Morning News NOW Full Broadcast - Feb. 24

[Music] good morning i'm joe fryer and i'm savannah sellers we begin this hour with the military invasion that's currently unfolding in eastern europe the russian attack on ukraine that's right we're hearing from an adviser to ukraine's president zielinski that at least 40 ukrainian soldiers have so far been killed this morning after russian president vladimir putin launched an all-out assault on multiple cities across the eastern european nation overnight we're now hearing reports of cruise missile strikes in the capital of kiev as well as troops landing in the port city of odessa and just in moments ago ukraine's interior ministry is reporting russia has seized control of a cargo airport in kyiv we'll bring you more on that shortly now this all started just minutes after president putin appeared on russian television announcing the commencement of military operations ukrainian officials say tanks and other armored vehicles caught on camera here you can see entered the country early this morning take a step back for a second moments before putin took to the airwaves there was this heated exchange at an emergency meeting of the u.n security council the russian president declared the war on the record should i play the video of your president do not interrupt me please thank you then don't ask me questions when you are speaking proceed with this proceed with your state anyway you declare the war it is responsibility of this body to stop the war so i call on every one of you to do everything possible to stop the war in washington meanwhile president biden spoke with his ukrainian counterpart overnight and reiterated his support for a nation under attack calling putin's move in a white house statement quote unprovoked and unjustified while vowing to meet with g7 allies later today to discuss more severe sanctions against russia let's get to the ground nbc news 4 and correspondent matt bradley is in kharkiv ukraine for us nbc news reporter matt bodner is in moscow matt bradley let's start with you you are in one of the cities targeted by strikes overnight what is the situation like on the ground where you are well the situation now is kind of static at least in the center of the city we've seen some footage some images from supposedly and i have to couch everything is supposedly here but from just outside of the city where we're told that uh that there are tanks that have essentially stopped armored vehicles uh and that they have set up checkpoints and they block traffic uh so this is something that shows that they're not necessarily moving into the city however we have seen some of the results of those airstrikes that it looks like did in fact at least in one case here target a civilian apartment building and might have resulted in at least one civilian death we don't have the details on that all of this is still so murky guys uh but then we've also heard from the ukrainian government they managed to set at least four tanks or armored vehicles on fire outside this city uh so you know it's always it's a very fluid situation a lot of this is being sort of uh obscured by the fog of war uh we haven't had the chance to go out and really check the situation of course it's way too dangerous to go north uh the russian border is only about 25 miles north from where i am now uh but right now we're continuing to hear every once in a while the sound of explosions bomb blasts in the distance just recently just about an hour ago we heard them a little bit closer but for now the streets of this city are empty most of the shops are closed those that are open i've seen long lines waiting for people to buy products banks and atms are seeing long lines of people struggling to take out money so this is a situation that right now is tense and quiet and everybody here is waiting for it to get a lot worse guys and matt bradley before we get to matt bodner i do want to ask you you had some interesting reporting a few hours ago that you know people are wondering are there troops on the ground there what does it look like on the streets of the city you actually said that the city's police force was spreading out fanning out across the city are you still seeing that and what do you think that would be for i mean that doesn't seem like the plan would be for them to meet with soldiers on the ground but what do you anticipate there yeah i don't think the police are hoping to post up a defense against the russian regular army uh but you know i think one of the concerns here and one of the concerns that we've seen in the past couple of years in in ukraine is that people will take advantage of the chaos and start looting stores and things like that so we are seeing the police out in force like i said guys i i can't give you too accurate of an impression of what's going on around us i wish i could i've been pegged to this camera um but and also there's just the danger of walking around too much and dispersing our team throughout the city absolutely but i hope to get you more details as they come to us of course we want all our teams to stay safe matt bottner i want to ask you i mean president putin now calling this a special military operation what can you tell us what is he saying is the justification for this attack and i know we're hearing from the kremlin spokesman who's saying the goal is neutralization of ukraine's military potential can you elaborate more on that what do we think the goal is for russia right now thank you joe well on the one hand they say that as you said the goal is to essentially neutralize the ukrainian military but it's also to denazify as they've been describing uh the ukrainian government they're describing this to russians uh and to some extent also ukrainians that they are uh a liberating force from from essentially an oppressive nazi government there's really no other way that's that's what they're saying so what we're seeing so far uh as matt bradley said uh it is actually quite difficult to understand what's happening on the ground but it is clear uh that there are the very least cruise missile strikes there are some other reports of various other uh military activity but the goal at this phase does appear to be uh as mr peskov said neutralization of the ukrainian military but also a very important point something that's really striking to me right now in russia is is is control of the narrative is really important uh you know when president putin got on television early this morning by the way before really moscow had woken up uh he didn't describe this as a war declaration he was announcing the start of a special military operation you mentioned this throughout the day we have seen uh continued insistence from the russian defense ministry that everything is going fine there are no russian casualties they've not lost any russian helicopters any russian tanks any russian soldiers the ukrainian military not putting up a