three, three powerful explosions near lyiv. keep calm and be in shelter. again, a statement we've gotten just in the last few seconds. so ali, as we look at this from my location, i'm not far from ari and jacob, but we can see the smoke continuing to rise in the background. it is thick, black smoke. and it is, you know, it's unclear exactly what was hit. but as jacob noted, the communications tower not far from here remains in tact. so we just don't know at this point what this site was. we have heard some emergency sirens rush big here, just within the last few minutes. traffic has cleared out. i wouldn't say for the most part, but it is less so than what we saw earlier. not traffic certainly has been decreasing throughout the

afternoon, and another thing, ali, is now we're just starting to get much stronger wind and rain is on the way here in lviv. it was a beautiful day earlier, people were walking throughout the streets just as if it was any other weekend day, any other saturday morning here in lviv. but of course that has now changed drastically. we're awaiting confirmation, more details on exactly what was hit and if anyone could have been injured. from my vantage point we see the smoke rising in the distance, and we have from the regional head of the lviv military administration, confirmation that there were three powerful explosions right near lviv, ali. >> i want you to stand by gabe, and ali, and jacob, i want to bring in kelly o'donnell here in warsaw. this is obviously very important because the president is here and he's here because of these attacks that are going on in

ukraine, but the idea that lviv may be a new front for this thing makes the urgency of what is going on right now with president biden even greater. he has -- i don't know if he's left the stadium yet but he's going to be delivering an important speech very shortly and i'm sure this is going to play a part. i'm sure there are people going through the speech right now wondering whether they have to do something a little differently. >> reporter: well, i do believe that the president is in a period right now between the stadium visit where he had a chance to meet with refugees. he spoke to reporters about the impact of that, and one of the things that he told reporters, part of the pool that works up close with the president is how in his encounters with those refugees, so many of them said say a prayer for or told an anecdote about a son, a brother, a father back home in ukraine fighting on behalf of the ukrainian people so that direct connection there. the president in warsaw, and he

will be leaving to return to the united states at the end of this day, but lviv is only a couple hundred miles from warsaw, so that brings this even closer to the president. he's had the opportunity today to speak directly to the top officials of the ukrainian government, their foreign minister, and their defense secretary, and certainly i would think the president would be getting some additional briefing on what is known at this point on these new blasts in lviv from his own top officials, our u.s. secretary of defense is here in poland. so is the secretary of state. the president gets a lot of realtime briefings, and he's got a little bit of time in his schedule between that visit with refugees and aid workers before he delivers what the white house has called a big address, and so this really adds to the urgency the relevant, real world pain and fear that people in ukraine

are doling with, if in fact, this has expanded farther west than we have been seeing. the president was asked in the brief interaction with reporters if he believes that vladimir putin is adjusting his ambitions for the war in ukraine to dial it back, to not go forward, the whole country, as we have been watching over the last four weeks, but might be pulling back sot region where he already has greater strength closer to the russian border, and the president said he didn't think that was necessarily so. and now we have these explosions in lviv. we don't yet know what the status of those explosions, the origin, we don't have that yet, our teams on the ground are working to find out more. and andrea mitchell is with us. she's in warsaw, and has been covering this over the last few days. we know that the speech the president is going to give this

afternoon is going to tap his visit here in poland, and his time in europe, which will summarize what is at stake, and hearing the blasts in lviv, hearing the accounts of our colleagues, certainly makes it all so relevant, andrea, about what is at stake, the fear, the reality, that this is an act of war with an uncertain future and with world leaders being implored by ukraine to do more. andrea. >> absolutely, kelly, and these are the stakes. i'll be with you for the next hour, a special addition of msnbc coming live from poland. president biden meeting outside a soccer stadium as all of this is happening in lviv, just a few blocks from where i am now, meeting with ukrainian refugees who have been flooding by the millions into poland. the majority of those refugees coming to poland to this front line state. meeting also with aid workers,

including of course world renowned chef jose andres. moments ago, an emotional president biden hugging several refugees with one mother telling him that her husband and son are still in ukraine fighting but she was saying to him that ukrainian mothers would strangle putin with their bear hands. the president responding to the strength of their human spirit. >> each one of those children said something to the effect, say a prayer for my dad or my grandfather, or my brother who's back there fighting, and i remember what it's like to have someone in a war zone, and every morning you get up and you wonder, you just wonder, and pray you don't get that phone call, and they're an amazing group of people. >> the president also met with poland's president duda here, just another few blocks away from the president's palace,

