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Mass Graves Being Dug In Besieged Ukrainian City Of Mariupol Under Increasing Pressure And Heavy Russian Bombardment; Russian Strikes Around Ukraine's Capital Intensifying; Woman Seeks Help To Find Mother In Hard-Hit Irpin; U.N.: 2.5 Million-Plus Refugees Have Fled Ukraine Since Invasion; Exiled Russian Oligarch: Ukraine War Will End Putin's Regime; Officials Say Putin Could Use Pretext To Launch Chemical Or Biological Weapons In Ukraine; Russian Invasion Sends Gas Prices Soaring. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired March 12, 2022 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:55]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
People in Ukraine's capital city are bracing for a possible military assault as the sound of Russian strikes grows closer. British intelligence reports only about 15 miles stand between Kyiv and the bulk of Russia's ground forces.
This is brand new video of a village about 30 miles west of Kyiv leveled by airstrikes. Also, in another nearby town, totally devastation. This was a kindergarten. The roof was caved in. As you can see there, the windows gone. And this is what's left of a preschool also damaged in a military strike.
Officials fear that Russia could soon turn to chemical weapons. President Biden warning that Russia would pay a severe price for that. The U.N. says more than 2.5 million refugees have fled in neighboring countries. More are trying to escape today via 13 new evacuation corridors including one leading out of the besieged city of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials say the death toll there now stands at nearly 1600 people.
An adviser to the city is telling "The New York Times" it's impossible to know the real number at this point, which is likely much higher because Russian force will not stop shelling the city. Right now there are too many bodies to hold funerals so trenches are being dug to bury the dead in mass graves.
And for survivors, time is of the essence. You may remember seeing images of this woman, Mariana, who escaped this week's horrible attack on a maternity hospital. Last night she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, but Mariana and her newborn, plus others are trapped in Mariupol. They have no heat, no electricity, and they're running out of food, water, and medicine. Doctors Without Borders say there is an extremely dire humanitarian catastrophe unfolding at this point.
And joining us now is an emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, Alex Wade.
Alex, thank you very much for joining us. Can you describe some of the lengths that people are going to just in Mariupol, just to get their hands on food and drinking water? What's that been like?
ALEX WADE, EMERGENCY COORDINATOR, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS IN UKRAINE: I mean, I would even say it's fortunate for those who can get their hands on food and drinking water. We have staff, MMS staff, who are currently in Mariupol who we've been able to keep contact with, although that contact is getting harder and harder to keep every day. They've confirmed for us that there's been no access to clean drinking water for over a week now. So those who have stocks are rationing what they have.
They're using snow and rain water. They're breaking into heating systems to access the water in heating systems, but for many water has already run out and so has the food for many people. The only people left with food are those who have stocks that they're rationing. But even those stocks are running out now.
ACOSTA: And how are people supposed to survive like that? I mean, are they just going to get to the point where they're forced to flee into a war zone and take their chances?
WADE: We certainly hope it won't come to that. We hope that there'll be a solution found immediately, tomorrow, in the coming days. We were saying a week ago that we need a solution for this immediately before it turns into a disaster. I think we can say we're in the disaster phase now. Many people have already died in Mariupol from violence.
We also have been in touch with staff who have confirmed for us that there have been deaths linked to people with existing medical conditions prior to the war who because they've been cut off from treatment have also started dying because they couldn't get the treatment they needed. The next phase we will see people who could potentially die from dehydration and hunger or, as you mentioned, fleeing from the city trying to find food and water, and dying from the violence outside the city.
ACOSTA: And your organization is reporting that people in Mariupol are doing their best to bury all the bodies that they can. They're just lying, I guess, on the ground, and that there's no hygiene available. The local maternity hospital was taken out, as you know, by that Russian airstrike.
[15:05:01]
What is it going to take to help these people? I just can't imagine how they can go on living like this.
WADE: They can't. I mean, it's an urgency of the highest level that help needs to happen, needs to be delivered as soon as possible. People who need to leave the city need to have safe passage to be able to leave the city. They should not be punished for trying to seek safety, but it's also very important to point out that many people won't leave the city. Some people will choose not to because they refuse to abandon their homes because it's their homes, and it's all they have.
