Summary
Russia escalates its military bombardment of Ukraine and its people. Putin arrests thousands of people inside Russia for protesting the invasion. A member of Zelenskyy`s Cabinet speaks out. The refugee crisis in Ukraine escalates. Ukrainian Parliament member Inna Sovsun discusses the Russian invasion.
Transcript
NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: Our coverage continues right now on THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER.
Hi, Ari.
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Hi, Nicolle. Good to see you. And thank you so much.
Welcome to THE BEAT, everyone. I am Ari Melber.
And we`re tracking a lot of different developments here in Ukraine. Russia`s offensive has escalated further. It is in its 12 day, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy defiant, releasing another new video here from Kyiv. He says he is not hiding and he won`t hide for as long as it takes to win this war.
The leader of that country also says all of that as we see overhead shots like this over the weekend, Russia pummeling Ukrainian cities, intensifying shelling, hitting multiple civilian areas, bombardments picking up pace in the region of Kyiv.
Late today, the Pentagon says Russian forces will likely launch more attacks on urban centers. The U.S.` view is that the Russian army may become frustrated by what has thus far been, according to some, a slow pace of progress.
Almost 100 percent of Russia`s pre-staged forces are now already inside the borders of Ukraine. Putin`s forces also appearing to target civilians, the White House collecting evidence of what may be deemed possible war crimes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Putin says he`s not attacking civilians. What would you say to that?
"They`re shelling civilians directly," she tells us, "not any military place or object. They`re shooting at schools, on hospitals. They`re shooting everywhere all the time for the last three days."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: A defense officials says Russia has now fired more than 625 missiles, residents fleeing intense fighting in Irpin.
NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has been on the ground reporting. This was from just earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ENGEL, NBC CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: The Russians have taken over this suburb, which is on the northern edge of Kyiv. They are bombarding it heavily.
The Ukrainians blew up this bridge in order to slow down the Russian advance. But it has also made it extremely difficult for people to evacuate these areas that are hotly contested as Russian forces try and consolidate their positions and the Ukrainians try to keep them -- keep them on that side of the river.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: You can see how harrowing some of those crossings are, as people try to stay alive.
There have been multiple cease-fires that have failed to hold. The Kremlin proposes a humanitarian evacuation done through these corridors, but only into Russia or one of its allies, Belarus. You can see that mapped on the screen there. In other words, under the Russian plan, Ukrainians would only be allowed to go into territories where, basically, Russia is the source of their problem and the reason for them fleeing and where attacks are continued to be staged from.
Ukraine rejected that offer out of hand.
Biden Secretary of State Tony Blinken has been meeting with heads of Lithuania and Latvia -- that`s today -- and reassuring them of allied and American support going forward. Biden also held a video conference with other European leaders today. The U.S. has deployed about 500 or so troops to Europe.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy continues to call for that no-fly zone, controversial because of its military implications, and demanding the world stand up to this Putin aggression.
We begin with NBC News foreign correspondent Matt Bradley, who`s live in Rivne, Ukraine, in the northwestern region of the country.
Matt, what can you tell us from your reporting throughout today and tonight?
MATT BRADLEY, NBC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, what I`m hearing, Ari, is just a lot of anger at the Russians.
I mean, we spoke with the mayor of this town. He was livid and described how he would shoot and kill anyone who crossed the border. Now, this city is a small town. It`s mostly been, like much of Western Ukraine, out of the line of fire. It hasn`t been bombarded nearly as strongly as some of these other places.
But there is a real risk. You mentioned the Belarusian just a moment ago. There is a risk that, if the Belarusians join the fight, that could not maybe create a paradigm shift, but it could add a new element. And if the Russians do decide to come over the border -- and, really, when we`re talking about Minsk, they are just in sync with Moscow almost entirely.
It`s almost as if they have become a subordinate state to Russia. So they will essentially do whatever the Kremlin commands. But they haven`t yet taken that step to cross the border over and participate fully in the fight. Now U.S. intelligence officials have rejected the notion that the Belarusians aren`t part of this war.
