collapse as ukrainian troops fight back. president zelenskyy says, quote, every lost life is an argument for ukrainians and other free nations to perceive russia exclusively as a threat generation after generation. we'll bring you the latest updates we're getting on the ground ahead. >> also, right now, to mask or not to mask. that's a big question millions of americans are asking. in a jolt to how we travel, a judge struck down the biden administration's mask mandate for planes, trains, and public transportation. it opens up a major new phase of the pandemic as we watch cases rise around the country. but for many people, on a plane learning they can't -- they can finally demask, this reaction. [ cheering ] >> and here's what folks told nbc's miguel almaguer on one of the first flights after masks became optional. >> i look and i smile and i was like, thank you. i can breathe again. we were so happy. >> we're both vaccinated so masks, done. >> more businesses are also dropping mask requirements this morning. so what does the decision mean for our pandemic fight? what are doctors recommending about masking and what are the potential legal battles ahead? we'll try to answer those questions this morning. >> joining me now, morgan chesky, in dallas-ft. worth international airport. i'm also joined by dr. vin gupta, global health policy expert and msnbc medical contributor and danny cevallos, msnbc legal analyst. morgan, a number of major airlines wasted almost no time announcing masks were now optional on planes. what are you hearing from passengers? >> certainly it's a mixed bag, jose. we're here in terminal d in dfw airport, the second largest in the country. it appears right now the majority of travelers are choosing to drop the masks whenever they walk through the entrance here. i have seen a handful of folks who are still masking up at this point in time. but i want you to hear from some of the travelers on how they're now entering this new era of post-pandemic travel. take a listen. >> i think it's little premature, working in the health field, we're seeing a lot of spikes and variants, especially in chicago where i'm from, we're seeing issues. >> if you can't control what the others are doing around you, you can't control yourself and your health. so i think that's a reason some still choose to wear a mask, because you really can't control it. >> and that really sums up the sentiment from the travelers we have been speaking with. a lot of folks say this has been a long time coming. those who are still preferring to be more cautious happy for the chance they can continue to mask up whenever they do travel. but as of right now, day one, it appears the majority of people choosing to go ahead and lose that cover when they come to the airport. jose. >> and dr. gupta, i'm wondering what your reaction is to this. >> jose, good morning. i think it's premature as well. there is a reason why the cdc extended this by two weeks into early may. and part of that is motivated by, jose, this notion that yes, we have more tools but those tools are still not broadly accessible to say kids under 5 when we're talking about vaccines. i have heard from flight attendants who said, doc, what can we do to make sure these masks are in place until everybody that needs a vaccine is able to receive one or when we talk about oral antivirals for somebody who is high risk, who might not have an adequate response. those are not broadly accessible yet. this tool kit exists but it's not broadly accessible. i think it is a bit premature, but somebody can wear a mask if they're high risk on the airplanes and protect themselves. it's all about fit. making sure these red bands behind the n-95 are tight enough that you don't feel any breath escaping at the top, wearing glasses, any fogging on the glasses. you don't wear glasses, sunglasses, that's a good quick test. >> you know, doctor, it's so tough. first of all, n-95s aren't really available for the most part, and then, you know, you have got to wear them, and they're so, i guess, difficult to wear, right, so that people, i mean, i fly all the time, and you see people that still two years in don't know the mask goes over their nose. so what can we do as flyers, for example, if in this new reality we're going to be sitting in a plane maybe half or most of the people aren't wearing a mask. what do we do? >> well, if you can't find an n-95 mask, there are other high quality masks. kn-95 masks, many are validated to be almost as good as n-95. kf-94 masks made out of korea, also high quality. these -- and we have talked about this. i think we did a demo online a few months ago of the high quality masks. if you're medically high risk or if you live in a multigenerational household where somebody is really medically high risk or doesn't have access to vaccines yet, you're an individual who should wear one of the higher quality masks in the airplane cabin. it will protect you even if everybody around you is not wearing a mask. it will protect you. that's the key. knowledge that we have now two years into the pandemic that we didn't have in 2020. >> and danny, do we expect this decision to be challenged? they haven't so far announced any legal challenges to it. what would that look like? >> it could be challenged. i mean, this is an interpretation of the law. it's a very popular trendy thing to use the administrative procedures act in the law to strike down an agency decision. essentially, what the court decided was that the cdc as an agency within the executive branch, the executive branch does not make law. that's congress that makes law. and the agency only has the power that congress gives it in the statute. and the court concluded that the agency in this case exceeded that explicit authority. by essentially ruling that, well, does this count as sanitation requiring people to wear masks? and the court's interpretation of that word really hinged on that word sanitation, whether or not sanitation means to clean or to prevent other things from getting dirty. it's a very sort of complicated analysis that you can see another court concluding differently. but at least for now, the interpretation is that the mask mandate exceeded cdc's