for ukraine. he said it should last five months and do real damage to russia's war machine. >> throughout our history we've learned that when dictators do not pay the price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and engage in more aggression. they keep moving. and the cost, the threats to america and the world keep rising. we can't let this happen. >> the new military aid comes despite vague and ominous threats from russian president vladimir putin that he will retaliate against any country that interferes with his war in ukraine, which does not seem to have an end in sight. secretary-general gutierrez met with vladimir putin in moscow. he is in kyiv today meeting with volodymyr zelenskyy and touring the damage done to the surrounding region. he is trying to broker a peace deal and an immediate cease-fire in mariupol so civilians can evacuate. so far no word of any deal. as many as 2,000 troops remain trapped at the steel plant there longside civilians. this is ukraine's last stand in that city. mariupol's mayor says russian forces are trying to storm that plant as we speak, after bombarding it overnight. locals report large movements of equipment and the sound of fighting and local defense leaders say a field hospital was hit. this footage shows the hospital shortly after a direct missile strike. mariupol itself is unrecognizable. a city scarred by war. a people's republic of donetsk, the separatist flag flies over this. tucked away in the shadows, the remaining ukrainian fighters are holding out, resisting vladimir putin's calls to surrender. and surrender will not guarantee your safety either. the u.s. has now credible intelligence about a russian military unit in the donetsk region that executed ukrainians attempting to surrender. this as ukrainians filed criminal charges against ten russian soldiers accused of war crimes in the key city of bucha. the first of what can be many charges of russian infantry members for their mistreatment of civilians. joining me is matt bradley in zaporizhzhia. and retired four-star general and military analyst barry mccaffrey. i want to start with news we got from our colleague erin mclaughlin, there were two explosions just heard in kyiv. she did shoot some video of it. we're going to play it right now. there is also a little bit of information from kyiv, mayor vitale klitschko's television channel, two hits in one district, all services are in place, he says, information about the victims is being clarified. so two strikes inside kyiv, matt. shows that even though some areas which have been reopened and even though some officials have said please come back to kyiv, we're going to start to establish a new normal here, it is still quite dangerous. >> just goes to show that the danger never goes away, really any city in ukraine. it's been a couple of weeks since vladimir putin announced he'd be withdrawing from the area around kyiv. there's still no ground troops in the entire region. they're lobbing cruise missiles and artillery. you know, a lot of this is to just put ukrainians, all of them, on notice they will never be safe. on those two hits that we just saw tonight, the two explosions in the district of kyiv, that's where my colleague erin mclaughlin shot that video. we're seeing different ainge lgs from different videos. this is in the very center of the city. this is the part of the city that was spared even during the height of the war, even when there are war crimes being committed on just the outskirts of the capital. this is a part of the city that really probably has no real tactical advantage. there wasn't much to hit in terms of actual military hardware. but vladimir putin has made it clear that he wants to hit some of the nerve centers, some of the leadership centers of kyiv, of the capitol and that's exactly what he did. now this is probably going to set back some of those plans by the u.s. embassy, by other embassies to move their offices back into the center of the capitol because it just goes to show that ukraine, even though it seems to be winning the war, it still hasn't necessarily turned the tide, especially when it comes to air strikes. the russians still enjoy air superiority even if they never were able to take full advantage of it by totally destroying the ukrainian advantage in terms of the air -- excuse me, in totally destroying ukrainian air capabilities. i'm in the eastern part of the country in zaporizhzhia. this part of the country, i'm only a couple of hours away from that donbas region in the eastern part of the country and this is where we're expected to see this much anticipated huge assault by the russians that supposed to finally take all of the donbas. you know, they have russian separatists enclaves in this part of the country. but they haven't taken over the full provinces of luhansk and donetsk. those regions are only 30% controlled by russian-backed separatists and vladimir putin has taken the whole southern part of the country, the whole seaboard all along the black sea, has made it one of his ambitions. president biden just announced that mammoth aid package that's going to see even more weapons flowing into ukraine and flowing right here into the eastern part of the country. katie, we normally like to come to you with a great vista behind us now. you're just seeing our hotel room. that's because this city, zaporizhzhia, like a lot of cities like