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U.N.: Nearly 836,000 People Have Left Ukraine Since Russia Invaded; Some Refugees Reportedly Facing Discrimination, Racism; Growing List of Major Companies Take Action Against Russia; Russia Claims It Has Taken Kherson, Ukraine Denies It. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired March 02, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:34:19]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I'm Anderson Cooper in Lviv.
You can hear air raid sirens going off right now in the city. There's sirens and also an automated voice telling people to seek shelter. This is the first time that's occurred today.
Citizens continue to leave -- excuse me, women and children continue to leave this country when possible, the U.N. says Europe is on the verge of its largest refugee crisis this century.
Officials say nearly 836,000 people have fled since the start of the Russian invasion and the numbers of people continue to increase.
Even on the other side of the border, emotions are running high. Today, the Polish prime minister defended his country over accusations that some refugees were receiving preferential treatment.
[13:35:08]
CNN's Sara Sidner is in Poland. Arwa Damon is across the border in Ukraine.
Sara, let's start with you.
I know you've been following official reaction to these allegations, particularly of Africans, some from Nigeria, Cameroon and elsewhere, who have been working in Ukraine, who had trouble and said they were discriminated against as they were trying to board on trains or get on buses.
What are you learning? SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: So here is what we've heard,
and it isn't just Africans. At this point, we're hearing the same thing from Indians, Afghans, people from, like you said, places like Nigeria and Cameroon, who clearly have darker skin and who clearly aren't native born Ukrainians.
And so they are saying to us, look, we felt the sting of discrimination as we tried to leave with everybody else. The women and children were pushed off the train, according to at least three people that we have spoken to who are from Africa.
I do want to say this. Where I'm standing right now is the main border to get into Poland from Ukraine. We are in Medyka.
This is the border for a very long time that allowed people to walk over the border in normal times as well as drive over the border.
Now Poland has opened its borders to be able to walk, drive, however, you can get I Poland and are welcoming Ukrainians and anyone who is fleeing the war at this point.
However, there had been a huge backup. And that backup in Ukraine was mostly of black and brown people.
So we had the E.U. Commission on Crisis Management who came here to this border just a couple hours ago. And I asked one of the E.U. commissioners of crisis management about the issue and whether that's what they were seeing or not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANEZ LENARCIC, EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR CRISIS MANAGEMENT: Members of parliament assured us this is fake news, that this is not true. And honestly, we have not been able to corroborate that.
SIDNER (voice-over): I have corroborated it. I have talked to Africans and Indians who said they were pushed off trains. They were left behind. These are women and children.
LENARCIC: Any discrimination -- any discrimination among people who are fleeing the conflict on the basis of any personal characteristic, including citizenship or skin color, is completely unacceptable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: So you heard that. That was the E.U. commissioner -- one of the commissioners for crisis management saying it is unacceptable.
I will tell you this. They have made huge efforts to clear that issue, to deal with that issue letting over nearly 100,000 people on Tuesday alone -- Anderson?
COOPER: Arwa, you're on the other side of the border in Ukraine where it seems like that's been the focus more the accusations of racism. What have you been seeing? ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here is the thing,
Anderson, and that is, yes, it was on this side that backlog was taking place.
But ask officials here and they will say it was Poland that was being slow processing people through.
As you heard with Sara reporting there, asked officials in Poland, they'll say, no, it was on the Ukrainian side.
Either way let us show you what is happening here tonight because this was not the scene here 24 hours ago.
Right now, you have one long line of people of all nationalities. Yes, of course, most Ukrainian mothers and children. But in this line that you see here tonight, you also have citizens of all nations.
Anderson, this was not the case less than 24 hours ago. What you had here was that long line of not Ukrainians, of Africans, of Asians, of all nationalities that effectively were not Ukrainian or E.U. or Western passports.
And just take a listen at what one Afghan family had to go through.
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DAMON: So this is the fourth time you are trying to cross the border?
YASSER AHMED, AFGHAN TRYING TO FLEE UKRAINE: Yes.
DAMON: Yasser is from Afghanistan, here with his uncle and family.
AHMED: Two months that I didn't hear my parents' voice. Yes.
DAMON: Oh.
AHMED: It's so hard.
DAMON: Yes.
(voice-over): They have all been on the road for four days, back and forth from border crossings.
His aunt's arms are aching from carrying her newborn. She gave birth the day before Russia launched its first strikes.
AHMED: I stayed at the night at the border --
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[13:39:59]
DAMON (voice-over): They did not think the baby would survive. We lost track of them at the border. They were able to move to the front of the non-Ukrainian side because of the children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: And, Anderson, that family did make it across only to be denied entry actually into Poland because that 5-day-old baby did not have its papers.
And when it comes to the wait they were talking about, people were waiting -- again, non-Ukrainians, were waiting out here for anywhere from two to four days in freezing temperatures.
This morning, when we came back, the entire situation had changed.
COOPER: So what will happen to that family? Because they have a newborn baby and the baby doesn't have papers, what happens?
DAMON: So what they're trying to do right now is get the baby's paperwork from the head of the refugee camp.
They ended up being moved from the border area back to a shelter, a school that had actually been turned into a shelter.
And they really didn't know how they were going to be able to get this paperwork that they need.
But you're really seeing, among the volunteers here, the sense of community.
So a number of people who are volunteering at the shelter, made phone calls for them. And they're hoping to get those papers delivered to their location right now.
