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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Is Being Interviewed About The $350M New Military Assistance To Ukraine From The U.S.; E.U. Official "Strongly Condemns" attacks on Civilians; Former Ukrainian President: I Ask The World "Don't Believe Putin"; Protesters Gather Outside Ukrainian Embassy In Moscow; Biden Nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson To Supreme Court; President Biden Considers Removing Russia From S.W.I.F.T. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired February 26, 2022 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): All right, Patrick Snell, thank you so much.

All right. Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me for this special CNN coverage. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta.

Intense battles right now across Ukraine. Let's get you up to date right now. A senior U.S. defense official says more than 250 missiles have been launched from Russian positions at Ukraine as of this morning.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): CNN cameras were rolling moments ago as Russian tanks moved toward the frontlines. Furious fighting is happening in the area of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and sporadic clashes can be seen in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

A security camera catching that moment that a rocket or missile struck an apartment building in the Ukrainian capital just hours ago. Kyiv now extending a strict curfew until Monday.

In a posted video, President Volodymyr Zelensky is vowing to stay and defend the capital, turning down offers from the U.S. and others to evacuate him.

President Biden, authorizing $350 million in security assistance, anti-armor, anti-aircraft systems to aid Ukraine.

But there is also a growing humanitarian crisis. Signs of desperation at Kyiv's train station as civilians tried to escape the carnage. People, pouring into neighboring Poland and Romania by the tens of thousands.

WHITFIELD (on camera): And new at this hour, an E.U. official says he most strongly condemns Russian attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, tweeting, this is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. And call for an immediate end to the attacks. CNN's Arwa Damon is live for us in Poland where this humanitarian crisis is growing.

Arwa, 1000s of Ukrainians have fled their country as still 1000s remain. The U.N. allocating $20 million to the humanitarian efforts. But will that be enough as these attacks continue?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You know, it's hard to tell right now because no one knows exactly what's going to happen or how long they're going to have to leave for.

And it's really jarring to be saying those words standing here in Europe, because they're the exact same words that many of us said when we were watching people fleeing other conflict zones, such as Syria. No one who we have spoken to here, Fredricka can actually comprehend what it is that is happening to them.

And you also have to realize that families are being split up. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are staying behind -- are being told to stay behind.

We were just speaking to a young mother. Her name is Yulia. I think she's actually still here standing right there. She is there with her 2-1/2-year-old and her 7-year-old son. Her husband, she had to say goodbye to him today.

He is inside Ukraine, in their home, waiting to be called up. He doesn't know if he's going to be called up to fight. He doesn't know how to fight. He doesn't know he's going to be called up to try to organize some kind of effort on the ground.

And while we were talking to her, she was smiling. And she said I'm not smiling. She said, I'm smiling to mask my hysteria. She is having to keep herself calm and collected for her children.

Interestingly, her 7-year-old does have a certain grasp on what's happening. He has known what has been taking place in Ukraine since 2014.

This is a woman who actually is from the Donbas area and had to flee that area in 2014.

And she and her son and children, even at that age, are aware of the pressure Ukraine has constantly been coming under from Russia.

But when her little boy asked her, why isn't daddy coming? When am I going to see daddy again? She said, don't worry, he'll be right behind us. The thing is, that's not true. She doesn't know when she's going to see your husband again. She doesn't know when her children are going to see their father again.

And that's what all of these families are going through here right now. You have others who are waiting for their family members. One man who we spoke to, his name is Igor. He is here waiting for his mother- in-law. He lives overseas. His father is inside elderly, he can't make the journey. I can't tell you the number of people who we've spoken to on this side of the border who had to leave elderly family members behind, who they know are stuck in there, who can't flee because they're ill, because as one person was saying, you know my parents can barely walk around their own house, there's no way that they can make this journey.

