Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Russia Intensifies Attacks On Ukrainian Cities, Moving Closer To Kyiv; Zelenskyy: Russia Will Be Held Responsible; U.S. Looks To End Russia's "Most Favored Nation" Trade Status; Protests Across The World Supporting Ukraine; E.U. Leaders Ask Putin For Immediate Cease- Fire; Women Work Around The Clock For Ukraine's Defenders; Russian Missiles Hit Military Base Near Lviv; Letter "Z" Emerges As Pro- Russian Invasion Symbol; Chinese State Media Pushing Russian Misinformation; Ukrainian Foster Care Workers Fear For Safety Of Children; Kyiv City Ballet Stranded In Paris; Remembering The Victims Of The Atlanta Spa Shootings. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired March 13, 2022 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world and in the United States this hour. I'm Hala Gorani, live in Lviv, Ukraine. And we begin with breaking news right here in Ukraine.
Within the last few hours, our CNN teams here in Lviv heard multiple explosions in the city's outskirts, about 55 kilometers northwest of our position here. Ukrainian officials tell us Russian forces fired eight missiles toward a military base outside the city.
It comes as Ukraine's president says that all of Ukraine is now a front line, as Russian troops intensify their attacks and strikes hammer civilian areas as well as military targets.
Now take a look at this video, specifically at the upper left corner in this surveillance footage from Saturday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI (voice-over): You can see two explosions hitting very close to an apartment building in the city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea. Also on Saturday, we learned that seven civilians were killed while trying to flee a village near Kyiv.
And the U.N. says at least so far 579 civilians, including 42 children, have been killed since this Russian invasion started but cautions that the actual number is likely higher.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: New developments in the southeastern city of Melitopol. CNN has now learned that a new mayor has been installed in the city, which is currently under Russian control. This would be a pro-Russian mayor, because we previously reported that the city's elected mayor, who had defied the Russians, was abducted by armed men.
And in other developments, efforts to evacuate civilians from some of the hardest hit cities continued on Saturday. The government says close to 13,000 people were evacuated. In all, the U.N. says more than 2.5 million refugees have now fled the fighting in Ukraine.
This as Ukraine's president urged citizens to keep up the fight as Russia's invasion continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have to stand firm and keep on fighting. Every night and every day we should be fighting for ways to destroy, to harm the enemy, in all the directions.
We will achieve and we will reach what's ours so that all the occupiers and all the collaborators will know that Ukraine will not forget, never, nothing. Ukraine will not forget. Ukraine will find them and will call them to responsibility, each one of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, on Saturday the United States pledged another $200 million in immediate military aid for Ukraine. The announcement came the same day that Moscow warned that any foreign weapons shipment into the country would be a considered a legitimate target for Russian forces.
For more let's bring in Salma Abdelaziz, joining me here in Lviv.
On those oil and gas attacks, first of all, that we heard from our position here and attacks overall intensifying throughout the country, what are you learning?
Salma, can you hear me?
All right, we're having some audio issues there.
(CROSSTALK)
GORANI: There she is. Go ahead. Talk to us about those overnight strikes we heard not far from our position and overall advances --
(CROSSTALK)
GORANI: Yes.
Salma?
All right, we're going to move on from Salma, we're going to reconnect with her and we will get to her as soon as we can re-establish contact. Now, I want to bring in Russian French journalist Elena Servettaz.
She's a newscaster at Radio France International in Paris, where she covers international affairs, corruption and money laundering. And she joins me now live.
And she's also the author of the book, "Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law: Should the E.U. Follow the U.S.?"
Elena, you're in Geneva, Switzerland. First, you've been following Russian public opinion inside the country. They're being fed a very different media diet to what we see in Western countries where there's a free press.
What is Russian opinion on this war inside the country?
ELENA SERVETTAZ, RUSSIAN FRENCH JOURNALIST: Thank you for having me.
[03:05:00]
In fact, it's very difficult to answer this question because there is like two types of, I'd say, Russian people, Russians. There are some people and they think, unfortunately, the biggest part is that they don't even know the war that you and me are seeing now from the West, from our TVs and newspapers, et cetera.