[18:05:02]
But if they do really decide to throw in their weight behind this, we could start to see a lot more troops coming over the border, and they would have to pass through right here in Rivne -- Ari.
MELBER: Matt Bradley reporting from Ukraine.
Thank you and stay safe.
We turn now to Evelyn Farkas, a former Obama defense official specializing in Russia and Ukraine, and Ambassador William Taylor, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
Welcome to both of you.
Ambassador Taylor, for those who`ve gone through the weekend, maybe looked away from these terrible developments for a period of time and returning to it here on the workday to start the week, where are we at? How bad is it? I went through some of the numbers, but what`s the current status, in your view, of this conflict?
WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Ari, the amazing thing is, if people looked away, they turned back today and saw 12 days, 12 days that the Ukrainians have held off this enormous Russian military.
This has been an astounding feat that the Ukrainian military has pulled off. The Ukrainian air force has done an amazing job. And it`s all led, Ari, by the guy you have been showing on there. That is President Zelenskyy.
President Zelenskyy has led his nation, led his military, led his people, led the international community in the condemnation and the standing up and the strong resistance that all Ukrainians and the West are providing to Putin`s invasion.
MELBER: Evelyn?
EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I agree.
I mean, it`s been astounding to watch. Now, the bad news is that Vladimir Putin, he fights dirty. And we have seen him do this in Chechnya in the `90s. And we`re seeing him -- we saw him do it in Syria. What do I mean by this? He encircles cities, and then he pummels them with artillery and bombs, I mean, horrific killing of civilians.
Every time there`s a cease-fire, the Russian military has taken advantage of that in Syria to bombard more civilians, and, in 2015, even a U.N. convoy that was coming into resupply with humanitarian goods. So the problem is, they fight dirty. We can`t trust them with cease-fires. They will kill every last Ukrainian to try to take control.
That means that we have to do everything we can in the West to try to deny them that ability to bombard the cities with the artillery and the aircraft. And that`s really a conundrum for all of the countries trying to help Ukraine right now.
MELBER: And you mentioned the countries trying to help. There`s been various ways. We have been tracking that, the initial sanctions that had some impact.
And then, Ambassador Taylor, the U.S. apparently moving out farther than some of the European countries, which rely even more so on Russia for gas. And this is an interesting area you know a lot about, the interplay of foreign policy in the United States context, the president here getting made basically nudged, although he`s been open to it, but nudged by Congress here.
We have the headline on a potential deal to ban Russian energy imports, bipartisan deal that would do so, or the U.S. can move on an executive basis even faster. Walk us through how that works. And what do you expect? Does this lead to a multicountry ban, or the U.S. sort of acting alone because it is less leveraged perhaps than some of Russia`s nearby neighbors?
TAYLOR: One of the things that this whole discussion of banning Russian exports of oil and gas, one of the things that shows is the strong bipartisan support here in Washington.
You don`t get bipartisan support on many things, but on supporting Ukraine and on punishing the Russians, on the sanctions on the Russian oligarchs, on Putin, on the economy on export bans of high-tech equipment and components, this is strong bipartisan support. And it`s not just in the United States.
It`s -- as you have indicated, it`s across Europe. A ban on exports of oil and gas is controversial. Amazingly, it`s got strong support in the U.S. Congress. In the world, it could have an effect on prices. And so there`s a lot of effort being put in right now to go to places that produce oil, to go to places that have excess capacity to drive up their production rates, so that there`s an offsetting increase in supply to do take into account for the decrease in supply that will be coming of Russia.
And the issue on Russia is, they are getting benefits. They are getting cash into their coffers that we`re trying to freeze, trying to keep them from using that cash to bolster their economy, to defend their ruble, which is now at 150, I`m told, which is just -- it`s worth nothing.
But they use that cash coming in from oil and gas sales to try to defend that. So this is an important step that the United States is about to take.
[18:10:00]
MELBER: And, Evelyn, what about whether they act without Europe?
FARKAS: Well, it`s very interesting, because Congress is pushing this agenda, which I think is almost a very safe -- a safe position for the Biden administration to be in, because I would imagine that some of our European allies would not want to go quite that far. If they did, it would have already been accomplished.
