katty: so this is about the ukraine? >> absolutely. the uneasiness that all of our allies have desk they are watching very carefully and are committed to giving the arms needed for the ukrainians to do their jobs. katty: obama has asked congress to authorize the use of military force. he says he has the authority to attack and has a clear support of congress. the u.s. has been carrying out airstrikes this year. john has more. >> the mission has been clearly laid out by the president to degrade and destroy islamic state militants. there is a recognition that this will not happen by air power alone. the president has come to expand the operation. he insists this is not cover for a fresh invasion by ground troops. obabma: it gives us the ability for unforeseen circumstances. if we had actionable intelligence of a gathering of isil leaders and our partners did not have the capacity to get them, i would be prepared to order special forces to take action against i will not allow the terrorists to have a safe haven. reporter: congress has been

weapons for the ukraine. that is the word from president obama as he discussed the conflict with the german chancellor. and james franco tells us how he came to make a film about an and gay man who rejects his homosexuality. -- an ex-gay man that rejects his homosexuality. welcome to the show. president obama and angela merkel have made a show of unity on the ukraine. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> president obama said for now there will be no lethal aid for key have -- for kiev. >> they will be joining chocks -- talks with the ukrainian ministers to de-escalate the conflict. >> sanctions against russia were taking their toll and exerting pressure on president vladimir putin. he suggested there were others that can see the damage being done to the russian economy. ukraine could never defeat russia militarily, even with american help. he stuck to his guns on keeping open the option of sending military ai

and also to sell the fact oil in the ukraine. they manufacture this crisis and it provided the tools for the overthrow of the government. while unpopular, it was a legitimate government of the ukraine at that point. host: sharon in hanover pennsylvania democratic caller. go ahead with your thoughts. caller: yes, good morning. i will like to say to the woman from pittsburgh who called in that if you think it is so easy to just send out military power use it in the president's chair for one day. try it -- you sit in the president's chair for one day. try it. i think we should let the diplomatic people work as hard as they possibly can. after all, france and germany and all those of european nations are much closer to russia then we are. also, i suspect congressional hawks of having fat contracts with weapons producers, as well as using this as a diversion for our own problems in this country. we simply can't arm every hotspot in the world, or we will be bankrupt. thank you very much. host: sharon mentions this diplomatic effort that

the unique aspect of ukraine and the problem for ukraine is that it is not a part of nato and therefore, it has had to fight so far this battle pretty much on its own. the europeans for a variety of reasons don't want to escalate this crisis because yes, it could begin to escalate up to the borders as well. they don't want to do that. >> host: our next caller is carl from oxford, massachusetts. good morning. >> caller: good morning. can you hear me >> host: we sure can. thank you. >> caller: thank you for c-span. i want to say, when i was growing up, my parents had a lot of friends and family who suffered under the soviet union during and after world war ii. i am not a big fan of the russians, but i don't think the united states should pressure putin. he could be a potential ally , and you are getting all these countries involved, getting poland and all of the baltic countries and i am sure mr. pomeranz knows as i do, the united states does not care about ukraine or poland or any of those countries. i linkthink -- i think we should not get militarily involved. >> i think we do care abou

the unique aspect of ukraine and the problem for ukraine is that it is not a part of nato and, therefore, it has had to fight so far this battle pretty much on its own. the europeans for a variety of reasons don't want to escalate this crisis because, yes it could begin to escalate up to the borders as well. they don't want to do that. >> next caller is call from oxford, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me host: we sure can. thank you. caller: thank you for c-span. i want to say, whennists growing up my parents had a lot of friends and family wloe suffered during and after world war ii. i am not a big fan of the russians but i don't think the united states should pressure putin. he could be a potential ally getting poland and all of the baltic countries and i am sure mr. pomeranz knows as i do the united states does not care about ukraine or policy land or any of those countries. i linkthink we should not. guest: i think the sglinings cares about poland and eastern europe and allies. europe is one of the important trade partners. we have been committedto si

