leaving at least seven people dead, eleven others injured, including a 3-year-old. the cruise missiles hit ukrainian military infrastructure and a warehouse. the most intense fighting continues to be in mariupol where ukrainian troops low on ammunition and food are trying to hold off russian forces from gaining control of the kyiv port city. and in northeast kharkiv is under fire including a missile attack at one of jose andres nonprofit world central kitchen food centers. chef andres joins me later this hour with an update. we begin in lviv, joining me now, nbc's raf sanchez. you traveled to the area the missiles hit. what can you tell us. >> reporter: well, andrea, you can see behind me now, the situation in lviv is relatively calm. people are out on the streets, but all morning here, the air-raid sirens have been blaring as vladimir putin's cruise missiles have rained down. as you said, a number of

military ware, houses were struck in this attack. but also a car repair garage on the edge of the railway line. when we got there, we found buildings destroyed, dozens and dozens of vehicles burned out. and fire crews still struggling several hours later to get that blaze under control. not clear if the russians were aiming for the railway line, if they were aiming for other warehouses nearby, or if they were just targeting civilian infrastructure, which we have seen them do at various points throughout this war. now, as you said, the governor of lviv says seven people are dead as a result of this wave of missiles. eleven are wounded including a young child who is being treated in hospital. and andrea, these missiles have really jolted this city in the west of ukraine. this has been a relative safe haven throughout the war. people displaced from the east have come by train. they have either sought refuge

here or gone further on into neighboring european countries to become refugees. buts in a reminder that nowhere in ukraine is out of range of vladimir putin's missiles. no one, including that young child is safe from the reach of russian forces. this is just a small taste here in lviv of what has been happening in the eastern cities including mariupol. as you said, the defenders of that city are out numbered, they are out gunned. they are surrounded in the remains of one of europe's largest steel plants. they have almost no food. they have almost no bullets. and yet, nearly miraculously, they continue to fight on. in just the last few minutes, the commander of the 36th ukrainian marine brigades, that's one of the units that is inside mariupol, has posted on facebook saying his men are still fighting. they are prepared to fight to the last drop of blood. he insists they can keep going

as long as they get the heavy weaponry they need from the united states and from other nato allies. andrea, it's not at all clear, even if the will was there, how you could get those weapons into those troops, given how completely surrounded they are at this point by concentric rings of russian forces. the situation inside mariupol for the civilians who have been trapped there under siege is almost unimaginable. the mayor says 10,000 people have been killed so far. the final death toll may be much higher than that. they have been relying on filthy water to try to survive this siege. andrea. >> it's just horrific. thank you so much, raf sanchez. and now joining us is retired four star general barry mccaffrey. former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor, and "new york times" pentagon correspondent helene cooper.

what we're hearing is a defense official, one of the backgrounders there saying mariupol is still not in russian hands, that the defenders are still holding them off. >> yeah, we just had a briefing at the pentagon on this, and he said that, the senior defense official said that mariupol is still, as far as the pentagon is concerned, being contested. you just saw the report from raf sanchez about those fighters in the steel factory who seem determined to fight to the last breath. and defense officials said last week, even while everybody's been sort of expecting that mariupol would fall at some point, even if it does, don't assume that the ukrainians won't go back to try to take it as they have done in other places, so i think this battle, this fight for mariupol that we're

seeing is emblematic of this will to continue fighting. the pentagon also said that in the most of the russian strikes have been in the east, with the exception of some air strikes into lviv. and so we just covered that, and kyiv, and we've seen a lot of pounding as they get ready for this offensive that we're all expecting in the donbas. >> general mccaffrey, what is your explanation for why they hit lviv in was this a reaction to the sinking of the ship? what do you think is going on? >> first of all, yeah, i think they're putting the whole country at risk. they're trying to create terror and instability among several populations. but andrea, this is war is now morphed into something new. this is a fight to the death by the ukrainians. the atrocities, the civilian massacres, putin's humiliation, the outcome of this war is in serious doubt. the only thing that's clear to me is that in the coming weeks,

