Page 159 - Bluff News Today

Rest of the cold war, is between many of these western countries. including the u.s., to pressure and deal with putins russia. that means the president imposed, as planned, additional new harsh sanctions against leading russian banks, freezing all of their assets in america, and directly sanctioning many russian so-called elites. people close to the kremlin or putin himself. then, the president today was asked about targeting putin directly. this was his response. >> is that a step youre prepare...

Jennifer griffin has that part of the story tonight live from the pentagon. good evening, jennifer. >> good evening, bret. eyewitnesses in the donbas say that columns of tanks and armored personnel carriers with russian troops have begun moving into the donbas. u.s. officials are waiting and watching to see if those troops go beyond the donbas. officials repeated tonight the president will not send u.s. troops to fight in ukraine. everything that has occurred in the past few hours indicates that...

Couldnt care less about what happens in ukraine. which again, is just a weirdly inhuman statement. regardless of politics, having to reverse some stuff a bit. one of the things weve seen is some discourse about this before the new vision happen this quite different, understandably because there was a large contingent. they thought maybe this is a bluff, a play for a strong-arm negotiation. is the actual integration itself, it does seem that is change the gravity here. >> thats no question. in va...

Listen quickly to ambassador michael mcfaul who was on msnbc a little bit earlier, talking about putins motivation with all of this. >> theres no rationality here, he is motivated by some crazy ideas. i want to emphasize that. hes talking about denazification. there are no nazis in ukraine. ukraine is not a nazi, these are democratically elected leaders. he is jewish. he is not a nazi. weve got to treat him as an irrational, evil leader. >> so my question here, paul, is who in this is vladimir p...

What about nato, whats your assessment of nato in this situation? >> look, im kind of a critic of it, because this couldve been prevented. we did not need -- the nato alliance did not need to go incorporate both the ukraine and georgia. it wouldnt help the alliance. it wouldnt make it stronger. it was clearly going to be a point of contention with the only power on the continent that could bring problems for the whole western alliance. so i think that they made some really bad technical decision...

When he theyre handing out weapons and telling people to make molotov cocktails. street fight with trained troops is different things than civilians attempting to defend the cap talg tank columns arriving from two sides supported by air support you can have all the guns you want at the end of the day. how many troops are in this capital city is not completely clear at this point. obviously there are some. you could call it a bluff or a ruse. they thought they could punch through the donbas they ...

Reported, but an a.p. reporter on the scene finding just a single destroyed car. authorities believe this might have been orchestrated, too. the russians now making the case, as all of these images play out on russian tv, that its ukraine thats actually planning military action. the president said just a short time ago, that claim defies logic. mary bruce standing by at the white house. martha raddatz with defense secretary austin. is there any chance that this is a bluff from putin? were going ...

Austin says he does not believe that vladimir putin is bluffing. >> i dont believe it is a bluff. he has assembled the right kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion. >> so if if there are these realizations outed you, what is that sign post to him, and i am rattling everyone cage or does he feel like he has to follow up on that, an indeed, invade ukraine? >> well, fredricka, when we assemble on the border the troops 190,000 or more, the idea is conjured up of a mass ...

Terrible. we have seen in previous russian campaigns in chechnya and other places, theyre not going to worry about civilians. theyre going to do what they have to do. i think we can expect this to be very brutal, and i hope that, you know, ukrainians, they have been training with civil defense and things like that, that theyll be able to defend themselves. but it is going to be very, very hard for them. >> what if anything would stop him? >> i think at the moment nothing will stop him. i think h...

More than just three weeks ago. every day this week, weve reported more and more numbers. and now new tonight, satellite images show a buildup of russia helicopters now near the border. thats in addition to medical equipment the pentagon says is in place to deal with casualties. its images like these that make the military brass so confident. >> i dont believe its a bluff. i think its -- i think hes assembled the right kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion. >> its ...