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Unarmed Ukrainian Citizens Confront Russian Forces During Invasion; 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 Ceasefire; Russian Forces Take Control Of Nuclear Power Plant In Ukraine; Interview With Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Meets With Vladimir Putin. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired March 05, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

OLENA GNES, UKRAINIAN CIVILIAN: And it helps us to fight the darkness, and the things thar are happening right now to Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Wow, truly amazing, faces of courage, young and mature.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta alongside my colleague Jim Sciutto in Lviv, Ukraine. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Jim Acosta right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. We begin this hour with new video showcasing the brutality of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. It shows Russian soldiers opening fire on Ukrainian civilians who are protesting their presence in an eastern Ukrainian town. And we do warn you, what you are about to see is very disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(YELLING)

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ACOSTA: It just goes to show you that, as we have seen time and again, the resolve of the Ukrainian people is unwavering. These are the protesters in that same town shouting down the Russian troops. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): You are not welcome here. You only bring war with you. Go away from here. The war and death follow you. Put on your stuff and leave. Ukraine is above all.

CROWD: Ukraine! Ukraine!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: A senior U.S. official is now warning Moscow is planning to bombard cities into submission, an escalation that could lead to a devastating number of civilian casualties. But Ukrainian is not giving up without a fight. The Ukrainian armed forces have shared a video showing a Russian helicopter being shot down in northern Kyiv.

CNN is unable to verify when this happened, but in order to hold off the Russian, Ukraine needs more air power of its own. And that's exactly President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for today on a call with U.S. Senators and some members of the House. He also issued another call for establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine one day after blasting NATO as weak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We believe that NATO countries have created a narrative that closing the skies over Ukraine would provoke Russia's direct aggression against NATO. This is the self-hypnosis of those who are weak, insecure inside, despite the fact they possess weapons many times stronger than we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Ukraine is accusing Russia today of violating a cease-fire that would have allowed citizens to escape Mariupol, a city that is now under siege. The desperate people living there forced to return to their homes and shelters and ride out the fighting yet again. Russian troops are also closing in on Ukraine's second largest nuclear facility after gaining control of the largest one on Friday. We now have video from inside of the control room of Zaporizhzhia plant where the staff is now reportedly working at gunpoint.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Stop shooting at nuclear hazardous facility. Stop shooting immediately! You threaten the security of the whole world!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: As for Putin, he is warning that any group imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine will be considered a participant in this conflict, and that the sanctions imposed on Russia are the equivalent of a declaration of war.

Let's begin with CNN's Matthew Chance in Kyiv. Matthew, Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have opened fire on protestors in a small town in eastern Ukraine. We saw some video earlier that was just chilling, but yet these Ukrainians are just showing how brave they are, how courageous they are. What are you learning?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is absolutely incredible, isn't it, to watch these images of these Ukrainian citizens who are unarmed who are confronting this heavily armed Russian force. This latest confrontation, I suppose, took place in the northeast of the country in a little town called Novopskov, which is a Russian-speaking area. It is very close to the breakaway republics of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, also very close to the Russian border. Listen to this, listen to this violence here.

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(GUNFIRE)

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CHANCE: It is absolutely incredible, the Russians opening up fire somewhat in the air at first, but also at least three people injured, one man apparently shot and injured according to the local government there as they tried to confront these Russian troops.

[14:05:02]

And it just talks, Jim, to the level of defiance that exists not just in that town, but across the country. We have seen scenes like this played out on the daily basis, not just the military forces that have been really bloodying the Russian invaders, but also the ordinary citizens. Some have picked up arms and have formed self-defense battalions. Others, like these, are just literally going out into streets and shouting insults and national patriotic slogans toward the Russians.

And so if there was any sense or any hope in the Kremlin that Ukraine's will to defend the country would crumble quickly, it seems like this is just underlining the fact that has not, that simply has not happened.

ACOSTA: Yes, Matthew, it is just remarkable. And as for those Russian soldiers when they were firing there, it almost seems as though these people were standing in defiance of these Russian invaders not knowing whether the Russians would fire at them, into the air. It is just remarkable.

CHANCE: Yes, it is. And remember, in this area of Ukraine as well where we are seeing these images from, it's ethnically Russian. People speak Russian as their native language. They've got relatives across the border a few miles away inside Russia, and the soldiers know that. And so they very much feel that these are the same kind of the ethnic group, the same kind of language, the same people as them. They are all intertwined and interrelated. And so it makes this situation even more painful, Jim.

