ukraine and russia. senator alex padilla will join us to discuss the latest on the crisis. meanwhile in washington, president biden will deliver his first state of the union address tonight against a backdrop of crises at home and abroad. cedric richmond, the senior adviser to the president, will join us on that. and in texas, today marks the first primary day of the 2022 election cycle. we ll go live to the lone star state. and we begin with the latest on the russian invasion of ukraine, which is now in its sixth day. the russian defense ministry is warning residents in the capital of kyiv to leave their homes, as it plans to trike military targets in the ukrainian capital. this comes as these slight images shows what appears to be a 40-mile-long convoy of russian tanks and armored vehicles
coming toward kharkiv, force fighting there based on the reporting we are getting, the ukrainians have fought back fiercely in this part. the russian military moving its way across the border here. and up in belarus, they are trying to make a beeline down to kyiv. it s hard to know right now, jesse, just how successful that push has been. i will tell you why just in a moment here if i clear this out and go to the next screen. you can see this. remember belarus? you know, very friendly with moscow within the past 60 days. they gave the russians all kinds of military assets to would and establish military camps in belarus. they have taken advantage of that, jesse, 24 hours ago, the military experts would they do that? indeed they did. they crossed the border. they are trying to make their way to kyiv. here is the issue based on the reporting we are getting. chernobyl, april of 1986, the worst nuclear disaster in the history of the world happened here in chernobyl. it s now a power plant.
zelenskyy, his parliamentary delegation and various ministers, i also saw unity that i have not seen at a munich security conference among nato members really since the days of the cold war when i was a speech writer for the supreme allied commander in europe that asheville 5 agreement is the corner stone for nato. president biden has clearly stated that as correct as it is. and an attack on all on one is an attack on all. so, without question, that is a very significant statement in response to a very significant threat. but, if i could, jesse, today i think the take away is that the ukrainians who have rhetorically sounded determined, today were determined on the battlefield. trey captured that very important fight for that airfield just outside of kyiv where presumably the russians would have put in more air assault infantry tonight. they will not be able to do it. reports of very heavy ukrainian
with a few other countries. it is enormous, from east to west. obviously, the initial flashpoint was towards the east, the area known as the donbas, the disputed regions. then to the south, obviously, crimea, that was then annexed by russia in 2014. and then just spread around the country, if you look at the map, kyiv right slap bang in the middle to the north, crucially, close to belarus, where thousands and thousands of russian troops have been based, and all around it you can see those little flashpoints, just shows you the sheer scale and geographic breadth of the incursion, the invasion, that is taking place. kiev, of course, the fear in the uk government is that putin s troops are all heading for the capital, and right there for us tonight i m pleased to say on newscast is lyse doucet, our excellent and amazing bbc chief international correspondent.
earlier in the week, one hour and five minutes long, it was all about why ukraine should not exist. historically, he blamed lenin for it, and it should not exist, geographically, because it was part of russia, and it should not exist politically because he believed that the current government, although democratically elected, was illegitimate. and if you take that view, then nothing was going to stop this man. we ve got some great people to talk to as well, but i just wanted to compare expectations from the people we ve been talking to today. so, talking to some politicians who ve been party to some of the chats inside government about what s really going on. it seems to me that the broad expectation, and of course, this is a very volatile situation, is that it is going to be very hard to stop president putin getting to kyiv and taking the country and trying to instil some kind of propped up government, and that whatever the west does, they may be able, over time,