'Your World' on gas prices, Russia sanctions

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California proposes $400 tax rebate to combat high gas prices

Fox News contributor Karl Rove analyzes the root cause of the recent rise of gas prices and California's attempt at relief on 'Your World.'

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," March 24, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: All right, President Biden apparently raising more questions than he answered today in exactly how he will continue to put the pressure on one Vladimir Putin.

He might not have to worry about that for the time being, because it looks like the Ukrainians are, shockingly taking out a Russian warship, the Orsk, surprising many people thought that, well, Ukraine did not add this type of military equipment to do what he did. But he did.

Is that a sign that some of the sophisticated military equipment and aid we have been promising has reached him and he is using it? One month into this conflict and going into the second month of what could be a very divided conflict, growing questions now as to whether it's Ukraine turning the tide, and the president of NATO leaders following his every move.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto, and this is "Your World."

A growing concern about what the president meant when he said what he said about what happens if Vladimir Putin uses chemical weapons. And do sanctions work? And, finally, meeting Ukrainian refugees. Where was he going to meet them? So much to get into, so little time to get into it.

So let's start with Peter Doocy with the president in Brussels -- Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: OK, Neil, the president is building on what he talked about right before he came here to Europe, where he warned about a new world order being formed, because he's giving us new details about a private conversation he had with China's President Xi specifically about teaming up with Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I made no threats, but I made it clear to him that -- make sure he understood the consequences of him helping Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: The U.S. is ready to welcome 100,000 refugees from Ukraine and will put a billion dollars towards helping refugees who want to stay closer to home in Europe.

He is not saying how the U.S. would respond to a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine. He's just saying that it would be a response in kind, and he's changing his story a little bit on financial punishment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Let's get something straight. You remember, if you've covered me from the beginning, I did not say that in fact the sanctions would deter him. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that.

Sanctions never deter. The maintenance of sanctions -- the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain, and the demonstration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: So the president says sanctions don't deter, but the vice president has said sanctions do deter and that's the whole point of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The sanctions has always been and continues to be deterrence.

The allied relationship is such that we have agreed that the deterrence effect of these sanctions is still a meaningful one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: From here in Brussels, the president is off to Poland tomorrow. He has a big hole in his schedule. They haven't told us yet where he's going.

He started to reveal it at that press conference, but then stopped himself and said he's not supposed to say -- Neil.

CAVUTO: What did he mean by that?

DOOCY: Probably just it's a big security and logistical headache if they're going to move him.

He was talking in the context of maybe meeting some of these refugees who could soon be relocated to the United States. And so, most likely, there was just a Secret Service agent giving him the let's not say any more about tomorrow offstage.

CAVUTO: Understood, and that he would meet them, ostensibly, in Poland. That was the understanding, or is it?

DOOCY: Got it.

CAVUTO: All right.

If he had kept it that terse tonight, I think I would understand where he was coming from.

All right, Peter, thank you. Very good reporting, my friend. I appreciate that.

Want to go to Jeff Paul right now in Lviv, Ukraine.

Again, the big development today that caught everyone's eyes, no doubt Vladimir Putin's, is the sinking of a Russian ship. And the Ukrainians did that. That's something that very few thought they had the capability of doing, unless they got their hands on equipment fairly recently to do it.

Jeff, what's the latest on that?

JEFF PAUL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Neil, and we're a month into this invasion. And I got to tell you people here in Ukraine remain defiant.

And they are watching closely what's happening right now with these NATO summits to see if something will happen that will really help tip the scales in their favor. But, as you mentioned, they are also watching two very key military developments that have happened that are really giving a lot of people throughout this country a bit of hope, the first one happening off in the Sea of Azov.

That's where the Ukrainian navy says that they have managed to destroy a Russian ship that was docked at the port of Berdyansk. Now, while there hasn't been any independent verification of this development, videos and pictures posted on social media appear to show a massive fire, followed by multiple explosions.

