examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt these are crimes against humanity. vice president kamala harris says russia must be held accountable to actions against ukraine. meanwhile secretary of state antony blinken meets with his chinese counterpart to address the suggested surveillance balloon shot down earlier this month and it comes with king jong-un issuing a direct threat to the u.s. and south korea. good morning, and welcome to way too early on this monday, february 20th. i m jonathan lemire alongside nbc s ali vitali. we have breaking news this morning. president joe biden is in ukraine. he made the trip ahead of the one-year anniversary of russia s invasion of ukraine. he had been scheduled to depart tonight from washington to poland. he would give a speech marking the anniversary of the war and the u.s. s commitment to ukraine s cause, but he made this trip days in advance. we re seeing now brand-new images of president biden
nevertheless, this was a historic moment for the ukrainian people. we saw president zelenskyy thanking the president for his visit on twitter. this is an important day for ukrainians, marking the ninth anniversary of the heavenly hundred killed in the square nine years ago. back to you. erin, thank you. i hope you can stay with us for a few minutes. we re going to listen in on this conversation between president zelenskyy and president biden. support from the white house to ukraine, and thank you for your leadership, thanks for the bipartisan support of congress. that s a historical moment for our country and very important to be able to deter the situation on the battlefield. i think that is huge and so
extensively. president biden and president zelenskyy are marking the one-year anniversary with the surprise trip by president biden to kyiv. erin, give us a sense of the two presidents and the president of ukraine with the backdrop of the flags. what else may he do before his visit concludes? reporter: we know that president biden has visited the presidential palace where he met president zelenskyy. from there the two presidents made their way to st. michael s cathedral, the golden domed cathedral bind bhaind me with the air raid sirens sounding in the distance. the two presidents walked to this wall where there are the faces of thousands of ukrainian soldiers who have fallen.
as well as they get even closer in their bilateral relationship. our thanks to john hudson who toured the aftermath of the devastating quake in turkey. as we re watching foodage of president biden taken moments ago, shaking hands with ukrainian citizens and officials, i want to bring in erin mclaughlin who s in kyiv, outside st. michael s gold combed cathedral in the center of the city and the wall of remembrance where the two presidents walked by a few minutes ago as president zelenskyy showed him around. erin, what can you tell us? what have you seen there? reporter: hey, jonathan, well, just an hour ago, the square was completely emptied out of pedestrians. they were push aid way, some pedestrians pushed into a nearby hotel. that included journalists and
the u.s. is sending more troops into the region, 500 additional forces, to push the number in the region to over 100,000. let me bring in nbc s erin mclaughlin who s in lviv, hagar chemali the spokesperson for the u.s. mission to the u.n., also worked with the treasury department. laura kennedy is a former u.s. ambassador and served as deputy assistant secretary for european affairs. and democratic congresswoman christy houlihan, an air force veteran. a power panel of women on this international women s day. i m glad to have all of you here. hagar, can this oil ban help? it will help. the united states imports 3% of russian oil. it will have a financial impact, but ultimately, multilateral implementation of sanctions, of oil sanctions are what are going to make a big impact.