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Ukraine Accuses Russia of War Crimes; President Biden Bans Imports of Russian Oil. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 08, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell.

The global ramifications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, they are growing. The U.N. says the number of Ukrainian refugees who have left the country for safety has now surpassed two million. A temporary cease-fire that allowed for civilians to evacuate just ended seconds ago in Northern Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry says that 723 people evacuated along a humanitarian route from Sumy.

That corridor was established just hours after a Russian airstrike killed 21 people in that same region. Two of them were children. Now, speaking of children, since the start of the war, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that 38 children have been killed, 70 wounded, which they say amounts to a genocide.

CAMEROTA: According to a senior U.S. defense official, the port city of Mariupol in the south is now -- quote -- "isolated" by Russian forces.

Residents there have been without running water, heat or electricity for days. Ukraine's foreign minister says Russian forces are committing war crimes by holding 300,000 people there hostage.

The U.S. is also seeing an increase in the bombardment and shelling of Mykolaiv. The administrator there is asking residents to gather tires at all city intersections to be set on fire to stop the Russian advance.

Also today, a major announcement from President Biden, a ban on all Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the U.S. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports, and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin's war machine.

This is a move that has strong bipartisan support in Congress and I believe in the country. Americans have rallied support -- have rallied to support their Ukrainian people and made it clear we will not be part of subsidizing Putin's war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Anderson Cooper is in Lviv in Western Ukraine.

Anderson, we just heard from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This historic address to the British Parliament received a standing ovation there. Again, he says that the people of Ukraine will continue to fight.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, the president really walked the Parliament through the last 13 days of this war, marking each passing day with a timeline of atrocities that have taken place, hospital bombings, children killed, as you mentioned, historic buildings destroyed.

He pleaded for more help from the British Parliament and noted that acts of bravery by the Ukrainians that have taken place and that we have witnessed, their enduring willingness to keep on fighting.

He echoed Winston Churchill's famous wartime speech, saying: We will fight to the end.

And, as you said, he got a standing ovation.

CNN senior national correspondent -- national security correspondent Alex Marquardt is live for us right now from the Kyiv region.

So, Alex, a U.S. defense official says that Russia is making a renewed advance toward Kyiv, this time, however, from the east. We know there's that stalled Russian column in the north, but this advance is from the east.

What more are you learning about possible movements?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, Anderson, this is concerning, because it is one more direction that the Russians are coming at Kyiv from. They have not made much progress in recent days. They have definitely instilled a lot of fear.

So what we understand from the Pentagon, from that senior defense official is that they're about 40 miles away, about 60 kilometers to the east. That's not as close as some of the forces that are to the north, that long column, that 40-mile column that we have talked about for days, or their forces to the west. That is primarily where we have seen a lot of the Russians pushing

from, from the north, from the west. We have seen their tanks in residential areas. We have seen them targeting those evacuation checkpoints on Sunday in Irpin, that suburb of Kyiv that left at least eight people dead.

So, they're not making progress in terms of advancing on the city. There have been some skirmishes, some clashes in Kyiv. Those are believed to be reconnaissance groups or sabotage groups. But Russian forces are certainly not in the center of Kyiv. They have closed in, but they are not making progress in terms of territory.

But, Anderson, that has not stopped them from stepping up their bombardment. And this has been the concern, that, as they get stalled on the ground, that they increase their aerial bombardment. And that is something that we have seen them doing.

Now, according to the Pentagon, 100 percent, all of the Russian prepositioned combat power that was outside of Ukraine before the invasion is now inside of Ukraine. And -- but -- and even though there has been this stalling, they still have an awful lot of power that they can punch, a lot more that they can throw at the Ukrainians.

[14:05:18]

The U.S. believes that it is both a combination of Ukrainian resistance that has that has caused this standstill, as well as the inability of these troops to be fueled, to be fed. So they are not moving very much, but they are certainly continuing to fight and really hitting not just Kyiv, but many of these cities very hard, Anderson.

COOPER: If you can, talk about some of the details of this cease-fire agreement for the civilian evacuations just in Sumy.

There was a moment today where there was an outbreak of fighting on the outskirts while it was going on. The cease-fire just ended. What do we know?

MARQUARDT: Well, earlier, the Russians said this morning that they would have a cease-fire in five different Ukrainian cities to allow residents to be able to leave. Kyiv was one of them. Sumy was another. Mariupol in the south was another.

Sumy seems to have had some success today after we have seen over the course the past few days other humanitarian corridors that have collapsed and come under more bombardment by the Russians. But, in Sumy, this corridor that, you're right, closed about an hour-and-a- half ago, appeared to have gotten several 100 people out, more than 700, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

And that corridor, unlike the others, went to another city in Ukraine. So the corridors that the Russians were suggesting would have allowed Ukrainians to get out into Russia or into Belarus, the last two countries that they want to go to, because it's from there that the Russians have launched their invasion. This corridor allowed people from Sumy to get to another city about

100 miles south. And, from there, they can head west and head west into Europe. So more than 700, according to Russia. Many of them were foreigners, including around 600 Indian students.

