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Russia Intensifies Bombardment across Ukraine; Fighters from Syria Volunteer to Fight for Russia against Ukraine; Ukrainian Teachers Continue Online Learning with Students; Over 2.5 Million Have Fled Fighting in Ukraine; Russia Blocks Independent Media, Limits Press Freedoms; Nigerian Students Make Harrowing Escape across Ukraine Border; Growing Concerns over Americans Detained in Russia; Americans Paying Record High Gas Prices. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 12, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
HALA GORANI, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world and in the United States this hour. I'm Hala Gorani live in Lviv, Ukraine, where it is just past 8:00 in the morning.
Russia is intensifying and widening its invasion of Ukraine. Air raid sirens have been sounding here in Lviv. They've also been going off in Kyiv. In just the past hour, CNN crews on the ground in Dnipro have heard at least two outgoing explosions and could see what look to be remnants of anti-aircraft fire and smoke east of the river.
Now air raid sirens have been going off as well in that location. And on Friday, several airstrikes hit the town. A number of residential areas were targeted. At least one civilian was killed.
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GORANI (voice-over): What you see here is the town of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, very heavy shelling. As one official described it, it was indiscriminate shooting at civilian targets, including a cafe and an entire apartment block.
And in the port city of Mariupol, warnings of an extremely dire humanitarian situation. The group Doctors without Borders says many families don't have enough water, food or medicine, calling it extremely dangerous for children and putting them at risk, among other things, of dehydration.
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GORANI: There is growing evidence that the town of Volnovakha in Eastern Ukraine has fallen to Russian forces. It had been surrounded since basically the beginning of the invasion and Ukrainian forces had fought valiantly to defend it.
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GORANI (voice-over): Now videos are showing Russian soldiers in several neighborhoods, along with abandoned Ukrainian tanks. And, of course, widespread destruction in the town itself.
Volnovakha is between Donetsk and Mariupol. And it allows Russian forces to consolidate their control of the Donbas region, which is why it is strategically an important target for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: On the diplomatic front, European Union leaders have wrapped up a two-day summit on the situation in Ukraine. On Friday, they implemented a fourth round of sanctions against Russia, obviously aimed at choking off Russia's financial dealings with the bloc and hurting the country economically.
The latest sanctions include a luxury goods ban and revoking the country's membership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, calls Russia's invasion a turning point and warns that more sanctions could follow.
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EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): Facing this war and the violence, the ploys by Russia against Ukraine and its people, it is a tragic turning point of our history. It's also a turning point for our society, our people and our European project.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Now among the latest developments are this Russian onslaught and these targeted onslaughts coming from Russia, opening fronts in part of the country that, so far, had escaped much of the violence while it continues to pummel areas that are already decimated. Here's CNN's Matthew Chance with the latest.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPODNENT (voice-over): This is a new front in Russia's Ukrainian war, emergency workers battling flames caused by airstrikes on the central city of Dnipro.
Ukrainian officials say an apartment building, a kindergarten and a two-story shoe factory were targeted and destroyed, causing casualties.
To the West, in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk, just 70 miles from NATO ally Poland, a strategic airfield also came under attack. With the invasion now in its third week, Russia appears to be widening its assault.
There are concerns of escalation too. Russian state television has been broadcasting these images, the fighters from Syria, said to be volunteering to join the fight on Russia side.
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CHANCE (voice-over): The Kremlin backs the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad. And the scenes appeared shortly after Putin told the Security Council that foreign fighters should be invited to join in.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): So if you see people who want voluntarily without payment to come and help people living in Donbas, well, we need to meet their efforts and help them to reach the combat zone.
CHANCE: These are thugs from Syria, said President Zelenskyy of Ukraine of the country destroyed in the same way the occupiers are destroying us, he said.
Later, at a Kremlin meeting with his Belarusian ally, President Putin struck a different upbeat tone, saying he'd been informed of certain positive shifts in recent negotiations with Ukraine. Though it remains unclear what those positive shifts could be.
But they don't seem to be diverting Russia from its invasion course. New satellite images suggest a massive Russian military column north of the capital cave has now dispersed with some elements reposition in the forests and countryside around the Capitol.
