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Heavy Shelling West Of Kyiv, Two Children Reported Dead; More Than 1.5 Million Refugees Have Fled Ukraine; President Zelenskyy Begs U.S. Lawmakers For More Aid To Fend Off Attacks; Russians Bombard Cities Across Ukraine, Advance Toward Kyiv; Amex, Visa, Mastercard Suspend All Transactions In Russia; Hundreds Of Refugees Seek Shelter At Stadium In Moldova; Ukraine's Holocaust Survivors Condemn Putin's War. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired March 06, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:27]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. And we begin with alarming new images of what Vladimir Putin is doing to the people of Ukraine and we do want to warn you these photos are disturbing, but they show the reality of what is happening on the ground.

This is Putin's war. Ukrainian officials say eight civilians were killed while trying to flee a district west of Kyiv today. As a stream of people reached the civilian checkpoint in Irpin headed for safety, Russian shelling abruptly ended the journey for some. The mayor of Irpin says a family including two small children died right in front of his eyes. Russian strikes are reducing more and more residential areas to rubble just like giant holes in the ground.

Secretary of State Blinken telling CNN today some of Russia's actions appear to be deliberate and could amount to war crimes. CNN is also learning of disturbing new developments from Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was attacked and taken over by Russia a few days ago. Nuclear regulators are now mostly in the dark about the security of the site as Russian forces there have turned off the internet, phone lines, and most mobile phone networks.

But resistance is growing within Russia. Today alone more than 4,000 anti-war protesters have been detained in 56 Russian cities. A third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to resume on Monday but two earlier round of talks we should caution failed to yield any meaningful support for civilian relief. More than 1.5 million people have managed to escape from Ukraine into neighboring countries, but even in relative safety, the pain remains.

As we've said before, this is Putin's war.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins me now from near Kyiv.

Alex, you were in a village near Kyiv earlier today. It's nowhere near any military targets, and yet it has been hit by a strike. This is what we're seeing across Ukraine. Tell us what you saw. ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim.

This was a village about 15 miles south of Kyiv called Makariv, and when you're in the downtown Kyiv and you hear all the explosions happening on the outskirts of the city, this is the kind of place that they're happening in. This was a small village of no apparent strategic value to Russian forces. No strong Ukrainian military presence nearby and yet it was struck by two Russian missiles we are told on Friday afternoon.

And so when we got there, there was one small country road that was lined with piles of rubble and there we met a man named Igor (INAUDIBLE) who was digging through the rubble. He had a black eye. His face was bruised and when we started talking to him, we learned that five of his family members and one family friend had been killed by one of those missiles on Friday. His 12-year-old daughter who was in a wheelchair in the home, his wife, his mother-in-law, and two sons-in-law and he was there.

He appeared to be in shock as he dug through the rubble looking for belongings, taking things like clothes and shoes, and looking for documents. He found his passport while we were there. His wallet. He found two of his cats that had been under the rubble while he was there. It was absolutely devastating. It is one of the most heartbreaking things that I've ever seen. And it really just spoke to how indiscriminate these Russian attacks are and how these indiscriminate attacks are really growing.

You have Russians, the Kremlin claiming that they're not targeting civilians and yet day after day, whether it's in Mariupol or in Chernihiv or in Kharkiv or around Kyiv, all across the country, more and more examples of these indiscriminate attacks on civilians. And as you mentioned, Jim, up in Irpin, which is just west of Kyiv, as people were trying to evacuate, according to the mayor, at least eight people were killed. The mayor said again, an entire family, two adults, two children were among the dead.

So when Russia claims that they are going to help facilitate evacuations or not target civilians, we now have a growing list of examples to the contrary, that civilians are dying by, in increasingly large numbers -- Jim.

[16:05:14]

ACOSTA: All right, Alex Marquardt, thank you for that grim report. We appreciate it.

In just 11 days, more than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine, crossing into neighboring countries including Poland. The U.N. says this is now the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

CNN's Arwa Damon is in a town near the Polish-Ukrainian border -- Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. And the vast majority of those refugees, upwards of 800,000 of them have ended up here in Poland, but what you will not see is large crowds of people, refugees waiting out in the cold. And that is largely because of this massive effort that is happening on the part of volunteers and also because of this rhythm that ends setting itself into place, where refugees will cross the border or arrive at the train station, get scooped up by buses or by volunteers offering free rides, warm places to stay.

