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Russia Intensifies Attacks On Ukrainian Cities, Moving Closer To Kyiv; Biden Approves Another $200 Million For Ukraine Military Aid; U.S. Looks To End Russia's "Most Favored Nation" Trade Status; Romanians Open Homes To Ukrainian Refugees; Experts Alarmed By Russian Moves Near Nuclear Plants; Russian Video Shows Alleged Capture Of Ukrainian Airfield; Protests Across The World Supporting Ukraine; Russians Call Ukrainian Hotline Looking For Lost Troops; Freeze Warnings In South Affect 25+ Million; Global Pandemic Two Years On. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 13, 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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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Hala Gorani, coming to you live this hour from Lviv in Ukraine. We begin with breaking news right here in Ukraine.
Not far from our live position, within the last few hours, our CNN teams here heard multiple explosions in the city's outskirts. Ukrainian officials say Russian forces fired eight missiles toward a military base outside Lviv. Officials say they're now investigating whether there were any casualties.
We understand that this military base, officially called the International Peacekeeping and Security Center but it's a military training base for soldiers, is about 55 kilometers northwest of Lviv; as you can see there on the map, quite close to the Polish border.
And in other developments, video posted to social media shows extensive damage in the hardhit southern port city of Mariupol. You can see an apartment building, ripped apart by strikes. And just outside, cars reduced to piles and burned metal.
And we've seen similar scenes of destruction in Kharkiv. This is in the east and it's Ukraine's second largest city and around the capital of Kyiv as well, a lot of destruction there in the outskirts.
British intelligence estimates that the bulk of Russian forces are now about 25 kilometers, a little over 15 miles, from Kyiv itself; said they're not in the city center but trying to encircle the capital.
Now diplomatic efforts to end the fighting appeared to hit another wall, unfortunately, on Saturday. During a call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, the German chancellor and the French president urged an immediate cease-fire.
But a French source said Mr. Putin seemed determined to continue his invasion. Meanwhile, Ukraine's president is pleading for more support from allies.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I keep reiterating to our allies and friends abroad, they have to keep doing more for our country, for Ukrainians and Ukraine because it is not only for Ukraine but it is for all of Europe.
The evil which purposefully targets peaceful cities and ambulance vans and explodes hospitals will not stop with just one country if they have the strength to keep going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: The American president, Joe Biden, just authorized additional military assistance for Ukraine after responding to urgent requests from President Zelenskyy, who you just heard from.
Mr. Biden is also trying to intensify economic pressure on Russia. That really is one of the main tools. CNN's Arlette Saenz and Joe Johns are covering these stories from Washington. Let's begin with Arlette at the White House.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the war in Ukraine in its third week, U.S. President Joe Biden ramping up the pressure on Russia.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Putin is an aggressor. He is the aggressor. And Putin must pay the price.
SAENZ: Today the president directing the State Department to draw down $200 million in the defense services for Ukraine.
And an administration official saying this will include anti-armor, anti- aircraft systems and small arms. As Russia warns the U.S. that convoys of foreign weapons would be considered legitimate targets, Biden sending a warning of his own to Russia.
BIDEN: I'm not going to speak about the intelligence but Russia would pay a severe price if they use chemicals.
SAENZ: But the president remains adamant American troops will not fight in Ukraine on the ground or in the skies.
BIDEN: We will not fight a third world war in Ukraine.
SAENZ: The leaders of France and Germany today speaking with Russia's Vladimir Putin, urging an immediate cease-fire. But Russia's bombardment of Ukraine is not letting up. Russian forces are closing in on Kyiv, with the British intelligence assessment finding the bulk of Russian ground forces located about 15 miles from the capital.
Thirty miles west of Kyiv the village of Makariv sustaining wide damage, a gaping hole in this apartment building from apparent Russian airstrikes.
Several hundred feet away the roof of a kindergarten caved in, smoke seen billowing from the building.
