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Russian Forces Continue Invasion of Ukraine; Russian President Vladimir Putin Says Countries Imposing No-Fly Zone over Ukraine would be Considered Participating in Armed Conflict; Russian Forces Accused of Shelling Civilians Attempting to Evacuate Ukrainian Cities During Agreed Upon Cease-Fire; Russian Forces Take Control of Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine; Military Analyst Examines Russian Tactical Setbacks during Invasion of Ukraine; U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Praises Poland for Taking in Large Numbers of Refugees from Ukraine; Bipartisan Group of U.S. Senators Has Virtual Meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired March 05, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:26]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for this special CNN coverage. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta, alongside my colleague Jim Sciutto reporting from Lviv, Ukraine. I want to welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

So we begin with this breaking news. Russian President Vladimir Putin saying today countries imposing a no-fly zone would be considered participating in the armed conflict. Also, this hour, chaos in southern Ukraine as residents there are told to evacuate during a brief cease-fire only to be told to turn around and return to shelters immediately. Ukraine accusing Russia of violating the cease-fire and shelling in the areas designated for civilians to escape. You'll hear from the deputy mayor from one of those cities live in a moment.

Also, moments ago, new video being shared by Ukrainian forces which they say shows a Russian helicopter shot down over northern Kyiv. CNN is unable to verify when this happened. You see it right there.

And a U.S. official tells CNN Russia is set to deploy 1,000 more mercenaries to Ukraine and is poised to bombard cities into submission.

All of this as the humanitarian crisis grows worse by the day. The U.N. now saying more than 1.2 million have fled Ukraine.

CNN has reporters across Ukraine covering all the latest breaking developments. Let's go now to my colleague Jim Sciutto live from Lviv.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Thanks so much, Fred. As the shelling and the chaos continue, conditions in Mariupol in the south are becoming increasingly desire for civilians left behind. Staff members with Doctors Without Borders report they have now been forced to collect snow and rain for utility water. They say pharmacies have run out of medicine. Stores have run out of supplies.

CNN's Scott McLean is with me now to discuss. Scott, the Mariupol city council is asking residents to return to shelters. This is something we're seeing all over the country, indiscriminate bombing, including of civilian areas. What are you learning?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was the day, Jim, that there was a lot of hope for people in Mariupol and also in the city of Volnovakha. Those are two areas in the eastern part of Ukraine where the Russians and the Ukrainians had agreed for a seven-hour window of time to allow a humanitarian corridor. That's to allow supplies, food, water, medicine to get in, and to allow people to get out.

So the Ukrainians figured that there were 200,000 people who wanted to leave Mariupol, about 20,000 who wanted out of Volnovakha. The president was urging men to stay behind and fight for those cities. We are getting bits and pieces from the Ukrainian side, I should emphasize, on what exactly happened. So there were two different routes that these people were supposed to take out of these two different cities. In Volnovakha, we understand that there were shelling continuing, about two hours and 45 minutes into when that window of time for the humanitarian corridor started. So only about 400 people made it out of the city, according to officials there.

In Mariupol, people were gathering sort of at a marshal point, they were organizing a convoy to take the corridor out of the city. But by that time, they had gotten word that there was fighting about midway between the city that they were headed and Mariupol, and so they decided that it was not safe to proceed. And so, the Ukrainians are blaming the Russians for this.

Now, officials have said that there may be other opportunities that this -- these corridors could happen over several days. So it is possible, though we don't know at this stage, that this could -- they could try to restart this tomorrow or in the coming days. But for a lot of people, Jim, as you point out, this cannot come soon enough. The conditions in Mariupol are particularly dire. There's no power, no water, no heat, no cell signal even at this point. It is getting difficult to find water, and of course many people likely running out of food as well. Many grocery stores are bombed out, and what is left has been looted.

SCIUTTO: It appears that those cities and the people in those cities, not just a side result of this, but the goal of the Russian offensive, to punish them. Scott McLean, thanks so much.