reassuring president duda and the polish people that the united states will defend poland, a nato member, of course. defend poland from russia no matter what putin does. >> we take as a sacred obligation, article 5, a sacred obligation of article 5, and you can count on that. i'll end where i began for your freedom is ours. >> and in a surprise appearance earlier today, the president had a joint meeting along with secretary of state antony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin with their ukrainian counter parts, the defense minister and foreign minister. after more criticism from president zelenskyy today addressing the doha forum, that he needs more weapons from nato and the united states. in just a few hours as kelly o'donnell was saying, the president expected to cap his

european trip. his final moments will be a major address about what is at stake in ukraine's show down with russia. this all comes as russians have at least up until a few moments ago, halted their ground movements for now, according to a senior u.s. defense official. a top russian general was saying that their troops are focusing on the eastern donbas region, which could signal that moscow is giving up on capturing the capital city of kyiv, and on the rest of ukraine. although the kremlin is now reportedly gathering reinforcements from georgia. let's go back to the breaking news from lviv and ukraine. nbc news has been hearing those loud booms and smoke. let's bring in nbc correspondents jacob soboroff and gabe gutierrez, jacob and gabe, what's going on in ukraine? >> reporter: this is jacob, i'm not so sure if you hear me.

i believe you do. we're told now by the head of the lviv regional military administration what you see behind me, that large cloud of black smoke, this is in a telegram post by this official, that there were three powerful explosions here near lviv. there is now an air alarm, and he's instructing the public to keep calm and be in shelter. what you're seeing is the smoke emanating from beyond the unesco world heritage site of the city center in lviv, where the city hall is located and frankly a tourist destination in more normal times in the city of 700,000 people. earlier today, you and i were talking about how that senior russian general had announced what sounded like a potential shift in strategy for the russians.

perhaps a tacit admission of a failure in strategy, to sack the capital, to sack other cities here. instead they were going to focus on the eastern region of donbas. very clearly that is not the case. you can see behind me that is not the case. you can see that for the first time here near the city center of lviv, the city in the west of the country of 700,000 people, it has been a transit hub for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people who have become refugees in poland, in romania, and moldova, in all of the countries of nato's eastern flank. this city that was considered safe, that was considered a sanctuary is no longer that. and the smoke continues to rise, dark black smoke, which suggests that fire is continuing to burn. the communications tower that we've all been looking at in our weeks staying here in lviv still stands in tact, and instead,

to -- from my vantage point to the right, we're still seeing smoke. we heard two loud explosions, this military official here in lviv said it was three loud explosions. the streets have cleared out. i see in the distance fire trucks. i've seen police vehicles out on the street. people are sheltering at the moment. it is certainly a shock here in the city of lviv where it had been relatively speaking given the brutality russia's inflicting on other parts of this country, it's certainly a shock for the first time to see an attack this close, this approximate to the city center in lviv in western ukraine. >> jacob, let's talk about that for just a moment, and bring in gabe because this is no accident. this is a head fake from the russian defense minister yesterday, oh, we're not going to focus on western ukraine.

our real priority is the donbas and the eastern region, which they had largely controlled since 2014 with russian separatists indicating that that was the new focus and perhaps that vladimir putin was scaling back, moving the goal post, if you will, because of their setbacks on the ground. and then of course exactly as president biden is here in warsaw, speaking to the world, meeting with refugees, meeting with aid workers, about to give a speech about the show down in ukraine between democracy and authoritarianism, you see for the first time them hitting lviv, and hitting what you have pointed out has been a safe haven. gabe, just a few moments ago, you were reporting those three explosions and seeing smoke. what are you seeing from your vantage point? >> yes, andrea, and as jacob mentioned, we're now hearing from the local official, three explosions, and let me tell you

what i see from my vantage point, you can hear emergency sirens, hearing them on and off now over the last several minutes. i'm several stories up, and i want to show you just how close this is from my perspective. you see the smoke rising in the distance. again, i have a perfect vantage point of the communications tower right behind me. and the communications tower seems just fine at this point, and we're waiting to hear if there were any injuries or exactly what happened, what target was hit here in the outskirts of lviv. again, for those viewers just joining us, the local official said that this explosion, multiple explosions, three of them happened in the lviv suburb. and again, andrea, this was a little bit more than a half hour ago now. we had been hearing those air-raid sirens, and we heard at least, you know, two booms in the distance.

