i think terrell jermaine starr is with me. i will check with my control room. trol room? just checking in. i may have lost communication with them as well. let's take a quick break. i've got my control room. all right, i have my control room. i have not lost communication with you. we are trying to determine what's happening, why these folks are not being let off the train. there are people at the end being let off with little children. that may be it, they are trying to let people off the train with little children. that's a big deal here. at least half the refugees have little children. it may be they're pushing everybody to one side so they can get everybody off in an organized fashion. that's the situation where we are at zahony train station here. i'm trying to get to terrell jermaine starr, who is in poland. he's got a lot of stuff to tell us about people he's helping to get out. i think what i will do, i have irwin redlener on the line with me. we're looking at a little boy being helped, riding on his suitcase and that's the story. you told me last week k

you didn't come here prepared for war. >> all right, terrell jermaine starr, we appreciate you taking been doing to help so many people. getting the word out there. we'll stay in touch with you. stay safe. >> thank you. >>> let's talk more about this heavy diplomatic push from the west to bring an end to the war. publicly, vladimir putin is saying there are some, quote, positive shifts in talks with ukraine, but a readout of a call just this morning offered a much more pessimistic view. i want to bring in ambassador william taylor, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, now vice president for russia and europe at the u.s. institute of peace. ambassador, good to have you with us. so, both french president emmanuel macron and german chancellor olaf scholz spoke with president putin today. the french readout says calls for a ceasefire were no a nonstarter. do you have any faith in this french and german effort? can anything helpful come out of this? >> so, i think we have to try. i think it's fine and it's good that the french and the germans made that effort, had a long conversation with pr

. >> reporter: joining me now live from kyiv is terrell jermaine starr.he founder house to the black diplomats protests, and a nonresident senior fellow with the united -- center. he has been in the round ukraine long before the invasion began, reporting in helping people evacuate. terrell, what is the latest on the situation, which you have come to know very well. in a city that you've come to know very well. >> thank you very much. kyiv, tomorrow, lviv right now. one of the things i'm learning about the refugee crisis is that people with disabilities, for example, it is very difficult for people who are immobile, people who are wheelchair band, to get from wherever hospital they, are wherever their homes are, to the north. ukraine, even before the world, it was not handicap excess-able. so before i was here talking with you, ali, i was in communication with someone who is trying to assist. a congolese person he was bedridden. and we were trying to get them out of their situation. also some people who are in kherson. but again, that challenge is that the

one person who has been valuable to the coverage of all this crisis is terrell jermaine starr. nresident fellow at the atlantic council eurasia center. the host of the block diplomats podcast. and he joins me now from kyiv. terrell, good morning to you. you are trying to help people locate some of their colleagues in cities like mariupol. tell me how that works. >> -- friend of mine, took me to the ukrainian banks. wanting to say that he what he was doing was places like mariupol where communications are -- they are trying to look at their friends by calling them, if their phones don't work, finding other ways. but if not calling -- like president biden is actually doing that, actually working to help more people in the investigation, and people with different abilities. >> terrell, it becomes difficult to sustain on this track that you have been on. how do you keep hopeful about this? because you keep running into people who need things, and you are trying to help them get things you are just getting harder and harder to get, for them. >> it depends. right now it is very easy t

. >> terrell jermaine starr, you traveled a long distance toward helping all of our viewers understandyou just said. thank you for spending time with us, and please, please stay safe. >> thank you. >>> when we come back, president biden is looking to ratchet up the pressure on vladimir putin. and any country that might consider helping him. a closer look at the president's diplomatic efforts is next. >>> plus new developments in the case of basketball superstar brittney griner, whose detention in moscow has been extended. now u.s. officials say russian authorities aren't letting them meet with her. >>> and later, democrats are increasingly trying to link ukraine's struggle for democracy with the fight for the right to vote and protect our democracy here at home. just this week, republicans took new and extreme steps to criminalize nonexistent voter fraud, and it comes against a backdrop of next week's supreme court confirmation hearings. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. sfloemt use" continues teafr a quick break. sfloem everything i need to make my home totally me.