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House Oversight Committee Wants Government to End Trump Hotel Lease before Sale; Pro-Russian Forces Shell School in Donbas; U.S. Secretary of State Says Russian Aggression "Most Immediate Threat" to Security. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 17, 2022 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:00]

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: This comes in light of allegations that the Trump Organization submitted false financial statements to the federal government. The Democrats on the committee claim those statements may constitute a breach of the lease.

The Trump Organization stands to make a profit of $100 million from the sale of the hotel lease to a Miami-based investment group. And we'll continue to cover that story.

Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Jim Sciutto in Kyiv. We will continue --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Kate Bolduan and we do begin with breaking news. Any moment we will hear from secretary of state Antony Blinken, planning to deliver an urgent warning to the U.N. Security Council as there is more evidence that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion in Ukraine.

Russia's deputy foreign minister is speaking right now. President Biden said this morning the threat of an attack is quote-unquote "very high."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have reason to believe that they are engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in. Every indication we have is they're prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine. My sense is that it will happen in the next several days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: NATO's secretary general says that Russia now has the capabilities to launch a full-scale invasion with little or no warning.

These dire warnings come as shelling breaks out in the disputed Donbas region, where Ukraine says pro-Russian forces hit a preschool. The concern is Russia could use this to stage a pretext for an attack.

While Russia claims its forces are retreating from the Ukrainian border, the Biden administration said clearly now they are doing the exact opposite, adding more troops. Let's begin coverage with Kylie Atwood.

We're standing by to hear from the secretary of state.

What is he expected to say?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Listen, the secretary of state is headed up to New York today to express the gravity that the Biden administration sees here.

We heard, as you say, Kate, from President Biden himself, saying his sense is that a Russian invasion into Ukraine could come within the next few days here. We've also heard from State Department officials that, last night, the Russian mission to the United Nations was circulating some false documents to other member nations, alleging there were war crimes in southeastern Ukraine.

And the Biden administration is calling that categorically false. And the secretary of state will have the opportunity to speak to all member nations on the world stage and say what the United States is seeing here.

And that is that Russia is preparing for a potential imminent invasion into Ukraine. The State Department didn't want to allow this meeting today to go forward without having the United States clearly present what it is seeing.

They didn't want Russia to use this meeting as an opportunity to distract from what is happening on the ground in Ukraine.

And of course, we're also learning today that the number two U.S. diplomat in Moscow was expelled from Russia in the recent days; last week, left the country. Of course, that is a small piece of this puzzle, Kate.

But what it demonstrates is that Russia is saying one thing and doing another. It is claiming that it wants to be engaged in diplomacy. But it is also taking actions to get rid of U.S. diplomats that are in Moscow. The State Department saying that they view that action as escalatory.

They are reviewing it; they are coming up with how they will respond. And of course, it comes as the United States says they want to continue diplomatically engaging with Russia.

But they've also been very clear about the facts on the ground. Just last night, a senior administration official saying that this Russian military build-up has continued, adding about 7,000 Russian forces along the border of Ukraine in just the last few days, which is contradictory to what Russia has said, that they're pulling back some of those forces.

BOLDUAN: Kylie will stick close as we wait for the secretary of state. But from all the headlines and developments, it's clear something has shifted here. We'll get back in a bit.

But now over to Eastern Ukraine. Officials say pro-Russian forces are responsible for a shelling that hit a preschool in the disputed Donbas region. The shelling raising fears that this could be used as pretext for Russia to invade, something that officials have been warning about now for weeks. CNN's Sam Kiley live in Eastern Ukraine for us.

Sam, what more are you learning?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, I think we need to understand how this could be used as a pretext for a Russian invasion, because this hit Ukrainian government-held territory, a preschool, no less, causing concussive injuries to several individuals; none of them small children, we understand.

[11:05:00]

KILEY: But CNN has confirmed that this happened in Ukrainian-held territory, fired from the Russian-backed rebel territory. The reason it's considered a potential provocation, of course, is that the Ukrainians fired back.

Now had the Ukrainians hit a target that had resulted in spectacular civilian death, for example, catastrophic; ethically, though that would have been -- it would have also been potentially the sort of provocation the Russians are accused of seeking as an excuse to go to war.

They're expected, as Kylie is reporting there, Kate, to start throwing allegations of genocide around, a term used last week or in the last few days by Vladimir Putin, with reference to the plight of Russian- speaking people in the east of the country.

That term has been rejected roundly around the world. It's complete -- there's no evidence, not a shred of evidence for it. But it is always the case that the Russians amidst this very substantial military build-up, seem to be looking for a pretext.

Not least they've got to sell that to their own people, particularly their army, which may not be altogether keen on an unprovoked invasion of a neighbor. BOLDUAN: Sam, thank you so much for your continued great reporting

over there.

