nick schifrin has more from the view of ukraine's government. >> schifrin: thank you, judy. we turn now to oksana markarova, ukraine's ambassador to the united states. ambassador, welcome to the newshour. today, we heard president zelensky say that ukrainians should not be panicked, but from comments by president biden last week, all the way to prime minister johnson today, it is clear that the west thinks an invasion could be imminent. are you downplaying the threat in order not to cause panic? or do you see the threat differently? >> actually, we do see the threat exactly the same way our partners are seeing it. so, russia attacked us in 2014. we know what they are capable of. we know that they illegally already occupied crimea and part of donetsk and lugansk territories. and we know that there's 100,000 troops around our border. it's not there just to be there. so yes, ukrainians are worried. but as our president said, we should not panic. we should get ready to defend r country, and this is what we are doing. so in addition to the military offensive that russia is playin

nick schifrin is here following all of these developments. so, hello, nick, what did the pentagon say today? >> schifrin: the u.s. and the reason it's done that is it's concerned not only about war in ukraine but about war in ukraine spreading into eastern europe and so it wants to reassure eastern flank allies, it wants to reassure n.a.t.o. part of that is giving u.s. troops over to n.a.t.o. command to reinforce that eastern flank along the russian border and at the same time n.a.t.o. countries are trying to do the same, inforce with french with dutch, jets, with soldiers, moving to eastern europe to really try and make the message to putin career that, regardless of what happens in ukraine, we are -- we being the west, we being n.a.t.o. -- are able to deter you and send you a message about how strong we feel about the number of troops that need to be in eastern europe and our commitment to defend our n.a.t.o. allies. >> woodruff: so, nick, we reported what the ukrainian president is saying, telling the west not to panic, but the pentagon had

for that, nick schifrin joins me now. , hello, tell us what does the outcome look like from this week upon diplomacy? >> no progress on the deescalation of that massive buildup of 100,000 troops on ukraine's borders, judy, and each side manlting the positions they held at the beginning of this diplomacy, which means the two sides remain very far apart. the u.s. is trying to respond to russian demands that nato never include ukraine in the future by offering to focus on arms controlled and military exercises. and if you listen to the russians, that is simply not good enough. deputy foreign minister sergei ryabkov talked to russian tv today. >> ( translated ): the united states and its nato allies are not ready to move toward our key requirements on the nonexpansion of nato. as for the elements for which they say, yes, let's discuss, we note that while these subjects are important and serious, they are secondary icomparison to the nonexpansion of nato. i can see no reason to sit and start the same discussions in the coming d

senators just back from ukraine to get their views, but first nick schifrin brings us up to speed. yiv today ukraine's president volodymr zelenskyy and secretary of state anthony blinken met while staring down the barrel of a gun. >> today there are some 100,000 russian soldiers near ukraine's borders, and in that sense the threat to ukraine is unprecedented. nick: those soldiers are signaling escalation. this week the russian defense ministry released video of troops near ukraine's border practicing the urban warfare they would launch if they invaded. and now russian tanks. and russian troops are arriving in belarus to pomp and circumstance. belarus calls it a surprise readiness check. a senior state department official says they arrived in the guise of joint exercises potentially to attack ukraine. those troops could be launched from just 200 miles north of kiev, joining what us -- u.s. intelligence has identified as four additional locations of russian troops surrounding ukraine's eastern border-for a total of 0,000. >> that gives president putin the capacity, also on very short

here is nick schifrin. >> the u.s.a's top diplomat sickly -- agreed to keep the diplomatic path open. >> we anticipate that we will be able to share with russia our concerns and ideas in more detail and in writing next week. and we agreed to further discussions after that. nick: the russian foreign minister called russia's demands legitimate. >> our concerns are not about the imaginary, but about the real threats and facts nobody is really hiding. stuffing ukraine with weapons, sending hundreds of western military trainers. nick: near ukraine's border, it is russian weapons that are not hiding. the russian defense ministry released video of soldiers training with the tanks they would use to a full-scale invasion. with the russian tanks and troops that arrived this week in belarus, the uss about 100,000 russian troops surround ukraine in a half dozen locations. the troops in belarus are only a few hundred miles north of kiev and could link up to surround kiev. the russian buildup can be seen in satellite photos released

