Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Russian Military Forces Continue Invasion Of Ukraine; Russian Forces Moving Closer To Encircling Ukrainian Capital City Of Kyiv; Mayor Of Melitopol, Ukraine, Abducted At Gunpoint By Russian Soldiers; Ukrainians Fleeing To Poland And Romania; French President And German Chancellor Urge Russian President Vladimir Putin To Institute Immediate Ceasefire During Call; Pregnant Woman Who Fled Destruction Of Hospital In Ukraine Gives Birth To Healthy Child. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired March 12, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:15]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. And we begin with a tense night in Ukraine's capital city as we learn the bulk of Vladimir Putin's ground forces are just about 15 miles from the center of Kyiv. That's according to British intelligence.

What you're looking at here is the staggering damage from Russian strikes not far from the capital. And other major cities are under pressure, too. This is brand new video from the port city of Mykolaiv. Watch as multiple strikes hit a residential area, forcing a man that you see there to run and duck for cover.

Some of the devastation you see across Ukraine is created by Russia's so called dumb bombs, brutal and precise weapons. The U.N. says more than 500 civilians, including 42 children, have been killed. And there are disturbing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork for using weapons that are even more inhumane. President Biden warning Russia will pay a severe price for any use of chemical weapons.

Also today, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy calling for the immediate release of the mayor of a southern Ukraine city. A video showing the moment he was dragged away, you see it right there, by armed men. His fate right now is unknown at the moment. Many others are still trying to leave the country before it's too late.

The U.N. says more than 2.5 million refugees have poured into bordering countries, 13 new evacuation corridors opening today. And in the besieged city of Mariupol where officials resort to burying people in mass graves, the stakes could not be higher. The last five evacuation attempts there have ended in disappointment with routes blocked or under fire by Russian troops.

Let's begin with CNN's Salma Abdelaziz in Lviv in western Ukraine. Salma, great to see you. Thank you so much. Russian forces are closing in on Kyiv as fighting around Ukraine's capital intensifies. What more are you learning? What more can you tell us?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Jim, as you can see, night has fallen here, and this is really when you feel the fear and terror of families across this country set in. This is when air raid sirens often go off in the middle of the night in Kyiv and families have to flee into bomb shelters, losing yet another night of sleep after nearly three weeks.

And yes, that noose of Russian troops is tightening around Kyiv. British intelligence saying troops are just 15 miles away from the city limits of the capital. But we are hearing, of course, from Ukrainian officials that the country will stand strong. Just a few hours ago, CNN spoke to former president Petro Poroshenko, who had been standing on the streets of Kyiv saying people will remain steadfast. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: We are not giving up. We are not forgive the Putin these type of things. And I am absolutely confident that we will fight in every single house, every single street, and every single quarter in Kyiv, in Kharkiv, in Chernihiv, in all of the cities would be the hell for the Russian soldiers and would be, at the end of the day, the hell for Putin.

And 141 nations support Ukraine. And Ukraine now providing the beginning, the end of the Russian empire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: The other terror that night brings, Jim, that's when Russian troops often move, when we're going to wake up in the morning and find out if a new city, if a new town is attacked. There is a lot of eyes now on a Russian convey that was 40 miles long of armored vehicles, Russian troops that a few days ago was spotted on the outskirts of the city. Western intelligence officials say that's now disbursed, and it could be a sign that Russian forces are trying to besiege the capital. Jim?

ACOSTA: And Salma, Zelenskyy is calling for the immediate release of the mayor of Melitopol. I guess he was seen on this video being taken away from a government building by armed men. We showed this to our viewers just a few moments ago. Ukraine says he was abducted, that this is a war crime. What can you tell us? Here's the video right here.

ABDELAZIZ: Jim, this is a very worrying incident, because it show that this is not a conflict, this is not a offense that is just about bombs and bullets. There are other tactics being used here. This is the first time we've seen since the start of this offensive an elected official being tarted in this way. I know you have that video up showing the mayor being taken in broad daylight.

