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Biden, Zelensky Speak At Length As Russian Invasion Rages; Interview With Ukrainian Filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk; Putin's War Hits Americans At The Pump; Humanitarian Crisis Erupts As 1.3 Million Refugees Flee Fighting; The War's Smallest Victims. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired March 05, 2022 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE (through translator): They screamed at occupants to go home like the Russian battleship, pushing the occupants out of our territory, block their way, every meter of our Ukrainian land reclaimed by protest is a step forward, step towards victory.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And plenty of Ukrainians share that spirit. Look at this. Here is what it looked like today in Kherson when they took to the streets at the occupied city today, and loudly condemning the Russian invasion. At times they can be heard yelling, Kherson is for Ukraine.

And another view from there today. Massive crowds proudly waving Ukrainian flags. Demonstrators chanted "Glory to Ukrainian armed forces, warriors." Amazing.

But in Mariupol, the mayor says there is no power or water and no way to collect the dead. There was supposed to be a ceasefire there today. But Ukraine accuses Russia of breaching that agreement and evacuations are now on hold.

And more of what we know this hour, Ukraine's nuclear regulator is in touch with staff at the nuclear reactor seized by Russian forces Friday. You've seen these terrifying pictures of that fire Thursday night after the plant was shelled. A watchdog agency says workers there are now being allowed to rotate work shifts amid reports they've been forced to work at gunpoint. At the Chernobyl nuclear facility which Russia also seized, the same 100 employees have been operating that plant for 10 days straight.

Meanwhile the U.S. allowed this Russian government charter plane to land at Dulles Airport today. It will fly the Russian U.N. diplomats expelled by the U.S. back to their country.

And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will lay out his own action plan next week. It would depend on an international humanitarian response that supports Ukraine's self-defense. His office says Putin must fail in his ambition.

All right. Let's go straight to CNN's Arlette Saenz at the White House for more on our breaking two stories tonight.

Arlette, let's start with this talk of fighter jets potentially being sent to Ukraine by Poland. What is the U.S. role in this?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, these discussions between the U.S. and Poland about possibly sending fighter jets into Ukraine come as allies continue to try to find ways to support Ukraine as Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is really pleading for more aircraft and military support. And a White House spokesperson tells me that the U.S. has been having conversations with Poland as well as discussing how the U.S. might be able to backfill these fighter jets if Poland does move forward with sending them to Ukraine.

The idea is that Poland has these older Russian made jets that they could possibly send over to Ukraine but then they need other supplies for their own defense. So one thing that they are working through is what that might look like, whether that might be the U.S. sending more F-16s, though that is also a long and complicated process.

Now, the U.S. insists that this would ultimately be a decision that is up to Poland, whether they do move forward with moving those planes to Ukraine. And additionally, there are several logistical hurdles they have to work through simply at how to get those fighter jets into Ukraine. But it really comes as Zelenskyy has been adamant that he needs more support and the U.S. and their allies trying to figure out ways that they can further help as this attack by Russia continues.

BROWN: And tell us more about this call tonight between President Biden and President Zelenskyy.

SAENZ: Well, President Biden spent about 32 minutes on the phone with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, which is the fifth known time that we know of that the two leaders have spoken since this conflict began last Wednesday. Now the White House said that the president talked about the ways that the U.S., its allies and also companies have been imposing costs on Russia for its actions specifically the White House said that president praised Mastercard and Visa which both companies today announced that they were suspending services and operations in Russia.

Additionally, the White House said that President Biden noted his administration is surging security, humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine and is working closely with Congress to secure additional funding. The White House so far has requested an additional $10 billion for Congress to authorize to provide both lethal and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. And they are hoping that that package will make its way through Congress in the coming week -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Arlette Saenz from the White House for us on this Saturday evening. Thank you.

Well, Russia's aggressive action in Ukraine continues to wreak havoc for those remaining in the country. Russian attacks are uprooting countless families while others are being split apart as people leave to fight on the frontlines.

Joining me now is Iryna Tsilyk. She is a Ukrainian filmmaker whose husband left to defend Kyiv.

