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Kyiv Mayor and Brother Prepare for Russian Assault on City; UNHCR: Nearly 2.7 Million Refugees Fleeing Ukraine; Ukrainian Railways Keep Operating Despite Russian Threat; Many Russians Unaware of War Realities Due to Propaganda. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 14, 2022 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:30:00]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: They say the priority is actually to be sending additional humanitarian and lethal aid to Ukraine to help them fend off the Russians. But we ... expect to hear this plea yet again from Zelensky to get Ukraine into the EU as fast as possible.

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Natasha Bertrand for us in Brussels. Excuse me. Thanks very much, Natasha.

And coming up right here -- pardon me -- waves of refugees from Ukraine are crossing into Poland. A report from one border town when we come back.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of them, they are exhausted, tired and had vomiting and nausea. That's pain in the stomach. Of course, they are children. Many of the people are traumatized.

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SOARES: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares. An update on our breaking news story out of Ukraine this hour. Russia and Ukraine are expected to hold another round of diplomatic talks later today. Officials on both sides have signaled that they are making progress, but so far negotiations haven't really yielded any major breakthroughs.

Meanwhile, the fighting rages on. Officials in Kyiv say at least two people were killed this morning after a Russian strike hit a residential building in the northern part of the city. In southeastern Ukrainian, meanwhile, video from the besieged city of Mariupol shows Russian tanks firing inside the city where aid workers say hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped.

Russian state media is also reporting that troops have secured a land corridor that would connect Mariupol in the Donbas region with Crimea.

[04:35:00]

Territory, if you remember, Russia annexed back in 2014. So far, CNN has not been able to confirm those reports.

We are also learning this morning that Russia has asked for military and economic assistance from China. That is according to senior U.S. officials. But China is denying those reports, saying Russia has not asked for help to support its war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, local officials now say at least 35 people were killed on Sunday after Russian missiles hit a military base in western Ukraine. That is near the polish border. Despite Russia's relentless assaults, Ukrainian leaders and citizens remain determined to defend their country. Kyiv's mayor and his brother spoke to CNN earlier about their country's united front.

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WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, KYIV BRIGADE OF UKRAINIAN DEFENSE FORCE: The whole country is highly motivated to stop Russian aggression and the war. There is nothing that is possibly can break the will of our women and men. We all stand together and we are highly motivated to defend our country because this is our home. That's where our children were going to school. That's where our relatives buried in the ground.

This is our home, and there's no other way that we're going to leave. And why? Because this is our home. So, we will defend the country until last drop of the blood.

VITALI KLITSCHKO, MAYOR, KYIV, UKRAINE: And regarding -- and regarding how much time we have, we have a lot of time. It's we never lose the fight for our home for our future because whole population against Russian aggressors. And whole population, every one, and we never give up. And that why, that why we continue this war.

But the key which can stop this war is the unity of all world. We have make pressure, political pressure, sanction pressure, and please, weapon deliverance to Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: The video you're looking is from Kherson, Ukraine, a city under Russian occupation. On Sunday, as can see there, hundreds of people turned out, the largest protests since Russia invaded. At least one Russian soldier fired over their heads to make them disperse. But the protesters, as you can see there, were not deterred and continue to chant anti-Russian slogans.

Well, nearly 2.7 million people have fled Ukraine and that is according to the U.N. But getting civilians out of some areas have been near impossible because, of course, the heavy fighting. As well as temperatures are well below freezing as hundreds of refugees, including the elderly wait in those long lines to cross Ukrainian border into neighboring countries such as Moldova.

On Sunday the Ukrainian government says that more than 5,000 people were evacuated using humanitarian corridors. Nearly 4,000 were from the Kyiv region and about 1,600 were able to escape from Luhansk. CNN's Ed Lavandera is that a Polish border town with more on the plight of the Ukrainian refugees.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the pathway that is bringing thousands of Ukrainian refugees to safety, and also to a life of uncertainty. Many of these people have been traveling from the interior of the country. We spoke with one family that had come from Kryvyi Rih, which is as fate would have it, the hometown of Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown, who obviously has become such a beloved figure among Ukrainian people.

They told us they had been traveling since 7:00 in the morning on Sunday, and it was just after midnight when they finally arrive to this border checkpoint in the cold, here in Poland. And the uncertainty now comes from the fact that as these families begin to board these buses, what happens to them next is still very much up in the air.

They will be taken to a temporary shelter in a nearby town here on the Polish border and they will be able to figure out what to do next, where to go next. And that is the question that so many of them are now facing because many of them when you speak to these refugees, they talk about their homes in the past sense. So, they don't know if they're going home in the coming weeks or even months or if ever.

And this is an operation here in the border city of Medyka, Poland that is running 24 hours a day as thousands of refugees continue to come across the border. And this is a scene that even here in the late hours continues to unfold, as thousands of refugees continue to arrive at the border here in western Ukraine.

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A great deal of certainty about what happens next. A great deal of emotion, watching with so many of these people in the journey they've been through, and this is a scene that just continues to play out around the clock here in Poland.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Medyka, Poland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And if you would like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need shelter, food as well as water, please go to CNN.com/impact. And there you'll find several ways that you can help. That's CNN.com/impact.

And just ahead right here on CNN NEWSROOM, Ukraine's train system is a reliable main stay of daily life. How rail operators are keeping people and supplies moving despite the Russian invasion. That is next.

