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CNN Reports, U.S. Believes Russians More Willing to Attack Civilian Areas; Kyiv Television Tower Attacked as Russia Warns of Escalation; U.S. Close to Decision on Release of Oil to Ease Markets. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 01, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

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ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: Right now, world leaders are accusing Russia of war crimes, saying its forces are killing civilians in Ukraine. U.S. officials warning the worst though may still be to come.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: Take a look at this airstrike. We know at least ten people were killed when this happened. Well, this is the aftermath, an airstrike on an administrative building in the center of Kharkiv.

Dan Rivers, a Correspondent for ITV News, went to the site this morning.

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DAN RIVERS, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You can see complete devastation here. The top of this building, that behind me, has been completely taken out. It's just rubble all over the street and people wondering around, assessing the damage.

Kharkiv at the moment is a very nervous city, completely devoid of any kind of normal life in the center here and it's just devastating to see what has happened since we were here a couple of weeks ago when this was a normal bustling city. Now, it is an absolute shell.

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SCIUTTO: There you go. That was a strike by Russia on a non-military target in the middle of an urban center in this country. CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour joins us now from Paris. And, Christiane, I think you heard Beth Sanner there a short time ago talked about how this could expand beyond Ukraine into a war between Russia and the west U.S., that she says -- and she doesn't do this lightly, as you know, that she says has the risk of becoming a nuclear conflict.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, it's almost unimaginable that this could be happening and people could actually be talking about it, serious people, experts. And I've talked to world leaders about this as well. I talked to the French finance minister today. He said everybody is not just worried but scared. This has upped the ante to an extent that nobody ever thought could be humanly possible at this time in our history in Europe. And this is precisely the terror now that Putin is inflicting not just on Ukraine but over the rest of the world and certainly over those neighboring countries.

The other more immediate terror is that of the civilian casualties that you're talking about. In Estonia, a Baltic state, a NATO state, the prime minister of Britain and Estonia and the, sorry, the NATO secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, were talking. And they evoked Sasrajevo in the 90s and the siege of that civilian center where there was relentless bombardment on civilian structures. And as the CNN's main correspondent there, we all remember it so well. And that was the war aim, to create terror and death among civilians and to get their military goals and, in fact, their ethnic cleansing and, in that case, genocidal goals, through attacking civilians.

And that is what the British prime minister, the French and many, many leaders are incredibly worried about right now, warning Putin not to target civilian structures. And that looks like may be in the offing coming up. And this is a very, very bad development, very bad indeed.

I spoke to the French finance minister today about the unprecedented U.S. and E.U. sanctions that are being leveled on Russia itself. And as the French finance minister said to me, the design is to crumble, to collapse, to bankrupt the Russian economy in order to say, stop, to President Putin. This is what he said.

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BRUNO LE MAIRE, FRENCH MINISTER OF ECONOMY: The aim of the economic sanctions is quite clear. We want to inflict serious measures to the Russian economy and to the Russian financial system. That's why we have decided, first of all, to freeze of all the assets of the Russian central bank. This means not far from 1,000 billion dollars that would be freezed by the decision to European countries and the United States. And the United States and the European countries stand together vis-a-vis Putin and the vis-a-vis the aggressive behavior of Vladimir Putin.

The second decision that we have taken is also to freeze the assets of all the oligarchs.

(END VIDEO CLIP) AMANPOUR: So, this is an attempt to stop Putin, as he said to me, we just want to tell him to stop. We are not going to be attacking inside Ukraine militarily, but we must level this punishing and very painful economic -- well, economic warfare against.

Now, in response to that, the former Russian president warned him and warned the west that he said don't forget, in history, economic warfare has led to real war. And in response to that, and in response to any so-called miscalculation that Putin might make, the secretary- general of NATO today again said that one square inch of NATO territory, if so much as one soldier from Russia puts one foot on one square inch, NATO will come down and come down hard in its entire allied force. So, they're trying to make Putin understand that.

But we're at a very, very risky point in this conflict, and the president of Ukraine, as you know, who's still bravely in Kyiv, addressed the E.U. today and said he wanted more help, he wanted to be recognized by the E.U. And he was heartbroken that the tragedy happening to his country is what it took to unite the world.

[10:40:03]

SCIUTTO: And they do still feel like they're fighting alone on the battlefield at the end of the day. Christiane Amanpour there in Paris, thanks very much.

HILL: Just ahead, we're going to take you back live to Kyiv, air raid sirens being heard. We'll take you there live at the top of the hour for an update. Stay with us.

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[10:45:00]

SCIUTTO: A short time ago, we heard air raid sirens, an explosion in the capital of Kyiv. We now know -- we believe we know what was behind that.

