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President Biden to Move to Revoke Russia's "Most Favored Nation" Status; Russia Launches Multiple Attacks on Major Cities Across Ukraine; New Images Show 40-Mile Russian Convoy Has Dispersed, Repositioned; 2.5 Million Refugees Have Fled Ukraine Since Russia Invaded; Ukraine Trying to Open New Humanitarian Routes Today. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 11, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:39]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A good Friday morning to you, I'm Jim Sciutto in Lviv, Ukraine.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Erica Hill in New York.

Moments from now, President Biden is expected to announce more sanction -- more actions, rather, against Russia. Sources telling CNN he will call to revoke Russia's Most Favored Nation status. Now that move would have major trade implications and it, of course, Jim, requires Congress to act.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yet more economic pressure on Russia. Here in Ukraine, Russia is, however, taking assault further west than we have seen to date. Russian forces fired missiles on a wide range of targets causing substantial damage to the central city of Dnipro but also attacking airfields here in western Ukraine. We heard air raid sirens early this morning, waking us up here in fact, in Lviv. It's part of the country Putin has not struck before to this degree.

We're also seeing new satellite images from just northwest of the capital of Kyiv. You remember the 40-mile Russian military convoy, the one that was stalled for so long? Well, it does appear now to have dispersed, repositioned with some elements now hiding in forests and tree lined areas, also concerned hiding in civilian areas as well.

Amid the relentless attacks, thousands of Ukrainians still trying to get to safety. President Zelenskyy says about 100,000 people were evacuated via humanitarian corridors just over the past two days. More than 2.5 million people now have left this country since the war began, that's just 2.5 weeks ago.

We're following every major development of this war across Ukraine as well as at the White House.

HILL: And that is where we will begin this hour at the White House. At any moment, President Biden expected to announce the U.S. is revoking that critical trade status for Russia. John Harwood joining us now live.

So what more do we expect to hear in this message from the president this morning, John?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is another turn of the dial, Erica, on the continuing effort to tighten the economic vice on Russia. So if the United States, it has to be done by statute. Members of Congress want to do it. If they lift permanent normal trade relation status, most favored colloquially, that means tariffs are going to go up on Russian imports.

There aren't that many Russian imports to the United States. They are not one of the largest trading partners in terms of bilateral relationship. So it's not a huge impact on American consumers. However, it is a significant impact on Russia and when you have the pressure that is rising politically from the horrific images that we see from Ukraine, the bombing of civilians, all of that pressure has no place to go.

So long as the United States military is not going to engage with Russia, and NATO is not going to engage with Russia and the place that that energy goes is on the economic front. And so we've had a continuous ramping up, Erica, of sanctions over the last two weeks. And Russia's feeling the pain. The question is, can this produce the response that the United States hopes to produce? Haven't seen it yet.

SCIUTTO: Rare issue of bipartisan agreement in Washington, too. Democrats and Republicans support these steps.

John Harwood, thank you.

Now let's return to the situation here in Ukraine. CNN senior international correspondent Sam Kiley. He's in the city of Dnipro in the central part of the country. CNN's senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt here with me in Lviv in the west.

Sam, I do want to begin with you because Dnipro has seen some of the heaviest shelling today, the last 24 hours. I wonder, you were living through it. Tell us what you saw.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So Dnipro this morning woke up to missile strikes or airstrikes, strikes from the air, rather, than artillery shelling in three different locations, Jim. This is a town right in the center of the country, a very important town strategically sitting on the Dnipro River, controlling the north, southeast west routes, too. And for the first time really on any significant level, these strikes hit.

Now they hit quite close into town, not right in the center but in the western part of the city, a shoe factory where earlier on today, several hours after the strikes, the firefighters were struggling to put the fire out there.

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One person was killed, an overnight guard in that shoe factory, and then a kindergarten was damaged by a missile that landed about 200 or 300 meters from it and an apartment block was hit quite badly with severe damage done according to local sources to about eight apartments. No that may seem in comparison to what we've seen in Kharkiv or Kyiv or indeed Mariupol fairly light work but this is right in the middle of the country. It represents a significant leap, if you like, in terms of where it is the Russians are intent on targeting, particularly civilian areas.

There were no military obvious around the sights, there were certainly not airfields which have been targeted in the country's interior in the past. These were just civilian areas and there's Russian ground troops probably about 100 miles south of here -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, the facts make liars out of Russian leaders who say they're only hitting military targets. You see a shoe factory, an apartment, a school.

Alex Marquardt with me here in Lviv. So these two missile strikes, notable. Far west, further west than Russia has been striking of late. Airfields, that makes me think they're going after supply lines for the Ukrainian military.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, unlike Dnipro where they're clearly, you know, engaging in more of these indiscriminate attacks, these would have been from the beginning on Russia's target list and you're absolutely right, the vast, vast majority of the strikes that we've seen from the Russians have been in the eastern part of the country. As the Pentagon put it the other day, if you drew a straight line down from the capital of Kyiv to the port city of Odessa, almost everything was east of there.