And these are the latest images from the besieged Ukrainian town of Volnovakha in the country's southeast, Russian troops moving through the streets, which are now reported to be under their full control. Bit by bit, Ukraine, it seems, is being overrun -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Kyiv.
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GORANI: Well, Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling is no stranger to conflict in Europe. He was the U.S. Army commanding general in Europe. I spoke to him earlier. I asked him about the Russian column of armored vehicles that was static for several days but that is now dispersing and on the move.
What are his expectations of what the Russians might have planned for the capital?
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LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, what they've planned and what they have executed so far is very disconnected. Those three columns of Russian vehicles coming in from the northwest, the north and from the east out of -- out of Kharkiv and Sumy have been stalled by Ukrainian fighters and the territorial units.
I -- I -- I think what we haven't seen is a whole lot of movement in either one of those three columns over the last four days. I think that's partly because they have had some major problems with the tactical units themselves.
But they have also had unbelievably poor logistics support. And those logistics columns have been trapped both from the north and the south. And Ukrainian fighters are reportedly piecemealing, destroying those -- those columns.
One of the things I have seen today, Hala, which I find very interesting, is in pictures of Ukrainian fighters, that both the army and the territorial forces, every single soldier you see walking on the battlefield has not only their rifle but also some type of anti- tank weapon.
Every single one of them has either an AT-4 or -- or a Javelin across their back. I think that is critically important. They also have night-vision goggles, which the Russians don't have. So they're taking this fight full-time to the Russians. And I think the Russians are suffering, not only with bad tactics but very poor morale right now.
GORANI: But they are suffering but then they are using those aerial bombardment tactics on, as we mentioned, Lutsk, for instance; this is kind of a head-scratcher.
But can the Ukrainians resist here?
Because it is a very tough battle against a very powerful military, even if they have made tactical and strategic mistakes.
HERTLING: I think they've made more than just mistakes. This has been -- the Russian army has shown their incompetence at both the operational and tactical level across the board. They have had three generals killed within a two-week period of time, trying to lead from the front, because the junior leaders aren't doing it.
They seem to have a plan to insert a second echelon, which has always been a Russian doctrinal tenet. But no second echelon has come because they can't even get the supply lines in. And they have already put the majority of their forces inside the country.
I truly believe, whereas it appears that Russia is a very well- equipped army, their training and their leadership is horrible.
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GORANI: Well, General Hertling added that Russia basically didn't send enough ground forces to occupy Ukrainian cities. So they're just destroying everything in their path and moving on, which is what we've been seeing in some of those more southern cities.
Now the deputy mayor of one of the cities in Western Ukraine, recently targeted by Russia, spoke to Don Lemon earlier. He says he doesn't expect the violence to let up anytime soon and believes that it may not be confined to Ukraine alone.
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OLEKSANDR LEVYTSKYY, DEPUTY MAYOR OF IVANO-FRANKIVSK, UKRAINE: We don't think that it's the war of Ukraine with Russia, it is a war in the center of Europe and it is a sad world war. So we don't think they will stop here in Ivano-Frankivsk. I think they want to go further. DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You say you believe that this is the third world war, is that what you just said?
LEVYTSKYY: Yes, because they are trying to bombard to make some explosions at nuclear plants. So it will hit, which will make deaths to millions of people, as well as Europe, a lot of the world.
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GORANI: Well, Western countries desperately want this war to stop. The U.S. President is calling now for the suspension of normal trade relations with Russia and says the United States will ban imports of more Russian-made products including vodka, seafood and diamonds.
The White House says the move will hit Russia to the tune of around $1 billion. Kaitlan Collins has more.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the moments before he announced these new measures to try to punish Russia even further, President Biden did call President Zelenskyy to lay out the new measures that would call on Congress to restrict trade with Russia.
And it also includes an executive order that President Biden says he's going to sign, restricting the imports of Russian alcohol and seafood. These are all steps that he says he is trying to take to squeeze Putin even further.
