it will go beyond a landmark decision in political history but i think it was probably inevitable. i mean the modern presidential debate structure that the republicans are now opting out of that, they're deciding to kill off with this decision today, it is a process that puts journalists formally into the electoral process. journalists serve as moderators of the presidential debate and that's what the republicans have decided they can no longer abide. it really is just an amazing thing for the republican party to decide, unanimous vote at the republican national committee, but honestly you could see it coming if you were looking in c the right direction. once the presidents of that

party, the leader of that party, declaredy, that the free press the united states was, in his words the enemy of the people, once the republican party decided that the american free press is bad, that journalism is something they cannot only do without but they are against as a party, yeah, this is where that ends, they are not going to allow t a formal roll for the press in the electoral process and not do debate with journalist asking questions when they decide as a party they are againsthe journalism and the prs is the enemy. we've seen alarms around this and traditions around this fall by the wayside without much commentary. the president would not do a white house correspondents dinner which is a comedy show, under the previous president they had the white house spokesperson stop doing briefings for the press. they invited rally-goers, to

curse at reporters and camera crews on-site covering president's rallies. it is clear where they have been going with this and republicans said formerly today there will be no more presidential debate, not with their candidates. this is a landmark thing. but it was i think a quick and direct trip to that landmark. once the republicans under trump declared that journalism is the enemy and thatsm as far as theye concerned it must be stopped. so i don't know that there's much more to be said about that. that is now done. but let the record show that's exactly why it happened. a lot of interesting things. i think some other landmark things in the news today. today, former president trump's domestic adviser stephen miller had fought a subpoena in the january 6th investigation for months, and had even sued them to try to avoid testifying but today he testified before the january 6th commission. more on that later on.

the january 6th investigate. the san francisco chronicle published brutal, very long piece today, quoting lots and lots of anonymous source, democratic sources, in california, and in the united states senate, all claiming to various degrees that senator dianne feinstein of california is mentally no longer up to the job of being senator. the claim is basically that presumably because of age, she's too out of it, too frequently, to continue to hold the job. now, again, these are unnamed sources. and senator feinstein's office is vociferously denying these claims and defended aggressively by fellow senators and house speaker a nancy pelosi, fellow californian, fellow san francisco, but this is the second article along the lines ofes dianne feinstein, one a ye ago from the new yorker magazine. after this chronicle piece

today, there has not been widespread reaction to these allegations yet in washington, and presumably that is because the senate isn't in session right now and i'm assuming that there's no senator that wants to stick their head up over the parapet on this one. it is a sensitive subject, six senators in their 80s right now. like i said, not much reaction yet on capitol hill to this very difficult reporting on senator feinstein in the san francisco chronicle about her mental state,ro particularly about her short term memory. but this is a proverbial duck's chargeal for an institution tha does not like contending with this issue at all, and for which this issue looms large if we are honest about it. sooo we shall see how that emers and that is worth keeping an eye on and worth reading that piece if you haven't yet.on one otherif note, it is just abt this time last night here on the show when we started to get more

credible but still unconfirmed reports about this ship, reports that the russians most important naval vessel in the war against ukraine, had been hit or damaged somehow, and might be out of commission. well today, that ship, the moskva, which is russian for moscow, that ship sank. over the course of the last few day, while this is being covered, you probably heard the moskva described as the flag ship of russia'sib fleet in the black sea. being the flag ship means the most important and most capable high profile ship in the fleet, and it was gigantic, if the ukrainians claim they sunk it with a land to sea missile, it may beea the largest ship ever sunk by a missile. simply the largest war ship of any kind sunk since world war ii. this is a guided missile

cruiser. it's got a crew of about 500. it's more than 600 feet long. and it's now gone. the russian ministry of defense now confirming that it has sunk. we're going to have some expert help here in just a minute to try to get to the practical significance of that development, as well as the new news today, that europe might pull out perhaps the biggest weapon that they have against russia. this was absolutely unthinkable even just earlier in the course of the war but europe today started to consider an embargo, an outright ban on russian oil. this is punishing russia, russia is a petro state, they have long assumed they could have their way in the world, because no matter what nefarious ends in the world, other countries would have to let it slide because nobody can forego russian oil. well, after 50 days of russian

