'The Five' on full-scale invasion of Ukraine

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Putin launches full-scale war on Ukraine by land, air and sea

Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst has the latest from Kyiv, Ukraine, on 'The Five.'

This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on February 24, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, HOST: Hello everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, Geraldo Rivera, Jesse Watters and Will Cain. It's 5:00 in New York City, this is THE FIVE.

Russia launching an all-out invasion on Ukraine battering the country from land, air, and sea. That scene from earlier today. Vladimir Putin ordering air strikes on cities and military bases, sending in tanks and troops from three different directions. The Russian invasion so far has killed nearly 60 people with that number set to rise.

And a U.S. official warning Russia's goal is decapitate the Ukrainian government and says what we are seeing now is the first strike of many to come. Ukrainians are fighting back. Trey Yingst is reporting live from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Good morning.

TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Dana, good afternoon. The Russian offensive against Ukraine continues at this hour. We are seeing reports of renewed fighting and clashes in a number of different locations. Today just outside the capital of Kyiv there was a back and forth between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

The Russians brought in attack helicopters taking over a strategic airfield. We are learning this evening according to the Ukrainian ministry of defense that airfield has been recaptured by Ukrainian forces. That was not the case in other parts of the country including the north were in the Chernobyl region Russian troops crossed over from Belarus and they were able to advance against Ukrainian forces and take over that position.

In the eastern part of the country, there is still fighting but it is in different pockets across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. These are the separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine that were used as part of this offensive as President Putin ordered an invasion across the entire country.

And then in the south, Russian forces worked their way up through Crimea trying to make basically what will look like a land bridge do that they can hit the capital of Kyiv from a number of different angles if they do indeed launch that larger invasion to try to basically take the capital and make sure that it does not have any support from the other Ukrainian troops who are still operating within the country. Dana?

PERINO: Trey, we have some questions for you. We know you've been working all day and are very trying conditions so we thank you for being with us on THE FIVE. I'll kick it over to Jesse Watters first.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Hey, Trey. The vibe right now in the capital, it's got to be like being at the Alamo, you know. You know you're gonna be surrounded and you are outnumbered. What are people thinking? How are they feeling? Do people regret not leaving soon enough? Take us through it.

YINGST: We learned today from the interior minister that more than 10,000 weapons were given out to civilians who have pledged to stay here and fight. There's a real understanding that if these Russian forces are able to choke off the Ukrainian capital as they are suspected to do in the coming days, this will turn into a more urban warfare situation and you will see Ukrainian forces in somewhat of a guerrilla warfare format because they will have to try to protect the capital and the head of government.

The concern that the Ukrainian military has at this hour is that what we saw last night and throughout the day today, the air raid sirens and strikes not only on the capital of Ukraine, but also the second-largest city, Kharkiv, and other major Ukrainian cities and population centers, is that they could launch more waves of attacks and it would ultimately overwhelm the forces that are outside in these different military locations. So if the fight does come into the city, it will look very different. It will be far bloodier and that death toll will certainly rise. Jesse?

PERINO: Geraldo?

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS HOST: Trey, great job, very courageous, you and the rest of our mates over there. Wish I was standing shoulder to shoulder with you. You know, you're experienced enough to get the vibe. Are the Ukrainians determined to fight this out? Are they going to fight to the death? Are they really going to, you know, put it all out there right now or will they fold in the face of the overwhelming superiority of Russian arms?

YINGST: They are determined to fight it out, but we are getting some new information this hour that's really important when you think about their chances fighting the Russian military. Ukraine's armed forces believe that more than 60 Russian tactical battalions groups have been used in this fight so far. We're talking about 30,000 to 60,000 troops.

Remember, there are nearly 200,000 Russian soldiers along Ukraine's border. So even if they take heavy losses in a more urban environment or if some of these reports that we are seeing from the eastern part of Ukraine of these Javelin anti-tank missiles actually doing their job and stopping these battalions from getting closer to the large population centers, it still might not be enough. It may be too little, too late in terms of the weaponry that the Ukrainian forces have.

They no longer, according to the Russians, have any air defense systems. We have not seen any air defense in the capital since we have been reporting here, but we do hear fighter jets often in the city. And still tonight, there are strikes taking place and the Ukrainian officials are worried that as we get closer to 3:00 a.m., local time, that's the time they are putting out that another campaign, an air campaign against the city will take place.

PERINO: Judge Jeanine.

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: Trey, first of all, our thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainians and with their families all over the world. I think we have to recognize the pain that this country is in. But given what you said about arming the citizenry, do the people in Ukraine understand that ultimately it doesn't seem like the cavalry is coming in to save them.

That they are literally at war with an aggressor who has done this in front of the whole world. He lined it up. He's been lining this up for weeks with tanks and soldiers. And the truth is that there is no way other than a sanction here or there to stop him. Is Kyiv the end game here?

YINGST: It certainly the end game here. President Putin does not want Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be running this country. At best, he wants some sort of puppet regime that he would be able to control, much like we are seeing in Belarus where the president there, Alexander Lukashenko has called Russia and Belarus basically the same country.