in the coming months, ukraine has to now fight a new kind of battle, a war of maneuver and fire power that they're ill equipped to do. so everything depends now on the coalition of willing among nato to get in technology and weapons that are qualitatively better than the russians. that's the challenge in front of the united states and our allies. >> but the u.s. has been saying that they were trying to get in soviet era weapons, that they know how to use. this means a different kind of weapons. it means training, and also it's harder to get weapons in as russians hit the west. >> well, yeah, i think the border movement is drawing extremely well. u.s. european commanders, u.s. four star air force officer and 15 other allied nations, they're

well organized, ten flights a day, c 17 landing in three different airfields, so they're well organized. the question is can we upgrade to 300 m1 tanks, the best fighting machine on the face of the earth. or do we give them key 72s that have the ammunition, and fuel in the torrett. can we give them high marks, a long distance 200 mile missile. that's the only way the ukrainians are going to be able to beat back a russian force that out numbers in the air, 5 to 1, and which has poor morale, and poor leadership but has mass. so it's a real challenge now. somehow we've got to step up our game or the ukrainians aren't going to be able to pull this off. >> and in fact, ambassador bill taylor, the prime minister of

austria told chuck todd on "meet the press" yesterday that he's the one european leader, the first one since the war started to actually meet face-to-face with vladimir putin, and his assessment was that putin thinks he's winning. putin may be right in terms of the long haul. >> putin is not right, andrea. putin is not winning. as general mccaffrey said, he's faced real humiliation, real defeats. he tried to go into kyiv and the ukrainian military beat him back. he has his flagship destroyed. his generals, look, six, seven, eight generals have been killed on the front line. >> and another one this weekend. >> another one this weekend. and even mariupol, no matter how it ends up, that's a hero's city. ukrainians are going to say, remember mariupol, and they're going to fight just exactly as general mccaffrey said, they're going to fight to the end. >> but the end could be that russia can hold out longer. i mean, how are they going to

get ammunition into them, to the people who are in that steel plant? >> that's going to be real hard. and like i say, no matter how that ends up, that is going to be a symbol of ukrainian determination and heroism, and the rest of the country will benefit from that, will be even further motivated, but the weapons are coming in as general mccaffrey said, weapons are coming in very well from the west, from nato. and those weapons are what the ukrainian military is going to need to win this war. >> in this holy week, we've also seen as it was palm sunday in the orthodox church, and so next week is easter, and the russian orthodox leader is coming out on the side of russia. >> yes. >> how dispiriting is that. >> it's unbelievable. again, this just motivates the ukrainians to see that the russian orthodox leader is supporting putin, is supporting

this military that's killing women and children. you've reported this. this is just, it's terrible. it's disgusting, and for that religious leader to support that, it's unconscionable. >> and general mccaffrey at this point with the russians hitting all parts of ukraine, would you recommend a visit by a high level u.s. official, if not the president, which zelenskyy said yesterday he wants. >> well, you know, the white house is going to have to think through this. it would be utter madness for the president of the united states to go with the vice president. if they were killed, it would be all out conventional war. that doesn't make much sense. i would love to see 50 u.s. marines and diplomats to get back into the embassy in kyiv. i don't think we should have withdrawn in the first place. put a 40 by 40 foot u.s. flag in the front of it and be a presence standing behind these

brave ukrainians. the diplomats have enormous courage. that was political calculation. we had to worry about hostages, et cetera. i don't get they're going to happen but we have to get back in and be on the ground. we need diplomats on the ground with the military liaisons. >> general mccaffrey, helene cooper, and of course ambassador taylor, and we're going to have john kirby from the pentagon just a bit later in the program. and up next, food fighters after a russian missile strike hit the world center kitchen's operation in kharkiv. chef jose andres gives an update on his mission next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. this is "andrl reports" on msnbc.

