cnn diplomatic editor nic robertson joins me now from moskow. let's talk about what we heard from jens stoltenberg as well. it seems they are pushing and enforcing unity in the case of what's going on with russia and ukraine. your thoughts? >> yeah, absolutely. jens stoltenberg talked about what moskow is seeing happening because of their actions. he said if the kremlin wants to see nato get further away from its borders its actions are having the reverse effect. if the kremlin wants to see nato divided its actions are having a different effect. i think we were all listening to what precisely stoltenberg would say about the most up-to-date position of russian forces on the ground. and we heard him say that they continue -- they continue, in his words, to gain strength around ukraine, that they're not pulling back. and i think it was also instructive. you know, he was saying very clearly that there was a hope that diplomacy can still find a way ahead out of this situation. unlike president biden who said that he's seen clear that president putin

well, listen, thank you so much for your expertise on this in moskow.ally appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >>> downing street is in full damage control mode as one close aide of prime minister boris johnson after another heads for the door. so have a look at this. these were some of the newspaper headlines this week calling the exodus a melt down and a bloodbath. johnson lost five close aides in two days. as his office works to shake off the blow back from the so-called party-gate scandal. so salma, yesterday i was talking about the four aides are left now adding another person today. this continues to be bad news for boris johnson. >> reporter: absolutely. you're looking at a prime minister now weaker than ever before, less popular than ever before, who's quite literally fighting for his political survival. five top aides, the chief of staff, the top secretary, the coms chief. these are major hits for any administration to take especially within a 48-hour period. if you look at the larger picture for weeks now prime minister boris johnson has

. >> reporter: for a third day now protests, anti-war protests going on in the heart of moskow. that's the ukrainian embassy over there. the police are lined up on the streets. and over here people have been leaving their floral tributes. police officers just telling us there to leave space for people to walk along the streets. that's what the protesters are facing here. every time they come here the police move them off. and that's all we've been watching. but look at this. somebody has left a child's toy with a note on it, and it says against the war. earlier on we've been talking to people about why they've been coming here. >> translator: i want to tell the ukrainian people they're not alone, that people in moskow are also scared of the war. i want to show them we're like them, we're also afraid of the war. >> translator: we love this country. we've always lived here. we're proud to be russian, but this step, it's a disgrace, simply a disgrace to the world, to all those people who are now dying there. >> translator: even now i can't believe it. i woke up in the morning in ho

but on the streets of moskow russian people we spoke to still hoping to avoid war. do you think there'll be a war in ukraine >> i love russia i love ukraine peace of peace >> you want peace? >> yes >> i think it's not in the interest of russia and it's not in interest of usa >> and it's emerging now those treaties signed by president putin even include plans for russian military bases inside eastern ukraine. that's even as western officials say they believe some elements of the russian military and security services harbor very serious doubts about any potential invasion of ukraine. >> keir simmons, thank you for that report. >>> just a day after the news broke britain's queen elizabeth 2 r&d contracted covid-19, england announced it will drop all remaining restrictions but the decision doesn't come without some criticism from some health experts >> reporter: even as the queen is self-isolating with covid -- >> we have now past the peak >> reporter: -- prime minister boris johnson is pushing ahead starting thursday people in england no longer legally required to sta

and we've been seeing russians on the streets of moskow, st. petersburg and other cities.they are very quickly usually detained and arrested. then here in moskow there have been people who have gone to the ukrainian embassy and laid flowers in support. now, in social media there is a lot of -- of support and attacks really on using any type of violence against ukraine. there are memes. people are using music in an anti-war protest. finally, young russians if they are against the war, the thing that we are hearing the most from them is that they fear their future in the west, the ability to travel, the ability to study may be taken away as russia becomes more and more isolated because of this military action. jill dougherty, moskow. >> and stay with us here on cnn for the very latest on russia emphasis invasion of this country. coming up, the crisis stretching across border as refugees overwhelm international crossings desperate to flee the violence. we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new way

