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Military Strike In Town Of West Of Kyiv Tears Through Multiple Apartment Blocks; Russia Wages War In Ukraine As President Joe Biden Delivers His First State Of The Union Address; Joe Biden Calls Out Vladimir Putin For 'Premeditated And Unprovoked' Invasion Of Ukraine; Kyiv Is Bracing For A Major Assault. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired March 02, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon in New York.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Pamela Brown in Washington.

LEMON: And this is CNN's live breaking news coverage of the war in Ukraine on the night that President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address, the president slamming Vladimir Putin tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Putin's latest attack on Ukraine was premeditated and totally unprovoked. He rejected repeated efforts at diplomacy. He thought the West and NATO wouldn't respond. He thought he could divide us at home in this chamber, in this nation. He thought he could divide us in Europe as well. But Putin was wrong. We are ready. We are united and that's what we did. We stayed united.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Russia shelling civilians in multiple towns and cities and the Russian military appears to have taken central Kherson, tanks seen across the city.

A military strike in a town West of Kyiv tearing through apartment blocks. Russia bombing the main T.V. and radio tower in Kyiv itself. At least five people are dead.

Also hit, the nearby Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial to tens of thousands of Jews killed by Nazis in one of the worst mass killings of World War II.

BROWN: And in Kharkiv, a massive airstrike slamming a government building in the city's Freedom Square. At least 10 people killed.

And another strike killed in an apartment complex near a hospital. LEMON: And you should know, CNN teams are live on the ground throughout the region tonight and here at home with reaction to the president's speech as well.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is live for us in Lviv. Russia expert Jill Dougherty is in Moscow. Phil Mattingly is in Washington and Oren Liebermann is at the Pentagon for us.

Let's begin though with CNN's Jim Sciutto in Lviv and Jill Dougherty in Moscow. Hello to both of you.

Jim, first up, Russia has shifted to an aggressive bombing campaign in Ukraine, civilians are dying. Kyiv is bracing for really a more major assault. What is the latest?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm told by U.S. officials the latest U.S. intelligence assessment is that as Russia's war plan, its invasion plan has hit obstacles including strong resistance from the Ukrainian military, that it will use heavier firepower, more indiscriminate firepower, as well.

And that includes targeting civilian areas. Areas sometimes deliberately. That's the view of the U.S. military at this point, we've seen evidence of that in the video that Pamela was just referencing there, that was an administrative building in Kharkiv, not a military target, hit with a devastating blast.

And it's the expectation of the U.S. military that we're going to see more, not less of that, particularly because what we've seen so far, Don, is an attempt to encircle the cities, such as Kyiv, but not yet move in to the biggest population centers.

And as Russian forces do, and that is the plan, you're talking about putting all that firepower in close proximity to millions of residents, millions of urban residents, and the possibility of urban warfare.

Sadly, that's going to be more civilian casualties. It's going to be really, frankly, an ugly reality in the days and weeks going ahead.

LEMON: Yes. And, Jim, I know you've been paying very close attention to the president's first State of the Union. President tonight praising Ukraine's courage in this fight, but warn that the next few days and weeks and months are going to be bad, as you were saying here. That Russia -- saying that Russia, you know, will make gains on the battlefield.

What do you think of that? They're going to make gains in the battlefield, but you said it's going to be ugly. And that is a reality. The president knows and pretty much all of our intelligence and the folks there on the ground know as well.

SCIUTTO: They do. And this is the thing, this has already moved more slowly than Russia's expectations, and the U.S. and NATO assessment of their plans and capabilities and the fact that they frankly greatly outnumber the Ukrainian military. It's moved more slowly. We're six -- we're almost a week in, the

expectation was it would have been over by now, right? I mean, that was certainly Putin's hope.

That hasn't happened and the Ukrainian military is stepping up and it's inflicting significant losses on Russian forces.

However, if you look at the map, Russian forces are making progress particularly in the South. And while more slowly in the East and the North, they are as we were saying, attempting and amassing forces to encircle cities.