[12:05:06]

DAMON: People's faces, their expressions are a pure shock. And everyone is really speaking in these hushed voices. It's almost as if they're afraid to raise the level of conversation because that would somehow pierce their consciousness. And they still can't believe that this is real, they don't want to believe that this is real.

All that being said, once people are actually able to arrive here, they are being greeted. A lot of those who you see around us right now are carrying signs, signs for offers of free lodging, signs of locations, that they're shifting people as they come through.

And I have to say, coming through very slowly, to lodging, to food, to warmth. At night, it gets extraordinarily cold. This train journey takes hours now, because of the processing that is happening. You have processing on the Ukrainian side, where they are trying to document everything, maintain a certain measure of, I guess, holding a normal border. But where they're also screening the trains for, again, those men who are aged 18 to 60.

And then on this side, there's a whole other set of processing that takes place too.

So, it's this hour's long, agonizing journey of having to say goodbye to everything that you have known, to try to figure out how to explain this to your children, to try to cope with a level of emotions, of fear, and anxiety, that no one in this population is even remotely accustomed to. And this is absolutely gutting to witness.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. This is agonizing. This is absolutely horrible, Arwa. So, as I look at people who are, you know, behind you, whether they are streaming in or they are standing with their, you know, pieces of luggage or and they're with their family members, and you just described there's this processing taking place.

I cover the Kosovo War, and when there was this refugee crisis, there were a number of tent cities that were erected. I'm not seeing that behind you there. And where do people go? Once they get off the train, and they are being processed, or as you say, you know, there are folks who are looking for the 18 to 60-year-old, man who would have to, you know, return to Ukraine, where are they actually going?

I mean, where is the shelter? Where are they going to put their heads tonight?

DAMON: So, there is a number of different shelter as options. There is hotels that are offering up free lodging, there is large venue spaces that are saying that they're going to be opening up to try to handle the influx, and you have all these civilian volunteers here who are opening up their homes.

They're taking people into their homes, they have signs, there's actually even a couple of young men here who are from Germany, they drove here from Germany, and they're waiting to see if anyone wants to come and get a ride back with them.

And in Germany, they've set up a home a space that people can actually live in. Others are offering uprights to locations that are, you know, still inside Poland, a lot closer. Some of them a few minutes away, some of them a few hours away.

Right now, from what we know is that around 120,000 people in the last three to four days have crossed over into Poland. So, right now we're still in theory, talking about numbers that can be managed.

But if the worst-case scenario unfolds, if some of the numbers that we're hearing from the deputy U.N. commissioner for human rights, for example, saying that up to 5 million people could end up fleeing Ukraine, then, you're going to start seeing tent cities, then you're going to start seeing a disaster or catastrophe.

And what everyone is hoping right now is that somehow this comes to an end, somehow, some sort of rationality prevails, and this completely incomprehensible scenario stops right now before it gets any worse.

WHITFIELD: Extraordinary. Arwa Damon. I mean, in all of that agony and desperation, still, there are those stories of generosity that you just spelled out for many of those who are trying to help, the many 1000s now who have been displaced.

Arwa Damon, thank you so much. We're going to check back with you there in Poland. Please stay safe as well.

All right, more dramatic video now in, to CNN.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): This one, take a look. It's just hard to believe -- I mean, reminiscent of Tiananmen Square. This one showing a Ukrainian citizen, several, in fact, standing in front of a Russian tank, trying to stop its forward movement. And you can hear a voice on the video, saying people are begging the tanks to stop throwing their bicycles even underneath the tank.

This was taken in a town about 100 miles north of the capital of Kyiv. CNN has confirmed the authenticity and location of that video. And you see that man right there, single-handedly trying to stop that tank.

[12:10:11]

WHITFIELD: CNN's Alex Marquardt is live for us in Kyiv. Alex, I mean, this is an extraordinary moment.

WHITFIELD (on camera): I wonder how many times that has been duplicated as people are doing all that they can, ordinary citizens to stop this Russian invasion. ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Tiananmen Square is exactly what I thought of as well, Fredricka, how can -- how can you not?