So I do think having -- and the other thing is, for the Biden administration, it does blunt the political heat that they would get from the raise -- the increased gas prices, if this is done in a truly bipartisan fashion.
We don`t import that much oil from Russia. So, for us, it`s kind of symbolic. But as the good ambassador just pointed out, it will increase the price globally. And I do know that the -- or at least I read that the Biden administration is heading over to Saudi Arabia. That would be one country that could be helpful. I`m sure they will ask for something in exchange.
But right now, we need to focus on the threat at hand. Vladimir Putin is not going to stop. And we either have to beat him at the home game, the home front, which is to squeeze off his money to put pressure on his people to get his inner circle, those security guys, to convince him to stop or to swap him out as a leader, who knows what, but that`s the home game.
And then the away game is helping Ukraine defend itself. So those are the only two ways that we bring this to an end, in Russia or on the battlefield.
MELBER: That`s a very clear way to put it. You mentioned the home game. We`re going to get into that, actually, right after the break, as we go inside Russia with someone who knows Putin`s mind-set quite well.
I want to thank Evelyn Farkas for kicking us off. And Ambassador Taylor has agreed to come back to discuss another substantive part of the foreign policy.
So I will see you a little bit later in the hour, sir.
Coming up, as mentioned: Putin arresting thousands of people inside Russia for protests. We have President Obama`s former ambassador to Russia to get into exactly what we were just discussing, what Evelyn calls that home game pressure.
Also, more on the defiance from President Zelenskyy. We have a live interview on this program tonight with a member of Zelenskyy`s Cabinet to learn more about their perspective as they fight off this invasion.
New reports, meanwhile, on the refugee crisis. We talked last week about those numbers rising. They`re actually rising faster than even many estimates. It is a tragic story, with some rays of hope, including the story and an 11-year-old boy who went 600 miles by himself with nothing more than a phone number scrawled on his head.
There are so many different aspects of this humanity that we`re also going to try to cover, along with the updates militarily and otherwise.
Stay with us. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:16:12]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY GRAY, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Close to 100 percent of the Russian troops who had gathered along the border of Ukraine are now in country and engaged in the fight.
And with that escalated violence, that means more people are leaving Ukraine, very concerning for officials at this border stop and others, fearful that we`re going to see these crowds grow tremendously over the next several days and several weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: New reporting there from NBC`s Jay Gray on that Polish border.
Everyone eyeing what Putin will do next, especially as he`s met some additional resistance in Ukraine. He has become a total pariah on the world and Western stage. This is an unprecedented backlash. And inside Russia, there are some signs of cracking, even though there`s no great freedoms for people to express how they feel.
We did see thousands of protesters in dozens of Russian cities, though. That is a different level of participation than what we think of as protests in the West, because each of these individuals you see know they`re risking their own safety and being whisked away to jail immediately just by doing that one act, Russian forces arresting 4,600 anti-war protesters on Sunday, 13,000 people since the beginning of the invasion.
That`s according to a human rights count. The Kremlin is also stifling dissent by, as Ambassador McFaul and others spoke about last week, blocking access completely to Facebook and Twitter. They have also rushed out a new law that effectively, according to experts, would appear to criminalize any independent reporting on Russia`s invasion.
Despite that, some Russian elites are speaking out against this invasion. That includes some celebrities and athletes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they might just have a message. Andrey Rublev.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we can get behind that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: "No war, please" written directly into a camera, where it could be broadcast.
Meanwhile, some of the world`s largest companies, including Microsoft, Visa, Shell, Apple, Google, and Boeing, are now suspending operations in the country. It shows how quickly this fault line created by Putin has escalated into an economic and obviously hot war.
We`re joined now by Ambassador John Tefft. He`s the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia under the Obama administration and has his own personal experience dealing with the Russian president.
Welcome back, sir. Thanks for being here.
JOHN TEFFT, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA: Thanks for having me back, Ari.
MELBER: Your assessment of Putin`s mind-set right now at this juncture in the conflict?
TEFFT: Well, I think he`s doubled down.