fight they're laying down their arms and abandoning their positions in large numbers they're telling ukrainian soldiers uh that if they put down their arms they will not be fired on and the key narrative element so far uh from my perspective here uh is this uh continued insistence that russia will not fire on cities and will not fire on civilians so they are taking i think uh really they're going to great lengths essentially to frame this in a certain way to the russian public which i have to say uh seems to be in a state of shock they they i've not talked to a single person uh that is in any way in favor of what we're seeing actually happen uh right now what little we can really understand about it uh and i you know like we saw we saw the kremlin spokesman dimitri paskov insist that this is that the public supports this i've seen absolutely no evidence of that so uh i think that the kremlin's probably aware of that that's why the narrative control is so important russians uh i'd say like any society really are really kind of averse to casualties but there's a particularly strong memory uh of for example uh of the soviet war in afghanistan of of casualties in in the two wars in chechnya so they definitely need this to look clean they're insisting that this is being conducted with precision precision weapons they're not really acknowledging that there is a broader operation going on if you watch russian state television it looks like it's just a peacekeeping operation in donbass so there's there's definitely a narrative battle being waged as well yeah we should know ukraine is pulling out information saying their enemy is suffering losses putting out information on planes and helicopters that have been downed in ukraine so you're seeing a different story coming from ukrainian officials and such important context there from the ground matt bodner that you have not heard from anyone who supports this matt bradley let me go back to you and talk about a little bit about what ukraine is planning to do here to defend themselves i mean one of the things we've been hearing this line of reporting that civilians are taking up arms we also know overnight as you mentioned ukraine has declared martial law this morning president zolonski issued this rallying cry to people people are enlisting in real time i mean tell us about that about these civilians who are getting involved and is ukraine really prepared for an attack of this scope with that being part of their strategy here i mean the short answer is no they certainly are not prepared their military is much better than it was the last time the russians invaded back in 2014 but it's still not strong enough to face off against what's thought to be the second most powerful military in the world i mean that's impossible for almost any other country in the world too but civilians will almost certainly play a role in this because we saw them playing a role back in 2014 these so-called territorial defense forces they were mobilized back in 2014 because the military then essentially crumbled in the face of that russian invasion and now those territorial defense forces have been told to be armed up zelinski said that last night and just today zielinski said that he would give a gun to anybody who wanted it anybody who would fight so we know that civilians are in play whether or not huge numbers of them will participate probably not in the first days of fighting but if the russian if the ukrainian military doesn't persist in the first few days of fighting that's widely anticipated and a lot of defense officials former defense officials and current defense officials that i've spoken to have said that the real strategy the only viable strategy is for if russia continues this blitzkrieg into the country is for a sustained occupation that will be fought with a guerrilla-style tactic with an insurgency the kind that we saw used against the american military in iraq and afghanistan that is the most likely scenario and that will probably while it might be led by regular ukrainian military civilians are likely to be involved they're already being called up matt bottner there's also a propaganda war that's happening here how is russian media covering this and do we have an idea of what level of support within russia there is for this invasion yeah so so i kind of alluded to this but um basically you're seeing a direct opposite of what we're hearing from the ukrainians there and and and you know uh on russian state media right now so one thing that keeps happening is you know i'm looking at it right now they continue to loop president putin's uh uh address this morning basically the declaration of war and they're spacing it out with reports from russian state media reporters exclusively in donetsk in luhansk we're not seeing any images uh in in the state media uh from beyond that region so if you're only getting your information from russia 24 for example this looks like the peacekeeping operation that you've been told about and you're continuing to hear reports of ukrainian military attacks on civilians uh there was just a story they ran just a few minutes ago about a ukrainian rocket strike on a civilian shipping vessel in the sea of azov obviously not something we can confirm but it's in the russian narrative uh and and so again there's there's all this and i mentioned how uh uh uh we don't see popular support for this we're actually starting to see a lot of like russian celebrities and artists and thinkers come out and just express shame and dismay at what's taking place i think for a lot of people this is just setting in we don't know where this is going to land in terms of russian public opinion but it does not look popular at the moment matt bodner and matt bradley thank you so much for your reporting from the ground we'll be checking in with you throughout the morning we're going to bring in former u.s ambassador to ukraine john herbst who joins us now he was ambassador from 2003 to 2006 and is now the senior director of the atlantic council's eurasia center so ambassador first we just want to get your reaction to what we're seeing here overnight and this morning as someone who is focused on bolstering u.s ukrainian relations and preserving fair elections help us understand the magnitude of all this and what do you think we're going to see over the next few days look my concern about this is as an american and we have a vital interest in a stable and secure europe our prosperity and our security is tied to that putin is shaking that security with this invasion of ukraine and we need to stop him because he's made clear in all of his interactions including his latest speech that he wants to go after the countries that used to be part of the soviet union and that used to be part of the warsaw pact and those include our nato allies estonia latvia lithuania poland the czech republic you see them all on your screen right now so we have to