Russia's economic relationship with China soon to suffer: Sen. Roy Blunt
Republican Missouri senator discusses the future of Russia's relationship with China on 'Your World.'
This is a rush transcript of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on March 10, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Well, if you thought after yesterday's attack called that hospital in Ukraine that the Russians would be easing up a little bit, more like ramping up, the attacks continuing, and also affecting areas where there are a lot of civilians.
And the Russians, by the way, continue to defend that deadly hospital strikes, saying it wasn't deliberate, but it precedes attacks on at least 18 other hospitals prior. The World Health Organization, like many of our guests, are saying that might be a conservative number of hospitals.
But between that and ongoing power outages at the old Chernobyl nuclear plant, that the Russians came with 1,500 feet of taking out the reactor, add to the worry that the longer this drags on the more desperate and evil Vladimir Putin gets.
Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto. And this is "Your World" on top of fast-moving developments, including reaction from NATO allies and exactly what we plan to do now with an aid package that is meant to get emergency aid to the Ukrainians ASAP, but ASAP for the Ukrainians is like right now. And a lot of that isn't going to happen right now.
We have got your covered with Trey Yingst in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jennifer Griffin with a read from the Pentagon.
We begin with Trey -- Trey.
TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Neil, good afternoon.
The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv continues to brace for a Russian ground invasion. Over the past 24 hours, we have seen explosions on the horizon, seen Ukraine's anti-aircraft system in play, and also air raid sirens sounding throughout the capital city. The war is getting closer and closer to this city with a population of nearly three million people, though the mayor of Kyiv, he says, today, about half of the city's residents have left since the war began.
Staying in the city is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke directly to Russian soldiers who invaded his country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They want us to feel like animals because they blocked our cities, the biggest cities in Ukraine. And they blocked -- and because they don't want our people to get some food, water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YINGST: We have a sad update about the Russian strike yesterday against a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol.
Officials say three people were killed, including one child. At least 17 others were wounded in that attack. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has called the attack a war crime. And as you can see from that video, there is indeed evidence that a crime was committed against a civilian population in the southern city.
The deputy mayor of Mariupol detailed other disturbing actions by the Russian since the invasion began, saying more than 1,200 people have been killed, with dozens buried in mass graves. With no time to bury the dead, these lifeless bodies are just thrown into the ground. It's gut-wrenching, but it's a reminder of the brutality being inflicted on the civilian population here.
This comes as Vice President Kamala Harris spoke today alongside the president of Poland. And she really made clear the Biden administration does support an investigation into war crimes. She also discussed the growing humanitarian situation in Ukraine and in neighboring Poland, understanding they will need a lot of aid in the coming days and weeks -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Trey, thank you very much.
Now the question is, what kind of aid will be forthcoming, and how soon will it be coming?
Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon with much more on that and how the Ukrainians are digesting all of this -- Jennifer.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Neil, we have just heard from a senior U.S. defense official that weapons, NATO weapons ,continued flowing across the border into Ukraine today.
But at today's Senate Intelligence worldwide threats hearing, the nation's top intelligence officials spoke about the U.S. decision not to accept the MiGs from Poland to send to Ukraine. U.S. officials that I speak to say the MiG-29 is not what the Ukrainians need right now. There are other weapons proving much more effective. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Could you explain, as an intelligence officer, how Vladimir Putin might be A-OK with us transferring missiles that turn their tanks into burning piles of rubbish or shoot their jets out of the sky, yet transferring tactical aircraft is going to be unacceptable?
SCOTT BERRIER, DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: I think, in our view, that escalation ladder doesn't get checked higher with those weapons vs. something like combat aircraft.
AVRIL HAINES, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I think we're in a very challenging position, right, where we are obviously providing enormous amounts of support to the Ukrainians, as we should and need to do, but, at the same time, trying not to escalate the conflict into a full-on NATO or U.S. war with Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Here's the statement released last night by General Tod Wolters, the head of U.S. European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander -- quote -- "Adding aircraft to the Ukrainian inventory is unlikely to change the effectiveness of the Ukrainian air force relative to Russian capabilities. Therefore, we assess that the overall gain is low."
Take a look at this extraordinary scene of Ukraine's forces ambushing a column of Russian tanks about 14 miles northeast of the capital, Kyiv, using shoulder-fired weapons. Also, remember, NATO ally Turkey sold armed drones to Ukraine and delivered them just before the Russian invasion, much to Moscow's dismay.