authority under the animating statute. >> and so danny, really, is this a fait accompli, a done deal now? >> there's never really a done deal especially in a district court's decision because there is always the potential for appeal, but now it's really a political decision whether or not the government, the white house, wants to move on and either just leave this battle alone or fight it in the courts, if many mask mandates are ending after all in all states, they have essentially ended, so the government really needs to make a political decision at this point in addition to a legal strategic one. >> dr. gupta, i want to play you something that dr. richard besser said this morning on "today." he's former acting director of the cdc. >> if the cdc loses its power to prevent the spread of infectious diseases between states or coming into the country, we're all at great risk. >> so does a ruling like this strike a bigger blow to public health officials' ability to put policies in place to prevent, like, deadly viruses in the future? >> absolutely. i hope the biden administration challenges this. to danny's point earlier, this hinged on this narrow definition of sanitation, and it was a distortion of what sanitation really means. this concept that sanitation only means wiping the surface with a clorox wipe. that's silliness. sanitation is infection control and prevention. anybody in health care knows that masks, even gowns, can be a critical part of infection control and prevention given the circumstances. here we're dealing with a respiratory virus that's airborne. a mask is a critical part which means infection control and prevention. this could be easy challenged. it should be challenged so we don't set a bad precedent. >> doctor, when you go to an operating table and if mask wearing and ppe were just, you know, nothing you had to do, would you still do that? would you still wear a mask and ppe to, i don't know, major operation you were going to be a part of? >> jose, we know in that specific setting that if i were to wear a mask in that specific setting, i am reducing the risk to my patient, first, do no harm, of them acquiring a hospital infection. hospital acquired infection. me actually doing that is in the best interest of the patient, and in this setting right now where we still have, we think we're only capturing 15% of the cases that are actually happening in the environments around us in these informal tallies. there's a lot of coronavirus still out there. do i think i'm also protecting myself? yes, absolutely. that is not a question. there are rules around ppe in hospitals for a reason. and it's for the benefit ultimately of the patient. >> underline that last sentence. dr. vin gupta, morgan chesky, and danny cevallos, thank you for being with us. >> coming up, the war in ukraine has entered a new phase with russia ramping up attacks in the eastern part of the country. we're going to go live to kyiv for the latest. >> plus, new reporting on what president biden is getting out of washington this afternoon. he'll be pushing his agenda, and family of patrick lyoya has just revealed the findings of an independent autopsy after he was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. we'll take a look at what it found, next. trust safelite. this dad and daughter were driving when they got a crack in their windshield. 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[ding] e*trade now from morgan stanley. already announced that mariupol is the heart of our country. and ukraine is the heart of europe. when the heart stops, then the viability of our country will stop. >> that was the mayor of the ukrainian city of mariupol, vowing that his country will do everything to keep control of that city. but this morning, a new phase of this war is beginning. ukraine's president zelenskyy says russia's new assault against eastern ukraine has begun. it comes as president biden meets with our allies about stepping up support for ukraine. and how to further hold russia accountable. nbc's matt bradley is on the ground in ukraine's capital city of kyiv. i also want to bring in nbc news national security analyst clint watts a former infantry officer and william taylor, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. zelenskyy says ukraine will fight and not give away anything ukrainian. what are you hearing about how that is happening? >> yeah, it's unclear how that's going to happen if the fight in the east really does pick up in the same way we have heard so many ukrainian politicians and government leaders. they're really expecting the worst here. we heard from zelenskyy only a couple weeks ago warning this was representing a new and really dangerous phase in the fight. now, it's true that the ukrainians are -- excuse me, the russians are concentrating their forces in the east, in that donbas region. and it's also true, of course, that the russians suffered a humiliating defeat around where i am in the capital of kyiv, where they have withdrawn from the past several weeks. and it really does show that the ukrainians were able to get the better of them. it's still unclear whether all of that is because we all underestimated the ukrainian military or we overestimated the russian military. and this next phase in the battle, i think, will help us to determine which of those we did. because the fact is that when the russians reconcentrate their forces in the east, they're going to have several advantages now. they're going to have flat terrain. this is step land. the large sort of prairies that stretch into russia starting around the southeast of the country. and that should give the russian troops an advantage rather than fighting an urban and suburban territory around where i am here. also, they're going to be fighting amongst a population of civilians that really does have some genuine pro-russian sympathies, some pro-moscow attitudes that you can see in places like crimea and donetsk and luhansk. even if they're not the majority, there are quite a few people in favor of rule by moscow. they're russian speakers and they do not speak ukrainian. so that gives the russians quite a bit of an advantage. the problem is, it doesn't seem like