help ukraine stop putin in ukraine um sanctions which we put down two days ago were strong but we need to use all of our strengths and sanctions power we have to kick russia out of the swift financial system we have to sanction russia's central bank and we need to make sure that a steady supply of american arms continues to go into ukraine even as russian troops are there we should not fight in ukraine this is ukraine's fight but we must give ukraine every single weapon they can use in order to defend itself as uh matt bodner pointed out the russian people not interested in this russian casualties will be a major problem for putin as will will be the sharp decline in the russian standard of living as our sanctions hit russia we also need to do major information operations into russia sending pictures of the russian missile attacks on the cities of ukraine i i want to ask you about something that you just mentioned about not fighting in ukraine not fighting for ukraine but providing them with these weapons we're hearing so many reports we just spoke with matt bradley about the fact that many of these are civilians who are enlisting civilians who are being passed out guns i mean when you say pass on these weapons how do you see this playing out and do you think if we were to provide those materials essentially that that ukraine is able to do this especially with who it would be that's fighting i mean what do you think this looks like in terms of what they're up against um there's no question that russia's conventional military is the strongest in europe by far ukraine's military is now competent but no match for the russian military so putin can seize any place in ukraine that he wants but he doesn't have enough forces to occupy the country and actually pacify it and if he tries to do that if he tries to hold large chunks of ukraine then not just the ukrainian military which will be severely battered but ukrainian citizens will take up arms there was a seven year insurgency in western ukraine after world war ii against the soviet union and the soviet union was far more powerful than russia is today ukrainians will fight they've demonstrated that repeatedly in their history and moscow will have a major problem on his hands ambassador help us understand especially for those who are maybe this week kind of starting to actually pay attention to this and don't understand what's happening in the region what is at stake here why is it that you as an american are so worried about this look a big wars between major powers kill lots of people destroy lots of wealth 400 000 americans died during world war ii at least 70 if not 80 million people worldwide died during world war ii since world war ii we established the nato alliance we established the u.n and many other institutions which have provided a framework for international relations which has prevented war between major powers putin is now shaping that shaking that framework this is the first major power operation in europe of aggression since world war ii and putin's designs go after our nato allies just look at what he said on monday look at those ridiculous treaties he sent to us to sign in december he has his designs on again the baltic states poland romania and so on we will defend them with troops so in ukraine we're not going to defend the country with troops let's make putin's life miserable in ukraine that's the idea ambassador you just touched on this but also tell us about your concerns just for the european region i mean you've laid out your concerns as an american what this means for us but what do you think this actually means waking up there today well it's much more dangerous than europe and western europe european powers have had their heads in the sand as putin has launched his launches aggression in ukraine in 2014 and his aggression in georgia in 2008 but what putin is doing in ukraine is a direct threat again to the baltic states to poland to all the eastern european members of nato and of course if putin were to move on them after conquering ukraine this would create a great danger for germany and france and so on we've been rather weak in responding again to russian aggression for 15 years now is a time for a strong united western stance major major sanctions on russia kill their economy or hit it severely which means their military will grow weaker over time their public as again your correspondent moscow made clear are not interested in a war of aggression against ukraine so russian casualties are a major problem for putin a declining russian economy is also a major problem for putin let's make his life in ukraine extremely difficult we expect to hear from president biden some time today speaking to the american people what's the message you want to hear from the president um i would like him to sound like me but a bit more presidential uh if he if he projects strength and the white the right policies he has the ability to pull our nato allies and our european partners along and again to impose severe severe costs on moscow for this blatant aggression in ukraine such costs in fact putin will fail former ambassador herbs thank you so much for joining us this morning we appreciate your perspective and your analysis of what's happening my pleasure thank you very appreciated thank you now let's bring in nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell in washington and let's pick it up right there of course with the president kelly good morning so we know president biden has been in touch with ukrainian president zielinski overnight he also blasted putin for choosing a quote premeditated war i mean what else is the white house saying what do they have planned for today what's the next step here in terms of sanctions well it's obviously been a very tense night and a tense start to this day so the president has been getting updates from his top national security team that has been going on and of course uh velodomsky reached out to the president and he asked for help getting the international community to support ukraine and so the president did have a conversation with him we know that the president will also be speaking with g7 leaders this morning that's critical because getting everyone on the same page and there's been a lot of unity with the us and european allies so far getting them to be ready for this next set of steps will be critical obviously this is europe's backyard and so having them coming together with one voice is certainly critically important at this point so what we expect is the president with his intelligence will be getting assessments about what has been happening on the ground sharing that and comparing that with the european leaders and the g7 partners who will also be getting their information coming in putting that together in this meeting this morning then the president will address the public the american people and that's where we expect to hear about this