President Putin would like that at a minimum to take place in Ukraine. What is interesting though when you talk about the civilians here who have pledged to stay and fight, they understand just how gruesome and violent this war could be. Already the death toll is rising and some of the images that we are seeing from the fighting in the eastern part of the country and even some of the strikes and missile strikes that took place in around larger population centers, it's quite gruesome.

The ability of the Russian military against a civilian population would be quite bloody. And so while there is this patriotic push for Ukrainians to say we will stay and fight and protect our homeland, it is going to be can be very, very difficult to do so when there are Russian tanks in the streets.

But make no mistake, these civilians that we talked to and even the soldiers who have been called up from reserve forces say they will stay and they will fight and they are willing to die for their country. And we have heard that message again, and again. Not only here in the capital, but also when we were visiting the front lines in the eastern part of Ukraine.

PERINO: Will Cain?

WILL CAIN, FOX NEWS HOST: Trey, just to get a sense of that resistance, you've been covering this wonderfully all week long. We saw you embedded with those forces in the east when you were taking fire. I'm curious, have you managed to stay in communication with those forces in the east? You know what the resistance is like, how quickly the Russians are moving. What kind of casualties even from where you were earlier in the week?

YINGST: We understand there are a lot of casualties in the east. The Russians use those Russian-backed separatists to move up those lines very quickly. And from what we saw out on the front, they were literally in trenches. In terms of the ability of a Russian air strike from a fighter jet to target someone like this in the trench, they have very limited places to go.

And it looks like that on a lot of the Ukrainian front. Remember that line of contact has been there since 2015 when there was a peace agreement cut between the Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainians, still a bloody conflict with nearly 14,000 deaths since it began in 2014. But we do fear some of those people that we were with over the weekend may be injured or killed given the fact that this offensive has moved so quickly and the Russian airpower has been quite significant.

We are talking about not only fighter jets targeting different locations, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and those ground forces. Again, the Ukrainians are putting up a fight and they have hit a number of these battalions that are coming in across the border using antitank missiles and other weaponry.

But the reality is, this is already a bloody war and it could get far worse in the coming hours and days as the Russian are expected to launch more waves of attacks.

PERINO: Trey, I just have a question that is more, I think, something our viewers might be wondering as they've watched you and Steve, Lucas Tomlinson covering this conflict. How do you stay safe?

YINGST: I mean, look, Fox is built by people who used to be field producers. And so the executives at this company understand the importance of getting into the field but also staying safe in the field. So we have a massive team working with us not only here in the capital but we have four teams on the ground in Ukraine right now and everything is very calculated.

We have safety plans in place and we execute those plans each and every day and we did last night when this massive invasion started. The real story here though is not the journalists, it's not us. It's the people of Ukraine. It's the civilians who are picking up arms to defend their country. Tonight, it is the woman and children who are currently sleeping in the subway system of this capital city because they are worried about air campaigns and it's the soldiers on the front lines who are currently risking their lives for the sovereignty of Ukraine. Back to you.

PERINO: I mean, you are bringing us their story so well. Trey Yingst, thank you. I know that we'll see you in a little bit later tonight.

And President Biden slapping another set of sanctions on Russia targeting banks, oligarchs and Moscow's tech sector. The president also condemning Vladimir Putin for choosing war instead of diplomacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences. Today, I'm authorizing additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported to Russia. This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time. We have purposely designed these sanctions to maximize a long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact in the United States and our allies. And I want to be clear. The United States is not doing this alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Biden was also grilled over the effectiveness of previous sanctions and contradicting something his vice president, Kamala Harris, said in Germany just over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening. This is going to take time and we have to show resolve so he knows what's coming. And so the people of Russia know what he has brought on them. That's what this is all about.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERIONO: All right. So, there's a little confusion there I guess, Jesse. But the fact is, there are sanctions that are being placed today. But President Biden says we'll see how it looks in a month.

WATTERS: It's a long time if you're hiding in a subway trying to sleep out the air raids. Listen, sanctions are not a silver bullet. If you're an oligarch, you can go raise money in the mid-east, you can raise financing in China. And if oil is over $100 a barrel, that's financing this military operation.

So until the European powers say we're not purchasing any more oil and gas that is the only thing that's going to stop Russia. Right now they crush the rubles and the stock market in Russia was down about 40 percent. So in the short term that was a lot of shock and awe. But you're right, it's going to take some time to see how effective this is.

I just can't believe that he went to swallow Ukraine that fast. I thought he'd come into the east like that. He is going right, lightning strike to the capital. Surround it, try to negotiate some sort of surrender or just hang the president. Who the hell knows?

But then if he occupies it, he's going to have to go town by town, city by city and pacify the countryside. And I don't think that's going to go very well especially if were -- they hate the Russians and we're going to be sending them a lot of the military equipment and we'll probably be sending them night vision equipment because it doesn't look like the Russians can fight at night. They went in during the day.

If you have night vision capabilities, you usually first strike at night. That's what the Americans do. That's the move. So they don't have that. So we got to pump a lot of night vision equipment into that country and bleed the Russians dry in that -- in a bloody occupation. So, we'll see how it goes.

