in ukraine. >> this is what's keeping the war going. the fastest way to end the war is for putin to be disabused of the notion he can outlast ukraine and all of ukraine's supporters. also,s rebid president bide unveiling a new immigration policy. it's a big primary day for two republican incumbents facing different challenges in oklahoma and virginia. a heat wave, as dangerous temperatures head towards triple digits from iowa to maine. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. secretary of state blinken just wrapping up a pressing and wide ranging event with nato secretary-general stoltenberg citing nearly a dozen bilateral security deals between ukraine and nato allies as evidence our collective defense is the best way to combat vladimir putin's aggression. >> this is proof -- clear proof that all of our countries are with ukraine for the long haul. and that if mr. putin is counting on outlasting ukraine or any of us, he is misguided. he is wrong. >> adding to the urgency ahead of the upcoming nato summit next week in washington, d.c., the stalled gaza peace deal and cease-fire. >> there could be a cease-fire if they said yes a week ago. we will continue to work this with urgency and determination to see if we can bridge the gap. >> russia's advances in ukraine, especially with vladimir putin arriving in north korea today and likely winning an expanded arms deal from kim jong-un. we begin with richard engel in ukraine, janis mackey frayer in beijing, matt bradley in jerusalem and "washington post" foreign affairs columnist david ignatius. richard, to you. russia playing this as a friendly visit between two neighbors. they are in north korea. there's a lot of evidence the north is arming russia in ukraine and getting technology from north korea as well back. >> reporter: absolutely. it's a match made in heaven between these two pariah states. north korea needs just about everything. the people don't have enough food. the economy can't produce enough to sustain itself. the one thing that it does have in great supply is artillery shells, soviet-era shells which russia is burning through at an enormous rate. they can provide food stuff and some international credibility and clout, a pact forming with china, russia and north korea, and some sophisticated technology, particularly for icbms and big missile programs that kim jong-un prizes as he tries to seek a nuclear deterrent against the united states or has a nuclear deterrent. >> janis mackey frayer, his relationship with kim jong-un is increasing tensions across the asia pacific region. there was a situation this morning. along the dmz, what do we know about that? 20 to 30 north korean soldiers went across. it's clearly marked. as well as putin's visit, the importance of this first visit nearly a quarter century to north korea. >> reporter: this incident at the dmz that divides north and south korea happening hours before putin was expected to touch down in pyongyang. south korea's military says that it happened when a group of north korean soldiers, about 20 or 30 of them, heavily armed, briefly crossed the military demarcation line. officials were saying, it didn't look intentional. this is the second time it's happened in the past week. north korea has been sending troops to this border area to do construction work and to plant land mines, measures seen as preventing defectors from crossing into the south. adding to the tension are reports that multiple north korean soldiers have been killed in land mine explosions on the north sides of the dmz. south korea saying -- not saying exactly when it happened. they talked about it today as being a separate incident. we have to remember that there are no lines of communication right now between north and south korea. so information has been only trickling in. but, of course, all eyes will be on pyongyang tomorrow when the state visit with vladimir putin gets underway. the streets are decorated. his face is everywhere. there are banners. there are concerts planned and ceremonies. of course, much of the focus will be on the one-on-one discussions these to men have. north korea is seen as supporting russia with munitions. moscow in return has been providing aid and other technology. nato's concern is russia has been supplying know-how to north korea to advance its missile, its nuclear programs, and also its satellite technology programs. >> let me stay on ukraine and the whole alliance with these illegal arms that are going there. richard, let's talk about china. china, while not supplying weapons, is helping 70% of the military base of russia, which is prolonging the war. >> reporter: it's an interesting dynamic and one at play for the last nearly 2 1/2 years. what does china benefit from the war? how does it benefit in keeping this war going? because china is clearly supporting the war through supporting vladimir putin, giving him cheap fuel, now giving him a lot of electronics, components to use in the war effort. it seems that china is comfortable to have the west distracted, engaged in a war in europe instead of focusing on a pivot to asia, instead of focusing on taiwan and beefing up security in taiwan, although, it's doing some of that as well. it's making russia more and more dependent on china, dependent on north korea, dependent on the chinese sphere of influence. there's also a big power politics at play here as vladimir putin now in a sense has to go looking for weapons, scrounging for weapons in north korea. >> matt bradley, let's talk about the middle east, where i just came from. i understand prime minister netanyahu put out a video today, just before this news conference in washington, saying that secretary blinken had assured hum he would remove bottlenecks to the weapons. what blinken said is that's not the 2,000-pound bombs they have been using in potentially illegal ways against civilians, but other weapons, weapons potentially for the north where hezbollah, backed by iran in lebanon, is becoming more aggressive. potentially opening up a new friend. >> reporter: that's right. there's a second front to this war. there has been since the beginning. this is something we need to reiterate. this fighting in the north of israel and south of lebanon is fierce. it's ongoing. it has happened since the day after