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Fire at Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant Extinguished; Russia Ramps Up Campaign to Take Over Southern Ukraine; John Spencer, Retired U.S. Army Major & Urban Warfare Studies Chair, Madison Policy Forum, Discusses Russian Invasion; How Europe Is Coping with the Millions Displaced; UN: 133,000-Plus Ukrainians Have Fled to Hungary; Russian Media Presents Warped View of Invasion; Russian Media Presents Warped View of Invasion; Inside a Children's Hospital in Kyiv; Sanctions Target Yacht's Linked to Russian Oligarchs; Ukrainian Jews React to Putin Rhetoric of De-Nazification. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired March 04, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:02]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. And welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I am Michael Holmes coming to you live from live from Lviv in western Ukraine.
We do begin with the breaking news. Firefighters have managed to extinguish the fire that had been raging at a power plant in Ukraine following fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. A nuclear power plant.
Now I'll show you the video. You see it there. This is from a little bit earlier. The bright light you see on screen is from a flare gun and not gunshots or explosives, although there was incoming fire.
A spokesman for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant gave an update to our Anderson Cooper a little earlier. This was before the fire had been put out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDRII TUZ, ZAPORIZHZHIA NPP SPOKESMAN (voice-over): Now the shooting has been contained from air attempts. At any moment, it may result in a nuclear accident. Many buildings are damaged and on fire.
Only one of six power units is in operation right now. All six power units are lower with nuclear tombs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The nuclear power plant -- this is in southeastern Ukraine -- it is the largest in Europe. Officials stressing that radiation levels have not been elevated at all throughout this. Ukraine's president offering his condemnation of Russia for the
attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We contacted our partners. I talk to Charles, Schultz, I talked to Duda, I talked to President Biden. We have contacted President Rafael Grazi, also Prime Minister Johnson.
And we warn everyone that no other country other than Russia has ever fired on a nuclear power unit. This is the first time in our history, in the history of mankind that a terrorist state now resorted to nuclear terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: More on that fire in a moment.
Meanwhile, though, bring you up to date on some aspects of this conflict.
Residents of Mariupol facing a deteriorating situation as Russian forces besieged that key city from all sides. Civilians are trapped without food electricity or water.
The assault on Mariupol, of course, part of Russia's efforts to tighten its grip on the south and establish a so-called land bridge to Russian-help territories, Crimea primarily.
Fighting is also intensifying in other parts of the country, such as Kharkiv and northeastern new crane, the country's second-biggest city.
Let's talk more about that fire. Bring in a nuclear expert right now.
Now Mariana Budjeryn is a research associate with Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom. She joins me from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Things seem to be thankfully more under control now. More broadly, what are the risks within in certain like this?
MARIANA BUDJERYN, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, PROJECT ON MANAGING THE ATOM, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL: Well, Michael, Russian shelling of a nuclear power plant was an extremely reckless behavior.
But it actually takes several things to go wrong all at the same time to precipitate a serious nuclear accident at a nuclear power plant.
These are facilities that have very robust safety and security measures in place. Especially since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.
All of these protocols are getting updated constantly. But if we have several things that go wrong at the same time, then really we should be worried. These things are the breach in the confinement chamber of a nuclear
power plant.
So every nuclear reactor that contains a core, a nuclear core, reactor core is protected by a very robust reinforce concrete confinement chamber that is designed to withstand an explosion internally of the reactor core that might release a radioactivity.
It is designed to contain that radioactivity inside. But it is also designed to withstand an outside impact of a certain intensity.
Of course, the staged shelling by missiles and artillery might compromise that confinement chamber.
But the breach of the confinement chamber itself may not necessarily result in a nuclear accident.
What is critical for safe operation of a nuclear reactor is the functioning of a cooling system of a reactor core.
[00:05:00]
So if you can imagine, it is a big pool into which the fuel rods are inserted. It has to have a constant supply of cold water to keep that core and that nuclear fuel at a certain temperature.
