Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. State Department: Russian Invasion "Potentially Imminent"; Ivanka Trump In Talks With 1/8 Committee About Appearing For Interview; Biden Issues New Sanctions On Nord Stream 2's Builder. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 23, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): But I think it's important for us to last as long as possible. Russia's plan is to outlast this issue, hoping that we ignore it or move on, like we did with Crimea, which was a big mistake from the Obama administration.

And we cannot allow that to happen again. This is an aggressive country. It's an autocratic country attacking a democratic, sovereign country.

And there needs to be consequences for those actions, and they need to be long-term, impactful, and the Russian economy needs to feel it.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Congressman, I want you to put on your marine hat, your former combat hat.

Do you think that Ukraine is going to be able to fight back Russia?

GALLEGO: Look, I don't think they're going to be able to fight back Russia in the classic sense of what we believe. This is a world-class Russian military army that is going against a -- you know, very disciplined and passionate army that is trying to defend itself. If the Russians were going against NATO or the United States, they wouldn't stand a chance. But let's be honest, Ukraine is much smaller and even though they have improved tremendously for the last seven years, they're not going to be able to withstand a full frontal assault.

The goal of the Ukrainian military, one of the reasons why I visited and brought out other veterans with me to talk to the Ukrainian special forces back in 2010 is to deter Russia by making them realize there's going to be a long-term struggle that will end up costing them much more than they get in return. If Russia believes it's going to cost them too much to hold Ukraine or it's going to take too long to hold Ukraine and redevelop Ukraine, because that's going to be one of the responsibilities, then I think they're less likely to really push themselves in there.

So, that is what the goal of Ukraine is. That is what we should be doing as a country and as allies is reinforcing that, giving the Ukrainian people the munitions, the gears, the javelins, the missiles to basically destroy as many Russian assets as possible to make them feel the pain. And when that happens, hopefully they either turn back or they're less likely to keep their incursion into Ukraine.

CAMEROTA: Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you very much for your time.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell.

The U.S. issued a new dire warning to Ukraine. Sources tell CNN the Ukrainian government officials were told that a full-scale Russian invasion is imminent. A NATO military official said that NATO allies have received a similar assessment.

Now, U.S. intelligence believes that a major city in northeast Ukraine, Kharkiv, is of particular concern. But so far, Ukrainians say there are no plans to evacuate the city.

In the last hour, the State Department added this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: What I'll say about those reports is they are entirely consistent with what we have been saying for some time now, that Russia has amassed forces along Ukraine's borders in Belarus, positioned the assets, the heavy weaponry, the soldiers, the service members it would need to undertake an invasion of Ukraine at a moment's notice. That has been true for some time now. We have not seen any data points that alleviate the profound concern we have been expressing for some time now. So the invasion remains potentially imminent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, Pentagon officials say Russian military capabilities along Ukraine's border are, quote, near 100 percent of all forces that the pentagon had anticipated that Putin would use for this invasion. The Pentagon is expected to brief reporters at any moment now. Of course, we'll bring you that.

But let's go now first to CNN's Erin Burnett. She's in Lviv, Ukraine, for us.

So, Erin, what are you learning about the U.S. warning of this imminent full-scale invasion by Russia?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: Well, it's interesting. You know, you heard Ned Price say that there's possibly imminent attack. We understand that this warning came in Monday night Washington early in the hours of Tuesday morning here of an imminent attack, full-scale attack by Russia.

And that Pentagon briefing you are both waiting for is so crucial because what we understand from the latest Pentagon assessment from the Department of Defense, from an official this morning to our defense team, is that you got near 80 percent to 100 percent of Russian armed forces now near the Ukraine border in a forward position. A forward position is basically ready to attack.

Our understanding from all the analysis is that sort of can only be sustained for a day or a few days before you sort of have to take a rest and pull back or do something more significant.

And, in fact, some of those troops, most of them are within, you know, 20 to 30 kilometers of the Ukraine border in that horseshoe that goes around the Ukraine border from Belarus and Russia and Crimea in the south and Sebastopol. But also that some of them are within five kilometers.

[15:05:02]

That's just over three miles from the Ukraine border.

