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New Video Shows Jets Attacking City Of Irpin Near Kyiv; Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Shelling Evacuation Routes In Mariupol And Volnovakha, Breaching Temporary Cease-Fire; Humanitarian Crisis Erupts In Ukraine As 1.3+ Million Refugees Flee Fighting; Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Meets Putin In Moscow; Why Putin Wants Control Of Ukraine; Refugee Says Budapest Memorandum Supposed To Protect Ukrainians; Foreign Students Among The Crowds Fleeing The War; Medical Student Wants To Help Africans Stranded In Ukraine; U.S. Secretary Of State Antony Blinken Meets With President Of Moldova. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired March 06, 2022 - 04:00   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.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

The third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place Monday. There are no further details but the first two rounds were held in Belarus. The third round of talks to happen tomorrow.

And we're learning that much of a Ukrainian tank factory has been leveled after Russian strikes. This is some 85 miles West of Kyiv. The area has seen intense shelling in recent days.

New video just coming in from the city of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. You see jets flying overhead and a massive explosion. Needless to say the bombardment caused heavy damage, many buildings going up in flames.

And take a look at this. The Ukrainian armed forces posted this video. It's a Russian helicopter being shot from the sky. CNN geolocated the area where this happened. We haven't been able to verify when this happened.

Now all of this comes as humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and Volnovakha have been scheduled to be opened again an hour from right now. The temporary cease-fire was supposed to happen on Saturday.

Another cease-fire went into effect an hour ago and is supposed to remain in effect for the next 10 hours.

Against that backdrop, amazing acts of courage, defiance and protests by Ukrainian people like this. Have a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): This is a man jumping on a tank carrying a flag. In an address to the Ukrainian people, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges them to keep up the resistance. Here he is. Take a listen.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Ukrainians, in all our cities, where the enemy invaded, go on the offensive, go out on the streets. We need to fight every time we have an opportunity.

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BRUNHUBER: We have correspondents around the world reporting on this. So let's start with CNN's Scott McLean in Lviv.

When we talked yesterday, the two same humanitarian corridors were announced for the first time. It didn't pan out as we had hoped.

Any evidence it will work this time?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We can only hope at this point, Kim. As you mentioned earlier, this cease-fire agreement began about an hour ago. And this corridor is supposed to officially open about an hour from now, according to the Ukrainian side of things.

And so this is heard from Mariupol and Volnovakha. They accused the Russians of shelling. Russia accuses the Ukrainians pinning people into the city so they can't leave.

There's really a need for an extraordinary level of coordination between two sides that are literally at war right now. This is no easy task. It's extremely important because the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the day.

There's no power, water, heat, no cell signal and they're running out of food and they're running out of water as well. Yesterday they said there were 50 buses ready to go. They're down to 30. Ten of those they've hidden away just in case there's shelling, just in case they get hit or damaged or put out of commission in some other way.

So that is not going to be able to move a lot of people. Even if you could squeeze 100 people onto a bus, and I'm not sure you could, 20 buses times 100, that's only 2,000 and there are 200,000 who want to leave the city.

There have been talks between the Russians and Ukrainians. Another round will be held tomorrow. There are other big things on the agenda they would like to get done, a cease-fire and armistice. But those two things seem like a distant dream at this point.

[04:05:00] MCLEAN: So if they can make more progress on humanitarian corridors to other cities that they desperately need, that would be progress. But let's see if they can make it happen today a second time, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Then, many of those people who will be fleeing and have been fleeing end up there where you are in Lviv. You know, you've chronicled this, I mean, some heartbreaking scenes. Tell us what you saw and what people told you.

MCLEAN: Yes. So this is the westernmost train hub in Ukraine. And so a lot of people end up here from across the country. Yesterday at the train station, I've never seen anything quite like it.

There was a line out the door just to get into the station, to board the train to go to Poland. The trains come sporadically. I noticed far fewer foreigners. It was almost entirely women and children, some with many children in tow.

