eframes. ...but you can find her, and millions of other talented pros, right now on upwork. good morning. 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. any minute now, merrick garland and christopher wray will address new actions to crack down on what they call criminal russian activity. we're going to bring you those remarks live. and in just a couple of hours, president biden is expected to address new sanctions against russia on day 45 of the invasion. this as the u.s. and eu are considering sanctioning putin's doctors. also breaking this morning, more attacks in ukraine, including an apartment building where emergency crews are searching for bodies in the rubble. and while civilians b for more violence. russia denying allegations of war crimes in bucha, but today,

there are even more images of the devastation in that city. we're going to take you live to ukraine. for more on the situation on the ground in ukraine, i want to bring in nbc news correspondent, ali aruezi live from lviv. what are ukrainians saying and feeling about what's going on in their homeland, and this conflict, which seems to be changing? >> good morning, jose. well, you know, 42 days of relentless attacks by the russians has taken a toll on the ukrainian people. they have seen their cities destroyed, they have seen their brothers and sisters killed in this battle. we have seen those horrifying scenes in bucha of murder, rape, and torture. but they are beaten, they are hurt, but they are not broken. i would even say that their resolve has stiffened after what happened in bucha. they are determined to win this war. they are determined to take their land back from the russians. but it is a very devastating

situation. look, jose, what we saw in bucha may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to the foreign minister of this country. he says there's been no access to places like mariupol. and what may come out of there is going to be much more horrific than what we saw in bucha. last night, there was a candlelit vigil just behind of where i'm standing and a couple of hundred people gathered to pay respect to the people of bucha, and people were very, very emotional there. they were very angry to what the russians had done to their country. we spoke to one teacher who works in irpin, which is a 10 to 15-minute drive from bucha. she had a lot of students who study in bucha. she was telling me one of the families she knows, their family were hiding in a basement for two and a half weeks out of fear of what the russians would do to them. let's take a listen to what she had to tell us. >> i was literally appalled by what i saw. and i couldn't put it into words, like, what it was for me and like, still, when i recall

all of those memories, it's just -- it's the place where i -- where i was born and where i grew up and where i had been living all of this time. >> reporter: and you know, she's from that area. and it's so devastating to hear her say, look, i just want to go back to my beautiful park in bucha. i want to go back to my old memories. but, of course, these places have changed dramatically. that is the scene of some horrifying crimes in bucha. so it will never be the same for any of those residents, even when this is all over, jose. >> ali aruezi in lviv, thank you for being with us this morning. and breaking this morning, nbc news is reporting that the u.s. is engaging in an information war with russia, even if that means using intelligence that isn't rock solid. joining us now, nbc news correspondent, ken dilanian. yamiche alcindor is an nbc news washington correspondent, and the moderator of "washington week" on pbs. also here with us, rick stengel,

former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and an nbc news political analyst. ken, let me start with you. what can you tell us about this information war that the u.s. is engaging in with russia? >> reporter: good morning, jose. this is a concerted strategy, run out of the national security council to declassify intelligence and to make it public -- well, first to share it with allies. then to make it public if it suits the strategic needs of the united states. and of course, the first big call that they made in release was predicting that russia would invade ukraine. and that was a risky thing for them to do. because if they were wrong, it would have been another bad day for u.s. intelligence agencies. but they were absolutely right. and for example, in france, the head of the military intelligence agency had to resign, because they had made the wrong call and thought that russia wouldn't invade. but now we're in the middle of the war, and the u.s. has been releasing intelligence, and sometimes it's not always based on the most high-confidence reporting. for example, the united states made public that they believed that there were indications that

russia may be poised to use chemical agents in ukraine. now, that hasn't come to pass. and officials told us that one of the reasons for making that public was in part to deter it. in another case, they talked about russia going to china to ask for military help. there's no indication that that has happened either. but that was a way of warning the chinese not to do it. it's a really interesting strategy that as rick stengel can tell you, a dramatic break from past practice. this has not happened before to this extent. some experts have said, this is the most prolific war they have ever seen the united states engage in when it comes to declassifying intelligence. >> rick, let's talk about that? how unusual is that? >> by the way, i thought that ken's story was a terrific story. i learned a lot from it this morning. it is. it goes against everything that's in the dna of intelligence officers. remember, lose world ii, lose lips sinks ships. but i think the people in office now, secretary of state tony blinken, jake sullivan, bill

