indeed, it is a distinct possibility even as president biden said that he and the team will continue to talk to russia in the coming days. fred? or arlette seanez. and are the ukrainians demonstrating that they are concerned or worried, alex? not on a wide scale, fred. this is something that the ukrainians have been remaining calm about, and that is certainly the goal of the russian president and his top leadership. they have tried to project calm, and to prevent panic. for all sorts of reasons and not the least of which is to protect the economy. there is a real divide between the alarmism which is what the ukrainians are saying about the message that we have heard from the west and nato and the united states. you know, the state department has said they are not alarmists, but talking the about the facts on the ground. so we are continuing to see from president zelensky on down with this message of stag calm, but
made increasingly pessimistic predictions. that is the same message we are now hearing from president zelensky on down as the u.s. has issued its most dire warning yet. now, president zelensky in that clip you played, he was down south in the southern part of the country observing ukrainian military exercises that not at all coincidentally are taking place at exactly the same time as russian military exercises are taking place in belarus. president zelensky says he still needs to analyze all of the information and casting some doubt about the certainty of the prospect of a russian invasion. fred, at the same time, we are hearing a more rousing statement from ukraine s defense minister who said that this is a different country, this is a different military than the one in 2014 when ukraine was invaded and crimea was annexed without firing a single shot. i want to read you part of the defense minister s statement. he says, everyone who has
a direct pathway to the capital of kyiv. reports indicate they are facing some fierce opposition from ukrainian forces coming as we re still following that story taking place just about 15 miles from the ukrainian capital where russian forces took over a military airfield. we saw some video earlier of helicopters targeting the airfield as they tried to take it over. ukrainian forces say they have shot down three of those attack helicopters. at this hour fighting does continue as the ukraine forces look to take back the airfield. it erupted overnight with russian forces coming into ukraine from north, belarus, russia and south through crimea. the russians launching a coordinated air and ground offensive against the country. president zelensky is encouraging his people to fight back and today calling on the west for more defensive weapons so they can continue this campaign and hold strong in ukraine. bill: it is 5:00 your time.
membership. that was brought back very quickly. we f we heard from the foreign minister who said we are ready to go forward with membership. and from president zelensky himself who reaffirmed that commitment to try to push for nato membership. but behind the scenes, in private conversations, it does seem that there are many people pushing to have some kind of a concession made. some kind of an extraction that the russians can claim as a victory that will allow an off-ramp for everybody to de-escalate. and the issue of nato membership for ukraine could be a win for all sides. as we ve heard before, the reality is ukraine is not going to get nato membership any time soon. so this would be something easy. but symbolically, from slenls s government, very, very tricky to pull off. and nic, i think there s a question about whether or not such a move would deter president putin. and i can hear people in think
wednesdayful are people there not worried? i think it is fair to say the atmosphere, it is like a bizarre split screen from what we re hearing in washington and what we re seeing and hearing on the ground. people feel they ve been living under the threat of russian aggression for eight years. it is something they have become accustomed to. if you go out on the streets during the day, it is very calm. it is valentine s day here. there is a big party going on in our very hotel full of red heart balloons and young couples. and it feels like any other european capital. when you listen to some of the things that president zelensky said today, quips aside about tomorrow now being a national unity public holiday as opposed to a day of invasion, there are also some signs that preparations are underway. we know that he issued a decree, for example, talking about how they re going on prepare some kind of a singular information site so that ukrainians can get ahold of vetted information that