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i'm victor blackwell. >> and i'm bianna golodryga. in moments the nation's top defense officials are expected to take reporters' questions, this after the pentagon says russia downed an american drone over the black sea. a high-level russian official said russia will try to retrieve the wreckage, while white house officials say finding the debris may be impossible. the u.s. military said on tuesday a russian jet dumped fuel on the unmanned u.s. aircraft which it says was doing routine operations in international air space. >> the russian jet then hit the propeller of the reaper, forcing its remote pilots to bring it down in international waters. the pentagon says the move was part of a russian pattern of aggression, but the kremlin gives a different version of events and declared today that u.s. and russia relations are at their lowest point and in a deplorable state. cnn's oren liebermann is standing by at the pentagon waiting for the press conference to begin. you have new developments to report about a call between the

u.s. and russia. >> reporter: an expected call. we are waiting to find out if it happens. this would be between the top russian general and his counterpart. that would be mark milley. they haven't spoken all that often, in fact, according to the readouts the last time they spoke was three months ago in december but they have spoken at critical moments. this would certainly be one of those critical moments, just one day after the two russian jets essentially harassed, intercepted and collided with the mq-9 reaper drone over international air space over the black sea. we will wait to find out if and when this happens. it is worth noting that occasionally or frequently i should say these calls happen in tandem between a call between defense secretary lloyd austin and his russian counterpart, sergei show gu. we will see if they learn more about the expected calls or call

when the two hold a press conference at the pentagon. >> there's great interest on any information that that drone would contain. what is the military saying it's doing to protect u.s. information from that drone getting into wrong hands? >> reporter: of course, we first heard from john kirby, the strategic communications coordinator for the national security council that the u.s. had taken steps to protect the equities on that drone. we now have a far better sense what have exactly that means to make sure that sensitive information doesn't falling into russian hands or other hands. according to two u.s. officials familiar with the incident, the u.s. was able to remotely wipe the software from the drone, essentially erasing the sensitive software that carries out the signals intelligence gathering and carries out the sensitive part of the mission of the drone which is the intelligence collection and the surveillance. the u.s. after the incident, after the collision and the interception, was able to remotely wipe the software off the drone before it crashed into international waters in the black sea. russia has said they will try to

essentially go recover or collect the drone from the black sea, although even they acknowledge they might not be able to. there are no u.s. navy assets in the black sea that would be able to carry out that mission so to protect the information, to protect the sensitive software on the drone, which is the most sensitive part of this, the u.s. was able to remotely wipe it after the incident, after that interception, bianna and victor. >> oren liebermann, thank you. we will talk to you after this news conference. let's bring in cnn anchor and chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and cnn national security analyst steve hall, former cia chief of russia operations. jim, let me start with you. we heard from ned price, the spokesman at the state department today, he told nbc news that this russian jet appeared to be careening and potentially out of control and he actually said that the assessment was that this was unintentional. i heard that from him, but not administration-wide. what are your sources saying? is there a consensus around that? >> doesn't seem to be a hard

consensus here. it's possible two things are true, that it was flying particularly close, which you will often see russian jets do with u.s. surveillance aircraft or chinese jets do with u.s. surveillance aircraft in east asia, fly close, that's intentional to show that they're watching and perhaps eject a little bravado from the pilots there which you'll often see. it's possible that the collision wasn't intentional, but that that happened while the pilot was operating that way. i think big picture one thing to be concerned about here is there is a lot of u.s. and nato hardware flying very close to a lot of russian hardware and there's been a very concerted effort in the 13 months since this war started, a war in which you have russia on one side having invaded ukraine, u.s. and nato on the other supplying ukraine with weapons to defend itself, there's been a concerted effort to avoid u.s. and russian hardware from coming into direct conflict.