There were also Chinese, Jordanians, Tunisians. But, Anderson, this also is paired with more violence that we have seen. So while you have had people who were able to get out of Sumy today, last night, there was a strike on a residential area that killed more than 20 people, including two children

And then not too far away, also in the northeast, we learned today that a central hospital in the town of Izyum was also hit. So you have these humanitarian corridors, these efforts to evacuate. Some are more successful than others.

But these indiscriminate attacks by the Russians that are hitting civilians still are very much continuing -- Anderson.

COOPER: The U.S. intelligence community estimates between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched the attack last month.

There's also word about a high-ranking general perhaps has been killed. That's unconfirmed so far. What more do we know about these losses?

MARQUARDT: We know that there have been significant losses. It's very hard to put an exact figure on it. Of course, the Kremlin is not being extremely transparent. They have put some numbers out there.

The intelligence community in the U.S. today saying they believe the range to be 2,000 to 4,000, which, of course, is quite big. And they're saying that they make that assessment with low confidence. So that just goes to show that they don't have a great sense of how many Russians have been killed.

Among the Russians, according to the Ukrainians, is a senior general named Gerasimov, Vitaly Gerasimov, who would be, if confirmed, the highest-ranking Russian general so far killed in this fight.

Anderson, what's interesting, on a much lower level, among the regular troops, if you will, is there's a lot -- there's a growing fear among the families back home about what's happening to these forces, many of whom we believe didn't really know that they were going to fight in Ukraine.

And families have not heard from their loved ones who are soldiers since this invasion of Ukraine. And so what they're doing is, they're turning to an unlikely place. And that is a Ukrainian hot line that they're calling to try to get information from the Ukrainians about Russian soldiers who may have been captured, killed or hurt or are wounded.

And people from all around the world are calling this hot line, including a young man in Virginia who I spoke with a couple of days ago. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Is the Russian Ministry of Defense telling anything to the family.

MARAT, RELATIVE OF RUSSIAN SOLDIER: The family is trying to get contacted by anybody, just because everyone is so scared in Russia. Everyone is scared to talk. Everyone is afraid of law enforcement agencies tracking them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:10:08]

MARQUARDT: So, that man, Marat, does believe that his relative has been killed because he saw elsewhere online his documents, his I.D. card, as well as photos.

So, you have got all these desperate families calling this hot line, which they admit is not just a service to offer information about Russian soldiers, but they're also trying to undermine the Russian war effort with what they say is the truth, to tell Russians what is really going on here and to try to convince them to head out into the streets and protest this war -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, the piece you did on that was really fascinating, to see that Ukrainian effort.

Alex Marquardt, appreciate it.

A short time ago, U.S. intelligence officials told lawmakers that Vladimir Putin likely won't be deterred by military setbacks in Ukraine, but will double down on attacks as a result.

There's a new U.S. intelligence report that's also shedding some light on Vladimir Putin's motives -- or intentions, I should say, when it comes to United States.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis joins us now with details.

So, Katie Bo, what is the report say exactly?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Anderson, this is a report that the intelligence community releases every year known as the Worldwide Threats Assessment that gives kind of a round-the-world rundown of how the intelligence community is viewing a variety of different threats that face the United States.

Of course, the timing of this year's report coincides with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, offering the U.S. public a pretty remarkable, nearly real-time picture into how the U.S. is viewing Putin and Russia.

And one of the key findings in the report is that the U.S. intelligence community believes that Russia does not -- and I emphasize, does not -- seek a direct confrontation or even want a direct confrontation with the United States. In fact, it's something they would rather avoid.

And this is, of course, a pretty reassuring assessment to hear after the last couple of weeks, when we have heard Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly invoke the specter of his own nuclear forces, ordering them to go on something called special alert status, which is a term that the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, told the House Intelligence Committee today doesn't have any true technical meaning in the Russian system that they're aware of.

Haines addressed that order directly today while speaking to the committee on Capitol Hill earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AVRIL HAINES, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Our analysts assess that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks and instead may escalate, essentially doubling down, to achieve Ukrainian disarmament neutrality, to prevent it from further integrating with the U.S. and NATO, if it doesn't reach some diplomatic negotiation.

We assess Putin feels aggrieved the West does not give him proper deference and perceives this as a war he cannot afford to lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LILLIS: You heard Haines there also offering a pretty dire prediction for Ukraine, arguing that the intelligence community's assessment at this point is that Russia is likely to escalate its aggression there, not de-escalate -- Anderson.

