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Russian Military Warns of Strikes Against Facilities in Kyiv; Air Raid Sirens Sound in Kyiv; Kherson Mayor's Stark Message, City is Under Attack, Help Me. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 01, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:03]

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A very dramatic situation, and that is the backdrop of the president's speech tonight.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: John Harwood, I appreciate it. We will all be watching, of course. Thank you.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto reporting from Lviv, Ukraine.

HILL: And I'm Erica Hill in New York.

Russian military officials warning they will carry out strikes against facilities in Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The Russian defense ministry is saying it will target facilities of the SBU, that's Ukraine's state security agency, along with a main information and operation center. And all of this as new satellite images show a massive convoy. You can see it there on your screen of Russian forces closing in on the city.

SCIUTTO: Yes, 40 miles long, it's just incredible.

New this morning, U.S. intelligence officials believe that Russia is resorting more and more to using heavier firepower, more devastating weapons, I'm told by U.S. officials. This after a recent setback and delays in its invasion strategy, this new intelligence suggests that Russian forces will be more willing to cause collateral damage. What does that mean? That means killing civilians, direct targeting of non- military assets, similar to what we saw this morning. This Russian missile strike in the city of Kharkiv in the northeast of this country, that's an administrative building, in an instant. Ukrainian officials say at least ten people are dead, dozens injured from that attack after that government building bombed by Putin's army.

Our reporters and correspondents this morning on the ground throughout Ukraine, Russia, back home as well.

Let's begin though with CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward. She is in Kyiv where, once again, they're hearing air raid sirens. Do we know what's behind this -- what you've heard in the last hour?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The warning that they're going to strike several SBU facilities. The Ukrainian SBU, Jim, are the security services here. We believe we've located one of those buildings, and there's a secondary building that I think is a little bit further out.

It's difficult to say without sort of standing there on the ground what civilian exposure there is to those buildings but obviously, this is a densely populated city center. And so the minute you start bombing city centers, there is a huge risk of civilians being killed.

The Russians did say in this statement from the defense ministry given to task that they are going to be using precision weapons, though, you know, it's arguable what that actually means or what kind of a guarantee that is, if any at all, and they also called on residents living near relay nodes to leave their homes. Relay nodes, we understand to mean sort of communications towers, so, large antennas, things of that nature, so, certainly, an ominous warning of things to come.

This is not a surprise in the sense that people here have been bracing themselves for an uptick in the Russian onslaught. Up until now, most attacks have really been targeting the outskirts of the city, but now it appears that things will move to the center of the capital, as so many had feared.

We also, of course, Jim, we are keeping our eyes on that massive Russian convoy of tanks, armory, weaponry that is making its way closer to the capital, miles long. And so the question becomes, what is the plan here? What is the strategy? Is the plan for those ground troops to try to surround the city, encircle it, lay siege to it, stop food, supplies, humanitarian aid from moving in and out, while you see some kind of an air assault campaign to try to soften targets and then potentially those Russian troops would try to move into the city?

Honestly, we just don't know at this stage, but one thing is obviously very clear, and that is that the situation in Kyiv is about to get much worse and it's going to be a very long night for the 2.9 million people who live here, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and multiple cities around the country. Clarissa Ward there in Kyiv.

Now CNN's Frederik Pleitgen, he is in near Belgorod, Russia, just across the northeastern border of Ukraine.

Fred, so you say, we were reporting that the Russian defense ministry said it plans on striking facilities inside cities. I mean, they're saying openly that they're going to attack targets within urban centers.

[10:05:01]

You've had a great vantage point there because you're seeing many of these weapons roll across the border into Ukraine. What kind of mix of weapons and what numbers have you seen in the last day?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As far as those strikes, those facilities concerned, the Russians obviously saying, as Clarissa just mentioned, that they are going to be using precision weapons to do that. It's unclear whether or not they mean cruise missiles or something else but weapons we've been seeing here from our vantage point seems to be older weapons that certainly are very powerful but don't exactly look like weapons with a lot of precision. In fact, I would say, about an hour ago, we saw multiple rocket launcher move towards the Kharkiv area.

Of course, all of that significant because you did have that massive missile strike that hit that administrative building that you were just talking about before. But, obviously, as far as the Ukrainians are saying, it caused a lot of civilian casualties, ten people dead and a lot of people injured in that as well.

