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No Progress in Latest Talks Between Russia, Ukraine Foreign Ministers; Mariupol Officials Forced to Bury Dead in Mass Graves; Vice President Harris Meets with Polish Leaders After U.S. Rejects Fighter Jet Plan; Interview with State Department Spokesman Ned Price about Ukraine Crisis; Inflation Soared in February; Americans Struggling to Fill Tanks as Gas Prices Surge. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 10, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To be cancer free for her and for my boys. I've been really fortunate to be able to beat cancer and ride my motorcycle and she rides with me.

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KEILAR: And CNN's coverage continues right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: No progress. Talks between Russia and Ukraine go nowhere as Ukraine's foreign minister says Russia's message was pretty clear, it will continue the assault until Ukraine surrenders.

Good morning. I'm Erica Hill in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto reporting from Lviv, Ukraine. Happening right now, Russia continues to bombard the already devastated city of Mariupol. Officials say that Putin's army dropping bombs on a humanitarian corridor meant for safe civilian evacuations.

We do want to warn you, some of these pictures we're about to show you are disturbing. This morning, just gut-wrenching images after a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital, that's right, maternity hospital in Mariupol, among the dead a young girl. President Zelenskyy called the attack proof of, quote, "a genocide of Ukrainians."

So many bodies that those bodies now buried in a mass grave as the city of Mariupol endures an unrelenting Russian assault. Officials there say at least 1300 civilians have been killed since that shelling began. 1300. The cost of war heavy on both sides. U.S. officials now estimate that

Russia has lost some 6,000 soldiers. That's double their estimate from earlier this week. We should note it's incredibly difficult to make these assessments, especially as the fighting unfolds in real time across this country. But, for comparison, that figure, 6,000, is already near the total number of U.S. soldiers killed in both Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Over 20 years.

We're covering every angle of this breaking story as only CNN can. Our reporters and correspondents throughout Ukraine, Russia, Belgium, as well as back home in the U.S. We do want to begin, though, with CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance, he is in the capital Kyiv.

Matthew, you've been covering these negotiations, if we want to call them that, between Ukrainians and Russians. The foreign minister said -- the Ukrainian foreign minister said they ended today without progress and he was even taking some digs it seemed at whether Lavrov was speaking for Vladimir Putin. What more happened in those talks?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I mean, I spoke to officials here in Ukraine with knowledge of those talks. They said, look, they felt that Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was there just to listen. He wasn't there to offer any ideas of his own. The phrase they used is it takes two to tango, but, you know, the Russian foreign minister wasn't authorized to dance at these talks.

But nevertheless, the two sides did come together and that in itself is a positive at the highest-level talks that have taken place since this conflict began, and both sides came to the table, you know if I can draw a silver lining out of this, with some element of compromise, the Russians have backed away from the idea they wanted a puppet regime to be installed inside Ukraine, that would be pro-Russian.

And on the other side of the table, the Ukrainians have started speaking publicly about what they would be prepared to do to back off this call that they've had consistently to join NATO, the Western military alliance. But on the other issues, the territorial concessions, Crimea, the eastern republics and all the things that have happened in between, the cease-fire, the humanitarian corridors, the two sides seem as far apart as ever -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: That is notable, the movement you do cite there. We'll see if that leads somewhere in the coming days. At the same time, President Zelenskyy, he says Ukraine is still trying to secure these humanitarian corridors and we've seen occasional success, but a whole bunch of cases where they've not proven to be humanitarian or safe at all. What are we finding out today?

CHANCE: Yes, well, particularly in the city of Mariupol, which has been under heavy bombardment, there is an urgent need for humanitarian, you know, exit from that place and that hasn't been successful. They haven't managed to come together on that. But here in Kyiv, it has been a bit more successful, I'd say. There is a humanitarian corridor supposedly opened today. There was one yesterday as well and we went there. We met the hundreds

upon hundreds of people that are as quickly as possible making their way out of the areas to the north of the city where there has been fierce fighting. They had some absolutely horrific stories to tell about what they were leaving behind. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Nadia.