ACOSTA: Just remarkable. Matthew Chance, thanks very much for that report. We appreciate it, as always.

As Russian forces push towards Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, civilians are desperately trying to escape. CNN's Clarissa Ward is on the ground just outside of Kyiv where a bridge was destroyed, and she files this 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. These people have been under bombardment for seven straight days, and are only just leaving their homes, and they are leaving them reluctantly, and they are leaving them with the knowledge that they might not be able to go back to them. And you can see, many of these people are elderly. You can see that people are so exhausted they can barely walk. They are having to climb this sort of twisted metal. Many of them, as you can see, are elderly. They're visibly distressed. It is just an awful, awful scene. And these people are the lucky ones.

I am just going to help her to carry this bag a second. Excuse me while we try to --

So, people are obviously incredibly affected by this situation. They are frightened. They are exhausted. They are on edge. They have got their pets. They have grabbed whatever they can. A lot of these people have no idea where they are going to go once they cross this bridge. They know that they are in relative safety once they do it, but they don't have nay idea where they are going to go, they don't have any idea where they are going to sleep tonight.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

[14:10:08]

ACOSTA: Terrific report there from Clarissa and her team.

I have to take a moment to show you something else. This is just some of the most heartbreaking stuff we have seen yet from this war. I want to warn you right now, these images are disturbing. This is Marina (ph) Yatsko (ph) and her boyfriend Fedor (ph). They are rushing her 18-month-old son Keral (ph) to the hospital.

This toddler was wounded in shelling in Mariupol. And as you can see there on the blanket, blood is staining there on the clothes and on the baby blue blanket that this little boy is wrapped in. And look at their faces, just gut-wrenching panic as they rush to save this little boy's life. Medical workers tried to save him but could not.

His mother, and you could see it right here leaning over his lifeless body still wrapped in the same baby blue blanket, still stained in blood. She is touching her child's face. Her boyfriend is right there standing by her in shock. You see a medical worker crouching down after the toddler died. There he is right there.

All of these lives are forever impacted by a horrific, unprovoked war, and toddler's life cut short, just 18 months old, absolutely heartbreaking and gut-wrenching.

Joining me now is CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour. Christiane, that is the first time I have seen those images come into us. It's hard to find the words to describe something like that. As a parent, as somebody who has had kids, it just absolutely breaks my heart. And this is playing out over and over again in Ukraine. We don't always have the pictures as we did just there, and the attacks on these civilians are not stopping, Christiane. It is just unrelenting.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It absolutely is, but this is the pattern. And as you say, that picture is emblematic of what is happening all over the country where the Russian are using heavy artillery, in some cases air power to actually target civilian casualties, and to target the civilian infrastructure.

That little boy was not caught in crossfire, I can almost guarantee from the similar situation that I've covered elsewhere in the world. That was a target, basically, of a civilian area. And even as you know, hospitals are being targeted, food lines, water lines, shops, the lot, apartment buildings. And it is a terrible, awful situation. But these pictures are incredibly important, and I would just hope that we keep broadcasting them to the world, because it is painful, but it is the truth, and it is a truth that will stack up as evidence.

It will stack up as evidence. We have been through this before in other places, whether it's Rwanda, Bosnia, former Yugoslavia, and it's really important to keep this record, because that is completely different to what the Russians claim they are doing. Today, again, President Putin went on TV or whatever he did and spoke about how they are taking out the military infrastructure.

But we know, and we have been reporting, that the effort on the ground is not going so well. Therefore, they are going to civilian soft targets, as we say, to try to break the morale of the population. And you showed that incredible group of people who just went into the street and protested in their patriotic way, calling the name of their country, and saying that, yes, we exist, and no, we will not surrender to you.

ACOSTA: And their bravery is calling out to world, the whole world. And you're right, Christiane, we should not be in the business of sanitizing Putin's monstrous behavior. What they are doing to these civilians in Ukraine to try to not just break the backs of the Ukrainians, but break the backs of NATO and just about anybody else around the world who cares about what happens to them, that is his strategy at this point, it seems, and he is going to keep pursuing it no matter how many people are lost. And we keep hearing analysts and world leader like British Prime

Minister Boris Johnson say Putin wants to make Kyiv the next Grozny, going back to what happened in Chechnya in the late 90s and early 2000s. Can you explain what that means for Ukraine?

