0 there for this white house. that could mean more high prices to come. >> john: it's stunning from a lot of americans that we would rather buy oil from iran and venezuela than doing the former. >> sandra: we're going to dig into a lot of what she said today. thanks for joining us. i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts. "the story" with martha stars right now. >> martha: thank you, john and sandra. good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum at fox news head quarters in new york. as russia escalates the bombing of civilians in ukraine, they're being accused of committing war crimes, russian is, in places where russian tanks roam the streets and people are running for their lives. so today president biden speaking with macron of france, boris johnson of the u.k. and shots from germany. you heard the back and forth with peter doocy and jen psaki to cut all off oil imports from russia. this is a major means of funding this war and the killings that we're seeing with many asking why is it okay to ramp up oil imports or to go to saudi arabia and ask them to pump more but not do the same from the united states. all right. so this is why we want to warn you about these images that we're showing you. they're terrible. we have to understand the ramifications of what is happening on the ground. this is a young mom and her two children that were killed in the bomb blast. they were trying to escape. you can see their bags backed with their be longings and the roller bags that we've seen people pulling through the streets. their friend was traveling with them as well. he was brought to a hospital but has since died as a result of this bombing. that is the scene -- this is the scene that forced them to get out of there, to run for their lives. >> martha: terrifying. people running with their bags, trying to make it to a train station or further west to get to a safer area or at least an area that is safer for the time being. we are about to hear from john kirby at the pentagon. they're checking the mics. we'll take you there as soon as that gets underway. we hope to find out a few things. one, what is going on with these tenuous cease fires that we hear discussed. what about the human corridors that are supposed to create pathways that people can go through safely. you can see people walking with white flags to show the russian bombers and attackers that they are faceful. it doesn't seem to be helping the bombing has been indiscriminate. the other issue we hope to discuss and we're wondering about today, this whole question of poland and whether or not they will agree to a jet swap while they fear that russia could see them as an aggressor if they give the mig 29s to poland and the idea that we would back fill with f-15s. we'll talk to civilians and policy makers on the ground. we get started with benjamin hall who is live in kyiv. hi, benjamin. >> hi, martha. today i can tell you in the last hour we're hearing the shelling getting closer. it's been a constant barrage on the out skirts to the north and to the northwest and to the west. it's clear that putin is trying to make his move to capture this city. you talked earlier about the humanitarian corridors that had been offered. many people here see those as traps now. not a way to evacuate people. the red cross has said that the route in about out of mariupol were mined so people couldn't get out of those. previously, people tried to escape on buses, they're being shelled. today humanitarian corridors only offered people to go to russia or belarus. nonstarters. people are just not sure what to believe. whether they can leave safely or they can't. all the time they're being bombarded but weapons and his airplanes. it's not just critical infrastructure, it's schools and hospitals. stories are happening across this country. time and time again we're getting reports and seeing videos 0 this atrocity. zelensky accusing russia of war crimes. take a listen earlier. >> we will not forgive the destroyed houses, we will not forgive the shooting of unarmed people and destruction of our infrastructure and god, we will not forgive today, tomorrow, never. instead of forgiveness, there will be a day of judgment. >> martha: russian forces are inching ever closer to the capitol. it's unclear when they will make their move. yesterday ukrainian officials said it would happen then. all night was a tense evening as they waited for what they said artillery, ariel bombardments and hell continuers. the flashes on the horizon, the constant shelling suggested the move might happen soon. ukrainians have been remarkably successful pushing them back. what we're just hearing is that the russians may be changing their tactics. instead of moving forward in big convoys, smaller units. bigger, faster and being more discriminate. that creates the chaos that they need to push forward. >> martha: quick question for you. there's been this sort of strange stasis in that convoy moving towards kyiv. we've seen the arrows and the suburbs hit hard near kyiv. so you're saying that obviously that log jam will break at some point and a more direct confrontation in the city, correct? >> yes. without a doubt. the big convoys at the moment are being held back by the javelins. reports are suggesting 17,000 javelins have come in to the ukraine in the last six days alone. they're not short of weapons. the concern is the supply lines will get off and they won't have access to