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Russia Attacks Ukraine: Blasts Heard in Multiple Cities; Ukraine's Zelensky Introduces Martial Law, Urges Calm; Troops, Military Vehicles Enter Ukraine From Belarus. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Ukraine's leaders calling it an act of war. The Russian military claims its troops encountered no resistance as they moved into Ukraine. This video is from a camera alongside the country's southern border with Crimea which of course was annexed in Russia in 2014 and occupied ever since. Another video from Ukrainian border guards showing a column of military vehicles entering the country from Belarus. The Belarusian President saying that his country's troops are taking part in the attack on Ukraine just providing to geographical platform for it.

A U.S. official says the Pentagon is tracking the reported incursion.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The most troubling thing that many probably governments around the world are seeing right now is that invasion from Belarus? Because as you put it and it's an important point to make, the fastest way to get to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv from the outside is via Belarus. Is that road via Belarus. It's a road that's been upgraded in the past couple of years to actually encourage trade between Ukraine and Belarus. So, it's a very good road. An easy one to travel. I think that's going to cause a lot of people a lot of concern -- Michael.

HOLMES: Ukraine also reporting missile strikes and artillery fire on airbases and cities all around the country. Defense officials in Kyiv claim six Russian aircraft and one helicopter were shot down. But Russia denies that. Ukraine's defense ministry says its forces are countering the Russian offensive with dignity and they say they are inflicting losses on Moscow's troops. The Ukrainian's president's office releasing pictures of explosions near the capitol of Kyiv. CNN's Matthew Chance was on air when the blasts started and when air raid sirens went off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's been an air raid siren just suddenly -- oh, here it is. That's an air raid siren. Several of them going off here in the center of the Ukrainian capital. Now whether that's them just testing it, I don't think so though given the situation we currently find ourselves in or whether Ukrainian radar has picked up approaching aircraft or missile attack inside the center of the city I don't know. But this adds another ominous alarming feature to what has been an ominous and alarming day so far. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: In a surprise appearance on Russian television President Vladimir Putin called this a, quote, special military operation to protect Donbas in the east of the country. It's clearly much, much more than that. He blamed the government in Kyiv for the bloodshed but said Russian forces are not planning an occupation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Whoever tries to interfere with us, even more so create threats for our country, our people should know Russia's response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky went on Facebook to address the nation. He say he's imposing martial law but urged the country not to panic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Today each of you should stay calm, stay at home if you can. We are working, the army is working. The whole sector of defense and security is working. No panic. We are strong. We are ready for everything. We will win over everybody because we are Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now the U.S. President Joe Biden condemning what he called the unprovoked and unnecessary Russian invasion. He plans a White House address in the day ahead where he is expected to announce full scale sanctions on Russia.

And the United Nations Security Council met in emergency session late on Wednesday for the second time this week just as the Russian attack began. Secretary General Antonio Guterres urging Russian President Putin to stop his troops from attacking Ukraine.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is standing by for us live at the White House. Katie Bo Lillis is that the Pentagon. But we begin with Nick Paton Walsh in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. And I understand you've been hearing some explosions, Nick. Bring us up to date.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, Michael. In the last 5 to 10 minutes, we heard a singular blast that was the closest and loudest that we've heard since we awoke at 5 a.m. by some more distant explosions. Unclear what caused it in an urban environment like this with the whole coast line curling around. It's hard to be precise as to where this may have emerged from. But it was close enough to set off car alarms in the street down below.

[04:05:00] So, it may be that it was close to the city center, of this the third largest city in Ukraine, predominantly Russian speaking, main port city of Odessa.

It was proceeded by what sounded like two more distant explosions about sort of 20 minutes earlier and then this morning. I should remind you at 5 a.m. we were awoken by three or four explosions and two more at 6 a.m. So, clearly there is some sort of military activity or high explosives being used in the outskirts around Odessa and possibly closer into its center as well.

We have no idea what the cause is of that are and we don't know quite what was targeted. We have not heard jets in the sky. And so, lots of things we can draw from that. But looking at how this fits into the broader picture, it is startling that a city that is this kind of Russian in its blood in Ukraine and so far away from the disputed Donbas area that Vladimir Putin keeps talking about needing to protect but has seen war in the last eight years that we are hearing blasts now in this tightly packed city is quite an extraordinary development in terms of what this says about the scale of what Vladimir Putin might be trying to achieve. A deeply troubling morning, frankly, to wake up and see this place that wants to be so calm now on edge -- Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, perhaps surprising, that far, as you say, in the northern Belarus, in the east in Donbas and the south in Crimea and where you are in the west of the country. Nick, thanks for the report. Nick Paton Walsh there. Let's turn to Katie Bo Lillis who is with us at the Pentagon with more. What are you hearing about the troop movement there?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yes, so, U.S. intelligence and defense officials are closely tracking Russian maneuvers in an effort to try to understand the scope and how this campaign is going to unfold. And in some cases, they're following this in real time. You know, they're piecing together really some of the same -- trying to verify some of the same open-source reports that you and I and the rest of our colleagues at CNN are also watching.

