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Ukraine's Capital of Kyiv Under Attack as Russians Advance; Zelensky Pleads With Russia, Let's Sit Down at the Negotiating Table; Biden to Nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired February 25, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

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

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

Happening right now, Russia is battling to take over the capital city of Kyiv, Ukraine. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says, he's the number one target for Russian forces.

This morning, extensive damage in Kyiv after rockets rained down on the city, but Ukrainians are putting up a fight. U.S. officials believe Russia has faced stiffer resistance than they had initially anticipated.

SCIUTTO: Despite that, U.S. intelligence officials tell me they are concerned the capital Kyiv could fall under Russian control within days. They say Russia's plan is then to topple the government there, install a Russia-friendly puppet government.

This morning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleading with Russia to sit down for discussions, while expressing deep disappointment with western allies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: When bombs fall in Kyiv, it is also happening in Europe, not just in Ukraine. When missiles kill our people, this is the death of all Europeans, demand better protection for Europe, better defense for Ukraine as part of the democratic world.

And now I would like to address the president of the Russian Federation once again, there is fighting all over Ukraine now. Let's sit down at the negotiating table to stop the death of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: There is fighting all over Ukraine, there are casualties all over this country.

We are covering every angle of this breaking story as only CNN can, our reporters and correspondents on the ground, throughout the country, CNN's Matthew Chance in Kyiv, where we are hearing air sirens, Nick Paton Walsh, he is in Kherson right now, and we have Yaroslav Trofimov in Kyiv as well, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

I do want to begin with Nick, because I understand you're hearing shelling where you are. Tell us what you see.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, Jim, this is the bridge that has been fought over for the last 24, 48 hours. The Russians on this side, we're on the Ukrainian side here. Just before we came on air with you here, we heard the sounds of what sound like an attack helicopter and then significant explosions on this side, a lot of heavy gunfire. I can only presume that is a Russian helicopter that has come in to attack the Ukrainian forces that have dug in on this side. That would explain those explosions. It has gone quiet now, that may be ominous, I don't know. We were hearing just before that quite a lot of shelling whizzing over our heads.

Now, what the Russian forces would now have to do, if they have successfully stopped the Ukrainians on this side is begin to move over that bridge, and we haven't seen that yet. But -- and we don't know what the outcome of those significant explosions were over there. But this is a place that Ukrainian forces had managed to retake.

When we got to this exact position 24 hours ago, we were hearing gunfire on this side, suggesting the Russians had crossed over, as we were told. But the Ukrainian forces overnight seem to have pushed them back. We heard significant air activity, jets flying low over the town, distant rumbling of explosions, the grad rockets we've been hearing throughout the afternoon have come from this direction. So, that fight has continued persistently. And it's obviously a key bridge because that side borders Russia of Ukraine. This Dnieper River, you can see, runs right up the heart of Ukraine, splitting it in two between the Russian bordering side and the European bordering side.

This town of Kherson is where you have to go through if you're coming up from Crimea, already held by Russia, since 2014, and you're going to head north through here on the way to Kyiv. So, essentially, if Russia wants control of both sides, they need this town, they need that bridge and the residents of this town are looking on bridge has been part of their lives since they lived here is now being fought over.

The silence we heard since that attack helicopter came in does leave me perhaps concerned that there may have been a change in the balance on this side of the bridge. We simply don't know. And we'll find out in the hours ahead. But, yes, the fighting for this bridge has picked up again. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Nick, let me ask you, a lot has been made of the military assistance that NATO has given Ukrainian forces.

[10:05:03]

Given that there are Russian attack helicopters involved, I imagine armor as well, are you seeing Ukrainian forces there armed, for instance, with Javelin anti-tank missiles or with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles?

WALSH: No. I mean, look, the Ukrainian forces have kept themselves hidden away. We approached some of them in a hidden position, they asked us to get out of the way quickly. They're anxious to not have where they have revealed. But I've seen them with locally manufactured weaponry, nothing of the high end anti-tank weapons that various NATO nations continue to supply here.

I don't know what's been in the balance during the fight for this bridge and we are, I think, hearing more air activity over in that direction. But with night falling here, I feel slightly ominous as to whether or not this bridge and this town essentially will still be in Ukrainian hands in the hours ahead. The Russians may choose to go straight past it, like apparently an earlier convoy did, but the residents here are deeply concerned about what comes next. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Nick Paton Walsh, please, to you and your team, stay safe there. You're in the middle of it. We want you to be stay safe.