bombarding ukraine, and ukraine begging the world, begging europe in particular, to cut russia off, to stop funding the russian state by buying their oil, today, europe finally started to drop anly embargo th would cut off the russian state. by stopping buying their oil. they said it couldn't be done. but europen' has started that process today. there is no larger economic measure that could be taken against russia, oil and gas is the existential life blood of their sclerotic backward economy. if it is cut off, russia as we know it will cease to exist. we're going to have expert help on that and much more coming up. but i want to start us off tonight, here at home, with the headline that is maybe not as a total surprise but i think it has come sooner than any of us has expected. here it is from the associated press. quote abortionsed stop in kentuy

as groups seek to block new law. just read that one more time. abortions stop in kentucky. at the end of last month, republicans in kentucky passed a bill to make it harder for women to get an abortion in that state. previously kentucky had laws on the books that said you couldn't get anat abortion there if your pregnancy was more than 20 weeks along. this new law this past month rolled it back further saying you could no longer get an abortion in the state if your pregnancy is 15 weeks along. it has been rolled back from 20 to 15 weeks. and kentucky is not the first to pass the legislation and likely not the last but unlike other states with republican controlled legislatures kentucky has a governor who is a democrat and afer that 15-week abortion ban through the legislature was passed last week, the governor andy bashear vetoed it. last night the republican led legislature in kentucky voted to

override the governor's veto and the practical consequence of that is very important for our country. because it means that that new abortion ban in kentucky is now in i effect. there's no grace period. there's no planned implementation date in the future for it. the law takes effect immediately. operational today. right now. and it turns out, it's much more than just a 15-week ban. there's already only two clinics that provide abortions in the whole state of kentucky. they're both located in louisville. tonight, both of those clinics say that because of the way the law is written, not just because the 15-week ban, but because of the other restrictions in the bill, that are designed to make it basically impossible for anybody to legally provide any abortion in the state, both of those clinics, the last two clinics in t the state tell us tonightcl that there is no way r them to comply with this new law which again went into effect today, with the veto override,

so the last two clinics in kentucky are announcing that as of now, they have had to close their doors. they are noth longer able to provide abortions because of this new law as of today. and which means if we're talking about landmarks, today is a landmark.s, because today, for the first time since roe v. wade, the supreme court decision in 1973, today, the first american state has gone dark. to outright block all legal access to abortion in the state, full stop. kentucky is the first one. it is the first state with no legal accesse to abortion sinc roe v. wade in 1973. now, as you know, as we've been covering for months here, kentucky is just one of a long list of republican-controlled states that have passed radical new restrictions that make it close to or outright impossible forht women to get abortion, th one that got the most attention is the bounty style law in texas, the texas law sets up a

bounty system, a vigilante system, that tells anybody in the general public, due even have to be in texas, literally any random person anywhere can bringer a lawsuit against anyon who is believed to have violated the new restrictions texas set up around abortion. that includes not just bringing a lawsuit against the doctor who provides an abortion but anybodb who helps a woman obtain an abortion. even a person who just drives you to the clinic or loans you money to get the procedure done. the texas law, the vigilante law in terms of has been on the books since september. it remains inbo effect today. since the passage of the texas law, we've seen several states try to pass copy cat laws mimicking the one in texas, idaho is the first to get it set in law in march, set to go into effect later this months. just this week, oklahoma became the latest state to pass a law on all abortions, not even a six week ban like in texas, this is no abortions at all, with no

exceptions even if the pregnancy came about as a result of incest or as a result of rape. a woman was raped and became pregnant because of the rape would be forced by the state of oklahoma would be to carry that preg nence to term and give birth to the child against their will. the oklahoma ban is sethe to gon effect this summer. other states have tried to pass the outright bans in the past. and they have been blocked by the courts because the supreme court previously affirmed that the constitution affords women the right to get an abortion in this country. that wasti the roe v. wade decision. theoretically at least for now roe v. wade still protects the right to getro an abortion in ts country and all 50 states. but with this court, the supreme court is currently considering a case about a law in mississippi that bans abortions after 15 weeks. that violates the protection established by roe v. wade.

