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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Condemns NATO for Not Establishing No-Fly Zone; NATO Chief Says Days to Come in Ukraine "Likely to Be Worse"; Western Volunteers Head to Ukraine to Fight; U.N. Reports Over 1.2 Million Flee Ukraine Fighting; Mounting Calls for Putin to Face War Crimes Prosecution. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 05, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, coming to you live from Ukraine. I'm Michael Holmes.
And our breaking news this hour, the pace and the strength of Russian attacks on Ukrainian population centers, including the capital, Kyiv, is expected to increase. A senior Western intelligence official telling CNN that U.S. and NATO officials believe Russia is poised to, quote, "bombard cities into submission."
Already Ukrainian civilians have come under increased attacks.
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HOLMES (voice-over): You're looking there at the aftermath of fighting on the outskirts of Kyiv. The U.S. says about 92 percent of the forces that Russia initially staged outside of Ukraine for its invasion are now inside the country.
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HOLMES: And we're learning that Russia also plans to deploy an additional 1,000 mercenaries. Meanwhile, we're getting an inside look at that Ukrainian nuclear power plant now occupied by Russian forces. Ukrainian authorities releasing a video of a warning sounding inside the control room. Have a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You're endangering the security of the entire world. Attention. Stop shooting at a nuclear hazardous facility. Stop shooting at a nuclear hazardous facility. Stop shooting at a nuclear hazardous facility. Attention. Stop it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Now the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says that, while the attack on the plant was a close call, no radioactive material was released.
Meanwhile, as Russia continues its advance, Ukraine's president says NATO is giving Russia what he called a green light to bombard Ukrainian cities by not implementing a no-fly zone.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (voice-over): NATO has deliberately decided not to cover the skies over Ukraine. 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)
HOLMES: Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke with the German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday. Germany says Mr. Putin told the chancellor that a third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine is scheduled for the weekend.
Now from the attack on the nuclear power plant to the increasing civilian casualties, Oren Liebermann has more on where things stand here in Ukraine.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The unthinkable, now another step in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces fired on the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, seizing control of those Zaporizhzhia facility early Friday morning.
Ukraine said the Russians fired on the plant from all sides, setting fire to a building near the reactor threatening to cause a nuclear disaster.
ANDRIY TUZ, ZAPORIZHZHIA NPP SPOKESPERSON: Russian Federation do continue shooting at the Nuclear Power Plant.
Unit one, Unit two have damage.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): A spokesperson for the plant says the fighting and the fighting have stopped. The International Atomic Energy Agency says radiation levels are normal and workers are being allowed in to continue operating the plant at gunpoint says the head of the power company.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It could have been six Chernobyl's. The Russian tank, people knew what they were shelling. They were shelling this at close range.
This was terror at a new level.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The crisis resulted in the U.N. Security Council holding an emergency meeting.
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: The world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night.
Mr. Putin must stop this madness.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Russia has not let up its attacks across the country, maintaining barrages against major cities, high rise apartment buildings obliterated in the town of Borodyanka just over 30 miles northwest of the capital, Kyiv.
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LIEBERMANN (voice-over): A cell phone video shot in Kharkiv interrupted by a strike on the City Council Building.
Homes destroyed in the city of Chernihiv.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The terrible expectation is that the suffering we've already seen is likely to get worse before it gets better for as long as Russia pursues these methods.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The Ukrainians have had at least one victory, successfully stalling the miles long convoy advancing on key from the north with direct attacks and by destroying a bridge on its route according to The Pentagon.
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LIEBERMANN (voice-over): In the south, Ukraine still has control over the city of Mariupol, despite intense Russian strikes according to a senior U.S. defense official. Residents there cut off from water and electricity.
Meanwhile, Odessa is preparing for a possible Russian attack. A resident of the occupied city of Kherson says they are dealing with violence at the hands of the Russian occupiers.
President Biden says it is clear Russian forces are intentionally targeting civilians as Ukraine accuses Russia of war crimes, accusation the Kremlin denies.