Russia also intensifying its attack. Heavy shelling around the southern city of Mykolaiv. Here a man seen staring at the sky as explosions are seen nearby.
Up north the head of Chernihiv Region Administration showing the destruction in his city. But the resolve of Ukrainian leaders including the country's former president remains strong.
PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We are not giving up. We are not forgive the Putin these type of things and I am absolutely confident that we will fight in every single house, every single street and every single quarter.
SAENZ: Ukraine's current president still pushing NATO to impose a no- fly zone over his country while warning his entire nation has become the front line of the war.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This war, a difficult war, has truly united our nation. If you're asking me how's the situation on the front line, there's a front line everywhere.
SAENZ: The U.S. also looking to keep the economic pressure on Russia in the wake of its attack against Ukraine. President Biden announcing the U.S., E.U. and G7 countries will call for revoking Russia's most favored nation status; essentially, allowing for the U.S. and its allies to impose tariffs on a host of Russian goods.
Now here in the U.S., that will require an act of Congress. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says her chamber will take up a vote on that next week -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.
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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Even before the president gave the green light on revoking most favored nation status for Russia, it was pretty clear that both Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate were very interested in putting a bill to that effect on the president's desk.
But the White House told them to hold off; at least, at first. That was because the president said he wanted to gin up more support from the allies. Pretty clear what they were trying to do. If the United States were to go it alone on revoking most favored
nation status for Russia, it would have a moderate effect on the Russian economy. But if a variety of different countries, including Japan, Canada, the U.K., the E.U., all did the same thing, it would have a much larger effect.
Meanwhile, a number of United States senators and a congressional delegation now in Eastern Europe, in Poland, visiting first with the ambassador there and members of the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Later on Sunday, they are expected to go visit the border -- Joe Johns, CNN, the Capitol.
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GORANI: Thanks to Arlette Saenz and Joe Johns for those reports from Washington.
Now according to the U.N., nearly 2.6 million refugees have now fled Ukraine. It's just a staggering number. So far, Germany has taken nearly -- has taken in nearly 123,000 of the displaced since the invasion began more than two weeks ago.
But Poland by far has received the highest number of refugees, more than 1.5 million. Obviously, Poland borders Ukraine to the west.
Ukraine's government says around 13,000 endangered civilians were evacuated on Saturday. But according to the deputy prime minister, no one was able to escape the besieged city of Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian troops and Russian-backed fighters as well.
A member of the Ukrainian Parliament explained to CNN the desperation and gratitude that many Ukrainians are feeling.
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KIRA RUDYK, UKRAINIAN MP: Three or four days ago, people said we are fleeing to the western cities. And right now when I'm asking them, they say, we're just fleeing somewhere, anywhere. We just want to go somewhere, we don't know where.
So they're fleeing farther to the west and then they are fleeing to Poland, which has been actually magnificent and generous with us and really accepting our people and helping them out. And I am super grateful for that.
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GORANI: Well, it is the kindness of strangers for many refugees that's been a saving grace in a time of war. CNN's Miguel Marquez introduces us to one family in Romania, trying to ease the plight of those escaping the conflict.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirty-one refugees from Ukraine under one Romanian roof, all different ages, all nationalities, all staying free of charge.
MARQUEZ: I want to show people this first, what?
This says so much.
What this is?
ALINA GREAVU, HOST TO UKRAINIAN REFUGEES: This is the shoes of our refugees and volunteers. For the moment, I think some of them are out in the city. So there might be even more shoes.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): It's a lot of everything. From laundry to home cooked borscht. Alina Greavu and her husband, Adi Kampulyan (ph), and a whole bunch of volunteers in their rural Romanian home so far have hosted more than 60 refugees from Ukraine.
Yelena Petrunina from Kharkiv has cancer.
"I was diagnosed with cancer." she says. "I was supposed to have the operation and was prepared to have it on February 24th," the day the war started.