They're seeing Vladimir Putin came to Ukraine to liberate, to denazify, to make this Ukrainian people free from Nazis, et cetera. And they really believe in this. They never saw kids dying, hospital bombing, all these refugees. Nothing exists for those people in Russia.
And there are very few Russian people, who are following independent media for all this period. And they saw exactly the same type of covering as all normal Western people were having, you know, in all these democratic country.
So now it's very difficult to remember with all these polls (ph) -- you can imagine if someone calling you and asking you a question about, will you support Vladimir Putin in this action?
You don't know who is calling, why he's calling, so you'll never give your truth opinion. It's like in Soviet times, my parents were describing me, my grandparents were describing these situations, quite similar, to me.
So yes, I'm afraid there's some people that don't know and there's some people that don't care, that will support Putin in every step he takes.
GORANI: But, I mean, presumably they're experiencing the economic impact of these sanctions. They're seeing people line up at ATMs, at cash machines. They have the internet.
I mean how much of it is getting through, though, in Russia, from what you're hearing? SERVETTAZ: They don't have internet at all, starting from, like, recent -- last week. And anyway, they were all the time exposed to another type of internet information. OK, there is people next -- near the cash machine.
But they will always say that it is Americans, Europeans who made them suffer, not Vladimir Putin and not because of his steps in Ukraine, not because of the war.
It's again because all Western world is hating Russians and Russia, which is not true, of course. So they still have something to eat. That's why you don't see so much people on the street.
And Russia are not Ukrainians, you know. We have this very different point from Ukrainians. They were all the time on the square until the power has changed because they were not happy.
Russians will never do this. They will come with some, you know, banners, saying that we want Putin away. Once you are arrested, you cannot do anything. Now it's very dangerous --
(CROSSTALK)
SERVETTAZ: -- and Russia will not speak with ...
GORANI: We saw thousands of arrests there. We even saw an arrest of a woman holding up a blank piece of paper. That goes to show you how little tolerance there is for any kind of dissent right now.
What about the well-traveled, affluent -- I mean we call them oligarchs -- but that whole class of Russians, who's benefited from this Putin leadership over the last few years?
They're seeing their lives severely impacted.
Can that have an impact, do you think, on Putin's calculations at all?
Because he seems absolutely unwilling to deviate from this path that he's set, to attack this country.
SERVETTAZ: That's correct. It's estimated that private Russian assets abroad range from $800 billion to $1 trillion. And with the biggest part of this, was likely linked to Vladimir Putin.
But it's impossible for those people to come in front of Vladimir Putin and to ask him to stop. No one can do this; no one in Russia, at least. And as we saw recently, no one in Europe, neither.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, tried it many times and each time it's failed. He's done his best. So there is no one person in the world who can stop Putin today. I mean, you, in America, you had passed this House resolution, which is called I guess 806, which focuses on the initiative.
[03:10:00] SERVETTAZ: It's saying that recent constitution amendment in Russia were illegitimate, not legal. And so this can be a very nice tool for Russian authorities to react.
If you pass this law and you pass this resolution and you will, who's saying that any attempt remain into power after 2024 will be illegal. And Putin will not be recognized, as Nicolas Maduro and Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. That maybe will be helpful to us.
GORANI: All right, Elena Servettaz, thank you so much for joining us on CNN. We appreciate it.
Let's go back to CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, she's here in Lviv.
And overnight, a little before 6:00 am, we heard a series of explosions not far from our position here. Tell us more about what happened, because here we are, we are basically close to the Polish border.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And this is, again, part of this intensification, this widening of the Russian attack, the Russian invasion on this country that had so far really focused on the east.
We are now seeing strikes on the West. The latest as you said just after 6:00 am near the Polish border, a base, essentially, a really big base that's been used for training Ukrainian soldiers in the past.
American troops have been there in past years as well to help with their Ukrainian allies. So this is a very important and strategic military position for the Ukrainian military. Now we don't know details on where the strike hit, what is the infrastructure damage, what are the casualties but the Ukrainian authorities are looking into that.
But again, it begins to beg that question, Hala, of what is the military objective here for president Vladimir Putin?