The International Criminal Court is investigating.
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO GENERAL SECRETARY: This is brutality. This is inhumane.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): NATO has accused Russia of using cluster bombs, a devastating weapon that can kill indiscriminately, though a senior U.S. Defense official says they can't confirm that type of weapon has been used. LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They are geared to execute civilian casualties on a massive scale. So it's like having on each rocket that lands a hundred small hand grenades falling.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): But the U.S. and other NATO countries remain steadfast in their refusal to implement a no-fly zone despite Ukrainian pleas.
BLINKEN: The only way to actually implement something like a no-fly zone is to send NATO planes into Ukrainian airspace and to shoot down Russian planes and that could lead to a full-fledged war.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now invading Russian troops continue to lay siege to key Ukrainian cities, including Mariupol. ITN reporter John Irvine joined one of the last civilian convoys to leave that city on Wednesday and he ended up coming face to face with a Russian tank.
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JOHN IRVINE, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Without electricity, water or fuel, we could no longer report from inside Mariupol. So we decided to join what would be the last convoy to escape.
The city has a large Greek community and Athens had tried to secure safe passage for a rag-tag of Greek diplomats, citizens and foreign journalists.
With Mariupol just five miles behind us, tanks suddenly appeared in the mist. We hoped they were Ukrainian but they were not. We filmed the Russians as surreptitiously as possible.
IRVINE: I can count four Russian tanks. Thankfully, the crews as the moment appear to be quite relaxed. Somebody from our lead vehicle has gone to have a chat, to convince them that we are who we say we are, an innocent convoy, leaving Mariupol for safety.
You can see the zed on one side of one of the tanks; I can, anyway. They're definitely Russians.
IRVINE (voice-over): At one point the tank turret turned our way. We were staring down the barrel. It's not clear what spooked them, but something definitely did and, suddenly, some of the Russian soldiers, to the right and left of the tank, were kneeling and aiming their rifles at our convoy.
Thankfully, the situation eventually calmed down. They then checked our IDs, searched our vehicles and allowed us to proceed. It took a while to drive through what turned out to be a large Russian armored column.
IRVINE: Dozens and dozens of vehicles, armored personnel carriers, tanks, lines, hundreds of men. IRVINE (voice-over): Their presence confirmed that Mariupol is indeed
encircled and it's taking a pummeling. To the Russian-speaking people of this region, it must feel as if these Russian soldiers are guilty of fratricide -- John Irvine, ITV News, in Eastern Ukraine.
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HOLMES: And for more I'm joined now by Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He is a senior analyst at that think tank, working on defense strategy and capability.
And thanks for rejoining us to discuss.
What struck me is you have predicted Russian tactics and territorial moves with remarkable accuracy during all of this, especially in light of what NATO and the U.S. is saying about Putin's plan to bombard cities into submission.
Give us a sense of how you see Putin's forces positioned and next likely moves.
MALCOLM DAVIS, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Thanks, Michael.
Look, I think that they are intending to move to that phase. I think they've realized that their initial phase of light and quick operations to seize cities has failed comprehensively.
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DAVIS: So they're reverting to type, in the form of combined armed operations and that means bringing in lots of heavy artillery, long- range missiles and rockets, airpower and bombarding cities into submission.
They did it in Grozny in 1994. And that's the way they're going to do it here in Ukraine. And the tragedy is, of course, that so many civilians are going to die.
So I would expect to see the Russians move their forces from the south toward the north, now that the Russians seem to be making headway in the south, and from the east to meet up with that stalled convoy along the north. And then you will see, to put it bluntly, hell unleashed on Ukrainian cities.
HOLMES: Yes, it doesn't bear thinking about. I mean, the thing is throughout this -- I mean, there's been sanctions. There's been more sanctions, brutal sanctions.
But how does NATO and others deal with such brutality as might be coming without, you know, triggering a broader conflict?
What can they do?
