i'm hallie jackson in for katy tur. and we're coming on the air with the first peace talks in more than a week between russia and ukraine and the new reaction just a couple minutes ago from president biden on the kremlin's promises. basically he will believe it when he sees it, talking about the new pledge from russia to reduce military activity around kyiv and chernihiv, and they willing meeting face-to-face at some point soon. the president was asked about the pledge made that russia would start to pull back.

listen. >> we'll see. i don't read anything into it up i see what their actions are. we'll see if they follow through on what they are suggesting. >> the white house today confirming to nbc news that it has seen some evidence that the russian troops are moving away from kyiv, but they point out that that may just show putin's plans are changing and he could change his mind at anytime. british intelligence is confirming that that resistance from ukraine is real, that they have had success taking back some territories. but those successes apparently don't extend to the south where an attack in mykolaiv blew a hole right through a government building. nine people were killed in the attack, 22 people hurt. we're talking about a strategically important city for russia. it sits between the crimea peninsula and odesa. and then to the east, russian tappings marked with look at that, that now distinctive z right on the front were seen on roads headed toward the other

port city of mariupol. and their mayor saying that they are in the hands of russian forces. we'll be live one-on-one with the deputy mayor later this hour. i want to bring in ali arouzi, keir simmons, and also kelly o'donnell. ali, give us the play of the land as it stands right now. >> the ukrainians continue to fight back as hard as they can. we are 34 days in to this conflict and they have defied the odds. despite being outgunned, outnumbered but the russians, they continue to push back, they continue to reclaim territory that the russians had taken early on in this conflict. and that is because they have such a big fighting spirit. you see it from ukrainians of all walks of life. and the reason that they are

taking all of the land back is not just because of the armed forces but because of regular ukrainians that have joined volunteer groups to fight the russians on the front lines. we spoke to ome ukrainians in lviv, they had never fired a gun but they were willing to fight the russians. let's take a listen to what one of them had to tell us. >> translator: there are such people who never held any weapons in their hands. it is firstly spirit, not the weapon, that wins the war. and all these people have a strong spirit and will to defend their country. >> one of the men we spoke to was a grandfather, he was 64 years old, legally he can leave the country if he wanted to, he doesn't have to go on the front lines, but that was out of the question for him. he said that he will stay here, defend his home, defend his family, defend his country. i asked him if he had a message

for president biden and he wished him good health and said that they need all the help that they can get from the usa. i asked him if he had a message for vladimir putin. and he raised this smile and said this is my message for putin. and so he really does and many others personify the fighting spirit of the ukrainians in this country. >> ali, thank you. and keir, you are monitoring i know the status of the peace talks. very clear that russia is not interested in a ceasefire, but they are making noises about pulling back from some of the cities in ukraine. >> that's right. but i think it is interesting to hear the president with a substantial dose you'd have to say bringing a dose of cynicism to those suggestions from the russians that they would reduce the conflict if you like around the capital city of kyiv. i think that you are going to

hear as time passes more and more questions about what exactly was talked about and agreed in the peace talks behind me here because when you look closely at them, there are plenty of proposals from the ukrainians. they are proposing a new security arrangement with nato countries that would have those nato countries, propose something way to kind of come to a long term agreement with russia about crimea. they are saying that they would be neutral, there won't be nato bases in ukraine. they are saying all this. we don't hear what the russians really said beyond those promises to fight. and now some suggestions from the russians that perhaps there could be a meeting between president zelenskyy and president putin. but even then, russian goefsh

negotiators saying that he needs to take what they have brought to the table, take it to president putin and that they will kind of come back to us. and so i think that there are huge question marks. that being said, at the beginning of all this, the two sides didn't even shake hands. so may be a little bit of trust has been built. >> and kelly, you heard keir call it a dose of cynicism perhaps from be from. you could call it a big grain of salt. like we don't believe it until we see it when it comes to the kremlin and vladimir putin. >> and we can't ignore the fact that president biden has in the last couple of days been very personally and critical -- directly critical of vladimir putin. so that is part of the underpinning of this. peace talks seems to be a generous term at this point. but diplomacy is always the way that these conflicts come to an end. so you need a path for that to happen. the president and his aides have also used the phrase clear-eyed, they want to be clear-eyed about