enough time has passed for the russians to have reconstituted their ranks. ranks that were really badly destroyed by their offensive and their defeat at the hands of the ukrainians around the north and the western part of the country. and a lot of the problems that have been dogging the russian military so far, it seems impossible they would have been fixed by now. the massive disorganization, the really low morale, and the problems with supplies and distribution at the front lines that have really been causing essentially just traffic jams in places outside of places like here in kyiv, where we saw miles and miles of artillery lining up, trying to make it to the front line, but they couldn't because they simply got backed up behind each other. if we can see the russians resolve those issues, then this really could be a game changer and a troubling one for the ukrainians. jose. >> yeah, and matt, i just keep thinking, you know, low morale is of course a big, big issue for russian troops but bombs and missiles don't suffer from low morale, and the russians have plenty of those. i'm wondering about mariupol. it seems like it's been getting so, so hard hit for so long now. and now this offensive is really, i mean, thinking of the tens of thousands of people there, matt, who aren't fighters. >> that's right. there are still about 100,000 civilians left in the city according to the ukrainian government. that's less than a quarter of the number of civilians who were living in that city before the fighting started. those people have withstood months without clean water, really without food, a lot of them we have been hearing stories of them taking snow and melting it for drinking water. no electricity, no heat. hunkering down with each other, trying to keep warm. and so they have withstood the worst, and they will probably continue to press on because they have seen hell and they're passing through it, as the saying goes. so i mean, i think if mariupol were to fall to the russians, that would be such a major blow to the russians themselves because the ukrainians would see that as a symbolic loss and one that they would be willing to avenge. this country, when they look at what's happening in mariupol, they see a symbol of ukrainian resilience and resistance against the russians who for a lot of people here, they consider the russians to have been beating up on this country for centuries. and mariupol is just the latest example. so if mariupol goes, i think that even some of that pro-russian sympathy i was talking about in the donbas region in the east, that might dissipate once we start to see in real the true light of day the scope of the crimes that have been committed in that southeastern city. jose. >> matt bradley in kyiv, thank you so much for being with us. ambassador, i want to get your thoughts on this. president biden has spent the morning actually meeting with allies and partners about ukraine. what do you think the united states is considering and what should it be considering in terms of further aid and this new aspect of the invasion into ukraine is going to cause no doubt more pain, suffering, and death for civilians. >> it surely will. there's no doubt this will be terrible for civilians. emphasize what matt bradley just said, no matter what the outcome of mariupol, ukrainians are going to remember. they're going to remember mariupol one way or the other. the heroic resistance, no matter how it turns out, it's going to be a motivator for ukrainians and president biden is undoubtedly talking about this and other things with his colleagues. the other leaders of the nations that he's talking to and organizations, nato, european union. you ask what more they can do. they, i'm sure, are talking about the heavy weapons. the heavy weapons that the ukrainians need and are now getting from the european members of nato that have these kind of weapons and get them there quickly. the u.s. weapons, there are u.s. weapons that are now moving into ukraine that i'm sure president biden is talking about with his colleagues. but the other aspect are the sanctions. and maintaining and increasing the sanctions is going to be very important going forward to keep the russians from being able to resupply themselves, to keep the russians constrained on what they can put into their military, and the big issue is oil. and we understand that the europeans understand that and they're working to stop their purchases of oil one way or the other, so that will be a big issue that the allies will have to discuss. >> clint, talk to me about the evolving nature of this war, because i mean, i'm just thinking. i don't think we have seen in our lifetime this type of activity, this type of war going on anywhere in our world. >> that's right. it's very much the opposite of what we might have seen with the u.s. military, which is very quick, uses decisive maneuver, combined arms. that's not what's going to happen in eastern ukraine. what you see instead is the old soviet now russian military doctrine of large-scale armored advances using massive indirect fire, missile strikes, and aviation strikes. so when you look at the math there, you see luhansk. that's where president zelenskyy was talking last night, essentially the war had kicked off. you're seeing the russians across all of those towns from izyum all the way down to the luhansk region starting to advance in terms of indirect fire. it was almost synchronized indirect fires starting yesterday. they're going to use those massive fires for several reasons. it levels and topples any static defense position. two, it incited fear in the audiences there, the ukrainian populations. and three, it opens up opportunities for them to advance their armor formations across these flat, more open terrain. and these areas. so when you watch this unfold in the coming days, it's going to be an intense barrage, and this may go on for not just days or weeks. it could go on for a month or more of just very indiscriminate use of indirect fire on urban centers, massive deployment of missile strikes. and then pushing with armor formations as quickly as possible. but i would say at the same point, you have the ukrainians launching