here you have it happening and it just shows the danger of that and that of course then raises the possibility of escalation when this kind of thing happens. >> and of course it's coming at a precarious time when the west is trying to negotiate or renegotiate an export grain deal out of odesa there, obviously that would impact millions of people around the world. steve, let me ask you about russia's attempt as they said to retrieve the wreckage from this drone. the united states said that likely it is not retrievable at this point but they effectively wiped the drone of any sensitive information. that still doesn't deny russia access to the drone itself, the physical hardware, if they are able to retrieve it. would they be able to reverse engineer it in that situation, either domestically or via iran? >> bianna, the actual outside of the aircraft, the drone itself, i think has been widely observed by the russians so in terms of

them having a better understanding of how the air frame itself works and all that sort of thing, there's probably some limited return. as was being reported earlier, the more sensitive stuff inside the drone that tro he is processes the imagery that encrypts, something the russians would be much more interested in, i can't say a lot about it, but the u.s. defense system takes into account the probability that these things happen, it takes appropriate measures to make sure that the bad guys, in this case the russians don't get interesting. it is interesting that a former intelligence officer himself is the one who said we're going to try to get this thing if we can get it. that's message sending by the russians. >> what you're seeing on the screen, we're awaiting a news conference from the pentagon. the secretary of defense and the chairman of joint chiefs will be speaking in just a moment. jim, let me come back to you. the message sending that steve just mentioned from the russians, the u.s. also sending

its own message saying that there is a good chance we won't get to it, we've wiped it clean. how much of that is message sending that what you will find really isn't worth anything, it's such deepwater? >> i mean, it will be worth something, right? look at the efforts that the u.s. went to go after the remaining pieces of the chinese surveillance balloon, there were a lot of ships and a lot of drivers involved. you can wipe a certain amount but there's hardware in that florida that you can't get rid of even with a high speed impact with the water, there could be some value, the question is to what degree there's value. we already know that some u.s. weapons, high technology weapons have fallen into russian hands in the ukraine war. it happens as ukrainian positions are overtaken in some places and cnn reported recently that some of those weapons, javelins, for instance, stingers have been sent to iran expressly for the purpose of reverse engineering and by the way china is another country that does this kind of thing, both through super dishes means and also

through gaining hardware. this is what adversaries do to gather intelligence on each other and when you fly this stuff around or supply it as weapons in ongoing wars there is a risk that some of it ends up in the other side's hands. >> steve, the incident itself may have been unintentional but russia's response has been unsurprisingly belligerent. we've seen russia's ambassador to the u.s. telling americans that we won't allow anyone to violate our waters anymore. they're international waters but they're calling it russian and russian foreign minister sergey lavrov today said the united states was ignoring the fact that russia established air space restriction around the area. what does that tell you in terms of how russia views the entire black sea, which borders many other countries not just russia alone? >> sure, some nato countries, in fact, border the black sea. there is a couple things interesting there. the first is it's really

interesting and obviously clearly sort of funny to me whenever the russians start claiming things along the lines of international law. despite the fact that they have invaded a neighboring country and that they have done all of these horrific war crimes, they are still willing to say but in terms of international law we were in the right on this one. that's always kind of -- it's kind of good for a laugh, i think. the second point, getting back to that messaging thing is this isn't an entirely bad incident for the russians. they are keenly aware, putin is, of what the political situation is here in the united states and that there is some concern on various parts of the u.s. political spectrum, some of it on the right, a bit of it on the left about getting sucked into this war as jim was talking about earlier. if these types of things start to happen they know we get nervous and if we're nervous there is a greater likelihood we're going to give less support to ukraine in the future, that's the russian hope. a situation like this works in their favor in that regard. >> it's such a great point because you saw a similar domestic disagreement over the

reaction to the chinese surveillance balloon, bianna, and victor, and, in fact, some senior u.s. military officials commented afterwards that part of china's sort of mow does op ran dee in that whole event was to cede those certainly disagreements as it often does because that's to their benefit. when you hear the public comments from various prominent u.s. officials and some on opposing sides of this, those are things that russia and china are happy to see and attempt to profit from. >> the u.s. has flown reaper drones in the black sea area before russia invaded ukraine last year and the united states in response says they will continue to do so. jim sciutto and steve hall, stand by as we are awaiting this press conference at the pentagon from defense secretary lloyd austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley as well. and we're going to move on now to other news of the day. any moment we will bring you that news conference. we're going to take a quick break, though, right now. fast .