[22:05:02]

And Iryna, great to see you again. We spoke to you last weekend. We wanted to check back in with you. First off, how are you and your son coping in these frightening times and are you in contact with your husband and others who have joined the fight against the Russians?

IRYNA TSILYK, UKRAINIAN FILMMAKER: Hi. Yes, we're in contact with my husband, of course. But, you know, you found me in a very difficult moment of our lives because we spent last week in our friend's house, which is nearby Kyiv. But I feel such a huge tension from everyone. And especially my husband, because all these people say to me leave, leave, you should go to the western part of Ukraine or to Europe, because you are responsible for your child. You need to save your lives.

And probably that is true because as militaries explain us, civilians, we -- they need to work freely. And all these mothers and children and other civilians who are not fighting or who are not volunteering at the moment in the city, we are just a big burden for them. But at the same time, I feel that leaving my city is such a big trauma for me personally. And maybe it's somehow rooted in the past of my life, of the life of my country, because, you know, we have plenty of those traumas.

And for example, talking about my family, my grand grandparents, they were exiled to Solovki, that was Stalin's prisoner camp. And my grand grandmother by some miracle she escaped from one of the stations and then she lived a long life. But her husband, he just died there and they never met again. So, I mean, if you get to know Ukrainians better you will realize that each of us has these traumas from the past.

And that is such a terrible word, refugee. I don't want to be refugee. But at the same time I feel that we need to go to the west because outskirts of Kyiv are probably even more dangerous than the center of Kyiv now.

BROWN: So you are thinking about going to the west, is what I hear for your safety for you and your son. You have an 11-year-old. But that also carries risks to travel right now. I can't imagine having to make such a difficult decision and being in your shoes. No one really can unless they're in it.

TSILYK: Yes, that is true. And no one knows where is that safe place in Ukraine now because there are too many risks. And if you are going somewhere by all these roads you are in danger but if you stay so close to Kyiv which could be attacked even single day even more, you are in danger, too. So we have had many discussions with other people as our families who live in the same house right now, and we decided that we will go. I mean, a few mothers, eight children, a cat, a dog, you know, there are a lot of us. Many of us. So, yes, that was a tough decision.

BROWN: So you will go. And what are you doing to prepare for that?

TSILYK: What did we do?

BROWN: What are you doing to prepare for that?

TSILYK: We are preparing our cars and we will put, you know, the signs children on that cars and we will try to choose as safe roads as is possible. And of course we will do our best to be clever. I mean, to defend our children. But it's still scary to be serious.

BROWN: Of course, it is. Of course, it must be terrifying. Do you feel you have the supplies you need, the food, the gas, everything like that?

TSILYK: Yes, of course. We have everything like that. But at the same time, the situation changes so fast you see all that news every day. And comparing to other Ukrainian people, we feel very good now. And I see so many towns and cities which are in real danger. And all these people even from my bubble, you know, this circle is narrowing so fast. And I say from my Facebook page that so many people I know they are losing their homes or even worse, people are dying every day. And that is really terrible.

[22:10:05]

That's why we are so stressed and we try to ask all this Western leaders to react even more. And of course we are only ordinary people. I mean, we don't probably know all the risks of all these big leaders, I mean of the president of the U.S. and his allies. But at the same time people die every day and children die. And of course we want to do our best. So we ask every single day to help us to close the sky. But, yes, I understand. That is not that easy.

BROWN: No. And it's worth noting, again, that you're deciding to go west with your family and other families. You will be leaving your husband behind to fight which is also just another part of this that is just unimaginable for you. And also just being a mother to your son. I mean, how are you talking to him through this? He is only 11 years old. How is he doing?

TSILYK: You know he is not only 11 years old. He is adult already. And that is -- that is also painful for me, for other parents in Ukraine, because we have a generation of new children that grew up in the war times because the war has started actually eight years ago. And of course not all of them -- I mean these children were involved in all that discussion, all that news about. But some of them are already deeply traumatized.

And talking about my kid, when he was only 3 years old, he was already the participant of the revolution of dignity. OK. I'm joking, we were taking him with us in the very first days of the revolution. But then everything was changing so fast and his father became a soldier. And he was waiting him. So I think that all these children, they understand a lot. And, you know, they need how -- they know how to use smartphones, how to find all these terrible news, and that is a problem.