This is a man who grew up on the streets in Leningrad, before St. Petersburg. And he`s a tough guy, and he`s a street fighter. And he doesn`t like to lose. He intends to win. And I`m sure he will continue to do some of the abominable things that we have been watching and which Bill Taylor talked about in the earlier segment.
They will, in fact, continue the shelling. It`s heartrending to watch them attacking innocent children and people, old people trying to escape the bombing. But that`s the Russian method of operation, as Evelyn Farkas said, and I think they`re going to pay you to do that.
MELBER: And how do you count the relative weight of these protests? I emphasize in our reporting that, while we say pictures and videos tell a story -- and, here, we`re seeing some of this, including the conflict with Putin`s authorities inside Russia.
But, of course, this is quite a different level, given the risks these people are taking, than if we counted, as the same number, say several thousand gathered in a free society where, even with problems with police, they don`t have the risks that these folks face.
[18:20:09]
How do you count this? How significant is this?
TEFFT: Well, I think it`s significant, the fact that it`s not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but in 50 to 60 other urban centers.
That said, these are very courageous people, but it`s a small amount in a country of 140-odd million people. I have been trying to see what I can find out about the perceptions of average Russians who are scattered around the country.
Now, to be sure, there are many people who believe the TV propaganda that the Putin team puts out. They buy into the argument that this is all the responsibility of the Ukrainians, and that -- or NATO -- and accept the points that Putin has made.
But there are some indications that there are other people, even out in the middle of Russia, who understand I watched a video today that was posted on the Radio Free Europe Web site of -- it was a hand -- it was a telephone that took pictures of two women basically attacking the governor of Kemerovo, one of the Siberian oblasts, and saying: Why are our boys dying? Why were they sent there? They were going for exercises, and they`re being killed. They`re cannon fodder.
And you actually used that word in the presentation.
I was struck by that. Now, I`m sure it`s one. It`s only one small part. But it shows that, even in a place out in Siberia, you can see information is getting through, despite the efforts of the authorities to hold it back. Young people in particular have gotten their news on the Internet in recent years. And I think they will still try to get that.
MELBER: Yes.
TEFFT: But it`s going to take a while.
MELBER: Yes.
And that -- well, that speaks to again, how the world has evolved. We talk about the dark and light parts of a connected and Internet-enabled world. But, as you say, that may puncture some of the propaganda. On the other hand, there`s extensive reporting, front page of "The Times" today, about people in Russia not believing their own family members in Ukraine, because, unlike some of the folks that you cited, they are just relying on state media, they don`t believe and understand the reality.
And that goes to the information bubble that Putin may be also operating in.
Reading here from a "Washington Post" report about the type of intelligence you used to consume in government, it says analysts see Putin as isolated, underestimated the West, but could still lash out if cornered. He appears reliant on a small coterie of advisers who`ve told him -- not told him the truth about how costly conquering Ukraine is turning out to be.
Your thought on that assessment? Does it differ from what you were operating on or hearing when you were in government?
TEFFT: Well, that sounds about right to me.
I think that, for a number of years now, but certainly most recently, Putin has relied on a small group of older men. They`re usually in their 70s now, Mr. Patrushev, the head of the Security Council, Mr. Bortnikov, the head of the federal security service.
These are people who are his closest advisers. And he has relied on them for a number of years. I think COVID has magnified this isolation, because he has not gotten out. He has not brought in very many people, as I understand it, to get a broader perspective on what`s going on.
And I have always wondered -- I wondered even when I was the ambassador there -- how information got in, whether the yes-men were just telling you what he wanted to hear, and whether there was, in fact, a real assessment of some of the problems that Russia faced, both foreign and domestic.
MELBER: All very interesting, what Evelyn Farkas called the home game, the pressures internally and how that may affect what Europe and the United States are trying to achieve here in the away game, in the away theater.
Ambassador Tefft, thank you so much, sir.
TEFFT: Thanks very much, Ari.
MELBER: Absolutely.
Next, we go live inside Ukraine, as civilians flee bombardments and Russian attacks. And I will be joined by a top official from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy`s government.
