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Munich Security Conference Focuses on Russia-Ukraine Standoff; NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg: We Are Not Threatening Russia or Anyone Else; Biden Convinced Putin Plans to Invade Ukraine; Nearly Half of Russian Forces in Attack Position; U.S., Ukraine Warn of Russian False Flag Operations; Ukrainian Military Then and Now; High Winds Affect Olympics; German Chancellor Speaks at Munich Security Conference. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired February 19, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Michael Holmes in Lviv in Ukraine. We're going to take you straight to the Munich conference, where the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, is speaking.

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JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: -- meaningful reciprocal steps that can improve security for all countries.

The current crisis is about more than Ukraine. There is much at stake: relations between NATO and Russia, European and transatlantic security and, ultimately, the question of how we wish to organize relations between states.

Moscow is attempting to roll back history and recreate its spheres of influence. It wants to limit NATO's right to collective defense and demands that we should remove all our forces and infrastructure from the countries that joined NATO after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But let me be clear: there is no first-class NATO members in the west of the alliance and second-class NATO members to the east. We are all NATO allies and we stand as one. And we will always do what is necessary to protect and defend each other.

Moscow also wants to deny sovereign countries the right to choose their own path and their own security arrangements, for Ukraine, but also for other countries, such as Finland and Sweden. And for the first time, we now see Beijing joining Moscow in calling on NATO to stop admitting new members.

It is an attempt to control the fate of free nations, to rewrite the international rulebook and impose their own authoritarian models of governance. The current crisis demonstrates the importance of the transatlantic

relationship for European security. Two world wars and the Cold War has taught us that there is no real security in Europe without a strong transatlantic bond.

Standing together in NATO, Europe and America will continue to keep the peace and protect our democratic way of life as we have done for more than 70 years. NATO is a defensive alliance. We are not threatening Russia or anyone else.

But we will take all necessary measures to protect and defend all allies. This is why, in response to Russia's pattern of aggressive actions, we have been strengthening our deterrence and defense across the alliance to avoid any miscalculation or misunderstanding about our ironclad commitment to defend each other.

So if Kremlin's aim is to have less NATO on its borders, it will only get more NATO. And if it wants to divide NATO, it will only get an even more united alliance.

Over the last years, our security environment has fundamentally changed for the worse. Peace cannot be taken for granted. Freedom and democracy are contested. And strategic competition is on the rise.

This is a new normal. And we must be prepared and do everything we can to keep the bond between America and Europe as strong as ever.

After the experience of horrors of war, Ewald von Kleist knew that Europe and America together was the guarantee of lasting peace. It still is today. By standing together, we can and will keep our people safe, protect our core values and principles and uphold the rules- based international order. Thank you.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much, Jens, Mr. Secretary General.

Thank both of you --

HOLMES: NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg there, speaking at the Munich Security Conference and saying Moscow wants to roll back history and re-create its sphere of influence.

He said there are no second class members of NATO to the east and he said -- he also issued a word of warning about -- saying, for the first time, China also stepping into the fray and joining Moscow to call for NATO to stop accepting new members. He rejected that notion outright.

We're keeping an eye what's going on there at the Munich Security Conference. This is an annual security conference that discusses all sorts of world crises. Normally, in recent years, it's been things like Afghanistan and Iraq. This time, of course, Ukraine and the threatened Russian invasion is top of the agenda. There will be other issues also being discussed but that obviously is

the focus and the main point on everyone's mind. We'll keep an ear out for what's going on in Munich and bring you any updates.

Meanwhile, on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said he's convinced that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has made a final decision to invade Ukraine. Mr. Biden saying on Friday that the attack will likely come in a matter of days and is expected to target Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, but adding that diplomacy not yet off the table.

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QUESTION: And do you have any indication about whether President Putin has made a decision on whether to (INAUDIBLE) and do you feel confident that he does have a -- made that decision already?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As of this moment, I'm convinced he's made the decision.

We have reason to believe that.

QUESTION: You are convinced that President Putin is going to invade Ukraine, is that what you just said a few moments ago?

BIDEN: Yes, I did. Yes.

QUESTION: So is diplomacy off the table then?

