- A week of war in Europe, and challenges here at home.

(explosion booming) - We're fighting, just for our land and for our freedom.

Nobody's gonna break us, we're strong.

We're Ukrainians.

- [Yamiche] Russia's assault on Ukraine intensifies, becoming more deadly as civilians are targeted and the crisis grows.

Plus: - Freedom will always triumph over tyranny.

- [Yamiche] At the State of the Union, President Biden enjoys a rare moment of bipartisan support for his handling of Ukraine.

But pressure is mounting for the President to do more.

- Biden went through a litany of acknowledging some of the problems we face in this country but utterly denying any responsibility, any culpability for it.

- [Yamiche] Meanwhile, President Biden's domestic agenda remains stalled.

Next.

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Once again from Washington, moderator Yamiche Alcindor.

- Good evening, and welcome to Washington Week.

This week, Russia's bloody war with Ukraine is escalating.

Russian forces appear to be making their biggest gains yet.

Troops are close to capturing Ukraine's vital port cities along the Black Sea, but the capital, Kyiv, and many other large cities still stand.

Russian forces have been met with unexpected resistance, including from Ukrainian civilians.

- This is the task of every Ukrainian right now, to defend our country.

Even women and children are trying to stop tanks with their bare hands.

This is my land, and whoever comes here will go to hell - All week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been the face of the resistance and he's been pleading for help, for more help from the west.

In the meantime, at least 1 million people have already fled Ukraine.

The situation is quickly becoming a large scale humanitarian crisis.

The UN predicts that 10 million Ukrainians, roughly a quarter of the entire population, could be displaced.

On Tuesday night, in his first State of the Union, President Biden delivered a strong rebuke of Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

- He thought the West and NATO wouldn't respond.

He thought he could divide us at home, in this chamber, in this nation, but Putin was wrong.

We are ready.

We are united.

And that's what we did.

We stayed united.

- The Biden administration and its allies are ramping up sanctions on the Russian economy.

They are targeting oligarchs, companies, and the country's banking system.

Joining me tonight to discuss all of this, and more.

Nick Schifrin, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent for PBS News Hour.

He is joining us from Ukraine and up early or up late, as you see, thank you so much.

Leigh Ann Caldwell, Capitol Hill Correspondent for NBC News, Weijia Jiang, Senior White House Correspondent for CBS news, and Jeff Zeleny, Chief National Affairs Correspondent for CNN.

Nick, of course, I have to start with you.

This week, the world watched in horror as Russia captures cities and at one point, even sees control of Europe's largest nuclear power plant or nuclear plant.

What's the latest on the ground, as we've seen civilians and of course the Ukrainian military try to push back and fight back?

- I think what mostly you're seeing over the last 24 hours or so is Russia expanding its bombardment, expanding its attacks on civilian areas, expanding its indiscriminate shelling, frankly, against civilian targets and especially in the south.

And you do see examples of Russian troops moving from Donetsk, which is where Russian separatists or pro-Russian separatists have been operating since 2014.

And you see Russian troops moving west along the south and the target, the key target as you just mentioned, Yamiche, it is Mariupol.

And that is where we are seeing almost Syrian-like tactics.

The line from Syria was submit or starve and that's what it seems Russian troops are doing.

There has been no food, no water, no sanitation in Mariupol for three days.

And there is frankly no way for those residents to get out from a Russian cordon around the city.

- And as you talk about Syrian tactics, you told our producers that this situation is the single largest or fastest refugee creation since World War II, even more than Syria.

Talk about what you've seen on the ground as this humanitarian crisis grows.

And what sticks with you as you've talked to people.

- There are families up and down this country who are being uprooted, after 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 30 minutes, simply families who don't believe that it's safe to stay in their homes.

And they are going through gauntlets of Russian attacks, whether from the southeast or the east in Kharkiv, the country's second largest city.

We've heard stories of people packing onto trains and hearing explosions around the trains as they take journeys that are supposed to last eight hours that instead last 36 hours.

Many of them trying to come here, the city that we're in, to Lviv, which is near the Polish border.

There are countless stories of families trying to get out of the country, not being able to.

Countless stories of children being traumatized by what they're seeing and what they're hearing.

And of course, families who are still in bomb shelters.