Of course, economically, that's has been the route he's taken so far, saying today that Putin is the aggressor and Putin is the one who should pay the price here but, clearly, going after the Russian economy in order to have him pay that price.
When it comes to a military response, though, in Ukraine, as we have seen the Russian attacks not only continue but escalate, President Biden also made clear, while speaking with Democrats on Friday, that he does not plan to send U.S. forces into Ukraine to fight Russian forces. It's a statement he's made before. It is certainly one he has made in private according to sources.
But he used very emphatic language, saying he believed, if U.S. forces went into Ukraine, that would cause World War III. The president making clear there will not be U.S. pilots with U.S. planes in flying Ukrainian skies.
He did say if Russia goes after a NATO country, part of this military alliance, that would warrant a response and could also lead to World War III. Of course, we should note this all comes as there are these warnings about a chemical weapons attack potentially happening in Ukraine, conducted by Russia.
This is something that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said she had serious concerns about. And as Ukrainian President Zelenskyy put it, often what Russia is
accusing others of doing, as they are currently doing with the United States, which the White House says is completely false, it's typically what Russia themselves is preparing to do -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
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GORANI: Now there is no radioactivity around a nuclear research lab in Kharkiv, despite damage caused by Russian shelling. Those are some reassuring words from the facility's director, who says the outside of the research center took major damage on Friday.
But he told Reuters that a nuclear tank inside the lab, which contains 37 fuel cells, is fine. However, he says if the tank is damaged in the future, that could lead to a radioactive leak and severely harm the environment.
Coming up on CNN, telling the stories of those affected by war through a camera lens. One photographer shares his experience on the front lines of Ukraine through his pictures.
Plus, school is still in session for some Ukrainian students. We'll meet two refugee teachers, who are continuing to educate kids through remote learning during the country's worst times -- after the break.
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GORANI: People fleeing the fighting in Ukraine are often facing harsh, freezing temperatures as they try to escape. In Romania, for instance, Red Cross volunteers were afraid that some of the refugees, that you see here crossing the Danube, might be suffering from frostbite.
You see there are many kids. They were trying to make their way to safety. More than 2.5 million people have fled since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine more than two weeks ago now.
According to the United Nations, Poland has received the majority of these refugees, with more than 1.5 million crossing that border. Many who have made the grueling journey just want the fighting to be over.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have like only one desire, that everything -- I want everything to finish as soon as possible and it's like, to live in peace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): My favorite country is Ukraine. We were under bombardment there, heavy bombardment. We did not ask for that. We had a good life. We do not know what they want from us.
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GORANI: Well, some of the most heartbreaking stories in this conflict are of innocent children, already ravaged by disease, who are now forced to flee the war in their homeland.
Spain is opening up its borders to care for these children fighting deadly illnesses; 25 Ukrainian children suffering from cancer were flown aboard a Spanish military plane for treatment in Madrid, along with 22 other refugees. The children will be evaluated to see if they will stay in the hospital or be moved to lodging provided for refugees.
Meanwhile, some Ukrainian teachers are going above and beyond to keep a routine for their students. Ivan Watson speaks to two educators, who are choosing to continue remote learning regardless of their tumultuous circumstances.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An all-too familiar scene for parents who lived through the COVID pandemic.
NADIA PAVLENKO, UKRAINIAN TEACHER AND REFUGEE: (Speaking foreign language).
WATSON (voice-over): Children fidgeting through a Zoom class about the solar system.
PAVLENKO: (Speaking foreign language).
WATSON (voice-over): The difference here: most of these Ukrainian school kids are refugees, reconnecting with their classmates and teacher online. In the last two weeks, the students and their teacher fled to different countries to escape Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
WATSON: How old are your students?
PAVLENKO: Seven, eight.
WATSON (voice-over): From Poland, Nadia Pavlenko teaches her students online classes, even though the school stopped paying her salary.
PAVLENKO: (Speaking foreign language).
WATSON (voice-over): "None of us know what will happen next," she says.
"But these classes with my children are like a bridge to my past life in Ukraine. They help us feel connected." War-time distance learning, there's a lot of this going on right now.
WATSON: Do you think the online classes are helping these kids?
