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Heavy Street Fighting Breaks Out In Ukraine's Second Largest City; Ukrainians Defy Russia's Onslaught, Hold Capital Despite All Odds; Putin Puts Nuclear Deterrence Force On Alert; Ukraine And Russia Agree To Talks As Fighting Rages; Satellite Shows Three-Mile-Long Russian Convoy On Road To Kyiv; Biden To Address Russia Invasion In State Of The Union Address. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 27, 2022 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the Screen Actors Guild Award, airing tonight live at 8:00 p.m.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington, and we are following breaking news at the top of this hour as Ukrainian forces and civilians continue to defend their capital city of Kyiv, brand new satellite images, here they are, reveal what could be a renewed Russian effort to attack the city.

A Russian military convoy stretching more than three miles long is on a roadway that heads toward Kyiv. The vehicles are identified as fuel and logistical trucks plus tanks, infantry vehicles and artillery. Further south Russian forces have now taken over a town with a small naval base and home to about 100,000 people, that's according to the town's mayor.

Intense fighting has been caught on camera in several major cities.

This was the dramatic scene earlier in Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv. The commander of Ukrainian forces there says dozens 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. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy is still pushing for a peaceful de-escalation while Russia's Vladimir Putin appears to be doing just the opposite putting his country's deterrence forces which includes nuclear weapons on high alert.

Many Russian citizens not on board with Putin's actions. You can look at this video right here. Anti-war protesters risking their safety here in St. Petersburg. It's one of many protests across the country as Russian authorities have detained nearly 6,000 people protesting the invasion. Police officers sweeping off the streets, grandmothers, teenagers, women, you name it as they try to crack down on an unraveling situation, it seems, in some of these protests.

Let's begin with CNN's Alex Marquardt who is following the fighting on the streets in Ukraine's second largest city -- Alex.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A Russian unit moves cautiously through the outskirts of Kharkiv. Their goal to seize a nearby military airfield and factory. Their slow progress makes them an inviting target for Ukrainian defenders hiding nearby.

Suddenly an ambush. The Russians fall back, their soldiers trying to shelter behind their Humvee-type vehicles. Their chaotic retreat seen here from another angle, one more example of the stiff resistance the Russians are encountering from mobile Ukrainian units who know the lay of the land.

But the Russians can't escape. They run into further trouble apparently surrounded. At least one of their trucks is disabled. A resident telling a Reuters journalist one of the Russians was killed in the firefight.

YEVGENIY, KHARKIV RESIDENT (through translator): After we killed this one, the others run away. There were some 12 to 15 people. That's it. We will win. They won't take Kharkiv. They have run back to where they came from.

MARQUARDT: Ukrainian soldiers surround the abandoned vehicles, celebrating a small victory in a conflict where they should have no chance of holding off the enemy. Off camera one of them says, and that's how we meet the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Russian army.

But this Ukrainian platoon's day is not over. The enemy is still in the area. They dash forward to fire off RPGs. A ragtag army that, for now, is holding off a far superior force. The Russians have yet to take any town of significance. But for civilians here the Russian offensive is terrifying. This apartment block in Kharkiv hit by artillery fire on Saturday night. Thankfully most of the residents were sheltering in the basement. Authorities say one woman was killed.

Alexander Datsenko (PH) says all the apartments are damaged, it's very bad. Even as Ukraine resists, its people are still suffering.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And CNN's Nick Paton Walsh joins us from a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine.

Nick, what are you seeing today?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, just to let you know here, Jim, around us in Odessa main port city on the Black Sea there's a curfew and light restrictions, hence the background around me. But we have spent the last 24 hours in Mykolaiv, another key town, also on the Black Sea, that has been under fierce Russian assault. And we saw the heroism, the grit, the determination of locals there to live and to resist the Russian forces.

[18:05:07]

They've been having so heavily shelling on the outskirts. Here is what we saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): The bridge here hasn't been raised for as long as they can remember. But neither has the sleepy port town of Mykolaiv been invaded.

The clack-clack is likely exchanges with Russian paratroopers who we're told landed nearby. Locals struggling to keep up with their world here collapsing, and soldiers edging. The fear here, Russian saboteurs like these two suspects, thrown to the ground by soldiers. Then the sirens go off. And it is back in the basement for mothers and cats.