They're moving in on Odessa, which is the southern port city. Its commercial agricultural capital. If they control Odessa at the Black Sea level, they control every import and export coming in and out of that country. That's when they really tighten the grip.

PERINO: Let's play call for number one if we would -- this is when President Biden was characterizing how Putin will be -- how people will react to Putin around the world. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Putin will be a pariah on the international stage. Any nation that countenances Russia's naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association. When the history of this era is written, Putin's choice to make a totally unjustifiable war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest the world stronger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Geraldo, do you think Putin cares about how he is perceived around the world?

RIVERA: I don't know if he cares particularly about his popularity, but the one thing that I am troubled by is this pushing Putin and Xi, China, closer together. Now, Russia and China, are they going to be a world unto themselves. I don't know much about economics, the sanctions hit. I was told they would be very severe, but I noticed that the American stock market after tanking being down six, 700 points. After President Biden spoke, the stock market rebounded and went into positive territory.

I can only surmise, means that the brilliant minds on Wall Street think the sanctions ain't that bad. You know, they can live with them. They're not going to get hurt. The world economic system is not going to be hurt that bad. So I don't trust the sanctions to do anything. I think Jesse used the term the Alamo in describing the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

This is Ukraine's moment in history. This is where Ukraine's history begins. Do the Ukrainians stand and fight? Do they, you know, are they going to be Thermopylae? Are they going to be the 300? Are they going to sacrifice themselves and really let their country bleed and let the world know that Ukrainian blood is in every barrel of Russian oil? Are they gonna do that?

I want that so much. I can't begin to tell you that if the Ukrainians stand, even though there's not an American G.I. on the ground end even though there's not an American fighter jet in the air or ship at sea, this will be the beginning of their story, the Ukrainian story, the true independence of Ukraine. And screw Putin. Eventually, those people, if they stand, if they fight, Putin will lose.

PERINO: Judge, you've mentioned the people of Ukraine a couple of times. If you could pull up call for a number seven please, we were able to get some video of people talking about what it's like to be there and what their hearing and what they're feeling. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Everybody is in Kyiv now and they are calling us and telling what is going on and its hopeful (ph).

UNKNOWN: Well, we are going here to Poland and then we will need to probably go to Cyprus.

UNKNOWN: To old friends?

UNKNOWN: To our friends. To stay for when the bombing report situation comes down a little bit.

UNKNOWN: We went to (inaudible) with family to be together now in (inaudible) not to worry and save time in Ukraine, but we will have a victory, I believe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Judge?

PIRRO: You know, what we've just seen in those interviews are the people who are being sacrificed because a thug on the international stage is taking over a country with little if any pushback from the rest the world. One of the things I want to add to what Jesse was saying is that the -- I have heard that the Russians are at a distinct advantage in terms of their ability to wage war at night, more so than the Ukrainians, unless I misunderstood you.

But the Russians and is much as you want them stand, Geraldo, and fight, these people don't have the capability with 190,000 militaries to fight back. This isn't, you know, some kind of theoretical scenarios. These are real life people who are going to die.

And in the end what frustrates me is the -- what we've done is we've created a dependence on Russian oil, Europe and Germany. Germany was in a bind because they are dependent on Russian oil and gas. We closed down our pipelines so we are dependent. So what happens? You're right, Geraldo, about China and Russia because Russia can sell its oil to China.

So then the question is what sanctions do we have that will make a difference? I don't know. But what I do know is that you cannot try to convince an aggressor or a thug like this to stop. He is on his way -- he's on his way to continue to establish the USSR as it was years ago. That's his mission.

PERINO: Jack Keane said it wasn't just the USSR. It was actually the Russian empire.

PIRORO: Right.

PERINO: Which is much, much larger, Will.

CAIN: Yes, to Geraldo's point, you described this as Ukraine's moment in history. Vladimir Putin sees this as Russia's moment in history. Either to re-establish the boundaries of the Soviet Union or because he sees Ukraine as his Cuban missile crisis. He can have NATO at his doorstep. Either way, it's existential to him, thus, the limited effectiveness of sanctions.

But what matters to me as an American is what happens next. And both Judge and Geraldo, you brought this up, and that is China. Vladimir Putin arrived at this moment because he saw it as his opportunity for whatever reason. He saw the world leadership and said now is my time to be this moment in history and it wasn't today.

There was a moment today during the press conference that I thought was the most significant moment in Joe Biden's press conference. It's (inaudible) but this to me is the moment we should all be listening to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: There is a complete rupture right now in U.S.-Russia relations if they continue on this path that they are on. And in terms of Cold War, that depends. You have the vast majority of the rest the world in total opposition of what he's doing from Asia to South America, to Europe, to -- around the world. And so it's going to be a cold day for Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAIN: That moment was significant but not as significant as this moment. This only took 10 seconds of the press conference, but this the moment we should all listen to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Are you urging China to help isolate Russia? Are you urging China to help isolate Russia?

BIDEN: I'm not prepared to comment on that at the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAIN: Right, not prepared to comment. Be prepared because China will sense its moment very soon.