assessing what russia is doing. and they remind us often about things like the history in this just short conflict of how many times russia has said one thing and it has meant something else. even things like before the actual hot war began about amassing troops was simply for military exercises. and that clearly was not true. and so the president is also giving himself some breathing room. one of the things that he did today, he had another followup conversation with nato partners this morning and we expect that part of that would be further conversations based after their personal meetings, based after these developments happening in turkey. and then an expectation that there would be a more direct conversation between president macron of france and putin. so he may be waiting for some additional direct information to come back to him. in these settings where the president is asked to speculate about what is in the mind of president putin, what his actions mean, there is always something we're looking for,

some glimmer of what might he know, what does the intelligence tell him. and at the same time, he may be holding some things back because of what he is learning or what he expects to learn. so it is hard to interpret. what we have learned from the president in the last couple of days is that he has a moral outrage against vladimir putin, he believes that the russian war is unjust, and that the countries of the world not only in europe but around the world have to continue to show russia as a pariah nation until its conduct changes. that is where it stands now the. and again diplomacy is the way out and so the talks could be one pathway for that. >> what is the next step when it comes to the conversations between the two countries? >> we'll wait to see the proposals written down. that will tell us an awful lot. particularly of what i was talking about, whether the proposals are coming from ukrainians, whether that might

give us a hint about how much pressure president zelenskyy is under to try to compromise, and what the russians are honestly truly saying. and i think that president erdogan leader of turkey here believes that in the end a meeting between president putin and president zelenskyy is needed for any kind of peace. we do hear from the russians that that might now be a possibility. again though, one question is, will the russians be used that potential for a meeting as part of their negotiations. >> keir simmons, kelly o'donnell, thanks to you both. i want to bring in former ambassador to russia and international affairs analyst ambassador mcfall. glad to have you as always. good afternoon. >> sure, thanks for having me. >> let me pick up where keir left off with the discussions about a potential face-to-face meeting between putin and zelenskyy. is it too soon to be having that discussion, do you agree with

turkish leaders who say that that is inevitable? >> and i do. president zelenskyy himself has said it that at the end of the day, the really hard questions to be resolved will have to be done by the two leaders. and that list is getting smaller. that is the good news. so the list is a security guarantee for ukraine in return for ukrainian neutrality, that is the hardest one. where are the borders of ukraine, that also is very hard. and then third what would be the size of the ukrainian military at the end of this horrific war. all three of those issues are way above the pay grade of those that met in istanbul. i think that ultimately it will be zelenskyy and putin that have to decide them. >> and so let's start with the security arrangement that ukraine would like to make with western nations. realistic, are you optimistic that that could legitimately be on the table, that the u.s., our allies, ukraine and russia could

all come to terms on that? >> i think that it is really hard. you know, what the ukrainians are saying is that they want an article v-like security guarantee, so like nato allies have amongst themselves. that an attack on one is an attack on all. that is a very high bar. that is a treaty in american terms. so that means 67 senators have to vote for that. i think that that is probably unrealistic. but short of that, could there be some kind of a guarantee that includes russia by the way, russia is one of the countries that would be involved. i'm cautiously optimistic that in return for neutrality you might be able to get a deal on that. >> how about ukrainian borders. there has been an increasing concern as you well know that russia will in the areas in the eastern part of the country that are in red, under russian control at this point, that you could see the ukrainian border

shift and that russia essentially takes the eastern portion and leaving ukraine the west. >> that's right, that is why the russians are concentrating on -- well, they are not trying to captureiupol anymore, they are just trying to destroy mariupol. they are killing everybody, they are -- according to president zelenskyy, they are kidnapping children and sending them to russia. but they want the connect the red on your map. they haven't stopped their grotesque barbarian assault on mariupol. i suspect eventually mariupol will fall. and then you're right, they going to go to the negotiating table and say let's divide the country. that is completely unacceptable to president zelenskyy. he has made that very clear. i just talked to some of his senior government officials an hour ago and they made that clear to me as well. but could they agree to disagree. which is could they say we are not going to accept annexation,