So let's go now to Mariupol. The deputy mayor there, Sergei Orlov. Mayor, thanks so much for taking the time.

DEPUTY MAYOR SERGEI ORLOV, MARIUPOL, UKRAINE: Thank you, too.

SCIUTTO: So tell us what you know about what happened with these humanitarian corridors. Was there gunfire? Were they deliberately targeted?

[10:05:07]

ORLOV: I know that during previous night they were negotiation between Ukrainian and Russian parts, and in the morning, we received information that cease-fire will start and we will have opportunity to evacuate our citizens.

Like city council, we prepared some procedure, and we were -- we have some capacity to evacuate our citizens. We were ready to evacuate about 2,000 or 3,000 citizens to Zaporizhzhia, and part of them were ready to evacuate by their private cars. So the decision is that in 9:00 by Kyiv, in the morning, the cease-fire will start and we start to collect citizen to evacuate to Zaporizhzhia.

But cease-fire took place only for 30 minutes. After that, the Russian troops, army, start continuing shelling of Mariupol. They use everything they have, airborne and rockets, multiple launch rocket system, artillery, all of this. Even under the shell and people are ready to evacuate and we collected them in three points, about 2,000 citizens. But continuous shelling does not give opportunity to put buses, municipal buses there, and we told people to go to the shelter, to go to their homes where it's more safety than on the street.

And then you should know that Russian armies started to bomb the places where people connected half an hour ago. So the targets of their artillery was to kill as much citizens of Mariupol as possible. And I absolutely assure --

SCIUTTO: But Mayor Orlov.

ORLOV: Yes?

SCIUTTO: Are you saying the Russian forces in your view used the cease-fire as a ruse, in effect, to target more civilians?

ORLOV: I am absolutely sure. And after that, they start to destroy the buses. They get information where the buses are, and they start to bomb the places where a bus stop, and there they bomb.

SCIUTTO: Lord. I wonder, given today's experience, how do you trust that Russia would honor a cease-fire tomorrow or the next day?

ORLOV: Look, I'm a representative of city council and my responsibility to organize evacuation together with the mayor and our team from Mariupol. Negotiation take part between Ukrainian government and representative from Russian site. But you see what their words are worth.

And I'm absolutely sure, I'm absolutely sure, that the aim of Putin is destroy Ukraine as a nation. If you ask me, what was the situation in Mariupol yesterday, I will tell you that we have humanitarian crisis. If you ask what the situation today, I will answer, we have placed -- I am absolutely sure the target is to destroy Ukraine as a nation.

SCIUTTO: Is any help able to get in? Staff members from Doctors Without Borders, they've been describing the desire conditions there. Is any aid getting to you?

ORLOV: You should understand that even the Red Cross is afraid to go to Mariupol because they give information that will coordinate this operation, humanitarian, but they are not ready to go to Mariupol with humanitarian mission, and to go from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. So we are sure that Ukrainian country needs help, and it's mostly making more powerful sanction that USA provides to Russia and the European Union and Great Britain.

And we also talk a lot that you see and our audience see that on the field of -- the Ukrainian army can beat the Russian army and can defeat it's country. But from the air, we do not have the weapons to defend our country. And we ask, kindly ask our partners to set up a no-fly area. Why is not possible. We want to defend our lives. Even if it's not possible at the moment, please give us weapon, antimissile, antiaircraft weapon to use with our army to defend our freedom and democracy in Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: Do you know how many civilians in your city have already been killed?

ORLOV: The truth answer, we don't know. We cannot collect all the bodies on the street.

[10:10:05]

SCIUTTO: I wonder just how much longer you can hold out then. If pharmacies are without medicine, if food -- if there are food shortages, and if civilians are being shelled, how long can you hold out as a city?

ORLOV: I don't know. People are tired and afraid. Ukrainian military forces can defend our city, it's clear. But we're faced within the city, and Putin totally destroys the city. The Ukrainian army will fight up to the end, but who knows what will happen within the city. We will have some --

SCIUTTO: Do you believe --

ORLOV: -- I don't know.

