the bad guys is the winner of the truly moving picture award. oh, stop! you making me blush. it's an action packed animated adventure. show the world that you're more than just a scary stereotype. everyone will love. is this wagging? - good right? good to be with you. i am katy tur. it's day 54 of russia's war in

ukraine. here's what we know right now. russian air strikes targeted the city of lviv earlier today, and at least seven people were killed in the strike. the city has been a refuge for ukrainians fleeing violence elsewhere in the country and had been largely untouched by russia's weapons of war. ali arouzi was talking with somebody when they heard the planes flying overhead. >> ukraine's unique territory. >> it's not going down. >> no, but i have never seen a fast mover. i was wondering if that was a cruise missile. did you see the aircraft? are we in an air-raid? >> yes, there are. >> there's another coming. wait, there will be three. stand by. striking to the west, that's two

two. that was not a plane, that was a cruise missile. they are fired in 30-second inintervals. cruise missile, stand by. six, six -- eight, nine, ten, 11 -- yeah, there it is. >> there's the smoke. there's the smoke. >> that's three. >> so three cruise missiles. >> yeah. wild and scary. the ukrainian forces are closing in on the city of mariupol, and the fall of that city would be a major win for the kremlin especially after the defeat in kyiv. the city has already been devastated, that is mariupol, by russian attacks over the last six weeks, but the remaining ukrainian forces have so far refused to surrender. mariupol's mayor says more than

100,000 people remain trapped there and local officials warn that up to 20,000 people are being held by russian forces in a, quote, filtration camp readying for deportation to russia. nbc news has not independently verified these allocations, and my colleague, andrea mitchell, was able to ask john kirby about those claims an hour ago. >> we have seen some indications ukrainians are being forced into russia against their will, but it's not clear we have a total picture on this. again, andrea, if it's true and we certainly have no reason to doubt it, we can't confirm it, but it's just a piece of the russian brutality and the degree to which they are willing to complete this war of theirs in a very terrible way. >> britain's defense ministry says russia's focus on taking

mariupol is slowing down their advance in other areas of eastern ukraine. troops and resources are tied up in that port city. meanwhile vladimir putin addressed his country earlier today saying the western strategy to target russia's economy is failing. putin argued the sanctions are backfiring on the u.s. and european countries. we'll talk about that. this comes as ukraine has completed a major step in their request to join the european union. they asked the union to move quickly now that it has completed the questionnaire. he said we understand our people have been internally inside in the soul mentally long in europe. it could be a matter of weeks and not years before the commission makes a decision. joining me now is nbc news

foreign correspondent, ali arouzi from ukraine, and nbc news chief global affairs in washington, andrea mitchell. i want to get to you, andrea, when it comes to john kirby. you asked how long the war was going to go, and if the united states could maintain our current supply to the ukrainians to fight off the russians. what did he tell you? >> he's pointing out there has been heavy fighting all over, particularly in donbas, but how long can the ukrainians point out especially in mariupol. i asked him about that and here was his answer. >> there has been 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, and helicopter support and additional artillery, and the russians are continuing to try

and shape that environment and set the conditions so they can conduct longer term military operations in the donbas. the flow of assistance to ukraine continues and we have not missed a day in terms of aid getting to the region. >> it's remarkable that they haven't miss add day in terms of the flow of weaponry, but it's still not enough according to president zelenskyy, and the question is how long can they hold out? they are going to begin to train ukrainians to try and use some of the more advanced weapons. >> it feels this war, although it's moving towards the east, it feels like there's moment where there's potential to spill out over ukraine's borders.

