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Destruction In Residential Areas Of Bila Tserkva From Airstrike; WNBA Star Brittney Griner Detained In Russia On Drug Charges; Monitoring Group: Russian Police Arrest 4,600-Plus Protesters Sunday; Ukrainian-Americans Grapple With Russian Invasion. Aired 2:30- 3p ET

Aired March 07, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:30:51]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Russia's widening assault on Ukraine continues to take a devastating toll on a number of cities and towns all over the country.

CNN has geolocated and verified numerous attacks on civilian targets in the Kharkiv area. Most took place in the northeastern part of Kharkiv in the residential area of Bila Tserkva.

CNN's Matthew Chance got a firsthand look at the city of Bila Tserkva, excuse me, 50 miles south of Kyiv where Russian airstrike damaged numerous residential buildings.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well we've come inside one of the houses that was affected by what was apparently random artillery or rocket fire into this residential neighborhood.

And you could see just how shattered the lives of the family here were. Look. I mean, the windows have all been blown out obviously.

All of their belongings have been left behind as they sort of have gone into hiding.

There's a picture up there, which appears to be some of the people that lived here. It is a family with some children.

Apparently, they've survived this, which is good.

But of course, when you look at the situation and the way that Russians have been shelling residential areas across the country, so many people haven't survived.

This is interesting. Come have a look. It is the children's bedroom. You could see over here, look at the bunkbeds. The roof that has fallen down on to the top of them when that shell hit.

And of course, in the panic, in the evacuation, the kids have left all of their toys up here. You know.

And it just shows you that no matter where you are in this country, with Russia attacking cities across it, lives are being shattered.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: That is in Bila Tserkva.

In the same town, where Matthew just reported from, which is around Kyiv, there are dozens of orphans hiding in a basement day and night because attacks. They've been there for a week now.

There's new video just posted by the mayor of Kyiv who is visiting a maternity ward. Take a look.

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VITALY KLITSCHKO, MAYOR, KYIV, UKRAINE: Life goes on. Eighty-two kids were born just in this hospital since the beginning of the war. More Ukrainians are coming up and they will arrive daily.

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COOPER: Alisyn and Victor, it is just one of the many devastating things about this war, children in shelters, orphans in basements. It is just horrific.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: I mean, of course, the mayor, Mayor Kitschko, is right. Life does go on. The life cycle continues.

But it is cold comfort seeing the faces of those little orphans because how long will this be in that basement.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Born during a war in this war zone and, of course, the people who have stayed behind to take care of them, they have their own families that they have to care for as well.

CAMEROTA: Anderson, we know that you spoke to women with loved ones on the front lines. And so what do they tell you?

COOPER: Yes, today, we spent time with a lot of moms. A lot of moms here who have banded together to just try to help in any way they can.

Some, like the women you see me talking to there, they are working to -- her husband is at the front.

They are working to organize supplies and send them out to soldiers who are fighting, to send them out to anybody else in need.

Others are knitting, camouflage netting to put over tanks or artillery pieces.

People just want to be involved and they're fighting in any way they can.

[14:35:00] CAMEROTA: Yes. Anderson, thank you very much. Obviously, we'll get right back to you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's turn to the signs of defiance in Russia. Thousands arrested for protesting the brutal invasion of Ukraine. But those protests are being met with a heavy hand. We'll discuss.

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[14:39:50]

CAMEROTA: WNBA star, Brittney Griner, remains in custody after she was arrested on drug charges. Russian authorities claim that they detected cannabis oil in her luggage.

Griner was arrested last month but the news became public over the weekend.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Rosa Flores is in Griner's hometown of Houston.

Rosa, are you hearing anything from friends or family about the efforts to bring Brittney home? Do they know anything?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it is unclear how much they know. But her wife did go to Instagram today and posted a message that when you read it, it is really directed towards Griner.

Let me read a portion of it for you. It said, quote:

"My heart, our hearts are all skipping beats every day that goes by without hearing from you. I miss your voice. I miss your presence. You're our person. There are no words to compress this pain. I'm hurting. We are hurting."

Now the statement from Russian officials is not very clear. It does not provide a lot of information.

Yes, it does state the allegation that Griner had cannabis oil at the airport. And that that is a criminal offense in that country. And if prosecuted, that she could face up to 10 years in prison.