burns, the head of the cia, they felt a little burned in 2014 with the kind of secret russian annexation of crimea, and that we didn't get out ahead of it. they have now reversed that. we're taking information, as ken said, and using it in a way, as a prebuttal against what putin might do. i think it's a wholly new use of information. i think it's powerful. and i think it's been real effective. >> i mean, in the past, american intelligence hasn't always been spot-on. i mean, as early as, well, the -- they would get to kyiv in a matter of days. that afghanistan could hold out, that the government could hold out for weeks. and we thought, you know, the iraq weapons of mass destruction issues. so, intelligence hasn't necessarily been spot-on in the united states. >> yes, absolutely. and they mentioned all of the examples. but i think what's a little different now, you have bill burns as head of the cia, former ambassador to russia, understands the russian personality, speaks russian. and i think what we also saw.

remember, even zelenskyy thought our information was wrong, right? >> that's right. >> we were saying that russia was going to go for the whole country and zelenskyy was saying, no, no, no. so they've been proven right time and again here. >> yamiche, talk to us a little bit about sanctions. the u.s. and the eu. they're planning to announce a new series of sanctions in the next couple of hours. >> these sanctions are really targeting and trying to step up the financial consequences for russia. so they want to ban any new investments in russia. there's talk of banning russian coal. there are conversations going on about possibly sanctioning the daughters of vladimir putin. and what we see here really is the united states responding in the way that they can without going into any direct military conflict with russia. but the president and the west, they're watching all of these atrocities go on and hearing the voice of the ukrainian president, who went to the u.n. and really read them the riot act, saying that if there is

peace to be had, and if international law is still to be followed, russia needs to be able to pay severe prices. this is the west and president biden trying to make sure that they are continuously stepping up and escalating the financial consequences to russia. but the real question when i talk to officials and experts is will this actually change the behavior of russia? will this change the direction of this war? president biden has said very clearly, he does not believe that sanctions deter behavior. though some white house officials and biden administration officials have said that the financial consequences were in some ways aimed at deterring the behavior of russia. but because things have just continued to escalate and continue to deteriorate, here is the west and the united states saying, we are not taking our eye off of this. and we're coming up with even more ways for sanctions to be levied against russia. >> and, you know, rick, i'm just wondering, as this process continues, it doesn't seem like it may be over in the near

future, how does the west, the world, deal with putin? and how do you deal, diplomatically, you know, relations, conversations, with putin, this putin. not the putin, you know, of two months ago. >> yes, i think you have to make him a pariah. the most interesting thing about the sanctions that will be introduced today is i think the u.s. will allow russia to default on its sovereign debt and not allow to pay down its debt in dollars. that's a way of putting russia and putin outside of the family of nations. outside of nations that operate with the rule of law, with the financial system. and i think that it's painful and i don't think sanctions ever can really deter behavior, but russia will become so isolated that there will be no russian state that people can identify with anymore, in a sense like, i have a future here. that's a longtime battle. that's not going to deter anything he does in the next few

weeks or months, but that's the outcome for the transgressions that he has done. >> in the past, i have heard said, sanctions hurt the people and not the government. >> yes. we've tried a kind of two-tiered approach to hurt the oligarchs who protect putin and indirectly to hurt the russian people. and i think that hasn't quite happened yet. and as we were saying, the russian people have a big capacity for suffering. and they haven't really started suffering yet. >> is there a way back, in the future, to bring back russia? you know, i just keep wondering, this is -- you know, changing things in a very real way. speaking of which, let's go to the department of justice. right now they're speaking. merrick garland. >> good morning. when we announced the launch of the klepto capture task force last month, i said we would leave no stone unturned in our

efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those who continue to enable russia to continue its unjust war in ukraine. that is a promise that we are keeping. i am joined here today by deputy attorney general monaco and fbi director wray. also here are assistant attorney general olsen, principle deputy assistant attorney general mcquaid, fbi cyber section chief frim, and klepto capture task force adams. today we are announcing several actions that the justice department has taken to disrupt and prospect criminal activity associated with the russian regime. the first action we are announcing today is the unsealing of an indictment charging russian oligarch constantine malafev with sanctions violations. as the indictment charges, the treasury department previously identified malafev as one of the main sources of financing for russians promoting separatism in crimea and for providing

material support for the so-called donetsk people's republic. after being sanctioned by the united states, malafev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across europe. we are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a u.s. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to malafev's sanction's violations. the justice department will continue to use all of its authorities to hold accountable russian oligarchs and others who seek to evade u.s. sanctions. the second action we are announcing today is the disruption of a global bot net, controlled by the russian military intelligence agency, commonly known as the gru. the russian government has recently used similar infrastructure to attack ukrainian targets? fortunately, we were able to

disrupt this bot net before it could be used. thanks to our close work with international partners, we were able to detect the infection of thousands of network hardware devices. we were then able to disabled the gru's control over those devices, before the bot net could be weaponized. today's announcements are part of a series of actions that the justice department has recently taken to disrupt and prosecute criminal activity associated with russia. yesterday, together with our german law enforcement partners, we seized the russia-affiliated hydra dark net market. the world's largest illegal marketplace on the dark web. we also filed criminal charges against a russian national who we allege administered the market's technical infrastructure. and on the day before that, again, with our international partners, we seized the tango, a super yacht owned by viktor

vekselberg, another sanctioned oligarch with close ties to the russian regime. on that same day, we obtained seizure warrants targeting the assets of several additional sanctioned russian nationals. the justice department will continue to work alongside our international partners to hold accountable those who break our laws, threaten our national security, and harm our allies. our message to those who continue to enable the russian regime through their criminal conduct is this. it does not matter how far you sail your yacht. it does not matter how well you conceal your assets. it does not matter how cleverly you write your malware or hide your online activity. the justice department will use every available tool to find you, disrupt your plots, and hold you accountable.

finally, i cannot close without acknowledging the horrible images that all of us have seen coming out of ukraine, particularly from bucha this week. we have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. we have seen the mass graves. we have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. the world sees what is happening in ukraine. the justice department sees what is happening in ukraine. this department has a long history of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes. one of my predecessors, attorney general robert jackson, later served as the chief american prosecutor at the nuremberg

trials. today, we are assisting international efforts to identify and hold accountable those responsible for atrocities in ukraine. and we will continue to do so. i'm now going to turn over the program to deputy attorney general monaco, who will share more information about the indictment that was unsealed today. >> well, a very strong series of sanctions announced by merrick garland this morning. ken dilanian is with us. ken, this is just part of a broader set of sanctions that are going to be announced today and throughout the next couple of days. >> that's right, jose. i think what's really interesting about this is that when you talk to u.s. officials about the sanctions and the oligarchs, what they have always said is the oligarchs, it's pretty easy for them to get around sanctions. they use intermediaries and proxies and llcs and put the money in companies that aren't tied to them.

and that's the end of it. well, here's the justice department coming along saying, those days are over. we are now going after that behavior, because in many instances, that behavior violates american law. so they can charge these people with money laundering. and they can seize their assets. they've always been able to do that, but they hadn't put the resources into it. so now they're doing that, jose. and it's a significant development. i would also say on the bot net, in 2020, microsoft took down a major russian bot net, which is a network of computers that can be used to mount cyber attacks on a massive scale. so the idea that the justice department, the fbi, has now taken down one before it even got off the ground is a significant blow to russia's offensive cyber capability. and lastly, you know, merrick garland's comments on war crimes. and he's a man that shows emotion in public, he feels this very deeply. and i think his message there was, you know, this is not going to go away. they will wait in the tall grass for these russian war criminals,