but we will commit to only reunifying ukraine by peaceful means. i think that that could be acceptable to both sides. so it won't be resolved anytime soon, but they grow disagree in the name of peace. >> and based on your conversationsdisagree in the name of peace. >> and based on your conversations with officials, do you think that ukraine will be okay with that? >> yes, i do. and remember, before this war started, de facto that is where it was. >> with crimea. >> with crimea and parts of donbas. de facto they were controlled by russian puppets. so i think that it will be hard, it won't be easy, i want to be clear, this will be a giant compromise on behalf of the zelenskyy government. but i think that it is a possibility as long of course as putin goes along. and i want to emphasize something that keir said and you've been reporting throughout

the day, so far all of the ideas have been coming from the ukrainian side. we have yet to hear what vladimir putin says about any of these things just yet. and that makes me nervous. it takes two to tank go oig to get a peace agreement. >> ambassador, thank you so much for your perspective as always. we always appreciate it. coming up next, democrats set to unveil new legislation this hour, a new proposal with questions swirling about conflicts of interest involving supreme court justice clarence thomas and his wife. and new details about the gap in the phone logs from donald trump's white house including that new reporting that is some seven hours long. and prosecutors are calling it the biggest fraud, more on the covid relief money used to buy lamborghinis and so much more. shopping on public wifi is sketchy. but with aura digital security, my devices are protected

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so in just about ten minutes from now, democrats in the building behind me here will roll out this new supreme court ethics plan as more and more members of the party call on justice claire rebs thomas to recuse himself from any cases involving the capitol insurrection after reports that the january 6 committee has sexes between his wife and former trump chief of staff mark meadows. in those texts thomas asks meadows to stop donald trump from conceding the election he legitimately lost. it is one of a bunch of headlines coming out of the committee. and the "washington post" is reporting that they are getting deeper into the gaps in the white house communication logs. we've known that there was a gap in those logs, but the "post," bob woodward, bob costa, is saying specifically the gap is more than seven hours long and they have the receipts to back it up. those hours coincide with the attack on the capitol. all of it is raising new questions about what the former president was doing.

was he on burner phones, was he back channeling stuff? remember msnbc and others reported that he spoke with three members of congress on january 6. and joining me now, leigh ann caldwell and also investigations reporter jacqueline elameny. we know from the reporting that you and our team have done that house speaker nancy pelosi was apparently pretty fired up about this just today during this democratic caucus meeting. what else do we know? >> reporter: what the committee -- excuse me, congress is talking about, is outside as well the select committee. of course select committee is dealing with this issue and they might proceed to talk to begin ginni thomas oig. but there are questions being raised about the role of the

supreme court because the supreme court has ruled on january 6-related cases, including turning over documents from the trump white house to the january 6 select committee. and clarence thomas was the only person who dissented saying that the committee should not receive these documents from the trump white house. and so congress is talking about a lot of things, including taking up legislation to create a code of ethics for the supreme court. let's listen to the top member of the judiciary committee dick durbin and what he told reporters earlier today. >> ethics legislation, is that something that you think can wait until after easter? >> we've been waiting a long time. the supreme court has not been cooperative. one of the few areas that is not governed by an ethics code. >> reporter: and members more

immediately democrats in the house and senate are asking for thomas to provide a written explanation as to his reasoning why he dissented in that january 6 case and also calling on chief justice john roberts to create the supreme court's own ethics code and to implement those. so we'll see where congress goes with this, but this is something that is firing them up not just on the january 6 select committee angle, but also the role of the supreme court. >> as it relates to the january 6 committee angle, jackie, you, your paper, have reporting on this phone log gap. explain the significance here because what we are seeing from the new reporting is a very granular and very specific look at what seems to be missing, right, and what is there and who he talked to, who the former president talked to. >> yeah, you are right. the bobs have some excellent reporting that build upon what we already knew that there was a large gap in the call log from