These drones have been very effective. The way that the Ukrainian armed forces have organized themselves with the anti-tank Javelins and kept their air defenses intact, so Russia cannot for the most part use its air force has been the biggest factor so far in stopping the Russian military.
The MiGs, I'm told, Neil, have not necessarily been maintained and would require some work. Remember, Ukraine still has most of its warplanes intact, several squadrons, I'm told. If Poland wants to provide the MiGs to Ukraine, U.S. -- the U.S. will not stand in its way. A senior U.S. defense official told us moments ago NATO allies are planning to send more sophisticated air defense systems to Ukraine -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Jennifer, could you clarify for me, chemical weapons, no chemical weapons, the division that I have heard from some that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use them? Do we know anything more on that?
GRIFFIN: This is a complicated story that's gotten a bit distorted in the retelling of it.
So let me try to explain. There has -- there was concern, because of some reports out of Moscow, some words being stated by a spokesman, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Moscow, about the concern about the U.S. and Ukraine using biological or chemical weapons.
What intelligence officials here in the U.S. have said is, that is an old Russian play to say something that, in fact, they are planning to do. So what those intelligence officials have said is, we need to be on the lookout for this. Remember, the Russians have allowed forces to use chemical weapons in Syria.
So there is a great deal of tension right now, as Russian forces face conventional problems on the ground, those tank columns getting blown up. The concern by U.S. officials is that Putin will go to more dramatic means of killing civilians, whether it's bio or chem weapons or using a nuclear weapon, God forbid. He has 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons in his arsenal, and a doctrine that says that you can use them on the battlefield.
So that's the concern. There's no evidence right now that any chemical weapons are being moved into Ukraine. But there's also a lot of Russian disinformation about trying to blame the U.S. and Ukraine for having those weapons. That is not true. And that is Russian disinformation.
CAVUTO: Got it.
Jennifer, thank you so much. I just wanted some clarification on that, because I was confused.
Jennifer Griffin, thank you.
To General Jack Keane on this development.
General, you probably heard Jennifer there, this idea, however unusual, it seems, that Vladimir Putin could resort to chemical weapons. Would he? Do you think he would?
JACK KEANE, FOX NEWS SENIOR STRATEGIC ANALYST: Well, if he does, I mean, he's just changed the whole war.
I mean, NATO will have to get involved in the war if he's using chemical weapons. I cannot imagine us standing by and letting that happen. After all, we did respond when Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons twice during the Trump administration. We failed to respond during the Biden administration.
And I think if he -- for the life of me, I don't know why we're letting Putin put fear in us, when we should be putting fear in Putin by that -- we're not -- we're not moving the fighters into Ukraine. Why? Because we fear Putin may escalate.
We should be telling him unequivocally what our concerns are, and drive this thing in the right direction. Certainly, the world is not going to tolerate the use of chemical weapons or nuclear weapons, for that matter.
And I cannot fathom the thought that Putin, who is struggling here way beyond anything thing he imagined -- his forces are two weeks in here, and they still haven't taken a major city. And they have -- by anybody's definition now, they're starting to experience heavy casualties.
That somehow he would -- he would ignite chemical weapons, and involve NATO in a war that he's struggling with in one country, much less deal with 30 countries who outnumber him four to five to one, makes -- doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I don't know what we're afraid of, to be frank about it, Neil.
CAVUTO: So, General, what you're saying, though, is chemical weapons, the use of chemical weapons, would change everything. NATO would invariably get involved at that point. It doesn't have to be like a air zone thing or using the airspace, that this -- that alone would be a catalyst to get NATO involved?
KEANE: Absolutely.
And, clearly, Putin should know that, if we tell him privately or we tell him tell him publicly, and stop this brinksmanship that he's doing.
He's -- listen, I think Putin -- after all the great work the administration has done, Neil, to get unification with NATO, and that NATO is actually strengthening itself as a result of it, and was displaying the best unity I have seen in 20-plus years, and then we make this lame decision not to give the Ukrainians 24 fighters because, somehow, that is going to escalate the war, I mean, that is Putin putting fear in us.
And it's lame, as far as I'm concerned. And I think we have to show a little bit more spine in standing up to this guy. And yes..
CAVUTO: General, but let me ask you about that.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Go ahead. Finish it.