What we are also seeing, Jim, and this is just a couple of minutes ago, was a massive convoy of Russian vehicles move towards the frontline area as well, from our vantage point right here, and one of the things that we've been mentioning is that we often see things here that then later tend to play out on the battlefield. It certainly seems to us as though the Russians are bringing more reinforcements into this area as well, of course, you have noted that the battle for Kharkiv has been one of the battles that is probably one of the most fierce fought right now here across Ukraine and also one of the ones where the Russians possibly might be having trouble and might be getting into ambushes in certain places with their vehicles as well.

On the whole, however, if you look at what the Russians are saying, they certainly seem to be sort of on the cusp of escalating this campaign further. You guys were just talking about that convoy, that is now apparently close to the outskirts of Kyiv. The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, he has already said that the Russians are at the gates of Kyiv, as he put it, and that the city is getting ready to defend itself. So, obviously, those people are hunkering down, both civilians who have picked up weapons and the military obviously inside Kyiv as well getting ready for what they obviously believe is a big battle.

There was one statement, Jim, that I think is very important to note from the Russian defense ministry and that's the Russian defense minister accused the Ukrainians of hiding heavy weapons and using them in civilian areas. Now, it's unclear whether or not that is true but, of course, we do know in the past that at times, leaders have used statements like that to then, in retrospect, justify hitting civilian areas, Jim.

SCIUTTO: That was a concerning warning there, you fear that that is an attempted justification for striking civilian targets. In fact, civilians have already died in this conflict in just the first few days. Fred Pleitgen there in Belgorod, Russia, just across from Kharkiv, the northeastern border of this country.

We're going to go back to Kyiv itself now because our Clarissa Ward there now live, had to take a break a bit, given the threat that you're under there.

So, you're hearing sirens again. I wonder, have you seen any evidence of what's causing these sirens? Have you seen overflights? Have you seen strikes in the last hour?

WARD: I haven't seen overflights but we did just hear a loud explosion, Jim. Hard to tell exactly what the target of that strike was, if it's one of these targets that the Russian defense ministry has already announced. They said they would be hitting several SBU facilities. SBU is, of course, Ukraine's security services, and we're not sure where that strike just hit. We'll be working on that to try to find out.

But the overriding concern here, Jim, as you can hear from the sirens wailing behind me, is that there is an understanding that tonight is going to be a very long night here in Kyiv, that the city is going to be under a full assault. That is likely to include aerial bombardment.

Up until this point, the majority of strikes appear to have targeted targets on the outskirts of the city. They appear to have mostly been targeting military infrastructure. I want to caveat that by saying though that we visited one apartment block that was hit over the weekend, which is clearly a residential apartment block, another one in a different suburb that was already hit as well.

So, it's not that they haven't hit civilian targets before but the fear now is that they are going to be even less discriminatory with this type of bombardment, and so everybody here really bracing themselves for what promises to be a very long night indeed, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So, what has happened in recent nights, right, we've had warnings, similar warnings in recent nights and those nights have not turned out to be quite as harrowing as the predictions, some of which came from Ukrainian military, it seems because Russia, to this point, has not been able to encircle the city yet to the extent that it wants or that U.S. intelligence shows it plans to have been to encircle, cut off, perhaps cut off power, communications, et cetera, and then begin a full-on assault.

[10:10:20]

What are Ukrainian officials telling you and our team there about whether that force has now been assembled? Do we know?

WARD: We don't know yet, Jim. Ukrainian officials, as you mentioned, have been warning us for days now that this assault on Kyiv might be imminent. In fact, the other night, they felt pretty certain that it was going to happen. That didn't transpire. But what makes this morning, of course, all the more sinister is that it's coming directly from the Russian defense ministry.

And we also heard from Minister Shoygu, the Russian defense minister earlier, saying that he believes that Ukrainian military forces are using or hiding their hardware in civilian structures. That is something we have heard many times before, Jim. It is a Russian propaganda line that is trotted out regularly when they are actively targeting civilian structures, homes, schools, hospitals in the past as well, things of that nature.

So, all of that giving people here even more cause for alarm than they had before that something real is under way and all of this, of course, happening, Jim, against the backdrop of this massive column of Russian armory, miles and miles long, getting closer to the capital. And the fear or the assumption is that that column of Russian troops would essentially assume positions all around the city, encircling it, cutting off supplies, cutting off humanitarian aid. At the same time, you would have some kind of air assault, missile assault, strikes to try to soften the city, if you will, before Russian forces would potentially try to move in.