But it does not even state the date that she was detained. It only says February of 2022.

It does not contain more details about where she is being held, how she's being held, the conditions of those detention -- of her detention.

And so this, of course, is very worrisome for her friends, her extended family.

I talked to her high school coach, which is here in the Houston area, and she tells me that, most likely, the most difficult part for Griner of all of this right now is the isolation, not being able to be with her family, not being able to be with her wife.

However, she does say that Griner has the skills to get through this.

She said that she's got the grit. She's got the determination, the self-discipline, Victor and Alisyn, to get through this. She does it in the court and now, she says, that she can do this in Russia.

It is a matter of her applying all of those skills that she has so that she could come home.

BLACKWELL: Rosa Flores, for us in Houston, thank you so much.

CNN senior global affairs analyst, Bianna Golodryga, is with us now.

Bianna, Paul Whelan has been in custody for three-plus years and Trevor Reed for more than two.

As the sanctions are piling up for Russia, and Putin personally, as much as they hope, release is highly unlikely now.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I mean, I really do feel for them. They are literally collateral now in the hands of Russian authorities.

And this is a country that has gone from an authoritarian state to a totalitarian state within a matter of days.

There are dark day as head for Russia. Laws are out the window. There's no such thing as human rights at this point.

You're seeing not only Americans being detained and held there but also Russians. Any Russian that goes outside now, even with a sign, in a big town or a small town, that reads, "No war."

Any sort of protests of any sort will be met with firm resistance from the police.

CAMEROTA: They're also imposing new laws. So this weekend, we saw Vladimir Putin putting in this new, you know, basically, not allowing real information to be broadcast from Russia.

He did call it a "fake news" law. But in fact, it's a law that doesn't allow the Western perspective. It doesn't allow other voices.

Before this past weekend, could Russians get access? I mean, social, with other channels, did they know what was happening in the rest of the world and the perspective from the West?

GOLODRYGA: We've seen a real turn to repression in the last year, I would say since opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, returned, after being poisoned in Germany and returned to Russia last year.

And we saw massive protests. Hundreds of thousands of people, tens of thousands were taken to the streets on multiple occasions. And after that, we saw a crackdown on any independent media.

Any independent media was allowed to stay in business if only they identified themselves as foreign agents. So there was just this paragraph that they would have to attach to any

tweet, any broadcast, anything that they would promote to identify themselves as foreign agents. That would impact their business, too.

They withstood that and stayed in business. And up until last week was when most of them, if not all of them, have gone out of business.

The reporters that I turn to for any information, the real news inside of Russia, they are gone. Many have fled the country in fear of their lives and in fear of this new law, which would put them behind bars for up to 15 years.

BLACKWELL: The Russia and Ukraine talks, the third round wrapped up. And we have all asked military and diplomatic analysts for months now what deters Putin. Got a myriad of answers.

[14:45:10]

Is the answer nothing? Not that nothing stops him, but nothing deters him, and that should be our starting point?

GOLODRYGA: Again, speaking for Putin, I think anybody that knows what is going on in his mind clearly doesn't have a sense of what is taking place inside of the Kremlin right now. So I don't want to go out and suggest what he is thinking right now.

I would imagine, from everything that we've heard and people that we've talked to and sources that I've talked to, that they did not expect this type of reprisal, a collective reprisal from the West in terms of sanctions, right?

In terms of going an freezing the central bank assets there that he spent years collecting and building a fortress for himself in anticipation of just this, going into Ukraine.

That having been said, with his back against the wall, we've cross crossed a Rubicon on here. Many did not expect him to go into Ukraine the way he did.

So what is a way that you could get him to de-escalate? Because with his back against the wall, he does not like to lose. And how does he now come out?

As he's told his Russian public this is a special military operation in eastern Ukraine. How does he walk all of that back and get to a place where he could deal with the West like a world leader that he was before?

CAMEROTA: Right. That is the $64,000 question that they're trying to figure out if there's anything to get his attention and get him -- a face-saving measure.

Bianna Golodryga, thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Great to talk to you.

Well, pro-Ukraine protests hit the streets here in the U.S. over the weekend. So we'll speak to someone organizing these rallies. What is the point. What do they want to see happen in Ukraine?

