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Russia Facing Historic Economic Sanctions; Russia Shelling Ukraine. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 28, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:25]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell.

CNN has received reports of large explosions in Ukraine's capital city, Kyiv. Right now, Ukraine controls the city on the fifth day of Russian attacks. A senior U.S. defense official warned that Russia could take a more aggressive approach towards Kyiv.

Russia is frustrated by the resistance shown by the Ukrainians. Now, the Russians continue to attack, continue to advance. A video appears to show bombs decimating a residential street in Kharkiv. That's Ukraine's second largest city.

Now, Russia insists, though, it is not targeting Ukrainian civilians.

CAMEROTA: Satellite images show a three-mile-long convoy of Russian military trucks, tanks, infantry vehicles and artillery heading in the direction of Kyiv.

The first rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place today. Officials met for more than five hours on the Belarus border, but have now returned to their own capitals. As for what they accomplished, the Ukrainian official says they established topics for further talks in the coming days.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's turn now to Anderson Cooper in Lviv in western Ukraine.

Anderson, the war has also set off this massive refugee crisis.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, it certainly has. And there were just air raid sirens here in Lviv, people being told by loudspeaker to go into their basements. The United Nations says that more than half-a-million refugees have so far fled Ukraine. We crossed over the border from Poland today. You see women and children at the border going through the lengthy procedures to cross over the border.

One mother who escaped Romania said she could not hide her fear she may not be able to return to her homeland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't know how to come back, come back to I don't know. We're scared about our husbands, our brothers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, CNN is covering the war in Europe from all angles.

Clarissa Ward is in Kyiv for us tonight. Nic Robertson is in Moscow.

Let's start with CNN senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt. He is also in Kyiv, where Ukrainian officials say there are not only missile attacks, but also fighting in the streets.

Alex, we have been hearing reports, large explosions. What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, just like where you are in Lviv, we too here in the capital have heard air raid sirens just in the past few moments.

They were quite sustained. This, unfortunately, has become a familiar sound. It doesn't always indicate that there are explosions coming right after that. But that doesn't necessarily make them any less haunting. As you can see behind me, the city is quite dark. This is a city that is usually quite lit up, people, buildings, keeping their lights off for security reasons.

Now, earlier today, just about two hours ago, right as those talks ended, there were at least three large explosions that we could hear very clearly from here, though at least one of them we have been able to pinpoint landing just about 11 miles, or 18 kilometers, away in an area on the edge of Kyiv called Brovary.

So that is quite close. And, Anderson, of course, Kyiv and the second biggest city in Ukraine Kharkiv, are two of the biggest targets for the Russians. And we saw a significant shelling in Kharkiv today in a residential area. While Russians are claiming they're not targeting civilians, this was in a residential area in the northeastern part of the city near a supermarket.

It's an area called Saltivka, so the Russians clearly not letting up in their shelling of these two major population centers, around these two major population centers. We know from Ukrainian and American officials and others that those Russian forces are creeping closer to where we are right now. The Pentagon believes that Russian forces are around 25 kilometers away.

And we are keeping a very close eye on this three-mile/five-kilometer- long convoy that is heading towards Kyiv, which we are told has all manner have tanks, artillery, weaponry and, of course, Russian troops.

[14:05:05]

Now, there is a new curfew here in the capital. It went into effect around 8:00 p.m. local time. The mayor says that is not only because the situation is dangerous, but also because they are going after teams of what they call Russian saboteurs. And the mayor has said in the past few days they have been able to destroy large numbers of those Russian saboteurs.

Anderson, the shelling has often gotten worse at night. So, it remains to be seen whether those talks that happened today will mean that it's any quieter tonight -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, Alex, appreciate it. We will continue to check in with you in the hours ahead.

Here's one scene of survival out of Kyiv. Children battling cancer are now forced to live in a makeshift bomb shelter in the basement of a Kyiv hospital. Many Ukrainians are venturing out, trying to get supplies. They're facing long lines for the basics like groceries and medicine.