The Russian backed regions of eastern Ukraine, a Russian backed prosecutor there says what you are looking at there is an arrest, a mayor who could potentially be charged with involvement in terrorism.

[14:05:00]

President Zelenskyy says that's absolutely not true. He calls what you see there a war crime, and he's demanding the release of the mayor immediately, Jim.

ACOSTA: Salma Abdelaziz, thank you very much for that report from Lviv.

And joining me now is CNN military analyst and former commanding general for U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army, retired Legislation General Mark Hertling, also with us, retired Brigadier General Peter Zwack, a former senior defense official and attache to the Russian Federation. Gentlemen, great to have you both with us.

General Zwack, U.S. intelligence says Russia has been relying on these so called dumb bombs, these imprecise but devastating bombs that are unguided. And we're seeing the results. They've been taking out kindergartens, apartment buildings, a maternity hospital, a shoe factory. And we got a close look at one of these bombs when Ukrainian officials rushed to disarm an unexploded one.

There's that video right there we've watched time and again, just how is your anxiety when you watch this? General, what does this say about the Russians and how they are not exactly taking much care as to what they are hitting at this point?

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK (RET), U.S. ARMY: Jim, it's a great question, and let me throw a few thoughts out. For those of us with a sense of history, way back, our parents and grandparents, this reminds me of Pablo Picasso's painting, famous painting, "Guernica" in 1937 at a time when people were beginning to realize that Nazi German was moving from an autocracy into a totalitarian nation. And we see that I think going on right now as Russia devolves.

I would throw out this thought on the dumb bombs, and we saw this in Syria and Aleppo. The Russians have fired a lot of precision missiles and cruise missiles and ordinance over the first, certainly the first week. And I believe now they are now increasingly using as they did in Aleppo and elsewhere, just dumb bombs. They don't care about precision anymore. They want to get close to the target, but now this is getting indiscriminate. Mariupol is Guernica in my mind, and it is a tragedy.

So less interest now. This is about subduing and less about precision. And the Russians, I think, are probably going through a lot of their stocks in precision guided missiles, and they have to worry about that in the future.

ACOSTA: General Zwack, so fitting that you brought up Guernica. No question about it, the horrors of war are just spilling out on our screens on an hourly basis at this point.

General, Hertling, there has been a lot of talk about this massive 40- mile-long Russian convoy north of Kyiv. This has been one of my fixations, obsessions, I suppose you could say, since the beginning of all of this, and how it was just sitting there for so long, for days. And now it's dispersed, apparently partially repositioned into forested and tree-lined areas.

Do you think that has anything to do with the video we saw earlier this week of the Ukrainians blowing up Russian tanks that were all lined up on the road? Here is some of that video right there we're showing to our viewers. Your thoughts on that massive convey that was just sort of sitting there like sitting ducks, and now they have apparently moved of that convey into some kind of hiding at this point?

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's what's called a logger, Jim. Logistic forces do that. They are supposed to do that by design. It takes training to say, hey, don't sit on a road for two days and let the enemy figure out where you are and then use you as targets. Get off the side of the road and into the woods.

The problem with that is, as Peter will tell you, because he is familiar with the terrain here, is that terrain that is soft. It's muddy. They're getting stuck. And the wood line isn't helping them against some of the precision weapons that the Ukrainian forces are using. And if I can go back to what Peter just said too, it's interest because the Russians are using the so called dumb bombs and area fire weapons like artillery and missiles to strike cities. It's arbitrary.

Those are area of fire weapons. They are looking to instill terror. But what is interesting, they also are using precision weapons against the Ukrainian forces. There are a lot of films that we're showing through the intelligence channels that are showing Ukrainian units being hit by precision mortars, by precision artillery. So they are using those against the kinds of targets they want to kill. And they're using the dumb bombs and the artillery area fire weapons against civilians that they want to terrorize.

[14:10:04]

If I could just say one more thing in terms of that convoy. Yes, it has been there a very long time. They have tried to self-sustain. In other words, they've been keeping their motors running because they're in trucks. They're cold. It's freezing there. But they're also supposed to be supporting an operation that's going into Kyiv that has not reached there yet.