Now, to the north in Kyiv, we're learning Ukrainian forces are claiming to push Russian troops back in the eastern portion of the city. Previously, Russian forces had attempted to encircle the capital city. However, officials say Russians are digging in, taking a defensive position now, and not gaining any new ground, while Ukrainian forces are fighting them back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALERI VISHTALYUK, UKRAINIAN SOLDIER (through translator): Ukrainians have united as never before, perhaps. This makes me very happy. And the Russians made a big mistake that they went for our country, for our land.

We will bite their throats. It's our homeland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Now, some new numbers from the U.N., saying that around 1,000 civilians have been confirmed to be killed in this war, but they believe that number will likely be much higher -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Jeff Paul, be safe, my friend. Thank you for that update.

With us now is the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor.

Ambassador, thank you for taking the time. I appreciate that.

The president probably left his press conference today and the back-and- forth with reporters with more questions than answers. One, I think, and I wanted to raise with you, Ambassador, was his view if Russia uses chemical weapons. I want you to listen to this and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We would respond. We would respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: "The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use."

Is he saying that, if Putin had limited chemical warfare with the Ukrainians, our response would be limited, or it would not be exactly like that, or -- that, I did not understand. He seemed at a way of measuring just how far you go with chemical weapons. I didn't understand that.

Do you?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: It's a difficult question, Neil. You're exactly right. It's a hard question for anybody to answer.

And I know the government is going through its usual efforts to think through these kinds of options. But there are some examples in the past of what kind of response might be considered.

If the Russians use chemical weapons against Ukrainians, and that is, if they had a chemical weapons unit, then one response would be to use cruise missiles or use some force -- or force that the United States or NATO has to take out that unit.

I mean, that's -- that would be a response that would be proportionate. It would be an appropriate response to the use of chemical weapons. But I understand the hesitancy to be very explicit about exactly what we would do.

People want, the administration wants, NATO wants, decision-makers want, military leaders want options and flexibility. So I can understand them wanting to have that.

CAVUTO: All right, I'm neither that, a military leader or these smart people like yourself who are knee-deep into this stuff and know language, diplospeak and all of that.

But I would assume, Ambassador, that if you're using chemical weapons at all, it's sort of like not being a little bit pregnant. You're pregnant. You're using chemical weapons, and that we would even entertain a measured response to that seems to hold off the possibility, if it isn't sweeping and massive, and it isn't killing tens of thousands, we might have a like response, but certainly not open this up to a NATO war.

Disavow me of that notion.

TAYLOR: No, no, no, I think that's right. I think that's right.

On the one hand, we're not going to use chemical weapons. So there -- so that's one...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: That, I understood. I hope that's right. Right.

TAYLOR: I hope that's right too. No, that -- it's immoral and illegal to use chemical weapons. And we should not respond with immoral, illegal kinds of weapons as well.

But that's why I say a conventional response that takes out that unit, takes out that chemical weapons unit, that would be a response that would make some sense.

CAVUTO: So, does this signal -- I'm sorry to be like a dog with a bone with this, but I'm wondering if he is saying this notion -- and it's been expressed by people like Senator Lindsey Graham, a number of generals who've been on this show -- that Russia using chemical weapons is a game- changer, it automatically gets all of NATO involved, whether you want to call that World War III is anyone's guess, but that it would widen the war, by definition.

The president seems to be signaling not necessarily, depending on how they were used. Does that change or could it change that Vladimir Putin is thinking then?

TAYLOR: It's a good question.

And the right question is, do we give Vladimir Putin all of the veto rights? And the answer should be no. And if we also are somewhat ambiguous, vague, less than specific about what exactly we would do to keep Putin guessing as to what kind of response, that's a good thing too.

I mean, again, obviously, what we want is no use of chemical weapons. Obviously, what we want is no use of biological weapons or radiological -- nuclear weapons. That's what we want. And so it's a deterrent. It continues to be a deterrent.