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we heard from republican congresswoman nancy mace that there should be sanctions imposed on russia for the clipping of this drone. we've seen that sanctions haven't been overwhelmingly influential in the -- in relation to the invasion of ukraine, but do you expect that that will happen and what will it mean? >> it's hard to imagine what other sanctions you would add, given the raft of sanctions already applied to russia by the u.s. and it's allies and not just sanctions like we've often seen the categories of individuals and entities you will often hear that with relation to russia, north korea, iran, china as well, but it's been a considered effort to cut off russia from the global economy, from the west. you have europe in effect in very short order taking its entire dependence on russian -- ending its dependence on russian energy. so hard to see what specifics -- >> jim, we're going to interrupt you. >> introduce secretary of defense lloyd austin iii and

chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley. the secretary and the chairman will each deliver opening remarks and then have time to take a few questions. please note, i will moderate those questions and call on journalists and would ask you that you limit your follow-ups due to our tight schedule today. i appreciate your assistance with this. secretary austin, over to you, sir. >> thanks, pat. good afternoon, everybody. we just concluded our tenth highly successful meeting of ukraine defense contact group, but before i get to that important work, i want to say just a few words about a troubling episode yesterday. on tuesday russian aircraft, again, engaged in dangerous and reckless and unprofessional behavior in the international air space over the black sea. two russian jets dumped fuel on an unmanned u.s. mq-9 aircraft conducting routine operations in international air space. one russian jet struck our mq-9

aircraft, resulting in a crash. this hazardous episode is a part -- is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions by russian pilots in international air space. now, i just got off the phone with my russian counterpart, minister shoigu. as i have said repeatedly, it's important that great powers be models of transparency and communication. the united states will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. and it is incumbent upon russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner. now, let me turn to the important work of this contact group. today our extraordinary allies and partners reaffirmed our unity and resolve in supporting

ukraine's fight for freedom. we were joined again today by some 50 nations of good will from all around the globe, and they all understand that ukraine's battle to defend itself from russian aggression is vital for everyone who values the core principles of sovereignty, self-determination and freedom. today we were joined again by my good friend minister oleksii reznikov. he comes to each contact group meeting with a clear message for the next steps in ukraine's resistance to russia's campaign of conquest. the presentations from him and his team underscore the continued urgency of our support. this contact group has pushed hard to ensure that ukraine can defend itself from putin's imperial aggression. brave ukrainians stood firm during russia's ground invasion

with the help of their new janet tank and janet aircraft missiles, which contact group countries have provided. russia's -- russia hopes to grind down ukraine in a war of attrition, but ukraine has been supplied by more than 40 countries. meanwhile, russia has had to depend on iran and north korea and has had to use equipment dating back to world war ii. so russia is running out of capability and running out of friends. putin has now had a year's worth of proof that the united states and the contact group will support ukraine's right to defend itself for the long haul. but putin still hopes that he can wear down ukraine and wait us out. so we can't let up and we won't. ukraine doesn't have any time to waste and i heard clearly today that our fellow contact group

members also know that we have to deliver swiftly and fully on our promised commitments. and that includes delivering our armored capabilities to the battlefield and ensuring that ukrainian soldiers get the training, spare parts and maintenance support that they need to use these new systems as soon as possible. we will continue to dig deep for new donations and today we heard updates on our progress and some significant new commitments. sweden has announced that it will provide ukraine with ten leopard tanks and key air defense components. norway is partnering with the united states to donate two nay sam systems to ukraine. the netherlands is making great progress in initiating new contracts to ensure that new capabilities continue to arrive on the battlefield. i want to thank slovenia for its

latest contribution, which helps meet several of ukraine's priority requirements, including armor. for more than a year now far-sighted donations like these by members of this contact group have been crucial to ukraine's fight for sovereignty. we have provided crucial combat capabilities that ukraine's defenders will use to further repel russia's invasion and to exercise initiative and to create favorable conditions on the battlefield. but for ukraine to protect its sovereign territory and defend its citizens over the long term, we must keep going. so we're going to help ukraine sustain the tanks, the infantry fighting vehicles and other armored vehicles that are making their way into the front lines. we're going to continue urgently training ukrainian soldiers on the capabilities that we're providing and on a combined arms maneuver tactics that they need to succeed.