Here the noise of what Russia would do to these towns in the name of subjugation and geopolitical gain. Police trying to turn lights off it seems in businesses that closed in a hurry. Life persisting caught between hoping this is short lived and wondering if it may go on forever.

Behind it all, in empty streets the fear they may be overrun. And whether each huge blast would be the decisive strike that lets Putin's troops enter. The shelling just went on and on. The next morning we saw where it hit. It's likely a missile tore up these Ukrainian tanks, but nobody left, feels broken.

(On-camera): How do you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good. Very good.

WALSH: Good. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WALSH: Have they tried to come into the town? He is saying the Russians tried to come in last night but the town of Mykolaiv beat them. And you can see what it looks like here. He is saying look around here, I'm asking how do you feel living here looking at all this. This is where you live, right? As I look at this, look at these windows that are blown out.

Yes, so the words of Russian ministers who have been saying that they are not going to hit civilian infrastructure here, he is repeating them back to me saying look, look at this, they say that they are not hitting civilian infrastructure, look at this damage around here.

(Voice-over): Putin's rockets may have shattered glass, but not dented the anger here. As they take stock, you have to ask yourself, why Moscow ever thought that these towns would gladly be occupied and what Russia's end goal is.

Tempers fray here. Blood has been spilled. But despite Russia's overwhelming firepower, they did not pass.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: Now just this afternoon the mayor of that town called its citizens out to form what he called a circular defense and to get Molotov cocktails to potentially fend off another Russian bid to get into the city.

I've got to tell you, Jim, what is utterly impossible to understand is quite what Russian forces think they're going to achieve by this sort of bombardment of densely populated areas. You saw the damage inflicted on some parts there and you have to wonder quite what sort of future they imagine in these towns if that damage occurs and they put so many lives at risk, and then try to occupy them further down the line. Startling and baffling to work out what the Kremlin's playbook may actually be here -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Right. It looks like it may be fueling the insurgency and the resistance on the ground there.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much for that report. Excellent reporting there on the ground.

Let's go now to CNN's Jill Dougherty in Moscow. Jill, I want to ask you about this alarming order by Vladimir Putin for Russia's deterrence forces to be on high alert. Those forces as we've been discussing include nuclear weapons. What is your sense of how the Russians are explaining this? Does it have any credibility whatsoever? It just sounds like saber rattling and perhaps a sign of desperation.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it has, you know, relevance. He is the commander in chief and he does have the, you know, second -- two of the largest, United States and Russia, have the biggest nuclear arsenals in the world. So when he says things like that it is very serious and I think that's how, you know, it should be interpreted, and what he is saying is really a direct threat.

[18:10:03]

You know, just to be precise, he is calling it, he is ordering his nuclear deterrent forces to be put on what he calls special combat regime. So that's a very high level of alert. And the reason he said that was because he said we're having aggressive statements and actions by NATO and also these sanctions coming from the United States and from Europe. And you really have to say that those sanctions are going to very much bite.

You know, tonight it's very late, Sunday night, early Monday morning. Tomorrow morning when the markets and the trading places where Russians trade their rubles begin to open, it could be pretty grim. So I think the president is trying to respond to a lot of this, and the United States did have a response. The White House saying that this is essentially a manufactured threat that really doesn't exist.

So luckily there doesn't seem to be a tit-for-tat. The United States could have of course said well, we're going to go on super alert as well, but they did not do that. At least at this point they're not doing that.

And then another thing, Jim, that I think is really notable. We've been watching a lot of Russian reports on Russian state-owned and operated TV. And they have this kind of divided vision or version of what the Ukrainian forces are because in their reports from the eastern part, from that Donbas breakaway region, they're depicting them -- they never call them the Ukrainian army. They call them nationalists. And they depict them as fierce monsters who kill and attack people.

And then the other image is of regular Ukrainian forces in that areas we've been reporting on, you know, Kyiv and other main cities, and they are depicted by the Russians as kind of weaklings who give up and, you know, turn over to the Russian forces, surrendering. It's a very odd vision. And so today that all kind of came together as the military briefed, as it does every day, and for the first time admitted that they actually have lost forces.