ALEXANDER PARCALAB, UKRAINIAN TEACHER AND REFUGEE: Very much. It's helping them and mental helping to feel the routine that the life is still going on that it's not -- it's not the end of the world.
WATSON (voice-over): Alexander Parcalab is a school teacher who fled the Ukrainian city of Odessa to neighboring Moldova. In the morning, he teaches students from his Ukrainian school online.
PARCALAB: Children ask me if I'm safe, where I am, with who I am. They were asking me, before me asking them.
WATSON (voice-over): In the afternoon, he comes here, a makeshift school for Ukrainian children in the Moldovan capital.
PARCALAB: Parents asked me to make a place to feel very safety and maybe just emotionally for two hours, three hours or more, just feel --
WATSON (on camera): To escape?
PARCALAB: -- yes, to escape all this.
WATSON (voice-over): Half of his online students fled across borders. The other half are still in Ukraine.
PARCALAB: The first lesson in Zoom, I said that you should be this first domino, to help somebody. Maybe your mother need help. Maybe mother's friends need help. And this is -- what can I do?
I cannot change the world. But I can change me and change, like, the mood of my mother and it will be like a domino.
WATSON (voice-over): These girls say they're looking forward to starting online classes with their Ukrainian classmates on Monday.
WATSON: Nana (ph) says she wants to find out where her classmates traveled to and to make sure that they're healthy right now.
WATSON (voice-over): Eight-year-old Timor (ph) Zhdanov and his father, Artem, stayed behind in Ukraine.
WATSON: Were you surprised when Timor's (ph) teacher said, "Hey, we're going to continue online learning?"
ARTEM ZHDANOV, FATHER OF REMOTE LEARNING STUDENT: Honestly, yes. I think that they're feeling this strong connection with Ukraine and then want to support us as much as they can. And also, a new generation of Ukrainian people.
WATSON (voice-over): A new generation that may grow up in exile, relying on technology to stay connected to their homeland -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Chisinau, Moldova. (END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Ivan Watson reporting.
The exodus of Ukraine refugees has left some powerful images of those trying to leave. Photographer Peter Turnley spoke to CNN about his experience covering these refugees at the Lviv train station, not far from our position here, in the western part of the country.
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PETER TURNLEY, PHOTOGRAPHER (voice-over): At the train station in Lviv in Western Ukraine, I saw a line of thousands of people standing quietly and calmly, waiting for their opportunity to board a train, to flee this conflict to safety.
The true victims of war are people that have nothing to do with the conflict and whose lives are turned upside down by war, after they cross a frontier from their homeland, have suddenly lost everything that relates to their existence.
While looking into the eyes of a multitude of Ukrainian refugees that had suddenly just crossed over the border from Ukraine to Poland, what I saw was pride, dignity, courage and, surprisingly, an amazing degree of resilience.
The vast majority of people leaving the country are women and children. They've been separated from their husbands, their fathers and they have no idea when they may return home.
An elder woman that appeared to be in her mid-90s -- and she was in a wheelchair -- several men were carrying her into the opening of the train. And I imagine what it would have been like for her to be in that position, to suddenly be alone and needing to have the courage to go forward.
A constant in the midst of the plight of a refugee crisis is that people have a tremendous need for each other.
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TURNLEY (voice-over): Often the only thing that is clear in their lives is the notion of love and affection.
I've witnessed this incredible exodus of humanity out of Ukraine. One sees a multitude of very young children. And it has occurred to me that this is a moment that they will never completely remember and, at the same time, it's a moment that they will certainly never forget.
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GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani in Lviv, Ukraine. It is 8:30 in the morning here. Let's get you caught up with the latest on the Russian invasion of this country. The Russian military is keeping up the pressure on Ukrainian cities that have been largely spared until recently.
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GORANI (voice-over): This is video from the central city of Dnipro just a short time ago. A CNN crew felt at least two outgoing explosions and saw smoke in the sky, which appeared to be remnants of anti-aircraft fire.
Dnipro had not seen any attacks until Friday, yesterday, when Russia decided to expand its offensive into parts of Central and Western Ukraine. That's when Russian aircraft also hit an airport in the city of Lutsk, causing this massive fireball.