Other people won't be able to because they have no means to leave. They have nowhere else to go. So people will also stay in the city, and those people should also be safe. No one should be penalized and pay the price for this war because they're innocent civilians who chose to stay in their homes.
So this is why also it's absolutely imperative that humanitarian aid gets into the city, water, medical supplies for the hospital, food, so we need safe passage both for people to go in but also -- for people to come out, but also resources to go in.
ACOSTA: And what kind of stories have you been hearing from people? We know there's an information vacuum right now. People don't know if their relatives are alive or dead. I mean, the stories just -- they must break your heart.
WADE: That's one of the most difficult conversations to have when we have been able to speak with our staff who are still there, them saying that there's a complete void of information for those inside Mariupol. They don't know what's going on in the rest of Ukraine. They're unable to communicate with their loved ones to save their life. They're unable to communicate to say who may have died to their loved ones.
They don't know if their loved ones outside of Mariupol are alive. There's a complete information vacuum. So they don't know what's going on. They also don't -- when there are discussions around humanitarian corridors or safe passage out of the city, many people are uninformed and don't know about it because there's no communication inside the city. There's no phone network. There's no internet. So that also creates a huge level of distress along with the constant bombardment of shelling.
ACOSTA: And I know, you know, our fields -- excuse me, our crews in the field are doing an amazing job bringing these images to the world and showing so many of our viewers exactly what is going on on the ground, but, you know, we can't be everywhere at all times. We can't have our cameras up at all times in all of these different places, and so folks like you, you know, you're there.
You're on the ground. You're seeing this with your own eyes and ears. Tell us, what are you seeing? What are you picking up on? What have you encountered?
WADE: In Mariupol specifically, it's very much like you've said.
ACOSTA: Yes.
WADE: We had communication with a staff member today who was telling us that they've seen the neighbors as you mentioned earlier taking the dead bodies of their neighbors and burying them in their own yards just so that their own neighbors will have a burial and not remain dead on the streets. And then as you mentioned earlier as well, the hospital was bombed so they have less access to the medical services, the population that's still there. It's truly desperate at this point. I mean, there's no food left in
any of the stores. People are really panicked. They don't know how they can leave. They don't know when they can leave. They don't have that information. So there's really a sense of increased panic in the city as well because people don't know when there will be a solution.
They've been waiting for one for over a week now, waking up every morning hoping they would have safe passage out. Going to bed every night with those hopes diminished and with their stocks as well running out.
ACOSTA: All right. Alex Wade, thank you for what you do and what your organization does. Thanks for being on with us this afternoon. We appreciate it.
WADE: Thank you.
ACOSTA: And now let's bring in former NATO Supreme Allied commander and CNN military analyst, retired U.S. army general, Wesley Clark.
General Clark, thanks for being with us as always. As we were just hearing from our last guest, this Mariupol siege has just become emblematic of Russia's campaign to totally brutalize the Ukrainian people, whether by firing on civilian targets with these dumb bombs, these unguided munitions, or, you know, just cutting people off from aid and evacuation routes.
It just looks like a full-blown attempt to crush the people there, and is there any way to counter those tactics, do you think?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think that, Jim, you're exactly right in what you say. It is a terror attack on people. These are innocent civilians. It's a humanitarian crisis. It's a war crime, and it's Russia's way of war.
Now what Putin wanted to do was rush in, seize the capital, assassinate President Zelenskyy, and put his own guy in, and say, OK, all you people, Ukraine, you're my people now. He totally misread the situation.
[15:10:06]
It's just a brutal, brutal fight, and like so many battles in the past, like the fights I saw in the Balkans in the 1990s, this is a personal fight. When you kill people's families, they don't forget, and they don't forgive, and so with each passing day, it's harder and harder to imagine that there's any way to get out of this without a Russian defeat or without some tragic event caused by Vladimir Putin as he struggles to win.
ACOSTA: Well, and that's what I want to ask you about because, you know, the fear is, General, that it is going to get worse and that Russia might potentially manufacture a pretext to unleash chemical weapons. We've already been hearing about some of that coming out of the Kremlin, and it gets amplified on right-wing media, as you know.
