ukraine. and the other stories we're following this morning, the number of migrants at the southern border hit a 20-year high and new concern about the supply chain and rising consumer prices. good morning. and welcome to "way too early." on this monday, april 18th. i'm jonathan lemire. russian forces continue their offensive in eastern ukraine, stepping up up attacks in kharkiv, and a barrage of russian rockets hit the city center yesterday, setting fire to several apartment buildings and a market. a day earlier, russian missiles hit a community kitchen that was run by chef jose that was being used to feed refugees. four of the staff members were injured in the attack. in the nightly address, president volodymyr zelenskyy called the bombing of kharkiv, quote, nothing but deliberate terror. he also said at least 18 people have been killed and over 100 injured in the fighting in the city in the past days. moscow had given ukrainian fighters until yesterday morning to lay down arms or be quote overrun, and over 2,000 soldiers are holed up in a steel plant in the city and officials say they have vowed to not surrender. >> the city has not fallen. there are still our military forces, our soldiers, so they will fight till then. and as for now, they still are in mariupol. >> the city's police chief said that many civilians, including children, are also sheltering at the steel plant. which stretches for more than four square miles. the plant is the last line of defense preventing russian forces from taking over the crucial seaside port. the fall of mariupol will be a significant victory for russia, as it will allow the kremlin to establish a land corridor from the east to crimea which invaded and has controlled since 2014. local officials say over 100,000 civilians remain trapped in the city, and face humanitarian crisis, with severe shortage of food, water, and medicine. russian forces also carried out several missiles strikes in and around the capital of kyiv, according to the city's mayor, at least one person was killed, and several others injured, in an attack on saturday, while another missile strike hit the suburb. the governor of the region said around 25,000 people were without power after russian shelling hit a high voltage power station in the area. this, as the kremlin yesterday said its forces carried out several precision strikes with missiles on an ammunition plant near kyiv. last week, russia vowed to increase attacks on the capital, after its key war ship sunk in the black sea. joining us now, nbc foreign correspondent raf sanchez who's live in lviv, ukraine. raf, there have been several explosions in lviv where you are this morning. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right, the air-raid sirens have been going off here in lviv all morning, the mayor says six people were killed, 11 injured, as russian forces carried out a series of cruise missile strikes near the railway station here. the governor says three military targets were struck but also a civilian car repair shop, among the wounded is one child. we don't know what condition that child is in. but this is vladimir putin's striking deep, in western ukraine, and even as the fighting on the ground shifts to the east, part of what is so shocking about this attack near the railway station is that station has been a lifeline, a place of safe passage for displaced ukrainians fleeing the fighting from the east, coming here to lviv, either seeking shelter here or heading further on west to europe, that sense of calm really shattered by this morning's missile attack, and it comes as you said, as more and more missiles rain down on kyiv, on kharkiv, on other locations all across ukraine. a reminder that nowhere in this country is out of range for putin's forces to strike. the russian defense ministry has said these attacks on the city, with missiles, are retaliation for what it calls ukrainian attacks inside russian territory, and ukraine is not commenting on those alleged attacks but a lot of people suspect, what is actually going on is, this is putin retaliating for the humiliating sinking of the russian war ship on the black sea. >> certainly an expectation that the fighting will be focused on the east and it does seem striking that russia is making deliberate efforts to head out to the west in lviv and the capital of kyiv but the attention is on mariupol, which seems to be on the verge of falling. raf, what's the latest there? >> the defenders in mariupol, jonathan, have fought almost literally to the last bullet. this is a group of ukrainian marines, and fighters from the azov regiment, that far right militia, who have been leading the defense for the city, they're outnumbered and outgunned and they're holed up in the remains of one of europe's largest steel plants. the russians demanded that they surrender by 6:00 a.m. local time yesterday. that deadline came and went. and the white flag did not go up over the steel plant. but it is not at all clear how much longer they can hold out. president zelenskyy seems to be indicating he expects the city to fall soon. he has told russia that that if those troops who remain inside are massacred, that he will call off any remaining peace talks, and now, mariupol would be a major one for vladimir putin and a chance for him to change the narrative after the sinking of the