for the first time we heard the other day the cia talk about putin being backed into a corner and potentially using nukes. in your conversations with the officials and the biden administration, how concern are they the u.s. would be dragged into the war? >> there is concern. there's no question about that. right now they have a red line that they are not going to come to the defense on the ground of ukraine, but they are sharing more intelligence and sharing more sophisticated weaponry. they don't see any signs. bill burns, the cia director made that point in the speech in atlanta, they don't see signs of him making moves to use those tactics, and they believe that's not a line that he is going to cross so far. >> so ali, you were talking to malcolm nance the minute those missiles were fired, and what

was it like and what was the aftermath? >> reporter: hi, katy. it was surreal, and the first one went off and we didn't figure out what was going on, and we heard a whistling in the air and then a thump, and we got up from our places. i had never seen a cruise missile there myself, this was the first time. when it flew over our heads it was so big i thought it was an airplane, and then he confirmed it was a missile, and it was a loud whistling sound when it flies over your head, and then we realized this is a crowded residential center in lviv, and there's fuel depots of fuel the

front lines. seven people were killed in that attack, and a 3-year-old child was wounded. the tragedy of that is that child just escaped kharkiv to get away from the relentless shelling the residents of kharkiv are feeling. that sense of security in this town has certainly been shattered. people were apprehensive before when the outskirts were hit, but i don't think anybody in this city would feel this is a refuge sanctuary, because as vladimir putin is learning it's going worse and worse, and now lviv is one of the targets as well. >> ali, thank you. andrea mitchell, nbc chief foreign affairs -- sorry for botching your title earlier. >> it don't matter.

>> carrick, thank you for joining us. are you anticipating more attacks into the heart of lviv? >> good evening. thank you so much for having me. yes, we are anticipate the attacks will continue. they are right now the result of two things. first, the overall intensive firing and attacks on ukraine cities, we have seen that in kyiv and have seen that in kharkiv, and now putin is basically saying there's no place in ukraine where you can feel safe. and the second point is, this is the revenge of our forces sinking the moskva, and we knew there would be a fight and this is what it is.

the first time people have died there when the missile hit and it does shatter all the feelings of safety the people -- all the refugees from all over the country they had there. we will not be able to stop attacks like that if we would not have the fighter jets that for 54 days we have been asking for. before we can close our sky and protect ourselves with our pilots, we will not be able to protect any single city from being attacked from the air. >> what is your message to ukrainians now? i have spoken to other officials that said come back to kyiv. kyiv is -- well, it's not 100% safe but we are getting back to a new normal in kyiv. with this attack in lviv, what is the message to ukrainians who are thinking to themselves, should i stay or should i go? >> i don't think kyiv is safe

yet, however the question is is there anyplace that can be considered safe. so the message to all the ukrainians is you have to wait for yourself and figure it out if it's absolutely necessary for you to come back to kyiv and try to be as usual as possible to our land, then do that. if there's a way for you to be useful where you are right now, stay there. we need to wait on a decision for only one point, is we are making the best to help our mother land, our country to win this war. this is their only and main way to make decisions. >> what about the people in lviv right now? >> there are refugees who don't feel safe should probably be moving further west, especially the kids and families whose

children who understand the attacks will intensify. right now we still do not have the weapons to protect our cities from the attacks from the air. so if there is a safer route in poland, people should go there. we are preparing the whole country will be fighting. we are preparing for this fight. as for the people you see there, that kid that was hurt today, he came from kharkiv. his family thought it would be save in lviv and it obviously is not. it hurts me to say this, but we cannot assure that any of our cities is safe for people right now. we just cannot. we need specific weapons, we need artillery and fighter jets to be able to protect ourselves from the sky. we still do not have that. before we can assure that it's not safe anywhere right now. >> what do you need to, at the

very least, open up a humanitarian corridor to get, for instance, the 100,000 people stuck in mariupol out, and to get the children and women and elderly out of kharkiv, and the people who are remaining and are now being, you know, trapped or inundated by russian missiles? >> katy, first and foremost is the protecting of the skies because we cannot move even our forces closer to mariupol because we see how it's being destroyed from the air. and it all goes down to the air force protection that we don't have. this is why we are stuck in so many places like moving people out of mariupol and getting to the save humanitarian core adoors from the eastern parts. you can see what happened where

we called for people to evacuate and russians attacked train station there, killing over 30 people, women and children. we say people, please move to lviv, and this is what we see, they attack lviv as well. we need the number one priority to get weapons to move forward in terms of protecting our people, in terms of protecting ukrainians, is obviously the fighter jets and artillery to protect our skies. this is the top priority. >> thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate it. we have breaking news back here at home out of florida where a florida judge just overturned the cdc's national mask mandate for planes and other forms of transportation. pete williams, does it mean