And Ukrainian officials say at least two people were killed. The airport is really only about 110 kilometers from the Polish border, so much deeper into western territory.
We now want to follow up on a story we told you on Friday. This week, a CNN crew joined a NATO surveillance plane flying over Eastern Europe and monitoring Russia's military moves in Ukraine. The plane saw fighter jets flying in from Belarus.
Now we can show you a reaction from a NATO crew member, as he monitored those jets on his radar. Natasha Bertrand has the story.
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NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: CNN was granted rare access to a NATO surveillance flight on Thursday that flew for roughly 13 hours over the Ukrainian-Polish border, monitoring Ukrainian airspace and looking for Russian activity there.
While onboard, the NATO airmen that told us they could see Russian- made aircraft taking off from Belarus and entering Ukrainian airspace, an apparent indication that these Russian-made aircraft were taking off in support of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
Now they were unable to tell for sure whether or not those operators of the aircraft were Russian or Belarusian, because both countries use the same kind of aircraft.
But what they told us is that this is a clear indication that Belarus is allowing Russia to use its country as a staging ground. Take a listen to what one NATO airman told me onboard yesterday.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do see activity coming from Belarus going into the Ukraine. But we cannot distinguish whether these are Russian aircraft or Belarusian aircraft.
Sometimes there are certain periods on a day, which are not on a regular basis, where we do have a lot of activity going in, like a larger package, with 10 to perhaps 20 aircraft coming in from the Belarusian airspace into Ukraine.
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BERTRAND: Now we did ask whether the intelligence that is gathered during flights like these is shared directly with Kyiv. And we were told that NATO as a bloc is not providing that intelligence to Ukraine, because they are very wary, of course, of getting involved directly in the conflict.
But when it comes to the intelligence that is given to the NATO members themselves and shared amongst them, that is at their discretion to share with Kyiv -- Natasha Bertrand, CNN, Brussels.
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GORANI: Well, Ukraine is lashing out at the detention of one of its mayors, an abduction which was caught on video. Take a look at the highlighted area on top of your screen.
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GORANI (voice-over): It shows the mayor of Melitopol being taken away by a group of armed men on Friday. A pro-Russian prosecutor from one of the breakaway regions later said the mayor is under investigation for possible terrorism charges. This is being flatly dismissed by the Ukrainians. They're calling this abduction a war crime.
President Zelenskyy compared the arrest to what, quote, "ISIS does."
We've seen protests and condemnation over the invasion of Ukraine across the world. But earlier this week, there was dissent in the most unlikely place: Russian state television. Take a look at the remarkable moment a Russian filmmaker took on a pro-Putin anchor.
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KAREN SHAKHNAZAROV, RUSSIAN FILMMAKER (through translator): The war in Ukraine paints a frightening picture and we should be aware that he has a very oppressive influence on our society, emotionally.
This is Ukraine. Whatever your attitude may be, it is something to each we're bound by dozens and hundreds who have died. It is where the suffering of some innocents. There's no compensation for the suffering of other innocents.
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GORANI: Well, Vladimir Putin has certainly tried to limit the independent messages in his own country. U.N. human rights experts say they're alarmed by the severe clampdown on information within Russia. The echo of Moscow Radio Network was one of the few independent media
outlets left in the country until it, too, was taken off the air last week. Karina Orlova was one of its correspondents. I asked her just what ordinary Russians are exposed to within Russia, when viewing various forms of media.
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KARINA ORLOVA, JOURNALIST: Unfortunately, they hear only the propaganda. It's everything was shut down that could be shut down. Some Western media, like BBC, Russian service and others.
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ORLOVA: They had to stop their operations in Russia in fear for persecution of their journalists.
Because now you can be imprisoned up to 15 years for spreading so- called fakes about the war, which you can not even call a war; it is officially a special military operation. So that's also a fake.
And this law has been a retroactive action so it could and will be applied to everything that you have said before this law.
So yes, it's all total propaganda. But the internet still works also. There are some problems with that, too. But Russians can seek information and they do. You know?
