JUDY WOODRUFF: President Biden is
in Poland today meeting with a key
NATO ally that shares borders
with both Ukraine and Russia. Mr.
Biden ends his night in Warsaw,
ahead of what the White
House calls a major address
tomorrow in the Polish capital.
Meantime, in Ukraine, the horrific
toll of a Russian airstrike
on a theater in the south
came into sharper and terrible focus.
But our Jane Ferguson again
begins our coverage with the
president's visit near the front.
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States:
Hey, folks, I just came by to say thanks.
JANE FERGUSON: Visiting
American troops in Poland,
the president thanked them for
defending NATO's borders, but
said their mission was bigger.
JOE BIDEN: Who is going to prevail?
Are democracies going to prevail and
the values we share, or are
autocracies going to prevail? And
that's really what's at stake.
So what you're doing is
consequential, really consequential.
JANE FERGUSON: Mr. Biden also thanked
his Polish hosts for welcoming more
than 2.2 million refugees, the most
of any country neighboring Ukraine.
JOE BIDEN: The suffering that's taking
place now is at your doorstep. You're
the ones who are risking, in some
cases, your lives and risking
all you know to try to help.
JANE FERGUSON: The president also
announced more natural gas exports
to Europe, at least 15 billion
cubic meters. The E.U. buys more
than a quarter of its oil and
nearly half its gas from Russia.
JOE BIDEN: Putin has issued
Russia's energy resources
to coerce and manipulate its
neighbors. That's how he's used it. He's
used the profits to drive his war machine.
JANE FERGUSON: To punish the West
over sanctions, President Vladimir
Putin asked that Russian gas
exports be paid in rubles, sending
European gas prices soaring.
The E.U. called it blackmail,
but member nations remain divided
over a Russian oil and gas embargo.
Nearly 2,000 miles away, in the
southern city of Mariupol, civilians
remain besieged, bombarded,
and now, according to officials,
starving to death, as food runs out.
For the first time, video emerged
from inside a landmark theater,
showing survivors in shock after
a deliberate Russian airstrike.
Following a week spent
searching the wreckage, local
officials said 300 victims died.
For the first time in days, Russia
agreed to two humanitarian corridors,
including one from Mariupol.
But inside the city, hundreds
of thousands remain trapped.
In this open air prison, they dig graves
by the roadside. Viktoria's stepfather was
killed two weeks ago. Until
now, the cold weather made
the soil too hard to bury him.
VIKTORIA, Mariupol Resident
(through translator):
When the doctor was taking our
stepfather to the hospital,
this guy took a seat in the car,
instead of me. And they blew them up
in this car. It could have been me.
JANE FERGUSON: Ukraine says
Russia is distributing aid in
parts of the city it seized,
but, for many, it's not
enough to stay alive.
ALEXANDRA, Mariupol Resident:
My husband didn't make it
to receive humanitarian aid.
He had diabetes. The scarce diet of the
last days led him to coma, and he died.
JANE FERGUSON: A senior U.S.
defense official said today
Russia is focusing its military
objectives in the eastern
Donbass region. The official
said Russian forces don't want
to pursue Kyiv aggressively and
are taking defensive positions.
A Russian official suggested
that was always the plan.
SERGEI RUDSKOI, Head of Russian
General Staff's Main Operational
Directorate (through translator):
The main objectives of the first
stage of the operation have
generally been accomplished.
The combat potential of the
armed forces of Ukraine has been
considerably reduced, which makes
it possible to focus our core
efforts on achieving the main
goal, the liberation of Donbass.
JANE FERGUSON: But, for now, there
are still cross-country attacks.
In Kharkiv, there were
explosions near a humanitarian
distribution site. To the north,
the city of Chernihiv is all but
cut off, losing its main road
bridge in an airstrike this week.
A day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
called for global demonstrations,
European capitals overflowed with
Ukrainian flags and many Ukrainian people.
OLANA, Ukrainian Refugee (through
translator): Ukraine is my home,
and we want to come back to our home.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And Jane
joins us now from Poland.
Jane, so tell us more about this
announcement from the Russian
military. Is this a
climb-down on their part?
JANE FERGUSON: Judy, there
is potential in that.
We have seen them coming out with
all of niece statements today
talking about how, first of all,
the first phase of this military
operation, the special military
operation, as they call it --
they refuse to call it a war --
has been -- quote, unquote --
"successful" or completed by them.
They have said that they have
decimated or massively reduced
the capabilities of the Ukrainian
military. We know that's not true,
that they will be moving on to phase two,
which would be shoring up or supporting
the Donbass region in the
far east. That's the restive
separatist part of the country.
Now, it is -- there is hope
that this could be an indicator
that Putin is trying to find
some sort of off-ramp to
save face. He has to answer
to the Russian people for the
potentially 15,000 soldiers,
Russian soldiers, that are believed
to have been killed in this fighting and
for the fact that they couldn't take Kyiv.
We know from intelligence reports
that the initial plan was to try
to decapitate the government in
Kyiv and replace it with a
more Russian-friendly one, that
they had much broader plans and
ambitions. They invaded this
country from many different
angles and different positions.
So this -- there's a possibility
that this could be an attempt
to start a narrative which saves
face. But don't forget, this is coming
from the Russian military. We have heard
no such words from Putin himself yet.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So it might be too
optimistic to think it is a climb-down.
So, Jane, what then are thought
to be Putin's other options here?
JANE FERGUSON: You're right.
It could be too optimistic.
We have seen word saying that
this -- that they're changing
tack, but we're also seeing attacks
on cities. Those could continue.
Putin still has -- he may not
be able to send his troops
into those cities to take them
over. But he still has missiles
and airstrikes that he can
continue to bombard cities with.
President Biden has also raised again
several times now the possibility that
Putin could use biological
or chemical weapons.
And, of course, Russia is a nuclear power.
So, for now, although these words might be
encouraging for some, there's
still so -- there's still the
other options, deadlier options,
that Biden (sic) could choose to
use in the coming weeks and months.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So grim that -- to
think what Vladimir Putin could do.
Jane Ferguson joining
us tonight from Poland.
Thank you, Jane.
And the "NewsHour"s coverage
of the Russian invasion is
supported in partnership
with the Pulitzer Center.