about opportunity in ukraine. president biden shifting his warning about monkeypox as another possible case is being investigated in the united states. and a heart continue stopping rescue in california, a helicopter swoops in to save a man dangling from the side of a cliff. good morning to viewers here in the u.s. and around the world, it is monday, may 23rd. this morning president biden is making unexpected headlines in tokyo, even his top aides were caught offguard by what he said. the president was asked if the united states would, quote, get involved militarily if china were to invade taiwan, and this is the exchange. you didn t want to get involved in the ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. are you willing to get involved militarily to defend taiwan if it comes to that? yes. you are? that s a commitment we made. we agree on a one china policy, we signed on to t and all the attendant agreements made from there. but the idea that it can be taken
fed, it is a test of markets and ultimately they can avoid a recession, but will they? no one knows. richard, i know president zelenskyy just addressed the forum where you are moments ago. what did he say? reporter: president zelenskyy reminded everybody at davos of 1938 and the fundamental point that the price of a dictator eventually goes higher and in 38, 39 had to be dealt with and every since has had to be dealt with eventually. he also asked for the toughest sanctions to be implemented and he wanted more. he wanted oil and gas, he wanted the west to give them more sophisticated armaments. this was basically saying to a place where russia had been fated in previous years look, i promise you, you go down the promenade as you used to see add verts for russia, spur bank, they were all here, now there is not a russian in sight. and the reason ultimately that
president has announced they do have an agreement with the international energy agency for the release of 60 million barrels of preliminarily from global supply reserves. 30 million from the u.s. but that s not even a day s usage of oil, which is 100 million barrels a day. i mean, the president s trying to soften the blows, the inflationary aspects. but he s facing a steep climb out of this. yeah, andrea. there are no doubt going to be second and third-order effects to our sanctions. i ve been amazed at how effective our sanctions seem to have been, even in the early days. you look at the rubl collapsing 30%. it s now less valuable than a penny. you look at the fact that stock market trading has been halted for five days. you look at the fact you can t take withdrawals from spur bank,
arms, training, and equipment and clandestine forces. diplomatic support is going to be in the cards. in terms of sanctions, i think we ve taken significant steps. there s more to go. we could sanction spur bank and vtb bank. other banks that are very critical to russian elites. to the russian governing state. once we engage in these export restrictions, probably about six months time, we ll degrade the russian industrial manufacturing capability, their high-tech capability. that s going to be a significant blow to the russian economy. so i think putin s going to have this fundamental choice. an economy in decline is going to do into steeper decline, then govern ukraine, which will be very bloody and difficult for
reporter was really pushing on whether they should have done sanctions earlier. obviously nobody knows, but it is worth emphasizing they now have a huge decision to make. if they really believe invasion is this imminent, and by the way, there are warnings of that are taking a psychological toll in this country and that s hugely significant. there are big things they can do. they point out, the banks they sanctioned yesterday, there are banks in russia that are ten times bigger than the banks the u.s. sanctioned. a bank like spur bank, pretty much every single russian comes into contact with. sanctioning those banks could have a humge impact. they have a decision to make. even the sovereign debt. yes, it s important. th it s something is u.s. and uk can do. it s important, but they can really escalate it big time and they have a big decision to make. if imminent means imminent, what are they going to do. erin burnett with some