They do find information, for instance, about economic hardship and about ruble falling down. And they went to the ATMs massively. And now there are huge lines. People stand in line for up to six hours to buy a ticket on Turkish airlines.
GORANI: Let me ask you a little bit about sort of the younger crowd that has access to the internet. I mean, we've have heard even from prominent Russian sports people and -- and actors and public figures, who have spoken out against this war on Ukraine.
Is that getting through at all inside Russia?
ORLOVA: Well, I think that the more people who suffer economically, the more they will speak, because in -- in -- in the first days of the war, you know, the vast majority of Russians were supportive of Putin and supportive of this war. So they couldn't care less about the actual war.
Now that ruble has fallen twice -- so now cost half as much as it was -- and it will go -- it will keep going down inevitably. And now that all the major American and European companies have left Russia, now people start to realize that something is really off.
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GORANI: All right, Karina Orlova, a Russian journalist, speaking with me earlier. I'll have a lot more at the top of the hour from Lviv. For now, back to Paula Newton in Atlanta. PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Coming up for us here on
CNN NEWSROOM, they were forced to flee Ukraine after Russia launched an attack. But when these Nigerian medical students got to the border, they say they suffered discrimination. We will speak to them after the break.
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NEWTON: The U.N. says more than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's brutal and unprovoked invasion began and some foreigners have reported discrimination as they tried to cross the nation's borders into safety. CNN's Zain Asher spoke with two Nigerian students about their chaotic escape from the war-torn country.
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AMAMCHIM STEVE-AJUFO, STUDENT: My feet were hurting. I could barely walk. But I kept pushing every second.
ADETOMIWA ADENIYI, STUDENT: I just lost, like, hope there. I'm not going to be able to cross this.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Born in Nigeria, 23-year- old Adetomiwa Adeniyi and 17-year-old Amamchim Steve-Ajufo were both studying medicine in Ukraine when Russia's invasion began.
Their lives in danger, each fled to the Siret (ph) crossing on the Ukrainian-Romanian border. They say what they experienced there was both unfamiliar and traumatic.
ADENIYI: Initially there were several lines of -- I think the best way to see it, three lines, in which there was one seemingly for the Ukrainians, one for the Indians and then the Africans were also set aside. I wondered why it should be like that. We're all trying to get out.
STEVE-AJUFO: I accidentally -- actually it was an accident on my part -- went to the Ukrainian side. Instantly, they told me to go to my side.
ASHER: Do you think that there was a level of bias or a level of discrimination, based on skin color, as to who was being treated better at the border, who was being -- you know, getting preferential treatment in terms of admittance?
ADENIYI: If you were Ukrainian, for instance or maybe another nationality but you were white, it's almost as though you got a fast track to the front of the gate.
ASHER: Growing up in Nigeria, growing up in an all-Black country, having never experienced any racism ever before, did you understand what was happening and why you were being set aside?
STEVE-AJUFO: I cried twice. I cried when I was in front and the white officials kept screaming, go back, go back. I was just so tired and I was exhausted and I cried. I cried a whole lot because I was cold and I did not understand what was going on. I wanted to give up several times but I kept reminding myself of my mom.
ASHER (voice-over): Eventually Adetomiwa and Amamchim managed to pass into neighboring Romania. Once they arrived in the capital, Bucharest, they flew back to Nigeria, a place that hadn't been their home for some time.
ASHER: Has it fully sunk in that you may not, at least anytime soon, get to go back to Ukraine?
STEVE-AJUFO: I refuse to believe it. It breaks my heart. Every time I think about it, every time I see news that somewhere else has been bombed or someone else has died, I'm angry that my home was snatched from me, that's one. And, second, I've been traumatized.
ADENIYI: It's my home, I would say.
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ADENIYI: I've almost spent six years there. We don't know what's next.
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NEWTON: Troubling stories there. Our thanks to Zain Asher.
Now if you would like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food and water, please go to cnn.com/impact. You'll find several ways that you can help.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, gasoline prices are still climbing in the United States even after reaching record highs. But help may be -- just maybe -- could be on the way. Details next.