They've been killed. They've been wounded, but there were no numbers that they gave. But I think that is significant that they did admit that that's happening. They added, of course, that it's far fewer than the Ukrainians are having killed and wounded -- Jim.

ACOSTA: And, Jill, these protests that have been cropping up in Russia just remarkable to see. Typically we don't see this sort of thing. We're showing some pictures now of what came in out of St. Petersburg today and Russian police going in there and just roughing up these protesters, but they're locking arms in these images that we're showing our viewers and seem very determined to make their voices heard.

DOUGHERTY: They are and they're actually very brave to do that because, you know, ever since the protests, remember there were protests not too long ago for Navalny, the opposition leader who is now in prison, in a work camp.

ACOSTA: Right.

DOUGHERTY: And it has gotten more and more, I would say, repressive and actually very brutal. You can look at some of that footage and that is meant -- you know, you take these of some of the young people, put them in detention. They're held for sometimes a couple of days. And sometimes in conditions that are not very good. And then they are warned that this will be a black mark on your work record, on your school record, and that is one way that they're trying to convince the young people not to get involved in this.

But there is really an anti-war movement you'd have to say. It is not the majority of Russians. We have to say that. But it is significant that this is happening not only among young people but there are some others, you know, middle-aged people who are out there as well.

ACOSTA: Right. We were just showing some footage a few moments ago of grandmothers being yanked off the streets by these police officers, people of all ages.

Jill Dougherty, thank you so much for that reporting. We appreciate it. From Moscow.

And up next former director of national intelligence James Clapper joins me next to discuss this alarming order by Putin to put Russia's deterrence forces, that's nuclear forces, on high alert. How desperate is the Russian leader becoming?

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:42]

ACOSTA: You heard of negotiating at the barrel of a gun, well, Ukrainian officials will be entering into negotiations with the Russians as Vladimir Putin flexes his nukes. Today Ukrainian President Zelensky announced a delegation will be meeting with Russian counterparts on Monday. A short time later Putin felt the need to escalate things yet again ordering Russia's nuclear deterrence forces on the highest state of alert.

Former director of National Intelligence James Clapper joins me now.

Director Clapper, thanks for being with us. I appreciate it very much. You know, what is your read, your initial read of Putin making this comment today that he's putting his deterrence forces, his nuclear forces on high alert. Is this desperation? Is he trying to send a message to the world? Is it a little bit of both? What's going on?

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Maybe all of the above.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CLAPPER: Jim, I took really notice when he issued this statement, this warning, about whoever -- got the quote here. Whoever tries to interfere should know that Russia will be immediate -- response will be immediate and will lead to such consequences that you had never experienced in history. That got my attention. Of course it implied the full range of his potential arsenal. Then the alert, raising the alert level of his nuclear forces.

To me it strikes me as a bit of chest beating. The vaunted Russian army hasn't exactly performed to expectations, in fact, have been pretty terrible. And I think he just needed to remind everybody maybe for his own insecurity or his own ego that, hey, we're still a nuclear power. And when you think about it, you know, he's been in an isolated bubble bureaucratically if not physically for about 22 years then brooding about this huge grievance, all the wrongs done to the Soviet Union-Russia, and it's all coming out now.

And I think anyone who has lived in an existence like that is not normal and, importantly, he's got nobody pushing back.

ACOSTA: That appears to be the case. But, I mean, do you think he's losing it? I mean, to think that --

(CROSSTALK)

CLAPPER: I think he's a little unhinged. I really do. And that's why these statements bear watching.

[18:20:05]

And I hope, perhaps, someone in our government, secretary of Defense, chairman of the JCS, is attempting to reach or seek clarification of these statements.

ACOSTA: From the Russian counterparts?

CLAPPER: Exactly. Exactly.

ACOSTA: Because, I mean, and what is your sense of what is going on inside the Kremlin, inside Putin's inner circle? Are there people around him who can, you know, keep that under a lid, you know, if Putin wants to --

CLAPPER: I don't know. I mean --

ACOSTA: He wants to do something dramatic.

CLAPPER: What we've seen with these at a distance, meetings that he has, because he's paranoid about COVID and the dressing down of one of his senior intelligence officials in public makes you wonder what is going on. Is anybody talking to him? Is anyone presenting an alternative view or pointing out pitfalls to what he's doing.