those attacks. we heard from antony blinken talking about this. we heard from benjamin netanyahu. these weapons are going to be crewucial crucial. hezbollah has an enormous stockpile, more than 150,000 ballistic missiles and missiles that can launch from long distances. precise ammunition. this makes them different from hamas, which is also an iran-backed group. the situation has been heating up over the past week, because israel has continued to attack senior hezbollah commanders, which has been inviting retaliation by hezbollah. we have seen huge swaths of northern israel set on fire by the exchanging of fire that's going on. we have seen 150,000 people who have been displaced by the fighting on both sides of the border. hundreds of hezbollah fighters have been killed. there's been several israeli civilians killed in the fighting as well as several israeli soldiers. this is a situation that if it weren't for the incredibly fierce war going on between israel and hamas in the gaza strip, this would be the headline, what's going on in northern israel and southern lebanon. that's why we are seeing another senior american diplomat. this is a man who is not a household name, but he will be very soon, if the war in the north really kicks off. he has been doing shuttle diplomacy, like antony blinken. now he is in beirut talking to the government, trying to tamp down tensions, trying to prevent israel and hezbollah from entering into a region-wide war. >> david, let's talk about all of this on president biden's plate. in this campaign, donald trump trying to make very much of this, blaming everything on -- everything that's happened since biden. but it started a long time before. the middle east, tony blinken trying again. the cease-fire proposal is stahl -- stalled. it was almost back to square one on a cease-fire and hostage release, which is so critical, even as israel has -- netanyahu has disbanded his war cabinet with the resignation of a key centrist former general, or two of them. >> you can hear the frustration in secretary blinken's voice as he was talking about the stalled negotiations. the u.s. has seen this as absolutely essential in trying to deescalate the situation, not only in gaza but throughout the region. increasingly, i think, u.s. concerns and those of israel itself are focused on lebanon, on the danger of a war in the north. we are now in mid-summer. israeli schoolchildren will go back to school in september. the children who live in those areas along the border have had to flee to hotels in the south and center of israel. people insist that they have to go home in time to start school. the time to get a solution is running out. the diplomacy with lebanon i'm told is fairly far advanced. there are detailed provisions that would take affect limiting where hezbollah forces could be deployed in southern lebanon, limiting israeli activities in lebanon as part of an overall package. that will be frozen until -- i think until we have some cease-fire agreement for gaza. that's been hezbollah's insistence. as blinken talked, you could hear the weight of the difficulty of trying to ratchet these conflicts down. >> it's been extraordinarily difficult. perhaps the most complex that you or i have seen in decades of following the middle east and the frustration also, of course, with the palestinian death toll, which has been horrific to say the least. let me ask you about ukraine, because richard reported last night showing some of the weapons delivery. he was with abrams tanks. there are other new weapons, you know, and i know, as does he, some of the weapons that they have long sought where they can go across the border to where the russians are based and firing barrages against northern ukraine. has halted the progress that russia has made since the freeze on the supplemental back in february that has been so damaging to ukraine when they first started retreating and then kharkiv at risk? >> i'm told by both ukrainian and u.s. officials that the russian offensive towards kharkiv, the largest city in the east, second largest city in ukraine, has been slowed, pretty much stalled. those u.s. weapons being fired over the border into russian territory have forced the russians to pull back so that kharkiv is less in range of russian attacks. so i think there's some relief that what looked like a potential devastation of kharkiv has been delayed. one thing that caught my ear in the discussion today, especially from secretary-general stoltenberg, was russian hybrid actions in eastern europe, russian strikes, sabotage, arson, other activities in countries like poland, the baltic states. that's an expansion of russian aggression. if the russians are beginning to operate inside poland, for example, that's a new turn in the war. >> that's a good catch. thanks so much, david ignatius. good to see you. thanks to all of you. executive action. president biden taking a big step this afternoon for half a million immigrant spouses of american citizens. sparking political backlash and probably legal challenges from republicans in an election. that's next when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 90 seconds. stay with us. you are watching msnbc. liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. with all the money i saved i thought i'd buy stilts. hi honey. ahhh...ooh. look, no line at the hot dog stand. yes! only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty.♪ president biden is trying to address a major campaign issue today. immigration. by taking executive action to shield half a million undocumented spouses of u.s. citizens who are subject to deportation. the spouses are. the election year policy change applying to non-citizens who have been here at least ten years and are married to a u.s. citizen, allowing them and their children to apply for permanent residence. the president is streamlining work visa requirements for dreamers, the children of undocumented immigrants, to get would visas after criticism of has not made them a priority. it comes weeks after president biden restricted asylum claims at the border. joining me now, monica alba and maria theresa cumar. what is happening today? there's a huge political benefit. i'm sure the white house is seeing this to balance what they did two weeks ago. how long can it last? will there be legal action, a preliminary injunction? is this messaging rather than substance? >> reporter: it likely will face legal challenges. the administration is bracing for that. the president did propose tougher immigration policies and shutting down the border effectively to certain asylum seekers. he mentioned in a few weeks he would lay out steps that would aim to make the system overall, which he called broken, better and more fair to more people who have been in this country for years and who have tried to contribute to society and have worked hard here. this will apply, as you mentioned, to the white house estimates more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants who married american citizens and who have been here for more than ten years. those are the requirements at least to apply. that application process will open sometime at the end of the summer. they will still be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. it doesn't mean everybody is automatically eligible. on average, we are talking about people who have been here for more than 20 years. then, yes, some of their children will be eligible to apply as well for green cards and eventually a potential pathway to citizenship. immigration is a key political vulnerability for president biden when you look at major polling. they are keenly aware of that. this is about the president coming out and saying, we have tried to be strict. we have tried to be tough. but there are also compassionate measures that should be taken into consideration when we talk about the immigrant population. our colleague julia ainsley did an interview this morning with somebody who would benefit from this program if it is able to get off the ground. take a listen to what she heard. >> an action like this has been way overdue. people said the same thing about daca, it wasn't necessary, it was overstepping. daca has turned out to be a very successful program. i don't see it as a bad thing. in fact, i see it as life changing in a positive way for hundreds of thousands of families and people. america is going to be stronger because of this. >> reporter: it's no accident that this is coming around the anniversary of daca. some of the dreamers will be able to apply for work visas if they meet certain requirements. >> maria theresa, let's talk about this. i think you are going to be at the white house event, which is 2:45 this afternoon in the east room. you represent an important constituency. you know the vulnerabilities that the president has right now. with many latino voters who the trump people are claiming and polling indicates are not as enthusiastic of joe biden as they were previously, depending which state. that's not a monolithic community, as you know better than i. is this just politics or is this substance? the dreamers have been ignored. they were not permanently extended because of congress. that could all go away if donald trump is elected. >> this is both political but also the decent, fair thing to do. we have been working with the white house for a decade. i recently found a picture of myself in the oval office in the white house speaking to president obama about this very precise issue. one thing that i do know, there's going to be 500,000 parents that are going to be able to safely put their kids to bed rid of anxiety. the political part is doing contrast that it's going to be very important. when you talk to latino voters, what is the biggest contrast between republicans and democrats? democrats care about immigrant families. this demonstrates it. then you have the contrast of what the former president is trying to do and he promises to do. he does not only want to separate families, but he wants to set up a cottage industry of detention centers around the country that promises to mobilize and incarceration anyone who looks not american, not white. this is a huge step forward for these families and the local communities, the economy of the local communities. it reminds us where our roots are and we are decent people and we take care of families first. >> how do you justify the actions he took on asylum a few weeks ago? that crackdown so severe and really in response, most likely, to not just the increase in people coming across the border illegally in between ports but the politics. >> the president was put in a hard place. he provided a bipartisan bill that was served up. the republicans, even though they negotiated with him, the most extreme members of the party didn't want anything to do with it. so this is an opportunity for them to go back to the table and say, this is how we respond to protecting our border. i think when you talk to voters everywhere, they want safe borders. they want to be fair and humanitarian. at the end of the day, this is communicating to congress that if the -- if they aren't willing to be the leadership they are supposed to have, the president is willing to take arc. >> thank you so much. more breaking news. justin timberlake was arrested last night. charged with one count of driving while intoxicated. he was held overnight and released this morning following his arraignment. according to the sag harbor police department, a source says the singer was eating at the american hotel in sag harbor and headed to a friend's house when he was pulled over by police. according to the police complaint, he told officers, quote, i had one martini and followed my friends home. timberlake's next court date is scheduled for july 26th. global threats. virginia senator tim kaine joining me to discuss vladimir putin's embrace of kim jong-un as ukrainian forces fight to hold key territory. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. mitchell reports." this is msnbc. so this is pickleball? it's basically tennis for babies, but for adults. it should be called wiffle tennis. pickle! yeah, aw! whoo! ♪♪ these guys are intense. we got nothing to worry about. with e*trade from morgan stanley, we're ready for whatever gets served up. dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. i'd rather work on saving for retirement. or college, since you like to get schooled. that's a pretty good burn, right? got him. good game. thanks for coming to our clinic, first one's 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