Let's go to Moscow now, where Russia is expelling the number two American diplomat at the U.S. embassy there. And Putin is now preparing to address parliament. CNN's Nic Robertson live in Moscow for us.

Nic, what's happening there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Bart Gorman, the number two at the U.S. mission here, at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, expelled; unprovoked, is how the State Department is calling it.

And also pointing out that, at this time when diplomacy is needed and Russia says it wants diplomacy, decreasing the number of diplomats in the U.S. embassy is not the way to go.

Putin, we understand, is going to be addressing parliament; when and specifically on what, we don't know. It could be as simple as talking about the country's economy. It may have nothing to do with what's going on in Ukraine.

But his government, beyond expelling Bart Gorman, has released its response to the United States over its own demands, that NATO block Ukraine from becoming a member, that NATO go back to 1997 lines.

And the diplomatic language in that letter has some pretty stark reading in it. Just a few of the highlights: Russia saying that the failure of the United States and NATO to engage on its core demands, as I mentioned about NATO there, that it may have to turn, resort to things that include military technical measures.

Now Russia's used that sort of language before, several weeks ago. But to use it again in this context throws a really dark cloud over what could be coming next.

Also saying that, because the United States and NATO continue to deploy forces to Poland, to Romania, this is undermining the sort of atmosphere upon which to have these diplomatic talks that are so desired by the United States and by NATO and allies.

BOLDUAN: Nic, big developments there. Thank you very much.

We are standing by, just a reminder to everyone, we'll bring it to you live when we hear from secretary of state Tony Blinken, now at the U.N., sitting with the U.N. Security Council, who will be bringing that to you very shortly.

In the meantime, joining me now -- and here he is.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: -- the Minsk agreements, a goal that we all share, despite Russia's persistent violations, these agreements, which were negotiated in 2014 and 2015 and signed by Russia, remain the basis for the peace process to resolve the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. This council's primary responsibility, the very reason for its

creation, is the preservation of peace and security. As we meet today, the most immediate threat to peace and security is Russia's looming aggression against Ukraine.

The stakes go far beyond Ukraine. This is a moment of peril for the lives and safety of millions of people, as well as for the foundation of the United Nations charter and the rules-based international order that preserves stability worldwide.

This crisis directly affects every member of this council and every country in the world, because the basic principles that sustain peace and security, principles that were enshrined in the wake of two world wars and a cold war, are under threat: the principle that one country cannot change the border of the others by force --

[11:10:00]

BLINKEN: -- the principle that one country cannot dictate another's choices or policies or with whom it will associate; the principle of national sovereignty -- this is the exact kind of crisis that the United Nations and, specifically, this Security Council was created to prevent.

We must address what Russia is doing right now to Ukraine. Over the past months, without provocation or justification, Russia has amassed more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine's borders, in Russia, Belarus, occupied Crimea.

Russia said it's drawing down those forces. We do not see that happening on the ground. Our information indicates clearly that these forces, including ground troops, aircraft, ships, are preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in the coming days. We don't know precisely how things will play out.

But here's what the world can expect to see unfold; in fact, it's unfolding right now, today, as Russia takes steps down the path to war and reissued the threat of military action.

First, Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack. This could be a violent event that Russia will bring on Ukraine or an outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian government. We don't know exactly the form it will take.

It could be a fabricated, so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians or a fake, even a real attack, using chemical weapons.

Russia may describe this event as ethnic cleansing or a genocide, making a mockery of a concept that we, in this chamber, do not take lightly nor do I take lightly, based on my family history.

In the past few days, Russian media has already begun to spread some of these false alarms and claims, to maximize public outrage, to lay the groundwork for an invented justification for war. Today, that drumbeat has only intensified in Russia's state-controlled

media. We've heard some of these basic allegations from Russian-backed speakers here today.

Second, in response to this manufactured provocation, the highest levels of the Russian government may theatrically convene emergency meetings to address the so-called crisis. The government will issue proclamations declaring that Russia must respond to defend Russian citizens or ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

Next, the attack is planned to begin. Russian missiles and bombs will drop across Ukraine. Communications will be jammed. Cyberattacks will shut down key Ukrainian institutions.

After that, Russian tanks and soldiers will advance on key targets that have already been identified and mapped out in detailed plans. We believe these targets include Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million people.

And conventional attacks are not all that Russia plans to inflict upon the people of Ukraine. We have information that indicates Russia will target specific groups of Ukrainians. We've been warning the Ukrainian government of all that is coming.

And here today, we are laying it out in great detail with the hope that, by sharing what we know with the world, we can influence Russia to abandon the path of war and choose a different path while there's still time.

Now I'm mindful that some have called into question our information, recalling previous instances where intelligence ultimately did not bear out. But let me be clear. I am here today not to start a war but to prevent one.

The information I've presented here is validated by what we've seen unfolding in plain sight before our eyes for months.