We`re back in just 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:25:26]
MELBER: Russian troops have been breaking multiple cease-fires that were intended to allow for some civilian evacuation.
There were times where cameras and other evidence suggested they intentionally targeted even the refugee evacuation routes. In the town of Irpin, just outside of Kyiv, cameras caught residents trying to cross the one artery that went into the capital, a bridge already damaged by Ukrainian forces that were trying to stop these Russian advances.
You can also see here the moment that a Russian bomb hit civilians trying to cross. We want to warn you that what we will show you here and the reality of war is harrowing and disturbing. It shows the impact on a family. And we`re not blurring their faces. A mother, her two children and family friend were killed in this gruesome attack.
The "New York Times" reporter who caught some of this, Lynsey Addario, spoke about taking this photo in the aftermath. That reporter spoke to my colleague Katy Tur. This was today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNSEY ADDARIO, PHOTOJOURNALIST, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Right after I arrived, I could sense that the mood was different. There was a lot of tension in the air.
We were standing behind this wall. And about 15 minutes in, a mortar round came at us, but about 200 meters away. They kept sort of zeroing in on the position of the path of the civilian. So there were three or four rounds. Each time a round came in, it came closer and closer to the path that was very well-known.
The mortar came between us and the family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s a "New York Times" photojournalist, the reporting you saw there and the video courtesy of "The New York Times." And that very terrible image is also on the front page of today`s paper, one of many realities that we`re all taking in here amidst this war.
I`m joined by NBC`s Kelly Cobiella, who`s live near the Polish border with Ukraine.
Kelly, what are you seeing in your reporting?
KELLY COBIELLA, NBC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ari, we`re seeing the numbers of people fleeing to Poland and the other bordering countries going up daily.
On Friday, the Polish border guard said about 106,000 people crossed into Poland from Ukraine. Yesterday, that number was up to 142,000, keeping in mind that these border communities, specifically Przemysl, which is the very small town where the large -- the busiest land border crossing is and the busiest train station. It`s a town of 60,000 people. They`re seeing 140-plus-thousand refugees come into that town yesterday.
So, volunteer workers are telling us that they are starting to feel overwhelmed. They`re seeing more people who don`t have family and friends in country. They don`t necessarily have a place to go. And we`re talking to more and more traumatized people, people who are getting out of some of these cities that are under attack and under threat, for example, Kharkiv.
We spoke to a family who had fled Kharkiv. It took them more than a day to get out. They said, as they were waiting for the train on a very packed train platform in Kharkiv, they said they saw what looked to be an attack, a missile strike or something. And because people were so desperate to get on that train, nobody dove for cover.
That`s how desperate it is right now, not only in Kharkiv, but in other cities in Kyiv. We have seen the packed train stations. And, again, I can`t say it often enough. These people are coming with nothing. They have been separated from family members, from husbands and grandfathers back home, and they are traumatized -- Ari.
MELBER: Kelly Cobiella, thank you for that reporting.
The Russian bombing has endangered many artifacts of Ukraine`s cultural and historic heritage, volunteers, museum workers trying to pack up and protect certain irreplaceable works of art or statues. We have got some photos here from the city of Lviv, where the city center is one of seven U.N. World Heritage Sites.
A Ukrainian newspaper showed a side-by-side of the oldest theater in Odessa, sandbags there in front of it, just as was the case all the way back during World War II. Ukrainians are trying to fight for their country. They`re trying to save lives. And many also want to preserve some of the cultural legacy that defines their nation.
We turn now to Oleksandr Tkachenko, Ukraine`s minister of culture and information policy. I will note that he is inside Ukraine at a location that is not going to be disclosed. Rejoining us is Ambassador William Taylor.
[18:30:04]
Minister, tell us about anything you can regarding what you`re seeing. We have got our reporters in the field, but what you`re seeing as a member of this government, and then also this effort to deal with the cultural and historic legacy that`s also under attack.
OLEKSANDR TKACHENKO, UKRAINIAN MINISTER OF CULTURE AND INFORMATION POLICY: Situation as bad as you now described, because people are suffering, because of aggression.
