wendell goler reports from the white house, which is not considering military options. fbn's maria bartiromo looks at the economic impact worldwide. brit hume on the politics and policy involving vladimir putin and president obama, but we begin with amy kellogg in the ground in kiev. hi, amy. >> hi, bret. people in this city less than two weeks literally gave their lives for the future of ukraine. a future free of the russian orbit, a future with a tilt towards the west, but day by day now they're seeing their gains clawed back by russia. not necessarily, bret, here in the capital, but definitely in crimea, over which russia has complete operational control. even so, russia is not stopping. grabbing the border posts at a ferry crossing between russia and ukraine. it then used it to bring several truckloads of soldiers into crimea. this begs the question, what next? russian soldiers still not wearing the markings of their own army but rather in generic army greens, all be it, driving vehicles with russian plates have not revealed the end game as they surround ukrainian s

wendell goler on a problem-filled countdown to zero hour at the white house. james rosen with one state and it's appearing to head back to square one nearby, but we begin with chief national correspondent jim ingle with analysis of the numbers spin from the administration. good evening, jim. >> hello, bret. well, the obama administration is claiming victory in its long, painful struggle to sign up consumers for health care. >> we are seeing a surge in enrollment, more than 6 million people have signed up. a remarkable statement given where we started back in october. >> so carney offered no specifics, a broader look at enrollment shows less of a triumph than claimed. first, the administration has to substraekt those who signed up but haven't paid premiums meaning they're not officially enrolled. >> we had kind of three months of strong enrollment. they were heartened by the fact they had about an 80% payment rate, but again, that did not come from us. >> insurance analysts and surveys agree, if only 80% of the 6 million total are paying, then the officially en

white house correspondent wendell goler on laying the groundwork for annexation and even more confrontation with the west. >> a day after a suspect secession vote by the people of ukraine's crimean peninsula, president obama issued another warning. >> the future of ukraine must be decided by the people of ukraine. that means ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected, and international law must be upheld. >> u.s. officials say in some parts of the peninsula, the number of people voting for secession xeeted the total population, but the main criticism was that the vote didn't involve the rest of the people of ukraine. still, as russian president putin declared crimea sovereign and independent, u.s. and european options seemed limited. the american assets of ukraine's ousted president and ten russian officials were frozen. urine planned to act against twice that many. arguably the toughest anti-russian sanctions since the end of the cold war, but analysts say they're unlikely to force putin to reverse the decision. >> score one for putin here, for sure. his calculation

we're going to go to wendell goler at the white house with the latest. us up to speed, please. all right. do we have wendell? wendell, can you hear us? >> i can hear you now. >> thank you. bring us up to speed, wendell. >> the announcement came down maybe 15, 20 minutes ago, the president would speak to us here in the white house briefing room. it came after ukraine's

we're going to go to wendell goler at the white house with the latest. bring us up to speed, please. all right. do we have wendell? wendell, can you hear us? >> i can hear you now. >> thank you. bring us up to speed, wendell. >> the announcement came down maybe 15, 20 minutes ago, the president would speak to us here in the white house briefing room. it came after ukraine's u.n. ambassador announced what he called russian groupies had seized control of the two major airports in crimea. earlier today, press secretary jay carney had refused to confirm report that russian forces had seized control, not only of the airports but of a couple of the buildings in crimea. remember, this is an area that is predominantly ethnic russian. very much sympathetic to moscow. perhaps even more so than to the government in kiev. so we're awaiting the president. his advisers, secretary of state kerry, national security adviser susan rice, have said that -- have warned russia against intervention in the affairs of ukraine, but there's been no indication how the u.s. might res

white house correspondent wendell goler on righting a wrong. >> 24 servicemen from world war ii, koreaetnam, were giving the nation's highest military award, the medal of honor. three were alive to receive it. he was wounded several times in vietnam in 1969, recovering the body of a fallen fellow soldier. the two world wars were long of before the army asked why no black soldier husband been given the medal of honor in either of them. racial prejudice was found to be the reason. incredible valor was overlooked. >> running into bullets, charging machine gun nests and climbing aboard tanks and taking them out. covering their comrades so they could make it to safety. >> the first president bush made corporal freddy stolers the first black world war i medal of honor winner. they pinned a medal on lieutenant baker. lieutenant morris feels an american wrong is being righted. >> we're not perfect. if someone stepped up to the plate and said we need to go back and look at things, that's being done, i'm very proud of that. >> in fact, the study found hispanic and jewish heroes were also passed

wendell goler on a problem-filled countdown to zero hour at the white house. james rosen wi

wendell goler has more on that. >> reporter: the president is being briefed regularly on the search,ffort. the f.b.i., faa, national transportation safety board all involved. the 7th fleet has offered a couple of long-range planes to go out and look at the new debris the satellite picked up and another u.s. search plane said to be looking in the bay of bengal near india. the australian search involves the poseidon, a top of the line plane that not only has a long-range, it's able to search for things that are actually under water. president obama talked a bit about the search in an interview with fox affiliate k dfw yesterday. >> we have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process. there has been close cooperation with the malaysian government and so not just ntsb, but f.b.i., anybody who typically deals with anything related to our aviation system is available. >> reporter: white house spokesman jay carney says the malaysians are leading the search effort, but suggesting they're working better with agencies from other countries than they were when

wendell goler is live with the more on the top story today. >> reporter: jenna, timing is everything. timing of the computer problems for the affordable care act has been nothing but terrible with failures at the start and on final day. that is giving critics ammunition and lack of specifics from the administration. they say the mix of young and old enrollees is good but they're not specific what that is. 80% of the people paid their premiums though the administration is not releasing precise numbers on that either. wyoming republican senator john barosso is skeptical. >> i think they're cooking the books on this. people want to know the answer as to that. once all this is said and done what kind of insurance will those people actually have? will they be able to keep the doctor they want? how much more will it cost them. >> reporter: centers for medicare & medicaid services which administers the website said it wasn't a surge in volume over the weekend that caused problems. but with time running out traffic went up tomillion users a day. the software managers found a bug during regula

wendell goler standing by with that story. were overlooked for the medal of honor, the nation's highest military award because of racial prejudice. a study found actually no black soldiers in world war two had been awarded the medal of honor despite several recommendations. the army segregated then. actually the first black world war 1 medal of honor winner wasn't named until 1991. in 2002, congress called for a review of jewish american and hispanic american war records to insure that they, too, weren't denied the medal because of prejudice. the study found nonethnic soldiers who were also deserving. 21 of the medals will be awarded host humusly today. staff sergeant melvin morris will be here to receive his for courageous actions as a green beret in 1969. >> this is overwhelming. this is a special honor. i never knew it was coming. i never even thought about it. but i think it's such a wonderful thing that that's being looked at now. we're not perfect. someone stepped up to the plate and said we need to go back and look at th