And I think it says so much about the Ukrainian people and how they are going to react to this Russian invasion. So, that was taken in Bakhmach, to the northeast of Kyiv, about 140 miles. It's near Ukraine second biggest city of Kharkiv, which U.S. officials believe is coming under some of the most significant fire from Russian forces.

Our colleague, Fred Pleitgen is right across the border in Russia. He has seen many salvos of rockets going out and heading in the direction of Kharkiv. And as I said, it does say so much about the Ukrainian spirit. You are seeing people of all ages, from all walks of life, taking up arms to fight against the Russian invasion.

There has been a general mobilization by the Ukrainian military. You heard Arwa just there saying that a family left their father behind. All men, between the ages of 18 and 60 years old had been barred from leaving Ukraine.

There have been many calls for everyone to help in the fight, to the extent that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense asked citizens to get Molotov cocktails ready and to throw them at advancing Russian forces.

So, that is the extent to which they are calling on really every aspect of society to fight against what is an overwhelming Russian force. Some 175,000 forces have gathered on three sides of Russia's -- of Ukraine's borders.

50 percent of those forces, according to the Pentagon, they believe are now inside of Ukraine. There has been a relative low in -- there had been, I should say, a relative low in what we are hearing here in downtown Kyiv that has changed in the past two hours since the sun has started going down Fredricka.

Behind me is the east. And from that direction, we've been hearing a steady series of large booms in the distance. To my right is the north, we've been hearing gunfire coming from that direction. So, this fighting as has been for the past two nights appears to be picking up in the nighttime hours.

Now, the Kremlin said that they had paused their operations on Friday because Ukrainians had given -- giving indications that they planned or wanted to negotiate. Then, they said the Ukrainians reneged on that.

And now, the Russian Ministry of Defense says that they are resuming their operations in all directions. We should note that the Ukrainians are denying that. But this could be what we are seeing now. This uptick in the fighting could be this resumption of Russian operations, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And then, Alex, earlier, we saw that extraordinary video of what appeared to be a missile, something hitting that apartment building. Do we know anything more about -- were there people in that building? What struck that?

MARQUARDT: Yes, that is one of the episodes that is perhaps most worrying to the people of Kyiv right now. Because that rocket, as you can see there, so dramatically hitting the upper storeys of that apartment building. That was in -- within the city limits of Kyiv.

We're told by Ukrainian officials that somehow, no one was hurt or killed, an absolute miracle.

The Ukrainians, of course, blame the Russians. The Russians are saying that it was a Ukrainian anti-aircraft system that caused that. So, each side blaming the other as we've so often heard since this invasion started. But that is extremely worrying. Not just because it is within the city limits, but it is on a residential building.

The Russians have said that they are only targeting military installations and military targets.

And in addition to that incident, we also heard some of the fiercest fighting within Kyiv, just about three miles from here in the early morning hours, again, in the east behind me -- excuse me, in the western part of the city. That was just about three miles away, the Ukrainian military saying that they were taking out a number of Russian military vehicles.

So, now, we have examples of the Russians approaching from the north, south, east, and west, not just in the distance, but also fighting within the city limits. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. All right. Alex Marquardt, thank you so much be safe.

And as we just saw, with our Arwa Damon earlier, people are pouring into neighboring Poland and Romania by the tens of thousands.

[12:15:06]

WHITFIELD: But still there, are many Ukrainians who must commit themselves to staying and fighting, like former President Petro Poroshenko, who I spoke with earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Now, it's a decisive moment for my nation. And every single person make a decision for themselves. The millions of Ukrainian, not only staying here, but they are fighting against Russian aggression with a very high risk to be killed.

And I think that this is normal when all Ukrainian protecting our country, all Ukrainian demonstrating Putin's miscalculation about Blitzkrieg. All Ukrainian is demonstrating that they are fighting against the aggressor.