Do you think Putin will cross that line and that he will use these bogus pretexts to do the unimaginable?
CLARK: Jim, I'm not in the middle of the negotiations. I don't have the access to the classified information that maybe State Department or National Security Council staff has. However, I don't see an off- ramp for Vladimir Putin. I don't see him accepting half a loaf on this. I think he wants the whole thing. He wants from the west all the way through the east. He wants Ukraine as his and his appetite will then be unfulfilled, and he'll go for more.
So I think if he can't win quickly on the ground, he can't take a battle of attrition, and so I think it's increasingly likely he'll do something like a chemical weapons attack.
Now, to get anything out of a chemical weapons attack, he needs to get the Syrian urban fighters in. They use chemical weapons. They used them by their measures effectively. What they do is they kill people in the basements with chemical weapons, and therefore they don't have to go in and clear building by building.
They just kill people. And this is what Russia needs to use these kinds of fighters and these illegal weapons because it can't otherwise, I don't think, overcome Ukraine resistance so long as we keep giving them assistance.
And so this puts the onus back on the United States as President Biden said. He warned him not to use chemical weapons, but Putin has chemical weapons. He has nuclear weapons, he can do a lot more terrible tragic things, and he's of course doing his best to keep us from getting our -- the Stingers and the Javelins and the other enhanced weapons into the Ukrainians. He's got his -- he's got his forces active in western Ukraine in small detachments trying to intercept these convoys.
He's trying to take out cell phone towers. He's trying to do everything he can to disrupt communications and isolate Ukraine so he can finish it off. It is a struggle that's really hard to unwind.
ACOSTA: Yes. And General Clark, you mentioned western Ukraine, I wanted to ask you about that because it looks like Russia is expanding into western Ukraine with new assaults for the first time. If you were the NATO commander right now and you see Russia wiping out targets, you know, just miles from the border of a NATO country, what does that bring into the conversation? What do you start to think about in terms of how to respond to that?
CLARK: This is a political decision. It's not a NATO commander decision.
ACOSTA: OK.
CLARK: So it really comes back to the president of the United States and what he wants. Now we did deploy the two patriot batteries into Poland. That's really important because that gives assurance to the Poles. It also serves to sort of make sure the Russian aircraft can't come over the border or at least unopposed over the border. And there are other targets for him, but this is a big piece of ground you're looking at.
This is hundreds and hundreds of miles between Odessa and that border with Belarus, and so it's more than NATO can defend right now. What I've said as a strategist is, of course, the best defense for NATO is that Ukraine holds, and so we should do everything we can within the acceptable bounds of the risks the president is willing to take to keep Ukraine in this fight. How much risk he takes is -- that's his judgment.
He has to make that call. He has classified information. He has the advisers inside who get information that we on the outside don't have. He just has to make the call. But if we lose this fight in Ukraine, then, yes, it's much tougher for NATO.
ACOSTA: Yes. All right, General Wesley Clark, great to talk to you as always. We appreciate it, thank you, sir.
CLARK: OK. Thank you.
[15:15:03]
ACOSTA: And coming up, Clarissa Ward's report on the awful destruction in Irpin as she tries to help reunite a family separated by the fighting outside of Ukraine's capital. A remarkable story just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: Ukraine's president is calling on world leaders to join him demanding the release of a kidnapped Ukrainian mayor calling it, quote, "a crime against democracy." On a Facebook video, armed men are seen leading the mayor of Melitopol away from a government building. A Russian-backed regional prosecutor says the mayor is under investigation for suspected terrorism.
That city, Melitopol is located in southeastern Ukraine. Several hundred people have protested outside city hall there since the mayor's arrest. It's the first known instance of a Ukrainian official detained by Russian-backed forces.
Since the invasion began, we should note we've been describing the agony of untold families who have lost loved ones and who continue to search for those missing.
[15:20:08]
Now in a CNN exclusive, after receiving a plea on Twitter from a daughter looking for her mother, CNN's Clarissa Ward went out on the search in the hard-hit city of Irpin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Natalia (INAUDIBLE). I'm from Ukraine. But last five years I live in United States. My mama, (INAUDIBLE), she is still in Irpin.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An impassioned plea sent to us on Twitter by a daughter desperately trying to track down her mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mama doesn't have connection. I cannot call her. I didn't hear from her a few days. She is by herself in our apartment. Please, I beg you, Clarissa, you are my last hope.