KEANE: When we're weak like that, Neil, when we're -- let me just finish the point.
When we're weak like that, when we show that we're intimidated because likely somebody in Russia said that's going to be an act of war if you do something like that, they probably told the Poles that, when we're intimidated like that, what does that really invite? It invites more intimidation and coercion.
It puts the -- it makes the situation actually more dangerous, because you he take, what, the next step, possibly chemical weapons, because he thinks NATO won't respond? That's what a weakness sounds like. And it makes the situation more grave.
CAVUTO: So, General, let me ask you this.
There's been growing questions about the ineptitude of this invasion on the part of the Russians. We're a little more than two weeks in. Some quibble as to whether that is -- we're just impatient or whatever.
But there's an interesting item in Bloomberg News today talking about Russian prowess being called into question. And they quote a defense analyst, General, who says: "There are at least some areas that give serious cause for a recalibration of assumptions about Russian capabilities."
It goes on to say: "The operational training issues are longer term. If they're having the same problems as 14 years ago, and they have not been able to make any real improvement, then there's reason to suspect this is something they cannot do within the current political system."
In other words, they're not the terrifying military force maybe the world feared, and maybe they're showing that every day in Ukraine. What do you think?
KEANE: Well, I think Putin had that on -- in his mind. He was going to showcase a professionalized military. After crushing Ukraine, he would use the intimidation of that to further his goals.
What he's actually showing us here is an organization that is fundamentally flawed. They have leadership issues. They are very centralized. There's no flexibility at the tactical level. People at the senior level of calling all the shots. They have organizational capability problems.
And then this is a combined arms fight that they're in. And the basic functions, they're failing at all three. One is, you have to have reconnaissance. Where is the enemy? Send a reconnaissance unit forward to identify where the enemy is, aerial, ground reconnaissance. Not effective.
Combined arms main body moving down a road. You see that road there that we all saw? If you're moving down that road with tanks, there is danger area on both sides building. Where is the infantry out protecting those tanks going down the road, if you have to be on the road? I wouldn't want to be on that road to begin with.
And then their logistics are all fouled up. They're not protecting their logistics, and they're not timely enough sustain the main body and the reconnaissance units that are forward of them. These are the major functions of a combined arms army on the move, and they are failing at all three of those major functions.
CAVUTO: General, really interesting, because this growing impression that they are a mighty force is now being called into question as well in what they do from here.
KEANE: Yes.
CAVUTO: But that could also mean more desperate measures on their part.
We're watching closely. General, thank you very, very much.
Well, we do know the fallout for the rest of the world. We know sanctions are coming for Russia. And the hit is very real for us and the rest of the world, gas lines that are popping up everywhere again. It's almost like that great '70s feeling, but no one wants this particular '70s show -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, welcome back.
Well, high energy prices are back. They did a dip a little bit today. And the markets recouped a little bit today, but not enough to erase the very fact of life that we're revisiting the 1970s with gas lines popping up in a lot of places.
First to Peter Doocy at the White House, how the administration is explaining all of that -- Peter.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Neil, even though this is the third month in a row that inflation has been at a 40-year high, officials here at the building behind me are blaming the rising prices on Putin.
The president's got a statement out. He says: "Today's inflation report is a reminder that Americans' budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin's price hike."
Today's statement does not mention the pandemic anywhere, which was all over January's statement about this, and the president's promise at the time to lower the prices Americans have faced from the global problem of inflation related to the pandemic.
Gas up 38 percent since last year, fuel oil up 43.6 percent since last year, neither one of those figures is fully factoring in the disruption caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago. So ,I asked the press secretary today to try to help us make sense of all this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOOCY: Inflation goes up today. The president's statement blames the Putin price hike. Are you guys just going to start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, we have seen the price of gas go up at least 75 cents since President Putin lined up troops on the border of Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOOCY: We just saw the president meeting with the president of Colombia. They were talking about regional issues, and also just very brief comments on Ukraine. The president said he doesn't think Ukraine is ever going to be a victory for Putin.
Later on this evening, the president will motorcade across town to attend a fund-raiser benefiting the DNC -- Neil.
CAVUTO: I'm sure the Colombian president not too keen on the president's overtures to Venezuela for oil. That's a separate matter.
Peter, great job, as always, my friend, Peter Doocy.
Now to Madison Alworth in Clifton, New Jersey, with how, well, drivers are trying to deal with these higher prices -- Madison.