Let me turn now to CNN's Clarissa Ward, who's also in Kyiv.

Clarissa, what did you see today?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so this was after a 36-hour curfew, Anderson.

So there were quite a lot of people out on the street, most of them going out to try to get things like supplies, groceries, gas. Everywhere you went, you saw long lines snaking around the block, people waiting sometimes for more than an hour or two just to be able to get some food.

But what was extraordinary Anderson is that there was no sign -- the first couple of days, people were petrified. There was a sense of shock. Today, I saw something very different. I saw resilience. I saw defiance, a lot of people carrying signs on the street saying, "Putin is a" word that I can't say on television, billboards saying, "Russian soldiers go home. How will you be able to look your children in the eye?"

And we also saw a huge amount of volunteers. Outside every municipality building, they are making sandbags, digging defensive positions, putting together Molotov cocktails, anything that they can to try to contribute in some way towards this resistance, again, Russian force -- against Russian forces.

And it really was remarkable to see the shift in tone and mood here on the back of several incidents where Ukrainian forces have been able to repel Russian troops trying to move into the capital. That has really buoyed spirits here.

And I won't say it's a celebratory atmosphere at all. It's still scary. It's still war. And Russian forces are still making their way to the capital. You heard Alex talking about that huge column of tanks on its way here. But there is a sense now of: We can fight back.

And I felt really struck by that sense of confidence and optimism. It remains to be seen how long that will last, of course, Anderson, because, as U.S. officials have speculated, it is entirely possible that Putin will respond to the sort of frustrations his troops have had on the battlefield by upping the ante and by launching more bombardment, more air assaults, more strikes here on the capital.

That, of course, would only lead to more civilian casualties, which would undoubtedly create a very different mood on the streets. But, today, there was definitely a strong sense of defiance, Anderson.

COOPER: Clarissa, I talked to the mayor of Kyiv a little bit -- a couple hours ago, who was expressing concerns about a potential humanitarian crisis in terms of food supplies, medicine, things for people in need.

What are you seeing? I mean, is there food on the shelves when people were standing in line today?

WARD: So, one of the supermarkets we went to, there was still food on the shelves, although we went earlier on in the day. Other members of the CNN team went to different supermarkets and reported shortages of eggs and also of bread.

And as we were driving around the city, from what we were able to ascertain, there's only one bridge that is now kind of being allowed to open to traffic moving back and forth. And so there's no question there are obviously real issues with the supply line, let alone if you're trying to import medicines from other countries.

These -- some need to be stored in various conditions and moved in a certain way. And, obviously, all of that is feeling the effect of this war, there's no question. For now, it seems people do still have enough to eat and they are able to, I won't say go about their daily lives. They're certainly not doing that. Most of them are staying at home. They're hunkered down, and they're waiting for all of this to end.

But if this city is completely encircled by Russian troops, as is the very real fear, then it's not even a question of an all-out assault on the city from the air. You're talking about a siege. And, of course, when you're talking about a siege, you're talking about a major humanitarian crisis -- Anderson.

[14:10:01]

COOPER: Yes.

Clarissa Ward, appreciate it. We will check in with you shortly. Russia is facing financial turmoil. As you know, their economy has been slammed by crushing sanctions. The U.S. is inflicting even more financial punishments against the Kremlin right now, prohibiting any U.S. dollar transactions with the Russian Central Bank.

Now, today, the value of the ruble plunged nearly 30 percent. Russian citizens have been scrambling to try to withdraw cash. Vladimir Putin, the president, is lashing out at the west.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me now live from Moscow.

Nic, what have we been seeing on the streets of Moscow and other cities and the impact of these new financial restrictions?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, they have been slow to bite. I think we should stress that.

Some banks are working. So, some, you can do. Our producer, for example, came to work in the morning, went to use Apple Pay, where she buys her morning coffee, and a bite to eat, and it didn't work. And we were out just now trying to cover protests on the streets, which are happening here pretty much every day. And the Apple Pay didn't work for the park -- to park.

