vessels, including large amphibious assault ships. all of that in the south end, belarus to the north shows military bases men, tents, armored vehicles are showing up closer to the border. to the east in russia proper, buildups close to the border of ukraine. the u.s. secretary of state speaking about what s happening in ukraine, speaking about potential for invasion and sanctions that would come on russia saying there would be heavy economic consequences but there would be other conse consequences too for the russian military. vladimir putin should understand body bags will come back to moscow as well, that citizens of russia will suffer because their economy will be completely devastated. reporter: this was the message that the british foreign
much. joining us, david sanger, political and cnn analyst and white house correspondent for the new york times. david, today secretary of state antony blinken doubled down on the assertion that believes president putin made the decision to invade ukraine. didn t rule out diplomacy. you had a chance to speak with him over the weekend. what was your big takeaway from that conversation? well, secretary blinken was here at the munich security conference, and as he was speaking at the conference tshs w it was pretty clear that his enthusiasm for diplomacy continues, but he doesn t seem to think very much of whether the russians have engaged, and when you think about it. almost all of the engagement that has taken place so far by the russians has happened while they have been steadily increasing all of their buildups
tactical groups in the border. there were about a half dozen when he took control. this is a significant build up at a lot of people say he may do something short of a full-scale invasion. we ve seen this playbook before. and crimea in 2014 as a way to gain political capital. he did fall short of a full-scale invasion that would ve cost russia so many casualties. why does he do this? why does he have these buildups? it is to distract what is going on in his own country. domestic corruption. he builds up troops on the border to distract from that. i guess only boudin knows if it s something different than that. we have a very weak commander in chief that has made many bad calculations, including the
enemies is panic in our country, and the information that is helping for panic doesn t help us. pan sic is the friend of the enemy he says there. and also, he is saying that if there is evidence that russia is going to 100% going to invade ukraine, he would like to see it. and fred, on the streets of ukraine, we are not seeing the widespread panic, and not seeing the runs on the grocery stores, or massive ukrainian buildups, and we have been driving around the country for the past few days with ease and we have not seen it. the preparations are under way, and the mayor of kyiv that they are ready to protect the infrastructure, and bomb shelters in place, and evacuation plans in place, and
so why are we seeing the buildup of hospitals and logistics all the way there? well, you would think, of course, that the most of the emphasis would be right down here, which indeed i think right now that s where moscow is focused. even though we might not be able to see formal troops or, you know, uniformed troops moving in, they have been paramilitary-wise in this region for a long time. now over the past couple of weeks we have been watching as the buildups happen in these locations. and, of course, outside of the donbas region, luhansk and donetsk, the only reason to have troops anywhere else is if you re considering moving elsewhere besides here. you re looking at possible roots down to hear, crimea absorbed by russia, and further on down. the only reason you have field hospitals and other support logistics support is you re thinking about another option going in for the whole country. to be clear, kyiv is right there. you re dealing with the capital of the country. i think by