. >>> welcome back we continue to follow the crisis in ukraine, and we head to moskow now the kremlin course, has the justify these military actions to its own people. matt, how is vladimir putin going to explain this all to his own country? >> reporter: thank you, steven well, we're seeing a very interesting counter narrative emerged compared to the one that our colleague matt bradley just laid out which he's hearing from the ukrainian defense ministry we're now starting to hear from the russian defense ministry hours after, of course, vladimir putin announced this to the russian people they continue to insist this is not a war, it's a special military operation aimed at de-naziifying ukraine and liberating the donbas region, the region those two break away states we spent so much time talking about in recent months and so some of the things we're hearing from the russian defense ministry are denials that ukraine has shot down any russian air crafts, damaged any russian vehicles, killed any russian soldiers they're denying the ukrainians are even fighting back they're claiming ukrain

they have already thrown out two pro-moskow presidents.oes he think another one would do any better? >> you know, michael, to put it bluntly i don't care, and i don't think all ukrainians don't care what putin thinks of our country and our nation. putin like i said is a murderer, and he effectively turned russia into north korea for the last few days. and russia will pay for that. even at some point it looks very much like we might -- we might, it doesn't change anything for us. this is our country and our home. i'm born in the most russian speaking city in crimea. and we both have to leave our cities in 2014. this is our country, our capital, and vladimir putin is not going to take control over it whatever happens. he will pay a huge price for this. and i'm pretty sure that russian people actually they have to be with their president. if they're not going to protest against putin's regime, they have to face the fact that russia should be going under severe sanctions. and i'm asking, again, u.s. and european politicians, act now. be sure t

joining me now cnn contributor jill dougherty in moskow where she served almost a decade as cnn's moskowian and soviet union history. she studied for a time in ukraine as well. jill, i'm going to start with you. there have been these protests in russia, thousands taking to the streets, many facing arrests. how are most russians reacting to this aggression in ukraine? >> you know, i think if you look at the polling you'd have to say that probably the majority, somewhere around half of the public does support this operation. now, why they support it is because they feel that russians are under attack. and they're getting that picture from, you know, the russian state media. but there are these people who are showing up protesting on the streets of moskow, st. petersburg and many other cities. it varies every day. it's been 50 cities then 25, 26. but they're out there. and they are usually very quickly detained, arrested and shutdown. and we've even had some people who went over to the ukrainian embassy here in moskow and laid flowers, but these are very small numbers. and yet if you go to

so they are asking moskow to help them defend themselves against this threat from kyiv.nd others have noted president putin is so hung up on formality, on legalisms may want to use this, may see this as a as a pretext, as a justification to send his forces into the eastern part of the country, the forces he calls peace keepers. >> appreciate it. just ahead, president biden's next move. the chairman of the house intelligence committee joins us to discuss the possibility of future sanctions and how the u.s. will respond to a russian invasion. ♪ ( unstoppable by sia ) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i put my armor on, show you how strong i am ♪ ♪ i put my armor , ♪ ♪ i'mnstoppable today ♪ ♪ i'm so powerful ♪ ♪ i'm unstoppable today ♪ ♪ unstoppable today... ♪ pre-order now and get up to $200 samsung credit and a free storage upgrade. if you're a small business, there are lots of choices when it comes to your internet and technology needs. but when you choose comcast business internet, you choose the largest, fastest reliable network. you choose advanced security for total peace of mind. and you cho

several russian elites and their families and sanctions will be implemented on russia's debt meaning moskow will no longer be able to raise money from the u.s. or european market. today's announcement also marks the first time the white house used the word "invasion" during this conflict. >> this is the beginning of a russian invasion of inuane as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from his duma who in the lord's name gives putin the right to declare on so-called countries and demands a firm response from the international community. >> reporter: president biden also says u.s. troops already stationed in europe will be deployed to estonia, latvia and lithuania. it was emphasized this is purely a defensive move to reassure our allies and that the u.s. has no intention of fighting russia critics say these moves do not go far enough. republican senator lindsey graham tweeting that, quote, president biden is not seizing the moment and calling the sanctions woefully inadequate. meanwhile secretary of state antony blinken has canceled a meeting that was set for tomorrow with his r

