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Ukraine Urges Its Citizens to Leave Russia; Right-Wing Lawyer Fights to Keep About 130 Emails from January 6 Panel; U.N. Secretary- General Says, Our World is Facing a Moment of Peril. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A very good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto reporting from Lviv, Ukraine.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York.

This morning, an urgent warning, Ukrainian officials telling citizens to leave Russia to leave immediately as the country moves to enact a state of emergency. At the same time, Russia is beginning to pull its diplomatic staff from Ukraine in an effort to, quote, protect their lives and safety. All signs of escalation and escalating tensions in the region right now, Jim.

SCIUTTO: We're also getting this news this morning. I just spoke to the prime minister of NATO member Latvia who tells me that Russia has now moved additional forces into the occupied Donbas territories in Eastern Ukraine since Putin recognized their independence. The latest U.S. intelligence assessment indicates those forces include one to two Russian battalion tactical groups comprised of some 800 to 1,600 personnel, as well as equipment, this according to a senior U.S. official with direct knowledge of the intelligence.

My full interview with the prime minister is just moments ahead.

But we also have new satellite pictures that appear to show Russian troops adding troops, tents and field hospitals right on Ukraine's border. Plus, CNN crews evacuating the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine this morning as shellfire rained down on the area, this after capturing just stunning images of bombed-out buildings.

Our reporters and correspondents are following every angle of this story from across the region and back home. We begin this morning with CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, she is in the capital of Kyiv. Clarissa, Ukraine urging its citizens to leave Russia immediately, a state of emergency here in the U.S., it just makes this clear, does it not, that the government is considering this an urgent threat?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. And I think up until this point, we've really seen the Ukrainian leadership try to take a moderate tone here, urging people to be calm, saying they don't consider this yet to be a full invasion, though, of course, it's a violation of territorial integrity and of sovereignty, and, generally, trying to tamp down any notion of panic.

But there's definitely been a shift, I would say, in the last 24 hours or so, President Zelensky announcing that he's calling up reservists and now the announcement that there will be a state of emergency enacted sometime within the next 48 hours. That state of emergency would last 30 days and could then go on to be extended from there.

And as President Volodymyr Zelensky said today, Jim, quote, the future of European security is being decided in an instant. We've also heard security forces here saying that if there is any provocation or any attack on Ukrainian forces, that they will respond in an instant. But for now, they have not yet mobilized the military, so clearly leaving themselves a little bit of road yet to go. They also said at some point they could enter in state martial law but that has not happened yet.

Still, though, the overwhelming sort of idea coming from Ukraine's leaders is the idea that we need to continue on this path of maximal pressure on the Russians to try to adapt or adopt, rather, a diplomatic path. Ukraine's foreign minister saying today with regards to those sanctions, hit more, hit hard, hit now.

SCIUTTO: And it's remarkable to see here in Lviv, I'm sure you're seeing it to some degree in Kyiv, right, people with perhaps a sense of disbelief that this is where we are today. Clarissa Ward, thanks so much.

Also new this morning, the White House says to expect additional sanctions on Russia, suggesting that even if Russia were to take no further action in Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies will continue to impose costly sanctions on that country.

GOLODRYGA: CNN Senior White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly is in D.C. and CNN Reporter Anna Stewart is in London.

Phil, first to you, the U.S. has already leveled several sanctions against Russia, slapped restrictions on key members on Putin's inner circle and notably their children. This is different, a different approach and that President Biden warned that he would, different from 2014, when Russia initially invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Break this down for us all.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bianna. It kind of underscores there's been an evolution in terms of sanctions and in terms of willingness to go after targets that perhaps were either seen as out of play or officials were more reticent to go after. I think when you look at this first salvo, this opening salvo of U.S. sanctions, much of which are largely aligned with our European and U.K. allies, you get a sense of what may be coming next, more than anything else, full blocking sanctions on two Russian state-owned banks.

They're not the biggest banks but putting full blocking sanctions into place is a big deal and making clear the two largest banks, VTB Bank and Sberbank, are likely next in the next round or two of sanctions if Russia continues to escalate.

[10:05:05]

That is a notable development. Also cutting off Russia's sovereign debt from western marketplaces, while Russia has largely worked to insulate itself in terms of sovereign debt over the course of the last couple of years, it is a big step just to move in that direction.