BIDEN: No. Until he does, diplomacy is always a possibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Moscow responding to his comments in the last few hours, categorically denying that Russia is planning any attack on Ukraine. That's according to Russian state media.

All this coming as Putin prepares for what could be Russia's most dramatic show of force yet, a series of military drills later today, where ballistic and cruise missiles are to be launched. The video you are seeing there is from the Russian defense ministry, showing drills in Belarus earlier this month.

Meanwhile, new satellite images show just how quickly Russian helicopter forces are massing near Ukraine's eastern border and to the south in Russian occupied Crimea. We're also seeing new images of Russian backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine evacuating residents to Russia.

They're claiming a Ukrainian offensive is imminent. Ukraine denies that. There's no evidence of it, either. Pro-Russian separatist leaders, meanwhile, have also reportedly called for military mobilizations in Ukraine's breakaway regions. CNN diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me now from Moscow.

Let's talk about Ursula van der Leyen and what we heard from Jens Stoltenberg as well. It seems that they are pushing and enforcing unity in the case of what's going on with Russia and Ukraine.

Your thoughts?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, absolutely. Jens Stoltenberg talked about what Moscow is seeing happening because of their actions. He said, if the Kremlin wants to see NATO get further away from its borders, its actions are having the reverse effect.

If the Kremlin wants to see NATO divided, its actions are having the reverse effect. I think we were all listening there to see precisely what Jens Stoltenberg would say about the most up-to-date disposition of Russian forces on the ground.

And we heard him say there that they continue -- they continue, in his words, to gain strength around Ukraine, that they're not pulling back. And I think it was also instructive.

You know, he was saying very clearly that there was a hope that diplomacy can still find a way ahead out of this situation; unlike President Biden, who said that he's seen clear that President Putin had taken a decision to go into Ukraine.

Jens Stoltenberg said we don't know what they will do. He is very clear that Russia continues to build its force in a very threatening way around the edges of Ukraine. But his assessment, "we don't know what they will do," leaves open the -- perhaps open a bigger window for diplomacy.

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ROBERTSON: We know that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is talking later today with President Putin. It does seem that that window for diplomacy is shutting down. No one giving up on it.

But as Ursula van der Leyen, the European Commission president, making it very clear that the relationship with Russia, going forward, is one that is going to be changing, not -- essentially even if they don't invade because she said Europe cannot be dependent for its energy on a country that threatens war.

That a very strong message for President Putin but it seems one that he is deaf to at the moment, Michael.

HOLMES: I wanted to ask you this, too. Both Jens Stoltenberg and Ursula van der Leyen spoke of unity. They really sort of pushed that, we're all on the same page.

When it comes to the minutiae of how this is being handled, though, are they all in agreement on things like sanctions, what sanctions, how they should be enforced, weapons to Ukraine, weapons support and so on?

ROBERTSON: I think there are some slight differences and I think we got a hint of that from President Biden last night and his advisers. There may be some pluses and minuses in the combined response and reaction on sanctions to President Putin if he invades Ukraine.

You know, I think we'd heard from the Italian prime minister late last night, indicating that perhaps energy wouldn't be among the -- the energy sector wouldn't be among the sanctions imposed on Russia. Ursula van der Leyen said differently.

The Italian prime minister spoke that he had had some assurances from President Putin that there could be ways that gas supplies would come to -- come to Italy. We heard, as well, President Putin after, you know, his meeting with the German chancellor earlier in the week, saying, you know, the moment Germany gets cheaper energy supplies or five times lower than the global rate for its gas supplies from Russia.

But if there was going to be a change in that to the future, it essentially wouldn't be his fault if Germans looked in their pocketbooks and found they had less money because their gas supplies -- the gas costs had gone up.

He said they would need to look to their chancellor for that. There is no doubt that President Putin sees energy supplies as a means of leverage over different members of the European Union. And it does appear as if there's some slightly different alignments on how that's being interpreted by those different individual leaders.

Broadly speaking, the sanctions seem very aligned. But I think it is clear that some countries expect perhaps that -- perhaps not to be fully aligned. But we are told that these differences are small differences, pluses and minuses.