if they happen to travel, if they happen to come on the radar of u.s. law enforcement. the united states has a role to play in bringing some of these allegation alleged war criminals to justice. >> this is such a difference than what we've seen in the past, in so many ways. >> yes. russia has functioned, the kremlin have functioned like a criminal organization. they're an expert at the dark web. for us, the justice department to say, we're going to pursue you wherever you go, that is something new. but the biggest sanction will be if we cut off their foreign debt, if we force them to default on that. and the people that really have the leverage over russia now are the europeans. they're still buying russian oil and gas. until that is cut off, russia has a lifeline. >> they're pulling more than $350 billion a year from sales. >> more this year than last year. >> how does that happen? >> i mean, 40% of european gas comes from russia. i think a similar percent or

larger percentage of natural gas. that's russia's lifeline, which zelenskyy called blood money. >> rick stengel and yamiche alcindor and ken dilanian, thank you so much for being with us this morning. up next, the fear of more atrocities in ukraine at the hands of russian forces. we'll talk to zelenskyy's former press secretary about what she's hearing in lviv. and later, steve kornacki will be back. the big board is his with new polling on the supreme court. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.

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22 past the hour. right now, nato foreign ministers are in brussels for a critical meeting, as evidence mounts of alleged atrociies in bucha. the latest scene out of there is another disturbing one. six charred bodies reporteredly seen by associated press and sky news journalists yesterday. the head of police in the kyiv region says one of those bodies was likely a child. russia continues to deny the accusations, calling them fake, despite video evidence and witness accounts. the outcry from ukrainian leaders is growing. >> horrible. they was shot and burned after it. >> i think u.n. failed, nato failed. and criminal courts failed so we will have to do it by ourselves

and we are ready to do it. >> every euro, every cent, what you receive from russians or what you send from russia has blood. >> joining us now is julia men dell, former press secretary to ukrainian president zelenskyy. julia, thank you for being with us. you wrote a powerful "washington post" op-ed about the fear of more atrocities. what are you hearing about other areas in ukraine? >> thank you for having me. first of all, 1,200 of war crimes have been registered already from kyiv region. and bucha is the settlement for 30,000 people. when we talk about such large cities such as mariupol, that has been bombed for over a month, and where people were blocked all this time, there were 400,000 of inhabitants. and of course, it's really scary to understand that we need to

see that this school in mariupol, and that things can be much worse. also, we know from our [ inaudible ] that bucha was not actually the worst settlement in terms of more invasion and internal affairs. just another town, which is in kyiv region. and it was very difficult to get there. today we are getting the first images, because we see that members of parliament and some advisers from the office of the president managed to reach there. everything is mined there, and it's difficult, because the roads are blocked and bombed and the bridges are bombed. so it was really very difficult to get. but the office of the general prosecutor says that the things are much worse there. it's actually the engine side. because we understand that russia hates ukraine just for

being ukrainians. and we hear from every part, that russia, they, they make just enormously illogical, painful things to ukraines because of aggression, because of hatred, because of anger. they just want to show their power in this type of behavior. and we cannot understand how a human being can behave like this. it goes out of any understanding, to be frank. and comes from different regions is very stressful. >> no doubt. my colleague, andrea mitchell asked anthony blinken whether russia's jacksons qualify as genocide. take a listen to what he said. >> the wheels of accountable can move slowly, but they move. and some day, some way, somewhere, those who committed these crimes, and those who

ordered the crimes, will be held accountable. >> your u.n. ambassador, linda thomas greenfield described these atrocities and compared it by extension to the holocaust. talked about what the council of mariupol had described. people forcibly, tens of thousands instantaneous from their homes, taken to russia and put in camps. isn't that the very definition of genocide? >> we have to get all of the information, all of the evidence. we have to, as i said, document everything that's happened, fully understand what's happened. it's an interesting irony in a sense. this is, in some ways, the most documented war in realtime that we've experienced, because of technology, because of smartphones, because of the incredible courage of reporters who have remained in ukraine. but even so, the things that we're not seeing in realtime, including bucha, and it's only

when that tide recedes that you see what actually happened. i think we'll learn a lot more in the days and weeks ahead. i think what we're going to learn will be even more horrifying. >> julia, is this a modern day that we're seeing in front of our own eyes? >> that was a famine, so it's a little bit different, but pretty much looks like holocaust. in fact, what is happening right now, i understand that bureaucracy is pretty slow. it's very difficult to get verified, legally verified information so fast to [ inaudible ]. this is the first thing. the second thing, being so close to russia, we get enormous information from russian social media and from russian formal, traditional media. and we understand what they publish and what they share among their audiences, millions of audiences, is fewer hatred towards ukrainians.

