From russian. Its something the russians deny. They say they feed weapons badly. At the same time as you said the government here in kiev as well as the europeans and the russians are trying to get the peace negotiations off the ground. They are set to meet wednesday in minsk, the capital of belarus. As we speak today, there is a meeting to try to get some of the details of such an agreement going. The big question is going to be how much territory are the prorussian separatists going to get . There was an agreement to a ceasefire that happened last year in september. Since then the prorussian separatists have gained so much more control over the line there. Are they willing to accept to give some of that up chris . Thank you very much from kiev. Lets move to what is actually happening on the ground. We have Nick Peyton Walsh who is monitoring the situation. He was the First Western journalist in the town of Eastern Ukraine leveled by prorussian separatists. Nick i hope you can hear us through the phone. Fred was just saying Ukrainian Forces say they need more electronic help in terms of assets to find out where fire is coming from. Is that because the fighting on the ground is so crude, tanks, mortars doing wide swaths of destruction . Reporter well, chris, you can see behind me. Im in a town which has been leveled by the fighting over the past week or so. Key to the prorussian separatist a town they need to overtake the vault. You the see what the heavy weapons have done to the key building. Can you hear around my too outgoing strikes here. That as we think prorussian separatist artillery hitting a position not far from us. But this town i have to say, remarkable chris, when you walk around it you see destruction, frankly, they havent seen since the russian town of grozny a camera will pan over here and show you why we believe a personnel carrier was destroyed in the fitting here. It is exactly that kind of old weaponry the ukrainians say they need help with. Thats what they are referring to now. In this town you see what it must have been like for the civilians caught between the lines here t. Front line has moved on from where im standing now, about 5 kilometers further, we understand but constantly changing and, of course that constant fear of artillery striking back at any moment that is again outgoing we believe from the separatists. But there are civilians coming back here trying to patch together what they can of their lives. We have seen whole apartment blocks repeatedly hit by shellings. We have gone through this town. The real fear now being where this violence will escalate as both seeds try to position themselves better ahead of peace talks. Mikaela. Nick peyton walsh, thank you. The question remain will the president supply arms to ukrainian soldiers . Michelle what are you hearing . Reporter secretary of state kerry has been saying there is not a rift he is insisting there is unity against the u. S. And europe on the response to russia. This meeting today is important to shape that response only two big levels. First of all, will there be different sanctions against russia on whether there is unity still and whether the u. S. Should begin arming ukraine. The u. S. Is considering that at this point, though, America El Merkel is strongly opposed. Some in general fweel the response against russiasing as should be much stronger. We even heard from the president S National Security adviser last week if laying out the National Security strategy. She slammed russia calming its actions a heinous and deadly assault and the u. S. Has been worried that this peace deal if it happens brokered by france and germany would be top of a concession possibly of you trainian torte russia. But since both sides are coming to the table in minsk on wednesday. It seems unlikely we will see an additional response from the u. S. Or europe until then alisyn. Okay. Michelle kazinski thank you for all that. Lets bring in the acting Vice President of the United States institute of peace. Mr. Ambassador thanks, for joining us this morning. Glad to be here. Are you confident or even hopeful this morning that germany and france can cobble together some peace plan with Vladimir Putin in the next 48 hours . I think its possible and its not just the germans and the french. It also is the ukrainians. Mrs. Merkel and mr. Hollande went to kiev before they went to moscow over the weekend. They spent five hours with the president going over what the proposal would be. They took it to moscow and they will go back to minsk and where he will be and it is clearly a ukrainian proposal as well. And, yes, i think the threat of weapons for the ukrainian, the threat of more sanctions on the russian, will have an effect. Mr. Putin looks to get out of this. Hes got himself into a real bind. He needs to be able to find a way out. This should be the way. Do we have any sense of what that peace plan or the proposals would actually spell out . We do. Its based on minsk agreement that mr. Putin agreed to with the germans and the 47 and the oace last september. It calls for a withdrawal a pullback from a lynn of contact t. Line of contact back in september is different than the one today. But very interesting. The size of the buffer zone today that theyre talking about is much greater than the one back then. So it is very possible that the pullback of the separatists, supported by Russian Military could be such that the ukrainians would get back the territory that they have been fighting over. So yes, we do know whats in it. It has pullback from the line. It has observation of the border crossings, which have now been wide opened for the russians to pour military equipment across from russia into ukraine. It calls for decentralization in ukraine where they said they are ready to divulge powers that local governments should use rather than having the decisions from the center. We know generally