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Ukrainian President Visits Troops on Eastern Front; Renewed Shelling in Eastern Ukraine Damages Kindergarten; Questions Over Olympic Supply Chain; Belarusian Troops Could Be Essential for Russian Invasion; Lviv Becomes Refuge for People Fleeing Homes; More Than 100 Dead, Hundreds Displaced in Massive Landslides in Brazil. Aired 12- 12:45a ET
Aired February 18, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, coming to you live in Ukraine, following new violence in the Donbas region. The kind of incident, the west warns could be the excuse Russia uses to launch an invasion.
[00:00:39]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Vause at CNN's world headquarters with more accusations China is using the Olympics to sports-wash its appalling record on human rights.
HOLMES: Hello, everyone. A sharp increase in fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine is adding to the fear of all-out war in Eastern Europe.
Ukraine says shells fired by the rebels hit this kindergarten -- This is in Luhansk -- wounding three people. The two sides have been fighting since 2014.
And Western officials are warning that Russia could use a scenario like this to justify an invasion. U.S. President Joe Biden says all indications are that an attack from Russia could come in the next several days, a source saying he will hold a call with a number of world leaders in the coming hours, including NATO secretary-general.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: We are concerned that Russia is trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine. It is, still, no clarity, no certainty, about the Russian tensions. We don't know what will happen. But what we do know is that Russia has amassed the biggest force we have seen in Europe (ph) for decades, in and around Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, Russia is releasing more video, claiming to show troops wrapping up their military exercises and returning to home base. The U.S., and British defense secretary say Moscow is actually increasing its presence around Ukraine. Now, the U.S. vice president, Kamala Harris, will lead the American
delegation to the Munich Security Conference in the day ahead, where the Russia Ukraine crisis, of course, is expected to dominate the agenda.
Now the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, will visit the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow in a few hours. The two countries staging joint military drills just a few kilometers from Ukraine's northern border.
And the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, says he will meet with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, next week in Europe, as long as Russia hasn't invaded Ukraine by then.
Now, at the U.N. on Thursday, Lavrov's deputy called western predictions of an invasion hysteria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEI VERSHININ, RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): I would like to finally say that you will be able to resist the temptation to play to the cameras and will not make this meeting of ours into a circus; will not present your baseless accusations, saying that Russia, allegedly, was going to attack Ukraine. I think we've had enough speculation on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: More now on the crisis and the renewed fighting in Eastern Ukraine from CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance in Kyiv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ukraine's president in full battle fatigues, greeting troops on the eastern front. It could soon be facing a Russian onslaught, according to U.S. officials.
A senior Ukrainian source tells CNN they've already been briefed by U.S. intelligence to expect an attack, if not a full invasion, in days.
"No doubt, we need to be ready for any scenario," the Ukrainian foreign minister says. Over recent weeks, the president, the government, have all worked to prepare the country for any event. "Ukraine's position is strong," he adds.
It will have to be if Russia decides to unleash the powerful military force its massed near Ukraine's borders. These rockets were fired in neighboring Belarus, where Russian defense officials say joint military drills are still underway and fueling U.S. concerns that Russia is poised.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, how high is the threat of a Russian invasion right now? JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's very high. Because
they have not -- they have not moved any of their troops out. They've moved more troops in, No. 1. And No. 2, 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 are prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine.
CHANCE: It was a dire warning, repeated at the U.N. Security Council by the U.S. secretary of state. Officials seem to have made a strategic decision to go public with intelligence, as Russia, in Secretary Blinken's words, steps down the path to war.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: First, Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack. This could be a violent event the Russia will blame 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.
CHANCE: It's an extraordinary list of possibilities and one being wholly rejected by the Kremlin, which is accusing the U.S. of hysteria and releasing more defense ministry images of Russian troops returning to their bases after completing drills near Ukraine.
"Our military has camped on its own territory," says the Russian foreign minister, "held drills, took down their tents, boarded the trains, then loaded their hardware and started leaving," he says. "But the hysterics are still going on. This is where the real escalation is," he adds.