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runners from all over the world return to boston today on patriots day for the 126th boston marathon. the race back in full force but not without covid precautions. all 30,000 athletes had to be vaccinated as do the volunteers, and race organizers are asking spectators to refrain from asking runners for a kiss around the halfway mark, which is a poplar tradition. the last boston marathon was in october, delayed to the spring. countries are grappling with rising case levels like in

philadelphia where today officials have reinstated their indoor mask mandate, and joining us now from philadelphia is dr. zeke emanuel, vice provost of global initiatives at the university of pennsylvania. welcome, great to see you. >> nice to be with you, andrea. >> so philadelphia is not the only city that's seeing a rising number of cases but it is i think the only one we know of that's reinstituting the indoor mask mandate. is that appropriate? i know it's being challenged in court. >> well, we've got rises in the northeast, colorado, and a few other places, and there's no doubt we're seeing an up tick because of this ba.2 variant of omicron, and we're going to see more serious increases. we're at a low level, and, you know, we've seen this story and movie before. and we have two main ways of preventing transmission, one are

better indoor air quality to remove the virus, and the other are very high quality n95 masks. i think it's very appropriate. i thought removing the masks a few months ago was premature. all of those mayors, and governors said things are improving, and i kept saying, yes, they're improving but they're not improved yet. and we're no doubt going to see an up surge because we're taking off the masks prematurely, and i think that's what happened. >> we have seen the cdc extend for another two weeks now, the mask mandate on public transit, airplanes, airports and the like, so you know, that's an important indicator. what would you do in terms of children, are schools also now, elementary, middle schools, putting the masks back on in philly? >> i think the best thing we can do in schools, and we've been pushing this for a while is get good hepa filters in schools.

they're relatively cheap. you can put one or two in every classroom, and we've got evidence from england that they can take the virus out of the air, and that's what i would do mainly in schools right now. and try to do as much especially with spring coming on outdoors. >> how is this variant, if at all, how is it different? we know it's more transmissible, symptomatically, how is it different from covid-19 or the other variant, the omicron variant? >> well, it is a version of omicron. it does appear that it's not causing as much hospitalization, that's not definitive. i'm pretty sure that when we have more spread, as we're going to have over the next few weeks, we're going to see hospitalizations reverse and begin going up again. how much? no one really knows. and it's really hard to track because increasingly the testing

has gone to at home testing where we don't have good, reliable data. but it does appear that people get the worst flu they've ever had kind of symptoms, and it persists for a long time. more than a week. up to two weeks, and i think that's likely what we're going to -- people aren't going to be sick enough necessarily to go to the hospital, but they're going to be confined for a prolonged period of time. we'll have to find out a little bit more. >> you know, you've pointed to the major drop in testing as compared to what we saw back in january. this means there's a lot of under reporting. we really don't know the level of the cases. >> correct. we're flying blind. and this is a major, major problem, and, again, what can we do to solve the problem. well, we can have much better waste water monitoring. we have more than we had in the

past but it's still not standardized, reported in a uniform way. we can try to change the at-home testing so that people report those at-home tests so we get a better picture dismantling the rapid pcr testing was probably, again, another premature effort. people want this to be over. that doesn't mean it is over and we really need more data, better data than what we've had now. >> dr. zeke emanuel, as always, thank you very much, it's great to see you. >> nice to be with you, andrea. thanks. food under fire, chef jose andres on how his world central kitchen in ukraine is recovering after getting hit by a russian missile. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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destruction on twitter. >> this was a big hit, as you can see. there's over a dozen cars burned out all around me. there's pieces of cars on a tree here. just tremendous amount of carnage left behind for no reason. >> the world central kitchen team moved all of its equipment to another location in kharkiv to continue their work. and joining us now from kyiv is chef jose andres, the founder of the world central kitchen and owner of think food group. chef jose, first of all, how are your staff members doing? >> well, unfortunately some people on that explosion lost their lives, but the team members working with world kitchen, we had four injured, and the good news is that they are doing okay. there you can see them in this photo. we were able yesterday to move the equipment and it was safe to

