in the vanguard against ukraine continuing to be at the border, to amass at the border. reporter: this morning i m told by a senior u.s. official that the u.s. is watching the donbas region of ukraine very closely, making claims of ethnic crimes there. they recognize the region as independence has the u.s. fearing russia may use this as a pretext to further invade eastern ukraine. and there s new exclusive reporting. according to the intelligence assessments, the ukranian government believes that russia does not have enough troops near its border to effectively invade this country. senior chief correspondent clarissa ward is with me in kyiv, of course barbara starr standing by. first to you, clarissa. the ukranian military once again, frankly, on a somewhat different page of the military
thought this would crumble the government, the military would step in. he called for popular uprising, which is all crazy. zelenskyy was elected by about 70% of the vote. the ukranians have become nor nationalistic, more anti-russian. the number one person who is not helping create a real ukranian nation is vladimir putin. now, how will it be calculated? how crippling is this for putin to see the quickness of sanctions, other global responses from restrictions on air space for our russian aircraft, to limitations on russian banking. japan is now putting a freeze on putin s assets. there is a lot going on. some it have is symbolic. putin doesn t keep assets in his own name. i think it s all symbolic and
fred, what is becoming increasingly clear that the ukranian military is really standing its ground in keeping the russian forces at bay from this city. i remember the most dire warnings were that this city could fall in 24 to 48 hours. here we are on the fourth day of this invasion and that has not happened. there was some fighting on the west edge of kyiv in a place called boucha. you can see a column of russian vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, that were torched, burned out. some have rolled over, they re on their side. this is evidence of the fierce fighting and pushback that the ukranian forces have given these russian troops. you can hear in that video someone speak ing in ukranian saying, they ve come to our land. i wish you all would burn in hell, and i would give my life if needed. that video has been verified by cnn and they were located to the
forces that will go not to ukraine but to the eastern flank of nato to ensure there s significant deterrent for russia to spread beyond ukraine with its aggression. that coming as the u.s. and other nations are stepping up support for ukraine in terms of weapons and other supplies that they re providing to the ukranian military, with the state department announcing today among the $350 million of additional equipment the u.s. will be sending, anti-tank missiles and air defense instruments, things the ukranian military said they badly need if they re going to fight off a military as aggressive and as well equipped as the russian military. tiffany? thank you so much for that important context. coming up, why americans should care, why you at home should care about russia s invasion of ukraine, and it has nothing to do with gas prices. you don t want to miss that. stay tuned. u don t want to miss. u don t want to miss. stay tuned
an msnbc contributor, always my friend. great to talk to you. there was a potential obviously in moscow that russia would take heat for 48 hours and that s not happened and they are closing in on three sides here. they are having a lot more success in the south, the russian arm, than they are here. i ll start in kyiv to break it down. we ve seen richard engel, he s in iropinion which is this area right here. yeah. ukranians have been coming in from the northwest. these armor formations, they are getting chewed up by the ukranian military and anti-tank weapons but at the same time the ukranians here are starting to flee. they are running out of food and flies. separately it s very uneven depending on where you re at. kharkiv has become a major battle. the russian military, losing a general there, losing lots of fighter jets, and when you dig in, just yesterday there were