everybody can take their mask off in a plane or is there another step? >> that's what the judge said. we are hearing what the cdc and faa says, and i doubt planes in flight are aware of this or if most airlines are aware of what they are supposed to do, and no comment from the justice department will do, although i do believe the government will seek a stay. this is a judge in florida on a suit from two women that said she doesn't like to wear a mask on a plane, and she said her anxiety was worse with the mask, and the other said she couldn't breathe. the judge said the centers for disease control did not have the authority to issue this mask under the law that is set up,

the cdc, and secondly the federal government failed to go through all the necessary steps in making a rule like this in seeking public comment. the judge said normally speaking in a case like this, she would issue a ruling in favor only of the parties to the lawsuit, in other words, that a mask mandate would not apply only to them, but the judge, who is katherine kimball mizell said that would not be possible, and she said if she would try and limit it, how is the rideshare driver or bus driver to know that they were a person in the lawsuit, and she said she declared the mask mandate illegal and has struck it down. i don't know what the government is going to do about this. i think they would seek a stay of her ruling. this mask mandate applies to

airplanes, trains, and other kinds of mass transit. in the case of airplanes it has been extended several times because the government has said it has been effective in helping to prevent the spread of covid but we don't know what the federal government will do here. i certainly would guess they would try and put a stop to this and get a stay while this is appealed. >> two years into the pandemic with the mask mandate that has been in place for so long, why the lawsuit now? why would it get overturned now? >> the lawsuit was actually filed last year. it was filed last july. it has been going through -- grinding its way through the court in this -- before this judge, who, by the way, issued this decision without a trial on summary judgment based only on the arguments that were made in the written briefs, so i think that may be another cause of concern here. this is going to be a very controversial ruling. it's going to be a victory for people that hated the mask

mandates, but the government seems to believe they are effective and i would think try to stop it. >> in the meantime when we talked to doctors, they told us one way masking does work, so if you are on transit and somebody is not wearing a mask and you feel nervous, if you are wearing a highly effective mask, you are protected. >> one other aspect of this, and i am not sure what affect it will have on travel, and some passengers felt it was safer to travel because of the mask mandate, and i don't know if the airline industry will welcome this or not? >> some airlines said they wanted it overturned, and flight attendants don't want to be the monitors because of all the problems it has caused. we'll see. pete williams, thank you very much. still ahead, what was it

like inside a kyiv suburb when the russians were there? what happens now to the people who survived the occupation? plus, four major shootings over the holiday weekend. the white house just announced gun violence but what are localities doing to stop innocent people from being gunned down at a mall, a nightclub or house party. what is going on with your refund and can you expect it in your bank account soon? what shortages at the irs mean for your wait time. r your wait e , like screening for colon cancer... when caught in early stages it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive... and i detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers... even in early stages. early stages. yep. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer,

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it was a particularly violent weekend. at least four major shootings killed three people and injured 30 others. they happened in pennsylvania, oregon and south carolina at malls, night clubs and house parties. nbc news correspondent, blaine alexander has the latest. >> reporter: let's start with the shooting in pittsburgh. officials say multiple people were responsible for opening fire on the crowded house party. many of the people inside were just teenagers, and that was just one of several events over a violent holiday weekend. this cell phone video shows the

frantic moment when gunshots happened at a packed party in pittsburgh when mostly young people were crammed in a air b and b celebration. it's the latest in a violent weekend on the east coast. three mass shootings within just 24 hours. >> i have got five patients waiting to be transported. >> 22-year-old price opened fire in a crowded mall saturday afternoon wounding 12 in a targeted attack. he has been placed on a $25,000 bond and placed on house arrest. and then another shooting 80 miles west of charleston leaving

nine injured. this comes less than a week after a gunman open fire on a train in brooklyn hitting ten people. the suspect in that case has been arrested. back to the shooting in pittsburgh. it happened at an airbnb rental house. the company says the person that rented that property has been banned from the platform for life on violating the strict policy of no parties. coming up next, preparing to go public. what the televised january 6th hearings will look like and who might testify. plus, where is your tax refund? columbia, missouri. we do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; it's important. we walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. - we've both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. after about 30 days of taking it,

