>> jim maceda. jim, thanks. >>> there is a warning coming out of south korea tonight after that awful ferry disaster. transcripts of communications on board reveal chaos and confusion among those in charge, questioning whether to evacuate at all. and crew members were never made aware there was another civilian ship that said it would rescue anyone who went overboard. most people stayed below deck following the captain's initial orders. meantime tonight, divers have for the first time found a way into the sunken ferry, recovering bodies. the death toll now stands at 59 with some 240 still missing. our report now from nbc's bill neeley in south korea. >> reporter: you can hear the pain. as the death toll rises, the anguish deepens. one by one, their children are being identified, their descriptions put on screen, height, hair, clothes. child 55, 56, both boys. my child was alive in the water. i had a text message, she screams. but most parents now accept their children are probably dead. >> most peopl

nb's jim maceda is there and has our report tonight. >> reporter: with prorussia militias still in the barricades in donetsk, the city's jews pray today that ukraine's dark days would not return. >> you give it to people and they went away. >> reporter: said armed masked men handed out dozens of leaflets outside the synagogue that said all jews over 16 had to register with the new russia authorities or risked being stripped of citizenship, property confiscated. this man was visiting his family from new york. >> people were very, very scared. >> reporter: u.s. officials quickly condemned the leaflets. >> utterly sickening and they have no place in the 21st century. >> reporter: just a check that the threat was real, several jews came here yesterday to the headquarters of the prorussia militants as if registering themselves as requested. well, they were told to leave immediately, that no one here knows anything about such a leaflet. and today, pro russian authorities in donetsk blamed the other side. this is just a provocation he said from the government in kiev. jews believe the leaflet

our report from nbc's jim maceda in ukraine. >> reporter: they look like prisoners of war, but these were envoys of peace, eight military observers from the osce abducted on friday and paraded today under armed guard. >> we have no indication when we will be sent home to our countries and to see our families. >> reporter: one hostage was freed for medical reasons, but the rest have become the latest weapon in the insurgents' arsenal. "the key of junta," he said, "is holding a number of our allies. so if possible, we're ready for an exchange." flexing their muscles, militants in donetsk tried to commandeer the local tv station and force it to broadcast a russian channel. the militants left when engineers convinced them it couldn't be done. both sides, pro-russian and pro-ukraine forces preparing for war. at this border crossing, ukrainian soldiers make sandbags to beef up their defensive positions. this would be a main route to invade from russia just 600 yards away. if russian troops do try to penetrate this border, these ukrainian soldiers tell me they're under orders to fire at the

jim maceda, nbc news.sk. >> for a second day today a small robotic submarine was launched deep in the indian ocean to search for any sign of that missing malaysian jetliner on the sea floor off the australian coast. we get the latest tonight from katie in perth. >> reporter: not a promising start to what could be their last best effort. bluefin-21 is back in the water today but its first mission was aborted after only six hours, six hours into what should have been a 16 hour scan as it reached a depth that was beyond its operating capabilities. now it's back on ocean shield. once back on they downloaded the data and unfortunately it had not seen anything. so it is rescanning again. 15 square mile segments. it will continue to do that for the coming weeks. if it sees something, if it finds something and that's a very big "if," they are going to talk about extraction efforts. it's 2,000 miles deeper than air france was so it's unclear what will be feasible, if anything to bring back up to the surface. brian?

joining me from donetsk in eastern ukraine, jim maceda. jim, thanks very much.s like there is an escalation of tensions, not de-escalation as envisioned in last week's meetings. i know it's very noisy there where you are. >> reporter: that's right. it does feel like a re-escalate, or escalation, and not a de de-escalation. ukraine's acting president, that's exactly what happened when he called on his security forces to take back the towns and buildings today, occupied by those pro-russian militia, that happened after one of two bodies with torture marks found in a river next to slavonsk, one of the strongholds not far from us here. one body was initially identified on saturday as being a local politician, rubak from the president's own party, who was seen scuffling with locals last week trying to replace a russian flag that had been put up over his town hall. he's a councilman, with a ukrainian flag. people manning barricades here in eastern ukraine, andrea, are telling us that they're worried now about this relaunch of the offensive, not so much because of the

