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Secretary of State Blinken Updates Russian Invasion of Ukraine; Justice Department Targets Russian Oligarchs; President Biden Says Russia Intentionally Targeting Ukrainian Civilians. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 02, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:27]

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.

One week into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the fighting is taking a toll on Ukrainians. Putin's forces are pummeling Kyiv and Kharkiv. This is a police building in flames. Ukraine's state emergency service reports that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed across the country. And in one video, you can actually hear military jets and then seconds later, this, a fireball there.

This Ukrainian mother survived another bombing. She says that her child is also in the hospital with injuries. But she insisted: "We are alive and we will fight."

CAMEROTA: Vladimir Putin is expanding the scope of the attacks and may soon increase the severity.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. says Russian troops are moving exceptionally lethal weapons like cluster bombs and vacuum bombs, both banned under the Geneva Convention, moving them into position.

But Putin's assault is also showing some signs of trouble. U.S. officials say that 40-mile-long convoy of military tanks and supplies outside of Kyiv has been stalled for days. And U.S. defense officials say that morale problems, food and fuel shortages are plaguing Russian troops.

Any moment now, the State Department will give us an update.

BLACKWELL: Let's turn now to Anderson Cooper live in Lviv. That's western Ukraine. Anderson, you're seeing an enormous effort by people who really just

want to help in any way they can.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, I don't think I have ever been in a country at war that is so unified in its anger toward the invading force, toward Russia, and their desire to fight to stand up to that aggression.

I just went out today to a number of spots in Lviv, a city which is, compared to Kyiv and Kharkiv, has been so far relatively untouched, though air raid sirens did go off just a short time ago. But there are volunteer centers that have set up that people go to. I talked to a 14-year-old -- a 15-year-old young boy whose school is shut down, but who has decided to volunteer at this particular center.

They're building -- they are -- they're making camouflage netting to cover checkpoints, to cover artillery weapons. They're getting supplies and volunteers to go out. I went to another location that's making Molotov cocktails, another that's making it what they call hedgehogs to try to stop vehicles in the road.

It's really remarkable what you see in just these small little outposts dotted throughout the city, just people trying to do whatever they can, even though the war hasn't necessarily come to this city in the same way that it has in -- that we're seeing in Kyiv right now.

I do want to go to CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, who is in Kyiv.

Clarissa, I understand you just heard an explosion a short time ago.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

It had been relatively quiet here today, Anderson. And then about 20 minutes ago, we heard a very loud explosion coming from that direction, we think. It was definitely louder than anything we have heard so far, but probably because it was closer. We're hearing that it might have been coming from the area around the train station.

I want to underscore that we have not yet been able to confirm that. But, certainly, that will have given many people here pause for real concerns about their security. We had the air raid sirens then going after that just up until a few minutes ago. The hotel administration had asked people to go down into the basement for a while until the threat was clear.

We had been assuming that it was quieter today in part because -- I don't know if you can see behind me, but it's very, very foggy here. It is not whether that lends itself to strikes, and particularly not to airstrikes.

[14:05:02]

It's another story. Of course, in the second city of Kharkiv, where Ukrainian authorities are describing massive shelling. We know that the national university there was targeted earlier, and just reports that the situation in that city of 1.4 million, again, up until a week ago, a buzzing metropolis, is quickly deteriorating, and all of this playing out against the backdrop of these talks, Anderson, which we just heard the Ukrainian delegation is on their way to those talks.

It's unclear if they start tonight or if they're starting in the morning. They were supposed to start today, but certainly doesn't seem, from what we're seeing and hearing on the ground around the country, that Russia is in the mood for peace yet -- Anderson.

COOPER: Ukrainians, though, continue to put up a fight against the Russian forces. I mean, we have seen videos of unarmed civilians just standing in roads trying to stop Russian vehicles from moving forward.

WARD: Yes, it's extraordinary to see.

I mean, the latest thing that we have seen that we thought was particularly striking is a nuclear plant, the Zaporizhzhia power plant. This is in the sort of southeastern part of the country. That area is under the control of Russian forces.

But the people who work in the plant, combined with other residents from that area, have basically formed a kind of picket line, if you like, outside the plant. They are refusing to allow Russian forces in. They have been moving garbage trucks in to try to block those Russian forces from taking over or getting access to the plant.

And these are scenes, as you mentioned, Anderson, that we have seen playing out all over the country, groups of ordinary Ukrainian citizens approaching Russian forces, shouting at them, hurling insults at them, saying, "Shame, shame on you," in one video that we saw, and really incredible courage to be standing up to heavily armed Russian forces.

