the last thing before we go, tonight, the liberation of kherson. after a long months of russian occupation, today, we saw crowd celebrating proudly waving the ukrainian flags and strangers were hugging soldiers. nbc news chief foreign correspondent, richard engel was there today when president zelenskyy made a surprise visit to the newly-liberated city. [speaking non-english] they re celebrating in kherson because now they are free. president zelenskyy made an unannounced visit to the unannounced city. a risky trip, russian troops are still close by. how are you feeling today? are you feeling? very well today. how is this moment for you? the moment is very important, that is the biggest city to us since 20th of february. so that was the biggest city and now it s free. so ukraine came, so i m happy,
civilian who was just riding his bike when he was gunned down. cnn s melissa bell is tracking this live outside the courthouse in kyiv on this. what is the latest on this trial? reporter: well, this was a preliminary trial, kate, and to the events of the 20th of february it is the very first few days of the war. vadim shysimarin is accused of killing a civilian riding on a bike after his column coming down from russia was attacked. what was extraordinary about the preliminary hearing and seeing the young man in the court today was that it covers the events of the first few days of the war. it is the first war crime being held, but it is, kate, being held in a ukrainian civilian court, even before that very same war has been brought to an end, even as the fighting continues to rage. of course, one of the problems with international justice really generally or prosecuting war crimes particularly is that it tends to happen after the war has ended, it tends to take a long time. we spoke
making clear he thinks it could take considerable time. president macron met with president zelnsky in kyiv. both leaders saying the urgent immediate need is to de-escalate tensions. here in the united states, president biden s focus is making sure russia would pay a devastating price. he vowed a pipeline critical to the russian economy would be shut down if russia invades. melissa bell is in kyiv. let s start with you. president macron sounds optimistic. that s what you want to do to keep diplomacy going. any substance behind that? he says he s extracted two key promises from vladimir putin after that more than five hours of talks the two men had in moscow yesterday. namely that vladimir putin, he says, has vowed not to be behind any further escalation. also that he said he will withdraw his troops from belarus once the joint exercises just across the border from russia have finished on the 20th of
troops, what if anything are we learning from the kremlin about their base in belarus and how long they may stay there? reporter: the kremlin is saying that it is not given any guarantees about no further escalation. they re saying that they have not committed to taking troops out on any timeline. the indication had been, the understanding that president macron thought russia would remove its troops from joint operations and military exercises with the belarusians. and the belarusians defense ministry previously said these military exercises would run until about the 20th of february. the kremlin is saying very clearly that there is no end date when they see for them to be removing their forces. and that nuance understanding that president macron has that
packages and support of the european union, canada and other countries. we will also include changes to nato and american force posture along the eastern flank of nato. barbara plett usher is watching all the latest developments from washington, and gave us this update. the americans have been quite outfront morning about the possibility of the dangers of a russian invasion, russian military action against ukraine more so than the european allies in the past hour or so, the national security adviser has come of the more urgent morning and more specific saying the americans believe that the russians could invade her could take military action against ukraine as early as next week. so, they have been suggesting that if there was going to be an attack, will be after the 20th of february after the end of the beijing olympics and now they re saying it could happen pretty much at any time and they re basing that assessment on the way troops are being deployed on the ground, the numbers are c