Let's go to Kyiv now where Matthew Chance is, and this is -- well, it's become regular, hasn't it, the sound of air sirens there in Kyiv, we've heard them here in Lviv. What is the level of the air sought and have you heard ground forces, Russian ground forces close to the capital?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're right, within the past few minutes, there were those air raid sirens that went off across the city, across the center of the city, but it's very, very quiet in the areas. I look across the Ukrainian capital right now, very, very quiet. We're not seeing any kind of activity at all, there's barely anybody on the streets. There is a real sense of anxiety because Russian troops are not far away.

Have we seen any? Yes, we have. We've been about 15 miles outside of the city center and we reported that a lot, of course. We came in contact with that Russian Special Forces group that had taken a strategic airbase, the Antonov Air Base, they said, again, 15 miles or so from the city's center.

There are other reports that Russian forces are just in this direction here, which is to the north right behind me, on the outskirts of Kyiv, but have actually come into the city limits as well. And we have heard sporadic exchanges in that area. There are a couple of bridges over the Dnieper River here, which would have to be crossed by the Russian forces if they come in.

Now, obviously, that hasn't happened yet but, as I mentioned, the city is poised for that to take place. But in the meantime, there's been this unexpected diplomatic channel potentially opened, just a little fraction, President Zelensky of Ukraine calling on Vladimir Putin for the sake of people's lives to have peace talks. There wasn't any response to that initially.

But then shortly afterwards, there was a response. Russian state media quoting Dmitry Peskov, who's Vladimir Putin's spokesperson, saying, yes, look, if the Ukrainians want to speak about neutrality of their country, then we would be prepared to send a delegation to meet Ukrainian delegates in the Belarusian city of Minsk, the capital city of that neighboring country to the north of Ukraine, a close Kremlin ally, of course.

The issue of neutrality is a very controversial one but we've heard from Ukrainian officials within the last few minutes, and they've told CNN, that they are considering that Kremlin proposal to sit down, have peace talks and discuss neutrality. So, that's an important development, Jim.

SCIUTTO: That would be an enormous concession.

Yaroslav Trofimov, you're in Kyiv as well. Tell me about whether that is a viable means to at least a truce here because, to date, that's really been the sticking issue that Ukraine wants to reserve the right to associate whoever -- with whomever it wants to associate, including the possibility in the future of joining NATO. What exactly would neutrality mean?

YAROSLAV TROFIMOV, CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, President Zelensky addressed this issue just recently. And what he said is very simple. Yes, we want to be members of NATO but lots of members of NATO don't really want us to become members of the western alliance because they're afraid of Russia, they're afraid Russia's reaction. And so they should be clear about whether we have a path as Ukraine. But if not, Ukraine is prepared to embrace neutrality but only on the condition that its safety is guarantee not just by Russia but by other western countries.

Obviously, that already happened once. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for such guarantees by the U.S. and Russia in the '90s and we see what's happening now.

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SCIUTTO: Yes, of course. The concern is one man's neutrality, Putin's neutrality, it might mean capitulation, but good that they're talking at least, that's certainly a path we will continue to follow. Matthew Chance, Nick Paton Walsh, Yaroslav Trofimov, thanks so much to all of you. And, please, all of you, do be safe.

A reminder of reporting we had earlier this morning, I've learned that U.S. intelligence officials are concerned that as this onslaught continues that Ukraine's capital could fall to Russia within days. Officials told lawmakers that Russian forces have now moved within just 20 miles of Kyiv, this as of last night. And they say Russia is facing more resistance though from the Ukrainian military than was expected, stiffer. Officials declined to say if they believe that Kyiv necessarily would fall. Of course, we're only 36 hours into the fighting here. There's so much to learn. Western officials do expect Putin to try to take over the government. There's a political aspect to this, install puppet leaders, friendly to Russia, of course, replacing those freely elected by the Ukrainian people. It is unclear at this point if Putin will try to occupy and hold Ukrainian territory long-term if the military assault and that political plan or plot, you might call it, is successful.

Ukrainian officials promising to fight and they're now urging citizens to take part, do their part to attack Russian troops with Molotov cocktails. American lawmakers say the U.S. should arm Ukrainian resistance fighters if Russia captures Kyiv.

Bianna, there is so much going on. The situation on the battlefield changing by the moment, even to watch Nick there in Kherson, where the Russians had the bridge, the Ukrainians pushed back, now, of course, the Russians pushing back again. But this discussion at least of meeting, whether they reach a settlement is another question, but of the two sides meeting to find a way other than fighting is perhaps hopeful, though I imagine we should be skeptical considering the failed attempts at diplomacy, and, by the way, Russia's maximalist positions in all this.

GOLODRYGA: And skeptical just given that intel that you just relayed to viewers that you're hearing from U.S. sources. Clearly, that intel has proven correct that they have been providing over the past few weeks of an imminent invasion and here we are not only of just Eastern Ukraine, right, but the country as a whole.