Situation is good because we`re going -- we`re getting. We`re in the resistance. And situation will be good, because we are going to win.
Of course, part of my duty is to help to secure cultural heritage, which was one of the reasons why Putin invaded, because he is a great, in breaks, specialist in history.
But at the same time, we need to keep in mind that Putin is a KGB man, and the first task of KGB man is to spread disinformation about history, whatever else. He achieved a result. This information is now spread through his media. After 22 years of running this country, disinformation became a weapon. Manipulation became a systematic mechanism of killing people.
That`s why, today, when I met my colleagues, E.U. ministers of culture and media, I asked them to continue sanction policy, and now against Russian channels that need to be switched off from satellite platforms. And, instead, we propose to switch on Ukrainian channels and Russian-speaking channels, which we are willing to do with opposition Russian journalists.
MELBER: And stay with me.
I want to bring an Ambassador Taylor into the conversation, who spent time in the country.
I`m curious your thoughts on this aspect of it, Ambassador, as well as anything that -- if you choose, that you want to say or ask your counterpart there.
TAYLOR: Thank you, Ari.
Minister, congratulations on all that work. Congratulations on being a representative, a leader of one of the most brave nations in the world. You are -- the Ukrainians are showing what it means to defend themselves, defend their sovereignty, defend their freedom.
And you, Minister, and all Ukrainians are on the front line. You`re on the front line for Europe. You`re on the front line for democratic world. So, that is congratulations.
I have been, many of us have been to the glorious cultural aspects. And these buildings, these cathedrals, that opera house you just showed, Ari, it`s a spectacular -- it was just redone. I say just redone. While I was there, I visited when it was just refinished.
And it is a spectacular work of art. It is a cultural -- the city of Kyiv has just gorgeous buildings, the cathedrals. Saint Sophia`s Cathedral, Ari, goes back to the 10th century, goes back to the 10th century. It has been redone a couple times since then. But that is -- that`s history. And that`s Ukrainian history. It is not Russian history.
In the 10th century, when Saint Sophia`s was built, Moscow was a forest, Ari. There was no Moscow. There was no Russia. This is Ukraine. This is Ukraine. And they are proud. You heard it in the minister. The minister is exactly right. I agree with him totally. Ukraine is going to win, is going to prevail in this conflict.
MELBER: And, Minister...
TKACHENKO: What I want to add...
MELBER: Yes, go ahead, sir.
TKACHENKO: What I want to add to Mr. Ambassador is that Ukrainian culture heritage is now under threat.
They threaten to bomb Saint Sophia, as they ruined several museums, as they ruined Kharkiv Philharmonic. It was bombed, one of the churches in Kharkiv. And so we`re now trying to preserve some cultural heritage.
But the issues that the policy of Putin is to take the history and the heritage to his own hands. And I was learned as Soviet scholar where big Russia came from. And they continues this paradigm that everything they want to achieve is to take what doesn`t belong to them, Ukrainian history, Ukrainian heritage, Ukrainian writers, and take it to their own.
That`s an excuse why they need to liberate us.
Thank you, we don`t need such liberation.
MELBER: Yes, minister Tkachenko, you mentioned that, your rebuttal or fact-check to the way that Putin has tried to describe it for his internal consumption or his international propaganda
[18:35:00]
What else do you think it`s important that people understand about Ukraine`s history, which I think listeners can understand is part of your mandate, your brief there, as its own sovereign and its own culture, which stands against the claims of the Putin government that somehow it is reuniting or reconstituting what he has publicly claimed is one state of greater Russia?
TKACHENKO: I can describe the different historical periods of ancient rules of Cossacks period of time in 17th century, of Holodomor, how we suffered during the Soviet rule.
But the main identification of Ukrainians are people in Kherson region, which is now occupied by Russian army. When they`re talking about liberation or identification us as Russians, see how people react when Russia comes on the street of Kherson. They don`t need such freedom.
We know we choose 30 years ago to be free, several governments, several presidents. We have free press. So we want to be part of Europe, of which we was during more than 1,000 years.