But you hit on one of, I think, the most interesting elements of this opening package of sanctions. For years, the U.S. have sanctioned top Russian officials, Russian oligarchs as well. What they did yesterday is go beyond that and target their children, the sons of two top Russian officials, Denis Bortnikov and Vladimir Kiriyenko, the sons of the Domestic Intelligence chief, one of President Putin's top domestic policy advisers.

Petr Fradkov is the CEO of one of the banks that was sanctioned but he's also the son of the former chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service, who remains powerful in intelligence circles in Russia, making very clear that there is a sense inside U.S. officials that while they have sanctioned Russian officials and oligarchs in the past, much of that money has been shielded in part because they're able to funnel it over to family members. Now, those family members are fair game, as the deputy treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, laid out this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLY ADEYEMO, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF TREASURY: One of the things we did yesterday was in addition to going after the named individuals, we went after their children. And our goal will be, as we continue, is to make sure that we target the individuals around them to ensure that the money they're sending to places, like London and New York through those individuals, can no longer flow. And we can restrict the ability of this money to flow back to President Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Bianna, all of this underscoring that whether it's on financial services, whether it's on the broader Russian economy or whether it's on individuals and their families, the U.S. is going to continue to escalate if Russia does the same. When it comes to those family members, I'm told there is a significant target list and a very clear expectation that more will be in future rounds of sanctions, no question about that, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. We should also note that Russia has prepared for this in many ways, building a fortress and reserves, some $630 billion, anticipating perhaps this following initially being sanctioned years ago.

I want to turn to Anna now, because we're learning this morning that the E.U. now plans to sanction Russian defense minister and then Kremlin-backed Russian Internet Research Agency. What more are you learning about this?

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Yes. So, yesterday, the E.U. agreed on lots of sanctions in line with western allies, but we didn't have the detail of the 27 individuals and entities and we're beginning to get some of that. So, as you mentioned, the Russian defense minister, for obvious reasons, very interestingly, the Russian Research Internet Agency.

Now, this is widely regarded as a Russian troll farm and it was alleged to have been involved in the meddling of the U.S. election in 2016. It's already been sanctioned by the U.S. And as we get more details from the E.U. and the other individuals and entities, I suspect we'll see some familiar names in terms of those that have already faced sanctions in the past by other western allies.

We're waiting for more information. It is not easy to get 27 members of the E.U. to agree on anything at all, so that might be why it's taking a little bit of time. The U.K., of course, which did disagree with E.U. on many things and left the E.U., is very much in line with its allies, very similar sanctions announced yesterday. And also as of today, it's announced further military help for Ukraine, pledging more military support. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: Phil Mattingly, Anna Stewart, thank you.

And, Jim, we should note at least publicly, many of these officials in Russia that have been sanctioned have been sanctioned before, and they say before a Russian audience that they wear it as a badge of honor, how they feel personally, one could only guess.

SCIUTTO: And we'll see if Putin himself is next. Bianna, thanks so much.

Moments ago, I had the chance to speak to the prime minister of Latvia, of course, a NATO member, Krisjanis Karins.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: First, I want to begin with the status here in Ukraine. Is it your view, is it NATO's view that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has already begun?

KRISJANIS KARINS, LATVIAN PRIME MINISTER: According to the information that's at my disposal, Putin is moving in additional forces and tanks into the occupied Donbas territories. By any definition, that's a crossing of the sovereign territory into a neighboring country. That is an invasion. It is the military that's doing this. SCIUTTO: So you're saying you're seeing Russian units, new Russian units that have moved into Donbas since this declaration of supposed independence?

KARINS: Yes, according to the information at my disposal, this is exactly what we're seeing.

SCIUTTO: You, along with other top members of the Latvian government released a statement earlier this week urging, quote, the international community, to take measures, the strongest possible measures, to stop Russia's aggression, offer assistance to Ukraine. Have the steps you have seen so far, including the range of sanctions announced yesterday, do they meet that standard, in your view? Are they enough to deter Putin from further action?

KARINS: Will they deter? We will see. But certainly they meet the standard. And what's very important to understand that these are very unified and very broad sanctions coming from across the democratic world.