ukraine, have a blackout period and have nightly curfews. we can't do our shooting outdoors. as far as vladimir putin's war in ukrainian is concerned, civilian centers are still the target. >> you don't want to be out there with the lights and a camera as a big shining target for any sort of missile strike. thank you for pointing that out, matt. you are abiding by that curfew. veronica, thank you for being with us. the people of mariupol and the soldiers of mariupol, we've been talking about the city since the start of the war and it's getting worse and worse. the territory the ukrainians control has gotten smaller and smaller. you heard the u.n. secretary-general trying to establish a corridor, a cease-fire. the wounded soldiers and the civilians including children can get out. that has been unsuccessful. what have you been hearing from inside that city? >> i'm friends on facebook with several commanders from the factory and i can say that the moods there are getting very grim because russians are storming the city, as you already said, and, for example, the marines brigade commander, he just posted that he's going to be leaving ukraine until the end, he's not going to give up. but that post that almost sounded like he was trying to say good-bye unfortunately. so i hope that this is the kind of emotions they have right now. what people say also there is that why they can surrender is that many of those civilians who are with them, they are members all families of soldiers, not only those who are hiding in the underground shelter of the factory but also many other ukrainian soldiers of mariupol. and we know exactly from kherson, for example, russians do not let civilian members of soldier families to go. they prefer to jail them and torture family members of ukrainian soldiers. so the situation there is really, really dead end for now. now a single country wants to be a third party and save those people by risking like a vessel or something. that's what local soldiers really want countries to do, for example, but nobody wants to take that risk so i don't know how many hours we have left. >> it's just so hard to gain access to that city given where the russians currently stand and the bombardment of that city. i know you've spoken to have managed to get out. what have they told you? >> in recent days, i spoke to dozens of mariupol residents who have escaped to ukraine and even those in the occupied territories and the occupied territories of the -- local residents told me it's actually a choice without a choice because the only way russian soldiers are letting them to go out is to russia. for example, to travel there, you have to just past one checkpoint and then you are getting into donetsk and after that they are taking you to russia by train and give you 10,000 rubles, it's about $140 and you can just stay there, wherever they order you to stay. for example, they can take mariupol residents like residents of the big city once thriving port city to move russia's depressive regions of our east. while if you want to travel to ukraine you have to go through a filtration camp, which is located in mongoose and not everybody pass through the filtration. a 17-year-old was telling mere her father, for example, was beaten so hard, he started losing his sight and all because he cleared his sim card on his smartphone. and russian proxies thought that he was hiding something from them. >> wow. just astonishing, the stories. general mccaffrey, let's talk about the aid that president biden announced today, $33 billion supposed to last about five months, includes a lot of money for military equipment, heavy military equipment. what's your assessment of what that's going to mean? >> well, i think it's a profound escalation of our support. not just by the united states but the brits, the germans with their sheet of anti-aircraft pander vehicles, their french and others are pumping support across the border. ukrainian cards, ukrainian general leadership, the tactical ferocity has -- with 60% of his army now fighting in ukraine, he cannot threaten the rest of nato in any credible way. so now we're worried what's he going to do? can his army actually carry out this offensive in the east? or is he likely to escalate vertically by using chemical weapons or his constant threats which are utter madness of employing nuclear weapons. the next 30 days is going to be very problematic on how this turns out. >> it is certainly scary. he's been saber rattling talking about anyone who threatens us, we're going to go after you with lightning fast speed. unclear what he means by threat. i wonder if there is a clear idea among the west about where the line is and what would happen if it was crossed. >> no, i don't think so. particularly the employment of nuclear weapons. he has no conception of the dilemma he put the united states and nato in. there's france, the u.k. and the united states. we have hundreds of nuclear weapons. who would he target? would he use a tactical 10 kilo-ton weapon on a ukrainian city and kill a quarter million people? what does he think the outcome of that would be? it may be unknowable but it's likely it would end up with total conventional war against russia. and potentially escalate into the employment of tactical nuclear weapons on the russians. so it's irresponsible. it's astonishing to hear senior people in russia, putin, the foreign