For meetings tomorrow. it will be the most high profile visit yet of an american delegation since the war began. and it could not come at a more critical time russia today began a new assault on the port city of odesa, once a beach destination for russians and ukrainians the attacks left multiple dead, including a baby and it may be the final battle for mariupol that city has been completely destroyed by russia, but a few ukrainian soldiers and civilians have managed to hold the city now, russian soldiers are moving in on where they made their last stand. we begin tonight with matt bradley inside ukraine. reporter: tonight, a major announcement from president zelenskyy claiming he ll meet with u.s. secretary of state antony blinken and secretary of defense lloyd austin in ukraine tomorrow nbc hasn t independently confirmed the visit. weapons from the united states, everything has
And wanting to deter putin from taking further action and moving into ukraine, but if he does so, it s not clear exactly how everyone is going to come together and respond to that. political leaders are frustrated, things are getting more tense, people around the world are worried. but matt, yesterday you said thing were looking calm in ukraine. is anything changing? reporter: yeah, nothing has changed in terms of walking around and seeing people. it s still calm and quiet, but things are open. this is business as usual. this is what this city always looks like. it s because the fact that we have to remember here, stephanie, that often gets lost in this is from a ukrainian perspective, this isn t that new. for them, they ve been at war with russian-backed separatists, not necessarily russia itself but separatists backed by russia for the last seven or eight years. so this isn t necessarily a new threat. i ve been speaking with government officials. they said that, you know, these s
The white house posting this photo of the president in the meeting saying they re looking at severe economic costs for russia if russia doesn t back off. plus on capitol hill, house speaker pelosi and senate majority leader schumer want briefings on this for all members of congress. i want to bring in white house correspondent kara lee, matt bradley inside ukraine, peter baker, new york times chief white house correspondent, and ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser during the obama administration. kara, are our allies on the same page? and how serious, how close are we to actually sending troops to eastern europe? reporter: good morning, steph. the administration says that they ve put these 8,500 troops on heightened alert. that means that they could be ready to deploy to nato countries within a matter of days. at the same time, they re saying no decision have been made on whether or not to deploy those troops at this time, but pentagon press secretary john
Ramping. of deterrence as josh is reporting and others are noting. that s a critical component to try to send the message to putin to sharpen the choice for him. this will be very costly if he moves in. mr. bradley, let s ignore the talking points and take us to the ukraine. you re on the ground. that is the other side of the world from where i m sitting. what is going on there and why should people in the united states care? you tack about ignoring the talking points, ukrainians are kind of ignoring them. one of the most remarkable things about walking around in kyiv is how quiet it is. there aren t convoyings of cars leaving the city. nobody is headed west. it s not seen as a big deal because a lot of people here think putin is bluffing and he won t actually invade. another is, you know, ukrainians i talked to remind me this country has been at war for the past eight years in the dombas
As early as this week. secretary of state blinken is meeting virtually with members of the european union right now as the united states is trying to coordinate its next move with our overseas allies. while all of that is going on, the administration is not taking any chances with the americans still inside ukraine ordering diplomats families to start leaving the embassy and giving the diplomats themselves the green light to come home. let s discuss and bring in nbc s josh letterman covering the white house, matt bradley inside ukraine, matt boughner covering the russian side and joe rubin, former assistant u.s. secretary of state. how close are we to sending real troops to eastern europe? closer than we were a few days ago, stephanie. president biden hovering over the weekend with his national security team. he was briefed via secure video conference by lloyd austin about potential options to shore up