And, often, these are just ordinary civilians. But they said it's their duty, in the case of this power plant, to try to ensure -- to protect it and to make sure that it does not get in to Russian hands, Anderson.

COOPER: Sources have told CNN that the Ukrainian military has lost more military assets, tanks and artillery than Russia so far. The Ukrainian foreign minister said his country needs more weapons now.

What more support, do you know, are they expecting? Is -- do we know if weaponry is still making it in from those countries that have sent it?

WARD: Right.

So this is coming from a U.S. official, who's basically saying -- and they underscore that it's very difficult to accurately assess this and it's changing all the time. But they estimate that Russia has lost 3 to 5 percent, or has been depleted 3 to 5 percent, in terms of losing tanks, losing weapons, ammunition, things of that nature, whereas Ukrainian forces have already been depleted by a factor of about 10 percent. So, obviously, there is a strong sense of urgency that they are going

to need more weaponry, they're going to need more fuel, and they are going to need more ammunition. But, as you point out, it is becoming increasingly difficult to funnel that in to Ukrainian forces.

But I will say, at this stage, particularly here in the city of Kyiv, the sort of top half of the circle, if you like, is under the control -- or is blocked, I should say, by Russian forces, but to the south, there is still quite a lot of access available in and out of the city.

So it is presumably still possible to resupply Ukrainian forces, but, again, keep in mind, Russia has eyes in the sky, and it's very difficult to move around a lot of that heavy weaponry without being seen. We drove past four or five days ago now a missile launcher, a multiple-rocket launcher, Ukrainian, that had been hit from the sky by some kind of Russian -- I don't know if it was an aerial bombardment.

It seemed to be completely destroyed, along with the other vehicles in that convoy, and that just really bringing it home how complex it becomes for Ukrainian forces to try to move heavier weaponry around the country.

COOPER: There were multiple attacks in and around Kyiv yesterday. What does the city look like today?

WARD: Well, you can see my colleague Alex Marquardt went earlier today to the TV tower that was hit, I mean, just an extraordinary amount of damage. That is next to this Babi Yar Holocaust memorial park, which does not appear to have been hit, but it's right next to this TV tower.

We know now of at least one journalist, I should say, a cameraman, who was killed in that attack on the TV tower, Ukrainian authorities saying there were four others killed in it too.

[14:10:03]

And just scenes wherever you look now, videos coming in on social media of just civilian structures, apartment buildings, TV towers, Holocaust memorial parks covered in debris, much of it destroyed, fires burning, and people just shrieking with fear and having no sense, again, Anderson, of where this goes now, what happens next, where is safe for them to flee to, a lot of people going underground.

And I mean that literally, not metaphorically, into the city's various underground systems, the sort of subway systems to try to take cover there, as everybody fears that there is only going to be more targeting from the Russian side on civilian structures.

COOPER: The Russian military, I understand, has outlined some civilian evacuation corridors from some Ukrainian cities. They had already announced one route from Kyiv. What does that tell you?

WARD: So I think the Russians are trying to present themselves obviously as above-board actors in this, and they're trying to say that they have established corridors here in Kyiv, also in Kharkiv, and also in the city of Mariupol.

Now, Mariupol is important because it's right there in the southeast corner of the country, next to that Donbass region where Russian separatists have had control of that area for seven to eight years now.

And the assumption is that they're going to try to move and create a land corridor that would join up Russia to Crimea. Mariupol would obviously be swept up in that. We have seen terrible fighting in Mariupol in the last couple of days, and very harrowing images of children who have been killed in the shelling there.

Now the Russian forces saying that they do have a sort of civilian corridor in place to allow people to leave. But, of course, Anderson, it's not that easy for people just to up sticks, pick up their lives, and just and leave. For many of them, the question becomes, where do they go?

Because you get out of one hot zone and before you know it, you're in another. There are very few places in Ukraine right now where you can categorically say this is safe for civilians, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Clarissa Ward, appreciate it.

At least 36 people have been killed, including a 14-year-old boy in the city of Kherson in Southern Ukraine. That's according to the city council there. Ukraine denied reports that Russians have fully taken over the southern city, saying some parts are still under Ukrainian control.

We keep seeing moments of defiance in the region. In this video, you can see a local man waving two Ukrainian flags right in front of Russian tanks parked in Kherson's freedom square, a really stunning act of bravery and defiance.

I want to go to CNN international security editor Nick Paton Walsh in Odessa, Ukraine, just west of that city, Kherson.