Her surgery in Ukraine canceled. She now has it planned for Romania and is getting the support she needs from her new Romanian hosts.
Nineteen-year-old Nigerian Iman Odejobi was studying medicine and playing soccer in Ukraine. He's here, waiting for a flight to reunite with his family in Qatar.
IMAN ODEJOBI, STUDENT FORCED TO FLEE UKRAINE: I didn't expect people like this especially the Europeans. I don't really see anything like contradicting but like I didn't expect them to be this like welcoming to like --
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MARQUEZ: Because you're African?
ODEJOBI: Yes, that is one. That is one.
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MARQUEZ: Look, we've all heard the stories of Africans and Indians being treated differently on the border. But you're --
ODEJOBI: This is all completely different, all completely new and, like, I'm very like proud of them. I'm very appreciative of what they've done.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Olga Batochka and her daughter, Alona, from Kharkiv, are here waiting for a flight to Portugal to stay with relatives. Their town being pummeled by Russian rockets and artillery. Some of her Russian friends don't believe it.
OLGA BATOCHKA, UKRAINIAN REFUGES FROM KHARKIV: I know him from 4 years old. And he called me and what has happened? [01:10:00]
BATOCHKA: I say, I'm in -- underground now. I can't tell you. It's awful. We have bombs on our houses on.
Oh, it's -- can't be. Go home.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): From Kyiv, Sasha Nichmilov, his wife and five kids have nowhere else to go.
MARQUEZ: How do you explain the war to your children?
MARQUEZ (voice-over): "The older kids understand what's happening," he says.
"The younger ones don't. But even when our windows broke from the bombing, I told them it was an earthquake."
He says the war will end but can't say when or what that end will look like.
For now, refugees, volunteers, strangers --
GREAVU: We help each other, no matter our race, sex, sexual orientation, color of the skin and so on.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): -- trying to make an uncertain world a little less strange -- Miguel Marquez, CNN, Romania.
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GORANI: There are always some good people.
As the fighting grinds on, we've seen Ukrainians from all walks of life taking up arms to defend their country. Among them is Sviatoslav Yurash, the youngest member of Ukraine's parliament, and he joins me now live from Kyiv.
Thanks for being with us.
What's your experience been so far, a little more than two weeks since this Russian invasion of your country?
SVIATOSLAV YURASH, UKRAINIAN MP: Thank you very much (INAUDIBLE). The experiences that we are in Kyiv preparing for, the battle for Kyiv, we cleared all the incursions we've had in the city in the first week.
Now we are basically fighting on the outskirts of the city, trying to keep the western supply routes open, trying to prepare our capital for whatever comes. Again, it is our capital. It is the foundational city for our history. We cannot give up on it in any way.
GORANI: You're a politician.
Have you ever handled a weapon?
Were you in the military?
Or is this your first time?
YURASH: I'm by no means a soldier. I'm a rudimentary soldier at best, trying to learn skills of soldiering every single day with various people, that I try and work with in different military units. But the point is that we are organizing. We are organizing in every way we can to try and resist the Russians and whatever they throw at us.
GORANI: What is it like, going from just living a pretty ordinary civilian life to, suddenly, becoming the defender of your land in an existential battle, really?
YURASH: Well, it's not so much a choice as a reality. We are fighting against second biggest military in the world and that wants to destroy our nation, our country. The point here is that, again, we are by no means at a point of a choice.
We have to become and learn to be those soldiers that we were not just two weeks ago because, again, it is battle for our very existence, for our very independence.
GORANI: Have you been close to the front lines or, so far, have you just prepared for an eventual --
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YURASH: I've been to the front lines many times. I've been to the front lines -- almost every second day, I'm going to the front lines. My soldiering skills aren't the most useful, so my usefulness is in terms of getting -- also getting different things that soldiers need.
GORANI: And what is your expectation for what might happen?
Because the concern is that these armored vehicle columns outside of Kyiv are moving in a way that could suggest they're trying to encircle the capital.
