Summary
A Senior Defense official says Russian forces could be within 10 miles of the capitol of Ukraine. U.S. intelligence believes the city can maintain control for several more weeks. Congress approves $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine. New reporting shows Goldman Sachs is profiting on the war while saying it is "winding down" operations in Russia. Inflation rose 7.9 percent, marking the sharpest spike in 40 years.
Transcript
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LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: President Biden gets tonight`s "LAST WORD." THE 11TH HOUR with Stephanie Ruhle starts now.
[23:00:18]
STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, were Ukrainian city is bracing for Russian attacks, has talks failed to reach a deal on a ceasefire, more airstrikes hitting hospitals, yet somehow Putin`s inner circle insisting they`re not attacking civilians.
Then the desperate escape from a city under siege, the Ukrainian woman fleeing her hometown and filming her journey out at the Russians cut off water and power. She`ll be here live.
Plus, our exclusive reporting how Goldman Sachs is cashing in on the war in Ukraine and use a loophole in the Biden administration sanctions to do it as the 11th Hour gets underway on a Thursday night.
Good evening, once again, I`m Stephanie Ruhle. We are entering day 16 of Russia`s invasion of Ukraine. As we come tonight on the air there are reports of still more attacks, Ukrainian officials accusing Russia of bombing a research nuclear center in Kharkiv. That city has been under attack for more than a week and a senior administration official tells NBC News Russian forces are now about 10 miles from the center of Kyiv.
Tonight, new satellite photos from Maxar, a company used by some U.S. government agencies seem to show that Russian military convoy north of the capital is now dispersing to surrounding areas, while the city of Mariupol remains under siege. Hundreds of thousands are now said to be trapped in the freezing cold.
Poland`s president says another evacuation attempt will be made tomorrow. And there is global outrage after that maternity hospital was destroyed there yesterday.
Ukrainian officials say at least three people were killed. There were talks today to try to end the carnage as NBC is Richard Engel reports from Ukraine.
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RICHARD ENGEL, NBC NEWS CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey today went nowhere. Ukraine`s foreign minister saying Russia is demanding the government surrender and his Russian counterpart denied his country even invaded Ukraine, insisting it`s merely carrying out a limited military action to defend Russia.
He also denied that Russia bombed a maternity hospital yesterday dismissing what he called pathetic outcries about it and claiming Ukraine staged the whole thing.
Russia appears to be living in an alternative reality now driven by one man, President Vladimir Putin, who in a televised address declared Russia will overcome sanctions, noting there causing surging gas prices in the US.
While Ukrainians continue to put up a tougher than expected fight, we saw the scale of what Russia is unleashing, nothing short of collective punishment to try to beat Ukrainians into submission.
(on camera): Russia continues to insist that it is not targeting civilians, not bombing civilian areas. But just on the outskirts of Kyiv, you can see entire areas have been wiped out and more strikes are happening right now.
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RUHLE: Today, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN said those strikes on civilians constitute war crimes. And in a message posted on Telegram, Ukraine`s president again warned Russia may be planning to use chemical weapons, and he denied Moscow`s claim that Ukraine is the one developing those weapons.
Meanwhile, one southern city is under Russian control tonight. NBC`s Matt Bradley is there.
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MATT BRADLEY, NBC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Peers on Ukraine offers the first glimpses of Russia`s occupation. After two weeks, Kherson is the first and only major city to fall to Russian forces. Last week, its residents were probably protesting against Russian troops. But that`s all changed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not only they blockade us from foods and medicine and basic necessities but also they are preparing to imprison those who disagree. Those who protest.
BRADLEY: 400 people were arrested yesterday according to the Ukrainian military. One big difference local residents tell us the appearance of the Rosgvardiya, Russia`s National Guard.
This paramilitary force was created in 2016 and answers directly to President Putin. They`re mostly deployed in Russia as riot police. Now they`re in Kherson, suppressing dissent the same way they do in Russia. In this video of a protest, Russia`s version of a police wagon.
National Guard checking social media looking around for their apartments, Kherson mayor. They`re even looking for the people who are fighting against the Russians in 2014. The city is being strangled. The mayor says they have only about a week of food left.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RUHLE: It is early morning in Lviv where NBC`s Cal Perry leads us off again this evening. Cal, Lviv, you have been I`ve been saying it for days. You`re in the West. This is considered the safer part of the country but in the last hour there have been air raid sirens. What`s going on?