track. we moved to another location, and everybody wants to start cooking from that restaurant partner. so if not today, it will be tomorrow. those men and women, they have the very big willingness to say nothing is going to stop us. we are going to start cooking as soon as we can. but again, we were not hit. it was a very big missile that hit the building, and because the missile was so powerful the destruction was massive. >> you know, you've worked in earthquake zones, you know, hurricanes, all kinds of natural disaster. here you are in the middle of a war, a shooting war, and how is the spirit of all of your volunteers. it seems as though your people are so resilient, so dedicated. >> i want to make sure that everybody understands. we have over 400 kitchens in

entire operation not only obviously the biggest number are inside ukraine. we are in six, seven, other countries surrounding ukraine and spain. we have thousands of people working with us. we are doing 320,000 meals a day, already 12 million meals. we have been bring into inside ukraine over 7 million pounds of food. i just came from operation of one of our eleven warehouses where we have an army of ukrainians, women and men, and children making these 25 pound bags, on top of their meals and sandwiches, we are distributed with people ready to cook on their own. i'm very proud because i feel one more person in these amazing of food fighters, that they are making sure that anybody that needs food, especially those cities, those towns that were

eliminated, that were for more than 30 or 40 days under russian invasion that those people, the supermarkets reopen, until the normal flow, normal life, even under war, until everything goes back to normal, we will make sure that nobody will go hungry. >> it's just extraordinary, and of course you point out in the neighboring countries, feeding the refugees and people who come over the border, of course there are places like mariupol where nobody seems to be able to get anything in, and we can only imagine after more than a month, six weeks, seven weeks, people must be starving there? >> obviously mariupol is a big humanitarian disaster. thanks to a volunteer that risked her life, we were able to put many weeks ago one time a thousand meals into mariupol, but the risk is just enormous,

but it's even in places like kherson that they're under russian control, we have kitchens and shacks, but they manage to be uniting, cooking in the bunkers and making sure that especially the elderly, pregnant women are able to have at least a humble piece of bread and a plate of food. in mariupol, the numbers still hundred thousand people there. obviously we are in zaporizhzhia, we are feeding people as they leave mariupol, and the donbas. i pray to god that these truce made between russian and ukrainians, and one day maybe soon we can go in quickly, and try to bring the necessary food to those men and women that are going through much suffering. that's what we are here for to make sure that we think ahead and we're always ready to adapt to the situation. today i got reports that for the

first time since the war begun, more people across into ukraine that left ukraine. this is good news, but this is not so good news because we have the mayors of some of the major cities saying please don't come back yet, we're still at war. please be careful. in a lot of towns, if you go back, give us time to make sure that everything is safer. the bad news is that they want to be in their country not because they want enjoy life. they want to be here because everybody seems they have the mission of fighting the good fight. yes, men and women on the front lines but everybody else is doing something to make sure they take care of their fellow ukrainians. >> just your supply chain is amazing, given you're operating in a place where you don't know where the next missile is going to hit, as you know sadly from those who died in the latest hit, and those from your team

who were injured. stay safe, many blessings to you during this holy week. thank you so much, chef jose andres. >> and let's pray for the people of ukraine, and president zelenskyy and the ukrainian people. let's do it. let's support them. >> the world is gathering and the support, the outpouring is just extraordinary, symbolized by you and what your people are doing. thank you, again. and midterm marketing, how donald trump could blow republican super pacs, find millions in ads just out of the water. stay with us for that. "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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reelection. on "meet the press," congressman upton predicted that republicans will take the house, reporting that a slim majority in the house for them could spell trouble for the party getting anything done. >> a lot depends on what happens in november. i do believe that the house is going to flip. >> so a small majority, does that make it more likely, you think that's more trouble. >> more trouble. it will be very hard to govern for republicans if we're under 230, knowing that we've got the mtg element that's really not a part of the governing majority. >> to say the least, joining me now is pulitzer prize winning presidential biographer, jon meacham. his daily podcast is entitled "reflections of history" and washington bureau chief susan page, and jonathan lemire. host of "up too early."

