this as sort of a security nightmare but that biden had been wanting to go for months as he saw world leaders stream into ukraine and make that expression of solidarity. you know, the u.s. and the white house is very defensive about the administration s status when it comes to ukraine and its support. as you ve said, the numbers aren t even close. the united states is by far and away the biggest military and economic backer of ukraine. but when it comes to, you know, the status, being there really does speak miles. and so this is going to have a big boost of support. secretary blinken is not with him right now. he s in turkey. so often when the president travels, blink ken is by his side, but this is obviously a different type of operation, getting in there in a very
that negotiations need to be without fanfare on president biden s offer to give back a notorious arms dealer in exchange for americans britney griner and paul whalen, senior foreign affairs correspondent greg palkot has the latest tonight. russian officials confirming today an offer has been made by the u.s. to swap wnba store griner and whelan for reportedly russian weapons traitor viktor bout. didn t say how close the sides are including whether russian foreign lavrov and blink ken proposed by blinken happened. they did complain the u.s. was talking too much. so issues are discussed without any such release of any information. normally the public learns about it when the agreements are already implemented. in fact, this proposal has been an offer for weeks now. the u.s. trying to pressure russian president putin to end what it wrongful detention. this is a horrifying
this adds to the president s long list. it does. imagine a large-scale ground war in europe, you know, an insurgency happening in europe that we support perhaps. i mean, this is serious stuff, and it s not the sort of stuff you anticipate. right. it obviously can go in any direction. i m i mean, it s interesting to hear you say that the allies are all with u.s. policy on this and secretary blink ken because that was sort of my question. let s see when it happens. i was going to say, this could be trust but verify with the europeans on this. could he have overplayed his hand in this. you can have an alliance. it s great. when putin invades, will the alliance be willing to take the next steps? so far they re mouthing the rights words. actions will be decisive here. i m curious, matthew. i know in a weird way the republican conference is split, you have real hardliners who want to get tough on russia, and
faced a massive in flux and that bloody kind of invasion russia has brought over the last week now. the main message he s been trying to send is that the u.s. is willing to do everything it can to support ukraine short of actually putting u.s. and nato forces on the ground there and importantly in the airspace. this is something that from the very beginning nato secretary said could spark a war, especially given the fact that if you were to impose a no-fly zone over ukraine, that would involve shooting down russian aircraft. this is a message that blink ken has sought to project. he s been asked repeatedly about what more the united states can do to support ukraine. this conflict is only going to get increasingly bloody, increasingly brutal as the
or putin done? he s taken crimea. he s allowed two breakaway regions to form request russia and now potentially phase three, either connecting those areas that have already broken away or have been taken away or a full-skas invasion or nothing, it s just a bluff i wassen to wrap up. kristen welker, we just got word. we got the official readout. what is the official white house statement on this call? we re showing you the situation room there. you have the president and blink ken in the situation room. what is the official readout? this is from the white house, chuck. i ll read it verbatim. president joseph r. bind held a secure video call today with president vladimir putin on the u.s.\russia agenda. president biden voiced the deep concerns of the united states and our european allies about russia s escalation of forces