could be a critical difference? i think that's one of the

questions they are trying to explore, and is there more they are willing to do they are not saying publicly for reasons that might have some strategic value? >> to that point i want to bring in jeremy bash, the former chief of staff at both the pentagon and cia. i want to ask you, jeremy, about, for instance, the 500 tanks. that request. we know the fighter jets and everything that has gone into that and how the u.s. is trying to work around the polish attempt to bring the u.s. into the middle of supplying the migs, and we're not clear on this yet, but i know when i interviewed stallenberg earlier, he was ambivalent about that. >> andrea, i would be surprised if nato opposed a request for

armour or tanks, and that seems like on the low tech end spectrum, and that's the kind of capability we would feel comfortable in the west providing the ukrainians, and we have been providing offensive weapons in terms of javelins and i think we will move to more sophisticated surface to air missiles, and there's a reluctance to talk about the specific capabilities and where these capabilities are coming from. some countries don't want to be publicly identified of providing from their defense stock to the ukrainians, and i suspect, andrea, as you and i have been talking about for many weeks, we will test the limits of in direct warfare here, and we are talking about anti-ship missiles and drones and a number of more sophisticated technologies than tanks, because if the ukrainians will be able to deny russia to

kharkiv and kyiv, the ukrainians will need the more sophisticated weapons systems. >> they were victorious and speaking today about taking out one of the landing ships in the black sea near the port that supplies mariupol and the russian forces and that whole region? >> yeah, two aspects of that, sinking that vessel and causing those amphibious assault ships to go in the water, and it was broadcast on social media for all the world to see, and that was a victory for ukrainians and the west as well. >> what do you take away from the president's news conference? i was struck by assuming

leadership here, and he was with the g7, and this is his comfort zone, and we saw it in brussels and leading up to the g7 meeting and leading up to the meeting with vladimir putin, and the meeting with vladimir putin did not result in putin backing down in his long-term plans for ukraine, and president biden was so invigorated -- reinvigorated, perhaps, by this today, and being willing to take on donald trump again if he had to, welcoming it. >> yeah, i think even joe biden's critics would have to acknowledge he has been preparing for this specific role of commander-in-chief his whole public service career, and it's in his chords and dna, and he believes in the strength of the nato alliance and he has been working to strengthen those bilateral relationships his

entire career from the time when he was senate of the foreign relations committee. his purpose was built for this role and he will give a speech in warsaw over the weekend, and autocracies versus democracies and the values of the west and what our democratic countries are standing up for and trying to deal putin a significant blow. undoubtedly putin is failing in his desire to split the western appliance and subjugate ukraine, and this is a good moment for the west and for joe biden to stand tall and say this is what we're fighting for. >> i want to punctuate that by saying with the devastation and other parts of ukraine and mariupol and how badly the people are suffering, it's the time today to take a moment and say nato is on its knees, on

it's heels after the trump years and joe biden has in the last year despite the setbacks reuniting the allies, and it would be a different context for nato leading up to this war. thank you. joining me now, ambassador at large for war crimes, and rose. president zelenskyy accused russia of using a fostrous bomb. >> they are certainly illegal if used against civilians, and they

are not prohibited under the chemical weapons convention, but if they are used in military combat with certain toxic agents involved, then they can be interpreted as being a chemical weapon, even though not listed as such under the convention. so if the russians are using phosphorus munitions, and there are limited circumstances under which you can legally use them. >> rose, i spoke with stolenberg about a biological or chemical or nuclear attack. i would like to play some of that and get your response. >> we are providing support to ukraine also to protect

themselves against any use of chemical or biological weapons. we protect the equipment and all the measures to help them protect themselves in such a situation. any use of these weapons will be extremely serious, and it may have also, of course, affected nato allies because we know that chemical agents or biological weapons they don't always recognize borders, so even if they weapons are used in ukraine, it may spread and contaminate also areas outside of ukraine. >> but still nato is insisting that would not trigger a nato response because ukraine is not a member of nato? >> i think the most important thing, there is a response already going on in terms of how nato is working with ukraine and he very clearly emphasized that,

what is best for ukraine now facing this threat, a rather unpredictable threat, and we don't know when or if putin will strike using these weapons, but having ukraine resilient and ready to respond and not panicking in the face of such a horrible and destructive tool, and it's hard for -- and you contrast that when trump entered nato headquarters and it's a much different vibe there now and i cannot agree more with what jeremy had to say. >> david, what would be the consequences if vladimir putin were to use a weapon of mass