we're going to keep looking into our stocks and into our budget to resupply ukraine throughout the year. and we're going to continue to -- continue our important work in lockstep with our ukrainian partners to maintain accountability for the security assistance that we're providing. and finally, above all, we're going to stay united. together we will help ukraine fight to live free and to get we are helping to show that rules matter and together we're helping to advance our shared security in an open world of rules and rights. so thank you very much and i will now turn it over to the chairman for his comments. >> good afternoon, everyone and thank you, secretary austin, for your leadership. this as the secretary pointed out is our tenth contact group and these meetings and the donations that come from it would not be happening without the incredible leadership of secretary austin, so thank you

for that. your direction remains critical to the future success of the group and also thank you to the ukrainian minister of defense reznikov, my counterpart who was not on the call today but i've talked to him several times in the past week and the deputy chief of defense who represented the general. all of them continue to lead yuukryuukrainians freedom and fr freedom. thanks to the chiefs of defense from 51 participants in today's meeting including nato and the european union. they joined the meeting and they continue to provide critical support to ukraine. each nation is contributing what they can to ensure ukraine has the means to defend itself against the illegal and unprovoked russian invasion. it has been nearly 13 months since russia invaded the sovereign nation of ukraine. ukraine has been independent since 1991 and has presented no

threat whatsoever to russia. russia launched and has continued for over a year now a war of aggression in flagrant violation of international law. this is and remains a russian frontal assault on the rules-based international order that has been in place for 80 years. eight decades since the end of world war ii. in the face this have act of aggression in a war of conquest this group remains unified. nato is united, the people of ukraine are unyielding, they are standing steadfast in the face of the russian onslaught. russia remains isolated. their military stocks are rapidly depleting, their soldiers are demoralized, untrained, unmotivated conscripts and convicts and their leadership is failing them. having already failed in their strategic objectives, russia is increasingly relying on other

countries, such as iran and north korea, as the secretary pointed out. they are using iranian drones to continue to terrorize ukrainian civilians. this relationship is built on the cruel bonds of oppressing freedom, subverting liberty and maintaining their tyranny. yet free people will not return to the shackles of tyranny. ukrainians remain defiant with steel in their spines and courage in their veins and they have the broad support of the united states and the international community. the battle of bakhmut continues, but ukraine is fighting with valor. with robust defenses ukraine has fixed the russian forces at that city and they're compacting very heavy costs on the wagner group and the russian regular military. ukraine remains strong. they are capable and trained. ukrainian soldiers are strong in their combat units, their tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored vehicles are only going

to bolster the front line. ukrainian precision munitions continue to target the logistics and communications systems of russia. lacking effective small unit leaders and absent the proper equipment, this is a grinding attrition warfare that russia is trying to execute. wave after wave of russian soldiers are thrown into the chaos of war absent any sort of synchronized coordination and direction. russia continues to pay severely in terms of lives and military equipment for its continued war of choice. right now there is intense fighting in and around bakhmut and the russians are making small tactical advances, but at great cost. elsewhere the front line remains relatively static with significant exchanges of artillery, but no significant maneuver gains by either side. right now as you know, there is a significant ongoing effort to build up the ukrainian military in terms of equipment, munitions and training. in a variety of countries in order to enable ukraine to

defend itself. the increased ukrainian capability will allow the ukrainian leadership to develop and execute a variety of options in the few to achieve their objectives and bring this war to a successful conclusion. this is an act of brutal aggression by president putin and the russian military with complete disregard for human life, both civilian and military. the russians are wantingly killing civilians in large attacks on civilian infrastructure and densely populated urban areas. the severely under trained, poorly led, poorly equipped russian forces are conducting mindless frontal attacks and sacrificing hundreds per day. the political objectives that putin attempted to achieve 380 days ago is obvious to the world that these objectives are no longer achievable by continuing this war and pew tib can end this war and can end it today and needs to do so. free people are not easily conquered and the ukrainian

people are free and they will never give up in their fight to stay free. two weeks ago the united states released another security assistance package which included himars, ammunition, artillery, vehicle maintenance, and vehicles. the nine countries have pledged over 150 leopard tanks, for example. this group that met today is providing air defense, artillery, regular artillery, rocket artillery, armor, ammunition and that will be critical to ukraine's ability to continue the fight. a broad mix of air defense systems have been promised and they will protect the skis over kyiv and the free cities of ukraine. artillery and armor will strengthen ukraine lines, enable their forces to synchronize fire and movement for either offensive or defensive operations. the ukrainian soldiers wear the blue and yellow of the ukrainian flag but the colors of 50 other nations that met today stand

beside ukraine to support the principles of the rules-based international order. a system in place to prevent aggression and uphold the values of liberty and sovereignty. that system is what preserves the peace and provides benefit throughout the globe. as president biden and secretary austin and many others to include all the leaders of europe have said many times that we will remain committed for as long as it takes. thank you and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you, gentlemen. first question will go to associated press. >> reporter: thank you. mr. secretary, you said you spoke with your counterpart. can you give us a sense of the russians' reaction to the call? did they suggest to you their defense that this was an accident or intentional or that it never happened? can you just give us a better readout of your call? and general milley, have you spoken to your counterpart, are you intending to do so, and do you believe after what you've