Is that one of your worries?
YURASH: They are trying to encircle the capital. They are basically trying to cut our western supply routes. They have been going to the cities on the path to the western border with the European Union. And they are basically trying to cut our supply lines in every way.
And the battles have been raging for the last couple of days in those small towns, in and around Kyiv, that you have seen, with Russian shelling residential buildings, with tank battles unlike anything since the Second World War. And the point here is that we are basically having to defend and try and keep that supply route open.
GORANI: What do you -- I mean, I know that NATO allies and Western nations are sending weapons. The president, Zelenskyy, has called for a no-fly zone. But Western nations, including the United States, have been quite clear they do not want to explore that idea for now, worried that this might lead to a direct confrontation with Russia. [01:15:00]
GORANI: What would you like Western nations, who want to help you repel Russian invaders, to do now?
YURASH: We've said give us the means to create that no-fly zone ourselves. We're shooting down Russian planes every single day in good number.
The point is, if we have more means to do so, if we have more planes to do so, we will be able to do it much more effectively because the Russian -- (INAUDIBLE) air is not so much in terms of the effectiveness as in terms of their number.
So the point is to keep shooting down those planes and keep that ability by the Russians to cause chaos and horror in different parts of my country from realization. So the point here is that we are trying to request either the West to wake up and see the fact that it's causing a humanitarian catastrophe right now in the making.
Ukraine and the West can do something about it. Or give us the means for us to do something about it because, again, we are living through the moment, one of which you know from history, is something should never happen again.
Now it's happening again. And you can do something about it. And I'm just wondering how many pictures, how many photos and videos you have to see to realize that this is -- this is something that has to be stopped.
GORANI: And just lastly, do you have any hope -- I know that it would be a very small glimmer at this stage -- that there can be some sort of diplomatic avenue here, that Russia maybe is going to realize that its effort, that it thought would be a lightning strike, is taking much longer, that it's taking much higher losses and that perhaps there's some way of deescalating this situation on the diplomatic front?
Any hope at all, from your perspective?
YURASH: Putin has pretty much done everything possible for diplomacy not to be imaginable here. In the response, in the first response by our president to Mr. Putin's claims about the history between our countries, we've stressed diplomacy.
We've stressed our need to try and work on diplomatic solutions and steps in that direction.
But Mr. Putin launched a full-on invasion since then. The only point we've agreed on with Mr. Putin was the matter of humanitarian corridors. And he has shelled them every single time in those besieged cities all around Ukraine.
So the point here is that Mr. Putin himself doesn't want diplomacy. In a way (ph), he wants that victory. We will not give to it him. We are fighting for (INAUDIBLE) independence and we will keep fighting until we can do whatever we can to get our country to be free at last.
GORANI: All right, Sviatoslav Yurash, Ukrainian member of parliament, joining us live from Kyiv, who's taken up arms to defend his city and his country, thank you very much.
YURASH: Thank you.
GORANI: Now it's been decades since the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. And now crews are working in extreme conditions to make sure another one doesn't happen. An update on Ukraine's nuclear plants, some of which are in Russian hands right now.
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GORANI: An update now on Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The staff is basically living there. That is the word from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia plants are now under Russian control.
According to the IAEA, the Ukrainian crews are working under tremendous pressure while managing the plants. Chernobyl, you'll recall, is the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in the '80s.
The plant has lost external power, which it needs to cool used nuclear fuel and is currently running on generators. But some experts were horrified by Russian military moves near Ukrainian nuclear power plants in the first place, especially after fire broke out during a Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia plant earlier this month.
There was no release of radioactivity but the chief of the U.N. atomic energy agency said it was a close call. As Nina dos Santos reports, some experts say Russia is going after those plants for a very specific reason.
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NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR (voice-over): First, Russia seized Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear meltdown. A week later it was Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear plant.
