the u.s. has just suspended upcoming bilateral trade and investment engagement with russia over crimea. they ve suspended that, whether or not there are further actions to come in the next 12 to 24 hours, we ll certainly be covering that. i want to take a look up next, at military options. russian forces on the ground in crimea, and ukrainian forces. we ll be right back. when it s donut friday at the office i use my citi thankyou card to get two times the points at the coffee shop. which will help me get to miami.and they ll be stuck at the cube farm. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn two times the points on dining out with no annual fee. go to citi.com/thankyoucards.
but they re just just two or three walking around, they re not actually involved in the operations of facilities like airports, so it s a very bizarre situation where they re here but they don t really get in the way of anything, but i think their presence is reassuring for those who support them here, but very worrying for others who are opposed to them. ukrainians who for instance think crimea should be part of ukraine, but there are many russians here, ethnic russians who feel that they have come as liberators and protectors, it s a very unusual situation that sometimes is a bit hard to get your head around. ben, we appreciate all the reporting you and your crew and your fellow colleagues from cnn have done on the ground there, we ll continue to check in with you over the next several days.
president obama in which she questioned how in touch with reality vladimir putin is. obviously you re not privy to that phone conversation, but what do you make of her comments if they re accurately reported by the new york times. what i notice in five years working in the obama administration, sometimes it did appear he had bad information in the meetings i was with him, or if it wasn t bad, it was deliberately falsified information. i mean, you ve heard, if you ve been watchi ining any of the run press as i have over the last few days, you would believe that there have been nazi organizations, terrorist organizations flooding into crimea, and, therefore, the russians there have to be protected. we know from your reporting and from cnn s reporting and other reporters in crimea, that that s absolute nonsense. so one wonders what kind of
you just signed up today for the fight if it comes to that? yes, i did it today. why do you want to fight? what are you ready to fight for? crimea is our country. president putin today oversaw military training drills outside st. petersburg, russia. the message seemingly crystal clear, the russian military is ready. and just in the last few hours, new images of armored personnel carriers rolling into crimea. no question this time who these men are fighting for. throughout the european union and washington, it s been a day of fierce diplomatic efforts trying to figure out some sort of way to solve the crisis, to end the crisis on the ground in
they don t really have the capabilities to take on russia. no, they don t. it s all over the past 20 or so years since the collapse of the soviet union, ukraine s military has been slowly degraded, where the russian military has been bolstered. there s been a lot of investment in the military. they ve been engaged in a number of conflicts. and so there s no question that if ukraine were to get engaged in a military confrontation with russia, they would come out worse off. they ve been very careful at this point to not to do anything to provoke if rush forces on the ground in crimea. they are aware of their situation. they have put the country on a red alert food footing. they ve engaged in military training, they say they re prepared to fight. if you speak to people here on the streets, you have. they ll say, we are prepared to defend that country and if necessary, die for the