I spoke to one woman from Central Ukraine, a relatively part of Ukraine, safe still. But her daughter came from elsewhere where there was bombing of apartments. The daughter went to collect her mother and sisters and her own kids and get out of the country.

I also met a family, who was driving across the country. And they were parked in a parking lot not too far from the train station. It was a mother, her 16-year-old son and three daughters. They had to leave her elderly mother behind, because she's simply too frail to travel.

She obviously left her husband behind to fight in their town in northeastern Ukraine. And now that 16-year-old boy is having to pick up some of the slack to try to fill the shoes of his father, who's staying behind, helping his mother take care of his family, driving the car.

Obviously they're under an extraordinary amount of stress, a lot of pressure. He's feeling a lot more like a man today, not so much a boy, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Gosh, so many shattered lives. Scott McLean, thanks so much.

Refugees are flooding border crossings every day, trying to escape the Russian assault on Ukraine.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Thousands are making the arduous journey, leaving their homes behind and braving freezing temperatures in the hopes of making it to safety. The U.N. says more than 1.3 million refugees have now fled Ukraine and countries are stepping up to help.

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REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): We're going back Monday into session in Congress with an agenda that includes a $10 billion aid package to Ukraine, half humanitarian; the other half military in nature. I can't think of a more powerful, inspirational message to take back with us toward that end.

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BRUNHUBER: Now with thousands fleeing across border every day, it is taking an army of volunteers to help them. CNN's Sara Sidner takes a look at their efforts at a refugee camp in Poland.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a refugee camp of sorts about 20 minutes' drive from the border between Poland and Ukraine. This is where a lot of people fleeing the war end up after they've crossed over the border.

They get into transportation; they end up here, trying to figure out what their next moves are. So the fact that there are thousands of people coming through here every single day, there have been hundreds of volunteers that have turned up, to try and give them some comfort.

These gentlemen are using something from a 1950s to make a very delicious soup, sour soup is what they call it. And they have been working on that.

You have a gentleman over here with hot drinks. You also have people who have donated and there's a whole box of toys that kids keep coming up and digging through to the bottom, trying to figure out their favorite thing because, remember, people left their homes in a panic, many of them bringing only a small backpack or potentially carrying just a small bag, trying to get away from the war.

You're also seeing a lot of different kinds of food, things that people can take with them. And people have donated. They have donated all manner of things; because it is frigid, it is very, very cold so we're seeing things like blankets and little jackets here for children.

But all day and all night, we're seeing people flood in here. They are coming generally on these huge buses, that one might think are tourists coming from somewhere. But these are the world's newest war refugees, coming from Ukraine.

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BRUNHUBER: For more on the refugee crisis at Ukraine's borders, let's bring in Nancy Dent.

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BRUNHUBER: She's a communications officer with the International Rescue Committee and she joins us now from Poland.

Thanks so much for being with us. Describe what you've been seeing at the border. NANCY DENT, SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE

COMMITTEE: Hi, thank you for having me. I visited one of the border points yesterday, a different one to where your correspondent was. It's much smaller. People are arriving on foot.

They're dragging suitcases, dogs, children and walking maybe 500 meters to a reception point, similar to the one you described earlier. They're staying two or three hours, enough time to have some pierogis, charge their phones and have some rest before they're taken further into Poland.

People are arriving traumatized and freezing cold. I spoke to one woman yesterday. She had arrived completely by herself. She hadn't taken her contact lenses out in three days and she just looked absolutely exhausted.

BRUNHUBER: You mentioned some will be taken to other places. But many people have no place to go.

I mean what do they do next?

DENT: So from what we're hearing, the maximum time that people are staying in some of these reception facilities is about three days.

And if they don't have people picking them up, friends, families or even employees, when they're working seasonal work in Poland, the local government have arranged buses for them and taken them into nearby hotels or different municipalities further into Poland.

