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Battle for Kyiv Underway as Russian Troops Close in on Capital; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Says Fate of Country Being Decided Right Now; U.S. President Joe Biden Orders Release up to $350 Million to Support Ukraine; Ordinary Ukrainians Forced to Flee; Active Fighting Now in Streets of Kyiv. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired February 26, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers. I am Michael Holmes, it is 11:00 am and we are following the breaking news on the battle for control of Kyiv.

And residents are waking up to this, an apartment damaged from what was a Russian missile strike. Ukrainian officials sharing this video of people being rescued from the building. Russia acknowledges they're carrying out strikes but claims it's targeting only military infrastructure and not residential buildings.

The president is sharing this defiant message.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Good morning, Ukrainians. Currently, there are a lot of games appearing on the internet, like I am asking our army to put down arms and evacuate.

So I am here. We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country because our weapon is truth. And our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children. And we will defend all of this. That is it. That is all I wanted to tell you. Glory to Ukraine.

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HOLMES (voice-over): Blasts like that lit up the skies of Kyiv overnight. Ukraine says some of the explosions were from operations targeting Russian tanks. Gunfire erupted in the morning hours. Here is how it played out live earlier on CNN while Alex Marquardt was reporting.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Not one but several bursts of gunfire. The reason that you were able to hear it down the line, that we were able to hear it, having just stepped inside, was that it really was quite loud.

That was not small arms fire. That appeared to be some kind of anti aircraft fire. I came out here as soon as we started hearing it and looking out into the sky. You could see the tracer rounds going up.

It is something that I have seen before elsewhere. We have not heard explosions in quite some time. But it is clear that fighting is going on all around this city.

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HOLMES: Now the fighting extends far beyond Kyiv, as we end day three of Russia's invasion launched from three sides of Ukraine. Have a look at the aftermath in the eastern city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border.

And Ukrainian troops have been battling Russians in Kherson in the south. This is just in from France.

President Emmanuel Macron, warning the world should not expect, quote, "this brutality to end soon." He says the war in Ukraine will last and all the crises that come with it will have lasting consequences.

CNN has correspondents all around the world to bring you the latest news. Anna Stewart is in London and Scott McLean is on the Polish side of the border. And CNN contributor Jill Dougherty has details from Moscow.

Fred Pleitgen joins me now from Belgorod, where Russian troops have been crossing into Ukraine. Jasmine Wright is covering White House reaction from Washington.

Fred, let's begin with you, what's going on where you are?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is still a lot of action here at the final checkpoint before the Kharkiv front line. You can see it's around 200 or 300 meters that way.

We have actually been able to get closer to that checkpoint. However, the Russians are saying they want us stand further away. What we do have here on the ground is a lot of movement of military vehicles. They've been going past us the entire morning we have been here.

We have seen a lot of infantry fighting vehicles going toward Kharkiv. There is a lot of Russian armor going that way. We also have seen a few ambulances race down. Whether or not that means Russians may be taking casualties at the front line at this point in time, we cannot say.

But that's one of the observations that we have been making. We have seen some ambulances going down there. Also a lot of soldiers also are now being moved into that area as well.

[04:05:00] PLEITGEN: We saw a lot of armored vehicles and a lot of personnel and a lot of support vehicle going toward the front line. On top of that, you still have the big military operation from the air. We are hearing jets from the sky regularly and also rocket fire as well, Michael.

HOLMES: Fred, before I let you go, have you been able to interact with the Russian forces or anyone, to get a sense of their morale, how they are feeling going in?

PLEITGEN: It is impossible to say. The Russian forces are not speaking to us. It looks as though they understand they are in the beginning stages of an operation right now.

The Russian forces that are around here in the region, this is the area around the Kharkiv front line, they seem to be positioned to escalate further. If you go around the villages, around the area here, you'll find Russian forces.

There were one small village where there were Howitzers standing in the middle of the street and the street was almost too small to even take that. It certainly seems to us there are enough Russian forces here to drastically further escalate the situation, should they run into big problems as they move forward into Ukrainian territory, at least here on the Kharkiv front line.