SCIUTTO: Do you believe the U.S. and NATO and Europe are helping Ukraine enough?

ORLOV: Me personally think that help is very good and very powerful. Very powerful. But it's clearly, understand that we need help to defend our lives from the air. I don't know which way is best one or set up a no-fly area or given for us antimissile, antiaircraft weapon. I don't know. I'm not a military specialist.

SCIUTTO: I understand.

ORLOV: But I know that they use -- it's war crimes. We face war crimes. Hour by hour, second by second, he's killing our people on the street of Mariupol. SCIUTTO: If you had a moment here to speak to, let's say, the mayor of

a Russian city right now, to speak to the Russian people about what's happening here, what would you tell them?

ORLOV: I would ask him to come to Mariupol and go through the streets of Mariupol to see dead children, dead women, dead adults. And I will -- and I would ask him why? Why cannot he manage a Russian city? Why Russian army going to Ukrainian? Why? Why? Why he go to my city?

SCIUTTO: Yes. I'm sure. I have to ask about your own family. Is your own family stuck there with you?

ORLOV: I don't have connection with my mother, father, and brother for four days. I don't know if they are alive or if they leave or not.

SCIUTTO: I'm so sorry, mayor. I feel for you, I feel for your family and for the people of Mariupol. We will do our best to make sure the world knows what's happening there.

ORLOV: Thank you. I kindly ask to give all information. It's truth and people killing Ukraine and wants to destroy it as a nation. We only fight for our independence and freedom.

SCIUTTO: Well, we will stay here and continue to cover this story. Deputy Mayor of Mariupol Sergei Orlov, thanks so much, and please, please be safe.

ORLOV: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. We're hearing stories like that from so many parts of this country, and it is the civilians who are suffering the worst in many cases. Just like that. You can see it with our own eyes.

The Russian forces, they are intensifying they're push toward the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, all while civilians there make efforts to escape. CNN chief international Clarissa Ward spoke with my colleague John Berman earlier this morning. Have a listen to her report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are here on the northern-western outskirts of Kyiv at the entrance to a place called Irpin. And basically, what you're seeing here is people who have been under heavy bombardment now for seven straight days finally managing to flee from this area of Irpin. And if we pan over here, my cameraman Scott McWhinney can show you the bridge here that connects Irpin to central Kyiv has been destroyed. That was destroyed by Ukrainian forces to prevent Russian forces from moving on into central Kyiv. But what you're seeing now is that people have to navigate and cross on foot this destroyed bridge in order to get out safely.

Since we've been here, we have heard nonstop heavy artillery coming from that direction, also that direction. You can imagine how petrified these people are. Many of them have been pinned down for days on end. You can see them here. They've got their pets. They've got small carry-on bags. We have seen a lot of people who are elderly, a lot of people who have difficulty walking.

[10:15:00]

We're seeing a lot of people who are clearly, visibly shaken, petrified because they have been trapped in terrible bombardment for days on end and are just now starting to get out. And I have to tell you, it just doesn't stop, the steady stream of people. They keep coming, trying to cross the bridge. You can see there's actually water flows through it. They have to walk across a sort of plank. You can see the upturned car from when that bridge was originally downed. But this for the people of Irpin is the only way to safety, and it is relative safety, of course, because even the city center is being encroached upon as the fighting gets closer and closer. I don't know if my microphone is picking up on that artillery, but it is a steady stream of thuds that have been ongoing since we got here.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SCIUTTO: We're seeing that across the country, people fleeing to save their lives.

Still to come this hour, Russian forces, they are inching closer to Ukraine's second largest nuclear facility. This as we're seeing new video from inside the control room of the country's largest nuclear power station just as Russian forces moved in this week. You'll remember, there was a fire outside the plant in the middle of the gunfire there. We'll have an update. Stay with us.