moskov and a victory ahead of the may 9th celebrations in russia that we talked about when they hold a military parade to mark the end of the second world war and strategically it would allow a land bridge between crimea which he annexed in 2014 and the separatist republics way out in the east of the country. the situation for civilians in mariupol, almost unimaginable. the mayor says at least 10,000 have been killed. the final toll may be much, much higher than that. there is almost no food, people have been drinking filthy water to survive. and an adviser to the mayor is saying, russian forces are now setting up checkpoints around the city, no one allowed in, no one allowed out, and men going through those checkpoints are being interrogated. they're having their phones searched. and this adviser claiming that one in ten of them is being sent to the donbas region in the far east of ukraine, unclear what russian forces intend for them there. >> jonathan? >> nbc foreign correspondent raf sanchez, please stay safe, and thank you as always for your reporting. ukrainian president zelenskyy is once again imploring western leaders to implement embargoes on russian oil. and in his nightly address yesterday, zelenskyy spoke about the need for swifter sanctions against moscow, in response to the latest violent attacks on his country. >> the ukrainian president praised his people for their war time efforts. earlier in the weekend, zelenskyy met with a group of ukrainian soldiers and presented them with medals for their service. meanwhile donations continue to pour in to ukraine. almost two months into the war. zelenskyy's chief of staff says that $924 million in charitable assistance has come from people and corporations around the world. nearly half of that is, has come from the united kingdom, the netherlands, the czech republic and the united states, and the next largest contributors. zelenskyy's office says the funds are mostly going to the united nations and international humanitarian organization, who are helping ukrainian refugees across europe. meanwhile more than 270,000 tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered to ukraine over the past months. still ahead, extreme covid lockdowns in china are starting to impact the global supply chain. plus two republican lawmakers are reportedly tied to the effort to keep former president trump in power. and things get chippy in boston, as a former celtic repeatedly gives the finger to fans. i wonder how that game turned out? those stories and a check on the weather when we come back. back. 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(burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers. ♪we are farmers.bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum♪ the celtics, the best defensive team in the nba this year, they need a stop here. irving, away from the double team. continues into the paint. scrambling. double teamed again. back out to durant. shot clock at 2. durant's got to put it up, gets it off in time. off the mark. rebound. celtics have a time-out. they could use it here. the drive. brown, kicks it out. clark. inside, there's the bucket. >> go celtics. jason tatum's lay-up at the buzzer and the celtics win game one of their first round playoff series against the brooklyn nets 115-114 and great look by marcus smart to find tatum for the game winner. brooklyn's kyrie irving played the bad guy at boston's tv garden flipping off the celtics crowd on several occasion, video emerging from fans throughout the day and this is what the nets told reporters after the loss. >> people say [ bleep ]. and you know, we're the ones expected to be docile and take a humble approach. it is what it is, you know. i know what to expect. and it's the same and i'll give it back to them. >> irving of course spent two years in boston, and had promised to re-sign with the krlgs and then didn't, fueling the animosity. game two wednesday night in boston. irving beating on that final possession, with tatum, a classic game. each conference top seed took care of business in the post season opener. the miami heat rolled over the atlanta hawks, 115-91 with the help of a playoff record, eight three-pointers by duncan robinson and in phoenix, chris paul scored 19 of the 30 points in the fourth quarter. the final 110-99. and looking at how good phoenix was all year long. in milwaukee, the defending champion bucks recovered after blowing a 16-point lead against chicago yesterday, hanging on to beat the bulls 93-86. the playoffs continue tonight. turning now to major league baseball and an immaculate fourth inning in baltimore. nestor cortes would strike out a career high 12 batters over a little more than five innings of work. before baltimore broke the scoreless tie against the new york bullpen in the eighth inning. the orioles beat the yankees 5-0, and took the series from the bronx bombers. meanwhile, the boston red sox, now tied for first place, will look to take their games to the minnesota twins as they wrap up their series at fenway park this morning. it is marathon day in boston. we'll follow the boston marathon and that of course means 11:05 first pitch at fenway. the red sox will then head to toronto where they will be short-handed against the blue jays. the manager confirmed that the team expects to be without multiple unvaccinated