we heard a pretty pessimistic assessment from nick schifrin's guest earlier in the program.president hand lining that? and are the options for him clear at this point? >> um, well, one of the problems of having a marathon two-hour press conference, and especially when, you know, the president is joe biden, is that he, you know, likes to take the american people inside the tent and tell them -- let them know, like, here what we're talking about, and that's what's caused all the consternation with the alliance and also in ukraine. but the fact of the matter is the administration has been clear for weeks now that if russia does anything, there will be severe consequences. even after the president's preference and the administration was doing all sorts of clean up with what the president said, they were back on what they were saying, there will be severe consequences. the challenge now is where the president is going to be if/when russia does something against ukraine, what does it do, and no matter what it does, it better be -- it better be forceful, it better be strong so it d

nick schifrin begi our coverage. >> schifrin: moscow calls them drills, but they sound like preparations for war. russia's defense ministry today released new video of ships and military vehicles on trains deploying toward ukraine's border. these trucks will travel 3700 miles, from russia's east. from the west this weekend, american weapons traveled 4800 miles to land in kyiv. the u.s. says the additional 200,000 pounds of ammunition and other items inside these crates, shows the u.s.' commitment to ukraine. >> schifrin: simultaneously, nato's secretary general, during a press conference with swedish and finnish defense ministers, announced increased alliance support for nato's eastern flank. heading to southeast europe: dutch f-35s and french troops under nato command. heading to the baltics: f-16's from denmark. and deploying to the black sea: spanish ships. >> these deployments are proportionate and in line with our international commitments and they reinforce european security for all of us. >> schifrin: today in a phone briefing kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov used the announcement

for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: microsoft announced plans today to buy activisionzzard, a huge leader in game development in a deal valued at $75 billion. but, the acquisition comes with significant issues-- there have been numerous allegations of sexual misconduct in the activision workplace. geoff bennett looks at those concerns, and what's behind the deal. >> reporter: judy, microsoft is already a major player in the gaming market, an industry generating $175 billion a year in revenue, thanks to its x-box and video game subscriptions. but, acquiring activision will allow microsoft to up its own game during a pandemic-fueled gaming boom. activision is the company behind major hits like "call of duty," "world of warcraft," and "candy crush," and the takeover would make microsoft the world's third-largest gaming company. for more, i'm joined by kirsten grind of the "wall street journal." if you can, put this number the context for us, this $175 billion, the $75 billion acquisition, what does it mean for the gaming industry generally? >> it's huge. it's one of the b

for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: as we end this week of remembrance of the capitolme familiar faces: our own newshour correspondents who were covering the events of january 6. lisa desjardins, who was inside the capitol. amna nawaz, who was outside the building as the crowd gathered. and yamiche alcindor, who was at the white house. the four of us spoke last year in the days following the insurrection for our podcast "america, interrupted," and when we sat down again earlier this week, we talked about how the country hachanged in the year since. lisa, let me start with you. you were inside the capitol, i remember it vividly, as the rioters broke through the glass in those doors. you were eyewitness to the worst attack on the u.s. capitol in 200 years. from a-- from a political standpoint, sa, it looks like a much more partisan even place what does it feel like from the inside? >> desjardins: i didn't think that the capitol could get more partisan than after the 2020 election ended, in 2020, but it has, and-- and i also have to say, a year ago, we all felt these palp

nick schifrin reports. >> schifrin: on the streets of xi'an, the only signs of life are state-mandated tests. as seen on chinese tv, every resident has to test nearly every day. xian's suffering the country's largest community outbreak and its longest lockdown in nearly two years. at first, residents were desperate. ( yelling ) from their windows they yelled, they don't have enough food. their pleas were ignored. a city official says, “as long asou have one grain of rice, stay home.” authorities say they've recently made progress delivering groceries. but shortages remain. >> it's really difficult to find food. it's been difficult to find bottled water. a lot of my coworkers and friends are down to boiling their water. >> schifrin: one american working in xi'an spoke anonymously, for fear of reprisal. he compared his quarantine to solitary confinement. when you say solitary confinement, what do you mean? >> it means that i can't open the door of my apartment. the only time i can leave is to go downstairs and get tested for covid. that's the only time i can leave. and i try to go down t

and as nick schifrin reports, soaring prices have hurt turks from all walks of life. old, the work never ends. he has made a living and supported his family as a janitor for 20 years. but these days, one job is not enough. >> i am trying to find a fourth apartment building to clean. the price increases have affected us a great deal, so i will have to take more jobs. nick:'s newest additional job, at a small grocery store in east eastern will. he takes phone orders, makes produce, and delivers them on an electric scooter. this is his 15th hour of work today. some days he delivers 20 orders a day. >> i am struggling to make ends meet. i am doing a part-ti job out to of necessity. nick: it is a necessity just to feed his family. at the farmers market, he and his wife struggled with what to buy and what to leave. >> can we have a killer of tangerines? >> half a kilo will do. just half a kilo. nick: one pound of tangerines, four pounds of patoes was all they could afford. >> the prices are too high. we cannot afford to buy what we need. in the past i used to buy a lot, coo