You are seeing now a very wide ranging offensive that stretches all across the country, almost taking you to the Polish border. And, of course, for families here in Lviv, who came because this is the safe haven, who fled places where there was bombardment, who believed that here they could have relative safety, that begins to add more fears, more doubts, many of them waking up to the sounds of air raid sirens last night, spending yet another sleepless night in bomb shelters, calming their children down.
And, of course, continuing fears for the capital, Kyiv, there. The noose of those Russian troops appears to be tightening, Russian forces just about 15 miles from the city limits of Kyiv.
Western intelligence saying that Russian troops are preparing to besiege that city. Now that's not simple; it's not going to happen overnight. There are, of course, Ukrainian resistance. But it does, of course, add to more concerns, more fears for the capital.
GORANI: All right, Salma, thanks very much.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's refusal to back down to Russia has inspired his fellow country men and women as well as many people around the world.
He's repeatedly made calls for the West to do more to back Ukraine and has used the power of social media to unite his country and to send his message around the world in Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENSKYY (through translator): We are all united in one dream, to live peacefully in our land. And we have the right -- the right that everyone has -- to fight for a peaceful sky and for their own land.
The world has always loved those who fight against evil. And now resistance of the entire Ukrainian people has inspired people across the world, millions of people, who, only 17 days ago, maybe didn't even feel that they had anything in common with us.
But it's obvious now, peace, freedom, love for our children; children, for the sake of whom we are fighting so that they can have a future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Well, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy there on how the Ukrainian people are united in one dream to live peacefully. And certainly his approval and the support for the Ukrainian leader has increased dramatically, as people look to him for inspiration during this very difficult time.
Will it be diplomacy or economic sanctions that end the conflict?
The leaders of France and Germany spoke to the one man who knows, Vladimir Putin.
What came out of their conversation?
We'll tell you next. Plus a group of women in Lviv are helping troops on the front lines from behind the scenes. CNN talks to those women ahead.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:15:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
GORANI: You're looking at the Russian embassy in Lisbon, Portugal. Protesters lit it up in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine's flag. Portugal is one of several countries giving special status for Ukrainians coming to the country, meaning they won't need a visa to enter. The government has other services available to refugees as well. A
different type of demonstration in Florence, Italy. Thousands packed into one of the city's biggest squares to show their support for Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, actually addressed the crowd, not in person but on a big JumboTron. He told supporters what happens to Ukraine will eventually effect all of Europe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENSKYY (through translator): In interviews I am always asked how Europe can help Ukraine. But I would like to formulate this question differently and that is how Europe can help itself, because this war is not only against our people but against the values that unite us, against our way of life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, during a 75-minute phone call on Saturday, the leaders of Germany and France urged the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to declare a cease-fire in Ukraine. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, appealed to Vladimir Putin.
[03:20:00]
GORANI: The source added Mr. Putin still seemed determined to achieve his objectives in Ukraine but the fact he's still talking means a diplomatic solution is not out of the question. I guess that's the best we can hope for now. Melissa Bell joins us live now from Paris with the details.
So obviously a disappointing outcome, a disappointing assessment of the call. But 75 minutes is not a short and snappy conversation.
What more do we know?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know what the source was willing to say. So as you mentioned, the idea that, in the end, he seemed determined, it had been just a couple of days since Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron last spoke to President Putin.
The idea is that some dialogue is better than none. So there was little tangible progress. But it did give some sense of his state of mind. Determined was how it was described, one adjective used.
But also the source said, this time, the rhetoric had changed a little bit. There was no more talk of denazification, which had been such a theme of Vladimir Putin's when he spoke of Ukraine.
And the source suggested there seemed to be some progress in that and again, as you mentioned, the very idea he should continue talking. But there was also, at the end of the phone call, a sense that sufficiently little had been achieved. That, the source said, Europeans were already looking ahead to next
week, where they're going to be getting together their delegations in Brussels, Hala, to look at what further sanctions can be deployed.
The United States we know are seeing a bill go through Congress, a bill introduced to try and place secondary sanctions on any American company that might help Russians transact their gold reserves, those $130 billion worth of gold reserves that the central bank holds.