Because otherwise, they say they're stuck. They had just fled the war in Afghanistan some five, six months ago. They were asylum seekers hoping to be moved on to the United States.
And right now, they're saying they're having to flee war once again.
COOPER: Arwa Damon and Sara Sidner, appreciate it. Thank you.
It is not just countries that are cracking down on Russia. A growing list of major companies is taking action against Vladimir Putin. That is next.
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[13:46:49]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: From airlines and big tech to retail and entertainment, it's getting hard to keep up with all the big companies taking action against Russia for invading Ukraine.
And CNN's Matt Egan is at least trying to keep up with all of this.
Matt, the reality is Russia is slowly getting cut off essentially from the rest of the world here. What are companies doing and what's the impact?
MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Ana, the business world is turning against Russia in dramatic fashion.
Look at this list of companies. This isn't even all of them. We can't fit them on a screen.
Look at the list of those distancing themselves from Russia. It goes across the board, every sector you can think of.
Autos -- Ford, G.M., BMW. Aviation -- Boeing, Airbus.
In tech, we've seen Twitter and Meta and other companies take action --
TikTok.
EGAN: -- against Russian state media.
The retail world -- Nike, Adidas.
Entertainment -- Disney, Netflix. Our sister company, Warner Brothers, has even pulled "Batman" out of studios in Russia.
Even energy. We know Russia is an oil-rich country. We've seen Shell, B.P., Exxon take action.
CABRERA: So what are those oil companies doing, like, when you say they're taking action?
EGAN: Some are divesting or promising to divest some of their assets.
Exxon is a big one. They've had a quarter century nonstop presence in Russia. Last night, they said they're going to discontinue, basically quit their final oil and drilling project there. It's a very big deal.
We've seen financial companies -- AMEX announcing yesterday it will stop working with some of the banks that have been sanctioned.
Shipping companies, including FedEx, UPS. It's been across the board.
This will send a big message to the Russian public and also the oligarchs that Vladimir Putin relies on for support.
CABRERA: And obviously, these actions are going to hurt Russia and Russians who are living there and relying on some of the products and aren't going to have access to supplies.
But then there are other companies you've been talking to who want to help Ukrainians, like Airbnb. You sat down and talked with the CEO. What are you hearing?
EGAN: Ana, this crisis has set off a humanitarian disaster. This may be the biggest humanitarian crisis Europe has seen all century.
Airbnb says they will provide free short-term housing up to 100,000 people who are fleeing Ukraine. They're going to be -- these stays are going to funded by donations and also by help from some of the posts on the platform. I talked to the CEO, Brian Chesky, and I asked him why he felt the
need to step up here.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN CHESKY, CEO, AIRBNB: It's extraordinarily heartbreaking. It's incredibly hard to watch every day.
I think that in a global humanitarian crisis like this, I think everyone should ask the question, how can we help?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: OK, so obviously they're doing their best giving free housing to those refugees. Of course, now we know it's approaching about a million people who are fleeing the land and a lot of help needed.
Matt Egan, as always, good to see you.
EGAN: Thank you, Ana.
CABRERA: Thank you very much.
[13:49:55]
We have new video into CNN showing Russian soldiers looting a bank in Ukraine. That's next.
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CABRERA: Come check out this new video into CNN from southern Ukraine. This is a bank official who tell us it shows Russian soldiers looting one of his company's branches in a village near Kherson.
Now Russia claims it now holds that city. Ukraine says it still has some control. At least 36 have been killed there.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in nearby Odessa.
Nick, tell us more about this battle in Kherson.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, just me tell you, Ana, just before you joined us, we heard sirens here over Odessa. It sounded like a couple of distant explosion and quick crack of gunfire here.
[13:55:07]
It doesn't necessarily suggest anything particularly major is underway, but it's a sign of how greatly on edge this major southern port city is, the third-largest in Ukraine.
But let me tell you more about Kherson, which is further along the Black Sea coast here. We were there days ago watching a pitched battle for the bridge on its
eastern outskirts. But since yesterday, we've seen an increased videos of Russian forces inside that city. Specifically today, inside their main center Freedom Square.
I heard from a local resident that people inside the town have been chanting "We are Ukraine. We are an independent country" in the face of Russian troops moving forward.
But since yesterday, too, videos have been emerging of Russian troops pushing around shopping carts full of goods. You mentioned the video of a bank being raided there as well.
The worst fears of Ukrainians is being realized. The concern, while we were there for a while, was that the Russians would not stay simply on the outskirts fighting over the strategic bridge on Kherson's outskirts, that they would eventually move in.
And when they did move in, they would potentially -- I mean, reports of the poor supply chain for Russian troops, but hungry and looking to find what they could from essentially looting. That's what we're seeing at the moment.
So during the day, they have talked about clashes intermittently around the town. We've seen videos of people being walked away at gunpoint, males, it seemed. And increasingly, a Russian armored presence around the city.
Ukraine has said itself that they are still fighting for parts of the town. It looks like Russian military has a pretty solid presence in parts of it.
But, of course, that is going to be contested by locals who are making their fury known --
CABRERA:
PATON WALSH: -- about Russians being there.
And it brought into mind the broader question of exactly, what do these Russian troops have planned in the long run, staying in populated areas like this -- Ana?
CABRERA: Such an important question. We do hear those sirens, Nick, and hope you stay safe. Thank you for your reporting.
And that does it us today. Thank you joining us.
Our breaking news coverage continues after a quick break.
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