players for the series in toronto where the canadian government requires a second dose or one of the johnson & johnson vaccine. at least 14 days prior to entry. that includes starting pitcher tanner houck who told the boston globe that he is not vaccinated against covid-19 and therefore not be able to play during the series that begins tomorrow night. players sidelined by covid-19 vaccine issues are not paid, and do not accrue major league service time while out on the restricted list. this is going to be an issue for teams all year long of the oakland athletics placed three players on the restricted list on the series of the toronto series this past week and the yankees are expected to be without aaron judge and other unvaccinated players. get the shot, guys, you're hurting your team. time now for the weather and let's go to meteorologist bill karins with the forecast and how was your weekend and tell us how the weather looks. >> my weekend is fantastic and people will like i have to say and you mentioned the boston marathon and they will sneak that in with some great weather this morning, so it should be nearly perfect and rain and snow moves into the northeast this evening. let's talk about it. two storms that will combine into one. this will be a nor'easter type scenario. more like a march storm than an april storm. already snowing in chicago. and we have snow in northern indiana. it is snowing in michigan. and this mess is headed for the northeast today. heavy rain from the carolinas, into virginia, and 8:00 a.m. this morning, and not a good morning commute around charlotte into raleigh. and eventually the rain moves into dc by the middle of the day and the rain will hold off in new york city until about 6:00 p.m. and all of that blue in central pennsylvania, western new york, and southern new york, that is all snow. and it's going to be a heavy wet snow. and it's going to warm early spring, and so we do have some leaves and buds on the trees, in the southern tier of new york and pennsylvania, those are the areas that we're concerned about, and this is not just a little snowstorm, we have the potential of six to eight to ten inches of snow from scranton to binghamton, and into adirondacks and we get nailed by this storm, so jonathan, it's going to be an ugly monday night and tuesday, in the northeast, and my apologies early, it's going to be ugly pictures tomorrow at this time. >> okay. we will look for those, a snowy mid april day. bill karins, thank you for that. good luck again. to all of the boston marathon runners today and happy patriots day to all those who celebrate. >> still ahead, more bombshell text messages relating to january 6th. we dig into new reporting about how two republican lawmakers and allies of donald trump lobby the former president's chief of staff to overturn the 2020 election. we're back in just a minute. it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena® ♪simply irresistible♪ ♪ ♪ ♪simply irresistible♪ applebee's irresist-a-bowls are back. now starting at $8.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. 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>> well, these texts bring us back the simple question of whether the committee will recall more republican lawmakers to testify before them and we have reached out to three different lawmaker, kevin mccarthy and jim jordan and scott perry all house members about the election and their contacts with the former president and all rebuke the committee and refuse to take part and the committee has backed off trying to subpoena them at least for now. and with only weeks until the committee might start public hearing, and these texts, and these continued questions from republican lawmakers, they still make this a live issue, whether or not they will try to seek testimony from our republicans and whether or not they subpoena lawmakers, and you know, how much more investigating the committee wants to do before they start to wrap this up. that remains to be seen. >> so we've had a defiant response from congressman roy, surely aimed at his republican base and we've, and have we heard from senator lee? >> his spokesperson i believe told "the new york times" a couple of days ago that they weren't disputing the authenticity of these texts and they were similar to what senator lee had said in public this, and we've seen this in some of the texts that cnn had published here, we see some of the people like senator lee go from being a quite vigorous, you know, vigorous effort to try to find these examples of fraud, and find legal avenues to overturn the election to actually being disheartened with the way things were going and fairly critical of some republican colleagues like senator tez cruz who had tried to overturn the election on january 6th. >> and then nicholas, lastly, we know democrats are growing more and more agitated at the department of justice and attorney general garland, in particular, for not moving on some of the people that they had referrals on january 6th. give us the latest sense there as to what lawmakers are looking to? >> there is continued frustration from members of the committee and it has bubbled to the surface as they have made more criminal referrals and they are still waiting on other criminal referrals that they've sent to the justice department, for people who have