Some of them will end up at these sort of reception centers such as this one where they can get just about anything they need from baby diapers, SIM cards, food, water, medication. There's a couple of medical stations here where some of those arriving have been asking for medicines such as insulin. In that massive building there that we're not allowed to film in people can spend a few nights in the warmth.

You have individuals carrying around signs offering rides to countries outside of Poland itself. But there is one thing that I think is quite important to talk about, Jim, and that is even for those who have managed to make it here, there is still such an overwhelming sense of guilt.

Even though they rationally will know that leaving was pretty much the only choice they had and many of them will leave just to save their children, that guilt is something that is extraordinarily difficult for them to cope with. Coupled with the fear and that deep, deep, deep concern for those that they were forced to leave behind -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Arwa, thanks very much.

And I'm joined now by retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. He is the former director for European Affairs at the National Security Council. He's also the author of the great book "Here, Right Matters: An American Story." Also with us, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being with us as well.

Colonel Vindman, let me go to you first. Russia is continuing these gruesome attacks on civilian targets that we saw earlier in Alex Marquardt's report. He's threatening Ukraine's nuclear facilities while Putin is cracking down on dissent, warning the world to get out of his way or else. You know, just about threatening World War III if anybody stands in his way. Are we now at the point where the U.S. and NATO need to stop Putin before it's too late?

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN (RET), FROMER DIRECTOR FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Absolutely. But first, we need to stop being intimidated. We need to stop being intimidated by a bully that thrives on fear and vulnerability, and sees it as an opportunity to double down.

That's been the 20-year history of U.S. foreign policy towards Putin and right now he's employing his, you know, his locked-in idea that all he needs to do is escalate, escalate against the Ukrainian people to break their morale, to break their will to resist, escalate against the West. Escalate against the United States with the saber-rattling and he'll get what he needs.

In fact, we also see a Putin that's weak and increasingly isolated and cornered. He is not suicidal. You can see that by the fact that he keeps himself at, you know, 20, 30-meter distance from people that could potentially get him sick from COVID. So he has a deep desire to live and survive. So we could ahead and, you know, see that as a major indicator of the fact that he's not going to risk mutually assured destruction if there were a nuclear war.

We also see a Russian military that in a lot of ways is getting involved. And even before this, I had firsthand experience operating in support of senior military leaders when they were facing off against Russian leaders. That includes in Syria when U.S. cruise missiles were shredding bases. And I knew from that point on that the Russians had no interest in a conventional engagement. They have no, absolutely no interest in fighting NATO now.

As badly as they're performing in Ukraine, as badly as they're being (INAUDIBLE), but the human toll is catastrophic. I'm actually at a fundraiser right now looking to raise some resources for the humanitarian catastrophe that Putin's caused and also I'm working diligently with my piece in the "Foreign Affairs" to get the U.S. to wake up, to realize that we're in a Cold War headed towards a hot war if we don't do more and provide the Ukrainians what they need to resist.

[16:10:02]

These are now risky options. These are risk informed options that are only become more difficult. The more that Putin is cornered the more he heats up his forces, can't reach his military objectives, he's going to become more erratic. So we need to act now.

ACOSTA: Right. And Mr. Ambassador, former NSC official, Fiona Hill, you remember her, she said earlier this past week that Vladimir Putin will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons. You know Putin well from your time in Ukraine. Do you agree with that assessment? Do you think he has veered off of this path that has kept nuclear war at bay for generations or at least the use of tactical nuclear weapons in a battlefield like what we're seeing right now in Ukraine. What are your thoughts?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Jim, my thoughts are that Fiona Hill knows him much better than I. I've never met this man. Let's slip that right up front. I've lived next to -- I've lived in Ukraine for four years so people, Ukrainians in particular, who have lived next to Russia, to Mr. Putin's Russia, understand this man to some degree. He surprised us, Jim. He surprised us in 2014 when he invaded first time since World War II. So this man is not predictable.

I tend to agree though, Jim, with Alex, with Colonel Vindman, who says he's not suicidal. He may have a different calculation of cost and benefits than we do, and so he may come to different conclusions. We would have thought that the cost that he's bearing, that we told him, as President Biden told President Putin he was going to bear, the costs are going to be very, very high. And that's even before he started losing many, many soldiers coming back to families across Russia.

