dan lemoth. thanks for your time. hoping maybe we can draw you out and flesh out some details on these tabletop exercises. sounds like they went back as far as at least september in involving senior commanders s a hat type of thing. how far back it goes, who it involved, that type of thing? yeah, darn, i m not going to be able to go into more detail than i have. this was several months in the planning. it included actual physical rehearsals, as i said, dozens by the special operations forces as well as you can imagine some tabletop planning as well. but i don t have a tick tock of exactly how all that process worked out. it was extensively planned, extensively resourced and extensively informed over the course of several months. jen? if i could take you to russia, ukraine.
is recognize the independence of these currently rebel-controlled regions of ukraine. which we should say ukraine is not recognize them independently. matthew chance, thanks so much. so as you hear there, so often with the story, bianna, you have what is said and you have what is done. and the question is which of those is true, i know from the u.s. perspective the ukrainian perspective they re waiting to see what is actually done. right. and from the ukrainian perspective this has been going on for eight years now, ever since russia annexed crimea illegally in 2014. let s get the u.s. side here and go to jeremy diamond on new reporting that the white house conducted tabletop exercises to game out how the u.s. would respond if russia in fact reinvades ukraine. essentially helping them take preemptive action such as exposing russian information warfare that we have seen over the course of the past few
military and intelligence officials say vladimir putin could launch an invasion of ukraine at any time. the white house national security council could be faced with life-or-death decisions, and it s organized what it calls tiger teams conducting tabletop exercises to try to avoid mistakes frankly that the u.s. made when russia took crimea from ukraine in 2014. this includes laying out possible putin moves and u.s. responses to figure out all of the best options and how to respond to unintended consequences. to get a look at how this might work with invasion or diplomatic talks being stretched out, we gathered top former military and national security officials who have all served at every level of government around the table
the number and intensity of these discussions are clear indicator of just how high the stakes and the tensions are right now. meanwhile, the washington post reports that according to u.s. intelligence, russian government hackers have likely infiltrated ukrainian military, energy, and other critical in come pewter networks. it reports that russia could potentially disrupt those systems if a military assault is launched. nbc news has confirmed the white house has held tabletop exercises to game out responses to the invasion of ukraine. and tonight, along with his warning to the kremlin, the president told americans that u.s. led efforts to punish a russian invasion may be felt in home. i will not pretend this will be painless. there could be impact on our energy prices. it could impact energy consumers and producers. we are prepared to deploy all the tools and authority at our disposal to provide relief at the gas pump. all this comes as a
are, it is about reducing the amount of time needed to respond effectively. that s what the tabletop exercises, two in december, are designed to do to help the u.s. respond more quickly should a russian invasion move forward. a new strategy perhaps even surprising russians as well. jeremy diamond, thank you. right now the u.s. is preparing to receive americans who are currently evacuating ukraine. the u.s. embassy in ukraine opened a welcome center near the poland/ukraine border. the state department is telling all u.s. citizens in ukraine and neighboring belarus to get out right now. kylie atwood has more from the state department. what more are you learning? they have opened this center along the ukrainian/poland border for all the americans they re encouraging to leave the country. as you know, the state department has been telling americans in the country to leave for quite some time now. dating back to late last year. but there are calls for americans to depart have become