counteroffensives in other parts of the east as well and i expect this to be a tough fight and one where both sides make incremental advances and get pushed back in different spots in the coming weeks. >> and clint, i'm curious, a senior defense official says they're considering training ukrainians to use the howitzer. how is that going to work? we're talking about real time things are happening right now. how does this occur? >> yeah, so what i would assume, and it's a lit unclear at this point, is they would have some sort of what you would call train the trainers. trainers would go to some sort of third country, they would learn how to actually use this equipment. they would then move back into ukraine and do training on that equipment as they bring it in. that being said, i'm sure many of the ukrainian military know how to use artillery, just do they know how to use the type of artillery being brought into the country and can they use it accurately? as we have seen with the russians, if you can't deploy this artillery accurately, what kind of effect do they have. they're also firing in places that are inside ukraine, so they're much more discriminating about the target they pick. they don't want collateral damage. it's a much tougher assignment for the ukrainians than it is for the russians who just indiscriminately bomb civilian targets. >> ambassador, we're going to be watching for a u.n. security council meeting in a couple hours with the focus on refugees. what should the council be focusing on here as we enter this new phase of the war, and you know, refugees aren't just from ukraine. >> that's true, jose. refugees from around the world are a big issue for the u.n., and they ought to be taking a look at that. the security council, however, has not performed very well, for obvious reasons. we have the russians there to veto any prospective measure that would try to solve this problem. so that will have to be. however, the u.n. agencies are doing well and performing well on trying to help out the refugees. interesting question, though, anything to watch is the number of people going back into ukraine. from europe, moving back in. i saw the other day, yesterday, that the number going back in exceed the number going out at this point. so ukrainians are returning to return to this fight. >> indeed they are. ambassador william taylor, clint watts, thank you for being with us. appreciate your time. >> this morning, patrick lyoya's family has released details from an independent autopsy. >> up next, what it reveals. you're watching jose diaz-balart reports. if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks... choose stelara® from the start... and move toward relief after the first dose... with injections every two months. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell 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f. kennedy, martin luther king jr., and more recently, casey anthony and jonbenet ramsey. patrick was pulled over earlier this month during a traffic stop. this license plate was not registered to the car he was driving. nbc's shaquille brewster joins me now with more on the story. shaq, we have seen those videos released by police. one of the videos shot by a passenger in lyoya's car appeared to show a struggle between him and the officer, the kent county chief medical examiner has not released their results, but take us through what we have heard so far today. >> yeah, those official medical examiner reports, that's not coming out for at least the next couple of weeks. they said that they're not going to do that until that investigation is complete. so you had ben crump hire -- the family attorney, hire his own forensic pathologist to go through and do their own private investigation and own private autopsy. and that autopsy showed the family says that patrick lyoya was shot in the back of his head on april 4th. as a result of that traffic stop that then resulted in the struggle. this is important because the initial account that we got from the police department, they said that he was shot in the head. this is now the family saying that their autopsy showed he was shot in the back of the head. now, this is a press conference you're looking at live pictures there happening outside the presence of the family. when you mare from the forensic pathologist explaining his findings you get a sense of why they weren't there. listen here. >> you can see the probe going into the back of the head and out in the right side up a little higher than the entrance wound. and at that point, there is another hole that i made because the bullet went through the bone and lodged under the skin. >> you mentioned dr. spitz has been involved in the autopsies of mlk, of jfk, of michael jackson. he said that there is no other injury that patrick had with the exception of that bullet that went through the back of his head. i mentioned the family is not there, but i did speak with them just last week. they talked about the heartbreak they're experiencing. his mother telling me she misses his presence, his voice. one of their key demands and you continue to hear it through the weekend, is they want the officer who fired that fatal shot to be publicly identified. that's something that the police chief said he is not going to do because the officer has not been charged with any crime. but they want that officer to be publicly identified. they say that's part of their grieving process and they also want that officer to be fired and prosecuted. we do know that patrick lyoya's funeral is scheduled currently for friday. jose. >> shaquille brewster, thank you so much. >> in other news earlier this morning, a second suspect involved in this weekend's mall shooting in south carolina appeared before a judge. 