minister, using this kind of unstabilizing, dangerous, foolish language. >> it is terrifying. general mccaffrey, thank you very much for joining us. veronica, thank you for your reporting on the ground there. and former u.s. marine trevor reed is back in the united states after almost three years spent inside a russian prison. nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander has more. >> good day. what a huge relief for the family of trevor reed. he landed in a military base in san antonio early this morning. his release the culmination of a months' long effort that started a day before the russian invasion of ukraine, when bill richardson landed in for a prisoner swap. >> a homecoming three years in the making. former marine trevor reed back on u.s. soil after being jailed in russia. he was released in a prisoner exchange straight out of a spy novel. russian state tv broadcasting this unverified video, this showing the 30-year-old arriving in a moscow airport. his parents say after living a nightmare, their prayers have finally been answered. >> it's going to really hit us when we get to put our arms around him and hug him. >> reed was accused of assaulting two officers after a night of drinking and imprisoned. president biden campaigned for his relief. the white house says reed is receiving care for his urgent health needs. >> he looks terrible to us. >> he was walking strange. looked like they had to help him get in the airplane. >> reporter: in a deal broken by the biden administration, reed was traded for a convicted prisoner. last year reed's parents telling savannah they'd support a prisoner swap. >> we don't care how he comes home. if they want to exchange trevor for low-level criminals -- >> we're fine with that. we want our son home. >> reed is drawing new attention to the fate of others detained in russia. britney greiner was arrested two months ago on drug charges. her lawyers have not responded to requests for comment. paul whelan is serving a 16-year sentence. whalen asked why was i left behind? the world knows this was fabricated. why hasn't more been done to secure my release? >> his release came as a major surprise, especially considering the escalation between the u.s. and russia over russia's assault on ukraine. officials here negotiations about reid were walled off from the administration's efforts to punish vladimir putin and russia. back to you. >> a lot of concern about paul whelan and britney greiner. >> and when will rudy giuliani have a date with the january 6 committee? what we know about his expected testimony. and good news for parents as the u.s. comes one step closer to be able to vaccinate the younger ones. later, the economy shrinks for the first time in nearly two years, so why aren't economists worried? years, so why aren't ec worried? your 995 plan fits my budget just right. excuse me? aren't you jonathan from tv, that 995 plan? yes, from colonial penn. i love your lifetime rate lock. that's what sold me. she thinks you're jonathan, with the 995 plan. -are you? -yes, from 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(soft music) ♪ so many people are overweight now, and asking themselves, "why can't i lose weight?" for most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they don't even know they have it. conventional starvation diets don't address insulin resistance. that's why they don't work. now there's release from golo. it naturally helps reverse insulin resistance, stops sugar cravings, and releases stubborn fat all while controlling stress and emotional eating. at last, a diet pill that actually works. go to golo.com to get yours. my fellow xfinity customers. hi tim. the biggest week in entertainment is almost here. watchathon week presented by xfinity rewards. with free access to stranger things from netflix. the boys from prime video. hbo max, starz, and peacock. just say watchathon into your voice remote and get ready to watch. i love you. i love you. i love you all. rudy giuliani is expected to testify before the january 6th committee according to sources familiar with the negotiations, but with the public hearing of the phase -- i'm sorry, the public phase of the hearings fast approaching, the question is when will that happen? joining me is ali vitale. whenever you're on, i like to skim ahead in the prompter and make everything a little jumbled. why don't you straighten it out for me. rudy giuliani, when is the panel going to start for him? >> i get excited to talk to you. for rudy giuliani, our sources told us back in february that he was expected or in talks to try to testify with the committee. we know he had been subpoenaed for the role that he played in all of those legal challenges that trump mounted after the november 2020 election and then of course all of the different attributions that he made to that overall big lie that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from the former president. that makes sense, then, why they want to talk to giuliani. he was one of those at the center of it all. in terms of the timing, though, this is sort of one of those process of timings that we can look at. we know the committee wants to start the public phase of these hearings in june. we know giuliani is still expected to testify. our sources tell us there's no set date for that but if they want to do the hearings in june and wrap up the depositions in may, may comes in