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Biden Bans Russian oil, natural gas, coal imports to U.S.; New Russian-Proposed Ceasefires due to be in Effect; China's Xi Offers to Mediate Ukraine Crisis; U.S. Considers Replacing Russian Oil with Venezuelan Imports; Ukrainian President: We Will Fight to the End. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 09, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN HOST: And we are monitoring the proposed humanity evacuation routes and limited ceasefire in Ukraine that is our top story. There's an urgent need to find safety after Russia increasingly hit and killed civilians in recent days. We'll have the latest after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom! I'm Isa Soares. An update on our breaking news out of Ukraine this hour Ukraine has agreed to humanitarian roots in Russia's plan for a limited ceasefire today. The plan provides corridors for people to evacuate six areas among them are Sumi in the Northeast.

The Regional Governor announced the corridor will stay in operation today. Government officials say 5000 people were able to leave Sumi on Tuesday. That evacuation came hours after official saying overnight Russian airstrike killed 21 people, including two children.

Up to today there's been no escape for people trapped in the besieged City of Mariupol in the South. Ukraine's Foreign Minister said earlier Russian troops were holding 300,000 civilian's hostage there. And in the Northeast sustained strikes on Kharkiv despite the shelling air raids and strikes on residential districts this city has not fallen to the Russian.

The U.S. estimates as much as 8 to 10 percent of Russia's military assets using the invasion have been destroyed or are inoperable. A U.S. official says the Ukrainian military has lost about the same amount of equipment. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins me now with more. And Salma let's talk about these humanitarian routes and the potential ceasefire, I mean, these fires are always so fragile.

What can we expect here because to know what we saw over the weekend is that haven't been able to stick to their word?

[04:35:00]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So this is the latest ceasefire went to place at 9 am local time in Ukraine today. It stretches across five cities Russian troops say that they're going to observe silence, essentially, guns will fall silent.

The Ukrainian forces have as well negotiated with the Red Cross to develop these humanitarian quarters to allow families to move out. But as you said Isa, we've been seeing now for several days, these promises of humanitarian corridors that the Ukrainian authorities say were being bombed by Russian forces.

You mentioned Mariupol there 300,000 people still stuck inside pinned down in fighting. The Ukrainian government says that yesterday a humanitarian convoy trying to leave Mariupol was bombed by Russian forces.

Now, Russia has denied this accusation. But you can imagine being a family being a civilian trying to pack your things and make it out in the middle of the night get threw these humanitarian quarters. Do you trust the Russians to hold fire? Do you trust for these corridors to work?

And look, he said, what we're talking about here is a best case scenario that people could leave their homes, they could become homeless displaced, and that this refugee crisis only grows. So by no means does this corridor, even if they work does it fix the conflict itself.

Diplomatic efforts have stalled so far. But we do have a glimmer of hope here. We understand that as early as tomorrow we could see talks take place between the Russian Foreign Minister and Ukrainian Foreign Minister. The question is how direct will these negotiations be?

Again, we're looking at a ceasefire that's only holding for 12 hours people in Ukraine need more than that.

SOARES: Oh, absolutely. I know you'll stay on top of it and of course, so many of these cities. As you mentioned, Salma not only live in shell, but these people have no water, no electricity, no food, incredibly dire situation. Salma Abdelaziz thank you very much.

Well, Chinese President Xi Jinping says Western sanctions on Russia will be detrimental to the entire world. He voiced his opinion during a virtual summit with a French President and German Chancellor on Tuesday, saying sanctions will affect not only Russia but also the world's finance, energy, transportation and supply lines.

Notably, President Xi again refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine instead offering to mediate the crisis. CNN's Natasha Bertrand is with us from Brussels. But first let's go to Beijing where Steven Jiang is standing by. And Steven give us a sense of what Xi Jinping is saying because we know that Xi Jinping is like stability, economic stability, and I'm sure what is unfolding in Ukraine has been rattled.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's right Isa. It's interesting a lot of people have been reading the tea leaves when it comes to Chinese statements and official remarks, including from President Xi, to see if there is any sign that China's position on this war may be changing or evolving. Now, I think if there's still any wishful thinking that Mr. Xi may leverage his personal relationship with Putin and China may somehow use its economic clout over Russia to pressure Putin to stop the war. I think they may be in for a huge disappointment.