president trump's morning of january 6 up until the afternoon. but they obtained the actual call log that shows specifically a 457 minute gap on the cal log which means that the committee does not have any record of president trump's phone conversations as his supporters were breaching security on capitol hill. even though as you also noted, we previously have known that the president was working the phones throughout the day and did have phone conversations with allies during the attack. people like senator mike lee, tommy tuberville in a conversation with kevin mccarthy. but this is important because it leads us to the new questions it raises for the house panel that is investigating whether trump communicated through back channels, through burner phones. they are also investigating whether or not the former president actually was a part of some possible coverup in trying

to potentially scrub those phone calls from the official white house record that day. another person close to the committee told woodward and costa that the large gap in the records is of intense interest. we'll continue to see where that goes as get more and more records from the national archives as they have been winning that case in the courts. >> and as the committee talks to more and more people including the expectation, and i know that we've just sort of confirmed this morning, jared kushner, the former president son-in-law with an official role in the white house. >> yeah, that's right. and yesterday we noted that he was on the schedule to appear on thursday. and then our colleague peter alexander confirmed that he is expected to actually talk with the committee. now, remember that he was not subpoenaed. he was asked to participate. and so was his wife ivanka trump who we don't think that there has been an update there. but jared kushner's role is kind of a mystery. he is not in those call logs

that the "washington post" reported out today. his name has not been mentioned a lot in the january 6 discussions with the former president. so it will be interesting to see what the committee gets out of him and what they want out of him if he decides to, once he show, provide any answers or plead the fifth. we'll have to wait and see. >> jackie, i want you to talk about what we have heard from members of the select committee, which is on the part of some, concern, right, displeasure if you will with merrick garland at the department of justice for not for example moving forward with charges against mark meadows. now the committee is teeing up two more criminal referrals for peter navarro and dan scavino. >> yeah, the frustration was palpable, this is fresh off the ruling that assumed the impetus for the creation of the committee which was that former

president trump likely committed crimes. and they -- that really bolstered i think their discussions and their remarks during the hearing last night. they argued that they were doing their job and now the doj had to do their job. various panel -- various lawmakers on the committee said that in one way or the other, all lobbed criticisms at the department of justice for failing to announce whether or not that they will ultimately pursue prosecution against mark meadows and now applied even more pressure in really a gamble that they took in deciding to pursue contempt charges against navarro and scavino. it will go to the house and if the house ultimately decides that those two are held in criminal contempt, the justice department will now have three pending contempt charges to make big decisions on. >> jackie, lee ann, thank you

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and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. we are watching the latest on what is happening in ukraine and this increasing amount of evidence according to officials here and abroad of russian troop movements away from kyiv. the administration cautions that it may only be a sign that russia is regrouping. they are throwing real grains of salt on this. and you have to look at what is happening in the south. the russian army is still trying to seize cities like mariupol. i want to bring in clint watts, former fbi special agent. i know that you've been tracking russian troop movements as well. tell us what you are seeing. >> i think that this is a

natural movement for russia, which just could never establish that encircle. that they sought out to do in the first month. there are two corridors. the one from belarus into kyiv and the second one from chernihiv. and that where they have taken back some of the turfs, they never united. and so the supply lines become very difficult. in belarus, it is very difficult for russia to coordinate all of the logistics through belarusian border through to kyiv. so it is exceedingly difficult. and those units just aren't very good. they have stacked up -- this is the convoy that everyone discussed in the first weeks, they never really got off the ground. separately in the east, they are in a hard-fought battle in donbas really trying to pin down and link their forces together, to do that they need more troops overtime. they have taken such losses. and later in the week, this is

when russia would essentially establish con skrip shop again. and perceptions of about what has been a lie in terms of you who things are going. and i think that it plays for vladimir putin's longer range plans because if he has to settle, he could maybe hold on to the east. so i think that is a strategy, but we should be aware that these troops could show up somewhere else in a different battlefield in the next few weeks. >> and we've seen what is happening in mykolaiv and mariupol. and it doesn't seem like that that will end the assault anytime soon particularly after what we saw in mykolaiv, this town where a government building with us just blown apart. >> so in the south, we have a different story.us just blown a. >> so in the south, we have a different story. mariupol has basically been

