0 she's reveling in holidays and things she feared she would once myths. >> people just take so much for granted. we are going to have some real experiences now. because i'm ready. >> to live life? >> maggie vespa -- stockton, illinois. >> it's another reminder to never, ever, ever, give up on yourself. and on that beautiful note, i wish you a good night. from all our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. >> good evening from kyiv. i'm ali velshi. any moment now are expecting air force one to land with joe biden's planned visit to ukraine and the surprise visit to a. close here in kyiv there is a heavy feeling vetting zion-y air as the world waits and watches now to see how russian president vladimir putin will respond to ukraine's show of strength this week. today putin held a captive audience rally to celebrate the one year anniversary of his invasion, when your anniversary will be on friday. but this happened in a massive moscow stadium, the site of the 2018 world cup. the propaganda event which began with the performance of the russian singer gregory laps, who has faced allegations of ties to the mafia and who until earlier this month was on the u.s. sanctions list. it also featured a grim start involving a number of children the russia claims it rescued from ukraine, ignoring the fact that the only needed to be rescued in the first place because putin started a war. and in attrition dating back to the soviet union, government employees and university students robust into the event to serve as the audience. one student told sky news that she was told she would simply be attending a concert. for what it's worth, we heard the same thing from an attendee at the last massive rally the prudent held at the start of the war. there have also been reports that some attendees may have been paid extra. to make things worse, as the moscow bureau chief of the times reports, citing russian media, the stadium doors were shot during the event prevent anyone from leaving before putin spoke. this rally comes just one day after president putin froze russia's participation in a key nuclear arms treaty and two days after russia is believed to have conducted a field icbm test. but today president biden downplayed concerns of a nuclear threat from russia. >> he is saying he's going to suspend participation in this nuclear treaty. rhetoric is one thing, but we we are here into this war. does it concern you when he says something like this? and are we less safe? >> i think we're less safe when we walk away from arms control agreements that are very much and both parties interests in the world interest. but not saying anything, we have not seen anything where there's a change in his posture in what they are doing. they idea that somehow this means they're thinking of using nuclear weapons international continental ballistic missiles, no evidence of that. >> before he left europe, president biden met with the secretary general of nato as well as leaders of the so-called bucharest nine, a group of eastern europe of european nations, all former soviet states, who have concern about putin's expansionist regression. during the meeting the president confirmed that united states nato will support ukraine for as long as it takes, although biden ice is still refusing to commit to providing ukraine the fighter jets has been asking for. there are concerns about the supply of those just, as well as for the dry nato into the conflict. southern ukraine believe the jets are cute turning the tide of this war decisively in their favor. this week, two former uk prime ministers, liz truss and boris johnson urge the current prime minister, rishi sunak, to send ukraine those jet, meaning they could be the first to cross that threshold. joining me now is retired united states army lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, former director for european affairs at the national security council. colonel vindman, good to see you. thank you for being with us. you and i have discussed this before, but boy these gentlemen talked about a lot this week, including by republican congressional delegation that was right here in kyiv. what is the case for providing the fighter jets to ukraine versus not providing them? we >> the case for not providing them is the legacy of believe that somehow this is the system, this is the one that's going to somehow precipitate a russian escalation and draw nato and the u.s. into broader complication with russia. there's no merit to that. it makes for a good story, honestly, that we need to keep, to be alert to russia's escalation, but in reality there's no indication it. even putin's owner marks this week on the heels of president biden's visit amounted to really nothing. just a bunch of hollow words and posturing. no action taken in response to a kind of firms show of support. the case for word is another series of important capabilities in addition to tanks, and long range fires, that will give ukraine the power needs to liberate territory and help when this war quickly. i think ukraine is on a trajectory to win this war either way. it's a question of how long it takes and how much risk weber. do we allow things to develop for another six or nine months? maybe the chinese step in. do we allow things to develop organically and russia takes some incremental escalation steps, poking and prodding for vulnerabilities? or do we give you green all the tools it needs now to be decisive on the battlefield and help bring this war to the negotiating phase much more rapidly? it's a strong case for jets, really a flimsy case consistent with proceeding arguments against jets. >> almost a year ago, you and i started talking about the night that vladimir putin launched the war he discussed nuclear things, and every time he feels backed into a corner he bat he discusses nuclear things. after joe biden be here on monday going to poland on tuesday and sort of kicking all the news coverage from vladimir putin that he was gonna discuss nuclear things. the argument is that whenever he does that there are people in the west who say we can't risk nuclear war, so we need to back off. does that strategy work for vladimir putin? >> it does work for him to a certain extent, but was diminishing returns. i appreciate you calling it what it is, a nuclear things. it's not really meaningful. it's rhetorical tool. it's meant to kind of get the u.s. and the west generally self deterred. in fact there is no real indication that russia is now somehow ready to cross the nuclear threshold and precipitate what amounts to mutually destruction. a regime ending step. if anything the u.s. government has become increasingly confident that putin is not interested in taking a step towards escalation and spillover. in the short term, in the medium term, but in the long term, it becomes less clear. so nuclear things is an exact way to describe it. it's an interesting story. it peaks peoples curiosity. but there is no more substance to it now than there was a year ago. if anything, russia is much more reluctant about confrontation with nato because it's having such a terribly hard time in ukraine. in knows it only has one tool in its arsenal. it doesn't have a conventional arsenal that it can fight nato with. it only has a nuclear arsenal. so things could escalate. bottom line, russia is not interested in nuclear war, not interested in confrontation with nato. in the short term and medium, term danger start to arise in the long term. that's why we give ukraine everything they need to compel russia to negotiate soonest. >> colonel vindman, you know this country very well. you are from here, you know exactly where i am, you've been here right next to st. michaels cathedral. this is an interesting time in the city. it's wednesday of this week that putin was hoping to dominate the headlines. we haven't had an air raid siren in the city for something like 48 hours or so, which is uncommon. there are people in this city and this country expecting either some version of a new russian offensive or some sort of escalated attacks on ukraine. we have yet to see the new offensive. we have seen some things going on in southern and eastern ukraine, but it doesn't feel like a renewed offensive. what are you anticipating for this week and coming weeks? >> for this week it's clear to me that putin is going to attempt to launch a drone and missile barrage. it's going to be minimally effective is it has been consistently with advanced capabilities. but it's another series of terror campaigns. he's going to, rallying mainly for his own domestic population, it won't have a meaningful effect on ukraine, buttery's own population he needs to show strength. it looks like russia's undertaking some form of an offensive. it's not precise. it's not focused on a couple of areas. it's defused across the entire 700 kilometer frontline. it is encountering massive resistance from the ukrainians. the russians are taking massive losses. and slowly sapping their strength. there may be a surge somewhere down the road as it warms up but ultimately russia's going to fail. ukraine's gonna return to a counteroffensive and then we'll start -- to territories like kherson and care kyiv like they did last year. >> colonel vindman, good to see you again. thank you for bringing your analysis. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. after vice president harris condemns russia for crimes against humanity, evidence scene of one of those crimes and i will share the heartbreak and hope, next.