That's the next target, from the point of view of the United States. From the point of view of Europeans, we don't know exactly what they have planned. There have been several rounds of sanctions, as you know, targeting the financial sector, targeting individual oligarchs and those close to Vladimir Putin.
Targeting also now trade, since now that Russia has been removed from its preferred nation status by both Europeans and the United States, that still has to go through Congress in the U.S., by the way. But Joe Biden has announced that's his intention.
It means the governments can now target trade. For instance, the European Union announcing it was going to stop, as of yesterday, the export of luxury goods, the import of iron and steel.
Sanctions already in place are crippling the Russian economy. The idea is that, as this war continues to progress, as those -- as the Russian forces continue to advance, so, too, will the West continue with sanctions that continue to ratchet up the pressure -- Hala.
GORANI: All right, Melissa Bell in Paris, thanks so much.
CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke to the women preparing care packages and supplies for the soldiers and their families in need.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): In a volunteer center in Lviv, moms, whose husbands and children have taken up arms, gather supplies for those fighting further east.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We understand we need to hold strong, like a fist, like this. And we have very strong faith. We believe that we will win and this will hold us together.
COOPER (voice-over): Irena works for a group called Angel on your Shoulder. She has recruited more than 100 women to pack boxes around the clock.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nonstop, nonstop.
COOPER (voice-over): Everything is donated: medicine and toiletries, all kinds of prepackaged food.
COOPER: They're looking for things which are easy to prepare, you can just add water to for troops at the front or families.
COOPER (voice-over): Nothing stays here for long. The work is hard; the war is harder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).
COOPER (voice-over): Angela's husband left for the front yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband left yesterday.
COOPER (voice-over): He's a doctor, a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
COOPER: Does it help to work here, to stay busy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We are doing what we can. We keep on praying. People ask how you are not crying. But you know, crying doesn't help. Each person does what they can.
COOPER (voice-over): Angela is in the reserves as well but, for now, he's taking care of her family and volunteering.
COOPER: Thank you for your strength. You give me and everybody strength.
ANGELA, VOLUNTEER (through translator): Thank you very much.
[03:25:00]
COOPER (voice-over): In another building, more mothers, more volunteers making camouflage netting to hide tanks and artillery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Let me teach you.
Do you see?
Just like this.
COOPER (voice-over): Alina's son is already in the fight.
COOPER: What made you want to come here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We need to protect our country. It is difficult to speak. My son is in the army since 2015. I didn't want to let him go and he said, who will go if not me?
How will I be able to say to people that I hid and sheltered?
So he left. And it was extremely difficult for me.
COOPER (voice-over): Many in this room have had to flee their homes in Kharkiv and Kyiv. They wonder when the bombs will fall here.
COOPER: If you could talk to mothers in Russia, what would you tell them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I would tell them to take their sons back. We are all so sorry for them. They are also humans. Human life was created by God. How can it be taken away, just like that?
They will be judged and face punishment for this. You cannot do this. Let them take their kids.
COOPER (voice-over): This war has many fronts and, for mothers, there aren't many ways to fight -- Anderson Cooper, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, if you would like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food or water, go to cnn.com/impact. There you can find several organizations that we've vetted and several ways you can help, if you'd like to contribute.
When we come back, a single letter, not even found in the Russian alphabet, has become a potent symbol of the war in Ukraine. What it is and what it means to pro-war Russians -- next.
Plus, how Chinese state media is pushing a pro-Kremlin narrative amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
GORANI: Welcome back. I'm Hala Gorani live from Lviv, Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of this country is coming closer to the city where I'm standing right now. This morning, Russian airstrikes hit a large military base near the city center of Lviv, about 55 kilometers northwest or so. They were close enough that CNN crews on the ground could hear the explosions.
We're also hearing that an airport in the Western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk had its infrastructure, I should say, almost completely destroyed by a Russian airstrike, according to the city's mayor.
Now according to preliminary information, there are no casualties in that attack. Ukraine says Russia fired eight missiles on a base that includes a training center for peacekeeping missions near Lviv. So far no word on casualties on that attack.
But you can see on the map just how close that training center is to the Polish border. Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry has released this video, reportedly showing paratroopers taking over an airfield in Ukraine. Now Russia did not say which airfield it reportedly captured or when.