So that's the situation that, you know, we understand here on the ground. Obviously, since that imminent warning came in, you have seen the Ukraine -- you've seen an attack today, another mass sort of flooding websites with requesting that cause them to crash around 4:00 local time on various government websites, Department of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, and others as well as major banks.

We tested a few of those. It seems that they are back up, but it's part of this ongoing campaign of attacks and psychological exhaustion that people are experiencing on the ground.

Matthew Chance is in Kyiv.

And, Matthew, since that imminent warning since President Zelensky found out about it, he announced a state of emergency, and I know we're looking at local time less than two hours away from it taking effect.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. He called on the parliament to impose that state of emergency. They have now done that. And, as you say, it will take effect within the next couple hours, at midnight local time.

What it's going to mean in real terms is that there will be extra security outside key buildings, government buildings, security offices, things like that, and at transportation hubs like airports and train stations. It also means there will be a curfew imposed or the ability of the authorities to impose a curfew if they see fit, mass gatherings, mass demonstrations are going to be banned under these emergency powers, emergency legislation that's been imposed from midnight tonight.

And it's interesting because reservists in the military, people who may be called up soon to serve in the armed forces of Ukraine have been banned from traveling outside of the country. So they can't, you know, avoid their duties. It gives us an indication of just how tense this country is following that U.S. warning, the latest of several warnings that the United States has given Ukraine that it faces an imminent strike.

The Ukrainian official that I spoke to about this was aware of this intelligence and the warning that had been given. He said to me that Ukrainian intelligence had not verified those reports, that they haven't confirmed it themselves. They pointed out there's been a number of these incidents in the past that have not materialized in any kind of strike.

So, we're still watching and waiting carefully to see what happens in the next few hours.

BURNETT: That's right. Sort of the -- sort of preparation of those troops, exhausting for those troops, people waiting for something that may happen that is horrific and terrifying, but has not happened is also exhausting. That's the experience people are having on the ground.

Matthew, thank you very much.

And, you know, I will say, Victor and Alisyn, you know, here in Lviv, obviously for the rest, you know, they've been preparing they say as Russian troops built up before it's sort of got on the international stage for several months to prepare for all-out outages of the Internet, for example, or no electricity grid. That they've been working, they say, for up to six months on that.

But they're now starting to test for the public some of these emergency systems. And today, they tested and we saw what would happen if there's no grid at all. So you can't direct people to the radio or to television or social media to find out what they're supposed to do, they said, in light of a Russian -- the horrific and incomprehensible sort of missile attack or street provocations. But they could, they say, drive police cars and speak out loud speakers to tell people what they do, and they tested that across the city, one per district. So, there were 30 police cars driving around doing those tests.

But that's the situation. You see that happening behind a tourist bus, right? This exhaustion and fatigue and stress, and life also continuing as normal. It is truly amazing to see those two things existing side by side, guys.

CAMEROTA: Erin, it's so helpful to have you on the ground for us explaining what life is like at this hour there. Thank you. We'll check back with you.

BLACKWELL: We've got more now on the assessment from the Pentagon, Russian military capabilities along Ukraine's border are near 100 percent of all forces that they were anticipating. The satellite images show growing concentrations of Russian armor and field hospitals and shelters close to the border, some within 24 miles of Ukraine.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now with the latest from the Pentagon.

So, Oren, senior U.S. defense official says that Russia is, quote, as ready as they can be to invade. What do you know?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. has been watching this buildup for months now. There was always an assessment of this is the number of troops Russia would need if it were to go for an all-out attack. And it is now an assessment from a senior defense official that Russia is basically near 100 percent of that number, that it has the positions, the forces, the troops, the capabilities, and the equipment in place were it to conduct an all-out invasion of Ukraine.

And that's not just going for the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. That's going for Kharkiv, the major city you just talked about in northeast Ukraine, as well as perhaps going for Kyiv and large swaths of territory throughout the country.

[15:10:04]

That senior defense official saying some 80 percent of Russian troops are in forward positions, some just five kilometers or three miles from the border, some a little farther away depending on the capability. Russia has basically all the me just five kilometers or three miles me just five kilometers or three miles from the border, some a little farther away depending on the capability. Again, Russia has basically all the options, all the capabilities it needs on the edge of Ukraine, that's from land, sea, air, cyber.