But the key strategy set by the European Union going forward, Ursula van der Leyen essentially saying that Europe as a whole cannot be hostage to a country that will hold it, you know, at the barrel of a gun, really, over the cost of energy supplies.

So that's a strategic view going forward, that Europe will collectively look for energy supplies elsewhere and that the Europe as a whole is on the safe side of energy supplies going forward this winter because, as you say, this is a very delicate political balance for Europe's leaders, to say we're going to put sanctions on Russia.

And Russia could turn throttle back on gas and oil supplies for us. And that could put prices up in our countries. That is a delicate political balance for many European leaders. But there does seem to be overall alignment on how to tackle it going forward, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, a vital issue. Nic Robertson, great to have you there for the analysis. Thanks so much there in Moscow.

And we're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with much more after that.

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HOLMES: All right, we heard, just a few minutes ago, words of European unity from the European Commission president, Ursula van der Leyen; also the NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg in the face of the crisis unfolding between Russia and Ukraine.

And now we turn to an important European voice as all of that unfolds. Joining me now from Warsaw is Marcin Przydacz, who is the deputy foreign minister of Poland.

Minister, really appreciate your voice on this day. Everyone, of course, preparing for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

How would that impact Poland and what would Poland do?

MARCIN PRZYDACZ, DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER, POLAND: Well, thank you very much for having me. Of course, I mean, we are somehow ready to host a possible number of refugees, if there would be a full-scale invasion.

So being a neighboring country and already hosting 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens on our Polish soil, we are ready to host them even more, although we still do believe that there's some space and room for diplomacy to solve this issue, although I have to admit that this room of maneuver diplomat has been more limited and more limited comparing to the previous days.

Unfortunately, since that Russia has already taken this decision of invasion, I do believe that all the facts says, that, unfortunately, those thousands of troops deployed on the border of Ukraine are ready to attack.

HOLMES: You mentioned diplomacy. Poland has played a key role in the diplomacy going on.

How do you see Poland's role going forward?

PRZYDACZ: Well, being a member of NATO, we're playing quite a significant role at the level of NATO-Russia (ph) (INAUDIBLE).

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PRZYDACZ: We are ready to continue this work. But what's more, we are determined in office of OECD, important organization which unites the countries from the Western Europe and Eastern and Central Asia, including Russia.

So being the chair, we're ready to host entire process of dialogue with Russia in order to solve those issues. But we need to acknowledge the fact that Russia's expectations are somehow -- I mean, going to the direction, to force us to bridge international regulation and to compromise on our (INAUDIBLE) norms.

And that is impossible for us to achieve any kind of compromise. HOLMES: It's interesting; Western embassies have, of course, moved

their operations here to where I am in Lviv, in the west of the country. Poland has not and deliberately so. Explain your thinking on that.

PRZYDACZ: Well, we do have a special responsibility, that being on the Ukrainian soil, being the neighboring country as we just discussed, there's a possible migration flow with Poland. So we need to have also our consuls, our diplomats on the Ukrainian soil.

We have not only embassy in Kyiv, we have several consulates all over Ukraine. Also our airlines department from the European Union, they want us to be active and helpful with regard to this migration. That's the first argument.

The second, of course, we need to know what's going on on the Ukrainian soil. Our diplomats are doing very important role for us, for Poland, for the international -- for NATO, for (INAUDIBLE), for E.U., for the international community.

So they need to stay there until the moment they are really in danger. If the situation will be, of course, worsening, we will decide to evacuate them but not as a first; rather as the last evacuation of our compatriots, the citizens of Poland, and obviously the citizens of the E.U.

HOLMES: It obviously sends a signal, Poland staying put there. Obviously, Mr. Putin has wanted to foster fractures in Western unity -- and there have been recent unity issues for the E.U.

But has the crisis brought the union closer together?

PRZYDACZ: Well, definitely. I would say we are quite united. Of course, among 27 member states, there's always sometimes divisions or different perspectives. But the assessment with regard to the Russians' behavior is very similar.

What we do discuss is the possible reaction. You just showed us some video about discussing the possible sanctions. We are, in Poland, very much in favor of harsh sanctions. We need to react decisively if Russia attacks Ukraine.