I think increasingly, there is this consensus among experts that China's strategy is now saying mostly the right thing, but doing almost nothing. You mentioned how Mr. Xi refused to continue to refuse to denounce to war. The Chinese government has also reaffirmed its so called rock solid relationship with Russia.

And they also continue to pivot a lot of Kremlin's key talking points, including how NATO's eastward expansion is the root cause of this conflict. Now, they also, of course, as you mentioned, criticize Western sanctions against Russia, because a lot of Chinese companies and institutions will obviously be negatively affected.

But there's another dimension to this, a lot of people mentioned, despite China's status as an emerging superpower, it actually lacks knowledge and experience as well as - to get deeply involved in global crises outside of its comfort zone, which is a very narrowly defined set of issues like Taiwan, and human rights.

So that's why I think you see all these signs from Xi Jinping really, even though when he mentioned the word mediator, there are usually quantifiers after that is said that is what when the time is red, when a time is right really indicating it's not going to happen in any meaningful timeframe that that could stop the bloodshed on the ground right now Isa.

SOARES: And Steven do stay with us and we bring in Natasha Bertrand who's in Brussels. Natasha, given what we just heard from Steven Jiang there does Europe believe always hopeful that China can move the needle at all and pressure Putin?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well Isa, they believe that he can. The question is whether or not he is willing to? The European Commission has said that they do believe that Xi Jinping can pressure Putin to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The question still remains, of course, whether he is actually willing to leverage that relationship with Putin to do so. The European Union Foreign Policy Chief said that he also believes that China could pressure Putin to try to end this war, or at least allow humanitarian assistance in those humanitarian corridors.

[04:40:00]

BERTRAND: Xi remained open and unhindered. But the Secretary of State in a recent visit to Lithuania said that China's actions here are speaking much louder than its words. China has in recent days, softened its position a bit, saying that they do support Ukraine sovereignty, saying that they would make some efforts to send some aid into Ukraine.

But Blinken reiterating that they still see China as firmly behind Russia here that there have been no concrete changes to their behavior that would suggest that they are ready to open a diplomatic channel and kind of serve as mediator here.

And the other question, of course, is whether or not China would simply aim to burnish its diplomatic credentials, playing the role of a mediator while actually standing firmly behind Russia, and kind of deceiving the whole international community.

So there are a lot of questions here, particularly rose by our CNN reporting, that Chinese officials during the Olympics actually asked Russian officials to delay any potential invasion of Ukraine until after the Olympics, so as not to upstage this huge event, obviously put on by China and really valued by Xi Jinping.

So there is an element here of well, did the Chinese know that this was coming? If so why didn't they do more beforehand, to try to prevent it from happening? There was a joint Chinese Russian statement put out while Putin was there, before the Olympics, saying that they oppose the enlargement of NATO really took a lot of Western officials by surprise, they really took notice that that statement, as evidence that China seems to support Russia's ambitions.

China now saying, of course, that they oppose the humanitarian crisis, but it does seem like they are not willing at this moment to play a meaningful role as mediator.

SOARES: Yes, language is definitely softening but in this instance, action matters. Natasha Bertrand in Brussels and Steven Jiang I appreciate it thank you very much.

Well, there appears to be a possible thought in relations between Venezuela and the United States. Two Americans have been released from Venezuela and considered and it seems oil has a lot to do with it. That is next.

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[04:45:00]

SOARES: The U.S. decision to ban energy imports from Russia and the growing oil crisis appear to be opening up new lines of communication with an old foe. Venezuela and the U.S. are talking again in the diplomatic sense for the first time since 2019.