And of course, the system relies on a supply of water. That supply of water depending on the functioning of the pumps that pump that water into the core.
The pump rely on electricity. There are backup electricity systems, should the main power grid to go out. That is standard for every nuclear power plant. Those are diesel generators. And then there's also batteries for redundancy.
But in a full-scale invasion in the middle of the war, it is not inconceivable that all of the systems could be compromised. And then we really have to worry that there could be a serious accident.
HOLMES: Right.
To that point, how can a scenario like this perhaps be better mitigated? I think only one reactor of the six was running. If the reactors are not running, are they safe or safer or not?
BUDJERYN: Well, even as a controlled shutdown of the reactor it's not like you just flick a switch and it's off.
The fuel remains in the core for some time, for several weeks actually, until it is cool enough to take out and transport to a spent fuel pool that is normally outside of the reactor building.
And actually, spent fuel pools are underestimated. There are points of vulnerability in the safety and security of a nuclear power plant. The fuel here still quite radioactive active. It may not be as active
as within the core but normally it is packed quite tight. There's less material to add but there's more of it.
So, again, if the -- and those spent fuel pools also need to be cooled and kept at a certain temperature.
So again, if the pooling system is compromised, then there could be trouble.
HOLMES: We are almost out of time. But, real quick, if you can, in a worst-case scenario in this sort of situation, what sort of radiation spread could there be? What kind of area is impacted? Real quick, if you can.
BUDJERYN: Well, in a worst-case scenario, I think the preview of that is the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in 1986. Where they release much of it, it depends on the weather, it depends on the winds.
After the Chernobyl catastrophe, the radiation was carried as far out as Ireland and as England.
With the fallout, until rather recently, I think maybe early 2000s, a number of farms in the U.K. and Ireland were affected where they couldn't sell their produce.
To this day, in southern Germany, a wild boar hunted in the woods is tested for radiation to this day.
So we are not only looking at the geography. We are looking at a time scale of decades that these consequences could last.
HOLMES: Ironically, it would impact Russia itself.
Mariana Budjeryn, thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
Now a new video showing the horrifying aftermath of a Russian strike north of the capital, Kyiv. Officials say an apartment building in the city of Chernihiv was hit on Thursday, leaving at least 33 people dead, 18 wounded.
We are warning you the footage you are about to see is graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SIREN)
(EXPLOSION)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
(SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
#: Now in southern Ukraine, port city after a port city is facing increased attacks from Russian forces. That is no accident. That is tactical.
[00:10:01]
Nick Paton Walsh has more on Russia's campaign to tighten its control.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): The town of Kherson refuses to give up it seems.
(BANGING)
PATON WALSH: Looting, crippling life here.
This Russian soldier's bid to get into a cell phone store, a sign of the lawless world they brought with them where food and medicine is lacking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: And what life is left made more unbearable by the laying of tripwire mines, local officials said. This one posted online to warn others.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: On the other side of Russian-held Crimea, Mariupol under siege, without water or electricity. The mayor saying the Russian, quote, "scum" have found no other way to break us.
The prize in the south is this, Odessa. It's opera house fortified, its coastline a harder task. Where the tide could bring Russians in with it, yet still laps as if nothing has changed.
An Estonian ship sank Thursday east of here. Its crew rescued. With Ukrainian officials accusing Russia of shelling it to act as cover for their landing ships, any hour now, when the landing force could heave irrevocably into view.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: Odessa brims with locals, ready though, like so many here.
The civilian defenders don't want their whereabouts filmed, but are happy to speak. ZHENA, VOLUNTEER FIGHTER: The war starts or it's on back home --
PATON WALSH: Zhena is chief marketing officer for an I.T. company who's traveled Europe in Africa but joined up to fight on day one.
ZHENA: Unfortunately, I have lost two of my friends in Kherson two days ago.
WALSH (on camera): I'm sorry.
ZHENA: They've -- yes. They also have been --
PATON WALSH: They're fighting in Kherson?