MADISON ALWORTH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, they're trying to deal with it by finding the cheapest gas possible. It's leading people to places like Costco and Sam's Club to get that discount gas.
These places are membership stores, but they offer a discount to their customers, the Costco that I'm at here selling gas for $4.14. That is well below the national average of $4.32 per gallon.
And we're in New Jersey. The state average for regular gas is $4.38. All of that means that people are willing to wait in long lines to get to this gas station. So, taking a look at these lines, Neil, I have been here since 9:00 a.m. this morning. It has never been less than 50 cars waiting to fill up here.
We have actually seen three oil tankers come through and refill over the course of the day. People are willing to wait because of that spike that we have really seen. Normally ,if you go to Costco or Sam's Club, you're used to seeing these kind of lines on the weekend.
But with the skyrocketing price, people are making getting gas here during the week even a priority.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLOS HUERTAS, GAS CUSTOMER: It's not fair. We have to pay for more. And we don't make enough, in some instances, to be able to afford. Some things have to be cut in order to make the gas.
When I know I'm running a little lower, and I have to make the money last, I will come to Costco, and I will try to get everything here in one shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALWORTH: So, Carlos, who you just heard from, like he said, some -- something has to be cut to make the gas.
He was telling me after that that his approach is, he comes here, fills up his gas first, and then whatever he has left in his budget after filling the tank is what he then uses to go inside and buy food.
And that's the approach Americans have to take right now; 60 percent of drivers said that they would change their driving habits if the price rose above $4 a gallon. And, well, we are way over that. Some of these drivers here at this Costco have been waiting over 30 minutes to fill up. But it's not a surprise that people are willing to wait, when you consider that gas is up around 60 cents from just a week ago and up a $1.50 from a year ago.
Now, you do obviously have to get a membership to be able to afford -- or to be able to buy this gas. I ran the numbers for you though, Neil. So a membership at Costco is $60. If you have a small car, that's about 17 trips to this pump to make up the cost of $60. A lot of the people I spoke to, they get the membership for the bulk deals. Who doesn't love a pound of peanut butter?
But they say now this gas benefit is really valuable at this time -- Neil.
CAVUTO: I could see that.
Madison, thank you very, very much.
All right, well, I want to go to my buddy Phil Flynn, who follows this very, very closely.
Phil, I'm old enough, maybe you are, to remember gas lines in the '70s, odd, even, days when you could go ahead and fill up your tank. Are we heading back to that?
PHIL FLYNN, FOX BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR: I think we could, Neil.
And, yes, I am old enough to remember them. I think I was in a high chair at the time. But that's beside the point.
CAVUTO: Go ahead. Go ahead.
FLYNN: Yes, we definitely...
(LAUGHTER)
FLYNN: Definitely, yes, make no mistake about it. We're looking at this right now. Gas lines could be back. We're seeing record high prices.
In fact, the only reason we got to break in oil prices today was because Vladimir Putin said that he would be more than graciously selling oil to unfriendly countries and fulfilling contracts. I guess that happens when you need cash. You will continue to sell oil.
Still, a lot of people don't trust him. If Putin pulls the oil weapon, Neil, we could see these prices go up at least another dollar a gallon. So let's hope and pray that doesn't happen as well.
CAVUTO: You know, sometimes, higher prices can lead to a slowdown in economies, and all of a sudden that run-up can run down. And you don't like the reason it runs down, because we enter potentially a global recession.
But where do you see this all going?
FLYNN: Every major recession in history has been preceded by a price spike in oil, in gasoline.
And I'm afraid that if supplies get cut off from Russia, that's the only way we're going to stop this price increase. There were a lot of steps that the Biden administration could have taken early in their administration to avoid this scenario. They could have opened up the taps, had the Keystone pipeline up and running, instead of discouraging energy production, encouraging energy production.
But that hasn't happened. And so now it's almost too late to turn back the clock. It can be done, but we're going to have to change policies immediately to cool off these red hot prices, or I'm afraid that the high prices are going to go up until they break the camel's back.
CAVUTO: Phil Flynn, thank you, I think.
In the meantime, some good news, just before we take a break here, if you're a baseball fan. The Major League owners and players have indeed reached a tentative labor deal, clearing the way for the start of spring training and the start of the baseball season itself, albeit two weeks later than was originally supposed to be the case.