And what I'd like to point out, your reporter did a great job saying it was 15 miles from the city limits just now. Last night reports were saying it was nine miles from the city center. I'm going to suggest, as I have a couple times before, that the Russian attacks on Kyiv, the combat forces, are stalled in three directions, from the northwest, from the north, and from the east. They have not received any additional impetus to move into the city. They are not doing so because they are waiting to coordinate their activities.

And when they do, I'm going to say this one time, they will find they don't have enough troops to control the city. They're not going to go inside. They may try a siege of the city. But they don't even have enough forces to conduct a siege of the city. So you may see additional artillery strikes inside the city of Kyiv. But there has not been a whole lot of movement from the three combat convoys coming in from three different directions over the last 72 hours.

ACOSTA: And General Zwack, CNN went along with NATO on a surveillance mission at the Polish-Ukrainian border, and what they picked up was that Russia has been using Belarus as a springboard for many of its air operations in Ukraine. and now Ukraine is warning Russia is trying to drag Belarus into this war with some kind of false flag operation. What are your thoughts on some of that? And, I guess, to pick up on what General Hertling was just talking about, what are your thoughts on that convey, that convoy that was just sitting there for so long?

ZWACK: Belarus, a big question. And Alexander Lukashenko is now all in. He's a survivor. He doesn't necessarily like Putin, but he has realized after the major protests of the last year and a half that he was able to suppress, that to survive as a strong man, he has to be tight with Putin and Russia.

I would submit, if the Belarusians actually go in with forces into Ukraine, their military will dissolve. It is a heavily conscript, draftee army, and a lot of those youth that are in that army were in those demonstrations before they were drafted 18 months ago. And so I have a feeling Lukashenko it trying to play in a lot of different ways.

It makes perfect sense that the Russians are using Belarus as an aviation platform to strike. It will be curious if Belarusian aircraft fly in. Again, if the Belarusian military goes in, I believe that is going to cause major problems for Lukashenko at home for the reasons I described.

On the convey, again, as General Hertling mentioned, the Russians are wrapped in operations all over, for the region, vast country, Ukraine. They've got a siege battle going on with Mariupol. They are pushing along the coast to Odessa. They've got a right sort of around, built up Kharkiv in the east. And they've got all the action around Kyiv. They're not that big. And say the Russians are huge, but they not that big.

And to do all of this, including a siege battle and try to take a city, takes a lot, tens, 20, take 50,000, 80,000, I believe, just to try to reduce Kyiv. And so the Russians have got a lot of challenges.

Last point, along they in that encirclement, that takes time. And I submit that time is not on the Russians side. The military on the ground are exhausting and probably not very happy. It's trickling out, the bad news, into Russia despite the firewall. And the entire international community, save a few of their partners, are against them.

ACOSTA: And General Hertling, at this point, based on what you've seen from the Russians, are you confident that they could even take the capital of Kyiv and hold it for any significant period of time?

HERTLING: I'm not confident at all, Jim. I don't think they can.

[14:15:00] They're certainly going to attempt to destroy it. But I don't think, as peter just said, I don't think they can get inside and do the kind of combat in the cities.

Again, there is a 30-mile perimeter, circumstance around Kyiv. That is how big the city is. It is a city the size of Chicago. It has a river running right through the middle of it that separates it into two areas. This is a combat in the city nightmare. And as Peter said, I think it actually would take close to 150,000 troops to subdue this city.

One other thing, if I can, to jump on something Peter said about the conscript in the Belarusian army. I think it's important to note right now, and this is probably going to be a surprise - 1 April is conscript day in Russia. That's when the entire new class of conscripts come into the army.

The demonstrations in Russia right now by mothers, by young people, Mr. Putin is going to have a very hard time getting his 100,000 new conscripts into the Russian army, because they're looking at the Internet. They're seeing what's going on. and I think that will be an information operation campaign to ensure that those new 18-year-olds who are about to come into the army say no, or nyet, as the Russians say, to coming in and putting on a uniform when they know this kind of campaign is going after.

