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Maternity And Children's Hospital Bombed In Mariupol, Ukraine; 12-Hour Ceasefire To Evacuate Ukrainians From Some Cities Ends; VP Harris On Way To Poland After U.S. Rejects Fighter Jet Proposal. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 09, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:23]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

Russian troops in Ukraine taking another inhumane step. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says Russia just carried out an airstrike on this hospital in the southern city of Mariupol. Officials say a maternity center and a pediatric ward were targeted, and that children are trapped under the rubble.

This is a warning. The images of this aftermath are very graphic. Ukrainian emergency volunteers here are carrying an injured pregnant woman out of the wreckage on a gurney. There was a hallway that is so obliterated you cannot decipher what it was. But you see a pink changing table and a bassinette. We don't know yet if anyone was killed, but officials say at least 17 women and hospital staff were injured in this.

BLACKWELL: Well, less than two miles away, CNN has identified a second location hit by an apparent Russian military strike. A university and a city administration building.

These new images from a satellite show several residential areas in Mariupol before the strike. That's on the left. Then on the right side of your screen, after. Look at that. Nearly nothing left.

As of Tuesday night, the U.N. says at least 516 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began. That was on February 24th. The cease fire for humanitarian evacuations in Ukraine is ending. Ended just a minute ago at the top of the hour. It was not upheld everywhere. Local authorities in two suburbs north of Kyiv say Russian forces are blocking a civilian evacuation route where Moscow agreed to allow for safe passage until nightfall.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Anderson Cooper joins us live from Lviv. That's in western Ukraine.

So, Anderson, the World Health Organization says Russians have carried out attacks on at least 18 health facilities in Ukraine. We just showed the video of that maternity ward. Those are obviously civilian targets. So what's happening?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I mean, this is the Russian way of war. We've seen this in other cities in the past, going back decades, in Grozny, in Chechnya, Aleppo in Syria. Two Mariupol officials are now saying that 1300 civilians have been killed there since the invasion began. We can't independently confirm those numbers.

CNN's senior international correspondent Sam Kiley joins me now live from Zaporizhzhia.

So, Sam, Mariupol has been under siege now for days. What more details are you learning about these strikes?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, the siege is about nearly a week old now for Mariupol. For the last five days, the deputy mayor told CNN earlier on today before this latest air strike against Maternity Hospital Number Three, that he reckoned that there were about officially some 1200 and something dead in his city, but he reckoned that that figure was underestimated by two or three times because it simply wasn't possible to get people out on the ground to make an accurate assessment.

He repeated the statement that the city has very little food, no running water, no electricity. The people have been forced to drink from industrial supplies of water. People are getting sick. Even one -- and medical sources have said that kids are starting to die or go down with dehydration. Now then we had this extraordinary airstrike. This airstrike in the grounds of Hospital Number Three, a maternity hospital in Mariupol causing absolutely catastrophic damage. A very large detonation indeed.

The crater left by the single piece of ordinance dropped in that courtyard, big enough to swallow an entire adult man, man disappears almost to kind of lilliputian sides inside the bombed crater. Inside the hospital, scenes of horrific scenes of devastation and miraculously, though, in the evil calculus of this war, good fortune in that 17 people it seems were injured. So far, no reports of any death.

Now the reason for that, Anderson, in all probability is that most women and children in particular are now underground. Earlier on today, we spoke with one woman whose husband and daughter are trapped in Mariupol.

[14:05:01]

She was trapped outside on a business trip to Italy. She says that her family are now living in a bunker, she thinks, with about 4,000 other people. That'd be a pretty enormous bunker. Her mother is a pediatrician so she says that kids are going down with dysentery, they're dying fast and she believes they've only got two or three days, particularly in terms of water supplies before things become catastrophic and those death tolls go shooting up. Not as a consequence necessarily of airstrikes, but of disease and of hunger and above all, of thirst -- Anderson.

COOPER: Sam, what more are you seeing in the location you're at, in Zaporizhzhia, with regarding to the humanitarian corridor?

KILEY: Well, believe it or not, these are buses, Anderson, that have just arrived from Enerhodar. Now Enerhodar is the town you'll recall that is in a sense the Springfield of Ukraine. It's the town next to the nuclear power station, the largest in the whole of Europe with six reactors that was captured by Russian forces about a week ago. It is another kind of mini-Mariupol. People have got off this convoy. They were able to get out after negotiations with the Russians.