We see a lot of soldiers and trucks and infantry fighting vehicles still here on the Russian side but could be brought over toward the front line at any point in time.

HOLMES: Great reporting, good to get insights from where you are, Fred.

Jasmine at the White House, what does the White House know as it is monitoring what's happening in Kyiv in the overnight hours?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president is getting regular updates and staying in close touch with his national security team as he's at home in Delaware.

No doubt they are watching the developments happening overnight and looking at it with a lot of concern. We know over the past few weeks, they issued those grave and intensifying warnings about what could happen in Ukraine.

We are seeing some of those predictions that were created because of that U.S. intelligence really come into focus here. Officials, of course, are worried about Ukraine and the stability of the government and of course the Ukrainian people but also worried about President Zelensky, as he says he stays in Ukraine.

Now we know President Zelensky and President Biden had a phone call today, about 40 minutes. After it was done and in the readout, they said that President Biden commended the Ukrainian people for fighting for their country and also spoke to President Zelensky about defensive assistance and support. And after that phone call we learned, a few hours ago, that President

Biden instructed the State Department to release up to $350 million for defensive assistance for Ukraine, really trying to up that support for Ukraine as it fights for its sovereignty.

It is a third payment trying to make sure Ukraine has enough to get through these really intense times. Going forward, we know the president will have a call in the morning with his national security team, with the vice president, really trying to get updates on what's happening on the ground as these are really intense moments the president is trying to show real strength in.

HOLMES: All right, Jasmine Wright, our thanks to you there in Washington, D.C.; Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much for your reporting as well.

Russia's media looks very different from most new coverage around the world. Jill Dougherty has details for us in Moscow.

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JILL DOUGHERTY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AND WILSON CENTER: At the very same time that CNN and other Western media were showing the attacks in Kyiv, Russian TV was not showing live coverage from Kyiv.

In fact, it was showing pre-taped reports, some of them very dramatic, showing reporters in flak jackets standing in front of tanks -- but coming instead from that breakaway region in the eastern part of Ukraine, the Donbas region, where those two breakaway republics that were recognized officially this week by Russia are located.

This is all part of the messaging from the Russian government on state TV, constantly showing the people in those locations, claiming that they are the victims of genocide, that they are being attacked by the Ukrainian government.

The Ukrainian government, of course, denying that. But it is an attempt to justify the steps that the Russians are taking now to remove that government which they argue is illegitimate.

And also another piece of really dramatic video today and that was President Putin.

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DOUGHERTY: He was directly addressing Ukraine's military, urging them to turn against their leaders, saying that you should take power in your hands and also calling the government in Kyiv terrorists, drug addicts and neo-Nazis.

Again, another way of demeaning and trying to give the impression not only to the people of Russia but to the world that the attack that they are carrying out in Kyiv is justified -- Jill Dougherty, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Ukraine considering a proposal to hold talks with Russia according to an adviser to President Zelensky.

What shape would they take if they were to go ahead?

Our next guest may have a clue. Vera Michlin-Shapir is the author of "Fluid Russia: Between the Global and National in the Post-Soviet Era," and is a visiting research fellow at the King's Center for Strategic Communication in London, where she joins us now.

It is great to have you on. Talk about the potential for talks between Russia and Ukraine if they happen -- and that's still a big if.

Will Volodymyr Zelensky's removal be at the top of Putin's list of demands?

What's your read?

DR. VERA MICHLIN-SHAPIR, RUSSIA EXPERT: Hello and good morning. It is a big if whether these talks will happen. I think that the talks, how they will happen and what the outcome is very much determined by what's actually happening militarily on the ground.

We are seeing the Russians moved in and they may have thought this would be easier than it sort of panned out for them. They view limited force. They can use more force to establish themselves militarily.

But everything they did in the beginning did not seem to break the Ukrainians. That brings us to the kind of point of negotiations. For the Ukrainians, they understand the Russians can bring in more force in.