So, play ball. There is that.
More after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: We're just learning that the Treasury plans some actions against North Korea over recent ballistic missile tests.
Apparently, two of those missile launches were the long-range ICBM type. That's a big no-no and a big worry. Treasury says they're going to be punished.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, the Ukrainians say what you're witnessing here is the deliberate targeting of just average folks, the average man and woman on the street, even when you go after maternity hospitals and the rest. They are saying this is a deliberate targeted attack.
Inna Sovsun joins us right now, a Ukrainian Parliament member.
Inna, these attacks are getting more sweeping. In Mariupol alone, what we have learned is that they're back to doing it again after the horrors of yesterday and trying to take out this hospital, 18th time we have seen a hospital targeted. That doesn't seem to be accidental. What do you make of it?
INNA SOVSUN, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Oh, it's in no way accidental.
We actually do know and we are fully aware that the Russian army now realizes it cannot really fight against the Ukrainian army, given that the Ukrainian army is -- actually turned out to be so much stronger than the Russian army on the ground. And that is why they have given direct orders to target civilians.
That is what we are seeing with the emigration corridors. They have been specifically targeting people trying to escape from -- for -- running for their lives. And those were mainly children and families with children or with older people, disabled people. They were specifically targeting them.
I read this report by a man who said that he was trying to escape with his family. And then he saw a bomb going into his direction. And then he saw two of his children up in the air, and then both died. And then his wife was wounded. And she died a couple hours later.
And that is what they're doing, that they're specifically doing. They're targeting the civilians. And then this -- yesterday's attack on the hospital, well, we heard this incomprehensible, unthinkable lie on the side of the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Lavrov, claiming that there were some Nazi groups or whatever in that hospital.
But I believe the whole world did see the pictures of pregnant women trying to escape from that building after it was bombarded from air by Russians. They're doing it on purpose. They're doing it in order to threaten, and they're doing it with a clear message, which they will continue to be doing that, unless someone is stopping us.
CAVUTO: You know, as you're probably aware, a fourth round of peace talks frittered away. There was no real achievements. They're talking again about trying this for a fifth time.
But your fellow Ukrainians are saying that the Russians simply don't keep their word and that their demands are so over the top, for example, that Ukraine must go ahead and surrender to Russian control, that they're bound to go nowhere.
Do Ukrainians hope that that posture changes, or they have just given up, that the peace talks are more a mirage than anything else?
SOVSUN: Well, the peace talks are there.
But let's be honest, there is very little room for compromise, because, as the situation is, it's the following. The Russians want us dead, and we want to stay alive. There is no real compromise on those. You can either be dead or alive. There is very little room for debating about that.
So, no, we are extremely skeptical about them, potential talks in the future, and particularly because the Russians are putting demands that are just unthinkable. They want us to surrender, which is making no sense, just because, to begin with, we are fighting for our country. It's not possible for someone to say that, oh, you just have to surrender because we have come here and we have bombarded your cities, so now you have to do what we tell you to do.
That is not acceptable to us. And that shouldn't be acceptable to the world community overall, actually, and then also, because the Ukrainian army is actually winning on the ground, despite the Russians did make some progress towards the biggest cities, still, for Kyiv or Kharkiv, and, of course, they're holding a blockade of Mariupol.
But they're not really able to proceed any further, because the Ukrainian army is actually fighting back very, very hard. And just yesterday evening, we did have a very, well, good evening for the Ukrainian army, because they pushed Russians further on the northeast of Kyiv.
So, of course, those talks are there, but the Russians are just -- yes, the demands there they are announcing are unthinkable. And, also, it's -- it makes no sense to make a deal with people who are just liars. Whenever a Russian official is opening up his or her mouth, they are about to tell a lie.
So, making deals with people who are just lying all the time is just making no sense.
CAVUTO: Well, be safe.
Obviously, the troops continue surrounding Kyiv. Obviously, they're running into significant resistance, so that's probably because of your attitude and your compatriots' attitude. Hang in there, Inna Sovsun, the Ukrainian Parliament member, like so many others, virtually the entire Parliament, staying behind to put up the good fight.
Meanwhile, that good fight requires a lot of good supplies, and critical ones, at that, and the sooner, the better.
For that, we go to Nate Foy on how that process is going.
Hey, Nate.
NATE FOY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, help is coming from here in the states.