But we do have options. We do have options, in particular at the biological and chemical weapons, which is what we're talking about right now. We have got conventional options to that that doesn't get us into World War III. It doesn't get us into a NATO-Russia war.

CAVUTO: So, finally, your sense of where this might be going? General Jack Keane was on with Martha MacCallum in the last hour, sir, and indicating that, from what he's hearing, the White House is pushing President Zelenskyy into a settlement or some sort of an agreement, that would, in his eyes, at least ,the general's eyes, rob Zelenskyy of the victory, or at least the edge that he appears to be gaining right now.

And General Keane seemed very worried about it. Are you?

TAYLOR: So I would be worried if there was any indication that anyone, whether it's the Americans or the Europeans or someone, was trying to push President Zelenskyy into doing something that's not in his interest.

President Zelenskyy has done a great job of leading his nation. And he's leading his nation and his nation is leading him. He knows where the Ukrainians are. He knows they will fight, are fighting. They're fighting fiercely. And they will continue to do that. He knows that. He's going to continue to fight fiercely.

And so anybody that pressures him -- let me put it this way. I don't hear anyone pressuring him to do something that's not in his interest. Now, that said, it was very interesting what President Zelenskyy said to the summit today, which was OK, no, NATO. OK, no fly-zone. But I, President Zelenskyy, want a security guarantee from you all.

I want from the Germans and the French and the Brits and the Americans a security guarantee, which is more than what I got when I gave what the Ukrainians got in return for giving up their nuclear weapons back in the '90s. He wants a guarantee, a treaty that says, we will fight with him, we will fight on his side if he's ever attacked in the future.

That is a -- that's a serious issue. And that's what he's asking for. He's not asking for other kinds of pressure. He's not looking to give up at this point. He's ready to fight on and maybe defeat President Putin. Maybe he's ready to defeat the Russian military. And that's a possibility. We should acknowledge that and encourage that and continue to support him, supply him with the weapons he needs to fight against the Russians.

CAVUTO: Well, we abandoned him after that in 2014, right? So he might be of the mind, no matter what President Biden or others are pushing on him, to say, the hell with you. I'm not going to repeat that.

TAYLOR: He might.

But, right now, he sees that he needs both the weapons. He needs the sanctions.

CAVUTO: Right.

TAYLOR: He needs Russia to be weakened by these economic sanctions that are -- that are hammering, that are squeezing the Russians, as they should. He needs the West to be united.

And the administration, the United States has led in this squeeze and has led in this provision of weapons. President Zelenskyy knows that. He wants that to continue.

CAVUTO: Got it.

William Taylor, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

I will be picking General Jerry Boykin's brain on this, what he makes it this as well, in just a few minutes.

In the meantime, some big news in Russia, in that their market kind of reopened today after about a month. I say kind of reopened, because with all sorts of stipulations and preventing foreigners from selling any stocks at all. And then there were the issue of how many stocks really were open for trading.

It was kind of weird, but Susan Li followed it all, has this report for us now.

How did it go, Susan?

SUSAN LI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

Well, very limited reopen, as you mentioned, after being shut for almost a month. That's the longest closure for the stock market there since the fall of the Soviet Union. And, as you can imagine, it was a chaotic, volatile first session back, up 10 percent at its peak, and keeping half of those gains at the end.

But, as you mentioned, you only had 33 stocks to trade, no short-selling, meaning no bets that stocks would fall. And foreign investors weren't allowed to sell any stocks or bonds until April the 1st, at the earliest.

Now, the White House criticizing this Moscow reopen, writing that this is not a real market and not a sustainable model, a Potemkin market opening. And you see that on the streets of Russia. Average Russians are not buying into the Kremlin reassurances that the economy is fine.

You see fear, panic, with store shelves bare. Russians have been stockpiling, fearful that sanctions and a deep economic recession will mean food and product shortages. So, towels, diapers, we have heard pet food, coffee and sugar have been really hard to find, really a throwback to the Soviet era.