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[10:20:30]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Ukrainian authorities released new video from inside the control room at the country's largest nuclear plant as Russians attacked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Stop shooting at nuclear hazardous facility. Stop shooting immediately! You threaten the security of the whole world! The vital systems of the Zaporizhzhia station may be damaged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That power plant is now occupied by the Russians. But its nuclear reactors remain intact. Russian forces are now approaching Ukraine's second largest facility, according to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Joining me right now, Alexandra Vacroux. She is the executive director at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard, and international security analyst Jim Walsh will be with us momentarily. He's also a senior research associate at MIT's Security Studies Program. So Alexandra, let me begin with you. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

also saying that the world narrowly averted nuclear catastrophes after that attack on Europe's largest nuclear power plant. So how concerning is it that Russians are targeting these nuclear power plants, and why do you believe that is?

ALEXANDRA VACROUX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DAVID CENTER FOR RUSSIAN AND EURASIAN STUDIES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY: What's concerning is the fact that there's a war in a country with five power plants and Chernobyl, which is buried under a sarcophagus, as you know. Even if the Russians aren't targeting those sites directly, the fact that missiles don't always fly where you want them to makes it an extremely dangerous situation. And I would point out that you have a nuclear problem at a plant when the electricity is cut off. You don't necessarily have to hit it with a missile. You just have to turn off the electricity. And given what's happening to utilities in places like Mariupol, that is a real concern.

WHITFIELD: And what happens if the electricity is cut at that plant, particularly?

VACROUX: Then the plant no longer can retain its cooling capacity, and then you have a chance of having something like Fukushima. What happened there was that the electricity was cut, and that's why they had a meltdown.

WHITFIELD: Jim, leaders across Europe have condemned the attack at that nuclear site with Russians in control of nuclear facilities. In your view, the potential for greater harm, might that in any way influence how world leaders are making a decision about how to proceed?

JIM WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think, first of all, Alexandra is right, one of the keys here is the power plant itself might have a dome around it, might have a protective vessel to protect it from missiles or whatever. But if you lose the electricity, then you not only put the reactor in danger, I think more -- the greater vulnerability is you put the fuel pods. This is where you put hot radioactive waste temporarily in order for it to cool down. If you do not maintain cooling for the spent fuel pods, they can catch fire.

And so what are we looking at here, Fredricka? I think we're really looking at incompetence. This is not the grizzly stuff Russia is doing elsewhere, using cluster bombs and killing innocent civilians and shooting during evacuation periods. No, this is just dumb, and they've had months to plan it. Why do I say that? From the perspective of the attacker, of the invader, from Russia's interest, it is a huge mistake to set off a giant radiation fire in an area where you are trying to take over. Moreover, to do that would galvanize the last set of countries who were abstaining, and everyone would rally against you. It is a catastrophically stupid thing to do from a Russian perspective. I hope that they've learned their lesson, that someone got chewed out, and they know as they approach these other power plants that they have to handle it differently, because they're really, literally playing with fire.

WHITFIELD: And then, Jim, what do you suppose Putin's goal has been in acquiring this nuclear plant and potentially another?

WALSH: Yes, I think the idea is not to cause an accident, which, again, speaks to incompetence and what other mistakes the Russian military will make, but rather to control their energy supply. So that one plant controls half of the electricity being generated for Ukraine. Ukraine is heavily dependent on nuclear-generated electricity and power. And so I think Putin is saying, or his generals are saying, if we control those sites, we can shut the power on, we can shut the power off and control the population. Of course, that only works if you manage not to blow the thing up.

[10:20:09]

WHITFIELD: And then Alexandra, what are your concerns right now about maintaining a status quo at the plant right now so that there are no catastrophic results?

VACROUX: Well, what we've been told in Chernobyl is that the Ukrainians engineers are still running the show over there, that's it's under Russian control, but they've retained the specialized experts that are able to run the plant the way it was before. I'm assuming that's what's happening in these other plants also, that they're keeping the technicians in place, and they're just securing, in their minds, securing the perimeter.

WHITFIELD: And tell me what you believe it would be like for those plant workers to be working under duress like that, how potentially dangerous is it for them?