And remember that, while Russia has repeatedly derided our warnings and alarms as melodrama and nonsense, they have been steadily amassing more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders as well as the capabilities to conduct a massive military assault.

It isn't just us seeing this; allies and partners see the same thing. And Russia hasn't only been hearing from us.

[11:15:00]

BLINKEN: The international chorus has grown louder and louder. If Russia doesn't invade Ukraine, then we will be relieved that Russia changed course and proved our predictions wrong. That would be a far better outcome than the course we're currently on. And we'll gladly accept any criticism that anyone directs at us.

As President Biden said, this would be a war of choice. And if Russia makes that choice, we've been clear, along with allies and partners, that our response would be sharp and decisive. President Biden reiterated that forcefully earlier this week.

There's another choice Russia can still make if there's any truth to its claim that it's committed to diplomacy. Diplomacy is the only responsible way to resolve this crisis.

An essential part of this is through implementation of the Minsk agreements, the subject of our session today. There are a series of commitments that Russia and Ukraine made under Minsk with the OSCE and the Normandy format partners involved as well.

If Russia is prepared to sit with the Ukrainian government and work through the process (INAUDIBLE) these commitments, our friends in France and Germany stand ready to convene senior level discussions in the Normandy format to settle these issues.

Ukraine is ready for this and we stand fully ready to support the parties. Progress toward resolving the Donbas crisis through the Minsk agreements can reinforce the broader discussions on security issues that we're prepared to engage in with Russia, in coordination with our allies and partners.

More than three weeks ago, we provided Russia with a paper that detailed concrete, reciprocal steps that we can take in the near term to address our respective concerns and advance the collective security interests of Russia, the United States and our European partners and allies.

This morning, we received a response, which we are evaluating. Earlier today, I sent a letter to Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, proposing we meet next week in Europe following on our talks in recent weeks to discuss the steps that we can take to resolve this crisis without conflict.

We're also proposing meetings of the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE Permanent Council. These meetings can pave the way for a summit of key leaders in the context of deescalation to reach understandings on our mutual security concerns.

As lead diplomats for our nations, we have a responsibility to make every effort for diplomacy to succeed, to leave no diplomatic stone unturned. If Russia is committed to diplomacy, we're presenting every opportunity for it to demonstrate that commitment.

I have no doubt that the response to my remarks here today will be more dismissals from the Russian government about the United States stoking hysteria or that it has no plans to invade Ukraine. So let me make this simple.

The Russian government can announce today, with no qualifications, equivocation or deflection, that Russia will not invade Ukraine.

State it clearly, state it plainly to the world and then demonstrate it by sending your troops, your tanks, your planes, back to their barracks and hangars and sending your diplomats to the negotiating table. In the coming days, the world will remember that commitment or the refusal to make it. I yield the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

BOLDUAN: All right. We've been listening just now to a very significant speech from the secretary of state, Tony Blinken.

"Let me be clear. I am here today to not start a war but to prevent one."

Joining me now, let me start with David Sanger, CNN national security analyst, also correspondent for "The New York Times."

David, you were listening in to this.

What do you think of what the secretary of state just said?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first, Kate, I'd say this was probably the most important diplomatic moment that Secretary of State Blinken has had, certainly in his time as secretary and perhaps in his long career, working for Joe Biden.

He recognized right away and acknowledged indirectly that this speech would be compared to Colin Powell's famous speech in 2003 --

[11:20:00]

SANGER: -- when he laid out the evidence that the Bush administration thought they had about Iraq.

That's why he used that line, "I'm not here to start a war, I'm here to prevent one."

And he basically challenged the Russians to prove the administration wrong by laying out this whole order of battle, saying that the Russians would begin with an incident (ph) and then moving on to the cyberattacks, the missile attacks and then the invasion of the country.

He was basically saying, prove me a liar. I'll be happy to take that rap. And then made this offer to meet with Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. And I think he did that, in this, part of this effort to just keep the Russians talking.

Inside the administration, Kate, they regard this as like a hostage negotiation, in which Ukraine is the hostage and they're just trying to keep the potential assailant talking instead of shooting.

BOLDUAN: Millions of people, their lives and likelihoods hanging in the balance. Stick with me, David.

Back over to Moscow, Nic Robertson is still with us.

How is this speech going to be heard?

What impact do you think it can have? ROBERTSON: It's very hard to gauge here, because the ministry of foreign affairs here, as we know, expelled the United States' number two diplomat in the country.

And as Secretary Blinken mentioned there, Russia's response to the United States coming three weeks later, uses very dark and, in the secretary's words there, threatening language, threatening again these military technical measures, because they're not getting what they want through negotiations.

Russia's taken three weeks to come up with that and has tried sort of various ploys on the international stage. Putin and the foreign minister, Lavrov, have met with a number of leaders and foreign ministers to see what room they might have and see what response they might take.