them and at that point they may not hold back the heavy weaponry. the commander said we can take out the armor vehicles and the tanks but they keep coming. the scale means there's more and more. the soldiers are not motivated. the ukrainians are buoyed the success that they've had. they fear that they're going to bombard the city first and lay siege before moving in. that's why people are saying this is not a matter of days. it's weeks maybe longer. >> martha: benjamin hall, thank you very much. so these heart breaking images from the city that have been hard hit, this girl being helped to safety but a soldier or a ukrainian soldier on the ground there. people are running for their lives. this woman stopped on her way to deliver this message to our own trey yingst. watch. >> tell the whole world that they should help. why are they not helping? the americans and the british, where are the planes? >> martha: so this woman fled kiev but is choosing to stay in her home country. he joins me now. thanks very much for being here. tell us about your situation right now and what goes through your mind when you hear this woman begging for more help from the united states, from the u.k. >> thank you, martha. i'm sorry. it's difficult to speak, i think. i think i speak for everyone that fled. i worry for my family or friends that say that they're happy i'm safe. but i don't think of it that way. that's such a relative term these days. we keep hearing sirens in every city. it's not getting easier not to be there. i think it felt a little more comforting knowing that you can lend someone a hand there, though obviously we're not stopping here. the moment i arrived to the west, we started working with refugees from kyiv whose buildings and houses are gone. they don't know what will happen tomorrow. they were lucky to get out. unfortunately, there's very little people as lucky. i have a geography teacher, my teacher, you know, somewhere in the kyiv region, a area. the house had been shelled. it collapsed. they're trapped underneath, i think. it's now a third day of that happening. people just can't get out. the machinery can't get there to free them. we don't know if they're alive. they're not getting food, water. i think they're getting air because people outside can hear them. obviously russians are not letting them in and they're not letting any humanitarian help to go through. there's no green corridors. there's nothing that's been promised and innocent people, innocent children are dying. just about 40 or 38 children that have died. hundreds more are dying by not getting any food and air and water. no supplies or anything like that. >> martha: what you're saying lines up with what we're hearing about these corridors. some of them have been mined. they're shelling the humanitarian corridors to get out safely. how different is what is happening from what you imagined could happen during the massing of all of those -- all of the military of russian soldiers and tanks around the corners of your country. >> you're very much afraid when you hear the explosions and when you see soldiers dying. you know somewhere in your heart you know that this is war and people are getting ready to die when they go there. when you see children and innocent civilians dying, this is egregious. you can't begin to imagine what they feel that very moment. i never imagined in my life -- i come from a very political family. my grandfather spent 27 years in camps fighting russian regimes. i heard terrible stories about what russia did in our historical past. i never imagined how cruel these people can really be. you hear that there's rapes happening. obviously all the civilian deaths, this is happening in 2022. this is beyond anything that we could ever imagine. these people are just not human. >> martha: solomia, thanks very much. stay safe. i hope you speak with us again soon. it's hard to know what to say. i can't imagine what you're going through. i appreciate you getting the word out and speaking with us publicly. that's at risk to yourself as well. thank you very much. thanks for what you're doing for the refugees in the west. >> thank you, martha. >> martha: my next guest serves in the ukrainian parliament. she's a member of president zelensky's party. he joins me now. thanks very much for being here. sir, your president has had many messages but this struck me to the people of ukraine. >> i know you understand him. we had subject titles on the bottom. he said soon we can tell our people to come back because there is no threat anymore. do you believe that that day will come and how far do you believe that day is. >> yes. more than 90% of ukrainians believe that we will achieve a military victory. the problem is all of those 150,000 troops that protect us, yes, they're military. russia is ten times that of ukraine. they have more armor. but their morale is low. their soldiers are not really motivated and don't care for their own people. the salary is $500 per month. so there's 150,000 criminals. they cannot take over a country of 40 million in which 90% believe in their victory. they will have a military defeat. >> martha: we have some images. one is an unexploded 500 pound russian bomb and another photo of another rush helicopter that was shot down. we've seen a lot of these throughout the course of this. could you believe that you are going to get the help that you need from other countries? what about this plan that is not yet in place to allow mig 29s to come from poland to be flown by ukrainian pilots? >> if you remember the war of afghanistan, thousands of planes and helicopters were dropped each day. but this is a matter that nato wishes for more confrontation. inspired by a president that will fight and i think sooner or later. i think other nato countries and sooner or later nato will be in district conflict with russia. it's better sooner than later. >> martha: we hope it doesn't go to that level. certainly not unrealistic to imagine at this point. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> martha: so russian rockets destroying this airport in a city about 15 a miles southwest. you see it on the map that we're going to show you in a second. southwest of kyiv. the strikes like these echoing call from president zelensky. will that happen? victoria is joining us right now. thanks for being with us. tell me, do you know anything about the bombing of this airport? is it close enough to you? what can you tell us. >> yesterday afternoon it was very noisy. i saw the fire and the smoke and we know nine people died, people military and four civilians. it's very painful for us. we try to help other people from kyiv, mariupol. >> martha: the fires are that a result of the airport bombing. your son went to switzerland with your sister, right? >> yes. my son with my sister, they went to switzerland. really afraid. the emotional -- very hard to -- for kids always. every day, every night, we go down to make sure that it's not -- and also, i have relatives close to kyiv. my relatives, russian soldiers the whole family. two kids. they burned them. breaks my heart. it's painful for all of us. we're trying our best. we're strong because we have to for our kids. >> martha: victoria, it's unbelieving what you're going through. i'm sure you never imagined that this was happening to the homeland that you left. thanks for talking with us. we'll see you soon. >> john kirby, he's out at the podium speaking now. so let's listen in. >> in position to respond to the current security environment caused by russia's unprovoked invasion of ukraine. certainly to help reinforce a bolstered deterrence and capabilities of the nato alliance. these and the other ones that we talked about are not permanent moves. they're temporary moves. we're going to adjust continuously as conditions require. as president biden noted before, we are not and will not send forces in to ukraine. these additional personnel will be going to nato's eastern flank. specifically, we'll be sending a number of kc-135 refuelling aircraft out of fairfield air force base in spokane, deploy approximately 150 personnel. they're scheduled right now, planned right now, to avoid greece to provide support to the commander of the u.s. european command. this 500 will also include an air support operation center out of fort stork georgia. they'll comprise basically a 40-personnel right now. they're planned to deploy to poland, romanian. help provide additional command and control for u.s. european flight command operations. lastly 300 personnel will be making up a modular ammunition ordinance company out of fort bragg. also out of fort stewart, georgia. they'll be going to germany to provide support to the first brigade combat team. these are defensive forces. these are specifically the ones we're talking about today. we said before, there would be associated enablers with them. this is part of that support. all of these posture adjustments are being done as i think you know in full consultation with the nato allies in question. okay. shifting topics, if i could to the red hill storage facility in hawaii. secretary austin decided today and you should have the statement -- if you don't you'll have it correctly -- the secretary of the navy in coordination with the indopacific command to defuel and close the facility in hawaii. many of you are tracking the importance that leaders across the department of defense have placed on that november leak and the contamination that resulted from it. the secretary, the deputy secretary, leaders from across the department of defense and navy as well as indopay com remain focused on this issue and the impact on families, community and our responsibilities in both national security and being good stewards of our resources and the environment. throughout this process, the department's approach is provided by a commitment to protect the population, the environment and the security of the country. goals that are mutually supportive. as the secretary outlined direction to the department of the navy, the department of defense launched a thorough review of the facility's long-term future, work that was grounded in analysis and completely a lined with our focus, a few points on today's decision. first national security. we will defuel red hill and reposition the fuel. this will meet our objectives by better positioning the united states to meet future challenges in the pacific region and protecting the population. secondly, we'll take care of our people and the community. we're committed to mitigating the impacts of the november incident and we're restoring safe drinking water to all affected residents and providing best in class sampling and testing to ensure the safety of the drinking water. finally, we're going to complete environmental mitigation efforts for red hill and any other impacted areas. continue to engage the community on land use. one