Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Ukrainians Hold Capital Kyiv Despite Russian Onslaught; Putin Nuclear Deterrent On High Alert; Anti-war Protests All Across Russia; U.S. And E.U Allies To Expel Russia From SWIFT International Banking System; Putin's Absurd Claims Of Nazism And Genocide Against Ukrainian Leaders; SAG Awards Underway In Santa Monica, California. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 27, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. We begin with breaking news this hour. Russian forces have taken over a southern Ukrainian town with a naval base and home to about 100,000 people. That's according to the town's mayor. This disturbing development coming as Ukraine says 352 civilians have been killed since the invasion began, at least 14 of them children. Still, the Ukrainian people continue to hold their ground in major cities.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

That was the dramatic scene earlier in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv. The commander of Ukrainian forces there says dozen of Russian troops have surrendered. We also saw incredible video from the outskirts of Kyiv where Ukrainian forces destroyed Russian armored personnel carriers and other vehicles. On Monday, Ukraine and Russia will meet for talks at the Belarus border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translation): I will say this frankly, as always, I don't really believe in the result of this meeting, but let them try so then later on no citizen of Ukraine would have any doubt that I, the president, did not try to stop the war when I had a chance, small as it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Russia's Vladimir Putin has put his country's deterrence forces which includes nuclear weapons on high alert. The move has been condemned by the White House and NATAO secretary general. Putin is also facing a rare display of resistance at home. Look at this. Anti- war protesters risked their safety here in St. Petersburg. You can see the police roughing up people on the streets in St. Petersburg.

It's one of many protests across the country as Russian authorities have detained nearly 6,000 people for protesting the invasion. You can see the police there roughing up women, elderly people, teenagers, whoever they can put their hands on.

Let's begin this hour with CNN's Matthew Chance in Kyiv. Matthew, I understand you're hearing some air raid sirens there. What's the latest?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. Here in Kyiv, the air raid sirens have just (inaudible) stopped of course as is their way and I haven't heard any explosions that have -- that have followed them yet, but that doesn't mean the city isn't potentially in for more strikes.

We've seen fighting elsewhere, of course, as well and Russian advance elsewhere. The southern town, the port city of Berdiansk, which is on the Sea of Azov which is a stretch of water between Ukraine and Russia. It's very strategic, very important. There's a naval base in that town and 100,000 people. That is now been moved into by Russian forces.

The mayor of Berdiansk saying that he was told by the Russian forces that moved in that all the administrative buildings were now under Russian control. That's a significant development in the south of the country. In the north near the Russian border, the city of Kharkiv, you saw those pictures that showed just how ferocious the Ukrainian resistance is.

This is the second biggest city in Ukraine and Russian forces have been making a concerted effort to take it over, but they have not succeeded at this stage. There is fierce fighting on the streets of that city as the two sides battle for control of Ukraine's second biggest city, then in Kyiv, of course, forces of Russia all, you know, not all the way around it, but in significant places around it.

And these appalling scenes that have come to us from the west of the city, west of Kyiv, of a column of Russian armored vehicles absolutely devastated. There's no sign of any of the people who were inside these vehicles, the Russians who were inside, but all of them have been turned into twisted metal on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. One voice on the social media video that's come to us from there saying you came to our country -- I'm slightly paraphrasing him -- you came to our country, now go to hell and also swearing a lot as well.

And so, it just gives you a sense of how much resistance there is across the country to this Russian invasion. Now, it's not necessarily, you know, going to be sustainable because tomorrow there are talks about what will happen next, talks on the border between Ukraine and Belarus, between the Russians and the Ukrainians. Are they peace talks? Is it an ultimatum that the Russians are going to be giving the Ukrainians?

All I can say is that the fact is that the Russian invasion so far seems to have been somewhat underpowered.

[17:04:58]

It doesn't seem to have, you know, experienced or got achieved the strategic objectives that Moscow perhaps wanted to achieve in this timeframe. So, is Putin going to back down or is he going to re-double his force to attack this country?