we will go live to moskow as well. but because we're now getting word president biden and vladimir putin will be talking tomorrow, we begin our coverage tonight at the white house. cnn's m.j. lee is there for us now. what more are you learning about this phone call? >> reporter: well, john, we know tomorrow morning this phone call is set to take place between president biden and vladimir putin, and notably a white house official telling us tonight initially the kremlin suggested the phone call take place on monday. but the white house countered with saturday, so that's why the phone call is now happening tomorrow. this certainly seems to suggest the u.s.' perspective is that they would prefer the phone call happy sooner rather than later, and it really does show that despite all of this going on and the dire warnings we heard from jake sullivan today, that the u.s. is still trying to go the diplomacy route, but i think it is very much worth emphasizing to our viewers when president biden and his top advisers have in th

nic robertson is out front in moskow tonight. and you and i were talking through the day today.. you saw police putting them in the van but not before you had a chance to talk to protesters. obviously they were protesting knowing the repercussions could be lifelong. >> reporter: yeah. the government made that really clear telling protesters it wasn't authorized, that you could be arrested, you could be convicted. if you get convicted then that could be on your record forever and that could damage your future employment prospects. so a lot of people heard that, and they know in this country if you go out and protest on the streets the police could bundle you up, take you off, and that the repercussions can be really harsh, really serious. and despite that, a lot of people came out. there was a scattered protest. more than 900 arrested in moskow, but we went to some of the quieter side streets, found some people there i talked to, and it's heart wrenching listening to people. they really feel the pain of a government that's not acting in their name. that they're shocked at what it

it was generally thought moskow wouldn't launch an invasion of ukraine until the winter olympics were over. cnn's m.j. lee has more from the white house. >> we are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should vladimir putin decide to order it. >> reporter: growing urgency at the white house on the looming threat of a russia invasion of ukraine. >> we continue to see signs of russian escalation including new forces arriving at the ukrainian border. >> reporter: national security advisor jake sullivan confirming that vladimir putin could launch an attack even sooner than previously anticipated. >> there is a credible prospect that a russian military action would take place even before the end of the olympics. >> reporter: this a contrast from prior assessments that russia was unlikely to invade before the conclusion of the olympics. the u.s. now making this chilling prediction about what a russian invasion would look like. >> if a russian attack on ukraine proceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without

also joining us jill dougherty, joining us live from moskow. and cnn military analyst, retired general wesley clark. general clark, how dire was this message we all heard just a little while ago from president biden that they now believe -- the u.s. now believes putin has made up his mind and he will invade? >> well, i think it was a somber message. it was direct, and of course it's dire. obviously the president has access to information that you and i don't have. and if he's saying that going out on a limb he's obviously heard the order being given down. doesn't mean it can't be canceled at the last minute, but some kind of order has been given. >> europe as you know -- you're the former nato allied supreme commander -- hasn't faced the prospect of a war on this scale for a long time. just how bloody this could this be? >> i think it could be quite difficult. the ukrainians are really going to fight as hard as they can, but they don't have air defense. their aircraft will be knocked out of the sky. the russians will come in with missile, and w

jil, to you in moskow. secretary blinken today said that vladimir putin, quote, could pull the trigger but underscored the use continues to pursue diplomacy. he said the ball is in russia's court. what's the latest from the cellcell kremlin at this hour, and how's it being framed in russian media there? >> reporter: you know, i think there's a bit of deliberate confusion which sometimes can work in president putin's favor. i do have to tell you i've been watching russian tv again, a number of channels tonight, and i think it's interesting because, remember, these are channels that are speaking to russian citizens. so what's the message? and number one was today the 16th was supposed to be the attack, the attack that never came. and it was high mockery on all of the channels. in fact, it was one where it was an old piece of video from a comedy show where the anchor says, and we're on the scene of where nothing happened. sir, can you tell us what did you see, well, nothing. so it was literally on that level.