So, I think we have to have a realistic perspective on what's possible here. It remains a David versus Goliath conflict, the odds against the Ukrainian.

[00:05:03]

SCIUTTO: That said, you surely don't want to count them out, right? Because we've been surprised from their perspective on the upside a number of times, just in the last several days, and we should note that Western support is still coming to them, they are still getting the supply lines are open, they're still getting weapons that are proven devastating at times against Russian forces, this shoulder fired javelin anti-tank missiles and shoulder fired stinger anti- aircraft missiles have inflicted losses. Whether that changes the ultimate outcome, we don't know yet.

LEMON: Jill to you in Moscow now, Putin has worked really hard to divide the United States. But on the issue of Ukraine and going after Russia, the president got bipartisan applause tonight at the State of the Union. Do you think Putin expected the United States and the world to rally against him the way that we have all been seeing?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, certainly not the world, and maybe not the United States. Because, after all, I think, you know, as he was preparing to have this war. It would appear that he didn't think that the United States and Europe would get it together.

And I think -- excuse me, I think the very interesting thing about Biden's speech tonight was, of course, his rhetoric, but if you look at it, it was kind of like a strategy from the White House to make this very much Putin's war, and Putin's economy.

This is not, you know, Russia against NATO, or some big issue like that. All of those phrases, Putin alone is to blame. And I think that that is -- that's deliberate. Because you know, you have here in Russia, some criticism, we don't want to overplay it. But we have had more than 6,000 people arrested as they go on the streets to protest. You've had some public letters to the president from some very prestigious -- there's a university that's allied with the Foreign Ministry, a thousand people from that signed an open letter to the president saying please stop this war.

So, there is some criticism building and it would appear that what the White house is trying to do is, you know, leverage that. And again, economically, with all the sanctions and how it's hitting Russia and hitting average Russian people, and then militarily, as Jim was just pointing out, it's not working out the way President Putin wanted either.

LEMON: Right. And Pamela, clearly, this split screen tonight between three places, really, Russia, Ukraine, and Washington, D.C., where you are?

BROWN: Yes, that's right. There's a lot going here in Washington. Let's go to our CNN senior White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly, he is here with me. As well as CNN Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon for us tonight.

So, Phil, I'm going to start with you. President Biden spent the first 12 minutes of his address on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And he made the point, the moment we're in is bigger than just Ukraine.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think that's a critical point. Look, you focus on kind of the micro here, obviously a very direct message to President Vladimir Putin, very direct message to the Ukrainian people and the courageous effort they've put up up to this point.

But there's a broader point there that I'm told the president made clear to his aides he really wanted to make over the course of this speech, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: When the history of this era is written, Putin's war in Ukraine will have left Russia weaker, and the rest of the world stronger. While it shouldn't have taken something so terrible for people around the world to see what's at stake, now everyone sees it clearly.

We see the unity among leaders of nations, a more unified Europe, a more unified West. We see unity among the people who are gathering in cities, in large crowds around the world, even in Russia to demonstrate their support for the people of Ukraine.

In the battle between democracy and autocracies, democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And Pamela, I think, look, we've heard the democracy versus autocracy frame that the president laid out tonight many times over the course of the last 13 or 14 months. It's kind of a core message of both his campaign and his presidency.

But it was the line a couple of months before that, where he said it shouldn't have taken a tragedy like this to kind of rattle people, but now they're seeing it very clearly that I think the president really wanted to get across.

There's an understanding inside the White House and I think with the president that they need to explain why the pillars of kind of Western democracy of norms and laws that have guided almost the entire world for the better part of the last eight decades have been asleep to some degree.

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MATTINGLY: And this is a moment that is jostling the West, the Europe in particular, out of perhaps that slumber and recognizing kind of the essential element that those bring to the table and underscoring that the unity that you've seen from NATO, from the E.U., obviously, the U.S. alliance that they put together with the sanctions that they applied is so critical right now, given what we've seen over the course, of course, the last four, five, six, seven years, and that that more -- even from a bigger picture perspective, is incredibly important going forward. And something that I think the president has long thought was lacking, based on in particular, his predecessor, but also just kind of the the way the trajectory of the world has been going over the course the last several years.