Nick, talk about -- I hear air raid sirens there -- what's been going on.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, just in the last sort of 15 minutes or so, we have been hearing air raid sirens over Odessa.

In the days we have been here, we haven't heard this sort of persistence during dark hours since the curfew has been in place. And if I just stop talking for a moment, you could probably also hear the church bells that have started joining it too.

We have heard the occasional thud, what sounded like distant explosions, and potentially the old crack of gunfire. This is a city that's been deeply on edge for a matter of days, that added to by statements from Ukrainian defense officials that there are Russian warships preparing potentially some sort of landing here that are off the coast, and images that have been circulating amongst locals here, unverified, that they can actually see Russian military power on the coastline horizon at this stage.

Odessa deeply concerned that it is essentially going to be the focus of the military Russian might that's being moving its across the Black Sea coast here. You were talking about Kherson. That's essentially to the far eastern side of where I'm standing on an inlet in from the Black Sea.

But when we were there a matter of days ago, the fighting was intense for the bridge to its east. And the thought amongst locals had been, possibly naively, that the focus of Russia's military might be to fight with the Ukrainian military there and leave the town itself alone.

Well, the Russians appear to have prevailed against the Ukrainian military. There have been clashes in the town. You mentioned the death toll of 36. That is just in a matter of 48 hours of Russian troops being inside that city.

You saw the defiance of that man waving two flags, but there have been ugly scenes of men being led away at gunpoint, shops being looted. This may be evidence of how poorly the Russian supply chains are functioning. But we have seeing videos of Russian troops pushing away shopping carts that contained, it seemed, food.

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So, people we have spoken to there saying there is this defiance. There are people locally outside the administration chanting, "We are Ukraine, we are an independent country" for much of the day.

But it is this -- another crack again there. There's this wider question of, when Russian troops move into these populated areas, a town like Kherson, very -- sorry -- city, I should say -- very sleepy, frankly, when we were there, how those Russian troops would square being a violent occupying power with the resistance of the local population to their presence, their anger at seeing them there, and whether there was any Moscow-led plan for some sort of broader civilian administration, if they are now going to claim they control these towns.

Ukrainian officials say that there are pockets of Kherson that they still control, but it feeds into this bigger question of, what if? Russian military power is adequately blunt, coarse and voluminous enough that it can get into population centers. What does it do once it's established its president there?

No bigger fearing what the answer to that question may be than a place like this, Odessa, large, on edge, barricaded amongst much of its center here, and, tonight, Anderson hearing the most persistent air raid sirens we have heard yet, amongst this fear, when I spoke to the mayor earlier on today, that an attack from multiple directions could be imminent -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, occupying a city, whether it's Kherson or a large city like Kyiv, of some 2, 2.5 million people, that is a very difficult challenge for any army, particularly an army of the size of Russia. And, Nick, I appreciate the reporting.

Want to go back to Victor and Alisyn now in New York.

A lot of action tonight, it seems, on a lot of different fronts across this country.

CAMEROTA: I mean, that sound, it's persistent, as Nick just said, and haunting, that wail of the sirens.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And you can just imagine how much fear even the sirens are inspiring there.

BLACKWELL: Pair that the church bells and the pop of gunfire. It is a terrifying time there.

Anderson, thank you. We will get back to you.

There's a new Justice Department task force that has been announced to go after Russian oligarchs' yachts, their jets, their homes. President Biden's message to Russia's elite, we have that for you.

CAMEROTA: And everyday Ukrainians becoming volunteer fighters. Others are trying to escape the Russian onslaught.

So, these pictures show the heroism and the horror on the front lines in Ukraine. And we're going to speak to the photographer who took these pictures next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BLACKWELL: The Justice Department is launching what it calls the KleptoCapture unit.

This is going to be a task force that will target Russian oligarchs and supporters of Vladimir Putin.

CAMEROTA: President Biden announced this new unit in his State of the Union speech last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The United States Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of the Russian oligarchs.

We're joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: We're coming for your ill-begotten gains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is here.

So, Evan, how will this task force work?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, what the Justice Department is doing is, it's essentially bringing together people from the Treasury Department, from the IRS to try to find some of these assets that belong to these oligarchs, and then to first freeze the assets.

And if there is any movement of it, any crimes that are under -- that are part of that, they could then go and seize it. Already, you're seeing on some of the Web sites that track the yachts, you see movement of some of these yachts from the Mediterranean, from the islands of Spain, and from France, to the Maldives and to Montenegro to try to get away from some of these sanctions.