BROWN: Yes. I mean, just -- it breaks my heart to think just about the loss of innocence for these young children that should be enjoying their childhoods but yet now they're caught up in the middle of war.

I want to ask you just a final question. You know, I think about you -- when I put my head on the pillow at night, I think about you and the other Ukrainians right now and what goes through your mind in those quiet moments as you're caught up in this, in the middle of this unprovoked war? What is that like for you? What does go through your mind?

TSILYK: You know, we have so -- that is such a strongest emotional swing every day because on the one hand we believe that we will win because we don't have the other choice, you know. We came to the line when we don't really have the other choice. We can only win. But the biggest question is how many victims more is ahead of us? And, you know, two days ago I got a very frustrating comment on Facebook.

One lady from the Northern America, she wrote me, oh, come on, guys, the whole world is supporting you. And you are so selfish, you feel like you are the center of the world. And that was really painful. And, yes, we feel that the whole world is supporting us. But at the same time we feel as the whole world is watching leave this Russian war against Ukraine and we are inside of this situation.

And we want to protect our people, our children, so it's difficult to predict what is ahead of us. And on the one hand I know that we will win. But I want to do my best, and I ask all possible people, all possible leaders to do their best to finish this war as early as it's possible.

BROWN: That is so inspiring that you say I know in the end we will win. The world does stand with you. And whoever made that comment doesn't know -- have any idea what it is like to be you right now making these difficult decisions. Fearing for your life every moment in the middle of a war zone.

[22:15:08]

Iryna, thank you so much for your time and we wish you the best of luck and safety on your journey west. We're going to be keeping in touch and checking back in later. Thank you.

TSILYK: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: Up next, the push to ban Russian oil is gaining steam. What that means for the price you pay for energy.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The United States is trying to put pressure on Vladimir Putin by going after some of Russia's most powerful people. Its oligarchs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I say to the Russian oligarchs and their corrupt leaders who bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime, no more. We're joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets. We're coming for you and your ill begotten gains.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So these are the people the U.S. started sanctioning this week. Seven billionaires and Vladimir Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

[22:20:06]

Other countries are also going after Russia's wealthiest. Italy says it seized a yacht named Lady M Friday. It is owned by Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov and worth an $70 million. France seized the Amore Velo, a $120 million yacht, the country says, belongs to Igor Sechin. He is a Russian oil executive and close Putin associate. And there are reports that Germany seized the Dilbar. It cost $600 million and belongs to Alisher Usmanov, another billionaire with ties to Putin.

Russian oligarchs have yachts docked around the world from the Caribbean to Barcelona to the Maldives but one yacht thought to be owned by Putin himself was moved from Germany to Russia in early February well before the Ukraine invasion began.

Some oligarchs are speaking out against the war. Mikhail Fridman founded Alfa Bank, Russia's largest bank. He was born in Ukraine and in a letter to staff he wrote, "While a solution seems frighteningly far off I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end." Fridman is being sanctioned by the European Union. And billionaire Oleg Deripaska posted on Telegram, "Peace is very important. Negotiations need to start as soon as possible." The U.S. has been sanctioning Deripaska since 2018.

And meanwhile, a billionaire who is not being sanctioned announced he'll sell the British soccer team he has owned for nearly 20 years. Roman Abramovich says he'll use the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club to set up a charity to benefit victims of the Russian invasion. But another billionaire who is a critic of Putin says he thinks Abramovich discussed the sale with the Russian president before announcing it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY, PUTIN CRITIC (through translator): Roman Abramovich is very sensitive to what is happening now. I can't imagine, I don't have any information, but I can't imagine that he's made any decision without first consulting with Putin. But regardless this means that he's gotten a whiff of scorched air. What he smells is the fire burning under President Putin. Fire and brimstone emanating from the devil himself.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: Russia's invasion of Ukraine is hitting Americans hard at the pump. In 11 states, you see them in red on this map, plus the District of Columbia, you'll pay more than four bucks for a gallon of gas. In California it's even higher, $5 a gallon.

CNN's Camila Bernal is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): These prices just continue to go up. And we're just cents away from that national average being $4 a gallon. Experts believe we can get there just in the next couple of days because of the increases that we have already been seeing.