ZHENA: Yes, they were fighting and they are in S.S. in volunteer troop. So they have no military background at all. Both of them are programmers.
WALSH (voice-over): We're joined by Lira (ph), age 19, a nanny who fled Russians in Crimea when she was 11.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PATON WALSH: "We're ready to the end to defend our land," she said. "The occupiers came to my home before. My family is still there. Only I could leave because I don't want to live in Russia."
(CROSSTALK)
PATON WALSH: Across town, mothers knit camouflage netting, while, like Nelia, their daughter's fight, her staying behind to defend Kyiv.
NELIA KONONOVA, VOLUNTEER: We know the danger. We know that it will come but we didn't know, when will it come.
And I asked them, children come here, please, be safe, come to me. But they didn't want. No, mom. Please stay alive. Stay safe.
But we will defend because everybody loves our motherland. Everybody -- sorry. Sorry. Everybody wants to be independent, to be free.
They decided to stay there. And I can't influence the decision. But I pray every day, I pray every night for them to stay alive.
PATON WALSH: The defined words of Ukrainian soldiers of Snake Island, who told her Russian ship where to shove it, echo here.
(CROSSTALK)
KONONOVA: Russian ship, fuck you. Is the logo now in Ukraine.
PATON WALSH: They'll need more than high spirits in the days ahead.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Odessa, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: John Spencer is a retired U.S. Army major and chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Madison Policy Forum. He joins me now from Colorado Springs in Colorado.
Thank you for doing so, sir.
Before I get to your area of expertise, I wanted to ask you, how disturbing is it that a nuclear power plant would be the site of Russian incoming fire, munitions going into a power plant like that?
MAJ. JOHN SPENCER, U.S. ARMY, RETIRED & CHAIR, URBAN WARFARE STUDIES, MADISON POLICY FORUM: It is a global disaster waiting to happen. Very scary. Especially firing anywhere near that with any type of weapon. It's just ridiculous.
HOLMES: You are an expert on urban warfare. That is the big fear in terms of what could be coming. If the Russians assault Kyiv with heavy weapons in a no-holds-barred entry, what would that look like in a kinetic sense?
SPENCER: It would look like hell on earth, to be honest. We are just seeing the very start of this, the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas with the hope that their defenders in there.
[00:15:05]
Not following international law and ensuring that there's -- making sure there's no civilians in whatever striking. It's a Russian doctrine unfortunately. We are going to see this intensify.
Just think about the battle of Grozny. The Russians started by -- just started on day one firing up 3,000 rounds a day. When they really faced resistance, it ended up being about 30,000 rounds a day.
HOLMES: Wow. Thirty thousand a day.
I actually covered the retaking of Mosul from ISIS in Iraq. That's sort of starkly illustrated how fighting in a city can be incredibly damaging to infrastructure, obviously.
And far more likely to result in high civilian casualties. I think in Mosul, some estimates were 10,000 civilians died.
Just describe how bad it can get and why?
SPENCER: Yes. I think this will be 10 times what the battle of Mosul was just because of the resistance you're facing.
And the battle of Mosul, like 5,000, maybe estimated 10,000 untrained terrorists, and it still took 100,000 people and forces -- backed by the most powerful and law-abiding air power in the world, and it still took them nine months and destroying most of the city.
This could get in the tens of thousands of civilian casualties. And destroy every building there, if the Ukrainians put up resistance.
For me, more importantly, my hope, and I stand with Ukraine, is that they can make Russia pay a huge, huge price.
HOLMES: Right.
And to that very point, the Ukrainians are the defenders. I know you have written extensively about many of the advantages of being in that position.
What are the main advantages? What would Ukrainian forces be doing to prepare or should be doing to prepare?
SPENCER: The defense is always the strongest form of war. It has always been. And in the urban defense, it's 10 times that.
They can prepare every street. They can block every street, put guns in every window hidden. And just make it impossible for the Russians to come in without fear.
The Russians fear urban combat. That's why they will bomb it, unfortunately, a lot.
They also don't want urban warfare.