nbc's jim maceda joins us now from donetsk in eastern ukraine. jim?> karen, there's a very tense q quiet here today so far. the kiev government and the pro-russian insurgents have signaled they have no intention of backing down, the easter truce lasted a few days but it's over now. ukraine's acting president called on his security forces to take back the towns and buildings occupied by the pro-russian militia after one of two bodies found in a river next to slovyansk, one of the pro-russian militant strongholds was initially identify as a local politician belonging to that president's own party. now, people manning barricades here in eastern ukraine say that they are worried about an attack, not so much from the ukrainian military who have shown them as much as to be inept at countersuinsergeancy s far. just the kind of provocation, karen, that might justify a major intervention by russian troops as lavrov said today, an attack on russians is an attack on russia. back to you. >> jim, thank you very much for the update. jim maceda. >>> we leave you wit

. >> nbc's jim maceda joins us live. jim, we have the deaths of those three russian separatists when they went against the ukrainian base. who is gaining the upper hand in that fight which is starting to unravel? >> luke, those pro-russian militias are. they've already overtaken police and state headquarters in close to a dozen towns and cities now, including where we are here now in donetsk. they told us this don't believe the ukrainian military poses a real threat to them, unless the west were to join the fight and thef don they don't expect that to happen. it's been a humiliating 48 hours to say the least for those ukrainian units who surrendered tanks and armored troop carriers to militiamen yesterday. some told us they defected because they couldn't shoot at their on people. still others said they were blocked and ridiculed by crowds of angry civilians and had to retreat. so it's no surprise that overnight that gang of about 300 pro-russians feeling emboldened, carrying stun grenades and automatic weapons, by the way

jim maceda is joining us from donetsk, ukraine, and jim, what is the situation on the ground now afterhard. well, the three-day truce called by the kiev government on saturday is despite all that you have said, which is true, it is holding, but it is severely tested and not just by the attack on the pro russian checkpoint sunday, but it was another incident as well yesterday according to the ukrainian defense minister, gunmen on motorcycles firing between another checkpoint between here and donesk, and it is being blamed on the pro russian group, and they are blaming it on special forces. so the fallout is that the ordinary ukrainians that we have been speaking to, and not the extremists, but the people who want dialogue with kiev say they are prepared to join the insurgency as a result of the attack yesterday. so if indeed russia is driving the insurgency as the latest new york times' photos would be with the goal the incite division, it is working. right now, richard, a lull right now with the three days into the truce, and however, no compliance by the radicals on either side to the

join me from donetsk is jim maceda. jim, has anything changed in this week's talks? alex. the militants still occupy all of the buildings. the police stations and city halls, they still control those as they did. if you go down the block to danetsk, you will see the same barricades you did last week. if you leave town and go into a number of occupied towns say an hour to two drive from here, it's the same number of pro russian check points along the way with their piles of tires and sand bags and armed militia men that you would have seen last week. there is one change to report, alex, it's that the militants haven't expanded their operations in the last couple of days. for the time being they seem to have kept the same number of check points, the same number of towns and buildings that they've seized. there seems to be a very pregnant pause right now on both sides. the pro russian militants and the government in kiev waiting to see what the other does next. meanwhile, those pro russian militants say it's willing, they're willing to pull out of their positions but on

back to you, ronan. >> nbc's jim maceda in eastern ukraine.o the growing cracks in the ukraine's foundations are triggering calls for more aggressive engagement from president obama. one memo co-authored by wesley clark and reported by "the new york times" today called the current lack of u.s. military assistance, quote, seriously flawed and in need of, quote, immediate correction. clark and other officials are adamant that america, the one who should be providing what they describe as nonlethal military aid, vehicles, armor, intelligence, they're also part of a vanguard of defense officials who too often counsel military endanglements with foreign enforcements that are hard to walk back. do we need a generation of ukrainian soldiers disenchanted with america's role in the region, but fortified by american support. can we understand the implications of that ten years from now, 20 years from now. to dive into the reasons to engage, and the reasons not to, are jeffrey sachs, the columbia university economist, and adviser to the russian governmen