now, andrea, this would be the third attack in and around lviv since this war began. the first one was one of a military installation. one several days ago, more than a week ago now, i believe, that one was at an aircraft repair facility right near the airport. we do not know, again, which -- what exact target was hit here, and we do not know of any injuries at this point, but andrea, this, as jacob was saying, the crowded streets this morning in lviv, we were just walking around after completing a shoot. a little earlier today, people were running errand, enjoying themselves in coffee shops. air-raid sirens have become a way of life, even here in lviv, which as you said, is in western ukraine, far from the front lines in kyiv or kharkiv or mariupol, the eastern and southern parts of the country, and yes, this is happening in

western ukraine, not far from the polish border, a place where thousands of refugees continue to stream through here every day, down from a peak of about 60,000 a day. right now, here in lviv, the cultural capital of ukraine, we see this ominous black smoke rising on a saturday afternoon and we're looking at overcast skies right here. it is beginning to rain what appears to potentially be, you know, an escalation of this war after just a, you know, few hours, perhaps a little less than a day after that russian general said that russia was refocusing on the east and on the eastern part of ukraine. now, this potential attack, again, we're trying to figure out whether it was a rocket attack, get confirmation of that. we do not know, but local officials here in ukraine say

three explosions, and now are urging people in lviv to stay calm, and seek shelter. we have not gotten an all clear just yet. we don't hear constant air sirens, though, anymore, but it's not uncommon to hear those air-raid sirens. we wait several minutes, potentially more than an hour, and we get the all clear. these explosions happen right now, about a half hour ago, andrea, no confirmation on any injuries at this point. andrea. >> and as you correctly point out there were other attacks on military targets on the outskirts of lviv. this is the closest on the smoke i'm seeing on return here, the closest to the city itself which has been a safe haven. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent cal perry joining us now from lviv. what are you seeing from your vantage point. >> reporter: i'm not far from

where jacob is. what i can add to this is local officials, and security officials, we know three or four targets that would be possible. one is the transmission tower we hear about. the smoke is rising about a kilometer or two behind that. one of the things that is in that area, and again we were talking to local officials about this in the past week, there's a fuel depot there, and it's possible. this is early. it is possible that that was the target of the strike. it would make sense, the russians have said they would hit targets until the left of the country that were supporting the war effort in the east, and we should remind viewers, lviv is a central weigh station for supplies as they head to the east. fuel, all of the things that you need to supply front line troops end up coming in large part through the city. certainly the nonlethal aid comes through the city, coming from nato nations comes differently. it doesn't come in such an obvious manner. again as we look at the possible target, and it's too early to tell exactly what was hit, there is this fuel depot, about 4

kilometers from where i am and jacob is. the smoke you see rising is the dark black smoke. it's possible that that's where this is, and again, it is that supply chain, the supply line that the russians talked so much about, hitting here in the western part of the country, andrea. >> the color of that smoke strikes me as the kind of smoke i've seen when covering refinery fires back in the states. you know, we don't know, of course. but they could possibly be, and also pointing out to all of you that we have not been -- we've been very careful not to report any of the supply chains for the military equipment or humanitarian aid, especially the military equipment that is clearly coming across the border. there are a number of routes there, and we have been very careful at nbc news not to reporting on that as has the pentagon of course. i want to bring back in nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell traveling with the president here in warsaw.