They're the touch and go, about three quarters away into the journey, they were stuck and held back by the Russians, but they were able to get through. They said that in that small town, relatively small town, there was no water, no food, very little electricity and above all, and this is something that's coming out of Mariupol, too, no communication. The inability for people to communicate with the outside world, even if it's to reassure their loved ones that they're still alive, albeit -- excuse me -- only just.

It's something that's really weighed heavily on people. But these guys essentially are relatively fortunate in that they have lost everything in their lives. They've had to run for their lives. They've only come 30 odd miles away from a nuclear power station with which the International Atomic Energy Authority has now lost contact, where the Ukrainians have been alleging that the staff left behind, they're enduring torture.

We have no independent verification of that, but that's an allegation made against the Russians who've captured that nuclear power station. There are deep concerns that that power station may not be run properly and therefore caused a catastrophic. They've escaped to all of that and these guys in comparison to what's happened to people -- is happening to people in Mariupol, are relatively fortunate.

They're going to be -- they've been brought in on these buses, Anderson. They're going to be transferred, they've been registered nearby. Being given some medical help, and then they're going to put on more modern buses and taken off to places where they can get some rest. But this is perhaps just the beginning of a journey that may take them all the way out of the country to Poland or somewhere like that -- Anderson.

COOPER: And there's no end in sight for this. It goes on.

Sam Kiley, thank you.

CNN's Scott McLean joins me here in Lviv for more on these evacuation corridors. There was this 12-hour ceasefire to evacuate in a number of places. What does it look like?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So it looks like the Ukrainians and the Russians aren't quite getting the details right. The Red Cross a few days ago warned both parties that look, if you're going to make this work, you have to agree on the fine granular details of all of this and it seems like in many places, they simply haven't or one party or the other is violating what they had previously agreed on.

So we saw some limited success in some places obviously where Sam is. They're seeing people arriving there. Some suburbs of Kyiv are also getting people into city center, but one particular route, which went from the suburb of Bucha, they just called the whole thing off because the Ukrainians are accusing the Russians of blocking a convoy that had already been started.

One bright spot, though, that we have seen is the city of Sumy, that's in northeastern Ukraine. That is an area that has taken intense bombardment over the last couple of days.

COOPER: There were a lot of students, foreign students there.

MCLEAN: A remarkable number. More than 700 and they were trapped. And obviously their embassies were, you know, calling the Ukrainians to say, hey, look, you guys need to do more to get these people out. And so for several days, these students were sleeping in the basement of their dormitory, in this bunker just hoping and praying that somehow they would be able to get out. And so yesterday, they were actually prioritized on the very first convoy that was able to leave.

Took them 11 hours along the agreed upon route. From there, they were put on a train here to Lviv. The entire ordeal took more than 24 hours. And I was actually there at the train station when the first group arrived. Most of the students were from India. They immediately got on a train to Poland. The ones left behind were mostly from Nigeria. To I spoke to, they were on their way to Hungary. And one of them told me what it was like inside that bunker. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Inside the bunker, our head like this shake of the bunker, it was so massive and that's where the panic, like (INAUDIBLE). I'm so glad that it's over because right now it's my -- I don't know, I don't know what to say because I'm overwhelmed with joy. But I'm also like with sadness because I don't know what's going to happen.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

[14:10:11]

MCLEAN: And here's what I found most remarkable. She said just because I'm here doesn't mean that I've given up on Ukraine. And I was really surprised, despite what these students have through, most of them said they're planning to come back. They think that the war isn't going to last forever and whenever it does they'll be back to continue their education.

COOPER: There's a lot of talk about what is going on in Chernobyl. Is it clear at this point, what the status is?

MCLEAN: So this concern came from the foreign minister, the Ukrainian foreign minister who was warning that look, the facility had lost power. Obviously the Chernobyl disaster took place in 1986 but there are still a remarkable amount of radioactive material there, and obviously there are people, staff, that make sure that it's there, you know, not getting out of hand.

COOPER: You don't want a nuclear power plant to lose power. You want the cooling --

MCLEAN: Correct, exactly.

COOPER: Continue to work.