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CAL PERRY, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so we had those sirens go off, there was about a 15-minute period where folks ran to the bunkers. And then we received the out clears. The first siren we`ve had here in about three or four days. It`s incredibly difficult for folks who are fleeing from Mariupol or who are fleeing from Kharkiv, if they were lucky enough to get out. They end up here some 350 miles from the Capitol. And then these air raid sirens hit and we watch these scenes, as these families many of who`ve been split apart, run frantically into the bunker.
Mariupol in the south is a nightmare. It is a disaster there. It is being shelled now for the seventh day straight. People unable to move that the mayor they`re saying they tried six different times to get people out. He`s calling the 400,000 residents there now quote, Russian hostages.
In Kharkiv to the north, a similar situation, a BBC news crew was able to reach the center of that city today. And so we finally saw a video of what we had been told by Ukrainian government officials, which is there are bodies, Stephanie, littering the streets, you have the bodies of civilians, and you have the bodies of Russian soldiers. It`s clear the fighting there is fierce, it`s clear that the Russians are taking heavy casualties.
You mentioned those peace talks failing really across the board, except for one small thing, the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency saying that they now have permission to get Ukrainian engineers to Chernobyl. The Chernobyl nuclear site has been cut off from power for two days. That could be a big deal. We`re going to watch that very closely this morning.
And as you said, tensions are running high and fear here is palpable about this discussion of chemical weapons. The government here says they know the Russian playbook. It starts with the bombings of hospitals. We saw that Mariupol yesterday. And then what followed in Syria, were chemical weapons.
The Russian media is telling the Russian people that the U.S. as well as the Ukraine have these secret biological weapons sites. Of course, America and Ukraine deny that. They say that it`s completely fake news.
Nonetheless, we for the first time, Stephanie, have the Ukrainian government on the same page as U.S. intelligence agencies saying that this is a real possibility. Steph.
RUHLE: Cal, I know it`s about 350 miles away from where you are. But these reports that Russian forces are just a few miles away from Kyiv. What do you know about that?
PERRY: Yes, they`re closer than now 10 miles, about 40 kilometers away. And it seems as though they`ve dispersed into those areas of the suburbs where my colleague, Richard Engel remains trying to report out the story.
One of the things that is so disturbing about his reporting is that folks who have not been able to get out whether they`re old, whether they just cannot physically move, they`re moving into that city, they`re going into the more urban areas.
And as we know, these indiscriminate shells are landing in civilian areas. And it`s happening repeatedly. So folks who can`t flee, who can`t get out of these cities are now going into the inside of the cities where it really is just only that much more dangerous. Stephanie
RUHLE: Cal Perry, thank you for starting us off this evening. I want to bring in Rolling Stone correspondent and MSNBC contributor Jack Crosbie, he was in Kharkiv, when the Russian attacks began. He since traveled hundreds of miles across the country. In his latest piece, he describes the harrowing journey for refugees who are trying to escape this devastating war.
Jack, it is great to have you back here safely in New York. Tell us what it`s really like there that what we`re not seeing in these photos and videos that are horrible for us. But when you`re really there when you are traveling, explain it to us.
JACK CROSBIE, ROLLING STONE CORRESPONDENT: So I think the thing that sticks with me and sticks with a lot of people is just the sheer uncertainty that people are faced with as they`re traveling across this country. I wrote about in this piece, Ukraine used to be a very accessible country to travel across, there were all of these different ways to get from point A to point B, it was really common for people to have family members spread out in different cities across the country.
And now, every step of this journey is plagued by confusion and indecision and fear in a lot of places, in that people don`t really know if they`re going from a dangerous situation to one that could be even worse or what they`re going to find at the end of their journeys.
RUHLE: Jack, I just said it. You were in Kharkiv when the Russians attacked. We all know what went down in the last few days in Mariupol. Yet the Russians say they`re not doing it. Given what you`ve just experienced. What how does that make you feel?
CROSBIE: I mean, you know, I think this is what we`ve come to expect. Modern militaries when they`re waging war will always seek to have some kind of plausible deniability for their actions. I think as far as the Russian military goes, that plausible deniability is a lot thinner than others.