There are some who've been in bomb shelters, essentially living there for multiple days.

especially in Kyiv, especially in Kharkiv, especially some of these cities that are being hit by Russian bombardments, whether from the air, whether from artillery, and again, increasingly indiscriminate, increasingly clear that the targets are civilian.

- And Weijia, Nick's talking about the countless stories of families traumatized, and that pressure, that image of these families is really leading to mounting pressure on President Biden to do more.

The White House said that it's weighing a range of options including possibly banning US imports of Russian oil.

What's the latest that you're hearing from the White House on where things stand there?

- Well, I think the White House is well aware of this drum beat from bipartisan members up on the hill, you know, asking whether or not they can do that.

And I think there's more and more support as these images out of Ukraine come out.

However, from day one, President Biden has made very clear that his strategy is to do whatever he can to cripple the Russian economy without impacting the US economy.

And just today, the White House repeated many times that even though there is now bipartisan support for sanctions on the energy sector, that that comes at a price, and clearly they want to do everything they can before doing that, because that is where Americans will really feel the pain, which they are already feeling at the gas pumps because of the instability.

And so even though there is this mounting pressure, Yamiche, I think that it's going to be a hard sell for the administration, even though they have said they are looking at options, you know, it's very basic math.

If you cut off the supply and the demand remains the same, it's going to cost more.

And so I think they're weighing, you know, how long they can go without doing that.

In addition to weighing how much it will actually have an impact on Russia's economy at this point, is it worth it?

And at this point, the answer is no.

- Well, the same question, is it worth it, is also sort of why President Biden, Weijia, has continued to be adamant that the US military isn't going to try to engage militarily with Russia.

But I wonder if I could stick with you for a minute for this quick follow up.

Is there any wiggle room as we hear the President of Ukraine pleading with for a no fly zone and Russian forces continuing to take these escalating steps.

- That's another point that the President, that top officials have not swayed from at all.

And the answer in short is no, because there's not an on off switch that you can turn on and off to create this no fly zone.

That requires involvement, that requires shooting down these Russian aircrafts that are currently in the airspace, because it's not like the Russians are just going to see some bright sign that says you can't fly here, and then stop.

And that means involvement, military involvement that President Biden is just not willing to do at this point.

And maybe any point, because he has been so firm on that, saying that I will not put US troops on the ground.

I will not put US troops in the air because, you know, this is not our fight that we're going to get involved in.

The US is not going to unilaterally defend Ukraine.

However, it will uphold its commitments to NATO.

So I think what we really have to watch next is how unhinged Putin becomes.

I think last night was a very frightening example of his escalation.

And if he were to go beyond Ukraine, if he were to start attacking Americans, that's a very different story.

But for now.

- It's a very different story.

And Leigh Ann, I wanna come to you because even with all of this, of course, going on, there is this bipartisan call for President Biden to do more.

Leigh Ann, what's the latest from Capitol Hill as you're hearing Republicans and Democrats at least on the same page for some things.

- Yeah, there is a moment of unity up here on Capitol Hill in Congress, that's rare these days.

There's a lot of support for President Biden.

The latest discussion right now is about energy sanctions and banning petroleum and oil products from Russia.

That is something that's getting a lot of bipartisan support trying to put pressure on the White House to act.

Now, even though a lot of this could be symbolic.

The US only gets about 10% or less of its oil from Russia.

And the global markets, or the oil markets are global.

So if the US doesn't import oil from Russia, perhaps China or other places will do the same.

So they'll be able to sell that elsewhere, perhaps.

But the reality is, is that Congress thinks that they have a moral objective and a moral responsibility to ban this oil from Russia, even if it is symbolic.

And Senator Joe Manchin talking about gas prices, he acknowledged that Americans might have to sacrifice on behalf of the Ukrainian people.

They might have to sacrifice by paying more at the pump and that will be worth it.

And so right now that's where the discussion is around Capitol Hill.

But President Zelenskyy of Ukraine is giving a briefing for House and Senate members tomorrow morning.

He's been talking to a lot of people, of course, this week to NATO, to President Biden, and he is talking to Congress tomorrow.

- And Jeff, when we think about this, the former President Donald Trump, thinking about sort of what's going on on Capitol Hill.

The former president Donald Trump called the president of Russia a genius and Republicans have followed him down all sorts of lines and defended him.