the supreme court is considering that now. if they allow the mississippi law to stand which is widely expected to do that will effectively knock roe out and with it any constitutional protections nationwide to abortion access. today, the republican governor of florida, ron desantis is signed a new 15-week ban on abortion just line the one challenged in the supreme court in mississippi and the ban expected to go in effect in july which is the time we are expecting a decision. that's what the whole flurry of republican anti-abortion laws all over the country, preparing for the day when they are expecting soon roe v. wade will fall at the supreme court. they want to get those bans on the book, so everything is ready tog go once roe is thrown out d in the meantime they are making it difficult to get an aboss, threaten the uber drivers and threaten anybody who wants to

get itth done, threaten the doctors,ea threaten the women b put that kentucky headline back up there. as of today, abortions have stopped in kentucky. there are two clinics that provided abortions in kentucky before today. neither of those clinics can provide abortions any more under the you in law just passed in that state. which means not in a few months. not if and when the supreme court knocks down roe. today, right now, abortion access is gone in kentucky. and at first glance the kentucky law looks pretty similar to the one being considered at the supreme court, the mississippi law, the 15-week ban on all abortion, no exception for rape, no exception for incest, when you open it ups when you sort of open the hood on, this that's where you see all of the restrictions that endhe abortio access in the state, it is an olympic level obstacle course of mell medically unnecessary hoops

that abortion providers are theoretically required to jump through if they provide any abortions at all. in prkentucky, all abortion providers are required to file paperwork about the steps they take after they perform an abortion. this is a new requirement on its face, itre doesn't seem so bad, right, nobody likes paperwork, that's an easy box to check, right, it turns out no, it's not because in this case, this paperwork that they fill out doesn't exist and they rushed this thing on the books and this law went into effect with zero notice, and kentucky republicans didn't give anybody time to createdi the new forms they suddenly said are required by law to be filled out if you want to provide an abortion legally in the state. so as of today, to perform a legal abortion in the state of kentucky, you're required by law to fill out a form that literally doesn't exist. so no, the existing abortion providers in kentucky can't do that, and stay within the four corners of the law. here is another one. for a doctor to legally provide an abortion in kentucky after today you have to report to the

state of kentucky the full name and age and race and ethnicity and health information and hometown of the woman's sexual partner. right? so the father to the child in consideration. they consider, that's how they are approachingth this. they're saying we need all of that information, about the sexual partner of this woman who wants this abortion. again, this bill provides no exception for rape. so if you're raped in kentucky, you need to know the hometown, race, ethnicity and health status of the rapist. you have to check that with him, in order to be able to get an abortion legally in the state? if you don't provide that information, can't get the abortion? here is another foone. because of this new law, in order to provide a patient with a medication abortion, not even a surgical abortion, but a medication abortion, all kentucky doctors must now register with the state to be allowed to legally do so.

the hitch here is the state hasn't set up the system by which doctors are supposed to register and the statear hasn't come up with a plan to build that system. planned parenthood operates one of the two remaining abortion clinics in kentucky. a spokesperson foric the organization in kentucky said quote there is nothing that allows providers to be able to comply with the new law regulations, that's why we're stopping care,la literally we cannot meet the demands the bill would require. so thyes, just a 15-week ban is extreme, they're using a 15-week ban to break roe v. wade, it violates the protections of roe v. wade and that's what they will use at the supreme court to get rid of roe. in the state of kentucky, it is not just because of the ban, it is all of the other restriction, literally impossible to comply with, medically unnecessary, obstacles that kentucky republicans have put these

doctors in the place of having tola comply with. that's made itto impossible for them to continue providing this for kentucky women and that's why kentucky is the first state since roe v. wade to stop being able to provide abortion to women in that case. the kentucky law has been challenged in court, and planned parenthood and the other clinic, which is beings represented by the aclu have filed court challenges to the law, both clinics are asking the court to issue a restraining order to put theis law on ice, in the it is litigated in court, but that is in kentucky right now, where in is zero access to legal abortion as of right now. first state to go dark in 49 years. joining us now is the deputy director of the aclu reproductive freedom project, one of the attorneys on these lawsuits challenging this law that isla in kentucky, the firs stop to stop providing abortions. thank you very much for being here. i know this isab a pretty inten and important day.