they don't consider that ukrainians are humans that are worth living. and this is what we're getting every day. my news for today. two houses of my grannies were bombed out. the house of my parent's was robbed. they took everything they could take away. my fiance is on front line and he's being shot at. he is all right, but i worry a lot. this is the ordinary news that you get every day. and the issue is that we are all -- we are sure that the world will need to understand that this is a genocide. this is -- this goes much farn just an order war crime. and we see that information flows very slowly, because the u.n. was saying around a thousand of casualties, and what we see, around 300 people are in mass grave. 300 people are in mask grave in occupied kherson. 2,000-something were already casualties in mariupol.

it's much bigger, these are much bigger numbers that can be verified right now, legally. so we expect that wile the information will be revealed, thanks also to media, then we will see the real justice and we will be able to talk about the real stats. how to make russia count for everything that it is horribly doing right now with our people. >> yulia mendez, thank you for being with us this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> and you can watch more of andrea mitchell's exclusive interview with secretary blinken next hour. but up next, the full senate expected to vote on supreme court nominee ketanji brown jackson by the end of the week. senator maisie hirono who sits on the judiciary committee joins us to talk about the future of the high court, next. senator, always a pleasure to see you. we'll chat in just a second. >> great. thank you. chat in just a second. >> great thank you. [ mid-tempo music playing ] ♪♪ ♪♪

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not always faced partisan opposition. joining us now, nbc news's national political correspondent, steve kornacki. steve, great to see you. how are voting patterns for supreme court nominees changed over the years? >> jose, it's an interesting story here going back, i would say, about 40 years. let's just show you here. these are the votes for every supreme court justice that came to the floor, every nomination that came to the floor going back to sandra day o'connor in '81. the way it used to be, you would occasional have big fights. this is the most famous of all time. robert bork, ronald reagan's nominee in '87 rejected by the senate a few years later. of course, the clarence thomas nomination was very contentious. but you also had back in those days, look at this, o'connor, 99. -0. look at all of these confirmation votes with 90-plus votes for confirmation. even stephen breyer in '94. fewer than ten votes against. you had a lot of consensus

supreme court nomination votes back in those days. where things started to change was this century. the george w. bush presidency. those are all the votes you're seeing right here. and what's happened is you've gotten more "no" votes and that means you've gotten more and more party polarization in these votes. where the party of the president who's nominating votes for, the opposition party votes against. we can just take you through, start with the bush presidency, as i mentioned. he had john roberts. that was his nominee in 2005 to be the chief justice. this right now is actually the last time, this is the democratic votes on roberts, 23-4, 22 against. this is the last time that the opposition party actually gave more votes for than against for a nominee. and you can see, it was just 23-22. and then you take a look, sam alito was bush's next pick. and by then, look at this, democrats were almost all against it. republicans almost all for it. in fact, there was a filibuster attempt by democrats on this nomination.

look through the obama presidency. there were some republican votes for kagan and sotomayor, but far, far more no-votes on these nominations. . and take a look, of course, at the trump presidency. and this was almost pure party polarization. gorsuch, kavanaugh, kony barrett. by kony barrett, you had zero democrats voting yes, you had 52-1 on the republican side voting for her. increasingly, we are seeing these becoming close to party-line votes. in the case of jackson, we are seeing mitt romney, for instance, coming out for this. look for maybe a couple of republicans to vote for this. but it does seem that the new reality of these votes is very, very partisan and they end up being very close. >> steve kornacki, thank you so much. great seeing you. and with us to continue our conversation is hawaii senator, maisie hirono, who sits on the judiciary and armed services committee. great seeing you, as always. >> good morning. zpr do you think the supreme