ACOSTA: It sounds Kim Jong-un like.

CLAPPER: I don't.

ACOSTA: And it sounds like something out of North Korea.

CLAPPER: Well, yes.

ACOSTA: It doesn't sound good. Let me ask you about, you mentioned this earlier, you alluded to this. The Russians having trouble on the battlefield in Ukraine. More than expected, I guess. They're having problems with fuel and morale according to a NATO official, and they're facing a stiffer resistance than expected.

I talked to a Western diplomatic official earlier today who said the resistance appears to be stronger than initially expected by Europe. What does that tell you about Russia's -- their own intelligence assessments heading into this?

CLAPPER: Well, one thing that people have a hard time gauging is will to fight. We've had our challenges doing that, and I think what's happening on the battlefield in Ukraine is a combination of the unexpected stiff resistance put up by the Ukrainians who do have a will to fight and the rather lackluster performance of the Russians who are too spread out and don't have a logistical capability to provide sufficient fuel, ammunition and food to their troops. Moreover it doesn't appear to me the troops actually know what they're

doing and don't seem to be very motivated to be invading Ukraine. So that's a commentary on their poor leadership.

ACOSTA: And, you know, we've been talking about this throughout the afternoon, Russia detaining these protesters on the streets of places like St. Petersburg and so on. It looks like Putin's propaganda about this being a war against Neo-Nazis, he's been talking about Neo-Nazis, hasn't landed, hasn't --

CLAPPER: Well --

ACOSTA: I mean, maybe it's getting through to a segment of the population for sure, people who just watch state media and that's it.

CLAPPER: Right.

ACOSTA: But if there are people on the streets of Russia in that, you know, in that kind of quantity, in those numbers, that suggests that there are people who are saying, I don't believe Putin anymore.

CLAPPER: That's right. And I think this is to the extent it does appeal to anybody Russia's generational. Younger people don't buy it, and don't want a war as we've seen. And you've got to be a brave soul to get out in the streets and demonstrate against Putin. So, you know, I hand it to the Russian citizenry that's out doing that. To me it conveys a really crucial message that Putin obviously doesn't want conveyed.

ACOSTA: And what is your sense of how things -- whether things could spiral out of control with Putin threatening, you know -- putting his nuclear forces on alert, the U.S. and other allies dumping weapons in Ukraine. That's going to provoke him obviously. It needs to be done but it's going to provoke him. That this could spiral out of control and get bigger than what we're seeing.

CLAPPER: The first thing I worry about is when the pain of these sanctions sit in, which are really quite remarkable, the agreement now, the international agreement to impose them, when the pain sets in, I don't think Putin could sit still for that. I would look for cyberattacks against our financial sector as a first resort.

I will say, and I don't mean to hyperventilate over this, but the Russians do have a different attitude about the use of nuclear weapons than we do principally because their conventional military force is not anything near what it was in the Soviet era, so they are quicker to at least doctrinally resort the use of tactical nuclear weapons if things go bad conventionally. So that coupled with the statements, I think, bears watching, I'll put it that way.

[18:25:04]

ACOSTA: All right. James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence, thank you very much. We will be watching as I know you will as well. Thank you very much. And I want to take a moment to show you some images from around the

world. A truly global show of support for Ukraine. There are protests in so many places we don't have time to show them all. I wish we could. But here are just a few.

Here in Washington, D.C., protesters gathered outside the White House earlier this afternoon waving Ukrainian flags.

This in Berlin where about 100,000 people protested the Russian invasion, signs there say punish Putin, stop the war and peace. Protesters even gathered outside the Russian embassy there, hoping their message will be heard inside.

This is in Madrid, Spain. Many signs reading stop Putin and peace in Spanish. In Prague, a sea of protesters filling multiple blocks of that city, flying large Ukrainian flags. And in the country of Georgia this Russian citizen takes a fiery approach to her protests against the invasion. She set her passport on fire. Take that, Putin.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:08]

ACOSTA: Ukrainian forces along with armed civilians have so far been able to keep Russian forces from taking their capital city, but new satellite images show a large military convoy heading to Kyiv. The photos place the convoy just 40 miles northwest of the capital and show a more than three-mile-long stretch of trucks, tanks and other military vehicles.