And I think the fact of the matter is they don`t really care, it doesn`t matter to their aims, whether or not people believe that they`re doing this or not, because they are and the violence is the goal. The fear is the goal. The terror is the goal and there extraordinarily effective at creating those conditions which we can all see.
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RUHLE: Humanitarian aid is now flowing into the country. But is it enough? From everything that you`ve seen, what more should us and our NATO allies be doing?
CROSBIE: I think it`s absolutely not enough. I think the tendency of NATO, which is a military organization is to reach for the familiar tools of violence that every military uses. It`s more weapons, it`s this discussion over a no fly zone and things like that.
RUHLE: Without the economic sanctions?
CROSBIE: I think, you know, you can argue that economic sanctions are also a form of violence, these are all forms of war. These are all things that are going to impact ordinary people in Russia. And -- But I think, you know, these are legitimate ways to push back against regimes, but the impact of those on the people of these countries needs to be considered.
RUHLE: But what`s the alternative? Right, the Russian troops aren`t looking to hug it out.
CROSBIE: Right, absolutely. But I think that there are ways that NATO and these organizations can help civilian people in Ukraine, that don`t necessarily involve continuing or exacerbating the conflict.
I have my personal views on various arms deals and things. I think it`s absolutely undisputable right now that the anti-tank munitions that we`ve provided have had a huge effect and allowing Ukrainians to hold their own ground, which, as someone who`s been there and has been on, you know, that side of the lines I`m personally very grateful for.
But I think that we really need to start refocusing some of this aid at helping actual civilians in this, in -- that are coming out of these countries. You know, the situation on the trail of refugees that`s moving across the country at the borders in Poland, Poland has taken in 1.2 million out of the 2 million refugees that have come across there. And the infrastructure in that country is not there to support this.
RUHLE: There`s not enough jobs. There`s not enough schools. There`s not enough hospitals. And suddenly now they`ve got a million more people. Jack, I am -- I`m glad that you`re here tonight and that you are home safe.
With that, I want to bring in our experts. Retired four star US Army General Barry McCaffrey, a decorated combat veteran of Vietnam, and a former battlefield commander in the Persian Gulf and Juan Zarate, MSNBC senior national security analyst. He was also the former deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush, Jr.
General McCaffrey to you first, I want to start with this Russian convoy. We`ve been watching it over the last two weeks, it is now believed that at least some of it is dispersed. That seems like good news. But at the same time, we`re also hearing that Russian troops are now within 10 miles of Kyiv. What do you make of all this?
GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY, MSNBC MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think in in executively, they`re going to close in around Kyiv. They`re going to try and sever their lines of communication. Apparently, half the population of the city is still resident, maybe 1.5 million or more without food, without electricity, without heat, as we`ve seen in Mariupol and also Kharkiv. The situation will become desperate. That is the military objective of these assaults is to terrorize the civilian population and force capitulation of Ukrainian armed forces and political leadership.
I don`t know. The only way out of this because Ukrainians are fighting magnificently with what we give them. The refugees were able to help once they clear the borders and get into Romania or Poland. But what we can`t do is provide an Air Force to hammer Russian ground forces and clear the skies of Russian bombers. So I think the situation is perilous at best.
RUHLE: Juan, Ukraine and Russia diplomats met for a third time today on paper people might think that`s a good idea. But of course, nothing changed. Right? The Russians are still saying they`re not targeting civilians. And we know they`re bombing hospitals. Why are they even having these meetings?
JUAN ZARATE, MSNBC NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think that Ukrainians are attempting to keep the diplomatic channel open at a minimum to have a dialogue around protecting civilians, perhaps keeping humanitarian channels open.
The Ukrainians obviously aren`t going to concede to the maximalist Russian demands, to see territory to recognize Russian control over Crimea and basically to lay down their arms. Ukraine`s not going to accept that, but they have an obligation to least talk.
But you`re right. The Russians are treating this like diplomatic theater. And we know what the Russian playbook is, which is to confuse, to model, to run counter narratives to the reality that we all see on the ground.
And the general is right. I think we`re in a perilous moment. I think the assumption over the past few days has been that the Russian delays would bog the Russians down.