defied the january 6th committee subpoenas. we saw congresswoman, one of the committee members, democrat from virginia, say that merrick garland, the attorney general, needed to do his job, so they could do theirs. whether or not the justice department acts on this again remains to be seen, but you know, we see this frustration, from committee members, who worry that they continue to make these referrals and that people might defy their subpoena, anyway, if they don't think there will be any consequence to them. and of course steve bannon, one of the first people that the committee referred for contempt of congress is facing justice department prosecution right now. >> thank you very much. and i'm certainly going to be speaking with you again soon as the investigation proceeds. still ahead, organizing efforts at a tech giant and inflation comes for the big mac. we're diving into the morning's business headlines next on "way too early." allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. you never know what opportunities life will send your way. but if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis, enbrel can help you say i'm in for what's next. ready to create a bigger world? 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yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. time now for business. and for that, let's bring in business reporter for axios, hope king who joins me here on set. hope, good to see you again. employees at apple's flag ship store not far from where we're sitting in new york city are taking steps to form a union, this would be, if successful, the first time an apple store would be unionized in the u.s. i believe. where do things stand now and what could it mean? >> this is part of a bigger story, apple, starbucks, you're seeing the biggest employers in the country, with grass roots unionizing efforts so these workers are forming the collective to try to unionize, and this isn't going to be sort of big labor, where we've seen parnas decline in the past decade and workers are fighting themselves because during the pam pandemic, they are facing working conditions and a drop in bargaining power and apple could be looking at grass roots organizing efforts. >> and certainly, we are seeing it, that the more stefl in one story, and amazon, staten island, and then here in new york city, if it happens. >> exactly. amazon has lost one of their small battles but it is significant because as you mentioned on staten island, workers decided to work together, to create a union, and to affiliate with unions and amazon did not expect that. so you're seeing the biggest employers with these organizers at a grass roots level. >> on yelp, they say cover expenses for employees or spouses who have to have to travel out of state for reap -- reproductive care and changing headlines thon. >> and talking about texas and citigroup is another company that said it would cover expenses outside the state and if they need to do that, they will cover expenses and republican lawmakers are going after those companies saying they don't want that, because if you look at the state legislators, who are looking to cut ties with citigroup, for example, to underwrite them, because they don't want the policies to be replaced and you see this in texas as well, people who are now, outside of disney have been standing up and we don't want disney to stand out against the don't say gay bill, because they want to get re-elected. so this is becoming a really hairy issue for these companies who have tried to protect their employees but they're now standing up and speaking out against lawmakers. >> and then finally, there's rarely a more american item than mcdonald's big mac and i have here, prices for it have risen 40%, in the last ten years, so that's not just about inflation this year, and although i'm sure it's playing a role, tell us why this happened and what's the driving force behind the surge? >> a lot of it is labor costs, going back to the first story, people who want to have higher wages, companies say we can't afford to pay you more unless we raise prices so states where min yum wages are going up, you're seeing prices of big mac also going up as well. >> hope king from axios, thank you so much. we're glad you were here today. still ahead, could russia's actions in ukraine earn moscow a spot with the four other nations that the united states has designated as state-sponsors of terrorism, and the ramifications, "way too early" is coming back with that story. 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president biden will not go to ukraine but president zelenskyy and his foreign minister are ramping up pressure for the american president to visit the embattled country. >> do you want president biden to come here? >> yes. >> are there any plans for him to come? >> i think he will. >> you think he will? >> i think he will. and i think he, no, no, it's his decision, of course, and the safety situation depends, i mean, but i think he will, for the united states, he should come here to see. >> since the beginning of the new wave of russia's aggression against ukraine, president biden has demonstrated true leadership in helping providing assistance to ukraine, mobilizing the international community to support ukraine, so of course, we would be happy to see him in our country, an