our new secretary of state, rex tillerson, walks into this and i assume he was thinking he'd be dealing with iran and russia, north korea. instead, we've got some mending of fences to do, not only with australia, one of our key pacific ally, but evidently with mexico as well. so, we've got work to do on our friend side of the base, even before we work on the opponents we have to deal with. >> admiral james stavridis, always great to have your perspective. thanks so much. >> thanks, kate. for five straight days now, fighting between russian-backed separatists and ukrainian troops has been growing more intense. this is the largest offensive by russian-backed forces in months with civilians often caught in the middle. nbc's foreign correspondent lucy cavanaugh is tracking all of that from london. the u.s. state department calling for a return to a cease-fire. what's the likelihood of that? >> hey, kate.