let s begin with the crisis in ukraine. british prime minister boris johnson is in kyiv meeting with president zelensky today. chief foreign correspondent, richard engel filed this report from the eastern border. reporter: here there s an uneasy calm. people are nervous. they are aware that russia has 130,000 troops, tanks, medical units, missile launchers, the full capacity to launch a war, that if it were launched, would likely run right through the city. but the city is still functioning. people have not, to a large degree, left. some are keeping bags pack fwhied door, keeping their document said in places they can find them, putting money in envelopes but they re still going about their day-to-day lives. and the city, outwardly, is not preparing for war. they re not clearing out the bomb shelters.
i spoke to a local counsel woman and she s frustrated that the city isn t doing more. there are no public information campaigns telling people what they should do in case there were an invasion. really it s not being talked about. only when we go up to people and ask them how they are feeling, at first they re almost surprised that we re asking. they think that this is something that is strange. why are all these journalists asking us these questions about how we feel? we ve been living under the threat of russian invasion for many years now. i don t want to say it s a suspended disbelief but it is the line the government has been pressing here. the government is not talking much about the possibility of a russian invasion. certainly president zelensky has been openly dismissive of the possibility, saying that he thinks the united states and nato are exaggerating the threat and, to some degree, are
with groups on the ground, and we have to keep fighting for voting laws in these states. just on ukraine, it was reported today that according to a ukrainian official during president biden s call with president zelensky today, president biden said that russian invasion is almost certain once the ground freezes and to prepare for impact. the national council said they denied, saying that president biden said that there s a distinct possibility that the russians could invade ukraine in february. reports of anything more different that that are completely false. where is the confusion coming from on this crucial issue? where is it coming from? the ukrainians are president biden? i think the ukrainians have come out since then and conveyed that an enormous source is not one day stand by. but most importantly i would know the president has been saying, we have been saying for weeks now, that the russians could invade at anytime. we don t know, we re not in the minds of president putin,
ready to stand and fight. putin says he doesn t plan to invade. the general says it s a lie, that putin has had plans to seize ukraine by force for years. david, president biden speaking to president zelensky of ukraine tonight, reaffirming america s support, willingness to respond to decisively if russia invades ukraine. although we do knowhe ave very views on how likely that is and i have to say, tonight, after a long few weeks of diplomacy, there s no sign this crisis is easing. david? ian pannell again tonight. thank you, ian. back here at home and to the pandemic now. scientists here in the u.s. studying this new omicron subvariant called ba.2, found in 17 states here in the u.s. ba.2 may be highly contagious, they say, but so far the world health organization does not consider it a variant of concern. so, tonight, what we do know so far, and what they re seeing here in this country. here s steve 0 sosunsami. reporter: scientists say
reasons the ukrainians and you have mixed messages coming out of president zelensky verses the military establishment or images of ukrainians training on the weekends for an insurgent force to fight back. but recall the russians first massed the troops in spring of 2021. they didn t take action at that point and you re right that zelensky is trying not to completely spook out a whole economy and create chaos or give russia a reason to move forward. but at the same time, as we see our raid and other western aid flow into the country, it needs to get distributed to the army. the air force needs to be distributed. the civilian defense forces need to be armed. and i do believe this is not at all how putin thought both ukraine and the world would react to his as. i also wanted to turn your attention to pete williams