that of the u.k., france and china combined. it was massive. which ukraine gave up in exchange for assurances from the united states, from the u.k. and from russia that its integrity and sovereignty preserved. now we see the integrity and sovereignty has been violated. because it gave up nuclear missiles 24 years ago, had the country had the missiles to date, it may not be in a position where it was invaded by russian forces. ukrainians are saying to the united states to the u.k. can we have missiles back to defend ourselves. what will the ukranian army do? in there not be an invasion. they will not invade russia or any other country, they'll be defending themselves. it will be used by the forces to defend themselves the land independence. especially if due to the fact it gave up so much 22 decades ago and is saying to the united states, and to the u.k. this - one has to keep the assurances given two decades ago. >> how do you negotiate with a leader. vladimir putin of russia who doesn't admit that he's helping the ukranian forces. how do you get him to stop

this is something that the country has to do. and ukraine a huge amount of problems that they have to deal with. i mean it's not a completed democracy, it's not a fully functioning market. so the money alone, they need it, we need to give them, we are giving them to them but there also must be an effort there. >> did we lead the ukrainians that the support is more concrete than it has been? >> we did not tell them we would provide the support if the aid was given. england france and for that point russia ensured ukraine's borders. >> in that way they were misled? >> when nato expanded the implicit agreement or the gentleman agreement as you may want to call it ask it would not have expanded beyond the former what is today and in fact in 2008 we wanted to give a road map to georgia and ukraine. >> is there fault on both >> absolutely. >> there is very little fault, the fault is primarily on the russian side because they can order the countries in their neighborhood to do what they want. in moldova and in azerbaijan. >> i have to stop there. f

and the imf pledges $40 billion for ukraine. christine legard says the package is sufficient. >> design the program in such a way that there's enough buffers to accommodate a difficult situation as it stands. >> greek banking shares highly despite a lack of progress on the deal. >> it's a mixed bag of european bank earnings. setting aside further provisions to cover u.s. legal issues but puts it's troubles behind. >> strong european deliveries turbo charge european profits. also pledging to boost earnings going forward. >> you're watching world wide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> the roubl serks trading lower against the dollar. prorussian separatists are refusing to end the conflict in ukraine. meanwhile russia is demanding unacceptable terms. in the last 30 minutes imf managing director pledged for them. we asked if it would effect the ability to reform the country. >> the program is not without risk. we believe it is realistic and we are reinforced in our assessment by the determination, appetit

the moment. >> yes, it's been a growing consensus for helping ukraine. even though it may not have been covered in the news, when it was drafted in committees, it was passed unanimously, there has been a growing consensus. even though you may not have been hearing it in the news, you may not hear them talk about crimea any more, these are discussions happening in the halls of power. we need to keep pushing the leaders of this country especially to do something. these offensive weapons the discussion whether they can be offensive or defensive the weapons really cannot be used in an offensive measure unless you put them in concert with others. the list of supplies for ukraine that they're asking are not primarily weapons. they're counter radars, secure communication, they're field hospitals and medical helicopters, in addition to these anti-tank weapons. now the anti-tank weapons. if they were to get 1,000, we can go war heads but not a thousand javelins. there is something wrong with that. >> there is a long list of countries lining up for pentagon support

ukraine. it is experiencing difficulty. the hungarian minorities feel that many more people are recruited, and i think that this is what we should discuss. there are minorities in ukraine, not just ethnic ukrainians, and we believe they must enjoy equal rights. when the election was held in ukraine, i know that the hungarian minority already asked to draw the borders so that one ethnic community had a chance to get an individual elected to the federal government. so these are real problems that prevent ukraine a from pulling itself out of this crisis, that they are being a swept under the carpet in the west, asking people about what they feel about the law, and i think it is an awful lot. but the question that we stay quite openly, and my partners say that the ukrainian government is not supported right now and it could not be criticized, so that is the end of the discussion, and i sincerely hope that there was influenced taken yesterday by the french president and the russian president and the german chancellor will present it