And when Putin said that Ukrainian will meet Russian troops with the flowers, the only flowers for Russian soldiers is the Molotov cocktail, which was even ordinary Ukrainian preparing for protecting our cities against Russian tank.

So, this is very natural for Ukrainian to protect our nation. And that's why it is so difficult to Putin to fight -- big Russia to fight against absolutely peaceful European country and European nation like Ukraine and Ukrainian.

So, I think that this is a good idea to protect Kyiv. Every person has a -- has a possibility to be afraid. But when you protecting your nation, this is give you a unique opportunity to be above your fear.

And I think that we tried to do our best to be above the fear.

WHITFIELD: And I did hear you say that this is a time for you and everyone to rise above any fears. But do you believe that you are potentially giving up your life today over the next few days to help save your country?

POROSHENKO: Look, I hate the pompous words, because people that don't believe in the pompous words. But if you stay in Kyiv, when it is -- when you have Russian troops around, you should be ready for this tragical development of the situation.

If I'm ready, unfortunately, yes. I hate the idea to be my country occupied. And I think that we should do our best to protect the nation. To protect the nation against Russian aggressor, definitely bring the risk of your own life.

Everybody here, all the young and old people fully understand that we have this risk. Somebody has a choice to go abroad. Somebody had the choice to be the refugee on the some regions of Ukraine.

But many, the biggest part make a decision to take the rifle and to protect the nation. I proud for these people, I proud for this country, and I proud to be Ukrainian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow, unbelievable resolve from the former president of Ukraine, Poroshenko there.

Well, today, the U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken authorized $350 million in new U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, following instructions from the U.S. president.

Congressman Ro Khanna is a Democrat from California and he is a member of the Armed Services and House Oversight Committees. Congressman, so good to see you. I wonder if I could get your reaction to the former President Poroshenko there, and his resolve to you know, if the time is now, when if it comes to that, he is putting his life on the line to help save his country.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Fredricka it was incredibly moving, the resolve of his sense that he may give up his life to protect the freedom of his people. And when I was in Munich, at the Security Conference with Speaker Pelosi, we met the mayor of Kyiv. He's 6'5", he's a former boxer. He said he and his people will fight for Ukraine. The least we can do is provide them with the weapons, so they can make this fight.

WHITFIELD: And now, there is this promised new authorization of $350 million in new U.S. military assistance to Ukraine. How urgently can that be delivered in the form of arsenal for the Ukrainian people?

[12:20:03]

KHANNA: It can be delivered very soon within days, but it's not enough. It's a good start, but they need more weapons. They need anti- aircraft missiles, they need anti-tank missiles, they need the weapons that they -- that can resist the Russians.

You know, you have a situation in Ukraine, Fredricka, where I'm hearing that professors, that software engineers are learning how to pick up a rifle and fight. That population. The Ukrainian people are willing to make this fight. And we need to stand with them not just in principle, but give them the weapons, so they have some chance.

WHITFIELD: Perhaps, last hour, you saw our live pictures of Russian tanks, more of them making their way out of Russia and into Ukraine. You heard our reporter Alex Marquardt, say that Russian troops were arriving from the north, south, and east, and west of Kyiv.

And now, there are no concerns about how quickly Russia can be crippled. President Biden adding sanctions to Putin and his foreign minister yesterday, and that's on top of other sanctions against Putin's inner circle and government and business.

Is it your feeling that these sanctions or even President Biden weighing whether to remove Russia from SWIFT, this banking network will in any way deter, cripple, stop Russia?

KHANNA: Well, we know that Putin is not acting rationally. And based on your reporting. I mean, it's inhumane to see the loss of life, to see families being split apart, to see here the reporting of that 7- year-old boy who doesn't know if his father is going to come with him.

I mean, this is the loss of human life that Putin is imposing and he didn't need to. The president's handling it absolutely, correctly, is escalating the sanctions, I'm confident that he will have the sanctions against the SWIFT system.