PERINO: Maybe already is. All right, more to come as Russia wages full- scale war. Will Putin stop with Ukraine or could another country be next? What President Biden just said about that?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine not letting up. A U.S. official says the Russians are moving towards decapitating Ukraine in a multi-step attack. For more, let's go to Bill Hemmer. Bill?

BILL HEMMER, FOX NEW HOST: Hey, Jesse. Good afternoon to you, good evening. I want to show you a little bit on the map behind me. We're talking a lot throughout the entire day as of what's happening with the major attacks between the Ukrainian military and the Russian military.

There's a big battle up here at Chernobyl. Apparently the Russians have won that battle. There's a battle here at northwest of Kyiv, the capital city. That is still in dispute. It looks like the Ukrainians have pushed back on that.

In the east, there's a town of Kharkiv, this is on the Ukrainian side of the border now. And we're getting reports of fierce Ukrainian resistance there as well and some Russian casualties as a result. Now, Jesse, on the other side of the border there's a town of Belgorod, okay. So this is in Russia. Let me just do something here. Let's advance this.

This is satellite image from today, February 24th, from a military installation in Belgorod, all right. From what you can see here is a field hospital and you've got tense here denoted off to the left. You have military trucks on the other side off to the right. You've got attack helicopters, many of them up here as well. So this is a staging area for the Russian military.

And this satellite image you can see 18 attack helicopters, might be a little hard to show up on screen there but I can circle them here, and there, and here, and there, as well as over here, and there, and on they go. So this is clearly a staging area for the Russian military. One more map to show you right now and this is in this part of the country.

Where is the Russian military going and how are they going at Ukraine? According to a lot of analysts today and senior defense officials, they describe, well, this is the Belarus border here in the north. And this is the friendly Russian neighbor to the east. Remember, Belarus allowed military installations to be established on behalf of the Russian military, many of them over the last 60 days and they used those overnight.

How did they use them? What do they do? It's described as a move here to the northwest of Kyiv and the northeast of Kyiv. That is one line of attack. The other is toward here in Kharkiv that I just pointed out a moment ago. Have not gotten a lot of reporting from the Donbas. Remember, that was the area taken over in 2014.

Crimea was the other area and that's the third area of attack now from the south into the north and that appears to be the initial strategy on behalf of the Russian military. It is after midnight now in Kyiv. We'll see what comes of this. Very long night for those people yet again. Jesse, back to you.

WATTERS: It sure is. Thank you, Bill. As Russia comes closer to a total and brutal takedown of Ukraine. President Biden warning Putin he may not stop there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: You heard the speech he made and almost an hour's worth of speech as why he was going into Ukraine. He has much larger ambitions in Ukraine. He wants to in fact re-establish the former Soviet Union. That's what this is about. And I think that his ambitions are completely contrary to the place for the rest the world has arrived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: All right. Let's talk to Jennifer Griffin who's at the Pentagon. So, you heard the president talk about the ambitions. What are you hearing from Defense Department sources about what the maybe next logical step would be? Say he consolidates control of Kyiv. He has the country in his hand. Does he move north into Poland? Totally north into the Baltic south into Romania? What could possibly be a next step?

JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, its interesting Jesse. U.S. intelligence, western intelligence has been keeping an eye on a little town, an important town in Belarus called Brest, which about 120 miles from the Polish border. There are satellite images showing that Vladimir Putin has placed quite a large amount of forces in that area.

Now, those forces could. They would be a quick drive due south down to Lviv in Ukraine. But they also are mighty close to Poland inside Belarus which has become a vassal state of Vladimir Putin. And so all eyes right now are certainly on the Baltics, Poland, and Romania.

One of the reasons that you hear a lot of concern about Lithuania and Poland in particular is you go back to Vladimir Putin's own speech on Monday, which also was referenced in his July 12th writings about why Ukraine is not a separate country from Russia, which he sent out to his armed forces. And he mentions in this twisted history lesson that he tried to give the world. He mentioned Poland and Lithuania and the fact that they became Catholic, but in fact, they were really part of the Russian Orthodox Church and link to Ukraine. That certainly has NATO and NATO Allies concerned.

NATO is going to be meeting tomorrow. The North Atlantic Council has been called. All 30 member states will be meeting. And it will be very interesting to see if they decide to call up the 40,000 strong NATO response force which would fall under General Todd Walters, the American Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

And some of those 7000 troops that President Biden announced tonight would be going to Germany may be a part of that force, if it is in fact, agreed to enact that.

WATTERS: Thanks, Jen. Geraldo has a question, I believe.

RIVERA: What in world, Jen, are they waiting for to activate that force of 40,000? What's -- what could be worse than this?

GRIFFIN: Well, it's really interesting, Geraldo. And I think you have to understand the bind that they find themselves in. And if you listen to what Putin said last night, the warning to NATO, that thinly veiled warning in which he really was threatening, it sounded like nuclear weapons.

The messaging that he's been doing to NATO, whether it was those NATO -- those nuclear exercises that he oversaw last weekend, that was designed to send a signal, reminding people he's a nuclear power. Do not come and interfere with what he's has going on in Ukraine after the invasion starts.