And, of course, look for the United States and for Britain and other countries that for years have kind of ignored the activity of some of these oligarchs in plain sight, the skylines of New York and Miami and London, some of the poshest neighborhoods, have a lot of properties that are associated with some of these people.

The question is, how is the Treasury Department, how is the Justice Department going to be able to identify which property belongs to which oligarchy and then try to seize those assets? That's going to be the hard part. And we will see whether they can do that in the coming months and years.

We got a statement today from the attorney general, who said -- quote -- "We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war."

And, look, that's what they want to do. They want to go after these people who they believe are helping to fund, essentially, the efforts of the Russian invasion in Ukraine -- Alisyn and Victor.

CAMEROTA: Really interesting. Evan, thank you for that reporting.

PEREZ: Sure.

BLACKWELL: All right, we're getting a new video in now that shows the damage done by Russia's aerial assault on Ukraine's capital and some areas nearby.

Officials say that what you're looking at, the structure here, was an apartment building. This was in Irpin until this morning. It was reportedly hit by a Russian rocket. Now, this is roughly a 20 miles west of Kyiv.

My next guest is a photojournalist and correspondent for "The L.A. Times." He was in Irpin capturing images of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers as they are preparing to defend that community.

[14:25:00]

Marcus Yam is with us.

Marcus, first, thanks for your time.

Second, this rite, by Nabih Bulos, he describes it as this easy vigil, laughing, joking that's there, but, also, this real danger. You were just there. Take us to Irpin. What did you see?

MARCUS YAM, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT AND PHOTOJOURNALIST, "THE LOS ANGELES TIMES": The town of Irpin has been sort of cut off.

The road leading into Irpin across a bridge, across the Irpin River that has been destroyed by the Ukrainian army due -- the logic behind that is to stop incoming tanks from rolling down towards Kyiv.

And on that river, you see citizens trying to -- residents trying to get out and cross this river, this raging river. And they have to kind of make their way across on these like little two-pipe setup. It's like a little crossing bridge.

And once you're in there, the entire town is sort of like a ghost town. I mean, the -- we kind of made our way in, and we kind of hitchhiked all the way to the front lines. And we could see, like, people lining up for groceries still. I mean, and everybody's just like kind of going about their business, but like everybody's sort of fearful.

And at the front, you see a very small contingent of soldiers who were there guarding -- they're holding the line, basically, right before the Bucha River. And in front of them, you could see sort of like the battle scars.

There was a mall that was shuttered down. You could see a burnt-down Russian tank. You could see a defunct Ukrainian APC. And around there, we counted at least like four Russia -- dead Russian soldiers covered in some sprinkles of snow, basically.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

YAM: And even (AUDIO GAP) you can see residents (AUDIO GAP) on both sides of this battlefront.

And people are going back and forth with groceries, water, and they're just kind of moving really quickly.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let me ask you about the people that you met there, because we heard from President Zelensky in his interview with Matthew Chance that they need more air cover. Ukraine needs support from the U.S., from the West.

He says that Ukraine going directly at -- all right, I have got to interrupt this conversation. I'm sorry, Marcus.

Let's go to the secretary of state with a statement.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The assault continues by land, by air, by sea.

And, as I noted in my remarks at the U.N. Human Rights Council just yesterday, Russian strikes are hitting schools, hospitals, residences. They're destroying critical infrastructure, which supplies millions of people across Ukraine with drinking water, with electricity, with gas to keep from freezing to death, buses, cars, ambulances being shelled.

Yesterday, Russian strikes in Kyiv struck the capital's main television and radio tower and destroyed part of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial. Apartment buildings outside of Kyiv were hit, partially collapsed.

A huge explosion occurred in the main square of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. These aren't military targets. They are places where civilians work and families live. Kharkiv is one of the largest Russian-speaking cities in Europe. It's fewer than 50 miles from Belgorod, its sister city in Russia. And Belgorod is where the missiles against Kharkiv were likely fired.

President Putin, among the many false justifications he's given for invading Ukraine, has cited the need to protect against an imaginary threat to Russian ethnic and Russian-speaking peoples.

How is assaulting and bombing the population of Kharkiv, again, one of the largest Russian-speaking cities in Europe, advancing that purported goal?

As President Zelensky said after the assault, there was never a border between Kharkiv and its Russian sister city. The two cities are joined in the hearts of Ukrainian and Russian people living on either side. Among the great damage we see from war, we're seeing that in Kharkiv.