Now with power cut from Chernobyl and more than 200 plant workers held hostage, alarm bells are ringing.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This was terror at a new level. Ukraine has 15 nuclear plants and the Russian military has forgotten Chernobyl and the world's tragedy.
RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: We cannot go on like this. There has to be clear understandings, clear commitments not to go anywhere near a nuclear facility when it comes to military operations.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Some have called the targeting of such sensitive infrastructure a war crime.
DOS SANTOS: Do you think that these nuclear plants are going to be targeted specifically?
TARAS KUZIO, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SECURITY AFFAIRS EXPERT: They are extremely callous. They don't give a damn about civilian casualties. But I'd be surprised if they were going to deliberately target with missiles or artillery nuclear power plants; although, you know, with a sociopathic President Putin, anything is possible.
JOEL RUBIN, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: It's energy extortion, nuclear energy extortion in this case. And it is also extortion of the Ukrainian people, because it's going to harm their ability to gain (ph), eat, have electricity. This is a diabolical maneuver by Vladimir Putin.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Ukraine is home to 15 nuclear facilities; with two taken already, Russian forces are now approaching Ukraine's second largest nuclear site, Yuzhnoukrainsk in the Mykolaiv oblast.
GROSSI: They've been targeted as a means to control the power supply to Ukrainian cities and towns as a way of, in turn, controlling all aspects of Ukrainian society, trying to put a stranglehold and a squeeze on Ukrainian civilians.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Nuclear power makes up almost a quarter of Ukraine's overall energy mix, after coal and natural gas, most of which ultimately comes from Russia. But oil has also been hit.
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DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Ukraine posted these images on Tuesday of fires at oil depots in Zhytomyr and Chernihiv in the northwest of the country.
The jury is out for now on what Russia's end game is with Ukraine's energy infrastructure, especially its nuclear sites. Ukraine tells the IAEA that radiation levels at these plants appear to be normal. But Western nerves have been rattled -- Nina dos Santos, CNN, in London.
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GORANI: Thousands of Ukrainians reach relative safety after getting out of cities closer to the front lines. Next, you'll see some refugees, who came under rocket fire while trying to escape.
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GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani live in Lviv, Ukraine. The Russian invasion on this country coming close to the city where
I'm standing right now. About 2.5 hours ago, Russian airstrikes hit a large military base near Lviv. It was close enough that CNN crews on the ground here could hear the explosions, about 55 kilometers, we understand, northwest of the city center.
Ukraine says Russia fired eight missiles on a base that includes a training center for peacekeeping missions. So far, no word on casualties. We'll bring you the latest when we get it.
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GORANI: Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry had released this video, reportedly showing paratroops taking over an airfield in Ukraine. Russia did not say which airfield it reportedly captured or when.
CNN could not independently confirm if the video accurately shows what's happening on the ground. This is what the Russian side is really saying.
And Ukraine's president says close to 13,000 people were evacuated from the areas near the front lines on Saturday. This video shows people who came to an area near Kyiv to get away from fighting elsewhere.
Now the footage shows people crammed in a van, you see it, desperate to get to safety. One man says his family lacked food and water and, to make things much, much worse, came under rocket attack as they tried to escape.
A dire warning from Ukraine's former leader to Russian president Vladimir Putin and his military. Petro Poroshenko spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper a short time ago from Kyiv.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Russian officials say their forces are now some 15 miles from Kyiv, slowly moving in the outskirts.
What do you make of the security situation right now in Kyiv?
Do you believe Kyiv can be encircled by Russian forces?
Do they have the capabilities?
PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Look, I'm in Kyiv, in the center of Kyiv. And you're right, maybe 15 miles we have Russian tanks. But they are not moving because Ukraine and armed forces stop them. And during the last seven days, they cannot move one single meter ahead.
But we have less and less ammunition. And we do not allow -- we are not giving up. We are not forgive the Putin these type of things.