WARD: That message brought us back to this spot, the destroyed bridge, where brave volunteers continue to ferry out civilians who have been trapped in Irpin for more than 10 days. We've been told they may be able to help find Natalia's mother. On our way to meet them, we hear a familiar accent.
DWIGHT CROWE, VOLUNTEER: Only English.
WARD: Dwight Crow has flown here from San Francisco to help in any way he can. Less than a week after arriving he is embedded with Ukrainian volunteers and now spends his days helping Irpin's most vulnerable escape.
CROWE: When I saw the invasion, I honestly bought a plane ticket and got here as quick as I could. This feels like the biggest fight for freedom I've seen in my lifetime.
WARD (on-camera): Have you ever been in a war zone before?
CROWE: Not like this.
WARD: For most Americans, this would be a little out of their comfort zone.
CROWE: This is a little out of my comfort zone. It's scary when you hear the bombs going off at the same time, you just -- there's people a lot closer to it than us and they're really the ones in harm's way and we're just doing our part to get them out of here.
WARD (voice-over): Lawyer Daria and her team risked their lives every day to do just that. She speeds through the deserted streets, looking for those who are stranded and need help. She's agreed to add Natalia's mother to the list.
(On-camera): So, Daria, are you not afraid to do this?
DARIA PYSARENKO, VOLUNTEER: I'm afraid of course. I don't have a child yet. And I understand that I can help people.
WARD (voice-over): They reach the first stop. Shelling can be heard in the distance and they need to move quickly.
(On-camera): You can feel how this place is completely deserted. It's like a ghost town.
(Voice-over): Is the owner here, they shout. The team consults their list to check the address. No one answers and it's time to move on. In less than two weeks, Daria has seen the pleasant suburb of Kyiv where she lives turned into a warzone.
(On-camera): Does it make you angry? PYSARENKO: Yes, I'm angry. And I think it's OK. I'm angry to all
Russian people, to all Russian people. Because silence, it's also violence now. You are with Ukraine or with Russia.
WARD (voice-over): We recognize the next stop. It's the address we've been searching for. But the first glance is troubling.
(On-camera): So this is the apartment complex where Natalia has told us that her mother lives. I'm just a little bit concerned because I can see there's some damage up there, presumably from artillery.
(Voice-over): Team member Anton enters one of the buildings.
Who is waiting for evacuation, he shouts.
But there is no reply. And Natalia's mother is no way to be seen. There is just a handful of people still living here. Hudmila (PH) and her husband tell us they chop wood in the forest and burn it to stay warm.
(On-camera): So she's saying that there's no water, there's no gas, there's no electricity. They cook their meals out here on an open fire.
(Voice-over): Yet they refuse to leave.
Where would we go? We don't have anywhere to go, she says. Whether they kill us here or there doesn't matter. When will these monsters leave?
Across the road, Daria urges another couple to evacuate. But it's another no. They've made it this far and are willing to see it through.
The team has found one man, Oleg (PH), who wants to get out.
[15:25:01]
He bundles into the improvised rescue vehicle and sets off. Beyond the smashed windscreen lies the relative safety of Kyiv center. Back at the bridge, he tells us about his ordeal. It was an awful frightening situation there, he says. They shelled us 24 hours a day. The rest of his family is in a city now held by Russian forces in the south. I don't know where I live anymore, he says, before bidding us goodbye.
It's time to head back. Our mission unfulfilled. We haven't found Natalia's mother. But as we get closer to the city center, our cell phone signal returns.
(On-camera): So we've just had some great news from Natalia. She tells me that a few hours ago, her mother was successfully evacuated from Irpin by one of the volunteers.
(Voice-over): Yet another family saved by ordinary citizens doing extraordinary work.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And still to come, more than 2.5 million people have now fled Ukraine, a live report on their stories, next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:30:52]
ACOSTA: The United Nations says more than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began more than two weeks ago. Just a staggering number.
