Page 142 - Nic News Today

Nic, these assessments from the u.s. are chilling, and yet ukraine saying dont believe these apocalyptic conditions. had this posture for weeks now. why is that? >> reporter: yeah. president zelensky has a number of things to do. worth reflecting on the fact he grew up in ukraine and used to the way that president putin handles himself pretty much as the street thugs in the city where he grew up. handled themselves, and which is to try to beat on the little guy. he doesnt want to show fear. he d...

Ammunition for artillery, the german military sending military field hospitals. as all of this equipment begins to arrive in ukraine, it ups the stakes, should russia choose to invade ukraine. it ups the stakes and makes a potential conflict more harder and politically costly for president putin. so, you know, this could bring a move from the russian government forward and it could make them take a course correction. thats the intent, to have a de-escalation overall and a course correction. >> a...

My shadow i have cast that a long illustrious 6 more weeks of winter. >> john: well punxsutawney phil apparently cant quit winter at the annual groundhog day ritual in glob glorys will pennsylvania. another six weeks of bone chilling temperatures. we should point out though that phils new york city counterpart staten island chuck today predicted an early spring; however, phil may be right because millions of americans are dealing with a powerful winter storm that is dumping snow and ice througho...

The other big story this morning, chinese president xi jinping hosting vladimir putin for talks on the sidelines of the olympics. as the west fears russia could invade ukraine at any moment. >> cnn correspondent selina wang in beijing, and diplomatic editor nic robertson in moscow. nic, i want to beginning with you, this meeting of the minds between china and russia, we have seen a lot of signs of this in recent months, joint military exercises, tell us the significance and what came out of this...

All of these troops are aimed at trying to reassure the nato allies on natos eastern flank who are so nervous, they say, about russia, that the u.s. is there for them, defending the nato commitment, though they will not work under a nato flag, working to help these military forces be reassured if russia makes a move. they will not fight the russians. they will not go into ukraine. why now? and is there any suspicion putin would make a move into any of these countries? the pentagon is not really ...

>> and david, to you, as nic was mentioning, putin has given these ultimatums regarding natos expansion and ukraines membership knowing that they are nonstarters for washington and its allies. when you look at the big picture and try to add it all up, especially with the latest images, the build-up, the positioning of russian troops and the other day, the biden administration warning of this propaganda video that may be released by the russians as a pretext to invade ukraine. it almost looks lik...

Russia and hope to move forward on the bill this week. have a listen to this. >> we are committed jointly in a bipartisan way to defend ukraine and to send putin a message. it will be bloody and consequential. >> well, we better be prepared for the worst. the president is stiffening our resolve to face that if we have to with serious sanctions and our nato forces doing everything they can to protect the baltics and poland and other countries. >> right. >> but, you know, i do like the fact that t...

Attack by ukraine that could be used to justify a russian invasion. all this comes as u.s. troops are headed to eastern europe. in a show of support for nato allies worried about russian troops being amassed along ukraines border. it includes troops from the 82nd airborne base in california. cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson joins us. nic, i want to start with you. talk to us about what youre hearing from russia, what they are saying about these accusations about a false flag o...

British authorities, that could even target oligarchs properties in london. this even as the senate prepares to vote on a bipartisan deal, the americans weve been hearing from the head of the senate foreign relations committee who said not only that he expects a bipartisan deal to be reached fairly quickly, but that the united states could go so far as to preemptively introduce sanctions. now, thats something ukraine has long been calling for by definition, laura. any sanctions introduced after ...

Press conference in the next hour. the latest u.s. intelligence assessment paint a dire picture that russia has 70% of the military capability necessary in place to launch a full scale invasion of ukraine. also that intelligence warning civilian casualties could run into the tens of thousands with up to 5 million refugees if that invasion goes forward. all of this coming out as president biden sits down with the new german chancellor at the white house this afternoon. we have every angle of this...