And CNN could not independently confirm if the video accurately shows what's happening on the ground. This is being released on the Russian side.
The humanitarian situation, meanwhile, is rapidly deteriorating inside this of country. It's gotten so bad even the Russian military is acknowledging it. The defense ministry in Moscow is describing the humanitarian situation in some cities as reaching, quote, "catastrophic proportions."
But they went onto blame Ukraine for its own problems, not their own unprovoked war and attacks on major cities. And as Russia tries to shift the blame, remember, just weeks ago, they said they weren't even going to invade at all.
Now we've heard from the politicians and other leaders about dealing with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But what do the Russian people think?
Our former CNN Moscow bureau chief, Jill Dougherty, tells CNN what she's hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL DOUGHERTY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AND WILSON CENTER: 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)
GORANI: All right, Jill Dougherty there.
Now a new pro-war symbol has emerged in Russia and it's a symbol of division between those that believe Russia is right in invading Ukraine and really most everyone else who sees it as pure aggression. Phil Black shows us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's impossible not to notice. Many of the Russian vehicles invading Ukraine carry a distinctive mark.
[03:35:00]
BLACK (voice-over): Trucks, tanks, fighting, engineering and logistical vehicles, they are advancing through Ukraine with the letter "Z" painted conspicuously in white.
The people being invaded have noticed. Here in the Eastern Ukrainian town of Kopianz (ph), an angry crowd swarms after and attacks a single vehicle. It's only obvious connection to the war, the letter "Z."
ARIC TOLER, RESEARCH AND TRAINING, BELLINGCAT: It's almost certainly some kind of tactical grouping. There's a million different theories about what the "Z" means. But I think it's just marking, just easy to do, easy thing to mark. It's like a square or triangle.
BLACK: In a war, where the wannabe conquerors are not flying their national flag, that single character has taken on a special significance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK: At a recent gymnastics World Cup even, 20-year-old Russian competitor, Ivan Kuliak, accepted his bronze medal wearing a "Z" prominently on his chest. He was standing next to a Ukrainian athlete.
The sports governing body described it as shocking behavior.
But how do you describe this?
Terminally ill children and their carers formed a giant "Z" outside a hospice in the Russian city of Kazan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's disgusting that the state is co-opting young children to be propaganda mechanisms for their war.
BRIAN KLAAS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON: It's dangerous when small little symbols become proxies for being a loyal citizen in an authoritarian regime during the time of war. Because those who don't wear it, those who don't show the "Z," could be targeted by the state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK: And in this highly produced propaganda video, Russian men wearing that letter declare their support for the invasion. Chanting, "For Russia, for the president, for Russia, for Putin."
An aerial shot shows a giant "Z" made from the orange and Black at the St. George's River. A traditional symbol of Russian military glory usually associated with a victory over Nazi, Germany.
By accident or design, a character that doesn't feature in Russia's alphabet has become an iconic symbol of Putin's invasion and the propaganda campaign to win support among his people -- Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: In China, government officials have attempted to stake out a seemingly neutral position on the war in Ukraine in public remarks and at international meetings. But much of China's domestic media coverage of Russia's invasion tells a much more one-sided story. David Culver is in Shanghai.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): China's national broadcaster, CCTV, looking increasingly like Russian state television these days, its anchors parroting the Kremlin, calling the invasion of Ukraine "a special military operation."
Its stories highlighting Moscow's grievances against Kyiv and its Western allies, along with Russia's military presence on the battlefield. They rarely mention the fierce resistance and growing suffering in wartorn Ukraine.
Publicly, Beijing stresses its impartiality in the conflict, even indicating its willingness to be a mediator. Coverage in its strictly controlled state and social media tells a very different story.
CNN combing through Chinese TV and digital news reports in the first eight days of the Russian attack, along with thousands of social media posts from the outlets.
CULVER: Our findings: China has largely adopted Russia's talking points, actively helping the Kremlin disseminate its version of the bloody war to millions here and beyond.
CULVER (voice-over): The Chinese foreign ministry has yet to respond to our request for comment. But remember, Russian president Vladimir Putin's last foreign visit, before he launched the invasion, was here to China.