she joins us from moskow.oth president biden and defense secretary lloyd austin believe vladimir putin has made the decision to invade. do you see a diplomatic path to end this crisis? >> you know, diplomatically at least judging by what we know publicly, i have to say that, i am not that optimistic because if you look at what russia has been saying they want what they call a package, essentially a package deal which is that entirely revamping the post-cold war structure, security structure in europe. and they say that the united states is ignoring its red lines. and i went back, you know, to reread just a couple days ago. we had the statement it was a response by russia to the united states' response to russia's original response. and what they're saying there is, you know, if the u.s. is not willing to abide by these legally binding guarantees, then we, russia, would be forced to use military technical means or measures. now, that's a phrase that president putin has used. he used it quite a while ago. not cl

don't know if he would necessarily do that, but there has been something going on in the duma in moskowe two break away so-called peoples republics east of where i am those were republics made up of russian led separatists here in ukraine back in 2013 when putin invaded. that would essentially tacitly invalidate the minsk agreements have been moving along and under discussion with european allies. that could be another point of contention and another moment you could see this flare up again. but, again, it's hard to say it's really impossible to forecast this. >> right you recognize a separatist that seems like, i don't know that was a good analysis, though, matt and i've never been to ukraine how was it not bad? like it? >> reporter: it's gotten a lot warmer over the past week, i have to say. when i got here three weeks ago -- >> it was like siberia. >> reporter: but it's a lovely place. >> anyway, matt, thank you it's good to have you on the show >>> let's talk right now about what u.s. and international sanctions could look like if russia does go ahead with the invasion of ukraine. j

able to flood the zone with european president's premieres, chancellors showing up in kyiv and in moskow against russia, we're showing it will be russia against ukraine, i think that's kept putin a bit off-guard and a bit off balance, but these next few days are still going to be challenging. >> senator, then you've got china and taiwan and it seems like these things are linked, and chine awatching closely as to what happens here are you losing sleep at night on this unholy alliance that seems to be getting stronger every day between putin and president xi it has a lot of people worried globally, and it seems like it's all linked what are we looking at over the next two, three, four years? >> i don't think we should be surprised you've got the two greatest authoritarian regimes in the world, russia and china, finding levels of collaboration. what putin is facing now is a nato and europe much more unified than it was a year ago after four years of donald trump undermining nato, but frankly it's much more unified than it was four months ago where some of our nato allies were still not full

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find another way to move their money that's slow and dangerous for them or keep their money in -- in moskownd thing that they've done that was really more notable is go after the russian central bank so that it can't intervene to try to stabilize the ruble. the ruble's fallen about 15% since all of this happened. and clearly what the administration is trying to do here is touch off inflation in -- throughout russia and try to bring and encourage more of these protests and dissent about putin's rule. and that gets pretty dangerous, pam, because of course putin is going to be looking for a way to retaliate. >> and what utmight that look like? i think a lot of people are concerned about russia retaliating. >> they are. and the only way that putin can reach the united states since he can't cut off our banks and so forth the way we can using the western financial system is with cyber. and we've been a little bit surprised. we haven't seen yet the major cyber talks that we know putin is capable of. we know that he's implanted code in part of our utility grid and financial systems, and the united

we're live in moskow and more with our correspondents and our analysts.nt to look back because there's no better way to judge the future but the past. >> lbj, triumph and tragedy premieres sunday night a at 9:0 on cnn. (vo) verizon is going ultra! and so is manny! event planning with our best business unlimited plan ever! with 5g ultra wideband now in many more cities and up to 10 times the speed at no extra cost, the downloads are flying fast! verizon is going ultra, so your business can too. it's time to say goodbye to appliance heartbreaks, and hello to new quality finds you'll love on wayfair. you can always get the brands you trust, the support you need, and dependability you can count on. plus, get financing up to 60 months on qualifying purchases. fast and free delivery, and score ge appliances up to 25% off with our presidents' day sale. so with wayfair, you'll always find your perfect match. ♪ wayfair, you got just what i need ♪ [ sigh ] not gonna happen. that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. my name is ken. how may i help you?