And I've also heard that it's not the demand for just neutrality but it's also demilitarization that Russia is demanding as well. Given how dire the situation is, maybe the Ukrainian government is willing to negotiate but those were definitely non-starters just weeks ago. We'll continue to cover this fluid story in the hour ahead.

But still to come, breaking developments in the search for a new Supreme Court justice, President Biden will announce his nominee in a matter of hours. And CNN was the first to report that it will be D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. We have team coverage breaking down the historic moment for the nation's highest court.

Plus, Moscow's propaganda machine working overtime, a look at the lies versus the reality of Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine, straight ahead.

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GOLODRYGA: More now on the breaking news here in the U.S. CNN is the first to report that President Biden will nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. He's expected to make the announcement this afternoon. Judge Jackson will also deliver remarks at the White House.

Here to discuss this historic nomination, CNN Supreme Court Reporter Ariane de Vogue, CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood, CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju and former Federal Prosecutor and CNN Legal Analyst Elliot Williams. Welcome all of you.

Ariane, let's begin with you. This is somebody who had been on the president's short list. Do we know what, if anything, led him to ultimately make this decision?

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Right. When he was going through this, he wanted to start first with sterling qualifications and she has that, Harvard, Harvard Law. She sits on the most powerful federal appeals court in the country. Two more important things, she's a former clerk to Justice Breyer. She understands the Supreme Court and I'm sure he would be pleased to have her on the court. But she also has recently been through the Senate for her confirmation hearing. The Senate knows her and she got the votes of some key members.

And on top of all of that, it's worth noting that from the beginning of this administration, President Biden said he wanted to change the face of the court for the lower courts, and if he got a Supreme Court nominee. And he wanted to look for somebody who would also contribute through public service. She checks that box as well.

She has served as an assistant public defender, she was a commissioner on the sentencing commission and she has this compelling life story, and that's something that appeals to President Biden, and, finally, last but not least, this Supreme Court, next term, is hearing huge cases on affirmative action, voting rights, a big religious liberty case, he needed somebody who could hit the ground running, try to go toe-to-toe with this 6-3 conservative majority right now. And those were all the considerations he would have taken into consideration.

GOLODRYGA: Manu Raju, talk about the significance of this moment. Clearly, you have a liberal justice replacing a liberal justice, one we should note, she clerked for in the past.

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That having been said, this is a defining moment for any president.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a historic pick, a groundbreaking pick, first black woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court, first black woman nominated and to serve on the Supreme Court, and this comes, after the president, of course, named the first woman of color to be the vice president of the United States.

Now, no doubt that the fact that this is a historic pick will be central to this confirmation process going forward, and potentially could make it even harder for some Republicans to mount a knockdown, drag out fight that we have seen from a number of Supreme Court confirmation proceedings in the past.

Now, a bit about how this will play out. Next week, Ketanji Brown Jackson will be on Capitol Hill. She will meet with key senators from both parties, leadership and down to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Then there will be a hearing. Hearings will probably take place within the next few weeks, as Dick Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, told me recently. And then the Democratic leadership is going to try to get her confirmed before the April recess, that's the Easter recess, starts on April 11th, trying to get this done around five or so weeks.

Now, the question will be, can they get the votes? At the moment, there's a high likelihood they will. Democratic senators have expected to be united on this, even Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, the moderate Democrats have expressed an openness to backing whoever Joe Biden nominates. And she did get three Republicans supporting this nomination last time. But one of those Republicans this morning, Lindsey Graham, criticized him for going this route and not picking someone he was advocating for, who was Michelle Childs, a district court judge, but, nevertheless, likely to get confirmed as this process plays out in earnest next week.

GOLODRYGA: John Harwood, as we just heard from Manu, some pushback there from Lindsey Graham, no surprise, really, because he had been putting for J. Michelle Childs, a justice from his state of South Carolina. We also heard Jim Clyburn supporting her as well. That having been said, she has confirmed on a bipartisan basis three times in the past. Despite the partisanship we see in Washington today, is there really any concern that there may be some pushback from Republicans here?

I believe we lost -- there we go. John, sorry, we couldn't hear you.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I was going to say, there will be pushback from Republicans on the right, especially those -- many Republicans in the Senate who were looking at potential 2024 presidential campaign. But the best indication of whether somebody can get bipartisan support is whether they've had it in the recent past. Just a few months ago, as Manu indicated, she got affirmative Republican votes from Susan Collins, from Lisa Murkowski and from Lindsey Graham.

I would be very surprised if Lindsey Graham turns around. Yes, he, like Jim Clyburn, was supporting someone from his home state but he's got a large African-American constituency in South Carolina. That is a source of pressure for him. Ketanji Brown Jackson has also gotten the support in that vote a few months ago from every Senate Democrat. So, she is on a very smooth track at least as it appears at this moment toward getting confirmed. That's something that the White House considered.

