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Russia Intensifies Bombardment Across Ukraine; U.S. Warns Russia Over Possible Chemical Weapons Use; E.U. Imposes Fourth Round Of Sanctions On Russia; Russian Rockets Destroy Ukrainian Airbase; WHO Warns Of COVID-19 Spread In Refugee Population; Volunteers Work To Free Those Trapped Near The Front Line; Photojournalist Documents Ukrainian Refugee Exodus. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired March 12, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. I want to get straight to our breaking news.
Well, there's growing evidence that the Russian bombardment of Ukraine is intensifying as Russia winds its attack across Ukraine. In the past few hours, air raid sirens have gone off in Kyiv along with gunfire. Listen to this.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Ukrainian authorities say, overnight, shelling caused a fire at a warehouse northeast of the capital. This as the British ministry of defense said Saturday, in its latest intelligence assessment, that the bulk of Russian ground forces are currently around 25 kilometers from the center of Kyiv.
And the centers of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain encircled with Russian forces. And there's this.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): This is the town of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. Heavy shelling, as one official there describes it; indiscriminate shooting at civilian targets, including a cafe and an apartment building.
And there is new satellite imagery of Russian artillery units 18 miles northwest of central Kyiv. You can even see the flash of orange, apparently the muzzle flash from one of the guns.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: As airstrikes continue across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a new video address urging citizens to keep up the fight.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Today, everyone is gaining glory for Ukraine and his or her place shows the world who Ukrainians are and what strength we have. Hold our ground. Hold on. We will win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of abducting the mayor of a southern town. According to the foreign ministry, about 10 armed men threw a bag over Ivan Fedorov's head and took him away.
You can see the men leading Fedorov away from a government building. A prosecutor in the Russian-backed Lugansk region accuses the mayor of terrorist activities, saying he's under investigation. Ukraine's president calls the incident "a crime against democracy."
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ZELENSKYY (through translator): Therefore, they have switched to a new stage of terror when they're trying to physically eliminate representatives of a legitimate local Ukrainian authority.
It's clear that any democratic state in the world with a legitimately elected mayor is a true representative for the people. Ukraine demands the release of the mayor of Melitopol and guarantees full security to all heads of communities across the country. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: CNN has correspondents positioned around the world covering the story, including reports this hour from Ukraine, France, the White House and the Pentagon. And we begin our coverage with CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, live in Lviv, Ukraine.
Salma, brings us up to speed with what the latest is here.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, this town was a tourist destination, a place where there's beautiful museums, it's known for its restaurants, its history. It's turned into a forward operating base for this conflict.
There's not a corner of this town where you're not going to see some part of the war effort taking place, schools, public buildings, they've all been turned into displacement centers. Even the local theater is housing families, forced out of their homes by the war.
The local library is making camouflage for the troops. There's a depot that's repairing army equipment. The museums now trying to protect their cultural history. Everyone here -- and I really mean everyone here, Kim -- is absolutely consumed with the effort to help those who are fleeing from their homes.
You have families now here from all across Ukraine. And it's creating a sense of unity for everyone. This has been a safe haven so far. We are very far from those ferocious attacks that some other cities are seeing.
But as you mentioned, Russia's escalating its attack. It appears to be widening its advance. More and more cities like Dnipro, for example, that were safe a couple weeks ago, now, of course, in the crosshairs.
And here in Lviv, there's also that sense that war is getting closer and closer. The last couple of days, we've had air raid sirens. A couple days, we woke up to air raids here, many people spending the night in bomb shelters, worried what comes next.
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ABDELAZIZ: And you have to remember, much of this is a volunteer effort, Kim. So it's all up to the people to keep sustaining it.
BRUNHUBER: You talked about the sense of unity people have there. Give us a sense of the morale of those residents, who have been facing so much stress and hardships right now.
ABDELAZIZ: There's such a deep sense of national pride here, Kim, a sense that, together, Ukraine can overcome this. This is a very diverse country, one that is large and has cultural divides.
But right now, of course, you have families from every part of this country. That's what you're going to hear people and families say to you now, is, yes, this is a mighty army but we Ukrainians can stand together.
Much of that, of course, comes from President Zelenskyy himself. I know you played that address there from him, which continues to unify people, to give them that strength of face in the sense of atrocities.