AMANPOUR: It essentially means leveling the towns. Grozny was the capital of Chechnya, and it became Stalingrad. It just absolutely was the worst situation in Europe since World War II. And people were killed in droves, and the city was leveled. We have also seen it not so long ago, very, very recently, in eastern Aleppo when the defenders held out.

[14:15:00]

This is in Syria, Syria's second largest and most important trading city, its cultural city. And it was bombed to smithereens by Russian forces, by Syrians who were enabled by Russians, and using air power against a civilian population. Yes, there are fighters there, but they want to go after the civilians because when their war doesn't go according to what they thought that it might do, they resort to this, essentially -- these are the war crime, crimes against humanity.

This is not according to laws of war. And there are laws of war. And if there is war, there is one military that faces off against another set of fighters. The minute you target civilians, it means, A, your war is not going as you planned, and B, you will be held accountable.

ACOSTA: And Christiane, you have covered these conflicts, these kinds of conflicts for so many years. You are hearing these calls here in the United States, and coming from President Zelenskyy for a no-fly zone to be established over Ukraine. How tricky is that for the U.S. and NATO if it were to become a more viable option. It doesn't sound like it's a viable option for the White House and for a lot of people here in Washington, but I suppose if scenes of brutality keep coming out of Ukraine, it might become more of an option that is on the table. But it's so complicated.

AMANPOUR: Well, it's only complicated in that the U.S. does not to go to war with Russia, and they equate a no-fly zone with that. It's actually -- one can do it. The U.S. and the U.K. and the other nations did it, as you remember, over Iraq after the first Gulf War to protect the Kurds in the north who Saddam Hussein was slaughtering, and also the Shiites in the south who Saddam Hussein was slaughtering.

And actually, it did keep those two communities really safe until Saddam Hussein was deposed in the 2003 invasion. And actually, those two populations were the only ones who properly survived and have built themselves infrastructure and institutions in all of the years that Saddam was oppressing the majority of the country in the center where he still had control of the Sunnis.

So in other words, it's doable, but they don't want to do it because it means going to war with Russia, and they do not want to go to war with Russia. So what America and the NATO countries and the NATO secretary general keeps saying is that they want to make sure that Putin does not make any -- and they keep saying this -- miscalculation, that he doesn't mistake anything NATO says for an unwillingness to actually defend if he set so much, and again, this is what they've been saying, one Russian boot on one square centimeter on NATO territory.

Or indeed, what about Soviet -- I said Soviet, but Russian flights going into NATO airspace. That would be a violation of NATO and would trigger the Article Five response. So they hope that Putin just stops at Ukraine, but neighboring countries are very concerned.

ACOSTA: And therein lies the problem. It is trying to predict what is going on inside Putin's head and how far he wants to go with this. Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much for being with us, great to talk to you. We appreciate your insights, as always.

Coming up, a U.S. official warns Russia will try to bombard Ukraine into submission. I will talk to retired three-star General Mark Hertling about the fight ahead for the Ukrainian people.

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[14:22:40]

ACOSTA: Some more scenes of the devastating aftermath of Putin's warpath. These are the apocalyptic images coming out of Kharkiv, Ukraine. The European Union says Russian forces are bombing and shelling everything in sight.

Joining me is the former Army commanding general for European and the Seventh Army, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's also a CNN military analyst. General Hertling, thanks for being with us. In this first week of the conflict, Russia has shown the world they are going to fire on a nuclear power plant, use cluster bombs on civilians during a cease-fire, bomb civilians during a cease-fire. We just saw a few moments ago an 18-month-old boy bloodied from this war that Putin has declared on Ukraine. What does this tell us about what may be coming in the days ahead, what week two might bring for the Ukrainians?

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It tells so much about the way the Russians conduct their way of war, Jim. This is what they have done in Syria, in Grozny, in multiple other places where they rely on the shock of the action, and they try and do certain things. And then when sometimes those things don't work with precision, then they rely on razing the town, or razing -- and when I say razing, I am talking about completely destroying the civilian population. We have seen this multiple times. They just flat out conduct war crimes in every place they have fought.

And we will see some different things in the near future here in Ukraine, because they have not been successful at all with the ground troops. That is why they quickly transferred to constant artillery bombardment of towns, attempting to just subjugate the population. But I'm still convinced their logistics trail will cause them harm.

Most of the destruction has been caused by artillery, missile and rocket strikes. There has certainly been some air, close air support, and some bombing by airplanes, but truthfully, the Russian air force has been significantly hindered by Ukraine's air defense and the Ukraine air force, what little they have.