taken from the russians which will allow them to redeploy forces to other parts of the country. mykolaiv is a place where they initially advanced strongly and then took massive losses in the south, really stiff resistance. and kherson, they went into quickly. i think that the russians thought that they could hold it. they have had mass protests there, counter offensives. so the russians in my opinion are just trying to resolidify their gains. they don't want to lose anymore. because i think if they have to option with the zelenskyy administration, they need to have something that they can barter with. and right now they have advanced everywhere. they have held nothing and they are really retreating in several different places. >> clint watts, thank you very much for that breakdown. coming up here, billions of dollars in covid relief money spent not on covid relief but on really nice cars and really nice vacations. we'll have more on what prosecutors call the biggest fraud in a generation in a minute.

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just into us from capitol hill, new comments from senate democratic leadership about the ethics concerns that they have around justice clarence thomas. i want to bring back now capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell. for the first time, we are hearing from senator chuck schumer on what he thinks should be done as it relates to justice thomas and this recusal. although to preface the conversation, chuck schumer doesn't get to call the shots about what clarence thomas does, but he is the most powerful democrat in the senate. >> reporter: that's right. and he is echoing the mood of a lot of his members who have been calling on a couple things including the supreme court to impose its own ethics rules and including justice thomas to

explain his decision in the january 6 related case. senator schumer for the first time has weighed in on the issue and said that justice thomas should refuse himself. let's listen. >> i do think that he should refuse himself. the information we know right now raises serious questions about how close justice thomas and his wife were to the planning of the snurks. insurrection. so, yes, i'll answer both your questions. you are very clever. i think that there should be some code of ethics for supreme court justices. >> reporter: so he said that there should be some sort of code of ethics for justices, reminding our audiences that right now it is the honor system. but what he does not designate is if it should be imposed by the supreme court that they really rules for themselves or if congress should legislate ethics rules for the supreme court, something that some democrats want to do and there

is legislation that is being introduced. so again we'll see where it goes. but leader schumer was obviously reading off some remarks, so he was expecting that question and for the first time we heard him say at the very least clarence thomas should recuse himself from the january 6-related cases. >> suggesting even perhaps impeachment here. how much of an appetite is there for that kind of response inside the democratic caucus? >> and some of my sources who i've been talking to have raised the spector of impeachment, but it doesn't seem to be gaining a lot of steam. there doesn't seem to be a lot of appetite right now. people want to see where it goes. and see what justice thomas does, see what chief justice john roberts does and see what the january 6 select committee finds out. and so we're at the very beginning of this discussion here and we'll see if it

escalates. >> leigh ann caldwell, thank you so much. turning now to an nbc exclusive investigation, something being called the biggest fraud in u.s. history. hundreds of billions in covid relief money. remember, this is ppp money this, is your money, this is taxpayer money. and tons of people usesusesing money for teslas and nice vacations and private flights. i want to bring in ken dilanian money for teslas and nice vacations and private flights. i want to bring in ken dilanian money for teslas and nice vacations and private flights. i want to bring in ken dilanian money for teslas and nice vacations and private flights. i want to bring in ken dilanian money for teslas and nice vacations and private flights. i want to bring in ken dilanian money for teslas and nice vacations and private flights. i want to bring in ken dilanian. it is rather extraordinary. we knew about some of the pieces of this fraud that happened, but the scope of it, the scale of it is what nbc news is talking about here. and it really is intense. >> yeah, the numbers here are hard to get your mind around. experts and government officials tell us that more than half a billion dollars in covid relief money was stolen or misspent. that is almost as much as will be spent over the next decade.

and the majority of the money was defrauded from the unemployment programs and a lot of that was stolen by foreign criminal groups and sent overseas. so it is gone forever. our new reporting as you said is focusing on the paycheck protection laws. most which have were turned in to grants. fraudsters created fake companies with ghost employees to steal millions. and made of that money can be recovered and some people are being prosecuted. but the reality it is that most of the money is probably spent and gone. the government is of course seizing and auctioning afternoon those lambeaus and ferraris bought, but they are only prosecuting a tiny fraction of the wrong doughs. experts believe that there were millions of instances of fraud but the justice department has so far secured just 178 convictions they tell us. >> part of this is that there was -- it seemed an you are gebts need. and i know that your reporting bears it out.