Following the 38th meeting between Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 and just hours before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics the two governments declared a partnership with no limits.
China and Russia's increasingly close ties had included coordinating their message on the global stage. Such coordination, it now appears, has drawn Beijing into playing an important role in the Kremlin's disinformation campaign.
On February 26th, after two nights of Russian bombardment, Zelenskyy shared a video of himself on the streets of Kyiv. Russian officials quickly alleged that Zelenskyy had fled the country and the video was prerecorded.
Less than 15 minutes later, CCTV flashed a news alert, claiming, "Zelenskyy has left Kyiv," initially without any attribution. More than 160 Chinese state media outlets reposted the CCTV alert, "#RussiaSaysZelenskyyHasLeftKyiv" later got more than 510 million views on Chinese social media, Weibo. And yet it was not true.
Perhaps most damning, an internal memo reportedly from state-run publication "Beijing News" surfaced online two days before the Russian invasion even started. The memo directed staff not to publish anything negative about Russia or pro West.
[03:40:00]
CULVER (voice-over): It was mistakenly posted on the outlet's social media account before being set to private and eventually deleted.
CNN research has found that China's major state media outlets appear to be following that playbook. Of the most retweeted posts on Weibo from February 24th through March 3rd, more than 46 percent contained pro-Russia comments, compared to less than 5 percent with pro-Ukraine statements.
Roughly 35 percent of the posts included attacks on the U.S. and its allies.
With reports by Russia state media outlets being banned in many Western nations and Moscow enacting its own great firewall to censor dissenting voices domestically, Chinese state media is spreading and amplifying Putin's narrative on air and online around the clock and across the globe -- David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani in Lviv, Ukraine. Thank you so much for watching. Paula Newton continues our coverage after a break.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Foster children from cities in Ukraine under Russian bombardment have been moved to relative safety in Lviv. But those caring for them fear how long the safety will last as Russian forces, as we've been telling you, advance closer to the city. Michael Holmes has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a government-run children's shelter in Lviv in Western Ukraine, kids being kids. No parents looking after them, though.
They're foster children from troubled homes, among several hundred evacuated here, from places where Russian shells are falling. They're safe for now but already scarred by this war.
SVITLANA HARVYLIUK, FOSTER CARE DIRECTOR (through translator): We could tell those kids we're very worried when they had arrived. When they heard the first siren here during the day, some had a panic attack. They were looking at me with their scared eyes, shaking from anxiety.
[03:45:00]
HOLMES (voice-over): Several humanitarian organizations are helping shelters like this take care of the children and the many more, who will come in the days and weeks ahead. The Russian military not in this part of the country yet.
HARVYLIUK (through translator): We are ready. We only hope that the situation doesn't get worse here, because then we will have to move somewhere with all those kids, too, and it is scary. They're just kids.
HOLMES: Now compared to other parts of the country, the city of Lviv has remained free of the shelling and missiles. But they're preparing for what could be to come. There's more security, there's more patrols and checkpoints. Even some of this beautiful, historic city's statues are being wrapped to protect them from war.
HOLMES (voice-over): John Shmorhun is a Ukrainian American living here, working with an NGO, the Ukrainian Education Platform, providing humanitarian assistance for people headed to the borders but also helping those who have left their homes but don't want to leave their country, the internally displaced.
JOHN SHMORHUN, VOLUNTEER, UKRAINIAN EDUCATION PLATFORM: I think the city is preparing for the worst and are ready. I mean, we see thousands of people coming into Lviv today, of families that are looking for a place to stay.
And I think one of the objectives for the families, for the children, is to provide the necessary accommodations, so they don't have to become refugees and go abroad.
HOLMES (voice-over): Lviv, a city so far spared the physical impact of war but ready for when that war might arrive -- Michael Holmes, CNN, Lviv, Western Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: So it started off as a quick tour but now members of Kyiv City Ballet are stranded abroad, helplessly watching Ukraine fight the Russian invasion from afar. As CNN's Jim Bittermann reports, many of the dancers say they just want to go home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 34 dancers of the Kyiv City Ballet troupe practiced and trained for weeks before coming to France on tour. But no rehearsals could have prepared them for the news that they saw the day after they arrived in Paris.