So inside of Kyiv, if I was there, building the barriers, ensuring they have protection, digging so they can go underground when the bombing starts.
Or getting -- picking out which building they will be in, picking out which building they will shoot from.
I mean, the resistance is amazing. But it's so powerful. I don't believe the stories.
I have studied this for over a decade. I can give you all kinds of historical examples. If the Ukrainians fight, Kyiv can hold.
HOLMES: Yes. That's incredible analysis.
I want to ask you this before we go. There's a lot of talk about Russia's thermobaric weapons, I mean, cluster munitions as well, which they have already used.
But the thermobaric weapons, what the potential applications in an urban or city environment?
SPENCER: So thermobaric, some people call it a vacuum bomb just because what thermobaric does when it hits the ground, it sucks all of the oxygen out of the room, out of the person's lungs and it fills it with fire.
Some people call them a flame-thrower weapon. But they're thermobarics. They're advanced technologies meant to destroy things like tanks and big vehicles in the open. They are not meant for urban terrain.
If that was fired into urban terrain, which it will be, and it wasn't in the first battle of Grozny. It just melts concrete, melts metal. It is a cruel and unusual weapon
to use in an urban terrain.
HOLMES: Just horrific to contemplate. Yet, this sort of welfare could be on the horizon.
So it's great to have you in to get your expertise on this.
John Spencer, Mayor, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
SPENCER: Thank you.
HOLMES: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, the Russian people are getting a warped view of the invasion thanks to state media. We will take a look at the fake news that is flooding their airways.
[00:19:19]
Plus, more than one million Ukrainians displaced. How European countries are coping with a flood of refugees pouring across their borders. We will be right back.
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HOLMES: Now the war in Ukraine, as we have reported, is creating a flood of refugees pouring across European borders.
As the fighting enters its second week, more than one million people have fled. Half of them children, by the way.
But on Thursday, Russian and Ukraine negotiators did agree to provide humanitarian corridors for people trying to escape the fighting. We will see how that works out.
And ministers in the European Union unanimously agreed to give temporary protection to all of refugees fleeing Ukraine. That gives them protected status and rights to residency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERALD DARMANIN, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER: (through translation): Eligible persons will thus be able to benefit from a protective status. Similar to that of a refuge you in any country of the European Union for a renewable period of one year.
This unanimous decision reflects, I believe, the full commitment of the European Union to the solidarity that we owe to the Ukrainian people in the face of this unjustifiable war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now Ukrainian refugees crossing international borders are dependent, of course, on the goodwill of volunteers awaiting to help and of the country itself.
Once they arrive to safety, they are grateful for every kindness. CNN's Ivan Watson's talked to refugees newly arrived on the
Ukrainian/Hungarian border who are just happy to finally be safe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forced to flee their homes and their country, Ukrainians on the run.
Their children making the best of it, oblivious to the fact that a week-old War just turned them into refugees.
[00:25:06]
(on camera): This is one of Hungary's border crossings with Ukraine. There's a steady stream of people arriving here in vehicles and on foot. All of the Ukrainian new arrivals are women and children.
(voice-over): Hungarian aid workers welcomed the refugees and bring them, free of charge, to the nearest village where the community center is now a place of refuge.
Some people stay here. Others pause for food and warmth before moving on.
Among those here, Anna Tipachuk (ph), her mother, Slavana (ph), and her 16-month-old son.
ANNA TIPACHUK (ph), UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: Yes. This is my son, Mark.
WATSON: They crossed the border to Hungary this morning after spending nearly a week on the road.
We are very thankful to the Hungarian people. It's very hard work that they are doing.
WATSON: The Hungarian village of Badabash (ph) has a population of 1,060 people. The deputy mayor tells me the village has taken in more than 100 Ukrainians, including housing families and at least 20 village homes.
As we speak another family arrives from Ukraine.
(on camera): Yes, there's a little baby.
(voice-over): Yesterday, we took care of a five-day old baby who came across the border, the deputy mayor tells me. A five-day old baby.