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The reality is President Putin is committed to the subjugation of Ukraine, and he`s willing to use brutal means to do it. That`s not good news for the Ukrainians. And it`s certainly not good news if we`re not able to clear the skies or help them defend on the ground. So this is a really perilous moment. And Putin holds the high ground.
RUHLE: OK, then to that point, Juan, if we know this is Russia`s playbook, and all of this is playing out, are we getting played?
ZARATE: I think we are. Now, the reality is, you know, we`ve started with the principle that we do not want NATO to get into a shooting war with Russia. We don`t want an escalatory conflict that leads to world war three. And we certainly want to avoid the potential for some sort of nuclear conflict which President Putin has recklessly sort of hinted at.
But I think that`s the wrong framing right now. What we have on the ground is a country that`s getting annihilated. It`s a democratic country. It`s an allied country, even though they`re not a NATO country. And we have to rethink what this means. We`ve given Putin in essence, sort of, you know, running room to do what he wants, even though we`re supplying javelins, and stingers and other weapons, but we just didn`t allow the MiG-29s to be transferred into Ukrainian pilots. And we`re letting Putin dictate the terms and the extent of this conflict.
That`s not good news for Ukraine. And this is why you hear President Zelenskyy pleading with the international community to do something else. And he`s getting frustrated.
RUHLE: General, we keep hearing exactly what Juan just said this could ignite, you know, potentially world war three. But when you look at Russia`s actions every day, and now more talk of the threat of a chemical attack, doesn`t that seem an awful lot like World War III?
MCCAFFREY: No, not even. If we even contemplated widening the word to where it included tactical nuclear weapons, it would be astonishing the level of horror we would then encounter. But you know, I`m not convinced that we`re in the verge of World War II at all, I think Putin`s over a barrel. He`s been stymied by courageous Ukrainian ground forces with a handful of planes. He`s committed 60 percent of his ground combat power to trying to subdue one country. He got a lot of nukes and a lot of oil and natural gas. And that`s about it. Now he`s become an international pariah. And NATO is rearming, the Germans are about to double their defense budget next year.
So from a strategic perspective, Putin is the one in trouble. The problem is the catastrophe of humanitarian disaster going on in Ukraine, and the only magic way to turn that around would be a NATO or U.S. unilateral air intervention, not with some nonsense about no-fly zone over a humanitarian corridor, but to go after the Russian Air Force and to go after the ground units.
I don`t think President Biden thinks that`s feasible, politically. From a military perspective, the U.S. armed forces and NATO in particular could do that. But I don`t think that`s going to happen. So we have a real horrible situation that`s getting worse rapidly.
RUHLE: President Biden might not think it`s feasible, but do you?
MCCAFFREY: Well, from a military perspective, of course. I mean, you know, Russia is a third-tier nation in many ways, their armed forces, except for nuclear weapons are not particularly significant or half modernized.
When you start toting up the total combat power and economic power of Europe and the United States and Canada, I mean, Russia is essentially 1/15 to the power of NATO. But again, all war is political and its objective.
President Biden`s being cautious. He would -- has a lot of people urging him to take action, but he`s going to be held accountable for the outcome.
RUHLE: Juan, before we go, I want to share with the CIA director had to say today on Russia`s information war, this Putin propaganda. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BURNS, CIA DIRECTOR: In all the years I spent as a career diplomat, I saw too many instances in which we lost information wars with the Russians. In this case, I think we have had a great deal of effect in disrupting their tactics and their calculations and demonstrating to the entire world that this is a premeditated and unprovoked aggression, built on a body of lies and false now narrative so this is one information where that I think Putin is losing.
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RUHLE: Do you agree with that, Juan?
ZARATE: I think Bill Burns is right. I think the administration was good in putting out intelligence early on, to be preemptive, to be preemptive around attribution for false flag attempts by the Russians to justify their invasion of Ukraine.
And this is impart why I think there`s been such grand sort of broad moral opprobrium from the international community, companies pulling out, sanctions that are unprecedented in their pace and scope.
That said, the Russians are going to keep at it. The Russians are going to going to claim that the U.S. is doing things in Ukraine that we`re not. They`re going to claim the Ukrainians are doing things. They`re going to deny the reality that they have attacked and targeted 24 hospitals and medical facilities throughout the country. That`s just the Russian playbook.