>> donald trump, nine out of ten who voted to impeach him are leaving the house or being primaried. "the new york times" is reporting on the pilgrimage to mar-a-lago for his endorsement. we have chapter and verses to what those strange appearances are. what is your take on this that republicans are not happy with him, you know, in decreasing numbers are supporting him, but he still has this hold on people. >> he does, and it's part of an autocratic trend within the republican party. there are voices in the republican party that are trying to manage this. but they're not able, we've seen this from 2015 forward, they're actually not able to break the hold that trump has on the broad base of the party. and i think it makes representative cheney's primary enormously important out in

wyoming. liz cheney is someone who has stood up for the constitution over her own political future here. at least in the short term. and if she is able to prevail, then she's an example of someone who was able to stand up for the rule of law, stand up for a conversation that is at least somewhat coherent in american politics against this, you know, really autocratic cult of personality that has come to prevail in a party that would not nominate the last three or four people before trump that they nominated for president. and so the battle within the party is enormously important, not simply for republican politics, but because of the constitutional structure that we have, we need two rational

political parties. and right now, we only have one. >> and in fact, susan page, we've seen in the white house relationship with the hill what a 50/50 senate can do. if you don't have a governing majority, you really have trouble getting anything done in one house, the other, or both, potentially. >> yes, you do, although i think republicans are hopeful they're going to have significantly bigger majorities than that, especially in the house. congressman upton talked about what happens with the narrow majority. republicans are now increasingly confident they're going to have a really sizable majority, one that enables them to take charge. really to get things done because presumably anything they pass, president biden might veto, but enough to get some things done, to launch investigations. the senate is a tougher call for the republicans. the senate can sometimes be more resistant to these wave elections but there's still

concern that democrats may lose both houses of congress in september, and with that, the difficulties for the biden white house just become exponentially harder. >> and jonathan le mere, you have new reporting in politico that the president is trying to pivot to talk more about domestic issues that, you know, the white house has been, and he has been consumed by ukraine, but they really want to get out there more. we're seeing that he's going to new hampshire tomorrow, he was in iowa last week, he's got a couple of trips this week. he's trying to focus on some of those big domestic issues like inflation, but there again, he's getting caught between different wings of the party on the environmental issues that are in conflict with his fossil fuel focus as well as the immigration fight that is looming on may 23rd when title xlii is lifting. it's bad right now, and the migration flow is going to increase exponentially.

>> senior administration officials tell me a piece that did in fact post a few moments ago that, you know, obviously the last 50-plus days the president's focus has been ukraine. the war is not going to be ending anytime soon, and that's going to remain front of mind. they need to be able to show the president tending to matters at home as well, a renewed focus on domestic issues. you mentioned he was on the road a couple of times last week, iowa and north carolina. off in new hampshire, a pacific northwest wing, at the end of the week, doing a combination of things. first of all, simply saying to americans he understanding their pain, inflation is high, gas prices are high. there's a sense of relative discontent across the nation as we slowly emerge from this pandemic. of course we've got cases rising again, at least in the northeast, and that he is trying his best to help. it's a combination of small measures right now, where he can do by executive order on domestic issues.

there doesn't seem to be a big sweeping possibility for legislation going forward, those they are trying to revive pieces what used to be known as the build back better act, and reinforcing and doing a better job selling what he has accomplished, the bipartisan infrastructure deal is going to get a lot of air time in the next few weeks. the covid relief fund as well, that he's saying, look, we have made a difference in your lives, and we can keep doing so, but you're right, a lot of his priorities are going to be put by the wayside here, doing political realities of the moment and the fact that midterm elections are approaching so rapidly. and certainly democrats right now very worried. >> and jon meacham, let's talk about the money for a moment. you've got four senate democratic incumbents in competitive races. they've got $67 million. $67 million on hand, but then there's a super pac aligned with mitch mcconnell who is booking $141 million in ads for senate

candidates. the house democratic incumbents are ahead with money on hand in competitive seats, so susan page, maybe you want to jump in on the money part of this. >> well, money is important but money isn't sufficient, and it looks like both sides are going to have enough money to wage these big contests in competitive states. if you live in one of these states, you may want to turn off your tv before the midterms because all you're going to be seeing is political ads. if there's a wave in it country, a concern about things like inflation, a feeling that the immigration is out of control. some of these issues have cut against democrats. money is enough to save you from the consequences of that. so both sides look pretty well funded to me as we head into the last six months or so of this midterm campaign. >> susan page, thank you so much. and jon meacham, of course, and

jonathan la mere, and escalating attacks, the pentagon spokesperson is going to be joining me momentarily on the seven-week siege of mariupol. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mariupol this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. we discover exciting new technologies. redefine who we are and how we want to lead our lives. basically, choose what we want our future to look like. so what's yours going to be? with hepatitis c i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret i was cured. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all types of hep c.