BRUNHUBER: The rate of refugees, it's pretty astonishing. We said more than 1.3 million people have fled the country. One of our producers did the math. It took two years for the war in Syria to pass 1 million refugees. In this one, it took eight days or so.

How great will the need be in the coming weeks or months?

DENT: Exactly, the numbers are truly staggering. I think it's important to remember that, although people are arriving exhausted, tired, hungry when they arrive here, the majority of the humanitarian need will still be in Ukraine, where people don't have power, they don't have water. Hospitals are running out of medicine.

That's where the International Rescue Committee is going to start preparing a response to make sure women and children are protected, offer trauma counseling and make sure humanitarian access and a response can happen.

BRUNHUBER: I mean, we're seeing some of the videos from these centers. Some of the people there work for NGOs but some of them are just volunteers. Tell us how they're helping out.

DENT: Exactly. I think it's quite common across Europe to have big volunteer movements. We saw it in Greece and elsewhere. It's astonishing that people are stepping up, trying to help people.

One woman said she was completely surprised by the warm welcome from people here and they are incredibly grateful. For wartorn movements, it's important that they're well coordinated. That's where NGOs can come in to make sure gaps are filled and that people are organized so there's not overlapping and safeguarding issues.

BRUNHUBER: We've seen thousands come into the country of Ukraine, saying they want to fight, they want to help. But maybe there are more practical, better ways people can help.

What can folks do if they really want to get involved in a hands-on way?

DENT: Exactly. At the border yesterday, there's long lines of cars and trucks appearing now of people bringing in humanitarian supplies into Ukraine. People put the red humanitarian cross on their own cars, you know.

I think while this is amazing that people want to help, I think the best thing they can do is to donate to large organizations like the IRC, that are bolstering the efforts of those local organizations already on the ground.

They can build their capacity and step up and provide more support. That's kind of the best way of doing it, rather than everyone arriving at once, wanting to help and not knowing how.

BRUNHUBER: We're hearing how emotionally shattered people are, how the families have been torn asunder. You must be struck as well by the courage that so many of these people are showing.

DENT: Absolutely. I spoke to a woman yesterday, who was quite timid and quiet and down. When I asked how she felt about Ukraine right now, her eyes lit up and she spoke at length about how proud she was of her husband, who was back home. She left her family dog behind to keep him company.

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DENT: I think the spirit of the Ukrainian people is just remarkable. The minute you ask them about their country, they really speak with such determination. And it's just amazing.

BRUNHUBER: Wow, that's so touching. Thank you for all of the work that you and your organization are doing. Nancy Dent with the International Rescue Committee, thank you so much.

DENT: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: And if you would like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food and water, please go to cnn.com/impact and you'll find many ways you can help.

Well, Israel is giving diplomacy a chance as brutal fighting rages on in Ukraine. Next, the prime minister makes an unannounced trip to the Kremlin for talks with Vladimir Putin. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett has flown back home after trying to play mediator in the Russian war on Ukraine.

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BRUNHUBER: He made an unannounced trip to Moscow where he held talks with Vladimir Putin. He then flew to Berlin to meet with German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

And U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken took diplomacy to the Ukrainian border with Poland. He spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart and met refugees before heading to Moldova today. For more, we have Natasha Bertrand in Brussels and Hadas Gold in Jerusalem.

Natasha, take us through the virtual meeting with U.S. lawmakers.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so secretary of state Antony Blinken was there yesterday. He went to the border to meet with some refugees. But the main message he was trying to send yesterday was U.S. support for Poland and how they've welcome people fleeing the war.

And of course, expressing Poland's support, willing to house thousands of American soldiers as the Russian threat grows.

Now the main question, though, has been what kind of military assistance is Poland going to be able to provide Ukraine?

There has been a lot of talk of fighter jets. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy pleaded with lawmakers yesterday, asking them, if they could not create a no-fly zone, to at least push the Eastern European countries to have fighter jets to provide them to Ukraine so they could have an edge over the Russian planes in that airspace.

