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Ukrainians Face Danger as they Flee; Andriy Kulykov is Interviewed about Ukraine; Lviv Mayor Pleads for Help. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 08, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:33:42]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Ukrainians are facing incredible dangers as they try to escape their own country. Not only risking their lives, but as you know by now, they leave behind loved ones and everything they have known for an uncertain future. It is the heartbreaking reality for any refugee.

Reporter Rohit Kachroo with ITV News has one story of that heartbreak that's playing out across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROHIT KACHROO, ITV NEWS (voice over): To cross the river is perilous. To not cross it is far more so. This is the escape from Irpin, where the lucky leave alive. As the sound of shelling moved closer, not everyone have the good fortune to be able to run.

This was hardly a dash for safety, but it was no less desperate. An elderly woman struggling to keep up. Other evacuees streaming past as she inched towards safety.

[09:35:00]

KACHROO (on camera): What as -- tell me what last night was like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, TRANSLATOR: It was hell. It was scary and it was hell. (INAUDIBLE) hell.

KACHROO (voice over): Then we spot another group emerging from underneath the broken bridge. Some have left with few possessions from long and settled lives. But if this looks like agony, imagine those they left behind. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I panicked a lot, especially just at night. But these sounds as you can hear now is not comparing to that (INAUDIBLE) struggling this night because it was light and warm and the whole buildings shaking and (INAUDIBLE) light half the night.

KACHROO: They've now reached the end of one road, the start of another.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Stay closer to me my sunshines, please.

KACHROO (on camera): Where are you going now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To Kyiv railway station.

KACHROO: And where are you going after that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After I -- my family go to east, I go to war.

KACHROO: You're going to war?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's my land.

KACHROO (voice over): Then another evacuee arrives with news from the town beyond Irpin.

It's done for, he says. Everyone has been killed. A moment to reflect does nothing to help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): How can you talk about humanity in this world where our whole country is being destroyed? We are a small country, but we have everything, we are happy with everything. How can the whole world allow our country to be wiped from the face of the earth?

KACHROO: The next stop is toward Kyiv, along the same route Russian troops want to take.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We are going to the train station, that's -- that's all we know. We are just fleeing, we'll go wherever we can. It's not organized.

KACHROO: We're invited into one of the tower blocks in the path of Russia's advance, where, for now, some refuse to go anywhere.

KACHROO (on camera): So why doesn't she leave and get on one of those buses outside?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, TRANSLATOR: I don't know. I don't have an answer for that.

KACHROO (voice over): At Kyiv's central train station, those who did leave Irpin are taken west, as far as they can go. One man tells us he was hit by Russian bullets on his way here. KACHROO (on camera): Who shot you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Russian soldiers. I saw their vehicles with the letter "v" on them.

KACHROO (voice over): Across the waiting room, he spots his wife. They'll travel to Lviv together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I think we've been very lucky. It's like another birthday. It feels like another birthday.

KACHROO: They're not alone in making a journey which would have seemed unthinkable ten days ago. An escape from shootings and shrapnel means an escape from home.

All this is the painful consequence of the decision of one man.

Rohit Kachroo ITV News, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Consequences that we see play out again and again in countries across this globe as so many are forced to make unthinkable decisions to leave in search of safety.

Just ahead, a Ukrainian journalist and radio host joining us live from Kyiv. Why he's decided to stay behind as Russian forces push toward the city.

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[09:44:11]

SCIUTTO: In just a few hours, the Ukrainian president will speak to the U.K. House of Commons, where he's expected to ask for increased aid, both military and economic, in Ukraine's battle to push back Russian forces.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be the first foreign head of state to address the main chamber. It comes as we saw him appear in a defiant video overnight from inside his own office in Kyiv. It also comes as the U.S. has announced or will soon announce its ban on buying Russian oil and natural gas.

Joining me now from the Ukrainian capital, Andriy Kulykov. He's a journalist and a radio host.

Andriy, I have to begin with, given where you are in the capital Kyiv, and Russian forces advancing or attempting to, what's your level of fear and concern right now as to what is next for the capital?

[09:45:04]

ANDRIY KULYKOV, HOST, HROMADSKE RADIO: The next for the capital is resistance. The next for the capital is an attempt to push away those forces. And, yes, they've been attempting to reach Kyiv for ten or 12 days now. I heard your report a couple of minutes ago and, you know, the places that were named there, like Irpin and Bucha (ph) and some others, they are the places that I know from my childhood. In fact, my country house is just 20 kilometers away, it at something like 13 or 14 miles away from those places. So, we've been in this tension for quite some time now.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we spoke to a family from Bucha who had to flee over the weekend and is now on their way to Poland.