CNN's Miguel Marquez is in Bucharest, Romania, where many of the refugees have fled.
Miguel, you've been doing just some amazing reporting out there. Thank you so much for that.
What are you hearing from some of these families that were forced to leave their homes in Ukraine? It just -- it must be devastating to listen to.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It is devastating to think that these were normal people with jobs and lives and then they were transformed into refugees almost overnight.
Romania has received about 350,000. Most of them have left to other destinations.
We spent some time with a Romanian couple that is housing. They've, so far, over the last two weeks, they've housed over 60 refugees from Ukraine. Right now, they have 34 there.
People kind of come and go after a few days. Some of them are staying very long-term.
We spoke to one woman who was traveling with her daughter. They were trying to get to Portugal. Everybody has a different story.
She says that the information from her Russian friends -- she's from Kharkiv. Their town is being bombed very heavily. Even her friends from childhood don't believe it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OLEG BATOCHKA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE FROM KHARKIV: He don't believe me, first of all, he said Olga please back home, don't stay underground, all will be OK. Nobody will kill.
(CROSSTALK)
BATOCHKA: It's all OK. They don't -- people in Russia don't know what has happened in Ukraine. They know irregular information. They have no truth. They don't know true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: So in just this one house, you had Olga and her daughter and Olga's sister. They were on their way to relatives in Portugal.
There was a Nigerian student who had been studying in Ukraine, kind of waited until the last minute, was waiting to get through. He is on his way to Qatar to his family.
We've heard from him a short time ago. He's doing OK.
There were people who were going to stay there for the entire time.
And there was a woman who had cancer who was due for a surgery in Ukraine, had all that canceled the day the war started.
She was supposed to get her cancer surgery. Now she's getting it in Ukraine with the help of the people in this house.
It is incredible to see how people are stepping up. But it's shocking to see how many Ukrainians are having to leave their homes, their cities, and find refuge in places like Romania -- Jim?
ACOSTA: And just the sheer number of people. It's astounding to get your head around.
And Miguel, I have to ask you, when you talk to these folks -- and you've talked to so many of them -- are they determined to go back?
Or do many of them feel sort of resigned to the fact that they may have left Ukraine for the final time and their country is not going to be much to return to?
Do they have a sense of hope that they could go back?
MARQUEZ: Across the board, they will say we are going to go back, 98, 99 percent of the time. Everybody thinks the war will be over and they will go back.
When it will be over, a week, two weeks, a month, two months, three months? They're not sure what that end will look like. They don't know either.
There's just -- they were living normal lives two weeks ago, and now there's nothing but uncertainty -- Jim?
ACOSTA: Yes.
And when we see these images of some of these children who have been forced to flee. You know, an adult, obviously might be able to process this better. But I can't imagine what is going through a child's mind having to go through something like this.
Miguel, thanks so much for all the reporting you're doing. We appreciate it. For more information about how you can help humanitarian efforts in
Ukraine, go to CNN.com/impact.
[15:34:53]
And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: An oligarch, who was once the richest man in Russia, says it's entirely possible that Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine might spell the end of his rule.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a fierce critic of Putin. He spent years in prison in Russia and now lives in exile.
He told CNN that Putin is losing in Ukraine. And if it keeps up, he likely will not be president of that country or the leader of that country for much longer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[15:39:57]
MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY, KREMLIN CRITIC, FORMER OIL TYCOON (through translation): Right now, Putin is clearly suffering a defeat, but he can, of course, still kill very many people.
If the West continues to support Ukraine, his own defeat is inevitable. A coup is possible. And this has happened in Russian history before.
But at the moment, Putin is able to project a fairly positive picture to the Russian population. If he starts looking like a loser, then a coup is possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Joining me now, CNN national security analyst and former CIA chief of Russia operations, Steve Hall.
Steve, great to see you. Appreciate it.
You actually wrote a piece for "The Washington Post" that Putin does fear a coup, but not by his oligarchs, not by the Russian people, but by his fellow spies.
Is this sort of a "live by the KGB, die by the KGB" sort of scenario?
STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Jim, I think it's more of a -- just how the system is set up in Russia under Putinism.