next level of sanctions and there are certainly many calls from the political world for the president to go to the full extent of sanctions we've been asking those questions how far will these sanctions go and we don't yet know how far the president is prepared to go but he has said that there should be a very stiff very costly very painful economic and really exclusion from the world community level sanctions against vladimir putin for these actions so we are checking in with white house officials obviously there have been people who've been up all night the situation room remains active through the night and allowing the president to get information uh from all different sources and and to be in touch with uh the pentagon and with state department and uh certainly all the key players around the world and so that meeting this morning with the g7 is critical and then finding the right words to address the american people the president's talked about ukraine a couple of times now now some of the predictions and intelligence that he warned about is real it is happening it is unfolding and for the president to explain what comes next what some of the the realities for the american people will be what some of the requests of the american people will be that's really what will be a real test for the president today joe savannah kelly do we get an idea of if the president and if the west has any worries about belarus as well and whether some sanctions could also be directed there because of any role they've played in helping russia with all this well we've seen that belarus has been in in really in league with russia uh they are independent but there is a partnership between their president and vladimir putin we've seen already uh some sanctions levied against at least one bank in belarus how much more will go is unclear to me right now but certainly that would be within the realm of possibilities and certainly the officials who are looking at ways to try to respond to this will do so we saw in the first tranche of uh sanctions that it was targeting those first two areas that vladimir putin had identified as now separate entities so they were trying to target there so it certainly stands to reason that belarus would also be in the crosshairs for additional sanctions some have already been included in terms of again the trying to the financial abilities of these countries their powerful oligarchs their financial systems those kinds of things so we're seeing some of that happening already how broad it will be will be one of the questions we'll be following joe savannah kelly i want to ask you a similar question to what i just asked the former ambassador and the term you used i mean this is europe's backyard i love how you put this i mean what are the white house's concerns for any ambitions beyond ukraine and what's what is their concern for just the situation in europe right now well wars have a way of not going as planned and there are consequences that are hard to foresee and there are dangers and threats that can spill over and vladimir putin has more nuclear weapons than any country in the world and he has been threatening that uh there can be spillover effects uh that can take hold and if you're a student of history you can see that aggression tends to not find uh an easy endpoint it tends to spread and so there's real concern about what happens in europe and the us has what the president calls often a sacred obligation to protect nato countries and there are nato countries that border russia that's part of what has angered vladimir putin so if you're looking at estonia and poland and so forth that are nato countries uh that there is an obligation to protect and defend so you're seeing already the u.s is sending additional military personnel equipment resources there european partners will as well expect more plussing up of those military resources to send a signal to putin that there will be defenses there in the european countries these are the early days hard to know where it's going but certainly trying to send a sense that there is a strong defense uh nato is a defensive organization and they're going to try to show their muscle uh to give putin at least some pause about what his intentions may be so these are really tense unpredictable times kelly o'donnell thank you so much we'll check in with you a little later let's now head to western ukraine and the city of la vie which has been seen as a relative safe haven really in the country given its location nbc news correspondent cal perry is there for us now cal good morning so of course first we're just wondering what's it like on the ground where you are and is this still considered a safer part of the country or are there fears that this conflict is even going to spread there well for now i think for now it's considered a safe haven is still considered that sort of fallback position as people now um certainly are fleeing the capital as we continue to receive these reports that russian forces are moving closer and closer to the capital 18 miles now at an airfield we understand that they've taken from the capitol and as my colleague aaron mclaughlin was reporting those explosions taking place we started to see the highways fill up as people started to make their way west this is a city about 700 000 people there's not a lot of room here which is why you're going to start to see international humanitarian organizations step up look the reality here is civilians are going to flee this is going to change the face of europe we had a refugee crisis in europe in 2015. this could quite likely rival that depending on how far this crisis widens now to your question about the city here things are still calm though there is so much misinformation happening and the russians are intentionally putting out misinformation that is part of their warfare tactics there were sirens that rang in this city earlier this morning but it seems to have been uh for not it seems to have been that there was not strikes nearby the city but again this is part of what folks here are dealing with on the ground so much misinformation and so much questions about what is happening and how wide this conflict is really going to get cal you mentioned all those images we've been seeing of cars lining up to try and get out of key people trying to flee where they are in ukraine and many are expected to head to places like where you are in la vie you touched on this but how prepared is that city for an influx of refugees and maybe help us understand for those who are trying to flee for those who are refugees is there an option then from there for them to get out of ukraine entirely how would that work that's going to depend on the countries that bore ukraine obviously right so you look at moldova to the south people are certainly going to head that direction because it's an easy way out from where the fighting is they hope you know we'll see how these