court nomination process is broken. has it become so politicized that it is broken, or does it just feel like it's broken? >> it certainly feels like it's broken. we know that it's highly charged and highly partisan. so i would like it to be better, but when you can't find a single republican member of the committee to vote for this highly, highly qualified, totally objective, even-handed person, you're seeing a process that is very, very politicized. >> and as steve was telling us, i guess alito was the breaking point there, as far as how it's becoming just more and more straight party-line vote. is there anything, senator, do you think that could change that trajectory? >> what could change the trajectory is if, as far as i'm correspond, when the republicans decide that they would like to put people on the supreme court who observe the rule of law, precedent, and who has an approach to cases that are

even-handed and fair minded. when they decide that's the kind of person they want on the court and not people who are members of the federalist society, with an ideological ax to grind, which was definitely the case with all of the trump nominees, then we will have a process where he will have more judge jacksons on the court. >> senator, i want to turn to the war in ukraine. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said yesterday, this conflict could last for years. as you know better than anybody else. all right, the united states has given ukraine billions, hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and other assistance. is this something that we could keep up a level of assistance in place for years? >> the president just signed a $14 billion package of economic, military, humanitarian aid. i think it is very critical when we see a country literally fighting for its freedom, fighting for its life, that our country needs to continue to

provide support. we need to stay the course. that's where i'm coming from. >> and even if, as the general said, even if this could be going on for years. >> i hope not. because, you know what, the expectation is that the sanctions will begin to be felt to the degree that even putin will make up and decide that he's got to figure out a way to get out of this. >> senator, is aid getting there fast enough? is all of the help as that has been given, is it getting to ukraine fast enough? >> i think that we could all say that, especially the humanitarian aid could be faster. however, we're needing to go throw the gauntlet to get some of the aid. but it's also critical that the military aid continues so the ukrainians can fight back. they're doing it heroically.

and president zelenskyy is truly a profile in courage, as he leads his country. >> it's been really extraordinary to see that. senator, on a bipartisan deal, on a $10 billion covid relief package could be delayed because of a push by some senator republicans. some of your democratic colleagues also vote for amendments related to other issues, including title 42, which allow officials to turn away migrants at the border because of the pandemic. what do you make of this move? >> it's, again, basically, you know, i was hoping that this particular package would recognize that covid is still with us and there are other variants that may be in the offing and we need to be prepared. so i would think that the republicans could support it in a bipartisan way, but they basically use every opportunity to push their ideological agenda. i'm hopeful that we can get past it through this new package. >> title 42 is coming to an end towards the end of may. how do you feel about that?

>> oh, i know that president biden, this administration is saying that they are not going to be relying on title 42 to deport people on the basis of some health issues, so i think that is a good thing. >> and by the way, senator, you know, president biden just announced this morning his administration is extending the moratorium on federal student loan payments until august. how do you think this will make a difference in people's lives. >> there are over 40 million people who are facing student loan repayments. if we don't extend the deadline for them not having to make these payments. so it will have a huge negative impact if we don't extend it to august. so i'm hopeful that will happen. but the bottom line is, jose, we're going to need to fix the student loan problem. and that way we can forgive up to 50,000 of the loans.

there is a resolution being headily chuck schumer and patty murray to that effect, and i am supporting it. but this is a problem that is not going to go away, and we can't just keep kicking this can down the road. we need to find a better way to address this problem. >> well, as i said, the administration just announced that they are extending the moratorium until at least through august. always a pleasure to see you. thank you so much for your time. >> you take care. >> likewise. coming up, more than half of ukraine's children have been displaced because of the war. we're going to talk with a ukrainian teacher who is trying to keep her students in school. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." hool you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports.