And this response is, appears, from the read of it -- we have so far 11 pages, I believe -- it is quite a damning response. And so I think the response to Secretary Blinken's words today in Moscow is not really going to be able to hear very well what is said.

And to turn on to what their deputy foreign minister said before, Secretary Blinken, which is it's the Ukrainians and their backers, the United States and NATO, who are abrogating on the terms of the Minsk agreement. Minsk is the only way forward to settle the dispute between the government in Kyiv and the separatist rebels in the east.

So I think this is the moment; we seem to be in a position where, while there is diplomatic language coming from the United States, this is going past the Russians. And the Russians' words today are going past the United States.

There is not a real engagement. And there is no better way that the Russians have demonstrated that than throw a very senior U.S. diplomat out of the country.

BOLDUAN: Kylie Atwood also here with us as well as CNN military analyst, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling.

Kylie, this feels a very significant moment in this crisis; maybe a go/no-go moment, the way that Tony Blinken laid it out; what the Russians could do to show they really do not intend to invade Ukraine further.

What are you hearing from the State Department?

This was an unplanned visit. This happened overnight. You've got new reporting on how this all came about. Talk to us about it.

ATWOOD: Listen, Kate. What the secretary of state just did was tie it all together, right. We have heard bits and pieces from senior administration officials about this troop build-up that Russia has carried out along Ukraine's border, about the number of troops.

But the secretary went even further and put it all on the record, under his name, saying that Russia is planning a pretext for an invasion into Ukraine and he laid out a number of things that the United States believes Russia could do as part of this pretext.

He said they could go after the Ukrainian government on false accusations. They could make up the fact that they discovered some grave sites.

They could make up some chemical attacks that occurred or even stage some attacks against Ukrainian officials, that Russians would claim that they didn't actually carry out. Right, so there are a number of things that the secretary of state said Russia is planning to do.

[11:25:00]

ATWOOD: And that is why he, on the record, at the United Nations, perhaps the most public spot on the global stage, said this is a moment of peril.

And he called on the rest of the international community to put this front and center, not discuss things that Russia wants to discuss but discuss the facts on the ground, this military build-up, what the United States is seeing.

And he also said that if this doesn't happen, the United States would welcome that. They are laying all this information out because they want Russia to turn back. They do not want this invasion to occur.

Now the secretary of state also significantly said that he has reached out to the Russian foreign minister Lavrov and he proposed the two of them meet next week in Europe. So that, of course, will be the next diplomatic engagement between the two nations that we look for.

And we're still waiting to hear how this administration is responding to what Russia put forth in a written response, the secretary of state saying that they are still reviewing that.

But as far as we can tell from what is in that response right now, not a whole lot of substance that Russia is digging into. So the secretary of state wants to make very clear that Russia is escalating things right now, not deescalating things.

BOLDUAN: You each have talked about how Tony Blinken has laid out what the pretext for an invasion could look like.

I don't want to lose that, General, because you tell me. But it seems significant. He didn't just say a manufactured -- I mean, he said a manufactured pretext for the war. Yet he laid out options of what it could be --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: -- the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians or a fake, even a real attack, using chemical weapons.

What did you hear in this?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, this is the first time I've heard a secretary of state go outside the diplomatic speak and literally outline step by step what could happen. Some of that is based on the Russian way of war. That's the way they've done things in Georgia, in Syria and in other places.

But I think what it told me, listening to that speak, he was saying, it may consist of. What he was doing was saying, we're reading your mail, buddy. We know what you're going to do and it will probably escalate in this sequence.

BOLDUAN: And how does the shelling in Donbas play into this?

(CROSSTALK)

HERTLING: That's what woke me up this morning, to be honest with you. The fact that it was so -- just so demonstrative of what their first approach usually is.

I talked to some friends in Ukraine this morning, after I heard about the shelling. They were telling me that that artillery piece was outside the Donbas area, outside of Lugansk, firing into another Ukrainian-held territory as we've already heard.

But what's interesting is it was another violation of the Minsk accords. There's an organization called EuroMaidan, which tracks on a daily basis how many violations of the Minsk agreement have occurred over the last several years.

Every day they publicize, there's been four, six, eight; in some cases, it's gone up to 24. But that today, using the type of artillery pieces they used, to fire into a civilian area, again, it's what the Russians do. They try and go outside the norms or the rules of land warfare and go after civilian populations.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for being here, General, and sticking with me through this.

Guys, thank you all. We'll have much more on this. The significant speech from the secretary of state and what this all now means in this crisis in Ukraine, as it seems something has shifted overnight and this morning.

Still ahead for us as well, a dramatic and emotional end to the Olympic figure skating competition. We'll tell you how Russian skater Kamila Valieva, how she did and what happened on the ice. That's next.