ACOSTA: Right now, I mean, Putin may be buying some time with these talks. You know, one question that I have for you is, this is going back to this dramatic footage we were just showing a few moments ago in Kharkiv. You see these Ukrainian defense forces. They have guns. They have cigarettes. They look professional.

I think folks here in the United States, other parts of the world, might be under the mistaken illusion that perhaps, you know, all the Ukrainians have are those Molotov cocktails we've seen videos of over and over and over again. Some of these Ukrainian soldiers look like they are ready to fight, they're motivated and they are well-armed.

CHANCE: I think some of them -- I think they're increasing well-armed. I mean, look, I mean, I spent a bit of time with the civil defense forces, the Territorial Defense as they call them here in Kyiv. And you're right, they do have Molotov cocktails because the local residents are making the Molotov cocktails for them and giving them to them saying use these, we made them. Hit the Russian tanks.

They've been given weapons, AK-47, other assault rifles, by the Ukrainian authorities. But we are seeing as well an influx of more and more weaponry from other European countries. Sweden for instance gave 5,000 anti-tank missiles today (inaudible) was giving these missiles to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.

And so, we are sort of witnessing a situation where a lot of weapons from western countries, sophisticated weaponry that can really hit the Russians hard does seem to be coming into the country. This is being pledged to come in. I don't know if they've actually arrived, but you know, there is a decision that has been made in western capitals clearly to arm the Ukrainian forces as much as they can there.

ACOSTA: All right, Matthew Chance, the battle continues. We'll get back to you if things heat up where you are. Thanks so much for that report. Let's go now to CNN's Jill Dougherty in Moscow. Jill, I want to ask you about this alarming order. It seems detached from reality from Vladimir Putin, for Russian deterrent forces to be on high alert, nuclear forces to be on high alert. What is going on? It just seems so strange to hear that kind of talk at this stage or at any stage quite honestly?

JIL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It is kind of frightening, but you know, he's been moving in that direction all week. He's been making the case that, you know, Ukraine is being used by NATO as a weapon against Russia and that there is danger that the Ukrainians could develop a nuclear weapon. He said that NATO forces moving closer could deploy nuclear weapons.

So, I think he's been building the case. And this, and if you're watching, listening carefully, maybe you could predict that he would come to this. It's simply a symbol and it is a direct threat. There's no question. And so, the way he justified it, though, he said that there is aggressive -- there are aggressive statements by NATO and then there are the sanctions. And the sanctions as we know, have been very, very serious coming from

the United States and from Europe. So, the White House did respond, but in a much more measured fashion saying that this is a manufactured threat that actually does not exist. And as far as we know, they are not changing the stance of the U.S. military posture.

Then, we've also had something, I think, also significant from the Russian military today in a briefing by the military. Every day they give one. And today for the first time they actually admitted that there have been members of the military who have been killed and wounded in action. They didn't give any numbers, but they claim that it is far fewer than the Ukrainians are suffering.

And then, Jim, just another, you know, kind of warring statement coming from the previous president, Dmitry Medvedev, who came out and said, you know, why do we need diplomacy anymore? He said, you might as well padlock the embassies and we can look at each other through, as he put it, binoculars and gun sites.

So there's very much the feeling -- I would say, you know, the rhetoric is really, really hot right now. It could indicate that there is a degree of concern in the Kremlin that this is not going the way that they expected.

ACOSTA: And I know its cold in Moscow, Jill, but I suppose they can open the window and see some of these protests on the streets outside of the Kremlin or perhaps just walk around the corner and bump into them.

[17:10:02]

People leaving flowers. People leaving Ukrainian flags. This -- I find that to be quite stunning to see something like that in the Russian capital. In St. Petersburg, they locked arms and were chanting and police had to drag them off the street. They're dragging grandmothers and teenagers and so on off the street there in St. Petersburg. It's just remarkable.

DOUGHERTY: Yes. And it is pretty brutal, you know. And they made it clear, I think the police have made it clear that they don't want this to get out of hand although it is growing and there are numbers. There are significant numbers now, some 5,000 people have been arrested across Russia, and they don't want this to be seen.