SCIUTTO: And, remarkably, that's been the U.S. intelligence's assessment for weeks, that that would be part of the Russian plan. When first reported, first announced, there were a lot of questions as to whether Putin would pull the trigger and it looks like he has. Clarissa Ward, please stay safe there in the capital, Kyiv.

I want to go to CNN Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon. She is in Shehyni, Ukraine, along the border with Poland. And what we've seen take place in this country, and you're seeing the effects of it there, Arwa, is that as Russian military action takes place in the eastern and central part of the country, it is pushing hundreds of thousands of people to flee to the west, U.N. refugee agency estimating some 660,000 so far. Tell us what that flow looks like where you are.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's almost as if it's the story of two very different flows of people with, to a certain degree, very different stories. Right here, you have this long line of mostly men, many of them students from, really, across the world. You have people from all different countries in Africa, you have people from different countries in Asia. And the thing is, Jim, they have been waiting here, most of them, for days. There's a gentleman we were speaking to just in the back who said he's been here for 3 days.

Excuse me, sir, I overheard you saying four days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four days, yes.

DAMON: And, I mean, how does that make you feel to be waiting that long?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very bad, very bad, of course. We have been on this queue for days, on this code (ph). (INAUDIBLE) moving almost a million, you know? Can you people help us and tell that at least to do something. They can only move like 20 over here. And the (INAUDIBLE), some are still, some people have fallen sick here, fallen down, but I don't know if it's because of the (INAUDIBLE).

DAMON: And, Jim, to that effect, talking about people falling sick, there's actually a gentleman who we saw here last night there in the pink hooded sweatshirt, he is very ill. We saw him here last night, over here in the yellow blanket, this is Anwar (ph). We also met Anwar (ph) here last night. It was absolutely freezing. He has literally -- I mean, how far do you think you moved? Like ten --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like 20 to 30 meters maximum. DAMON: So, that's like 100 feet in more than 24 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

DAMON: And on the other side here, and you see also people getting bused over as well, that was not an option for the men in this row that I was just talking to. They all had to walk here. But on the other side of this bus is what they call the Ukrainian line.

[10:15:02]

And that is the story of mostly women and children who have all had to say goodbye to their husbands, sons, and fathers, brothers, because they have all had to stay behind. Now, they are actually able to move through fairly quickly.

And then the car line to get here, if you actually want to try to drive your car across this border, that is going to take you upwards of 30 hours. And what we have also been seeing is people just growing fed up with that wait and beginning to walk. Because it is, as I was saying, freezing cold, and so many are getting sick, especially children.

Earlier today, we actually ended up racing down in the other direction following a vehicle of a volunteer who had received a call because a baby had a fever of 104 and needed to be emergency picked up and moved across this border to be able to get proper medical attention. And so it's extraordinarily desperate.

And what you really hear here is that a better system needs to be put into place to really start moving people across in a much more effective manner, because they can't survive out here. I mean, it is very close to freezing in these temperatures and it's unbearable.

SCIUTTO: I'm glad you mentioned that, Arwa, because folks at home might not realize all of this taking place in just Arctic-like weather here with all the consequences involved. Arwa Damon, everyone else, thanks so much.

So, here we are. It's 2022. Russian forces are invading multiple European cities. It's invaded a country that did not attack it. There are air sirens going off almost by the minute in cities here. There are missile strikes, airstrikes, and refugees fleeing war in Europe.

Erica, I feel at times like we are caught in a 1940s newsreel here, but it's not history. It's playing out before our eyes.

HILL: It really does feel that way, and more than 500,000 refugees, as we know. And as you point out, these attacks and the attacks that we have been told from the Russians directly are coming and specifically, are coming to Kyiv. And that city of 2.9 million, as Clarissa pointed out, increasingly on edge as they wait for that.

Still to come, the Ukrainian president telling European leaders it's time to prove you're with us. The great decisions now being faced by this leader. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

SCIUTTO: We are, if you could believe it, just six days into this war, into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a country that was peaceful until just days ago, did not attack Russia.

We're hearing now from the mayor of a southern Ukrainian city who Kherson. He's posted a stark message on Facebook about the Russian attack on his town. He writes, we're quoting, the city is under attack. Residential buildings and urban facilities are burning. We try to coordinate the work of municipal services but I confess, it is very difficult now. We are not soldiers. We are civilians.

I met my office and my task now is to extinguish fires, protect the Ukrainian flag over the city, save your lives and eliminate the consequences of shelling of the city as quickly as possible.