BROWN: Yes, just emphasizing that point. This is why we should care about upholding democratic values. And also, he talked about the pandemic and how we're two years into this, he's clearly knows people are exhausted, right? He talked about a reset.

It was notable to me though, he didn't make the same mistake he made July 4th of last year where he said declared independence from the virus, he tried to walk that fine line.

MATTINGLY: Lessons learned I think would be a fair way put that. I think the White House is very weary of pivoting fully away from COVID, the president rejecting the idea of "living with COVID", but acknowledging people are frustrated, people are tired, people are exhausted, however, laying out very clearly that they believe they have the capabilities in terms of treatment options, in terms of dealing with the virus, to move into a different phase. A phase that will actually be rolled out in detail tomorrow morning, an administration official say, which will lay out kind of the steps that they have taken, the treatments that they have, including the new idea that they're going to start rolling out tomorrow called Test to Treat where if you go to a pharmacy, pilot pharmacies, you test positive, you can immediately get antiviral treatments.

And so, you're seeing the full scale of what the government has put into this is now available a medicine cabinet, if you will, to actually deal with this. And while they're not saying it's over, it's done with, we're moving on, we're free from it. They're making very clear we can pivot from it.

And if you wanted any evidence of that, look at the chamber. No one is wearing a mask. And I mean, it was miraculous that it just happened 24 hours before the State of the Union.

BROWN: That's the remarkable thing is they push the date back, right, to March 1st, the day in D.C. --

MATTINGLY: But the overarching kind of picture they wanted to present is that the country is finally carefully moving on.

BROWN: Moving on, moving forward. All right, Oren, I want to go to you, is there any update to forces that Russia has committed?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Russia has at this point, according to a senior defense official committed more than 80 percent of this massive army, this massive force stayed arrayed against Ukraine and around Ukraine, and in occupied Crimea before essentially one week ago.

So, 80 percent of that has now crossed into Ukraine -- more than 80 percent at this point. And some of that still remains outside of Ukraine, whether that's in western Russia or in Belarus, or in Crimea, but again, most of that has moved in.

It has not been without problems for the Russians. They've had logistical issues, they've had sustainment issues, they've run out of fuel, fuel shortages, food shortages, it speaks to a bigger issue of logistics and sustainment problems that have slowed down this advance, as well as the very stiff Ukrainian resistance they have encountered as they've tried to move.

You want to move an army of this size, you have to sustain it and the Russians have not. Why they have made that mistake is a much more difficult question whether it's because they really thought this would be over in a matter of days as Vladimir Putin seem to think, or whether their leadership just isn't that good when it comes to military planning of an operation of this size.

Regardless, that's the reality we're stuck with. Now they're learning from it.

A senior defense official says they will figure this out, they will solve their logistical issues, they will solve their sustainment problems, they'll solve their fuel shortages, and they will be able to keep advancing.

But so far, that massive column that spans some 40 miles outside of Kyiv has only moved about five kilometers, three miles over the course of the past three days or so.

Again, part of that is logistics and sustainment. Part of that is the Ukrainian resistance they're reaching. But a point here that every official makes is that Russia still retains a massive advantage in forces. And that's what gives them the advantage here. They still have an overwhelming force that they're bringing in. That's moving into the country on a number of different fronts. That map you saw earlier, as well as some forces that remain outside the country and that is what gives Russia that advantage.

BROWN: All right, Oren Liebermann live from the Pentagon, Phil Mattingly. Thank you both.

Well, President Biden is taking aim of Vladimir Putin in his State of the Union address tonight but is Putin listening?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Six days ago, Russia's Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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LEMON: All eyes move tonight from Washington D.C. to Ukraine and Russia. President Joe Biden giving a warning to Vladimir Putin in his State of the Union address tonight. But Ukraine tonight is bracing for an even bigger assault from the Russians.

I want to bring in now Steve Hall, a former CIA chief of operations -- Russia operations. Steve, it's good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

The president slam Putin tonight in his speech. I want you to watch this and then we'll discuss, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Russia's Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated.