They've been trying to keep -- to tamp down a lot of information about the war, certainly on television. But you know, a lot of -- if you look at that video, the younger people are not really watching television. There actually are studies showing that many young people don't even have televisions.

They're getting their information from the internet and from other sources that provide, you know, not the propaganda that is coming from the state media so they have a very different viewpoint and more are willing to go on to the streets and say as -- they have this phrase, no to war. And you can see it popping up in a lot of different places, including social media. ACOSTA: Welcome to the 21st century, Vladimir Putin. All right, Jill

Dougherty, thank you very much for that report. Joining me now is legendary Russian chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. He's also the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and Renew Democracy Initiative. Garry, we hear the chess analogy a lot in international conflicts. Obviously, it doesn't always apply.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of logic to the decisions Putin is making right now. You know, today he's talking about putting his nuclear forces on high alert. It sounds like he's throwing a tantrum and he's throwing the chess pieces on the floor.

GARRY KASPAROV, RUSSIAN CHESS GRANDMASTER: I don't think we have to apply the chess logic to Putin's action. If it's logic, it's much more likely popular logic. And that's the game Putin has been playing for years and years and he always won. Not because he had a strong hand. Very often he dealt, you know, very weak hand, but it's about bluff. He could bluff, he could raise the stakes and the opposition always folded cards.

And now Putin is facing the harsh reality that his military operation in Ukraine is failing. They couldn't achieve the objectives that they thought they could achieve within two or three days. Kyiv is still under Ukrainian control. Kharkiv as we just saw it's also on Ukrainian control. There are some original successes, but it's not what Putin expected and time is working against him.

So, that's why he needs to demonstrate his resolve to continue the assault and most likely he's planning to ramp up the violence. I would expect them to start using massive force against Ukrainian citizens and he'll probably lift up the restriction or advice not to hurt civilians.

As of now Russian troops try to avoid massive casualties among Ukrainian civilians. Not that they excluded completely, but we didn't see the campaign that was aimed directly at civilians as they did for instance in Aleppo in Syria.

I'm afraid that now Putin is willing to do whatever to take over Kyiv, the city of three million people and is sending the signal to America and European NATO allies, stay away if I do something unthinkable.

ACOSTA: And did he really think that Ukrainians would greet Russian forces as liberators as their brethren? And what kind of -- what does this say about his thinking, this miscalculation, I think, that he's made here and the magnitude of that miscalculations?

KASPAROV: Look, we don't know, you know, about his calculations. He is in power for more than two decades and naturally he's thinking and his logic is different from ours. But what I think he believed and he was told by his northern commanders that they could overrun Ukrainians. Yes, you showed Ukrainian soldiers, they have enough weapons, but Russia had tremendous advantage in fire power. And Putin didn't expect Ukrainians to put such a steep resistance.

So, the plan was to take over Kyiv, put the puppet government and then negotiate with the west because he believed that if he could succeed by destroying the Ukrainian state infrastructure and removing or even killing Zelensky, then the west will come to terms with him.

[17:15:00]

He made a mistake. That was his biggest miscalculation. And now he have to deal with the fact that Russia is isolated. He's facing sanctions, real sanctions, not just lip service as before and Ukrainian resistance is growing and Ukraine has been receiving both humanitarian, but most important, military aid.

And the prospects of this war, they look very, very grim to Putin. That's why he is probably willing to use the last resort, massive weapons to hurt civilians, too frighten people, to destroy their will to resist and also to send a signal to America and other NATO allies don't interfere no matter what I do in Ukraine.

ACOSTA: And Garry, I have to ask you because I was just talking about this with Jill Dougherty a few moments ago about these protests that we're seeing in Russia on the streets of St. Petersburg and across other parts of Russia. Nearly 6,000 people have been detained for protesting the invasion of Ukraine.

Yesterday, people were carrying flowers in blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, placing them on a bridge near the Kremlin where Putin critic, Boris Nemtsov, was murdered. What do you make of people in Russia, you know, obviously, you know, thumbing their -- maybe not thumbing their nose at Vladimir Putin, but really just ignoring warnings from the government not to go out into the streets and protest, the show of solidarity with the people of Ukraine?