jim maceda joining us. he just left the town seized by the pro russian militants, and joining us by phone in eastern ukraine, and jim, tell us about the violence on the ground there? >> hello, tamron, we were in donetska, and we saw pro-russian militants take over the police station, and using cranes, and this is an hour or so after the takeover, and huge crepes to pile concrete blocks outside of the occupied city hall to protect themselves from the attacks from the other side, and they told us that they are going to be taking over build gts in five more towns in the rekrun. -- they will be taking over more buildings in five more towns in the region. we have been seeing them tightening, and expanding more areas, and more ukrainian forces out in larger numbers and working the more checkpoints and the roads and the surrounding towns like slaviansk, and tamron, we are seeing a deepening and the low-grade driven or the security office driven conflict where you are seeing the contract killings, and more lethal be

nbc's jim maceda is live in donetsk, ukraine. jim, what's the latest on the ground there? there were skirmishes over the weekend. that easter truce did not amount to much. what's the latest on the ground and are folks fearing any u.s. sanctions that are out there? >> reporter: well, hi there. listen, the latest on the ground is the same as it was yesterday really. these are very critical days because nothing is happening on the ground. clearly vice president biden's trip and message to russia is just that. as you said, he said stop talking and start acting. it couldn't have been more than a symbolic show of force -- i should say a symbolic show of support for kiev over a 24-hour full business day, but he did hit a lot of notes. you mentioned, of course, the package. it's not a substantial package, but it is a very tough message to russia. he didn't mince his words. the ukrainians are listening very carefully to what biden was saying today. when he told russia to stop talking and start acting, that resonated here. now, this is a post-geneva accord phase. he said it is not o

jim maceda joins me now in donetsk. biden said there's no question who the masked men are.'ve been covering the issue from eastern ukraine where a local mayor says it's not moscow ordering the men in, but i have to tell you, american intelligence saying they have plenty of evidence well beyond these pictures of actual command and control coming from moscow. this is going to remain a big issue. >> reporter: absolutely, it's going to remain a big issue and it's not surprising that the on fis indication continues, neither russia it self nor the pro-russian insurge enlts here are convinced by the photos showing again, allegedly the same russian special operators and later here in east ukraine. as you say, the kremlin repeated today that it has no active professional russian soldiers operating here. it's important to note that the mayor, the pro-russian mayor an hour and a half from here said that he simply called his former buddies in the red army, the soviet military, they are in russia, belarus and moldova enelsewhere. we want you to come and help us out fight the cause and t

jim maceda joins us by phone. you've been driving through the area, what are you seeing?> andrea, things are starting to pick up and move quite quickly after what seemed to be a lull of almost two weeks now. the past three or four days it's been a steady increase in tension and today was no exception. in fact, until today the ukrainian military seemed completely overwhelmed. there was no sign of military kin etic action at all. after the 9:00 a.m. deadline ran out on those pro-russian separatists if you will to surrender weapons and face this so-called anti-terrorist operation, well, about an hour outside of donetsk, we're sensing the operation has begun and the ukrainian military does seem to have launched what they are calling a special operation, using armored vehicles and some special operations soldiers, against groups of armed militants and specifically those who have occupied a military air field, one of the dozen or so towns controlled by the rebels. focusing again on that air field, eyewitnesses say a ukrainian fighter jet had earlier today tried to land at the a

jim maceda joining me in slovyansk, ukraine. what are you hearing?> well, we are just leaving slovyansk, and one of the towns of ukraine and now it is the people's republic of donetsk, and now those people are occupied by the insurgents for the past number of days. now we passed a park which was surreal, and probably five or six armored personnel carriers and a small and thek that were kind -- and a small tank on display and the soldiers dressed in the khaki uniforms, and they were taking pictures with the local friends so they clearly came from the area. we were told by the soldiers or the paramilitaries that they were part of the defecting ukrainian military unit that had left overnight that operation that you mentioned and come and donetsk, and said to ourselves and others that they could not go on shooting their own people, and so they defected with the armored vehicles. today, they were met at this town by cheering locals and at least some of the troops said they were part of the 25th airborne brigade which is a ukrainian movement, and part of t