But I'm going to caveat this with these very ferocious and indiscriminate attacks. Take the example of the mayor kidnapped this morning or the maternity ward that was horrifically bombed. We saw bloody pregnant women. It makes people feel that no one is safe, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Salma Abdelaziz, thanks so much.
Russia's onslaught has taken a new turn, opening fronts of the country that so far have escaped much of the violence. CNN's Oren Liebermann has that.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Russian military is expanding its invasion of Ukraine, increasing its attacks on the western part of the country. Fire and smoke seen in the aftermath of strikes on airfields near the Polish border. It's a scene that played out in cities all across the country, as Russia unleashed a barrage of attacks in the early morning hours.
In the central city of Dnipro, fire poured out of a destroyed factory, the rubble littering the ground and another strike near a preschool and an apartment building.
In Chernihiv, an isolated city north of Kyiv, an explosion destroyed a soccer stadium and a nearby library. This crater shows the force of the impact. In Izya city near the border with Russia, a strike destroyed a home for the disabled, many of whom are elderly and there is growing evidence that the town of Volnovakha in eastern Ukraine has fallen to Russian forces and their separatist allies. Russian troops are seen running through the decimated streets.
Russia has falsely accused the U.S. of supporting experiments in Ukraine with biological and chemical weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it's a sign Russia itself intends to use such weapons.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): This makes me really worried because we've been repeatedly convinced, if you want to know Russia's plans, look at what Russia accuses others of.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): President Joe Biden didn't go as far as drawing a red line on the use of chemical weapons by Russia but he didn't issue this threat.
BIDEN: I'm not going to speak about the Intelligence but Russia would pay a severe price if he used chemical weapons.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The Russian advance is closing in on Kyiv. It is slow progress against a fierce Ukrainian resistance that has turned the capital city into a fortress. The Pentagon says one Russian approach to the city is about 10 miles outside the city center.
The convoy of Russian tanks stalled outside Kyiv for days has now largely dispersed but it is unclear what the movement means for the capital -- Oren Liebermann, CNN at the Pentagon.
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BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in Stuart Crawford. He's a defense analyst, joining us from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Thank you so much for being here with us.
Give us a sense of where you think the war it with the dispersal of that Russian column near Kyiv.
Where do you think the fighting is right now?
STUART CRAWFORD, DEFENSE ANALYST: Good morning, yes. I think all of your correspondents have been very perceptive in their reporting there. There's no doubt that Russia, in its invasion, has upped the ante. The initial strategy would have appeared to have failed. That would be upping the strategy of trying to end this quickly within three days.
And now it has reset for a much more deliberate operation. And it's interesting that there, that the attacks are spread across the country. Nobody really knows, apart from Vladimir Putin himself and his closer advisers, what the end state the Russians seek.
But it's clear that we are -- the Ukrainians are now involved in a war of national survival. And the war, it's going to be a war in the cities. And that brings all sorts of interesting ramifications with it.
BRUNHUBER: On that end game you just mentioned, I want to read this quote. You said, "Ukraine will win if it doesn't lose. Russia will lose if it doesn't win."
Explain that for us.
CRAWFORD: Yes, well, a bit paradoxical. But the Ukrainians have got to outlast the Russians.
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CRAWFORD: If you want a model for that, you can argue that, in Afghanistan, the Taliban outlasted the Western coalition there.
And at some point, Russia is going to end that -- is going to -- I beg your pardon -- it's going to run out of energy, of money. And the Ukrainians have just got to be in for the long haul.
The sad part of that is that, in fighting the cities, we're going to see terrible destruction that we've seen already and terrible civilian casualties. But the Ukrainians must not lose. And if the Russians cannot bring this to a conclusion, then they will lose and have to call a halt.
BRUNHUBER: One thing that people are fearful, when it comes to escalation, is the threat of maybe biological and chemical weapons. Russia accused the U.S. of helping Ukraine develop those. The reaction from the Biden administration was that it was a Russian ploy to possibly use those weapons themselves.
Is that a realistic fear here?
CRAWFORD: Very much so. In the U.K., the experts are beginning to get terribly worried about the possible use of chemical weapons or even biological weapons.