KASPAROV: Absolutely. And actually, that Boris Nemtsov was murdered seven years ago on that day. So that's why so many people showed up on the bridge in Moscow where Boris was murdered. And I think that's another bad -- pleasant surprise, bad news for Putin. So he destroyed a Russian opposition. People who marched with me peaceful on the streets of Moscow, either killed like Boris Nemtsov, in exile like myself or in jail like Alexei Navalny.

But now, all of a sudden, thousands and thousands, actually tens of thousands of people, they're making the streets protesting as the war. This is already fourth day in a row. They keep arresting people and they're coming back. No one is organizing it. It's a, yes, you may say social media, but it's more like a spontaneous rejection of Putin's war and also Putin's regime.

That's why he is getting very nervous and that's why police show such a brutality for actually peaceful demonstrations. And we have to applaud these people because demonstrating in Moscow in St. Petersburg or any other Russian city today it's not like demonstrating in New York or in Paris or in Toronto.

You're facing a brutal regime that can arrest you, beat you and also lock you for not just for days, but maybe for years. Actually, some of these people will be charged with numerous crimes and will be spending years behind bars. ACOSTA: And the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, said he

believe that what Putin really wanted was to re-establish the former Soviet Union before the 100th anniversary of the founding of the USSR. You know, as somebody who remembers the Cold War, it just sounds just nutty to me. What do you make of that theory?

KASPAROV: Yes, Putin likes symbols that's why his first act as the president of Russia in 2000 was to restore Soviet Union anthem. And naturally he is mourning the collapse of the Soviet Union. He called it the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. I don't think that it's this date, you know, that's 100 years from 1922 was his prime concern.

He wanted to send a message that he was in the position to dictate his will to the neighboring countries and actually to walk away from every international treaty and hell with the rule of the law. It's all about, as he called it 15 careers ago, the return those years of influence. This is the world that Putin wants to live in comfortably as being, you know, the big super power that could be above the international law.

And that's one of the reasons he's attacking Ukraine. He prepared this war in plain sight and he expected the world to actually swallow this aggression as the world paid little attention and didn't want to confront Putin over his previous aggressive acts.

ACOSTA: I think you're right about that. I think you're dead on Garry. All right, Garry Kasparov, thank you very much. We'll be coming back to you in the coming days as we see how Mr. Putin unravels in all of this. Thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

KASPAROV: Thank you very much.

ACOSTA: All right. And Russia fails to capture Kyiv after four days of fighting. How will Putin react to the losses militarily? That's an important question. The former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe, Mark Hertling, he joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:00]

ACOSTA: Breaking news. We have brand new satellite images showing a three-mile long Russian military column on a roadway that leads toward Kyiv. According to Maxar, the convoy was seen on satellite this morning on a road about 40 miles northwest of the Ukrainian capital. You can see it right there.

Maxar identified fuel and logistical trucks in addition to tanks, infantry vehicles and self-propelled artillery moving in the convoy. This comes as Russian President -- Russia's Vladimir Putin like to say, has ordered his deterrence forces to be on high alert. Those forces include nuclear weapons. With me now is Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, the former Army commanding general for Europe and the Seventh Army and a CNN military analyst. General, thanks for being with us. This satellite images showing the 3-mile long convoy, this military column heading to Kyiv. I mean, this is, I think, confirming some of the worst fears about what may be coming for the Ukrainian capital potentially. What do you think?

MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, my take seeing that convoy, those overhead shots, same kind of pictures we get from military intelligence satellites, but it's showing they are desperately attempting to resupply their forces forward. That's been a struggle for the Russians across the board.

We're four or five days into this thing and it's apparent from the number of vehicles captured or abandoned or destroyed, they're running out of gas. They're running out of ammo. They're running out of food for their soldiers. So it has become a logistics fight right now. And when you see a convoy of resupplied trucks with tanks on board, with artillery pieces nearby that means they're trying to protect those resupply columns. They're not doing a very good job of it, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes. And resupplying because some of those initial forces that went it were taken out.

HERTLING: They were.

