new reporting on what he will say to congress and the american people about ukraine. record inflation and covid, just moments away my interview with the president's chief of staff. the deadly shooting at a california church. the father killing his three daughters and their chaperone before taking his own life. the search for answers. the hopeful sign that queen elizabeth is on the mend more than a week after testing positive for covid. just in, major league baseball canceling opening day and several regular season games after missing a key deadline to end the lockout. ♪ ♪♪ ♪ this is "nbc nightly news with lester holt." good evening, everyone. president biden getting ready to deliver his first state of the union speech tonight, but it is the state of ukraine under heavy russian attack this evening that will feature prominently in the president's remarks. the white house closely watching the unfolding horror as

russian shells rain down on major cities. fears growing tonight over the fate of civilians. ukraine's president zelenskyy calling russia's actions state terrorism. the russians today taking out a television tower in the capital of kyiv, killing several people, but that massive kyiv-bound russian convoy appears to be stalled and expected to regroup and adapt. here in washington, president biden will say vladimir putin's hope of dividing americans at home was wrong. watching his speech t, the first lady jill biden will be the ukrainian ambassador. our team in place across the globe again tonight starting with richard engel on the front lines. >> facing resistance and logistical setbacks, russia is unleashing a more massive and lead's assault against

ukraine. kharkiv is taking the brunt of it. russia targeted a government administration building with a missile strike. this was the aftermath near the city's freedom plaza. kharkiv's mayor warning the city is surrounded. ukraine's president zelenskyy accused russia of targeting civilians, a war crime, and said the barbaric tactics are aimed at pressuring ukraine to make a deal. diplomatically, russia has become a pariah, shunned today at the human rights council as delegates walked out during a pre-recorded message by russia's foreign minister. the ukrainian military says it's been able to hit back at russia including this drone strike on russian vehicles, but will it be enough for what russia has prepared? ukraine's capital is now staring down the barrel of this 40-mile long convoy, closing in, but doing it slowly. a senior u.s. defense official says the convoy is facing fuel and food shortages, so

bombs and missiles now are doing most of the dirty work. ukraine says this is what's left after a russian air strike on a military base outside kyiv and that russia targeted this tv tower downtown. russia tonight ominously warning civilians to leave central kyiv saying it will strike intelligence and communication sites there. the heartbreaking toll of russia's invasion growing. we went to the basement of kyiv's main hospital of mothers and babies. under the rusty pipes are patients who are already in the hospital and need continuous care. these twins born prematurely. oleksi who had just had a blood transfusion when the bombs started falling and nicole born with complex needs and requires daily attention. >> how are you feeling? i have a child myself who has special needs and has extra health issues, and i know how powerless you can feel to be a parent with a sick child.

>> translator: it is very hard, oksana says. we want this war to stop because our kids suffer and we cannot get home. there, holding on, but don't know if the worst is got come. >> richard, as we said, you're in kyiv. we know there's been this sense of bracing for a russian assault, that convoy, any idea why it is stalled right now? >> well, the russian assault is very powerful, but it is facing some problems. ukrainian officials say every day they are finding more suspiciously abandoned russian vehicles and some of the russian soldiers seem conflicted, for the second time since this war began today, ukrainians unarmed walked up to russian troops, confronted them and started yelling at them and in this case the russians fired in the air. the ukrainians didn't back down and the rugs didn't shoot at them. >> richard engel for us tonight. thank you. the sense that the

worst may be yet to come is driving them to flee the country. tom llamas is live. >> the u.n. says more than 600,000 ukrainians have escaped in just six days. many of the refugees boarding outbound trains are children, some too young to understand. families desperate to escape the looming onslaught in the east. kissenia's husband staying behind. >> me and three children, we came into the train. >> from trains to hungary, to busses to greece and poland, even by foot to romania and slovakia. the reasons are the same. >> to save my life and the life of my baby. >> some black immigrants say the journey out is getting harder and harder for them. >> mostly they would consider white people and indian people and

arabic people before black people. as long as you're black no one likes you. >> as so many scramble out others are standing by. in western ukraine, the lviv center feels like an amazon warehouse. everything is on the move, food, clothes, diapers. not for customers, but for countrymen. >> it is all volunteers and all of the stuff from people who want to help. >> the civilian effort to take on the russians is not just about fighting. it is about helping. inside all of these bags are food, winter clothing and they're going to the victims of the country whose neighborhoods have been bombed out. >> before the war, vitale was a student at kyiv university and now he's on the front lines of the aid effort. >> are you scared of the russians? >> no, i'm not scared because we know what we fight for. we fight for justice and for freedom and for liberty. the russians do not know what they fight for. >> let me circle back