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i'm his biggest fan. if you're 45 or older at average risk, you have screening options, like cologuard. cologuard is noninvasive and finds 92% of colon cancers. it's not for those at high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. everyone has a reason to screen for colon cancer. if you're 45 or older, get started at missiontoscreen.com if you are scrambling this tax day, you are not alone. the irs has been bracing for a particularly difficult season between budget cuts and a pandemic worker shortage and a major backlog from last year. the department is under serious strain to get people their tax refunds. joining me now is business and tech correspondent, jolene kent. it's so good to see you in person. >> good to see you, too.

>> but we are the bearers of bad news, too. >> well, there's a staffing shortage. you add to that the out of date technology, and you have issued of historical under funding overall and that's where it leaves us. >> if you file today, when can you reasonably expect your refund in the mail or to be deposited in your account? >> if you are not filing for an extension, you can reasonably expect to get your refund in the next 20 days, and they are trying to hire 10,000 workers in three campuses here. we talked to the irs. listen to this. even if you are on top of your taxes this year, uncle sam is already behind. the irs kicked off this tax

filing season with approximately 6 million unprocessed returns from last year. that's 5 million more than usual. plagued by workers leaving, the pandemic and budget cuts, more than 15,000 employees handled over 240 million cars in the last year, and that's just one person for every 16,000 calls. now the irs is hoping to hire 10,000 new and seasonal workers this year in texas, ogden, utah, and kansas city, missouri. >> how urgent is the need to hire 10,000 people? >> we want everybody to come and work for the irs tomorrow. >> the irs even receiving special authority to bypass typical federal hiring rules and offer jobs on the spot, like holding this job fair in austin

to fill. the irs offers vacation and insurance. these irs jobs start at $15 an hour with a $1,000 signing bonus, while amazon's average starting pay is 18 bucks an hour sometimes with a $3,000 signing bonus. target beginning wages as high as $24 an hour. >> what we are seeing is there are lots of job vacancies and not enough job seekers, so it's competitive out there. >> after filing his taxes last week, a father of three is hoping his $11,000 refund will come by june. >> we need money right away. >> he and his wife need it to pay bills and help them avoid going to a food pantry to feed their family. >> $11,000.

we are going to spread it apart over 12 months and pay bills. >> what do you say to the people eager to get their refunds? >> we are eager to get it to you as well. >> so they are eager to do it, and they say they are cautiously optimistic, and this comes as the irs have not got the funding they need to process the tax returns and beyond. >> one of my big questions is, how do you convince people to work for the irs? >> yeah, it's a good question. it's a competitive market, and they are putting out the $1,000 signing bonus, and you come to the irs at the entry level, we will promote you and get you through the system and you have the government benefits, and that's what they are touting to people. >> and job stability. if they are short right now, their staff, their workers, who

is getting away with that? who was able -- are they going after these big money filers that have the complicated returns and auditing them? is that what kind of gets swept under the rug, or do they go after the easier returns and looking at the nick picky stuff? >> if you file online, a lot of it is not processed by a clerk, and the irs said we are working as fast as we can to keep as less of a backlog behind us. they did not specify who or what they are going after exactly, but the message was please come and work for us. this comes as the biden administration has been trying to get more funding for the irs, and that so far has not made it out of congress. there's historical and

contemporary -- >> they want to nail down tax cheats because they owe money they are not paying. good to see you. >> good to see you. the january 6th committee is reaching the final stages of its investigation into the insurrection. the first public hearings are widely expected to begin next month, giving the panel a chance to show the information they received. they received more than 435 tips and gathered 90,000 pages of documents. but before the hearings go live, the panel has decisions to make. will key republican lawmakers that spoke with the president that day be compelled to talk to the committee? will they call on former president trump or vice president pence to testify? will the committee pursue a criminal referral of donald