VACROUX: I think their main concern is with keeping Ukraine safe and with keeping the power plant safe. So I suspect that they're approaching it extremely professionally and just trying to focus on the power plant and really keeping their priorities straight. There's no reason to think that they would do anything to jeopardize the working of the plant when they know that the population, including their families, live in the neighboring villages.

WHITFIELD: Jim, it's already a very risky job. I saw you shaking your head at the mention of the word "duress." What are you thinking?

WALSH: I'm thinking it's very risky. Who knows how these soldiers, commonly trained, are treating the personnel, whether they understand enough that if a technician comes to them and says I need to do "x," they're going to let them do "x." Obviously and we saw this during Fukushima, people working at a nuclear power plant have a high degree of professionalism, are willing to put their life on the line to save their friends and their neighbors and their country. The question is whether the Russian military on the ground understands that and allows them to do their job.

WHITFIELD: Alexandra, Vladimir Putin apparently told Germany that a third round of talks with Ukraine will take place this weekend. How much stock do you put in that? And would there be specific conversations about these nuclear plants?

VACROUX: It's imperative that negotiations continue. I don't expect them to conclude in a positive way in the near future. But this eventually ends with some kind of talk. And so it's very important that those channels stay open. I'm sure they're talking about securing the nuclear facilities and making sure that they're not creating an even bigger problem for the population of Ukraine. But I have not seen any confirmation that's what's happening in those talks is actually affecting what's happening on the ground.

WHITFIELD: We'll leave it there for now. Alexandra Vacroux, Jim Walsh, good to see you both. Thank you so much.

WALSH: Thank you.

VACROUX: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Straight ahead, new warnings that Russia is poised to deploy up to 1,000 more mercenaries to Ukraine. We have details on that.

Plus, the numbers now top 1 million, the latest on the growing refugee crisis.

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[10:32:43]

SCIUTTO: Right now, the mayor of Kherson in southern Ukraine says that Russian forces have taken over the city. It's a key port in southern Ukraine. The mayor says the Ukrainian army there has been defeated, forced to retreat, and that people have also run out of weapons as the city remains without power and water.

Joining me now to discuss the overall military picture of this war, CNN military analyst Major General James "Spider" Marks. General Marks, good to have you.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: I wonder, from your vantage point, where does the battle stand? Russian forces are making advances in some places, they've been slowed down in others, including around the capital. Is it a stalemate or is Russia still advancing?

MARKS: Jim, in the aggregate, Russia will continue to pile on and will achieve advances. What the Ukrainian military and its citizens have been able to achieve is absolutely phenomenal and has really uncovered this incredible strategic miscalculation of Putin and uncovered the lack of preparedness, the lack of discipline, the inability this military that would purport -- the Russian military, very modern, very flexible, very adaptive, is completely dead in the water right now in terms of its ability to achieve pace and momentum.

So I would say there might be -- I think it's legitimately accurate to describe this as a tactical stalemate, Jim. But strategically - operationally and strategically, Russia will eventually overpower the Ukrainian forces. SCIUTTO: OK, so that -- is that victory, though? The Ukrainians are

definitely putting up a greater fight than really anyone expected and inflicting severe losses. But does that mean that Putin gets his prize?

MARKS: Well, Putin may get -- the irony of all this is Putin may get his prize. And you have to differentiate among these different levels of war, Jim. Without getting too much inside baseball, you have strategic objectives. Putin wants Ukraine under Russian control. That's his strategic objective. I doubt he's going to achieve that. Zero, zero possibility that's going to be achieved.

[10:35:02]

At the tactical level, he is achieving some successes, as ghastly and brutal and tragic as they are. He's reverting to tactics that only Russian forces know, which is blunt instrument, mass force, no consideration of rules of engagement or precision targeting. They're just going to make this incredibly difficult and hard.

SCIUTTO: I see. So you say may punitively take over the country, right, but won't have full control of it? You see a long-term guerrilla conflict in effect?