So there are some places it won't work. But there are other places it will work. There doesn't seem to be a sense of panic on the streets, per se. But I think, in the Kremlin, you have got a sense of that today, President Putin calling the West an empire of lies when he appeared on the TV with his prime minister to talk about how they're fixing the economic situation.

He is behind closed doors with the prime minister, with the first deputy prime minister, with the head of the Central Bank, with the heads of other banks as well, trying to figure their way through the problem. And, of course, President Putin's made a huge miscalculation.

Back in 2014, when he first invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, he was hit by sanctions. So he began to build a rainy day fund, putting money aside, $630 billion worth. Well, guess what? He's now found out that he's not going to have access to it all. The United States isn't going to give him access to the dollar part. The E.U. is not going to give him access to the E.U. part.

Who knows if he will be able to get his hands on the gold and other -- other places, has sort of stored this money away for a daylight today. The sanctions are as he was told. They are much bigger and much worse than he has ever faced before. So his vision of how the country handles it, that's crumbled before his eyes.

So, although the streets today are not facing a huge panic -- people in this country have been through a tumble in the value of the ruble a few times before over the past couple of decades -- it's going to come, because this government doesn't have a fix. And the fact that the stock exchange was closed today shows you just how worried they were about a further run on the ruble, Anderson. COOPER: Yes.

Nic Robertson, appreciate it.

Let's go back right now to Alisyn and Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Anderson, thank you.

The Biden administration wants to now tone down the rhetoric after Russian President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces on high alert.

CAMEROTA: And the growing humanitarian crisis, thousands of Ukrainian families fleeing to the border, we're going to take you there ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:35]

BLACKWELL: Ukrainians have really defied expectations over the last several days in the face of this Russian invasion.

Take a look at this. So we're going to take it to a small town, a Russian convoy 40 vehicles' deep blocked by local residents and their cars. Some men walked toward the Russians with their hands up. And then, after a few minutes, the convoy just turned around.

CAMEROTA: Also, in the outskirts of the capital of Kyiv, CNN's Matthew Chance down this column of Russian armored vehicles. It was still smoldering from fiery battle just a few hours earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right within the past few hours, there has been a ferocious battle here on the outskirts of Kyiv.

And this is one of those Russian Soviet era vehicles which is completely burned out.

You can see this is a bridge, actually is an access point to the northwest of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. And the Russian column that has come down here has been absolutely hammered.

Actually, I was crouching down right by a grenade there, look, and I didn't see that. So let's move away from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And then here's another example near the city of Kherson. This is a site of intense fighting against Russian forces in recent days. The Ukrainian air force posted this video, claiming a successful drone strike.

So, all of this despite having a much less well equipped military than Russia.

Joining us now is CNN military analyst General Wesley Clark. He's the former NATO supreme allied commander.

General, great to have you here. Because we're seeing these examples of bravery from the Ukrainian military, do you fear that some in the West are becoming overly optimistic about what the battle against Russia is going to be?

(CROSSTALK)

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They're not going to be optimistic.

The fight really hasn't been joined in the Kyiv area yet. These are advanced attachments that are moving into the area. They try to go in at night, disrupt the defense, take out key targets, assassinate people. But this is not the real attack on Kyiv. This is to prevent Kyiv from defending itself.

What the Ukrainians are doing is, they're going out from Kyiv, and they're intercepting these convoys. They know about that convoy we show the picture of. And they say they will deal with it. So this is a real fight. But here's the key.

We have got to keep the replenishments coming to the Ukrainian military. How those replenishments get in, I don't know. And we probably shouldn't know. But they have got to be provided the Javelin missiles, the Stingers, the artillery projectiles that they will eventually need, fuel and maybe even -- as Clarissa was talking earlier, maybe we're going to need to get humanitarian relief in there.

[14:20:18]

We don't know where this is going to end. But the Ukrainians are fighting bravely against a superior force.