And unfortunately, we`ve got to keep at it. But for now, Russia is the pariah state. And I agree with the general long term, they are going to result a weaker state as a result. The problem is Ukraine is going to be devastated. And perhaps the population held hostage.
RUHLE: But it`s another reminder where we are so grateful. There are reporters and photo journalists there documenting this awful, awful truth. Juan Zarate, General Barry McCaffrey, thanks. Thank you both for joining us tonight.
Coming up, the record breaking inflation hitting hard now on the home front. In our exclusive new reporting on how a bank that claims to be getting out of Russia is still there and profiting.
Also ahead, we`ll meet one of the lucky ones who managed to escape Mariupol in a journey that she calls a suicide mission. The 11th Hour is just getting underway on the Thursday night.
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RUHLE: Inflation is still up soaring. Consumer prices are 7.9 percent higher than where they were a year ago. That is the sharpest spike in 40 years and get ready, it could get worse.
Let`s bring in CNBC`s senior economics reporter Steve Liesman and CNBC contributor Halima Croft. Steve, these are really bad inflation numbers, but put it into context for us. How do they fit in the overall economic picture?
STEVE LIESMAN, CNBC SENIOR ECONOMIC REPORTER: It`s probably the biggest negative of the economy right now. We`ve got a couple of other good things going for us right now. We have strong job growth and reasonably good GDP growth, at least in the fourth quarter, maybe a swoon this quarter, because Omicron.
But before the invasion, it was expected to come back. And now what we`re going to see is how the economy might respond to what is, not just the high inflation now, but a shock of higher prices that are going to hit the economy from the fallout from the Ukraine war.
RUHLE: Helima, I wanted you to join us because obviously, gas prices matter. You are our commodities expert, oil companies, they are reporting record profits. What do we need oil companies to do? Drill more and they`re barely doing that. Why is that they have the money? I think -- Helima, I think you muted yourself.
HELIMA CROFT, CNBC CONTRIBUTOR: OK. No, in terms of oil companies, I mean, yes, we have oil companies, you know, reporting record profits. The issue is, of course, you know, will they drill more and oil companies have been under --
RUHLE: Helima, you just muted yourself again.
CROFT: -- take time. They`re facing cost inflation, labor issues. So even if they put more rigs to work, we`re not likely to see additional barrels of oil for six more months. So we are facing this significant supply crunch now, because Russia is simply such a large oil and gas producer, and we`re starting to lose Russian exports as companies walk away from the country.
RUHLE: Helima, Republicans are arguing some that if the Keystone Pipeline was open, we wouldn`t have any of these problems. Can you plain speak fact check this for us? Because all of us here we know that`s not true.
CROFT: Yes. I mean, Keystone XL was about 8 percent completed when President Biden canceled the project. But President Trump was one of the biggest supporters of Keystone XL, but it was being held up in this country because of court challenges.
So even if we green light Keystone tomorrow, it would not solve the current problems. And so I think we really have to focus on where are the additional supplies of oil that can be put to the market to try to solve the supply crunch. That`s why President Biden is actually trying to get additional oil from OPEC, having to try to get additional oil from countries like Venezuela, potentially alleviating sanctions there.
This is a really, really tough challenge as administration right now. Again, we already had a very tight oil market as people got on planes drove to work again, we had a supply crunch. And now we`re potentially losing one of the biggest oil and gas producers out of this market.
RUHLE: Steve, the Fed is probably going to raise interest rates next week with the goal of tackling inflation. That was the goal before the war broke out. Given all these new complications, do you think it`s going to work?
LIESMAN: I think the Fed may have to accelerate what it`s -- what it had planned to do. The Fed was planning to raise by just a quarter of a point, a quarter of a percentage point and then do it successfully. The markets built in about six of those so it would bring the federal funds rate a short term interest rate up from about zero right now to call it one and a half, 1.75 percent, still pretty low.
So that means the Fed may have to go a little bit faster. Right now, though, Fed Chair Powell, his attitude I believe is that the uncertainty created by the war is a reason to go slowly and deliberately.