Officials have warned that before Russia would invade, it would lay the foundation for an invasion, essentially pre-invasion prep and that includes cyberattacks, which we're seeing, as well as trying to sow generally chaos and confusion throughout the country to lay the groundwork for an invasion.

In terms of what we're hearing from Russia, here is a statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have weapons that have no equal in the world put on combat standby duty. We will continue to develop promising systems, including hypersonic weapons and based on new physical principles, as well as expand the use of advanced digital technologies and elements of artificial intelligence. Such complexes are indeed the weapons of the future, which significantly increased the combat potential of our armed forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Allow me to state the obvious, that does not sound like a man who is pulling back his troops. It's already been debunked and rejected this claim from a week or so ago that Russia was pulling troops away. Now we see this statement from Putin on top of the speech he gave earlier this week where he basically denied that he had any belief that Ukraine had a right to its own sovereignty. And this all goes into the assessment that a Russian invasion of Ukraine might be imminent. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to fly intelligence, surveillance, recon

flights over Ukraine in the form of global hawks to see what's going on there. That's one of the key indicators. Do they stop doing this at some point? That would be an indicator that the U.S. believes it's happening perhaps within a few hours now.

So that's one of the indications, Victor and Alisyn, that we're looking for as we look at Russian forces arrayed around the country.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, weapons that have no equal in the world, not the language of de-escalation.

Oren Liebermann for us at the Pentagon, thank you.

More now on that breaking news. This full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine may be imminent. President Biden just issued more sanctions. We're live at the White House next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:46]

BLACKWELL: We're following more breaking news. Former President Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, is in talks with the House Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Now, she served also as one of the former president's senior advisers.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Paula Reid is following the latest.

Paula, what does this mean?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENET: Well, we've learned that Ivanka Trump is in talks to possibly sit for a voluntary interview with the House Select Committee investigating January 6th. Now, about a month ago, the committee sent her a letter requesting her voluntary cooperation with their investigation. In this letter, they laid out specifically what it was they wanted to talk to her about.

Among the things they wanted her to discuss with them was her father's pressure campaign on former Vice President Mike Pence, specifically they wanted to talk to her about a conversation that she witnessed in the Oval Office in between these two men. They said they also wanted to talk to her about what was going on inside the White House before, during, and after the insurrection. They want to talk to her specifically about her efforts to persuade her father to do something to quell the riot and they also want to talk to her about what was going on inside the White House and with her father in the days after the insurrection.

Now, just because she's talking about possibly sitting down for a voluntary interview, it doesn't mean this is actually going to come to pass. It certainly doesn't mean that she will fully cooperate with the committee, but this is usually how this works. Lawmakers will reach out to potential witnesses and engage in a negotiation, some way for them to potentially come to a compromise on a way to cooperate in some respects. So we'll see where the talks lead. BLACKWELL: Paula Reid, thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK. So the White House implemented new sanctions against the Swiss-based builder of that Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Yesterday, Germany took that major stand against Russia by halting certification of the project.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House -- Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is a big shift in their policy when it comes to Nord Stream 2 and, of course, what you've seen, the actions that the White House took last year, waving the sanctions on the CEO, and the company behind Nord Stream 2 and this gas pipeline, linking Germany and Russia.

But it comes, of course, after that critical decision by the German chancellor to halt the certification of this. That is what officials here at the White House have been pointing to in the last 24 hours, when talking about these sanctions, which is giving President Biden some rare praise from Republican Senator Ted Cruz. And in a statement where he confirmed that he was imposing these sanctions on this pipeline, President Biden also noted that he is ready to take further action against Russia should they escalate further.

And, of course, that has been the big question here at the White House today, as officials are monitoring this intelligence about whether or not an attack, this full-scale assault that President Biden said yesterday, he does still believe is likely is expected to happen. Now, of course, officials are monitoring this. We know that U.S. officials have communicated some of this intelligence to the Ukrainian government to talk about what they believe is going to happen.

And they're also paying close attention to what Ukraine is doing and the fact that their parliament just approved this state of emergency that they're going to have in place for the next 30 days is also quite significant. It's a step we haven't seen them take before. So, that's really the big question for the White House is watching and seeing what Putin is going to do.