And if you thought inflation was bad here, well, Russians are paying much higher prices there, with many global companies pausing or pulling out of Russia. Sugar prices are up 14 percent in a week. You have staples like onions, tomatoes, cabbage, the list goes on, with salt and diapers, all spiking over the past week.

We're talking about seven days here, Neil, and medication now costs 40 percent more, according to one estimate. Many economists are now forecasting a severe recession this year. Russia's GDP might shrink 15 percent and erase 15 years of economic growth by the end of next year -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Very thorough. Thank you for that, Susan Li.

I think what Susan just illustrated is the one thing that many Ukrainians hope will change the behavior of Vladimir Putin, when his folks at home, Russian citizens, pay those sky-high prices. Those increases were just over the last week. They have already got long bank lines, if they get access to their cash at all. Their market is kablooey. Their currency is in rubble, and now they're feeling the pain.

So too maybe down the road, and maybe very soon down the road, Vladimir Putin?

Jerry Boykin is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, a lot more damage in Ukraine today.

President Zelenskyy wasting little time reminding folks that, even though Ukrainian forces were able to take out a Russian battleship, they have still got a battle on their hands on the land. And he's asking for more help.

General Jerry Boykin joins us right now, the former undersecretary of defense, former Delta Force commander, served this country with great honor so many times. And he's here with us.

General, let me first get your take on what we were touching on in the last segment about the pain average Russian citizens are feeling, with food prices just going nuts, if they can get food at all, long lines that banks, if you can get access to cash at all. They might not be hearing the full skinny on what's going on in Ukraine, but they're feeling it.

What do you think of that?

LT. GEN. JERRY BOYKIN (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Yes, I don't think there's any question about that.

But, remember, prior to the wall coming down in '90-'91, they -- that's what they did. That was their way of life. So, for the most part, this is not new. They adapted to it then. They will adapt to it now. But there is no question that it's taking a toll on the average Russian there.

And, obviously, in time, it's going to be a devastating toll.

CAVUTO: In the meantime, General, you probably heard about General Jack Keane was saying. He has pretty high-up sources who've been telling him, we are pushing President Zelenskyy to make a deal or work on an agreement with the Russians.

On the surface, that's something that President Zelenskyy has been pursuing anyway, says that the Russians haven't always honored it. He wants direct talks with Putin, et cetera. But some are troubled by that, that we might be telling him to cut and run, when he's running in favor here, when the momentum is actually moving to his side.

What do you make of all this?

BOYKIN: Yes, the wind is in his sails right now.

If you want to know about trading land for peace, just look at Israel. How has that worked out for Israel? It hasn't. And all they have gotten was more rockets and missiles and more terrorism when they have tried to trade land for peace.

I hope that our administration, I hope that America is not trying to get him to trade land for peace or get him to surrender. He is on the winning side right now. This could go on for a long time. But I have got to tell you, I don't think that -- you had people on your show that said before the Russians came into the cities there in the Ukraine, you had people that said, no, these people are going to fight, and they're going to put up a heck of a good fight.

And I think that they have surpassed the expectations of people like Jack Keane and others that actually said that they were going to fight an incredible battle. That's what they're doing. Don't tell them to give up now. Don't tell them to trade land for peace.

CAVUTO: Yes. And General Jack Keane agrees with you on that notion. Don't do that.

And I'm just wondering, given the experience that no doubt President Zelenskyy can remember long before he became president, about the whole 2014 experience, where promises were made, and then we pulled the rug out from him, not him in particular, but Ukraine, he might feel this country, once burned, is going to be more than twice shy and recoil at the idea of pushing into an agreement with the Russians, won't he?

BOYKIN: Yes, well, that's a piece of history that we can't ignore and we can't deny...

CAVUTO: Yes.

BOYKIN: ... the there was a pledge that they would be protected, that they would have -- they would have top cover if they would simply turn over their nuclear arsenal.