kelly, i think it's safe to say that there are few convince -- coincidences in vladimir putin's play book, and the fact that this attack very close to lviv, if not in lviv proper is no accident coming just as the president is wrapping up his european tour, reassuring refugees, meeting with the polish president, front line state, which of course has been a major irritant to say the least to putin, it's something he has complained bitterly against, and the president earlier today having this to say about russia's leader. >> look at what he's done to these people. what does it make you think? >> he's a butcher. >> calling him a butcher. here we are on this windy balcony, kelly. and, you know, the fact that he

met with those refugee, and heard from the mothers, talked to them, lifted up a child, met with jose andres, this is all the backdrop here. really important moment. he said earlier flying in here to the reporters on the plane and when he was meeting with the 82nd, the troops from the 82nd airborne that he wanted to go to ukraine himself but that they, they of course security and white house staff, they would not let him. but this is certainly the closest he has come when he was at the border near the border meeting with officials and aid workers yesterday and again today now here in warsaw, meeting with the ukrainian officials themselves. and reassuring them that the u.s. is supplying the weapons that the u.s. and pentagon insists they need. they need the antitank missiles,

the javelin missiles. that's the weaponry, not the abrams tanks and not the jets, the fighter jets that zelenskyy has still been calling for. >> we're a long way from the situation room, andrea, and the president who has been learning about this conflict and the needs of the ukrainian people through briefings, through virtual meetings with other leaders, has during this time in europe been able to look people in the eye and to hold children and to touch the hands of mothers today who have been personally and directly affected by the trauma of war. there's no way to replace that. even with his 50 years of public service, there's nothing like the experience of being upclose and having an emotional and tactile experience with people who have fled their homes because of war, and the president at the same time, having all of the new information, the latest input from ukrainian officials, from

his counter parts in europe and nato and the g7, this has been a very packed trip in europe with a lot of emotion, a lot of serious issues at play, and we know the president will speak later today to cap this trip. when you talk about no coincidences in the world of vladimir putin, the president asked about the impact of putin actions on the people he just met. he called him a butcher. earlier in the trip, he called him a war criminal, and said that's not just a personal assessment anymore. he believes the laws of the international courts will validate that putin has violated the rules of warfare, and would, in fact, be designated as a war criminal. we know the president has in the last few years been asked, is putin, a killer and he said yes. it is personal in that sense, and for -- if this is a -- a russian attack in the western part of ukraine, it's getting within a couple hundred miles,

like 250 miles or so of the united states president when he is on the european continent, that is certainly, if it's russia's doing, that is certainly a signal to the west that vladimir putin is rattling his sabers, and that is to be taken seriously, and it is a concern. and certainly there have been security concerns for the president while he has been here, and his desire to go into ukraine himself and to see the people as he talked about and you referenced, i could not do that for security reasons, got close to the border, but did not go in. he is certainly getting a sense in a very direct way of what is at stake, and we'll hear him articulate that through his speech today in the diplomatic economic, political, and larger consequences when he speaks later today. perhaps he'll even reference what has just transpired here.

i've reached out to white house officials to see if he's getting any direct briefing because as you know, secretary blinken is here. secretary austin is here. the other officials from ukraine who may be getting some direct intelligence about what they may know is behind these attacks in lviv in this latest burst of this war's tyranny on the people of ukraine. andrea? >> kelly, as you know, there in lviv, which was just apparently hit because the mayor is tweeting, the mayor of lviv, kelly, is tweeting that people should stay inside, that the city has had a hit. we'll update you on that in just a moment. thanks, kelly. and joining us now is former nato supreme allied commander, retired admiral general, james stavridis, and evo dalder, let's talk about the significance of this. hitting lviv which has been the

transit point for millions of refugees coming to poland, that's the railroad terminal that we have been seeing all of these people getting off of these trains from elsewhere in ukraine, the women of course then leaving the men folk behind and going on to the border and causing over now, more than 2 million refugees here some of whom met with the president today. you know how empathetic this president is, and the impact that that is going to have on him admiral stavridis, what is the significance of vladimir putin's military striking lviv this close to the polish border where the president of the united states is today? >> yeah, my reaction, andrea, is this is no coincidence, this is not anything but vladimir putin kind of sending, i would say, in navy terminology, a shot across the bow at the president of the united states. i think it would be well worth

running the history of how close a president has been to a launched missile, i think you're going to find this is going to be toward the top of the number of incidents. that's .1, and .2, two powers engaged in a proxy war in ukraine, and now we have a situation where missiles are launched within a few hundred kilometers of the leader of one of those nations. this is how big wars begin. sometimes big doors swing on seemingly small hinges, so i think this is one to look at very carefully in a historical context, and to understand the danger of miscalculation. both of those set off real alarm bells as we look at that black cloud, and your point, this is

