of course airports are open, the land borders are open, so right now there is no need for an evacuation. that is what u.s. officials are telling us. but, again, this is all just in case. the u.s. does not want to be caught flat-footed. of course the afghanistan experience educational in that sense. absolutely. that s for sure. as we look at all of this, matthew chance also with us, i know this comes just after you spoke with ukraine s new defense minister, who feels very clear in terms of what we sees as a threat, where he sees this going. what more did he share with you? reporter: fascinating interview with a man who s only been in the job for a month. when he got into the office of defense minister, this crisis was always in the background but not as acute as it is now. he s been plunged into the deep end, as it were, and he s had to struggle to get his head around the enormous threat that is posed by russia to his country, the acute, potentially imminent threat with
beginning parts of the meeting only because it was shared on russian state tv. there were, you know, a quick, warm greeting and president biden says he wishes he would have seen vladimir putin at the g-20 in person. he said next time i hope to see you in person. so that was just the very beginning of the meeting. white house officials are telling us there will be more of an extended ed readout after th meeting over. the length of time is an interesting question. when they met in person six months ago in geneva, switzerland, the meeting was about two hours. this may be longer or not. we ll see how it goes. this is something that, you know, the time and duration and the body language is one of the many things that will be read into this. we will not have a sense of that. in terms of the white house, president biden is doing his part of the meeting from the white house situation room, in the basement of the white house. president putin is doing his from his vacation retreat, ess
Of his presidency so far. in new video just released by russian state media, you can see bide frn the white house situation room meeting with russian president vladimir putin in a video call. the meeting comes at a critical time with russia amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with ukraine with the threat of another possible invasion looming. white house officials say president biden will be warning russia will face severe sanctions if they invade ukraine. the kremlin has signaled today s call will be lengthy but is tamping down expectations, saying they don t expect any major progress to be made. let s start at the white house this hour. jeff zeleny is there for us. are you hearing anything so far? reporter: the meeting has been under way neerply an hour or so. it started about 10:07 eastern time. we are not getting a readout of course, but we saw the very
Beginning parts of the meeting only because it was shared on russian state tv. there were, you know, a quick, warm greeting and president biden says he wishes he would have seen vladimir putin at the g-20 in person. he said next time i hope to see you in person. so that was just the very beginning of the meeting. white house officials are telling us there will be more of an extended ed readout after th meeting over. the length of time is an interesting question. when they met in person six months ago in geneva, switzerland, the meeting was about two hours. this may be longer or not. we ll see how it goes. this is something that, you know, the time and duration and the body language is one of the many things that will be read into this. we will not have a sense of that. in terms of the white house, president biden is doing his part of the meeting from the white house situation room, in the basement of the white house. president putin is doing his from his vacation retreat,
Gold. your strategic advantage. at this hour, president biden remains in the white house situation room meeting virtually with russian president vladimir putin. so far the two have been walking for more than 90 minutes amid growing concerns russia is planning to invade ukraine. joining me now is the chairman of the house armed services committee, adam smith. thanks for being here. best case, what do you think comes out of this call today between biden and putin?