ACOSTA: All right, General Mark Hertling and Peter Zwack, thanks, as always, gentlemen, we appreciate it. Good to see both of you.

HERTLING: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up, a rare show of dissent on Russian television when a renowned filmmaker risks Putin's wrath and calls for an end to the invasion. Plus, a remarkable update on the pregnant woman at the centrer of an iconic image following the bombing of a maternity hospital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: It is one of the most unforgettable images from the war in Ukraine, a pregnant women escaping from the building of a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol. Not only did she survive the shelling, we can now report that yesterday she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Veronika. These are pictures that we know many people in Russia will not see as Putin's forces spread propaganda and crack down on accurate information. Ukraine's foreign minister explaining a disturbing comment he heard during a meeting with Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Unfortunately, I can confirm that Russian leadership, including Minister Lavrov, they live in their own reality. In our talks, behind the closed door, in the absence of the media, she told me looking in my eyes that the pictures of pregnant women being taken from under the rubbles of the maternity house are fake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of "GPS" joins me now. Fareed, how do you engage in serious dialogue with Russia to end this war when the Russians insist on living in a fantasy world. How do you fake pregnant women coming out of bombed out maternity hospitals? It's just unbelievable.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": That is one of the unique and new features of this war, Jim. You have the way, the horrible, tragic, grinding war taking place on the ground that you've been reporting on. But you also have this information war that is completely new, in a sense. It's new because it's the first major war where everybody has a cell phone. Everyone has a super computer in their pockets.

But you also have this extraordinary Orwellian information space that Russia dominates, closes, doctors, and has created an entirely fake news narrative. Russian space, it's not like the traditional news blackout. No, what Russia is doing is it is almost creating a 24/7 movie that is all fake, that is all -- that takes some real images, massive exaggerates them, sometimes essentially takes old footage.

We don't know what, but somehow gives the Russian people the impression that what is happening in Ukraine is that the Ukrainian government is committing genocide against Russian speaking Ukrainians who are then fleeing and being welcomed into Russia's arms. So it's a whole topsy-turvy world.

And what I have often noticed, Jim, in these situations is the perpetrators, they start to drink their own Kool-Aid. The start to believe their own propaganda. And so, as you say, you are in the situation where you don't know whether Lavrov actually believes this, whether he understands that he has to construct this web of lies. But at any level it creates this weird disjuncture, where how to you actually have a discussion? We know it in our own country, right. It's the same thing happening where you just have no fact basis, and so how do you have a normal negotiation?

ACOSTA: Yes, some of this sounds awfully familiar, I have to say, Fareed. But this is certainly Putin in wonderland that we're dealing with at this point. And I want to play for you this remarkable moment from Russian state television when a filmmaker openly questioned what was happening in Ukraine. We don't see this happening very often. Let's play this for our viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN SHAKHNAZAROV, RUSSIAN FILMMAKER (through translator): The war in Ukraine paints a frightening picture, and we should be aware that it has a very oppressive influence in our society emotionally. This is Ukraine. Whatever your attitude may be, it is something to which we are bound by dozens and hundreds of ties. It is where the suffering of some innocents is not compensation for the suffering of other innocents. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So the truth is penetrating to some extent in Russia. I would have to assume that there are people there who can VPN their way around some of what the Kremlin is doing in terms of locking down the information flow in that country.

[14:25:02]

But, as you know, Fareed, Russia has this new censorship law that could put someone in jail for up to 15 years for saying anything that the Kremlin doesn't like about this invasion. So the fact that this happening, I think, what we just saw on Russian television, I think that that is interesting. That is notable.

ZAKARIA: It is notable, because as you suggest, they are probably hundreds and hundreds of people like him, thousands of people, who dare not speak.