Help me. Do not go outside. Take care of yourself. That is all I ask. We are not military, but I will hold the city and its functioning as long as I can.

The mayor goes on to say, if the Russian soldiers and their leadership hear me, I ask, leave our city, stop shelling the civilians. You have already taken everything you wanted, including human lives.

Those words, Erica, heart-stopping, but it's what we're seeing in so many places now here.

HILL: Yes, it is the reality for millions of people across that country, as they wait and they watch.

Joining us now, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Beth Sanner. Beth, good to have you with us.

As we look at this, we have this warning we know about in Kyiv, the reporting from our teams on the ground there, I know you've said that it's really the next 24 to 48 hours that has you especially concerned. What are you watching for?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you know, I saw Lavrov's speech at the U.N. Human Rights Council and he absolutely doubled down on this idea of Ukraine developing nuclear weapons and having to defend against that. We are just seeing all the military signs and we have also, tomorrow, the second round of negotiations. So, it seems to me that this is absolutely the doubling down in order to get Ukraine to capitulate.

SCIUTTO: Beth Sanner, as you noted when we were speaking in the break, there's been a somewhat glib discussion out there about, well, how about military strikes inside Ukraine against Russian targets or no-fly zone that would put western NATO-U.S. war planes head to head, frankly, with Russian fighters and I wonder if you could describe the dangers of that, but also, bigger picture, where you think this is heading. [10:25:01]

Are you concerned that this could expand beyond Ukraine?

SANNER: Well, I think that our actions in many ways will be determinant of whether it will expand or not. I certainly hold Putin absolutely accountable, I'm not trying to say that. But what I am trying to say is that while we have to put everything we can into Ukraine to help the Ukrainian people, we also have to put our emotions aside as much as we can. And it's so hard watching your coverage, but we have to be very clear-headed about what the limits are in terms of what we want.

And if we go for a no-fly zone, that literally means shooting Russian jets out of the sky, and given our arsenals, we quickly into nuclear war. So, we have to be very clear-headed.

HILL: in terms of that, you know, that question about nuclear war, as you say, could quickly get into nuclear war, we have heard a number of people make the point in the last day or so that with Putin saying, he has nuclear on high alert, he would, in no way, hesitate to use whatever he has in his arsenal, which, of course, does include nuclear weapons.

What is the planning happening, right? Take us inside those moments. What are the briefings happening, what are the discussions happening at this moment, as we're watching everything unfold, as we're watching that 40-mile long convoy and as there are increased concerns about what Putin will do next, as he doubles down?

SANNER: Well, it makes me think of Newton's third law. For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. And so you will see, and we have seen the Biden administration being very, very careful about how they responded to Putin's putting the nuclear forces on alert, and they are noting that we have not actually seen any forces move. We haven't seen any bombers being filled with nuclear bombs, okay? And we have not raised our level to Def Con 3. So, that was very wise because, right now, we have put Putin in a corner. We don't want to push him over the line.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Okay. So, that is daunting to describe those very real risks. In the more immediate term, we now have Russian forces doing what U.S. intelligence had indicated for weeks, that they are unleashing full force of the Russian military on multiple cities at once, intention to cut off those cities, including the capital, decapitate the leadership here and take over the country.

I'm told by U.S. officials that as this is happening, Russia is really willing and perhaps deliberately going to target civilians as part of the plan. How should -- is that the way you see them exercising military power on the ground here?

SANNER: Yes, I do. In September of 1999, Putin was in charge, had been put in charge of the Chechen war. And there were good news media reports about how several huge apartment buildings on the outskirts of Moscow were blown up and some security intelligence folks were held culpable for that. Putin has, in my view, done exactly the sort of thing, not at this scale, but he is willing to do anything.

And right now, look at what we are putting him in a position of. He is the most isolated Russia has ever seen. We are bringing his economy to its knees. He has to keep the military and the elites on his side. What would be the rational thing to do? Would the rational thing to do right now to be never mind, so sorry, giving up, when we already have the ICC talking about war crimes? We are not talking about pulling those sanctions back, if he stops now. So, what do you do? You double down.

And so if you're going to try to pressure the Ukrainians into capitulation, it's all in. Everything is on the table.

SCIUTTO: We're seeing it happen before our eyes, satellite images, social media images, news images, an invasion of a peaceful country, 2022. Beth Sanner, thanks so much.

Coming up next, we will be joined by Christiane Amanpour on the very grave decisions world leaders face, among one we just discussed there. How far some countries are willing to go, what are the risks?

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