And I am absolutely confident that we will fight in every single house, every single street and every single quarter in Kyiv, in Kharkiv, in Chernihiv, in all of the cities would be the hell for the Russian soldiers and would be, at the end of the day, the hell for Putin.
And with this situation, just the more you help us to increase the effectiveness of Ukrainian armed forces, the weaker would be Putin. And this why the security of the whole world, security of U.S., security of U.N., security of NATO would be higher.
Please, we need to be united, the same way like Putin do three mistake. Mistake number one -- he overestimate his army and we Ukrainian armed forces demonstrated that. And I am proud that me as a president created this army in the year 2014.
Point number two, he underestimate Ukrainian armed forces. And point number three, he underestimate unity of Ukraine and that he cannot blow up, cannot break our unity.
And he underestimate the unity of the whole world, because after the 24th of February, the transatlantic unity, European unity, unity of the whole world demonstrated during the General Assembly of the United Nations, with only five nations support Russia, Syria to North Korea.
And this is the basis of the support on one hand. And 141 nations support Ukraine. And Ukraine now providing the beginning, the end of the Russian empire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Petro Poroshenko speaking to Anderson a little bit earlier.
With a media blackout in Russia, many families there are desperate to find out what happened to their loved ones in the military, ordered to fight in this war. Coming up, we'll hear from workers at a Ukrainian hotline, hoping to provide answers, in an exclusive report.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. I'm Paula Newton.
Protests in support of Ukraine are going strong in many countries. Thousands of people gathered in Kyiv's twin Italian city of Florence to watch the Ukrainian president speak on a big screen.
You see it there, as flags in Ukraine's blue and yellow colors waved above their heads. And the speech broadcast to dozens of European cities holding protests. Zelenskyy called for more sanctions against Moscow and a no-fly zone, he says. Ukrainians also gathered in Israel -- and they gathered with Israelis
in Tel Aviv to denounce the invasion and chant slogans. Many of them had that same message for Russia.
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SASHA LORIA, PROTESTER: Just go out of Ukraine. Just leave those people alone. They're normal people. They don't want war. They don't want anything. They just want independence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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NEWTON (voice-over): And hundreds packed a historic square in Munich with signs saying, "Stop Putin" and "Putin kills Ukrainians" and comparing the Russian president to the brutal Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: A Ukrainian government hotline is aiming to help ordinary Russians find their loved ones sent off to war. Many of them are desperate to find out what's happened to troops, since Moscow tightly controls information about them at home. CNN's Alex Marquardt spoke with workers at the hotline in Kyiv in this exclusive report.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Hello, is this where one can find out if someone is alive?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Hello, do you have any information about my husband?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Sorry to bother you, I'm calling regarding my brother.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): These are the voices of Russians -- parents, wives, siblings, desperately searching for answers, calling to find information, anything, on Russian soldiers they lost contact with who are fighting in Ukraine, who may be wounded, captured or even killed.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): When was the last time he contacted you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): On the 23rd of February, when he crossed the border into Ukraine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Did he tell you where he was going?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): He said toward Kyiv. MARQUARDT (voice-over): This Russian wife, like many others, has turned to an unlikely source for help, the Ukrainians. In a Ukrainian government building, Kristina, which is her alias, is in charge of a hotline called Come Back from Ukraine Alive, which Ukraine's interior ministry says has gotten over 6,000 calls. Kristina asked that we don't show her face.
MARQUARDT: Your country is being invaded but you also feel the need to help these Russian families.
Why?
KRISTINA, HOTLINE OPERATOR (from captions): We will help find their relatives who were deceived and who without knowing where and why they are going -- find themselves in our country.
And, secondly, we will help to stop the war in general. In Russia they don't know what's actually going on in Ukraine. So the second goal of this hotline is to deliver the truth.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): The Russian relatives who have called this hotline say they haven't heard from their soldiers since the invasion. The hotline, which Russian families have found on social media or through word of mouth, gave CNN exclusive recordings of a number of the calls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): This is not our fault. Please, understand that they were forced.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Yes, I understand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): I also want this to end. I want everyone to live in peace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Yes.