[14:25:01]

Very little close air support for the movement of Russian troops by the Russian air force, so they are using artillery and missiles to now attack civilian targets.

ACOSTA: And you heard President Zelenskyy really go off on NATO, saying that NATO is being weak by rejecting Ukrainian calls for a no- fly zone over Ukraine. What do you think about this, general? When that nuclear power plant is under fire, when you see just the total destruction of some of these civilian areas, Zelenskyy had a small window where he could have forced NATO's hand and said, I'm sorry, we need you to come in here when we have a nuclear power plant under attack.

What do you think? Might we get to the point where, yes, things have been said before that, no, we can't have a no-fly zone, yes, that would start a World War III, yes, that would start a war with the Russians and so on. We have heard those comments made by people here in Washington, but could Putin escalate things to a point where you just have to put those comment, those past comments by the wayside and try to prevent this destruction from getting totally out of hand?

HERTLING: Yes, and I just heard the great reporter, Christiane Amanpour, say the same thing about the use of a no-fly zone, and unfortunately, Jim, comparing it to the no-fly zones established in northern and southern Iraq and in the Balkans. That is just a ludicrous example. It's simply not comparable. It's like comparing apples and tennis rackets.

What you were talking about in Iraq and the Balkans were the fact that the countries you were going up against did not either have an air force or air defense. The countries we were going against did not also have the capabilities of launching nuclear weapons. The countries we were going against did not have the potential for taking a regional conflict and growing it into a global conflict. We had the ability of setting up a no-fly zone which requires the enforcement of other planes not flying. How do you do that with Russian aircraft without engaging them?

And secondly, what I would suggest is, as soon as you say, OK, we're going to do a no-fly zone, most of the damage is being done by ground artillery or ground missiles. Are we then going to say we're going to have a no artillery zone? So it is very simply comment for people uninitiated with combat to throw out there as a potential for stopping the dynamics of combat. And it won't, because the Russians are on the ground.

They are using mostly artilleries and missiles to create the damage. And a no-fly zone might stop Russian aircraft from bombing, but it would then put us in the middle of a conflict against a world superpower which would grow exponentially. And then it doesn't become a matter of mitigating risk. It's a matter then of us gambling -- will Mr. Putin use nuclear weapons or not, and he has already said he will.

So I think for everyone who is suggesting we do a no-fly zone, you might want to consider the implications of the repercussions of doing so, and it's not pretty to do that.

ACOSTA: All right, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thanks, as always. We'll get back to you very soon. Appreciate it.

HERTLING: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: And Ukrainian men between the ages 18 to 60 are under orders to stay in the country to fight the Russian invasion. Some Ukrainians are even returning to defend their homeland. Coming, I'll talk to a tennis star who left his family to go back to Ukraine to fight the Russians.

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[14:33:09]

ACOSTA: Among the many Ukrainians returning from abroad to defend their home country is a tennis star well known for beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2013. Sergiy Stakhovsky was on vacation with his family in Dubai when he learned that Russia had invaded Ukraine. He made the difficult decision to leave his wife and three young children at their home in Hungary so he could join the Ukrainian army.

And Sergiy Stakhovsky joins me now. Sergiy, thank you so much for being with us. I saw you earlier this week. My heard goes out to you and your family. I know you miss them so much. You've said that this has been very hard on your wife and on your kids. I don't really understand what's going on. Have you gotten a chance to speak with them? And how is that going?

SERGIY STAKHOVSKY, FORMER UKRAINIAN TENNIS PRO FIGHTING IN UKRAINE: Yes, on a daily basis I'm chatting with my wife. It gets much better, but of course, kids are not in the loop yet. Hopefully by the time they will get into the loop, I will be able to return home, hopefully.

ACOSTA: And Sergiy, let me ask you this. U.S. officials believe Russia, what they are trying to do here is encircle the capital city of Kyiv. What have you been seeing and hearing these last couple of days when you look around? What does it look like from your vantage point?

STAKHOVSKY: From my perspective, Kyiv is pretty silent. There is no shelling inside the city center. They're shelling on the premises. The suburbs are heavily damaged. The surrounding part is not really working for them, because they tried to move around, but they have been stopped and destroyed as part of that movement. So now there is little fights on one of the directions, heading out of Ukraine west.

[14:35:00]

In general, I believe that the morale inside the Russian army is very weak now because they can see that they are not wanted here. The citizens and residents of different cities coming out, even without weapons, and shouting at them and chanting for them to go home, that they are not welcome here.