CHANCE: Nadia. Where have you come from, Nadia?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From Borzo.

CHANCE: From Borzo, which is a town up there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. This is a place, which was very dangerous and there are a lot of Russians and a lot of Chechens, I don't know.

[09:05:07]

CHANCE: Russians and Chechens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, Russians and Chechens. And they kill our --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Owner.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Owner of the house where we sitting.

CHANCE: They killed the owner of the house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes, they killed the owner of the house.

CHANCE: And so you must have been, and your family over here. You must have been terrified.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

CHANCE: Frightening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was terrified, absolutely terrified. But family is OK.

CHANCE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we are going to the -- 10 days in the underground.

CHANCE: You've been 10 days underground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten days underground.

CHANCE: My goodness.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP) CHANCE: Well, even as those people come out and exit the areas where there has been fierce fighting, that fighting has continued to the east of the city of Kyiv, with new pictures coming out of a Russian tank column being vigorously attacked by Ukrainian security forces, and so as I say, the fighting still very much under way around the capital.

SCIUTTO: We will be showing that video later. And I will say the deputy mayor of Mariupol told us on Saturday that civilians were being targeted there, we've seen the evidence of just that since then.

Matthew Chance in Kyiv, thanks so much.

Let's speak now to CNN international security editor Nick Paton Walsh. He's in Odessa, Ukraine.

Nick, as you know, authorities in Mariupol, they're accusing Russia of deliberately bombing the so-called green corridor designated to evacuate residents. What evidence have you seen and heard from officials there?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Well, certainly despite the message from President Zelenskyy suggesting there may have been some success in the humanitarian corridor, it doesn't appear to have been the case when it comes to Mariupol. Certainly I'm in the other side of the Crimean Peninsula here in Odessa. So not an eyewitness to that.

But it is absolutely clear from the images that have emerged from there that size of crater, the size of the devastation that hit that maternity hospital speaks to frankly what the chief foreign policy -- foreign policy chief for the European Union Josep Borrell said just a few moments ago was a heinous war crime.

I mean, startling to have the Russian government in one breath suggest that this was essentially a place where far-right Ukrainian nationalists had holed up, and then at the same time see these images emerged of people wounded, mothers wounded. It appears that three of those who were injured have since lost their lives.

Mariupol besieged and surrounded it seems for four successive days now, the latest update about 3:30 this afternoon seems to suggest that there had been no real access for humanitarian corridor at all. And these tactics frankly shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise. We have seen, you know, Russia behind this in other conflicts it's been involved in, specifically Syria where there have been multiple allegations they specifically targeted medical facilities.

Not just with one strike often, but often with a second one to try and get the first responders, too. So devastating images certainly out of Mariupol that I think if anybody was possibly debating whether there was some sort of accuracy or good intent against military targets for Russia, that particular instance made it absolutely clear that anything is considered to be a target -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Nick Paton Walsh there, thanks very much. Well, this morning, Vice President Kamala Harris is in Poland, meeting

with top Polish officials, says the two countries are united in efforts to stop Russia's aggression, and particularly in the face of threats to NATO allies in the east. This despite the U.S. rejecting Poland's proposal on the possibility of transferring fighter jets to Ukraine. She did stop short of calling Russia's actions in Ukraine war crimes, but seemed to suggest such crimes are happening.

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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have been witnessing for weeks and certainly just in the last 24 hours atrocities of unimaginable proportion.

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SCIUTTO: CNN's Arlette Saenz is live at the White House. Notable for the vice president as well to recommit itself, the U.S., to the Mutual Defense Article of the NATO treaty. What else did she have to say during this visit?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, Vice President Harris really trying to signal with her trip that the U.S. remains fully committed to NATO, as well as working together with the country of Poland. She sat down this morning with both the prime minister and the president of Poland, just one day after, as you mentioned, the U.S. had rejected that offer from Poland to transfer fighter jets to an American air base in Germany for eventual transfer to the -- to Ukraine.