an agreement on a cease-fire and on a global political resolution to the conflict in ukraine. the cease-fire will begin at midnight on sunday. >> that cease-fire the french president was just talking about is part of the deal that was cobbled together overnight. rob parsons has more from minsk on its chances. >> we do not know all the details yet, and fact we know that not all the details have been worked out yet. this is dealt very much a deal in the course of fruition for stop it has not been completely realized yet, but the outlines of it certainly are they are and most importantly of course there will be a cease-fire beginning on the 15th of this month. by the end of the month, in syria at least all heavy weaponry should be withdrawn from the area of the cease-fire. the detail of that not yet reached, it could be anything between 15 and 30 kilometers. further down the road, we know there will be more talks about what status the breakaway part of eastern ukraine will get. ukrainians apparently sticking in their heels on a question of autonomy for the region, despite enormous

that's a long standing nato relationship with the ukraine and the goal has not been for ukraine to be equipped to carry on offensive operations but to simple defend itself and the president has been very clear he's not interested in escalating violence. he's interested in having his country's boundaries respected by its neighbor. so there's not going to be any specific point at which i say ah you know, clearly lethal defensive weapons would be appropriate here. it is our ongoing analysis of what can we do to dissuade russia from encroaching further and further on ukrainian territory. our hope is that that's done through diplomatic means and i just want to emphasize here once again for the benefit of not just of the american people but for the german people, we are not looking for russia to fail. we are not looking for russia to be surrounded and contained and weakened. our preference is for a strong prosperous vibrant confident russia that can be a partner with us on a whole host of global challenges. that's how i operated throughout my first term in office. unfortunately, russia has

the majority in the areas were in favour of remaining part of ukraine. this is something imposed from outside by russia, it would be possible to have an agreement among everybody, except russia. we have an army scrambling, warned. >> yes, the ukranian military is in a shambles. ukraine needs to become prosperous. it's lost a lot of ground. they are capable of defending themselves, and we need to continue with pressure on the sanctions additional sanction, restricting access to financial networks and transactions to negotiate. >> we have less than a minute. super near term. >> international troops like petro porashenko asking whether it's e.u. or u.n. to stablilize the countries. and happy and input in the country, making more transpirance. no weapons. harder. >> it will backfire in the united states. it's paying for this, for the sanctions on russia and becomes more poor. the economy is not driving. which means that the opposition will grow. it will backfire unless it stays as a last resort. >> great to have you with us. thank you for joining us for this

he is doing the same to ukraine. he sees the counter intelligence office. he is threatens because you get them -- he has threatened can't extend -- people argue that our providing weapons to ukraine would only get mr. putin to escalate. we hope it would deter him. he has a problem at home with russian casualties in ukraine. if he escalates and takes more casualties, he will have less military force. we have to demonstrate to him by sanctions and by providing arms to ukraine that there is a heavy price to pay. >> we will take that extra minute. >> we are going to be very efficient this morning. >> we will work on it. >> we share your angst and frustration. in our view, two wrongs don't make a right. there are three fundamental flaws. one, let's make no mistake. what you are arguing for is a war against russia. we are confident that russia will retaliate. that's a major flaw. second, there is a fundamental conceptual flaw. you have argued that there will be a fire break. there will be no boots on the ground. that's a very uncertain way to deter someone. it sig

one is on the ukraine. i think nondirect military action from the united dates, we had a young officer on the news saying please do not let -- though i think it was very clear they did not want direct involvement from the west on their behalf there that will escalate things and have more people killed and more of the country ruined, bond, and such. >> i think it is important to stress, no one is saying we should their there are no calls for direct military involvement in the ukraine. by us or the west. caller: secondly, the third comment is i think israel, they have nuclear weapons and when it comes to negotiations with iran, they should put that on the table and say, ok, what is israel doing? they cannot on their neighbors so it does not make sense for israel to have lethal weapons. everybody else would not want nuclear weapons either, like iran, we have been struggling with that for years and i think it is a waste of time. host: i love congressmen weigh in on those two issues. guest: i think i dealt with t