ACOSTA: And we're also getting some brand new footage just into CNN. We can show this to our viewers, showing Russian forces taking control of a small southern Ukrainian town which is also the home of a small naval base, population of about 100,000 people. You can see the video right there. What is your sense of what we're seeing?

HERTLING: Yes. My take on that one is that a small town on the Sea of Azov and what they're trying to do, one of the Russian objectives is to create that land bridge between Crimea and Mother Russia. The problem is it's a town of 100,000 people and that seems like a lot.

[17:25:02]

But take a look at the major objectives. The capital city of Kyiv, three million people, Kharkiv, 1.5 million people. The size of Chicago and Philadelphia.

ACOSTA: Right.

HERTLING: They don't have the forces. I mean, you know, I would venture to say that you'll see some retreats by the Russians in this smaller town of 100,000, but it's going to be very challenging for them to take and seize and secure the bigger towns and hold on to them.

ACOSTA: Yes. All of this video that you're watching right now, this is brand new into CNN of this small town that has been taken over by the Russians. But getting to your earlier point, General, this is not what Vladimir Putin anticipated.

HERTLING: No, not at all. ACOSTA: And what Garry Kasparov was saying in our previous segment,

Putin thought he was going to be way ahead of where he is right now in terms of land controlled by the Russians and this small town, while it might be something, isn't what he expected.

HERTLING: He misread -- first of all, he misread Ukraine. He misread the Ukrainian forces. I've said this a couple times. His generals have been incompetent on this. Anyone can draw tactical arrows on a map and say this is where you want your forces to go, but when you're a general officer -- having been a tanker myself, Jim, when you're a general officer you start saying, hey, this isn't about where the maneuver is, it's how you support that maneuver with logistics.

They have failed miserably in that. In addition to that, what I would say is the tactical acumen of the Russian forces is absolutely horrid. We're seeing undisciplined acts. We're seeing tanks stopped for population. You're just seeing things -- they're not looking behind them and they're getting shot from the rear by Javelin missiles and even AT4. So, it's a culmination of both failure at the strategic, operational, and tactical level that we're seeing right now.

ACOSTA: And I've really been taken by this video we were just showing our viewers just a few moment ago of a battle that was taking place in Kharkiv where you see these soldiers and, you know, people might be under the impression that the Ukrainian military is not well-armed and so on. They are holding and carrying some pretty sophisticated weaponry. It seems right there they look like a professional defense force. And more weaponry is coming in by the day I suppose.

HERTLING: Yes, you see that force, that small squad there of about 10 guys. The guy furthest away from us is repeatedly firing rocket- propelled grenades. He's fired, by my count, about five of them. He's handing it off their launcher to another guy. They are reloading and he's ready to shoot again.

And everybody else, you look at the cool, calm, collected approach by these soldiers under fire engaging the enemy.

ACOSTA: They don't look afraid.

HERTLING: Yes. They're not afraid. They're ready to kick some butt.

ACOSTA: And they have been kicking some butt. And the weaponry that is flowing into the country, I mean, the administration has been saying, members of Congress, both parties, were saying they want to send more in. This kind of weaponry isn't the kind of weaponry that we might have seen on the battle field 10, 20, 30 years ago.

HERTLING: Yes.

ACOSTA: It's easier to use even if the Ukrainian forces there haven't used the kind of weaponry that's coming in.

HERTLOING: Yes. The ones you just saw in that film that's an RPG. That is kind of an older weapon. But when they -- when you're -- that's a shorter range, couple of hundred yards. But when you're talking about a Javelin anti-tank missile that can shoot anything out to 3,000 meters with deadly precision.

So when you're talking about the ability to get those in the right spots, aim them, shoot them and destroy targets, I think that's what we're seeing across the battle filed. That in combination with Stinger missiles for low flying aircraft. And the Russian military has taken both on fast movers, the jets, as well as helicopters, something they did not expect.

ACOSTA: All right. General Mark Hertling, thanks very much for your time. Thanks for coming in. We appreciate it. Good to see you, sir.

HERTLING: You bet, Jim. Thank you.