MARQUARDT: What are some of the calls that stick out to you that you remember the most?
KRISTINA (from captions): A father called.
MARQUARDT: It's OK.
KRISTINA (from captions): He said, our children are being used as cannon fodder. Politicians and VIPs are playing their games, solving their issues while our children have to die.
MARQUARDT: These are the notes from one of the calls. And, in fact, this call came from the United States, the relative of a young Russian soldier trying to find him.
She told the Ukrainians that his parents are no longer alive, that the grandmother in Russia is quite sick. We have his birthday; he's just 23 years old. And he was last known to be in Crimea right before the invasion. Now the Ukrainians don't have any information on him but, if they do
find him or get some information, they can then call his aunt back in the United States.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Data from the hotline shows thousands of calls, not just from all across Russia but also from Europe and the United States.
MARQUARDT: Hello, is this Marat?
MARAT, FAMILY MEMBER OF RUSSIAN SOLDIER: Yes, it is.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): We got through to three relatives in the United States of Russian soldiers believed to be in Ukraine, who called the hotline, including a relative in Virginia of one, who also found the soldier's ID and photos on a channel of the social media app, Telegram, also dedicated to finding the whereabouts of Russian soldiers.
MARAT: We do realize that all the signs are pointing to that it's most likely he was killed in action but still trying to locate information, where is the body that can be potentially found. Or maybe, hopefully, he's alive.
MARQUARDT: Is the Russian ministry of defense telling anything to the family?
MARAT: The family is trying to not get contacted by anybody just because everybody's so scared in Russia. Everyone is scared to talk. Everyone's afraid of the law enforcement agencies tracking them.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Marina told us her cousin's parents have had no contact with him, no information on whereabouts or on his condition.
MARQUARDT: Are they being told anything?
MARINA, FAMILY MEMBER OF RUSSIAN SOLDIER: No, no they called. They tried to find him but like no one is answer.
MARQUARDT: Is that why you called this Ukrainian hotline?
MARINA: Yes, that's why I tried to call. Yes.
MARQUARDT: Did you get any information?
MARINA: Nyet. Nothing. I was, you know, hoping that he is like maybe like in prison or something like that, you know, that he's still alive.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): The vast majority of the calls do not result in immediate information for the families. Back in Kyiv, Kristina makes clear that the call center isn't just designed to offer answers but to galvanize Russians against the war.
KRISTINA (from captions): The more people we can share the truth about what's happening in Ukraine with the more people will go out protesting and demanding to stop this bloodshed.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Sympathy for families.
[01:45:00]
MARQUARDT (voice-over): But also one more way to try to undermine the Russian war effort as Ukraine fights for its very existence -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Kyiv.
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NEWTON: Earlier I spoke with Jill Dougherty, who covered Russia for years as CNN's Moscow bureau chief, is now a Georgetown University professor. I asked what she's hearing from Russians about this conflict.
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JILL DOUGHERTY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AND WILSON CENTER: I think it depends on what Russians you are talking about. So if you take, let's say, the voters for Vladimir Putin, which would be, you know, middle- aged people who are not necessarily on the internet, big Putin supporters, they are watching Russian state television.
And what they are getting is a diametrically different vision of what is happening in Ukraine. They are not seeing the death and destruction in the main part of Ukraine, in Kyiv and some of the other cities.
They are seeing, you know, the war in the Donbas region, in which Russians have been under attack. And, you know, of course, the Kremlin is saying it's genocide, which is not correct.
But in any case, they are seeing a very distorted picture of really what is happening overall in Ukraine. So what they think is that Russia is defending Russia, that Ukraine is being used as a tool by NATO and the United States to attack Russia.
So those people are on board with Putin, at least at this point. Then, you have younger people, people who are more open to the West, who are on the internet all the time. And they have a different view.
