watching this buildup happening in every buddy is saying he s faking it, he s never going to go in. and i m like what about georgia in 2008, what about crimea annexed in 2014? i want to ask you, congressman, the same question. that convoy remains stagnant. they stay in the same place. why haven t the ukrainians taken them out, and if they did i don t like the outcome i think would have happened. yes, well, the briefings we received, that convoy does have russian antiair defenses around it, and it is being protected by the russian air force. even though the satellite imagery makes it look like a sitting duck, to actually get at it from the air is harder than it looks but the fact that it s stuck there is one due to russian incompetence in command and control, but two, they have huge logistics problems. in terms of fuel and food
i mean, you as officials say they ve seen indications that some soldiers are suffering from frostbite due to lack of cold weather gear, fuel, food, other logistics problems. tell us more about that. why do you think that is? clearly, given what we knew leading up to this invasion, this had been in the works for a while by vladimir putin and those around him. how can this be? yeah, two things. first of all, hubris. i think putin thought this would be a cake walk. 48 hours. i don t need a senior command and control commander because i m going to go take kyiv. it will take me a couple days. kharkiv, you ll fall immediately. and down south, we ll get mariupol and kherson and eventually we ll waltz our way over to odesa. that s hubris. a misunderstanding, a strategic miscalculation that is huge.
attacks on civilians, which richard engel described as scorched earth. chris, it s horrible to watch. it s even worse to be there. this is clearly war criminal activity. this is disgusting, horrifying. it will continue to unify the world. it s unified ukrainians. ukrainians are bearing the brunt, but president zelenskyy, as he did yesterday and today, is making the case for continued support. so these war crimes will not go unpunished, chris. colonel, combine the attacks on civilians with the news that russia s advance has basically ground to a halt. what s your assessment of that right now? i think it reflects that russia truly is having a real problem with trying to regain its momentum. the logistics problems clearly continue. the ukrainian resistance is clearly effective, if not
that platterly partly because of the weather and largely due to -yard line s stiff ukraine s stiff resistance. griff: i just want to squeeze in one more map. blue here, this is where ukrainian defense forces are trying to hold it off. but as you well know if, the numbers aren t looking good. what do you make of how they re fending off the forces? so the must not fail is kyiv. and the resistance that the russians are running into and the logistics problems as they try to move in around and complete the encirclement of kyiv continues. in the south and the east, kharkiv is critical, and really the drive of knee pro. dnipro. griff: yeah, forces encircling that as well with. brent sadler, very good insight, indeed. that s the latest, molly, of what s happening. molly: thank you very much, griff. we are back on the ground in ukraine coming up next, plus our political panel on the growing
from kyiv does appear to be real. officials and analysts say the retreat may show signs that moscow s initial strategy has stalled, in the face of grave planning failures, logistics problems and fierce ukrainian resistance. it comes after pentagon and nato officials had initially raised doubts about the russian withdrawal. it could be just be a repositioning of forces or a chance to rethink and resupply forces in belarus away from ukrainian attacks. joining us now, former fbi special agent and msnbc contributor on set with me. clint, good morning. thanks for being here. let s start there with this russian strategy. we want to talk in a bin about what they left behind as they pull away from kyiv but what s your sense, you have been following it so cosily, the map, the big board, where is russia going now, do they indeed look like they are focusing forces on the east.