trump to the doj? joining me now is "washington post" national reporter and msnbc contributor, carol lennig. >> it's like a ride down to the wire in the course of this very broad and very intense investigation. a lot of people burning the midnight oil to get this one finished. they have uncovered quite a bit. let's be fair. one of your great questions is the issue of whether or not to make criminal referrals. i will say what i have heard the lawmakers trying to forecast to us is how much evidence they feel they have gathered indicating donald trump actively was engaged in the conspiracy that was fraudulent. basically hoodwinking the public, and that conspiracy involved him and other allies. they did not say they were going

to make a referral of conspiracy, but they said they had a lot of evidence of. the second thing they say they have a lot of evidence of and asking witnesses about it over and over again, is how donald trump knew there was no fraud and all his top people at the department of justice and homeland security told him it was fair and square, and still he told the american people it had been rigged. and that in a sense is something somebody else can refer him to to the department of justice. you and i have the same brain sometimes, so i feel like you are going to ask me the question i was going to answer. so incitement. there are people that reviewed

very carefully what donald trump said that day on january 6th. we will march to the capitol and i am going to go with you and we are going to fight like hell for our country. there have been a lot of questions to steven miller and others, ivanka trump and jared kushner, did donald trump light the match that sent a stream of thousands of his extremist supporters up the steps of the capitol in what were 1,000 misdemeanors and felonies. >> there are a lot of those defendants that are now saying they were told by donald trump to do that. that was the question i was going for, the question of incitement, how that wraps into what he knew about the election, what he was told. he may have wanted to believe about the fraud, and he was told

there was no fraud and he brought multiple lawsuits because you can't lie about what you have. i want to get into the hearings about who we might see testify? any big names that might be compelled to speak on live television in front of the committee? >> i know there has been -- i would say gentle arm existing by the committee. do the right thing for your country, help us narrate what happened here. i will not speculate as a journalist about who they have roped into communicating. a lot of a bush to get bold-based names to say this is what happened. one of the best narraters i can personally see explain what they heard and saw is mike pence and mark shore, and whether or not that is going to happen is a question i still have. i think that the importance of these hearings, katy, for the

hearing and not for me, i don't have a personal stake in this, but for the committee members is who can articulate what donald trump's motives were, who knew his state of mind and whether or not he was aware of the pressure campaign that was being crafted in his name, the pressure campaign to be on the outside of the building -- basically frightening lawmakers and others to decertify, to not certify the free and fair election of president-elect joe biden. >> fred upton, who is a retiring republican who voted for the infrastructure bill received death threats for voting for something bipartisan, so you can imagine the pressure that somebody might feel in testifying against donald trump even today in public in something like the january 6th committee, even though it's a matter of national importance and patriotic duties, some might

say. i could have this conversation with you the entire show, but thank you so much for joining us. >> so could i. thank you, katy. coming up next, life after the terror of russian occupation. what one ukrainian village is doing to pick up the pieces. so, we're taking this to italy. refresh. because subway now has italian-style capicola on the new mozza meat and supreme meats. love the smell of italian food. subway keeps refreshing and refres- if rayna's thinking about retirement, she'll get some help from fidelity to envision what's possible and balance risk and reward. and with a clear plan, rayna can enjoy wherever she's headed next. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. you're pretty particular about keeping a healthy body. what goes on it... usually. ♪♪ in it... mostly. even what gets near your body.

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it has been more than two weeks since russian troops peeled back from kyiv but the devastation remain. in surrounding towns civilians are digging mass graves and burying their loved ones while attempting to rebuild the city and their emotional state. the washington post traveled to another small village on the outskirts of kyiv where russian forces recently retreated. the post writes the terror of a military occupation and quiet moments of mercy among neighbors under pinned daily life for

weeks in vorzel. washington post photo journalists captured these photos of the residents as they emerged from their homes and shared what they have endured. joining me now from ukraine is the freelance journalist for "the washington post" who took those photos and gathered those stories. so just tell us, what was it like for the residents of this town while the russians were there? >> well, it was definitely very, very, very difficult. this was actually the first time that i sat down with a woman named julia who told me that a russian soldier attempted to rape her. she told me -- it was difficult for her to talk about the subject, as it is for everybody who goes through such an ordeal.