destruction against his neighbors in ukraine? against anyone? >> well, first of all, he's already entered a large zone in the war of aggression, and this would simply be another frankly state responsibility use, you cannot use chemical weapons in modern times because there's no legality in the use of chemical weapons in modern times, and he crossed another threshold, one with war crimes and crimes against humanity, and he would cross yet another one which is to use prohibited weapons that are so definitively prohibited there would be no question as to the finding of their legality, and that would be a command decision to use chemical weapons. i don't think they would be used

without him actually directing they be used, and that raises the question of accountability, of course. >> which is always the question of accountability. it took so many years, but milosevic did get convicted of genocide. and what we have heard in the last 24 hours, thanks to madeline albrecht. >> yes, i worked for her for eight years and she was a force for humanity, and it's so sad she's gone. i want to say milosevic was charged with many things, and he did arrive in the hague and went on trial. word leaders, or at least national leaders do arrive before courtrooms in many cases over the last 30 years. i don't think vladimir putin should presume he's immune from that reality. >> well, to both of you, you

both have worked so many years against weapons of mass destruction, and it's my privilege to see you again. thank you so much. thank you for being with us at this critical time in world history. >> thank you. up next, the fight for kyiv. i will talk to a former aide for zelenskyy who is staying in the capital as ukraine's defense is battling back forcefully against the russians. you are watching a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" live from brussels only on msnbc.

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recent gains made by ukraine's army forcing moscow to shift its strategy. a senior pentagon official telling nbc news that ukrainian forces have pushed russian troops back east of kyiv by at least 12 miles. it's the latest indication that russia has failed to make any significant progress on the ground after a month of fighting, but there are disturbing reports from the south, and the ministry of foreign affairs says as many as 15,000 people have been deported illegally from the bough sieged city of mariupol. joining us now from lviv is nbc correspondent, gabe tkpwaou

gutierrez in ukraine. i know you have been working on this, one wife is reporting he has not been in contact. what more do you know? >> reporter: yes, his family tells nbc news that the 53-year-old man was abducted saturday morning just west of mariupol. we are told by his family that he had been working there as a pastor and had invited people to shelter at his church, but on saturday morning russian troops actually went into the home that he and his family were staying in, and we spoke to his wife who was there. eight to ten troops, russian troops, she says, came in and took their phones and he was taken and they have not heard

from him since. i just spoke with his daughter who is actually in hawaii, and she says her mother told her those troops asked if he was an american citizen, and he said yes. now, his family in texas, he visits the united states quite a bit and we don't know his status at this point, but his family is very concerned. the state department aware of this, but because of privacy has not commented. no comment, though, from ukrainian authorities, andrea. >> obviously we will stay on top of that, and the state department is always very cautious about speaking and making things worse when people have reportedly been taken. i know you are working on your end as well. thank you. a former adviser to

zelenskyy, igor, and i know you have talked to my colleagues, katy tur, many times, and we know from pentagon sources, ukrainian forces have pushed back the advance of russian troops outside of kyiv. tell us what you are hearing. >> yes, that's what i am hearing as well. by the sound of it, the fighting has moved away, and we are -- let's not give away where we are, but we are to the east, but i would presume it's a ukrainian counter attack. so far the dynamics of this war around kyiv are favoring ukraine, and at the same time we have the feeling we are in between two waves now and everybody is bracing for the second wave, and that's where we expect potential use of

unconventional weapons. you know, taking kyiv with conventional weapons is virtually impossible. by the way, i want to reassure your colleagues and family members of the american ambassador. there have been prison exchanges and exchanges in southern ukraine recently. it could be that russians kidnapped this american citizen to exchange him for some of the prisoners of war, so that's a possibility and i would not give up hope just yet. >> that is reassuring. i know there has been communication in the past and some successful ones at that. in president zelenskyy's speech at nato today chastised the body for being late on the game, late on sanctions and late on weapons, and wanting to awaken the conscience of the world to what ukraine is really experiencing on the ground.