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[14:51:22]

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BLACKWELL: New pictures into CNN showing this large crowd of mourners in Ukraine there at the burial ceremony for two Ukrainian soldiers. Those soldiers were killed during the attack on the nuclear power plant.

CAMEROTA: Americans of Ukrainian descent are watching this all unfold, this Russian invasion. They're watching it in horror as they wait for word on the whereabouts of their loved ones still living in Ukraine.

Pavlo Bandriwsky is one of those Americans. He is the vice president of the *Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

Pavlo, thank you so much for being here.

Tell us about your family and friends in Ukraine. Have they managed to get out? Have you heard from them?

PAVLO BANDRIWSKY, VICE PRESIDENT, UKRAINIAN CONGRESS COMMITTEE OF AMERICA, ILLINOIS DIVISION Sure. Alisyn and Victor, thanks for having me on.

We have been in touch with a number of our family members. Right now they are settled down. They want to stay.

We've tried to get our nieces to come over with their children. At this point, their husbands have been activated, they're fighting in the war and they're waiting to see how much further this develops before they leave.

People don't want to leave Ukraine, but they're being forced to leave because indiscriminate terror is happening across the country.

BLACKWELL: And you say they want to stay because their loved ones are there. Are they also -- we've seen some relative support by creating nets as well. What are they doing to support that effort?

BANDRIWSKY: There's a lot of civil resistance going on. They have been training in self-defense to protect their homes. They are doing a number of clandestine activities in order to thwart the invaders. They have taken up arms and they are prepared to defend their house,

their street, their neighborhoods, and do everything that they possibly can.

This is a classic case of David versus Goliath. And that's why the West's help on this is so critically important at this time.

CAMEROTA: So let's talk about that because, Pavlo, I know that you've been organizing these rallies here in the U.S. And so what's the point of that, to just raise awareness?

BANDRIWSKY: Well, when we had 5,000 people come out last week, it was to raise awareness. When we had over 7,000 people come out yesterday, it was more than that.

We want our American legislators, President Biden, our Senators and Congressmen, to show some strong political will, to close the skies over Ukraine, stop the slaughter of humanity, stop the genocide that is happening before our eyes.

We understand all the political ramifications of this. But at the very least, we have to have a humanitarian corridor where people can safely move.

We have seen Russians with their deceptive lies going back to where they had soldiers lay down their arms and then slaughtered them.

We have seen situations where they have declared ceasefires and then started to shell on citizens that were looking to evacuate.

So we need to have the sky corridor protected at least from Kyiv to Poland. That strip of territory must be protected from above and let the women and children escape.

[14:55:00]

BLACKWELL: Pavlo, you say that the West should close the skies, this no-fly zone, and you say there would be political ramifications.

Beyond political ramifications, that would put the U.S. military in direct conflict quickly with the Russian military. And that could start a world war in defending itself against Russia.

So you say to the politicians, to the president, to the secretary- general of NATO, who say that's off the table, you say what?

BANDRIWSKY: I say America stood by and the West stood by while Hitler slaughtered millions. Finally got into the war. And then, by that time horrible, horrible murders had been committed.

Let's not repeat that. Let's learn from history.

We have an authoritarian dictator that is on par with total disregard for human life.

I don't see and no rational individual could ever see a Western leader sitting down at a table with Vladimir Putin.

This is a dictator who's totally unhinged. What he has done is beyond the pale.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

BANDRIWSKY: To send mobile crematoriums along with tanks and soldiers to invade Ukraine so they can burn their own soldiers on the spot and dump their ashes, so their mothers cannot bury these poor kids --

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BANDRIWSKY: -- is just awful.

And I say to our politicians, we cannot ignore what's going on. We have to step up.

We have to have humanitarian corridors that are protected by the West --

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BLACKWELL: And we know that was something that was discussed today, not protected by the West. But these humanitarian corridors negotiated between Russia and Ukraine. We'll see if that actually happens.

Pavlo Bandriwsky, thank you so much.

For more information about how you can help humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, go to CNN.com/impact.

Now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing this surge of global oil prices. And gas prices in the U.S. also nearing record highs. The options for relief, ahead.

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