additional note that i believe you're tracking, the commander of the u.s. pacific fleet has directed an investigation into the contamination of the water supply. when that report is complete, why be released and we work with follow-on actions. that work continues. i want to end by noting that the secretary's decision is not considered to be a quick fix. we have work to do. we know that. across the enterprise with elected officials from hawaii and local organizations and our military families. many of whom have suffered as a result of that leak. we'll be as fully transparent as we can. we'll update you. we believe this decision market a significant first step in the path forward. with that, i'll take questions. bob? >> thank you, john. on ukraine, i wonder if you could discuss the overall direction of the russian campaign in ukraine. i'm thinking in particular, the increased use of long range fires, artillery and rockets in recent days. is this an adjustment by them, a new phase of the war or are they compensating for problems in other areas? how would you describe the thrust of where they are right now? >> with the caveat that we don't have perfect visibility in to russia plans, what we believe is happening as the russians continue to get frustrated and slowed down and they haven't made any note worthy progress in the last few days with the exception of the south. in the south they continue to have progress. in the north and the northeast. what we assess is as they continue to get frustrated, they continue to rely more on what we would call long range fires. bombardment, long rank artillery in to city centers that they are not in yet, at least on the ground in any significant number. that has been leading to as you would expect it would, when you rely on long range fires, you're going to caught more damage and kill more people and injure more people. that's what we any is happening. that's what we're seeing them do. we think it's because, again, they have not been able to make up for the lost time that they suffer from on the ground in terms of the advancement of ground forces. >> they have not taken control of any of the cities yet? >> i wouldn't say no cities. we do assess that kherson fell to the russians in an area that we believe that they have control over. certainly we believe that they're in control of that power plant near the river that we talked about last week. so smaller towns as they continue their advance down south. in the north, we do not see them have any control over kyiv, kharkiv. still a lot of heavy fighting outside kharkiv. kharkiv is really becoming a victim to the long range fires. and in they're still attempting to circle cities. down south, they have had more suck cyst and control over some local population centers. up in the north, not so much. the other one that i would note is mariupol. just to the south of the donbas. we believe that they very much are aimed on taking mariupol. mariupol is a violent place to be right now, this is another location for long range fires and bombardment. you heard the mayor himself talk about power outages and water supply problems. we believe they're trying to encircle mariupol as well. they have not done it yet. jen? >> john, have you seen any evidence that russian morale among the troops is low? we've seen some reports. have you seen any evidence of that? how would you characterize that convoy, the 40-mile long convoy north of kiev? if it doesn't have tanks in that convoy, where are the tanks? where did they go? >> i don't have perfect visibility on the convoy. we're watching it with much the same imagery that you are. we believe the main purpose of it is resupply. so when you look at the images from the air, you can see a lot of it. they don't look like armored vehicle other than resupply trucks. that's not to say that there aren't combat vehicles in there. we don't have perfect visibility on it. the assessment is it was to help resupply. it's still stalled. it's still stuck. we don't assess over the weekend that it has made any progress. i'm sorry you had another one. >> morale. >> morale. we certainly see what is in the open press that you see about evidence that some soldiers are flagging in their morale. we have picked up other indications as well on our own that morale continues to be a problem for many of the russian forces, particularly in the north and the east. it's not clear to us that all of the soldiers that russia has put in to the ukraine realize that that's what they're doing. that they were going to invade ukraine. it's not clear to us on the mission that they were being assigned. >> if that convoy was a resupply convoy and not really armored vehicles, where were the columns of tanks that were supposed to encircle kyiv? are they elsewhere? >> you have to ask russia. we don't know their routes. i don't want to leave you with the idea that we know perfectly what each and every vehicle. our assessment is it's meant for resupply. i can't rule out there are not combat vehicles. it's a very long convoy. we don't flow -- we can't say it's all one convoy and not several. it does remain as our best assessment that it's stalled. >> so when the reports about efforts by the russians to recruit civilian fighters to fight in ukraine, what dow to say about these reports? based on your knowledge, did this effort start before the war or after the war? who are these fighters that they're seeking to recruit? are they from the -- what is