[23:30:04]
When the fog clears as to the overall economic impact, then he might speed things up, but not until he`s got an idea for how much drag this war creates. You remember the cure for high prices, high prices, how does it do that? Well, it drags down demand. So suddenly, people paying so much at the pump, well, they`re going to have to cut back other areas.
So we could have some decline in economic growth as a result of this oil and really a broader commodity shock that`s coming from this invasion.
RUHLE: Then before we go. Helima, any new news at the pump today? The Biden administration continues to say they`re going to do everything they can, anything happening?
CROFT: I mean we have had a bit of a breather in all prices towards the end of this week. I mean, there is a sense now that the embargo it`s really about the United States. United States is not a major importer of Russian oil. I think the key things to watch will be whether countries takes significant quantities of Russian oil and gas, particularly in Europe, whether they follow the United States lead embargoing Russian oil, it doesn`t seem at the moment that a country like Germany or the Netherlands is willing to cut off Russian supplies yet but again, companies are walking away from Russia. It is a toxic asset, and so we will lose Russian export volumes regardless of what happens in Europe or sanctions.
RUHLE: All right, Helima Croft, Steve Liesman, thank you for joining us on this late Thursday evening. You definitely made us smarter tonight.
Coming up, she says the place she left behind has no water and no heat and it is freezing. But there are still a bag of potatoes on her Mariupol balcony. Why that matters so much to her right now. When the 11th Hour continues.
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RUHLE: The flood of refugees leaving Ukraine shows no signs of letting up. Ellison Barber has been at the border crossings between Poland and Ukraine all week. And she has this update.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ELLISON BARBER, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Stephanie, most of the people fleeing into Poland, they`re crossing along the border crossings, but they`re not actually staying in those border towns at least. They don`t want to. They`re very quickly trying to get to their next location. And oftentimes they are taking buses from one refugee welcome center to a train station and then taking a train to bigger cities like Krakow where we are.
We spent today at a train station on platform number four, it was full of people lined up waiting to talk to someone to see if there were any sort of shelter beds available for them and their loved ones.
NATALIA TSYRKOVNIUK, FLED KHARKIV (through translator): We want to stay here not for one night, but until the situation gets better. We`re waiting until the situation improves and they stop shooting.
BARBER: If you`re unable to get a room here, where would you sleep tonight?
TSYRKOVNIUK (through translator): We don`t have any other place actually. So this is our only hope. We`ll just be waiting here until they find some shelter.
BARBER: We met one man who was so frustrated that he didn`t want to speak on camera. He had been in that same line waiting three hours only to get to the front of it and be told that there were no beds, no places available for him to stay in the Krakow area.
What we`re hearing from refugees and volunteer groups who are largely leading these efforts to help refugees is that they simply don`t have enough beds as soon as they help one refugee find some sort of shelter. It seems like there are two, three, four people waiting right behind them also needing help.
And what that means, what we`ve seen here is that oftentimes people are not able to get shelter as quickly as they needed or as soon as they hoped and some people are having to sleep in train stations or go to makeshift refugee welcome centers to stay a night or two nights until they find something a little more permanent. Stephanie.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RUHLE: Ellison Barber, thank you. Thank you for telling their stories. I want to bring in artists and activist Diana Berg. She escaped Mariupol last week, where she says thousands of people are still trapped there with no heat, no electricity, and no drinking water. Diana, I`m so glad you`re safe. And I appreciate you joining us. What did the city look like when you left?
DIANA BERG, ARTIST AND ACTIVIST: Yes, Mariupol was totally different two weeks ago. And in about a week after the invasion, it started turning to total hell. Any way you imagine h, it`s much, much worse. Believe me. It`s beyond imagination what I faced there, and it was for only three days of blockade. And by blockade I mean, the absence of electricity, total absence of electricity all over the city, because it was airstrikes and bombed by Russians. Then the heating didn`t work, stopped working and the houses became totally cold.
And of course you don`t remember -- don`t forget that everything is dark and total darkness, especially at night is just double black. Then I also wanted to stations were also damaged so there was no tap water. So, you can imagine how, what`s going on next how you manage all your hygiene and everything and how you drink actually.
[23:40:09]
And foods, in shops, and in people`s houses became more fewer and fewer foods, and also the most -- two of the most devastating factors were information blockade because you don`t have any connection, because all the towers, again, were bombed.