DAVIS: This is the ethical and moral dilemma that we will face in coming weeks, as we watch large numbers of Ukrainian civilians die under hails of Russian artillery and rocket fire. We are going to face incredible pressure to do something more substantial than simply sanctions.
There's already a lot of discussion on social media about no-fly zones. President Zelensky has called for no-fly zones. I think we all understand that, if we do a no-fly zone, the Russians will challenge it and we will have to shoot down Russian fighters. And that could then lead to escalation.
I think there's also been discussion about increasing the different types of weapons we supply Ukrainians.
But then the practical aspects of how we get those weapons to the Ukrainians, how we train them so they can use them effectively and how we prevent the Russians from intercepting or interdicting those weapons supplies and thus generating another chain of escalation comes to the fore.
So really, I think that what we're facing is that in Putin -- with Putin playing the nuclear card by rattling nuclear sabers, he has effectively warned off NATO from further intervention.
And it's left us in a difficult place because we can't easily increase our involvement in this conflict without risking rapid escalation to a full-on nuclear war.
HOLMES: Speak to the dangers, too, of a man like Putin, if he feels cornered or threatened or if he feels he's got nothing to lose.
DAVIS: Look, that is the issue here. If it becomes clear that Russian forces failed to achieve their objectives in the coming weeks and the whole war is a failure, then Putin will be cornered. And there's two ways out of it I see at that point.
Either he's deposed in a coup d'etat or he escalates. I don't see him coming to the negotiating table in humiliation and accepting a peace agreement that sees Russia withdraw, with him having lost huge amounts of face.
So the real risk is we are left with one of two scenarios going forward: either Russia wins and we end up with a devastatingly bad security environment in Europe, where we face Russia across international borders; that is, thinking in terms of possible next steps against other NATO states.
Or we face the possibility of the uncertainty of a coup d'etat in Moscow or the horrific thought of escalation and what that could involve.
HOLMES: Yes. And I suppose another option is that this could, for years, be a simmering insurgency and continue in that vein as well.
To that point, do you think Putin wants to occupy the whole country?
Which is a pretty impossible thing to do with a hostile local population.
Could you perhaps see some sort of rump state of Ukraine in the west of the country, around Lviv where we are?
What would that look like?
I mean, what would that be?
DAVIS: Yes, I think that's right. He doesn't have the forces to occupy the entirety of Ukraine. I think what he will seek to do is seize control of Kyiv to remove the Zelensky government from power.
Now I would hope that Zelensky and his people would rapidly relocate to Lviv, where you are, to set up a government in exile there, to create a rump Ukraine. And from Western Ukraine, they would then support an insurgency, a war resistance, that would continue to drive up the cost for Russian occupation forces in the east and the south.
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DAVIS: And I would hope that NATO would then support that rump Ukraine with the aim being to one day see Ukraine recaptured.
But that's a long-term strategy. We're talking years and with the danger that goes with that outcome, of the constant risk of escalation and inadvertent miscalculation, leading to a direct Russia-NATO clash. So I think what you're suggesting there is quite a possible outcome.
HOLMES: Always terrific analysis, Malcolm Davis, appreciate it. Thanks so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now Ukraine's defenders have some reinforcements coming in the form of foreign volunteers wanting to join the fight. Next up, CNN meets a group of Westerners, who want to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian troops. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
Refugees are pouring across European borders to escape the fighting here in Ukraine.
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HOLMES: The U.N. says more than 1.2 million people have already fled to other countries, nearly 650,000 of them seeking refuge in Poland. Many have fled to Polish border towns, where they've been reunited with family and friends. Now the plight of the refugees is also mobilizing volunteers around
the world to help. Ukrainian and Italian volunteers in Rome joining forces to send humanitarian aid, badly needed items like food, blankets, warm clothes and medicine, all on their way now.
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MARKO SEMEHEN, UKRAINIAN PRIEST (through translator): We hope this war will end as soon as possible. We are worried because Ukraine is our homeland, the country where we were born and where we hope to return.