to jill dougherty now in moskow. is anything beneath vladimir putin? >> well, i don't know how to answer that actually because i don't think we've seen quite this behavior before with president putin. i mean, just go back a month. there were many people saying, well, he's not serious, this is just a bluff, he'll never do it and now look where we are tonight. it's kind of an odd feeling, too, because i was watching here in the bureau we have three screens right on top of each other, and i was watching two russian stations and cnn. cnn has all the live reporting, obviously. russian tv is really not playing anything live at this point from kyiv. it's all coming from the donbas region. and remember that's an area that was declared independent, those two peoples republics that were declared independent this week. and why would that be? well, what they are doing in this kind of mirror image they are saying these are the people who are under threat, those russian speakers who are in the donbas region. you have a lot of video. there was a reporter dressed in a

russia may claim they're withdrawing, but senior officials are saying moskow has added another 7,000 troops to the border. are ukrainians expecting an invasion soon? >> reporter: hi, don. yeah, they expect it in terms of preparing for it, but still here there is no panic or great fear of it, i must say. let's not forget ukraine has had an ongoing war with russian backed separatists in the east part of the country for eight years now with of course russia's taking of crimea. so an invasion would be an extension of an existing war not a new one. and yes, many have said watch what russia does not what it said. those few thousand troops may have been returning to their bases as russia claimed, but it's a tiny number of the overall amassed forces around ukraine. and as you said u.s. officials are now saying far from drawing down troops from some places russia is adding forces elsewhere, 7,000 in key areas, convenient for an invasion. important to note, don, those troops that did withdraw or supposedly did were based not far from the border anyway and could be pretty quickly and easily bac

this is a new attack just a day after president biden announced the first tranche of sanctions on moskoww of course this threat of war might be thousands of miles away but it could certainly have a major impact on americans wallets and edward lawrence is with us with more on that. reporter: jackie, i don't have to tell you about the gas prices but those prices could spread should there be a full-scale invasion of the ukraine. the reason is, many people don't realize ukraine is the fifth largest exporter of wheat and corn. should those exports stop, the u.s. could try to fill the gap lowering supply here and increasing demand. ukraine is also a large producer of neon gas used by 90% of u.s. semiconductor manufacturers. any supply disruptions could be worse for companies. seeing potential cost increases. democrats are second-guessing the president's plan and strategy with russia. >> there is a real debate whether we should have tried sanctions before invasion, before the troops came over the border. that is a debate for the history books, but at this point throw the book at it. reporter: r

certainly not lost on him there are so many of the fellow russians already arrested and detained in moskowtly what he did today in new york city. >> thank you so much. unbelievably tense hours tonight in kyiv as massive explosions rock the ukrainian capital. these are especially harrowing scenes for expat ukrainians here in america watching war play out in the streets and cities they know. endangering people they love. joining me tonight is the honorary consul of ukraine in philadelphia and the board chair for the ukrainian self-alliance federal credit union. thank you for making time for us tonight. i must ask both of you, first to you, do you have loved ones in danger tonight? >> my family -- my family members are in ukraine. my close friends are in ukraine. i'm in constant communication with them now, but my heart and the hearts of many ukrainian americans are broken for the last four days. so our hearts are bleeding for ukraine. yes, i am very worried about my family. i cannot disclose their location at this point, but i really pray that this war will end soon. >> how about you? >> wel

however, there are people who do not, and they were on the streets of moskow, st. petersburg, and a lot of other cities. in fact, about 1,700 people last we saw had been detained by the police, and about 50 cities across russia. they are obviously anti-war, but it is much more difficult now for people to go onto the streets. the authorities have made it very clear that if you do that especially for young people you can get a black mark in your record. they could make it very difficult to go onto school. and i did check that there is a little bit of polling about what people think about this conflict, and there is an independent polling agency the center that says 60% think that nato caused this, the u.s. and nato. and also the numbers of people who are feeling negative about ukraine have been going up quite significantly, about half, a little bit more of the population here in russia feels negatively towards ukraine. that never used to be the case before. >> clarissa, as we mentioned president zelenskyy is saying he believes he's the number one target, his family t