That message, one of the things that NATO is trying to calibrate is, on the one hand, they want to send forces to reassure their eastern flank into Poland and Baltics, but they also don't want to overplay that hand and play into Vladimir Putin's warped narrative that would give him then an excuse to think that the US and NATO was part of this conflict.

So, you have a situation where NATO has to move very carefully. This is a chess game. You cannot -- you can't start sending weapons into the -- as much as I've heard today, and of course, all of our hearts go out to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and their pleas for more weaponry.

Once the U.S. and NATO starts, after the invasion began, start sending in weaponry, they become a party to that conflict. And they give justification then for Putin if he decides to send his military forces beyond Ukraine. And so, that is what is being sort of debated and calibrated right now and will be debated in that North Atlantic Council meeting tomorrow.

WATTERS: Judge?

PIRRO: So, very quickly, Jennifer, and this may just be a follow-up on the last question. But my question is this. If the NATO Response Team is called upon, or the NATO Response Force is called upon, their only mission, their only location or site can be in NATO countries. They can do nothing to help the people of Ukraine.

GRIFFIN: Exactly, Judge. There are 40,000 forces. They would stay within NATO Article Five allies. But just remember how very close those allied members are. I mean, Romania, just across the border, not far from the Ukraine -- they're on the Ukraine border. Poland.

You know, this is -- we're now eyeball to eyeball. We haven't been this close to Russian forces, since I remember back in Kosovo, when we -- in 1997 when Russian forces hopscotched over the 82nd airborne because they were mad that NATO had gone into Kosovo.

So, this is really -- we're in uncharted territory. And what you're seeing the Pentagon and NATO try to do is not to escalate anything. They want to send a firm response, but they don't want to get on an escalatory ladder.

PIRRO: Right. Thank you.

CAIN: So --

WATTERS: All right, thanks so much, Jen. I believe we have Jen Psaki, who's holding a White House briefing right now.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He's going to give some brief comments at the top, take a few questions, then we'll do some briefing after then. And I'll just say at the top. For anyone who needs to leave for TV, feel free to go. It's all fine. I will turn it over to Daleep now.

DALEEP SINGH, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Thank you, Jen. Good to see all of you again. But this is a briefing I never wanted to give. I'd like to start by saying the prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine today as they suffer an unjustified, unprovoked, and premeditated attack by the Russian military forces.

President Biden has said from the start of this crisis, if Putin chooses to invade, the cost to Russia will be immediate and profound, to its financial system, to its economy, to its technology base, and to its strategic position in the world. As the world is now witnessed, Putin has made his choice. He rejected diplomacy chose war.

And today the President has announced our response. Because of Putin his choices, his flagrant violation of international law, and his utter disregard for the principles that underpin peace and security across the world, we will now ensure his decision is remembered as a strategic failure.

Today, we impose an unprecedented package of financial sanctions and export restrictions in lockstep with our allies and partners that will isolate Russia from the global financial system, shut down its access to cutting- edge technology, and undercut Putin's strategic ambitions to diversify and modernize his economy.

Let me walk you through a few specifics and I'll be happy to take questions. On financial sanctions, I stood at this podium on Tuesday and said we would impose the most severe sanctions ever levied on Russia if Putin proceeded with the invasion. Today we're following through.

We will impose sanctions on Russia's two largest financial institutions SpareBank and VTB, which together hold more than half of the Russian banking systems assets, over $750 billion in total. For VTB, we will freeze all of its assets touching the U.S. financial system and prohibit us persons from doing any business with the bank. For SpareBank, we will sever its access to the U.S. financial system.

We'll also freeze the assets of and prohibit any business dealings with three additional Russian banks with combined assets of over $70 billion. We'll also restrict us investors from providing debt or equity financing for 13 of the most critical Russian state-owned enterprises, which combined have estimated assets nearing $1.5 trillion.

And finally, we'll also impose sanctions on the executives at the state- owned institutions, as well as additional Russian elites who are complicit in Putin's kleptocracy and their family members.

Those who've shared in the Kremlin's corrupt gains, and stored their wealth in yachts, and luxury condos and fancy cars will now share in the pain of these measures. In terms of the financial impact, as I said, these are the most impactful insignificant sanctions the U.S. has ever taken. But financial sanctions are just one part of our response. We're also unveiling today an expansive and unprecedented set of export restrictions, developed in historically close coordination with the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan.

These new measures include sweeping restrictions on Russian military end- users to impair Putin's military capabilities, and will also deny exports across Russia to sensitive cutting edge technology primarily targeting Russia's defense, aerospace, and maritime sectors.

In total, the United States and our partners will effectively be cutting off more than half of all high-tech imports going into Russia. This includes curbing Russia's access to advanced semiconductors and other foundational technologies that Russia needs to diversify and modernize its economy.

Working in tandem, these financial sanctions and the export controls will undercut Putin's aspirations to project power on the world stage. And those impacts intensified dramatically just today. The Russian stock market plunged over 30 percent at one point, before being halted by local regulators. Russia's currency, the Ruble, weaken to its weakest value on record against the dollar, before the central bank intervened. And the price the market is charging the Russian Government to borrow is now above 15 percent.