And the economic costs are affecting, and he knew that. He knew that, but he had a different calculation. Fiona Hill knows him better than I as I say and there is a legitimate concern. We need to be ready, but there's a legitimate concern that he's unhinged.

Not just Fiona. Others have said the same thing. That he might be unhinged. So we need to be ready. The administration has looked carefully at our posture and concluded that we're in the right posture and that tells me as well that we're confident that he's, as Alex has said, not suicidal.

ACOSTA: And Colonel Vindman, I want to talk about something that you've written about in recent days. As you know, talks are underway with Poland right now to provide Ukraine with fighter jets and then the U.S. would restock Poland's fleet.

You say this has to go further and become law, writing in "Foreign Affairs," let me put this up on screen that the long-term aim of a lend-lease arrangement would be, and we've seen this in U.S. history before, would be to create stockpiles of military aid along Ukraine's borders. The Biden administration is well positioned to mobilize bipartisan support for a new Lend-Lease Act."

Whether or not this becomes law, I mean, this is not what Putin wanted for this kind of talk of, you know, a lend-lease program that would essentially funnel some serious weaponry to the Ukrainians. Lay this out for us.

VINDMAN: Sure. So what's shocking to Vladimir Putin is that his parents survived the siege of Leningrad because in part we provided the Soviet Union with lend-lease. These massive quantities of equipment that sustained them through the early parts of the war and sustained them through the entirety of the war where they were able to achieve military outcomes with regard to Nazis. Now we're going to have to do the same thing against fascist Russia.

It is -- the whole idea is it should be a switch. We should get out of this thing that we're in, which is trickling in equipment just in time or maybe too late frankly to support the Ukrainians. We need to depot stuff, establish these positions close to the border with Ukraine and feed as much as the Ukrainians can bear. And in this kind of scenario, we're not just providing anti-tank systems with longer range capabilities than Javelins or air defense systems beyond the Stingers.

We need medium-range air defense that could go for Russia's strategic bombers, the FU-22's that are dropping bombs from way up high. We also need to provide these unmanned combat aerial vehicles. So this is not new ground. This is not risky. The Turks have been doing this with their TB2s and these things have been effective. We can do the same with Western systems and provide them sufficient quantities where it overcomes this huge deficit that the Ukrainians have right now.

The deficit is mainly on airpower and long-range fires. If we provide enough of these systems, they could neutralize Russia's major advantage here. They could strike targets in these airfields in Belarus and Russia, in occupied annexed Crimea, air bases, helicopters and these ballistic missiles, and really even the score.

[16:15:01]

Russia can no longer achieve its military objectives. It did not build a force that's capable to take these massive cities in a ferocious fight. So the question is, can we end this before it grinds to this long war where Putin is feeling a lot of pain from his domestic audience, from his domestic constituency with protests and these body bags coming home. We need to reformat Putin that he cannot achieve his military objective through the supply of equipment and material, and end this thing quickly before the human costs.

ACOSTA: Yes.

VINDMAN: And for the risks to U.S., drawing in U.S. and NATO become too high.

ACOSTA: And Mr. Ambassador, there's been a lot of discussion about whether or not what Vladimir Putin has done so far, what Russia has done so far in Ukraine amounts to war crimes. We were just showing some images just a few moments ago of very large crowd of Ukrainians, almost, you know, gathering under a bridge to cross a bridge that had been blown out. We were showing images earlier in this program of communities that have just been wiped out.

They've been reduced to rubble. Children are being killed indiscriminately in many of these neighborhoods. There's been a lot of talk as to whether what Russia has done amounts to war crimes. From your time in Ukraine, based on what you know in the diplomatic realm, what are your thoughts on that subject? Do you think what Putin has done at this point -- up until this point amounts to war crimes?

TAYLOR: Absolutely, Jim. There is no doubt. An unprovoked attack on a nation, and killing civilians intentionally as your reporters have shown. This is not accidental. They are being targeted. Civilian infrastructure. Civilian apartment buildings. Hospitals. Schools. Your reporters have been showing this, Jim.

This is clearly war crime and the evidence is mounting. You need evidence to do the investigation. That investigation will come. Mr. Putin has a date with the Hague, with the criminal court in the Hague, and it is going to be easy to prove.