the u.s. sends weapons to ukraine - how will it go? >> because american military supply specially weapons, will escalate the conflict because kiev would think that they are back with the u.s. they can go further in attempt to destroy this self-defense forces. >> they will never go beyond the borders of russia. >> no no no that is not the problem. russia as vladimir putin said will not let them to destroy these people in logan's debaltseve. russia will supply arms and send volunteers meaning that the conflict will escalate and the scale of conflict will be bigger meaning it is very i think, short-sited approach to the problem. why i am telling that that washington can stop all this problem. call petro porashenko and say negotiate with these people and solve the problem on the basis of ministerial agreement about the language about the federalization and about the status of the ukraine as a non-global country, which is the simplest thing that one would like to know. >> let me ask you this. you made a point in some columns that a bigger pr

you mentioned the two issues, one is whether to arm ukraine. respond to military incursions by russia. president obama has been reluctant to do that, and angela merkel, whose neighborhood this is in, is extremely reluctant. we just now got the two-minute warning, by the way. and you also have the issue of the new greek government and its request was an adjustment, but the argument against austerity is one that the greek government was advancing. the president of the united states has been advancing with somewhat more umph behind it. so how to loosen those terms, if in fact that will be done, is one of the things on their agenda. >> and michelle, figuring we have a minute or so left before we get to this news conference, you have essentially a game of chicken now taking place between the eu, germany, and greece. >> oh, yeah. absolutely. every day that goes by, we get closer and closer to the possibility of full-on capital controls in greece and even possibly a greek exit from the euro. so, the prime minister of greece made a big speech in front o

>> the next ukraine, i wouldn't say. tug-of-war, more likely. hungary has very close economic relations to russia. as i said, they suffer under the counter sanctions regime, but they also suffer under the scrapping of the south stream pipeline project, which was a prestigious project that would have allowed more gas come from russia to europe. all of that one has to put in perspective, however that, at the end of the day, hungary profits enormously from being a member of the european union in. they have very close economic relations with germany. one has to see that whenever viktor orban will show a redline by eu leaders, he makes sure not across it. >> thank you -- not to cross it. >> thank you very much for that perspective from brussels. >> german chancellor angela merkel enjoyed her visit to budapest. it seems the united states is considering selling arms to the ukrainian government, at least according to "the new york times." >> pro-russian separatists are promising to send someone thousand men to fight. in the last few weeks the ukrainian g

i'm ali velshi, and this is "real money". >>> the fighting is heating up in ukraine, so are the diplomatic efforts to stop it. amid the violence world leaders flocked to sheldon keefekievto show support for the government and show a push to end the conflict. francis hollande and angela merkel announced a peace proposal that they say is acceptable to all. they intend to go to moscow to press their plan, at the same time secretary of state john kerry arrived promising more aid for the ukraine embattled government. john kerry announced a 16.4 million in humanitarian assistance to the ukrainian government, raising the total amount to 38 million. the money will go to people affected by the violence in eastern ukraine, since last year some 5,000 have died in the conflict, and hundreds of thousands fled their homes. kerry wasted no time denouncing russia. the russian president vladimir putin denies the charm. russian military officials charge that russian so-called volunteers moved into eastern ukraine to fight along side the rebels. since last month pitched battles intensified between both sides

and given the length of the russian border with ukraine, given the history between russia and ukraine, expecting that if russia is determined that ukraine can fully rebuffet russian army has always been unlikely. but what we have said is that the international community working together can ratchet up the cost for the violation of the core principle of sovereignty andterritorial integrity. and russia has paid a significant cost for its actions first in crimea and now in eastern ukraine. it has not yet dissuaded mr. putin from following the course he is on. but it has created a measurable negative impact on the russian economy. and that will continue. my hope is that through these diplomatic efforts those costs become high enough that mr. putin's preferred option is for a diplomatic resolution. and i won't prejudge whether or not they'll be successful. if they are successful it will be in part because of the extraordinary patience and effort of chancellor merkel and her team. if they are not, we will continue to raise those costs. >> we will not relent on that. i'm encouraged to the de