[10:10:00]

We have sanctions coordinated between the E.U., the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Japan. These are all complimentary to one another, and as a package, they're actually quite severe because they hit individuals, they hit state finance, they hit banks and they hit the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. So, it's a very broad-ranging set of sanctions deeper than anything we've seen before. Nothing like this was in the package when they invaded and occupied the Crimea eight years ago.

SCIUTTO: Of course, at the top of the pyramid in Russia is Vladimir Putin. The White House is sanctioning people close to Putin and their assets. But this is a man who's believed to have stolen many hundreds of millions of dollars, has it spirited away around the world. Do you believe that sanctions by the west should target Putin and his assets, his family, personally?

KARINS: I think that what we're seeing now is the first wave of sanctions. So, Putin moves military units into Ukraine, the democratic world responds immediately within one day and across all the time zones with coordinated and very deep sanctions. If there will be more moves, there will be more sanctions. And they will only be cutting deeper and deeper.

SCIUTTO: Latvia and the other Baltic States have been very forward- leaning in their military assistance to Ukraine, giving lethal assistance, such as shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, this kind of thing, that other NATO partners were reluctant to give. Do you believe Ukraine has been given enough military assistance to help resist a Russian invasion, or has the alliance fallen short? Should it step up more?

KARINS: Well, Ukraine needs all the assistance we can muster, so military assistance and financial assistance. Financial assistance right now is no less important. It's going to cost them a lot to maintain their own military, their own public debt, lack of investments, because of the military aggression, we have to help them there.

And militarily-wise, some western democratic countries are assisting them, so we have the U.S. with the great assistance, we have the U.K., Canada announcing, the Baltics, Poland, so this number of countries, hopefully, the list will grow and we have to show solidarity and support for Ukraine, not only military but especially also financing. And the European Union as a whole has now pledged 1.2 billion, and I think this is the first pledge other member states, such as Germany, have pledged additionally.

So, this is what we need to see, a combination of financial support and military support to help them get through this crisis.

SCIUTTO: I spoke yesterday to the Estonian prime minister who said, when she listened to Putin's speech on Monday, when he described it is madness that the former Soviet Republics were allowed to leave the former USSR, spoke nostalgically of a Russian empire, she said, that felt like a threat, a not so veiled threat to other former Soviet republics, like the Baltics, yourself included. Do you share that concern? Do you think that Putin's aspirations lie beyond Ukraine?

KARINS: Very clearly, Putin has stated as such. He is recreating with what, in his mind, with a skewed view of hitter, actually an absurd view of history, is to create some sort of Russian empire in a time when we live in Europe, national nation states, democratic nation states, he is doing the anachronistic move of trying to recreate an empire. And it is a huge clash of values and ideas. He does not believe in the right of a nation's self-determination. If he says this about Ukraine, he's saying it about anyone, including any other European country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: There the Latvian prime minister, Krisjanis Karins, thanks very much to him.

And, Bianna, a notable headline there confirming that it is his information that he has seen that Russia has already moved new forces into the occupied Donbas area into eastern Ukraine, which, as he described, constitutes an invasion. It may explain, may help explain, why we've seen all these sanctions coming through in the last 24 hours.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, a really different world in the past 48, 72 hours, Jim. And I think what we're seeing, especially from these leaders of these Baltic NATO members is that they're not only responding to what they're seeing on the ground there in Ukraine, they're responding to what they heard from Vladimir Putin in that lengthy speech, where he rewrote history, and that revisionist history, which he laid out as to how he viewed not only Russia and Ukraine but Europe as a whole. And that really woke up not just those but really the world.

SCIUTTO: Absolutely. And remember, he said it was madness, in his word, that those former Soviet republics, which actually include Latvia, Estonia as well, Lithuania, madness that they were allowed to leave what he called the Russian empire, remarkable. [10:15:08]

GOLODRYGA: Remember, they never chose to join. It wasn't an option for them. They clearly chose to leave.

Jim, thanks so much, great interview.

And still ahead, opening statements are underway in the trial of a former officer charged in connection to the botched raid that left Breonna Taylor dead. We're live in Louisville, Kentucky, up next.

And he pushed Trump's big lie of a stolen election, but now, Attorney Eastman is fighting to keep certain emails out of the hands of the January 6 committee. We're digging deeper for you. That's all, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

GOLODRYGA: The right-wing lawyer who helped develop former President Trump's false argument that the 2020 election was stolen is fighting to keep about 130 emails out of the hands of the committee investigating January 6th.