But there is dangerous escalation on the ground, as well. This is what Ukrainian officials say was a preschool hit by artillery shelves, fired by Russia-backed rebels.
The rebels say Ukrainian government forces pounded their residential areas, too. And now, Ukraine officials say there's more shelling from the rebel side, sending CNN this video of what they say is a hit on a residential building.
The tensions in the front lines threaten to spiral out of control.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And joining me now from Los Angeles, Robert English. He's the director of Central European Studies at the University of Southern California.
Good to see you again, sir.
Given the shelling which hit that kindergarten in the East of the country coming from the separatists' side, what do you make of it? Just another cease-fire violation, or perhaps a shift in tactical focus by the Russians?
ROBERT ENGLISH, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: We can't know, but even another ceasefire violation or a sporadic incident at this level of tension and armament, could spiral into a major conflagration.
So what's gone on for years -- occasional shelling, reprisals -- in this situation could be deadly. So, even if it's not an intentional launch of an invasion, it could spark a major incursion accidentally.
HOLMES: Yes. And if Russia does turn its attention to the Donbas, the thing is, the West has made, you know, no distinction between a full invasion by Russia or a smaller incursion in a place like the Donbas. Both would trigger the sanctions which have been threatened. Do you think Mr. Putin would risk a move on the Donbas?
ENGLISH: I don't think it's likely he'll risk anything of a magnitude that would trigger those sanctions, right, meaning it would involve significant loss of life and major violence.
But there's a political, instead of a military, move in Putin's deck right now. And that is for Russia to recognize, as independent, the breakaway Donbas and Luhansk regions in Ukraine's east.
So far, Russia has not done that. If Russia were to do that, it would be a purely political, diplomatic move. But it would obviously escalate things politically.
And Russia would be saying, We've given up on any kind of negotiations. We are going to create, essentially, a friendly buffer zone, a proto-state that is dependent on us, because we can rely on them, at least, to shield us from NATO advancing into Ukraine. That would be very difficult for the west. Would that trigger sanctions?
HOLMES: Yes, yes. Well, they say it would, any incursion would. But the arrival we'll have to see.
But if they did do that, that would be the end of the Minsk agreement. There's a lot of talk on both sides about using the Minsk agreement as a basis for resolution.
But I want to get your thoughts on that, though. Because you know, most of the points agreed to in the Minsk documents have not -- haven't been implemented, or they've been violated. There's been major dispute on interpretation. Why is there still faith in this by both sides?
[00:10:04]
ENGLISH: You know, I see it slightly differently. Very few have paid any attention to Minsk, except for a few specialized diplomats.
For years, the Russian side is frustrated that NATO's -- the NATO countries supporting Ukraine have not pushed the Ukrainians to fulfill their part of Minsk, which is to grant some reasonable autonomy, some local self-rule, to the ethnic Russian communities in the East. For their part, the Russians haven't fulfilled their requirement to
withdraw, restore the integrity of the border.
And I'm encouraged now that Chancellor Scholz, on his visit to Moscow, other European diplomats -- maybe not Americans, so much -- are now talking about, yes, we have to revisit Minsk. Maybe if we could make progress on that simple compromise, it would defuse the rest.
So even though things look really bad right now, and extremely dangerous -- they are -- I see a ray of hope in the willingness to re- engage on Minsk. It's not that complicated.
HOLMES: Yes. Well, yes. But -- although both sides see it differently on key points. And interpretation is everything and could be the stumbling block.
I wanted to ask you, too, about the Russians making claims of aggressions, even atrocities, with Putin going so far as to claim genocide in the Donbas. And the U.S. strategy, highly unusual, warning of things like false flag attacks, putting out declassified information.
Now, what is your view of the propaganda war in all of this, in strategic terms?
ENGLISH: I think you answered it right there. It is a propaganda war. Both sides are trying to wrong-foot the other, keep the other off- balance, on the defensive.
Russia now has to defend, continually, against charges that it's preparing this, that, or the other. And for their part, the Russians are accusing the Ukrainians, or maybe even the Americans, on preparing things that we deny that we're doing.