Of course, there are countries in the western part of our continent of the E.U., which are not that much eager to support that kind of package of sanctions. But that's always the compromise.

But we need to sit together and we need to react as the union. This is not the time to discuss the divisions among us. It's the time, rather, to keep the unity. And I do believe in the European Union and transatlantic union.

HOLMES: And more U.S. troops have arrived in Poland. Russia, of course, opposes those deployment.

What role do you see for those troops in your country?

And do you think their presence increases tensions?

PRZYDACZ: Well, no, absolutely not. This is the continuation of the deterrence policy. NATO is an alliance, a defensive alliance. There are absolutely no plans to do anything else, just to defend and deter Russia.

And Russia's reaction was quite predictable. They deployed 150,000 troops to the region, I mean, next to Ukrainian borders. We, as the alliance, have reacted by deployment of 5,000-6,000 deployment of American troops. This is completely incomparable, of course.

There are no aggressive steps taken by NATO. It's, rather, Russia behaving aggressively. Let's remind, Crimea and Donbas; in 2008, the attack on Georgia. It is, unfortunately, Russia which is the aggressive partner in this situation.

But the old Soviet way of destructing is still there. I mean, they want to destruct us. They want to accuse the West of being aggressive while they are behaving very aggressive.

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HOLMES: Marcin Przydacz, thank you so much and really appreciate you joining us, an important voice in all of this. Thanks so much.

PRZYDACZ: Thank you very much.

HOLMES: All right, well a potential Russian invasion weighs heavily, of course, on the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol near the front lines of this conflict with Russian backed separatists.

Fighting has ramped up in Eastern Ukraine in recent days. But of course, it's been ongoing for years, eight years, in fact. Thousands have died and the city has suffered a lot of loss. Alex Marquardt reports on the toll it's taken on the people of Mariupol.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The old Crimea cemetery stretches across the rolling hills outside Mariupol and Eastern Ukraine.

In Section 21, the Ukrainian flags whipping in the wind mark the graves of Ukrainian troops, mostly young men, who have died fighting Russia-backed forces in the past eight years, an often ignored conflict that has killed as many as 14,000 people, including more than 3,000 civilians.

Ruslan Pustovoit was a soldier. Now he fights with a right-wing nationalist group called Right Sector.

RUSLAN PUSTOVOIT, RIGHT SECTOR (through translator): Putin is a pathetic small man. Everyone is ready to tear Russians with their own hands.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): He says he knows around 200 people who have been killed. He shows us the grave of one of them, a fallen friend, now etched in stone, as well as his memory.

PUSTOVOIT (through translator): Too many comrades have died, too many civilians, too many children.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): in the bitterly cold, driving rain, Roman Peretyatko, a priest, prays at the towering grave of his friend, one of the first from here to die in the fighting.

But Peretyatko, quiet and understated, has two sides, dividing his duties as an army chaplain in his olive green frock, which he says is his calling, and tending to a civilian congregation in this small Mariupol chapel.

ROMAN PERETYATKO, PRIEST, ARCHANGEL MICHAEL CHURCH, MARIUPOL (through translator): We're losing our best people. The church gives people comfort. If they ask, what's going to happen next, we say it's God's will. We prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): People who can't go to church ask him to pray for them. He says their names at the altar. Among the handful who came this morning is this man, who had one thing on his mind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Myr.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): Myr, peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We pray for peace above all. Thank God, it's peaceful right now. We're taking it one day at a time. We'll see what happens next.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): The people of Ukraine have shown extraordinary calm in the face of this Russian threat. But it is clearly taking a toll.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They tell us to remain calm. We would love to live peacefully, to go to work, to raise children and grandchildren. We're worried.

How could we not be?

MARQUARDT: That worrying only growing after seeing what happened right here in Eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, those incidents that the U.S. and Ukraine say were fake, were staged, the kind of false flag operations that Russia could use to justify an invasion of Ukraine.

This city, this area, of great interest to Vladimir Putin, which he could use to connect Russia to Crimea, which he seized the last time he invaded Ukraine -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Mariupol, Ukraine.