our nic robertson is on the ground in moskow. he's watching tv. russian state television today kept a small box up on the screen -- like now you see a big box next to me a smaller box. they kept one up all day of women and children evacuated from the region even as they aired shows. mounting fears a deadly invasion could happen in just days sending the united states stock market lowerch the dow has lost 800 points in the past two days. and tonight we have ecclusive new details about putin's military build up. according to seth jones who i'm going to speak to in just a moment. putin now has 190,000 troops in ukraine. this consists of 500 combat aircraft and 40 combat ships. and inside one of those break away regions of ukraine provided us these exclusive images, and let me tell you this one shows russian armored personnel carriers and trucks at a training area inside one of those separatist controlled regions of ukraine. in that image you see fighting vehicles. and here tanks along with more armored carriers and trucks. in what may be putin's great

so in doing, though, of course beijing is still siding with moskow and so other signs of support.mport of russian wheat. and this is just the latest -- the latest indication that beijing really wants to help russia kind of work its way through these western sanctions because it comes after what we were talking about before president xi and president putin meeting and really having this kind of love fest at the start of the winter olympics where the two had announced several gas and energy deals guys >> eunice, what is your sense how carefully officials in beijing are watching this situation, the reaction to it in insofar as the u.s. and its allies have not necessarily been able to take meaningful steps and looking at that as a precursor to the conversation we've been having now in the last year and half how you think china might ultimately deal with or resolve in the way they feel to deal with fiwan . >> reporter: we know they're watching it closely just based on the regular announcements either state media or official statements coming out from the government just in the past hou

lavrov has accepted an invitation to talks next week conditioned by no further military action by moskowing nuclear drills in the near future. in ukraine consumers are stocking up on gas and guns. even the threat of an invasion is impacting currencies. here's a former ukrainian energy official >> as far as the tensions remain the same or increase, the prices on gas will increase as a result, and the exchange rate of the local currency will drop >> reporter: ukraine's president will be meeting with vice president kamala harris today in munich at the munich security conference becky, it's an understatement to say the world is on high alert at this moment >> kayla, just the idea lavrov has agreed to these talks next week on theassumption or on th condition there will not be further incursions or conditions for anything to happen here. should we feel good about that or is this a situation where if they're planning to invade anyway, they don't care if the dots are off >> i think it's probably the latter the administration has continually said it's impossible for them to get inside the minds o

it notably stops short of limiting oil and gas exports, cutting off high tech exports to moskow our blocking also held out a shred of hope for a negotiated resolution, his top diplomat, secretary of state antony blinken said there would need to be a reversal of russia's actions canceling his meeting with russia's counterpart citing the invasion >> now we see that the invasion is beginning and russia has made clear it's wholesale rejection of diplomacy, it does not make sense to go forward with that meeting at this time >> in the last 24 hours nato countries have added thousands of new troops to eastern europe and the baltic states to counter russia's more than 150,000 troops surrounding ukraine a russian separatist leader said military mobilization is gaining speed, but not yet at the stage of claiming new territory. joe? >> okay, kayla, thanks joining us now is general david petraeus, retired four star general of the u.s. army nobody knows what lurks in the minds of men, i know that general. but in your view what are we witnessing an attempt to reverse some of the concessions that follow th

takeawayses were totally different from washington and moskow. there is no reconciliation.sat. who was tough on putin? rachel: we know it was trump. we also know that joe biden emboldened and strengthened russia just by our crazy, illogical energy policy that he started on day one which was not making us his number one energy producer in the world which of course then made russia stronger. meanwhile part of the reason why putin thinks that joe biden is weak was his performance in afghanistan, and how poorly he evacuated our citizens, our allies and also you know, leaving weapons behind, et cetera. now we have americans that are in ukraine this is really interesting. this is the message, on the heals of the whole thing in afghanistan, the debacle, this is the message from the u.s. embassy in ukraine to u.s. citizens leaving ukraine through poland. it says, poland has indicated to the u.s. government that u.s. citizens may now enter poland through the land border with ukraine but u.s. citizens must present a valid u.s. passport and proof of covid-19 vaccination. travelers are