russian military unit if they are retaining to their home bases. indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in the threatening position. the fact remains right now, russia has more than 150,000 troops in circling the ukraine and belarus, and along ukraine s border. an invasion remains distinctly possible. joined now by democratic senator chris murphy, he s a member of the senate formulations committee he traveled to ukraine, senator, good to have you on. what did you think of the presidents remarks today? i think there were smart, clearly leaving the window open for diplomacy. but making it clear, we are not going to trade away basic principles of democracy and sovereignty. it s up to ukraine whether they want to be oriented east or west. it s not up to russia, nor s it up to us. i don t have any intelligence to confirm that the russians are leaving, but i do think it s important to remember, an
time and face fines. brian: five provinces have come out and said they told justin trudeau you should not be doing these emergency powers for the first time ever. it s an overreaction and six separate ones. they have already dropped a lot of the mandates and a lot of the demands. steve: meanwhile, vladimir putin has some demands, ukraine can never be a member of nato. he has other stuff. it looks as if today could actually be the day. yesterday we told you that perhaps he was pulling some forces back. but, there are other reports this morning that apparently things are moving in to firing range. joe biden addressed the nation late yesterday afternoon trying to calm people down, i don t know if he did. listen to this. we have not yet verified the russian military units are returning to their home bases. indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position. united states and allies and partners around the world are
russian military units are returning to their home bases. indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position, and the fact remains, right now, russia has more than 150,000 troops circling ukraine and belarus and ukraine s border. and invasion remains distinctly possible. our correspondent caroline davies is in moscow. can you explain a little bit more about this development in crimea? over the course of the last few days we have heard from pressure talking about the fact that once these military drills were over that they were planning to send their troops back to their places. in fact, the kremlin spokesperson had said last week that this would be what would happen but we have already had some level of scepticism about it from the british prime minister, boris johnson, from the american president joe biden, and from nato, so plenty of signs from the west that basically they would believe it when they saw it. so at this stage, more
images that are showing at least 60 helicopters that have landed in the past few days at a previously unused air base in crimea. these helicopters are said to be a mix of transport and attack aircraft. more than 130,000 russian troops are already in position around ukraine as well. and the american embassy in kyiv closed as an invasion precaution. u.s. officials say the situation remains extremely dangerous, and a russian attack could be ordered at a moment s notice. cnn s jim sciutto live for us in kyiv this morning. jim, why don t you bring us up to speed on the very latest developments, these russian claims, the ukrainian reaction, where you to think we are this morning? really three signals in the last 24 hours. the most recent being this claim from the russian defense ministry that they are cycling some forces back from the border, back to their home bases.
reporter: new video from the russian ministry of defense as it claims that some units have completed their exercises and are now returning to their home bases. the russian military did not identify the locations. cnn located one rail yard where these tanks were being loaded on to a train. it s in crimea. asked if nato has been able to verify russian assertions that some units are going home, estonia s prime minister told me, not yet. we ll believe it when we see it, but we don t see it right now. russia has done this military buildup around ukraine for already months so nothing has been seen in a few days or a few we haven t seen any real deescalation yet. reporter: there is still plenty of russian armor near ukraine and moving closer still. among the more recent arrivals, transport and attack