ACOSTA: All right. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, William Taylor, two men we remember from the first impeachment of Donald Trump, but back to us to lend their expertise on this situation in Ukraine. Gentlemen, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

TAYLOR: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Thank you.

Coming up, Putin's threat. He says economic sanctions are akin to an act of war, so how does the world respond without provoking him even more?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:39]

(VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Some incredible video out of Kherson, Ukraine, where a Ukrainian protester jumped on to a Russian military vehicle waving his country's flag. There it is right there. Just remarkable. The strategic port city in Ukraine south was captured by the Russians on Wednesday after days of heavy shelling, but as you can see the Ukrainian people are making it very clear how they feel about this Russian occupation.

I want to bring in retired Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. He's the former assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs under former President George W. Bush.

General, thanks for being with us. We appreciate it. There's no denying the will of the Ukrainian people. I have to wonder whether you, too, have been inspired by some of this. Even as the Russians are encircling Kyiv and taking some of these other towns. I suppose this goes to why the Russian military has had so much trouble taking over this country. You know, I guess the way that Vladimir Putin probably designed it.

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL MILITARY AFFAIRS: Well, I think one of the reasons is of course the great leadership that has been shown by President Zelenskyy. He has been ramrod straight and consistent in his view that we will not surrender and we're going to put up a fight. And I think that resonates as all good leadership does down to the individual soldier, the individual civilian.

Second, I think that there has been great preparation done with the Ukrainian military well before this and the experiences that they have achieved that President Putin has found out that he has a tougher, tougher adversary than he thought on the ground inside. And then third, the people are rallying. The people are making it very clear that these are not liberators, but these are occupiers and invaders.

ACOSTA: And General, as we're showing some of these images of people, just a large crowd of people hiding under a partially destroyed bridge to cross a body of water, a river in Irpin, Ukraine, there are some of these other grizzly images of bombed out civilian areas. While the Ukrainians have been inspiring and brave and courageous, they are being pummeled.

In this last segment a few moments ago, perhaps you heard part of it, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman was talking about the potential for a lend-lease program, finding other ways to upgrade the Ukrainian military with more intense weaponry to take on these Russians. What are your thoughts on that?

KIMMITT: Well, look, I think in this conflict, we ought to be pushing as much as possible into Ukraine with any luck. Even if the cities fall and that's not a sure thing right now, there's going to be some significant partisan warfare that's going to be going against the backside of the Russian forces. The soft underbelly.

Their lines of communication, their supply depots, their non-combat forces. And if we can provide as much equipment as possible to keep that fight going, the way we did with the Mujahideen in the '80s inside of Afghanistan, that's a good thing.

[16:25:03]

I'm not sure I would go as far as Colonel Vindman proposed. That would make Ukraine sound too much like a NATO member and it certainly may cause a reaction from the Russians that would push this over those borders. But I agree with giving them as much as they can that they need right now.

ACOSTA: And when you see some of this awful video where homes are destroyed in areas where zero militarily significant infrastructure, this has to look intentional to you, does it not, General? That Putin is bombing civilian areas to gain leverage over this country.

KIMMITT: Well, I would say if it's not intentional, it's indifference on the part of Vladimir Putin and the Russian general staff. This is the playbook. The Russians don't see civilians. They don't see infrastructure as having a protected status. They are part of the battlefield and if they are on the battlefield, they are targets and interference to them achieving their final objective.

As Bill Taylor said before, that is a war crime. There's no doubt about it. The very act of aggression is violence of the Rome statute, but it's clear that there is war criminality going on and goes beyond the conventions of war.

ACOSTA: And how does Putin ultimately get punished for that? I suppose this means he goes to the Hague. I can't imagine a scenario where he would actually, you know, be brought before the Hague, but I suppose that is what we're seeing calls for.

KIMMITT: I think so. And I think people would have said 20 years ago that Slobodan Milosevic would never end up in the Hage, and that's exactly where he ended up. But I have more of a feeling that the people of Russia are going to take this situation into their own hands.

ACOSTA: All right. General Kimmitt, thank you very much for your time. Much appreciated.

KIMMITT: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And breaking news ahead, putting the pressure on Putin. Major credit card companies announced they're suspending transactions, cutting off Russia from the global economy. We'll see if it works. More on that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:37] ACOSTA: Breaking news, more companies from American Express to Netflix to TikTok are cutting ties with Russia over Putin's totally unprovoked war in Ukraine.