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even as it's regrouping for what is expected to be a major assault in eastern ukraine. pentagon press secretary john kirby joins me now. let's talk about western ukraine, and lviv, and what do you think, you know, the strategy here is, is it to tell people after the sinking of the moskva that we're still here, we can hit you anywhere? >> it's difficult to know exactly what russian thinking is here with respect to their targeting, andrea, but clearly they hit targets over the weekend in lviv, and they also air strikes in kyiv itself as well. what we think they're doing is going after military or military-related targets. again, we don't have perfect visibility and we're trying to get an assessment of the damage done here to what, but we think they're specifically going after military or military related targets in these two. but by and large, andrea, over the course of the last couple of

days, the most prevalent air strikes that they've conducted as well as artillery still is in the donbas, the eastern part of the country, and absolutely down near mariupol, in and around the city. >> and what is going on in mariupol, do we know anything more about how many people are surviving, how are those ukrainian forces doing in the steel plant? >> unfortunately, we don't have a good sense of the casualties in mariupol, although we certainly would expect that the numbers will be sizable and definitely sobering, but we do assess that mariupol remains contested, that ukrainian forces are in the city. they are still defending as best they can in the city. the russians have not been able to take it. and i think that accounts for, again, the increased activity in the air and through artillery strikes on mariupol by the russians that they very much want to take mariupol so they can get that land bridge to crimea, so that they can then put more pressure to the north and the donbas. >> there are new reports today

from ukrainian military officials that there are some signs of russian offensive in the east is already beginning. what are you seeing from russian forces in kharkiv, donetsk, those areas. >> in kharkiv, russians forces are outside the city, around it, now kharkiv is becoming victim now to more artillery and strikes over the last few days. we have seen that for sure, but in the donbas, it's important to remember, andrea, this is an area of ukraine that has seen heavy fighting for the last eight years. it's been a hot war in the donbas, but we have seen some heavy fighting south of town called isyium, and certainly in areas near a town called popasna, so there's been some heavy fighting in the last couple of days in the donbas particularly, and we have also seen the russians move in elements to help them sustain that kind of fighting. so command and control enablers, helicopter support, some additional artillery, so the russians are clearly trying to

continue to shape that environment, set the conditions so that they can conduct longer term military offensive operations in the donbas. again, ukrainians are fighting bravely and valiantly in the donbas, as they have for the last ten years since the invasion began, and we're doing everything we can to get them more assistance as fast as possible. >> how quickly can we train the ukrainian troops, the forces to use the howitzers, increasing the training obviously. >> we're working on that. we think we can start basic training on the howitzers outside ukraine. it will be train the trainers, environment. we'll be training ukrainian forces that will go back in and train their colleagues, and we think we'll be able to do that in relatively short order, and they are already used to using howitzer systems, artillery systems so this one won't take that long to train them. we don't think the training will be onerous or too time

consuming. we think we'll be able to get it done in a matter of days so those trainers can go back into ukraine, and get their trainers up to speed on the howitzers, which will be coming shortly. >> and i want to ask you about reports from officials in mariupol saying 20,000 people are being held to 20,000 people are being held in camps and others are being deported to russia. can you verify those claims? >> we can't verify. we're hearing that some people are being forced into russia against their will. if it's true, we have no reason to doubt, but we can't confirm it, it's just another piece of the russian brutality in this war and the degree to which they're willing to go to complete this war of theirs in a very terrible way. >> what about getting the new military -- some of the new weaponry in to ukraine? is it becoming more difficult because of these russian attacks, which are really