ACOSTA: Breaking news into CNN, the world's largest aircraft has been destroyed by a Russian attack. This is a satellite picture of the hangar in Ukraine where the plane was stored, the only one of its kind transport plane was parked on a base that was the site of intense fighting on Thursday.

The aircraft is called Mriya, which is dream in Ukrainian. The plane was legendary in aviation circles. There was only one model ever built. Ukraine's ministers of foreign affairs said Russia may have destroyed our Mriya, but they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free, and democratic European state. We'll have more information on that. That just came in to CNN in the last couple of minutes. We'll have more on that as the afternoon goes on, evening goes on.

Coming up, a member of the Ukrainian parliament joins us live on hunkering down during the invasion and learning to use a gun, there it is right there, for the first time. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:00]

ACOSTA: As Russian forces continue their military onslaught against Ukraine, civilians are taking up arms to protect their families and their country. Ukrainian parliament member, Kira Rudik, posted this saying she's learned to use a Kalashnikov rifle and is prepared to bear arms. And Kira Rudik joins us now.

Kira, thank you so much for being with us. We've seen that image of you holding that Kalashnikov. Need to ask you about this. Ukrainian forces have so far defended Kyiv, your nation's capital, from the Russian military. Tell us what you experienced last night during which was another night of terrible fighting. Tell us about that.

KIRA RUDIK, MEMBER OF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Hello. Thank you for having me. Well, every single night after the war was declared was a tough one. And every single night we're prepared for a fight because you never know with Russians what's going to happen next. But every morning we woke up to saying, okay, we survived this night as well.

There are things that are happening. Russians are covering the city with their shelling and air force attacks. And then afterwards the smaller groups or the larger groups of Russian troops are trying to get in.

[17:35:02]

So, strategically the Ukrainian army is covering the larger groups, but Ukrainian resistance is working with the smaller groups of Russians trying to get in. And this is why it's so important that we are armed and that we are able to protect ourselves and execute on our duty to help our country and to defend our country.

We totally understand that Putin right now is losing and so that's why he will be raising the stakes and he will be putting more and more human force into the war so that's why it will be so important and so critical that people and citizens of Kyiv and other larger cities will be protecting the cities themselves.

ACOSTA: And tell me, Ms. Rudik, if you can, does your country, does your city, do you, people that you're working with, do you have the weapons that you need? Do you have the forces necessary if Vladimir Putin does raise the stakes as you were just saying a few moments ago and really ups the ante in terms of an onslaught on your capital city? Because what may be coming could be far worse than what we've seen up until this point.

RUDIK: Well, we have enough to fight on land. Obviously, it's never enough weapons to fight one of the strongest armies in the world, right? The thing that we really do need and that would help a lot and will help to switch the trajectory of what's going to happen is the no-fly zone that we are asking NATO countries to provide for us.

Because the biggest hurdles that we are experiencing right now is the constant shelling and the air force attacks because it's really disturbing like for all the people in Kyiv and this is something that we cannot build ourselves right now and will not be able to build like in the near future if we do really try.

So, the only chance for us to oppose Russia in the air is basically getting the real help from our NATO allies and to get them finally to provide us with a no-fly zone. The rest we will do ourselves and I appreciate that we'll be able to protect ourselves even if Putin brings in more troops.

He does not anticipate that Ukraine will fight back as hard as we are doing. So, he didn't plan for anything else but the blitzkrieg and from what we see right now, he's not planning on anything else than blitzkrieg. So the soldiers that are coming into Kyiv they are armed, but they don't have any supplies. They are not -- they don't intend, you know, to have the siege or anything else. It's just to -- people who are coming, hoping that we will raise our hands and say we surrender.

But this is exactly the opposite what they see here in Kyiv. They see really the resistance that is as hard as it could ever be. And that's why I don't see a chance for Russian troops right now, neither in Kyiv nor in Kharkiv nor in Odessa or anywhere else. It just speak very (inaudible) Putin. ACOSTA: Yes. You and your countrymen have been very brave, very

courageous throughout all of this. It has been remarkable and inspiring for the world to watch. Speaking of the shelling that your city is taking right now from Russian forces in the air, I understand you have a small daughter, a young daughter and there's a game that you both play when an attack is under way pretending to be turtles I think is what I read. Can you explain that? Tell us about that.

