short weeks, since this swore started, ayman. and it has really pressed the ability of countries like poland, to the brink, as they try to care for the ukrainian neighbors. but at the same time, they re worried about their own potential safety, if president putin were to go beyond ukraine, and start to threaten other countries in the region, such as poland, romania, hungary, many of them nato allies who would enjoy ostensibly the collective defense of the u.s. and everyone else in nato. but still extremely concerned about the potential ramifications for them. we know that earlier today, president putin spoke jointly with president macron of france, as well as german chancellor, scholes, as they tried their latest effort to seek a diplomatic resolution to the violence, i particularly a cease-fire, as they look to those humanitarian concerns. that call lasting about an hour and a half, and coming after president zelenskyy had implored the french to find any
security and humanitarian aid package. the u.s. and nato allies, ukrainians have received more than 17,000 weapons, and billions of dollars in aid. and of course, russia has been pummeled with an unprecedented number of sanctions. we re gonna have a little bit more on that later in the hour. but despite all of this, russia is still ramping up its targeting of civilians. and it s closing in on kyiv, as we just heard. these efforts actually fall short of what ukrainian leaders have been asking for, things like a no-fly zone, or fighter jets. and a plan that would have had the u.s. serve as the intermediary for transferring those fighter jets between poland and ukraine, it seems to have not gone anywhere. so at this point, what more can nato to? joining me now to help answer some of these questions, is emily harding. she is the deputy director and senior fellow at the center for strategic and international studies. emily, thank you so much for joining us. you know, the broad question here
people are flooding into lviv, where we are. and of course, the eastern cities of this country are just being brutalized by relentless shelling. the city of mariupol has essentially been raised to the ground. and everybody who s in there, 400,000 of them, are essentially being held hostage. all right, nbc s ali arouzi life in ukraine for us. starting us off, ali, thank you very much. on a tour now to the humanitarian aspect in this equation. nbc correspondent, josh lederman, is in poland, with the very latest on the struggle to address what is emerging to be one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. josh, tell us what you are seeing. how authorities there are coping with this continuing influx of people, making their way across ukraine s borders into poland and elsewhere? yeah, here in poland, they have accepted well over 1.5 million refugees in the few
if, for example, the russians decide to attack one of these deliveries, inside ukraine? i don t think that they would do it outside of ukraine, and poland or wherever they are coming from, or whatever the originating from. but if whether they were to strike at a western shipment inside ukraine? i think that is a significant risk. but it s a risk worth taking. putin has shown in this conflict that the russian military is not ten feet tall. it might not even be six feet tall. it had such incredible logistical problems. it had equipment rob looms. they know this war is not going well. and they know that their land forces are not what they were dreaming up to. i think moscow has been wary also, starting a war with the west and with nato. so they would, i think, pause before they actually hit any of those convoys, especially right now, as the war s going rap rather poorly. that said, i mean, the russians to telegraph their functions before they make them. i think we have to be concerned t
israelis and the turks are also continuing their own efforts to offer a diplomatic services to act or try to act as brokers between the russians and the ukrainians. and we re also seeing the u.s. tonight step up its own security assistance to ukraine, ayman, with secretary of state anthony blinken announcing that the u.s. has authorized another $200 million in security assistance to the ukrainians. that, according to blinken, including anti aircraft capabilities, anti armor weapons, and this is the kind of thing the u.s. feels like they can offer, short of putting boots on the ground, imposing a no-fly zone, or transferring those aircraft to the ukrainians that president zelenskyy has been calling for. the u.s. tonight looking for additional ways that they can help ukraine without getting dragged themselves into a war with the russian military, ayman. all right, nbc s josh lederman and poland, covering both the humanitarian diplomatic for us. josh, thank you.