But the reality is, Jim, I would, I would bet that unfortunately, there aren't those many people with the VPNs in Russia. One of the things that Putin understood very early on was that what he needed to do in a vast country like Russia, 10 times zones, 150 million people, he needed to dominate the airwaves, the major networks. So what he did was he essentially took over all of Russian TV.

He allowed a few magazines here or there in St. Petersburg and Moscow to be liberal and independent and criticize him. He even allowed a couple of radio station, even one small TV station. He knew that that is a few tens of thousands of Moscow and St. Petersburg intellectuals. He needed to force feed the masses the Putin propaganda, which if you watch Russian T.V., even when I went there last, which was five or six years ago, Russian TV is essentially an all day long documentary about the glories of Vladimir Putin.

So that's the narrative I would guess 95 percent of the Russians are getting. And then yes, young, tech savvy internet people can penetrate it, but unfortunately, from everything that I am getting a sense of, Russians still believe largely the narrative that the government is putting out.

ACOSTA: And so a lot of this is going to rest on, I suppose, these diplomatic efforts to get Putin to backdown, even though they may not ultimately be successful. But today, the French President Emmanuel Macron, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, spoke to Putin over the phone, as you know, Fareed, urging a cease-fire.

But we're told by a source that Putin is still determined to achieve his objectives. There aren't many hopes for a diplomacy resolution at this point, and I'm told by a French source familiar with the call that Macron was really going after Putin about this mayor in Ukraine who looked like he was abducted in broad daylight by Russian officials. I doesn't sound like, at this point, Putin's counterparts are getting through to him.

ZAKARIA: I think that's exactly right, Jim. I think the problem is, remember, the Russians have a 10 to one advantage over the Ukrainians. And we've spent a lot of time over the last two weeks, basically, extolling the bravery of the Ukrainian forces and people, which is all 1,000 percent true. The Ukrainians have done an unbelievable job.

But they are the David in this David and Goliath contest. And the Russian military is going to grind through. And I heard some of the military experts you had on, and I do think they face more troubles than they thought they would. But their solution to that, clearly, is just flatten these cities, destroy these cities. They did it in Chechnya. They killed a quarter-million civilians in Chechnya.

So I worry that people are overestimating the degree to which Putin thinks he's losing, thinks he's cornered. I think he thinks he has a lot of time. He has a lot of firepower. He can blast through this. He doesn't seem to care at all about the civilian casualties. And you can see this in precisely what you are suggesting, Jim, is he is not seeming to be amenable to any kind of negotiations. The Ukrainians have put up several feelers. Zelenskyy keeps talking about it. I know that they are privately even talked about, yes, we may recognize Crimea, yes, we may recognize the Donbas.

But the Russians demands are totally maximalist. They want a complete surrender. They want a demilitarized state. They want a de-Nazified state, which I think means toppling the current government. They want it in the constitution that Ukraine will never join NATO, and they want recognition of Crimea and the Donbas. That's the kind of -- those are the terms you impose on a country that you have completed destroyed. It's a World War II like absolute surrender.

So one hopes that the military problems make Putin more amenable, but right now, as you put it, he does not seem like he is ready for a deal.

ACOSTA: He has only been doing this for a little more than a couple of weeks. And Vladimir Putin knows, he has been waiting for years, I suppose, to do this. So I guess he thinks he can just grind this out for months and months, and perhaps he thinks the west will just eventually move on to something else, which obviously would just be a nightmare for the Ukrainians.

[14:30:00]

Fareed Zakaria, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

And make sure to watch Fareed's show, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS," tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. right here on CNN.

No more Russian vodka or caviar. President Biden's latest push to punish Putin for invading Ukraine. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: No new Russian caviar, vodka, or diamonds will enter the U.S. after President Biden announced a further squeeze on Russia's economy. Plus, another big move, the U.S. and its European allies will move to strip Russia of its trade benefits. [14:35:00]

CNN's Arlette Saenz joins me now from the White House. Arlette, the president says this will be a crushing blow to Russia's economy. Walk us through this latest round of sanctions.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, and this is the latest move that the U.S. and allies have coordinated on as they are further looking to punish Russia's president Vladimir Putin for his attack on Ukraine. The U.S., G-7, and E.U. countries all banning together to call for revoking Russia's most favored nation status. Essentially what this will do, it will allow the U.S. and its allies to raise tariffs on Russian imports.

