'This Week' Transcript: Ukraine Foreign Minister; Nate Silver

March 23, 2014— -- Below is the rush transcript for "This Week" on March 23, 2014 and it may contain errors.

MARTHA RADDATZ: Good morning. Welcome to "This Week."

Frantic scramble -- the massive, high-tech search for flight 370 intensifies In the skies, on the water. This morning, all the breaking details.

Faceoff.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We stand ready to impose further sanctions.

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RADDATZ: The dramatic tug of war between Presidents Obama and Putin. Is the crisis in Ukraine sparking a new cold war?

And cashing in, should college athletes get paid like pros? The critical legal case that could rock March Madness.

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, This Week with George Stephanopoulos starts now.

RADDATZ: Good morning, again. I'm Martha Raddatz. So much to get to today, including stats whiz Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight. We have a first look at his exclusive analysis of the midterm elections.

But we begin oversees with Malaysia Air Flight 370. As we come on the air this morning, the search for wreckage is intensifying, focusing on this area where satellites have spotted what might be debris.

But still, more than two weeks into the search, what happened to Flight 370 is a mystery. And we all want answers.

We have complete coverage of that search for answers, beginning with ABC's David Wright who has just stepped off a search plane that was out scanning those waters. David joins us now from Pearce Air Base in Australia -- David.

DAVID WRIGHT, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Martha. We just spent ten hours aboard that plane, only to come back empty handed.

The crew set off with high hopes, their assigned search area adjusted overnight because of that Chinese satellite image.

We had a few radar contacts, but no visual confirmation of anything significant except for a whale.

Visibility, though, was very poor because of low-lying clouds.

Well, today the French provided investigators with what they say is another satellite photo showing possible debris. And that will keep this search going.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WRIGHT: This vast stretch of sea in one of the most remote parts of the planet is now the focus of worldwide attention. State of the art planes have poured over a region of water bigger than Texas for five days, coming back empty handed. Then yesterday, a dramatic moment of hope, a Malaysian official, briefing reporters, was handed an urgent message.

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, ACTING MALAYSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER: The news I just received is that the Chinese ambassador received satellite image of floating objects in the southern corridor and they will be sending ships to verify.

WRIGHT: That image shows what appears to be a large object floating in the water, measuring about 74 by 43 feet. A Chinese satellite took the picture March 18th. The location about 75 miles southwest of the materials spotted in the Australian satellite image released last week. Could it be the same debris?