WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:03.360 JUDY WOODRUFF: President Biden is in Poland today meeting with a key 00:03.360 --> 00:08.360 NATO ally that shares borders with both Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Biden ends his night in Warsaw, 00:10.720 --> 00:15.680 ahead of what the White House calls a major address tomorrow in the Polish capital. 00:15.680 --> 00:20.680 Meantime, in Ukraine, the horrific toll of a Russian airstrike on a theater in the south 00:21.600 --> 00:24.240 came into sharper and terrible focus. 00:24.240 --> 00:29.240 But our Jane Ferguson again begins our coverage with the president's visit near the front. 00:29.840 --> 00:31.947 JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Hey, folks, I just came by to say thanks. 00:31.947 --> 00:34.480 JANE FERGUSON: Visiting American troops in Poland, 00:34.480 --> 00:39.480 the president thanked them for defending NATO's borders, but said their mission was bigger. 00:39.840 --> 00:44.240 JOE BIDEN: Who is going to prevail? Are democracies going to prevail and 00:44.240 --> 00:49.240 the values we share, or are autocracies going to prevail? And that's really what's at stake. 00:50.640 --> 00:54.240 So what you're doing is consequential, really consequential. 00:54.240 --> 00:57.920 JANE FERGUSON: Mr. Biden also thanked his Polish hosts for welcoming more 00:57.920 --> 01:02.920 than 2.2 million refugees, the most of any country neighboring Ukraine. 01:03.040 --> 01:07.280 JOE BIDEN: The suffering that's taking place now is at your doorstep. You're 01:07.280 --> 01:12.280 the ones who are risking, in some cases, your lives and risking all you know to try to help. 01:12.640 --> 01:17.640 JANE FERGUSON: The president also announced more natural gas exports to Europe, at least 15 billion 01:18.240 --> 01:23.240 cubic meters. The E.U. buys more than a quarter of its oil and nearly half its gas from Russia. 01:23.920 --> 01:28.920 JOE BIDEN: Putin has issued Russia's energy resources to coerce and manipulate its 01:28.960 --> 01:33.840 neighbors. That's how he's used it. He's used the profits to drive his war machine. 01:33.840 --> 01:38.840 JANE FERGUSON: To punish the West over sanctions, President Vladimir Putin asked that Russian gas 01:39.280 --> 01:44.280 exports be paid in rubles, sending European gas prices soaring. The E.U. called it blackmail, 01:46.080 --> 01:50.000 but member nations remain divided over a Russian oil and gas embargo. 01:52.960 --> 01:57.960 Nearly 2,000 miles away, in the southern city of Mariupol, civilians remain besieged, bombarded, 01:59.600 --> 02:03.840 and now, according to officials, starving to death, as food runs out. 02:06.880 --> 02:11.200 For the first time, video emerged from inside a landmark theater, 02:11.200 --> 02:15.600 showing survivors in shock after a deliberate Russian airstrike. 02:15.600 --> 02:20.600 Following a week spent searching the wreckage, local officials said 300 victims died. 02:22.160 --> 02:26.480 For the first time in days, Russia agreed to two humanitarian corridors, 02:26.480 --> 02:31.480 including one from Mariupol. But inside the city, hundreds of thousands remain trapped. 02:31.760 --> 02:36.760 In this open air prison, they dig graves by the roadside. Viktoria's stepfather was 02:36.800 --> 02:41.800 killed two weeks ago. Until now, the cold weather made the soil too hard to bury him. 02:42.400 --> 02:45.600 VIKTORIA, Mariupol Resident (through translator): 02:45.600 --> 02:50.600 When the doctor was taking our stepfather to the hospital, this guy took a seat in the car, 02:51.120 --> 02:56.000 instead of me. And they blew them up in this car. It could have been me. 02:56.000 --> 03:01.000 JANE FERGUSON: Ukraine says Russia is distributing aid in parts of the city it seized, 03:01.280 --> 03:03.840 but, for many, it's not enough to stay alive. 03:03.840 --> 03:08.840 ALEXANDRA, Mariupol Resident: My husband didn't make it to receive humanitarian aid. 03:09.280 --> 03:14.280 He had diabetes. The scarce diet of the last days led him to coma, and he died. 03:14.800 --> 03:18.000 JANE FERGUSON: A senior U.S. defense official said today 03:18.000 --> 03:22.880 Russia is focusing its military objectives in the eastern Donbass region. The official 03:22.880 --> 03:27.880 said Russian forces don't want to pursue Kyiv aggressively and are taking defensive positions. 03:28.640 --> 03:31.458 A Russian official suggested that was always the plan. 03:31.458 --> 03:35.600 SERGEI RUDSKOI, Head of Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate (through translator): 03:35.600 --> 03:39.760 The main objectives of the first stage of the operation have generally been accomplished. 