what is your reaction to what you heard him say today and to nato's response? >> well, first of all, what president zelenskyy is trying to say here is that we have this contagious disease, and rest assured it's contagious, and that disease is spreading and we're being given blood transfusions and painkillers, and we are asking for is a cure. that's a very important distinction. that's the point we are trying to stress. i am going to speak -- i am going to try and defend nato here and the collective west. the threat that everybody is facing today is unprecedented. i mean, this is a new type of war, it's hybrid warfare so the military in france, there's a humanitarian front and the amount of refugees is incredible and it's literally world war ii coming back to life. i can independently confirm the

deportations from mariupol to russia. we are working with a charity fund in ukraine who have been approached by the relative of some people who have been deported and they are literally trying to find a way to escape it and they can't and they are being moved to russia. plus, russia is having on actually forcefully giving out russian passports in the occupied territory. so that's unprecedented. obviously we would prefer for a quicker response, and since this threat is new it will take time to assess it. >> i want to ask you, igor, about you and your family. how is your family doing in the city of kyiv? >> well, we got used to it. that's probably the scariest part of it. no children should get used to the sounds of bombs exploding while playing outside, and yesterday i saw them playing and

there was an explosion and they don't pay attention to it. i took my mom shopping today, and you walk into the market, and you see there is only one brand of milk because russians are methodically trying to destroy our critical infrastructure, and at the same time there are four times of caviar. trying to grasp the surreal nature of what is going on, and we have to start thinking about what happens next right now. we're coming to the point where people kind of got used to the war, but usual life has been disrupted and they don't know what to do next. we are not talking about people receiving state pensions and so on and so forth, but we are talking about businesses running out of liquidity and out of cash and out of hope, and it's

critically important that we discuss that now and get help now, and so we should not just donate to ukraine, and we have to think creatively how to rebuild or at least rebuild for that temporary solution until the war is over. >> well, it's a profound need and let's hope the response is as overwhelming as the need. thank you very much, igor. it's good to see you. >> thank you. the war's most vulnerable. i'll be talking to a unicef spokesperson about more than 4 million ukrainian children displaced by this invasion. you're watching a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we are live in brussels on msnbc.

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nbc news correspondent, dasha burns. >> andrea, the scale of this is staggering. according to unicef, more than 7,000 kids have actually been born into this war. look, everywhere you turn here you see refugees who are mothers with multiple young children. andrea, some of these kids also crossed the border without their parents. ukraine has a large population of orphans according to unicef. so many of them have now had to flee. we met a group of orphans here in poland and i spoke with the director of the orphanage who

brought these kids safely across the border, and he's incredibly concerned because children are at a heightened risk of human trafficking and emotional trauma. listen to what he told me. >> translator: we will have a lot of work after the war to overcome psychological trauma of these children who lost their parents and who have been through very large emotional negative impact. >> yeah, a lot of work to come to help these children get over this trauma, and the ukrainian government has emphasized making sure to keep track of the kids, and more and more polish schools are accepting refugee children now.

>> thank you for bringing that to us. joining us from lviv is unicef spokesperson from ukraine. thank you for being with us. we are talking about 4.3 million ukrainian refugees, and it's probably more than that and it's more than half of the country's child population. what is being done to help them? >> it's a mind-boggling number, isn't it? it's a massive response. if we look in ukraine, we took everything from blankets to water purification tablets, and generators for water to emergency medical equipment, respirators, again, this morning, i was in a hospital here in the bunker watching pregnant women and women with brand-new babies again in a bunker with the air-raid sirens, and women are having babies in

bunkers, and as your correspondent rightly said, there's a lot of trauma. unicef has huge amounts of early childhood stuff, and recreation materials. it's an enormous amount of supplies going across ukraine to hospitals in about nine different parts of the country, but, you know, so long as these indiscriminate attacks continue, we will keep seeing children killed and we are going to keep finding it very, very difficult to reach the mind-boggling number of kids who need support. >> let's talk about the emotional toll. what can be done to help children who are living without sleep, without proper nutrition, listening to air-raid sirens and never knowing when the next artillery fire is coming? >> spot on. we talk about kids in bunkers and basements. when i see that it's often not

that they are in the basements, and they are not just in these places, they hear the scream of air-raid sirens and they run and sometimes they stumble and parents lie on top of them before they make the next dash to them. this is what children are learning. they are learning what war looks like, another nation coming to terms with that. and as your correspondent says, there's trauma and there's stress. they are farewelling their fathers. the male person in their life, they are in the country, and many of the kids here, they are separated from them, in bunkers, and they are not with their dad, and that's stressful for moms and kids that farewelled their

fathers. seeing parents with the final embrace, it's deeply traumatic for them, and we know it doesn't end unless the fighting ends. >> well, that's what we all pray -- hope and pray for, and thank you for all you and unicef are doing, extraordinary work. we will be talking to you again. thank you. how is washington going to respond to the country's call for help? you're watching a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. so, your message said you wanted to talk about insurance? i said, "i want you to talk about insurance." well, most people know that bundling home and auto -saves you money. -keep saying your words. but did you know that new customers who bundle and save with progressive can save an average of $800?