And, of course, the false flag type of strategy, which you mentioned, may well apply here. What is -- what is interesting is that this will be a considerable escalation in the violence. And one wonders, at what point NATO and the West will say enough is enough and be forced to intervene.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, well, on that exactly. I mean, President Biden told CNN that if Russia uses chemical weapons, Russia will pay, quote, "a severe price."
But I mean, what does that mean, just more sanctions?
CRAWFORD: Oh, gosh, I mean, who knows. The same was said in Syria, I think, by President Obama, when it was called the red line which could not be broken. But, sadly, in that case, nothing actually happened when chemical weapons were used.
So what President Biden can mean I'm not really quite sure. But I think is NATO and the West have been bullied by Vladimir Putin. And at some point, the bully in the playground has to be confronted. And experience with everyday life indicates that it's far better to do it sooner rather than later because, if not in Ukraine, where next?
Estonia, Latvia, Poland?
Who knows. At some point, the West has got to call a halt.
BRUNHUBER: But confronted without obviously leading to another world war.
Finally, I wanted to ask this, you know, many here in the West have hailed the thousands of people, who have flocked to Ukraine from around the world, to fight against Russia for the cause of freedom. Russia, too, is inviting volunteers as well and Syrian mercenaries.
What impact do you think all of that will have?
CRAWFORD: Well, both sides seem to be doing it. I think once you start calling them fighters who are not fighting in national armies, then there's danger for widespread violence and, indeed, war crimes to be perpetrated.
Interestingly, the U.K., the ministry of defense here, has had to issue an order, telling serving soldiers in the British military that they're not to travel to Ukraine. But I understand that half a dozen of them so far. It's just an escalation of the warfare when outside forces begin to be involved.
BRUNHUBER: We're out of time but thank you for your analysis, Stuart Crawford in Scotland, appreciate it.
CRAWFORD: My great pleasure.
BRUNHUBER: Coming up, U.S. officials have growing concern that Russia could use chemical weapons, as we just said. We'll bring you the warning that U.S. President Biden gave if that happens.
The European Union gets tough with yet another group of sanctions against Russia. After the break, we'll run down how these new measures will affect Russia's bottom line. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Joe Biden announced a further squeeze on Russia's economy, downgrading its trading status and blocking more imports but the Biden administration is increasingly concerned with Russia's possible use of chemical weapons. CNN's MJ Lee has more from the White House.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning.
MJ LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden issuing a stern new warning today to Vladimir Putin.
BIDEN: I'm not going to speak about the intelligence. But Russia would pay a severe price use of chemical.
LEE: On the heels of disturbing new assessment from the U.S. that Russia could use biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. Biden also announcing several new measures to hit Russia's economy. The U.S. banding together with G7 countries and the European Union to revoke Russia's so called permanent normal trade relations status.
BIDEN: Doing it in unison with other nations that make up half of the global economy will be another crushing blow to the Russian economy. It's already suffering very badly from our sanctions.
LEE: Russia also slapped with additional imports and exports bans on the list caviar, vodka, diamonds and luxury goods like tobacco, jewelry and high end cars. Speaking to a gathering of Democratic lawmakers in Philadelphia, Biden making this pledge of support to Ukraine,
BIDEN: We're going to make sure Ukraine has the weapons to defend themselves and from invading Russian force. We will send money and food aid to save your Ukrainian lives. We're going to welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms.
LEE: While the pleas from Ukrainian leaders only grow increasingly dire.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): If this continues, that means the sanctions are not enough.
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ZELENSKYY (through translator): Russia must pay for this horrible war, must pay daily.
LEE: But Biden continuing to draw this hard line.
BIDEN: The idea that we're going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews, that's called World War III.
LEE: Meanwhile, U.S. officials working through diplomatic channels to boost global oil production, as gas prices at home continue to rise. Officials eyeing oil rich countries like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, some Republican lawmakers already rejecting those efforts.
SEN. DEB FISCHER (R-NE): I cannot imagine the outrage that every single elected official here is going to hear if we then switch to buy it from Venezuela and Iran. This is a ridiculous policy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We shouldn't be looking to go to Venezuela.
LEE: President Biden addressed a group of Democratic lawmakers in Philadelphia on Friday and he said, when it comes to high gas prices, that is not the Democrats' fault but largely to blame on Vladimir Putin.