03:39.760 --> 03:44.400 The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes 03:44.400 --> 03:49.360 it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbass. 03:49.360 --> 03:54.360 JANE FERGUSON: But, for now, there are still cross-country attacks. 03:55.040 --> 04:00.040 In Kharkiv, there were explosions near a humanitarian distribution site. To the north, 04:00.400 --> 04:05.400 the city of Chernihiv is all but cut off, losing its main road bridge in an airstrike this week. 04:09.600 --> 04:14.080 A day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for global demonstrations, 04:14.080 --> 04:19.080 European capitals overflowed with Ukrainian flags and many Ukrainian people. 04:19.120 --> 04:21.120 OLANA, Ukrainian Refugee (through translator): Ukraine is my home, 04:21.120 --> 04:24.240 and we want to come back to our home. 04:24.240 --> 04:29.240 JUDY WOODRUFF: And Jane joins us now from Poland. 04:29.280 --> 04:32.080 Jane, so tell us more about this announcement from the Russian 04:32.800 --> 04:35.760 military. Is this a climb-down on their part? 04:35.760 --> 04:40.080 JANE FERGUSON: Judy, there is potential in that. 04:40.080 --> 04:45.080 We have seen them coming out with all of niece statements today talking about how, first of all, 04:46.000 --> 04:51.000 the first phase of this military operation, the special military operation, as they call it -- 04:52.120 --> 04:56.880 they refuse to call it a war -- has been -- quote, unquote -- "successful" or completed by them. 04:56.880 --> 04:57.920 They have said that they have 04:58.560 --> 05:03.560 decimated or massively reduced the capabilities of the Ukrainian military. We know that's not true, 05:05.760 --> 05:10.760 that they will be moving on to phase two, which would be shoring up or supporting 05:10.800 --> 05:15.800 the Donbass region in the far east. That's the restive separatist part of the country. 05:16.480 --> 05:21.480 Now, it is -- there is hope that this could be an indicator that Putin is trying to find 05:23.200 --> 05:27.120 some sort of off-ramp to save face. He has to answer 05:27.120 --> 05:32.120 to the Russian people for the potentially 15,000 soldiers, Russian soldiers, that are believed 05:33.440 --> 05:38.240 to have been killed in this fighting and for the fact that they couldn't take Kyiv. 05:38.240 --> 05:43.240 We know from intelligence reports that the initial plan was to try to decapitate the government in 05:45.520 --> 05:50.520 Kyiv and replace it with a more Russian-friendly one, that they had much broader plans and 05:51.200 --> 05:56.200 ambitions. They invaded this country from many different angles and different positions. 05:57.200 --> 06:02.200 So this -- there's a possibility that this could be an attempt to start a narrative which saves 06:04.160 --> 06:08.560 face. But don't forget, this is coming from the Russian military. We have heard 06:08.560 --> 06:11.120 no such words from Putin himself yet. 06:11.120 --> 06:16.120 JUDY WOODRUFF: So it might be too optimistic to think it is a climb-down. 06:16.160 --> 06:19.840 So, Jane, what then are thought to be Putin's other options here? 06:19.840 --> 06:24.840 JANE FERGUSON: You're right. It could be too optimistic. We have seen word saying that 06:26.800 --> 06:31.800 this -- that they're changing tack, but we're also seeing attacks on cities. Those could continue. 06:32.480 --> 06:36.560 Putin still has -- he may not be able to send his troops into those cities to take them 06:36.560 --> 06:41.560 over. But he still has missiles and airstrikes that he can continue to bombard cities with. 06:43.440 --> 06:48.440 President Biden has also raised again several times now the possibility that 06:49.760 --> 06:52.240 Putin could use biological or chemical weapons. 06:52.240 --> 06:57.240 And, of course, Russia is a nuclear power. So, for now, although these words might be 06:58.800 --> 07:03.800 encouraging for some, there's still so -- there's still the other options, deadlier options, 07:04.400 --> 07:08.000 that Biden (sic) could choose to use in the coming weeks and months. 07:08.000 --> 07:13.000 JUDY WOODRUFF: So grim that -- to think what Vladimir Putin could do. 07:13.360 --> 07:15.840 Jane Ferguson joining us tonight from Poland. 07:15.840 --> 07:16.640 Thank you, Jane. 07:18.400 --> 07:21.520 And the "NewsHour"s coverage of the Russian invasion is 07:21.520 --> 07:24.160 supported in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.