And that has not worked out the way that they were promised. And I, as an American, I'm ashamed of that. I wish that we had not made a pledge like that. And I hope that now we can do something to try and set it right.

CAVUTO: Finally, General, the president said today on this issue of Vladimir Putin using chemical weapons in an attack, it really would depend on the nature of their use.

What did you make of that?

BOYKIN: Yes, I -- look I can't explain it. I think sometimes he says things that are just esoteric. And they -- he knows what he's saying, but it doesn't come out that way.

But I will say this. I listened to Ambassador Taylor before came on here. And I think he's brilliant. And I agree with him on almost everything. But there's one thing that we don't agree on, and that is proportionality.

We cannot set ourselves up for responding with a proportionate response. We need to hammer the Russians, we need to have targets identified right now. And they may not be biological or chemical facilities. They may be something else that is meaningful to the Russians. We need to have that set of targets. And then we add to that, based on what happens.

I think what the president was saying was, if one of these chemical or biological agents drifts across the borders into one of the NATO nations, that that could trigger an Article 5 response.

CAVUTO: You didn't take away from what some might have, that, if it was limited, limited use of chemical weapons, and had limited spread in the country, that it wouldn't be as big a deal to us?

I mean, isn't the use of chemical weapons, no matter how severe the fallout -- that used to be called a red line.

BOYKIN: Well, it's -- first of all, it's against the law. First of all, it's against international law to do that.

And, secondly, one of the things we need to remember is, is that there's very little protection for his own troops. Now, that doesn't mean that he cares about his troops. In fact, he doesn't. Just look at how they're being treated right now and the problems they have.

But I do think that, if it -- if it goes across the border, or if they use it at all, it doesn't matter. We have got to respond. If they have any kind of chemical or biological attack, it doesn't matter if it goes across the border. We have to respond.

And I don't want to sound like a hawk and a warmonger.

CAVUTO: No, I know. I know.

BOYKIN: But we have to take this seriously, because we are seeing the stage being set for what the president is talking about as a new world order.

NATO is unified. Now is the time. If NATO has ever had a moment that it needs to be involved, it is right now and what we see going on.

CAVUTO: General, thank you very much, General Jerry Boykin on these fast- moving developments here.

We want to leave out -- with all this sanction talk here, don't want you to know that we're also targeting Russian gold. They house a lot of it through their Central Bank. It's a little unusual there, but measures being drafted today to prevent that from happening. Gold price has soared on the news, because the Russians own lot of it. And the supply is now limited.

We will have more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, gas prices eating away at you? Well, how about a rebate check?

In California, they're talking up to $400 to help pay the bill. The federal government's thinking of it too. But is that really solving the problem or glossing over the problem?

Karl Rove -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, now what do we do now when we have all of a sudden got gas prices rocketing and they could go still higher?

In California, Governor Newsom is kicking around the idea of a $400 rebate check to Californians just trying to deal with all of that. It's catching on in Washington, where a number of Democrats are pushing a similar measure.

Karl Rove with us right now.

Karl, this is going to come up more and more. And when all is said and done, I would imagine even Republicans will be jumping on board this. But isn't there an easier way to address it?

KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I hope Republicans don't jump aboard it, because, remember, why do we have higher prices for oil and gas -- for gasoline?

Because, first of all, we reducing the supply of oil by making it tougher to drill, more expensive to transport it, putting more regulation top of it to drive up the cost of it. So, the government has adopted for the last year and several months a deliberate policy of driving up energy costs in order to wean us away from hydrocarbons.

And then, second of all, we have been depreciating the currency by borrowing money for spending and borrowing the money from our kids and our grandkids and devaluing the value of our dollar.

So, what are we going to do? We're going to borrow more money from the future in order to give people a rebate on their on gas prices. And in the middle of that, government's going to have -- need to have a lot more people handling distribution of those checks and managing that program and siphoning off some of that money that would go to reduce the lower costs.

This is idiotic. Let's realize that government has driven up the energy prices by doing two bad things, and we shouldn't compound it by doing a third.