it would be an important message of support to us. >> we're also learning that president zelenskyy has asked the biden administration to designate russia as a state-sponsor of terrorism. zelenskyy made the request during a recent phone call with president biden. right now, only four countries on the u.s. list of state sponsors of terrorism, iran, north korea, ear syria and a tough club to get in. michael weiss, one of our favorite on the set with us here today, michael, let's start with the 30,000 foot look at where things stand. we certainly know russia is seemingly refocusing their energy on the east with the donbas and suffered a devastating loss with the warship sunk and also air strikes in kyiv over the weekend and also in lviv. >> the interesting thing, jonathan, the ukrainians are presidenting the fight in donbas before the russians get their ducks in a row and trying to encircle an encirclement in izyum, a key strategic city for them, town for them, if they try to create that horseshoe occupation which is what it seems that putin is going for before the may 9th victory day parade claiming that all of theic objectives are met. and with foreboding, the russians will push an offense and that said, mariupol, a city that is meant to fall in many, many weeks ago, still holding out. and down to their last ukrainian defenders. and all projections indicate that this city will fall. but the purpose of this fierce stallen grad style resistance has been to essentially distract the russians there while the ukrainians can kind of prepare for the big battle of the east to come. and already pressing ahead with counter offensives. >> how important is this date of may 9 l1thl0 in your estimation, and they're aware by the chatter that something may be connected with that and some people may look to start negotiating but they're not sure. what have you heard. >> remember the lead-up to this war, what is it going to happen and what is it going to look like and will there be a symbolic region to launch in late february and it was launched 0en army day. and putin is a student of history and revisionist history i would say but calendar dates fraught with symbolic and historical meaning for the russian people, so he would like to believe, so victory day, one of biggest national days in the russian calendar, and it is the celebration, the conclusion of world war ii, would be in keeping with his kind of, his m.o., choosing these kind of specific times to do things. >> and might be hard to have a military parade if all of your equipment is tied up in ukraine or destroyed. you were there not long ago and you're in constant contact with people on the ground in ukraine. tell us a little bit about the spirit you saw from the ukrainian resistance fighters and we've been documenting the scenario down to the last bullets and still not surrendering and ignored the russian deadline yesterday. that is the spirit of the pressure. >> it is a strange experience and it is hard to describe, and it is something to be there to see it, it is harrowing and depressing and exhilarating and i went to this town northwest of kyiv and this town, the most ominous thing about it, you don't see corpses in the street because they're buried under the rubble. russian air strikes took out rows of apartment blocks. collapsing thousands of tons of concrete and steel, and the bodies still hunkering down in the basement. so a kind of menacing effect here. the odor of death i caught it. and in -- it the odor of death i call. it and in kyiv, it is coming back to life, bars and restaurants are, and with their uniform and guns sitting down for a glass of wine. they're raucous, they're full of humor and optimism. you've never seen morale in a conflict as high as this before. so in the face of death and in the face of all of this misery and horror, we've seen documented atrocities from bucha and everything, there is a sense that we will win we will win this fight. again, it is easy to underestimate the ukrainians and laugh it off as hopeless optimism, but, again, we were saying exactly that and look how it has gone so far. >> it is clear that putin is going to need something. he will need some sort of victory in his own head, despite perhaps the flawed student of history that he is. that seems to be, officials believe, setting us up for a conflict that could last months and months and months. the ukrainian officials you are talking to, are they prepared for months if not years? >> they're under no illusion that it will be wrapped up quickly. the ukrainians plan to fight until they not only expel russia from the areas it has occupied beginning in late february, they think they will push russia out that were taken eight years ago. >> we appreciate your insight. you will be joining us on "morning joe" in a couple of hours. we will talk to you again as well. up next, the question is can the president get his domestic policy agenda back on track. coming up on "morning joe," we will break down with where the things stand with the war in ukrainian with the understanding that mariupol could soon fall to russia. petro poroshenko will be a guest. plus, america's homeless crisis. 