let s bring in former ambassador to ukraine, william b. taylor, but as president of the u.s. institute of peace. ambassador, we have seen this ongoing fight for the donbas region. according to the uk s ministry of defence, the kremlin is struggling to provide basic services to russian occupied territories and warned that mariupol is at risk of a cholera outbreak. we re does this tell you about russia s ability to really hold on to the territories that it has occupied? you are exactly right. this will be a problem for the russians. ukrainians have lived in these territories where russians have occupied and do not want to live under russia. they don t want to be ruled by the people that have been dominating parts of ukraine for years. they know what it is like. they don t want to be under that. they will make it difficult. we have already seen reports of warfare, of civilians going
consideration. in a ukrainian television over the weekend, a key find zelenskyy denied that russia return everything seized in this war and issued a blunt warning. i m joined now by bill taylor, who evidence is as u.s. ambassador to ukraine during the george w. bush administration and he s the vice president of russia and europe at the u.s. institute of peace. ambassador taylor, thank you as always for coming on. what do you make of zelenskyy taking this message to the world economic forum and do you agree with his assessment that it s got to be victory without territorial concessions to get through this? president zelenskyy is reflecting the strong view. ukrainian people, that they should not have to compromise,
many say there s no victory to celebrate here in you crane. they re waiting to celebrate that victory, and right now they re saying they re frustrated, sat, but hopeful that they could continue to move forward. nbc s jay gray live for us in ukraine. jay, thank you for being with us. with me now, former u.s. ambassador to the also the vice president of russia at the u.s. institute of peace good to see you. u.s. impose new sanctions on russia, including prohibiting americans from providing consulting services to russia. the u.s. also sanctioned state controls television stations. talk me through the kind of impact all of this could have. listen, this is just the latest of in a series of very harsh sanctions that the united states and its allies, let s be real clear, these are international sanctions that will have effect, because they are international. this is the latest in a series
front, germany announcing it would send up to 50 antiaircraft vehicles directly to ukraine. it seems like a major shift in its weapons policy after weeks of pressure to do more and to do more quickly. joining us now former u.s. ambassador to ukraine william taylor, now vice president for russia and europe at the u.s. institute of peace, and retired four-star general barry mccaffrey, a former member of the national security council now lucky for us an msnbc military analyst, and you have the tweet of the day on this nuclear question, but i just want to back up a minute because i haven t had a chance to speak to either of you since what feels like an historic visit by two of the most senior u.s. government officials, secretary austin and secretary blinken and secretary austin has sort of grabbed the mic in a way i haven t seen him do yet on the world stage as our country s top defense official. and i just wonder from your view, first ambassador taylor and then yours general mccaffrey, wh
ukraine, vice president at the u.s. institute of peace, ambassador bill taylor. thank you so much, as always, ambassador. we appreciate you joining us on this. let s talk through a few things, some of which cal just talked about a little bit, and i want you to pull on some of those threads, which is first this announcement from the ukrainian president, and i do want to say once again, nbc has not yet confirmed this reporting but we re going with what the president is saying now. the ukrainian president is saying now. and that is the visit of secretaries austin and secretary blinken to ukraine tomorrow. what do you make of it, and what needs to be heard by them? well, yasmin, so, as you say, not confirmed, but we have heard over the last several days of the plans for senior americans to visit kyiv, and of course, other senior europeans have been there, and it s been a very good sign for the ukrainians to see