seen that this was intentional? is this considered an act of war? >> well, thanks for the question. i won't speak for minister shoigu, nor will i get into the details of our discussion. i will just reiterate that the united states will fly and operate wherever international law allows. now, we take any potential for escalation very seriously and that's why i believe it's important to keep the lines of communication open. i think it's really key that we're able to pick up the phone and engage each other and i think that that will help to prevent miscalculation going forward. >> so thanks for the question. on the intentionality, i don't know. i do plan to talk to my counterpart. we have a scheduled call, we

will see if that works out. so was it intentional or not? i don't know yet. we know that the intercept was intentional, we know that the aggressive behavior was intentional, we also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe. the actual contact of the fixed wing russian fighter with our uav, the physical contact of those two, i'm not sure yet. that remains to be seen. but i can't -- i can tell you with certainty, though, that we have absolute evidence of the contact and the intercepts, et cetera, and it's very aggressive, you have heard about the dumping of the fuel and everything else, we have video evidence of all of that. the actual physical contact of the aircraft, that i'm not so sure. we will have to figure that out. we are not positive of that yet. as far as an act of war goes, i'm not going to go there. incidents happen and clearly we do not seek armed conflict with russia and i believe that at this point we should investigate this incident and move on from

there, but we will continue to exercise our rights in international air space. >> let's go to dan, "washington post." >> reporter: gentlemen, thank you for your time today. secretary austin, announced presidential candidates have already said that ukraine should not be a priority, given that the biden administration has promised to support ukraine for as long as it takes, are you concerned that election rhetoric could undermine support for ukraine in congress or with the american people? and then, chairman milley, the mq-9 came down in the black sea where the united states has not had any military vessels for more than a year. is it fair to say that the u.s. will not recover this mq-9 and do you have any concerns about what value it might have to russia either strategically or for propaganda? thank you.

>> thanks, dan. i would -- in terms of the importance of ukraine, first of all, we've seen bipartisan support for providing security assistance to ukraine throughout, up to this point. i expect that we will continue to see that going forward. we've heard some senior leaders on both sides of the fence say that, and so i expect that that will continue to enjoy that support. you know, dan, ukraine matters. it matters not to just ukraine or to the united states, it matters to the world. this is about the rules-based international order. it's about one country's ability to wake up one day and change the borders of its neighbor and annex its neighbor's sovereign territory. as we've seen, countries around the world don't think that's a good idea and that's why you've seen 50 countries, not only come

to the initial meetings of the ukraine defense contact group, but they continue to come back and they continue to work hard to ensure that ukraine gets everything that it needs to be successful. and that will remain our focus going forward. >> so, dan, on the recovery piece, we know we are landed in the back sea, probably 4,000, 5,000 feet of water, any recovery option is difficult at that depth by anyone. that's first point. secondly is true we don't have any ships there but we do have a lot of allies and friends in the area. we will work through recovery operations, that's u.s. property and we will leave it at that at this point. but it probably broke up, probably not a lot to recover, frankly. as far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, et cetera, as normal we would take -- and we did take mitigating measures. so we are quite confidence that whatever -- whatever was of value is no longer of value. >> next question will go to elie

watson, cbs. >> thanks for doing this. secretary austin, general milley mentioned the video, we've heard reports there you're work to go declassify video of the incident. what does that video show and when will that video be released? why hasn't it been released yet? general milley, secretary austin talked about the pattern of behavior. how often is russia conducting these harassing maneuvers and has it increased in recent weeks? >> thanks, elie. as you know, as you've said, we are still going through videos and photographs to ascertain what we can release, what we can provide, but in terms of what the video shows, we remain confident in the facts that we have conveyed thus far. that will not -- that will not change in terms of, you know, what happened and how it happened, and so, again, we will