He thought he could divide us at home, in this chamber and in this nation. He thought he could divide us in Europe as well. But Putin was wrong.

Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been.

He has no idea what's coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Steve, does Vladimir Putin care about any of that?

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think he does very much, yes. Because the situation is that this is being made into Putin swore and appropriately so, because Vladimir Putin is really the individual responsible behind this.

[00:20:01]

HALL: Vladimir Putin is the one who makes all the day to day decisions. And in this is really on him, he is the one who has decided to do this.

The ironic thing, of course, is that as many have noted correctly, we are in the exact opposite position of where Putin wanted to be, we're more unified, NATO was certainly more unified. The United States is more unified, you saw the bipartisan clapping that we had in response to the president's comments on Russia. And of course, Putin promised all of his constituents, if you -- if

you will, it's not exactly the right word. But all of Russia and the oligarchs that things were going to be much worse, that he was going to be able to exploit these divisions.

And yet, here we are with more NATO forces on the frontier, and on the borders of Russia than before. So yes, he cares a lot about this.

LEMON: Well, let's talk about it because you were the CIA's chief of Russia operations. There are reports that his -- from Putin watchers that his behavior is becoming more erratic by the day. What do you make of that?

HALL: Well, I think the important question to answer is not necessarily what are those -- you know, what weird things are his -- is he doing? But why? And the answer is because he's afraid of a coup.

He's afraid that's what's going to happen to him is what happened to previous Russian leaders specifically in 1991, when you had a whole basically coup happen inside of Russia itself. And he is afraid that because he hasn't essentially been able to fulfill his promises to the oligarchs who play an important role in keeping him in power. And these people call the Siloviki who are also oligarchs, but their former Intel and military types, he's afraid that those people are going to say, well, it's not going well in Ukraine, and it's not going well in Russia, nobody can get their money, the oligarchs can't spend their money, they can't leave Russia.

And this is not what Putin promised. He's breaking his part of the deal. So, he's acting strangely. And he's nervous, and he should be because I think he's worried the oligarchs are going to come after him.

LEMON: When I talked to folks, they say, you really want to make a difference here, have the oligarchs not be able to spend their money, start taxing their families, have their you know, yachts, they can't, you know, be in certain places or that they can't roam around London freely. Is that -- is that real?

HALL: Absolutely. Yes, I think the oligarchs, again, this is -- this is part of the deal that the oligarchs and the Siloviki said, look, you get to be president, you're going to be a strong man. But we have to be rich, we have to be able to spend that money. And things have to go essentially the way we want it to.

When we can't send our kids overseas to schools, when we can't spend our money because it's been frozen by everybody essentially, in the world, then that's breaking your part of the deal. And they're going to ask themselves, why do we still have this guy around?

LEMON: Wouldn't it be a turn, though? I mean, you think a coup is indeed possible? Not likely, but possible.

HALL: You know, it's very, very byzantine inside of the Kremlin, it's extremely difficult to predict. But I think that that explains why we're seeing this nervousness and this anxiousness and the strange behaviors out of Putin.

LEMON: Steve, stick around. You're going to be back next hour. We continue our coverage in the next couple hours here on CNN.

CNN obtaining new images showing Russia may have taken over a major city in the South of Ukraine, the former NATO ally commander is here. He's going to walk us through Russia's latest military maneuvers, right after this.

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BROWN: Ukrainian forces are bracing for more finding as Russian troops bear down on Kyiv with battle lines hardening every minute counts for the Ukrainian defenders. So, where will the fighting move next?

Joining me now to discuss CNN Military Analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark.

Hi, General. So, look, President Biden reaffirming again tonight, the U.S. troops will not enter the fight in Ukraine. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: But let me be clear: Our forces are not engaged and will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.

Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine, but to defend our NATO allies in the event that Putin decides to keep moving West.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Putin moving West, how likely is it that that would happen in your view?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You know, I think that we have to say that that is a possibility. We know from what his demands were, they're not limited to Ukraine. Ukraine was a demonstration theater, or it is a demonstration theater. He's showing off the power of his forces, pluys it's a kind of a warm up for the Russian military that's a real operation. It's the first real big operation they've had like this.