A couple in Barrington, Illinois, sending relief directly to Ukrainian soldiers and doctors. We're talking basic supplies, like helmets, body armor and first aid kits. I also spoke with the deputy commander of the territorial defense force. Listen to his stark admission about how much help they need.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The helmets and body armor are strictly limited. We have approximately 30 percent of what their staff needed.
FOY (voice-over): Five thousand miles away in Barrington, Illinois, Nick Nagorski and Yana German are trying to help.
NICK NAGORSKI, VOLUNTEER: The focus right now is foreign medical supplies and some protection for soldier for territorial defense.
FOY: Nick's brother is a part of Ukraine's defense force.
NAGORSKI: After one or two day of shock, we -- of course, I called my parents. I called my brother just to figure it out, like, what their situation is. And what do they -- what kind of help do they need?
FOY: So far, Nick and Yana have raised $18,000 for supplies and spent over $10,000 of their own money, their donations for soldiers and injured civilians.
YANA GERMAN, VOLUNTEER: So, any basic things that we can send, we do, so like gauzes, like first aid, medical first aid kit, not just the regular bandage.
NAGORSKI: Yes, trauma kits.
GERMAN: Trauma kits.
FOY: The most difficult part is getting supplies through Russian forces.
NAGORSKI: If they are in the green zone, we are able to send directly to their address.
GERMAN: Yes.
NAGORSKI: If they're not, we're trying to coordinate and have people picking it up from donation center or from wherever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOY: The people receiving deliveries in so-called red zones are literally risking their lives to get those supplies.
As for Colonel Fedyuk (ph), he tells me he has no doubt Ukraine will win this war. But he says supplies are needed to push the Russians back -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Nate, thank you very much, Nate Foy.
So many Americans are interested in helping out any way they can. And the proof is what's been happening at FOX Corporation with our fund to try to raise money to do just that.
Already, more than $2.5 million in current contributions. And just keeping track of it., it's specifically $2,518, 631. Close to 16,000 individual contributions have come in since FOX Corporation launched this. As if we needed any reminders about the generosity of Americans, this proves it.
We will have more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VITALI KLITSCHKO, MAYOR OF KYIV, UKRAINE: We are determined to defend our home. This is our home. And there is nothing that possibly can stop us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, the Klitschko brothers, big boxers, a heavyweight champion in there, a former heavyweight champion, but fighting the good fight here, and a much more dangerous, life-and-death fight in Ukraine, to protect the country and stop those Russian soldiers.
General Ben Hodges with us right now, the former U.S. Army commander.
Commander, great to have you. There's no doubting the will of the Ukrainian people, putting their own lives on the line to stop this. But they're vastly outnumbered. Then again, signs that the Russians, even with all those advantages, are stumbling a lot. Where do you think this whole thing stands?
GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), FORMER U.S. ARMY EUROPE COMMANDER: Neil, I had the chance to meet Mayor Klitschko a couple of times. When I shook his hand, you can be sure his hand swallowed mine. That's a tough guy.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Well, you don't want to step into the ring with him, right?
Now, go ahead.
HODGES: No, even though he's retired.
(LAUGHTER)
HODGES: Look, actually, the Ukrainians are not vastly outnumbered. The number of soldiers in the Ukrainian armed forces, plus their territorial forces, outnumbers what Russia has brought to the fight.
About 50 percent of Russia's overall combat power from the entire army is already committed to this fight. And, of course, as you know, there's a huge difference between big numbers and quality.
And what we're discovering is that Russian armed forces are not nearly as good as we thought they were. Certainly, I overestimated their capability. They don't have the -- they don't demonstrate the experience or training that you would expect from a modern force. And they don't have what we have, the secret sauce, which is sergeants, noncommissioned officers, which enforce discipline, make sure people are taking care of the vehicles.
So, what you're seeing are everyday examples of lack of discipline, lack of training, and lack of will. On the other side, Ukrainians have endless heart. And they're defending their homeland. They know the ground. And they have a purpose.
CAVUTO: You know, General, I guess part of the good news is that the great, vaunted Russian army and military does not appear to be this overly intimidating force that so many feared. It's had a lot of problems.
And so you could interpret from that fears that, whatever happens in Ukraine, they spread and go elsewhere, they don't seem ready for prime time for that. Now, conversely, the flip is that that makes a Vladimir Putin more desperate and more inclined to do more lethal, horrific things.