CNN military analyst, Major General "Spider" Marks joins me now.

Major General Marks, great to have you on. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes. What do these new images tell you? I mean, I suppose it can tell us some things and that is, you know, maybe Putin is gearing up for a big siege on Kyiv. It may also tell us, I suppose, that they need to do some resupplying because of some of the casualties they've been taking.

MARKS: Yes, I think it's the latter. I mean, it certainly could be in support of a larger operation in Kyiv. But I think it's more about trying to support those forces that have already been committed as it's been described as when the Russians came out of the blocks, they came out of the blocks stumbling. There wasn't much shock and awe, it was kind of a shock and yawn. It was like going down the track, you're trying to get some initial speed and all of a sudden you run into this discus, muddy patch at the end of the track and you're just slowing down, you're bogged down.

That's what happened. And in addition to that, the Russian forces ran into some phenomenal Ukrainian resistance, as you've described, a combination of military forces and armed civilians, which is just phenomenal and to be expected. I think that's absolutely marvelous. Over the course of time I think it's fair to say the Russians might be very, very slow right now but they also have the advantage of size and they can continue to pour some forces in there.

But what you're seeing, Jim, in addition to this image around Kyiv, is you're seeing sporadic images in fighting in Kharkiv and other places south of Kyiv and what you realize is that the Russians are trying to achieve a victory some place. They want to be able to hang a banner up that says, look, we've achieved this victory, that's a morale booster for them.

The problem is, if you try to win everywhere, you will not win anywhere. And I think they're dispersed. They came into Ukraine in multiple avenues of approach, thought they'd have these quick, lightning-fast victories, and then decapitation of Zelenskyy, et cetera, as we've been saying. But we're in about day five right now and that is not the case.

ACOSTA: Yes, Major General, I'm glad you brought up Kharkiv because it's my favorite video of the day and it shows these Ukrainian soldiers, when we put this up, firing RPGs at the Russians. They look armed to the teeth. They've got cigarettes. These look like tough hombres who are taking on the Russians there, and I wonder if this is more than what the Russians bargained for.

MARKS: Well, absolutely. And when you see individual soldiers like that, Jim, it's a good thing you're pointing it out, they're not firing from a protected position. They're not behind protection, not popping up and then shooting, getting back and retreating. What that tells you is that they're not being foolish. It's just that the Russians aren't returning direct fire. They don't. The Ukrainian forces don't feel threatened by these Russian forces. That's what's most telling.

I think it's absolutely phenomenal that we're seeing these images play out. We've seen other images where a number of infantrymen are now behind these moving infantry fighting vehicles more like a Humvee more than anything else, because they've gotten a few rounds fired at them. That's not a force that's showing any aggressiveness, any vigor, any momentum, any -- excuse me, any desire to maintain kind of a pace of operations.

What you're seeing is incredible excessive caution on the part of these infantrymen and these maneuver forces. That's a recipe for disaster. Those are sitting targets.

ACOSTA: Yes. And you were mentioning the Russians looking for a victory. I guess today earlier we did learn that a small Ukrainian town of about 100,000 people, has a small naval installation, has been taken by the Russians. Obviously this is not the prize that Vladimir Putin envisioned at the start of all of this but what does this tell you about their abilities and their progress?

MARKS: It's irrelevant. It doesn't matter. It only matters for anybody in Russia who is looking at some domestic dissemination of information. Sadly, it matters for the people in that town. But in the overall scheme of this campaign for the Russians, that is on the last page of something they should -- lower priority of something they should be working on.

[18:35:05]

What's also very important, I think, Jim, at this point is, when Ukrainians achieve a success, they're going to end up with some prisoners of war which means they're going to start increasing, you know, their intelligence and understanding of the forces' desires, objectives, et cetera. That's something that we haven't seen, but it's probably no doubt taking place.

ACOSTA: That's fascinating. That's very true. Something else maybe the Russians didn't think about in advance or didn't give too much consideration to, and the Russians are supposed to meet with the Ukrainian delegation at the Belarus border tomorrow. President Zelenskyy of Ukraine said this about the meeting. Let's talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE (through translator): 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 OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So it sounds like he's not putting too much stock in any prospects for ending this during these meetings.

