european and kind of ironic, of course, though, that it is a war in europe and the europeans having to be persuaded and take such drastic action. we re talking about the s.w.i.f.t. system and russia has over the last several years developed its own alternative, if you will, part of why president biden made that declaration that he believes this is going to be extremely tough against putin and tougher than acting on s.w.i.f.t. is that an accurate assessment based on your many years of experience with sanctions and in this sort of field? so, listen, s.w.i.f.t. is a tough move, cutting them out of s.w.i.f.t. is a tough move. what ends up happening you reserve that for countries like syria and countries like iran where you are completely cutting them off and you have made the decision you want no financial movements or transactions between you and that country. right. that doesn t seem to make a lot of sense for a lot of reasons, for the reasons spelled out because of the ongoing trade
telling us russia has launched more than 100 short and medium-range missiles into ukraine after captuing and plans to target facilities next many in cities where a whole lot of people live. i m hallie jackson in washington and we have a lot as we continue juggling coverage of this crisis. kristen welker at the white house, kerr simmons live for us in moscow and a former spokesperson for the mission to the u.n. is joining us, as well. matt bradley, you are on the ground. you are in ukraine. i know you have been up for hours watching all of this unfold. we now have this new information from president biden. talk to me about the reaction on the ground to the sanctions there and the confirmation that we ve just gotten from ukrainian officials that russian forces have, indeed, captured the area. as for chernobyl.
remains part of the global economy. we re not going to damage the system of the world economy in which we, ourselves, exist. once again, you saw a confident, determined president putin turning his business leaders, it s okay, not thrown out in the world economy. a few hours later you hear president biden whether be removed from the s.w.i.f.t. payment system and president biden indicating an issue with the europeans. when kristen says europe is more economically intertwined with russia, no kidding. the u.s. has right around $35 billion worth of trades with russia. china about right about $150 billion. europe $250 billion worth of trades with russia. so, this is kind of roughly very simply how the system works. the system is kind of american, s.w.i.f.t. is american, dollar-based system. but the majority of the trade is
the last eight or ten hours and some are leaving to lviv and some decided that they re going to stay and fight to the end in their capital of kyiv. ambassador mcfall, general zwack, i ll ask your patience here. we re getting a lot of news developing and i want to bring it to viewers and bring a couple other people to the conversation. andrea mitchell and evelyn. courtney, i ll ask you to stay with us, too. obviously, if you have to go get on the phone, go do it. i know you re all doing that very actively at the moment. i want to update you on the latest numbers that are coming in to us on casualties from the ukrainian government. the minister of health there says 57 people have been killed in the country because of this invasion by russia. nearly 170 others have been hurt. these are the latest numbers that we have. we also understand that hospital and medical workers have come under fire and that there were some casualties among those medical workers, as well. this is according to th
from you and flag to folks that we re now hearing from former president barack obama on the situation that is unfolding in ukraine and his statement i ll read a piece of it. people of conscious around the world need to loudly and clearly condemn russia s actions and offer support for the ukrainian people and every american regardless of party should support president biden s efforts in cooperation with our closest allies to impose hard-hitting sanctions on russia. general. yes, china. devilishly complex. yes, they re strategic partners and xi and putin have a real relationship. they met almost 40 times and they in normal linear way they could be in power for 12 more years. now, i don t know. this is, i think, my gut and i m not this actually puts china in a very, very careful place. they, in the big picture, as autocrats support, if you will,