I think people feel a great sense of injustice because Ukrainians are quiet and peaceful people, who live in their own country. We had no demands from anyone. We just wanted to continue our European journey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now the resolve of the Ukrainian people has been nothing less than extraordinary, of course. Someone who has seen that up close is actor and activist Sean Penn.
He had the opportunity to speak with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on the eve of the invasion. CNN's Anderson Cooper asked the actor if he was surprised by the way Mr. Zelensky has led his country. Here's what he had to say.
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SEAN PENN, ACTOR AND FOUNDER, CORE: You know, I when I talk about President Zelensky, I think it should be said that I'm talking about most of what I observed in you, you Ukrainian people.
You know we have these inspirational figures in our micro lives, you know. I have extraordinary children that inspire me, an extraordinary, estranged wife, who inspires me, daily.
And then, there's the macro-inspiration, of these great figures, of history. Meeting with President Zelensky, the day before the invasion and then meeting with him, again, on the day of the invasion, I don't know if he knew that he was born for this.
But it was clear, I was in the presence of something and, again, I think reflected of so many Ukrainians that was new, that was new to the modern world, in terms of courage and dignity and love that comes out of the man and the way he has unified that country. And, I think, Mr. Putin certainly added to paving the way to that.
But this is such an extraordinary moment. And I was endlessly impressed and moved by him and terrified for him and for Ukraine.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I have never been in a country at war in which the people are so united, so determined. And again, I mean, that word has become a cliche here, the determination but the resolve here, elderly women, elderly men, children--
PENN: Yes. COOPER: -- everybody.
PENN: Yes.
COOPER: The resolve, to not only fight now but fight, for however long and whatever happens.
PENN: Yes, there's no question in my mind that this is not going to end soon, no matter what, because you will have a country of extraordinary insurgencies, if Putin is successful in this.
COOPER: When you left you, you walked across -- you ended up having to walk across the border, like a lot of people. I mean, I assume, were you stuck in that long line of cars and decided to just, this is the way we got to go?
PENN: Yes, we had the luxury of being able to abandon, a rented vehicle, on the side of the road.
So many -- almost all -- this was a startling thing to me. It was mostly women and children, some in groups and some just a mother and their child, all -- almost all of those cars. In some cases, the father was dropping them off and returning, because we know that, from 18 to 60, men are not to leave. They're to stay, in the resistance, against Russia.
There was no -- I didn't see any luggage. It's as though they wanted to believe they're going to be able to come back.
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HOLMES: That was actor and activist Sean Penn, talking to our Anderson Cooper earlier.
Now Ukraine's president has called on foreign volunteers to join the fight against Russia and he now says the first of what he claims are 16,000 foreign fighters are on their way to Ukraine. Sara Sidner met up with some of those who are heeding his call.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the Przemysl Poland train station where the world's newest refugees are flooding in, we spot several men dressed in military gear walking with purpose out into the cold while most everyone else is trying to come in.
We wonder who these men are who can only speak English and are itching to get to the border with Ukraine.
They agree to talk to us but first names only and they ask us for help finding a ride to the border 20 minutes drive away.
SIDNER: Can you tell me what it is you are doing here in Poland very close to the border with Ukraine.
MIKE, U.S. CITIZEN AND VOLUNTEER FIGHTER: Just trying to help protect freedom. Simple as that.
SIDNER (on-camera): What is your biggest concern?
You're also here, are you going in how many people?
What's your biggest concern?
And where are you going?
AJ, U.S. CITIZEN AND VOLUNTEER FIGHTER: We don't really know right now.
SIDNER (voice-over): There are six men total. They say they are strangers who met here in Poland. Mike is from Clearwater, Florida. AJ is from South Dakota. Matt is from Nottingham, England.
SIDNER: What does this remind you of this time in history?
MATT, ENGLISH CITIZEN AND VOLUNTEER FIGHTER: 1936 when fascism rose in Spain, a lot of people went over but not enough. If would have crossed fascism in 1936, we could have avoided 1939. That's what this feels like. If we don't stop it now, it's going to be our kids fighting this fight.