CAVUTO: Well, we know that government spending will get inflation going again.

We also know that is, they're doing everything but something that could solve this problem longer term to address the supply-and-demand concern of oil by at least looking at finding more oil here, at least venturing that.

But, instead, we go to Venezuela or Iran, all these other nefarious players...

ROVE: Yes.

CAVUTO: ... when I don't know whether it's a stubborn thing. It's not you're saying you're doing this at the expense of your green energy and what have you, but with it, in conjunction with it.

It defies imagination to keep banging your head against the wall.

ROVE: It really does. It really does.

And remember this. We're about, I think, over a million barrels a day less production in the United States than when -- than in the year before Joe Biden took office. And, second of all, let's think about this. Isn't the whole purpose of green energy to drive up the cost of driving -- using hydrocarbons or using natural gas to fuel your power production and instead rely upon more expensive renewable energy?

The only way that you can make renewable energy work is by driving up artificially the costs of the non-renewable energy sources like natural gas, and driving up the cost of gasoline. So there are lots of things that we could do to reduce the cost of energy, but none of them involve the government taking and sending money back to people.

How are you going to do that equitably? You're going to try and determine - - what about the person who drives their car maybe 10 miles a day vs. the person who drives 40 miles a day? How are you going to -- you going to give each one of them an equal amount of money?

(CROSSTALK)

ROVE: What -- how is that going to work?

CAVUTO: Yes, it's just crazy. It's just crazy.

And then you're getting -- if you're concerned about the environment, and you're picking up dirty oil, really dirty oil from Venezuela...

ROVE: Yes, really dirty oil from Venezuela, no doubt about it.

CAVUTO: ... it doesn't make your point.

All right, thank you, my friend.

ROVE: Yes. You bet.

CAVUTO: Very quickly, when we talk about supply and demand, and this argument of Keystone, whether it's open or closed, the fact is, the markets price oil.

If they see a future supply that will come on, no matter when it is, they will react accordingly. If they don't, then, all of a sudden, well, we have the price situation we have right now.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, time to go to the map and follow exactly where Russian troops are.

So much focus on the sinking of a Russian battleship today that few people will appreciate the fact that, when it comes to what the Russian soldiers are doing on land, they are being deadly affected.

Connell McShane following all of that -- Connell.

CONNELL MCSHANE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: They are, Neil.

It's interesting that the movement there from Russia, we have been saying for weeks that they have been stalled. Now what we're seeing in many areas of Ukraine is that not only are they being stalled by the heavy Ukrainian resistance. In some cases, they're actually being pushed back.

That ship that you talked about earlier this hours down in the southern part of this country. But, overall, around Ukraine, you have about 1,000 miles of front line. And the big-picture view of it here, you don't see it, but these lines haven't moved. They have started to move back a little bit in some areas.

Any place we have marked in blue is essentially where Ukraine is fighting back, or, again, having some -- being effective in doing some.

I'm going to zoom in around the capital city to kind of make that point for you of Kyiv, because we have talked about Irpin, which is a suburb of Kyiv, very heavy fighting, by the way, being reported there in the last few hours once again.

But there are other towns and cities. And Bucha is one. Makariv is certainly one that's come up the last few days. Again, this blue area is where the Ukrainians have claimed a counteroffensive. So, instead of this whole being red, as it may have been a few days ago, the blue is creeping in, meaning Ukraine is actually pushing the Russians back.

John Kirby at the Pentagon talked earlier about how Russia had moved within 20 or 30 kilometers of the capital in some of these areas that you're looking at on the map. But now they have been pushed back 40 or 50 kilometers.

Now, as we go down to the southern part of the country, this is the picture you saw earlier. Jeff Paul was reporting in country about the Ukrainian claim that they have hit this warship off the coast of Ukraine. And that's an area, if you look at it on the map, that the Russians had been in control of, Berdyansk.