a few days. it seems fair to say this could happen at any point in the next few weeks, katy. >> they're releasing an excerpt they did with donald trump in the aftermath of january 6th and kevin mccarthy saying he was going to try to force him to resign, encourage him to resign and donald trump shrugging it off, saying he didn't care and saying it's because mccarthy has an interiority complex with contempt. is mccarthy responding to that? >> perhaps unsurprisingly, there's no reaction yet. yesterday we got inside that house meeting behind closed doors but our sources filled us in on what was going on. the tension in that meeting of not between other republicans and kevin mccarthy. it was between matt gates and congressman steve scalise, the number two house republican here. >> isn't that weird? >> well, it makes a little bit of sense. for mccarthy, he's sort of tethered to what trump's opinion is here. >> hold on. is mccarthy a real person or is he just a stand-in for donald trump at this point? do the lawmakers in his caucus see him as a real leader or is he just essentially -- i hate -- how do i describe it? is he just a hollowgram projecting what donald trump wants? >> this caucus is a group of people who want to be led by the ideas of the former president. he is still the standard bearer of this party. you can ask many of the people who walk the hall behind me. they're not going to argue with the fact that donald trump is the most powerful republican in the party right now. kevin mccarthy has stuck very close to him. there is very little that he has said in recent months that makes him different than the former president. when you talk about the characterizations that trump made, it sticks closely to what my sources have told me his reaction was after all this audio has come out. he's not mad at mccarthy. at this point there's so much water under the bridge with every republican and donald trump. he said it made him look like he was more powerful. as long as it makes him look like a winner, that's all that matters. >> ali vitale, everything old is new again. the court struck down president biden's attempt to let migrants back in at the southern border. what homeland security secretary just said they're going to do about it. and moderna asked for approval of the vaccine for kids 5 and under. what promises the company is making and when the cdc will decide. when the cdc will decide only eggland's best. an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn't... and let you see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. who accepts medicare patients. so if you have this... consider adding this. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. ♪ big news for parents. moderna is asking the fda to authorize its covid vaccine for children six months to 5 years old. here is its chief medical officer paul burton in an interview with nbc news. >> we looked at safety, safety profiling these kids is exactly what we would expect and see in older children and adults. then when we look at effectiveness, we see excellent level of antibody in these children that makes us think that they would be good protection against covid. so that's a really strong result. we've now announced today we have filed these results with the fda. >> joining me is msnbc medical director, dr. vin gupta. you got two kids, one of them is a baby. congratulations. when this vaccine comes out, if it comes out, will you be getting it? >> katy, always good to see you, good afternoon. the answer is yes, i'd love to get me -- hopefully my now 3-month-old -- but once he reaches 6 months, get him the vaccine as quickly as possible. the data from moderna is really good news for kiddos with kids under five years old. it's 25% the concentration of the adult version of this vaccine. it's two shots, also important to keep in mind. also really critical as we talk more and more about this as the fda considers the application towards the middle of may, hopefully for an approval sometime in the beginning of june, these studies show that any kiddo that got the vaccine didn't end up in a hospital like the one that i'm currently in, that hospitalizations were entirely prevented in kiddos that received these vaccines. it's all about kiddos out of the hospital. that's the purpose of these vaccines. >> in terms of stopping them from getting the disease, what is the efficacy there? >> there will be some data in clinical trials beyond that and it suggests in that age group, the test of mild symptoms is 50%, 2 years to 5 years, 37%. some viewers might be saying that sounds lower than effectiveness against a positive result in adults. those vaccines in moderna, pfizer, other companies were tested two years ago. the benchmark we looked at for adult vaccines and what we're used to, those percentage numbers were well before omicron ever reared its head. now we're resetting expectations. these pediatric vaccines tested among the pediatric crowd in the era of omicron. because we're dealing with a super contagious respiratory virus, it's important to keep in mind do these keep folks out of hospitals? young kiddos, it does do that. it's important to keep in mind comparing apples to apples, all these vaccines keep folks out of the hospital. >> let's keep all of that in mind when it comes to the broader question of covid. it's all about keeping people out of the hospital. you might get it but go