>> thanks for having me. >> let me just ask if i explained any of that wrong, or that is basically what we should understand about what happened in kentucky, and how far, how much further down the road kentucky is toward an effective abortion ban in other states. >> you got it right. i also want to assure patients that we're doing everything that we can to block the law as quickly as possible. so i really hope that we have a court order, maybe even tomorrow even that restores access to abortion in kentucky and if a y need an abortion inab kentucky, would urge to you call the clinic, and the situation is changing rapidly, but you're right, this is put in the context, there is an abortion access crisis in the united states right now, and it is going to get exponentially worse, in six weeks, when the supreme court decides that the mississippi case that you mentioned before, roe v. wade can be overturned in whole, or it might be dismantled, and wreak havoc across the country.

>> in terms of the mechanism here, in kentucky, obviously we've got this new 15-week ban, which is what, the same type of ban that is before the court right now, and that mississippi case that you just described, we got another one of those bans just passed in florida, we've got lots of states personally known as but it is the other restrictions that mick it literally im pour -- that make it literally impossible for health care providers to comply with arcane new laws that require specific things from them that can't be done becauser, for example the forms don't exist or the system doesn't exist to registered within all of these other things, it is these obstacle, these unbeatable obstacles, that have shut down care in kentucky right now, presume presumably that's something that other states have not only been pursuing in the past but ramp up as we head to that supreme court decision as well. >> sure. we have long seen attempts by states to push abortions out of reach by unnecessary

restrictions. what makes it unique is last night in kentucky around 7:30 as you mentioned when the legislature overrode governor bashear's veto the law took effect immediately. the 72-page labyrinth of a ton of restrictions, none of which can be complied with because as you say, the state hasn't created the infrastructure to comply with the law. so it is a classic catch 22. it's a gotcha moment. there isn't enough time to comply. and that's why provision of care had o to stop in kentucky today. but we filed a lawsuit first thing this morning, as with planned parenthood and we're hoping that we get the abortion accesshe restored. >> what sort of timing are you hopingre to move this, the lawst on, obviously you're asking for essentially the law to be enjoined, the law to be stopped from being, going into effect, how soon could that scenario be

expected? >> we asked for an emergency restraining order so we could get it tonight, first thing tomorrow, that's why i'm urging people in kentucky, if you need an abortion, contact the abortion clinic, contact the abortion fund, and we don't want people to be confused because chaos and confusion is part of the design. theof anti-abortion legislature that want to push abortion out of reach, want to ban abortion, they want to confuse people, scare feem, stigmatize abortion, and so we want to be very clear that we want people who need abortions to be able to get it, and we're fighting for it and be in touch with the folks on the ground who can tell you that data. >> deputy director of the aclu freedom project, thank you for your time, it is landmark day for all of the wrong reasons. >> thank you for having me. much more ahead tonight. stay with us. me. much more ahead tonight. stay with us

this is one of those segments that has a lot of visuals. so if you're washing the dishes and doing some other things, this is one that is worth seeing. they have access to his house now and the house, if you can tell from the outside is designed to look like a palace, it kind of looks like a cross between a palace and a bank maybe, i don't know, and the building is clearly being remodeled, it's being renovated, but all this stuff is there. including all of his art stuff. there's a huge rack of gigantic paintings. look at the size. mural size paintings in big gold frames and a whole rock of paintings that appears to be all just portraits of the same woman. i think this is all portraits of the wife. there's also a closet full of designer clothes for her. there's also a weird room full of boxed jewelry and boxed trinkets and things and not totally sure what some of those