The question though now -- and what we're told has been in discussion over the last several days -- is whether the U.S. is able to backfill Poland with its U.S.-made fighter jets, so they can send their jets, Polish jets, to Ukraine.

So the question is kind of sensitive right now. It remains unclear how fast the U.S. is going to be able to backfill Poland with those jets, because obviously Poland, without any of their own planes, would feel particularly vulnerable as well.

But this is something very high on the Zelenskyy wish list because of the Russian aggression toward the cities and against civilians in the last few days has really escalated.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely.

Let's go to more diplomatic efforts.

Hadas, a surprise trip for Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, how did this come about and did anything come of it?

HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was a complete unannounced trip. We only found out about it after he met with Putin. It was done in coordination with the blessing of the United States and with France and Germany.

I spoke to the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel. I'm told the Ukrainians were given the heads-up and they were supportive. We know he flew out early Saturday morning and met with Putin for more than three hours. After that, he spoke with President Zelenskyy by phone.

Then he flew to Berlin to meet with German chancellor Olaf Scholz. A spokesman said Israel and Germany share a common goal to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible.

But as far as any hard outcomes out of the talks, we're not hearing whether anything was decided. But Israel has been playing mediator for some time. They have a good relationship with U.S., Ukraine and Russia. They're still talking to everybody.

Though this flight to Moscow was a surprise, Naftali Bennett has been having phone calls with both Zelenskyy and Putin over the past few weeks. In fact, Zelenskyy has asked the Israelis for some time to act as mediator, even possibly host negotiations in Jerusalem to bring an end to this conflict.

So far Putin has not been receptive. So with Bennett flying to Moscow, that's seen as a positive development. Bennett is expected to have his weekly cabinet meeting soon and hopefully we'll hear from him them about any sort of outcomes, what was actually discussed here.

Of course, we know they discussed Ukraine but any possible steps toward a cease-fire. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Let's hope we can see some results. So much at stake obviously. Natasha Bertrand in Brussels and Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thanks.

Still ahead, why Vladimir Putin was so determined to invade its Western neighbor. We'll map it out coming up. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Our breaking news continues this hour with the announcement Ukraine and Russia will resume talks on ending hostilities on Monday. That's according to negotiators on both sides.

It comes as humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and Volnovakha are scheduled to reopen again in less than an hour. The temporary cease- fire that was supposed to occur on Saturday was put on hold after Russian troops violated the agreement.

This video published on social media Saturday shows the damage at a tank factory. Another video captured by Reuters show several fires around Irpin near Kyiv. Artillery and airstrikes have caused extensive damage to buildings, roads and bridges.

U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken met with Ukraine's foreign minister on Saturday to talk about a new round of sanctions. Vladimir Putin warned sanctions are equivalent to a declaration of war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with U.S. lawmakers, asking for a no-fly zone and for more military support.

And Zelenskyy is urging his people not to give up. Here he is.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukraine, which we know, love, protect and will not give up to any enemy, when you don't have a firearm but they respond with gunshots and you don't run, this is the reason why occupation is temporary. Our people, Ukrainians, don't back down.

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BRUNHUBER: One of the biggest questions about the war in Ukraine is why.

Why did Russian president Vladimir Putin invade and why is he so determined to prevent NATO expansion?

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BRUNHUBER: Journalist, broadcaster and author Tim Marshall explains how maps may hold the answer.

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TIM MARSHALL, JOURNALIST, AUTHOR AND BROADCASTER: To better understand the tensions between NATO and Russia over Ukraine, it's worth a glance at history and a good look at a map.

In the Cold War, Europe was split more or less more or less in two. The NATO countries in the West, Warsaw Pact, under Moscow's dominance in the east. But post-Cold War, country after country wanted to join NATO. And it's moved up to Russia's borders.

To understand why Russia feels nervous about that, a topographical map is useful.