into the hospital, the vaccine stops you from going to the hospital in the vast majority of cases. dr. gupta, you look remarkably well rested for someone whom i know is getting very little sleep between your job and that 3-month-old. thank you for being here. and today, homeland security secretary mayorcas are criticizing the decision to end title 42. but a judge blocked the lifting of that for at least 14 days. joining me now is jacob soboroff. jacob, you're in washington. what have you learned today? >> what i've learned is both republicans and democrats unfortunately are struggling with what is a myth, what is a fallacy. republicans continue to paint the biden administration as an administration which has thrown the doors to the southwest border open, admitting anyone who wants to come into the country and democrats have appeared to have moderated their messaging away from that fair, safe, humane, orderly new immigration system the biden system wanted to create as a reaction to that. take it from me, somebody who has been down on the southwest border countless times including just over the course of the last few weeks. other than ukrainian refugees right now, katy, virtually nobody is getting into the united states. when you see the secretary of homeland security being pressed by jim jordan or whom ever it might be with this allegation the biden administration is perpetrating open borders, it just couldn't be further from the truth. >> this is what happens. you get a reporter who goes down there and sees things with his own eyes. very important. jacob, thank you very much for being with us. >> and with the 2022 mid terms just months away, a look at what non-white rural voters, saying about the democratic party, a really interesting report coming up. >> and the pandemic recovery takes a hit. what economists are saying about an unexpected decline in the gdp. he gdp. 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which is your better poison? >> so what do you do? what's your expertise tell you? >> what is my expertise? i'm a pretty young guy. we faced this in the late 70s and early 80s. that's why we were thinking oh gosh, i was a little kid going with my dad to the bank. this is why you never really truly want to let inflation out of the bag. you have to, like i said before, kind of kill the economy to truly snuff out inflation. but not kill the economy so much, right? >> yeah. so if you are the biden administration, how do you package and sell the news today? >> that it's a one-time blip. i pretty much guarantee it's going to be revised upwards. you can describe it for inventory issues. make a lockdown in china, a trade-in, consumer spending, the amount of joblessness. you're talking about unemployment still at multi-decade lows, nearing multi-decade lows. there's a tremendous amount of staying power. how long can it afford higher interest rates? you talk about gas at $4 a gallon. just how deep is the economic strength? >> the data from this report doesn't include a fewbad thing, the prices of the war in ukraine, prices going up, the lockdowns in china, all of the ripple effects from around the world. >> true but it's an enormous turn from two years ago. it was so hard for the biden administration to run victory lap over the amount of jobs created in 2021 because it was coldly comforting. there was inflation, there was worries about national prestige, there was people with a great resignation and morale was down and then we get inflation ramping up to 40-year highs, which we needed like a bullet. that's a very tough thing to celebrate right now. best he can do is say hold on, the economy is still strong. if you're looking for a job, you're in a great situation. wages are creeping ever higher. but then what do you say about housing prices and the affordability and availability of food and fuel. >> heaven is a place on earth with my friend. >> thank you, katy, for letting me get that out of my system. >> digestible and entertaining, the voice of an angel. and in today's county to county, we are taking a closer look at rural america where the population is shrinking and as a result non-white voters say they feel they're being left behind. joining me is antonia hilton. this report is really interesting. we talk about how to engage voters. that's always what any political party is trying to do, engage voters, figure out a way to get all those non-voters from participating in our democracy. we have an appalling engagement rate when it comes to voting in this country. 122 in the world last i checked. >> that's right. >> when you're a young voter of color and you feel like nothing is working for you, what do you do? >> well, you talk to the people who are under 40 in anson county. they'll tell you they feel like they're talking to a wall that, few people care to listen, care to come visit their communities and we spent the last couple months visiting this community and they're close to the border down by south carolina. what they'll tell you is that for years they have been demanding better access to broad band, investment, they've asked about jobs. top of mind, issues like inflation are affecting them, too, but they're not really the faces people think of when you talk about rural america. and that's a major part of the problem. in a state as purple as north carolina, they should feel like their voices and their votes are powerful but for