But we need more than the United States. And frankly, we need China to also impose sanctions, otherwise, the Russians can get around of that. We need India to condemn Putin's aggression.

So, we have the United States and NATO unified, but we need China and India as well to isolate Russia and bring that pressure on Putin to end this war.

WHITFIELD: Do you feel that India and China will get on board?

KHANNA: Well, they have a decision to make. They have a decision to make about whether they are going to be part of a system of nations that respect the territorial sovereignty of other nations. In India's case whether they're going to stand up against an autocrat. So, I -- I'm hopeful that they will, and I know that the president and secretary of state are doing everything that they can to stand up for principle, the president has done a very good job in getting NATO unified, and our allies with a unified response.

WHITFIELD: All right, Congressman, Ro Khanna, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

KHANNA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still to the come, for the first time ever, NATO says it will deploy its Response Force. We'll take you live to NATO headquarters in Brussels straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:27:27]

WHITFIELD: I'm quoting now. "We will do what it takes to support Ukraine." That promised from NATO's chief as he announced that NATO would deploy its Response Force for the first time ever, in response to the Russian invasion.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): And it comes as the U.S. announced this week that it was ordering 7,000 additional troops to Europe. Bringing the total to 14,000.

WHITFIELD (on camera): Natasha Bertrand is in Brussels, Belgium with the details on the manpower that is building up. Natasha.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER (on camera): Yes. So, during an emergency session yesterday, NATO did decide to activate that Response Force for the first time in its history as part of that collective defense purpose, and a response directly to this Russian aggression that we're seeing, this war that has broken out.

And the reason for that really is to reassure the eastern flank NATO countries that NATO is supporting them. That they have additional forces, equipment -- enough forces and equipment necessary to repel anything that may come their way.

The concern being obviously that an invasion that is so close to their borders could spiral out of control, there could be an escalation. And if anything goes awry, they will be ready. That is what NATO has been saying that they are ready for everything.

And so, this is going to be a deployment of a number of forces for many of the NATO countries, including the United States, the rapid Response Force itself. It's about 40,000 troops strong, but not all of them are going to be deployed right away. We don't know the exact number yet of how many of those -- of those troops are actually going to be stationed in those eastern flank NATO countries.

But, the United States alone, just last week said that they were going to be sending an additional 7,000 troops to support that mission. So, clearly, we're seeing a ramping up here of concern among NATO, among NATO countries, about what we're seeing from Russia. Again, important to remember here that they are not going to be going inside Ukraine itself. Ukrainians, of course, saying that they are fighting this conflict alone, asking for more weapons.

NATO though will be defending their own member states. Zelensky and Ukraine, they are not a member of NATO.

WHITFIELD: All right, Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much. We'll check back with you.

Meantime, anti-war protests are continuing across Russia.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): Independent monitors say almost 2,700 people have been arrested since Thursday, about half of them, in Moscow.

You're looking at some of the images now. The same group says protests have popped up in at least 27 cities.

WHITFIELD (on camera): CNN's Nic Robertson, joining me now live from Moscow, outside the Ukrainian embassy. And Nic, paint the picture for us that, you know, these are Russians who are saying -- who were standing up to Vladimir Putin, saying we don't want to be in this war.

[12:30:02]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (on camera): Yes. Fred, let me just set the scene for you here a little bit.

Flowers that have been left here by protesters protesting against the war. Just across the street here you can see a few policemen, a few police trucks. That's the Ukrainian embassy over there. What has happened here, there's a real cat and mouse going on with the police. Ten minutes ago, if you had come here to us, there were plenty of people lined up here. Then more police trucks came in. Police officers in riot gear got out. They got on their megaphones told the protesters to go away. That way at the end, the other end of the street there, you may be able to see the flashing lights. And what they were doing, it was the riot cops coming out in their gear to arrest people.