Here in California the average already above $5 a gallon. And in Los Angeles there are some gas stations where the situation is even worse. At the gas station where I am right now, a regular gallon of gas is $6.95. For that premium we're talking about $7.55. And as this crisis in Ukraine continues, it could continue to increase. Ever since the invasion of Russia in Ukraine we have seen those prices go up by 37 cents just in the last two days.

We've seen a 19-cent increase. And so that's what people are worried about because this is obviously affecting everyday Americans. Take for example ride share drivers. They are greatly impacted. I spoke to one of them, Benjamin Valdez, who works at least three days a week and he says this increase in prices for him makes a huge difference. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN VALDEZ, UBER DRIVER: I was putting in probably around $60 for a full tank. And now it's climbed up to about $90. So it's getting up there. If I drive 200 miles I'm spending $50 in gas. And if I make $150 to $200 in that night I'm cutting at least one-third of my expense in gas alone.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And it's not just him. I talked to many ride share drivers who told me other drivers that they know have been quitting over the last couple of months and they say this is the final straw. But it's not just the ride share drivers. It's the taxi drivers, the truckers and every day Americans, anyone who gets in a car who has a commute will notice the difference and unfortunately the situation could get worse.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Breaking news right now out of Iowa. Wow. Look at this. Look at this tornado. Six people are dead after this tornado touched down in Madison County just outside Des Moines. This video of the tornado roaring across the ground is truly stunning. Four of those killed were adults, two were children. [22:25:09]

The National Weather Service's initial estimate is that the tornado was an ef-3 with wind speeds of at least 136 miles per hour.

Well, there are many Ukrainians struggling with the decision to flee to safety or stay in their homes in the middle of a war zone. Up next, a woman in that very situation joins me live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:30:13]

BROWN: On the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukrainians try to cross a damaged bridge to flee heavy bombardment in search of safety. It's a familiar story. Kristina Tokar is one of the millions of Ukrainian civilians who wrestled with the agonizing decision to stay or make the perilous journey west. She joins us now along with her father Yuriy.

Kristina, thank you so much for coming on to share your story. There are 10 of you taking shelter at your grandparents' house. What are the conditions like right now? Do you have enough food and medicine?

KRISTINA TOKAR, UKRAINIAN CITIZEN TRYING TO ESCAPE WITH FAMILY: Yes, like we have some food. We had to stay in the two hours use on the cold outside of the shops to get the food. We don't have medicine because we stayed in the -- two hours use to pharmacies many times but each time when it's our turn they just were closing because it was air emergency. And right now we are hearing some explosions on the distance. I'm talking to you and I'm hearing some explosions. They are far but I'm hearing them.

BROWN: What is that like? I mean, you're talking to me, you're hearing explosions. When you hear that, what is that like?

K. TOKAR: How I can feel when I hear explosions, I feel very afraid. One thing that when I hear they are very far and silent, I'm already used to that. This time I'm feeling like I'm trembling but I just sense that they are far. So I can stay here now close (INAUDIBLE). If it would be stronger we have to run to the most safety place in our house, far from windows, close to the bearing walls because we don't have bunker here. We don't, in our district we don't have basement appropriate for that. So we need to be in the most safety place in our house.

BROWN: So basically like every second of the day are you just on high alert that you may have to run to a safe place in the house?

K. TOKAR: Yes. During all the day, all the night, we are like this.

BROWN: I want to show the lovely --

K. TOKAR: It happens --

BROWN: Go ahead. K. TOKAR: It happens almost each hour. Sometimes it can be a break.

But to be in the like a few hours break but then it can start again and again and again next several hours.

BROWN: I want to show this lovely family photo that you sent us, four generations, various needs and considerations among your family. You have said the train is not an option. Why not?

K. TOKAR: Now we will try -- we will try today actually at once after our conversation, we are packing and go to try to go by train because we (INAUDIBLE) to go by car but it's a lot of snow and big traffic jams. So we will go by train but I have a nephew, he's (INAUDIBLE). He's artist. And it's 24 hours by train to go to the western Ukraine. And it's very difficult. A lot of problems with him. We can't imagine how he will go through this and there are plenty, plenty of people in the train.