things are. there's a room full of antiques including like certificates of authenticity for the various antiques. so that's what's inside. but then you go outside, on the grounds, and this is weird, it's like this kind of wag ling a little bit in the breeze, what's that? covered in military camouflage, it is not easy to see what that is and presumably it makes it not easy to see from above and hard to figure out what it is from the ground as you can see here. if you pop inside as that guy does, you can see what is in there. what's in there. oh, my god. look. it's a fake train station. now, to be clear, this is not a real train station. there are no railroad tracks that lead into or out of this thing that looks like a real rail station. it is like, see the benches and everything, the little lamps, it's a replica, a train station replica. but sitting on the fake tracks at the fake train station, in this guy's yard is a fake train

car. a personal fake train car. and look, these guy, they put on plastic boot covers so they don't mess up the carpet when they go in but then they go in and look at it. this train car is like the orient express. it's all red velvet and hand carved, hardwood and gold everything, that looks gold, actually is gold, and this isn't like some lovingly restored antique, because this guy just loves the classic era of train travel, and some rich guy rescued and restored this train car. this is apparently a newly-built thing. it is a fake pullman train car inside a fake train station, stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold fittings and expensive silver, but the coffee machine, it is gold plated, the crystal tumblers have the seal of the russian federation on them, and you know, this is coming, you know this is coming, yup, there is a gold toilet.

uh-huh. it is a gold holder for the toilet brush. there's a gold hose on the bidet. a little for the business end. does it have to be gold given its function? yes, everything must be gold including the thing, this is just astonishing, and i mean this astonishment, this thing with the gold everything, and the stained glass ceiling inside the fake rail car, and the gold crests everywhere, that are real gold, this belongs to this gentleman. his name is victor medvedchuk, now under arrest in ukraine having been previously charged with treason. the train car parked in his yard and the fake train station parked in his yard was reportedly a gift for his wife, a birthday present, something

special to play with, medvedchuk, do you remember that when candidate donald trump hired a campaign manager, he chose paul manafort, a man with who he had no prior relationship, paul manafort had been working overseas getting paid by putin connected corrupt oligarchs to install putin corrupt politicians into positions of power in ukraine. that book i wrote "blowout," putin utilized gas to keep others weak. when donald trump inexplicably hired manafort to run the campaign in 2016, that's what he specialized in. weakening other countries by installing compromised corrupt russian puppets who would do putin's bidding in the political leadership of other countries.

that's what he was doing for a living. and then trump hired him. weird, how do you want that in america? what a weird scoop with an american campaign. with his work in ukraine, manafort's most famous client was the ukrainian prime minister who got elected there, a pro-putin puppet, you might remember, went to moscow when ukrainians rose up and threw him out of office. and you might remember, from here on the show, after yanukovch fled, they went into the houses and that's how they learned that he too had gold toilets. what is it with these guys? yanukovich had weird gold lizard seats and a gold flusher and a gold bidet, with the squirting zoo, and not a gold plated

personal train car and he had a gold plated personal spanish galleum on his private lake and used as his own private vaunt. classy. and now it is victor medvedchuk, the gold plated fake train car who is under arrest in ukraine for treason and one of paul manafort's guys in ukraine. he is one of the richest men in ukraine. he is linked obviously to the russian government and always worked for putin's interests in ukraine. he was part of a whole operation that manafort ran to install putin connected puppets in positions of power in ukraine. putin is god father to one of medveld chuk's daughters, and it was therefore unsettling when we learned he was one of the trump campaign contacts in 2017 when russia was intervening in our election to help get trump into the white house.

