peter scott discussed russian special military operation with former pentagon security analyst, michael melissa. he said that a military operation was an option of last resort. mister wooten warned about how he was concerned about the security of the federation with the encroachment of nato. and the possibility of assistance to ukraine through with, with nato assistance. and that's probably why mister colton decided to take action because it was the last resort. the implementation of men's to ukraine was not interested. washington, basically it is that once again, it coerced ukrainian leadership not to go along with it. and, and, and again, it's, it, the leadership of the country is not in control of its own destiny. it's really controlled from the outside. and this was another manifestation of that there wasn't agreement and it's just one more agreement in a whole list of agreements that were. ready ignored or violated and mr. colton clearly felt that he was left with no other choice. do you expect that to continue or to ramp up, given this developments where it's going to be difficult to prov

that's what it does. >>> joining me now, nyu law professor melissa murray and michael j. a, what does this pence rebuke mean for the probe and the fake electors plot? >> it makes clear vice-president pence has no involvement in this scheme to steal the election and indeed had no legal authority to do that so it's a rebuke to this view that has been pressed among many of president trump's associates that there was something to the vice-president to do and he could do so lawfully and with his own authority and he rebuked that but it's worth noting, he's not broken with the underlying claim that supports the entire idea that he could decertify the election and that, of course, is that the election was fraudulent in some way so at this speech, before the federalist society, the conservative legal group, made clear while he broke with the president on the ability to intervene he did not contest that the election was stolen and again there is very little evidence of any kind of fraudulent activity during the election to the fact that he would not rebuke that as well was startlin

melissa bell is in brussels. nick peyton walsh is in poland. we begin with michael holmes in leviv. >> russia insists more forces are heading back to the home bases today, but the u.s. state department finds the numbers are growing moving into fighting position. the prit tisch defense minister says he sees no evidence of withdrawal. the buildup in several regions close to ukraine. this is a pontoon bridge in southern belarus four miles or six kilometers from ukraine's border. >> in fact, we have seen yachts in recent weeks and even in recent days. more russian forces, not fewer, are at the border. and they are moving concerningly into fighting positions. this is cause for profound concern. at the same time and as we've warned previously, over the past several weeks we've also seen russian officials and russian media plant numerous stories in the press any 1one of which can be set to serve as a pretexts. >> reporter: cnn's nick peyton walsh is there. we'll have his report. don't miss that. the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken offering his assessment. >> we cont

michael courtly is the correspondent at the new york times. good evening. thanks for being here, all of you. melissa, we read through some of the judges ruling on trump, in my non-legal term, it was pretty brutal. from copious evidence of possible financial fraud to george orwell, and alternative facts, what stands out to you after reading? >> while, again, this was a fiery proceeding in open court today. it was matched by a fiery writing by the judge. what's seems clear here is that the judge made clear that the attorney general of new york has the right to subpoena these witnesses given the evidence that she has currently a mass in her civil investigation. the trump had wanted to sit in an open grand jury proceeding, likely because under new york law, grand jury proceedings and those who participate in them as witnesses, are offered immunity for certain acts that were revealed to the grand jury. of course, a civil death deposition doesn't do that. what it does do is, perhaps, provide evidence that could later be used, possibly, by the manhattan da if he were to use some of that evidence in his cri

melissa bell is following the u.s./nato talks in brussels and our barbara holmes is in kyiv, ukraine. michael. >> reporter: isa, thanks so much. the russian defense ministry has released information saying they have left crimea after finishing up the military exercises. russia said some of the troops were being sent back to the home bases after drills near the ukraine border were over. the u.s., nato and ukraine say that would be an encouraging sign but they haven't seen evidence of a deescalation so far. >> united states and nato are not a threat to russia. ukraine is not threatening russia. neither united states ornate tow have missiles in ukraine. we do not, do not have plans to put them there as well. we're not targeting the people of russia. we do not seek to destabilize russia. to the citizens of russia, you are not our enemy and i do not believe you want a bloody, destructive war against ukraine. >> reporter: president biden was optimistic about the chance for a diplomatic solution to the crisis but he also warrant russia would pay a high price and face international condemnation if it