RUDIK: So, it's very important that if you cannot get to the bomb shelter that you protect yourself from the hit, if it hits. So, to keep your mouth open and your ears covered. So, this is the game I seen in the internet. You call it a game to explain it to children that it's not like something terrible happening, but it's just like a small game that you are playing.

That you lay on your belly, you open your mouth, you cover your ears and then you pretend that you're a turtle this way because this is how like -- you look like a turtle.

[17:39:53]

And this makes it less stress for the children because what I feel like we -- the most terrible thing that we experience right now is that we have now the generation of children that would -- who would know what war is. And this is the most terrible thing because we don't know how this trauma will affect them in future.

And we have need to do everything possible to protect them from what is happening or what is going to happen. And this is one of the missions that we have right now to make sure that they remain safe.

ACOSTA: You have to be mothers and parents in addition to being warriors right now defending your country. It's been inspiring to watch as I said earlier. Kira Rudik, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. All the best to you and your family. Please stay safe as best as you can.

RUDIK: Thank you so much.

ACOSTA: Thank you. Coming up, the U.S. and western allies look to deliver a crippling economic blow to Russia by cutting certain banks from a key financial system. What you need to know about SWIFT, it's called SWIFT and why it matters so much in this fight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:44:59]

ACOSTA: The U.S. and European allies are putting pressure on Russia by hurting Moscow's finances. They are moving to cut Russia out of the global finance world by removing some Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system as it's called. CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us from Brussels.

Natasha, thanks very much for being with us. Remind us what SWIFT is. Tell us about that for our viewers who haven't heard about this yet and why it's being used as a punishment against Russia. This is going to get the Russian's attention I think.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Absolutely, Jim, and it already has as we've seen. So, what this is, is it's an international payment system that essentially connects Russia's banks to the rest of the global economy. It allows them to conduct transactions for things like energy, oil, gas, other goods. And if they are essentially cut off from the system, then obviously their economy will take a pretty big hit.

Now, we don't know exactly which banks are actually going to be cut off from this international payment system. They haven't said that yet. And some experts and analyst say that it will really only have this kind of massive effect if the major Russian banks are cut off from the system.

But I think the broader point here is that this is a momentous shift within the European Union towards actually facilitating this kind of thing because just last week we saw that there was not this kind of unanimity about cutting off Russia from this payment system because of how it might affect the economies in Europe particularly Germany, Italy and France.

But in a complete kind of 180 over the course of two days after we saw Russia invade Ukraine, these European economies said now is the time that we really have to take these extreme measures because of the unprecedented military operation, violence and aggression that we are seeing inside Ukraine.

Obviously, the Biden administration had been weighing whether or not to take this step, but said that they needed the coordination of their European allies and they finally got that. So, it remains to be seen which banks are going to be targeted here. Obviously these are not the only sanctions that have been imposed on Russia in recent days.

There are talks about imposing sanctions on the central bank there in Russia which would also have a major, major impact. But so far, just the level of coordination here between the U.S. and its allies is pretty remarkable, Jim.

ACOSTA: No question about it. That is something Vladimir Putin did not anticipate that things would unify much of the world against what he's doing right now. Natasha Bertrand, thank you very much, reporting there from Brussels. We appreciate it.

And several U.S. governors this weekend are calling for Russian-made liquor to be pulled out of stores in their states. It's their way of lashing out at Russia for the aggression in Ukraine. In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine wants the state's commerce department to stop buying and selling all vodkas made by Russian-owned distillery, Russian standard, and remove all bottles already in stores.

Liquor stores in New Hampshire and Utah are also pulling vodka off the shelves at the request of their governors. It's mostly a symbolic move since almost all Russian branded alcohol is made in other countries, but there goes the vodka off the shelf as we speak at the (inaudible) in New Hampshire. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:50:00]

ACOSTA: Vladimir Putin is trying to justify his invasion of Ukraine with outrageous lies including calling Ukrainian leaders Nazis. It's a term that resonates with many Russians, as our own Brian Todd explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a repeated refrain from Vladimir Putin and his acolytes in describing Ukraine's Democratic re-elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Zelensky's cabinet.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translation): This gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that has settled in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people.