Their country was being invaded and they found themselves with no direction home. In the days that have followed, they've nearly completed their scheduled tour. But stranded abroad now, they face an uncertain future.
Dr. Ivan Kozlov says all of his troupe, some as young as 18 years old, want to go back because of families and friends, who are now under fire at home.
But he knows how dangerous that would be.
IVAN KOZLOV, BALLET DIRECTOR: The most good thing they can do is a dance to provide Ukraine to show Ukrainian heart, to show Ukrainian culture from the stage, to show to our audience to share our culture. And we call ourselves the warriors on the stage.
BITTERMANN (voice-over): But if they are warriors, they are warriors practically without uniforms.
BITTERMANN: The dancers came here expecting only a brief tour with only the costumes for "The Nutcracker" performance and no scenic backdrops or stage props. For now, they're continuing performing around France by borrowing everything right down to replacement ballet shoes.
BITTERMANN (voice-over): Olga Posternak and Mykhailo Scherbakov, two of the ballet company's star performers, have toured abroad before. But this is different. Neither can stand being apart from their families, knowing that they are increasingly under the Russian boot.
MYKHAILO SCHERBAKOV, BALLET DANCER: At this moment, I understand that I am safe here but, still, I want to return home.
BITTERMANN (voice-over): Olga says there are times when she steps off stage and breaks into tears.
OLGA POSTERNAK, BALLET DANCER: All my family is in Ukraine. What I am without my family, nothing. Sometimes I feel like I'm shame because I'm here. I want to help them.
BITTERMANN (voice-over): As the mayor of Paris said at the ballet's fundraiser, creativity is its own form of resistance. The French are helping the dance company stay, lending them what they need, trying to arrange performances and giving them a dance home at one of the most prestigious theaters in Paris.
The dancers from Kyiv closed up the program not dancing but singing the words to the Ukrainian national anthem, the kind of cultural identity and patriotism Vladimir Putin wants to crush. But in their own small way, thousand miles from home, the dancers are helping to keep it alive.
[03:50:00]
BITTERMANN (voice-over): Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, it was one year ago, when eight people were senselessly killed at Atlanta area spas. After the break, we hear from family members on how the tragedy has affected them.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
NEWTON: It's been almost a year since a gunman went on a rampage at three spas in and around Atlanta, Georgia, killing eight people. Six of the victims were Asian women. CNN's Nadia Romero was at the memorial for the victims and looks back at the tragedy one year ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What an emotional ceremony it was at Blackburn Park in Atlanta, to remember the victims and the families of the victims who lost their lives almost a year ago at three metro Atlanta spas. Asian Spas is where it happened and six out of the eight victims were Asians.
And that's where we saw rallies sparking here in Atlanta and all across the country to stop Asian hate. Everyone who came out here today was given a flower to lay down at this statue and to take a moment to remember those victims.
[03:55:00]
ROMERO: And we heard from the son of one victim. He's still grieving, he says, for the loss of his mother and the impact it had on the entire community. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT PETERSON, YONG AE YUE'S SON: My mom was more than her ethnicity. She was more than her job and she was more than the way she was killed. Some have said this pain will go away and I will smile again.
But, unfortunately, to be honest, that day has yet to come. Life after this tragedy has been about grieving, healing and reflection. But this past year has not been easy.
Our family not only grieves on March 16th but every day because of the continued trauma that we see on our television and the increasing violence against AAPI communities and hate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMERO: The shooter, Robert Aaron Long, already convicted and sentenced to four consecutive life sentences plus 35 years without the possibility of parole in Cherokee County, he faces additional charges, including enhanced hate crime charges in Fulton County. He has his next court hearing scheduled for next month -- Nadia Romero, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: I'm Paula Newton at CNN Center in Atlanta. We'll have more of our breaking news coverage in just a moment.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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 around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I want to get straight to our breaking news.
Within the last few hours, CNN teams on the ground in Lviv heard multiple explosions in the city's outskirts. Ukrainian officials tell us Russian forces fired eight missiles near the city, several strikes hitting the International Peacekeeping and Security Center.
