the one thing that no one runs into the oval office saying is we ve got to do something. that kind of strategic thinking works on twitter but it doesn t work and should not work in a room where presidential decisions are made. and in a world of bad choices, sometimes doing nothing is your least bad choice. everyone in the biden administration would no doubt want to send american pirate lets into battle over ukraine with russian pilots. if they thought it would work if they thought american pilots could shoot down russian pilots and they would have the imaginary no fly zone over ukraine. and the russians would no longer be killing people from the air. if the president of the united states and leader of nato countries believe that that would work. they would all be instantly in favor of doing it. and i m sure they all wish it would work, because then they too could indulge that urge to just do something. to govern is to choose, out of the choices are never easy.
yesterday, secretary of state antony blinken described the choice president biden has made. the president has been clear about one thing all along as well. which is we are not going to put the united states in direct conflict with russia, not have american planes flying against russian planes. or our soldiers on the ground in ukraine. because for everything we are doing for ukraine, the president also has a responsibility to not get us into a direct conflict, a direct war with russia. a nuclear power, and risk a war that expands even beyond ukraine to europe. that s clearly not our interest, what we are trying to do is and this war in ukraine, not start a larger one. secretary of state antony blinken gets tonight s last word. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, russia s attacks on
i don t understand why there is a delay. every day counts. look at what you are showing right now. literally, every day council we should supply the f-16 s in my view, as a trade, as the polls won t and get those chants in. we are not going to do a no-fly zone and they support the president on that, but if we are not going to do a no-fly zone, we should do everything we can to help the ukrainians defend the area themselves. we re not doing a no fly zone for a few reasons, including as anthony blinken put it, it would move us to a larger war. if in the biden administration internal debate about this, someone raised the point as no doubt someone must have, that poland supplying these jets could also lead to a wider war. russia could take that as poland s engagement in the war. russia might, and putin might
major economic price to pay. lawrence, the price inside russia, i think is going to make it feel like the last days of the cold war. the shortages, the runaway inflation. the things you can t buy, and now increasingly, i know you re going to deal with this on your show, the things you cannot say. the cost of protest. to me, this feels like too many straws on a camel s back. thank you, ali, and thank you very much for your reporting from there. especially with your reporting on what s happening with refugees who are making it to safety where you are. thank you very much, ali. thanks, lawrence. tonight, ukrainian president, laura meir zelenskyy released a new video on social media showing that he still has not left the capital city of kyiv. president zelenskyy states that not only is he still in kyiv, but he is quote, not afraid of anyone. he said that he will be there
surround the capitol. my colleague richard engel s reporting that the suspicion among civilians in those humanitarian quarters this so that the nelson billions are moving into the center of the city, into the more urban areas looking for cover, preparing for possible siege. they re setting up roadblocks and checkpoints, expecting that there. the president today, we had a change of tone from president zelenskyy. he s calling on the west not only just to implement a new eye no-fly zone, but he s blaming the west for the deaths of children in this country. it is not just a change of tone, but it is a change of tactic. ukrainians here have until recently been pretty tolerant of the sanctions and supportive of the west, but you now have this change of tone where they re clearly want nato to do more. the topic of discussion today as it was yesterday, was about these jets. we have seen fighting in the skies over kyiv and according to the ukrainians has brought down 39 russian jets, at least