TODD (voice-over): Putin invoked it when he announced to his nation earlier this week that the invasion of Ukraine had begun.

PUTIN (through translation): Dear comrades, your fathers, your grandfathers fought against the Nazis not so that Nazis could now take over power in Ukraine.

TODD (voice-over): Putin has said he wants to "de-Nazify" Ukraine and he and his foreign minister have used another reference to the holocaust to try to justify their aggression.

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSINA FOREIGN MINISTER (through translation): We are talking about preventing neo-Nazis and those promoting genocide from ruling this country.

TODD (voice-over): The false accusations of Nazism and genocide from Putin and his aides against the Zelensky government have drawn outrage. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum issuing a statement condemning that language as well as the invasion itself.

STUART EIZENSTAT, CHAIR, U.S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL COUNCIL: It's particularly perverse and denigrates and misappropriates the whole notion of the holocaust to talk about the current democratic elected government somehow committing a genocide against Russian speakers.

TODD (voice-over): Why has Putin invoked Nazism? Some observers say Putin is well aware that their fight against the Nazis and fascism in World War II strikes an emotional chord with Russians.

EIZENSTAT: To evoke the very memory that the Russian people have of the horrors through which they went in World War II, they lost 20 million civilians.

TODD (voice-over): But it's Putin, analysts say, who is fighting this war the way Hitler did when he invaded his neighbors justifying it in part by implying that his neighbors' borders were irrelevant. PUTIN (through translation): Ukraine has never had a consistent

tradition of being a true nation.

TIMOPTHY SNYDER, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, YALE UNIVERSITY: That is straight out of Hitler's playbook, 1938-1939, to claim that a democratic neighboring state is some kind of artificial creation that doesn't deserve to exist.

TODD (voice-over): Another fact Putin seems to be conveniently ignoring that Zelensky is Jewish and he says his grandfather fought against the Nazis for the Soviets. One analyst believes Putin has another motive for his accusations of genocide against Ukraine's leaders.

SNYDER: I think it's very likely that he intends to use the genocide and de-Nazification language to set up some kind of kangaroo court, which would serve the purpose of condemning these people to death or condemning them to prison or incarceration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Stuart Eizenstat of the Holocaust Memorial Museum says the Ukrainian people certainly won't buy Putin's claims of Nazism and genocide and he doesn't think the Russian people will buy it either. He believes many Russians will see that a fellow Slavic country that they share so many cultural and family ties with is being invaded and brutalized. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

ACOSTA: Oscar winning actor Sean Penn is in Ukraine making a documentary that according to Ukrainian officials will tell the world the truth about Russia's invasion. Here he is attending a press briefing at the presidential office in Kyiv on Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also shared a video on his Instagram story of a meeting he had with Sean Penn last week.

[17:54:45]

In a statement just in to CNN, Sean Penn told us "President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people have risen as historic symbols of courage and principle. Ukraine is the tip of the spear for the democratic embrace of dreams. If we allow it to fight alone, our soul as America is lost." And we'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- Guild Awards which are happening live here in Santa Monica, California. This is when actors vote on their peers. So this is the first big awards show of the season this year and obviously while we are focusing on performances, there's also a lot of focus on Ukraine and the union that is behind the Screen Actors Awards.

They are saying that they are pledging their support for Ukraine and also that union SAG-AFTRA also represents a lot of journalist who are over there covering this invasion by Russia, so they're also calling for freedom of the press to make sure that their members are also being held safe.

We've also learned that they do plan to address the invasion at the top of the show when it gets started here live in Santa Monica. You see the stars are just now starting to arrive. This will look at some of the best shows in television as well as in film. And we know that this will all be playing out, people waiting to see people back in person for the first real time that we've seen an awards season in a very long time. So people excited. You can feel the energy starting to build. All of this you can watch live on TNT and TBS.

[17:59:59]

The Screen Actor Guild Awards airing tonight live at 8:00 p.m.