So there is no way to find out what happens, what happens outside your house. You don`t know what happens in the world or in the country, in your city, actually, what to wait next. You cannot say or call to anyone, even in your neighboring house.
And the only news information -- news source around the world from you is the shelling and bombing, which was by that time for me. I thought it was very intense, because it`s all the time, you don`t stop hearing it somewhere. It`s either closer to you or more further, but you hear it all the time.
So it was on the third day of blockage when me and my husband we succeeded in the suicide mission of breaking through into settlement of Russia surroundings, but what is happening there now. Or 10 days, 11 -- it`s 11 days of this blockade, I just don`t even imagine. It`s beyond any imagination. It`s very horrific.
And it`s the most devastating thing is that we do not get the information, enough information. We just gather it by bits, bits, bits all over the internet, all over someone you know, and then build the whole picture.
And people of course, they have to go out and get some go -- make some food on the fires. They gather wood to make fire to get some sort of hot food because the gas station -- in the guest pipeline was also damaged four days ago. And people melt snow to get water for drinking.
And there is no way to get any help because this humanitarian convoys for five days they try to break through the surrounding of Russians to get to the blockade blocked Mariupol. But it`s constantly shelled the road and routes that are mined and constantly shelled from Russian side. And they just don`t get no humanitarian aid inside and they don`t let people go outside of it. So we`ll just do remember to, you know, there`s stories from the history of blockades, a flame graph Stalingrad does the same, or even worse because the armory is worse.
And on top of this, the air strikes that worse and it`s like several of them every day. Yesterday they bombed the fire station and now when is -- the fire is. The building is on fire, the civilian building is on fire for the hope no one can come and just do something with it.
The day before you know maybe that the maternity ward was bombed. And the other day before, the girl died of dehydration under the ruins of her home and under the body of her killed mother. What is a lie and all over this tweet because it`s the constant brutal bombing, exterminating bombing and shelling just kills a lot of people and there are good mass graves already now organized so, yes. that`s it.
RUHLE: Diana Berg, thank you for telling your story to us tonight. We are grateful that you`re safe.
BERG: Thank you.
RUHLE: When we come back some big banks say they are cutting ties with Russia. But that is not the whole story. Our exclusive reporting when the 11th Hour continues.
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[23:49:00]
RUHLE: President Biden will be addressing the nation tomorrow morning. He will -- he is likely going to say that he will be discussing ways to hold Russia accountable for what they are calling an unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine.
But as many businesses are pulling out of Russia, we`ve got exclusive new reporting tonight on how one of America`s biggest investment banks is profiting on the war in Ukraine.
Goldman Sachs, they say they are winding down operations in Russia, which is partially true, because at the very same time they`re actively trading Russian debt to U.S. clients, mostly hedge funds, and they are using a legal loophole to do it.
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson tells us this. We have a robust system and control throughout our organization to ensure we are not trading with sanctioned counterparties which is true.
NBC senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen is my partner on the story. Mr. Allen, when I texted you at 808 this morning and said hey John, you up. Did you think that`s where we`d end up right here?
JONATHAN ALLEN, NBC NEWS SR. NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: It`s been a long day, Stephanie, a lot of reporting and my hat`s off to you for your indefatigable nature as a reporter all day long and then doing an hour long show.
[23:50:10]
RUHLE: I can`t spell that word. So start us with what is this loophole? How is this happening?
ALLEN: So what happened is when the Biden administration put in sanctions on Russian debt, basically on the major financial institutions of Russia, they left open a window, and Goldman Sachs has driven a truck through it. And basically what that window is, is that U.S. institutions are banned from trading Russian debt with those Russian banks that have been sanctioned, but not banned from what`s called secondary trade.
So if that debt was already issued to somebody else, and they want to sell it to a U.S. buyer, a US debt holder of Russia to a U.S. buyer, Goldman Sachs is acting as a brokerage and the government, the Biden administration has left that loophole open with the basic idea that companies here in this country, institutions in this country that hold Russian debt ought to be able to get rid of it. But at the same time, there are a lot of buyers for what is now seen as cheap debt.
And Goldman Sachs has been advertising that to its clients and basically saying, Hey, come on board, while the status cheap, it`s going to eventually go up later, and you`ll make a killing.