You got the floral tributes here, because people want to show their support for the Ukrainians and their anger at the war here. Look at this little toy, this little children's toy has been left here. And on it, the note says, it says against the war. And it's been left by mother, a mother of four. So that's a little child's toy that's been bought here. The team were down here earlier on today and they were talking to people. They -- people were telling them, look, we're afraid even to come here and put flowers here. They'd picked up some yellow and blue flowers, you know, the Ukrainian flag, they picked up those flowers, and they were bringing them here. And they're worried about bringing them here.

Other people, a lot of young people here are very concerned about what President Putin is doing. They're very concerned about what's happening to the people in Ukraine. They don't think that this war is in their name. And they don't believe in it at the moment. The government on the other hand, not only cracking down on these protests, cracking down on independent media, telling them that their access to their audience is going to be restricted if what the government says they continue to spread false information about civilian casualties. They're telling them they can't use words like invasion and attack and war, so the government really trying to control the narrative here.

It's not clear to me if the police saw that we were getting set up to go live and got rid of the crowds that were here a few minutes ago. But that's the image you're left with now is an empty street. It's a cat and mouse game. Protests going on in the city, as you say, across the country, close to 2,700 people arrested in the past three days. And when we say arrested, they're forcefully bundled into the police trucks that are parked across the street here, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Right, a couple things on that. So, yes, I mean, I saw you positioning for your live shot before we actually went on air. So, yes, I think your instinct on that preemptive moving people so that the world doesn't see it by way of our broadcast, which is around the world, number one. And number two, people are protesting at great risk. They know they're going to be arrested to be defiant against Putin and the Kremlin. So then what happens?

ROBERTSON: So let me just spin the camera around here because I'm just -- if you just turn around Lillian (ph), we're just watching some people placing flowers here. And this is what's been happening today, people just coming up quietly ones and twos, placing the flowers, showing their support for the people of Ukraine.

What is going to happen, the Kremlin is clearly working against this becoming a more powerful narrative, the independent narrative being more powerful than their narrative. That's where they're trying to shut down the independent media on this and push their own narrative. What the government isn't doing here is talking to the population about the number of casualties that they're getting in Ukraine.

The British and U.S. both believe that Russia is having a tougher time progressing its forces through Ukraine. The British defense ministry believes that as many as 450 Russian soldiers have been killed. And this is a narrative that isn't being explained here yet to the Russian people. So where does this go? Well, possibly more flowers, possibly more protests, they're not going away at the moment.

It would be silly, though, to overlook the fact that the majority of people at the moment still support the president in this fight in Ukraine. But there's so many young people now, university students who really saw their future in a developing economy, developing forward looking country, they don't see that now. And they're really wondering if they can actually get out to have more productive, more free lives, if you will, outside of Russia. That's one of the pieces of the picture of what's happening here.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson in Moscow, be careful. We'll continue to watch and listen. Thank you so much. All right, so what can we expect next potentially from Vladimir Putin? Let's bring in Richard Burt. He is a -- the former U.S. ambassador to Germany and former chief U.S. negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction talks with the former Soviet Union. He is also board president at Global Zero, so good to see you. So, how are you looking at this right now? What is the potential end game here because this journey is completely unpredictable but also predictably terrible?

[12:35:08]

RICHARD BURT, FMR. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY: Well, Fredricka, first of all, thank you, it's good to see you. You know, I think everyone I think is coming to terms with the fact that the international system is in the process of really rapidly changing. So making predictions is probably pretty dangerous. But certain things I think are becoming clear. One, this is becoming increasingly a dangerous and destabilizing conflict. It was very, very disturbing to me, for example, that Vladimir Putin talked about potential retaliation against anybody who tried to intervene or interfere for their operations in their invasion in Ukraine, that would result in damage worse than anybody had ever experience in history.

