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Biden: Sanctions Already Having "Profound Impact" On Russia; Putin: War In Ukraine "Is Going According To Plan"; Ex-Cop Acquitted On All Three Charges Related To Breonna Taylor Raid. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 03, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:15]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Last hour, the White House announced more sanctions against Russians. This time, the punishments target oligarchs, more of them, and their family members.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the goal is to maximize the impact on Putin and Russia and to minimize the harm on us and our allies and friends around the world.

Our interests in maintaining the strongest unified economic impact campaign that -- on Putin in all of history and I think we're well on our way to doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The U.S. has been warning Russia will hit more civilian targets in Ukraine, and today we're seeing those targets take some damage, the death toll is climbing and the shelling, more pervasive in key cities and towns.

CAMEROTA: So, just north of Kyiv, officials say Russian troops launched a missile strike on a multistory residential building where nine people were killed. One major city has fallen to Russian troops. That's the southern city of Kherson. That's near the Black Sea.

And today, Vladimir Putin told French President Macron that he will continue the military assaults in Ukraine.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Anderson Cooper is live in Lviv.

Anderson, a U.S. defense official just told CNN that Russian forces have shown a willingness to hit these civilian infrastructure on purpose. That's despite what the Russians claim is they're not targeting them.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": Yeah, it is very clear not only do they have a track record of this and other places like Grozny, Aleppo as well, but certainly we've already seen that here just in those videos we just showed, residential complexes being hit multiple times.

Joining us on the phone is Darja Stomatova. She is a reporter with CNN affiliate, CNN Prima News. She just toured a village south of Kharkiv that was reportedly devastated by bombing overnight.

Please tell us what you saw.

DARJA STOMATOVA, CNN PRIMA NEWS REPORTER (via telephone): Hello. Thank you for having me on your show.

Yes, we saw the houses were completely destroyed. We saw the places where basically the bombs fell on the village. Not as much people. People were trying to clean the stuff, some were trying to rebuild the electricity. Otherwise we heard complete silence, some dogs barking. So, it was crazy to see that.

COOPER: Were there any reports of -- were there people living there at the time? Were there reports of casualties? Have most people left there?

STOMATOVA: What we heard about four people died. They found a body -- not body but just an arm of a woman, which were -- she was living in this village. Probably the numbers will be much higher than we know right now. But right now, the situation is a complete mess and it's hard to get actual numbers of the people who died here.

COOPER: Is there any reason, a military facility in this village? Is there an electrical station? What would be the purpose of wiping this village out?

STOMATOVA: We were very surprised about that. When we went there, we saw no military presence and locals also told us there's no military army in this place. What we heard from locals that probably there was a Russian spy who saw some Ukraine army coming from a different town and probably located this place, so the bombing happened here.

[15:05:04]

It was an air strike but, also, this is not confirmed information. This is just what locals told us.

We have also one idea or -- yeah, that we saw TV towers for mobile signals, so maybe they were targeting actually them but they missed them and they just hit the village.

COOPER: How many structures did you see destroyed or damaged?

STOMATOVA: About 600 people live in this village and when we went there everything was destroyed. When we were continuing on the road, we saw some damaged schools and other damage houses. Actually there was a church and it was not destroyed at all, which is quite curious and when we were continuing on the road, saw damaged cars. A car was upside-down on the road. The bombing must have been very hard and very tough. So basically you see the places where the bomb fall and everything around is completely destroyed.

COOPER: And do you know when the attack took place?

STOMATOVA: What we heard, it was yesterday during the midnight or before the midnight. People were not prepared. It was night, they were sleeping in their bed. We were in different villages and they have no signal, no sirens to tell them that they have to hide. We were surprised by this air strike.

COOPER: Darja Stomatova, I so appreciate you sharing your images, your pictures with us of this just sickening scene. Thank you so much. Be careful.

I want to move on to CNN's Sam Kiley in Uman, Ukraine.

Sam, explain where you are and what we're learning about fighting in the southern part of the country.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm essentially at a crossroads point almost between east and west, due south of Kyiv, about 160 miles, 200 kilometers.

This is a transshipment point almost where refugees particularly from Kyiv, but also from Kharkiv, from Mariupol, from Kherson, these Russian-speaking towns that have been hit so hard by the Russian invasion. That's -- this is the town through which they come before they head off to other European destinations if that's their intention to flee the country completely. Other people are trying to settle somewhere before they figure out what they do next.

