biden tells ukraine no f-16s for now as putin s deadly invasion hits the one-year mark. tonight, new concerns russia may be on the verge of getting some new and lethal assistance. plus, alex murdaugh back on the stand and grilled by prosecutors, making the case nothing he says can be believed. and wnba star brittney griner back on the court after spending ten months in a russian prison. how is she doing? the president of the phoenix mercury is my guest. let s go outfront. good evening, everyone, i m kate bolduan in for erin burnett. outfront tonight, no f-16s. president biden saying the united states is ruling out ukrainian president zelenskyy s request for fighter jets for now. president zelenskyy continues to say what he really needs are f-16s. will you send f-16s? look, we re sending him what our seasoned military thinks he needs now. he needs tanks, he needs artillery, he needs air defense, including another himars. but there are things he needs now you
There has been growing concern in washington that the deal was being worked on by russia and north korea, it followed a visit to north korea by the Russian Defence minister. And so now in the last few hours we have confirmation from officials in washington that it is believed as you say that kim jong un and Vladimir Putin will meet at some point at a place to be decided it seems or at least revealed in russia over the next few weeks. A very high stakes meeting, they had met before 2019 was the last time in russia but clearly the situation is different now. We know that russia needs more Artillery Ammunition with very few friends around the world. It is perhaps telling they are turning to a pariah state, like north korea, too it seems source this weaponry that they crucially need to pursue the war in ukraine. That would not be one sided, what we understand and this is been reported by the new york times, this would come at a price and the price for north korea would be advanced technolo
china isn t deterred, if they do decide to go ahead and provide the drones and the ammunition, what do you think the united states and its allies should do if china crosses a line here? do you think the west should be drawing a red line on it? i think one of the interesting things over the course of this war is that the chinese, for all of their support of russia diplomatically, they really have been on the sidelines. in fact, actual chinese policy towards russia has been virtually identical to that of india, which is, of course, much more aligned with the united states. if they were to provide direct military support for russia, that is a red line. and that s why it s so important that not just the americans but also the uk prime minister, the nato secretary general, they all coordinated in making these very strong statements over the last few days that there will be hell to pay if the chinese actually decide they re going to put their thumb on the scale in that way in favor of the
are it could cost as many as 100,000 civilian casualties and up to five million refugees. we now live in a world where you can just go in and take a country because you claim it, well, we have entered a very dangerous period in human history once again. and there s another fear that unchecked russian aggression could encourage others, namely china to do the same. our adversaries are watching if putin can go into ukraine with no resistance, certainly xi will take taiwan. now there is obviously a presence in eastern europe but the u.s. military is not sending troops directly into ukraine, correct? that s correct. the president has said explicitly u.s. forces are not going into ukraine to fight russia. what he is doing is sending forces out to backup u.s. allies including about 2000 troops to poland, a thousand to romania and more on standby if needed if putin makes a move. now the u.s. really wants to confront russia diplomatically, not militarily.
u.s. service members to poland, romania, to germany, these are not soldiers who are being sent to go fight russia in ukraine. they are defensive deployments, they are nonescalatory. they are meant to reinforce, reassure, and deter aggression against nato territory. and now alex, just in the last few seconds, that briefing from the white house has wrapped up, and significantly, according to an administration official, there has been no fundamental change to the dynamic as the president, as his advisers have been laying out over the last few days. it doesn t appear the call has moved things significantly. you re seeing the photo of the president during the call with president putin. the us is not going to continue to give russia diplomatically, but the president used the call to emphasize the economic costs but also the costs to russia s sta stature in the world.