Victoria Kulyana (ph) says, when the Russians invaded, she fled her home near Kyiv for what she thought would be one night. A week later, she and her son just arrived in a foreign country.
(on camera): What belongings do you have?
VICTORIA KULYANA (ph), UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: I have just one jacket.
I think Ukraine is very strong. It's a country with strong people, strong nation and a major power. That's why I don't worry. Of course, my heart is broken.
WATSON (voice-over): She says she tried to convince her friends and Russia via social media about the deadly attack their military is carrying out on her homeland.
(on camera): What's your Russian friends say to you?
KULYANA (ph): It's not true, no, it's not possible.
They don't believe you?
KULYANA (ph): No.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WATSON (voice-over): And 10-year-old Timor (ph) chimes in, saying Vladimir Putin is like Adolf Hitler. He is attacking the world just like Hitler did.
There are almost no man here, aside from the elderly. Because all Ukrainian men of fighting age have been ordered to stay behind to defend their country from the Russian invasion.
TIPACHUK (ph): I'm very angry for Russia people.
WATSON: "I want to tell the Russians that it is time to do something. It's time to change something," says Anna Tipachuk (ph).
"My son doesn't deserve to be forced to run across Ukraine and across borders," she adds. "He doesn't deserve to grow up like this."
Ivan Watson, CNN, on the Ukraine/Hungarian border.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now as you can imagine, Russian media coverage of the invasion is very different from what you will see on CNN and other Western news outlets.
Pro-Kremlin propaganda filling the airwaves and far too little real reporting is getting through to the Russian people.
More now from Nic Robertson in Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN TV ANCHOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: On Russia's state TV, audiences are only being told what the Kremlin wants them to know about the war in Ukraine.
This new Russian army video shows troops handing out humanitarian aid. They claim Russian forces are giving civilians safe passage from the fighting.
A message reinforced in President Putin's latest state TV speech.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): Our military have provided corridors in all areas of combat action.
ROBERTSON: The terrible reality the rest of the world is seeing, shelling of civilians suffering death and destruction, never gets aired on Russian state TV.
(SIREN)
(EXPLOSION)
ROBERTSON: And many Russians believe their government that their war was forced on them by Ukraine backed by NATO.
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN FEMALE (through translation): I know the truth. This was a forced measure on our side. After what Russia went through in World War II, it's madness to believe we want war.
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN FEMALE (through translation): I see what's on TV when I'm getting ready for work. We try not to get too involved in it because we've got enough of our own problems.
ROBERTSON: Some do care enough to reach beyond state TV. But even then, they are not convinced by what they see.
[00:29:55]
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN FEMALE (through translation): Yes, I have heard that some civilians, even children, have died. But I'm not sure I can believe it because there's fake news. They are making money.
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN NEWS ANCHOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Obedient anchors on state TV never question the Kremlin's version of facts and reinforce its tropes about de-Nazification.
No mention that President Zelensky is Jewish or Russian missiles killed civilians near a Holocaust Memorial in Kyiv.
Even so, some, mostly younger Russians, see through the government slice, getting their news from friends, independent and social media.
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN FEMALE: Almost all of us are understanding these things that there's a lot of lies around. So we do not know what is happening.
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN MALE (through translation): I think this is a crime. An aggression against a neighboring country. Our government invaded. Now they are killing.
UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN FEMALE: It's awful. What can we think about it? Normal people understand. But we can't do anything. Because we are afraid like everyone else. ROBERTSON (on camera): The government is so worried independent media
could challenge their narrative, in the past few days, it shut down two outlets.
But is right now preparing a law that would criminalize what it calls fake media. It can carry a maximum 15-year jail sentence.
(voice-over): Despite the Kremlin's best efforts at controlling the narrative, many Russians have taken to the streets, angered by Putin's war. More than 7,500 people arrested so far.
(SHOUTING)
ROBERTSON: Including this elderly lady at a protest in St. Petersburg Wednesday. And no surprise this video has yet to be shown on state media.