That was a clear threat of nuclear escalation. And just as Congressman Ro Khanna was saying to you a few minutes ago, Putin does not seem to be rational here. So, we, for the first time in many years, nuclear weapons are back in the picture. Even prior to the invasion, for example, U.S. intelligence picked up the fact that the Russian forces were exercising for possible nuclear use. So things could very easily here get out of control. And as important as it is, I think, to reinforce our capabilities, we have to be calm, and we have to speak with real credibility.

WHITFIELD: So when you talk about the potential, you know, for any kind of nuclear, you know, assets that Putin might use, when the reports are that Chernobyl was seized by Russian forces. What concerns did you have about that?

BURT: Well, it's difficult to say, as some experts have said, of course, there is this so called sarcophagus in Chernobyl, which was used to stop the radiation that was being emitted into the atmosphere. It could be a military target. It could be a kind of very crude weapon of mass destruction. But what's really I think more broadly important here is it was only 10 or 15 years ago, when people like former Secretary of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, were talking about a nuclear free world.

Barack Obama, when he was president, talked about a Global Zero and nuclear free world. And now Vladimir Putin seems to be moving back -- nuclear weapons back into the center stage. And that's not good for us. And we need to call him out on that.

WHITFIELD: As a former ambassador to Germany, what role do you see Germany, potentially? Or what kind of negotiating advantage might it wield with Russia?

BURT: Well, it has a very important potential role to play because there's probably no other western country that has been as important an economic partner with Russia than Germany. And to Germany, I think, and I think the Germans because of their geographical position, and because they have such a dynamic economy can do a lot to help the Russians build a dynamic economy themselves. But this will be a wakeup call I think for Germany. Germany, given its own very special history in the 20th century, does not want to become a major military power.

But I think increasingly it recognizes that it needs to strengthen its forces. It needs to become one of the leading military powers within the NATO alliance. And I think they're also prepared to sacrifice economically. It was in fact, the new German chancellor, who this week canceled the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Russia. And I think the Germans have shown that there'll be they are prepared to make the necessary economic sacrifices to make Putin pay for this aggression.

WHITFIELD: Global Zero board president and Ambassador Richard Burt, thank you so much. Appreciate your expertise.

BURT: Thank you Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

[12:39:27]

All right across Eastern Europe, the humanitarian crisis is growing worse by the day, as more than 100,000 Ukrainians flee the war. And look at this chilling video of Ukrainians huddled in a shelter in Lviv, singing their country's national anthem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: President Biden made history on Friday by nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the U.S. Supreme Court pick. If confirmed, Judge Jackson will be the first black woman to sit on the highest court. CNN's Eva McKend is on Capitol Hill. So Eva, the selection is drawing both prayers and pushback?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, Senate Democrats Fred are elated all indications that they want to try to get Judge Jackson confirmed by April, by Easter, with lightning speed. President Biden releasing a video just a few hours ago of the moment that he notified this nominee sheet was his choice, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:45:09]

JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Hello?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Judge Jackson? JACKSON: Yes?

BIDEN: This is Joe Biden. How are you?

JACKSON: I am wonderful. How are you, Mr. President?

BIDEN: Well, you're going to be more wonderful. I'd like you to go to the Supreme Court. How about that?

JACKSON: Sir, I would be so honored.

BIDEN: Well, I'm honored to nominate you.

JACKSON: I am just so, so overwhelmed.

BIDEN: Well, you deserve it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So that moment of happiness shared between the President in judge Jackson, maybe not shared by Republicans, they are already pushing back against this Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement saying, Judge Jackson was the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the court itself. A bit of irony there with Senator McConnell talking about dark-money groups.

But if Democrats stick together, if they can remain unified, which is the goal and intention of Senator Schumer, then they can get this nominee over the finish line, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, we know the confirmation process is going to be one to watch but just listening to that call, I mean, you can't help but smile because you hear the genuine surprise on the other end. All right, Eva McKend, thank you so much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:01]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back, President Biden is seriously weighing whether to remove Russia from SWIFT, the high security network that connects thousands of financial institutions around the world. Already a growing number of European Union countries have expressed support for the idea of withdrawing access for Russia.