20-year-old marquis robinson is facing nine counts of assault and battery as well as counts of attempted murder and unlawful carrying of a handgun. another suspect was arrested on saturday. nine people were injured in that shooting. police say shots rang out after a dispute. all of the victims were caught in the crossfire. police have issued a warrant for a third man also being called a suspect. >> any minute now, president biden will leave the white house and washington, d.c. to push his agenda in new hampshire. so how will he get his message through? we'll talk about that next. you're watching jose diaz-balart reports. can never have too many pillows! sometimes, i'm all business. a serious chair for a serious business woman! i'm always a mom- that is why you are smart and chose the durable fabric. perfect. i'm not a chef- and, don't mind if i do. but thanks to wayfair, i do love my kitchen. yes! ♪ wayfair you got just what i need. ♪ [sound of helicopter blades] ugh... they found me. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'm 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>> yeah, jose, you probably can't hear, but there's actually a violinist playing in the square over here. you can see people behind me are out for a walk on this cold but calm evening. despite those sirens behind me, things are relatively calm here right now. but yesterday's attack was a major, major shock. this was the first time that people were killed in lviv over these 55 days of war. it gave people here in the far west even just a very small sense of what their fellow citizens are going through in the far east, as though cruise missiles rain down. seven people were killed. 11 people were injured, including a child. that is the first time that hospitals here in lviv have had to deal with war wounded from this area. now, the trains continue to run, even though the missiles fell very close to the railway lines. every day, refugees, displaced people, continue coming from the east. as russia steps up its offensive along that enormous front in the donbas, we're expecting to see more and more of those people arriving at lviv station. some of them will stay here. they will wait here until they get a better sense of what's happening back in their homes, and some of them will keep going, into poland, into hungary, further on into europe seeking refuge. but vladimir putin, as you said, is signaling a shift here because for the most part, lviv has been spared missile attacks. kyiv has been very quiet for the last couple weeks. but as putin's forces attack in the east, he's signaling there is nowhere in this country that he will not hit with his missiles. jose. >> raf, i'm wondering what struck you in the last 24, 48 hours. just personally, what are some of the, you know, there's so many dichotomies in war. what struck you the most? >> jose, it is strange to be in this country, which is at war, and at the same time, walk around and see coffee shops full, see young people going about their lives. a dichotomy is the right word. the east of this country is seeing some of the most brutal fighting we have seen since the second world war, and here, things are relatively peaceful. there's no escaping there's a war on. the air raid sirens go off regularly. last time was just as we were going to bed last night. but the contrast between what you and i talk about every day in terms of what's happening in this country and then what we see here in lviv, it can be strange as a reporter sometimes. but what happened yesterday is a reminder that this entire country is at war. there are people from lviv who are fighting on the front lines as we speak. there are families here in lviv who are missing members of their family because they are off on the fronts or they have lost their lives in other portions of ukraine. this whole country is besieged but hope fell, i would say. this is a resilient place, jose. >> raf sanchez in lviv, thank you very much. we're going to talk a little more about that, about that fog of war, about the dichotomies in wars. the human mourning at the grave of hoar 47-year-old son. she's at a cemetery right outside kyiv. he was killed while delivering humanitarian aid to his neighbors. imagine that? and tragically, not everyone has been able to find their loved ones. nbc's molly hunter reports. >> reporter: 26-year-old careenau saves every message she receives. i don't know why i save them, the young police officer add mitts. it's important to me. they're like my family now. the they are the hundreds of families they're searching for loved ones. showing up at mass graves. the dreadful moment of recognition. authorities say they counted 900 bodies, sending them to different morgues around the kyiv region. being spread out makes connecting with relatives very hard. it's complicated. she's sending out pictures of bodies in hopes relatives can identify them. in bucha, 42-year-old natalia is one of so many looking for answers. on the side of her house, she's written her phone number for when her husband returns. the russians came march 17th and accused her husband of being involved in the ukrainian military and says her husband of 16 years and father of two is a mechanic. they ordered her to say goodbye. just couple of seconds. i knelt down, hugged his cheek and didn't say a word and they took him away. she thinks he might have been forced to belarus. she's registered with the police when the morgue, called all the hotlines and no body has turned up. you thing he's still alive? >> i won't lose hope to find him alive. ial are help him overcome this when he finally comes home. >> the reality of war. our thanks to molly hunter for that reporting. and moments ago white house announced the video call with leaders in canada, france, germany and more has just ended. it lasted, white house tells us, nearly 90 minutes. coming up, climate superpowers. a look at a tropical rain forest that could be crucial if it can survive. could be crucial if it survive. before treating your chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month each lasting 4 hours or more, you're not the only one with questions about botox®. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they even start, with about 10 minutes of treatment once every 3 months. so, ask your doctor if botox® is right for you, and if a sample is available. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. in a survey, 92% of current users said they wish they'd talked to their doctor and started botox® sooner. plus, right now, you may pay zero dollars for botox®. ask your doctor about botox® today. 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