One thing that we do know that defense officials are closely watching is this movement of Russian troops across the border from Belarus into Ukraine. This is particularly significant because of course this provides them with practically a straight shot to Kyiv to the nation's capital. And what we have heard from at least one senior U.S. lawmaker. Senator Marco Rubio, who is the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and has been receiving briefings on Russian planning. He says that movement is part of Russian planning to try to isolate Kyiv from the rest of the -- from a large number of Ukrainian forces that are operating on the country's eastern flank kind of butting up to these separatist controlled regions in the east.

But bottom line right now, U.S. officials closely tracking how this ground campaign is going to unfold, what kind of air support it might receive and ultimately whether or not Russia is going to try to hold territory. Putin has said he does not intend to occupy territory by force. But of course, we've routinely seen Putin and Russia say one thing and then do quite another. And one thing that we do know is that U.S. officials are very aware of a Russian military doctrine which is really the art of deception in conducting warfare. Michael, thanks so much.

All right, Katie Bo Lillis thanks so much there at the Pentagon. Let's bring in Kevin Liptak at the White House. And the U.S. President Biden expected to speak I think it's at noon Eastern time. Earlier though he did speak with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Tell us more about that call and what we can expect today from there.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, they were on the phone just before midnight Washington time. Zelenskyy actually reached out to the White House to speak to President Biden. He was of course eager to take his call. And they spoke really just as those explosions were coming down in Kyiv, the first ones that we heard at least with our CNN teams. On that call the president says he condemns these unprovoked and unjustified attacks.

He said Zelensky asked him to call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly against President Putin's flagrant aggression and to stand with the people of Ukraine. Now ahead of this call the president's team was sort of huddled in the West Wing. They were crafting the president's statement. This siege of Ukraine, of course, is the grim fulfillment of something that the president has been really predicting for weeks, that this could happen, would happen and really saying that he would react with severe and swift sanctions.

And that is what I think you're going to hear from the president tomorrow at noon when he comes out and addresses the American people. We're told that U.S. officials and European officials have been on be the phone this evening trying to coordinate their response.

[04:10:00]

The president will also be on the phone tomorrow with leaders of the G-7 to sort of ensure they're on the same page with these sanctions.

Now when the president does come out, we expect him to talk more about these export controls, essentially limiting certain technologies that can be exported to Russia. We also expect new sanctions on Russian financial institutions and of course new sanctions on members of Putin's inner circle. These are all things that the president has previewed. He once had hoped that they would deter president Putin from doing what he is doing right now. Clearly President Putin wasn't deterred. Now they're meant to punish President Putin.

The real question is what, if anything, the president holds back, leaves on the table in terms of sanctions to punish Putin as this attack continues. But the U.S. has said that its sanctioned regimes against Russia will be sustained. So, these are all questions that will likely be answered when the president comes out and speaks tomorrow -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks for the reporting there, Kevin Liptak. Thanks so much. All right, now meanwhile, leaders across the world are reacting to the

invasion. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is vowing to slam Russia with more sanctions from Europe. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Russia's target is not only Donbas, the target is not only Ukraine, the target is the stability in Europe and the whole of the international peace order and we will hold President Putin accountable for that. Later today we will present a package of massive and targeted sanctions to European leaders for approval. With this package we will target strategic sectors of the Russian economy by blocking their access to technologies and markets that are key for Russia. We will weaken Russia's economic base and its capacity to modernize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also tweeted, quote, this is a grave breech of international law and a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security. NATO allies will meet to address Russia's renewed aggression.

And the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying this, quote, President Putin has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack on Ukraine. The U.K. and our allies will respond decisively.

Do stay with us here at CNN. We will have much more on Russia's attack on Ukraine and the world's response when we come back.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy says that Russia's president has, quote, begun war it against Ukraine and military service members have already, he says, taken the first blow after Russia attacked his country on Thursday. And the U.S. is reacting to the situation with disbelief. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: At the exact time as we are gathered in the council seeking peace Putin delivered a message of war in total disdain for the responsibility of this council. This is a grave emergency. The council will need to act and we will put a resolution on the table tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Meanwhile, here in Ukraine the mayor of Kharkiv an eastern city targeted in the attacks is warning citizens to not leave their homes today. While another eastern city Dnipro is urging citizens not to panic. And Ukrainian controlled areas of Luhansk has announced a general evacuation. Now we are seeing plumes of smoke over cities across the country. Have

a look at this one. Billowing from a military airport this is near Chuguev.

Now Melinda Haring is Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. She joins me now from Warsaw in Poland. Good to see you again. I know you were one, like many others, who thought Putin may well hang around the perimeter of Ukraine and strangle it economically from without. I'm curious of what your reaction is to military action getting underway in the comprehensive way it has and what you think Putin's calculus is.

MELINDA HARING, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ATLANTIC COUNCIL EURASIA CENTER: Hi, Michael. I'm really surprised he has gone as far as he had. We have some military planners at the Atlantic Council and we had all thought the maximum that he would go was the Dnipro River and we were wrong. You know, we're waking up to a whole new reality. I'm surprised I hear reports that there is hostilities in Khmelnytskyi which is deep into western Ukraine. So, Putin went a lot further west than I expected and I think than any of us in the West really expected.