They want freedom from the Russian world, I think, which demoralized the morality of Russian troops a little bit. So they are trying to use as much air as they can in terms of air strikes and rocket strikes. And this is where exactly we would really need the help of the world, because I have a strong belief that every single Ukrainian which is on the ground in Ukraine is willing to stand his ground and to protect the country.

And the Russians are outnumbered. Yes, maybe we are untrained, but definitely outnumbered. And if we have a fair chance of fighting them on the ground, they don't stand a chance. But we don't have the aviation they have. We don't have the systems to protect ourselves as they have. So we need some help in that direction, and we really need the world to help us to close the air over our sky.

ACOSTA: And Sergiy, you just mentioned something that reminded me of this video that we were showing earlier this hour, people going out into the street, confronting Russian troops. They were standing their ground unarmed, and these Russians soldiers were firing at them.

And they were chanting at these Russian soldiers, I don't know if we have the video, we can show it again to our viewers, telling the Russians off, essentially. What is it about the Ukrainian people that the world needs to understand, that they are just not going to back down, even if they are unarmed protesters? It's remarkable.

STAKHOVSKY: Well, first things first is that we are not the same as Russians, and that's a fact. We are a completely different mentality. We will not allow to be ruled ourselves in terms of dictatorship. We are a free people who wants to be governed but not ruled. And that is a big difference if you compare us to Russia. Our exiled president Yanukovych was trying to build the same vertical of power as Putin has, but he failed because the people will not tolerate that stuff.

So that's the tremendous difference with Ukraine and Russia. And the people are willing to go to the distance with their lives to protect what they believe is right.

And I just want to ask the world not to stand by and not to take too many lives of those who are willing to do that, because at the end of the day, if Putin threatens the world now with nuclear weapons, what is going to happen if he is really going to be endangered in any way? He will use that weapon. And he is not going to stop on the border with Europe.

Why would he? If these guerrilla tactics of making the world scared of his nuclear weapons are working now in Ukraine, what would happen if he's going to go into Slovakia, for instance, and say if you're going to move and you're going to protect Slovakia and the NATO countries, I'm going to use my nukes. What is going to happen then? NATO is going to risk all of the countries just to protect Slovakia? I doubt it.

So Ukraine is not fighting the fight only for ourselves. We are fighting the fight that Europe is going to stay safe, and that's why we need help. Just today, we have the Russian forces in Bucha, which is just outside of Kyiv, where they are standing for five days. There's a humanitarian catastrophe actually going, and the residents don't have enough food and water. And we have volunteers who are delivering food and water to them and were killed. Three volunteers shot dead. They were just delivering food.

ACOSTA: And Sergiy, I think that just goes to show you what the Russians are willing to do and Putin is willing to do to break the backs of the Ukrainian people, just brutal attacks on civilians. But Sergiy, we appreciate you, appreciate your bravery. All the best to you and your family. Hope you hang in there and stay safe as best as you can. Thank you, Sergiy.

STAKHOVSKY: Thank you.

ACOSTA: Coming up, Ukrainian officials accusing Russians of breaking a cease-fire agreement. They're postponing evacuations from some cities because they say it's not safe. We'll get reaction from a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Ruben Gallego. He is next.

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[14:44:02]

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(GUNFIRE)

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ACOSTA: Just incredible video here. That's Russian troops firing warning shots as a crowd of Ukrainian protesters approached them in a small town in northeastern Ukraine. A local official there says three people were hospitalized. CNN has not confirmed the casualty figures, though. But this latest attack is just what we have been seeing all week long in Russia's brutal new campaign targeting civilians.

I'm joined now by Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego. He's on the House Armed Services Committee, Iraq War veteran. Congressman, great to see you, as always. Thanks so much. What does the world need to do to get tough with Putin so this stops? How do we get this to stop?

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Look, I think we do need to take further steps. We need to cut off all oil that leaves Russia. We need to make sure that all U.S. businesses and all businesses stop conducting business in Russia, and that includes credit card payments. That includes the McDonald's, Starbucks of the world, the Coca-Colas of the world.

[14:45:00]

And we need to continue to arm the Ukrainians. We need to continue to arm them not just with the Stingers and with the missiles that we have right now, but also with UAVs that will be able to help them take down some of these airplanes and helicopters that are out there, as well as the artillery pieces that are basically harassing and targeting civilians.