Of course, that is not the full story. Inflation and rising gas prices, those were all problems confronting the White House well before the Russia invasion of Ukraine began. But this is a sign that, increasingly, this is an issue on Democrats' minds, particularly as we get closer to the midterm elections -- MJ Lee, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: The European Union hopes its latest round of sanctions will further drain Russia's resources it uses to wage war against Ukraine. The sanctions kicked in after a two-day summit of E.U. leaders in France.
Among the tough measures, Russia will lose its most favored nation status in the European markets and the World Trade Organization.
All right. Let's take a closer look at that most favored nation status. The WTO has 164 members, which trade equally at favorable rates. That includes the lowest tariffs, highest import quotas and the fewest trade barriers.
Now without that status, Western allies can increase tariffs and impose quotas on Russian goods and even ban them. If Russia is kicked out, it will join Iran, North Korea, Syria and Belarus, who aren't members of the WTO.
Melissa Bell joins us from Paris with a closer look at the sanctions.
Melissa, take us through what's in them, what was missed and how those will affect not just Putin but the West.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the big missing part and the great frustration from Europeans is where they could, after all the rounds of sanctions imposed by the United States, by the United Kingdom, what they could do now to cripple the Russian economy, to take on the Russian energy exports.
Clearly, the European Union far too dependent on them for the time being. What they point out is from the rounds of sanctions imposed by the European Union, that industry should take a hit and it is a huge one.
The European energy commissioner pointed out earlier this week, in 2019, it brought in refined oil imports worth 26 billion euros to Russian coffers. That is the size of how much money continues to pour into Russia as a result of these European imports.
Clearly, it's going to take some time for Europe to wean itself off those energy imports. What we heard in Versailles where the 27 European leaders met on Thursday and Friday is they're able to do that over five years. It will be a small hit. But longer term, they're going to look at weaning themselves off all together.
So far, sanctions have targeted the banking system, the assets of the Russian central back. We've seen the ruble collapse, the savings of ordinary Russians essentially halved, just in the last couple of weeks. And that will bring huge pressure on the country.
Now what you're going to see a focus on trade. As you said, as a result of that preferred nation status being revoked on not only by European Union countries but other G7 countries; the United States has already announced it as well.
That will allow them to target trade in Russia and that should have a real crippling effect. And Europeans say they're prepared to go further. Have a listen to what Emmanuel Macron had to say yesterday at Versailles.
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EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): We're willing to adopt other sanctions and all options are on the table.
The point of our discussion is to order -- to prepare ourselves to these sanctions if they were able to call a halt to the attack and the aggression and could prepare us also for the consequences in the coming weeks and months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: Of course, sanctions are a double-edged sword. They will have a cost for those imposing them as well. That is something that the European Union is prepared to take a hit on.
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BELL: That's what the message that came out from Versailles these last couple of days. The other message from Emmanuel Macron, there are no taboos, nothing across the table. And they're keeping a close eye on what's happening around Kyiv.
As you said, Kim, the air and missile strikes targeting south of the capital are something that Europeans are watching very carefully and it could trigger further sanctions still.
Now there's still a small amount of hope that keeping a dialogue might have some impact. Vladimir Putin is to have a call with Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor later this morning. We'll be keeping a close eye on that but the hopes of that yielding anything concrete are very limited, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Thank you so much, Melissa Bell in Paris. Appreciate it.
People fleeing the fighting in Ukraine are facing harsh, freezing temperatures as they try to escape. In Romania, for instance, Red Cross volunteers were afraid some of the refugees, you see there crossing the Danube, might be suffering from frostbite.
More than 2.5 million people have fled, since Russia made the invasion of Ukraine. According to the U.N., Poland has received the majority of refugees, with over 1.5 million crossing the Polish border. Many who 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The U.N.'s migration agency said border crossings just aren't designed for the number of people passing through them. And that's having ramifications across the board. Phil Lowry for the International Organization for Migration explained how.
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JOE LOWRY, SPOKESPERSON, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION: People are coming over in huge numbers.
These are small border crossing points that normally take a few dozen or 100 a day. And now we have 21,000 crossing on a daily basis. People are coming in distraught situations; they've been through an awful lot. Families are ripped apart on the border. The men are going back, only the old men and the very young are able to go across with families.