MCLEAN: So the issue is that because the power loss, now the power loss doesn't actually affect any of these safety -- it does affect any of these safety equipment but it does make it difficult to get in there to do repairs, to do maintenance, that kind of a thing. Now the foreign minister said that they have these backup generators. They only last 48 hours. And he said that beyond that, there could be this imminent risk of nuclear leak.

The International Atomic Energy Agency there, you know, downplaying a lot of this. And I can read you their statement. They said, "Ukraine has informed the IAEA of power loss at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant," and the head of the agency says the development violates key safety pillar on ensuring uninterrupted power supply. In this case, the IAEA sees no critical impact on safety.

So they're downplaying this saying essentially there's enough water to cool these spent nuclear rods in there anyways that you don't need the pumps, you don't need the electrical intervention at least for now.

COOPER: Well, that's some good news I guess in all of this. Scott McLean, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Earlier, I spoke to a family who fled Kharkiv. The father has now signed up to fight. He is waiting to be called up, head back east any day now. They told me how hard it is for families who have to separate and watch their husbands and fathers and brothers, all the men of fighting age stay behind. We'll have more with them later on.

Victor and Alisyn, back to you. It is so extraordinary just to see the impact of this war on every single person in Ukraine. Even in a place like Lviv now where the war has not come. There have not been strikes here at this point. Everybody is involved. Everybody is trying to participate in one way or another.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The commitment to participating, but you look at this family that you met and not knowing when they will, one, see one another again, but if they will be able to go back to the home they left.

CAMEROTA: I mean, and obviously these are just little girls who are playing in the way that we recognize they would be in any city, and they can't possibly know what they're in the middle of, but their family is about to be torn apart because the father is going to stay.

Anderson, thank you. We'll check back again.

COOPER: Yes, they're in --

BLACKWELL: We'll get back to Anderson. The Pentagon is adding defenses in NATO countries with concerns growing that Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine could expand. We have new details.

CAMEROTA: And Vice President Kamala Harris is set to soon land in Poland. Her trip is now more complicated after the U.S. rejected Poland's plan to send fighter jets to Ukraine. That's next.

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[14:17:44]

CAMEROTA: The Pentagon deployed thousands of U.S. troops to Europe as tensions rose over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 500 more U.S. troops were just sent to Europe this week. The U.S. now also sending defensive patriot missiles to Poland.

BLACKWELL: CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is with us now.

So, Barbara, what do we know first about the military equipment and also the additional forces being sent in.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, those patriot batteries, the Pentagon now has them in Poland, but manned and ready to go. And when you look at the map, it tells you why they would put the sophisticated anti-missile system right along the border because it's so close to Russia. Patriots of course used for decades to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles and they are concerned because the Russians have a considerable ballistic missile inventory.

They've already fired hundreds and hundreds of missiles in the last two weeks during this invasion. So there's concern on two levels which is there could be an inadvertent strain of missile into NATO territory. There could also be at some point an outright Russian aggression. That's also why you see more troops going, NATO beefing up deterrence against Russia, and you're seeing it throughout the eastern flank. Poland, Romania, and the Baltic nations all beefing up, putting the structure into place just in case.

CAMEROTA: OK, Barbara Starr, thank you very much.

So let's talk about all of this with retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. He is the former European Affairs Director for the National Security Council and the author of "Here Right Matters: An American Story."

Colonel, thanks so much for being here with us. So let's just talk about what Barbara just reported, and that is that more troops are going over here to Romania, U.S. troops, to Poland, and to Germany. And so what does that tell us?

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN (RET), FORMER DIRECTOR FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: It's the right thing to do. I think the fact is that we have considered initially this idea that the war would be over really quickly and then, you know, the hostilities wouldn't continue to creep up on NATO borders. In fact, this is likely to grind on for weeks and months and NATO is just posturing for defense. Posturing to knock out any errant cruise missiles or ballistic missiles that might sail in that direction.

[14:20:04]

Whether intentionally or inadvertently, these are just wise, preemptive moves and especially as I think there's also some starting to be a little bit more critical thinking about this playing out over the course of weeks and months. If Russia starts to lash out in the direction of NATO because of these sanctions, because of the fact that weapons are being provided to Ukraine to defend itself against naked aggression, what does Russia do with those safe havens? Just let them -- let it lie or does attempt to dissuade Poland and the Baltics from continuing to support Ukraine?