They can go neighborhood by neighborhood and wear down Kyiv and Kharkiv. But if Ukrainians can resist for Russians to understand this will be difficult, then they can come to these negotiations from a much better position and hence the military assistance of Ukraine is so crucial at this point.

HOLMES: I wanted to tap into your expertise to ask you this.

Do you think post Soviet states, which have moved into recent years toward the West, would be justified in fearing fallout from all of this, on Putin's radar next?

MICHLIN-SHAPIR: This is definitely the direction that we are already seeing, we see this movement in Moldova and kind of unhappy movements in Kazakhstan and in Armenia, all of this is appearing now.

Unfortunately, we hear very senior strategic thinkers from Russia, saying this is the end of the post-Soviet era. So this is always obviously very concerning. And if we are talking about creating unity, I think down this line-- and we are still in the beginning of the fighting in Ukraine, we still don't know what's happening moving forward.

But, yes, I envision it will create a problem for the post-Soviet states, although there is also this war, this war that was, until recently unthinkable, is also creating fear and spreading fear among these states. In Georgia, their leadership said they that are not putting sanctions against Russia although they are condemning the war.

So it is still shifting but my prediction is it will not work well for the Russians in the former Soviet states.

HOLMES: Right, I want to ask you this, too. When it comes to Putin's reasoning for war, he has frankly twisted history and he made some incredible allegations of genocide and Nazis -- and bear in mind that the president is Jewish-- what do you make how he justified this?

MICHLIN-SHAPIR: This is a very good example of how disinformation works. You take certain facts that may be true from history and he twists them so that he creates such a fictional and twisted and malicious narrative about a country that's actually really close to the Russians, a nation that's so close culturally.

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MICHLIN-SHAPIR: But the things that we have to understand, that this was created and this narrative that was created over the past couple of weeks didn't just spring out of nowhere. There were articles by Putin, creating this narrative.

And what this narrative is there to do?

It's sort of to dissuade Russians or veil the truth from the Russians, the truth that is clear as the light of day, that Putin is taking them to war with a friendly, neighborly and brotherly nation to them.

HOLMES: And before we go, how would you interpret Putin's view of Russia's national identity in the context of this conflict?

MICHLIN-SHAPIR: So I think Putin is actually fighting strong on the current in his own society. The Russian society, you look at how young Russians think and speak. They're moving in the direction of convergence with global values.

And he is a man of a different generation. He build his whole regime on resisting this trend. He twisted with very strong -- sort of comparing 20 years of disinformation about what's happened in the 1990s. He twisted it.

So Russia thinks he actually can bring them some kind of stability and security. But he's fighting, in my opinion, this is a lost cause. What he's doing is he's saying he's bringing back some sort of security for Russian identity, for Russians to feel great again.

But what he's doing is he's taking them to this war, trying to hide it with all this disinformation. But at the end of the day, these currents are stronger than him.

HOLMES: Fascinating insight. Vera Michlin-Shapir, really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks.

MICHLIN-SHAPIR: Thank you.

HOLMES: OK. When we come back on the program, fleeing the fighting: thousands leave Ukraine, heading to safety in Poland and elsewhere. The fears and the open arms that's waiting for them, when we come back.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we are afraid. My husband is still there. We'll fight, even if Europe doesn't help us.

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HOLMES (voice-over): Chaos in Kyiv, as thousands upon thousands of people try to flee the invasion of Ukraine. People clambering aboard trains and you can hear shots being fired in the air, trying to maintain order.

And these satellite images showing long lines of traffic trying to cross the border into Romania, 4 miles long; at the Polish border it was 37 kilometers. The country's defense minister of Romania says they expect half a million refugees from Ukraine.

Let's have a look at the line of traffic trying to get into Poland, many people deciding it may be easier to just get out of their cars and walk. The irony, few, if any of them, want to leave their home country at all.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have been here for a long time, maybe six or seven hours, maybe. But it is crazy. It is crazy traffic. And I don't know how to leave my native country. Actually I don't want to leave my native country. But because of the invaders, I must leave it as fast as possible.