work through as quickly as we can to evaluate videos and we will let you know when we have something in terms of video or stills that we can provide you. >> in terms of the pattern of behavior, elie, yes, this is a part of a pattern of behavior. the united states and russian military forces operate in proximity to each other throughout the world. we are operating in the middle east, in syria, for example. we have areas up in alaska that routinely either maritime or aerial vessels come in contact in the maritime areas outside of hawaii, for example, but also obviously in europe and particularly in ukraine. so the fact that we operate in proximity to each other is not particularly unusual, and we do try to establish deconfliction channels in order to make sure that our forces are physically separated and we don't have incidents like this. but there is a pattern of behavior recently where there is a little bit more aggressive actions being conducted by the russians. we think we haven't completed our analysis as to why that's

happening. it wasn't just involving us, there were some incidents earlier with the british and some other nations as well. so there is a pattern of behavior going on here and we have to figure out exactly what the way ahead s i think that was one of the fundamental reasons for secretary's call to minister shoigu and one of the fundamental reasons for my call to my counterpart. >> go to nancy, "wall street journal." >> reporter: thank you. general milley, i was wondering if you could clarify something you said earlier, you said the u.s. has a lot of allies and friends in the region referring to the black sea. am i to take from that the u.s. is prepared to request ships to go in and survey and possibly recover the drone or is the expectation that the u.s. does not intend to recover the drone? secretary austin, i'd like to go back to some comments you made in brussels, you said that bakhmut was largely symbolic. are you concerned that the ukrainian investment in bakhmut potentially takes away resources that could be applied to the spring offensive and risks the

outcome of that offensive? thank you. >> if you don't mind, i will go first. nancy, i -- first of all, let me applaud the valor, the persistence that we've seen from the ukrainian soldiers. they have done amazing in bakhmut. i think the russians have been working to take bakhmut for some seven months or so now and they haven't been very successful and that's because of the diligence, the commitment, the focus of the ukrainian soldiers. in temprms of the significance bakhmut, i would say -- i would point to the fact that president zelenskyy is fighting this fight and he will make the calls on what's important and what's not important to his forces and whether he needs to reposition or remain in bakhmut.

the point that i would make is if he does make a call to reposition at some point in time, it doesn't mean that the war is lost. it may mean, and probably will mean, that he is positioning himself to maintain advantage. and so i think that's the real key there, but whether or not he stays there or how long they stay there, that's president zelenskyy's call and not -- you know, not anybody else's. and, again, our goal is to make sure that we're supporting him in whatever decision -- battlefield decision he's going to make. by the way, we're generating combat power to a degree that we believe that it will provide them opportunities to change the dynamics on the battlefield at some point going forward. whatever point that is, whatever -- you know, whatever they want to do in the future, i think the platforms, the training, the sustainment, the maintenance that we are providing will make a significant difference.

as we work through all of this with our allies and partners in detail today in the meeting, we are on pace and that's in large measure due to the professionalism of our forces who are conducting the training and equipping, but also forces around the -- around europe. as the chairman pointed out, there are a number of countries that are conducting training in their countries, providing various platforms and we're really focused on how we're going to sustain those platforms as well. >> nancy, on the question of the recovery piece, i wouldn't read too much into what i said. we do have allies and friends in the region, we don't have any naval surface vessels in the black sea at this time and we will work up options. as i said at the outset, this is probably 4,000 or 5,000 feet of water and it probably -- i don't know for certain yet, it will be days before we have actual facts on the impact on what debris is

there, probably sank to some significant depths. so any recovery operation from a technical standpoint would be very difficult. if there is reason to believe that we could recover something then we will work up options for the secretary and president to consider and will move from there. but we do have options and we do have friends and allies in the region. >> we have time for one more. >> reporter: thank you very much for your time, gentlemen. i have two questions. chairman milley, you were in syria earlier this month and that was -- a lot of headlines in turkey and eventually the turkish minister of foreign affairs summoned ambassador flake to the ministry to provide an explanation. what was the message behind your visit, sir? and to secretary austin, turkey has requested to buy new f-16s and also modernization kits for

its existing fleet and ankara is saying that lack of approval as soon as possible will not only undermine the turkish nation's security but also the security of nato. so i would like to ask your -- assess your insights on this assessment and your thoughts about providing block 70 f-16s to turkey. >> turkey is a nato ally and we have a strong -- a long-standing strong relationship with turkey and we intend to do everything possible to keep it that way. it's real important to us that we maintain interoperability between our nato allies and so that will always be a focus, it will always be a priority. as you know, typically we don't comment on any pending equipment