SIDNER (voice-over): They all came for one purpose, to fight for Ukraine. Most of these men say they are veterans of war.
But Matt makes clear he has no military experience. But they say they all left once they saw the brutal attack on Ukrainian citizens jumping into action a day before President Zelensky called for more foreign fighters to join him in the fight against Russia.
SIDNER (on-camera): You're going in without a plan. Why?
MIKE: Those people also have family and friends. And, you know, somebody's got to stand up for him. And, you know, it's not just the U.S. It's not just Britain, it's the whole world coming together.
SIDNER (voice-over): It's 3:00 am; with no plan, no one to pick them up on Ukrainian side of the border and little equipment, some don't even have a heavy jacket in below freezing temperatures.
They jump in a taxi, head for the border and disappear into the night. And they weren't the only ones. This French Canadian who goes by the nom de guerre Wally (ph) says he received a call from a friend asking for help in Ukraine.
WALLY (PH), CANADIAN VOLUNTEER: I'm a veteran but I'm programming, right?
So last Friday, my friend who's in the Jeep, he called me and said, OK, we really need you, because you're an ex-sniper and can you join?
I said, OK, I'll do it today.
SIDNER (voice-over): They and the other foreign men all heading into war, without the might of their country's military to back them up.
SIDNER: I mean, you guys are going into war without a huge plan.
What's your worry?
MATT: Not getting there.
SIDNER (voice-over): Sara Sidner, CNN, Poland.
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HOLMES: A catastrophe in the making: fears sparked by the attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant remain. We'll have the details when we come back.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
HOLMES: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, here in Lviv, Ukraine, with the latest now on Russia's invasion of this country.
And it is an ominous warning. According to both the U.S. and NATO, Russia is now prepared to, quote, "bombard cities into submission," a move that will no doubt cause even more significant civilian casualties.
It doesn't really bear thinking about what could be happening soon. You can see here just some of the destruction already endured by Ukraine's population. The U.S. also says Russia is poised to send up to 1,000 more mercenaries to Ukraine.
This coming as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is blasting NATO for not approving a no-fly zone over Ukraine. He said that gives Russia the green light to bomb Ukrainian towns and villages even more. And he called the NATO countries "weak" and insecure.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): NATO's summit took place today, a weak summit, a confused summit, a summit that shows not everyone considers the struggle for freedom to be Europe's number one goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, we're learning about 100 people could be trapped in the rubble of a wrecked apartment block in Borodyanka. It was hit by shelling on Wednesday. The town just northwest of Kyiv has seen a persistent shelling the last few days.
Now by the way, in a phone call with the German chancellor on Friday, the Russian president Vladimir Putin called news of Russia shelling Ukrainian cities, quote, "gross propaganda fakes."
See the video for yourself.
A no-fly zone over Ukraine has been a red line for NATO. To impose one would put NATO pilots at risk of direct confrontation with Russia, of course, something NATO wants to avoid. CNN's Natasha Bertrand reports for us from Brussels.
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NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Secretary of state Antony Blinken was here in Brussels today, meeting with his E.U. and NATO counterparts to discussion the situation in Ukraine.
The E.U. and NATO foreign ministers agreed that the coordination has been unprecedented between the U.S. and its allies on this particular issue and that they would continue providing humanitarian assistance and lethal aid equipment to Ukraine to fend off the Russian aggression.
In remarks earlier today, Secretary Blinken pretty much ruled out the idea that a no-fly zone, at least right now, would be imposed over Ukrainian airspace because of how that might put U.S. and NATO forces at risk of direct engagement with Russian troops.
But he did say that the U.S., NATO and Europe would continue to provide that support to Ukraine and reiterated how impressed the U.S. and its allies have been with Ukraine's fighting spirit and how they have managed to fend off the Russians thus far, overperforming in a way that the U.S. and its allies did not necessarily expect.