COOPER: Katie Bo Lillis, I appreciate it. Thanks so much -- Victor, let's come back to you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Anderson, thank you.

Some of the nation's top foreign policy experts are now calling on President Biden and the international community to establish a limited no-fly zone in Ukraine. That's something the White House and NATO have strongly resisted, and they fear it could lead to all-out war with Russia.

Kurt Volker is the former U.S. ambassador to NATO and the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations.

Mr. Ambassador, thank you for being here.

You are one of more than two dozen foreign policy officials who signed on to this open letter calling for this limited no-fly zone. So, explain it. What's the case?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR UKRAINE: Right.

So, first of all, we have an outrageous and inhuman attack going on against civilians in Ukraine, as we just heard in your reports, people -- orphans being delivered from Kyiv to the west in order to be safe, two million refugees, citizens in Mariupol without water, without power for six days now.

This is a horrific humanitarian situation. So the proposal is to impose a limited no-fly zone -- and I will explain what limited is -- in order to protect civilians. This is a humanitarian step to prevent them from being attacked from the sky.

It would be limited in geography, so not all of Ukraine and therefore not getting close to Russian borders, but only over Kyiv from the west. It would have only the purpose of preventing attacks from the sky, so it would not be attacking Russian ground forces in Ukraine, except in self-defense if fired upon. Similarly, it would not be attacking Russian aircraft, fixed-wing or rotary-wing, as long as they stay outside the zone, and if they come in, try to escort them out, and only then if they refuse to be escorted out will there be a potential conflict.

And as we just heard, and I completely agree, Putin does not want to draw the U.S. into this war. He is doing poorly on the ground already. The last thing he wants is American and Western intervention in the war. So I think there is an opportunity to create some safe skies for civilians.

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BLACKWELL: OK, several things here. Of course, you know that the administration and NATO have said that, if there is this no-fly zone, there could be this direct conflict with Putin and with Russia and could lead to a much broader war.

Putin said that establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be interpreted as participants in a military conflict. And the DNI, Avril Haines, said today that -- and you just heard it -- that he sees this as a war that he cannot lose.

So the potential for a conflict does -- how do you calculate that into the proposal?

VOLKER: Yes, Putin has also described the sanctions that we have imposed as an act of war. And he has warned the U.S. against doing just this sort of thing, because he doesn't want us to do it, because he is concerned that it would make his efforts militarily more difficult.

I do agree that he is going to pursue a military outcome in Ukraine no matter the costs. And that is what we have seen over the past several days as the civilian casualties mount. And I think we will find ourselves, if not today, ten tomorrow, that these are intolerable levels, and it is worth some risk to airplanes and pilots to save as many civilians as we can.

Putin does not want to wider war with us.

BLACKWELL: Some risk. I mean, this is the risk of American lives, the risk of this breaking out into a world war. Let me go back to this letter. And I assume that the verbiage was

chosen carefully, in which it recommends starting with the protection for humanitarian corridors. And it says this: "NATO leaders should convey to Russian officials that they do not seek direct confrontation with Russian forces," which you just said, "but they must also make clear that they will not countenance Russian attacks on civilian areas."

The attacks on civilian areas is the Russian M.O. we have seen on schools and shops and apartment buildings. So, even if these corridors hold with a no-fly zone, are you suggesting then expand them if you see the continuance of attacks on civilian targets?

VOLKER: No, I wouldn't suggest that at this point. I hope that we can have an impact on the Russian behavior in Ukraine.

Again, I think we were looking at preventing attacks by -- from the air. A lot of what Russia is doing is through multiple rocket launchers and missiles. That's probably not something we could affect. So there would still be attacks on civilians, but this could be some measure of protection.

BLACKWELL: All right, Ambassador Kurt Volker, thank you.

CAMEROTA: So, President Biden announcing a ban on Russian energy imports to the U.S. What will the impact be on the Russian economy and on average Americans?

BLACKWELL: And more than 200,000 evacuees have arrived in Lviv since the start of the war.

Well, now the mayor says that the city needs help to feed and house them. More in an update in just a moment.

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CAMEROTA: President Biden announcing today a ban on Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the U.S. in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Gas prices already breaking records here in the U.S., a gallon of regular gas now $4.17. That's breaking the previous record of $4.11 set in 2008.

BLACKWELL: The cost of gas is up 18 percent since Russia invaded Ukraine 13 days ago.

Kaitlan Collins is CNN's chief White House correspondent.

Kaitlan, the president had previously been reluctant to make this move. What changed?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was a lot of pressure coming from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers from both parties were saying that Putin should not be making any profits from the United States of America while he is still in the middle of this invasion against Ukraine.