after the break we'll speak to former u.s. ambassador of ukraine stephen peifer to get his take. >>> warning signals blaring, a train barreling toward her. why didn't a driver of an suv get off the tracks in time? investigators looking for answers this morning in that very deadly new york train crash. >>> a strong accusation from an al qaeda terrorist. he claims members of the saudi royal family helped pay for the 9/11 attacks. you know what? some american officials seem to agree with him. that's coming up. and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc. the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ ♪ ready for another reason to switch to t-mobile?, how about getting america's best unlimited 4g lte family plan. get 2 lines of unlimited 4g lte data... for just a hundred bucks a month with any smartphone, including the samsung galaxy note 4 for zero

the moment. what is it that ukraine would like to see on the table? >> well, what ukraine and most of us would like to see is for russia to take back its army, to take back its troops and for vladimir putin to stop the murder in ukraine. what we've seen over the last year since february 14 when russian troops landed in crimea, russia denying russian troops, later saying i can't these are our troops, seeing now russian troops and tanks crossing the border into ukraine. that has to stop. 500,000 people have been killed already in 21st century europe and crane as an independent sovereign state its territory has been violated by the fact it's been raided by russia. what ukraine and the world wants is for this invasion to stop was. >>, and ukraine what sort of give is ukraine likely to offer more autonomy possibly in the east? >> well, a year ago i mean, the revolution of human dignity what spard it was ukraine chose a future based on european values. they did not want to be ruled by a k.g.b. style dictatorship under vladimir putin and wanted to move forwar

. >> should the united states intervene by arming ukraine? we will host a debate between retired air force general charles wald, the former-deputy commander of u.s. european command, and university of chicago professor john mearsheimer. then to ferguson, six months after the police shooting of michael brown, more than a dozen st. louis-area residents have filed lawsuits accusing ferguson and a neighboring suburb of creating an illegal debtors prison scheme by targeting african americans with arrests and fines. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president obama says he has not yet decided yet whether to send arms to the ukrainian military to fight russian-backed rebels. obama criticized russia's role in the conflict during a joint news conference at the white house with german chancellor angela merkel. >> unfortunately, russia has made a decision that i think is bad for them strategically, bad for europe, bad for the world. and in the face of this aggression in t

according to the u.n., fighting in ukraine has left 5,400 people dead. since april around a million people have been displaced. we have a report on the deteriorating situation in cesarien. a winning that some may find this disturbing. >> the morgue can barely cope. the majority of the dead here are not separatist fighters. they are civilians in cent people who had no role in this complicate. >> there's a lack of space bodies lion top of each other. we have received 2,800 dead since 13 of marsh last year, 500 bodies since the beginning of the year. 70% are civilians women children people who lived alone. >> as the german and french leaders flew to moscow for another attempt at securing a truce, few people braved the streets of donetsk. the sound of nearby shelling echoed throughout the city. >> we're in a separatist-controlled checkpoint near the airport. the intensity of the shelling and failures of previous cease fair calls show how difficult it is to maintain any truce. >> the facers we spoke to at this checkpoint had little faith in this latest peace e

first and foremost on the situation in ukraine. once again we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington on the very sensitive issue of whether or not the united states should start providing military equipment, lethal aid as it's called, to the ukrainian army. here's what the president and the chancellor had to say. >> i have not made a decision about that yet. i have consulted with not just angela but will be consulting with other allies about this issue. it's not based on the idea that ukraine could defeat a russian army that was determined. it is rather to see whether or not there are different things we can do to help ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of separatists aggression. but i want to emphasize that a decision has not yet been made. >> translator: it was a very good thing to put some costs on to the russians and through these sanctions that we agreed on because we see also that russia seems to be influenced by these. this is why i'm 100% behind