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important, massive sanctions. >> these are sweeping sanctions, jose, there's no doubt about that. i want to underscore the point that you just made. the u.s. is doing this in concert with its allies in europe and beyond. so what are the top lines here? well, again, this is just coming in, so i'll refer to my notes a little bit. but these sanctions are fully blocking on russia's largest financial institution. russia's largest private bank, which is the alpha bank. it prohibits new investment in the russian federation, and it also includesfully blocking sanctions on family members of vladimir putin and sergey lavrov. it's putin's adult daughters, as well as sergey lavrov, the foreign minister's wife and daughter and members of russia's security council, including former president and prime minister dmitry medvedev. so this is really significant, jose. and the fact that they are targeting these sanctions to

really be directed at family members, the inner-most, inner circle of vladimir putin is a key headline here. and it does come in the wake of those atrocities that the world witnessed in bucha, and of course, president biden calling president putin a war criminal, calling him to be tried at a war crimes tribunal. and of course, president zelenskyy asking the u.s., asking europe for more military aid. so it's worth noting that overnight, the u.s. also announced 100 million in new military aid, javelins. what ukraine has determined to be some of the most effective systems at combatting russia, but president zelenskyy has been demanding more. he wants a no-fly zone. he wants those polish migs. so far, president biden standing firm saying he's not going to commit u.s. troops to the war in ukraine. and that he perceives those steps to be escalatory. but still, jose, the bottom line here, these are sweeping new sanctions announced by the biden

administration. we expect the president to address these sanction himself when he speaks a little bit later on today at 12:45 p.m. eastern. >> and kristen welker, these are in addition to the actions that we saw right here on msnbc by the doj. >> that's absolutely the national security adviser spoke to reporters earlier this week and said that sanctions take time to have an impact. so they acknowledge these sanctions are not something that are going to deter vladimir putin overnight, but they same time they say that over time they think they will have a bite and of course the d.o.j. announcing new actions over key oligarchs in russia today. >> thank you very much. despite the war in ukraine, millions of ukrainian children are still in school, many attending classes remotely.

joining us, an english teacher based in kyiv. thank you for being with us. how are your students doing? >> the distance learning is not new to us because of the coronavirus. but this is different and it's an opportunity for lots of students to kyiv, for example, who moved to different foreign town, cities and villages. and, for example, they didn't have their x books, that's why we try to send them to him or help to find some electronic

textbooks or we try to use some materials. some have a bad internet connection. and we need to connect with the students from this region individually to help them and to support them. some students -- >> it's just so difficult, as you say, not only just for the children but for you. >> for us, too. >> how do you maintain your love for your vocation of teaching in these tough times? how do you talk to the children about what they're seeing and living?

>> they always try show us that -- i'm in kyiv. and when they ask me where are you? of course i say to them -- for example, last time i had a lesson with my pupils and they ask me this question, where are you? i say that look, i can show your classroom because i was at school at the time and you know these pupils, sometimes they didn't want to go to the school. sometimes they didn't do my homework. sometimes they made some noise and they didn't listen to me but at this time when i talk with them and the last time with my lesson they said we want to go school so much. that's why all the time i try to

support my students. i try to talk with them about our future, that it will all be okay, that we have very good support from other countries and that we never leave and never lose our country. and our country all in future will be always unity country for all people. i'm sorry. it's so difficult for me. >> it's so difficult and it's so important to focus on the future when the present is so difficult. how are you -- how are you doing? >> i can say that my choice was to stay in kyiv with my family because especially for me, it's

better to be here without my family than to go to any safe places without them. my family, it's my husband, my son and my mom and sometimes it's really difficult to work because, for example, my husband, he is volunteer and he is busy every day, every week from the morning to the evening. i can see him only at night. my mom, she is a teacher, too, and she needs to teach her pupils, her students. and my son, he is only 2 years old. he can't go to the kindergarten. that's why he is always with me. and sometimes i need to teach my pupils with my son, but, you

know, i want to say about my son is that he can't talk, he knows only some words but he knows the word bomb very well because this word is the sound from his life and he knows very well that when he hears boom, he needs to run to the basement very quickly with his mom. >> that's what a 2-year-old boy knows. >> yeah. >> only 2. >> he's 2. iuliia, thank you for being with us. you're an extraordinary person, an extraordinary teacher and we're lucky to have a conversation. thank you so much for being with us. all the best. >> thank you, you, too. >> that wraps up the hour for

me. i'm jose diaz-balart. thank you for your time. andrea mitchell will pick up the news after a quick break. drea me news after a quick break

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