ACOSTA: And where are you on this idea of a no-fly zone? We had General Mark Hertling on earlier. He was saying that would start World War III with the Russians. But yet we just had this very compelling interview with this tennis pro who left his cushy life, returned to Ukraine to fight for his country, left his wife and children behind. And he is saying that the Ukrainians need help. Is there something short of a no-fly zone, sending in drones? What can be done?

GALLEGO: I think a no-fly zone is something that might be a bridge too far and I'm not willing to take that type of risk right now. The U.S. pledging to bring other Russia lanes or vice versa is something that could really escalate to a nuclear that is not, I don't see how the American public would support it if they knew the full effects of what is going to occur.

I think there is something to be said that we should be arming the Ukrainian military. We should be arming them with the UAVs, the drones, the armed drones, and allow the transfer from other countries to the Ukrainian air force so they can take care of themselves, in addition securing any other type of intel. But unfortunately, I think the no-fly zone is something that would be a bridge too far that could really escalate to a place that I think a lot of us are not ready to go.

ACOSTA: And I know that you and Congressman Eric Swalwell are both in favor of revoking visas for the children of Russian oligarchs. I'm sure you've seen some of the criticism of those calls in the past saying that's punishing the wrong people, these are the young people in the United States, they're being influenced by having an American education, and so on. Your thoughts?

GALLEGO: Clearly, that has not been occurring for the last 20 years when we have been educating the children of the oligarchs. They have continued to basically push their authoritarianism on the rest of the world. I think that it is an opportunity for the oligarchs to have consequences. Right now, there are poor Russians that are going to be conscripted and sent to the military.

The oligarchs and their children are not, because they are kept overseas. Until they actually feel the full sanctions and they actually feel the full, I think, pushback from the world, you are going to not have much pressure on Putin. So I get it. It is not targeting Russian normal students. I want to target the oligarchs, so they understand that this war has consequences, and they have to feel the same thing that every Russia does.

ACOSTA: And just I wanted to circle back on this idea of a no-fly zone being a bridge too far. One of the things that the president has said, the secretary of state has said, that we will not put American boots on the ground, that option is not going to be on the table. Do you think it would be better for the White House or the administration of the U.S. and NATO to say, OK, perhaps at this point that option is not on the table, but all options could be on the table if Putin escalates and turns this into a humanitarian nightmare that spills across Ukraine's borders?

GALLEGO: I do think that we should give a little more ambiguity, largely because there's a lot of things that really could occur. For example, they could destroy a couple of nuclear power plants, that could affect the whole world. It his does escalate to a humanitarian evacuation, then we want to at least put some boots on the ground to make sure that food is getting --

So some ambiguity is important. I think it's important for us to at least be clear that we are not going to institute a no-fly zone, having some clear lines out there, but not necessarily -- cutting off everything I don't think is the best approach, because there's a lot of things happening right now that we may need to some type of boots on the ground, especially at the noncombat level.

ACOSTA: Congressman Ruben Gallego, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

GALLEGO: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And we'll be right back.

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[14:53:49]

ACOSTA: As Russia continues its war in Ukraine, CNN is learning that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier today. I want to go right to CNN's Hadas Gold in Jerusalem. Hadas, what more are you learning about this meeting?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, this was a surprised, unannounced trip to Moscow that the Israeli prime minister undertook. We know that he flew out to Moscow earlier today. He met with Putin for three hours in the Kremlin. We do know this was done in coordination, the Israelis say, with France, Germany, and with the United States and with the U.S.'s blessing.

I also spoke with the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel within the last couple of hours. He told me that the Ukrainians were aware of this trip before it took place, and that they were supportive of it. We also know that the Israeli prime minister spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the meeting with Putin. Now Naftali Bennett is on his way to Berlin, actually, to meet with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In terms of what was discussed, of course they were discussing the situation in Ukraine, potential steps toward a cease-fire. We also know from an Israel official that Naftali Bennett specifically brought up the situation for Israelis and Jews affected by the conflict because both Ukraine and Russia have very large Jewish populations.

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But Jim, although this flight, this trip was a surprise, it comes after a series of phone calls Naftali Bennett has been having with both Zelenskyy and Putin over the past couple of weeks. The Ukrainians had actually been asking the Israelis to potential act as mediators, to potential even host negotiations in Jerusalem because of Israel's unique relationship with the two. So far it didn't seem as though the Russians were very receptive, so this step, this visit to Moscow is being seen as a major development here. Jim?

ACOSTA: It certainly is. Hadas Gold, thank you very much.

And we'll have more news in just a few moments.

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