(on camera): There's nothing more dangerous for President Putin and Russia today than the truth.
Armed with evidence of what is happening in Ukraine, many Russians may reconsider their relationship with him. And that could challenge his rule.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Now a children's hospital in Kyiv is trying to keep operations going amid a war. After the break, we go inside of that hospital and talk to those caring for the kids.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:35:55]
HOLMES: Welcome back. Let's update you on the main story.
Ukrainian emergency crews saying that they have put out a fire at a nuclear power plant. This is in southeastern Ukraine.
It broke out a few hours ago after alleged Russian shelling of the plant. Regulators stress there has been no change in radiation levels.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, blaming Russia for the dangerous situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): We remembered that Russian propaganda threatened to cover the world with nuclear ashes. We remember.
Now it is not a threat. Now it is a reality. And we do not know how the fire at the station will end. When there will be an explosion or when there won't be. God forbid. No one can predict it until the end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Of course, since the president spoke, that fire is now out.
Meanwhile, smoke pouring out of residential buildings in a town. This is just outside of the capital of Kyiv where Russian troops continue to advance.
And Russia appears to be gaining more ground in the south and in the east as fighting enters a second week. The Ukrainian president is pleading for more help from Western nations.
Ukraine's largest children's hospital in Kyiv has had to take special precautions as the bombings get closer, including moving the children to the basement.
CNN's Clarissa Ward talks to the families and health professionals who are doing their best to take care of the kids.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outside the Okhmatdyt Hospital, the sound of heavy fighting pierces the night air.
(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED NURSE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: "The shelling has started," this nurse says. "We're in the surgical department for newborn babies. It's so loud."
Exhausted staff hover nervously in the hallway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
WARD: This is Ukraine's largest children's hospital. Shutting down is not an option.
DMYTRO ISHCHENKO, NEUROSURGEON: Yes, we decided to open your surgical department here.
WARD: Neurosurgeon Dmytro Ishchenko shows us the impact of just one week of war.
(on-camera): So the children who are too sick to be moved have to stay here in the basement in case the bombardment starts again.
(voice-over): There are 10 patients currently being treated in this underground hallway. And they are very sick, indeed.
(CRYING)
WARD (on-camera): Is this your daughter?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD (voice-over): On the floor, in one corner, we meet Sonia (ph) and her three-month-old daughter, Milena (ph). Milena (ph) has a brain tumor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: "It's a terrifying situation, we must stay underground. And we don't know how long for," she says.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: "I'm alone here at the hospital. And my husband is at home with my other kid."
For seven nights, she has been sleeping on this floor as the bombing gets closer.
(on-camera): She's saying that the stress of the situation has meant that her milk has dried up, so she's now using formula for her daughter.
(voice-over): With resources being diverted to deal with trauma injuries, parents are stepping in to help where they can.
At one bed, Valentin (ph) is feeding an unconscious child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD (on-camera): So he's saying that little baby there is his little boy, but he's helping with this child because their mother can't be here.
(voice-over): I tell him he's strong.
"There's no other way," he says. "God gives us strength."
In this environment, Dr. Ishchenko offers his patients and their families whatever he can, but there are limits.
ISHCHENKO: It's really very challenging and really tough because we don't have good conditions for our patients.
WARD (on-camera): Is this dangerous for them, this situation?
[00:40:01]
ISHCHENKO: Yes. And not only because we have a war. These conditions is not suitable with brain surgeries.
WARD (voice-over): For now, non-essential procedures are on hold.
Eleven-year-old Jaroslav's (ph) sutures should have been removed but the risk of infection is too high.
His mother, Ludmilla (ph) tries to comfort him. "I will massage you and everything will be OK," she says.
But no one knows how long this war will last. And these children cannot wait forever.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And I will be back with more from Lviv later this hour.
But first, let's bring in Kim Brunhuber at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
Over to you, my friend.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much, Michael.
It may soon be the lifestyles of the "rich and seized" for Russian oligarchs and their mega yachts. Coming up, we take an inside look at the Russian ships and how they avoid seizure.