and now the ukrainians have arrested victor medvedchuk and taken his assets including the train car, and they've taken his assets and those of all of the other oligarchs working for the russian federation inside ukraine. ukraine announced today that just for medvedchuk, 30 plots of land, 23 house, 32 apartment, 26 cars and one yacht. and presumably, that one fake train car that's be dazzled golden hose for squirting water up the caboose. just as russian oligarchs the world over having their yachts seas and assets frozen, ukraine is trying to free itself by what it is doing weaponizing corruption to create powerful rich pro-putin power centers in their country to keep their country corrupt, weak, destabilized, dependent on

russia. but today, a big news piece. the european union finally took the first step toward actually pulling the plug on russia's power. toward actually dismantling russia as a state. at least the kind of state it is now. because the european union today began drafting a measure that would ban the purchase of russian oil and gas. if there's one thing that could end putin's russia as we know it, it would be that. will they really do it? more ahead. stay with us. more ahead stay with us e 995 plan! yes, from colonial penn. your 995 plan fits my budget just right. excuse me? aren't you jonathan from tv, that 995 plan? yes, from colonial penn. i love your lifetime rate lock. that's what sold me. she thinks you're jonathan, with the 995 plan. -are you? -yes, from colonial penn.

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in 2008, vladimir putin invaded georgia, the former soviet republic of georgia, russia sent the flag ship guided missile cruiser the moskva to the black sea to support that invasion of georgia. six years later, putin invaded ukraine. he invaded and took crima, part of ukraine, in 2014, and again, that same ship, the moskva was deployed and played a critical role in blocking ukrainian ships for leaving an important naval base to try to confront the russians. in 2015, it was once again deployed to support russia's brutal military campaign in syria in support of the dictator bashar al-asad. so the moskva is the go to war ship, it has an extensive recent history in playing a key

military role every time putin tries to keep redrawing the maps of the former soviet union. now this flagship of the russian black sea fleet has apparently been sunk. ukrainian government is claiming that the ship sunk after it was hit by a ukrainian-made neptune anti-ship missile. the russian version of the story is that that is not why the sink sunk. it sunk to a fire, due to hull damage due to the dell nation of ammunition. the united states has not confirmed either version of events but it has had an effect on the state of play in the black sea. one senior defense official told reporters that a half dozen russian ships in the black sea moved out to sea, farther off the ukrainian coast after the moskva was hit and not the sort of thing you would do if the ship went down if somebody was

smoking in the ammunition room and why it would it cause you to to move ships further offshore and that wouldn't solve the problem if you guys started a fire on your own ship. and the russias are trying to save face by denying it was the ukrainians who sunk it but either way the damage is done and the ship is gone and if you think about for a second how they are trying to make it sound, it is not really good argument. as u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan put it today, quote, one story is that it was just incompetence. meaning he set a fire on board the ship. and the other story is that they came under attack. neither is a particularly good outcome for them. my next guest agrees with us. that is mason clark, the lead russian analyst at the institute of studies, i appreciate you taking time for being with us tonight. thank you. >> thank you for having me. my pleasure. >> we have had a lot of discussion already, even before we knew that the moskva was

lost, and we heard it might have been hit or it was somehow damaged for some reason, we heard a lot about how that would have a morale impact, that that would boost the morale of the ukrainians and flip the morale of the russian, know morale is a practical thing in war time but how important is this loss in practical terms for the russians? >> sure, it is certainly more important in terms of the morale swing, the ship was very infamous as the russian ship involved in the snake island incident in the beginning of the war but in terms of the admiral capabilities it is certainly supported the russian campaign through a number of guided missile strikes particularly on ukrainian rear areas, but those have been a very small proportion of the air and missile strikes that russian forces have carried out throughout the war. so while it is certainly a blow, it is not going to change the course of the campaign, i would say, by defying the russians of capability. now with the russian war ships

backing off the black seacoast, as you noticed not something you would do if you're having a fire in the ammunitions area, that would deprive the russian forces along the coast of air defenses against ukrainian air force that some of these war ships may be providing so that may be a more immediate tactical impact but in terms of actual russian offensive capabilities, frankly these ships have not been that essential to begin with. >> and in terms of the ukrainian offensive capabilities, if ukraine is borne out, if they're correct that they were able to sink this war ship, practically with a missile strike, i mean i'm no expert in naval warfare but as far as i know, that is a pretty rare way, if not a unique way to sink a war ship, particularly one of this size, and it would indicate that ukraine has more capacity of this type, and weapons that haven't been previously been used in war time that might be more effective than had previously been conceived, is