So, I think I'd be very concerned that it won't stop here. And here's the trouble, Pamela, actually, Ukraine is much more defensible or parts of it are than some of the other NATO member countries if the challenge comes there. And our allies in Europe know this. They're watching anxiously at the outcome in Ukraine.

BROWN: But would he -- would Putin really want to attack a NATO country and bring the full force of NATO to bear which is what could potentially happen, right? And that's why you're not seeing NATO be as involved in Ukraine because it's not a NATO country.

CLARK: That's exactly right and we have no obligation to defend Ukraine.

On the other hand, they are fighting our fight in the sense that they're fighting for freedom, their democracy, they're trying to prevent themselves being overrun by an aggressor and you saw the response in the Congress tonight, a lot of sympathy and a lot of pride in the Ukrainians, their tough fight, their values. It's going to be a real shock and a real pain of for America and Europeans if they can't make it.

BROWN: Yes, and then President Biden talked about that in his speech as well, saying it's going to be a tough few days, weeks, months ahead for the Ukrainians.

As we speak, Russia is pushing into Ukraine from multiple fronts tonight, we're seeing these images of Russian military vehicles traveling unimpeded in a major city in the south of Ukraine, Kherson/

[00:30:12]

What does this tell you about Russia's advance into Ukraine?

CLARK: They're having trouble in the north. The terrain is a really swampy. That convoy is probably slowed down, because they can't get it off the road to where they want it to be. And so they're probably doing road improvement and terrain improvement for that convoy.

In the south, it's a little bit different. They've had some tough fighting, but the Ukrainian forces in Mariupol are surrounded. There's a break out in the south. There's movement. There's reinforcements coming in, the same in the East. So, the forces are moving to complete the encirclement of Kyiv.

BROWN: They are, and we're seeing some of -- destruction in Kyiv. You know, you have Russian forces. They have been surrounding the Ukrainian capital for about a week now.

Tuesday, they targeted a television tower in Kyiv with blasts. The Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial also getting hit in the blast. So, what do you make of that? Do you see this as them turning to a strategy of pure destruction at this point?

CLARK: Well, it's always going to be a political military strategy for Mr. Putin. Yes, he's turning up the heat. He wants more destruction, but he'd like to destroy as little as possible in order to accomplish his objective.

So, at the same time, he's open for more talks. Every talk will be the same. It is you need to surrender, avoid more destruction. And so it's a question of what is Ukraine's tolerance for this pain? How long can they hang on? How much reinforcement can we get in there in terms of re-supplies? Can we do anything to give them some kind of air coverage?

Some obsolescent jets from Europe were reported to be being sent, and then I heard they're not being sent. What can be done to help Ukraine muster its own defense? Because Russia's coming at them. They've got to produce reserves. They've got to arm people. They've got to break out of those encirclements at some point, if they're going to defeat Russia.

BROWN: Do you believe, though, it's a matter of when, not if, of Kiev [SIC] -- Kyiv falling?

CLARK: I don't think it's a foregone conclusion. I think it really does depend on how much we can do for the Ukrainians. They need Javelins. They need Stingers. They need -- they need those obsolete aircraft. You've got to keep some Ukrainian aircraft in the air. They're going to need food at some point, and -- and mobile reserves.

Part of a depends on how they fight now and use their remaining forces. If they can engage in mobile warfare and not get trapped in very small cities. Part of it's their reserves. Can they mobilize those reserves and make them mobile?

So this is very much still a dynamic outcome. I wouldn't say the outcome is foregone. But I would say it's darkening ahead, as that heavy artillery closes in on Kyiv.

BROWN: All right. General Wesley Clark, thank you.

CLARK: Thank you.

BROWN: And we've got much more of our special coverage ahead.

He says everybody is a soldier in Ukraine now, including him. The youngest member of Ukraine's Parliament speaking out right after this.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know this nation. We'll meet the test; protect freedom and liberty; expand fairness and opportunity. And we will save democracy.

