Thanks to a fierce Ukrainian resistance, Russia has been
frustrated by its inability to capture any major city so far.
Which is why more and more, they've decided to
just bomb those cities from the sky.
Apartment complexes, hospitals,
basically, the less threatening the building, the more
Russia wants to bomb it. And that has led to a fierce debate
in the West over how to respond.
Should NATO send Ukraine fighter jets?
Should NATO enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine?
So far, the answers to both of those have been, "No,"
over fears that doing either would spark a direct conflict
between NATO and Russia.
But over the weekend, it was Russia edging everyone closer
to direct conflict.
A war that many fear could spill into other countries has taken
a dangerous turn, with Russia firing on a
Ukrainian military base close to the Polish border
and the NATO alliance.
The sky turned red, witnesses say,
when roughly 30 Russian missiles struck the Yavoriv training base
in Western Ukraine, leaving this smoldering crater,
35 people dead and an escalation of the war now only a few
miles from Poland, a key NATO ally.
The base was routinely used by U.S. and NATO trainers
over the years.
NEWSWOMAN: The attack came a day after Moscow warned
it would try to destroy foreign shipments of weapons to Ukraine,
calling them "legitimate targets."
Yeah. Believe it or not, for the first time, Russia bombed
a military base very close to Poland's border.
Just 15 miles away. Which definitely seems like a warning.
I mean, 15 miles is basically nothing
according to my friend who can't stop telling me
that he's training for a marathon.
I get it. You run far.
In fact, 15 miles is basically as close you can get
to bombing Poland without actually hitting it,
which means this missile strike was basically Russia going,
"Oh, I wish a NATO would."
And on top of that, Russia's also warning
that it's not gonna just let the West
keep sending weapons into Ukraine.
It's gonna start attacking those shipments.
Which is scary,
but, I mean, of course they want to stop
those shipments from coming in.
You know, NATO is sending Ukraine
its most sophisticated weapons.
Meanwhile, Russia is fighting
with the equivalent of a flip phone.
So, if you're a UPS guy
who gets a package that looks like this,
you might want to watch yourself.
Now, both of these developments are concerning
because, like I said, nobody wants World War III.
We don't want it to start for any reason.
I mean, America hasn't even defeated
all the Nazis from the last World War.
And like my mom always says, you can't have more
until you finish what's on your plate.
But while everyone is trying to keep the war
from spilling into the rest of the Europe,
as it turns out,
it might already be spilling into China.
NEWSWOMAN: We're learning this morning that Russia
has asked China for military support
and other aid for this invasion.
That is really concerning for the West
and could be a real blow to these Ukrainian forces
if, indeed, uh, this happens.
U.S. officials tell us it's true,
and the White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
is traveling to Rome today to meet with Chinese officials,
and he says he will warn them not to help Vladimir Putin.
We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing.
We will not allow that to go forward
and allow there to be a, uh, lifeline to Russia
from these economic sanctions
from any country anywhere in the world.
Okay, look, I-I can see
why America doesn't want Russia teaming up with China.
That would be an unstoppable power couple.
Like Bennifer but with nukes.
But getting tough on Russia is one thing.
How does America plan to turn the screws on China?
"Hey, you better do what we say, or we won't let you sell us
"literally everything we need to survive anymore
because we haven't made anything ourselves in 30 years."
Shit. I bet America would sacrifice three or four states
just to keep getting new iPhones.
And whether China decides to help Russia or not,
you've got to admit, this is embarrassing for Russia.
I mean, think about it.
They're not even, what, three weeks into this war?
And they're already like,
"China, can you help us?
We ran out of war stuff."
It's like when you were a kid at the arcade
and you used up all your tokens
trying to beat the first level of a video game.
Then you just got to walk around,
begging other people for their tokens.
And when that fails,
you spend the rest of the party fingerbanging all the machines,
hoping someone left a token behind-- remember those days?
But as Putin looks for help on the battlefield,
the fallout is also continuing to mount inside his own borders.
Seemingly every day, Russia becomes
more and more isolated from the rest of the world.
They can't fly anywhere, they can't order anything
off of Amazon. They can't even use Airbnb.
Which means now they have to film themselves
going to the bathroom.
And every day, the Russian people become more cut off
from the truth about the war.
All the independent media has been shut down.
So the only thing that they have now is state TV.
Although today an antiwar message
managed to slip on the air.
Provocative and courageous move from an antiwar protester
in Russia. Watch her bold and brave act
during a prime time broadcast on Russian state TV this evening.
(speaking Russian)
TAPPER: That sign reads, in Russian, "No war. Stop the war.
Do not believe propaganda. They tell you lies here."
The last line of the sign read "Russians against war."
The program appeared to quickly cut away to video.
At this hour it's unclear what happened to this woman
after her on-set protest.
Russia, of course, does not allow freedom of speech.
Wow.
That is either an incredibly brave protester
or a very horrible cue card person.
No, for real though, for real, that was actually
an employee at that state TV channel, which is brave.
That's one of the bravest things I've ever seen.
Although, knowing Russia's propaganda machine,
it's probably gonna find a way to, like,
twist this whole thing. Yeah, they'll be like,
(Russian accent): "You saw the sign-- 'No war.'
"There is no war. Everything is normal. All good."
(regular accent): But this protest aside,
it's almost impossible for Russians to get information
from the outside world now. Even on the Internet.
There's no Facebook. There's no Twitter in Russia.
And now there's no cat photos.
Instagram has gone dark in Russia.
The country shut down the social media platform at midnight.
Russian regulators gave people 48 hours to
save all their photos and videos before the service ended.
So there's are all these influencers in Russia
with, like, 23 million-something followers
that are, like, sobbing and very upset
that they're losing all their followers.
NEWSWOMAN: Reality TV star Olga Buzova posted this video
of her crying and saying,
"It feels like a big part of my heart
and my life is being taken away from me."
Yeah. If you thought being a Ukrainian refugee was bad,
imagine being forced to pick up your whole life on Instagram
and move it over to Cameo.
That's tragic.
I mean, for real though, Instagram shutting down
in Russia does really affect people's lives.
Because Instagram is used in a lot of ways.
You know? Yes, it makes influencers money, yes.
But it also gives small businesses
the opportunity to promote themselves.
It lets people share important life updates with each other.
You know? It lets creepy dudes tell women
who are clearly porn bots that their ass is flames.
It does a lot of things.
But...
luckily for Russians going through Instagram withdrawal,
Putin has come through again with a new app
that I think is even better.
(Russian accent): Comrades, are you sad that Mother Russia
has banned neo-Nazi Instagram?
Well, do not worry
or we put you in jail.
Now you do not need Instagram,
because Russia has new photo app.
Instavlad.
Instavlad is new Russia-approved way to waste time on toilet.
Now you can show haters around the world
you're still living best life.
Does not matter if you can't fly anywhere and have no money.
You are happy eating stew at home.
And Instavlad has all the best filters,
so you can see what you look like if you had reason to smile.
And with Close Comrade mode,
your private pictures will only be visible to your best friends
and also our secret police.
And if you want sexy thots,
we have the hottest one.
Look at him. He is so sexy.
Like and comment. Comment some more.
You did you not comment enough.
Now we put you in jail.
Instavlad.
You know you like it.