your -- >> i can't speak for russian recruiting efforts. we do believe that the accounts of them -- the russians seeking syrian fighters to augment their forces in ukraine, we believe there's truth to that. so it's interesting that mr. putin would have to find himself relying on foreign fighters here. who they're going to be, how many they're getting, what they're going to pay them, all of that we don't have perfect visibility on. we're in no position to refute the accounts that they might be seeking to recruit syrian fighters. >> since you mentioned that it's interesting that the russian president is trying to rely on foreign fighters, do you have an assessment despite all the troops he has inside of ukraine now why he has to go and tap-in to foreign fighters especially in syria? >> i can't get into mr. putin's head. he has pretty much all the combat power that he assessed -- that he assembled. our assessment he has all of it inside ukraine now. the ground forces in particular. so he has a lot of combat power available to him. we assess that he has the vast majority of it available. i can't begin to speculate why he would need help from foreign fighters. we do believe that they're having morale problems, they're having supply problems, they're having fuel problems, they're having food problems. they're having -- they're meeting a very stuff and determined ukraine resistance. we still maintain that they are several days behind what they thought that they would be in terms of their progress. i can't -- i cannot get inside mr. putin's brain as to why he would find support from foreign fighters. david? >> on this issue of polish mig 29s to ukraine, a number of u.s. officials are said this is under active discussion but now how the u.s. might back fill. we went back and looked at previous statements by polish officials. sunday, the prime minister said they won't send fighter jets to ukraine. on march 1, the president of poland say we're not sending any jets to ukraine. so what are we talking about here? it sounds like this is flogging a dead horse. is this a proposition on the table? >> i can't speak for polish leadership, david. what we've said is that this would be a sovereign decision for a state to make, whether it's poland or anybody else should they want to provide aircraft to the ukrainian air force. that's a sovereign decision. the united states won't stand in the way of that. there was discussion about if a nation such as poland were to do this, would there be a capacity for the united states to back fill those aircraft with american made aircraft. what i can tell you is because i can only speak for the department of defense, we're part of an interagency discussion to examine that policy. no decisions have been made, certainly by poland. we're having a discussion about should a nation like poland want to to this and should there be a desire or need for a back fill of assets, what would that look like? how would we do that? how many? from where? those are the things that we're talking about. >> one other question on aircraft transfers. former nato commander general breedlove has said that ukrainian -- some ukrainians have been trained to fly the a-10. there are six a-10s in storage available for transfer to ukraine. is that under consideration? >> i have never heard anything about a-10s. i can't verify the number that are "in storage." >> i wanted to ask about red hill. what other relief or assistance might be available to affected military families? you mentioned environmental mitigation. can you give us a sense of the scope of what needs to be done on that sight and how long it might take or a dollar figure? >> can't give you much of a dollar figure timeline. so here's -- let me talk process for you. before i to that, the impact of families is foremost on everybody's mind. i don't want to speak for the navy. they're working very hard to get these families back safely to their homes and to take care of them where they are. so i would defer you to the navy to speak for specifics of that. taking care of these folks is paramount concern to him. so what will happen here? this is a long way of getting to your question, which is to say i can't answer it specifically. just to understand the process. there was already an assessment team in place to determine what it would take get red hill operational again. as you know, we suspended operations in december. it hasn't been in use since december. that assessment team will shift their focus to help us figure out what it takes to defuel it. to get operational capacity back up again for the purpose of defueling, not for continuing operations for fuelling. we'll get that homework assignment back in the end of april. figure out what we need to do. once we have prepared the site for defueling and we know we can do that safely, we know it will talk about 12 months or so to fuelly defuel and close it. once it's closed, we'll begin to work on what the land use for it looks like going forward. obviously a key part is that is making sure that whatever we do in terms of closing down that it's done in an environmentally safe way. all of that is to say that i can't give you beyond the year that we know it will take to defuel, once we can start defueling, all of the environmental mitigation impacts after that we're going to have to work our way through that. i couldn't give you an estimate on what that is going to cost. >> the environmental mitigation, that's a financial