BLACKWELL: General, speaking of the need for replenishment, Fred Pleitgen, who's near Belgorod, Russia, says that he's seen several resources, Russian resources, broken down, inoperable.

The U.S. says a portion of the Russian force is just not usable. How much consideration do you give that when you think about how hard the Ukrainians will be able to fight, hold off the Russians for as long as they can?

CLARK: Yes, it's going to be as -- if it stands as it is, it will be a battle of attrition both sides. So we know the Russian soldiers are relatively poorly trained, most of them, unmotivated. We know the equipment's probably pretty good. Their logistics is terrible.

They can't repair, refuel or feed, the way an American army would be taken care of. So they're also road-bound. The weather was supposed to be below zero. The ground was supposed to be frozen hard. They were supposed to just sweep across these open areas around Kyiv and sweep in around the city. It hasn't happened.

That long convoy is on a road. It can't maneuver off the road. It's really a sitting duck for Ukrainian targets. Either you bring in aircraft, or Ukrainian special forces or others who might go out there.

So this is a real active defense that the Ukrainians are putting up right now.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about that convoy.

Because you say it's a sitting duck, so it's, as far as we know, three miles' long of artillery, armored vehicles, tanks, can the Ukrainian air force, I mean, for what that is -- I know that they have incredibly antiquated equipment as well.

Can the Ukrainians take this out?

CLARK: If they can get the aircraft in safely, based on the Russian air defense status, they certainly could do a lot of damage to it. But that's not the only way they can attack it.

This part of Ukraine is -- it's wet. It's got water going through it. It's got bridges that can be blown. And those soldiers are vulnerable in those vehicles. Now, that may look like a lot of soldiers out there in that long convoy, but mostly it isn't.

The Russian infantry is not trained. Those Russian tankers don't get out of their tanks. It's a sitting duck, really. And the longer it stays out there, the more they're going to lose. So I think we -- the Ukrainians have a fighting chance at this, in large part because the Russians are road-bound.

BLACKWELL: A senior U.S. official says that the U.S. has not seen -- quote -- "anything specific" -- close quote -- since Putin ordered deterrent forces, including nuclear weapons, on high alert.

Now, it has been a day. But if that is something that the world should really worry about, would you have expected to see -- have seen something on the first day? What would you have expected to see if that was something significant?

CLARK: Well, I wouldn't really have expected to see much of anything, because this was clearly a diplomatic statement by Putin intend to do and eliminate the West and frighten us.

Whether it was connected actually to the forces or not, OK, our intelligence people can address that. But there was no obvious target. He's certainly not going to use a nuclear weapon against Kyiv at this point. He wants it, so he can put in his own puppet government there.

But what you have to understand is that the terror campaign is moving forward in some areas where the Russians have occupied. So, for example, in the Luhansk and in the Donetsk area in Donbass, there are Chechen troops in there. There are villages being burned down. There are women and children being killed, according to reports I'm getting out of Ukraine. So it's not just in Kyiv. This is a campaign to terrorize the people.

Those shots we saw although Grad rockets falling in Kharkiv, that's a terror weapon. They're not hitting military targets. They're trying to obliterate a city.

And this is the Putin way of war. It's talk, fight, talk, fight, try to persuade Zelensky to give in, give up, surrender Ukraine, and turn himself over to Russia justice. And I don't think President Zelensky has any intention of doing that, and, certainly, the Ukrainian people don't.

So this is going to go on for a while.

CAMEROTA: General Wesley Clark, thank you.

So, two Russian billionaires are breaking ranks with the Kremlin, calling for an end to the war.

What that could mean for Vladimir Putin -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:29:42]

COOPER: And welcome back. I'm Anderson Cooper in Lviv, Ukraine.

Air raid sirens just went off again, the second time this evening. Russia's attacks on Ukraine continue for a fifth day, with some large explosions reported east of Ukraine's capital of Kyiv.

We have talked our correspondents there. So far, more than half-a- million refugees have fled Ukraine, looking for safety. The U.N. secretary-general said this could be Europe's worst humanitarian and refugee crisis in decades.