That have been hit. and the worst may be yet to come. these satellite pictures show an eight-mile-long convoy with hundreds of military vehicles headed for city of izyum, a russian staging ground for the attacks in the east. joining us now, nbc news national security analyst clint watts and former u.s. marine corps chief of staff to europe, colonel brendon kearney. clint, what s at stake, what s to come in the next few days? so, mika, big changes in the last two to three weeks. everything you see here in light blue, that s the russian withdrawal, the ukrainian advance taking those territories back, which essentially allows people like boris johnson to visit kyiv at this point. remarkable to think this would even happen. the battle shifting almost entirely to the east. and vladimir putin has signaled this in the start of this war. his justification for going into ukraine was to take donbas.
Killed, but their bodies are in the streets because they can t be collected. it s simply too dangerous. it sounds very much like the situation in mariupol where an absolute humanitarian catastrophe somehow continues to get boris. russian and ukrainian forces had agreed to a limited cease-fire in order to let people escape, but russian forces blocked more than 40 buses that were supposed to carry people to safety. ukraine s deputy prime minister says russian troops also seetzed two humanitarian convoys packed with 14 tons of food and medicine. roughly 100,000 people are still believed to be trammed inside that city. i want to bring in nbc s molly hunter in lviv, retired colonel brendon kearney, angela consistent from georgetown university and author of the book putin s world. colonel, let me start with the big picture. it s hard at least for me to tell right now if ukraine the
Postponed a planned intercontinental ballistic missile test launch out of fears that russia would see it as escalatory. so they have canceled that test launch. do you think it s the right decision? no. i really don t. i think the pentagon unfortunately right now is operating from the sense of weakness with dealing with the russians, and that s not what vladimir putin respects. we keep learning this lesson over and over and over again, that you have to show this man that you are willing to take him on. and i m not advocating increasing hostilities or anything along those lines, but this man doesn t just listen to words because he ignores those, he doesn t think there is some strength to back it up, and that type of action from the pentagon is not a sign of strength. colonel brendon kearney,