responsibility of the dod? >> yes, that would fall on dod. we're going to be obviously closing down the site. i couldn't begin to tell you what the estimate will be right now. all i can tell you is the secretary is committed to doing this. he believes this is the right decision. not just for the national security but for a more disburse fuelling exacty for the indopacific and for the environment and for our gracious hosts and neighbors in hawaii and for our military families. >> i have a question for ukraine and south korea. there's hundreds of south korean volunteers that will help fight the russian invasion. do you have a number of the u.s. volunteers to fight? >> i don't have an estimate of americans that might want to be volunteering to go there. i said what i said last week. if you are american and want to do right but ukraine, the best way is to donate to agencies that is trying to deal with a humanitarian crisis in the region. certainly there in ukraine. we still to not believe that ukraine is a safe place for americans to go. we urge them not to go. if any are still there, we urge them to leave. >> another one, north korea. i think you know already last weekend north korea launched another missile. how does the united states evaluate north korea's successful missile launch? >> these continue to be provocations, needless provocations at that. we urged pyongyang to cease these missile launches and provocations and a signal that they're willing to sit down to find a negotiated way forward a diplomatic path to reduce the tensions on the peninsula. tom? >> which tom? >> i was looking at you. if you guys want to trade out, it's up to you. >> you get one, i'll get one. >> i get-to-. follow up on his comment about extra forces. what would the pentagon's assessment if putin begins drawing troops that were not prepositioned? >> what is our position be? >> your observation and analysis. >> tom, i don't want to speculate about future decisions. tom, we've assessed that he has nearly all of the amassed combat power that he assembled in ukraine. i haven't seen anything or any indication that he's pulling elsewhere from in the country. i don't want to get ahead of where we are right now. this is a russian military invasion here. it's difficult for us to know with great specificity on any given day what mr. putin is going to do today or the ex -- the next day after that. >> my second question regarding moldova. have preparations begun to withdraw the national forces and what changes in the training have the national guard been doing? >> in terms of training, i refer you to the national guard. i don't have a menu of the kinds of training that they do in moldova and i don't have a change to their posture. i don't know of any changes. >> continual up tick of casualty in ukraine. we talked about long range fires. how much of that has a sense to do with increased casualties? >> we assessed the reliance on long range fires. missile strikes, artillery, rocket attacks are having an increased affect on increased casualties. we do believe it's a direct result of their increasing reliance on these long range fires. now, the degree to which we can prove that these are incidental versus intentional, i don't any we got that without any great fidelity. it would be speculation to know that a given target was intentional or not. i understand the context of the question. the bottom line is more civilians are being killed and wounded, more infrastructure is being damaged or destroyed. mr. putin still has a choice here. not to escalate, not to be more aggressive in the use of these long range fires and his capabilities, but to find a diplomatic path forward and the invasion. >> military targets and government targets they're going after now, are they in civilian areas or you don't know? >> i don't have perfect visibility in to their targeting process. look, clearly, if you're having to rely on long range fires to go after cities -- >> martha: all right. we're going to keep a close eye on this. bring in general anthony tada joining me now. thanks for being here. you've been listening to this with us. what stands out to you today? >> hi, martha. great to be with you. two things stand out to me. one is that we're sending some force packages over there. directing logistics and command and control that are flowing to -- as secretary kirby said as part of the package that went over, part of the 7,000 went over and ordered to go over. so the command and control is critical and the logistics are critical from ammunition to fuel. you heard about aerial refuelers. that is a warning to mr. putin that we are standing tall with nato and we are unified with nato. i think it's a good move to do that. now, the second thing that strikes me is secretary kirby said frustrated, that mr. putin was frustrated. they were making little progress in the north and center of the country of ukraine. some progress in the south. combat -- friction, the fog of war and all of those things get in there. in today's environment of quick solutions, what we're seeing in real time play out, these kinds of things are challengings specially given the leadership of zelensky and how he's rallied the troops there, leading by example. it's refreshing to see him standing tall and leading his country against this barbarous attack on his nation. >> martha: it is. john kirby talked about the problems that the pentagon witnesses that russia is having with