MARKS: Well, you would think there'd be some type of a precondition before you engage in a conversation, number one, and we haven't seen anything that looks like that. Number two is I hope that delegation that participates in that has gone through the necessary self- protection measures so there isn't some catastrophe that takes place.

ACOSTA: Right.

MARKS: And then the third thing is we've seen European powers as well as the United States saying they're going to start to bolster the amount of, you know, anti-tank weapons, you know, military support. The key thing there is how does that military support get into those necessary receiving units? I mean, we're talking about pre-positioning in Poland or Romania, then there has to be some link-up that takes place.

Do they have to fight through Russian positions to get these into the hands of the Ukrainian forces? It's great to say we've got this new kit coming in. It's another thing to say how is this on a very practical and tactical level going to be accomplished? There are ways to do that, and I think we should look to see how that is accomplished.

ACOSTA: All right. Very good. Major General Spider Marks, thank you very much for those insights. We appreciate it as always.

MARKS: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. And organizations around the world are on the ground in Ukraine and neighboring countries to help those in need with shelter, food, water and additional aid. For more on how you can help, and you can help, just go to CNN.com/impact for more information.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:29]

ACOSTA: The White House says President Biden will talk about Russia's invasion of Ukraine in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday. Let's go now to our White House correspondent, CNN's Arlette Saenz. She's in Wilmington, Delaware, where the president spent the weekend keeping an eye on Russia's aggressive and deadly onslaught against Ukraine.

Arlette, the State of the Union Address comes at a very consequential time in his presidency.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, this is really a high stakes moment as the president is set to address not just the country but also the world. As so many people around the globe are watching as the U.S. and its allies put up this strong denouncement against Russian President Vladimir Putin's moves and attack on Ukraine. And White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki today said that yes, the topic of Ukraine and Russia's aggression will be front and center in the speech. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No question that in the State of the Union the American people and anybody watching around the world will hear the president talk about the efforts he has led over the past several months to build a global coalition to fight against the autocracy and the efforts of President Putin to invade a foreign country. That is certainly something that is present in all of our lives and certainly in the president's life in this moment.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now this comes as the U.S. and its allies were really showing a united front over the course of the past few days issuing those severe sanctions against Russia's President Vladimir Putin as well as supplying more defense assistance directly to Ukraine. But in addition to Ukraine the president, of course, is juggling a host of issues. He just nominated his first choice for the Supreme Court. He is hoping the first black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

But then he's also, you know, really juggling and grappling with some low poll numbers. A recent CNN Poll of Polls found that President Biden's approval rating is only at 41 percent. Of course there is fatigue throughout the country when it comes to the coronavirus. We will see what the president might be unveiling on that front. He also is really trying to revive his economic agenda going forward as he's trying to give this address to the country.

ACOSTA: All right, Arlette Saenz, thank you very much, and now over to Stephanie Elam in Los Angeles.

Stephanie, are you there?

ELAM: Hello, yes, Jim. I hear you now. Sorry, it just got a little chaotic here on the carpet. But I am joined right now by one Fran Drescher, who is the president of SAG-AFTRA, which is the union behind the Screen Actors Guild Award.

Thank you so much for being here. Duncan as well. Duncan is here as well to represent the union. Listen, I know that everyone talks about the actors and this is a big night for actors but I know that you have your brain split a little because there are members who are journalists covering the conflict in Ukraine and the invasion by Russia.

What are you thinking about now as you're putting on this beautiful awards show finally in person and also dealing with making sure your members are safe?

FRAN DRESCHER, PRESIDENT, SAG-AFTRA: Well, obviously my prayers are for the people of Ukraine, and I once heard the Dalai Lama say that world peace is not a world without problems. It's a world where we decide to solve our problems peacefully.

[18:45:07]

And I just wish that everybody, particularly the world leaders, would try and live that way because the world would be a better place if they did.

ELAM: And, you know, just to ask you quickly about this, Duncan, the idea that there are journalists over there covering it, does it change how anything is done with the show tonight?

DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND, SAG-AFTRA NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, we're certainly going to make mention of the situation in Ukraine in the show. We're very concerned about it but, of course, the safety of our journalist members over there is a top priority. We put out a statement yesterday acknowledging that and calling on governments to respect the freedom of the press and to protect journalists who are there doing their jobs trying to cover the situation.