These impacts over time will translate into higher inflation, higher interest rates, lower purchasing power, lower investment, lower productive capacity, lower growth, and lower living standards in Russia.

To be clear, this is not the outcome we wanted. It's both a tragedy for the people of Ukraine and a very raw deal for the Russian people. But Putin's war of choice has required that we do what we said and to ensure this will be a strategic failure.

Finally, let me just say a few words about the impact of Russia's choices on the U.S. We've intentionally scoped our sanctions to deliver severe impact on the Russian economy while minimizing the cost to the U.S. as well as our allies and partners.

To be clear, our sanctions are not designed to cause any disruption to the current flow of energy from Russia to the world. We've carved out energy payments on a time-bound basis to allow for an orderly transition of these flows away from sanction institutions. And we provided other license to provide for an orderly wind-down in business. Let me just stop there and take your questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just had a real quick question. You said it would take some time before it affects the economy and inflation. What's the timetable? How long do you think it will take until you have demonstrable results?

SINGH: Well, look, these are -- these are costs that build over time. And as I mentioned, I think last Friday, any leader, whether you're an autocrat or small D Democrat, has to pay attention to the living standards of your country. And already, we're seeing the effects of these measures and the signaling that we provided over the last three months.

Before these sanctions were implemented, inflation in Russia was 8.7 percent. The government's borrowing costs, it spiked above 10 percent. The Ruble had lost almost 15 percent of its value. And today, those costs escalated dramatically.

Now, it's going to be up to President Putin to decide ultimately, how much cost he's willing to bear. But we control this to make sure this will be a strategic failure, not just because of the sanctions, but also because of the export controls, because of Europe's accelerated diversification away from Russia in terms of its energy supply due to our fortification of NATO's eastern flank, and due to the renewed energy and unity in determination by the West to stand up for our values and advance our principles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But to confirm, you're in it for the long haul, right? That's -- I mean, your -- until you see the results that you want.

SINGH: We understand that these costs will accumulate over time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've just laid out all of the actions that the U.S. and our allies have taken at this point. As you understand the questions, though, at this point are about the actions you have not yet chosen to take at this point, specifically the SWIFT system and sanctioning President Putin specifically himself.

What are the triggers at this point? Are there actions that President Putin might still take they're expecting? What trigger those sanctions or what are the potential complications, especially about sanctioning Putin personally?

SINGH: So, I understand a lot of questions about SWIFT and about sanctioning President Putin, and lots of other measures that could be mentioned. But let me -- let me say this. I think today was a demonstration that we mean what we say. We delivered on what we said we would do in terms of imposing costs. So, when we say all options are on the table, and that we're prepared to continue to ratchet costs higher, it would be a mistake to doubt that resolve.

But let me -- let me also step back and say that when we consider which sanctions to apply, we're not cowboys and cowgirls pressing a button to impose costs. We follow a set of principles. We want the sanctions to be impactful enough to demonstrate our resolve, and to show that we have the capacity to deliver overwhelming costs to Russia, that's one.

Number two, we want them to be responsible to avoid even the perception of targeting the average Russian civilian, and, of course, unwanted spillovers back to the U.S. or the global economy. Number three, we want to stay coordinated. And so, we calibrate our sanctions to maximize the chance that we move in lockstep with our allies and partners.

Number four, they should be flexible, so that we can escalate or deescalate depending on the facts on the ground. And lastly, as I mentioned before, they have to be sustainable. These sanctions work over the long term. That's what will guide our design.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In light of the sanctions that were announced against individuals and entities in Belarus, can you tell us whether there are sanctions against any other countries that are being seriously considered at the moment? And what is the line that a nation would need to cross in this conflict for them to receive -- be on the receiving end of sanctions from the U.S.?

SINGH: Well, the Belarus measures were about delivering cost to a country that aided and abetted what we saw yesterday and overnight, but I have no nothing else for you in terms of other countries being targeted?

PSAKI: Oh, do you have a question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes, yes, definitely.

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: I'm confused with the arms here. Do you want to come? No, no, we'll come back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. I wanted to ask you about the -- some of the carve outs. There are general licenses for more than a dozen areas, agriculture, energy, and you just said that the importance is to limit the impact on Americans. But I was hoping that you could say, is there a percentage that you will share of the number of exemptions that make up the overall transactions?

So, the general licenses, how many -- how many -- what percentage of the transactions are under those licenses?

SINGH: I would refer you to Treasury and OFAC for the -- for the details on what exactly is being exempted, and the percentage of business that would be included.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, could you say is it a third, is it a half? I mean, is it a small percentage --

WATTERS: So, that was a deputy national security adviser briefing the press there about sanctions. One of the things he said will -- you know, they're keeping sanctions in reserve. They're not going to hit him with a 10. They want to start maybe with a two, see how things go, boosts it up to a three, if he goes into Belarus -- or if he goes into Poland. You know, they want to be able to keep that flexibility. Do you think that's a good idea or would you have hit the Russians harder out of the gate?

CAIN: Well, if the scenario is what you just described, that we're saving a few bullets if the next step is into a NATO country, I would hope the response would be a little more than sanctions at that point.