They ended on kind of a grim note, though; NATO officials and Blinken both warning that the situation could get a lot worse. It could get a lot uglier as Russia continues to bring in heavier equipment and begins targeting civilians in a more indiscriminate way.
But Secretary Blinken said the U.S. and its allies are doing everything to continue diplomacy with Russia and they hope to continue on that path in the future --
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BERTRAND: -- Natasha Bertrand, CNN, Brussels.
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HOLMES: Now the attack on Europe's largest nuclear power plant by Russian forces earlier on Friday has brought international condemnation, unsurprisingly. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. says disaster was narrowly averted,
Ukraine's president calling it nuclear terror. Luckily, radiation levels have remained stable. With the very latest, CNN's Phil Black.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flares light up the sky over Europe's biggest nuclear power station. There was fighting nearby, and fire broke out in a training facility outside the main reactor complex.
The Russian government claimed a Ukrainian provocation triggered a firefight around the plant and claimed Ukrainian forces deliberately set the fire. Ukraine says the plant came under attack from Russian troops blaming their shelling for the fire.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: The Russian tanks knew that they were firing with a direct fire at the station. That is terror of an unprecedented level.
BLACK (voice-over): The fire quickly fueled fears of Chernobyl like disaster, but nuclear experts tell CNN, there's no evidence of that at this stage.
GRAHAM ALLISON, PROFESSOR, BELFER CENTER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Not all fires in a power plant have catastrophic consequences.
BLACK (voice-over): One expert says is Zaporizhzhia's as reactor design is inherently much safer than the one which failed at Chernobyl in 1986.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says Ukrainian officials report safety systems for the plant's six reactors have not been affected and there has been no release of radioactive material. But the agency's director general says he remains gravely concerned.
RAFAEL MARIANO GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: We have to know that this is an unprecedented situation, what we have is a situation which is very difficult to sustain.
And what has happened tonight or last night is proof of that. I have been saying for a few days now. I'm extremely concerned. This is something which is very, very fragile, very unstable as a situation.
BLACK (voice-over): The fire was extinguished within hours. The company that runs the plant in southeastern Ukraine says management there are now "working at gunpoint as Russian troops occupied the facility."
The incident triggered more international condemnation of Russia's actions.
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it on the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engaging good faith in diplomatic efforts. BLACK (voice-over): Ukraine has requested help safeguarding its 15 nuclear reactors, which are dotted throughout the country. Russian forces quickly seize control of the Chernobyl site in Ukraine's north last week.
ALLISON: The radioactivity that was released in '86, from the Chernobyl crisis or tragedy, you know, spread all over; I mean, not just Ukraine but all-over Western Europe and into Russia as well.
So the Russians understand the risks that are associated with a nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian professionals do, too. So I'm sure they're both, you know, working to try to avoid the worst. But nuclear power plants are dangerous.
BLACK (voice-over): Especially dangerous when the nuclear facilities are being fought over in a war zone -- Phil Black, CNN, London.
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HOLMES: We'll take a quick break here on the program. When we come back on CNN NEWSROOM, some of Ukraine's youngest and sickest were already fighting for their lives. Now war forcing them to flee. We'll travel with them on their journey to safety.
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HOLMES: Now we reported to you earlier that the United Nations says more than 1 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded. They include children with heartbreaking illnesses. Arwa Damon rides along on a train carrying some of them out of the country to find safety and the medical treatment they desperately need.
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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A train speeds through the darkness and crosses the Ukrainian border into Poland.
Most of these children are from hospices in and around Kharkiv. It had the best palliative care for children in Ukraine. Now one of the areas most intensely bombarded.
The carriage is filled with the sort of emotion that is too intense, too incomprehensible for words.
But it is also filled with so much love, love among strangers, seen in the tenderness of the touch of the medical team, the whispered words of, "You are safe now." Love of a mother, who will dig up superhuman strength, just to keep her child safe.