Coming up. Stay with us
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We've got much better about being aware of the signs of human trafficking. And individuals can look for these when they go to a nail salon or a restaurant.
If they see indicators where people do not feel free to move about or are not making eye contact or cannot communicate without someone standing over them, then they should call law enforcement.
It's very important to not be a hero right there in the moment yourself but to reach out to the appropriate authorities to do that.
I would like to brag on two hometown companies to do this which is Delta Airlines, which is trained flight attendants to be aware of the signs of human trafficking, and also UPS, which has trained they're drivers.
It is also very important to look at what the vulnerabilities are for trafficking survivors. And to go upstream of the problem and try to solve some of these vulnerabilities so the trafficking survivors do not fall prey in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: As Russia's assault on Ukraine continues to escalate, America's top diplomat is planning to visit U.S. allies to talk about how to handle the ongoing crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken touched down in Brussels a short time ago. In a few hours, we will need our headquarters with foreign ministers from the alliance.
After that, they will meet with NATO allies from Poland to Latvia to talk about what the State Department calls Russia's unjustified war against Ukraine.
The White House is piling on the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin but going after his inner circle.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden slapped new sanctions on a group of oligarchs close to Russian leader. They'll be cut off from the U.S. financial system, while their assets and property will be frozen and blocked.
[00:45:05]
Britain later followed suit, slapping their own sanctions on two oligarchs worth $19 billion dollars combined.
Biden says the sanctions imposed on Putin's country earlier are already getting traction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The severe economic sanctions on Putin and all those folks around them. Choking off access to technology as well cutting off access to the global financial system. This had a profound impact already.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Some of those targets to be seized include massive yachts owned by some of Russia's richest oligarchs.
CNN's Drew Griffin looks at the floating mansions now in the financial crosshairs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 280-foot yacht "Amore Vero" features multiple decks, has a swimming pool that turns into a helicopter pad, and boasts of master and VIP suites to accommodate up to 14 guests.
And it's just been seized by the French government.
It's linked to Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russian oil giant, Rosneft. Though the yacht company now says he doesn't own it.
The European Union sanctioned Sechin earlier this week, describing him as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most trusted and closest advisers.
The seizure, part of a coordinated action from Western countries, making it difficult for Russian billionaires to operate and putting pressure on Putin.
BILL BROWDER, CEO, HERMITAGE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: This is what he cares about. This is what's important to him.
This helps because the oligarchs look after Putin's money. We want to punish Putin personally indirectly, for what he's done. And this is the most direct way of doing that.
GRIFFIN: Another target of coordinated sanctions, the super yacht "Dilbar." It's currently being renovated in Hamburg, Germany, and owned by a telephone and mining magnate.
It has dozens of cabins and a crew of 96 people. Guests can swim in an 80-foot pool, once the largest ever put on a yacht.
A CNN review from marinetraffic.com found yachts have been reported to be owned by Russian oligarchs spread out across the world. Some were already on the move towards friendlier ports in anticipation of a worldwide crackdown.
CATHERINE BELTON, AUTHOR, "PUTIN'S PEOPLE": The problem is, is that the sanctions have been announced ahead of time.
So probably right now, they're all busy, feverishly, engineering deals in which ownership changes could be triggered the minute sanctions are handed down. So it's going to be a game of cat and mouse, unfortunately.
GRIFFIN: That cat-and-mouse game may have already begun, even with Russian billionaires who are not under sanction.
The "Galactica Super Nova," with floor-to-ceiling marble and outdoor theater and a waterfall pool, reportedly owned by a Russian oil company executive, left Barcelona on Saturday and crossed the Mediterranean to Montenegro.
The ownership is often hidden behind complicated registries and shell companies.
These yachts are a symbol of the cash and prestige oligarchs have built under Putin.
Luxuries like anti-missile defense systems, bomb-proof doors and a mini-submarine or a beauty salon and an elevator.
