from this war for just a moment. let s start with the very latest news from the white house and in ukraine. kelly o donnell is at her post at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. matt bradley is in lviv once again in western ukraine. i also want to bring in john gunderson, the former acting u.n. ambassador in ukraine, estonia, iceland and norway and opened the u.s. embassy in kyiv. he was a former army officer in vietnam. a big thanks to all of you. kelly, let s start with you there. president biden just announcing he s going to be moving to revoke russia s status as a most favored nation. explain in layman s terms what that means and how this is going to ratchet up the pressure on russia s economy even more. reporter: craig, this is one of the privileges of the international community, to have that kind of status, allowing countries to engage in commerce with each other without the kind
defense official here and it comes after days of being stalled. russia has made some operational advances in the last 24 hours according to that official as of thursday evening the united states was tracking that russia had fired more than 775 missiles since the start of their invasion of ukraine. i want to go to nbc news national security analyst clint watts, who has been giving us just a fantastic view of some of these troop movements and strategy on the ground there. so, clint, these new satellite images that show that the russian convoy we ve been talking about could be regrouping near kyiv. what more do we know about this? i mean, the convoy is largely dispersed and redeployed. do we know where that convoy is now, how long it could take to reach kyiv? craig, i think it s important to think through what the plan was for russia in the beginning. week one we saw that convoy essentially launch in here, trying to take kyiv inside of a
yes. i want to play something that former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, said earlier on morning joe. i do not support a no-fly zone and i want us to stop using that phrase. i want you to start using the phrase declaration of war and then you ask people do you support a declaration of war against russia? because if an american pilot shoots down a russian pilot, that s a declaration of war. elena, any scenario where the united states or its allies take that step? it s certainly very, very unlikely now because we don t want a direct confrontation between nato and russia for very, very obvious reasons. it would be a declaration of war, as ambassador mcfaul just pointed out, but we have to do more to set up humanitarian corridors.
ago, giving a news conference with the romanian president where she said, look, the u.s. has wanted from the very get-go to seek a diplomatic resolution to this with russia but that president putin has been falling back on an old russian play book, a play back that she said was based on lies, misinforming misinformation and aggression. she had a chance to visit with u.s. and polish troops. some troops coming from puerto rico, california, as well as fort bragg in north carolina, some of them just got to poland a week ago, which is one indication of how the biden administration has been pouring more and more troops into this part of europe to try to show that it is going to defend all of nato and all 30 members of the alliance. but the other fact here is, craig, we have been asking u.s. and european officials over and over again just how many more
dependence on russian energy to heat their homes and to light their cities across europe. and without that, they would be in a much more dire situation than we have in the united states. but this is an area where he expects to have the g-7 countries also take this step. this kind of trade level rebuke of russia does require congress, but that is something the president feels confident based on the bipartisan support that has been seen. a short time ago the president also talked about giving russia the tools it needs in terms of military equipment and humanitarian support to keep up the fight. here s the president. we will make sure ukraine has weapons to defend against an invading russian force. we will send money and food and aid to save the ukrainian people. democracies are rising to meet this moment, rallying a world to the side of peace and the side of security. we showing our strength and we