whats in this plan. I dont have to tell you that Vladimir Putin is not always the most rational actor. What if he does not agree to this peace plan then what . Then he is looking at more sanctions. The combination of european and american sanctions on his economy and the Falling Oil Prices is devastating his economy. These sanction can get worse. They can get a lot worse. He knows that. He also knows the europeans and americans have been lockstep on these sanctions. If that continues, his economy is in real trouble. If he doesnt agree eto this agreement in minsk. He is looking to much more damage to his economy. As you know almost a year ago, the u. S. Congress approved sending arms to ukraine. Ukraine wants that. We just heard from our reporter who says they are begging for sophisticated electronic weapons with which to fight the rebels but france and germany are saying not to do that. What is the answer here for the u. S. . The answer for the u. S. Is to provide the weapons. This again may be forcing mr. Putin to think carefully about these negotiations. But beyond that it is changing his calculation. If he knows that the ukrainians have weapons that can stand up to him, he has a big vulnerability. His vulnerability in addition to the economy is dead soldiers. If he knows that by increasing the military pressure on the ukrainian, he is going to face a big military response in the form of sophisticated weapons that we could provide, then his Political Support in russia goes down. The russian mothers and the russian wives of russian soldiers coming back dead is a big problem for him. But what about Angela Merkels concern if we were to provide the lethal weapons it becomes a proxy war between u. S. And russia. Andrea merkels concern is something to be taken seriously. But the issue is mr. Putin. The issue is what does mr. Putin do in the face of increasing economic pressure and now some military pressure . No one thinks that the Ukrainian Military is going to be able to defeat Russian Military. Thats not the issue. The question is mr. Putins calculation, can he continue to provide the weapons to his proxys in Eastern Ukraine or will he look for a negotiated solution . Former u. S. Ambassador to the ukraine, william taylor. Thanks for all the expertise this morning. Lets go over to mikaela. All right. Alisyn the u. S. Led coalition pounds positions in iraq and syria. In iraq air attacks are largely focused on the city of mosul, which is currently under isis control. Cnns phil black spoke with peshmurga fighters about the plan to retake that q3 city. He is live outside mosul. What did they tell you, phil . Reporter mick what, wela,ee owe mikaela, on a clear day you can see right into it. Its a wide expanse of territory, town village, all of it still very much isiscontrolled territory. Just behind me the town was a major christian town. Much after it fled the isis advance. They refuse to advance to islam. This position this position held by kurdish fighters is one in a long defensive line that they had been drawing around this territory. I believe they are accomplishing the first stage, the First Military objective. That is to push isis back to draw this line behind the territory that isis still holds. Then to hold that line to take away the ability of isis to advance and conquer New Territory. They believe they have done that with of course the assistance of International Air power. What will come next is a big operation to retake this isis territory, to retake mosul. But mosul is an arab town. So the kurds dont want to do that on their own. It will come down to the iraqi army, which is currently being retrained, we built, remote rate issed. Remember it is the fighting force that abandoned this territory when isis first invaded. The time frame as early as april, according to u. S. Officials. The kurdsish fighters believe it could be some months more probably some time this year. Chris, back to you. As you know mosul the fight of some of the fiercest fighting during the main war. Be safe there, thank you for the reporting. In other news at least 30 People Killed in a riot at a soccer match in egypt. State tv reports the fighting began before the game even started. Apparently it was about fans trying to force their way into the game without tickets. You will remember another riot killed 74 people three years ago. 30,000 Homeland Security personnel could face furlough if congress does not approve the departments funding by the end of the month. The state secretary dave johnson urging the Republicanled Congress to rethink a funding pressure to attack president obamas immigration overhaul. He says he is meeting with members of congress all this month to try to convince them to drop that idea. How about a little grammy news. Sam was the man, sam thit winning four grammy including song and record of the year for stay with me. Album of the year was a surprise. It went to best morning fave. That was nearly taylor swifted by kanye west who jokingly ran on the stage. Another notable moment pharrell making a subtle handsup dont shoot gesture during his performance of the song happy. There was a lot of music last night. I could have watched the whole thing. I loved watching. So many great performances. It was like backtobeing performance, madonna, gwen stefani, great. Which brings us to kanye. Why would he try to relive what made him a fool . Everybody was laughing. Were they . Except for you . I didnt watch. I didnt watch. I didnt watch. I got a here we go again for you. Boston is in the bulls eye of another storm. 