that fair? >> yes, exactly. this is actually likely the first time that the neptune has been used in combat, it was only produced in the ukraine arsenal in 2015, quite recently and with the domestic missiles, and in addition to this, ukrainians increasingly referring similar systems from the u.k. and various other western partners that allow them to push back on russian dominance in the black sea, we have assessed for some time that there is very little chance that the russians would be able to mount an amphibious invasion on the southern coast of ukraine, which was a worry early in the delay and ukraine demonstrating it could threaten such a landing, it has to be completely off the table and it is definitely going to be a huge boon to the ukrainian military and sort of lessening that threat and enabling them probably to carry out their own operations on the black sea, where as the ukrainian navy has been pretty muddled up in port since the early days of the war,

at least until now. >> i could i just also ask you, there is a lot of discussion, including discussion led by the u.s. government advising the u.s. public what to think about what is going to come next, we're told to expect that russia is regrouping, repositioning, and that they're planning for a major ground operation in eastern ukraine. and also in southern ukraine. are we seeing the kinds of movement of forces, are we seeing the kind of massing of forces that would indicate that is imminent. is it possible that russia isn't about to mount an operation that large, or that it might be further off in the future, than we have been led to believe? it doesn't seem that they have got the man power and the material in place, to do something of the, on the scale that we've been led to expect. >> well, you sort of hit the nail on the head right there, they're trying to but we don't think it is going to be very effective. we are seeing a lot of signs on the grown, reports from ukrainian intelligence, as well

as just from both russia and ukrainian civilians of large russian column, moving from the northeastern ukrainian border, down into other key russian city, supporting those operations, in eastern ukraine. and the issue though is that a lot of these units were badly chewed up, in fighting around kyiv, and in sumy, the areas in northeastern ukraine, that russian forces had to abandon in the last couple of weeks. they have not really had the time to reform, replace lost equipment, restore morale, these troops are very demoralized and unlikely to contribute much to russian combat power in their damaged state. i don't want to overstate that, unfortunately, just the shear weight of numbers and the resources of the russian military, may be able to push through ukrainian defenses in some area, when they do launch a wider offensive likely in the next week or, two but i certainly don't think that the russian military has the capability to conduct the large breakthrough that they would like to at this point in the war, due to how badly their initial operations went, and how

sparse their remaining reserves are. >> the lead russia analyst at the institute for the study of war, mr. clark, it is clarifying and interesting to talk to you about this. thanks for making time for being with us tonight. >> of course. thanks for having me. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. stay with us

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before we go, one quick update on a story we covered at the top of the show tonight. as i reported at the top of the

he shorks the san francisco chronicle published a long -- the at the top of the show, the san francisco chronicle published a long piece, claiming that the long time u.s. senator dianne feinstein is no longer fit for the job. mentally particularly in terms of her memory, she's too out of it, too often, to hold the job any longer. very tough piece for senator feinstein. her office has vociferously denied those claims and senators have come to her defense and originally feinstein personally denied a chance to comment for the story but since we have been on the air, she apparently has spoke within the paper. the senator has spoken to the editorial board at the chronicle tonight over the phone. she told them, quote, i meet regularly with leaders, i'm not isolated, i see people, my attention is good and i put in the hours and we represent a huge state and i'm puzzled by all of this and told the editorial board with the concerns in the piece that she's

not up to the job, and no one has raised that to her directly and that conversation has not happened. and taking this on directly and personally is a big step. watch this space. that's going to do it for us tonight. i will see you on monday. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. you sunk my battleship. sorry, we had to. a key russian missile cruise ser at the bottom of the black sea. ukraine takes credit for taking it down, and leaving the kremlin with an embarrassing black eye. what it means for the ongoing war and a potential response from vladimir putin. plus, a new way to check for covid. how breath tests could reshape the way we track the virus. and elon musk has big plans for twitter if he can find a way to buy. it how the social media giant is responding to the multibillion dollar offer.