DAMON (on camera): Hi, Victoria. Hi. Oh, look at that smile.
DAMON (voice-over): Victoria, who has cerebral palsy, can't sit up. Her mother, Ira, doesn't know what to say. She has so much pain in her soul, her tears just won't stop.
They had to get closer to the border with Poland before this humanitarian train could pick them up. Ira carried Victoria for three days through the panic of others trying to flee, train so packed she could not even put her down until now.
Dr. Eugenia Szuszkiewicz worked to bring the families together inside Ukraine to get on this train organized by the Polish government and Warsaw Central Clinical Hospital.
DR. EUGENIA SZUSZKIEWICZ, PEDIATRICIAN & PALLIATIVE CARE SPECIALIST (through translator): I just have a storm of emotions. My biggest fear did not come true.
DAMON (voice-over): It's a trip that could have killed any one of these children, even without a war. That reality had the medical team so understandably anxious. We were not permitted to film anything until the children were safely, on board and stabilized.
DAMON (on camera): How old are you, Sophia?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
SOPHIA, PEDIATRIC PATIENT: Five.
DAMON (on camera): Five, thank you.
SOPHIA (through translator): Mom, what do I say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): What do you want to say?
SOPHIA (through translator): To say there is war there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Then say it.
SOPHIA (through translator): It's war there. And now we'll live in another.
DAMON (voice-over): While this train was heading toward safety, Ira heard that her town was bombed.
IRA, VICTORIA'S MOTHER (through translator): My husband, my mom, sister, everyone, my dad, nobody is picking up the phone. There are just the beeps and that's it.
DAMON (voice-over): Ira follows quietly, as Victoria is carried off the train.
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DAMON (voice-over): They are now away from their home that was filled with such love, a home and family that may no longer be -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Warsaw.
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HOLMES: Now the people in Ukraine may be in need of the very basics -- shelter, food, water, warm clothes. It's below zero here in Celsius. If you would like to help, please go to cnn.com/impact. There you will find several ways that you can help.
Now despite claiming otherwise, it is becoming clear that Russia is targeting civilian sites. CNN's Wolf Blitzer talked to the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. and asked her if there was a message for President Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OKSANA MARKAROVA, UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: I can only quote my president with this message, so that, he said today, that the occupiers, so that they could make Ukrainians to surrender by switching off their TV, cutting off their mobile communication, interrupting food supply, switching off electricity and heating.
But even if they deprive us of oxygen, as my president said, we will the take deep breaths and we will say get out.
So despite the fact that it has been really brutal, you all see in real-time photos and videos of targeting hospitals, kindergarten, schools all over Ukraine, residential complexes, Ukrainians still standing strong. We are defending our homes.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: You certainly are.
You received a standing ovation the other night, when you attended the State of the Union address here in Washington. It was a really powerful moment.
What did that moment of unity here in the United States mean to you and to your country?
MARKAROVA: Well, these ovations were to the people of Ukraine and to the president of Ukraine. And I hear from people of Ukraine three things actually, when I talk to many people, not only my leaders but also ordinary people and family from back home.
First, they, of course, talk to me about the pain and sorrow from the lost lives, from destroyed homes, from all the devastation that Russian criminals brought to my country.
Second, of course, I hear about unity, unity and resolve, despite of this pain, to continue the fight, because this is the only home we have. And we love it, whether it's east, west, whether we speak Ukrainian or any other language.
But I also hear hope, and I think -- you know, that powerful statement during the State of the Union was about that as well.
And we Ukrainians hope that, despite of the fact of what's going on right now, that international rules and international laws still did not collapse and that we actually can count on all of our friends and allies to stand together with us and act -- and that we can stop Putin and stop him soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now that was the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., speaking with CNN's Wolf Blitzer there.
All right. I'm going to send it back to Atlanta. Paula Newton's going to pick up coverage after this quick break. I'll see you in a little bit.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korea has fired what appears to be a single ballistic missile into the waters east of the Korean Peninsula. Now that's according to South Korean officials.