to those allegations from black immigrants trying to make their way out. what is the ukrainian government saying? >> will, the ukrainian foreign minister just tweeted something. this is just coming inning, africans seeking evacuations are our friends and need to have equal opportunities to return to their home country safety. clearly, they're addressing the concerns and the information has to trickle down to train conductors and border officials who are already pushed to the limit. >> tom llamas, thank you. >> as you heard at the top, russian forces launched a deadly attack on the heart of kharkiv, ukraine's second largest city and now people find themselves in a battle to survive. matt bradley has more. >> it was kharkiv's freedom square that took a colossal hit today. russians pounding the civilian center of ukraine's second large of the city leaving its city hall in tatters. its opera house, damaged. first responders rushing bodies and injured people out. seven people died, 24

were wounded according to ukrainian state officials. president volodymyr zelenskyy condemning it, this is the price of freedom. what a morning. just one day of destruction in kharkiv with civilians carrying the burden. in response, this city has moved under ground. >> this is my little child. we don't know how to live and how we will leave tomorrow. please, we don't have enough food for my baby. >> yasmina is sheltering with her 5-month-old baby and other family members in their basement. supplies and morale are low and getting lower. other infants elsewhere in the city have also been scrambled to safety. a home maternity ward moved to a bomb

shelter. one rocket devastated a house just behind where yasmina was sheltering. sergei has been in the metro system for days with his wife and son walking through the train tunnels to find supplies and food, but everything here is dwindling. only hope remains. matt bradley. nbc news, lviv, ukraine. the all-out attack on ukraine has intensified and it is going slower than russia anticipated and there are growing u.s. concerns about vladimir putin's state of mind. what might he do if he feels backed into a corner? here's andrea mitchell. >> vladimir putin tonight, frustrated and angry with the pace of his assault on ukraine. the worry for washington, is he acting rationally and will he ramp up the violence against ukraine's citizens? there is no new intelligence on his mental state, but u.s. officials say everyone, including president bide sees an angrier putin increasingly depatched from his speeches. isolated from longtime

advisors and rarely coming into the kremlin and when he does, meeting on opposite ends of a super-sized table more than 20 feet apart. >> that, i think, creates this delusional bubble about what he thought was going to happen when he first launched this attack. >> officials tell nbc news putin has lashed out at underlings in private and in public, bullying his top five on state tv. say it directly, he says. >> what do you think is going on there? >> i don't know what is the matter there, but whatever it is, the people of ukraine are paying the price for it. >> now he's raising the stakes for u.s. military planners by putting russia's nuclear forces on heightened alert. >> you don't want a mad man backed into a corner with nothing to lose especially if that mad man has nuclear weapons. >> but the russian economy is collapsing under the weight of global sanctions and some of his own oligarchs criticizing the invasion, what might he do to stay in power? >> he can threaten or carry out cyber

attacks against the west including the united states, and he can threaten to use nuclear weapons. >> u.s. officials say president biden is deliberately downplaying putin's nuclear threat and not raising the alert status of u.s. nuclear weapons trying to de-escalate the crisis with an unpredictable enemy. >> andrea mitchell, and president biden is set to address russia's invasion to ukraine in the first state of the union speech comes at a critical moment of the president who is facing falling poll numbers. here is kristen welker. >> tonight, president biden on the cusp of a state of the union address that's not the one he anticipated delivering just days ago before russia's invasion of ukraine. according to excerpts he will say putin's war was premeditated and unprovoked. he rejected efforts of diplomacy. putin was wrong, we were ready, touting the u.s. response as he did recently. nato was more united and more determined

than other. >> today, mr. biden speaking with ukraine's president, but domestic challenges are also looming large with the president's approval rating plummeting. a new poll today shows americans disapprove of his handling of crime, immigration, the economy and inflation. americans still grappling with soaring prices, seven months after the president insisted inflation would not last. >> most of the price increases we've seen were expected and expected to be temporary. >> president biden will lay out plans to help including making more cars and semiconductors in america. judy mcnamara owns a pub in virginia and is struggling. >> i used to have savings. i don't have it anymore. personal savings. >> you dipped into all of your savings? >> yes, i have. in order to keep this afloat. yes, ma'am. >> on covid, the president likely to tout cases and hospitalizations are down. the republicans say the problems for the president are piling up. >> the state of the union is in disarray