It's clear the Russian successes, if you can call them that, have been focused in the south. It's easier for them to reinforce their positions from Crimea, which they seized illegally back in 2014. They annexed that peninsula. They focused -- Mariupol now is entirely surrounded according to its men, no electricity, water or food for the 400,000 or so people.

Kherson is reported to have been captured by the Russians according to its mayor. That's very important. The head of the canal that supplies water to Crimea. You see Kharkiv, a city of 1.5 million people, three- quarters of them, Anderson, are Russian speaking, hammered with those multiple rocket launching systems, using thermo baric bombs.

None of that is intended to do anything other than pummel civilian areas. That is not the choice of target -- they are not choosing military targets when they use those kinds of weapons in a very large city such as Kharkiv, the center originally of the Soviet intellectual life, 40 universities are based there, Anderson.

COOPER: You know, one of the explanations, ridiculous explanations, but an explanation nonetheless -- you can hear air raid sirens. Like an automated voice telling people to seek shelter. One of Vladimir Putin's excuses for this attack on Ukraine is -- what

he calls an attempt to de-Nazify Ukraine, referencing Ukraine's alliance with Nazis during World War II. I should point out, President Zelenskyy is Jewish.

What are you hearing from Jewish Ukrainians about what Vladimir Putin is using -- about this excuse that he's using for the invasion?

KILEY: He repeated it again just a few hours ago talking once again about how the campaign was not only to rescue Russian-speaking people from oppression at the hands of the Ukrainians but also the Ukrainian nation had been captured by Nazis and neo-Nazis.

[15:10:08]

I'm in Uman, a city that is famed as the shrine and tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who 200 years ago or more. He is a very important figure for Hasidic Jews around the world. This is a major pilgrimage place for Hasidic Jews. It's been enjoyed as a pilgrimage place increasingly over recent years thereby indicating there is no particular fear of Nazis around here.

And we spoke to the lawyer in charge of the community here for the -- in charge of the synagogue and representing the synagogue. She is Ukrainian. She isn't Jewish. But this was her reaction to the idea they were being de-Nazified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRINA RYBNITSKAYA, LAWYER FOR FOUNDATION THAT RUNS BRESLOVER HASIDIM SYNAGOGUE: All the community, everybody, every person was shocked. You know the first day of the war, 24 of February, Uman was divided. Everybody shocked and especially after yesterday the bomb came to Babyn Yar community. I don't know even how to explain the state of the community after this day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY: Now, that synagogue is used, its basement, which is pretty big and can accommodate many tens of people at least in the event of air strikes. The synagogue is effectively being turned into a bomb shelter to protect people from Vladimir Putin's claims that he's coming to de- Nazify them -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yeah, Babyn Yar is the site in Kyiv where tens of thousands of Jews were killed during the early years of World War II in Ukraine's capital.

Sam Kiley, appreciate it. Thank you.

I want to go to CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson in Moscow.

Nic, just talking about Vladimir Putin public remarks today filled with untrue statements, lies, propaganda. He also spoke to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. Do we know much more about what he told Macron about Russia's next

moves?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, it was characterized as a frank exchange, a difficult conversation. Macron come away with the view that Putin is going to just double down and the civilian toll will go. He told Macron time was running out on a diplomatic track that they were going to press ahead with their offensive.

This is no longer international leaders, if you will, calling up Putin to try to persuade him off his course. It seems to be Macron trying to keep some conversation going but every time he calls Putin, he comes away with less and the view, the outlook is pretty dark and grim at the moment, Anderson.

COOPER: The Ukrainians and Russians did sit down for a second round of talks today. Is it clear if anything productive came from that?

ROBERTSON: It's hard to say. The Russians are saying, look, we're going to open humanitarian corridors for people to get out of these towns. We'll have a ceasefire. It sounds like vintage military Russian playbook. I mean, you and I both heard the Russians do this in Syria back in 2017.

You say you're going to have a ceasefire around certain towns. What you do, you squeeze them and lay siege to them. Squeeze and siege, squeeze and siege. And then at a point, you mass troops on it.

What Russia is trying to do, what Putin was saying in the speech today, is use these heavy weapons to pulverize the civilians, to beat them down, to make them think they need to leave, to cut off their water, cut of their electricity, cut off the food and say you have a humanitarian corridor, hang a left, hang a right, get out of here. It's threats and people are going to be frightened. They're going to want to save their children, elderly relatives, they don't have food to feed them, all those sorts of things.

