to military assistance, that s another line. that s a line they haven t crossed yet. that s exactly why jake sullivan threw down the gauntlet in rome yesterday. they don t want the chinese to start arming the russians because that could really have tipped the war in putin s favor once and for all. on the financial side i think they ve been aiding the russians. absent real sanctions that don t ex exist, there aren t any sanctions, china will continue to bail out the russian economy and continue to underwrite the war by making sure putin has enough money to continue killing ukrainians as long as he wants. in terms of paying its bills, russia could default on the foreign debt as early as tomorrow. the ruble has been, you know, rendered almost worthless here. what chinese assistance would be enough to stop, you know, russia spiraling into a financial crisis? right. well, they could do a number of things, christine.
with volodymyr zelenskyy in the capitol. the delegation is sent on behalf of the european council, the prime minister of slovenia, the czech republic and the prime minister of poland. they are there to show their solidarity with ukraine. first it s george garks maybe it s ukraine, maybe sometime down the road it could be poland or our european countries. it is important to show solidarity. today european finance ministers are showing packages that are historic. scott mclean, thank you for your reporting as always. putin s war on u careen is driving an unprecedented refugee crisis. the numbers are simply staggering here. more than 2.8 million refugees have fled. 1.7
that s the truth. these images are the truth of russian war against ukraine. putin s war against ukraine. that s what it looks like. mayor added he is ready to fight any attempt by russian military forces to kidnap him. he said two ukrainian cities have been captured so far in this war. still ahead for you, another round of talks between ukraine and russia this morning. is there any reason to hope they can stop the bloodshed? that s next for you. that s why i use the e freestyle libre 2 syste. with a painless, one-second scan i know my glucose nunumbers without fingersticks. now i m managing my diabetes better and i ve lowered my a1c from 8.2 to 6.7. take the mystery out of managing your diabetes and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free at freestylelibre.us
financial aid. there are signs china has expressed openness to provide aid. i ll bring in josh rogan, you call chinese president xi jinping putin s co-conspirator. it s setting up a new world order of east versus west. reporter: that s exactly right. that s the way putin and xi jinping want it because they issued a 5,000 plus word statement to that effect when they met at the beijing olympics days before the invasion. you know, i think that the chinese leadership has been playing a double game this whole time. they ve been telling the west that they re really conflicted the about the whole ukraine thing and really unhappy but they joined in the conspiracy theories, u.s. biolabs and ukraine are doing mysterious
lockdowns in china. worries that the lockdowns will amplify supply chain issues. the real story, folks, is oil. red hot oil prices cooling. closed factories need less fuel. u.s. crude tumbled as much as 8 bucks. bye-bye 100 bucks a barrel. down to $97 a barrel. that means lower prices for drivers in a week or so. the average gas price already falling here, down a penny from yesterday. also at play hopes for the russian/ukraine talks. putin s war has been sending energy prices soaring. to cool that inflation, interest rate hikes are coming. the federal reserve will raise interest rates for the first time since 2018. more inflation news today. that s what factory level inflation is, that comes out. they will sign a law to