the point of light of freedom is lviv. it's where those weapons are coming in. so quite critical in every dimension, a real signal from putin, not a good one. >> and admiral, we should also point out that for a month now, for weeks, there's been no communication no deconflicting between lloyd austin, and general milley and their counter parts. the defense minister, long time ally for years and years of vladimir putin has not been seen in recent days as this war has not progressed well. so there's no communication right now, which normally happens even during conflicts, right? >> it does, and when i was supreme allied commander of nato, i could pick up the phone and within an hour, i think, reliably be communicating with the russian counter part, the supreme commander of the russian armed forces, general.

my good friend could pick up the phone and talk to the russian ambassador, representing russia, a guy named dmitry. we both had the ability to reach out and talk to counter parts. by all the reporting i have seen, that doesn't exist at the moment. that should further concern us as we look at an incident like this. >> and evo, let me reminisce for a moment. i was with then vice president joe biden in baghdad one night. it was july 5th, 2010, and we were at the u.s. ambassador and an rpg came in, and we all were very worried in the press corps, but we were not where the vice president was, and the next day when i was sitting down to enter the vice president, he said d you see that rpg, it went right over my limo.

he was really not phased a bit by it. this is a bigger weapon, potentially, but this guy is not phased by any of this, at least in my experience. >> the kind of guy who takes everything in stride, but i want to emphasize what general stavridis said. this is very very very dangerous. i think that we spent the last 24 hours focused on the fact that the russians were saying that the war had been quote completed in its first phase, and now the focus was going to be on donbas, and within less than 24 hours, they're starting to hit missiles way out of the donbas in western ukraine, which is the key point for people to leave the country, for humanitarian and military aid to come into the country.

it is a really big message, and the fact that the president was just a few, tens of miles away just yesterday meeting with refugees, underscores the danger of the situation. we're in a war in europe. we don't talk about wars in europe, and we haven't for the last 80 years. we've studied the history books, but it's happening in a real way. andre, you and i were talking not that long ago about the possibility of chemical weapons use, even nuclear weapons use, which again, yesterday, very senior russian officials were threatening. we're in a very very difficult state. >> with a really isolated leader on the other side, commanding this war, and no communication with his second and thirds in command. thank you so much, ivo daalder, thank you so much, admiral stavridis. we really appreciate your special expertise on a day like this.

and the helping hand, president biden for the first time meeting ukrainians who have fled from the war to an uncertain future. what the u.s. can do to help the millions of refugees, that's next. you're watching a special saturday edition of "andrea mitchell reports," we are live in warsaw, only on msnbc. are lie in warsaw,nl oy on msnbc (vo) right now, the big switch is happening across the country. small businesses are fed up with big bills and 5g maps that are mostly gaps— they're switching to t-mobile for business and getting more 5g bars in more places. save over $1,000 when you switch to our ultimate business plan... ...for the lowest price ever. plus, choose from the latest 5g smartphones— like a free samsung galaxy s22. so switch to the network that helps your business do more for less—join the big switch to t-mobile for business today. we hit the bike trails every weekend so switch to the network that hel shinges doesn't care.re i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection.

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agency, 3.7 million ukrainians have fled. more than half are in poland. joining me now is nbc correspondent, josh lederman. josh, there was a ukrainian mother who spoke to the president today, moments ago, let's listen to that exchange. >> i'm here with my daughter. my husband and my son are in service over there. and we're just afraid he's going to keep moving. he's going to keep moving. we mothers are ready to strangle him with our bare hands, to be honest. >> in an extraordinary moment, you know the president, you know how he's going to be affected by what he's experiencing today. josh. >> that's right, andrea.