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HOLMES: The U.N. telling us the last hour, some 120,000 people have fled Ukraine already. Many of them heading to Poland and at least 29,000 on Thursday alone. And that number is growing by the hour. Scott McLean is at a train station on the Polish side of the border.

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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are tired, they are exhausted and, for many people in this train station, they have no idea where they are going to be sleeping tonight or the next couple of nights. We are at the train station about 30 minutes or so inside the border.

And a train from Kyiv has just arrived here and people trying to figure out where to go from here. Some people are holding up signs, offering rides to different parts of Poland.

There is also a lot of volunteers here handing out food, handing out water. They are also trying to link them up with places to stay. Sometimes, it is maybe a school gymnasium they might be staying in. In other cases, it is families who have actually offered to take in women and children as well.

Now the Ukrainian government is not allowing men between 18 and 60 out of the country; though, we have run into some here. We spoke to one man in his 40s earlier today, who described having to convince the border guards to try to let him across, which he managed to do.

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MCLEAN: He also describes the chaos of getting onto that train and the stampede of people without tickets but desperate to get out of the country.

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SERGEI ZALANKOV, UKRAINIAN EVACUEE: Most people -- they just didn't have the tickets, so they just stormed the train. I mean, it was almost like a stampede. People were, like, trying to get inside no matter what. Nobody was actually checking tickets because I mean, obviously, most people didn't have any tickets.

MCLEAN: It was chaos?

ZALANKOV: It was chaos. It was chaos. It was a lot of people, like, pushing around. But I mean, people run to escape, to run for their lives. So I don't blame them.

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MCLEAN: We have also found Ukrainian men here living Poland waiting at this train station for their loved ones to arrive, unable to go back themselves. I spoke to one earlier today, who was waiting for his family to arrive. And I asked him whether he was willing to go back to Ukraine.

And he said, yes, if the situation worsens -- not if it gets better but if it gets worse -- he says he is willing to join the military and willing to fight and die for his country if it comes to that -- Scott McLean, CNN, in Poland.

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HOLMES: Now I spoke to Kelly Clements, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees. She's shared with us how the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is becoming worse by the hour. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY CLEMENTS, DEPUTY, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: We now see over 120,000 people that have gone to all of the neighboring countries. And I have to say the reception they're receiving from local communities, from local authorities, it's tremendous.

But it's a dynamic situation. It's -- we're really quite devastated obviously with what's to come. And we would say that up to 4 million people could actually cross borders if things continue to deteriorate, which they have until now.

HOLMES: These are staggering numbers, just horrible. We're here in western Ukraine. We have seen people pouring into here from Kyiv and other parts of the country.

Right now, we were told last night, there is a 37 kilometer long line of vehicles at the Polish border and it's not moving very fast, just people getting out in a safe, orderly way.

Could itself be a problem if it isn't already, right?

CLEMENTS: Yes. And there are queues at other border crossings as well. We've got people in country looking at those situations. There are a large number that have crossed into Moldova but many more to follow. And so far the borders are open. This is something that's tremendously important in a dynamic situation like this.

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HOLMES: Now again, if you would like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of the very basic things, shelter, food and water, go to cnn.com/impact. You can find resources there and several ways you can help if you so wish.

Ordinary Ukrainians take up arms, ready to fight the Russians. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, we talk to one Ukrainian ready for battle and find out why he says Vladimir Putin will not win. That's coming up.

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HOLMES (voice-over): Russian forces keeping up their barrage on the city of Kyiv overnight. The invasion moving into the streets of the capital as Ukraine's military holding back advancing troops in multiple locations.

Also images showing this apartment building being damaged, an impact some 10 stories up. The mayor said emergency services were at the scene. The extent of casualties is not yet known.

In a statement, the Russian military claims they are not targeting residential area.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Peter Zalmayev is the director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative. Taras Berezovets is a political analyst. They are near Kyiv and they join me.

Now, Peter, I'm going to start with you because I had the most extraordinary conversation with you. I've interviewed you numerous times over the course of the buildup to this conflict.