So when you get woken up this morning to news about these strikes to the north and to the south of us, that does show a remarkable departure from what we've seen so far from the Russians. It is not just going to be concerning for western Ukraine, but of course to the European countries and NATO countries to the west of us. So the airfield in Lutsk, right near the -- some 60, 70 miles from the border with Poland was hit according to the regional government by four strikes. There were two people killed.

And then to the south of us, Jim, in Ivano-Frankivsk, an airfield there, was also hit. The Russians clearly trying to take out the air capabilities of the Ukrainians. The Russians said that they hit these two areas with high precision long-range weapons. Of course, their forces are really nowhere near here. They say that they put these military airfields out of action. So again, it's not just going to raise concerns for people living and fleeing to western Ukraine, but also to Romania, to Poland, and that is why we're seeing Vice President Kamala Harris there to reassure the NATO allies.

SCIUTTO: No question. That's why we see those patriot missile batteries across the border in Poland.

Sam Kiley, we've watched with interest a little bit of confusion the slow-moving 40-mile-long Russian convoy to the north of the capital, but satellite photos now show it's changed. What are we seeing?

KILEY: Well, Jim, you know, as you've reported in the past, according to the Pentagon, 100 percent of the assets that, in other words, the soldiers and other machinery that were on standby outside of the country have now been committed to this invasion and the tail of it was that 40-mile convoy that was stretching over huge distance, all in single file, bunched up just north of Kyiv.

It would represent a relatively easy target for the Ukrainians. We know it was hit several times. We now can see from these satellite images that it's been dispersed. A number of vehicles and other probably force protection armor have been also dispersed, they're hiding forests, they're tucking them in arguably among into civilian areas, trying to get them away from what remains of the Ukrainian Air Force, but also Ukrainian ground attack. These surface-to-surface missiles, and indeed infantries sneaking up on them with the NLAW and the Javelin.

But also, and this is coming from the British Ministry of Defense, there's also concern that this is part of a reinforcement, reorganization and regrouping of the Russian forces ahead of what they fear in London. At any rate, could be another assault, a significant assault over the coming days against the Ukrainian capital. We also know that there is some level of movement coming in from the east.

The Russians have either bypassed the Ukrainian forces or overcome elements of them. Particularly around Sumy and could be heading also towards the capital Kyiv -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, it shows just how national Russia's ambitions appear to be here.

Sam Kiley there in Dnipro, Alex Marquardt here with me in Lviv, thanks very much to both of you.

Coming up in the next hour, the U.N. Security Council convening an emergency meeting this at Russia's request over Russia's false claim the U.S. is developing chemical weapons in Ukraine. There's no truth to that. Russia is also accusing Ukraine of preparing a chemical attack.

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Here's how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to that claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE (through translator): We are accused of attacks on allegedly peaceful Russia and now what? What are these allegations of preparing chemical attacks? Have you decided to carry out de-chemicalization of Ukraine? Using ammonia? Using phosphorous? What else have you prepared for us? Where will you strike with chemical weapons?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Let's bring in now Kimberly Dozier, CNN global affairs analyst, and Jill Dougherty, former CNN Moscow bureau chief, for a closer look at this. You know, Zelenskyy also said if you want to know Russia's plans, look

at what Russia accuses others of. You know, based on what we're seeing, Kim, how real do you think that threat of chemical weapons is this morning?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, we know that one of the things that the Russian military does is when it's not making ground, it escalates. It has already escalated to hitting civilian areas, flattening some neighborhoods. The next thing short of a tactical nuclear weapon would be to use chemical weapons, the same tactic that they used in Syrian cities to help the Syrian military break the back of the resistance there.

So we know they have the chemical weapons. They know they have the skills to use it. So the terrifying thing for Ukrainians is, you know, what might tip the Russians over the edge and how could you prove it afterwards? Because a lot of the places that the Russians are advancing in, you can't go in and collect evidence afterwards.

SCIUTTO: Jill Dougherty, you've covered Russia for so many years. Is there any evidence that as a result of the slow progress here in Ukraine and the very high Russian losses as well as the economic cost being imposed by the West, that Putin is under any domestic pressure to change here, to pull back?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, Jim, I think in the beginning, and this is -- you know, it's early, just two weeks this conflict has been going on. In the beginning, you had among average Russians, and it's hard to talk about average Russians, but let's talk about middle-age supporters of President Putin. You have a lot of emotion going on because they're getting a completely different picture of this fight.