. >> first let's get the latest on this from jim maceda on the ground in donetsk.hanks for joining us. it was a violent weekend. any additional fallout from that attack today? >> reporter: hi, ronan. first of all, we have to say this is the last day of a three-day truce, that truce was called or launched by the kiev government on saturday and today it has been holding though it has obviously been severely tested by that attack that you mentioned on that pro-russian checkpoint on sunday. now the pro-russian separatists blame the ultranationalist military group and kiev says it was staged. i've got to say we and many other journalists were at the scene yesterday and a lot of it did look con trifed but perhaps the worst fallout from the incident is that ordinary ukrainians we've been speaking to, people in the east who have wanted dialogue with kiev, not extremists or radicals, they are now talking about joining up with separatists as a result of the attack, be it real or staged. in terms of complying with the geneva deal, there still has been no surrendering of weapo

jim maceda from nbc. >>> still to come, pfizer makes a fresh approach fors a stra accident ka.e details, next. >>> this is our u.s. futures shaping up before the session. the s&p 500, nasdaq and dow all up today across the european markets so far. bigger news out today driving sentiment. pfizer confirmed it made a renewed approach to astrazeneca. the u.k. drugmaker won't engage in talks. pfizer says it originally approached astra back in january and they have held high-level discussions, but pfizer's previous big was $98.7 billion or about $76 a share. pfizer and astrazeneca shares are on the move in the u.k. today. well, moving into the u.s. market, merck is looking to buy over-the-counter sales. >>> comcast is reporting a $20 billion deal to remake the u.s. paid tv market. the "financial times" says it is getting regulatory crew to buy cable, it would involve comcast, the parent of cnbc, investing in 4 million subscribers or 18% of his net worth. stay tuned. we'll have more on this during the break and how the big transactions are dealed, but it is valued if not more for men

jim maceda was at that rally and joins us live from donetsk. jim, you have been covering this from the beginning and it appears as though the violence, the tension continues to just escalate. is that a fair assessment? >> reporter: yeah, kristen, i would say that the fair assessment is that this region is always teetering on violence. it's on the edge of anarchy and it could go either way. you referred to the demonstration last night. we were there, as you said. it started out very peacefully in downtown donetsk. this was not a group of neo-nazis as all the russian state media have been reporting but rather ukrainians from all walks of life. we saw people -- mothers with children, grandparents out with their grandkids who gathered together, despite the known risks. remember, this had been announced that there would be provocateurs trying to break up the demonstration, but this silent majority, and if you will, it truly is a majority because according to all the polls, most people don't want to split off and join russia here. that majority came t

>> jim maceda. thank you so much. and for more on the context for all of this, go to boston, where nicholas burns, former u.s. ambassador, now at harvard's kennedy school of government, joins me. nick, thanks so much. we have got a complicated situation. we are waiting on a readout from what happened in geneva. the talks were extended for several hours, longer than we thought. but also, we had this performance by vladimir putin today, who was going on and on about ukraine, calling it new russia. and what the white house and others are saying is there really is a silent majority in eastern ukraine. this is not crimea, which was obviously pro-russian and easily conquerable by putin. he has got the weapons, but that the people really in eastern ukraine, most of them in the big cities, even as these government buildings have fallen, do not want to align themselves with russia. i don't know from your experience what you think is the case. >> andrea, that's what the polls show, that the majority of people in ukraine, even s

jim maceda, nbc news, donetsk. >>> on another front, a huge setback tonight for u.s. efforts to somehow, some way restart some sort of peace process in the middle east. after a lot of work and almost an entire year of shovel diplomacy by secretary of state john kerry just to get the israelis and palestinians to talk to each ore. it all fell apart today. andrea mitchell live in the newsroom in washington with the details on this. good evening. >> good evening, brian. john kerry's nine month quest for peace between israel and the palestinians is on life support. it was in trouble thanks to failures by both sides. but now the palestinians have joined forces with a rival palestinian faction, hamas, considered terrorists by both the u.s. and israel. but taud prime minister netanyahu responded saying he's now suspending all talks with the pill stalestinians. >> as long as i'm prime minister of israel, i will never negotiate with the palestinian government backed by terrorists. neither would you. would you negotiate with a government that is backed by al qaeda? that calls fo