They told us that from yesterday there are more trains. So it will be less people inside. And we hope that it will help to get in more or less normal condition, because before people even people couldn't go to the train because everybody was staying, was staying during 24 hours. There was no way to go to the (INAUDIBLE).

BROWN: And I want to ask your dad if he can understand me how he is holding up and getting through each day, and what it's been like for him.

YURIY TOKAR, UKRAINIAN CITIZEN ESCAPING WITH FAMILY: (Speaking in foreign language)

K. TOKAR: My father says that he is 64 years old. And his generation was -- lived by the experience of the Second World War.

Y. TOKAR: (Speaking in foreign language)

K. TOKAR: At that time the USA also was waiting.

[22:35:02]

It was like a reality show what was happening here on this land. And they were just waiting while our land were ruining, our economy was ruining, our people's life was ruining. And the USA was just waiting at the Second World War.

Y. TOKAR: (Speaking in foreign language)

K. TOKAR: There was a Budapest memorandum where different, like England, Russia, France, the USA said that it will be never again. And that they will protect, they will do something if it will happen.

Y. TOKAR: (Speaking in foreign language)

K. TOKAR: So we had to lose our -- a lot of our military equipment in advance to keep peace all over the world. And now Russia is attacking our land and we are like helpless. Yes, you help with some equipment now but it's not enough. BROWN: I understand. And I want to ask you, because we're running out

of time. And I'm sorry and whatever he wants to say, your father, we'd love to hear the rest of it. But I also want to know, Kristina, if you could talk to Vladimir Putin right now what would your message to him be?

K. TOKAR: To be honest I would ask him to kill himself. I guess that's the only way because I don't think that it's possible to talk to the crazy person. And I guess what also my father wanted to say like next few words, and I agree with him, that we need to do -- we need real actions. Because I know that all the world support us. I see and I feel it because I have a lot of friends all over the world.

I was traveling all over the world. I see, I have a lot of friends abroad. I see the support. But for the government of different countries including USA it's like reality show for them. It's reality show for the government of USA. We are not reality show. We are a people and we need your real, real help. Military help.

BROWN: All right, Kristina Tokar, to your father, thank you very much. And I just know how emotional and obviously passionate you are given the fact that you're not knowing what's going to happen to you day by day, hour by hour. And I wish you the best of luck in your journey west with your family. Thank you.

K. TOKAR: Thank you so much. Thank you.

BROWN: Organizations around the world and on the ground in Ukraine are trying to help those who need food, shelter, water and other aid. For more information about how you can help, go to CNN.com/impact.

Well, the war in Ukraine is not just jeopardizing the lives of people near the fighting. It's also a threat to kids battling cancer. Anderson Cooper takes you inside a children's hospital, up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It is so difficult. I cannot just put it into words. Do you understand? It is impossible to put it into words. Because every mother wants their baby to be healthy.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:43:36]

BROWN: Many children with cancer in Ukraine must take shelter as sirens blare and bombs fall all while they undergo treatment. Hospital basements in some cities are being turned into makeshift bomb shelters as medical staff try to carry on under dire conditions.

CNN's Anderson Cooper take us to a children's hospital in Lviv where the bombs have not yet breached, sick children find refuge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The fighting hasn't come to Lviv, but the war's littlest victims have. This Children's Hospital is full with kids being treated for cancer. More than 100 have arrived here in the past few days from Ukrainian cities already under attack.

(On camera): How did they get here?

DR. ROMAN KIZYMA, WESTERN UKRAINIAN SPECIALIZED PEDIATRIC MEDICAL CENTRE: Different ways. So they try to get any bus or train. And mostly at night they arrive. And we try to get them from the trains. And you know, it's chaos in the railway stations so people just push them because it's panic.

COOPER (voice-over): Dr. Roman Kizyma has barely slept, in three days.

(On camera): What do you need here?

KIZYMA: First of all, we need the information to be spread that there is kind of problems. So we need to stop the violence and get the treatment for kids. And the second thing is strategical planning. We will face shortages of the drugs and technologies in very short future.

COOPER (voice-over): He's trying to get as many kids as possible into hospitals in Poland to save their lives.