RUHLE: OK. And that`s what we need to explain the idea, hey, let people still trade this so they can close out their positions. So there`s not chaos in the market. That`s really getting abused, because what they are doing is trading hundreds of millions of bonds.
Goldman Sachs is going out and pitching trade ideas, market dislocations, to distress hedge funds, who are looking to buy something cheap in a crisis, and that`s what they do. But this isn`t a regular crisis. It`s not a company going bankrupt. It is a war.
And let`s remind you, when you buy Russian government bonds, you are now lending to the Russian government. And when you buy Russian corporate bonds, you are helping that company succeed.
So right now, Goldman Sachs is making markets and making money, which is certainly not in line with the spirit of the headline we are winding down and leaving Russia.
And John, the reason I wanted to do this my takeaway, it doesn`t matter how much Wall Street tries to rebrand itself with new slogans, it doesn`t change. So if you`re a vulture, be a vulture. But do not come flapping your wings to my window and call yourself a dove of peace. Because all the Goldman is doing flies in the face of what they`re all the United States and our Western allies are trying to do. What does the administration say?
ALLEN: You know, when I talk to senior administration officials, current and former officials, what they`re saying is that they`re very worried. And we hear President Biden say this all the time. They`re were very worried that if they punish Russia, they`re going to end up harming Americans. And they`re trying to be very careful not to do that, of course, there are sanctions that they could do. That would be more targeted, more direct, that might be able to cut off this kind of business.
And I talked to Congressman Brad Sherman from California today, who is bringing forward legislation deals with banks next week, he said it might be a good idea to close off this business that Goldman Sachs is involved in, in the future, if it can be shown that what they`d be able to do is drive down the price of future Russian debt by stopping Goldman Sachs from trading in current and existing Russian debt.
RUHLE: But John, it`s not just Goldman, right? Think about this ban on Russian oil. All of this is to try to squeeze these companies and hurt the Russian economy. And in turn, it`s causing our gas prices to go up.
But I actually read it was from March 4th, a trade recommendation report from Goldman Sachs. And they wrote, we see LUKOIL, the Russian oil company as the best recovery play of distressed Russian corporates.
So you`ve got JP Morgan saying, here`s a good play for this Russian oil company. At the same time, we`re banning Russian oil and the American consumer is suffering for it. How is this kosher?
ALLEN: Well, it`s kosher because it`s totally legal, and sometimes what`s scandalous and what doesn`t meet with some people`s moral views of the world is legal. And that`s the case here, you use the vulture analogy. I use the scorpion and the turtle, the scorpions going to sting and they`re both going to go down.
RUHLE: Well, and we`re going to report it. John Allen, thank you so much. Always good working with you. Coming up, the Republican Congressmen facing pushback from his own party for going after Ukraine`s president when the 11th Hour continues.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MADISON CAWTHORN (R-NC): Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug. Remember that Ukrainian government is incredible corrupt and it is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: No, I do not remember any of that. The last thing before we go tonight, a lesson in true leadership. That right there was Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, speaking to his supporters over the weekend, calling Ukrainian president Zelenskyy a thug and the Ukrainian government evil. His spokesperson tried to clean it up later saying that the Congressman was expressing displeasure over what he sees as false propaganda to entice America into becoming involved in the conflict.
But let`s be abundantly clear. Zelenskyy has shown true leadership during this crisis. He is the president who refused to offer to evacuate his country, saying I need ammunition not a ride. He is the man whose words and actions have received bipartisan American support and rallied all of Europe even receiving a standing ovation from the British Parliament.
The Ukrainian government and the people of Ukraine are bravely standing up for their freedom and our freedom. The evil is coming from the side who is bombing hospitals and killing innocent civilians.
VICE News recently spoke with President Zelenskyy to get his thoughts on a path forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would be your message to President Vladimir Putin right now?
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Right now? Right now stop the world, begin to speak. That`s it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what if he doesn`t?
ZELENSKYY: I think you will. I think he will. I think he sees it we`re strong. He will. We need some time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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RUHLE: I think that the world sees that Ukrainians are strong and we are witnessing what true leadership looks like. And it is not coming from a congressman in North Carolina facing charges for driving with a revoked license again.
And on that note, I wish you a good night. Thanks for staying up late. I will see you at the end of tomorrow.