So, the values of free nation is in the soil. And when I was teaching Soviet school one story, I was learning a different story given in the kitchen given to me by my parents and grandma. And it was a completely different story.
That`s the part of Russian disinformation, propagandistic war to take to their own hands the history and heritage that doesn`t belong to them.
MELBER: Understood.
Minister Tkachenko, as well as Ambassador Taylor, I thank you both for being part of our coverage.
And to the minister, as we say to so many people who are in the region, we thank you not only for your time, but wish you safety.
Thanks to both of you.
TKACHENKO: Freedom will prevail.
MELBER: We`re going to fit in a break.
When we come back, we look at some more of the scenes of humanity for the people of Ukraine, including a video we think you have to see.
We`re also tracking the humanitarian crisis.
And, as we try to get perspectives from inside the region, I will be joined by a member of the Ukraine Parliament live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:41:49]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just left my home to nowhere. I have no plan. I just wanted to save my child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: So many different tough stories coming out of this conflict, there a mother discussing her only goal, to protect her child.
NATO countries are getting approval to send fighter jets, meanwhile, to Ukraine. Putin sending about 100 percent of Russian forces into Ukraine. Families fleeing to the West. The U.N. estimates more than 1.7 million Ukrainians have fled to safety. When we last covered some of that crisis at the end of the week, it was more around a million.
An 11-year-old boy arriving in Slovakia after his mother sent him on a 620- mile journey alone. She stayed behind to take care of someone else, her sick mother. It was an act of necessity. And he made it to the border with a plastic bag, a passport and a telephone number written, you see there, on his hand. Volunteers were able to help reunite him with family in Slovakia.
The increase in families fleeing comes as four civilians, including two children, were killed over the weekend, many others trying to avoid the same fate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were running for their lives, frantically trying to keep their families together amid the mayhem and gunfire, desperately handing over their toddlers to soldiers and strangers, scrambling to get away from the firing and shelling even as they fled.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s a terrible situation for those children and families.
And then there are those in even tougher straits. NBC`s Tom Llamas reporting on an orphanage where children are in limbo as this war continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM LLAMAS, NBC NEWS SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Friday, we introduced you to a group of Ukrainian orphans evacuated from the war zone.
Eight-year-old Demetrius told us how he hopes to still be adopted.
Anything you want to say to anybody, friends back in that other region?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I want them to stay alive, not to die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: We have heard from analysts and experts. We have heard from our reporters.
Now we turn to a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Inna Sovsun.
Thank you for joining me.
INNA SOVSUN, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Thanks for having me.
MELBER: What do you want people to know and understand about this unfolding humanitarian and refugee crisis?
SOVSUN: So it seems that Putin`s plans of blitzkrieg have failed.
And because they have failed so badly, the Russians soldiers are now turning into cruelty. What we are seeing is just inhumane cruelty towards civilian population. We have heard from some Russian soldiers who have been held prisoners by the Ukrainian army who directly said that Russian officers are telling their soldiers to shoot at civilians.
And what you`re seeing now are people trying to escape a city of Irpin, which just is 20 minutes` drive from Kyiv. It`s so close. I have been to the cities so many times. I just can`t believe that this is happening to people.
We are seeing those people trying to flee for their lives, but not all of them managed to do so, because one man lost two children, when the Russians have started shooting in the people who are trying to flee.
[18:45:10]
And his wife was wounded. She was taken to the hospital. And just a few hours ago, I read on Facebook, on his post, that his wife also died. She couldn`t manage to survive.
I can`t even try to understand what that man is feeling right now. But there are so many more people in the town of Irpin who are still in the basements, who are still hiding from Russians, and who don`t know how to survive and how to leave that city. It`s just terrible.
And it seems that, because their strategic plans of entering the city of Kyiv have failed, they`re just now turning to absolute, inhumane cruelty towards the civilian population, including children.
MELBER: As you say, that is a different type of warfare.
The foreign policy here has been widely criticized, as you know and our viewers know, but that is still the policy of war or an unprovoked, aggressive invasion. What you`re talking about is a another level, the thing that some leaders are ultimately put on trial for, which is the deliberate targeting of civilians, a war crime, noncombatants, a war, crime, children, a war crime.