i think one of the ways to think about president biden's overarching goals on this trip was to answer the question, why should the rest of the world care, and why should they continue to care now that this conflict is entering the second month, and while in brussels, we saw president biden make that argument from the security standpoint. here in poland, it is all about trying to put a human face on this crisis, and really drive home for people that while we may talk about the numbers going into the millions, more than 4 million refugees, it's hard to really grasp the full extent of the humanitarian crisis we're seeing. until you start to meet some of these refugees, like president biden has had a chance to here today. we heard him talking about very personally about his own fears when his son was serving overseas in iraq, wondering if he'd get that phone call, saying his son had died, so many of the women and children who have fled ukraine have brothers and fathers and husbands back in

ukraine that they're worried that they may die in the fighting. and so president biden trying to keep the world united in its response to this crisis, which is only going to have growing ramifications for the people of ukraine the longer and longer that this drags on. >> and josh, as you've been speaking, we are looking at president biden holding a child with the refugees here, just at that soccer stadium nearby. joining us now is chris o'mara, the president and ceo of the lutheran immigration and refugee service former policy director for michelle obama and former aide at the state department. thank you so much for joining us. how important is that president biden has visited with these people, heard their stories firsthand, heard from that mother, talked to those children. >> it's absolutely critical to put a face on these daunting statistics of 3.7 million.

it's heartening because it comes right after the white house announced it intends to except 100,000 refugees. it's important to realize that there's a big difference between intent and implementation. we're waiting from the white house precisely how they plan to resettle refugees. it's important to anxiety -- acknowledge, the white house announced they would resettled up to 125,000 refugees but six months into the program we've welcomed less than 8,000 refugees from all over the world. this month we've only resettled a dozen ukrainian refugees. >> and i know you're on family, coming from sri lanka in the 1980s and experiencing this refugee experience, the white house has tweeted out for the president a photo of him holding that child you just saw.

we've got the motorcade, part of the motorcade, again, going by the balcony. that's what these sirens are. this tweet from the white house and the president's voice saying, you don't have to know the language. you don't have to speak the same language to hear the roller coaster of emotions going through these people. and seeing it in their eyes. i'm paraphrasing his tweet b you know what he's trying to express, krish, exactly what people have experienced as refugees. but we haven't seen anything like this in europe since world war ii. >> yeah, and andrea, i'll say, it hits close to home because as i see these images of moms fleeing with young children, in a way, i see my family because my parents fled a civil war, and came to the u.s. with just a couple hundred dollars and two very young kids in their arms.

i personally know what a difference it can make, how we hear in the u.s. welcome the most vulnerable because it saved our lives, and from that personal experience, and my job today, i know that we admit these refugees, not because they're americans but because we are. >> well, krish, you're speaking exactly to the whole culture and spirit of america in welcoming people in, and we just wish that more could be welcomed in, and what you're doing to help press for the red tape to be cut, for these people to get in is so important. thank you, and lutheran ministries for all you're doing. and the explosions in lviv today, they are ripe for president biden what the white house is calling a major address on the ukrainian crisis, and what it means for the world. white house officials say the president will be portraying this war as a larger battle between democracy and autocracy. joining me now is national security analyst, and former

chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon, jeremy bash, and chief white house correspondent for the "new york times" peter baker who has covered so much of this, has been in afghanistan in the opening rounds of that war, of course, and in moscow before that, as bureau chief of the "new york times," peter and jeremy, talk about what's happened here today, the explosions in lviv. jeremy, is there any doubt in the cia and the pentagon that this is no coincidence coming from vladimir putin's russia? >> i don't think there's any doubt, andrea, i mean, even if it's not directly a message to joe biden in the west, it's certainly a rejoinder to the story line over the last 24 hours that the russians were changing their strategy to abandon their effort to take kyiv and hunker down in the east in the donbas region. but with respect to the speech that president biden is going to give, what has struck me, and he really previewed it yesterday when he visited with the 82nd

airborne, he said this is a once in a generation conflict. the reason why you have volunteered and stepped forward to defend democracy is because democracy is on the line, and it's up to the united states, to nato, to the western allies to support ukraine, not merely because this is a small war in europe, but because this is a once in a generation effort to defend democracy. in effect what joe biden is saying, is this is world war ii.5. this is a global conflict of two models of the ideology of democracy versus the ideology and horrible tactics of tyranny, so president biden, i think, is welcoming comparisons to the cold war, two world war ii, he wants to paint this conflict in a much larger tableau. >> and peter baker, it strikes me sitting here in warsaw, and thinking back to world war ii, thinking back to the cold war, which you and i both covered that this president who suffered a lot of criticism from all sides for age, for, you know,

