with vladimir putin and perhaps other western leaders would is aligned actually also with ukrainian interests. remember, kim, the ukrainian threat posed by russia is not one as stark presented by either the united states or the united kingdom. we spoke yesterday to the country s defense minister put to him that, look, we agree on of the facts, with united states and ukraine, but what we have is a different understanding of threat. that is because ukraine officials are not convinced it s a land grab that russia is after. rather, it s aimed with this troop buildup that they say has not substantially changed since spring of last year which is more stabilized to divide and challenge nato than actually to come in conquer ukrainian territory. that difference of assessment leads to a different message even if ukrainian officials are paced to explain that they agree with the allies and all the
are getting ready for potential war, top ukrainian officials this morning once again downplaying the threat. we heard from the defense minister saying that he believes that for today, the risk of escalation is low. they are looking at this troop buildup on three sides of the border. they re not seeing the kind of strike formations that would indicate an imminent attack. we also heard from the ukrainian foreign minister say, you shouldn t believe some of these apocalyptic predictions, he said, coming from the west. in speaking to ukrainian security experts here, there is a sense that russia does not have enough troops to hold any sections of this country. they don t have enough troops to actually hold kyiv. they may have enough to strike to invade, but not to hold. and that s why some security experts here in kyiv believe that this may be a bluff, jose. yeah, and david, speaking of
get out of ukraine? reporter: well, they re underscoring what you heard in that interview between lester holt and president biden, that american forces are not going to be sent in to help evacuate americans. now, of course there was an order approved to send several thousand troops to the region to poland, in particular, to try to help u.s. citizens exit the region. but that is why they are stressing that now is the time to leave. and i think this just underscores the urgency of this entire situation, steph, and based on my conversations with senior administration officials, they are taking president putin at face value. the fact he has surrounded ukraine on several different sides, the fact he s intensified that troop buildup on the ground and also at sea. so they are bracing for the very worst. but they insist there is still a diplomatic off-ramp. that is why you are seeing this diplomacy, president biden reaching out to his foreign counterparts, president macron
attack is tomorrow. i don t know what the purposes for these constant appearances by him and his officials to say that war is coming and attributing it to intelligence. i think it is obvious with the troop buildup and his disinterest in dialogue. he is made that decision for military operations and i ve not seen any concrete action or strategy by joe biden to stop it he says it is time we turn the table and the biden administration has got to put putin and in the driver seat so often. it s enabled him to dominate the global agenda and distract us from other priorities. how does they do that. we have a window of opportunity. we had a free single signpost indicating what the intention was. we ve known for years that putin was planning to integrate ukraine into under pressure
has been very upset about the language coming out of the white house and other western countries because he feels that it s growing panic in his country unnecessarily, and making people worried. and obviously, clearance to tamp that down, because it s not easy to govern in a place when there s a supposedly imminent invasion that s about to happen. and you can also look at the russian troop buildup, as directed towards destabilizing the political situation in ukraine, because, you know, if you have hundreds of thousands of soldiers gathering at your borders, that could of course influence public sentiment, and make it difficult for you to govern, which would be, in russia s interest, in the situation as well. so i think that the language out of kyiv is actually starting to change, though, the last couple of days. we ve seen the ukrainian intelligence services saying some of the same things that we ve had, heard the