As hard as those times have been, I'm more optimistic about America today than I've been my whole life, because I see the future that's within our grasp, because we know there's simply nothing beyond our capacity. We're the only nation on Earth that has always turned every crisis we faced into an opportunity. The only nation that can be defined by a single ward: possibilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That is President Joe Biden delivering this for a State of the Union tonight as Russia continues its aggressive attack on Ukraine.

I'm going to bring in now CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser.

Susan, hello to you. Thanks for joining.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Thank you.

LEMON: President Biden had a lot on his plate domestically and internationally heading into this speech. Give us your overall assessment of the State of the Union -- his State of the Union speech.

GLASSER: Well, thanks so much, Don.

You know, it was wide-ranging, shall we say. That was a speech that really covered just about everything that you could possibly cover. It seemed to me as though they sort of had one State of the Union speech already written, and then just had an entire additional new one about Putin's war that they added on top of it.

But, as far as the war goes, I didn't hear a lot new. I heard a lot of sort of biting rhetoric about Vladimir Putin. I heard Biden describing in stark terms the consequences of some very big decisions the U.S. and its allies have taken already.

But it wasn't really a sweeping new way of looking at this conflict in Europe.

LEMON: Here's some of the president said about Vladimir Putin tonight, and then we'll discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN: He thought the West and NATO wouldn't respond. He thought he could divide us at home in this chamber and this nation. He thought he could divide us in Europe, as well.

But Putin is wrong. We are ready. We are united, and that's what we did. We stayed united. We prepared, extensively and carefully. We spent months building coalitions with other freedom-loving nations in Europe and the Americas, from America to the Asian and African continents, to confront Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Susan, you know, Biden faced a lot of criticism early on in this crisis, that he wasn't doing enough to deter Russia. After the invasion, though, the world came out against Putin. How important was Biden's role in uniting the West?

GLASSER: Yes, I mean, look, he leaned hard into that for a reason. There's been an enormous burst of diplomatic activity at Biden and his administration. I think it's resulted in this very harsh, even harsher than expected sanctions that have been imposed on Putin and Russia as a result of the war.

[00:40:11]

But you know, there's a certain confusion, Don, really, about what was the goal of the sanctions at this point, since obviously, it's not deterrence from the invasion that Putin has already undertaken. But if anything, now they've gone so punitive, the question that was left unaddressed in the speech tonight was, is the goal actually to shake the very foundation of Russia and Putin's regime, as it looks like it might possibly be one of the results of it?

So that part, I think, is a little bit unclear, but for Biden, unity is paramount. He always stresses that. And in particular, it has been a major goal of his foreign policy to restore the close alliances that were frayed over the last few years.

LEMON: I want to get your reaction to something, and that is a Russian missile hitting the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site in Kyiv, killing at least five people.

This is a site where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within just 48 hours during World War II. President Zelensky tweeting this, and I quote, "What is the point of saying, 'Never again' for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same side of Babyn Yar. History repeating."

Look, it's chilling, and this is after Putin called the Ukrainian government neo-Nazis. Is history repeating itself?

GLASSER: Well, I do -- I think -- you know, this is a grotesque pretext for war, I think. It's important for people to understand. Putin has literally called the first, and so far, only Jewish president of Ukraine a Nazi and use that as a pretext for launching the war.

And then to have an attack like this today on one of the -- you know, the horrible, sacred sites, in effect, of the Holocaust. I've been to the place where that missile struck, today, Don. And it's haunting and powerful. And it's just almost unbelievable that, essentially, Russia, which fought to liberate itself in the form of the Soviet Union from Nazi Germany, that you know, those -- that same military would now be invading the independent country of Ukraine.

It's really just mind-blowing what's happening.

And the fact is, is that Zelensky is right. He is fighting alone. There's lots of words of solidarity from the rest of the world, but Putin has used his country and his nuclear weapons as blackmail to keep the rest of the world and the United States out of doing more to defend Ukraine.