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the new funding will cover food, clean water and shelter and other assistance to ukraine. joining us now is chris coons. thank you for joining us. does this have bipartisan support? can you meet that target? >> andrea, i think you are referring to the $13.6 billion in specific assistance to ukraine that already passed the senate and was signed into law as part of the aupl yao bus last week. yes, we have appropriated it,

and now president biden will begin delivering it, the humanitarian relief and the support for the eastern flank nato allies. this is a significant additional set of resources we are using to help show our concern and passion for the millions and millions of ukrainian refugees and our determination to provide significant military assistance to ukraine. as you know, andrea, president biden's leadership has helped pull together nato and the european union, and switzerland and the swedes sat out the second world war. >> president biden weighed in on something suggested, which is kicking russia out of the g20,

and they were kicked out of the g7 after taking crimea, and i think china can veto that, and they have been straddling the line -- more than straddling the line. >> andrea, i think we should do everything we possibly can to send the strongest signals to the russian people and to the russian leadership that we view what putin is doing in ukraine as absolutely unacceptable, and that has meant crippling sanctions on the russian economy. our dispute and difference is not really with the russian people but with vladimir putin and how he's leading the government of russia and using the russian military to crush

cities all over ukraine, and the ukrainians are fighting with great determination. i think it's possible for ukraine to win this conflict, to stop putin and putin's army and it's a long shot and will be a demanding and difficult fight. i think we should do everything we can to give them the resources and the pathway towards being successful in this very difficult fight. given putin's brutal record, we can look forward to, with horror, more brutality against citizens if we don't do more to signal our united determination, and excelling russia from the g20 may be one of the steps to send a forceful signal. >> i want to switch gears, and, of course, i have been hear covering nato and brussels and all of these meetings, and i have been watching the

confirmation hearings for ketanji brown jackson last night, and what i saw last night, those attacks against her during the question and it led to this remarkable moment at the end of the questioning from senator booker. i want to play some of that and get your reaction. >> it's hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom, not to see my cousins. you have earned this spot. you are worthy. you are a great american. when that final vote happens and you ascend on to the -- on to the highest court in the land, i'm going to rejoice. >> she was moved to tears. i have to say watching it on a delayed basis in the middle of the night here, it was strikingly emotional. how do you think she was treated during the questioning?

>> andrea, this has been a very charged and a very difficult several days of hearings. what i hope the american people saw in these hearings was that judge jackson is a historic nominee to the supreme court and also an exceptionally capable, qualified and measured one. her legal credentials are impeccable. the arc of her service within the legal community, as a clerk at the district court, circuit court and supreme court level, as a practitioner and a judge in the district court and now circuit court makes her perfectly qualified for this moment and the arc of her remarkable family's struggle adds to that, and despite that a number of republican colleagues who promised at the outset these would be constructive hearings,

harassed her and took elements of her record out of context. she has written more than 570 legal opinions and sentenced more than 100 folks to longer services in prison, and very few of those decisions were cherry-picked and then made the basis for direct and personal attacks on her and her record, i thought, was very regrettable, disrespectful, unnecessary. i don't think it changed any minds on the committee. i hope that at some point in the future we will be able to find our way back to more constructive confirmation hearings. a number of my colleagues, both republican and democrat, did ask thoughtful and thorough and reasonable questions. those aren't the ones getting airtime. both on cable and on social media. what most americans are seeing are brief clips of a few senators launching at her or

defending her, and one of the things i want to leave you with, andrea, despite dozens of hours of very aggressive questioning, judge jackson displayed the sort of judicial temperament, the sort of measured, balanced to t questions that i think reinforces that she is eminently qualified, perfectly appropriate to be confirmed for the supreme court. >> and i just wanted to also give you a moment to talk about a woman i revered and covered for many years but got to know very well, and that's madeleine albright. the one secretary of state in our history who stood up and made sure that someone got tried and convicted of genocide. and the parallels of her life to the refugee crisis and the war we're now seeing, which is so profound, and her loss yesterday. i know you had a close relationship. >> that's right, andrea. and thank you for a chance to talk about our dear friend. look, she was remarkable.