borders are here to the west you have poland certainly the americans are going to be let through that border uh very quickly the polls have said that they will allow americans to pass even without a cova test here in the city of la vie of officials have said they're going to do what they can to house as many what will be at the beginning internally displaced refugees internally displaced persons excuse me idps as they can but again you know when you look at 2015 it's very instructive because it changed politics in europe so many countries went to the right britain left the european union in in large part um over a campaign that included refugees um this is going to be the concern as we move forward not not just the violence but how this country sort of reshapes itself and and how much of a movement we see again 44 million people live in this country most of them are going to want to get away from the violence they will come to places like levi where i am but again this is a city that is going to fill up fast that just does not have the resources to house um thousands even tens of thousands of people and that is why i think you'll see more from the 82nd airborne in poland you'll see more from the international red cross you'll see more from these ngos that will try to set up camps and brace themselves as best they can for an incoming influx of people cal perry in that detail about even passing without a covet test reminding us of the other global crisis that we've been going through cal perry thank you so much and we'll be right back after a quick break [Music] we're staying on top of the breaking situation in ukraine russia has launched attacks on multiple cities so we want to get you caught up on the timeline of events that has transpired so far yeah around 10 o'clock last night u.s time russian president vladimir putin delivered a tv address and said that russia would be conducting military operations in ukraine you can see that there about 15 minutes later nbc news teams heard explosions in the ukrainian capital of kievan you can see some of the aftermath of those explosions on your screen at 10 25 pm president biden released a statement strongly condemning the russian attacks saying in part russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring the united states and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way a little after six o'clock this morning an adviser to ukrainian president zielinski said at least 40 ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the attack so far u.s troops stationed in europe are on high alert this morning as russia moves farther into ukraine nbc news global security reporter dan deluse joins us now so dan catch us up here where do things stand at this hour in terms of how american troops are positioned in eastern europe we know they're not going to go into ukraine but what is their job now well they have a number of missions and one of them is is symbolic and some of them are concrete the first is really a message to russia not to attack nato and all nato members especially those on the eastern flank that border russia and some of those nato member states have very bad history with russia and they very much wanted reassurance and so the u.s and some other members of nato have sent forces troops helicopters equipment to the baltics to poland to romania all of those eastern european countries inside the nato alliance now there's also the possibility that some of those u.s troops the 82nd airborne has elements in poland they could be helping with this likely refugee influx that we could see coming from ukraine into poland and into the west and it's possible the u.s soldiers there would help out with that and then also we should i should mention nato had an emergency meeting this morning and the officials there uh reaffirmed that they would continue to flow forces into eastern europe to deter russia from uh trying in any way to move beyond ukraine into the east and uh there was also an appeal from the baltic governments to arm the ukrainian forces as much as possible to help ukraine defend itself so dan just to underscore what we're talking about here i want to play white house press secretary jen saki reiterating the biden administration's stance on sending troops into ukraine as we're just discussing and then we'll talk on the other side let's listen we are not going to be in a war with russia or putting military troops on the ground in ukraine fighting russia the president has been crystal clear and consistent he is not sending us troops to fighting ukraine that has not changed so dan a few questions for you here i mean picking up on what you were just saying is there any chance any indication we could change course on that is this solely now about fortifying our nato allies but then also you know one of the things that we keep hearing from every reporter that we ask on the ground there is what is this like civilians are taking up arms in ukraine and we pretty much hear that they're not a match for the russian army so if ukraine is essentially fighting this alone what does that ultimately mean if we're not going in if other countries are not going in and and that's what their force looks like compared to russia's i mean yes ukraine is in a very challenging situation to answer your question there is no chance at this point that the u.s or any of the nato member states are preparing in any way or considering sending forces into ukraine that is clear uh now there is a remote possibility if this conflict continues to unfold and perhaps escalate there is always the risk of an inadvertent clash or collision where perhaps by accident a stray missile or aircraft or naval warship in the black sea has some interaction with with a us or a nato aircraft or ship and there could be a misunderstanding but there is a communication channel between the us and russia and at the moment that's considered to be a remote possibility but in terms of ukraine and fighting russia they cannot win uh in a straight head-to-head match-up that's true their military is no match however it is possible that they could fight a kind of resistance depending on where russia tries to deploy and how much of the territory it tries to control it's not clear that russia could occupy or control large swaths of that country or that fierce resistance from ukraine dan de luz stan thank you so much we appreciate it we want to go right to nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel who is in eastern ukraine richard good morning to you what can you tell us well i'll just pick up what dan was just saying right now because it seems that the russians are uh very aware of the fact that occupying this country could potentially be very costly so about nine hours ago this military campaign began ukraine says it's been attacked from three sides from the north east and the south but so far it is military targets that have been hit and the government