But, remember, she was also considered for the Supreme Court by Barack Obama when Joe Biden was vice president. This is a subject that he's been steeped in for decades, former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, been thinking about this from the beginning. So, I think Joe Biden is very comfortable with this choice. He extended the offer last night in a phone call. She accepted it. And the odds look pretty good right now they can meet that deadline that Manu indicated of getting this before the Easter recess.

GOLODRYGA: And, no doubt, Elliot Williams, this was an embarrassment of the president to have to choose from, impeccable qualifications here, well known within D.C. That is for sure. But there had also been a push from people, like Congressman Clyburn, to not go with a candidate who had come from an Ivy League background and had gone to an Ivy League school, and to go with somebody who had been to a state school which J. Michelle Childs had in South Carolina.

I'm just curious to get your take on that specifically because she had served as a public defender in the past as well. So, she does meet that mark.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. So, there's a few things going on here and this tweet from Lindsey Graham this morning went after the fact that she graduated from Harvard Law School. Now, the question I would ask in response is what does it take for a black woman to be taken seriously in America. And the simple fact is this is -- like if I were to describe for you a supremely qualified Supreme Court nominee who had served for two years as a federal judge and gone to Harvard twice, I'd say, wow, that's quite impressive. Well, that's John Roberts, the chief justice. She has served for seven years as a federal judge longer than that. And so, yes, it would be wonderful.

And I say this is someone who went to Ivy League schools myself, it would be wonderful to diversify the court. But this black woman nominee is going to face headwinds about her qualifications. And if what it takes to get a black woman on the Supreme Court is someone from the Ivy League bubble, then so be it.

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But I will be the first to say that, of course, we need diversity of backgrounds and experiences, public defenders, private sector attorneys, all of the above, but one thing are the harsh realities of what black people and particularly black female attorneys face in the workplace. So, it is a wonderful thing that she has the credentials she does. She should be celebrated. They should be celebrated. And, frankly, Lindsey Graham having voted for her once already ought to do so again.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and as we note, impeccable credentials at that.

Manu, we have had some pushback over the course of the past few weeks from Republicans, some Republicans, who have suggested that the president had politicized the Supreme Court by suggesting and declaring, actually, from his campaign trail that he would nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court, through other Republican presidents, like President Reagan, had said that he would nominate a woman as well.

That having been said, it was interesting that Mitch McConnell himself said he saw no issue with the president saying he would nominate a black woman and we have just heard from Mitch McConnell. What did he say?

RAJU: Yes, giving a flavor of how Republicans plan to go after this nomination. Now he did say he's fine with nominating a black Supreme Court justice nominee but he didn't indicating he supports this current nominee. In fact, in this statement, he makes very clear the criticism that's coming her way, he said, I understand that Judge Jackson was the favorite choice of far-left dark money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the court itself.

He goes on to say they will conduct an exhaustive or thorough review. He says they will treat nominee fairly unlike past nominations. So, that's how they plan to go after her. Don't expect many Republican votes, if maybe a handful of those three that we mentioned before. Mitch McConnell doesn't seem like he's going to support this nomination. But that's how they plan to go after this nominee, contend that she was pushed by liberal groups seeking to rewrite and overhaul the court.

GOLODRYGA: John Harwood, can you respond to that? On the one hand, maybe it's not surprising to hear from Mitch McConnell some criticism there in describing her as an extremist, but that having been said, she was on the short list and top of that short list for a while now. Why are we just hearing this from him now?

HARWOOD: Well, look, Republicans have a lot of pressure within their party to oppose anything that Joe Biden does. It was significant, as you mentioned, that Mitch McConnell said the other day, he didn't have a problem with President Biden committing to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court.

When I hear Mitch McConnell saying this is the candidate of far-left dark money group, that is a procedural criticism. That is not a substantive criticism of Ketanji Brown Jackson. And I would suspect that Mitch McConnell, as somebody who has other fish to fry in the 2022 midterm elections, will be wary of going too aggressively after Ketanji Brown Jackson.

I think the signal that he sent rebutting his colleagues about the idea of pledging to select a black woman was pretty significant that there will be Republican opposition but it won't be cut-throat Republican opposition that would threaten her nomination.

GOLODRYGA: And we are just learning that President Biden will make those remarks at 2:00 P.M. solidifying that his pick to be the first black woman to sit on the Supreme Court is Ketanji Brown Jackson. That will be at 2:00 P.M. Of course, we'll be taking that live on CNN.

Ariane De Vogue, John Harwood, Manu Raju and Elliot Williams, thank you, as always.

And we'll be right back.

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