This is, as you noted, a step that President Biden had initially been reluctant to take, mainly because of those prices that you see right there and a concern that doing this and implementing this ban would rattle the global energy market and therefore send those gas prices even higher than you already saw them there.

Of course, as you noted that, today, the average is now at $4.17. And as President Biden was saying earlier today when he was announcing this move, he said those costs could go even higher.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The decision today is not without cost here at home. Putin's war is already hurting American families at the gas pump. Since Putin began his military buildup on Ukrainian borders, just since then, the price of the gas of the pump in America went up 75 cents.

And with this action, it's going to go up further. I'm going to do everything I can to minimize Putin's price hike here at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Of course, it remains to be seen how exactly President Biden will be able to minimize those price hikes in gas.

We should note that they have not said whether or not the United States is going to try to import more oil from Venezuela, maybe an Iran, states that are -- or nations that have already been sanctioned, of course, by the United States, in order to make up for this difference.

But what this does today is effectively cut off these Russian imports from the United States, though we should note that the United States doesn't import all that much crude oil from Russia. This would be a much bigger step if Europe was taking that, though President Biden said today he's does not believe that those European allies like a Germany or France are going to be in tandem with this move by the United States.

BLACKWELL: Kaitlan Collins for us at the White House, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is former Treasury Department's spokesperson Hagar Chemali. She was also a senior policy adviser in the Treasury Department's Sanctions Division when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

[14:25:00]

Hagar, thank you so much for being here.

What does this really mean? What does this ban on oil and gas imports to the U.S., how will this really hurt Putin?

HAGAR CHEMALI, FOREIGN POLICY EXPERT: Well, in the immediate term, you're talking about robbing the Russian government of anywhere between $5 billion and $10 billion a year. That's not that much in the grand scheme of things.

For us, it's 8 percent of our energy imports. And, for Russia, it's not the largest country to which they export their oil. Russia is the world's third largest producer of oil. However, it's still really strong for a few reasons.

First, because what we're saying is that we're leading on this issue. While the United States went it, at it alone now, we know that President Biden talked about it with European partners on Monday, and that they have changed their view on this.

And so I would expect Europe to be looking for other sources and ways to import that oil from -- and gas from elsewhere, so that they could take a similar move. And that is a message that is being sent with today's action.

It's also a message that is saying that we're not afraid to obliterate their economy and we are ready to prepare ourselves to protect our economies and to not be so dependent on Russian oil.

CAMEROTA: And haven't we already seen the E.U. following suit? Haven't they just announced that they are going to cut some of their imports by two-thirds this year, and that they plan to slash it by -- over the next eight years entirely?

CHEMALI: Yes.

And you know what? It's just that these moves, especially when you're talking about oil and gas, they can't be done overnight, especially for a country like Europe. For us, we import 8 percent of our energy imports are from Russia. That's not a lot that. We can make that up. And I have confidence that President Biden is doing that.

And, by the way, I would not assume that it's from Venezuela or Iran, certainly not Iran. But from -- when you're talking about Europe, they have already indicated that. And, by the way, it's also you have seen European energy companies themselves divest, agree not to purchase Russian crude.

And that message, that unity that you see, that speaks volumes to President Putin when he's thinking -- originally, he must have been thinking that he was confident about this. They're the third largest producer of oil in the world, It is a large part of their economy, and that we depended on it. And the message today is, don't be so sure about that.

CAMEROTA: Can they make up, can Putin make up some of this loss with China?

CHEMALI: I believe he could make up the loss from the United States with China, because it's small in the grand scheme of things.

We paid over $5 billion last year in crude sales. But that was at the price per barrel back then. With the price per barrel today, that if we had kept up on the pace that we were at, it would have been -- it could have been up to $10 billion this year. So in the grand scheme of oil sales, that's not a lot.

It is a very important message that, as the senators and Congress folks have been saying, that Russia knows that they can't profit off the U.S. market. But it isn't -- that isn't so much that China couldn't make that up. That's true.

CAMEROTA: And very quickly, Hagar, what does this mean for the average American? What should they be bracing for?

CHEMALI: Well, as President Biden noted, they should be bracing for an increase in gas prices. And that causes inflation for other goods, of course.

However, President Biden really has said he's working on making sure that the price doesn't skyrocket. It would skyrocket if Europe did this overnight. And that's why Europe didn't do it, not just because of the prices here in the United States, but for them as well in particular.

And so we need to rest assured that all these steps are being taken to ensure that those prices don't increase. But at the same time, we have to be prepared for it. And this is the difference. This is the price that we are paying, instead of instead of militarily engaging Russia directly.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

Hagar Chemali, thank you very much for helping us understand all of this and just the sacrifices that everyone is being asked to make because of this war. Great to talk to you. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: There are new reports of shelling in the strategic port city of Mykolaiv. We will have a live report from there next.

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