It's brinkmanship. It's highlighting the tension and the pressure on each side, as we step up to that end. I'm still hopeful. I know that there will be another round of destruction between Secretary Blinken and Lavrov in a couple of days, maybe sooner.
The door is still open, but both sides are -- neither wants to blink. Right? This is a game of chicken. It's a little bit reminiscent of the Cuban missile crisis, not quite as nuclearized. But neither side wants to be the first to back down. Both want to claim victory.
HOLMES: Important points. Well-made. Good to see you again, Robert English in Los Angeles there. Appreciate it.
ENGLISH: Thank you.
HOLMES: All right. A closer look now at that kindergarten, hit by artillery fire on Thursday. This happened in Ukrainian-controlled territory. And it is unclear, we must say, who fired first.
But authorities say that a few people did suffer minor injuries. Fortunately, no kids. Ukraine's president calling the shelling a big provocation. CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward takes us inside the damaged school.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Ukrainian military has brought us nearly 400 miles towards the front lines in the east of the country.
It's already dark by the time we land. We'll only have a short time on the ground, but they are determined to show us the aftermath of heavy shelling earlier in the day.
(on camera): This kindergarten is less than three miles from the so- called line of contact, the front line. And witnesses in this area said that around eight or nine o'clock this morning, they started to hear shelling. It was loud enough they could hear the whistle of the shells going by. And two of them landed here at this kindergarten.
Let's take a look.
(voice-over): At the end of the hallway, this is what remains of the play room. The military says the first shell hit at 8:45. Mercifully, the children were eating breakfast in another part of the building.
Chief Julia Savojenko (ph) tells me she immediately rushed them into the hallway, away from the windows.
(on camera): So she's saying, in that moment he was only really afraid for the children.
(voice-over): I asked her how they reacted to the situation.
"Our youngest children thought it was all a game at first, and we just let them pretend," she tells us. "Our older children understood what was happening, and they were afraid."
A video released by Ukrainian police shows the kids being hastily evacuated from the building.
(on camera): I have to say, it's very dark here. I'm not sure if you can see, but this is actually a children's playground. And if you just turn over here, you can see, this is a crater, and the local authorities are telling us that this is where the other shell hit.
(voice-over): Our time on the ground is restricted. Fighting usually begins after dark here. As we finish up a live shot, our Ukrainian minders grow nervous.
[00:15:10]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hear a sound?
WARD (on camera): Yes, I hear it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. WARD: John, please excuse me, but our Ukrainian military miners are
asking us to move, because of that shelling, so we will check in with you as soon as we can. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.
WARD: Let's go.
(voice-over): On an average day, there might be three or four major cease-fire violations around here. Today the military says there have been more than 30.
(on camera): They're telling us we have to go. Now there's a steady stream of artillery that we can hear in the distance, so we're getting onto the bus to leave.
(voice-over): In the hours after we leave, another shell hits a house in the same town, as this front line continues to heat up at a time when calm is desperately needed.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Stanytsia, Luhanska, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And we will have more from Ukraine at the bottom of the hour. But for now, let's go back to John Vause in Atlanta with the day's other stories -- John.
VAUSE: Michael, thank you.
We'll take a short break, but when we come back, controversy at the Winter Games, as China denies accusations its Olympic apparel has ties to forced labor and prison camps. More on that after a very short break. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The Olympic medal ceremony for the women's figure skating competition is now scheduled to go ahead as planned. It would have been canceled if the Russian skater at the center of a doping scandal placed in the top three.
But 15-year-old Kamila Valieva fell multiple times on Thursday and finished fourth. IOC President Thomas Bach says it was difficult to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS BACH, IOC PRESIDENT: It was very, very disturbed yesterday when I watched the competition on TV. This pressure is beyond my imagination. And in particular for -- for a girl of 15 years old.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Meantime, Eileen Gu has become the first freestyle skier to win three medals in a single Olympics Games. U.S.-born superstar who's competing for China earned gold in the
women's halfpipe, adding to her gold in big air and silver in slopestyle.