But in this case, you don't hear that.

What's going on there?

- Yamiche, I think that was one of the most extraordinary things.

We saw the bipartisan burst of approval at the State of the Union address on Tuesday night where Republicans and Democrats lept to their feet and applauded the President's words in support of Ukraine and applauded the words, the tough words and the sanctions against President Putin.

This is one of the biggest examples I can think of in the last year or so, where Republicans really have gone against, and in pretty quick fashion, the former president.

It was just a week ago when there was a Republican gathering in Florida, the CPAC gathering, which we've all talked so much about, where there was still very much an open question, how much Republicans would speak out against Putin.

I mean, the world has rallied to Ukraine's side and against President Putin and the Republican party has as well.

So that has been very extraordinary and in fact, as I was talking to senators on Capitol Hill over the last few days, they actually want to see President Biden do more, as Leigh Ann was saying, talking about oil and gas sanctions, they want to see this administration punish Russia even more.

So I think that was a really extraordinary step.

And we've seen the former president, you know, not repeat that genius word, but this was a pretty big departure from that.

And this Republican party, as we sit here now at the end of this week, sounds more like the party of Reagan than it did a week ago.

- Yeah.

And Nick, I wanna come back to you.

I wanna ask you, we have a bit more time, but I wanna ask you briefly about one thing and then about something else.

You've been talking to folks on the ground there about these accusations that African students and people of African descent were being discriminated against by Poland as they were trying to flee Ukraine.

What more can you tell us about that?

- Poland has been criticized in the past for being xenophobic in the words of immigrant advocates, when it comes especially to Afghan and Syrian immigrants.

And it has been remarkable to see Poland shift gears in the last few weeks, not only with people coming out of Ukraine, but also coming out of Belarus, to really take a united front with the EU and be much more welcoming.

And so what we saw with Ukrainians leaving trains inside Poland was exactly that, a welcome wagon.

There were Polish volunteers handing out soup, handing out blankets, handing out things to eat, Polish families welcoming Ukrainians, but that's not quite what we saw with Africans and Arabs who were leaving Ukraine on multiple occasions at the border.

We saw Africans, who were mostly students, and Arabs as well leave trains with police officers on either side of them.

And so clearly what it seems is that there's a double standard, but what happens when you ask Polish officials is that they point out that many of those students, again, most of them are students, don't have documents or overstay visas, or there's other problems with papers.

And so what Polish officials say is that those police officers are there because there are people entering Poland without passports.

Now I will say that we've asked about this to multiple officials here in Ukraine and in Poland and the US.

And I'll just highlight Samantha Power, the Administrator of USAid told me earlier this week that she was aware of these reports and concerned about them and seemed to suggest that it was happening and urging Polish officials to take it seriously.

- And there's certainly reports that had people sort of really, really concerned.

Quickly, in the 30 seconds we have left here before we've turned to domestic issues, which of course have their own challenges.

Nick, how is the US, the allies, but also Russia and Ukraine, preparing for months of war?

What could be months of war given that things have gone on longer than folks expected, frankly?

- Yeah, there was an expectation by senior US officials that this war would be very fast, very furious.

And frankly, be over in four or five days to quote multiple of them that talked to me before I came here.

That is not what's happening.

What we are seeing is the siege of Mariupol, the siege of Kyiv that is coming.

And so certainly Ukrainian officials are digging in, US officials are beginning to prepare for something much longer, but we don't know what Russia has in mind, but certainly everything we've seen over the last few days means more attacks on civilians.

- Well, thank you so much, Nick, for joining us and for sharing your reporting.

Please keep safe as you continue to report there.

Now, during Tuesday's State of the Union speech, the President addressed domestic challenges and divisions and during parts of the speech, Republican lawmakers heckled and booed him.

In the official GOP response, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds accused him and Democrats of trying to dictate to Americans what they can and cannot say.

Weijia, I wanna start with you.

There was a lot, of course, that the President said but a lot of it was also about sort of inflation and the prices that people are seeing at stores and gas prices.

What's the latest on the President's plan to try to give Americans some relief?

- So this was really important for the President on his to-do list for the State of the Union.

I think he really wanted to connect with people, to let them know that, hey, I get it, I understand your pain and here's what we're going to do to get out of it.