This lead to several problems. One is that what's essential on board in any refugee's journey is protection. Women and children are always the most vulnerable in these situations and particularly in the situation where families are crossing incomplete.
The women are carrying the complete burden of looking after the families by themselves in a very unusual and frightening situation.
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BRUNHUBER: If you'd like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food and water, please go to cnn.com/impact. There you'll find several ways you can help.
Well, the fighting in Ukraine may have knocked COVID out of the headlines but the threat is still very real, especially for hundreds of thousands of displaced people fleeing from war. That's ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: All right. Let's get you up to speed with the latest developments in Ukraine.
A massive fire broke out earlier after Russian forces struck a fuel depot southwest of Kyiv. The mayor of Vasylkiv says an airbase there was completely destroyed by rocket strikes.
Meanwhile, hundreds have been gathering in protest of the detention of the mayor of Melitopol in the south. You're looking at video of armed men taking him away. Melitopol has been occupied by Russian troops since early days of the invasion.
And a new attempt is underway to bring food and medicine to the besieged city of Mariupol. The city council said a convoy of 90,000 tons of supplies is on its way to there. Previous attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol have largely failed.
Now even as the war in Ukraine unfolds, the threat of COVID is still very real. And as refugees scatter across Europe in search of safety, the threat of contracting and spreading the disease is ever present.
According to "The Lancet" journal, Ukraine had 250,000 new infections in the week of February 7. That's concerning since only 34 percent of the Ukrainian population have been fully vaccinated against COVID.
At least 1.5 million have fled to Poland where around 60 percent of the country is fully vaccinated. In other countries, vaccination rates are slightly higher, like in Hungary. Moldova has offered free vaccinations to those from Ukraine, who number 83,000.
One doctor in Warsaw told Reuters News Agency almost every refugee child arriving its in hospital has tested positive for COVID, probably due to the cramped conditions in which they fled to Ukraine.
And COVID isn't the only disease threat that could be emerging in populations. Recent outbreaks of polio and measles have threatened children in the region. And health officials are warning it could get much worse.
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DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The conditions we've seen in Ukraine have the worst possible ingredients for the application and spread of infectious disease. It doesn't matter if it's COVID-19, polio, doesn't matter if it's measles, doesn't matter if it's cholera, you put that many people in desperation on the move, women and children packed together, people in basements, people stressed, people not eating, not sleeping, these are the conditions in which immune systems are weak, people's defenses are low and infectious diseases can rip through populations like this. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Petra Khoury is the director of health and care for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and joins me now from Geneva, Switzerland.
Thanks so much being here with us. With Russian forces surrounding and cutting off Ukrainian cities, some have compared it to medieval warfare or the Nazi siege of Leningrad, give us a sense of what effect this is having on hospitals, on patients, including so many vulnerable sick children in Ukraine.
PETRA KHOURY, DIRECTOR, HEALTH AND CARE, INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT SOCIETIES: Good morning, Kim. And thank you for having me.
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KHOURY: The pandemic disasters are every health system's worst nightmare. And they challenge the systems, they drain them and lead them to collapse if we do not mitigate.
What is happening today in Ukraine has compounded this health crisis. The Ukrainian health system has been fighting COVID for the last three years and has been responding to COVID. And now it is being challenged with a war.
So what we fear, that the longer this crisis lasts, the more the health care capacity is going to dwindle and boost its power to serve and meet the needs of the population. We have seen reports of health facilities being attacked. We have seen reports of health facilities being abandoned, because of loss of water or fuel.
We also know that around 1,000 health facilities, within the confines or within 10 kilometers of the confines of the conflict zone might be engulfed. And that is a huge health capacity that we will be losing.
And the Ukrainian people within Ukraine will lose in terms of receiving that care. The living conditions, also, in Ukraine, is getting worse, as reports and images come. We know that people are crowding.
We know that when you put so much people in so little places in shelters, in buses, in train stations and hotels, the public health safety measures needed, when you're in a pandemic, can not be applied. Hygiene measures cannot be applied. So you lose the ability to halt emergence and prevention of threat of infectious diseases.
(CROSSTALK)
BRUNHUBER: Not just in Ukraine but also in the surrounding countries. We have some, what, 2.5 million people fleeing, according to the U.N. We know, as you say, war and infectious diseases go hand in hand.