get money fast to the people who needed it because there was the crisis happening in the country, right? you point out that there was in some ways a tradeoff between speed and security, something that you and experts have called a false choice. >> that's right. and experts tell us this fraud happened mainly because the trump administration panicked. they needed to push covid relief money out fast for the reasons that you said to save the economy, to save jobs. and they believe that in order to do that, they had to sacrifice due diligence. so banks that lent the money were told not to check whether these were real companies. and this was a colossal escape. there are ways to use technology to quickly verify financial claims. but the government didn't even try. the good news is that the biden administration has sought to tighten up on security on the remaining covid relief funds but many experts believe that the government hasn't learned the lessons what have went wrong. their task forces to catch the fraudsters but no investigation as to why the programs were so

badly designed. >> ken dilanian, thank you so much for that reporting. a quick check of some of the other top stories we're following. will smith, have you heard this? he has apologized now to chris rock for the slapping after the joke about his wife during the oscars. the instagram post came hours after academy formally condemned what hit did. the academy is now conducting a formal review of the whole thing. today the fda authorized a second booster of pfizer and moderna and those vaccines for anybody 50 and older. and they say if you are above the age of 18 and you are immunocompromised, you can get the booster two. we are looking for the cdc to release more detailed guidance about this. and also later this afternoon, president biden will sign a hate crime law nearly 70 years in the making, the anti-lynching bill. and it makes lynching a federal hate crime punishable by decades

in prison. and up next, the pearl of the black sea turned fortress, molly hunter takes us to odesa, a city bracing for a russian attack. and next hour, why the tests that once acted as a line of defense against covid spread may no longer be free. ger be free. and only fda approved eye-drop that improves age-related blurry near vision. wait, what? it sounded like you just said an eye drop that may help you see up close. i did. it's an innovative way to... so, wait. i don't always have to wear reading glasses? yeah! vuity™ helps you see up close. so, i can see up close with just my eyes? uh-huh. with one drop in each eye, once daily. in focus? yep. [laughs] like, really? really. vuity™ is a prescription eye drop to help you see up close. ow! wait, what? wait. wait? wait, what? see for yourself.

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just about ten minutes, we expect to hear from the pentagon press secretary. you see it on the left side of your screen there. this could be a significant briefing. why? because it's happening as russia is claiming it's pulling troops back from ukraine's capital city of kyiv. but as we've been talking about this hour there's some real skepticism about what that actually means, right? whether russia is actually withdrawing or whether they're just regrouping. i want to bring in nbc's dan deluce who is covering all things related to the pentagon and the military now. dan, what is your expectation for what we may hear from john kirby when he takes the mike in just a couple minutes? >> i think that's the key question. what are the russian forces doing around kyiv given what russia is claiming it intends to do? keep in mind that we've already heard from the pentagon over the past week that russian forces

have really stopped advancing around kyiv, they've been pushed back aaround the capital and they're not even trying to advance in that area. but we've also been hearing that the russians have been concentrating a lot of troops and firepower in the east. so it's not like they're going quiet elsewhere in the country. so i think we expect to hear some context, some kind of detail about what they're actually seeing on the ground and what that might indicate. there's some speculation that russia is merely trying to buy some time because things have not gone well, as we all know. and they may be trying to regroup and maybe kind of find an excuse really why they've failed so badly outside of kyiv and maybe realize there's just nothing to gain there and they'll try to use leverage gained in the east in these peace talks that were under way in istanbul today and for future negotiations. >> do we have any reporting on -- and i know occasionally we get this. what is new, what has changed in