CNN's chief media correspondent and anchor Brian Stelter joins me now with more on that.

Brian, thanks for being with us. First, start with the credit card companies. Let's start with that. They're essentially cutting Russia off or they're trying to cut Russia off from the global economy. I wonder if the Russians perhaps anticipated this, figured out some workarounds, thought about this in advance and perhaps, you know, pre- gamed for it.

What do you think? Do you think that this is going to clamp down a bit on how Putin responds to this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right. This is a shunning of Russia that's been going on for a week now and even this weekend, Jim, more companies are joining the list. That's what's so remarkable about Visa and Mastercard yesterday and now American Express in the past few hours, all leveling additional blows to Russia's financial system.

But as you said, this could have been predicted in advance as other companies in other markets pulled out of the country, but it's remarkable to see everyone from oil companies to Disney trying to get on what they believe would be the right side of history. And so American Express is the latest to join that list in terms of the credit card companies this afternoon.

ACOSTA: And let's talk about streaming services and social media companies. We also have announcements from Netflix and TikTok. That is interesting. What do we know about that?

STELTER: That's right. I received this statement from Netflix just a couple of minutes ago. The company confirming that it is suspending its operations in Russia saying, quote, "Given the circumstances on the ground, we've decided to suspend our service in Russia."

So this means no longer selling streaming services, no longer providing streaming video to customers in Russia. Now Netflix does not have a huge footprint in Russia the way it does in many other parts of the world, but it's yet another basic statement by Hollywood, by major entertainment companies that they want to have nothing to do with Russia at this time.

And a similar announcement earlier in the day, Jim, from TikTok, the wildly popular online video service.

ACOSTA: Right.

STELTER: That was known for short, viral videos. They said they have to suspend live streaming in the country and they have to stop providing new content in Russia. So all of these companies, large and small, but especially these big ones, these multinational companies, they are continuing to shun Russia in ways that I don't think we can't predict the outcome of this when you have so many companies saying we want nothing to do with Russia for the time being and just in the last few minutes, Jim, that includes now Netflix and American Express.

ACOSTA: And will Russian, young Russian kids be able to get information on TikTok as a result of TikTok's action? You know, I have to wonder, you know, because that is one way people can find out about what's going on in the outside world, what's happening in Ukraine. What about that?

STELTER: Well, all of these are double-edged swords. And that's right. When Facebook, you know, comes under pressure to stop providing service in Russia, Facebook comes out and says, no, hey, we need to be online in case people want to use it to organize protest. But then Russia banned Facebook over the weekend. So staffers there are telling me they are trying to get back online. So it's a double-edged sword no matter what these companies do.

ACOSTA: All right, Brian Stelter, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Coming up, we'll take you to Moldova, one of the border countries in this situation in Ukraine, opening their arms to refugees fleeing the Russian bombardment in Ukraine.

[16:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: In the middle of violence and war, one Ukrainian couple took a few moments to get married. This is Valeri and Lesya. They both serve in the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Service and earlier today they exchanged vows near a checkpoint outside of Kyiv. Fellow servicemembers were there to congratulate the couple and they sealed their love with a kiss even more.

[16:40:00]

Other Ukrainians, women and children, are fleeing the war and are taking refuge in neighboring countries like Moldova. CNN's Ivan Watson takes us inside a stadium where hundreds of Ukrainians are now living.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Governments are still trying to wrap their heads around the size of the refugee exodus now coming out of Ukraine. And this is just one example to help illustrate it. It is a stadium in the capital of Moldova, where you have hundreds of people staying. The numbers can swell to more than 800 and each day hundreds of people then leave to move into Europe, and then there are hundreds of additional arrivals who come here.

The people I have spoken to describe fleeing explosions, fleeing attacks on their cities and homes, and all of them are wrestling with this terrible question, how do I rebuild? How do I start a new life when my country has been invaded by the Russian military and nobody has any idea when this war will come to an end?