because of president biden's policy. i hope he talks about reversing it tonight. i don't think he will. >> the white house says it will be importance of unity abroad and at home. >> he'll call on the american people to be strong and be resilient and look forward because when americans are together there is nothing that we cannot do and my expectation is you will hear those very words tonight. >> given fast-moving events how much did the president have to re-write this speech? >> the president and his aides did re-work his speech and he will take aim at putin, quote, when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos. >> kristen welker. be sure to join us for the state of the union address at 9:00 eastern time. ron klain is the white house chief of staff and he joins us to talk more about what we may hear from the president tonight. mr. klain, this is the state of the union's speech, but how much of the president's remarks will focus on

ukraine tonight and what does he want the american people ton about the conflict? >> he will begin by talking about the conflict in ukraine and the russian invasion and what we've done so far to combat that aggression. he'll talk about the coalition he pulled together, this unprecedently strong coalition of nato allies and other countries who are providing aid to ukraine, bringing aid to the army and the ukrainians that are heroically fighting the russians and the coalition we pulled together to impose unprecedented sanctions on russia and its economy. the american people will hear what we're doing and what we're going to do to help the ukrainian people and the struggle and to make sure that russian aggression pays a serious price. >> depending what happens in kyiv tonight, could we be looking at a split screen moment? is there concern that vladimir putin may want to upstage the president? >> look, the concern is that six days ago vladimir putin launched an unjustified, unprecedented assault on ukraine.

the concern is that he continues to target civilians in ukraine. i care less about what hour of the day or night this happens, and more about the fact that what vladimir putin is doing in ukraine is wrong and that's why the united states has assembled this amazing coalition led by president biden, joined by leaders from around the globe to devastate the russian economy as a result. we are down now to -- it takes more than a hundred rubles to buy a single u.s. dollar. their stock market's been unable to open this week. they're paying a price for what they're doing whatever hour of the day or night they do it. >> ron klain, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me, lester. >> in just 60 seconds, me, lester. >> in just 60 seconds, our series "theew n i may be close to retirement, but i'm as busy as ever. careful now. thanks! you got it. and thanks to voya, i'm confident about my future. oh dad, the twins are now... ...vegan. i know, i got 'em some of those plant burgers.

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finally tonight, the anthem for peace being heard from the battlefield to some of world's biggest stages. here's erin mclachlan. ♪♪ >> at an underground metro station turned bomb shelter, ukraine's national anthem. courage and comfort to a nation under attack. from the volunteers making camouflage nets for soldiers in lviv, to a woman picking up ♪♪ >> compassionate defiance heard a world away. >> live from new york, it's saturday night. >> in place of snl's

cold-open, the spiritual anthem of ukraine. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> across midtown manhattan, a show of solidarity. ♪♪ >> the ukrainian opera singer brought to tears. his entire family is still in a wartorn country. >> want to help my family and country as much as i can and i am here and it is a hard moment. >> and at the opera house he's teaching his peers his country song with his last-minute performance. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> we know that we are brave people. we have our freedom and it's our country. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> back in kharkiv, ukraine, amid russian troops were closing in, a young boy plays a piano in a hotel lobby. the song is called "walk to school," a haunting sound of an ordinary way of life

perhaps forever gone and a nation forever changed. erin mclachlan, nbc news, lviv, ukraine. >> the world finding ways to come together. that's nightly news. a reminder to join us for the president's state of the union address at 9:00 on nbc. thanks for watching. i'm lester holt. [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ ♪♪ i took an arrow to the heart ♪ ♪ i never kissed a mouth that tastes like yours ♪ ♪ strawberries and somethin'