In fact, of course, we have seen these protests against the war. And people are sometimes quite brutally arrested or at least detained. So it depends on who they are.
But I think the factor that will have an effect will be these sanctions because, you know, ideological support for the president is one thing.
But when the rubber hits the road or, as they say, the refrigerator issues come out and people really are dealing with an economy that's tanking, products that they can't buy, massive inflation, they may very well decide this is not worth it.
Now my question is, who will they blame?
Will it be Putin?
Or will it be the West?
And we don't really know that yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Switching gears here, it's been two years since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. After the break, a status check: where it's still raging and where people are trying to get back to normal.
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[01:50:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh. Oh, my God, oh, my God. Oh.
NEWTON (voice-over): Yes, terrifying. That's a waterspout coming onshore in Florida Saturday. At least two tornadoes were reported in the state.
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NEWTON: Now the storm's at the tail end of a strong winter storm system that has more than 25 million people across the southern United States under freeze warnings.
Now police in New York are looking for the suspect in a knife attack at the city's famous Museum of Modern Art. Authorities say a 60-year- old white male, a regular visitor at the museum, in fact, stabbed two employees in the neck, back and collarbone.
He had been denied entry because of two previous incidents of disorderly behavior at the museum. Police say he became angry, jumped the reception desk and stabbed the employees. Two victims were rushed to the hospital and, thankfully, are expected to survive.
Now two years ago -- yes, two years ago -- the world entered a global pandemic and now some countries are trying to phase out some of those COVID restrictions while others are having to reimplement them. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON (voice-over): Just over two years ago, the World Health Organization confirmed what we all feared: the virus spreading across the globe would only get worse.
DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
NEWTON (voice-over): First identified in Wuhan, China, the virus has snaked across continents for two years, rising up in different epicenters, retreating, then reinventing itself in the form of more contagious variants.
Now as many parts of the world are relaxing their coronavirus restrictions, some parts of China seem like they're going back to square one.
On Saturday the mainland recorded the highest number of new daily cases since the pandemic began, triggering new rounds of mass testing in major cities, targeted lockdowns and some schools back to online learning.
In Hong Kong hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients in the latest and most deadly wave of the virus there. There have been about 3,700 deaths in Hong Kong since 2020, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with most of them in the last three weeks, though there are signs infections are peaking.
Photos on social media show body bags piling up inside a COVID-19 hospital ward. City officials say the high number of deaths is due to unvaccinated senior citizens and say they they've added more space to store the bodies.
There was a time two years ago Italy faced similar dire conditions. But it's almost like a bad dream the country is only now waking up from. Today, people walking mask-free outdoors and the Italian prime minister says they will soon end the COVID-19 state of emergency.
Hard-hit New York City, once the epicenter of the virus in the U.S., also rolling back its COVID-19 restrictions. No more mask mandates in schools and no more vaccine requirements in restaurants and gyms.
[01:55:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My whole family of five had it, took six weeks to get better so -- but I'm generally happy. I think it's positive that we could all move in that direction.
NEWTON (voice-over): A world wounded and scarred, trying to get back to what it once was. But with more than 6 million people lost and the virus still on the move, there is really no telling how long this lull will last.
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NEWTON: We go from one global emergency to another.
Back to Ukraine now. We want to show you what was a moving and somber moment earlier this week in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when a violinist performed inside a bomb shelter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON (voice-over): It's haunting, isn't it?
Now underneath a makeshift spotlight in a concert dress, this professional violinist performed underground as Russian forces attacked the city overhead.
Vera Lytovchenko has been posting videos of herself, playing on Instagram, saying this tune is a song her grandmother would sing at family gatherings. The violinist has no plans she says to leave Kharkiv.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: There's so much grief and loss there still. I'm Paula Newton. Stay with us. Our continuing coverage of the conflict in Ukraine begins right after the break.