Obviously it's a disastrous decision on the part of the Russian government. But journalist safety is one of our top priorities.

ELAM: Thank you both for stopping. We are going to see the SAG Awards get going here live on TBS and TNT at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ACOSTA: "Saturday Night Live" opened their show last night showing support for Ukraine. Instead of the usual cold open sketch, "SNL" introduced a Ukrainian chorus to sing "Prayer for Ukraine."

[18:50:53]

The candles on the table spell out Kyiv and were surrounded by sunflowers which are Ukraine's national flower.

And perhaps you were starting this new week thinking the same thing I've been thinking. The sheer courage on display in Ukraine these last several days has been remarkable. We have all heard about the Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island who refused to surrender to a Russian warship and told the invaders to go F themselves. By the way, the Ukrainian government is hopeful those soldiers might actually be alive.

But there have been other inspiring moments. The man trying to stop a Russian tank with his body. Other Ukrainians have been forced to hide in subways, basements, and bomb shelters where children are being told to act like turtles. Go inside their shells to shield themselves from Russian attacks. Yes, children can be brave, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRA RUDIK, MEMBER OF THE UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: So it's very important that if you cannot get to the bomb shelter that you protect yourself from the hit, if it hits to keep your mouth open and your ears covered so this is the game I see 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 are turtle this way because this is how like, you look like a turtle and this makes it less stress for the children.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Other haunting images from Europe's past have come rushing back. Ukrainians bordering trains by the thousands. Women and children can leave the country but the men are being told to stay and fight.

Yes, the parallels are there. Parallels to this world's ugly and evil past. This time, the villain speaks Russian, he lies and says he's the one fighting the Nazis, but he's the one rolling thermobaric weapons into Ukraine, these vacuum bombs as they're called can vaporize human beings. Forgive me if I don't want to call him President Putin anymore. He doesn't deserve to be called president considering that the Russian leader or however you want to describe him has put his nuclear forces on alert, to do what, we should ask.

But in the face of that killer something unexpected has happened in the last several days. Much of the world has been inspired, and now much of the world is united in part because of the leadership of Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. When Zelensky was asked whether he wanted to be evacuated from Ukraine, he responded by saying, I need ammunition, not a ride. Zelensky has told the world he is Russia's number one target, his wife and children, he says, are target number two.

And yet he has deployed a weapon Putin should have expected but didn't because Putin is stuck in the past. A one-time Ukrainian TV star, Zelenskyy has turned to social media to release messages from the street urging his people to stand in defiance of Putin's army. Now, instead of simply hiding from Russian attacks, Ukrainians have been busy making Molotov cocktails to greet the invaders.

Yes, Putin has made it clear time and again that he once to reconstitute the old Soviet Union but that is the 21st century definition of insanity, attempting to bring back a failed state that collapsed in utter defeat decades ago. If Putin is so thirsty for a flashback to the Cold War, perhaps he should be reminded of what happened to the leaders of those former Soviet strongholds at the end of that era.

It didn't end so well for the oppressors. If there's something Europe understands it's that neutrality and apathy are the enablers of tyranny and oppression. It's not a stretch to say that this a critical moment in the history of this century a threat to democracy, and Ukraine feels far away until Putin moves on to the next country and the one after that. As Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S. said today, it is time to take sides, it's time to take Ukraine's side.

[18:55:06]

Perhaps that is beginning to happen. Over the weekend, we have seen so many people taking to the streets, thousand from Moscow, to the rest of Europe and all over the world. They are not just demanding an end to Putin's invasion, they are standing in solidarity with the Ukrainians, lighting up their landmarks as you can right there, across the globe in yellow and blue. The Ukrainian people have lit a spark that is uniting the world against tyranny.

Now here in the United States, we may be tempted to think that the struggle against tyranny and the fight for freedom and liberty is a uniquely American experience. But what we are witnessing right now is that the fight is not American or Ukrainian. It is uniquely human. It is who we are.

I've got an idea. If you want to give somebody a ride out of town, let's give it to Vladimir Putin.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here next Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Pamela Brown takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break. Good night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There hasn't really been any led-up in those sort of booms and blasts that we hear every evening here. OKSANA MARKAROVA, UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: We are not ready

to surrender and we will defend our country, and we will win.