Now, John Eastman has already turned over thousands of pages of emails, but he's citing attorney/client privilege to keep secret emails from around the insurrection, specifically, listen to these dates, from January 4th through January 7th of 2021.

Here to discuss is former Federal Prosecutor and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Elliot Williams. Elliot, I specifically noted those dates because you see what was sandwiched between them. I'm curious to get your take as to whether his argument will hold up in before of a judge.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Look, Bianna, if he was, if John Eastman was providing legal advice to the president as his attorney, some of his statements will be protected by attorney/client. What the does is protect the conversations that people, clients have with their attorneys. We want that, we respect it and so on.

But the problem is, number one, if he's having conversations with the president outside of the scope of his representation of him, sort of non-legal conversations, and number two, if he's just claiming attorney/client privilege over every statement that he's making, none of those things will be protected. So, it will fall to the judge to sort of slice it up and make sense as to what's fact and what's fiction here.

GOLODRYGA: So, aside from the optics and how bad it just looks to the average eye when you look at the dates that he's wanting to withhold, I'm curious whether the judge will see that he's turned over other emails as an attempt for him to comply and does exude some sort of empathy for him and sympathy and allow this to go forward. WILLIAMS: I think that's a really good assessment. Number one, the dates are suspect, number two, the fact he has turned information over would seem to kind of get (ph) this. And number three, the relationship with the president appears to have been as political as it was legal. He was providing advice as to these election integrity working groups, where, yes, there is a working element to it but there is also a political element of a device to a candidate, and this is just for the judge to try to make sense of.

GOLODRYGA: So, let me ask you about another legal issue the president is facing here in New York, and that is Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has asked a judge to dismiss the tax fraud indictment against him. What's the likelihood and give us some specifics as to why would he be asking for this and what's the likelihood that a judge would agree to it?

WILLIAMS: Right. there's a few things. One, he, like, frankly, the president, has made the argument that the prosecutors bringing the case were politically biased against him on the basis of statements they've made. That's just not a winner. Political D.A., district attorneys and attorneys general across the country are elected and make statements on the campaign trail. You're not going to throw out a case on the basis of a district attorney having said something about the former president, so, okay, non-starter.

Number two, he says that statements were sort of coerced out of him when he was in custody. Again, if he had an attorney present, or if he didn't have an attorney present or if he was handcuffed and they were badgering him for statements, then, yes, he might be able to get those statements tossed out, but, again, that's a pretty high burden. So, most of the places where he's seeking to have the case dismissed, they're just not likely, I think.

GOLODRYGA: Elliot, what is interesting is that Weisselberg is a similar argument and claim that we've seen the former president and his children make, and that is that this is all political, and thus should be dismissed, that this has nothing to do with any grounded information, right, crimes but just that the D.A. here in New York is out to get the president, the former president, and those who worked with him. Why do they keep making this argument and does it hold up at all?

WILLIAMS: One, because it's sort of what they have. They're making lemons out of lemonade here, Bianna. But two things can be true. Number one, a party can be investigate, sort of a party to a trial can be investigated by a Republican or a Democrat, and they might have also engaged in the misconduct. And we have a system in the country that allows for the election, the popular political election, of elected officials.

Sometimes the party to the suit and the district attorney are going to be of different political parties, and that's okay, and it happens. The real question is when the judge looks at this, to what extent are the allegations going to stand up, and as we've seen thus far, a number of these motions have just been tossed out or defeated. GOLODRYGA: We will continue to watch. You will continue to come on and break it all down for us. Elliot Williams, thank you, we really appreciate your expertise.

WILLIAMS: Take care.

GOLODRYGA: Well, new sanctions on Russia could have an impact here in the U.S., how gas prices may take a hit. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

GOLODRYGA: Right now, the United Nations is meeting to debate the crisis in Ukraine. And the secretary-general is sounding the alarm about the seriousness of this moment in history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL: We meet in the face of the most serious global peace and security crisis in recent years and certainly in my time as secretary-general.

[10:30:00]

Our world is facing a moment of peril. I truly hoped it would not come. The latest developments regarding Ukraine are a cause for great --