she told me that a russian soldier had come to her house in uniform with a gun and demanded that she come outside with him and tried to lead her to a shed and asked her to sit inside and he tried to touch her. he told her that he wanted to have sex with her. her dog, luckily, followed her with her when she went outside and she told him that he can shoot her in the head and only afterwards can he do what he wants with her body, and she managed to escape from him. she stayed hidden in a neighbor's basement for several days until his unit retreated. i met another man named pablo. at his father's house, when he was away, after taking his wife

and mother to travel to a safer place in ukraine, his father, victor, was actually helping to shelter 20 people in his basement. when he went outside -- this is a picture of his dad next to his bed, and this is actually pablo standing outside where his father is buried in the backyard because he was shot to death very close by while speaking to another neighbor about just the next house. he was shot by a russian soldier. the other people managed to escape, but his dad didn't. the people sheltering were actually afraid that his body was booby trapped.

>> i think you are about to answer my next question, which is what do they do now? >> you would not believe the sense of community and resilience that is going on. we visited a school, and it was so organized. one classroom was full of clothing that had been donated. the building is full of food donations. everybody in the town is doing something to help each other out and help each other recover. julia was also working as a volunteer in a parish where elderly people that couldn't be moved during the war and still have no place to go are living in small rooms. and so everyone is taking care of everyone in the town, including the disabled elderly. >> heidi levine, they so much

for bringing us these stories. it is remarkable the resilience, especially after that trauma. thank you for your reporting. coming up next, a federal judge strikes down the cdc's national mask mandate for public transportation. so what does it mean for those about to get on an airplane? we'll go to one of new york's busiest airports to find out what folks are doing. o find out what folks are doing

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a federal judge in florida has just overturned the national mask mandate for planes and other forms of public transportation. the ruling comes just after a week after the cdc decided to extending it. millions of americans are expected to travel this week as a holiday weekend meets spring break. joining me now from new york's laguardia airport, ellison barber. you're wearing a mask. what are folks telling you they're going to do now that the judge has made this ruling? >> reporter: when we got here, the rule was that we still had to wear the mask. well, is it optional now or are we supposed to still wear the mask. one person who would rather not wear a mask while on a plane, she said she recently had covid-19 herself and just doesn't feel like she needs to wear one.

other travelers around her, they may disagree with that. but personally she said she'd rather not wear a mask. when i told her about the judge's ruling, her first question is does that mean i can decide whether to wear one when i got on the plane? speaking with travelers, we've heard a host of opinions. a lot of people say regardless of this ruling, regardless of what the rules might look like in the coming days and the coming hours, they say they still plan to wear a mask when they're on public transportation. listen. >> i think it will be best maybe to keep it just because it's a close place, close area, so it would be the best place to keep it on. >> it doesn't matter. it's just something in order for you to keep healthy, that's all. and i prefer to be healthy instead of being sick. >> given the option to wear a mask on a plane right at the moment, i probably would not wear one, just because i've had it. i'm vaccinated and i don't think

masks really help as far as the spread, being a nurse. >> reporter: so masks worn properly we know do work but part of the argument against wearing them and requiring them on planes, critics have said because airplanes have such high levels of air circulation and air is being filtered that they believe masks are not necessary. but some people say they just feel more comfortable wearing them. they will wear them regardless of the rules. some people, they wish others would continue to wear them as well. >> i'm curious what it's going to be like when i get on the subway after work to see if anyone got the news and what they'll be doing down there. quick question to you, what terminal are you in? is that the marine terminal? >> terminal a. >> it's very cool. it doesn't look like an airport, it looks like a train station almost. ellison, this is your first day back from getting married,

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new signs this hour that russia has launched a new offensive in eastern ukraine. that from a top ukrainian military official, as we wait for an update any minute now from our own experts at the pentagon. we'll take you live to that briefing when it starts. one of the other key developments, u.s. officials now confirming russian bombers have stepped up long-range air strikes over the past couple of days targeting kyiv and the western city of lviv, a part of