There's a mountain range running across Europe, the Carpathian Mountains. From the Baltic Sea here to where the Carpathians start, this is flat ground. Through that flat ground have come Napoleon and the French, Hitler and the Germans and many others, who've invaded Russia from that direction. And that makes Russia very nervous.

Therefore, it seeks to either plug that gap by occupying it or, if not, where the ground opens up into flat ground, it wants to, at the very least, dominate it.

In 2014, its reaction was to occupy and then annex Crimea, part of Ukraine, and its warm water port of Sebastopol, which gives the Russian fleet access out of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean and from there on to the great ocean lanes of the world.

It also fomented civil war in the Donbas region in order to create a small mini buffer zone. To understand Russia's strategy toward Ukraine, it's not just about the military aspects and the political aspects.

It's important to understand the place that Ukraine has in Russia's hearts or in its psychology. Russian culture began in Kyiv. And it's where what eventually became Russia was founded. It moved eastwards across to Moscow.

But they still know in their collective imagination that the root of their culture is in the heart of Ukraine.

And Putin wrote an essay pretty much about this, in which he doesn't recognize these lines on the map, these borders because, as far as he's concerned, Ukraine is part of Mother Russia.

And that is a psychology that goes quite deep into the Russian collective memory. Large parts of the country are Russian speaking. There's the Slavic connection. And there's also the fact that many people are Russian orthodox in their religious belief.

So while, of course, great power politics and Russia's position vis-a- vis Western Europe, NATO, the Americans and all the rest of it comes into this, this is from the heart and it actually does play a role in Russian thinking.

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BRUNHUBER: Lines on the map are one thing but it means something different when you're living in the impacted regions.

Earlier Pamela Brown spoke with a Ukrainian father and daughter who've been sheltering and urging the world to provide more assistance to Ukraine.

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

YURIY TOKAR, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: (Speaking foreign language).

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

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 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 foreign language)

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking 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.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: 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.

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BRUNHUBER: Fighting continues in Ukraine and many people are desperate to evacuate, including foreign students, trying to get back to their home countries. We'll have details after the break.

But first listen, as protesters in Paris sing the Ukrainian national anthem in solidarity with those impacted by the war.

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BRUNHUBER: The United Nations said over 1.3 million have fled Ukraine, including foreign students, who are trying to figure out how to get home.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very happy to be back home. Thank you, Nigeria.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): These are the lucky ones. Nigerian evacuees, many of them students, arriving back home after being stranded in Ukraine.

Countries around the world are now facing the difficult task of evacuating their citizens from a war zone. But many students and foreign nationals in Ukraine have already made the terrifying choice to leave on their own, joining the mass scramble of Ukrainians on trains, taxis, buses and often on foot, heading to Ukraine's borders to escape the violence.

From there, several countries are coordinating flights out of the region. This relieved student says it was an exhausting journey. But crossing into Romania was the hardest part.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The bus couldn't get to the border because of the lines that were queued up. So we had to get out and walk for about two hours to get to the border with our bags. And then (INAUDIBLE) we had to stand about 14 hours in the cold, waiting for them to open the gate.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Many students said they stayed as long as they could, some in underground bunkers, until conditions on the ground finally forced them to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were a lot of heavy artillery, missiles, bombs all over (ph). We just had to leave because we couldn't stay there. No one could stay there. It was really dangerous.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Bear hugs and tears greet these evacuees in Ecuador. Relatives say it's been a long and anxious wait for this plane, carrying many students, to arrive in Quito. One uncle says his nephew told him that bombs were falling and the family was afraid they would never see him again.

The perils of the journey made worse by alleged racial discrimination at the border. Some students from Africa and Asia say they were forced to wait or were turned away at checkpoints while Ukrainians were allowed to pass.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mostly they would consider white people first, white people first, Indian people or Arabic (ph) people, before Black people. BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Ukraine's foreign ministry denied the

allegations on Twitter, saying it's a first-come, first-served approach at the border and the Ukrainian government has, in the past week, helped 130,000 foreigners leave the country.