There you were, driving out of the city, on the phone with your family and saying to me, "I'm going to go back and fight."

Bring me up to date on what has happened since then.

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PETER ZALMAYEV, DIRECTOR, EURASIA DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE: We had to smuggle our families out of Kyiv. We had a note of warning, a very urgent warning that our lives were in danger for a variety of reasons.

So we finally were able yesterday to get our folks to safety. We're now heading back to Kyiv. There's fighting around the city, around the perimeters. They're trying to surround the city. We're trying to find out which routes we can take to reach the capital and join up with resistance there.

But we witnessed and it's important to know, the entire country -- and we haven't seen anything like this since 1940s -- has risen up. You have kids. You have teenagers. You have old men. You have grandmothers, arming themselves in units of territorial defense, which simply means that Vladimir Putin shall not pass.

HOLMES: And Taras, I didn't realize you were in the same position until just now.

What are your plans?

TARAS BEREZOVETS, UKRAINIAN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, like Peter said, we're heading back to Kyiv. Whatever happens, Putin is not going to win. We see it as putting forward -- invading our country from all directions.

They will try and use his control over our capital, Kyiv, using every inhuman technique. Well, everybody in the world should understand, Putin is a murderer. Yesterday, he gave an order to start a rocket launch attack against orphanage near Kyiv, effectively killing several kids.

I think it's just the right time for the whole world to act, act now. Save Ukraine now, because we see the only thing which Putin understands is force.

And according to Ukrainian authorities, the Russian military forces, for the last two days, 3,500 people killed. And we see that Ukrainian armed forces have been very effective in repelling Putin's attack against Ukrainian cities. Not a single Ukrainian big city has been captured so far.

HOLMES: Just to explain, last night the president made it clear that this was a very dire moment and that everything was on the line. We're hearing now from the government that they have held back the Russian advances around the city.

What do you think is going to happen now?

Peter, let's go to you.

ZALMAYEV: Well, it's too soon to predict obviously. Ukraine is facing the world's second largest army which has shown, as Taras has said, that it will not stop at anything. It's already committed in plain view over the last two days, it has committed a whole series of war crimes.

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ZALMAYEV: That is enough probably to send the whole gang, Putin and his company of buddies and cronies, to The Hague and then to prison for life. It's too soon to tell.

But it's obvious to all military experts -- the Pentagon is firming that blitzkrieg, the short war of shock and awe, has completely failed. Putin is getting his face kicked in, his nose kicked. You know, he's getting bloodied, like he didn't expect this kind of resistance.

His speech yesterday, appealing to Ukrainian armed forces, telling them to, you know, give up on their drug-addicted president and rise up, shows, first of all, desperation, shows that he's desperate, shows that he's also detached from reality. He's honestly thinking that Ukrainians wait to be liberated by the Russians.

He has another thing coming. Last eight years, thanks to Vladimir Putin, time and again -- first it was in 2014 and now the second time it's today, that Ukrainians are realizing they are a nation to reckon with.

And the national identity flowering is actually very much due to Vladimir Putin. So Ukrainians have a lot to thank him for.

HOLMES: Yes, and, Taras, to that point, let's say the worst happens and the government falls. I was here in 2014 at the Maidan. I was then in Crimea when the Russians came in down there.

Do you think that Vladimir Putin, even if he puts in a puppet government, do you think he realizes what the mood of the Ukrainian people is right now?

They have already thrown out two pro-Moscow presidents.

Does he think that another one would do any better?

BEREZOVETS: You know, Michael, to put it bluntly, I don't care and I think all Ukrainians don't care what Putin thinks of our country, of our nation.

Putin, like I said, he's a murderer. And he effectively turned Russia into North Korea for the last two days. And Russians as a nation will pay a huge price for this. I'm absolutely sure of that.

Whatever happens, Ukrainians are not going to surrender. Even if, at some point, we're going to lose some parts of our (INAUDIBLE) -- and it looks very much like we might so -- it doesn't change anything for us. This is our country and this is our homeland.

Peter was originally born in Donetsk.