we begin with the west with the bloodshed in ukraine. resident obama this morning. the chancellor favors sanctions if vladimir putin does not agree to end the fighting in ukraine by wednesday. president obama is facing pressure to arm ukraine. something that germany strongly opposes. our frederik pleitgen is live in kiev this morning. there may be differing opinions but unity needs to be done fred. >> reporter: there certainly is. if you ask the ukrainian president petro poroshenko he said it is absolutely key to get some sort of cease-fire agreement. of course there were talks that happened over the weekend. a phone call yesterday between vladimir putin and petro poroshenko of ukraine that involved merkel and the french president where they decided to get the peace negotiations going for wednesday in minsk in the capital of belarus. this indicates the first order of business for the ukrainian government is freezing the conflict. getting the fighting to stop. one of the reasons for that john is because the ukrainian forces are on the defe

i look at what ratcheting up the arms race in ukraine will do. americans are more connected to the internet than before from the fridges to their cars and fitness bracelets. are we sacrificing privacy and safety for convenience. i'm ali velshi, and this is "real money". [ ♪♪ ] >>> fighting in eastern ukraine intensified on two fronts between government forces and pro-russian separatists of the the rebels claimed they surrounded the strategic town of debaltseve and they cut off government forces from rah highway nearby. al jazeera's reporter on the ground said he saw the ukranian troops in a state of disarray. fighting was to the south, near the town of mariupol. something the rebels deny. a volunteer battalion loyal says it captured several villages in the area and pushed forces back to forces with russia. fighting flared up when rebel forces launched on offensive in an attempt to cease mariupol and other areas. the fighting visited more depth and destruction. in all, 5300 people have been killed since violence probing out. a million people in ukr

for more than a year now, we have witnessed in the ukraine crisis that the foundations of the european peaceful order cannot at all be taken for granted. for russia's actions in crimea and eastern ukraine has violated the very foundations of our coexistence in europe. russia shows disrespect for the territorial territory -- of ukraine and their sovereignty. international laws violated. after the horrible war in the 90's we have to witness at again what it means when peace and stability in europe cannot be taken for granted. and the use of force becomes a bitter reality. russia's actions are in stark contradiction to its obligations, example the but a pest memorandum. commitment to which it has committed itself. at the time it was assured by the u.n. in the u.s. and by russia and the territorial integrity of ukraine would be respected and ukraine give up its nuclear capacity and if i remind all of us on talks on the margins of the security conference who would ever give up nuclear capacity if one cannot show and receive the respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty in this is wh

aggressor but the united dates. >> this war is not between ukraine and the rebels or even between ukraine and russia as a whole. it is a war between russia and the west, and eastern ukraine is just the current front line. >> that's exactly what president pugin -- putin now claims, that ukraine's crisis is part of a bigger western campaign to undermine and weaken russia. if he really believes that, then peace may be hard to find. >> on the ground in ukraine, the conflict has claimed the lives of nearly 5500 people since april. it's estimated that around 1.5 million have fled their homes to escape the fighting. the rebels now control much of the luhansk region and donetsk. our correspondent sent this report. >> the rebels of donetsk have created their own police force. this afternoon, they invited us on patrol. these officers used to work for the ukrainian police. they have now swapped sides and uniforms. rebels here have been building up the traveled -- trappings of a state. they've got their own flag, their own border crossings, and the police here are at work, and they will not want to g

. >> the leaders of germany and france arrive in moscow, pushing for peace in the ukraine. >> the u.s. secretary of state is in germany attending the international security conference in munich. >> and a film called taxi shots eagerly and iran captivates our correspondence at the berlin film festival. in russia, england merkel and francois hollande have arrived in moscow. >> the two leaders were in kiev with their proposals and john kerry was also in the ukrainian capital for talks. they say focus should be on a diplomatic solution. >> it shows how high the stakes have become in the ukraine can't act. it is far from certain they will succeed. she sought to play down expectations and ruled out negotiating when it came to ukraine's territory but said it would bring german and european values to the table. >> it's about peace in europe, maintaining it, and national self-determination which is part of that european order. as german chancellor, i will never concern myself with territorial westerns over the head of another country. in this case, ukraine. that is out of the question. >> they