At least one Moroccan student says he's delaying his trip home, choosing instead to stay at the Romanian border and help others, just like those who helped him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not a Ukrainian and I decided here to help and, you know, show people kindness. Everybody needs to help. Everybody. We need to coordinate. This is the message.

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BRUNHUBER: Medical student Vukile Dlamini fled Ukraine and has now returned to Eswatini. She is working to help other foreign students still stuck in Ukraine. She joins us now.

Thanks so much for being here with us. I'm glad you were able to get out. As I understand it, you went to Ukraine a year ago to study medicine in Ukraine. The university, roughly in the middle of the country, so when the first bombs were dropped on Kyiv, you were hiding in a bomb shelter and decided to leave.

Take us through the first part of your journey from where you were to the border.

VUKILE DLAMINI, MEDICAL STUDENT: Thank you. Thank you for having me. So we left last week, Saturday morning. We left last week Saturday morning. We used a bus, a group of study students.

We all paid the bus drivers to take us to the border but then they could not drop us off at the border because of the long, long traffic. So we had to walk several kilometers for a couple of hours until we got there.

Then when we got there, again, we had to wait just to get over the gates to the Romanian side of the border. That's where we crossed over.

BRUNHUBER: So I take it many other African and South Asian students had trouble getting on trains. They were being told they weren't allowed or told to wait while Ukrainians were given preferential treatment.

Did you experience anything like that yourself?

Or did you know other students who experienced this?

DLAMINI: Our friends in other cities were the ones experiencing such a -- in the trains. For example, in the trains. I'm sure you have seen this video, where a Black girl tried to get on board and then the officials are telling her to go. The Ukrainian civilians themselves, they're not -- you know, they were

not treating people in that sort of manner because they all understand that we all want to cross over.

[04:45:00]

DLAMINI: We all just want to go home and escape this war safely. So when we got to the borders, that is when also we faced some of these things. But along the way, when we were walking toward the border, the Ukrainians were helping us with hot tea and bread just to keep us warm, because it was really, really cold.

Temperatures are still low in Ukraine. So when we got to the border, that was the problem. The problems where when we crossed the border, when we were trying to cross over to the other side.

There were thousands and thousands of people. There was a gate for foreigners and a gate for Ukrainians. So the foreigners would get so frustrated, they even took over the Ukrainian gate.

So now the soldiers would try to calm them down. But then of course, not in the best way. So they started shooting in the air and then on the ground -- not at them but the ground and held some at gunpoint, of course.

Then they would manhandle some of the students that would be crossing over at the border. Those were the officials, not the civilians, no.

BRUNHUBER: And I understand -- I mean you were taking some video and your friends took video of, you know, one student being kicked, I understand.

Another one was pushed off the train?

Talk me through that.

DLAMINI: That video of the girl was trying to get on the plane (sic), she was in another city, trying to get in the plane (sic) because so many people were packed like sardines in those trains, sorry, in those trains, trying to just cross over to -- I mean, trying to get to another city, which would get them closer to the border so they could cross.

Some were cutting over the Polish side and some were crossing over to the Romanian side and others, Hungary. But then the most two borders where there was so much going on was the Polish and the Romanian side.

BRUNHUBER: When it comes to discrimination, I mean many Black and Brown people in Ukraine have reported incidents like that. The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration have said they've had verified reports of discrimination against foreigners, like you've described.

But Ukrainian politicians have denied these accounts, saying that there's been no preferential treatment. They're pushing back against acts of racism. What would you say to them?

DLAMINI: As I explained before, the Ukrainian civilians, they were so nice. So many of us joined us when we were walking toward the border, offering us some hot tea so we wouldn't get so cold.

But it was when we crossed the border, where the officials now, not the civilians but the officials, they would start manhandling some foreigners as well and everything. But I think some of it was because some of the foreigners were so frustrated because the gates where they were allowed to cross over, they would only allow Ukrainian trucks to cross over to the other side.

