trying to rebuild the russian empire. joining our discussion now is chairman adam schiff, chairman of the house intelligence committee. he is just back from the munich security conference. and chairman schiff, latest intelligence that you probably have before us, of course, is that we are now hearing the sounds of war in ukraine s capital city. sadly, lawrence, i think a full invasion is underway. the russians will try to decapitate ukrainian defenses. they will, in addition to the cyberattacks, they are shutting down the airspace and going after ukrainian military assets. trying to disable them with their own kind of shock and awe. ukrainians will fight, but i think they will be overwhelmed initially. whereas, it will become very costly to russia over the longer term. and, sadly, i think that the
the recent intelligence assessment, so that this city kharkiv is very much in the crosshairs of putin and his military. this is a russian speaking city, this is the largest largest russian majority city and ukraine. and away it s has a complicated relationship with russia because so many people here have a strong affinity to russia, they have family members and russia. a lot of people here went to school and russia, some were even born in russia. but yet it posted a very strenuous resistance to the russians back in 2014, when they invaded eight years ago. so vladimir putin may believe that he can roll his military and here, that he will get a lot of support from russian speakers here, who feel like they are under the heel of the ukrainian speaking government in kyiv. but the people we have spoken to here, even though they are russian speaking, they have such a strong identity as ukrainians. in fact, speaking to a lot of people recently, who have been
attack. have expected this to unfold is that it would start from the air. it seems as if that might be the beginning of that now. they expected the early aerial attacks would be from airstrikes, manned aircraft, russia has some pretty advanced fourth and fifth generation fighter jets. potentially, some of their bombers. they are expecting michelin is to be used here. russia has brought in nearly a dozen ships south of ukraine and the black sea and into the sea of a soft. they have missiles on them and addition to landing ships. the ability to put people ashore. marines they are expecting some cruise missiles. they re expecting artillery to be used. russia has arrayed dozens of artillery units all around the border with ukraine. that is expected to be just sort of this initial tranche. this initial onslaught from the air. before any russian military
costume casualties will be high. i think that the loss of russian troops will also be high. russian mothers and fathers will see their sons come back in body bags. this is putin s war. this is naked aggression. and i think it is disastrous. today, president zelenskyy in a fact promised that vladimir putin real and powerful retaliation to his innovations, saying you will see our faces, not our backs. so, you just referred to russian body bags coming back. this is going to be the promise was made by the ukrainian government today a real all out war. they will wage to defend their country i think that s right. and lawrence, it may not look like that initially, because the russians have such superior
interrupt. we have a statement from president biden that has just been released. a statement by president biden on russia s unprovoked and on just attack on ukraine. that is how it is titled. and in the presidents statement he says, the prayers of the entire world are with the people of ukraine tonight as they suffer and unprovoked and unjustified attacked by russian military forces. president putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering. russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring and the united states and its allies and partners will respond in a unified and decisive way. the world will hold russia accountable. i will be monitoring the situation from the white house this evening. and will continue to get regular updates from my national security team. tomorrow, i will meet with my g7 counterparts in the morning and then speak to the american people to announce the further