(CROSSTALK)

BEREZOVETS: Both of them are Russian speaking (INAUDIBLE) in Crimea. And we both have had to leave our cities in 2014. But we're not going to leave anymore. This is our country. This is our capital. And Vladimir Putin is not going to take control over it, whatever happens. He will pay a huge price for this.

And I'm pretty sure that Russian people actually, they have to be (INAUDIBLE) with the president. If they are not going to protest against Putin's regime, they have to face the fact that Russia should be going under the severe sanctions.

And I'm asking again, U.S. and European politicians, act now. Be sure that Ukraine is not going to surrender. But we need your help. We need your assistance now.

ZALMAYEV: Michael, with your permission, I've coordinated with my colleagues, Ukrainian Americans, Ukrainians, a very short list of what can and should be done. Obviously SWIFT; goes without saying, SWIFT should be turned off for Russia. And already Macron of France, the French president; Italy is onboard.

The only recalcitrant country is Germany. Germany has to be brought on board very quickly. All assets belonging to Russian oligarchs should be seized immediately.

The Russian sovereign wealth fund, which is $650 billion, keep in mind that much of it sits on the ledgers of three major banks, Central European Bank, Bank of England and U.S. Federal Reserve. That money should be frozen.

In fact, it could then be used to pay for Ukrainian resistance, you know.

Finally, Representative Kinzinger in Congress yesterday was discussing the possibility of closing Ukraine's sovereign airspace. That is something that should also be considered. Folks, don't make any mistake about this. This is our credibility, the

world's credibility, civilization's credibility on the line.

HOLMES: We are almost literally out of time, so, very quickly, if you will, Peter and Taras, both of you, you are going back to fight.

Are you willing to die?

BEREZOVETS: I think, of course, not. Nobody is going to die. But say it to Ukrainian heroes (ph).

[04:40:00]

BEREZOVETS: Eleven Ukrainian sailors, who rejected to surrender to Putin's navy on the Ukrainian island. And all of them died. But still Putin is going to lose in this battle with democracy, in his battle with Ukraine.

ZALMAYEV: Glory to Ukraine, folks. Thank you for your support.

HOLMES: Peter and Taras, thank you so much for your time. I admire your courage and your patriotism. And Godspeed. Thank you.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I am Kim Brunhuber live in CNN Center in Atlanta. The fate of Ukraine's capital hangs in the balance, as Russian forces reach the streets of Kyiv.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Russia says it conducted cruise missile strikes overnight but said it did not hit civilian targets. This after a barrage of explosions rocked Kyiv and Ukraine says active fighting have reached the city streets.

President Zelensky says Ukrainians are not putting down their arms. He is urging the E.U. to decide whether Ukraine will become a member.

Meanwhile, this building was struck Saturday morning. The city's mayor says emergency services were at the scene but the extent of casualties not known.

In France, president Emmanuel Macron is predicting the war in Ukraine will last and lead to other crises that'll have lasting consequences.

[04:45:00]

BRUNHUBER: Now our Fred Pleitgen joins me from Belgorod region of Russia, where Russian troops have been crossing into Ukraine. You have literally watching them as they have been crossing the

border. Tell us more.

PLEITGEN: We're seeing a lot of movement this morning. I want to get out of your way in a second, you can see back there in the distance, the final check point that the Russians have on the way to Kharkiv.

If you go that way, that's the way to Kharkiv. This morning a lot of Russian armory convoys moving in that direction and some of them coming out of there as well. It seems the Russians are rotating troops through that area, moving some in and some out, obviously to keep that military campaign going.

A few minutes ago, we were standing here, there was a massive convoy with dozens of vehicles -- we counted around 10 or 12 Howitzers that went past here as well, moving along the area going to the front line.

So we see a lot of military movement here and into and also out of the area. This is really a very active front line here so that in that battlefield of Kharkiv.

It is difficult to say whether things are going well for the Russian military. It's difficult to say that from our position right here whether or not that's the case. We certainly do see a lot of movement here in the Belgorod region.