But the civilians, you know, because we're all together in that situation, everything, they were not looking at color or whatever. We were all just helping each other. It was only when we got to the borders when all of the tension started.

BRUNHUBER: Well, listen, thank you so much for explaining your situation to us. I know you've been trying to help other students as well go through the same thing. So Vukile Dlamini, thank you for that work you've been doing.

DLAMINI: Yes.

BRUNHUBER: Thank you. We really appreciate it.

DLAMINI: Thank you so much again. Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: All right.

We now want to turn to Eastern Europe where U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken is meeting with Moldova's president and foreign minister in the capital. Blinken is there to express U.S. support for Moldova as it faces a surge of refugees from Ukraine. And they fear they could be another target of Russian aggression.

We're expecting Antony Blinken to address the media at any moment now. So we'll bring you that when it comes -- oh, we're taking it now. All right.

MAIA SANDU, PRESIDENT OF MOLDOVA (through translator): We are grateful for the whole assistance offered by the government and by the citizens of the United States of America over this period of time, which amounts to over $1.7 billion U.S. in assistance, which helped us out to get consolidated as a statehood.

We do appreciate the firm support of the United States for the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova as well as for our European path.

I wish you visited our country in peaceful times in the context of the anniversary of our bilateral relationship. We do have great plans for the transformation of Moldova: we initiated the reform of the justice system; we started eliminating the corruption from the public institutions. [04:50:00]

SANDU (through translator): We started working in order to improve the business environment to attract investments into the economy of the country, to encourage the development of local communities and to rethink the education system of our country in order to prepare Moldova to cope better with the challenges of the time.

We want to build a resilient, competitive, prosperous and innovative country -- a country which does invest into its people and which is capable to channel energy and the creativity of its citizens in order to build a place where people really want to live.

The reality we woke up on the 24th of February, however, set our plans on hold. We are now living a dark period of time -- a dark period of time for the whole region where all efforts are being directed in order to strengthen the society around one single objective: peace in the region.

As far as you know, the war in Ukraine is unfolding exactly at the border with our country. We firmly condemned the military aggression against Ukraine and we called to peace from the very first hour of the military actions. We continue calling to dialogue as well as to the possibility to identify some peaceful solutions as the only way to seize cease those violent actions against Ukraine and its citizens.

As a neutral country -- and this is a principle enshrined in our constitution -- we decided to stretch a hand of help to the people which are directly affected by the plague of the war.

From the very first hours of the armed attack against Ukraine, Moldova received on its territory the citizens from the neighboring country which are trying to flee from the bombs. Over 250,000 people crossed the border from Ukraine to the Republic of Moldova from the beginning of the war.

A big part of those people stay in our country so far. The employees of the public services -- border police, customs officers, (INAUDIBLE), medical doctors, social assistants, local authorities, diplomats but also a lot of volunteers -- mobilized their efforts in order to help out the refuges which are arriving from Ukraine. Thousands of people from all the regions of the country joined this effort.

When entering the Republic of Moldova, the refugees immediately received some hot meal, transportation and a shelter in a temporary placement center or even in the houses of our people.

Tens of thousands of families from the whole country housed people from Ukraine over those days. It's a significant effort for a country with a population which is below 3 million and with quite humble incomes.

But despite those high challenges which represent this increasing inflow of refugees from the neighboring country, we cannot turn our back to those people. Majority of refugees are women, children and elderly.

They cross our border being exhausted, desperate, after long hours of journey escaping from the war. It is our moral duty to help them out and we'll continue fulfilling this mission to our best extent.

Dear Secretary of State, the Republic of Moldova does need assistance and immediate and significant contribution of the international community so that our people and our economy can cope with these challenges and the inflow of refugees.

We do need urgently assistance for the temporary accommodation of those people in order to offer them the most necessary items and also to be capable to redirect the inflow of refugees toward the European countries which have a high capacity to receive them.