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HOLMES: Do stay with us. We'll have much more after the break.

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HOLMES: And welcome back, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, coming to you live from Lviv in Ukraine, with more on our top story this hour.

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said, for the first time, he's convinced that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has decided to invade Ukraine.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days. We believe that they will target Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now the U.S. also says Russia is already engaging in so- called false flag operations, pointing to this vehicle that was blown up in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials have both warned Russia could use false flag operations to create a pretext for Russia to invade. And we've already seen Russian backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine begin evacuating residents to Russia, claiming a Ukrainian offensive is imminent. There is no sign of that and Ukraine has fiercely denied. It

The Russian foreign ministry says it categorically denies Biden's accusation that it's intending to attack Ukraine. Now the Russian public is getting plenty of information and misinformation about what is going on in Ukraine. Former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty tells us more about the information war already being fought.

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JILL DOUGHERTY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AND WILSON CENTER: Vivid images on Russian TV in almost every newscast, showing pictures of people being evacuated from the Donbas region in the eastern part of Ukraine, into Russia.

Women and children say that they have fear that they would be attacked by Ukraine. But Ukraine saying it has no intention to attack.

Meanwhile, politically, President Putin met with the president of Belarus, Mr. Lukashenko. And, President Putin saying there is a way to solve this, that the Kyiv leaders have to sit down with the leaders of the breakaway Donbas region, that they can discuss political, economic, any other issues, that they can solve it.

But Kyiv says, they have no intention of sitting down with those leaders. Finally, in what could be some very vivid images, coming on Saturday

from Moscow, strategic military exercises that Russia will be holding and President Putin will be supervising, in which they will launch missiles, ballistic and cruise missiles.

It is a good indication, a good symbol, that Russia is a nuclear superpower. Then finally, NATO, countering and saying that there is the biggest buildup of military weapons in Europe now since the end of the Cold War, echoing comments by President Biden, saying an attack could come without warning -- Jill Dougherty, Moscow.

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[04:35:00]

HOLMES: Now earlier I spoke to CNN military analyst Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who explains that, when he was in Iraq in 2003-2004, he was asked to link up with Ukrainian forces in the south and they were less than stellar in their performance. But he says they have improved markedly since then.

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LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: We linked up with Ukrainian forces and, truthfully, they were the most disorganized, dysfunctional, undisciplined and corrupt forces I had ever seen.

I drew an initial bias against Ukrainian forces. They were terribly led by their generals their colonels and it was just a force we could not depend on. They are actually coordinating with some of the enemy in Iraq, because they were being paid to be there.

Over the years, though, when I continued to serve in Europe, we saw the leadership within Ukraine, attempting to build a more professional force. And starting in about the 2008 timeframe, they really got serious.

There was a colonel general by the name of Robyov, who was the chief of the land forces. And he put a great deal of effort into turning his military into a professional force.

But he told me, one time, when we were having a session, that the biggest concern he had was the corruption of the senior leaders that had all been trained in the old Soviet Union.

He said, once we disavow those individuals and they left, we would have a much stronger army.

HOLMES: When it comes to intent, Putin knows well, as do you, I'd guess, that invading is one thing; holding territory amid a hostile population is quite another.

In that sense, what do you think Putin is calculating, weighing up, as he thinks about invasion?

HERTLING: He is not calculating very well, from a force perspective standpoint. There have been various studies talking about troop-to- task relationships. That's one of the things that the military does.

What are the things that soldiers are expected to do on the ground?

It is one thing to invade; it's another thing to hold territory and to be amongst the people and to build a new society.

If Mr. Putin is thinking he will achieve regime change through the use of force, he doesn't have enough forces, in my view, to do that.

Just as a calculation, you are talking -- the numbers that are staggering, 190,000 forces all around the border. But Ukraine is an extremely large country, with about 41 million people in its population.

In order to control the major cities, like Kyiv, like Kharkiv, like Lviv, some of the other ones, you would need a much larger force, trained in more than just combat activity. And what I mean is civil affairs, producing government officials, extending the economy.

Unless Mr. Putin wants to, completely, destroy Ukraine -- and that may be his intent -- he is going to need a different kind of force. And they are going to have to stay for a very long time to get Ukraine under their influence.