The U.S. saying that that is something that is in the going to happen at this moment, but Harris insisting that despite this disconnect between the two countries over that issue, that they do remain united in working together to support Ukraine.

[09:10:04]

Now, Harris also outlined some of the other ways that the U.S. is trying to get defense assistance into Ukraine and talked about that forthcoming $13 billion that Congress is set to approve in the coming days for Ukraine. Take a listen.

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HARRIS: The United States Congress has now made a decision for $13 billion plus of U.S. money to go to Ukraine and our European allies to assist in terms of both their security and humanitarian needs. We have also just this past week given $240 million in security assistance delivered to Ukraine. And that's on top of the $1 billion in just the past year that we have sent to Ukraine.

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SAENZ: Now at this very moment, Vice President Harris is actually holding a roundtable with refugees and displaced people from Ukraine. In her remarks earlier today, she also announced that the U.S. was committing $53 million to Ukraine and Eastern European countries to help with humanitarian issues as the U.S. and so many countries in Europe are now bracing for this influx of refugees and trying to tackle that as well.

Now Harris will also be meeting with members of the U.S. embassy in Poland, as well as talking with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a little bit later today as she is trying to show this united front that the U.S. has with allies towards Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: Two million refugees, more so far and we're seeing more of them come through Lviv every day.

Arlette Saenz, thanks so much.

Joining me now to speak about all this is U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price.

Ned, thanks for taking the time this morning.

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Thanks for having me, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Atrocities of unimaginable proportions. That's the description the vice president had for Russia's activities here in Ukraine. Are those war crimes?

PRICE: Well, lamentably it's an apt description because we have seen Russian munitions, Russian missiles, Russian rockets strike civilian areas just yesterday. You've already talked about this. The abhorrent strike against the maternity hospital in Mariupol. So we're doing a couple of things. In the first instance we're working with the international community to create new mechanisms, to ensure that we are holding Russia and will hold Russia accountable for any potential war crimes.

As part of that, we're supporting these international efforts and we're also documenting precisely what is going on. We have been very clear, we have been very clear to senior Russian officials sitting in Moscow, but also to Russian officials on the ground in Ukraine right now, those operational commanders, those service members.

If we determine that war crimes have been committed, we will hold anyone and everyone responsible accountable for that. That includes political leadership, but it also includes those closer to the ground in Ukraine, who may have been responsible for any of these atrocities.

SCIUTTO: OK, hold them accountable, but not stop them, because they're continuing here. Why won't the U.S. shoot down the planes that are bombing hospitals?

PRICE: Well, Jim, we are providing our Ukrainian partners with what they need to engage in self-defense. And you have seen the effectiveness of that strategy. The Russian war effort really has been stalled. President Putin has severely miscalculated. If he thought he would roll into Ukraine, not find any resistance, clearly he was wrong. We have seen convoys stuck, we have seen Russians engaged and stopped really in a morass of their own making. And we've done that by providing over the course of the past year, as

you heard from the vice president, more than a billion dollars in defensive security assistance. More than $250 million in security assistance over the past week alone. And by working with Congress, we're grateful for Congress' cooperation, we'll be able to provide more than $13 billion to our Ukrainian partners, about half of which will be in the form of security assistance.

SCIUTTO: Well, and we've reported extensively on the weapons going in and the effects that those weapons are having on the battlefield and I do understand the administration's position and others' position about the dangers of U.S. or NATO warplanes and other assets directly confronting Russians and perhaps expanding the war.

But I wonder, given that Russia, I mean, for instance, they've called the sanctions in effect declaring war on Russia, but by taking options off the table to provide further defense to Ukraine, which it is asking for, by the way, is the Biden administration in effect giving the Kremlin a veto, veto power over U.S. military options here?

PRICE: Jim, we've heard a lot of rhetoric from Moscow, I wouldn't put stock in Moscow's rhetoric. We are watching closely for Moscow's actions. When it comes to what we're doing, we have consistently been responsive to the needs of our Ukrainian partners. So we have done that through our security assistance.

