quote, small but growing number of senior kremlin insiders are quietly questioning putin s decision to go to war, which they reportedly view as quote, a catastrophic mistake. for more on all of this, and more, let s bring in michael weiss, news director at new orleans magazine, and author of the forthcoming history of russian military intelligence. michael, thanks for coming back on the program. your thoughts on the possible visit to ukraine from secretaries blinken and austin? if true, they would be the highest level u.s. officials to visit since the beginning of the war. obviously, we saw the british prime minister there. we ve seen other senior european officials, and it may appear, according to zelenskyy, that now you have the state, secretary of state, and secretary of defense heading there. yeah, that s right. and the secretary of defense, i think, is going to germany to meet with some 40 countries that have committed arms and other material support to ukraine. so this would be
ukraine, the president of ukraine says he s preparing to welcome a high level u.s. delegation. president volodymyr zelenskyy says secretary of state antony blinken and lloyd austin will visit kyiv today. i shall be meeting with the state secretary mr. blinken and the defense secretary, and we will be waiting for the time when the security situation allows for the president to come and talk to us. president zelenskyy says he ll welcome blinken and austin with a request for specific weapons and assistance. and he says leaders, quote, should not come here with empty hands. we need to point out the u.s. has not confirmed this visit by secretaries blinken and austin. meantime, the most intense fighting remains in the eastern and southern parts of ukraine where uk intelligence sources say ukrainian forces have successfully repelled numerous russian assaults in the donbas region. russian officials confirm last
of the holiest days for many in the region, orthodox easter sunday. ukrainian officials say russian forces have continued shelling the southern region nonstop, with two children reportedly killed this morning in a missile strike in donetsk. this follows the deadly strike in a residential neighborhood of odessa, where ukrainian officials say eight people were killed, including a three month old baby. 20, now from lviv, is nbc foreign correspondent raf sanchez. raf, what are you hearing on the ground, both about the new assault in mariupol in the possible visit by secretaries blinken and austin? well, jonathan, it is 5 pm here in ukraine and we have yet to see secretary of state blinken or secretary of defense austin. in some, ways that is not a surprise. this is a trip that has been planned with the utmost secrecy and with security in mind. there s concern about the russians literally targeting these members of president biden s cabinet, or perhaps
in harm s way. and there is very little, very few places to hide from vladimir putin s missiles. jonathan? raf sanchez, coming to us live from lviv, ukraine. thank you very much. joining me now is the president of the chicago council on global affairs and former ambassador to nato and former ambassador jane oldman, who served on the house intelligence and homeland security committees. she is also the author of insanity defense. thank you both very much for coming back to the sunday show. congresswoman harm, and let me start with you. talk about the significance of a visit by secretaries blinken and austin. well, first of all, let s debunked that theory that vladimir putin s religious. on easter sunday, to have bombs raining down on 2000 innocent than a steel factory in mariupol is despicable. and i ll stop there. i think the visit is hugely significant, it s unfortunate