Of course, after you heard what President Biden said yesterday describing that speech that Putin gave is bizarre, and the fact he was talking about these two regions that he's now declaring independent, saying they're not part of Ukraine.

[15:20:12]

And I think that's the big question here for the White House, is what he's going to do next because President Biden has warned that a full scale assault could be in the agenda, and, of course, the question is the timing on that as well.

BLACKWELL: Kaitlan Collins, with the latest from the White House, thank you very much.

Let's bring in now, retired Army Major Mike Lyons, and CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.

Welcome to you both.

Kimberly, let me start with you. We heard from Kaitlan that these are some new strategies from the White House. The initial first tranche included sanctions against the children of some of those oligarchs. Any of this though had the power to deter President Putin?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, part of it is that they are trying to lay out the sanctions for the world to see to say this is what happens if you try to mess with the international order, if you try to break international law. To lay out for places like Asian and African and Latin American nations that might be deciding between shall we go with Russia as our ally or with the West as Russia increasingly tries to court them with its influence.

The problem is from everyone that I heard from and even from Alexei Navalny's representative, the jailed Russian opposition leader, he was briefing reporters here in Washington, D.C. last night. What they are hearing is there no one near Putin that can dissuade him from taking some sort of armed action. They just don't know how far he's going to go.

CAMEROTA: Major, I mean, obviously, nobody has a crystal ball but it is the military's job to try to anticipate what happens next. It seems as though Putin has gone too far to turn back. Well, at least, he's not showing any signs of wanting to turn back. What do you think happens next?

MAJ. MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Yeah, Alisyn, it's about courses of action and I think we've got to prepare for the worse. And I think that means the strategic weapons go first and the target is that Ukraine military I think he uses rockets, missiles to attack Ukraine air force on the ground, destroy it before it gets in the air, go after air defense platforms that they have their that will allow Russian bombers to roam freely into the sky.

And then initially those tanks roll into Ukraine, in a similar play book to what we did 31 years ago in Desert Storm. They rolled to that border to that situation and look to go after the Ukraine military. That's got to be the target. They will avoid built up areas. They will not going to try to get bogged down into different fights and they're going to try to sweep this I think very similar to that playbook we had back in Desert Storm.

CAMEROTA: Kimberly, we heard from the State Department that they are not interested in the kabuki theater of diplomacy. Putin says that while Russia security is off the table, he says that he's open to dialogue for finding diplomatic solutions the most difficult problem. How does the U.S. walk that line? Because -- I mean, there is overlap on issues far beyond Ukraine and Russia.

DOZIER: Look, they've got to say that. They've got to keep their options open. At the same time, there is concern that no matter what they lay out that there's going to be some sort of violent armed action against Ukraine. Whether it is as CNN reporters have been hearing, possibly just taking Kharkiv, which is the city closest to the disputed Donbas region where Moscow has now recognized their so- called independence or whether it's going all the way to Kyiv.

What Moscow's military leaders know is that Ukraine has been preparing for a very long time with U.S. special forces training to have an unconventional guerilla war against them. So, if Russian forces try to go all the way to the capital, that's what they're going to be facing. Something long, something protracted that will have bodies of dead Russian soldiers going back to Russia.

That's the kind of thing that could stir up real opposition again against Vladimir Putin. So, that's the one thing they may have going for them if they are advising -- if they're advising him against this.

CAMEROTA: Major, are Ukraine soldiers equipped to take on what might be to happen?

LYONS: Well, not necessarily in the short term. They have been trained but they will be out matched and not have the same level of technology that Russia has. And then once the fighting start, that really makes the difference. We have to remember, Russia has got experience fighting in Syria and built up areas there as well, and this is going to be televised.

I think until the bullets start flying, so to speak, you don't know how the soldiers will act. I think the importance of having the Russians having those solders in the north, in Belarus, it's going to create that pincher action. You know, Ukraine is divided by a river that goes right down in the middle of the country and that was probably the biggest obstacle they had with their military planning.

[15:25:07]

So, I think the Ukraine soldiers, while they might fight widely, you might see the older, civilian generation come to take up arms and do anything they can to defend their country.

CAMEROTA: Major Michael Lyons, Kim Dozier, thank you both very much. Really appreciate the analysis.

BLACKWELL: Former President Trump is calling Russia's latest moves against Ukraine, genius. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)