it s not a problem that the united states has started, gone along first. but they can t do it overnight. it s going to take time. with syria, it was five months after the violence started. it had an effect. the iran oil sanctions, such an impact and those were impacted five years after i m just going to interrupt you because we re having a little problem with your audio. i m going to give some time for that to get fixed. i want to go to you, congresswoman, get your reaction to the oil ban, and also what we heard from president zelenskyy overnight again pleading with the u.s. to do even more. again, we re having audio difficulties there. let me go to you, ambassador, and ask you what your reaction is to what we re seeing.
the decision has yet to be made by poland. it s interesting when you consider the fact that zelenskyy has now spoken not just to the president in the last few days but he held a secure video conference with the entire u.s. senate and members of the house as well. the pressure on the biden administration from his own colleagues but the democratic party is increasing to take further action now. we ve heard that from speaker pelosi on the oil ban and we hear that in providing more military assistance as well. so this is another factor for the biden administration as they try to do everything in lock step with our european allies, there s increasing political pressure at home to take a stronger stand even beyond that. there does seem to be a chorus of voices speaking in congress. let me turn to richard engel, who is on the ground in kyiv. over the weekend there were these reports of a potential cease-fire to allow safe passage to civilians so that they could escape through humanitarian c
national average has risen 1.85, so more than just the #putin price hike. let s bring in mark, we were chatting during the briefing there, you thought as little as senator rubio put it, disingenuity. president biden had to kick and scream to do the oil ban, and a nano second for him to blame putin. he says the cost of oil has risen $0.75 since putin s invasion of ukraine. risen 1.85 since he took office. so, let s give him for the sake of argument credit and say ok, that entire $0.75 is due to vladimir putin, i don t agree with that, but who is responsible for the other dollar. it s the war on fossil fuels, it s when the president declares before he takes office i m going
the u.s. is sending more troops into the region, 500 additional forces, to push the number in the region to over 100,000. let me bring in nbc s erin mclaughlin who s in lviv, hagar chemali the spokesperson for the u.s. mission to the u.n., also worked with the treasury department. laura kennedy is a former u.s. ambassador and served as deputy assistant secretary for european affairs. and democratic congresswoman christy houlihan, an air force veteran. a power panel of women on this international women s day. i m glad to have all of you here. hagar, can this oil ban help? it will help. the united states imports 3% of russian oil. it will have a financial impact, but ultimately, multilateral implementation of sanctions, of oil sanctions are what are going to make a big impact.
the government in the united states have talked a lot about strengthening sanctions. there seems to be a move afoot to get an oil ban, oil purchase ban issued by the us government. but it s clear that when it comes to fossil fuels, europe isn t necessarily going to follow america s lead. the german chancellor, olaf scholz, has made it plain that as far as he s concerned, it s simply not tenable to think of a boycott of russian gas in particular. so there s a division there, isn t there? well, you know, stephen, i think that s ok, because look, we import a lot less russian oil and gas than our european allies do. for sanctions to have an effect, it s not necessary that the europeans do every single thing that the united states does, or that the united states mimic every action that the europeans do. we want to be in lockstep as much as we can. we want to be coordinated.