He also had to reset the page when it came to his domestic agenda.

And of course, turning the page toward a new chapter of COVID, all of which he did I think successfully, as reflected in the approval numbers that we saw after.

The problem, Yamiche, is that the economic plans that he laid out, those take time, and time is something right now that he does not have, when you're talking about Americans who are looking for more immediate relief to pay their bills, to deal with these rising costs.

But the administration said that we didn't get into this situation overnight and it is going to take time.

So he has promised, as an example, to launch a program to make a lot more products here in the US.

He continues to talk about some of the measures that he tried to pass before in Build Back Better that would make it easier for families to make ends meet.

For example, a paid parental leave or expanded childcare.

But again, that's gonna take Congress to come together, which again, will take time.

And so I think right now, he's basking in this glow of after the speech, but we'll have to wait to see if Americans are willing to give him that time for those policies to have an impact.

- And Jeff, the President saying that he's gonna really travel around the country and talk to different Americans.

You of course travel a lot around the country.

I wonder how much does the GOP and and the White House sort of see traveling and getting out in front of people as critical to sort of doing a reset and helping President Biden out here?

- I think it's always important when the President travels across the country.

Of course, you know, less than 12 hours after he left the House chamber, he was in Duluth, Minnesota looking at a bridge that spanned to Superior, Wisconsin, trying to sell that infrastructure law.

We will see he and his cabinet secretaries were fanned out across the country.

We'll see the President traveling next week to Texas on Tuesday, to Philadelphia on Friday.

I think it's always important when the President travels.

So I think it, you know, certainly echoes a sense of confidence.

You know, that the economic numbers on Friday were quite good in terms of jobs created in February, unemployment rate going down.

But the reality here now is even though the Ukraine portion was only about 12 minutes of that speech and the domestic was the rest of it, Ukraine is overshadowing everything that this President does.

And that could be the case for the rest of, really, this midterm election year.

That's what White House officials basically are planning for.

So yes, he will be out there traveling.

Yes, he will be out there trying to make the case that they're turning the page from the COVID restrictions.

But the reality is a lot of this is out of his control.

So this is something that all presidents have to deal with.

This was something not written into the plan.

They were not necessarily prepared for this big foreign policy crisis to intervene.

It could help his presidency, it could hurt his presidency.

We do not know at this point.

- [Yamiche] A lot that we don't know.

- But he will still be traveling out there trying to make the case, right.

- A lot that we don't know.

And Leigh Ann, talk a bit about where the GOP, how they see this, especially because you saw lawmakers sort of heckling and interrupting his speech at times, a reminder of sort of the times that we're living in.

I have one other question for you.

So if you could give me 30 seconds on this one 'cause I have one more, of course, that I'm burning to ask you before we go.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So Republicans, the domestic agenda, it's easy for the Republicans to oppose.

They've been talking about inflation for months, now that everyone knows it's not transitory.

This is something they're gonna continue to hit.

They think that the economy is something that they're benefiting from.

They're also continuing to talk about social issues as well.

And that is part, and law enforcement.

That is part of the reason why President Biden said that Democrats and he does not support defunding the police, but in fact, funding the police.

He mentioned immigration, securing the borders on immigration.

It's as if the President went through all the problems, the places where he's struggling in the polls and made sure to try to recorrect and reset and pivot to a different message.

- [Yamiche] If I could say in 10 seconds because we're gonna have to wrap it in 10 seconds, if you could, we know that Judge Jackson was on Capitol Hill.

Yes or no, do we think that she's gonna get some Republican votes there?

- I think she will.

The politics are very good for Republicans as well to vote for her.

We'll see.

I don't see her getting McConnell's vote but I think she gets a handful of Republicans.

- Well, thank you so much.

We'll have to leave it there tonight.

Thank you to Leigh Ann, Weijia, and Jeff for joining us and for sharing your reporting.

We'll continue our conversation on the Washington Week Extra.

This week's topic, the 10 year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin and police reform.

Find it on our website, Facebook, and YouTube.

And tune in Monday to the PBS News Hour for the latest on Russia's unrelenting war against Ukraine.

And finally, we wanna share this moving video of a man playing the piano to welcome Ukrainian refugees to Poland.

(people chattering) (soft piano music) Thank you so much for joining us, goodnight from Washington.