I want to just show for your response some more of what we`re hearing about those types of accounts with regard to targeting civilians. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I was helping people evacuate near the bridge, and I wanted to give some chocolate to a child. And there was a family of four there. But only the mother survived. The child`s about 13 or 15. It was hit by two bits of shrapnel in the head and died immediately.
All three of them died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s an account courtesy of Sky News.
(CROSSTALK)
MELBER: Go ahead, please.
SOVSUN: Yes, this is unbelievable.
We are seeing that all over Ukraine. Those are the accounts of Irpin. But we also know that there are tens of thousands of children in the basements in Mariupol, which is southeast, which has been under siege for -- by Russian troops from day one of war.
My native city of Kharkiv, thousands of people are hiding in basements. And they don`t know how to escape. It is a bit easier in Kharkiv, because they -- even after a week under siege, after being bombarded from air for the whole week, they didn`t get into the city of Kharkiv, because the army is holding the ground. They`re protecting the city.
They actually managed in this incredible situation to push the Russian troops further from the city of Kharkiv, which has given me great hope. So the Russians are not in the city of Kharkiv, because, if they get into the city, we have seen what they`re doing. They`re now robbing the people. They`re entering the houses of people which they take control, in the area where they control the area.
And they enter in the houses. They`re shooting people in their houses. They`re taking their money. They`re randomly shooting at people in the streets. It`s just terrible.
And you`re absolutely right that those are the war crimes. And they will need to be prosecuted for that. But, right now, we just need that to stop. We just need that to stop happening. And what are we asking for, of course, primarily to help us ensure the safety of our sky.
If the bombs stop falling onto our heads, it will be so much easier for the Ukrainian army to protect the civilians, if they don`t have, at the same time, care about ensuring the safety of the civilians from those airstrikes.
So that is why this issue of no-fly zone, or at least the fighter jets flown by Ukrainian pilots, is so very crucially important, that we just stop losing lives every day, every minute in this inhumane war that Putin launched against us.
MELBER: Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukraine Parliament, on the policy and the humanitarian crisis and the potential road ahead, thank you very much for joining us, and stay safe.
SOVSUN: Thank you.
MELBER: Appreciate it.
We`re going to fit in a break.
When we come back, we go into some of those extraordinary scenes, including a battlefield wedding.
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[18:53:25]
MELBER: This war that keeps grinding on is difficult in so many ways.
When we think of how difficult it is just to learn about it, just to watch it, we can only imagine what it is for the many millions of people going through it. And so, as we have come to do in the last few days, we try to highlight some true, real stories that also show the humanity, hope and resilience that you see inside a war zone, like a member of Ukraine`s Parliament sharing this new video of soldiers playing the national anthem encircling a crater that was left in the streets, resilient and proud of their country.
Or just outside Kyiv, two Ukrainian soldiers seen going forward with their planned lives amidst this unplanned tragedy, tying the knot on the battlefield.
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(SINGING)
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MELBER: We`re told that particular couple has actually been together, dating for over 20 years, and they serve in Ukraine`s military in different places, and joined together to conduct this wedding.
No time like the present.
Another video that many have been sharing, a young girl in a bunker singing "Let It Go" from "Frozen."
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(SINGING)
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[18:55:07]
MELBER: This is a war and a refugee crisis unfolding at a time when so many people have videos on their phones.
And so we have gathered videos from many of the people involved.
Here`s one that`s actually from NBC`s Ellison Barber, though, who got a visitor while reporting from Poland.
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ELLISON BARBER, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: If you want to help, don`t just send food or water or supplies, because they have a lot of these.
This is one of our friends we have been playing soccer with all morning. A lot of families here, a lot of mothers, a lot of children, all of them desperately hoping they can go home and go home soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Playing soccer there in the camp.
And NBC`s Molly Hunter got a warm welcome from this young man during an interview in a Lviv train station.
We will be right back.
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MELBER: That does it for us.
Joy Reid is up next.