remains firmly in control of all the main population centers and the big cities russia overnight launched its long-anticipated attack on ukraine striking military posts across the country an unprovoked war in europe is now underway the assault began with an angry message from president vladimir putin broadcast in the middle of the night russia cannot feel safe develop and exist with a constant threat emanating from the territory of modern ukraine he said describing the government in kiev as a junta of neo-nazis determined to build nuclear weapons as putin spoke seemingly on cue russian bombs started falling crews and ballistic missiles ukrainian officials said along with attack helicopters striking military installations including air bases near the capital kiev and more military targets in several other ukrainian cities including kharkiv the biggest city in eastern ukraine russia claimed to have eliminated much of ukraine's defenses but the russian reports appear exaggerated several videos showed what ukrainian officials described as columns of russian tanks entering ukrainian territory a potentially devastating war in ukraine has just begun but so far it appears to be a gradual assault putin who said he does not want to occupy the country may be trying to take ukraine without having to fight hard for it appealing to the military not to resist but there are no signs ukrainians are raising the white flag president zielinski in a pre-dawn appeal told ukrainians to stay strong and calm as he announced the start of martial law while some ukrainians in kiev were heading out of the capital many are determined to stay and resist in mariopol people this morning were stocking up on cash with long lines at the atms how are you feeling i'm nervous and i'm trying to keep my children calm said yulia putin says he's doing ukrainians a favor by trying to get rid of their nazi fascist government what do you what do you think about that we don't need his protection she said and dismiss putin's claims as lies supermarkets were flooded two 45-minute waits for checkout this is our ukraine ukraine has mobilized its forces and begun to defend its cities the government is calling for urgent flood donations to treat the growing but still unclear number of casualties so just a short while ago while that report was uh was was rolling out we heard the air raid sirens here in mariopol uh this city the center of the city has generally not been targeted although there were some reports that it was so far all of the attacks around here have been on the outskirts of the city but we will see how things develop now that the air raid siren just went off richard engel richard thank you so much for that report we do appreciate it stay safe richard for more on the latest troop movements let's bring in nbc news military analyst colonel jack jacobs he's a retired u.s army veteran and medal of honor recipient colonel always great to have you with us i want to pick up with you on u.s troops president biden saying they are not headed into ukraine we heard just a little bit ago from press secretary jensachi we played that here we also though now have a new statement from nato i want to read it it says we've decided in line with our defensive planning to protect all allies to take additional steps to further strengthen deterrence and defense across the alliance so what's your take on that statement what does that mean in light of us saying we are not sending troops and do you think biden's new sanctions would be enough to curb this attack and could the u.s be pulled into military action at any point well i don't think we're going to fight at any point unless western europe is invaded by russia but our allies are definitely concerned if if ukraine falls and it's controlled by russia our other allies in nato particularly those in in northern europe and northeastern europe in the baltics in poland will be very much concerned about our ability to defend them to assist them in defending their interests but with respect to sanctions those first lot of sanctions were extremely mild they were just a message and they're not debilitating and there are a couple of reasons for this the first is that not very strong sanctions we have some very much stronger ones which both our allies and even our senate has argued we should not uh we should not impose and certainly not now the second reason is is that putin has two different constituencies one is the people but they are pretty much enured to difficulties over a long long period of time and not to be not to be too uh condescending about it they they have in the past absorbed a great deal and they probably can again but putin's biggest constituency are the people around them and he's protecting them uh and and will not be deterred by any of the sanctions we can put on them colonel we know we're seeing tanks and planes and helicopters do we have an idea of what this fighting is going to look like in ukraine and what we can expect to see in here over the next day or two well most people military people think that putin's going to slow walk this take a little step in see how we respond if we respond what western europe and the rest of our allies say about it and then inch forward little by little in order to take control ultimately in find some way to take control of the country but it's unlikely this is going to be and we've said this before be something of a giant blitzkrieg because that would engender uh our taking russia immediately off the swift system and be extremely difficult for russia which putin doesn't want instead he's going to attempt to take it little by little hoping that ukraine gets tired of it the western europeans get tired of it and the united states get tired of it joe colonel jacobs as always we appreciate your perspective thank you so much for joining us this morning we want to go to capitol hill bringing nbc news capitol hill correspondent leanne caldwell leanne it was a long night for lawmakers many spent the night responding to the latest developments in ukraine we saw senator marco rubio tweeting a lot what's the reaction ben what can we expect from congress today good morning joe so the reaction has been pretty unified at this point from republicans and democrats and leadership in most rank and files condemning putin and saying that there has to be some strong action against him now of course there's been some dissent where some people are criticizing president biden for not being strong enough but generally speaking at this very moment they are trying to give their support to the administration and their opposition to what putin is doing for example you mentioned rubio's tweet long tweet threads overnight where he was getting information from the cia he also said the people of ukraine are tough people who will never accept being ruled by putin pelosi the speaker of the house goes on to say that forceful leadership in imposing the first tranche