sales prior to congress being notified, so i don't have any comments to make on that particular fms case, but, again, i would just highlight the fact that turkey remains a very valuable partner and we will make sure that we're doing everything we can to continue to strengthen our relationship. >> and for my visit it was nothing more than a true teen troop visit to determine the task, purpose, mission, to go out and check on that, see how we're doing, and to assess things like force protection, et cetera. we've got almost 1,000 troops in syria and they are at risk, they are attacked from time to time with the various types of munitions by various actors that are in the area of syria. so i wanted to go over and check on that to make sure the mission is validated and report on the secretary on what that is. with respect to turkey, turkey and situates have a common interest and we have had a

common interest for years and the common interest is to ensure the enduring defeat of isis. isis the caliphate was destroyed, but the organization is still remnants of that organization over there. there are still refugee and prison camps that are there that we're helping out folks, training folks to secure those. it's in our interest and it's in turkey's interest and it's for sure something that i needed to do and it's perfectly appropriate for the chairman to go check on how the forces are doing, especially when they are in harm's way. >> secretary austin, general milley, thank you very much. gentlemen, this concludes the time we have available today. thank you very much. >> we've been listening for about 30 minutes now to the defense secretary, lloyd austin and the chairman of joint chiefs mark milley there talking not only about this ukraine defense contact group meeting today, the tenth since the invasion, but also this clipping of a u.s.

drone by a russian jet. let's bring in our team here. jim sciutto, chief cnn national security correspondent, retired major general james spider marks and steve hall, cnn's national security analyst. jim, let me start with you. the secretary started by calling this a troubling episode, called it reckless, unprofessional, also talked about not too many details, but talked about his call with his russian counterpart defense minister shoigu. what were your top take a ways from what we heard? >> the biggest is they are not certain that the russian pilot intended to clip this drone and take it down. you said general milley directly was it intentional or not, we don't know yet, we know the interception was intentional and what he described as aggressive behavior by the pilot, but the actual physical contact of the aircraft we are not so sure. so that's notable there because there's a difference between those two things, the reckless behavior is dangerous by its nature but we have seen that before. we have not seen a pilot

deliberately clip an aircraft like this one you're seeing and take it down. they're still looking to conclude that. milley did say there has been what he called a pattern of behavior by russian pilots recently in terms of increasing their aggressive behavior around u.s. aircraft. so that's notable, something they've been tracking, but key because it gets to exactly what was intended by the russian side. >> and we also once again to your point, jim, heard both of them describe past history of intercepts, dangerous intercepts and reckless intercepts that russia has conducted for years even prior to this war. general, it was interesting also to hear the defense secretary say that he told the russians repeatedly in that he told smoi gu repeated that the u.s. will continue to fly wherever international law allows. interesting because the russians are claiming this is their territory even though it's not. >> it is international waters and international air space.

the united states operates in both with complete freedom and has done it for years and will continue to do it. look, these are semantic discussions that are really, really important, as jim indicated, this is a distinction with a difference to the russians. to us it's not. this is incredibly provocative activity. they dumped fuel on the uav. whether they then got behind it and clipped its propeller, that's to be determined. in my mind that's irrelevant. this was irrational, incompetence, incredibly dangerous, provocative spupdity on the part of the russians yet it's important. that's why you see secretary austin and general milley in a very calming way describe these incredibly inflammatory incidents. >> everything up to the clipping they say or they know was intentional. so whether the actual punctuation at the end of it, the clipping of the drone was

intentional, they've been doing this not only on this day but for a period leading up to this. we heard from general milley not just with the u.s. but distinguish forces and others. jim, let me come back to you, what we heard from the secretary about the commitment to ukraine. he said we will continue to look into our stocks and our budget to make sure that the ukrainians have what they need as we heard from soon to be, likely, very likely, presidential candidate governor ron desantis talk about that this territorial dispute between russia and ukraine is not in the greatest u.s. interest. >> i mean, it's quite a way to describe a deliberate invasion of a sovereign country to call it a territorial dispute. you have seen republican lawmakers, particularly senators, come out publicly to disagree with desantis' declaration, you heard austin saying that to date it has been largely a bipartisan issue in this country in terms of supporting ukraine with both financial support and weapons,

but, listen, this is something they're going to have to acknowledge because the two leading republican -- potential republican nominees for president in 2024 both have positions like desantis, trump and desantis, in terms of questioning that support whether it's in u.s. interest there. so, you know, as as far as -- that may be wishful thinking by the defense secretary given the potential changes in 2024. we just don't know. >> yeah, and the u.s. has thus far provided over $30 billion worth of aid, but it was notable to hear the defense secretary say, quote, with he keep looking into our stocks and our budget. steve, everything that i keep hearing, i mean, we heard that sweden will now be giving ten leopard tanks, there will be infantry fighting systems as well that are going to be delivered. that having been said every single thing i'm hearing is that ukraine is desperately in need of artillery ammunition and need it yesterday. one report suggests they are expending 3,000 shells per day, russia expending probably double that if not more.