our top story, the push for peace in ukraine. the leaders of france and germany head to russia to appeal to president putin. >>> after days of conflict government forces and rebels agree a humanitarian truce around a key town. >>> debaltseve has become too dangerous to most civilians. most simply decided they have to get out and leave for their own safety. >> thousands of jordanians march through the capital amman in support of their government fight against islamic state. >>> ghana describes its africa cup of nations semifinal against equatorial guinea as being like a war zone after its winning players were targeted by the home fans. >> these are some of the ones i found a mirror a broken plate, and this one of dozens hundreds of stones thrown their way. >>> also in the program, looking at how the ongoing conflict? ukraine is devastating its economy. >> it is a mess. the country is in its deepest recession since world war ii. the value of its currency has fallen off a cliff and the ukraine government is spending $8 million fighti

tylenol®. >>> ending the crisis in ukraine. ident obama and other world leaders trying to stop the violence. the united states considering arming ukrainian military against pro-russian rebels. how will russia respond? we are breaking down the latest. >>> a new huge storm splamlamming the northeast. records could be broken. flights are grounded. schools are canceled. people warned to stay off the roads. the morning commute could be treacherous. we will tell you what you need to know ahead. >>> a big night at grammys. big wins and big surprises. we break it all down. it is coming up. >>> welcome back to "early start." i'm john berman. christine romans is off today. we begin with the west struggling to stop the carnage in ukraine. angela merkel meeting face-to-face with president obama this morning. merkel favors sanctions against russia if vladimir putin does not agree to end the fighting by wednesday. president obama facing pressure to arm ukraine. something merkel opposes. our frederik pleitgen is live in kiev this morning. good

it's not based on the idea that ukraine could defeat the russian army. it is rather to see whether there are additional things we can do to help ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of aggression. i want to emphasize that the decision has not yet been made. one of the bigger issues we are concerned with is making sure the economy is functioning and president porchenko can continue with the reform efforts they have made. i am glad to see that with our cooperation and efforts, we are starting to see a package come together with the imf and the european union and others that can help bolster the european economy so they have the space to continue to execute some of the reforms and anticorruption measures they have made. one of the most important rings we can do for ukraine is help them succeed economically. that is how people on the ground feel this transformation inside ukraine. if that experiment fails, the larger project of an independent ukraine will fail. we are going to do everything we can to bolster that. there is no doubt that if in fact diploma

the austerity. then, of course, there's ukraine. as you saw, pictures moments ago. angela merkel meeting with obama right now to talk about the us' response to putin. that will do for opening bell. thanks for being here. time for varney & company. stuart: good morning, everyone. you remember saying i never get sick. i'll never say that again. being under the weather is so boring especially when there's so much going on. please look at this, how come gas went up sharply? 2.17 a gallon. what's with that? what's with greece now demanding repargses for the nazi -- ukraine give them guns or hit russia with new sanctions. the market is down. we're back. we're live. and british scents accents are considered the sexiest of them all. varney & company is about to begin. ♪ stuart: check the big board. nothing to laugh about. a private joke with kt. the dow jones industrial average down 80 points. chinese imports down 20%. not good for the world's second largest economy. greece plays hardball with germany. are they leaving the eurozone? maybe we'll get a decision fairly soon. ma

ukraine's ukrainians. they wish to enjoy equal rights. when the election was held in ukraine, i know that the hungarian wine already asked to draw the borders so that one ethnic community had a chance to get an individual elected to the federal government. so these are real problems that prevent ukraine from pulling itself out of this crisis, that -- but they are being a swept under the carpet in the west asking people about what they feel about the law, and i think it is an awful lot. why should we state that openly? and my partners say that the -- we believe that the re-cleaning government should be supported right now and it should not be criticized so that , is the end of the discussion and i sincerely hope that there was influenced taken yesterday by the french president and the russian president and the german chancellor will present itself and we would be able to diffuse the situation and start a badly needed national dialogue to address the entire economic and social problems. >> thank you, sergey, we have a huge number of questions, so th