LEMON: Always love having your perspective and hearing it. Thank you very much, Susan. Appreciate it.

GLASSER: Thank you.

LEMON: The youngest number of Ukraine's Parliament taking up arms. He joins us, next.

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[00:47:08]

LEMON: As Russian forces take aim at their homeland, Ukrainians are taking up arms to defend their nation. I want you to meet Sviatoslav Yurash, who's armed himself against the Russian assault on his city. He also happens to be a member of Ukraine's Parliament, the youngest ever. And he joins me now tonight from Kyiv.

Thank you, Sviatoslav. I appreciate you joining us this evening. How are you doing? What is the feeling there tonight?

SVIATOSLAV YURASH, MEMBER, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Defiant, clearly. the point is that this is our capital and we defend it with everything we've got so far.

Russians have tried to get in time and time again. Every single time, the population here have -- has repulsed them and destroyed every -- every piece of machinery, every piece of equipment they are sending us.

That's why they are throwing cruise missiles at us. That's why they're shelling us. That's why they are trying to destroy us in every single way. And the point is, we will not let them. We will bring together everybody, millions of people in this town, and push them away.

LEMON: I hear you're determined, but how long do you think you can hold out against this Russian army, this onslaught? Because they are preparing, now, to increase, ratchet up their fighting.

YURASH: My great-grandfather survived Stalingrad, so I think we can survive whatever they can throw at us.

The point is, Ukrainian history, on the first page is tragic. We had an unfortunately tragic, unbelievable history of the 20th century. So if we survived Stalin, we will survive Putin.

LEMON: You are -- Sviatoslav Yurash, you are the youngest member of Parliament ever, and now you're joining your fellow countrymen on the streets of Kyiv to defend your country. Tell us how much life has changed there in the last week.

YURASH: Immensely. For example, money doesn't have, really, any currency, so the reality is you exchange goods. You bring various things and try to deliver.

Because my -- I'm no soldier. I don't have experience to truly be as effective as Ukrainian special forces and some such on the battlefield. I am partaking the fighting, but that's one story.

The other story is bringing supplies, bringing various weaponry, machinery. Bringing ammunition, bringing food, bringing medicine. And trying to build a team around me that can do that effectively.

My Parliamentary team right now is mostly here, up in arms and basically organizing itself and trying to be useful in defense of our capital, and we will be.

LEMON: You know, the world is really in awe, not only of your bravery, your bravery, but the unity we have seen from the people of Ukraine, you said everybody is a soldier, everybody in Ukraine as a soldier right now.

You said you don't have any formal military training. Is everyone you know taking up arms? Tell me about that?

YURASH: Well, different people know different things, but the reality is that, for example, the Ukrainians have a very powerful IT sector. And those IT people have brought together forces to try and conduct celebrations on Russia.

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And as Russia tries to block their access to the Internet, tries to essentially have a blackout in Ukraine, they are pushing back, restoring access, and actually a successful counterattack.

The reality is that many of many of my assistants are military people. And for example, one is leading a platoon in the north of Kyiv. Another one is leading barricade construction south of Kyiv. And the point here is that, again, everybody is useful, because Russia tries to destroy our nation, and we will not let it.

LEMON: Have you personally encountered Russian soldiers in the city of Kyiv?

YURASH: Yes, we had skirmishes with Russians. Some tried to make incursions in the city. And time and time again, they are being captured, and they've been essentially now being put to try to organize this POW.

We have many POW every single day we're capturing that were hundreds by now. And when they are saying, asking me about the peace negotiations, we have plenty of POWs we want to exchange for our prisoners.

LEMON: Explain that. Talk to me more about that. You have many POWs who want to exchange what?

YURASH: So the reality is, for example -- for example, we have prisoners of war who were captured, Ukrainian prisoners of war who were captured, as well, on Zmiinyi Island in south of -- the north of Black Sea. And we want to exchange basically, want to organize an exchange between our prisoners of war and their prisoners of war to get our people back.

And the point is that Russians don't really have a goal here, so they are -- they are basically giving up, as well. We had a platoon of soldiers give up in the north of Ukraine, so the reality is this is quite a struggle to try and bring all the Russians together, and exchange them for the Ukrainians they have captured.