And what they're looking at is Russian speakers under attack by Ukraine, and by NATO. So they believe that, you know, Russia is under attack and therefore they're supporting President Putin because he is protecting Russian speakers but I think what's going to change, what could change is this economic situation. These sanctions which are monumental at this point and in a few minutes, we will hear more economic pressure on Russia.

As those begin to affect Russians, there could be a change in the way they look at this. In other words, emotion and patriotism are one thing, but when you don't have access to products, when you may have difficulty in finding, you know, buying food or access to your cash, that can really bite and that could affect people, not only, you know, these super rich that we've been talking about, but just really average Russian people who are already suffering from a lot of economic problems.

HILL: Jill, if I could just follow up with you, too, on the information and the disinformation. Do you think the West miscalculated or failed to plan for a moment like this where there would be such an information blackout, even in this information age, and such strong propaganda coming at the Russian people? DOUGHERTY: No. I mean, I think anybody who's really, you know,

involved in this has been looking at this. It's been coming for a long time. There have been constant crackdowns on the independent media in Russia and right now, we have this attempt to, we have a criminal case in Russia being opened up against Meta, which of course Facebook and Instagram, because these are sources of information for younger Russians and people who are on the internet and there are a lot of people who are.

So I think that if you look at the way the West has been dealing with this, they knew that this would happen. It is a very sad, you know, aspect of this that Russians are going to be really cut off. I mean, what Vladimir Putin, let's be straight, what Vladimir Putin wants is a sovereign internet, which is not quite China, but getting there.

SCIUTTO: Kim Dozier, if Putin were to escalate, and by the way, he's already using horrible weapons here, cluster bombs, the thermobarics which basically suck the oxygen, very painful death for people, targeting human beings.

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But if he were to escalate to use chemical weapons or even at the outside a tactical nuclear weapon, a battlefield nuke as they're known, does the West have a response? I mean, they're clearly taking the chemical threat seriously because we've heard very public comments from the White House. But do they have a planned response to that?

DOZIER: So the nightmare is they're already step by step pulling out all the stops in terms of the economic sanctions with the Biden administration moving towards stripping Russia of most favored nation status as the latest salvo. What I'm thinking, however, is that Putin doesn't seem to understand that while he's escalated to using these tactics in other battlefields, that Ukraine is so close to Europe geographically, but also that the number of refugees, they're going to end up flooding every single European city and this is going to change a generation of Europeans in terms of their viewpoint towards Russia.

And this follows what the Russian disinformation campaign had tried to do over the past decade or so which was to both divide populations, undermine their confidence in European governments, and also win over the Russian-speaking populations. Inside Russia, they might not be seeing these horrific news reports, but the Russian-speaking populations across Europe, they're seeing this and that's going to have a lasting anti-Russian effect that is going to separate Putin from the rest of the world for decades to come.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's, and he's expressing nostalgia for the Soviet Union in his public comments. Seems so long ago but perhaps we're there again.

Kim Dozier, Jill Dougherty, thanks so much to both of you. Please do stay with us because any moment now, President Biden is expected to speak, announce new economic steps against Russia, this time hitting Russian trade. We're going to bring you those comments live when they happen. HILL: Plus, the U.N. warning the number of Ukrainian refugees could

hit three million in the next week. Our next guest working to get badly needed healthcare resources to Ukrainians who fled the country and also to those who have chosen to stay. Plus, in light of Russia's escalating attacks, a stark warning from the World Health Organization to Ukraine's public laboratories. It's time to destroy any pathogens. What they're trying to protect the nation from.

That's just later this hour. Stay with us.

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[10:22:12]

SCIUTTO: Just in to CNN, another trade ban for Russia. A White House official says the U.S. will ban imports of alcohol and seafood from Russia, things such as vodka and caviar. We are waiting to hear from President Biden any moment now where we expect to hear additional details on other economic steps the U.S. is taking. We're going to bring you the president's comments live as soon as they begin.

HILL: As we wait for those comments this morning the United Nations now says at least 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded.

SCIUTTO: That's one in 20 Ukrainians just in the span of a couple of weeks and more are coming. We see them every day here in Lviv. They're seeking safety in Poland, Hungary, Belarus as well as Romania, which is where we find CNN's senior national correspondent Miguel Marquez.

Miguel, I wonder, as you've been speaking to people there as they come across the border towing what they can carry in a bag or two, what are they saying and what do they find when they come across?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are finding Romanians who are happy to help them. Not only is the city of Bucharest opening up temporary shelters across the city but places like where we are standing, about an hour south of Bucharest right now.

And I want to show you, this is a regular Romanian home that they've opened up. All these shoes, these are just a small bit of the number of people who are staying here right now. 31 Ukrainians staying in this Romanian home right here. I want to just peek in this door and show you a little bit about what life is like.

Hello, sir. This gentleman has a giant family. Why don't you peek in there real quick? He has a giant family who is here. He's been here for several days as well. The people who own this house have put up about 61 Ukrainians so far. These are some of the many, many donations that they have received.