Berdyansk is right down here, not far from Mariupol. And this is all an area of Russian control. So what they have been using Berdyansk from -- and it makes sense if you look at it from here -- is for logistical supplies and to get more shipments of supplies into the front lines and supply their troops up here.

When the Ukrainians are able to hit them there, that is obviously going to make that more difficult. So that speaks to the significance of that particular move.

And then finally, Neil, we always end on a look at the refugees. The overall number here is really gotten very close to four million now. Think about it, four million in four weeks. I know the headline today of the United States saying they're going to take in 100,000.

I think the other headline from the United Nations saying that more than half of the children in Ukraine have now been displaced by that war is the other thing that stands out -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Will stunning.

All right, Connell, thank you very much for that.

Well, if you're in harm's way or behind enemy lines, and you're trying to get out of Ukraine, it's next to impossible. I want you to meet the American who went over to Ukraine to tell people in those situation: It's not impossible. I'm here to rescue you. And I'm close.

He's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANEZ JANSA, SLOVENIAN PRIME MINISTER: What's the difference for those people dying now in Mariupol from the tank shells and missiles, if they're dying from those kinds of weapons or if they're dying from some other kinds of weapons?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: The Slovenian prime minister telling me yesterday that he doesn't see the marker with the use of chemical weapons.

Equally, if not even more egregious has been the inhumanity Russian soldiers led by Vladimir Putin have shown in going after innocent civilians targeting hospitals and shopping malls and theaters, where they knew damn well only average folks were there and they killed them just the same.

It is that, that is being addressed by my next guest, an American military hero in his own right, and could have stayed that way when he left the military, instead, has gone half the world away to Ukraine to help people in danger there and get them out of harm's way.

Brett Velicovich joins us right now, the former Army special operations soldier, the man behind HARP Rescue.

Brett, it's always good to have you. I'm always inspired just listening to you.

But better than many what the dangers are in the ground. And without help, such as what you orchestrate with HARP, I mean, these people would be in an impossible situation trying to get out. How is the situation the ground right now?

BRETT VELICOVICH, FORMER U.S. ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS SOLDIER: Well, thanks for having me, Neil.

From the perspective here on the ground, it's clear that Russia continues to use attacks on civilians as their main weapon of choice, because they're not gaining the tactical ground needed against the Ukrainian military forces.

They're trying to do everything they can to demoralize the populace. And our team here is seeing the aftermath of them deliberately firing on schools and hospitals in places like Kharkiv or Kherson when working with these evacuees.

The latest heavy fighting in hot spots like Mariupol has escalated now, with at least seven Russian naval ships bombarding the city constantly with artillery fire over the last 24 hours. At least 100,000 civilians are still trapped there and can't get out.

And the Russian invasion overall has displaced 25 percent of Ukraine's entire population, 25 percent, Neil. On top of that, the U.N. estimates up to another 12 million people right now are stranded. They remain unable to leave the areas across the country that are seeing the heaviest fighting. They're in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

You have got areas like Mariupol and Mykolaiv, which are seeing the most dire situations, where people are facing shortages of food, safe drinking water, lifesaving medicines and other essential goods. And they remain without electricity in a lot of cases.

And so the real numbers of people in need here are actually outpacing most estimates. And, frankly, the situation the ground here is making our team's job a lot more difficult, as we're having to go deeper and deeper into the country to try and get people out, sometimes going through enemy lines.

And the attacks on these residential areas and humanitarian workers are just intensifying. I literally have photographic evidence of an ambulance recently being used for humanitarian purposes that was shot up by Russian forces near the front lines.

And so aid is really having trouble getting in to these certain cities, Russian forces, they just seized another humanitarian convoy near Mariupol. And just it continues to highlight the difficulty of reaching a lot of these locations.

CAVUTO: And I assume Russian promises to provide these safe passageways, they're not delivering on that?

VELICOVICH: No, absolutely not.