of swift and severe sanctions by the president was necessary and good senator lindsey graham has been very outspoken about this tweeted that he continues to provide that that the u.s should continue to provide ukraine with defensive weapons as well as good intelligence and then senator durbin of illinois the number two senate uh senator says that that vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine's sovereign land is a dire threat to the established international order and must resolutely be deterred but i will say there are politics that are likely to seep into this especially as the former president donald trump was on tv last night praising pres president putin and so that could become an issue for republicans and it could taint what happens up here too joe all right we should also note that according to ukraine russian forces have made a breakthrough in the kiev region it's about 100 miles north of the capital city but has crossed that state border of course we'll keep our eyes on this now we know the president plans to unveil even more sanctions against russia leanne of course especially now that we are seeing this full-scale invasion but in this you point out moment of unity on capitol hill which of course is rare what kind of action can we expect congress to take could we see anything that's actually going to happen soon well congress has been stuck on coming to an agreement on sanctions there's been some disagreements on when the sanctions how severe the sanctions and what actually to sanction and there is some concern especially among republicans who think that president biden won't do what it takes to respond forcefully enough the colonel that you were just speaking to mentioned the swift international banking system and the threat of removing russia from that that is something that is very controversial up here on capitol hill something that republicans have some republicans have been reluctant to do because of the vast impacts it would have on the american economy and on americans and you know and so there is there's a lot of debate on what should happen and i want to go back to this concern that some republicans have that the president won't do enough so senator ruby excuse me senator mitt romney who was mocked in a 2012 debate against president obama for saying russia was the biggest geopolitical threat well he put out a statement last night saying putin's impunity predictably follows our tepid response to his previous horrors in georgia and crimea our naive efforts at a one-sided reset and the short-sighted of america first the 80s called and we didn't answer so he just went through the last 10 to 15 years of american relationship with russia and there is some concern up here that if the united states doesn't act forcefully enough that it will do nothing to stop or deter putin and caldwell as always thank you we'll check back in with you if we have any more developments there on capitol hill yeah thanks leanne and now stock markets across the world are selling off in response to russia's attack on ukraine nbc news senior business analyst stephanie rule joins us now stephanie great to have you with us to talk through this i mean walk us through what we're seeing in financial markets across the world this morning it's been on a roller coaster since we've been watching this unfold but how bad could the selling get today not good now one thing i would say since world war ii when we look at major events yes you end up seeing the stock market in the short term get hit hard but in the long term there hasn't been a huge impact now right now it certainly hurts overnight we saw asia markets european markets down futures markets here in the u.s also pointing down as well this is a huge disruption the biggest place people are concerned right now is the price of oil we know that the price of brent crude overnight went above a hundred dollars a barrel that's got americans hugely concerned it's also a big political risk for the president we heard president biden two nights ago talk about this jen saki talk about it last night that the president will do everything he can because he's sensitive to what we're paying at the pump sensitive but what can he do right now the average price of gas is three dollars and fifty cents a gallon it could go as high as four bucks a gallon that is not good news for the american consumer who's already concerned about the price of nearly everything and today they're looking at their 401k and they're worried some people are worried about financial markets i think everyone is worried about oil and gas prices i mean do we get a feeling how high could the price of oil get and just how harsh could the impact be on the stock market as a whole well listen the stock market as a whole is a reflection of the global economy and the thing you have to think about beyond just oil is the supply chain remember we've we're living in an inflationary environment and while russia is not a huge trading partner for us they're a huge exporter of wheat they're a huge exporter of corn as is the ukraine and so things like that are going to push grocery prices up so you're now going to face gas prices being up grocery prices being up and when the supply chain gets disrupted because now you've got an international conflict that's only going to worsen things remember it's those supply chain kinks the difficult time we've had getting things on the shelves it's only going to worsen that and that pushes prices higher and that's not good for the american consumer especially the more economically vulnerable one people who are middle or higher income don't like higher prices but we can afford it people who are lower income this is really difficult they don't have coveted savings yeah stephanie last quick one before we let you go we've seen the consequence for here russia really be these economic sanctions handed down by the u.s handed down by europe how much of that factors into what's going to play out on the world markets and then of course the russian economy moving forward what does that mean for all of us listen it's a problem for us and that we are not in a position where we want to see our economic recovery slow down and it could likely do that when we get headlines like this right you've got the american people suddenly saying maybe i'm not going to take that trip maybe i'm not going to buy that car and when we stop spending when consumer spending goes down that hurts our economic recovery here's one of the issues though about russia sanctions vladimir putin does not care if the russian people suffer economically he's a multi-multi-billionaire and while we're saying oh they're going to go after the russian oligarchs you know what the russian oligarchs don't have their money sitting in big banks that can be seized they know how to hide their assets they won't necessarily be impacted vladimir putin won't be impacted and he doesn't care if the if the