born in prague. she and her family fled europe because of the brutality of first naziism and then communism. she's someone who rose to the greatest heights of american foreign policy. she served here in the senate with senator ed muskie and never lost her sense of the importance of making foreign policy make sense to average americans. she served as our ambassador at the united nations, as secretary of state, as an accomplished teacher, speaker, author but also to both of us a dear friend. someone whose humor and wit, whose insights and advice were absolutely critical. so we've lost someone who was a real giant in american history and someone who called all of us to be clear-eyed about the special role the united states has in our history. the last dinner i had with her was with both colin powell and madeleine albright over at the british ambassador's residence. we had the opportunity for hours, i just listened to their great and remarkable and funny

insights about their decades of service to our nation. i see you're showing some images of their remarkable friendship. thank you, andrea, for the time you're giving for the american people to understand her remarkable record of service to our nation and our world. >> well, thank you. her service more important now than ever before. her example. thank you, senator coons. appreciate it. >> thank you, andrea. >> and people from all over the world are stepping up amid the crisis in ukraine. they're proviing food and shelter and support for those fleeing the violence. people who have nowhere else to go. so joining us from romania are ann and gary leblond, co-founders of the virginia-based disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization mercy chefs. ann, thank you so much for being there, for what you've done. you've been in romania since the beginning of the month. tell us about the work you're doing. >> well, mercy chefs arrived as soon as we could get on the ground. we will picked a part of the

country that we thought we could be the most effective in. we're just a few kilometers south of the ukraine border and south of the border crossing at saret. since we've been here we've searched out the greatest need and what we found is the need to move food into ukraine. so today mercy chefs has moved almost a million pounds of food into the farthest reaches of ukraine. we have team members today that are in kyiv. we've been in sumy. we've been in serat. we've been in kharkiv. our teams are taking food to the very front lines and getting in where no one else has been able to go. >> so ann, what has motivated you and inspired you about this horrible crisis? >> well, it's just tragic. you look in the eyes of the moms that are bringing their children without their husbands. the children coming over without their fathers. even the refugee camps that are

established inside ukraine. you see the fear in their eyes, the uncertainty of what's to come. and you know you've got to provide hope. we've heard stories of how a piece of fruit just brings hope when they're hiding in the basement of apartment buildings. we heard a story of a little boy that was handed a biscuit when they got rescued out of northern kharkiv and he nibbled his biscuit so slowly that our contact that was moving them out, helping the refugees leave, asked why isn't he eating the biscuit? and the mom said he hasn't eaten for three weeks. he doesn't know when he's going to have another meal. so he wants to take his time with this biscuit. and that just breaks your heart. and so we just are mobilizing as much aid as possible to get food

into their hands. >> so gary, you know, how do you manage? how do you get the food into a war zone? how do you get to the people who need the help? going to places like kharkiv has got to be extraordinarily difficult and dangerous. >> i think you just have to make the decision. there are enough people talking about this, and we just felt that we needed to act. and so we came in, we've leased a warehouse, we're purchasing food from all over europe, we're bringing it in. we're putting it in trucks, getting it across the border. we have two warehouses in ukraine that we use as intermediary stops. and then we work through the local pastors and local community leaders to put that in smaller vans and move that to the front. we're working through the network that already existed in ukraine, and that's the church and that's the people that are already on the ground and taking care of their neighbors. you know, they just need us to give them a hand.

they just need us to do what we can do to push as much food into ukraine as quickly as possible. we don't know when this window of opportunity is going to close. so we want to act as rapidly and as strongly as we can. >> well, bless you for what you are doing. thank you so much, ann and gary for taking time to talk to us. it's very, very late there in ukraine as well, and you've had a long day. thank you. >> thank you. >> that does it for this very special edition of "andrea mitchell reports." our thanks to katy tur, who's usually here there hour. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. this is msnbc. becomemsnbc. becomemsnbc. become with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done. sales are down from last quarter, but we're hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uhhh... doug? [children laughing] sorry about that. umm...what...it's uhh...

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. we are coming on the air with several breaking developments from nato. you watched it unfold here live. president biden speaking not too long ago with some significant headlines including on what would happen if russia were to use chemical weapons in ukraine. watch. >> we would respond. we would respond if he uses it. the nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use. >> the president's also announcing new sanctions on russia and really stressing the need for nato to stay united and stay standing firm against vladimir putin a month after the invasion of ukraine. >> the single most important thing is for us to stay unified, and the world continue to focus on what a brute