presence of combat troops right near the border with ukraine in the last two weeks. somewhere in the 100,000, 130,000 range and they ve been moving closer to the border in field camps. they ve been moving up. the kinds of resources that you would need to actually make a military attack and so i think to talk about de-escalation is not where we re at right now. doesn t mean it s impossible to foresee but it s not happening right now. president biden has said several timss that if russia invades, then the nord stream 2 gas pipeline from russia to germany won t go ahead. listen. if russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of ukraine again, then there will be there will be no longer a nord stream 2. we ll bring an end to it. the german chancellor during his visit to the white house
that can affect the civilian population. there s so many chilling details. self-sustaining field camps to accommodate 2500 to 300 people. their public posture has been keep calm and carry on but this is different. there s no question that at this point we re getting conflicting and mixed signals coming from russia. you have to operate on the premise you cannot trust putin on what he s saying and you can t trust the russians. i think for that reason, preparing for what may be the worst, is probably the best option that the ukrainians, united states and our allies have to do. we have to remain very strong right now. we have to remain very unified and we have to show the russians that if they make that decision
something different. they reached out to nato, and said we need immediate assistance. they know they re not getting lethal weapons from nato, they asked for cars, trucks, trains, bulldozers, they asked for machines for radiation and chemical reconnaissance, equipment to search for explos explosive objects, thermal imaging equipment, and 60 self-sustaining field camps, each which would accommodate 300 people. the list goes on and on, it s extensive and very specific. what do you make of it? well, erin, it s alarming. i mean, first of all because some of the stuff you listed is basic. they should have this stuff already. so that s upsetting to me to hear. and then on the other side of it, you mentioned, you know, radiation equipment, explosive ordinance detection, these kinds of equipment that you would use if you re trying to protect yourself or detect russians using weapons of mass destruction, which of course we know that they use in