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NEWTON: As Russia's invasion of Ukraine grinds on, there is growing worry about the health and safety of three U.S. citizens currently detained in Russia. CNN's Brian Todd has the details.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New concerns tonight about the fates of three Americans being detained in Russia.
Basketball star Brittney Griner, we are now learning, has been held for three weeks.
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TODD (voice-over): Since February 17th, according to her hometown Congressman Colin Allred, she's had no access to anyone from the U.S. government, he says. It's not even clear where Griner is being held.
REP. COLIN ALLRED (D-TX): She should be allowed to come home as soon as possible and not be swept up in this larger conflict that's happening.
TODD: Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport with what Russian authorities said was cannabis oil in her luggage. They accused Griner of smuggling narcotics, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Members of Congress and veteran diplomats are worried tonight that the two-time Olympic medalist status as a star athlete might work against her, as is her sexual orientation. Griner is gay and married. Russia has very strict LGBTQ laws.
KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVES FROM UKRAINE: What I would expect Russians to use the fact that her wife if making public statements and these are being reported in the media and social media as propagandization of LGBTQ plus rights, was then -- could be another crime that they could hold against her.
TODD: The parents of another detained American, former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed described themselves as panicked over his condition. Following a call with him yesterday, Reed's parents say his physical condition has taken a turn for the worse, that had already been dire.
JOEY REED, FATHER OF TREVOR REED, DETAINED IN RUSSIA: He says he is coughing constantly, coughing up blood throughout the day. Fever over 100 degrees and he has pain in his chest, just all the signs of tuberculosis.
TODD: In a new statement, Reed's parents say he was told he'd be sent to a prison hospital.
But when they were on the phone with him yesterday, he was summoned to a disciplinary commission and, quote, "We fear authorities might send him back to solitary confinement instead."
Reed and fellow former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were convicted separately for crimes they both empathically denied and have been detained in Russia since well before the invasion of Ukraine.
Whelan's sister gave a CNN a fresh clue of his condition.
ELIZABETH WHELAN, SISTER OF PAUL WHELAN, DETAINED IN RUSSIA: He is doing as well as can be expected in a forced labor camp in the middle of Russia.
TODD: Tonight, experts are openly concerned about the futures of these three Americans, given the tensions with Vladimir Putin over the conflict in Ukraine are only intensifying.
How difficult will be to get them out? Is it even possible?
VOLKER: We are at such a different level of confrontation right now that they really are being used as pawns by Russia. He is not going to harm these three but he's not going to let them out of jail either.
TODD: Congressman Allred says Brittney Griner has been in touch with her Russian lawyer and that lawyer has been in touch with her agent and her family back home and they know she is OK.
CNN has reached out to the Russian foreign ministry for information about Griner's whereabouts and her condition. We haven't heard back -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: It may be too early to say relief is on the way for Americans paying record-high gasoline prices. While the price of crude oil did fall 5.5 percent this week, it's still hovering around 14-year highs.
Now the weekly decline has been driven in part by tentative signs of more supply from OPEC. The unprecedented spike in energy bills will take a significant chunk out of household budgets. CNN's Kyung Lah spoke to some Californians who are being forced to make some tough decisions.
(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: 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, $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.
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 it is worth their time just to save some cash.
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 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 (ph) 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; $30 at the pump starts his evening.
How much gas was that?
KEVIN CORBIN, PART-TIME FOOD DELIVERY DRIVER: A little over 3.5 gallons.
LAH: 3.5 gallons?
CORBIN: Yes, that's it. Minus the $30, I made $13.
LAH: Last night, you made $13 last night?
[01:55:00]
CORBIN: If you factor in I put $30 in the tank, $13.
LAH: 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.
FELER: We're hitting up on, you know, exhaustion on human beings.
LAH: So you're exhausted and pull into the gas station and you see that.
FELER: And you're more exhausted.
LAH: Right.
Ruben Ponce fears that uncertainty won't stop at his truck and will trickle down to the average consumer.
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: Kyung Lah, CNN, Long Beach, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: I am Paula Newton. Our breaking news coverage live from Ukraine continues right after this break.