Putin is relying all that have to empty out the towns and villages. So, he's either going to have, A, a compliant population, or just that his military can steamroller through. This is the Russian playbook. But that seems to be the narrative. The Russians are emerging from their talks.

But they said before, Sergey Lavrov, said before the foreign minister, before the talks began today, we're not going to hang around. We're going to double down on our demands. You know, if the Ukrainians don't come up with what we want. De-Nazify, get rid of the military, change the leadership and smash the country.

There just isn't anything really that looks realistic that came out of those talks that you can talk about having hope for ending the conflict right now, Anderson.

COOPER: Russia continues to crack down on its own citizens.

[15:15:01]

What are they doing?

ROBERTSON: Yeah, they're coming out in the streets and protesting more than 7,500, one image that will be burned in my mind for the rest of this conflict here, this old lady in St. Petersburg. She had these big placards protesting against the war. You see people on the streets, whenever they come out with a placard that says no to the war, boom, they're arrested. The cops jump right on them.

Here was this old lady. Look at the riot cops gathering her up on the street there and it took more riot cops to swarm in behind her. You know when a state is doing that to its people, when it's cracking down on elderly ladies who are out there voicing an opinion, you know it's pretty -- it's come down -- it's come down to the wire.

The Kremlin is afraid these protests will gather momentum and they're cracking down on them in every way they can, arresting the people, cracking down on the independent media, shutting down independent media that speak about them. Tomorrow, they're going to have a vote on a media law that could give a 15-year jail term for anyone who's found distributing fake media.

If Russia doesn't put these protests on state media, that's the narrative that's going to surround these protests. So, you can expect to see the Kremlin crack down harder not on just the protests but any way the messaging gets out, Anderson.

COOPER: It's stunning to me when you look at that picture, as you said, of that elderly lady holding two signs, she is maybe 5 feet, if that, the idea Vladimir Putin who likes to puff his chest, appear shirtless on a horse, brag about his judo champion black belt, the fact that Vladimir Putin is scared of that old lady bravely standing on a street with two hand drawn signs is unbelievable. I mean, it's -- Vladimir Putin is scared of that woman and has her removed from the streets.

ROBERTSON: Doesn't that tell you everything?

And people in St. Petersburg believe that this lady is old enough that she went through the siege of Stalingrad back during the Second World War, 900 days, where people -- hundreds of thousands of people died from starvation. Putin's parents went through that, too.

Here he is doing this to that old lady where his parents grew up as well, had that shared experience with Russians that they suffered so much in that war? It tells you everything you need to know about the state of what's going on in the Kremlin at the moment.

COOPER: Wow, I mean, it's just stunning. Vladimir Putin scared of that woman. Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

Let's go back to Victor and Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: It really is a striking image. And more evidence this is Putin's war. This is not the Russian people's war. This is Vladimir Putin's war.

CAMEROTA: And the bravery of each person to stand up when they know they're surrounded by police.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

Anderson, thank you.

Let's bring in now, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton for more perspective. He's a CNN military analyst, former member of the joint staff at the Pentagon.

A senior U.S. defense official, Colonel, said that Russia has moved 90 percent of its pre-stage combat power into Ukraine. We're seeing more of the attacks on the major cities. But Putin says the operation is continuing as planned, operation going according to plan.

What's your assessment?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Victor, you're going definitely according to Putin's plan and the strategy has remained the same. What's really changed is the tactics, which specific phase of the plan everybody is in and the way Putin sees it, I believe, is that he's looking at this as a phased approach. Soften up the target.

The next phase is bring in the heavy artillery. And, you know, if you can achieve a goal with just moving in troops and taking over a country like they did in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, for example, then that's great. But if they need to bring in the heavy artillery literally and figuratively in this case, then they'll go that route.

So, that's what's happening here and Putin is moving forward. As far as he's concerned, the plan is in essence working. For people like me, we think of the plan is completely ghastly not only from a humanitarian perspective, but also from the perspective of pure military operations. It's not something that I would be proud of.

CAMEROTA: Colonel, let's zero in on a place it looks as though Putin's strategy is working, the city of Kherson in the south. The mayor has told us it has now fallen into Russian soldiers' hands and that if you look over here, Mariupol, this is right on the coast and this, we're told, is under siege.

And then what? I mean, then what happens?