Our Clarissa Ward is back now. Clarissa, we believe we know what the target was of that attack now.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. So, just before we had spoken last time, we had heard that loud explosion, you heard air raid sirens throughout our live report. We now believe that the target was the sort of central broadcaster T.V. tower. It's about three miles in that direction over that way, when our cameraman, when he was on the roof, he was able to see a large plume of smoke coming from that direction. We've seen some videos also on social media showing what appears to be large amount of smoke.

The T.V. tower, at least in the one video we saw, appears to still be standing, although it's not clear what the status is of that now. We have had our report out from the minister of internal affairs. They said that this -- that, basically, the T.V. tower was hit, that channels would not be working for a while, but that back-up broadcasting will soon be enabled. So, presumably, most Ukrainians not any longer able to watch Ukrainian main T.V channels.

Now, important to put this into some context, Jim, the Russian defense ministry had warned earlier in the day that they were going to be hitting several targets inside Kyiv in the capital today, and one of them, which they had mentioned and told people who live near to places like this to leave, were relay nodes. The language even in Russian is quite vague here but, basically, what we've understood that to mean is large-scale antennas, sort of communications towers.

And so this appears to be the first strike targeting that, that we now see on Ukraine's -- on Kyiv's T.V. tower. You're seeing some images there, again, of smoke billowing up in the distance. It was a pretty significant explosion that we heard, Jim. We've obviously been hearing strikes on a regular basis throughout the past few nights, but this was louder than usual.

Again, not clear yet whether the tower actually collapsed. It appeared initially that it was still standing but, obviously, some serious damage done to the surrounding infrastructure that Ukraine's authorities are now announcing that those channels will not work for a while until back-up broadcasting can be enabled, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Clarissa Ward there, thanks very much.

And, Erica, it's notable to see because part of the invasion plan, our understanding have been, according to U.S. intelligence, would be to cut off the city power, communications, electronic warfare, et cetera. This is one of the first salvos, as it were, in that attack.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. We will continue to monitor that, monitor the situation in Kyiv.

We are also watching how countries are responding, how companies are responding and a closer look now at the unexpected weapon that Vladimir Putin could use against the west, oil and gas. We are already seeing the cost impacts from the situation in Ukraine. So, what else could be next? Stay with us.

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HILL: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent the cost of a barrel of oil now over $100. Those are prices that haven't been seen in more than seven years. The U.S. is expected to soon announce the release of millions of barrels of oil in an attempt to settle gas prices a bit.

CNN's Matt Egan joining me now. So, we know, Matt, that a number of U.S. allies also dipping into their stockpiles. This is really a short-term measure.

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: That's right, Erica. I mean, U.S. officials and officials from around the world are coming together to try to sort of shield consumers from some of the pain from higher energy prices. And senior U.S. officials, others familiar with the matter telling CNN the United States is expected to join Germany, U.K., Italy, Japan, South Korea and other countries in releasing oil from emergency stockpiles. The total size of the release could be around 50 million to 60 million barrels and the goal again is to try to cushion the shock to energy markets.

Prices at the pump, they've jumped to $3.62 a gallon nationally, that's up 9 cents in a week, 24 cents in a month. The CEO of Chevron told me today that this kind of a move could help in the short-term. Emphasis though on short-term because there's a finite amount of barrels in strategic reserves and some context, 60 million barrels, that's a lot but barely half of what the world consumes every day. It kind of gets you to like lunchtime.

Worth noting too that markets are not all that impressed here. We've seen U.S. oil prices up 9 percent as we speak, above $104 a barrel for the first time since 2014, and that is only going to drive prices at the pump higher.

HILL: There's also -- you know, we see these other companies, big companies, pulling out, right, of how they deal with Russia here. But I know there is a lot of concern too about how Putin may play this, right, how he may use the oil and gas production to try to benefit Russia, to try to benefit himself.

[10:55:02]

What are we seeing there?

EGAN: Yes, absolutely. When we are witnessing the implosion of the Russian economy before our very eyes, the Russian ruble crashing to record lows, officials in Moscow are so worried about the stock market, that they're not even opening it yet for trading. All this does raise the question, how is Vladimir Putin going to respond. And there is growing concern he could try to punish the west by withholding oil supplies, and that would only drive up prices higher.

And that's not lost on Putin, the fact that gasoline prices are high here, that's not popular, the fact that the world needs his barrels of oil. He knows that. And so, hopefully, Erica, he decides not to do that because Russia needs that oil revenue as well.

HILL: Matt Egan, I appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

And just a quick reminder, please be sure to join us for CNN's special coverage of tonight's State of the Union. It all begins right here at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm Erica Hill.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto in Lviv, Ukraine.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

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