Amid the fanfare and the glamour of the Olympic Games, the Chinese government is hoping to distract the world from its crackdowns on freedoms, its crimes against humanity and genocide, which it denies.
But part of its alleged oppression against the Uyghur Muslim and other minorities. The U.S. government says it's China's program of forced labor. Hundreds of thousands of people in Xinjiang forced to work in cotton production and other industries.
The product of that labor has been found in supply chains across the world, and now possibly at the Olympic Games, as well.
CNN's David Culver has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[00:20:03]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dare to dream.
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): China's Olympic hero, Eileen Gu, appearing in a TV commercial set in Xinjiang for Anta, the country's biggest sportswear company and the maker of China's Olympic uniforms.
As Gu and her teammates wear their national Olympic gear with pride, Anta appears proud to use cotton from Xinjiang, where China is accused of forcing hundreds of thousands of Uyghur Muslims to work in cotton production and other industries, what the United States alleges is part of a much bigger state crime.
NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Genocide has taken place in Xinjiang.
CULVER: Beijing has repeatedly denied the accusation, while the U.S. is effectively banning all imports from Xinjiang, trying to keep forced labor products out of American stores.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Companies that fail to address forced labor and other human rights abuses in their supply chains face serious legal risk.
CULVER: Anta has said it does not allow for forced labor, but its pledge to source from Xinjiang puts the company in opposition to western competitors like Nike and Adidas, which say they do not want to do business there.
Foreign auditors were also forced to leave China, making it harder to get independent verification.
BENNETT FREEMAN, COALITION TO END FORCED LABOR IN UYGHUR REGION: It's hard to imagine that substantial portions of the cotton isn't tainted with Uyghur forced labor.
CULVER: Anta has not responded to CNN's request for comment.
(on camera): You cannot mix Anta-branded clothing at these Beijing Games. One not only by Team China and President Xi Jinping but also by International Olympic Committee officials.
(voice-over): Rights groups and U.S. lawmakers have questioned whether the IOC could be complicit in forced labor through its partnership with Anta and another Chinese brand, HYX Group.
CNN has reached out to HYX Group, as well. No response.
Last month, the IOC announced the result of an independent due diligence study, stating, quote, "We did not find any extreme violations against our IOC supplier code, including no forced, bonded, indentured or child labour."
However, the not-for-profit Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region says the IOC has not provided enough detail of the audit.
FREEMAN: The world needs to have known facts. We did not get them from the IOC. And for that reason, there will be lingering, disturbing questions as to whether Beijing '22 Winter Olympics were, in fact, complicit in Uyghur forced labor.
CULVER: The IOC standing by its due diligence study when asked by CNN Thursday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of our products, none of the production took place in Xinjiang, nor any of the input or raw materials come from that region.
CULVER: Despite the IOC's very public reassurance, so murky are Xinjiang's supply chains that companies from China and elsewhere, and customers like the IOC, could be relying on Uyghur forced labor, whether they know it or not.
David Culver, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Minky Worden is director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch and author of "China's Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges."
Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Good to see you.
MINKY WORDEN, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL INITIATIVES, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Great to see you.
VAUSE: OK, so you wrote that book back in 2008 during the Beijing Summer Games, in part to outline how domestic and international pressure in the context of the Olympics could achieve human rights change in China. In fact, China used the Olympics back then to sports-wash a pretty dismal record of human rights, and 2008 launched a campaign of suppression on the people of Tibet.
Fast forward, 2022. Same play, except it's the Uyghur Muslims who are the targets right now.
So it's not so much that the Olympics changed China. It seems China changed the Olympics.
WORDEN: Yes, I think it's worth actually saying it's not just that this is Groundhog Day. This isn't the same set of abuses. It's actually leagues worse. And -- and I think, you know, in 2008 the big difference -- you were there as a reporter -- was that there was a lot of hope. There was hope among civil society, journalists, ordinary Chinese people, women's rights activists, that they could actually exercise rights and that the Olympics would bring more freedom.
And they believed that because the International Olympic Committee told them it was the case. And because the Chinese government promised press freedom and other improvements in order to win the right to host the Olympics.