and jim maceda, we have a report that heavy gun fire has been heard at eastern ukraine after the troopsg against the pro-russia militia, and some of the violence and the heavy gunfire being reported right now. >> that is right, tamron. that is happening about an hour or so outside of where i am which is downtown donnyesk which is the regional hospital, and i can see in the head quarters of the regional capital, a regional head quarters that is occupied inside by pro russian separatists though outside things are looking normal here in donesk, and again, that military development is happening an hour away, and the military, the ukrainian military have not yet engaged until today against the separatists or as they have seen building after building as you suggest in a dozen towns now, but today, the military seems to have launched what the government is calling a special operation helicopter, gunships, armored vehicles, and special operation forces, and these are moving against a group of armed militants who have occupied a military airport in an area that is one of the townscontrolled by t

that's where nbc jim maceda has more. >> reporter: forces on both sides, pro-russia and pro-ukraine, tightening and expanding the areas they control. and we're seeing, for instance, ukrainian special forces, and special police out in larger numbers now, with more checkpoints on the roads surrounding the town. this morning, a few dozen pro-russian militants reportedly seized the police station in yet another town here in the greater donetsk region. a little while ago, the mayor of carkiev was reportedly shot in the back and is now in intensive care. what we're seeing is a deepening, but low-grade intelligence-driven conflict where contract killings, lethal beatings with baseball bats, and abductions have now become the norm. take the eight osce members to negotiate a peaceful surrender of these rebels. they are still being held now, day three, by pro-russian militants. one swedish oscd member suffering from diabetes was released on medical grounds yesterday. but rebel leaders are saying that they have no inattention of releasing the others, unless it's part of a prisoner swap, they sa

joining us now, nbc news correspondent jim maceda with the latest. jim?en police and state headquarters in close to a dozen towns and cities here in the east, including where i am in donetsk. they told us they don't believe the ukrainian military pose as real threat to them anymore. you just have to look at how that announced launch of an operation to take back ukraine from the insurgents has been going over the past couple of days. you mentioned humiliation of the two paratroopon it's that surrendered their tanks and armored carriers to the militiamen. some said they even defected because they couldn't shoot their own ethnically ukrainian people. others were ridiculed and blocked by angry civilians that had to retreat. it's no surprise there was that gang of 300 pro-russians that tried to storm that ukrainian national guard base in another town occupied to the east of us. this time the ukrainian military did react forcefully. they killed three, wounded 13, dozens were arrested. president putin called that attack on the pro-russian protesters a grave crim

alex, back to you. >> okay, jim maceda.speak i'd like to talk to you about what you found when you went to the ukrainian monastery. we'll get to that next time. thanks so much. >>> more details are emerging today about the deadly attack that killed three americans at a children's hospital in afghanistan. pediatrician jerry umanos was one of the ones killed. we now know the identities of the other two victims. health clinic administrator john gable and his visiting father, gary. all three were from the chicago area. this is the second time this month a member of the afghan security forces has turned a gun on civilian forces. >>> let's go to the hunt for the missing malaysian flight 370. the unmanned submarine is ending its search. blue fin 21 has scoured nearly 95% of the narrow down search zone. so far turned up nothing. nbc's katie tur has more for us where it's after 7:30 in the evening. katie, with a good evening, what happens next? >> reporter: well, what happens next, if they don't find anything in this initial area th

i'm jim maceda. now back to you. >> jim, thank you so much. with us, the great granddaughter of former soviet premier nikia krushchev. thank you for joining us on the program. >> thank you. >> one thing i have found fascinating is the role of the russian media in terms of being a propaganda arm for vladimir putin and really sort of going after the folks in eastern ukraine with the message of there are protests, there's a nazi-backed government that the u.s. is behind that is trying to ruin the specific cities, is trying to sort of bring the ukrainian language, all sorts of propaganda. talk to us about the role the russian media is playing and wing the hearts and minds of those folks in the eastern part of ukraine who speak russian, who have been very receptive to those folks who do not have an insignia on their uniforms. >> russians have been very in tune to propaganda. in fact, the state always used propaganda for its ideological purposes. vladimir putin is such a great student of the soviet system that today it really is playing out by the b