So in the COVID context, what's the fear here, in terms of spreading not just in Ukraine but in other countries that are taking in so many refugees?
KHOURY: Well, let's remember that Europe and the world has COVID everywhere. So Europe has registered, a month prior to the war, around 7 million cases. And it continues to register around 800 cases a day.
So the influx of refugees across the border is not going to drive figures within the countries. And we trust that the systems in these countries will be able to support them and help them.
Our fears are of a surge within Ukraine. And we do know that this is the case prior to the war; 900,000 cases were registered a month into that. And the positivity rate is at 60 percent. So the fear is the inability of COVID patients in Ukraine to receive the care they need to receive. They are in the middle of an Omicron surge.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, and it's not just COVID, though, it's other diseases, like polio and tuberculosis, I mean, diseases we don't normally worry about here in the U.S., for example.
Why is it so relatively prevalent in Ukraine and how will it be exacerbated by this crisis?
KHOURY: So Ukraine has long been -- had TB as a serious health challenge. They have put many programs in place with the WHO to respond to that crisis. They do have around 7,000 TB -- ex-TB cases.
However, all of these cases have been registered and they were receiving treatment. Fear now is, with this movement that is happening, destruction of treatment happens. And this is where the health risk happens.
Polio is another health risk in Ukraine. We know, last year, they had a polio outbreak but also the ministry of health had put in place a program to halt that outbreak.
And now, with what's happening and children missing their vaccines and, like I mentioned, the living conditions that do not support any ability to halt or give access to people to receive routing immunization that is needed, unfortunately, will exacerbate the health conditions in these situations.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Well, listen, we'll have to leave it there.
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BRUNHUBER: But wishing all of your workers at the Red Cross, you know, safety, as they operate in Ukraine and in the surrounding countries. I appreciate your work. Petra Khoury in Geneva, thank you so much.
KHOURY: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: Trapped in the front lines.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mama doesn't have connection. I cannot call her. I didn't hear from her a few days.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): We'll meet the brave volunteers helping others flee the fighting in Ukraine. We'll have that story next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Millions have fled Ukraine to escape the fighting but not everyone who wants to is able to leave. So volunteers with little or no experience in a war zone are putting their lives on the line to help those in need get to safety. CNN's Clarissa Ward has their story.
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NATALIA LARSON, UKRAINIAN CITIZEN: My name is Natalia Larson. I'm from Ukraine. But last five years I live in United States. My mama, 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.
LARSON: 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 (voice-over): That message brought us back to this spot, the destroyed bridge, where brave volunteers continue to ferry out civilians who have been trapped in European 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 CROW, VOLUNTEER: Only English.
[05:45:00]
WARD (voice-over): 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.
CROW: 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: Have you ever been in a war zone before?
CROW: Not like this.
WARD: For most Americans, this would be a little out of their comfort zone.
CROW: 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 him 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.
WARD: So Daria, are you not afraid to do this?
DARIA PISARENKO, 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.
WARD: You can feel how this place is completely deserted. It's like a ghost town.
WARD (voice-over): "Is the owner here?" they shout.
The team consults their list to check the address.
WARD: (Speaking foreign language)
WARD (voice-over): 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.
WARD: Does it make you angry?
PISARENKO: Yes, I'm angry. And I think it's OK. I'm angry to all the 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.
WARD: 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.
WARD (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 with Mila and her husband tell us they chop wood in the forest and burn it to stay warm.
WARD: (Speaking foreign language).
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. WARD (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, Ole, (ph) who wants to get out. He bundles into the improvised rescue vehicle and sets off beyond the smash windscreen that 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.
WARD: So we have 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. Yet another family saved by ordinary citizens doing extraordinary work -- Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kyiv.
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BRUNHUBER: We'll be right back.
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[05:50:00]
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BRUNHUBER: The world is seeing the plight of the Ukrainian refugees through some powerful pictures. Photojournalist Peter Turnley is capturing some of his heartbreaking scenes for a daily photo called "Exodus from Ukraine," a digital diary, telling CNN, he was surprised to find dignity, resilience and even love.
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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.
[05:55:00]
TURNLEY (voice-over): 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. 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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BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Our breaking news coverage of the war in Ukraine continues on "NEW DAY" with Jessica Dean and Boris Sanchez. You're watching CNN.