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(burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪we are farmers.bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum♪ with just months to go before the midterm elections, the war in ukraine has dramatically impacted president biden's domestic agenda. the fighting has disrupted oil markets sending gas prices and adding to already soaring inflation. those are top concerns for many americans. joining us now to talk about all of this white house reporter for bloomberg news, my friend josh. josh, let's start right there. i know white house officials are quick to note energy prices have dipped slightly but still high. inflation is showing no signs of letting up. what is the administration's plan to wrestle with these things? >> part is to get him on the road, get president biden on the road. we will see a bit of that this week, new hampshire as well as oregon and washington state to sort of get the message out of stuff they think they can do. that includes moving on issues like competition. they think that too many of the sectors that have been driving inflation, food, fuels, have too concentrated an ownership on them and they're beating the drum on that. overall, of course, they harbor, i don't know, hopes might be the right word, jon, that they can salvage something from the ashes of the build back better package which they will tout as long-term helpful for inflationary pressures. in the short term they have the infrastructure law, which they think will help ease things like supply chain bottlenecks that are sort of exacerbating issues at places like ports. so they'll talk about that as well, but certainly at the top-of-mind issue, they say president biden is the guy that likes to be on the road. he has been cooped up because of ukraine, also, of course, because of covid and the omicron surge. so i think for him to be on the road is a sigh of relief for the staff. >> there are real problems coming out of china. so much of it seems like it is out of the federal government's hands, the white house's hands. are there things they can do to help even around the edges to ease the supply chain worries? >> the china thing is one they've been monitoring. they've sort of socked on it, jen psaki is asked sort of regularly about it. on the ports, that's the one where they've been kind of chipping away for months, things like moving cans to off sites to clear up a little space, give a little breathing room. we will seattle bit more of that. in the meantime, they're sort of looking at the indicators and hoping a few key sectors, things like used car prices will continue to sort of level off or even come down and take some of the pressure off inflation at the rate it is at now. though, jon, most economists will tell you that inflation is going to continue. it is just a matter of if it will be sort of slower but still growing rather than just sort of a raging sort of fire at the levels that we're seeing right now, which are just remarkable, in part, of course, because of the fuel shocks because of the ukraine crisis. >> josh, speaking of the border, the number of migrants at the u.s./mexican border has climbed to the highest level in over two decades. according to data, there were 220,000 trying to enter the u.s. this marks the third time they passed 200,000 since biden took office. it comes as the administration tries to end title 42 which the government has used since the start of the pandemic to expel migrants across the border because of covid. there's been a lot of push back from the democratic party on title 42. layout where it stands. >> this is a thorny issue for him. president biden is going to new hampshire. one of the senators from there went to the border, a long way from new hampshire, but it gives you a sense of how vulnerable democrats are viewing the issue. for president biden they've been lifting domestic restrictions. title 42 is a health restriction, and it is being keyed up to lift in about a month or so. before that we might see other covid restrictions come up, jon. of course, a two-week extension last week for the requirement for all of us to way masks on planes and trains. you kind of see dominos lining up as we sort of try to reopen, and i guess they've decided that's part of the reason they have to pull the title 42 back. however, they're going to get a lot of heat from republicans, as you say, even the moderate democrats in particularly vulnerable senate democrats on that issue. of course, the fear is it will lead to big numbers at the border, president biden, vice president harris have been unsure how to confront it politically and of course we're in a midterm. >> thank you for being here today. as josh just mentioned, midterms rapidly approaching. as much as the war in ukraine is front of mind for this administration, they're trying to pivot back to domestic issues, believing that is where voters will care most about this november. on a lighter note it is one of the best days of the year, patriots' day. in boston the boston marathon kicks off in a couple of hours. 11:05, red sox start. good luck to everyone. thanks to awful of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> after failing to take the capital, russian forces go all in, firing on the city center in kharkiv and destroying a humanitarian kitchen that fed refugees. meanwhiles though, defending the besieged city of mariupol. some of the other top lead lines including a patchwork approach to covid, a renewed concern ab