[15:20:01]

So, soldiers stay -- obviously, the people who have stayed behind, the Ukrainians who have stayed behind don't believe they are now under Russian occupation. So now what? Soldiers stay there? What happens in these places?

LEIGHTON: This is going to be the so-called $64,000 question, Alisyn. Is it going to actually work the way the Russians want it to? So, if the Russians maintain control of these cities, what will happen

is they will have an occupation force, in essence, there. If they do that, that is not going to be sufficient. We've already seen the reaction of all kinds of civilians to what the Russians are doing and it's definitely not positive.

The other thing when it comes to the goals that the Russians have, they are clearly building the land bridge between Crimea and Mariupol, and then, of course, on to the Donbas region. So, that's what's happening in that specific part of Ukraine, but it's going to be hard for the Russians to hold this area.

BLACKWELL: Colonel, let's focus on the north up here, the capital. This convoy has been stalled for days outside of Kyiv, that's the latest assessment as well. What are you seeing in the north here that we should pay attention to?

LEIGHTON: Obviously, the convey is definitely something to pay attention to, Victor. The other thing I would urge people to look at is what's happening northeast of Kyiv. If you look at the map and could point out to the northeast, you see that big thrust of red, right there, Victor, that is the area where I think they're going to amass more troops and move them to the city.

So the two columns, the one we're talking about and potentially the one from the northeast, those are going to come around and they will encircle Kyiv in all probability. They may even come in and bring in forces from the south so the ones that are active in Kherson and that area could potentially, depending on how much firepower they need, could potentially move up from the south into that area.

That would be a slog for them right now but would allow for Putin to achieve a goal to divide the country into east and west, and along the lines of the Dnipro River that flows through the middle of Ukraine. That would be one way he could do something and claim a bit of a victory. These are the kinds of things that will change based on how far he can get there.

CAMEROTA: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much for walking us through all of those.

We've also seen all sorts of civilian targets from schools to apartment buildings being hit in some of these places.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, we've got the video in hour by hour.

Now, the U.S. and its allies, they're putting in squeeze on Putin and Russia's elite. France and Germany have already seized yachts belonging to two oligarchs. We'll talk about the impact this could have, next.

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CAMEROTA: We have some breaking news back here in the U.S. A jury just acquitted former Louisville police officer Brett Hankinson on all three charges that he was facing for his role in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Athena Jones is with us now.

Athena, what more do you know?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Victor and Alisyn.

Well, we know that the jury deliberated for just three hours to reach this verdict after a trial that took about five days. They heard from 26 prosecution witnesses and two defense witnesses, including Brett Hankinson himself. He's the only officer who was not charged in connection with this raid. And it's important to note he was not charged with killing Breonna Taylor. No officer was.

Instead, prosecutors argue he wantonly endangered three of Taylor's neighbors in the neighboring apartment. They say he blindly fired ten shots, several of those rounds piercing that apartment and putting a man, a pregnant woman and 5-year-old child who were all sleeping in danger. The neighbor at one point testifying when he got up to figure out what was going on, another bullet flew by and barely missed him by one or two inches, he said.

Now, the defense spent 25 minutes arguing that Hankison acted reasonably because he thought he was defending his fellow officers. This -- he only began firing after one was shot in the leg by Breonna Taylor's boyfriend who, of course, said they thought they were being broken into.

So, the Hankison attorney arguing that he acted reasonably and they were not very well-prepared for this raid. There wasn't a map. He didn't even know there was even an apartment next door that he could have put other people in danger.

The prosecution spent twice as long arguing that Hankison acted recklessly and since they were in an apartment complex, he had to know that there were other apartments nearby. So, this jury of 12 came back with this verdict.

And the defense attorney reacting saying, justice was done, the verdict was proper, and we are thrilled. That's defense attorney Stu Matthew (ph). The prosecution saying that they accept the verdict. There was no audible reaction in the courtroom.

We do know that Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, and her sister Janiya Palmer, were in the courtroom. We'll have to wait and see how they respond to this case. But even before this began, the Palmer said that this is not about justice for Breonna Taylor. This is at most going to be justice that her neighbors deserve.

So, it will be interesting how they respond to this outcome for the only officer charged in connection with that case and that person was acquitted.

BLACKWELL: Athena Jones, thank you. CAMEROTA: We're seeing neighbors banding together preparing to fight

for their country. This is a scene happening all over Ukraine and we have much more of the defiant spirit of the Ukrainian people, coming up.