There is a bright line, it is the NATO line. And as we listened to Jen Griffin earlier, it appears -- shockingly in that answer to your question, Jesse, he's putting troops on the border of Poland. And so, once we get to the Baltic states, once we get to Poland, once we get to Romania, we're treaty bound at this point to respond more heavily than with sanctions.

So, what are we saving some sanctions for? What are those few bullets you describe, Jesse, for? I don't know, because I don't know what more Putin can do in Ukraine that wouldn't warrant our full economic response? I would imagine we should -- we should usher in --

WATTERS: Well, I mean, he could do a number of things. He could cut off the pipeline that goes through Ukraine, he could execute the president. I think they are trying to save some things in reserve. They keep asking about SWIFT. But I don't think the President wants to do SWIFT. Why and explain to the audience what SWIFT is because we keep hearing SWIFT, SWIFT, SWIFT. What does that mean?

PERINO: I got to go back in time a little bit to when I was White House Press Secretary when I first learned what Swift was. I had no idea. But it was -- actually, I think it was about Putin at the time too talking about when he tried to invade Georgia, and then got pushed back out of there.

So, SWIFT is where financial transactions go through. And that makes things quite smooth in the world financial system, right? But you can track it, and you can stop it. And so, that's one of the ways that you've talked about stopping terrorist financing. That was -- would be one way. Everyone needs to use SWIFT. Now, here's the thing. Biden can't unilaterally do that.

WATTERS: The Europeans have to vote.

PERINO: The Europeans are a part of this. It is housed in Belgium. And as I understand it, Italy and Germany were quite reluctant. They didn't want to go that far. So, if you don't want to go that far, you're just allowing Putin to go his next far.

And my husband, I'm going to give him credit. Peter just sent me a note listening to Daleep in the briefing. He said, so Russians are now going to have to pay 15 percent interest rates to borrow money. But why are they allowed to borrow money at all? And I think it's a good point because I don't understand why you couldn't have done some of these sanctions would seem fairly timid, although today's are better.

Before -- because as Kamala Harris said, you know, it's supposed to deter. And then, Biden has to say today, well, nobody thought it was going to deter anything. So, what have we been doing for the past three months?

PIRRO: Exactly.

RIVERA: So, this is -- SWIFT let's you take your ATM card and use it in Italy or Belgium.

PERINO: Yes.

RIVERA: Oh, so, I get that.

PIRRO: So, it's an international --

WATTERS: OK, I was going to -- I was going to ask you, what happens if Putin surrounds the capital, he occupies the country, he's total control. And then he waits a couple of weeks, maybe a month, and he gauges the pain threshold of the sanctions, and he says you know what, I don't really feel it that much. Things are all right. We got plenty of money, loaded for bear, we're going to move now. That's going to look like a huge strategic miscalculation on the Biden administration's part that they didn't go in harder and pierce Putin personally right away.

RIVERA: Well, I agree with your implied harder line. I think that we could have had a harder line. You talk about warped narratives. The most warped narrative is that Putin has sold the Russian people that he's de-Nazi-fying Ukraine. He's de-Nazi-fying Ukraine. He's de-Nazi-fying the only country that has a Jewish leader outside of Israel. He's de-Nazi-fying. He's such a -- he's a punk. He's an absolute punk.

And Craig and I were in Afghanistan, Pakistan, tribal territories 1980. The big old Russian army rolling into Afghanistan, they're going to kick ass, they're going to take over, they're going to rule all of South Asia. Guess what, 1980, the economy collapses, the Soviet Union collapses on the back of the -- of the Mujahideen's arm with their little Stinger missiles and their RPGs and so forth. This is going to be Mujahideen squared as long as they don't get Zelensky.

The Russian -- the Ukraine president is such a valuable symbol right now. We have to do whatever we can, whether it's surreptitious or whatever it is, with private security, whatever it is. We have to keep the Zelensky alive and in country. As long as he's in country, Putin has not won. Putin cannot win if the Ukraine president is alive and well and fighting.

PIRRO: That's --

WATTERS: Is that possible?

PIRRO: I disagree with that because as Putin has already said that he is going to take the leaders who resist him and put them on trial. Now, I don't believe that Putin believes in a trial. Putin believes in poisoning people in front of the world. And he has no concerns about it.

And let me just say something about sanctions, because we've been talking about sanctions for the last hour. They annexed Crimea, for Putin did in 2014. Did the sanctions work? No. And then what we had were Biden waved the sanctions and allowed Russia on the pipeline on Nord Stream 2. So, he's waived them so far.

So, there is so much that we've done that has given Putin the belief that he can get away with it. And in addition to that, we have no sanction against Putin personally. It's like, we're not going to touch him.

WATTERS: We're waiting for that, they said.

PIRRO: Yes, waiting, right. And the international banking system, how's he going to sell oil if he can't get the money from the international banking system? OK, there's got to be a way to convince Italy and Germany because people are dying as we speak. And let's stop talking about time because he is in a position to take Kyiv in the next 24 to 48 hours according to the military experts.

So, this long term, let's see the sanctions -- and Putin does not care about his people. He doesn't care about whether they like him, or love him, or hate him.