Seoul held an emergency meeting of its National Security Council in response to Pyongyang's ninth test of the year.
The U.S. condemned the launch and says it's monitoring the situation. Analysts say the increased testing shows North Korean leader Kim Jong- un is trying to show his nation remains a key player in the struggle for power.
Now as Russian troops pummel Ukrainian cities, calls are growing for the man who ordered this invasion to face war crimes charges. Now the U.S. embassy in Kyiv sent this tweet, you see it there.
On Friday, saying, "Russia's attack on a Ukrainian nuclear plant is a war crime."
Now the State Department later told other embassies not to share that tweet. But as Brian Todd reports, some want prosecutors to go after President Putin himself.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Demand is growing tonight for the Russian president and former KGB colonel in the Kremlin to be prosecuted for war crimes.
ARSENIY YATSENYUK, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER: Mr. Putin is a war criminal. He has to sit behind the bars in International Criminal Court.
TODD: The International Criminal Court is now investigating possible war crimes by the Russians in Ukraine.
KARIM KHAN, CHIEF PROSECUTOR, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: The whole world is watching and the whole world is concerned about the events that are unfolding in this horrible conflict. TODD: While the Biden administration is, for now, not saying whether
Vladimir Putin has committed war crimes in Ukraine, one of America's closest allies, isn't mincing words.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: But we have seen already, from Vladimir Putin's regime and the use of munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, Mr. Speaker, in my view, already fully qualifies as a war crime.
TODD: The munitions in question which would point to war crimes, cluster bombs in a crowded densely populated area. NATO secretary general confirms Russia is using them.
Amnesty International says one fell on a Ukrainian kindergarten. They're considered indiscriminate. A missile explodes thousands of feet in the air, releasing smaller bombs that detonate when they fall to the ground.
And a horrific weapon called the vacuum bomb, which America's ambassador to the U.N. says Russia is preparing to use.
RYAN GOODMAN, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT: These bombs are thought of as bombs that can basically vaporize people. And they can suck the oxygen out of an area. That's never supposed to be used in civilian area. That's why it's so alarming.
TODD: Experts say in some previous cases, where war crimes have been alleged, arguments could be made at the head of state might not have known about them or that a commander on the ground went rogue.
But one veteran of war crimes cases believes that's not what's happening in Ukraine.
STEPHEN J. RAPP, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE, WAR CRIMES ISSUES: This is a situation that goes exactly to the top, no question. This is Putin's decision-making that he has full knowledge of. And that he is in control of. You know, I predict in a few months that we have an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.
[01:55:00]
TODD: But actually bringing Putin to justice is another matter. Only a few convictions have ever been won in the International Criminal Court.
As for apprehending Putin --
GOODMAN: It's very difficult to imagine this scenario in which Putin would actually be in the dock. As the head of state, as somebody that nobody's going to be able to go into Russia and apprehend them.
TODD: But an indictment for war crimes, experts say, could weaken Putin and other ways.
RAPP: No more summits. No more going -- no more hope for visiting his tens of billions of dollars of property. And I think in the end and it'll make him quite dispensable as the leader of Russians.
TODD: The Kremlin has categorically denied committing war crimes in Ukraine. Putin's main spokesman saying, "We strongly reject this." The Russians have also denied targeting civilians in Ukraine -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Ukraine has won its first gold medal of the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics. Now it was in the Para biathlon men's sprint standing event. The games kicked off with a message of peace.
Now during the ceremony on Friday the president for the International Paralympic Committee made an impassioned plea for dialogue and diplomacy, not war and hate.
And some shocking and sad news from the world of cricket. Aussie Shane Warne, who is widely considered one of the greatest to ever play the game, passed away suddenly of a suspected heart attack on Friday. He was only 52 years old.
Warne is best known for delivering the ball of the century in a 1993 Ashes match against England.
All right. I'm Paula Newton. We will continue with our breaking news coverage live from Ukraine and Michael Holmes right after the break.