But fast forward to 2022. There aren't any promises. There aren't any human rights. And these Olympics, really, what they showcase is China's great wall of repression.
You've had a crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang that started, essentially, the year China won the Olympics, 2015, and has now encompassed crimes against humanity, torture and forced labor. That's unthinkable for an Olympic host.
VAUSE: It's also reached the point that the IOC doesn't even pretend to care about human rights abuses in China anymore. Even when forced labor is being used to make official Olympic merchandise, the Olympic Committee decided to best way to deal with that is to not know about it and cut off talks with rights groups.
[00:25:09]
WORDEN: Well, I think that -- so we -- when we're talking about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, it's really important to talk about the details. Right?
This is an area that has -- the Uyghur region has 13 million people. They have been subject to torture, forced sterilization, mass incarceration, as many as a million people. And a lot of those people have then ended up in a forced labor situation. That's modern-day slavery.
And the IOC, when we and the Uyghur Forced Labor Coalition brought this to their attention, said that it conducted third-party audits of its production site. So it's looking at twos companies, including one called HYX and one called Anta, producing those IOC uniforms, those track suits that have been so ubiquitous. But what they haven't looked at is the thousands of products, like the Bing Dwen Dwen mascot and all of the backpacks, and magnets, and T- shirts that are produced around the Olympics.
So really, these Olympics may go down as Olympics that are associated with crimes against humanity and forced labor, which is really, you know, a gold medal for all the wrong reasons.
VAUSE: In the past, like 1988, the Summer Games in Seoul had a positive impact on South Korea's move towards democratic freedom. The Olympic ban on South Africa played a role in ending Apartheid.
But now we've had 2008, and now we've had the Winter Olympics in 2022. Should we just stop pretending that the International Olympic Committee, this IOC, should stop pretending it's a force for good? It's a force for making money for the IOC.
WORDEN: Well, I know you chose the words "a force for good," because that's with the IOC has said about its operations and its Olympics for many -- for many years.
But I think these Olympics in Beijing, China, have really put the stake in that old expression, that the Olympics are a force for good. Because we've seen quite the opposite.
That it's actually been a platform for Xi Jinping to promote his Chinese dream, which actually means repression of ethnic minorities, of press freedom, of democracy and human rights in Hong Kong, of religious autonomy in Tibet.
So I think the -- the model that we had, where previous International Olympic Committees were prepared to say to the South Korean government in 1988 -- it was a military dictatorship, and they said you need to hold elections. And the government held elections six months before the Olympics in '88. And South Korea has been a durable democracy ever since.
In China, it's a very different story, and in this case the Olympics have bolstered repression, at home and abroad.
And I think when we talk about the legacy of the Beijing Olympics, we'll have to say that there should never again be an Olympics that happens without a framework of international human rights.
VAUSE: Well, we should say that. We should stick to that. We'll see what happens with this IOC. It doesn't seem likely.
But Minky Worden, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.
WORDEN: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, Russian military drills underway in Belarus, raising questions of what role Ukraine's northern neighbor could play during a Russian invasion.
And that threat of invasion forcing some families in Kyiv to leave everything behind. The sacrifices one family has already made. That's also coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:30:55]
HOLMES: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, coming to you live from Lviv in Ukraine.
The U.S. making its case against Russia, warning an attack on Ukraine could come within days.
The U.S. secretary of state told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that Russia is manufacturing the groundwork to justify starting a war, possibly with a so-called false flag operation that fakes an attack in order to give Russia a reason to roll in the tanks.
Antony Blinken says that by sharing what it knows with the world, Russia can be convinced to abandon the path of war.
He also addressed concerns about the reliability of U.S. intelligence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLINKEN: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, the U.S. president is expected to convene a call with key allies in the coming day to discuss this ongoing crisis.