his experience in a negative way. this president is uniquely capable having been a senator and on the foreign relations committee, you know, for decades. uniquely capable of expressing this authentically at commander in chief, as he did to the 82nd airborne yesterday, as jeremy said it. >> absolutely. it does seem that president biden's career has been leading up to this moment in some ways. years and years in the senate and on the foreign relations committee, going around the world and getting to know a lot of leaders, getting to know a lot of countries and their histories and their issues, and of course eight years as vice president, and he's a child of the cold war. i mean, he is in fact of course raised in a time when our singular national mission was to leave the free world and a twilight struggle against communism and tyranny. he obviously seized this current conflict, as jeremy said in that context, in the context of

democracies versus autocracies. this is not in fact the end of history but the continuation of it, and i think that's why obviously come to go poland matters. it matters of course to the allies out there, like the pols, and the romanians and hungarians who are feeling nervous about russian aggression at this time. he's telling them that america will be with you. he said something today which i think was important, that the article 5 of the nato charter which means an attack on one member is an attack on all. the common defense charter. that's a sacred commitment, those were his words. the last president refused to use the words article 5 when he went to europe to meet with nato. he wouldn't apply article 5 unless countries paid up in his view, financially. i think that message is important to say that the united states and europe are together again as they were in the cold war, and they have this shared mission, and shared values and shared, you know, place in the

world. >> and exactly right. and we were just showing some pictures of course of people assembled for that speech. he'll be giving it just shortly after 1:00 eastern, if he gets back on time. although he's taking a lot of time so far in these individual meetings. jeremy, here's what the president had to say about the nato alliance and the importance of that alliance earlier this morning. >> the single most important criteria at the time of changing world, so much is changing, not just here but in other parts of the world, is that nato stay absolutely completely thoroughly united. i'm confident that vladimir putin was counting on being able to divide nato to be able to separate the eastern flank from the west, be able to separate nations based on past histories but he hasn't been able to do

it. >> and how vital is, jeremy, for the president to keep emphasizing the message of nato unity, something that he has worked so hard over the past months to try to achieve? >> absolutely vital, andrea, in fact, i think the president eets -- president's theory of the case, and he has been talking about this since campaigning for president. the united states has certain advantages, one is obviously our capabilities, our technology, our military power, our technological power, economic power. another huge advantage that the united states enjoys over russia, over china, is that we've got a posey, we've got friends. multilateral alignments in nato, and other places around the world, include now in the indo-pacific, where we've got friends and partners, allies who can work with us to solve hard problems, and so if it's the united states versus russia, the united states versus china, the equation totally changes if it's putin versus 50 nations or in the context of china, xi jinping

against dozens and dozens of countries trying to challenge china's rise and so this is the united states strategic objective, and joe biden loves talking about it more than anything else. >> it's so important that he's talking about it today in this place at this time. jeremy and peter, thank you so much for sharing part of the day with us. we really appreciate it. and vladimir putin's world view, in his show down with nato, the kremlin leader is increasingly isolated. how is that going to affect the crucial decisions that he makes in ukraine. you're watching a special saturday edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we are live from warsaw. we'll be right back here on msnbc. we'll be right back here on msnbc. he wanted a streamlined version he could access anywhere, no download necessary. and kim. she wanted to execute a pre-set trade strategy in seconds.

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like how i customized this scarf? check out this backpack i made for marco. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪ one person sure to be watching president biden's address from warsaw when he delivers it later today, vladimir putin. retired lieutenant colonel alexander vindman is joining us now, the former director for this region and russia at the national security council, forced out by president trump after he was a key witness in the first impeachment. he's also an author of the "new york times" best selling memoir "here right matters." colonel vindman, it's great to see you again. let's talk about what we've seen today, though. the fact that there was smoke erupting in lviv, you know, just across the border.

of course, you know, in central, it looks like just outside lviv, or central lviv, tell me your reaction to those blasts in lviv. is there any possibility that vladimir putin is responding to president biden's trip here? >> to me it's clear, this is a form of signaling this war is going to continue on. president biden's actions or the activities of nato don't really mean that much to the conduct of this war. it's clear to vladimir putin that frankly the u.s. and nato have made it clear they're not going to get involved. this is more signaling on the kinds of support they're providing ukraine and there's little that the u.s. could really do with the kind of supports we're providing at the moment. so it's signaling. it's the idea of warning off president biden from doing more in support of ukraine.