[09:15:02]

But when you look at what the Ukrainians need in terms of taking on the assault that they're enduring from the Russian federation, you heard this from the Department of Defense yesterday, what they need are surface-to-air systems. We have already provided a good number of those, we're going to provide even more. And we're developing options to provide different systems. These are the systems that are going to be responsive to the threat that Ukraine is under right now.

You have to remember that much of the destruction isn't the result of Russian aircraft. And Ukrainian aircraft could shoot down Russian aircraft. But the destruction, the vast majority of it is the result of Russian rockets, Russian missiles, Russian munitions, and so as you heard from the Department of Defense yesterday, what our Ukrainian partner need are these surface-to-air systems. That is what we have provided and those are what we will continue to provide going forward.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about economic sanctions at this point. The ruble as you know is crashing. If the Russian stock market were to open, which it's not clear when it will, that will crash as well. Is the Biden administration's aim with these sanctions to collapse the Russian economy?

PRICE: Our aim, our overall objective is to bring this war of choice, Putin's war of choice, to a close. And we have done that and we're continuing to try to do that through a number of means. We have already spoken to the significant defensive security assistance that we're providing for our Ukrainian partners. Clearly Putin now recognizes that he has gravely miscalculated, if he thought that he would roll into Ukraine and not face the fierce resistance that his forces have been met with.

But we're also increasing pressure on the Kremlin, on President Putin himself, on those around him, with these massive and really unprecedented set of financial sanctions, other economic measures, export controls, that have had a very clear, very discernible, very immediate toll on the Russian economy. The Russian stock market has been closed for days to prevent capital flight, the ruble is worth less, literally worth less than a penny.

We have seen all sorts of companies leave Russia. But as with all sanctions, these are not an end unto themselves. Our sanctions, these measures are a means to an end, and the end that we seek, the end that the international community seeks along with us is to bring this conflict to a close. We want to drive the Russians to the negotiating table in a manner that is conducive to progress, and a manner in which the Russians engage in good faith.

SCIUTTO: We'll see if that comes to be. Ned Price, thanks for joining the program this morning.

PRICE: Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: Erica.

HILL: Still to come, we are going to speak with a former National Security Council and Treasury adviser who says the West really may not be prepared for the fallout from the economic sanctions. Plus, we are live here in New York, with the impacts of those soaring gas prices on commuters, on taxi drivers, and just a bit later here, you'll hear from a rabbi who's been helping refugees in Ukraine get to safety. He will join us to share some of those harrowing stories of people who have escaped the Russian invasion.

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[09:22:34]

HILL: New this morning, a key report finds inflation in the U.S. soared in February. The Consumer Price Index up 7.9 percent over a 12- month period. Jumping to a level not seen since January of 1982.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joining me now to break this down.

I mean, here's the thing, too, right, this is February, so this is preinvasion.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HILL: Some of these numbers I had to -- I thought I was seeing them incorrectly and I wasn't.

ROMANS: It's as expected and awful. I mean, 7.9 percent inflation over the past year, and when you look at month over month, .8 percent, that's accelerated. That means this prewar inflation was getting worse. It's driven almost entirely by gas, shelter, food, but just about everything you buy, everything you touch. You look at the chart here, I can show you, it just looks so ugly. The highest since January 1982.

A lot of people have thought this would start to peak maybe in March, but not now because gas prices have gone up even since then and food prices likely will, too, because Ukraine and Russia are such big wheat producers. So now you've got Putin's war piling on to what was already a red-hot inflation situation. Look at gasoline.

HILL: Wow.

ROMANS: It has been -- it will be worse next month. Used car prices, it makes me wonder if I need to go and sell my used car --

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: But then you'd have to buy another one would be the problem, right?

ROMANS: Then I would have to walk. Food at home up sharply and shelter up as well. So if you look at these numbers and it just tells you this inflation story that six months ago we were told was going to be temporary is not temporary and now will likely be exacerbated indeed by what we're seeing in Ukraine.

