come in and supply ukraine with so much money, and so many weapons. but this is a significant escalation from vladimir putin. the fact that he s calling up the reservists shows that he has no intention of backing away from this war. in fact, in his comments, he framed the war not against ukraine, he described this as a war against the west. and that the west, he didn t mention the united states, but clearly, that s the main power he s referring to, has been propping up ukraine and intends to bring down russia and bring down the russian federation the same way that the west primarily the united states, toppled the soviet union. so he is framing this very much as an existential fight for russia. and in order to fight this fight, he s calling up the reservists and making nuclear threats to show that he is serious and that he has no intention of backing down. so, richard, is there a sense this could lead to some sort of nuclear standoff? i think that is where this is heading.
reserve troops to fight in its invasion of ukraine and threatening the use of nuclear weapons. this as russia plans sham referendums in the occupied parts of ukraine in an attempt to annex large swaths of the country. joining us live from kharkiv, ukraine, nbc news chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. richard, what is the reaction on the ground there? reporter: so ukrainian officials are dismissing this. they say that the fact that vladimir putin has to call up so many reservists is a sign of weakness. that his so-called special military operation, which was supposed to only last a few days, three days by ukrainian estimates, has now gone on for seven months. they say it is an indication that russia took on more than it could chew, that russia wasn t anticipating ukraine to rally, wasn t anticipating the west to