morale, supply, food, fuel. so it's interesting that you benoit that we're sending these additional resources over to nato countries to basically make sure that they don't have problems with the same things with regard to refuelling and command and control that you talk about. however, it raises the next question. i thought about poland, the question of whether or not they want to send their jets. they don't want to be seen as an aggressor in this. they've accepted many refugees coming across their border. what is your read on how mouch poland wants or doesn't want to get involved with this by suching their jets? >> this is ph.d. level stuff. i'm sure my former colleagues from the pentagon are working 24/7 with secretary austin trying to provide the best recommendation to the president on what to do here. one misread by putin on an airplane taking off from poland and accidentally getting into a dogfight with a russian jet and getting shot down has poland just launched an attack from an air field in a nato nation. does that trigger article 5. so the policy folks in dod and department of state are looking at those thresholds of what do we consider to be an attack against a nato nation where an attack against one is an attack against all. what is that threshold? you heard about turkey saying one of their ships was fired upon. that didn't seem to met the threshold. turkey is a nato nation. what is that level of acceptance and what is that level of -- that was a mistake. that wasn't necessarily an outright attack on a nato nation or a country. those troops, those reinforcements, the logistics command and control, those are all necessary for command and controlling our troops. when you heard about aerial refuelers, can refuel any they toe fighter jet or bomber. so it's -- this is serious business right now. i'm sure the administration is working very hard to get all of the diplomacy, the information warfare, military, economic, trying to pull all of those levers to get a loft landing here. >> martha: a soft landing would be nice. i think you hit the nail on the head, gen raleigh. the question is what do -- what does nato perceive as crossing a line on an attack as a nato country or entity and the other side what does putin perceive as nato attacking one of -- any part of his military. because really he could choose to see many of these actions that are taking place, even supplying military supplying, supplying planes, the stinger missiles as an aggressive act if he wanted to. >> yes. that's exactly right, martha. he's already said if you establish a no fly zone that is an act of war. you know, putin is i think being deliberately bellicose and dangerous with his nuclear drills and being very aggressive here because he perceives in the wake of afghanistan a split nato where each nation was left to their own devices. germany is not all in and some countries are not all in. so putin sees these fractures in nato and the administration is trying their best to put the best foot forward because every collective security arrangement needs an alpha. the united states needs to step up and be that alpha within this group of -- >> martha: you think we can do that with the current leadership? >> you know what we've got is a team that has learned from afghanistan, if even if they have not publicly acknowledged that. the moves that i see with the command and control, the logistics and the troops moving to nato, i see some of the right steps being made from the department of defense stand points. it should have been happening three or four months ago. now is not the time in my view to be hyper critical. right now as a country, we need to recognize this is a serious threat. we need to give way together and put the oars in the water and find solutions through public relations and meade yo or through the administration. >> martha: thanks, general. great to have you here. >> thank you. >> martha: the other big breaking news today, the white house pressed on whether it will consider banning russian oil despite a surge in gas prices at home. now five cents short of the all-time high setback in 2008. peter doocy reports. we saw you going back and forth with jen psaki moments ago over this issue of whether or not it's right to be asking saudi arabia to pump more oil to cover the gab and whether or not we getting closer. something that we feel strongly about, peter. >> it was an eventful briefing. the only one that we expect to hear from the white house. jen psaki did something that she never does. she got emotional talking about the human impact on the refugees in ukraine. listen here. >> mothers and children, dead on the side of the road. this is heart wrenching to watch. sorry. it is heart wrenching to watch. >> to the issue of possibly banning russian oil impacts, a new poll that dropped while we were in there shows that 71% of adults in this country would support a ban on russian oil even if it meant higher gas prices. the white house still claims they're doing everything that they can to reduce the impact on american consumers at the pump. but i asked her about that because they're not doing everything possible. >> would president biden undo the executive order that would stop the construction of the keystone xl pipeline? >> are you suggesting that would solve the problem? >> don't you think that would make relief faster than getting america off of fossil fuels? >> the big thing about investing in renewables is a big priority even