What do you think?
HODGES: Well, for sure, I agree with you here. The Russians have switched their approach to a war of attrition, where they're smashing cities, they're deliberately targeting innocent civilians.
And the whole purpose of this, of course, is to not only just wreck Ukraine as a country, but to put millions of refugees on the road, headed towards Europe, towards Western Europe. This places gigantic pressure on the Zelenskyy government, but also on other governments of Europe and on the United States, because people are watching video every day of these horrible scenes of hospitals and kids and pregnant women and that sort of destruction.
And the Russians, of course, hope that, at some point, somebody will say, OK, for the love of God, please stop this killing, we will do anything. And I think that's what they're aiming for. Fortunately, the West is sticking together. President Zelenskyy, I think, has inspired the entire globe, with his personal courage and leadership, but it's not just him.
For the Russians, they have made a terrible choice. Not only does the whole world -- is the whole world against them, but if you're going to go with an attrition strategy, you have to have unlimited time, unlimited people ,and unlimited resources. They don't have any of those.
The sanctions are going to start taking effect here in the coming weeks and months. So they're going to run out of time. They don't have enough ammunition. None of us has enough ammunition. In wartime, you always consume more ammunition than you ever imagined you would, and especially what the Russians are doing now, expending all of this artillery and rockets on cities.
It consumes a lot. And they can't replace it. And they have a manpower shortage. They are short of people.
CAVUTO: They are, indeed. And it's evidencing itself everyday.
General Ben Hodges, thank you very, very much for that.
We will give you the latest on what's going on in Ukraine. This time, we will be going through Lviv and Mike Tobin and what he's seeing there -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, let's find out what's going on Ukraine right now with heightened attacks seemingly targeted at civilians in Lviv, Ukraine.
That's where you will find Mike Tobin.
Mike, what does it look like there?
MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's quiet tonight.
And one of the things we have seen out here, Neil, is that every Ukrainian civilian with a skill set, with a resource is directing that to the war effort. We have seen people making Molotov cocktails, crafters making camouflage netting for the vehicles. We have seen welders making anti-tank roadblocks.
And don't forget about the young people who are good at hacking computers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOBIN (voice-over): Up the stairway in a Western Ukrainian apartment building live the gremlins in the machine, a cyber militia loosely formed, not funded at all, finding cracks in cybersecurity and attacking Russian Web sites.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are jokes that we are sofa soldiers. We are sitting on our couches and try to fight.
TOBIN: Their methods are not sophisticated. They copy programs that bombard a Web site with requests. When they find a crack in the protections of a server, they send word out to their fellow hackers and pile on until the server crashes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even a lame man could do it at his free time.
TOBIN: Young students, they're eager to get back to their studies. But now, with their nation under attack, every contribution is needed, and crashing servers of an invading country is one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will do it until all -- every soldier of Russia will leave our country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TOBIN: And that young man in the white shirt said their efforts amount to a perfectly good waste of Russian money.
He said every ruble spent getting Web sites back up and running is money that can't be spent on the war machine -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Mike Tobin.
Thank you, Mike, very, very much.
We haven't heard too much out of the Chinese on all of this. We did hear yesterday that said the friendship with Russia is rock-solid. And we have heard that they have been looking to buy some Russian energy and commodities firms, but, beyond that, very, very little out of Beijing.
The significance of that right now with Senator Roy Blunt, who is pressing intelligence officials on what, if anything, they know about China and what it's doing these days.
Senator, good to see you.
I guess we -- there's an understanding in Russia, between it and China, that, as the world closes off markets for Russian oil, the Chinese are there. That won't make up for nearly all the Russian oil that will be frozen in those markets. But should we sanction China or go after China if it were to do that?
SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): Well, I think we have to wait and see on that topic.
But what I asked today I asked Ambassador Burns, the head of the CIA, and I maybe followed up with a couple of other questions on that, is, what's China thinking about this new partnership that they have so publicly entered into with Russia?
And I think there's every reason to believe, while they're there, they're probably there with some regret. And before it's over, the Russians may have some regret. The last time the Russians were counting on the Chinese, the Chinese drove an incredibly hard bargain.
And I think we should anticipate that's likely to happen again. Now, the Chinese are tough bargainers with us, but they're also tough bargainers with anybody they're doing business with, particularly if Russia is in a crisis moment and doesn't have very many other options.