If the Russians want to, they can further escalate their military campaign and move more military equipment toward that front line. It seems they do have a lot of gear at the ready in this region, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Appreciate the reporting, Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

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HOLMES (voice-over): The Russian military has been relentless in its offensive on Ukraine's capital. Sirens wailing there in Kyiv, following a night of clashes. Have a look at this apartment building, for instance, struck by either a missile or a rocket, the large impact some 10 floors off the ground.

Emergency services were at the scene; the extent of casualties are not yet known, however. Russia's ministry of defense claims its strikes were not targeting residential areas.

As Russian troops reach the capital, they also face strong opposition in southern Ukraine.

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HOLMES (voice-over): This is happening near the city of Kherson, the site of a key bridge connecting Russian held areas with the rest of Ukraine. A short time ago a CNN crew said there is intense shelling in the area and the bridge was enveloped with smoke. They saw what appeared to be armored vehicles crossing over to the Ukrainian side.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh went to the area earlier. We want to warn you, some of the images are graphic and may be disturbing.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: For a moment, this was a bridge too far for Vladimir Putin. As we arrived in the town of Kherson, just before dusk on Thursday, the fighting had crossed over to our side of the river, meaning Russian tanks were in these sleepy streets.

But the night brought no rest; jets flying low, terrifying locals; airstrikes. Here, a mother's bedtime duty is to switch out the lights, not to calm her kids but to protect them from the Kremlin's jets overhead.

The boys are noisy but the girls quiet.

"It's safer here than on the street," says Lena.

Ruslan jumps in.

"They'll kill us all," he says.

Moscow's games scar here.

"I did hear blasts but I was not afraid. I heard a tank," he says.

But by dawn, it was a case of the Russians are coming but also maybe not. Ukrainian forces had reclaimed the bridge but not without a cost. I asked Viktor (ph) if the Russians would move back.

VIKTOR (PH): Yes, Russians no fall away, Russians about 3,000 meters.

WALSH (voice-over): Locals picked through the wreckage for ammunition.

WALSH: It's strange to see civilians picking up leftover armor from vehicles here. It just shows you how many people are involved now on a local level in this war effort.

He's doing it again. They're stopping everywhere to pick up whatever they can.

WALSH (voice-over): It's unclear if the bodies here were discarded because they were Russians or because there were just too many. The Ukrainian military you can see here is the bit that was pushed

back. The defenders still holding this bridge stayed hidden, waving our cameras away from their positions. On the bridge, the living surreally passing the dead.

WALSH: OK, I gotcha.

He's saying the Russians are on the other side of the bridge. But you can't see them but they aren't disturbing civilians.

WALSH (voice-over): Anyone who wants to run Ukraine needs this tortured piece of concrete.

WALSH: This is the Dnipro River, which basically cuts Ukraine in two. The side here, which connects to Russia, and this side, which connects to Europe, a vital piece of Ukraine to fight over and has been obviously very intense here in the past days.

WALSH (voice-over): There are no winners here, just holes that will need filling in and shreds of lives that need collecting.

[04:55:00]

WALSH (voice-over): Vladimir (ph) is here helping himself to a hot dog. The other Vladimir, Putin, wants to steal lives here holed (ph) for his wider vision of empire restored.

For the people in this town, it means afternoons with the noise of rockets landing in the streets.

But at dusk, the balance of power changed again, shells landed around Ukrainian positions and, it seemed, near houses. Ambulances unable to get in. Then came this noise, the sound of an attack helicopter.

Acute violence that seems to have led the bridge to change hands again. Minutes later, local officials said the city's defenses had fallen. But victories here are laden with loss and so bitter in the mouth -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kherson, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The sporting world is also condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and that includes Russian athletes, like tennis player Andrey Rublev. After his match on in Dubai on Friday, he had this message to everyone, writing on the camera lens, "No war please."

And the world of international football is also coming out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war has prompted UEFA to pull the college final from St. Petersburg.

I am Michael Holmes in Lviv, Ukraine. We continue on "NEW DAY," with Boris Sanchez and Christi Paul after the break. You are watching CNN.