This will have to be done through each country's various mechanisms, and here in the U.S., it will require an act of Congress. But there has been bipartisan support for that. Additionally, the U.S. is banning the import of things like vodka and caviar as well as banning exports of some high end luxury items like spirits, clothing, jewelry, and cars to Russia. The goal there is really trying to hit those Russian oligarchs and the wealthy members in Russia as they're hoping they can put a squeeze on Putin for his actions.

This all comes as the U.S. is also promising to step up their aid directly to Ukraine. Today, the president authorizing $200 million in security assistance to be sent to Ukraine. but one thing President Biden remains adamant about is not putting U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine or in the skies above Ukraine. And yesterday he warned that any direct conflict involving U.S. or NATO members would essentially lead to a third world war. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will defend every single inch of NATO territory with the full might of the united and galvanized NATO. We will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III, something we must strive to prevent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: There is also growing concern among U.S. officials that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine or manufacture a false flag operation that uses that. And I asked the president about that yesterday. He said that Russia would pay a severe price if it uses chemical weapons in Ukraine but did not detail exactly what that price would be. Jim?

ACOSTA: OK, Arlette Saenz, thank you very much.

Coming up, heroes amid the heartbreak. We'll introduce you to a Ukrainian bar owner helping to feed and house the victims of the relentless shelling in Kharkiv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:42:14]

ACOSTA: This is Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, where officials say not a single residential block has been spared from Russian bombs and missiles. The mayor of Kharkiv telling CNN more than 400 homes and dozens of schools are destroyed, and he's urging families who are now homeless to go to subway stations or anywhere else to find warmth and shelter.

My next guest has transformed his Kharkiv bar into an emergency shelter and food distribution center. He and his network of volunteers having been driving through blown-up blocks to deliver food and medication. They are now feeding 1,800 people every day.

Bohdan Yurov joins me now. Bhodan, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it. Give us a sense of what you have been seeing and hearing as you have been helping people out. And one of the questions that I have is, just looking at this video of Kharkiv, I suppose there are people left. Do you have a sense as to how many people have fled? Does it feel like a ghost town?

BOHDAN YUROV, CONVERTED BAR INTO EMERGENCY SHELTER: Not really. We rifle around -- the city is obviously empty. Like the streets, there's not really many cars. And the houses seem to be abandoned. At the same time, it's not quite true, so it's kind a collision, because everyone after living in shelters, everyone in the apartments and due to curfew, no one actually leaves the houses. So while it seems empty, at the same time, there is about 80 percent of the population is still here. There are lots of people trying to leave the city, but the city is still populated.

ACOSTA: And how many people are staying with you right now, and how are they doing? We are looking at some of your video right now, and it almost looks like wall-to-wall people taking shelter. What is going on? Tell us what it's like.

YUROV: It's about 45 people. But it's quite different from what I've seen at the start. So initially, we just put it in some safe shelter for locals, neighbors and our friends. But later we have switched to volunteering. We have found another safe place right next to us, and we kept feeding them. So right now, all those 45 people are mostly volunteers that are helping feeding people all around the city. And also we have plenty of partners and plenty of other centers that we are currently working with. So technically it's not just the shelter. We have this standard for delivering food and supplies.

ACOSTA: We are watching video right now of you delivering supplies to people, delivering bags of food, I guess, other supplies. And then you take a picture of each person.

[14:45:01]

Tell us about that. What's it like when you venture out to deliver these supplies? And I guess, why are you taking pictures of the people when you do that along the way?

YUROV: The biggest reason is just you see how massive this is, because it's not only us. There are thousands of volunteers all across the city. They deliver food, deliver supplies. They help people, they help with repairing some machines in the apartments, and so on. So technically the city is not abandoned. We are still here.