Some states already expressed the availability to take up the refugees from Ukraine, also to accommodate them, in the upcoming period of time. But only through joint efforts, consistent efforts, rapid efforts of all the partners we can help out Ukraine.

We do need rapid assistance and involvement of the international community first of all in order to cease the battles and to restore the peace.

I do hope that the tour that you are undertaking over those days in the countries of this region contributes, together with the visits of some other high-ranking officials, to the peace efforts of Ukraine. This is what we all want. This is what we all deserve, especially the Ukrainians.

[04:55:00]

SANDU (through translator): Dear Secretary of State, Mr. Blinken, the Republic of Moldova and the United States have developed a very good relationship in those over 30 years of cooperation and friendship relationship.

I do appreciate the strategic partnership between our countries and I do hope that we will see each other again in some better times when we will be able to discuss how to advance, how to move forward on the subjects which are included on the bilateral agenda of our countries.

I do hope that your visit gives a new impetus to our partnership. We want to continue the political dialogue, the security dialogue between our states.

We want to develop projects which are directed toward the development of the energy resilience of our country; as well as to advance on the dialogue for justice and to collaborate in the field of the asset recovery.

The Moldo-American partnership will help us out to strengthen the resilience of the Republic of Moldova as well as to strengthen the capacity of our country to cope with the challenges of the time.

While a stronger, more resilient Moldova can become a pole of stability and development in the region, a trustworthy partner as well as a stronghold of the free world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Thank you, Ms. President. Now we pass the floor to the secretary of state, Mr. Antony Blinken.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: President Sandu, thank you so much for the very warm welcome to the Republic of Moldova. It's actually been almost seven years to the day since my last visit here. And it's great to be back -- although, as you said, I wish it was under somewhat different circumstances.

Thank you as well to the prime minister, to the foreign minister, all our colleagues, who have received us so well today.

And I'm also particularly glad that our new ambassador, Kent Logsdon, has arrived here in Chisinau, I think just last month. For us, having confirmed ambassadors in place is vital for our cooperation with countries around the world and that's especially important now.

In the 30 years since Moldova and the United States began diplomatic relations, we've never faced a moment as urgent and as challenging as the one that we face today.

Russia's unprovoked, unwarranted war on Ukraine has kicked off a humanitarian crisis that is already having a vast effect across the region, including here in the Republic of Moldova.

As of today, as the president said, an estimated 240,000 people from Ukraine have crossed the border into Moldova, fleeing for their lives. They're mostly women and children. Their number will grow.

As I told President Sandu, Moldova deserves the world's gratitude for welcoming and protecting Ukrainians. And as the prime minister, president and foreign minister and I discussed today, the United States will do all that we can to help Moldova as it cares for people who have already been through so much.

Our administration has requested of Congress $2.75 billion in emergency assistance, humanitarian assistance, both to meet the needs of vulnerable people and communities inside Ukraine and also to help countries like Moldova supporting refugees and address the humanitarian crisis from outside Ukraine.

The international community also has a responsibility to help Moldova deal with the impacts of war. We'll drive that message in our engagement with international organizations and other countries around the world.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the United Nations Charter; 141 countries at the United Nations stood up for those principles and against Russia's assault on them.

The United States wants to make clear our strong support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, including the Republic of Moldova. Countries have a right to choose their own futures. Moldova has chosen the path of democracy, a more inclusive economy, a closer relationship with the countries and institutions of Europe.

The United States supports Moldova in those efforts, grounded in our respect for the neutrality that's enshrined in Moldova's constitution.

Our partnership addresses the key challenges of our time, the things that we should be working on and focused on, which is exactly another reason why this war of choice is such a terrible thing -- it takes us away from things that we need to be working on together.

But we'll continue to do that. The United States delivered hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 vaccines to Moldova and millions of in pandemic-related assistance. We will invest $18 million over the next years to help strengthen and diversify Moldova's energy sector. Greater energy security is vital for your sovereignty.