MARKS: I do, Jim, absolutely. Putin might try to establish a puppet leader in Kyiv. That individual will be without portfolio, without support, without an ability to really control what takes place within the borders of Ukraine.

And because he doesn't have -- Putin does not have the requisite size force to control the sovereignty, the terrain of Ukraine. It's too large. He doesn't have enough forces. This would take close to -- we discussed this probably three weeks ago -- close to 800,000 forces to control Ukraine. He doesn't have the military that's capable of doing that. And we've also seen these incredible weaknesses in his force demonstrated in every place that they've been over the course of this -- where are we now -- D plus eight.

SCIUTTO: Yes. So NATO has taken, really multiple times, taken the idea of a no-fly zone off the table because, as President Biden, the NATO secretary general, and others have said that when you do that, you will have U.S., NATO airplanes face to face with Russian warplanes. And we heard Vladimir Putin today say that if anyone were to enter the airspace, that Russia would look at that as entering the conflict. Was the Russian president saying he would declare war, in effect, on NATO if it were to take a step like a no-fly zone?

MARKS: That's what I heard him say. Again, seeing is believing with Putin. There's a heck of a lot of bluster. But clearly the ground and the space and then the space that goes above Ukraine belongs to Ukraine, and right now Russia is trying to exert itself over that. And so I can't get into the mind of either Putin, and I can tell you that the war gaming that's taking place in our administration, within our Department of Defense, is going through all of the scenarios and possibilities of the action, reaction, and counteraction, which is how the military mind works in terms of the application of power aboveground, in the air, and what that might look like. I guarantee you the Russian pilots would be petrified, petrified if they had to engage with NATO pilots and U.S. pilots. They would get butchered.

SCIUTTO: If -- so with a no-fly zone off the table, NATO is already sending in hundreds and hundreds of weapons that have been very impactful. The Stinger missiles have taken down a lot of Russian aircraft. The Javelin and antitank missiles have blown up a lot of tanks and armored personnel carriers. Is there something in between that could fundamentally change the math, right, or the odds on the ground, something short of a no-fly zone that could help the Ukrainians push back?

MARKS: Well, with the military calculus, as we know, there are four elements of power -- diplomacy, information, military, and economics. And so we're working the economics side and we're working the military side as well. That support that NATO is providing is only going to get better and better and better. And that system is going to be gradually improved in terms of the kit that's necessary, the mechanisms and the route that we are in, the handoff that's taking place with Ukrainian insurgents and military units. Realize the western part of Ukraine is not occupied by the Russians, so there is movement, there is some degree of freedom to move across those borders.

And I would also surmise, I simply do not know, but I would suspect the United States has some form of unacknowledged presence on the ground specifically to facilitate the handoff of that kit and maybe even some targets. But that's a guess.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and certainly, something they would not want to talk about. Major General James "Spider" Marks, thanks so much as always.

MARKS: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he is in Poland just across the border from where we are here, pledging military support and financial assistance for the growing refugee crisis. Poland is taking a lot of fleeing Ukrainians. We're going to be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:44:35]

SCIUTTO: Secretary of State Tony Blinken is in Poland now, just across the border here from western Ukraine. He's meeting with a critical NATO ally and pledging military support, also financial assistance for the growing refugee crisis. More than 1.3 million Ukrainians have now fled their country since the invasion started just a little more than a week ago. More than half of those refugees have crossed into Poland.

[10:45:00]

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is at E.U. headquarters in Brussels for us. Natasha, it seems like there are two goals of this meeting, one to shore up Poland because it's a forward-facing, eastern-flank NATO country, but also help with the humanitarian crisis. NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's exactly right, Jim.