One yacht now out of reach of any Western authorities, the "Graceful." German media has speculated the owner is none other than Vladimir Putin himself.
Two weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, the yacht left Hamburg, Germany, and sped to Kaliningrad, Russia, where no location data has been recorded since.
(on camera): And it is not just yachts. The U.S. government has sanctioned five ships it says are connected to a Russian bank, oil tankers and freighters.
In a sign that it may be having its desired effect, that author, Catherine Belton, talked to some these oligarchs. She says they are shocked by what Putin has done, and never thought he would go this far.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Vladimir Putin says his invasion of Ukraine is intended to de- Nazify the country and protect Jewish people living inside its borders. But that claim doesn't carry much weight with much of Ukraine's Jewish population. We'll hear what's some think of Putin's rhetoric, next.
[00:49:07]
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes reporting from Lviv in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials say that they have put out a fire at the nation's largest nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, in fact.
They say flames broke out earlier after relentless Russian shelling. This is at the Zaporizhzhia plant on Thursday.
But White House officials say there's been no indication of any increase in radiation. The International Atomic Energy Agency says the facilities essential equipment was affected.
Some good news there but worrying, nonetheless.
Russia's president he says he is fighting Nazis while conducting this brutal incursion into a country led by a Jewish president.
Sam Kiley looks at the cruel irony of Putin's rationale with a visit to one Ukrainian Jewish community.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (SIREN)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Air raid sirens in Uman. Civilians seeking shelter from Russian bombs in what Vladimir Putin says is partly a campaign to rid Ukraine of a Nazi leadership.
The absurdity of this claim lost on no one here heading to the basement of a synagogue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
KILEY (on camera): The Jewish population of Ukraine has suffered terribly over the last few hundred years. It's had pogroms that have been inflicted on it by this Czarist regime.
It's suffered miserably under Staling. And of course, the Jews here were murdered on mass by Hitler.
(voice-over): The tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is a pilgrimage site for thousands of Hasidic Jews and has flourished under Ukraine's recent governments.
Now the streets of its Jewish community are almost deserted, the result of Putin so called de-Nazification program.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
KILEY: "Military sites and the town was bombed on day one of the Russian campaign against Ukraine."
[00:55:01]
(on camera): Do you think Ukraine has a government of National Socialists, of Nazis? That is what Putin says.
YEHUDA TURGIMAN, WORSHIPPER IN UMAN: No, I think, in Ukraine, you see that Ukraine in the last year, they give us to come to Rabbi Nachman. They don't make us problem.
AVIRAM DIAMOND, JEWISH WORSHIPPER FROM NEW YORK: I have been living here for seven months and it's been amazing, very loving, and very caring for the Jewish people.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
KILEY (voice-over): Putin has called on Ukraine's military to rise against the government, which he says is a gang of drug addicts and Neo-Nazis who settled in Kyiv and took the entire Ukrainian people hostage.
On Tuesday, Russian bombing of Kyiv's radio tower also damaged the Holocaust Memorial at the Babin Yar where more than 30,000 people were murdered in 1941. Many tens of thousands were murdered later.
Now, Ukraine's Jewish President suggested that Putin is following Hitler's lead.
ZELENSKY (through translation): He said, this kind of a missile strike demonstrates that, for many people in Russia, our Kyiv is absolutely alien.
They don't know anything about our capital, about our history. But they have an order to erase our history, to erase our country, to erase all of us.
In Uman, the synagogues underground to meek the bathing complex is a bunk of a Jew and Gentile alike.
DASHA BORSCHT, UMAN RESIDENT: I know that Uman is Jewish, but exactly this place where we are, I just know that it's bunker. It's safe to be here. That's why I am here.
KILEY: Like many people in this town, Dasha and her family are joining an exodus out of Ukraine.
For those left behind, there's little but the promise of a long hard winter.
Sam Kiley, CNN, Uman.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And that is all the time we have this hour. I am Michael Holmes. Thanks for being with us. I will have much more though from Lviv in just a moment.