more ♪ ♪ ooh yeah i want it all ♪ ♪ lipstick on the guitar ♪ ♪ fill up the engine we can drive real far ♪ ♪ go dancin' underneath the stars ♪ ♪ ooh yeah i want it all ♪ ♪ mmm you got me feelin' like ♪ ♪ i want you to be that guy i wanna kiss your eyes ♪ ♪ i wanna drink that smile i wanna feel like i'm ♪ ♪ like my soul's on fire i wanna stay up all day and all night ♪ ♪ yeah you got me singin' like ♪ ♪ ooh i love it when you do it like that ♪ ♪ and when you're close up give me the shivers ♪ ♪ oh baby you wanna dance 'til the sunlight cracks ♪ ♪ and when they say the party's over then we'll bring it right back ♪ ♪ and we'll say ooh i love it when you do it like that ♪ ♪ and when you're close up give me the shivers ♪ ♪ oh baby you wanna dance 'til the sunlight cracks ♪ ♪ and when they say the party's over then we'll bring it right

back ♪ ♪ you burn so hot ♪ ♪ you make me shiver with the fire ♪ ♪ you got this thing we started ♪ ♪ i don't want it to stop ♪ ♪ you know you make me shiver ♪ ♪ yeah you got me singin' like ♪ ♪ ooh i love it when you do it like that ♪ ♪ and when you're close up give me the shivers ♪ ♪ oh baby you wanna dance 'til the sunlight cracks ♪ ♪ when they say the party's over then we'll bring it right back yeah ♪♪ [cheers and applause] >> kelly: all right, everybody, welcome to "the kelly clarkson show"! give it up for my band y'all! what that that ed sheeran! yes! jessi is feeling herself! in our audience requesting "shivers" why did you request

that song? you are so cool looking, we need to talk about it really quick, oh, my gosh, you are so cute, okay, go. >> thank you, i am so excited to be here, and i love you! i love you! and thank you for playing "shavers" for me, because i love the song. it's a special song for my husband and i. you know, after 30 years, i still feel the shivers. to the flame still there. he seems quiet, but he tells me every day he loves me, because he definitely has become the strong woman that i could be. and as you can see, it proves -- >> kelly: they prove that you are a warrior, i hate w >> they are comfortable and everything. >> kelly: i love you so much. thank you so much, i love it.

>> thank you for choosing the song! >> kelly: thank you so much! buckle up, everybody, it's one heck of a show for you today. from the new apple tv+ series "severance," britt lower is joining us, and kicking off women's history month, and honor of that we will meet a woman smashing down barriers in the trucking industry and inspiring other women and documenting it on tiktok, she is amazing, check out the tape. >> for the truck stop! another life! >> kelly: i love her so much, i cannot wait to meet her and i love her personality. i just love people like that. let's start things off with our first guest, you know him and love them from one of the best sitcoms of all time "modern family. his new show is called "domino masters." stay hello to eric stonestreet, y'all! [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪

[cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ >> kelly: you look so great! i love your whole outfit. get comfortable. >> eric: tone on tone. it is to be on you blend in. >> eric: it's great backstage. my first time here. nice dressing room, great host, everyone. >> kelly: we lucked out with the dressing rooms, they are huge. >> eric: huge. you are usually jammed into the little rooms. >> kelly: you are in a closet with three other people. but i hear there is a congratulations in order, you recently got engaged! that's exciting! how did you propose if you don't mind me asking? >> eric: everyone knows that follows me on social media that i messed around with my girlfriend a lot. and print her a lot. so i knew that i had to be really clever and creative so she would not be on to me.

so i pretended like there was a company that was interested in us doing a social media campaign together. and i said we need to send in like a chemistry video. your hair and makeup so that she would be beautiful and in the moment, so i set up the camera and had a couple of others and pretended we would ask her question, but the question was actually "will you marry me." ." >> kelly: that's so great! >> eric: was all captured right there. it's beyond that is sweet and thoughtful. i am so short, i have no legs. like i'm all torso, so i have to sit so far in my seat otherwise i am like lily tomlin and that big chair. but if you want to put pillows behind you. just hug one. her name is lindsay and she seems to really love you, because she does put up with i hear a lot of recordings that you do. you make the recordings in bed, right?

not that kind of recording. >> eric: that is one of the things i do to her. when she is asleep i will have preset things on my nightstand. >> kelly: i love how thought out you are. >> eric: i spent a substantial amount of time figuring out how to mess with other people in this world. be friends with me, because it will come your way. but i think of things to set on the nightstand that sound good. >> kelly: i think we have an example of how you mess with her. >> what are you doing? >> i have some corn nuts. >> corn nuts right now? >> it's like puffed up corn. >> i'm going to have to come over there and take them. >> you better not. >> then throw them away. >> okay, i will retrieve them out of the