[22:45:05]

KIZYMA: A lot of them will die in the nearest future because of this shortages of drugs, and this treatment breaks, and not only for cancer but a lot of other things. And we know that, and we are desperate.

COOPER: The rooms here are crowded and conditions are less than ideal.

KIZYMA: We have the constant air alarm, like we had four of them last night I guess. And we --

COOPER (on camera): Air raid sirens?

KIZYMA: Yes. And then we have to have all these kids grabbed and taken into shelter.

COOPER: So every time there's an air raid siren, you have to -- even if it's a false alarm, you have to bring them down?

KIZYMA: Yes, yes, yes. It is a mess. And it just look like -- I've never seen that, like in the movies, you know, a lot of both kids and mothers crying, and they are just running somewhere.

COOPER: What game are you playing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

COOPER: Ah. How do you play it?

(Voice-over): Eight-year-old Alexi (PH) has brain cancer. He'd been making good progress in Kyiv until the war stopped his treatment. He got here four days ago with his mother Leda (PH).

(On camera): How are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It is difficult because we've gone through such a long way of treatment. We have been getting treatment for a year now. And then we had such a little step left to make to the finishing line, to the happy end. This dream abruptly stops.

COOPER (voice-over): Tomorrow, she'll take Alexi by bus to a hospital in Poland. She's left her other children behind in Kyiv.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): My youngest is 3 and my oldest is 16. They have to stay there, and my heart is breaking. I am grateful that we can go and continue the treatment, and help my child who really needs it right now. But, on the other side, I am so worried as I'm leaving my two other kids behind.

COOPER (on camera): That is an impossible decision to have to make?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Yes. But we have made it so far in the treatment. And I have strong belief that our treatment will be successful.

COOPER (voice-over): In another room, we met Bohdan (PH).

(On camera): Is this your truck?

(Voice-over): At 2, he survived a heart attack, a stroke and stomach cancer. Now 8, the cancer's come back. His mother, Natalia (PH), is with him around the clock.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We have only gone through one course of chemotherapy. Now we are doing more blood tests. So far, the results are not good. They're preparing for the second course of the therapy. You know, it is very difficult now. And when the sirens go off, the doctors come and disconnect him from the treatment.

COOPER (on camera): What is it like to be a mother trying to protect a child during this war?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It is so difficult. I cannot just put it into words. Do you understand? It is impossible to put it into words. Because every mother wants their baby to be healthy.

COOPER: How do you explain what is happening to an 8- year-old?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I am trying not to involve him too much in this situation, not to traumatize him. When we are running, he asks, if we can take a break, as he wants to walk a bit. He wants to walk around his room a bit, as he is constantly bedridden, getting the treatment.

At first, when we were going down to the bunker, he was getting very scared. "What is going on? Everyone is running to hide."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): First time when I came here, I was very afraid. I did not know where we are going.

COOPER: It's scary to see the other people who are scared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

COOPER (on camera): Yes. You're very brave.

(Voice-over): There is no shortage of bravery in this place. These kids, these moms, they've been fighting for years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Please help us. It is very difficult for us here. Help us to save our country. There's every day, in the news, we hear about invasion that our big city, Kyiv, capital of Ukraine, and the rest of our land is bombarded. People are running away from there. And we do not know what awaits for us. We just cannot know. We hope that the whole world will help us to stop the aggressor.

COOPER: Anderson Cooper, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:53:52]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Serenaded in safety. A German musician known as the piano man playing "Imagine" for Ukrainian families as they arrived at the Polish border this week. A moment of music and hope for exhausted refugees who are spending this weekend away from their homes and unsure of the future.

But right now families still in Ukraine have a decision to make. Do they stay in their homes and risk the Russian invasion knocking on their front door or do they flee and look for safety in another country?

CNN reporters have been showing us how Ukrainians are coping with the war. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: They want to feed people. They want to contribute to this effort.

[22:55:06]

JOSE ANDRES, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Feeding is another form of fighting. Actually, feeding is the best way of fighting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt helpless, and I thought, hey, before I die or something happens, I at least want to do something.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 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.

I'm just going to help her carry this bag a second. Excuse me.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown. I'll see you again tomorrow night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)