expending double that if not more. >> i wonder whether we should turn that question around and say given everything you've said is true about that in terms of them using a lot of ammunition and resources when they can actually go back with some sort of counteroffensive or move aggressively against the russians i think the decision on the ukrainian side will be driven largely by their capacity to actually do it which means receiving the platforms, ammunition and the other things they need assistance from the west to do. that is a key part. ukraine as russia has decided this is a war of attrition ukraine is going to have to plan for the long term with the help of our nato allies so they can hold out. >> thank you so much for your time. we'll continue to cover this story in our next hour. meantime another big story. >> another bank lands in some

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you have been watching markets in the red all day today on wall street as concerns about the banking sector escalate. right now the dow is off its lows for the day down about 300 points. still concerns though about what is going on in this sector. credit suisse stocks crashed more than 20% to a record low today. that is a european bank after its biggest shareholder appeared to rule out providing any more funding for the embattled lender. >> we have more now on the

volatility. a tumultuous few days. what is going on now? >> reporter: everyone is clearly on edge just kind of waiting for the next shoe to drop here after that implosion of silicon valley bank. what we've seen is credit suisse has gotten a lot of attention today as we just showed that bank down 20%, kind of record lows. this european bank has been in turmoil for literally years. one wall street veteran likened it to a slow moving car crash. what is new is they warned of material weakness in their financial reporting earlier this week and then today their biggest backer, a saudi bank, came out and basically said they're not interested in putting any more money into this bank. this is just adding to the concern we've seen about the banking system. u.s. officials are watching this closely. the treasury department says they are monitoring the credit suisse situation and have been in touch with their global counterparts. regional banks are also in the red here in the united states. first republic bank pledging around 20% after fitch and s&p

down graded this bank's credit rating worried about the deposit outflows, other regional banks down. big banks notably also in the red though they are experiencing an influx of deposits. we should remind people who are kind of nervously watching these bank stocks that the fdic protects your money in the bank up to $250,000. that is per borrower. for most of us, we're good. in fact, in the last few days just with this rescue of silicon valley bank we've seen they are willing to go out and protect people above the $250,000. we should keep it in perspective we can have both things be true. bank stocks can be down yet money in the bank is safe. >> the fed has also enacted this emergency lending facility basically telling banks we are your back stop if you ever need it. >> exactly. trying to keep this from happening again. >> on what would have been just more good news perhaps had it not been for the bank story is we got some relatively positive inflation data today.

>> absolutely. another sign that inflation is cooling off. producer prices actually declined month over month. that was a surprise. year over year this clocked in at 4.6%. that is the eighth straight month of cooling inflation. it is a big improvement from a year ago when we had almost 12% wholesale inflation. you can see it on that chart really cooling off very significantly. other numbers out today on retail sales showing that retail sales dipped in february after a big increase in january. but this is another sign i think that the economy is cooling off. the question now is what does the federal reserve do, right? because all along the risk was that they could raise interest rates so much that something breaks either in the economy or in financial markets and now it looks like something has broken in the banking system. so there's a lot of debate over what they're going to do. a week ago it looked like they'd

raise interest rates by 50 basis points. now the market is basically split 50/50 between either raising interest rates by a quarter point again or doing nothing at all. this is shaping up to be a pretty suspenseful fed meeting. so much is on the line when it comes to the economy. >> fed chair powell in an unenviable position right now. that meeting and decision will come next week. >> and has gotten even harder. >> thank you. don't miss cnn primetime tonight. bank bust. what's next for america's money? that is only here on cnn at 9:00 p.m. eastern. it is the top of the hour on "cnn newsroom." hello everyone. >> minutes ago the nation's top defense official condemned russia's downing of a u.s. drone over international territory over the black sea and defense secretary lloyd austin revealed he just had a call with his russian counterpart defense minister serge