The Moldovan authorities are also overwhelmed. They say there have been more than 230,000 refugees who have come through their borders in just nine days. They're expecting many, many more. That is just a fraction of the 1.5 million people displaced by this conflict. Every person you talk to here has a story of loss and fear, and no answer for their children of what the next day may bring.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Chisinau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Coming up, Putin's Nazi talk and his plans to wipe Ukraine's cultural sites from the earth. I'll talk to Ukraine's chief rabbi about that and what it really means to never forget.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:46:22]

ACOSTA: Ukraine's Holocaust survivors have been speaking emotionally about the war they're now enduring and sending a blunt message to Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Putin, (speaking in foreign language).

GRAPHIC: Putin, withdraw your army and get out of Ukraine.

GRAPHIC: We want peace. We want peace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language) In June the war started. All my relatives on my mom's side are Jews. Jews were taken to Babyn Yar. Everybody was killed there. Today I am again in Kyiv. But it is this year. It's a horrifying monstrosity. Putin, I hope you die. Leave us alone, you bastard.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Earlier this week, a Russian air strike took out a TV tower in Kyiv that sits on the territory of Babyn Yar where more than 30,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis in 1941.

And joining me now to talk about this is Rabbi Yaakov Bleich. He's chief rabbi of Ukraine and serves on the Supervisory Board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.

Rabbi, it's such an honor to have you with us. Thank you so much. We have all heard that phrase, never forget, but how do you wrap your mind around seeing again this horrendous attempt to wipe the heritage and culture of a people from the earth in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin? It's just, it's disgusting.

RABBI YAAKOV BLEICH, CHIEF RABBI OF UKRAINE: So I just want to tell you a few things. First of all, that video that you played of those women, Holocaust survivors, are in an assisted living home that I built with the grant, by the way, from United States Department of Agriculture for that matter. And it was that video of those women in that shelter and they all went through the war.

They're all survivors and if you understood what they were saying, they're bringing out a lot of emotion and they're discussing the emotion. One of them when I spoke to her the evening previously, she told me, she said, God, you know, made me live long enough to live to see two wars. I thought one would be enough. I didn't think I would ever have in my life live to see another war.

And she said that when she was just hoping that that television tower or the bomb that fell in Babyn Yar will wake up the dead of Babyn Yar and have them come up and fight against Putin. And, you know, this was like the type of emotions that these people are saying. It was very, very emotional.

And I've said it here, said it a number of times, I'll say it again. You know, the feeling of seeing someone wipe out the one memorial that exists and that's being developed to bring memory to the people who were killed once in Babyn Yar, killed again by the Soviets, not allowing any type of memorial to be put up there.

And finally, we get this memorial going over the last 30 years, or last six year, Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, finally putting up -- they put up a synagogue there and they put up other things. And then on that territory of Babyn Yar, right behind the administrative building, was the cemetery where there were graves, on to that spot the bomb fell.

I think that was one of the most horrendous feelings that I had, and believe me, I've gone through a terror, a week of terror, 10 days of terror. Never dreaming to see Kyiv, you know, and Ukraine being blanket bombed, you know, the way Chechnya, this is what, you know, Putin did in Chechnya, this is what he did in Syria and now he's just doing in Ukraine.

[16:50:01]

And he has the audacity to say he's coming to fight fascism. He's coming to save the Russian speakers from the Ukrainian fascists. I mean, he is killing Russian speakers. He's wiping out Kharkiv, which is a city that has probably majority of Russian speakers. Is that how he's trying to save them?

ACOSTA: Yes, I was going to ask you about that, Rabbi. How twisted is it that Putin is trying to brainwash Russians into believing that he's doing all of this to stop the Nazification of Ukraine. Preying on the feelings of pride that Russians have from fighting the Nazis during World War II. It's sick.

BLEICH: It's sick and if he didn't have a controlled mass media, would never be able to do it. So that's one of the things when everything is controlled and Facebook was now shut down and he's not allowing them access to the truth and to what's happening, he's brainwashing people. And you feel like, you know, I came to live in Ukraine during the time of the Soviet Union. I lived there for two full years, the entire year of 1990 and '91 under the Soviet Union.

And I'm an American kid. I grew up in Brooklyn. At least I spent my childhood there, and I'm still growing up, I mean, I came there and I, what was the most frightening thing I see in the Soviet Union? And I lived there full time with my wife and oldest son. The most frightening thing I saw was not that people were afraid to say things that were wrong, but they were afraid to think. Because when you think, then you start talking.