Meanwhile, there has been a big uptick in fighting between Russian- backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in contested areas of Eastern Ukraine. The increased shelling keeping all sides on edge. And yet, Russia insists it's moving some forces away from Ukraine's borders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Our military have orderly camped on their own territory, held drills, took down their tents, boarded the trains, loaded their hardware, and started leaving. But the hysterics are still going on. This is where the escalation is, in those particular actions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, the U.S. State Department says America and Russia's top diplomats are planning to meet in Europe next week, provided, of course, there's no invasion of Ukraine.
Now, if Russia should attack Ukraine, Belarus could be key. It is heavily aligned with Russia, and the two countries have been conducting joint military exercises near the Belarusian border with Ukraine. CNN's Fred Pleitgen got a close look at some of those exercises, and a
rare opportunity to talk to Putin ally, the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): For the first time, we're getting a close-up view of some of the Russian forces the U.S. says are threatening Ukraine, conducting massive live fire drills with the Belarusian military inside Belarus.
The USS says it fears this could be one of the places from which an attack on Ukraine could be launched.
Belarusian strongman and staunch Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko was combative when I confronted him with the allegations.
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Do you still believe we're going to attack Ukraine from here? Or have you already overcome this mental block?
PLEITGEN (on camera): Sir, it's not about what I believe, it is about with the United States says. The United States says, there is a real threat of an attack from Russian territory, or Belarusian territory, towards Ukraine.
LUKASHENKO (through translator): We have an agreement between Belarus and Russia. We have practically formed here a united Russia-Belarus group. The united army, that is, you might say. And this is our official position. Please take it into account, as we are taking into account your position.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The drills are called Allied Resolve 2022 and officially have the Russian and Belarusian militaries fend off enemies attacking them.
It involves tens of thousands of troops, including both countries' air forces and Russia's dangerous Iskander missile system that could easily hit Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, about 250 miles, or 400 kilometers, from here.
The big question, where will all of these Russian troops when this exercise ends?
(on camera): Both Minsk and Moscow say all Russian forces are going to leave Belarus, once these massive exercises are finished. But the U.S. and its allies are still skeptical, and they say they'll believe the withdrawal is happening once they see it.
[00:35:13]
(voice-over): The Biden administration says there are now more than 150,000 Russian troops near Ukraine's borders and that an attack will probably happen within days.
Lukashenko ripping into the U.S.'s assessment. LUKASHENKO (through translator): You accused Belarus and Russia that
we were to invade Ukraine yesterday. We didn't, so your intelligence, and billions of dollars that you're spending on it, are useless. At least, admit this.
PLEITGEN: Russia says it has no intention of attacking Ukraine but today also warned if security demands it has made to the U.S. are not met, there will be an answer, using, as Moscow puts it, military technical measures.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Asipovichy, Belarus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, here in Ukraine, many people are choosing to leave the capitol, fearing for their safety. I spoke with one family, and Lviv, in the west of the country, so worried about their children safety, they chose to leave their home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES (voice-over): In an apartment in Lviv in western Ukraine, Natalia and Dmytro Kolesnyk play with their three young children.
This is where they live, but it's not their home. That's because, until just a few days ago, home was the capital, Kyiv. 600 kilometers to the east. Now, a potential Russian target.
DMYTRO KOLESNYK, FATHER: Here is -- also could be attacked by missiles, or maybe some key factory, or key energy base.
HOLMES: According to American intelligence, Kyiv would be a primary target in Russia invades. And that's why the Kolesnyk family decided they couldn't risk staying.
NATALIA KOLESNYK, MOTHER (through translator): It was never in my head that this could happen but having this experience right now, talking about this East part of Ukraine, I can think that this basically could be the situation. That's why I'm considering the fact that we are not sure, and safe, anywhere.
HOLMES (on camera): Lviv is a vibrant, historic city. It's close to Poland, Slovakia. It feels very European.
It's also, thanks to Russia, become a refuge for Ukrainians fleeing their homes. And not just from this crisis.
(voice-over): They've come, too, from the Donbas, in the east, or Russian-backed separatists, for eight years, rage war on the Ukrainian government. And, from Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.
Oksana Novakova (ph) and her family know well how the Kolesknyks feel. In 2014, when the Russians came to Crimea, she knew she had to leave and now runs this bakery in Lviv.