And I want to chat with Alina Greavu. And this is her -- it's amazing, you don't think of how difficult this is, but to manage these people, this is her staff for this shift. Eight people now helping her out right now. Alina, we were speaking earlier about sort of the situation. You're

doing this out of love and because you can do it. How long is it sustainable?

ALINA GREAVU, ROMANIAN HOSTING 31 UKRAINIAN REFUGEES: We hope it will be as long as it needs, we don't know what's about to happen with the war in Ukraine but we did open (INAUDIBLE) Ukrainians. We have been doing this for only two weeks and we've been helping, until now, 61 refugees, 30 of them already left to other countries and now it's 31 people. Yes.

MARQUEZ: And it's incredibly complicated as well. One of the people you're caring for is Nigerian, who was studying in Ukraine. One woman has cancer. You're getting people to the airport, getting people to doctors, getting -- how complicated does it become to care for people like this?

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GREAVU: It is very difficult because we became their family and their friends. They woke up in a country, they don't speak the language, they have no idea about the culture and most of them are frightened about their future, so we assist them in all their needs. We take them to the embassy, to this hospital, we shop for them like special medicine. I've told you before that we have med students who help us find the equivalent of Ukrainian medicine in Romania so they can continue their treatment.

It is very difficult. We have toddlers, small babies, we have elderly people like over 70, we have students, families, singles. So we do our best to help them all. We never know what's about to happen. That's why I need so many people to help me around and be here 24/7.

MARQUEZ: Thank you very much to you. Thank you to all of you. This is only one shift of several shifts that come through here. I don't know if you can still hear me because I think I lost the connection with you guys, but look, the other thing that's happening here in Romania is that they are very, very concerned about that shelling and the rocketing that you guys are experiencing in western Ukraine right now.

And Romanians, especially in the north, very aware and even in this area, very aware what's going there. Great concern that the war may come here. Back to you.

HILL: Yes. Understandably, Jim, you were saying you were woken up by those sirens overnight.

Miguel, thank you as always.

Well, as we look at what the needs are both inside and outside of Ukraine, several humanitarian organizations, of course, have been mobilizing to help refugees, both the folks who've left Ukraine and also Ukrainians who are still in country there dealing with these attacks from Russia. Project Hope is one of those organizations. Tom Cotter, their director of Emergency Response and Preparedness, is joining us now. Tom, it's good to have you with us this morning. Can you just -- you

know, set the scene for us. What are the most immediate needs this morning?

TOM COTTER, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND PREPAREDNESS, PROJECT HOPE: Thanks for having me. The needs are -- the needs list is long. You know, this is both a sprint and a marathon at the same time. People coming here across the border have exhaustion, anxiety. They're coming across with mothers who have health needs and sick children and on top of that, it's a compounding issue because as the person before just said, you know, people have the normal health issues, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and depression. And all of these require health care services.

Our team, just to give a picture of this, our team visited a hospital in Poland with pediatric cancer patients from Ukraine and these children were fighting for their lives and suddenly became a refugee and now they're fighting two incredible battles. This is a remarkable circumstance and the health needs cannot be overstated.

SCIUTTO: Tom, this war, we don't know how long it's going to go. There's no sign of Russia letting up. You can expect more Ukrainians to flee as Russia advances. I'm seeing them here in Lviv. For a group like yours and others, how many years or months or years are you planning for for this, and how many people do you expect to come?

COTTER: Well, the latest estimates are about five million people to come across the border, and personally, I think it's conservative. As of right now, there's 2.5 million refugees in total. And by the end of the weekend, it's probably going to exceed the entire population of Chicago.

This is going to be a long-term crisis. If the war miraculously ends right now, there is still so much work to go on, to rebuild the lives of people in Ukraine, and rebuild the health care services that they're going to need to get back to any kind of normal. This is going to go on for a very long time.

HILL: Those are the physical needs, right, Tom, but there are also very important, very real emotional, mental health needs. The trauma that people are already experiencing that will stay with them. How much is that a focus for you and for your teams, taking care of those mental health needs, the psychological support?

COTTER: It's a great focus of ours. Not only are we worried about treating the longer term counselling and therapy needs of people coming across who've experienced trauma but we're also working with partners to make sure that the volunteers who are working at the border and receiving refugees have the experience to be able to provide psychological first aid to ensure that they're not retraumatizing people as they work with them.

But as you say, these psychological needs are as important as their physical needs and in many ways are more difficult to deal with.

SCIUTTO: Tom, the generosity, the hospitality of people in these countries neighboring Ukraine, average people like those Romanians we just saw there with Miguel taking in 31 people, in your experience, does that welcome, though, does it wear thin over time? How long can we expect these people to be so generous, so welcoming?

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