richard engle is live on the ground in ukraine for us this afternoon. r: i am here in kharkiv, and you can probably hear the air-raid sirens, every night, around this time, there have been air-raid sirens, and there have been some russian attacks, so the russian offensive, and the ukrainian founter offensive are in -- counter offensive are in no way over and coming up after the break i will tell you about the referendums which officials in this country and officials around the world except in russia are calling a sham. ept in russia are calling a sham. [school bells] when pain says, “i'm here,” i say, “so are they.” ♪♪ aleve - who do you take it for? ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ "shake your thang" by salt n pepa power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools, and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities. while an ea

we start with nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engle in ukraine for us. ard, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. president putin is making nuclear threats and he says russia's main enemy is the west which is supplying weapons to rainy and, therefore, he has no choice but to escalate the war here in ukraine. backed in a corner, president vladimir putin put russia further on war footing to try to reverse stunning losses in ukraine. i deem it necessary to support the proposal of the ministry of defense and the general command for partial mobilization in the russian federation, he said. that includes a call-up of reserves new american and european weapons and increased intelligence cooperation, ukraine's military has liberated thousands of square miles from russia over the last two weeks perhaps in response in a seemingly coordinated move four parts of ukraine that are partially or completely controlled by russian troops are now holding votes to become part of russia. the u.s. has called the vote a sham, but it could give russia a pretext to ann