And, quickly, the Western world including us, is eliminating a lot of those options that Russians have, while -- as Mike Tobin was just talking about, while the Ukrainian people are fighting back in every way they can think of, in a way that surprised the world. And I'm sure it surprised Vladimir Putin.
I also suspect it surprised the Chinese, who should be looking at freedom- loving people in Taiwan right now and wondering what they would do if they're attacked in anything similar to this kind of aggressive way.
CAVUTO: All to your point, Senator, I wonder if Russia will come to regret this reliance on China, partnership with China, because if China's scooping up a lot of your firms, and oil and otherwise, Gazprom, and some of the others, you're beholden to the Chinese.
And this co-relationship, whatever you want to call it, takes on a very different form, where Russia takes a backseat to China, and is pretty much on the hook to China.
BLUNT: Well, where Russia's founding -- finding themself right now, they just don't have many options.
The Chinese have lots of options.
CAVUTO: Right.
BLUNT: And I think you're going to have to watch and see what happens here. But my guess is that Russia is not going to be nearly as happy with that economic relationship as they might be with the public relationship.
And we will see. I think what happened was, one, Putin was watching Ukraine become much more focused on the West after the terrible behavior starting in 2014 with Crimea in the western part -- in the eastern part of the country.
Two, I think, after Afghanistan, he thought there was an opportunity here, that we were not the kind of adversary that we might have been in the past. And, three, I think he thought the Chinese would bail him out of sanctions that probably wouldn't approach the sanctions that he's now facing.
So, on all three counts, he's turned out to be pretty dramatically wrong. It doesn't mean the Russians won't eventually, for some period of time, be able to prevail in the military fight. But I don't think they're going to be able to prevail in any kind of real conquest of the Ukrainian people. And the Ukrainian people are showing that every minute of every day, led by President Zelenskyy, who has responded in a way that has to be inspiring to the whole world.
CAVUTO: Senator, we had General Jack Keane here earlier, and on these reports that Russia would even consider using chemical weapons, that that would be a game-changer if it were to come to pass and necessitate NATO getting involved, that this is such a breach, that you have got NATO entirely in this war.
Do you agree that the use of chemical weapons on Vladimir Putin's part, if he were to try it, warrants NATO action?
BLUNT: Well, you would -- you would hope so.
But where Putin is right now, he's indiscriminately, or, even worse, he made maybe targeting some of the most tragic civilian targets, like a maternity hospital and a school. And he is being pretty indiscriminate in who he's attacking now.
And NATO still wonders what we could do beyond what we're doing. Surely -- surely, he wouldn't be willing to cross that line.
CAVUTO: But if he upped the ante, Senator, if he upped the ante with chemical weapons, if he did do that, that would warrant a larger war, that would warrant and justify our getting into this, NATO getting into this?
Then it's a much bigger conflagration, right?
BLUNT: Well, larger war is easy to say. It's a little bit harder to get into.
CAVUTO: Right.
BLUNT: The one thing I know for sure is that all of the recent NATO members should feel more secure about their membership in NATO and what the NATO countries, including us, would do than they might have felt a month ago or two months ago.
And then we'd have to decide collectively at what point, even though we're not a bound ally to Ukraine, like we all are those various neighbors, what would it take? Would it be -- would it be tactical nuclear weapons of some kind used in the field? Would it be biological and chemical weapons?
You would hope that that would involve the world in a new way. But I think Putin should be aware of how much the world has already surprised him and NATO's already surprised him, and be very, very reluctant to get a bigger surprise, no matter what that surprise might be.
CAVUTO: Well, we can all hope and pray it doesn't come to that.
BLUNT: I hope it doesn't come to that.
CAVUTO: Senator Roy Blunt, very good seeing you again, sir.
BLUNT: Great to see you, Neil.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Thank you. Good seeing you, Senator.
BLUNT: You bet.
CAVUTO: I much appreciate that.
By the way, we are hearing dribs and drabs what the Kremlin is thinking on all of this, particularly when it comes all these economic sanctions, again echoing the need for a response that is justified to this economic war.
That is a pitch that we have heard the Russians making to the Russian people, that this is all the evil West thrusting all of these closures and sanctions, and bank issues, and McDonald's leaving and Starbucks leaving. It's not Vladimir Putin. It's the evil West.
Now the question is, are they buying that?
Here's "THE FIVE."
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