I think those are absolutely essential moves to make, and I imagine, I'm certain there'll be more of these types of repositioning and posturing of forces in Europe.

BLACKWELL: So let's talk more about specifically Poland and this patriot missile battery, this defense system that the U.S. has moved in. Barbara just talked about it in place and ready to go now. Is this as much a message to Putin as it is to NATO allies?

VINDMAN: It is. It's absolutely -- certainly it's a message to NATO allies that will defend NATO Article Five. You know, I've kind of had a slight smile across my face briefly for a second imagining that patriot battery being operated by Ukrainians on Ukrainian territory, how that would completely devastate Russia's ability to use air power. That's -- it's not yet too late, especially if this grinds on, that we'll provide these sophisticated systems, but it certainly is something for Putin to think about.

If we're pushing patriot batteries there, what is the potential for patriot batteries to be given by a lend lease program to Ukraine to operate. That is -- it wouldn't quite be a game changer, but it really, really would inhibit Russia's ability to use air power, high fliers and fire cruise missiles and ballistic missiles effectively at Ukraine.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

VINDMAN: So I think his military's -- that's for sure.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting. And we do want to get to those transfer of weapons in a moment, but first, one more thing, in the Aegean Sea, an aircraft carrier has been moved over there into the Aegean Sea, so that's, you know, not that close to Ukraine and Crimea. What's the thinking there?

VINDMAN: Well, I mean, these are platforms that have effective ranges or can fly sorties many, many hundreds of kilometers. Mainly that's again to defend NATO territory, having a carrier strike group so a carrier with its support ships and these are ships that have these missiles that are capable of knocking out Russian cruise missiles or anything of that nature.

It's more than just the carrier and its planes. It's these class destroyers that have very, very effective missiles. Those are there to defend NATO, defend NATO's interest, and it's mainly a deterrent.

BLACKWELL: So let's talk about this offer from Poland. Their MiG-29s, the fighter jets. And the White House now says that this whole thing was a miscommunication. They say it's untenable. But the offer from Poland was to fly their jets to Germany, to fly their jets to Germany and then to have Americans fly those to Ukraine. That obviously now is dead.

You say it's time to move on to these unmanned combat aerials like drones. We know that the Ukrainians have had some success taking out a convoy early in this war. Explain why.

VINDMAN: So, I think, I mean, frankly, we should definitely talk about these UCAVs, but we should understand there's a little bit of smoke and mirrors going on with the U.S. government right now. They never wanted these planes coming across from NATO. My understanding is that they arrested the initial discussions about these planes being provided a week or so ago when the head of the E.U. Commission first announced them.

They think it's too provocative. We are way too in our own heads. I fear that this is an indicator that we have reached a limit of what we're prepared to provide Ukraine, meaning we're fine with Javelins, anti-tank systems. We're fine with some short-range air defense, but that's all that we're willing to do. That's what I fear is being signaled here. That the White House thinks that anything else is too provocative.

That's a fundamentally flawed assumption. The logically to believe that we go from providing more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine to a confrontation with Russia is just not there. There is no basis on which to make that kind of judgment. It's kind of subjecting ourselves to almost irrational fears. But these UCAVs I think shouldn't be -- Turkey is providing fairly significant quantifies. They've been providing them in spite of the fact that there's an ongoing war.

[14:25:03]

Russia calls it something else, which is in this case helpful because it's not a stay war. It's a special military operation. But these things have already been flown in. There's no reason for us to self- limit ourselves and not provide Ukraine this critical capability that gives them deep strike capabilities, the ability to knock out planes, knock out logistics, knock out planes on airfields as well as in the air, and these ballistic missiles that have raining fire on cities.

That's something we should seriously be considering. I fear that we're not going to get there because, again, we're in our heads.

BLACKWELL: Yes. President Zelenskyy has asked for the no-fly zones. As for jets, maybe these would be something that could help them again control the skies.

CAMEROTA: It would be. It would be. I mean, in the general conventional thinking is that it would escalate things. But Colonel Vindman is saying that we shouldn't just accept that conventional wisdom.

BLACKWELL: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: So there's growing concern that Vladimir Putin would issue some type of -- could use, I should say, some type of nuclear weapon against Ukraine, against a NATO country. U.S. officials are trying to determine if this is bluster or if it's a serious threat. We have that next.

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