LEMON: Listen, I want to know what your neighborhood is like, not where you are. Don't tell us where you are, but what your neighborhood is like now. Is it abandoned? Is it -- you know, is it struggling? Like, are the people there? What is it like in Kyiv, where you are?

YURASH: Well, it's fully transformed, basically. You have -- it's empty, on the one hand.

On the other hand, the recruiting stations are full. On the other hand, you have plenty of military equipment here and military presence.

And the point is, the city is now under martial law for the reasons that Russians are basically sending their -- their spies and their saboteurs all the time to the city. We are trying to lock down the access to the city for the Russians, and we are pushing them, trying to capture them, and trying to control -- control what's going on in the town.

LEMON: Do you have supplies? Do you have food? Do you have water?

YURASH: Nothing is enough. Nothing is enough. The reality is the fighting has been going on for -- for almost a week now. In that time, it's very hard to exhaust everything we got right before the conflict.

But the point is, nothing is enough and trying to get those supplies every single day -- medical supplies, ammunition, weaponry, food -- is a good chunk of the work I do.

LEMON: Do you have -- what do you want to say that you have this opportunity to speak to, really, the world, more than 200 countries around the world that's watching CNN? Do you have a message for the world and anyone who is listening?

YURASH: Two things. First, Russia has broken every single rule that exists on the global community. Not just now but consistently throughout Putin's rule. And that needs to be expelled from every institution that exists, every single forum in which they participate.

The point here is to try and show the world that such behavior, such destruction, such murderous rage that Putin is now trying to conduct in Ukraine shall not be -- shall be forgotten.

Second, we need everything. The point here, we Ukrainians are organizing now foreign legions, as well as volunteers, people coming in from abroad trying to join in the fight.

The Ukrainians also need everything as far as the resources are concerned. Because again, we are fighting one of the biggest armies in the world, and we are fighting with everything we've got. And the more -- the more you give us, the more we appreciate, the more we have a chance to beat back the Russians.

LEMON: Sviatoslav Yurash, thank you very much. Be safe. We appreciate you joining us here on CNN.

YURASH: Thank you very much.

LEMON: Thank you.

Pamela, you know, we've seen so many courageous people -- citizens. Sviatoslav says he has no formal military training. We had a couple on last night who had just gotten married. And they're spending their honeymoon fighting for their country.

Anderson interviewed someone, a woman who's in the basement, basically a bomb shelter, with her three children, one of them, you know, an infant, breastfeeding. Lack of supplies, but definitely not lacking in determination and courage.

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BROWN: Yes, I mean, determination will abound. I interviewed a woman who decided to stay in Ukraine with her 11-year-old son. She's a documentarian.

She said, look, we are all working together to win. And you really heard that in that message. You know, he said, Look, I'm not a soldier, but I'm doing everything I can to try to help. You know, I'm trying to learn how to use a gun, but also providing resources, supplies, providing help where I can.

And you've seen that with grandmothers making Molotov cocktails, picking up arms. I mean, everyone who was staying behind there really is trying to pitch in any way they can, showing so much courage.

And I was watching that interview, Don. I thought it's 7 -- it's 7, almost 8 a.m. there in Kyiv and -- and he must be so exhausted, right? It's a week into the actual invasion. And yet, he is still so -- still has so much resolve and determination. It's so inspiring.

LEMON: The question is, though, how long can they continue on with this? It is remarkable the strength and the courage they're showing. But when you're up against a massive army like the Russian army, and an erratic, you know, dictator, you know, autocrat like Vladimir Putin, how much longer can they hold out?

And certainly, they're going to -- they're going to need help from the rest of the world, the united effort from NATO and others. So we'll see. We're watching and but you have to admire the courage.

BROWN: You have to, absolutely.

Well, we've got much more live special coverage on the war in Ukraine and tonight's State of the Union address. Covering all the angles from New York; Washington, D.C.; and live on the ground in Ukraine. Stay with us.

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