>> and what we're hearing now from lviv is possibly two missile strikes and five people injured. you know better than i, the fog of war from your combat experience, but this is at least the initial reporting. we're also seeing -- reporting from tasks, the official mouthpiece, of course, for the kremlin, saying that biden's -- president biden's new comments, clearly that was calling vladimir putin a butcher today further narrows possibilities for mending relations. that's from tass. colonel vindman, jacob soboroff from nbc news has gotten a little bit closer to those strikes in lviv. let me bring him into our conversation. jacob. >> reporter: andrea, you can see here just over my shoulder the fire is actively burning at what we had heard reports there could be a fuel storage depot down

behind us, and that's exactly what it appears to be, although it's unconfirmed. you can see what looks like fuel storage tanks. silver one in the foreground, behind it, it appears that one is engulfed in flames at the moment. off to the left, and there are two or three other what appear to be tanks off to the right in a big ball of fire right there, as you can see live here on msnbc. the black smoke is continuing to rise. we are indeed as you have been talking about behind the lviv city sister that unesco world heritage site. the city sister is, i don't know, two, three, four minute drive from where we are. but if you can look down at the bottom of this hill, you can actually see actively where the strike occurred and where the fires are burning as i'm speak

to go you right now. there are locals here in this area who are not happy that we are here but these are the facts on the ground, this is the situation as it's happening live here in lviv, just moments outside of lviv city center, and as you can see, there are still cars, police driving up and down, people are attempting to get out of the area. you can see vehicles there that are stalled out, but this is an area where the press is assembled, and we can see with a clear, direct line of sight what appears to be that field depot ablaze here in lviv as a result of what of course we suspect are russian strikes. >> and jacob, the mayor is also tweeting out, the mayor of lviv is tweeting out that there could be more strikes to -- that

people should stay in their shelters and of course the speculation earlier from cal perry, and gabe and you, that this could be fuel certainly confirmed by what you're seeing there, the fuel depots, we don't know what else may have been hit but certainly the color of that smoke indicated it may have been a fuel depot, and you have confirmed with just what we're seeing on your screen from your shot. we don't know what else may be coming. >> that's right. and, you know, we're well aware, and i want everybody to know that, and we're watching right now as the depot appears to burn and the flames continue to spread. as i said, you know, i wouldn't be surprised if there were subsequent explosions based on what we're seeing right now, which is two or three of those storage facilities, and i think i can see actually, andrea, from my vantage point, what appears

to be a fire fight going on. firefighters spraying water on those fuel tanks. i don't know if you can see it, but i see what appears to be water being sprayed upward on to those storage facilities particularly the second one from the left, but that is a fire that is not going out anytime soon, andrea. >> clearly not. again, i've got a lot of experience covering refinery fires in the past. that's going to burn for a while. thank you so much, jacob soboroff. colonel vindman, your reaction to what we have shown. >> it's a logistics hub, their precision strike capability is not as robust as we had suspected. they have a lot of failures of these weapons hitting their targets or turning out to be

duds. they're really not flying that many strategic bomber missions. these are probably likely cruise missile strikes against fixed sites. the timing with president biden's visit is not going to deter president biden. he understands the nature of this war is likely to unfold. he's done the case for interests or protecting our interests with regards to nato. protecting our interests with regards to democracy flourishing, in spite of the attacks from the authoritarian world and the values. the powerful images of meeting with refugees, that's going to continue to keep front and center for the american public and help build the case that this is a just war, a war that the u.s. has to play some role in. i hope to see this translate into something more substantiative from the arms provision front, because the ukrainians need the ability to intradict, the strategic bombers

that fly in untouched and reconstruction, providing money to rebuild. you can see the end of the war and ukraine exiting as a sovereign independent state, and really we haven't had a huge conversation about how the u.s. is going to lead, and how the eu is going to lead an effort to rebuild ukraine to be a modern 21st century city, powerful, and really incapable of being further attacked by russia in the future. >> colonel vindman, thank you, i know your own family's refugee experience, which informs all of what you're saying today. that does it for this special saturday edition of andrea mitchell reports. alex witt continues our coverage right now. alex. t now. alex our thanks to andrea mitchell as we bid all of you a