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HOLMES: Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, speaking to me earlier. That'll do it from me for now. Let's send it back to Kim in Atlanta.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: All right, thanks so much, Michael.

China says that at least 2 billion viewers have tuned into the Beijing Olympics, making it the most watched Winter Games ever. And the competition isn't over yet. American skier McKayla Shiffrin has one more shot at a medal in her sixth and final event but it's been postponed to Sunday due to windy conditions.

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BRUNHUBER: And we will be right back.

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BRUNHUBER: All right, now German chancellor Olaf Scholz is speaking at the Munich Security Conference. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): -- weapons systems and exercises, risk mitigation mechanisms and new approaches to arms control.

At my meeting with President Putin on Tuesday, I made it clear that any further violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine will have a high price for Russia in political, economic and geostrategic terms.

And I added at the same time I emphasized that diplomacy will not fail because of us. As much diplomacy as possible, without being naive, that is what we strive for. And we are utilizing all channels of communication to this end: the NATO-Russia Council, which has met again for the first time in years; the OSCE, where conflict prevention can be discussed with all Europeans, Russians and Americans.

Poland, as the current chair, has made suggestions in this regard. There is the bilateral channel between Russia and the United States. And we are utilizing the Normandy format. It remains crucial for the resolution of the Ukraine conflict.

During my visits to Kyiv and Moscow, both sides emphasized their readiness to implement them on the Minsk agreements. And I am very grateful above all to President Zelensky for his commitment to now make progress with the necessary laws and to discuss these in the Trilateral Contact Group.

Of course, I am not under any illusions. We cannot expect to see progress overnight. However, we can only stop this crisis in its tracks if we negotiate for what is at stake, after all, is nothing less than peace in Europe.

Ladies and gentlemen, all of this has to be accompanied by a repositioning of Europe and the transatlantic alliance in a changed world. The strategy processes within the European Union and NATO, therefore, hold a special significance.

And I would like to mention four more fundamental considerations here today.

Firstly, we will develop a broader understanding of security. The NSC and Mr. Ischinger has always been a pioneer in this respect. It has come to address the risks arising from climate change, global health crises or the abuse of cyberspace and new technologies as a matter of course.

But for this broad understanding to emerge, it is essential for the European Union and NATO to complement and reinforce one another, to prepare themselves to face new risks.

Ultimately, a cyberattack remains a cyberattack, regardless of whether it is directed from St. Petersburg, Tehran or Pyongyang.

I think we agree, however, that taking new threats like these into account is something different than laying claim to a globally active NATO. Indeed, the developments of recent months -- BRUNHUBER: All right, we're listening in there to German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who's speaking at the Munich Security Conference. He warned that any military action will have a high price for Russia and that, if diplomacy fails, it won't be the fault of the Western nations, who are trying their best to achieve peace through diplomacy.

All right, we'll be right back.

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[04:50:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY DYER, BIG JET TV: Easy, easy, easy, easy. Go on, son. Oh, OK, tippy-toe. Tippy-toe. Yes. Big swing, man. (INAUDIBLE) surely not. Surely not. He's going to do it, he's going to do it. Oh, he is down. Fair play, mate. Fair play.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): We can hear the dramatic commentary on Friday, coming from Jerry Dyer on his YouTube channel Big Jet TV. Planes struggling to land at London's Heathrow Airport in high winds brought on by storm Eunice on Friday.

Parts of the U.K. and northwest Europe trying to recover from what's being called one of the worst storms in decades. The hurricane force winds caused huge waves along the coasts, uprooted trees and ripped off rooftops.

Millions in the U.S. are still under wind alerts today in the wake of Thursday's winter storm. Kansas City saw record-breaking snowfall. Road crews worked overnight into Friday to clear enough snow to make the city passable.

In Wisconsin, a major highway is still closed this morning as crews clear a multi-vehicle pileup from Friday afternoon. Officials blame the severe winter driving conditions.

And in Minnesota, an arctic blast is coming in today that could bring a major storm later in the week.

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[04:55:00]

BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber and I'll be back in just a moment with more news. Please do stay with us.