nick schifrin reports. nick: the photo-op was tense and silent. u.s.sian negotiators met for 8 hours of bilateral talks, the deputy russian foreign minister sergei ryabkov described as a possible basis for agreement.” >> a professional practical conversation by itself puts us in an optimistic mood of course. but by all means, the main questions remain.speaking to reporters by phone, deputy secretary of state wendy sherman called it a "frank and forthright" preliminary dialogue. >> today was a discussion, a better understanding of each other and each other's priorities and concerns.t was not what you would call a negotiation. nick: the crisis, caused by 100,000 russian troops dloyed to ukraine's borders. the u.s. warns russia has plans to mobilize twice that number and possibly invade. but what the u.s. raised today --mutual limits on eastern european exercises like these, in poland and missile deployments, by reviving the defunct intermediate nuclear forces treaty, or inf, that banned an entire class of nuclear weapons. >> even on things that are not r

nick schifrin explains. : in the city once-divided by the cold war, america's top diplomat warned a that new war risked the values the west had won. sec. blinken: to allow russia to violate those principles with impunity would drag us all back to a much more dangerous and unstable time, when this continent and this city were divided in two, separated by no-man's lands. nick: secretary of state antony blinken met with german foreign minister annalena baerbock and french and british diplomats to try and present a united front. minister baerbock: any further aggressive behavior or aggression would result in serious consequences. this is nothing less than a question of maintaining peace in europe. for us, it is existential. sec. blinken: that unity gives us strength, a strength, i might add, that russia does not and cannot match. nick: but the unity rhetoric doesn't match the reality over how to punish russian president vladimir putin, as president biden acknowledged yesterday. pres. biden: russia will be held ac

nick schifrin has more on the day's developments. moscow today, an effort to save diplomacy. u.s. ambassador john sullivan left the foreign affairs ministry after delivering a written document that secretary of state antony blinken said reiterated a core us-nato principle. >> i can't be more clear, nato's door is open, remains open, and that is our commitment. >> but that is the very commitment russia demands the us break, as it deploys equipment and 100,000 troops to ukraine's border. back in december, russia demanded that nato close its open-door to other european countries, including ukrne, and roll back all its forces and weapons in europe to 1997 levels. giving into that demand would rewrite decades of u.s. and nato policy, and the map. in 1949, nato's eastern border was italy. by 1997, it had added 4 more countries, for a total of 16. since then, it has grown to 30 countries, including those on russia's border. in 2008, nato said ukraine and georgia would become future members. >> there is no change. there will be no change. >>

judy: nick schifrin following developments from every front and i thank you, nick nick: thank you. ♪n investigation is underway tonight to determine what caused a pittsburgh bridge to collapse into a ravine hours before the president visited the city to promote the new bipartisan infrastructure law. seral vehicles including a bus were on the 50-year-old bridge where they came -- caved in this morning. the mayor said there were a handful of injuries. mayor: they are ok. we are just going to continue to hope for the best, and make sure we get this under --together. we are still assessing the situation and getting information about the good thing at this point is there is no fidelity's -- fatalies. judy: mr. biden stopped by the sight before his speech and then first responders and surveyed the damage from behind a concrete barrier. he vowed it to fix the nation's aging infrastructure. pres. biden: this is the first time in the country's history we dedicated a national program to repair and upgrade ridges. it is about time to rebuild the bridge, along with thousands of other bridges in

and as nick schifrin reports, some of their core beliefs, and even their tactics have moved from the am. nick: on january 6th, in a sea of thousands of trump supporters, members of the far-right groups voice descended onhe national mall. among them, matthew greene, who just a month earlier joined the central new york chapter. law enforcement officials say greene and other proud boys, seen wearing ear pieces, were among the first to bargehrough the police line. last month greene became the first proud boy to plead guilty to conspiracy. and he's cooperating with federal authorities attempting to untangle a complex web of planning and coordination. >> i think you would have to be naive to fail to understand how organized these groups were. nick: michael german is a retired fbi special agent who focused on domestic terrorism. he sees january 6 as a culmination. years of activity from the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in charlottesville , virginia, to violent post-election protests in november 2020, that convinced these groups they could act with had impunity. >> these groups were in