HOLMES: I guess the question is, how far will he go? He's called Kyiv the capital of ancient Russia. Do you think he would enter the city or lay siege to it?

HARING: He may well do that. So, in the next two to three days, we should expect him to try to take out all the air defense systems and establish air dominance so that the tanks can roll in and the Russian troops will have air support. So, that's what we're watching for in the next two to three days. We'll see if the troops roll in from Belarus and then from the other directions as well. I mean, at this point it looks like he's pretty intent on going into Kyiv and changing the leadership there. I don't think that that's an irresponsible guess. But again, we don't know what Vladimir Putin is up to. A lot of what he's going to do is based on what happens on the ground.

[04:20:00]

HOLMES: And he's essentially told everyone else around the world to butt out at the moment. How should or could the West respond now. Reactive sanctions to the idea of him going into Donbas, that didn't work. And obviously, he knew that heavier sanctions would come and he's baked that into his calculus. What more can the West do here?

HARING: Yes, I'm afraid you're right. We the West did not respond forcefully enough with sanctions. And Putin is not deterred. The only thing that scares him is more material -- defensive material being sent to Ukraine. So, the West needs to do everything it can to get that defensive material to Ukraine if and when it's still possible. And also send more NATO troops to eastern European countries nearby.

And you know what, I think the U.S. also should be considering some other options. President Biden has ruled outputting U.S. forces on the ground in Ukraine. He's been very clear about that, but he has not ruled out using U.S. Air Force and U.S. ships. So, those should be considerations and that will get Vladimir Putin's attention for sure. HOLMES: Yes. I would say, he has threatened fierce recrimination if

anyone else gets involved in this. But how fiercely do you think Ukrainians are going to resist and, you know, how capable are they to do so? I know you've written that Putin knows that a determined insurgency would emerge.

HARING: Absolutely. So, Ukrainians will resist. They will fight. 45 percent of Ukrainians have said that they will fight and defend their country with arms. You know, we were seeing footage and I keep seeing it from your show of Ukrainians leaving Kyiv now. That's not the full story. A lot of Ukrainians will stay put and they will defend the country. They have territorial defense units that are organized and ready to go.

So, I think Putin can take what he wants right now but it's not going to be a cake walk and the Russian troops will face serious resistance. You have to remember Ukraine has been at this for eight years. Their troops are motivated. This is an existential crisis. So, yes, Russia has overwhelming superiority in the air and at sea and just in terms of sheer troop numbers but it isn't going to be a cake walk.

HOLMES: Putin of course has wanted to weaken NATO for years and probably hoped that or thought that there would be fractures as all of this unfolded. Has he miscalculated? Has this actually brought NATO and Europe together?

HARING: Yes. This is one of his gross miscalculations. He's trying to pull NATO apart but instead this whole crisis has breathed new life NATO. And NATO is unified and it may have two new members. Sweden and Finland may end up joining NATO as a result of this crisis. So, that's really the irony of Putin's miscalculation.

HOLMES: Melinda Haring, really appreciate your perspective. Thanks for being with us.

HARING: My pleasure. Thank you.

HOLMES: Now you're watching CNN's breaking news coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Still ahead, financial markets tank and Ukraine addresses the damage from Moscow's military strikes. We'll be right back.

[04:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes live in Lviv, Ukraine. Now despite the governments pleas for everyone to stay calm, the Russian attacks appear to have put a lot of people understandably on edge. We're getting some extraordinary images of Ukrainians trying to flee the capitol by car after air raid sirens went off. Volodymyr Zelensky is speaking right now I understand. Let's listen.

ZELENSKY (through translator): Explain to people where they are being manipulated, where they are lied to and what is happening where. We need to mobilize our spirit. I would like to speak to all our citizens, to all our media all honest the Ukrainian media to circulate information about how our military is fighting back.

There is little such information in the media right now. Our military needs your support and support from our public. Our army, believe me when I say this, we have an army of powerful people and our public are also a powerful force and they need to support our army.

The military are engaged in heavy fighting, fending off attacks in Donbas, in the north, in the east and in the south. The enemy has sustained heavy casualties and they will be even heavier. They came to our land. Ukraine is being attacked from the air, from the north to the south and national solidarity is the main support of Ukraine's statehood.

But I believe it's not the only one. We are issuing arms, defensive weapons to all of those capable of defending our sovereignty. Each citizen of Ukraine will decide the future of our people. Anyone with military experience who is able to join the defense of Ukraine must report to stations -- call-up stations. We are calling on veterans. Please follow detailed information.

Since morning we have injured among the military and we need blood. Please become donors and donate your blood to our defenders. Also, in these difficult conditions every company, every business person is in a position to decide our future. Please work for the sake of society and for the sake of each of us. Everyone, all staff need to be provided with goods and services.

The national bank and the banks of Ukraine have all the resources necessary to secure the state's financial resource, everything to provide for the defense of Ukraine and for the interests of our people.

I am grateful to all our politicians who supported Ukraine.

[04:30:00]