We still keep it, and so on. All those pictures are basically just have some huge collection of people who we feed just to have proof that we are not going to surrender, that we are still staying here, and so on. So it's probably just for reasons, and for us just to see how many people do what we are doing. Thinking about the week -- yes, go ahead.

ACOSTA: I was just going to ask you, what do people tell you when you drop off the food? Are they telling you that they are running out of food? What are they telling you in terms of what is going on in their daily lives?

YUROV: Well, understand that we only deliver supplies to those who are running out of them, right. So, if somebody has supplies, we are not going to drive through the whole city just to deliver some food, because they have -- they still have some supplies. So we are also focusing on people who are vulnerable, like old folks, someone who cannot go outside, someone who is out money, and so on.

So thinking about people we help, basically all of them are out of supplies. But it's not because the city is out of supplies or there is nothing, the supermarkets. For some it is just not safe to leave, because, I'm not sure if you have seen on some media, it is quite clear that the house we are delivering to is right next to a completely destroyed suite. So for some old folks, it's not quite safe to even go outside.

So for hem, we are just delivering for them whatever they don't have right now. For us, I think, we've got used. It's not quite safe, and we got used to all the bombing, and the fact that we need to drive in some body armor. At the same time, we know that we are doing this to keep people safe.

ACOSTA: How much longer can you and the people in Kharkiv go on like this do you think? And what is your message to the world? I know we ask that question from time to time of folks, but what do you want people to know about how you're doing and how the people of Kharkiv are doing?

YUROV: My start with the latest bomb because I think that's the most important to me. So the message is quite simple. We will stay strong and we will keep the city and we will keep country, but it is only possible because the world being united. Like literally, we get up every morning only because we understand that there is a reason to continue fighting. While Russian forces are ridiculously huge, at the same time we see that somehow we still managed to keep them outside the city, right.

And as for the whole world, I would say that all the countries have finally united to fight this aggression is quite helpful. We understand that we are not alone, and we are fighting for freedom. As for how long we will be able to stay here, we have lots of supplies

for a couple weeks. At the same time, some of them are running out, but three networks are still working, and we get deliveries, relief from Poland, and I think from many different European countries as well. The logistics are quite difficult, but at the same time, we still have supplies in the city.

ACOSTA: Bohdan Yurov, thank you so much for your time. My hat's off to you, our hats are off to you and what you do, trying to help those vulnerable citizens in your community. We really appreciate the time. Thank you very much.

YUROV: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And for more information about how you can help humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, go to CNN.com/Impact. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:53:51]

ACOSTA: We are getting new images into CNN of destruction in a town 30 miles west of Kyiv. This is an apartment building, a massive hole, as you can see there, right in the side of it, nearby a kindergarten, still smoking when this photo was taken, the roof completely caved in. And it wasn't the only school in that town that was hit. This is a preschool called Periwinkle. It was also damaged in a military strike.

Moving on, this is a medical facility on fire, as you can see right there. And this is a cultural center that also has government and postal -- police officers, I should say, inside. The sign on the front of the building reads "Glory to Ukraine. Glory to the Heroes."

And we'll be right back in just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several people in my family had cancer, and a few of them had colon cancer. But they didn't talk about it, so I didn't know about it. It was a hush-hush thing for some reason. I was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer. I was 43-years-old at the time. The silence stops here. Men in general don't want to go to the doctor, black men don't want to go to the doctor.

[14:55:01]

But if you understand that if you just go get checked, then you might be able to get in front of it. I just want people to understand that colon cancer is detectable, it's treatable, and it's beatable. And early detection is key.

After the first chemo treatment, me and my wife was talking, and I was just so determined to beat this. I'm an avid motorcycle rider. We started a Facebook page called "Beat Cancer, Then Ride." We've logged every two weeks on what was going on. We pretty much videoed the trip to the doctor's office because when it happens to you, you feel really alone.

I don't have a fear of dying, but I didn't want to leave her. That was my biggest drive, 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.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)