HILL: It's a lot, as you and I were just saying.

ROMANS: It's a lot.

HILL: Every time I go by the gas station, I fill up my car.

ROMANS: But you know, if I can make a quick point. $5 trillion of money was pushed into American household saving over the past couple of years of coronavirus relief. Some economists are hoping that's going to cushion at least from a gas shock for American families, that they have household savings that will help them weather this a little bit longer than it would have been otherwise.

HILL: We'll be watching. You'll be watching actually and then I'll be looking to you for all of it.

Christine, thank you.

Well, as we look at those gas prices, you saw the numbers there, they spiked again overnight, hitting new records because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The average price now for a gallon of gasoline in this country, $4.32.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich spoke with drivers feeling that impact directly and bracing for it to get worse.

[09:25:04]

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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): For up to 15 hours a day, New York City cab driver Wain Chin looks for passengers.

WAIN CHIN, TAXI DRIVER: I drive like 150 miles on every day.

YURKEVICH: But with business still down pre-pandemic, and gas prices at a record high, he says he's barely surviving.

CHIN: Most of the gas station expensive anywhere you go.

YURKEVICH: And his pricey taxi medallion needed to operate cost him almost $2,000 a month. With three boys on their way to college, the extra $100 he's spending a week on gas for his Prius is eating into savings.

CHIN: Make enough money for them to go to college, you know, I worry that right now I'm not making enough. You know, just surviving here.

YURKEVICH: He comes from a family of survivors. His grandparents, refugees, fled China during World War II.

CHIN: Watching the news from Ukraine, it saddens me because compared to what those people are going through, you know, I don't mind paying more because they are very suffering. You know, my own family, like my grandparents, they're going through this.

YURKEVICH: This week, President Joe Biden banned the import of Russian oil, gas and coal, accounting for 8 percent of the U.S. energy supply. Some analysts estimate with inflation and now the war, it could push the national average over $5 a gallon.

DAVE LEMOS, DRIVER: Everything has just gone skyrocket.

YURKEVICH: Small business Dave Lemos is already paying more than $5 a gallon in Los Angeles. He says he drives 450 miles a week for work.

LEMOS: We're hitting close to about $2300 over budget on things that we never thought we had to even worry about on gas and travel and couriers and stuff.

YURKEVICH: Back across the coast, retirees John and Pat Grasso were on their way back to the Bronx from a trip in south jersey.

JOHN GRASSO, DRIVER: Talking about, you know, it's going to cost us an extra like 30 cents, 40 cents a gallon since we left two days ago.

YURKEVICH: President Biden authorized the release of 30 million additional barrels of oil from the nation's reserve, trying to offset rising prices. The world consumes 100 million barrels of oil a day.

(On-camera): Do you think that this will make a difference?

PAT GRASSO, DRIVER: It's very difficult to say, but I am willing to pay higher prices at the gas.

J. GRASSO: I am, too. I am willing to sacrifice and pay for the people that are suffering in Ukraine.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): But Robert Harrel isn't so sure paying more will have an impact on Putin's all-out war.

ROBERT HARREL, DRIVER: It's not going to work. He wants to fight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: Will these economic moves by the U.S. against Russia make a difference in Putin's mission in Ukraine?

But, Erica, we are hearing from analysts, $5 a gallon as the national average perhaps in the next month or so, that is before spring break, the busy summer travel season as people are going to be on the road, filling up their tanks.

And Erica, there's actually a change in the fuel mix we use from winter to summer, that's already more expensive, so with inflation, the busy summer travel, and what's happening in Ukraine, it's going to be a pricey couple months for Americans at the pump -- Erica.

HILL: Yes, it will be. And be interesting to see too if that starts to have an impact on any of that holiday travel, whether it'd be spring break or the summer.

Vanessa, appreciate it as always. Thank you.

The scores of victims in Vladimir Putin's war include Ukrainian children. Families now trying to escape the terror of war are also doing what they can to make sure that their children's innocence isn't stolen. How they're trying to keep a smile on those little faces, next.

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