You've seen, you're aware of what Russia is doing to other Ukrainian cities further in the east, and that is shelling them more and more, bombarding them from the air, deliberately targeting, it seems, civilian neighborhoods.

Do you believe that's what Kyiv will soon face?

KULYKOV: Well, we are already partially seeing this because less than a mile away from the place where I live, a rocket hit a high rise. Then there was a rocket which fell on the children's hospital. Again, less than a mile from my (INAUDIBLE). And there were two fierce gun battles during the second or third day of the invasion. So, we are seeing this from time to time. But not to the scale, of course, that Kharkiv, for instance, experienced this as the Ukraine's second largest city, situated just 40 kilometers away from the Russian border.

I have many personal friends there. And I know for sure what was and still is happening in this city. Again, in Mariupol, which is totally besieged and encircled by the Russians, I have not only friends, I have my students, because I am a teacher at Mariupol State University, although for the past half a year I didn't visit them because of Covid restrictions.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes.

KULYKOV: But we -- for the last session of (INAUDIBLE) was less than a month ago.

SCIUTTO: You are a journalist. You've been for many years a radio host. How are Ukrainian journalists covering this story? How are they managing to get the truth, the facts about what's happening on the ground, given the danger, and just giving the difficulty and the fluidity of the battlefield?

KULYKOV: Some of the girls and guys are already on the battle lines. Of course it's hard to stay safe for them. But our journalistic organizations have provided for them with at least body armor and helmets and stuff like this.

And, of course, you should always remember that in Ukraine, the journalistic profession is rather dangerous even in peaceful times. That's why many of us are more or less prepared, at least morally, to face such dangers.

As far as gathering information is concerned, it is really hard during the war because however patriotic we may be, the science of the war are usually embellishing their own successes and denigrating the successes or actions of the enemies. So you have to see this through (ph).

And, for instance, our radio, although we heavily rely on Ukrainian official forces -- sources, if we spot an inaccuracy or something totally unbelievable, we check it. And sometimes we have to say that this was not true. However, this does not happen very often, but it does happen.

SCIUTTO: We have the same challenge as well, verifying, the fog of war, difficult to breakthrough.

Andriy Kulikov, we wish you safety and we do appreciate you joining us this morning.

KULYKOV: Thank you very much. Take care.

SCIUTTO: Well, more than 200,000 evacuees have arrived here in Lviv since the invasion started less than two weeks ago. Now the mayor of this city says the city's desperately in need of help to provide food and shelter for them. More are on the way. We see it every day. We'll bring you an update, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:54:37]

SCIUTTO: The mayor here in Lviv is now pleading for the international community to help the city provide food and shelter for what is now more than 200,000 Ukrainians who fled here to the west to escape the war, largely concentrated in the east and the central part of the country.

Here with me now, CNN international correspondent Scott McLean. He's been following this.

And, Scott, you know, what struck me is that Lviv is both a weigh station for folks leaving Ukraine for Poland and elsewhere, but it's also become a lifeboat. A lot of people are staying here.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly because -- well, for a couple of reasons.

[09:55:00]

First off, it is very difficult to get out of the country right now. There's long line-ups at the border if you're trying to cross on foot. You can get across. It will take you a couple of hours. If you're trying to go by car, it could take you 24 plus hours to get through all of the checkpoints and whatnot.

Trains are also very difficult. People are waiting for many hours to get into the trains. Obviously, they prioritize women and children on those trains to get out of the city. And so, you're right, a lot of people end up staying here, whether temporarily or for longer periods of time. And, remember, the population of this city is only 700,000 to 750,000.

Now all of a sudden you have this influx of 200,000 people all at once. The mayor says they're really struggling to cope. They've reached their maximum capacity. And so they're asking for more help. They're asking for more food, more water, all of the things that you would normally need. They're also asking for more volunteers to come in from abroad too.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And it's understandable. Listen, you see those women and children walking the streets, just dragging those bags with the little that they can take with them out of the country.

Scott McLean, thanks so much for covering this story.

MCLEAN: You bet.

SCIUTTO: Erica, it is one picture of this war. It's getting worse. A lot more refugees.

HILL: Yes, it certainly is getting worse. And so important, though, to continue telling that story and to see those pictures so that we all understand.

Just ahead, next hour, we're expected to hear from President Biden, who we're told will announce the next step in the U.S. crackdown on Russia. A full ban on energy imports. We are live at the White House just ahead.

Stay with us.

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