russian people suffer stephanie rule an amazing point there at the end there even though it's heartbreaking to hear thank you so much we'll be back with you in a little while now the u.s is also monitoring any potential cyber security threats at home and abroad as russia advances into ukraine nbc senior national security analyst juan zarate joins us now juan good morning so how big of a threat does the u.s face right now from a potential cyber attack and are we ready to protect ourselves well the u.s government has been worried now for several weeks about russian attacks certainly we've seen russian cyber attacks on u.s infrastructure and targets over the years but last month uh a cyber security advisory was put out by dhs the fbi the national security agency warning uh the u.s private sector that the russians could deploy a range of cyber attacks and tools like they have in the past not just against the us but against ukraine and other neighbors uh to disable systems to access systems to potentially even even destroy data uh and that advisory and most recent advisories have warned about those potential attacks have urged uh even for uh for threat hunting within systems given what we know about russians embedding malware and other viruses and systems and taking whatever measures are possible to secure cyber infrastructure we know this is a vulnerability we have and we know that the russians are willing to wield this tool not just against their neighbors but against the west and it's certainly a threat that putin has in his back pocket uh that he can that he can wield and use at his disposal juan ukraine already dealing with a cyber attack which came before the actual physical attack on the country this is what we sort of expected but what more can you tell us about that and the impact that cyber attack has now that we're in this phase of things with russia actually sending in tanks and troops well this was anticipated we we have seen the russians attack the ukrainian cyber infrastructure uh before their energy infrastructure their banks their government ministries so when uh the tensions were rising it was anticipated that the russians would begin to poke and prod in the cyber domain and that once an invasion would happen that they would deploy certain cyber tools so what we saw in advance of the physical invasion uh was a cyber attack uh what seems to be more of a blunt force denial of service attack which means attacking websites bringing them down uh but that was anticipated and what we see are uh government sites uh struggling to stay online and we just have to see if the russians are going to take this further to try to destroy data and systems that's really the kind of the outer edge of the spectrum of cyber attacks and that is always a potential and this is frankly something that the baltic countries and neighboring countries are worried about as well and so they are raising uh their cyber shields if you will to defend against potential russian attacks raising their cyber shields juan thank you so much we'll keep our eyes on this and reaction is of course pouring in from around the world as this crisis in ukraine unfolds we want to go to aliarozzi and tayrano has more on that global reaction ali good morning good morning joe good morning savannah well in the wake of russia's invasion of ukraine taiwan has raised its alert level and enhanced vision vigilance for any possible military action by china the move has elicited an angry response from beijing who dismissed any link between ukraine and taiwan saying that taiwan isn't ukraine and has always been an inalienable part of china although china has stepped up its military activities around taiwan over the last couple of years no unusual movements have been reported as tensions over ukraine have spiked prime minister boris johnson has said that russia's invasion of ukraine is a catastrophe for the continent of europe he chaired an emergency meeting this morning and will give a televised statement later on the uk's response to russia's unprovoked attack the uk has said it will respond decisively to russia's attack on ukraine boris johnson tweeted that putin had chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction and the uk is expected to announce more sanctions against russia later today the head of the labour party has called for the harshest possible sanctions against putin and his associates however britain's tough stance on russia is somewhat undermined by london's reputation as a playground for kremlin-linked oligarchs and poland has welcomed germany's suspension of the nordstrom 2 pipeline the polish prime minister calling it a harmful and dangerous geopolitical project that strengthens russia's antagonism but they say it's nowhere near enough to curb russians aggression and are calling for very heavy punitive measures to be imposed on moscow the polish government has also approved a homeland defense bill which will increase military spending in the wake of the russian invasion and those are those headlines for now guys all right yeah a lot to keep our eyes on there and we will do so ally thank you so much and now it's time for our cnbc money minute let's get a check in with them yeah silvana now is here with more on really how the markets are reacting to russia's attack on ukraine savannah good morning hey guys good morning yeah well wall street is set to open sharply lower as global markets react to russia's invasion of ukraine u.s stock futures are off the lows of the overnight session as traders assess the situation asian and european markets are sliding with germany and france down four percent oil prices are jumping with brent crude which is the global benchmark trading well above 100 a barrel that's the highest level since 2014 uswti crude also breaching 100 a barrel on concerns about potential supply disruptions russia is the world's second largest oil producer and the largest provider of natural gas to europe accounting for 35 percent of supply russia stock markets plunging today the main index on the moscow exchange falling as much as 50 percent before coming off those lows the rts falling more than 30 percent trading in the ruble was halted briefly overnight after it tumbled to a record low against the dollar investors are moving into so-called safe haven assets today such as the dollar the japanese yen swiss franc and gold the precious metal trading at its highest level in more than a year bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies not seeing the same flight to safety with bitcoin briefly trading below 35 thousand dollars guys all right sylvana thank you so much we'll be back with more nbc news now after a short break [Music] thanks for watching our youtube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the nbc news app

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Length: 55min 5sec (3305 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 24 2022