We have three branches of government here in the United States. And in Russia it's sort of like you've got Putin. Then you have the security and military elites.
And then you've got the oligarchs, who are essentially the economic money laundering types.
The oligarchs, like Mikhail used to be, before he was turned in to jail, do have some control. They've got a piece of the economic pie and they exert a little bit of control.
But the people that I think Putin is very much more concerned about are the security officials, who not only have the wherewithal, but they have the armed forces that serve under them.
But they've also got the intelligence and they've got the ability to operate clandestinely.
So I think that function of the system, as Putin set it up, is reminiscent, of course, is reminiscent of what happened to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 where there was a coup against him.
So that's kind of, I think, the situation that Putin finds himself in now.
ACOSTA: And we've all seen these recent photos of Putin at these ridiculously huge tables, physically far apart from other people.
And in some cases, it seems like he's set apart from, you know, people in his national security and foreign policy realm, other top level government officials, which is kind of strange when you think about it.
What is going on with some of that in your view? And I mean, is it COVID? We've talked about some of this before. Or is he actually worried that somebody is going to try to kill him?
HALL: I think that it's a combination of things. I mean, it does appear that Putin was inordinately concerned about contracting COVID.
Which is sort of ironic because, of course, Russia pioneered, if you will, the Sputnik shot, the vaccine, which he assumedly would have had but I guess didn't have a whole lot of faith in.
He normally is in somewhat of a bubble simply because there's not a whole lot of people who have direct access to him.
And even when they do, it's not like -- you know, it's not like a typical situation that you would have here in the U.S. government where you have usually a frank and open exchange of views.
With Putin, you have to be very careful what you say in front of him, so that's a bit of isolation as well.
I don't think he thinks that, you know, somebody's going to launch themselves across that long table and try to poison him, you know, with the tip of an umbrella or something.
I think he is more concerned about collusion that could happen against him because of how badly it's going, not just in Ukraine, but also, you know, how the impact of the sanctions are coming down in Russia.
And that's only going to unfold more as we go forward. So his worries are going to continue to be there.
ACOSTA: You know, and there's been a lot of talk, Steve, in the last week about whether or not Putin is trying to come up with a bogus pretext for the use of chemical or biological weapons.
You know, accusing the Ukrainians of, you know, plotting in this area or having, you know, I guess labs that may be developing those types of weapons, that sort of thing, without offering any evidence.
And that that could be used as a pretext for Putin, for the Russians to use those types of weapons.
What are your thoughts on that? How does that -- how does that sound to you?
HALL: Yes, that all -- that all really does make sense. You don't have to go back too far. You can go back to the Syrian War to see that that's -- there's a lot of those tactics that were used.
You'll recall the deal that Putin had with Assad was that Assad would say, look, there's bad terrorists out there. Of course, they weren't.
But he would say we need to go do something serious and they just used chemical weapons. So let's annihilate that entire city, in Aleppo's case.
That's a relatively recent example. There are other, you know, historical examples where this sort of provocational propaganda can lead, then, to action or attempted action.
I mean, remember that, in the '80s, it was the Russians who accused the United States of, you know, of the AIDS virus being something that the Pentagon thought up and so something needed to be done about that.
[15:45:03]
So this is -- the Russians have been doing this for decades. They're very good at it.
And when you confront them and say, well, wait a minute, you guys made that pretext, they'll simply say, I know you are but what I am. Sort of a play. You must have done something.
It's very predictable. And it's what they always do.
ACOSTA: It is what they always do. And I suspect we may see more of it in the coming days.
Steve Hall, thank you very much for lending your expertise. I hope it's not too cold up there. We appreciate it.
HALL: It's OK.
ACOSTA: Everybody's socked in this afternoon.
Coming up, Putin's invasion pushing higher gas prices even higher. That has some Americans looking for ways to cut back on everything from food to day care. We'll talk about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:50:30]
ACOSTA: Uber is upping its prices as the recent ban on Russian energy imports to the U.S. has left many drivers struggling to keep up with rising gas prices.
Uber announced it will temporarily add a fuel surcharge of up to 55 cents to rides and fuel deliveries beginning next Wednesday. The increases will last for at least 60 days and will be based off trip distance and the gas prices in each state.
