face no direct threat trt invasion of crimea. our own borders are not threatened by russia s annexation. but that kind of casual indifference would ignore the lessons that are written in the cemeteries of this continent. the well, on saturday, lavrov stated again that russia has no intention of invading ukraine, and yet, there are thousands of russian troops still stationed on country s border. talk about this, i m joined by former u.s. ambassador to russia mike mcfaul and the u.s. times peter baker, and co-author of the book kremlin rising, but before we get to them, i want to go to my colleague in eastern ukraine. any sign there of increased troop movements on the border? what are you seeing and hearing? well, chuck, we ve been on the ukrainian side for the past several days and made it out to the ukrainian russian border.
several days. we ve actually made it out to the ukrainian russian border. we were unable to see a makeshift ukrainian post set up by the border guard. about 200 men we saw. they ve been positioned since march 5th when tensions rose. they say their morale is high and they would fight if they were forced to after the developments they saw in crimea. but the biggest concern for ukrainian officials is what happens in places like donetsk, where we are today. thousands of showed up to call on the russian government to intervene and protect their interests. why that s so the important for the ukrainian government and others is because they re concerned that could be the pretext that russia uses to have more interference in ukraine s affairs and possibly even push forward. as you mentioned, sergey lavrov said russia has no intentions to move troops across the border. but they are watching the situation closely and they say they would protect their
invasion of crimea. our own borders are not threatened by russia s annexation. but that kind of casual indifference would ignore the lessons that are written in the cemeteries of this continent. the well, on saturday, lavrov stated again that russia has no intention of invading ukraine, and yet, there are thousands of russian troops still stationed on country s border. talk about this, i m joined by former u.s. ambassador to russia mike mcfaul and the u.s. times peter baker, and co-author of the book kremlin rising, but before we get to them, i want to go to my colleague in eastern ukraine. any sign there of increased troop movements on the border? what are you seeing and hearing? well, chuck, we ve been on the ukrainian side for the past several days and made it out to the ukrainian russian border. we were unable to see a