Oksana (ph) says, "Right now, I feel calm. Because we Ukrainians have more confidence in ourselves. We are a united country."
HOLMES: The motion that the massive and powerful Russian military might actually cross the border again is almost surreal for Ukrainians. But while they might be concerned, they're defiant, too.
"Many people went missing, or were imprisoned, when Russia occupied Crimea," she says. "I didn't want to end up like them, so I left "
HOLMES: For the Kolesnyk family, they'll stay here in Lviv, until this standoff, the threat of war, recedes. Then, they say, they'll head home to Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. I'm Michael Holmes in Ukraine. I'll be back with more next hour, but for now let's turn it back to John in Atlanta -- John.
VAUSE: Thank you for the reporting there, Michael. We'll take a short break.
VAUSE? When we come back, the death toll climbing after a massive landslide in Brazil. The frantic search for survivors is now a race against time. After the break, we'll speak to some who managed to survive all of that.
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VAUSE: Canadian police appear to be targeting the leadership of the so-called Freedom Convoy, which for almost three weeks now has paralyzed the Canadian capital, in protest of pandemic restrictions.
According to her lawyer, Tamara Lich, considered the public face of the protest, was arrested in Ottawa, along with another key organizer, Chris Barber. Both are facing multiple charges, including counseling to commit mischief and obstruction, related to the protests and fundraising.
The arrest happened as dozens of officers swept through the protest area on Parliament Hill. While the interim police chief had this warning for demonstrators.
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STEVE BELL, OTTAWA INTERIM POLICE CHIEF: In the past few days, we've been communicating directly with the unlawful protesters. We've told them they must leave, and we have warned them the consequences of disobeying these rules.
We want to end this unlawful protest peacefully and safely. We want to prepare, and we are prepared to employ lawful techniques, to remove the unlawful protesters from our streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Police have also erected barriers and fences to seal off the protest site. Three separate protests among the U.S.-Canada border ended this week.
Rescue operations are underway in Brazil after deadly landslides, north of Rio de Janeiro. At least 110 people have died. More than 100 others are still missing after heavy rains battered the area.
CNN's Shasta Darlington has details.
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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The pulling, the sifting, the digging. The race continues in Brazil, to try and find survivors after heavy rainfall caused flooding and landslides in the city of Petropolis, a mountainous region of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state.
Scores are dead, and many are missing, as streets were washed away and homes buried. Officials say a month's worth of rain fell across the city in just hours.
There are fears the death toll could continue to climb, as firefighters and volunteer rescue workers use backhoes and heavy equipment to dig through the rubble.
Rio de Janeiro's governor compared the destruction to a war zone but vowed every effort will be made to find survivors.
GOV. CLAUDIO CASTRO, RIO DE JANEIRO (through translator): The teams work 24 hours a day. They will not stop the search at all. It will continue, unless, for technical reasons, it has to stop for one or two hours. But if everything goes normal, we won't stop at all.
DARLINGTON: Drone footage shows the massive scale of the damage, as the landslides destroyed everything in their path.
Two hundred and sixty-nine landslides were recorded Tuesday, according to Brazil's civil defense secretariat. Many residents picked up what personal belongings they could salvage from what's left of the hillside neighborhood of Alto de Serra, one of the areas hardest hit. Others comfort each other, as they take in the magnitude of what was once their livelihood. One man searched all night for members of his family.
JOSE CARLOS PAIVA, PETROPOLIS RESIDENT (through translator): Today, I am removing bodies. I removed my mother's body. Yesterday, I rescued my son, rescued neighbors, and took them to the emergency room. My son is fine. He's in the hospital, but he's fine. I managed to get him out alive, despite the mud.
DARLINGTON: A local church has opened its doors, offering victims shelter, food, and clothing. Small comfort to those who have lost so much.
Shasta Darlington, CNN, Sao Paulo. (END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause, along with Michael Holmes in Ukraine. We'll be back at the top of the hour.
In the meantime WORLD SPORT starts after the break with the one and only Patrick Snell. See you next week.
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