jim maceda is live for us in donetsk. is there any sign the separatists will actually abide by this apparent treaty? >> hey there, luke. no one's enforcing the so-called deal so i'm afraid that there is no sign at all of retreat. in fact, on the contrary. the pro-russian separatists here distrust the government too much to surrender their weapons or abandon their positions. we spoke at length to very troubled members of the jewish community today who told us that a group of about a hundred were just outside their synagogue after passover prayers two nights ago when they noticed three men that were masked wearing back packs handing out leaflets and they ran away quickly. the chief rabbi said when he read the letters are he was in shock. he knew this wasn't a joke because the leaflet looked too serious and too official, but he couldn't believe it was real. as you said, it called on all jews to register or risk losing their citizenship. to test the authenticity, they sent a jewish family to the address on the leaflet to regi

joining me now is nbc news correspondent jim maceda in ukraine. jim, what's the latest right now? there's kind of a lull here in eastern ukraine. part of it is due to the easter weekend, both the catholic and orthodox christian services fall this year on the same day, tomorrow, and the kiev government even announced that today that it was suspending for several days that military offensive to reoccupy some of those occupied centers of state power like police stations and city halls in about 12 different towns during these holidays. in reality, melissa, that offensive has been such a major pr disaster for the ukrainian military that few really believe -- few think that the cease-fire will stop. part of the lull also, melissa, is that the pro-russian militants are just waiting to see what the other side is going to do next. separatist leaders have said that they're not pulling out of their positions, for instance, until the members of the kiev government resign, but it's also the case that these very same militants haven't expanded those checkpoints or seizures of buildings now for

leaders including david cameron and angela merkel about imposing more sanctions on russia, and jim macedaents. jim, i understand that you had an interesting meeting that ra rarely happens in particularly this crisis now. >> that is right, tamron. it is rare for a reporter to be on the both sides of the conflict on the same day, but we had a chance to do that today. the pro ukrainian side, and the pro russian side. start with the ukrainian area where there is a stronghold for the pro russia militants, and we tried to speak to them, but they were intense, and ukrainian soldiers and military policeman ing a blockade and literally concrete blocks that are spread across the main road to the border. this blockade is a piece of the kiev government announced today as the second phase of the military operations to take back ooccupied towns from the pro-russian insurgents and not by attacking other towns in some m major offensive that might cause a number of casualties and of course give vladimir putin an excuse to intervene here mi militarily, but to rather cut off to blockade slovyansk areas. so

jim maceda, tensions have continued to mount. you yourself were hold up today by militants. tell me what happened. >> reporter: this is true. i didn't realize you knew that. we were detained by pro-russian militants, the same place where simon was detained and held under horrific conditions. it's almost embarrassing to talk about what happened to us. we were held for about an hour. tense at first. it became less tense over the course of the hour. they felt our documents -- particularly my document was not in order, though it was. the sense was in the early stages of this they were targeting me because i was american. but, again, doing a lot of standing and waiting. they told us not to come back. what i wanted to talk about was the opportunity today, and it's rare for a reporter to be able to cover both sides of a conflict. we did that on the pro ukrainian side. 15 miles north slovyansk we saw some very tense but professional ukrainian soldiers setting up and manning a massive barrier. literally concrete blocks to the border near of slovyansk. this is the blockade that the ki

. >> jim maceda, we appreciate it. >>> and shocking new study showing that pollution is far worse than the minority neighborhoods than the white neighborhoods, and the dangerous levels could lead to asthma, heart attacks and the author of the report will join me. >>> and monday 21st, the boston red sox will plan a special tribute to the marathon. and they will wear special jerseys, and it will be an annual tradition. last night, the team held a pre-game ceremony to honor the bombing victims. and it was beautiful. and today, the music who faces six months in jail for allegedly assaulting a man outside of a d.c. hotel, and today, the judge ruled that his body guard was guilty of assault. event, get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. my golden years will not just be gold plated. i had 3 different 401(k)s. e*trade offers rollover options and a retiremen

and jim maceda is joining us now to talk about how he was c captured and the circumstances there. >> well, that is still quite murky, tam theron. we know that the last time he was seen was yesterday evening. he was five other journalists, and those five were released. he was held and then the next time that we actually knew or had confirmation that he was in fact alive and being held was to d tod today. he has had many reports on the conflicts in ukraine and crimea, and they were shown on bbc as you said, and hbo and it is confirmed today that he was in the hands of the pro russia militia, and that is in slavansk, because that is a stronghold. and the militants said they were holding him depending on the investigation into what they call ed ted the quote bad activ. the state department condemned and concerned about the detention of ostrovsky, and he is not the only kidnapping, and the state called on russia to use the leverage to release all of these people immediately. tomron? >> well, they have released the statement, and vice news says it is in contact with the united states state