the conversation and. gregg: vladimir putin defies u.s. and western powers in ukrainer next guest says his hold on power may be shaky at best. and then terrifying final moments in the cockpit of transasia a flight to 35. what the pilot tried out right before the plane went down in the river how's the college visit? does it make the short list? yeah, i'm afraid so. it's okay. this is what we've been planning for. knowing our clients personally is why edward jones is the big company that doesn't act that way. what's that thing? i moved our old security system out here to see if it could monitor the front yard. why don't you switch to xfinity home? i get live video monitoring and 24/7 professional monitoring that i can arm and disarm from anywhere. hear ye! the awkward teenage one has arrived!!!! don't be old fashioned. xfinity customers add xfinity home for $29.95 a month for 12 months. plus for a limited time, get a free security camera call 1800 xfinity or visit comcast.com/xfinityhome. speak to a fox news alert, we don't want to forget what is going on in eastern euro

they were principally focused on the conflict in ukraine. you know the president's strategy for degrading ultimately destroying isil is one that continues, that we continue to work closely with the members of this coalition to take the fight to isil and that takes a variety of forms. it means continuing air strikes in syria and in iraq. it means that effort to train and equip the moderate syrian opposition is something that continues. it means we'll continue to work with countries in the region and around the world to try to shut off financing for isil's operations. we can do that in a variety of ways including cracking down on the black market for oil and trying shut off the revenue that isil derives from hostage taking. we're also working with leaders in the muslim world to try to counter some of the radical messaging that we're seeing isil use. you know, they are relying on social media to try to radicalize people around the globe and we're working in a coordinated fashion with leaders around the globe, including people in the muslim world

we begin with breaking news on the crisis in eastern ukraine. a breakthrough in the marathon talks with france germany, russia and ukraine. the parties agreeing to a cease-fire scheduled to take effect this weekend. let's go straight to nic robertson. he joins us live from minsk. this is a big about face from an hour ago when we heard from ukraine's president of no deal. >> reporter: we were hearing the same from the separatist poppy. yes, there is an agreement. 17 hours of talks. the longest president putin has been involved in according to one of his spokesperson. we have few details so far. what we know is cease-fire comes into effect midnight saturday into sunday. there was an agreement to pull back heavy weapons in ukraine. beyond that there is an expectation there will be a zone and they will pull back to new lines on the ground. it is not clear what the positions will be. there is two and a half days left between now and the cease-fire coming into effect. there is continuing reports of military activity on the battle field today. that rema

there are a lot with aggression in the ukraine and the media challenge. there are a lot of overarching challenges. climate change and what that can mean as a genuine national security problem over time. cyber issues. developing rules of the road not just in commerce but in national security for dealing with that whole set of issues. and we are reminded of that with the ebola crisis most recently. that is an area where there has been a great deal of progress over the last two administrations. president bush 43 launched and president obama has continued, making a huge difference in the lives of people in africa and around the world. charlie: is the middle east the highest or does it have a special place for you? bill: it's a part of the world you never have the luxury of neglecting or ignoring. if you look at the challenge and the old order we became accustomed to, a bunch of that is crumbling in the middle east today. you have the phenomenon of failed or failing states, out of which extremist groups like isil emerge. charlie: let's talk about that. the fai

first and foremost the escalating dangerous situation in ukraine. we heard the president say that that option of the u.s. providing military equipment to ukraine, that's on the table, it's being considered but president obama insisting he's made no decision no decision at least not yet. the chancellor of germany angela merkel making it clear she opposes any such military equipment going to ukraine right now. let's go to our senior correspondent jim acosta. he's still there. give us your analysis of what we just heard on the situation in ukraine from the president and the chancellor. >> reporter: a much emptier room here. you heard the president and the german chancellor spend a lot of time during this press conference trying to portray a united front when it comes to this issue of ukraine and russia. if you listen carefully, these two leaders are on very different places right now when it comes to arming the ukrainians. the german chancellor saying she's very much against that idea. the president says the option remains on the table. it's something t