Joining me now Alexandra Vacroux, she is the executive director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard. Alexandria, it's so good to see you. Thanks for being with us.

ALEXANDRA VACROUX, EXEC. DIR. DAVIS CENTER FOR RUSSIAN & EURASIAN STUDIES, HARVARD UNIV.: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, so help us understand how this works because many of us are hearing about SWIFT for the first time. It's the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It's a secure messaging service to allow 11,000 banks around the world to communicate. But what does it mean? How does it work, especially if Russia were not a part of it? How great a penalty with this be?

VACROUX: So SWIFT is like the social messaging platform that banks use to communicate each other -- with each other. They don't move the money through SWIFT, but they move the information about SWIFT, about the money that's being transferred. So for example, if you're sending money to Paris, SWIFT tells the bank that's getting the money to expect a certain amount of sum from a certain bank.

If you don't have that information flow, you basically can't do international transactions. So it's an extremely serious step, because it would mean that Russia could no longer effectively do international foreign currency exchanges.

WHITFIELD: I see. OK, so now we saw what it did or how it impacted Iran, when it lost access to SWIFT back in 2012 because of its nuclear program, it's not unprecedented then for a country to be cut off from the system.

VACROUX: That's correct. But it's devastating.

WHITFIELD: It's devastating. And in the case of Russia, even though particularly the -- its leader, Vladimir Putin, is known to have his money in so many different locations. If Russia were not to be a part of the SWIFT system, how detrimental might not be?

VACROUX: So it's not a problem for Vladimir Putin himself who probably doesn't need to be transferring money anywhere to stay rich. It's a problem for the country, which is very dependent on export revenues. So the steps that Biden took last -- in past couple days to cut Russia off of use of the dollar was in some ways even more significant than SWIFT, because 80 percent of all global transactions go through the dollar, even if they're between euros and rubles, for example.

So it essentially means that Russia is going to have a very hard time selling any of its oil products, for example, abroad. The initial U.S. sanctions had a carve out for oil and gas, but getting kicked out of SWIFT does not.

WHITFIELD: All right, so that the U.S. is weighing, the President of the United States is weighing whether in -- whether, you know, to exclude Russia, Italy, the U.K., and Germany have also expressed an interest in cutting off Russia. Who ultimately is going to make this decision?

VACROUX: Well, I think the -- they're waiting for Hungary to agree to come on board. And I've heard unconfirmed reports that that has already happened. So if all of those countries agree, SWIFT is a company based in Belgium, and they will basically pull the plug on Russia's account.

WHITFIELD: And if the votes are in, is that something that would happen immediately? VACROUX: Yes, it could happen immediately.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alexandra Vacroux, thank you so much. Appreciate you made us all smarter. Now we know we have a better understanding of how this international money exchange works. I appreciate it.

VACROUX: My pleasure.

[12:54:33]

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval. And you are live the CNN Newsroom as we continue to follow this developments in Ukraine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We also continue to follow developments here at home where we are continuing to see this movement throughout the United States of people standing in solidarity with Ukrainians. And it's really what we're seeing here in the heart of New York City as we stand and look over these live pictures in the heart of Times Square where you see one of these many demonstrations that we have seen the last several days, people standing in solidarity not only with the people of Ukraine, but also calling on Western governments to perhaps do more, putting pressure on Putin to withdraw those troops as we continue to see that conflict.

And certainly what's noteworthy is that we're not just hearing from Ukrainian American voices, but also even from Russian American voices. A few moments ago, I had an opportunity to speak to a 31-year-old New Yorker who's actually was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. And he said for him participating in these kinds of demonstrations and these kinds of rallies it's not just about standing in solidarity with Ukrainians but also with fellow Russians.