And Blinken is actually right now meeting with refugees on the Polish- Ukrainian border as part of his trip there. Earlier today, he did give remarks and he did praise Poland's response to the humanitarian crisis that we're seeing right now on the border with almost a million refugees fleeing, more than 700,000 alone going into Poland. And he said that he really appreciates what Poland has done to help all of the Ukrainian refugees that have fled over the last several weeks. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: As President Biden has said, we will defend every inch of NATO territory. Poland is also a leading responder to the humanitarian crisis that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked. Speaking of just that, as of today, more than 700,000 people have been forced to flee the violence perpetrated by Russia by crossing the border from Ukraine to Poland, with more coming every single day. It's an incredibly powerful reflection of Poland's values, that vulnerable people know that here they will find refuge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So Poland is an extremely important country in all of this because not only of how it's been treating the refugees and welcoming them in, but also because it has served as a connection point for those countries that want to send additional weaponry into Ukraine. They have gone through Poland to send those weapons into Ukraine via land routes there, and also because they host about 10,000 American troops that President Biden sent there in the last couple weeks to shore up support for Poland amid this Russian aggression.

Obviously, as you mentioned, Poland and other eastern-flank NATO countries feeling extremely threatened right now by Russia's aggression against Ukraine. And the consistent message that we have heard here in Brussels from yesterday when Blinken was here meeting with NATO and from the NATO chief himself is that NATO and the U.S. will defend every inch of NATO territory and they will not accept any incursions into their member states, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Natasha, on the question of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, I know the secretary general of NATO has taken that off the table as has the U.S. president and others. Is there any dissension among NATO allies among that? Are there any allies that are saying, hey, wait a second, we should think about this?

BERTRAND: So what we're told here in Brussels is that they're all fairly on the same page here, especially when it comes to a no-fly zone. When it comes to membership for Ukraine in the European Union, there are some member states of the E.U. that feel like that should be expedited. But when it comes to a no-fly zone and NATO specifically, all of the countries do feel that it would be very dangerous for forces to be sent into the ground to Ukraine and also for them to be flying over Ukrainian airspace given the risk of a confrontation with Russia, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Natasha Bertrand there in Brussels, thanks so much.

And coming up this hour, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators just met virtually with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. What the Ukrainian president said to the senators, what he asked for just after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:58]

WHITFIELD: Moments ago, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators met with the Ukrainian president virtually. The Zoom call between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. lawmakers was set to begin at 9:30 this morning. CNN's Eva McKend joining me now live from Washington to discuss. So what are we learning about the call, what was said?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Good afternoon, Fred. So not only Senators but House members as well on this call. Forgive me, I'm going to look at my notes because I'm just getting this information. It was a Zoom meeting. It started about 9:45 this morning. According to a person familiar with the call, President Zelenskyy basically pleaded for more assistance in establishing a no- fly zone over Ukraine. He asked senators for greater sanctions on Russia, including on energy, and for more military assistance directed to Ukrainian forces. He thanked the U.S. for its support that it has delivered so far, but really imploring the U.S. to more.

The overall message was that his country needs more help as it stands against the Russian invasion. I'm told from sources familiar with the call that there was broad enthusiasm among Republicans and Democrats in this conversation, that President Zelenskyy did share horrific stories of what the Russian military is doing in Ukraine. But overall, broad enthusiasm and really members wanting to do as much as they can to assist Ukraine, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And so Eva, this also comes at a time when the White House is asking lawmakers to approve $10 billion in lethal and humanitarian aid for Ukraine. So tell us more about this request and how soon would that come if, indeed, approved?

MCKEND: All indications are that both Democrats and Republicans do want to move as quickly as possible. I think the details need to be worked out, how much of that is military support, how much of that is humanitarian support.

[10:55:00]

Some more that I can tell you about this call, according to another senator coming from our Kaitlan Collins, is that Zelenskyy also advocated for banning Russian oil imports, suspending all commercial transactions like Visa and Mastercard, and implore the lawmakers to help Ukraine get more planes that Ukrainian pilots are trained in and can fly. He said they would do that fighting and flying, but he needed aircraft. So this very, very vital call, Fred. I'm sure that we are going to learn more in the hours to come.

WHITFIELD: Look forward to that. Eva McKend, thank you so much in Washington.

We'll be right back.

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