tonight, that number is 130, 000, according to ukraine s military. president biden s team are weighing what putin will do next. tonight we re bringing you world-class analysis from world-class defensive diplomacy. i m joined by evelyn fergus, secretary of defense for russia, eurasia, and ukraine. and, former deputy terry assistant secretary of defense, michael mcfaul. , evelyn, good to see you again. thank you for being with us. there are a lot of people in the united states who see this as binary. is the united states getting involved in another war that may not be clear to everybody as to why we are getting involved, do you think that there are a series of actions of the united states can think ranging from sanctions to things that resemble military action that could actually resolve this? ali, thank you for having me on. i just want to reiterate what my colleague ambassador mcfaul said earlier. the biden administration, nato, it s not interested in any military fight with russia.
sanction. we do not take this stuff lately. putin is threatening a war, and the point that my colleagues have made all evening on your show is that this needs to have consequences, and the biden administration, i think skillfully, is beginning to roll out some of what it has in mind, the better deterrent for action. will it work? i do not know. but it certainly will not work if we our passive, and if we seem to be weak, divided, and uncertain of what to do. thank you for your analysis, your expert analysis on this. i want to go back to evelyn, and michael. typically, if there is a smaller country that is under threat from a larger country, they would welcome urgent top from others to whom they may turn for defense. but there is something we are going on that i need you to help my viewers understand in ukraine. we have the president of ukraine saying, hold on u. s., you guys are hitting the panic button too
more than, that but not calling out the reservists, not going to the metro stations if there is bombing, you go to the metro station, in ukraine, and not doing that runs the risk of his people not being prepared should god forbid there be this giant military intervention. so, he is trying to thread that needle, and he is saying since the biden administration came into power, i hosted president zelensky over the summer, i saw him the day after he saw president biden, he has been asking for more military assistance for months. and so, he wants, just like the quote you just had, he wants ten more jets, he wants more anti aircraft he wants more ability to deter the fight rather than talking about the threat that might or might not be coming. we appreciate your expertise on this. evelyn and michael, thank you very much for your time tonight. coming up, next we are going to get a report
mike pence, vice president said in georgia that president will sign the bill. so i m sure the signing is coming. i know the white house is trying to put together a signing statement that sometimes accompanies signing of bills. presidents in general don t like to have their authority challenged on foreign policy matters p. that is true with president obama and has been true for years. they are working on the signing statement. the idea that russia would do this with no trump reaction reinforces the ambivalence, putting it charitableably, that he has towards putin. it seems like the two of them were going to move down the road together. that period is clearly over. and evelyn fergus, here is a president who insulted leaders around the world and never considered expelling any american from any american embassy, from australia to germany.
to have their authority challenged on foreign policy matters p thap . that is true with president obama and has been true for years. they are working on the signing statement. the idea that russia would do this with no trump reaction reinforces the ambivalence, putting it charitableably, that he has towards putin. it seems like the two of them were going to move down the road together. that period is clearly over. and evelyn fergus, here is a president who insulted leaders around the world and never considered expelling any american from any american embassy, from australia to germany. and here he is absolutely silent on this. as former defense. sorry, defense. that the white house would drop from the promotion and support the democracy from around the