widespread now all over the country? >> i wouldn't go that far, andrea. to be honest with you, the flow of security systems into ukraine continues. we haven't missed a day here now in weeks in terms of material getting into the region. eight to ten flights a day coming from the united states as well as from other partner nations and then a constant movement on the ground through a variety of different routes and different ways of getting it in. that flow continues. and as president biden has made clear, we're going do as much as we can as fast as we can. so we're working on this next package of $800 million, which the president just announced last week. there have already been several flights from the united states of material in that shipment that has gotten into the region. >> do you think it is safe for a top u.s. official to go in as president zelenskyy is asking? >> we take safety as a paramount concern. of course protection is always very, very important to us,

andrea. i don't have any travel or destinations to speak to today but clearly whenever we send top government officials anywhere in the world, particularly areas where there's a security issue, we take that very, very seriously and we'll do everything we can to make sure their safety is ensured. >> john kirby from the pentagon. thanks so much for the latest on the war in ukraine. john, i'm sorry, i want to ask you a couple of more things about mariupol before i let you go. >> sure, go ahead. >> there had been projections that mariupol would be lost within days. now, having withstood that, can you give us any projection of how long you think they can hold up? >> i'll tell you, i think anybody that puts an over/under on this thing or gives you a specific projection would be risking their credibility. we just don't know. the russians have put a lot of

effort into mariupol, air strikes, more than ten tactical groups dedicated to that mission of taking mariupol. they have made it bloody and costly to the ukrainians. but on the other side, the ukrainians continue to fight, and it's a big port for them and they're fighting hard for it. it would be foolhardy to guess how long the fighting will go on in mariupol. the ukrainians are still there. >> explain again why it's so strategic and how big a blow would it be to the ukrainians to lose mariupol? >> mariupol sits right at the northern edge of that sea just to the south of the donbas

region, the eastern part of ukraine they've been fighting or for so long. it's a major economic port city in ukraine and has significant cultural value. just like the ukrainians have been fighting for any of these population center, they don't want to give any of them up with good reason, it's ukrainian. you can see the logic of trying to take mariupol there at the southern end of that donbas region. that is one of the reasons why you mentioned kharkiv, that sits at the northern tip of that part of ukraine. you can see why the russians

want to talk mariupol. >> thanks for taking those extra questions. and now, john kirby, thank you again. >> and sadly, we want to pay tribute to wendy rieger. for 33 years she was a major force in events for so many nonprofit organizes, supporting and raising money in our commune. she died on saturday after dealing with an aggressive form of brain cancer. today would have been her 66th birthday. she was an outstanding write with her a huge personality, lighting up the screen no matter what she was covering. here is part of a farewell she taped before she retired. >> we've been trusted with people's stories and in order to

tell them well, you have feel it. and if that means you get emotional, let them see you. let them see you get emotional. you know, you have to feel it. we're not robots and we're not if a sads and we're not mannequins, we're not cardboard cut-outs. we're human beings that have been trusted by the community to tell their stories and most of their stories are sacred. >> in a final note to the newsroom wendy wrote, "i have lived my life big and loud. it is my nature and i have had a blast but a stillness has come over me that is profound and potent. life, she wrote, is not only a test, it is a teaching. i must learn this lesson with grace and i will. and indeed she did, till her very last breath. it's a terrible loss for a lot of people and our condolences to her husband and her family. that does it for this edition of

"andrea mitchell reports." follow us online. garrett haake is next, in for chuck todd on "mpt daily" right after this. after this before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. feel unstoppable. ask your doctor how lasting remission can start with stelara®. janssen can help you explore cost support options.

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if it's monday, how much longer can ukraine hold on to the port city of mariupol in the south as russia readies a new assault in the east among new attacks in lviv in the west. plus what the west needs to do now. i'll speak to a member of parliament in lviv and the wife of an outspoken putin critic thrown in jail. and migrants at the southern border hits numbers not seen in a generation as the biden administration prepares for a surge next month.