though they admit that prices will go up because of this international conflict. martha? >> martha: they're clearly dug in. thanks very much, peter. let's take a look at this. ukrainian forces in kyiv firing at russian forces north and west of the city. they say the truth and god are on their side. mike tobin reporting live from ukraine near the border with poland. good afternoon, mike. >> good afternoon, martha. the cease fire delegations met again today in belarus. nobody expected the developments to come from this and indeed no big developments did come. a negotiator for the ukrainian side said that they made progress in terms of developments of the humanitarian corridors, the cease fires there. but in terms of changing the situation on the ground, not a lot of progress was made. as you know, they met twice before. so three times total. they've established humanitarian corridors. some of the people particularly in mariupol could make a break for it and try to get away from the fighting. twice now the corridors have fallen apart. the russian counterpart, that was a presidential aid, he blamed the ukrainians for the failure of the humanitarian corridors. he went as far to accuse the ukrainians of using their own people as human shields throughout this processes. usually when the cease fire talks are falling apart, you have both parties blaming each other. when you look at the russian size, you have presidential aides that are there. they're not bringing out their a-team really indicating that they don't see the delegations as a means to an end. quite possibly you can examine the potential they're buying time. >> martha: we have seen movement west. we just covered an airport that are bombed that is southwest of kyiv. what is your sense in kyiv of what is coming your way or do you feel relatively safe there? >> it still feels like it's relatively safe here. that being said nor the people on the ground, they very much feel that they're a nation at war and very much in the conflict. there's growing speculation that as the russian army and vladimir putin tries to dominate those seaport cities and then takes the capitol still of kyiv, they may stop there. so there's the potential always that his battle plan doesn't involve coming this far west. at the moment, you get some air raid sirens, military operations at an air base, russian operations at an airstrip to the east of here. the cruise missiles hit an airport in the center of the country. >> martha: thanks. mike tobin reporting live from lviv, ukraine. look at these beautiful images of this young child. the estimates are somewhere around 38 children have been killed so far. very difficult to know how accurate the numbers are. we saw the pictures of the two children with their mom that were killed in the street with their bags in hand. the first lady, we've heard from her husband over the course of, this she's also been very actively posting these pictures on instagram of the youngest victim it's and drawing a tension to them and giving a name and a face to these children. she wants the world to know the terrible truth of what is happening in her country. when people in russia say their troops are not hurting the civilian population, show them these pictures. show them the faces of these children that weren't given a chance to grow up. nana -- natalia joins me from odessa. thanks for being here today. first, your reaction to the first lady's work trying to bring to light the children, to see how horrific what is happening. >> good evening. this is something new to ukrainians. because the civilian toll, the death of the civilians is something that is part of this war at the moment. following everything in odessa, it's relatively calm here. the target is a port town on the black sea. i have a large network of colleagues working within the area to where the severe damage is. what we understand is, in the very beginning the russian strategy is like try to invade the capitol, now it looks like they understand, they constantly do it with the strong resistance of the people and also what the ukrainian army does. the strategy is to punish or terrorize people with random air strike on the civilian structure. i talked to a very close colleague that is staying knee where i am in the east. he just confirmed there were civilian areas targeted. there were people targeted in the line, the shops. and there is a strategy to understand like to make ukrainians frightened. if it didn't work in a military way with a classical occupation of the towns. >> so that's the question. because they have been thwarted or resisted greater, do you see the attacks on civilian populations as a way to try to break the morale ukrainian people and is it having an effect? >> it's terrifying. it's not breaking the morale. it's making this war ugly. of course, the government should consider -- that's why the government is having all of this demand about closing the skies. because the biggest -- the biggest danger is the air strikes on the civilian towns. we unfortunately received more data. it could be confirmed -- i'm an editor. i'm in touch with so many organizations here. for instance, the russian troops are overtaking the towns near -- the suburbs of the bigger towns. while there, they wouldover take the building to push the people living there or, you know, to take the military -- the use the house as their own shield, for instance. it is really influencing. makes people flee, of course,