5feet has piled up there. Theyre running out of places to put it. Thats the truth. So what is coming next . When will that be . We have sarah live in boston. Answer my questions. Water coming and when . Reporter well its coming right now, chris. Already 8 inches of new snow on the ground since yesterday and on top of about 55 inches of snow that theyve had in the last couple of weeks in the month of january. Let me show you the big problem here. Its these giant snow piles that are getting bigger and bigger with each storm. Thats because theyre simply like you said no place to put this snow and this snow removal budget is shot. Its gone. Its been spent. There is no plowing the streets. But theyre having a problem figuring out what to do with it. How to get it out of town. This is a problem because these snowplows are tall. Theyre as tall as street signs in some places completely covering cars. This is an issue for fire hydrants because for safety reason theyre concerned that firefighters if there is a fire wont be able to find fire hydrants. They launched a Twitter Campaign asking people to come outside and dig out their fire hydrants. There is also an issue on the streets. A lot of people are instead walking in the streets. We are seeing these streets are very narrow causing a lot of loss of visible penn when you are driving in the car. Mikaela, back to you. Those are all really valid concerns. Hopefully, some folks will take heed to the mention on twitter. Lets talk about this aspect of what is coming that chris was talking about . Well go to cad meyers with the forecast. Boston is going to get hit. Who else . I see your map behind you. I tell you what new york city is not going to have a good morning. This is tough. It is raining and 26 in new york city. Raining because its 35 degrees at the top of the empire state building. Its 26 down at the surface. So thats why its raining and freezing when it hits. This is going to be worse tan the ice for new york city. There will be sheets of ice falling off the buildings again tomorrow. Six to ten more inches of snow for boston and just maybe 10to12 for the berkshires and wooster county. Theyve already had plenty theyre pushing now six, now seven feet out there to the west of boston in the hills there. The picturesque hills, but at some point in time. You say, please let it stop. Is this is a quick storm. We are almost done with it. By tomorrow its sunny. It warms up into the 30s. Boston 30 for tuesday, 23 on wednesday and heres the bad news another small onetotwo inch snowfall comes on thursday. Behind it look at your morning low, welcome to the weekend at new york city. Your morning low on saturday will be 7. And the dogs not going to want to go out. Chris, guy, back to you. That doc wont hunt. No. That dog is going to stay under the covers. Thanks,. We appreciate it. I think we say thanks. I dont know. Meanwhile, back to this story that so many people have been following closely, isis claims american hostage Kayla Mueller was killed in an airstrike. Her family does not believe them. What they are doing now to get the truth. Thats next. H is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. Our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. Start investing with as little as fifty dollars. Its good to have you back with us here. As the u. S. Led attacks step up. The parents of american hostage aide worker Kayla Mueller are hoping she is alive. Despite isis claims she is killed in an airstrike. They are reaching out on their own to the terror group. Cnn has more on how this family is coping. Reporter the days pass one after another in prescott arizona and no real answer about Kayla Mueller. This is such a fluid situation going hourtohour. Reporter he is a longtime family friend. For a yearandahalf the museumers have lived with the knowledge that isis seized their 26yearold daughter ordered by her captors to remain silent or kayla would be executed. Then came friday. A claim by isis that no proof saying Kayla Mueller died in this building what was friday like . Oh friday. Friday was dark day, punched a hole through you. A big hole. Reporter Kayla Muellers name now forced into the opened her parents urgeled her captors to contact them directly. Is there a statement they are trying to get lou . You know at this point they just want contact through the original channels. Reporter they remain secluded at their home guarded by local police still afraid to say the wrong thing. But they stand behind their daughters choices. I am in sal darity with the syrian people. Reporter a woman who refused to accept the suffering of syrias nearly 4 million refugees. The parents want they need answers. From one of the worlds most brutal terrorist groups. You have no control. So you have to abide by the rules. And this was a living hell and it has been a living hell for the family and it is today. One this entire town prays will end soon. There is so much misinformation around confusion about whats going on with this American Woman and really the whole situation. So what is the state of play Allegheny County and with this hostage . Lets bring in cnn political commentator, contributing editor a senior fellow. He got plenty of titles. Do you have the answers . Jordan says we are skeptical of reports from isis that the american hostage who we were just talking about was killed in a bombing. But how would they know given that even though they have great intel resources, one of the things the Coalition Wants to put to their ear. They were wrong about their own pilot. So do we trust their distrust . I think nobody at least publicly seems to have a good idea about. It does seem very convenient for isis only this american hostage, no isis fighters they claim would have been killed in this airstrike. You could imagine it is an effort to divide the United States from jordan and provoke hostility that a u. S. Hostage was killed. The truth, i think we have no idea. Reporter right. So its really based on what the spin would be as opposed to intel on the ground . So state of play . 56 strikes from jordan thats good. They promise a lot more. Thats good. The uae back in. Theyve pulled out. Bus of jordan thats the kind of coalescing we are looking to see here. We is regional partners. The quest