And I have seen the numbers today. Nearly 1,000 civilians, including 81 children, have been killed, more than 1,500 civilians injured. And even if the war were to end tomorrow, these Russian war crimes and destruction across the country is just -- it's going to have lasting consequences that -- within the region for a number of years.

And, unfortunately, it's very hard to determine whether or not these humanitarian corridors are really open and have safe passage, because they might open for a couple hours, but next thing you know, they're being bombed by Russians.

CAVUTO: All right.

Brett, please be safe. You're doing the lord's work, but at great risk to yourself and your colleagues and friends. But please be well, Brett Velicovich, the former Army special operations soldier, the man behind Operation Rescue HARP to help these people out, because no one else is.

When we come back, whether the president meant to say what he did when it comes to chemical weapons and when it comes to talking to refugees -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, all eyes on the president of the United States right now. He's held his first press conference there, where he did tend to confuse some people, wondering just exactly how much he meant when it came to chemical weapons and Russia. We have been reporting on that.

But hidden in a lot of this was the willingness on the part of the U.S. to promise and accept 100,000 refugees from Ukraine. Of course, that's a tiny number compared to countries like Poland that have already taken in better than two million.

John Cornyn, the Texas Republican senator, kind enough to join us right now.

Senator, first off, on the refugee commitment the president's made for 100,000 Ukrainians to come here, what did you think of that?

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Well, America has always been a place where people who are oppressed or seeking freedom or religious liberty have come.

But what I'm a little concerned about is I don't know where the president got that number. As you point out, there's millions of people being displaced in -- out of Ukraine right now. But we also have seen two million people show up at our southwestern border during this last year.

And we have seen Afghan refugees coming out of that ill-fated, ill-planned shutdown of our presence in Afghanistan. I'm not sure where the where the president got that number. I'm interested in learning more, but also making sure that we can do this in an orderly and appropriate way.

CAVUTO: He's committed more monies for Ukraine. We can assume part of one tranche of that was this system that enabled the Ukrainians to take down and blow up a Russian warship. We don't know for sure.

But, obviously, it begs the question, if he had this type of ability before, he certainly would have used it.

What do you make of the military aid that is making its way to him?

CORNYN: Well, I was in Poland and Germany this last weekend with some colleagues, and, basically, the message from the Ukrainians was, we need more, and we need it faster. And that included not just weapons, but also humanitarian relief.

And so the weapons that are being provided, I think we're continuing to do that. But, obviously, they need everything they can get their hands on, and particularly given the threat from ships offshore bombarding Ukraine, flattening cities and killing innocent people, they need to be stopped.

And so if we need ship-killing missiles, if they need them, we need to get those to them as soon as we can.

CAVUTO: You know, there's lots of confusion over what the president meant when he said a measured response matching the use of chemical weapons if the Russians were to do so.

It wasn't or didn't seem an immediate repudiation of that, that we not -- not that we would respond in kind and use chemical weapons in return, but that it has to be how much damage those chemical weapons might -- might make on Ukraine.

What did you make of his response?

CORNYN: Well, chemical weapons are, by and large, illegal under international law.

But you will remember when President Obama said it was a red line and then did nothing to back that up. So we need to be prepared to deter Mr. Putin when it comes to chemical weapons and all other forms of aggression against innocent Ukrainians.

Unfortunately, right now, it seems like Mr. Putin is deterring us and our allies more than we are deterring him. And, unfortunately, time is on his side, because he's just going to keep coming, keep grinding this out, until he's stopped.

CAVUTO: Senator Cornyn, I want to thank you very much.

In the meantime, I apologize for the truncated nature of things. We're following a lot of news.

But, Senator, thank you.

One of the things we're also following is whether the president will follow up on those remarks. Won't come tonight. Might come tomorrow. Might happen in Poland. That's when he is supposed to meet with Ukrainian refugees, supposedly there. Could be someplace else. No way of knowing.

In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. We're dealing with the spike in new COVID cases and this BA.2 variant with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

How bad could it be? We will ask him. He's on tomorrow.

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