for the pbs newshour i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: remarkable >> woodruff: in sudan, this has been one of the deadliest days since october's military coup. security forces in khartoum again opened fire on protesters, killing seven and wounding around 100 others. that makes at least 71 people killed so far, in the near-daily protests. the u.s. and asian allies today condemned north korea's fourth firing of ballistic missiles this month. the south korean military says they were short-range weapons that flew not quite 240 miles, landing in the sea. the north has rejected new talks on its nuclear program until the u.s. drops sanctions. china reports its economy grew 8% for all of last year, but slowed to only half that rate in the fourth quarter. the drop-off came as beijing cracked down on the real estate industry's surging debt. that, in turn, triggered a slump in construction. and, back in this country, charles mcgee, a tuskegee airman who flew combat missions in three wars, died sunday at his home in bethesda, maryland. in both military and cilian life, he faced segregation and rac

nick schifrin picks up the story from here. >> schifrin: judy, this weekend's test was of an intermediate range ballistic missile. north korean media showed photos of the hwasong 12 launching, and entering space. south korean and u.s. officials believe its range is more than 2,000 miles. this test is the most aggressive step in a series of moves that began in september, including multiple short range missile tests in the last few weeks kim jong un's first visit to a munitions factory in years, and repeated tests of missiles designed to improve survivability, such as train launched ballistic missiles. many of these tests break u.n. security council resolutions. but none, so far, has broken kim's 2017 promise not to test another nuclear device, or intercontinental ballistic missile. but north korea has warned its future priorities include larger nuclear weapons, and bigger missiles. what's the implication for u.s. policy? for that we get two views: anthony ruggiero is a senior fellow at the foundation for defense of democracies and was the national security council senior director for count

nick schifrin reports. >> gd to see you. >> schifrin: in the room where it happened, the mingling wasador. >> schifrin: the russian delegation greeted all 30 nato members. >> there you are! >> schifrin: and among nato allies, smiles and uni, during a meeting that was essentially 30 against one. but the calm couldn't close the chasm. deputy russian foreign minister alexander grushko blamed nato and its ongoing support for ukraine. >> ( translated ): it's absolutely imperative to end the policy of open doors and offer ssia legally binding guarantees of further nato's expansion eastward. >> schifrin: deputy secretary of state wendy sherman said russian actions unified nato. >> i think one of the things that russia has done-- which it probably did not expect-- it has brought all of europe, nato and non-nato allies alike, together, to share the same set of principles, the same ambition, the same hopes and the same commitment to diplomacy. ( gunfire ) >> schifrin: diplomacy, to solve a crisis createby 100,000 russian troops deployed to ukraine's borders. the u.s. warns that number could dou

nick schifrin tells us more. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome novak djovoavic!: he is one of the world's most famous athletes, but also one of its most famous vaccine skeptics, as he told fellow serbian athletes on an april 2020 facebook live. >> ( translated ): personally, i am opposed to vaccination. i am curious about wellbeing and how wean empower our metabolism to be in the best shape to defend against imposters like covid-19. >> schifrin: in december, the man who called covid an“ imposter” tested positive, the same day he celebrated his official postal stamp by walking around a museum unmasked. the day after that, he posed for a french magazine. in fact, in late december, djokavic was traing in belgrade, as seen in social media videos and photos, and spain. but on his visa applications, he claimed he had not traveled for two weeks before arriving in australia in january. >> whatever way you look at, novac djovovic is a lying, snaky ( bleep ). >> schifrin: this viral tv clip reflects australian fury at djokovic receiving an entry exemption, while other aust

for the pbs newshour, i am nick survey. -- schifrin reports. >> returning to school after winter break has a struggle in many parts of the country. the overwhelming number of school districts are back in person, but some have gone virtual for a few weeks. and, as stephanie sy tells us, the biggest battle over whether to return to inperson learning has been playing out in chicago. >> students are expected to return to inperson classes in chicago tomoow after nearly a week of canceled classes. the breakdown started last week when the chicago teachers union or ctu said teachers would not return inperson without better covid testing and stronger safety protections for staff and students. mayor lori lightfoot and the chicago public school district said remote teaching was not an option. teachers were locked out from virtual accounts and were not paid. parents have been extremely frustrated with both sides. >> my name is lauren lehman. my son's name is bryson mosley. he is six years old and is in fst grade at newfield elementary. >> my name is ally ward. this is my husband, marcus ward. we l