. >> that's nbc's jim maceda in eastern ukraine today. nbc's chief foreign correspondent, richard engel, has long warned they are looking for any justification. has that now happened in the last 24 hours? joining us now is nbc's chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. thank you for being here. >> it's absolutely a pleasure. good to see you in person. >> welcome back from afghanistan. >> thank you. and it looks like i might be heading back again. there. >> not sure if putin knows where the edge of the envelope is. >> the provocations he is calling for? >> not yet. not yet. people talk about will russia invade, will the zero hour come? not sure that is the way to frame the argument. i think it has already begun. this is russia's way of taking over eastern ukraine. it is a step by step approach. he sends in these militias. he activates sympathetic militias. a lot aren't just russian troops in uniforms they're local ukrainian whose also have russian nationality, russian citizenship, who live in the border area. and you mobilize these peop

. >> nbc's jim maceda joins us. what is the latest on the ground there? >> reporter: hey, kristen.ocation about five miles north of slavyanask. that's the key military stronghold for the pro-russian militants where we saw some very nervous, tense but professional ukrainian soldiers and special policem manning a blockade they had just laid across the road. this is part of what the kiev government announced today of that second phase that you referred to of the military operation, to take back occupied towns from the pro-russian insurge engent insurgents, starting with slavyanask, not necessarily attacking slavyanask, not that would give putin an excuse to intervene militarily to slowly cut off slavyanask to towns, to reinforcements and supplies and weapons. that seems to be the slowly, slowly strategy of the kiev military. inside slavyanask today, an eerie quiet. when asked how they felt, they admitted they were afraid, especially for their children. when you talked to the pro-russian militants, armed, wearing camouflaged uniforms and masked, clearly beefed up for a fight. we saw th

following today's development in donetsk is jim maceda. thank you for joining us.action on the ground to the new aid package? >> reporter: hi, there, ronan. certainly the kiev government appreciates the financial and political support expressed today by vice president biden, even if advertihis trip was ext short and you have to say symbolic. there were substantive things in that package. we have a development here in the east and situation on the ground could be changing. after several days of an easter truce we've reported on now, that seems to be over at least in theory. here's why. the acting president of ukrai , ukraine,al has called for the relaunch of that military operation against what the kiev government calls terrorists after news that a body found earlier in the pro-russian stronghold, about an hour and a half drive from here, donetsk, and it shows marks of torture, that body turns out to be vladimir rubok, a member of the president's own political party. he had been abducted recently. you recall, however, that that military operation ended in disaster a

with the latest on everything is jim maceda tell us about these reports. there's been speculation that it may have been a hoax of some kind and others say it's a political ploy. do you have any idea who's responsible at this point? >> reporter: hi, ronan, we spoke with very upset members of the jewish community about that today, including the chief rabbi of donetsk, who told me they don't know yet who is responsible. they are in touch with the police, they are in touch with the ukrainian security service who they say are looking actively for the individual or individuals behind the leaflets. a jew from brooklyn told me he was among one of those leaving for prayers two nights ago and noticed three men, they were armed and masked had and back packs and started to hand out these leavelets then leaving the scene quite quickly. the rabbi said people were shocked. they thought it looked official because he couldn't believe it was real. the leaflets then -- he decided to after reading it to test the validity of it. he sent a family out to the location mentioned i

. >> our jim maceda is there in the region and he spoke with a rabbi in the area, and he said na he was shocked by the leaflets, and others are quoted by saying that they have never encountered any behavior or anti-semitism toward them, and that this provocation or this, these leaflets come to a surprise to them understandably at this point, they have not been authenticated, but to your point, that does not mean they should be ignored? >> well, the ambassador piatt has not said they have been authenticate canned, but we have seen that other things to harm the opposition t-shirts and other anti-semitic vehicles used to promote the hatred, and it is interesting that the jewish leadership has pleaded with the jewish people not to take sides in the conflict, and, in fact, that i have not, and so they are tet ally neutral and so it is -- are totally neutral, and not reacting to this. >>> and now, there are claims that the los angeles outfielder yasiel pew wewas smuggled out o, and because they wanted money from his baseball contract, and that report is stunning. >> and now this -- >> we shou