the last 48 hours as far as the force posture from russia. >> i think we don't have a lot of detail. i think that's why we're all going to watch what john kirby has to say. there is some indication that russian forces are moving out of some areas north of kyiv. again, it's important not to overstate it. this is not like it's some kind of massive withdrawal. and just keep in mind that it's gone so badly there that even just from a military standpoint it would be logical for them to be pulling some of those units out of there and try to regroup because they've gotten stymied and stifled and they've been defeated in some areas and thrown back dozens of miles, at least in one case. so it's really gone badly outside of kyiv. and some of what they're saying may be related to the negotiations. the peace negotiations. it's a way to save face. it's a way perhaps to show goodwill. p we really don't know what they're up to there and you should always be a little

skeptical of what moscow puts out. >> dan de luce, thanks very much for that. it all happens as the southern port he city of odesa in ukraine is gearing up for a fight. you've got people piling up sandbags, planting mines, trying to protect cultural monuments. to save the city known as the jewel of the black sea. nbc's molly hunter was in odesa. she has more. >> reporter: hello from the center of the historic city of odesa. now, i can't show you any of the military points around here. i can't show you any of the military checkpoints. at almost every single intersection. what i can show you, though, is the tires, the sandbags, these huge hedgehogs. this is a city heavily fortified and ready for a fight. the famed odesa opera house, now one of the most heavily fortified buildings in ukraine. more than two centuries old, it survived two world wars. lead choreographer gary savoyan says the iconic building is the city's heart and soul. what does it feel like when you walk into work in this building? "the building itself urges you

to create," he says. adding the building has a great history, it's the best theater in the world. but today this is as close as we can get. it's now under military protection. and since before the war started odesa has been preparing. the jewel of the black sea nestled in ukraine's southwest corner, the cultural center dear to so many ukrainian hearts and historically russian ones too. now a fortress with monuments shrouded in sandbags. the city's famous white sand beaches usually packed with tourists, now according to officials many lined with explosive mines. we've been hearing some activity over there, but this entire beach, and you just heard it again, this entire beach is locked down. there are no civilians out here. and you hear that again right there. but this is how close this war is getting to this strategic city. according to the u.s., about two dozen russian warships are off odesa's coastline, blockade k the strategic port home to ukraine's navy. one of the highest-ranking

ukrainian naval officers on shore tells us the russian ships have been moving in and out, calling it psychological warfare. but he says the russians are out of options. so you don't think they can take odesa? "no chance," he says. "we will kill them as they approach." an estimated half the city has stayed behind to fight. nikolai vokanski heads a volunteer coordination center supporting the community here and sending vital supplies to the east. until recently it was a trendy food court. >> it was a bar with oysters and champagne. >> reporter: and the volunteers who work here are the same people who used to hang out here. why are people staying? >> because it's our home. i stay here because i have to support our people, our army, our civilian, and it's my duty. >> reporter: now, the city center is absolutely deserted. we've seen anti-tank mines. we see these huge kind of barricades of tires and sandbags almost everywhere around this city. the people we're talking to, some say they expect an attack any moment. and then there are people who

think they don't think putin would dare to hit the center of this historic city. molly hunter, nbc news, odesa, ukraine. >> our thanks to molly for that reporting. stay with us because there's another busy hour ahead including that briefing from the pentagon, set to start at the top of the hour, just about five minutes from now. with the very latest out of ukraine. we're also watching supreme court nominee ketanji brown jackson make the rounds, more of them on capitol hill. meeting in about 15 minutes with a republican senator who is still publicly undecided on which way he's going to vote. we'll have all of that coming up in just a minute here on msnbc. growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort.

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so get allstate. breaking news as we come on the air this afternoon. any minute on the left side of the screen you see it. we are expecting to hear from the pentagon press secretary for an update on the war in ukraine with some big developments today including a new u.s. assessment that russian forces are apparently backing away from the capital of kyiv. it's coming as peace talks between these two countries are keeping up in turkey. we've got the latest just in to us in the last few minutes. how one person close to the negotiations is characterizing those talks to nbc news. and a lot more with our team in washington and around the world. we're also keeping an eye on the united nations. the security council about to start meeting any minute on the humanitarian impact of the war. that is what you're seeing now. with our reporting this hour taking you inside a mental health and housing center in poland.