some reason they've been made to feel like they don't matter. >> my name is cynthia. i'm executive director. >> reporter: this is how cynthia wallace spends many of her weekends. she throws on a new rural project tee and a pair of sneakers and knocks on strangers' doors and meets them on the streets and listens. >> did you get a chance to vote? >> yes, ma'am. >> so you're a strong voter? >> yes, ma'am. >> did you get to vote last year? >> no. >> that's what we're talking about. >> reporter: it may sound like a simple act but for black residents in rural north carolina, this kind of visit from a civic group is rare. >> you got a little pocket in there? i'm going to pile it up. >> reporter: in recent years, voter participation has been slipping. jobs have gone. many residents feel like nobody cares about what they have to say. >> what do you worry about every day? >> violence, poverty, just things that can be improved. >> reporter: national democrats have raised alarms about support slipping in rural america over the last two decades, where donald trump won roughly two-thirds of the rural vote. here in anson, 2,500 voters of color set out the last election as a state supreme court seat was decided by 401 votes over 5 million cast. to cynthia the disconnect isn't rocket science. few do what her team does in the rural south. even worse, they sometimes forget black people live there. do you feel like you've seen the changes that you deserve here? >> in anson county, those young men, black men under 40, turned out at 35% in the 2020 general election. and so actually having a chance to have conversation with them and the fact that they really seem to feel kind of validated to be heard. >> black voters in anson say they've received this message that their voice just doesn't matter on the local stage or at the national level. that stat, that 2,500 voters just in that one small county sat out in 2020 while a race was decided by about 400 or so votes. you can see right there the power that they could have had and they're just not receiving that message. that's what groups like the new rural project are trying to change. this is a crisis. >> it's an untapped resource foo communicate with those voters and to get them excited or interested in politics. it's also just a shame. it's a shame we live in a country where so few people do vote, so few people participate because they feel, and rightly so, that the government doesn't do anything for them and it doesn't matter who is in office, republican, democrat, conservative, progressives, their lives will remain the same. thank you for bringing us that story. up next, a major roadblock in the movement to get more people to drive electric cars. people to drive electric cars. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. scientists agree that moving from gas powered to electric cars is essential in the fight against climate change. with the biden administration funding the effort and americans ready for the change, what does the future look like? here is nbc's jacob ward with more. >> reporter: this grad student loves his electric car. >> no oil change, no transmission. it's really nice. >> reporter: the only problem is finding a charger on campus. >> i drove up to where i usually charge. looks like all the spots are full. it's annoying that there's no spots. >> we will build out the first national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations. >> reporter: president biden's $5 billion program hopes to create highway corridors full of them. experts say with 35 million evs expected on the road by 2030, we will need 1.5 charging ports, especially in cities. >> it's easy to make it accessible to just about anybody whether you live in a single family home or whether you are in a city and you are depending on off street parking or an apartment. >> reporter: charge point has been making stations for 15 years, testing them again elements. how does it work? >> take your phone. hold it up to the station. >> reporter: the ceo says the network of 174,000 chargers means you don't need to fill up every night. you are topping up at work. you are topping up a little bit when you go shopping or have dinner. >> reporter: some starbucks and taco bell customers will see chargers in a parking lot. a full charge is 20 minutes to several hours. this man says that's wrong. >> if you need it to be one vehicle and work well, it has to work as easily as gas. >> reporter: his company buils batteries. >> you don't have to get out of the car to do the swap? >> reporter: with swapping stations, you will never have to worry about your battery getting old. >> with battery swapping, keep it for as long as you want. >> reporter: your range might improve? >> exactly. >> reporter: within 20 years, drivers won't be anxious about finding a charger. we will be anxious about finding gas. >> when the dominant is electric, there are only going to be a certain number of gas stations that are going to be solvent. >> reporter: jake ward, nbc news, san francisco. >> that was jacob ward reporting. we'll be right back. b ward reporting. reporting. we'll be right back. that's right, jamie. but it's not just about savings. it's about the friends we make along the way. you said it, flo. and don't forget to floss before you brush. your gums will thank you. -that's right, dr. gary. -jamie? 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