WATTERS: That's for sure. All right, much more on Russia's invasion of Ukraine next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: The Department of Homeland Security Warning that the Russian cyber threat against America is active with possible attacks on our power grid and U.S. banks. President Biden warning Russia of a heavy price to pay if one happens. OK --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Russia pursues cyberattacks against our companies, our critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond. For months, we've been working closely with our private -- with the private sector to harden our cyber defenses, sharpen our ability to respond to Russian cyberattacks as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: OK, let me just say that, that our power grid is a balkanized power grid, Will, and I'm going to go to you, which means that it's -- there are a bunch of local power companies that are in charge of the power grid, and we're very vulnerable.

Russia has attacked us multiple times before. And I don't know that they've gotten any kind of reaction from us. But their playbook is you do a cyberattacks, and then you go into the military attacks. How do we harden our defenses so that our grid is protected because an attack on the grid will be devastating on the United States?

CAIN: Well, the answer to that might be to Jesse's point a little bit earlier when he asked me why would we hold some sanctions back. Maybe just in case for this type of moment in case there is a cyberattack, then maybe we can go after SWIFT, maybe we can go after other personal economic sanctions.

But Judge, I'm fascinated by this and here's why. We have never in our lifetime in history had geopolitical brinkmanship with the inclusion of cyberattack. In other words, there's this concept of proportional response. You invade here, I invade there. You use this level of weapon, I use this level of weapon. That's never included cyberattack until this moment.

And if Russia launches cyberattacks on the United States, that becomes kinetic really quickly. You can down planes, you can cause loss of life. So, how do we then respond? And I just think cyber becomes this -- it becomes this ground, this battleground where this whole thing can escalate and spiral out of control very quickly.

PIRRO: Well, you know what he's saying, Geraldo, is very true that it can escalate and be very quick because whatever power they have, we have equal power, whatever power we have, they have equal power. What do we do?

RIVERA: I don't know the answer to that. And I was so chilled. And one of the reserve bad nights sleeping last night, I was thinking about Putin talking about -- cavalierly about nuclear weapons. I never thought I'd see it. I never thought I would see this in my life. I'm from the silent generation, born during World War II. You know, there hasn't been a land war of this scope in Europe since you know, 80-some years.

NATO, this 30 nations in NATO, I don't know what they do. I don't know what they're for. I've been covering war my whole career and I still don't know NATO to respond in an effective way other than just as head on to the U.S.

So, I'm worried -- I'm worried about cyber. I'd hate to leave people on this on this note with deep apprehension. But the problem is, and Will alludes to it in terms of his talk about escalation, we don't know what the hell's going to happen. We don't know where this is going. We don't know some crazy general gets a hold of a missile or something.

This is very, very serious time, a time for a sober reflection in American history, and there's no expert is going to tell you, no general is going to tell you. It's --

PIRRO: Dana, one of the things that Will said was that they can downplay and they can also shut down hospitals. I mean, that can have an enormous impact on us. So -- but Russia is home to some of the most famous hackers in the world. And how do we -- how do we put ourselves in a situation where we can protect us?

PERINO: Well, I would -- let me try to give some good news. There's some positive news on this front. Yes, they have nefarious hackers and notorious ones as well. We have very good hacking capabilities. And we just don't do the kind of things that they do, but we can push back. We can preemptively do that.

I understand the President was given some options today to consider something like that. It's not something the United States usually does. But, it's -- you know, there might be things going on behind the scenes that we don't know. I saw today that one of the Kremlin's abilities to communicate within the Kremlin, it was down. I wonder why.

So, I don't think -- we're not powerless here. Now, if -- what's the -- what's the game that you girls play, that video game that they like?

WATTERS: Roblox.

PERINO: Well, if Roblox gets cut off and America's teen -- preteen girls aren't able to play their games, you know, they're going to be mad, and then we're going to fight even harder, because we got to make sure that our girls are taken care of.

RIVERA: Protect our Roblox.

PIRRO: Quick 30 seconds, Jesse.

WATTERS: You know, the President gave Vlad a list of 15 things he wasn't allowed to hack, Judge. So, maybe he's going to pay attention and to steer clear of those 15. Dana mentioned, he got an entree of options to go on offense against the Kremlin. One of those things with our cyberattack. We can shut a train down in its tracks in Russia. We could knock the lights off in Moscow.

I mean, look what happened with the North Koreans hack Sony. I think we shut their internet off for a whole month in North Korea. We're always messing around with the Iranians. I think we have every single gas station in that damn country. So, there are things that we can do.

PERINO: Yes.

WATTERS: There's a thing that we won't do, but we'll do it if we have to.

PIRRO: OK. All right. We got 20 seconds, Will. Go ahead.

CAIN: Wow, that's a lot of pressure. Put the entire Ukrainian Russian conflict into context in 20 seconds, Will. No, I appreciate being here tonight. This is a -- this is the toughest moment for American people because we have to answer one question, what serves the American interest.

PIRRO: That's right.

CAIN: What serves the United States of America?

PIRRO: That's it for us. Stay with Fox News for continuing coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "SPECIAL REPORT" is next. Hey Bret.

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