i mean half into one country. and the pols have been essentially and i mentioned the mayor of warsaw, raphael trowsky who mark introduced me to when i was at the east train station with those guys on wednesday night. the mayor said that on the first day that the war had started that the mayor of warsaw, biggest city in poland, capital, he said essentially they decreed a policy to take to the ukrainian refugees, we are open to you here in warsaw, come here if you need to flee, come here, the welcome mat is out to them. i said to him, it is an incredibly general rust thing to do, and the pols have been wide open to the refugees with no end in sight. i said, did you expect a week ago you would be looking at half a million refugees in poland? the mayor said, i didn t expect that, but here is why it is the right thing to do and why the solidarity with the ukrainians
ukraine in the western part of the country, nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin. erin, we just talked about the ukrainian city of kherson, the first major city to fall to russian forces on wednesday after days of intense fighting that left at least 300 civilians dead. the city was left without power, little water, limb imed food according to the mayor. you spoke what resident who survived the attack. tell us about that conversation. reporter: hey, mika. well, yesterday i was in constant contact with the citizens of kherson, and they re absolutely terrified. yesterday was the first day actually that they felt comfortable enough to go out to get food, to get supplies, and that was only after their mayor struck a deal with the russian occupying forces, posting the
mean just for perspective the last big refugee crisis the world faced was the syrian refugee crisis. it took three months for there to be a million refugees in 2013. it was said that it could be 5 million here. we did a million in a week and that s why the number is moving to 10 million. you think what it will mean. half of those will probably end up in poland. 5 million coming into poland? warsaw is a city of 1.5 million. 2 million, 3 million have to be absorbed into the city of warsaw. your brother introduced me to the mayor of warsaw, and we can talk about that. he is an incredible guy. i want to talk about mark. after the state of the union, not only is mark a seasoned diplomat but someone who worked on the desk under bill clinton, as you know. i asked look at what putin is doing on the basis, having
diplomat who introduced himself to me. i asked where he was from, he named the city, and then he identified the czarist leader that was from his hometown like 200 years ago. we ve all heard stories, read stories about during the siege of leningrad every russian soldier had a copy of war and peace in their pocket. i mean this is a nation consumed with their own extraordinary history, and it seems that vladimir putin is looking backwards as the rest of the country is looking forward to the west. i wanted to ask you about what you are seeing on the ground in poland, because obviously the united states has had some difficult times over the past five years with poland, with hungary. obviously those differences have been wiped away for the most part by this, and there s
them passing close to where you are. yes indeed. and there is no question that there has been a really warm welcome here by the polish people and across the polish government as well. but they are not dressing it up that they are under a huge amount of pressure. in fact the mayor of the city of warsaw saying it is getting more and more difficult by the day and another major city s mayor also talking about how much pressure that they are under as well. you have all of these people crossing over the border but they are not stopping at the border, they are trying to come to the major cities like warsaw where basically they want to try to stay until they can go back to ukraine. this is a crisis, a refugee crisis, of women and children. they have no incentive to go and set up a new life. it is not like people who are on normal passage through europe potentially with ties in the u