minister lavrov made no commitments about where the diplomacy will lead. translator: i can t say whether we re on the right path or on the wrong path. we will understand this when we get a written reaction from the americans to all our proposals. reporter: the stakes are high. russia planning to deploy s-400 anti-aircraft missile systems in belarus. and continuing to bolster its troop presence of more than 100,000 soldiers along all of ukraine s borders. and ukraine s defense minister is now accusing the kremlin of sending tanks and artillery to pro-russian separatists in the country s occupied dombas region claiming they re actively recruiting mercenaries and sending them to the temporarily occupied territory. cnn learned the pentagon is working on a series of military options for president biden to beef up the u.s. military presence in eastern europe as a deterrent. the two foreign ministers committed to meet again and either side counted out the possibility of another
ukraine. and you re grounded. how one woman s anti-mask moves changed the travel plans for more than 100 others. hello and welcome to the lead. we begin with our health lead and the strongest case yet for getting a covid booster shot or should i say strongest cases yet. three new cdc reports show that adults who had gotten their booster shot had the best protection against hospitalization because of covid and against emergency room and urgent care visits. the new data suggesting getting a booster in the age of the omicron variant is now less of a nice to have and more of a must have. this as we are learning that unvaccinated adults over the age of 65 are nearly 50 times more likely to be hospitalized for covid than their fully boosted peers. across the u.s. today, more than 160,000 people are hospitalized with covid right now. that s a record high. but as cnn s omar jimenez reports, the number of daily cases are actually trending down, even as some hospitals are growing
Top diplomats accomplished today. reporter: the united states and russia giving diplomacy new life. i believe we are now on a clearer path in terms of understanding each other s concerns. each other s positions. reporter: secretary of state tony blinken said the u.s. would put pen to paper in order to advance a conversation. what we ve agreed today is that we will share in writing next week our ideas, our response to concerns that russia has raised. concerns that we have that we will share again in writing with russia. reporter: still, the two countries are incredibly far apart. first and foremost, the u.s. says russia must pull back its troops from ukraine s borders. russia is demanding that nato cease any plans for expansion. but the u.s. and nato have said that is a nonstarter. there is no trade space there. none. reporter: russian foreign