. >> jim maceda, thank you very much. ben rhodes is the national security adviser to president obama and joins me from the white house. what does the white house know? what are we hearing from the ground about the issue of anti-semitism? >> we're very concerned about the incidents of anti-semitism, we through the embassy, did confirm that these flyers are being distributed in donetsk. we have left behind the anti-semitism, where it should stay in history. we issued a strong statement yesterday this is grotesque and disgusting and has no place in today's world. we want russia and other countries to condemn this type of anti-semitism. thus far all we've seen is the distribution of these flyers as your correspondent found we haven't been able to assign who was responsible for distributing them. we'll stay on top of them as we do with anti-semitism anywhere in the world. >> we know that the president has authority for individual sanctions for sanctions against the cronies and banks but the larger sanctions, the sanctions agai

. >> jim maceda, thanks so much. now the president of the brookings institution, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> you covered the former soviet union, you know russia so well. one question that certainly comes to mind is, what is putin up to? because this is a critical meeting that secretary kerry is now flying toward geneva to be a part of tomorrow. it's the first four-way meeting with the european union with the russians, and they're willing now with the americans to have the kiev government play a part. >> he has a near-term goal, which is apparent, and it's been updated today as we've just heard from jim. and that is to do everything possible to stabilize everything in government, that the government that succeeded the brutal and corrupt presidency of yanukovych fails to have elections in another month. and his long-term goal is to build upon that instability, a reimposition of the ukraine. he basically wants all of the countries around the periphery of the russian federation with the exception of maybe china

joining us from eastern ukraine nbc news correspondent jim maceda. what's the latest there? >> reporter: hi there. today the situation remains fairly quiet really with both sides. the ukrainian military on one side. the ukrainian militants saying they want closer ties with russia on the other. both digging in and tightening their hold on areas they control. we all kind of jumped with reports of a russian-flag waving column of apc being greeted with cheers in slovyansk, another one of the occupied towns. it turns out these were ukraine an forces who switched allegian allegiances. and nearby in the area where the airfield is, this time carrying the ukrainian flag they were clearly on a show of force patrol. this area met by hostility by protesters who tried to block the vehicles. in the end there was a bit of a skuchle but no injuries and the patrol continued. and there have been no further attempts by the ukrainian military to take back any of those police stations or city halls or other symbols of state power now occupied by the pro of had russian insurgents. both sides prob

nbc's jim maceda is in donetsk in ukraine and joins us with the latest. is going on today, jim? >> reporter: hi, ross. well, that pro-ukraine demonstration last night started very peacefully in downtown donetsk. this was not a group of neo-nazis as the russian state media has said. rather, ukrainians from all walks of life, mothers with children, grandparents, who have gathered together despite the known risks, ross. it was announced beforehand that pr pr provocativers could be there. they did come out to express their idea that ukraine should be united. they want ukraine to be at peace. the march went food for 200 or 300 yards where suddenly out of nowhere, a couple dozen of these pro-russian rebels, some masked and camouflage, most in civilian clothes, seemed to pounce on anyone carrying a ukrainian flag. it was chaos for a good 10 or 15 minutes, a mix of fireworks flying back and forth, smoke bombs, tear gas, not much. at one point, a very loud stun grenade. through that meleemelee, the ri police who highly outnumbered rebelers with their baseball bats

nbc's jim maceda is in eastern ukraine for us. what's happening on the ground today?ern ukraine. part of it is due to the easter weekend. that has allowed the kiev government to announce today that it was suspending for several days its so-called anti-terrorist operation. basically to recapture those occupied centers of power, be they police stations or city halls in about 12 different towns here in eastern ukraine during the holiday. now, the ukrainian foreign minister today warned that offensive would begin again if the pro-russian militants didn't start surrendering their weapons an abandoned their positions. in reality, that offensive has been a major pr disaster for kiev. they've lost a number of armored vehicles, including some tanks, over to the other side. few would be surprised to see the ukrainian cease fire hold. part of the lull also is due to the pro-russian militants waiting to see what the other side, the government side, is going to do next. separatist leaders have said they're not pulling out of their positions, for instance, until members of the kiev