And the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced this week that he's planning to increase crude oil output "In the name of peace". In another move likely aimed at sanctions relief Venezuela released two U.S. citizens on Tuesday one of them was part of the so called Citgo Six a group of oil executives being held in Venezuela.

The U.S. President says they were wrongfully detained but will be able to hug their families once again. Our Stefano Pozzebon picks up the story.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Isa at least two U.S. citizens have been released from prison in Venezuela since Tuesday night. And just days after two top U.S. officials visited Caracas for the first time in years.

One of them is Gustavo Cardenas of the so called group the Citgo Six a group of oil executives from the American corporation Citgo Petroleum. The six men were detained in Caracas in 2017 on embezzlement charges, which they deny, but their families and lawyers have often accused the Venezuelan government of using the group as pawns to exert pressure onto the United States and we have covered them extensively here at CNN in the past.

A Cuban American Citizen, Jorge Alberto Fernandez, who spent more than a year Venezuelan prisons, on terrorism related charges has also been released. And I think these releases really show the how widespread the consequences of the Russian invasion onto Ukraine have been all around the world.

The diplomacy between Caracas and Washington is moving at the fastest rate it has been in years, after the White House Envoy Juan Gonzalez personally met with the Venezuelan Strongman Nicolas Maduro at the Presidential Palace here in Caracas.

The U.S. are exploring the possibility of allowing oil exports from Venezuela to replace imports of Russian crude oil, which have been banned by the White House on Tuesday. And they're trying to use this potential trade deal between Washington and Caracas as a wedge to distance Nicolas Maduro from his close ally Vladimir Putin Isa.

SOARES: Stefano Pozzebon there from Caracas there I appreciate it Stefano. Well, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden spoke by phone with this Texas family their son Trevor Reed is a Former U.S. Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2019.

His parents, the President told him he feels horrible that he hasn't been able to bring their son home yet and that he said he's not going to stop trying. Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2020 for endangering the life and health of Russian police officers after a night of drinking.

He has denied the charges. Reed's family is concerned Russia's invasion of Ukraine will make situation even worse. Family and supporters of Brittney Griner are increasingly concerned Moscow may try to use her as a political pawn. The two time U.S. Olympic Basketball Gold Medalist has been detained in Russia since last month on drug charges.

Russian authorities say they found cannabis oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport. U.S. lawmakers said the Biden Administration is working to free Griner but a caution it will be very difficult. There are no diplomatic channels right now to of course the Russians invasion of Ukraine.

A dual Russian American citizen has been charged with acting as a Russian spy inside the U.S. Court documents allege Elena Bronson failed to legally inform the U.S. government she was working on behalf of the Kremlin. She's also accused among other things of making false statements to the FBI and conspiring to commit visa fraud. Prosecutor says she fled to Russia in 2020 and CNN has attempted to contact Branson for comment on the charges. Despite a full on Russian invasion, the people of Ukraine still have hope that they can win this war. After the break a look back at the last two weeks of the war in Ukraine.

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[04:50:00]

SOARES: Tomorrow we'll mark two weeks since the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine. Hundreds of Ukrainian lives have been taken. More than 2 million people have fled the country and Russian soldiers have laid ruin too many cities.

The heartbreak there is palpable but the resolve of the Ukrainian people is unwavering. Here's a look at the war so far set the --.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My family was divided by war into Kherson. I left my car there in Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Said I'm afraid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're hoping that the international community will help us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to live in peace and in freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is goodbye temporarily.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Difficult times but we are optimistic. We are fighting strong and we will win.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told her if something will explode or whatever she needs to hold her sister and don't run to me. They need to stay there and be there for her.

[04:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're living in real hell; I could never imagine that something like that can happen in 21st century.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My country is were strong people, strong nation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I brought here - and I want to go back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ukraine is today the most brave - the bravest nation in the world. And I'm proud of that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: 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 there you'll find several ways that you can help. And that doesn't hear from me on CNN Newsroom. I'm Isa Soares in London, our breaking news coverage of the war in Ukraine continues on New Day with Brianna Keilar and John Berman. You are watching CNN.

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