And taking second jobs or pulling kids out of day care, these are just some of the sacrifices Americans are making to put gas in their cars as prices shatter records amid the war in Ukraine.
CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUBEN PONCE, INDEPENDENT TRUCK DRIVER: I'm an owner-operator, which means I own my own truck. There's no cutting back when it comes to diesel.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the road with independent driver, Ruben Ponce, who has no options around the skyrocketing price of fuel.
PONCE: Every week, it was getting higher and higher and higher.
And $100 more today and it was also $100 more two days ago. And if you think about it, it's an extra $800 more a month. I don't care who you are, that's going to hurt you.
LAH: The pain is worse in California, where gas prices are higher than any other state in the U.S. and financial fear is already impacting families.
(on camera): Here in the Los Angeles area, people are waiting up to 30 minutes to fill their tanks. This isn't a supply issue. It is all about the price.
This gas station is selling it for about $1 gallon less than other stations nearby. So the people who are waiting in line think it is worth their time just to save some cash.
(voice-over): And no one is immune, from the doctor to the new mom.
ALICIA BROWN, WORKING MOTHER: Then I got to go back to work, then I get off work to drive and then go back home.
LAH: All that back and forth already means Alicia Brown can't make her day care for 8-month-old Josiah work.
BROWN: I'm about to get him out of his daycare, because I can't afford the gas.
LAH: Kevin Corbin works a second job for Uber Eats to support his family. And $30 at the pump starts his evening.
(on camera): How much gas was that?
KEVIN CORBIN, PART-TIME FOOD DELIVERY DRIVER: A little over three and a half gallons.
LAH: Three and a half gallons?
CORBIN: Yes, that's it. Minus the $30, I made $13.
LAH: Last night -- you made $13 last night?
CORBIN: If you factor in I put $30 in the tank, $13.
LAH (voice-over): But economists say, accounting for wages and inflation, the consumer can handle the rise in prices.
LEO FELER, SENIOR ECONOMIST, UCLA ANDERSON FORECAST: As a fraction of everything we consume, gas is smaller today, even at $6 a gallon, than it was 10 years ago, than it was 40 years ago.
LAH: What's different now is how Americans feel in 2022.
(HORN)
FELER: We're hitting up on, you know, exhaustion as human beings.
LAH (on camera): So you're exhausted and you pull into the gas station and you see that.
FELER: And then you're more exhausted.
LAH: Right.
(voice-over): Ruben Ponce fears that uncertainty won't stop at his truck and will trickle down to the average consumer.
(on camera): Is that coming to their house? Is that going to come to their bank account?
PONCE: I don't see how it's not. Food, clothes, whatever it is, it's going to go up. So we're all going to feel it.
LAH (voice-over): Kyung Lah, CNN, Long Beach, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And we've all been moved by the story of the millions of people in Ukraine forced to leave their lives behind as Russia intensifies its attacks.
When 2007 "CNN Hero" Aaron Jackson wrote a news story about refugees sleeping in a train station with nowhere to go, within 24 hours, he brought a plane ticket and traveled from his Florida home to Poland.
He has since been on the ground at the border doing what he can to help find emergency housing for people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON JACKSON, CNN HERO: When I got to the border, I didn't really know what to expect. I saw roughly anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 refugees living in cots.
I stumbled upon a little child playing with a toy. This family, they're from the Congo. They had been living in Ukraine for roughly 12 years. The father had seen a bomb drop close to his house.
They told me they had no money. They had nowhere to go.
We put them in a cab and moved them into a hotel.
We're getting them settled in.
It is really complex finding any sort of housing. I found an apartment that was for rent and we secured it for one year.
What do you think?
(CROSSTALK)
[15:55:02]
JACKSON: To get the family in and see child jumping on the bed and happy --
(LAUGHTER)
JACKSON: -- and smiling and laughing, just being a kid, definitely, a good feeling.
It's good to have wins, you know, in a situation like this. And this was definitely a win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: To find out more about Aaron's work and to nominate your own "CNN Hero," go to CNNheroes.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:00:09]
ACOSTA: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