This was for me, as an American kid, 25, that was the most frightening thing. I saw that people would not think. They were controlling their thoughts so as not to say. That I think something --

ACOSTA: It's Orwellian. It's right out of 1984.

(CROSSTALK)

BLEICH: We take it for granted, you know, our freedoms that we have. Freedom of speech, and our freedom of expression, our freedom of religion. Everything. It's all freedom. It's all there. And when you come to a society like that, you see it, you should begin to value, you know, the freedoms that we have.

And I think what he has done, Putin, is to take 10 years of democracy, the fall of the iron curtain, the break of the Soviet Union which for him, he said was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century, even though most people think it was the greatest thing that happened for the world, but he thinks was the greatest catastrophe.

And here he is now trying to bring it back, and what he's accomplishing is he's creating a little North Korea or big North Korea on the territory of Russia and I think that's a very, very frightening moment.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: And your thoughts on President Zelenskyy's leadership? Jewish president of Ukraine.

BLEICH: He's not the Jewish president. He's the president of Ukraine who happens to be Jewish. He's not the president of the Jews, and he's not the Jewish president.

ACOSTA: Exactly.

BLEICH: He's the president of Ukraine. However, I must tell you that, you know, President Zelenskyy, he's a very, very popular guy. Everybody loves him as an actor. Everyone, as a comedian. Everyone. Besides maybe some of the people who's making fun of him. But he was unbelievable.

When he became president, he had a tremendous, tremendous surge of popularity. 73 percent. This was something that was unbelievable. But then his popularity started waning, you know, as happened to these politicians, but I think that he has shown leadership in a way that nobody ever believed. You know, when a man is, he knows that he's being hunted and he knows

he's being hunted by one of the greatest nuclear powers, his neighbor that they'll do anything. They want to kill him. Right? And he says I will not give up. And when he's offered a ride out, he says don't offer me a ride, offer me weapons.

ACOSTA: Yes.

BLEICH: He has raised the morale and the spirit of the people in Ukraine.

ACOSTA: No question.

BLEICH: And everybody is proud of him. Why the people of Ukraine are willing to fight. You know, I'm in touch with my community 24/7. Evacuating people, taking them out. But there are many people in my community who say, I will not evacuate. I'm going to stay to fight. I even had people that were already evacuating for the west, and then they said, Rabbi, I have to go back. They turned around. They said I can't do this. I've got to go back there. I've got to fight.

I think that this -- all of this, you know, the fighting that we're seeing, something I think that Russia never dreamt would happen is all a part of --

ACOSTA: No question.

BLEICH: So, yes. And I think the world is, you know, seeing him in a different way as well.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. Very well said, Rabbi. Rabbi, we could talk about this all afternoon, but thank you so much for your time. Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, thank you so much. Great having you on. We really appreciate it.

BLEICH: Thank you so much for having me. And thanks for keeping this on the burner. It's important that the world hears about it.

ACOSTA: We'll keep doing it.

BLEICH: Thank you.

ACOSTA: Thank you very much, Rabbi. Appreciate it.

Turning to our 2014 CNN Hero. Zane Buzby has been helping Holocaust survivors across Eastern Europe for almost 15 years and now she's stepping up to do even more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Many explosions in and around Kyiv. The largest invasion in Europe since World War II.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe it's happening.

ZANE BUZBY, 2014 CNN HERO: This is terrible for the Ukrainian people and absolutely horrendous for the Holocaust survivors.

[16:55:03]

A lot of these people are the last person in their family. The only one who survived. These people went through this once already and so for them, something like this triggers all this trauma.

She's holding a picture of her family that was killed. In Ukraine right now, we have just under 350 survivors who were helping. They're spread out across this vast country. They don't have extended families. So they're very lonely as well. The early memories come back and haunt them at night. So we have our translators and our people on the ground over there, making sure they're OK.

We spoke to her daughter only yesterday. So she's OK. We don't want food sources to run out. We're getting them as much medication as possible now because who knows in two weeks what's going to happen. These are the people who we have caregivers for. So they're kind of going through this together. The important thing is to give them some comfort and care just like a family.

And that's what we bring them. This was the woman who said you are like a daughter, a grandchild and a niece and a friend all in one. We have to make sure that these survivors are not left alone during this devastating time. It's been logistically difficult, but we're doing it. So important that they know they haven't been forgotten.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

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