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SOARES: Well, as the war in Ukraine rages on, another area of concern is Chernobyl. The International Atomic Agency says the staff of the nuclear power plant is so tired the workers have stopped carrying out repairs and maintenance of safety equipment. The IAEA director general has proposed a plan to deliver assistance but it has to be approved by Ukrainian as well as Russian authorities before it is implemented.

Well, despite the bombardment, Ukraine's railway system continues to be a reliable lifeline for its people. But fears of course of being targeted by Russia are a challenge for its operators. As CNN's Scott McLean now reports.

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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First Light in Ternopil, Ukraine is the rising sun. The city's lights have been kept off since the war began, more than two weeks that have exhausted, overwhelmed and completely upended normal life.

But through it all, Ukraine's rail network has kept running. Every morning the railways executives led by 37-year-old Oleksandr Kamyshin gather for a morning call.

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No cell phones, no zoom, just to Soviet era closed circuit phone system that connects every station. They won't stay here long. They can't. They believe they're a prime Russian target.

OLEKSANDR KAMYSHIN, RAILWAYS EXECUTIVES LEADER: This threatens us to move fast so that they don't catch me.

MCLEAN: How long can you stay in one place?

KAMYSHIN: Hours.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Instead, their work managing 231,000 employees continues on a single car train headed west for now. Often their work is aboard ordinary passenger trains to blend in with the masses. Since the war began, they've been in near constant motion crisscrossing the country to keep the Russians guessing.

The decision to leave their headquarters in Kyiv was made in the early morning hours of February 24. Kamyshin snapped one last picture with his two young kids, one still asleep.

MCLEAN: Are they still in Ukraine?

KAMYSHIN: Yeah.

MCLEAN: How does that make you feel?

KAMYSHIN: For me, it's easier when I know that they are safe. And I have time to do my job.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The country's rail network, one of the largest in the world has been a lifeline in war, moving desperately needed supplies in and desperate people out of danger, more than 2 million since the invasion began. Schedules are drawn up the night before and changed in response to panic scenes like this one in Kharkiv or in the Lviv in the early days of war.

MCLEAN: How on earth have people still been able to use the trains in a war zone?

KAMYSHIN: That's something which is surprising for the whole country and for the president as well.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Surprising because every day the network is hit by Russian bombs. Small damage breaks the link between cities temporarily, a down to bridge indefinitely. Near Kharkiv, an undetonated bomb fell right next to the tracks.

ROMAN CHERNITSKYI, UKRAINIAN RAILWAYS: (through translation): We are reacting and repairing a railway even under artillery shelling every day. Unfortunately, some of my colleagues have been killed and injured during shelling.

MCLEAN (voice-over): 33 killed, 24 injured and counting.

MCLEAN: The difficulty working aboard a moving train is that the cell phone signal is not always great. Now, they do have Starlink Internet systems now courtesy of Elon Musk but they barely ever turn them on because they say it makes it easier for the Russians to target their location.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The Russians have taken control of rail links in cities like besieged Mariupol, Sumy, Kherson and Chernihiv. But for now, all of the major hubs are still connected by Ukrainian rail.

MCLEAN: How bad would it be if the Russians took these major stations?

KAMYSHIN: Really bad. Don't ask me how bad, but real bad.

MCLEAN (voice-over): When the train reaches Lviv, Kamyshin makes a quick visit to the main station and more calls and meetings and a message for the rest of the world.

KAMYSHIN: What we can do, we're going to do. What West can do, close the sky and all the rest we'll do ourselves.

MCLEAN: Scott McLean, CNN in western Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And we've been telling you about the misinformation the Kremlin has been broadcasting in Russia about the invasion in Ukraine calling it of course a special operation. But earlier CNN spoke to Misha Katsurin who lives in Ukraine and has family in Russia. He tells us he's having a hard time convincing his own father about the reality of the war. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MISHA KATSURIN, UKRAINIAN RESTAURANTEUR WHO HAS FAMILY IN RUSSIA: My father is 58 and he lives in, like a small village in the forest. And he doesn't use internet, so the only media he can read or watch, it's like a federal TV and the federal newspaper. So that's not like something new for him. Yes, and when I called him to tell what's going on in my family in my city, he start arguing with me and he told me that, no, everything is not like you are talking about.

So, in reality Russia is not bombing you. Russia is making special operation, it's peaceful and they're trying to kick out the Nazi government from your country. There is no Nazi government in my country. And also, he told me the most impressive thing for me that Russian soldiers, they are giving warm clothes and food to locals and to Ukrainian military. So, they are quite kind people in the eyes of my father. So that was the story.

I tried to explain him that it is not true, and I'm here in Kyiv and I see everything with my own eyes. But he thinks that I'm also a victim of propaganda, and he told me that, no, all information you've got, that's Ukrainian propaganda. That's the thing.

[04:50:00]

So Russian people are living in perverted reality which was formed by federal channels and through the media by the years and years, so by 20 years. So, I know that my father loves me. I know that he wants to believe me. He just cannot because in his reality, that's unbelievable. That's all, and then after this call I made the post on Instagram with this story, and it became viral. And they realized that like millions of people have had a similar problem. And mothers does not believe daughters. Like sisters doesn't believe to their brothers. Nobody believes to nobody in Russia and Ukraine. That's totally horrible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Families are clearly being driven apart for different reasons. He says he and his colleagues have created a website to help others shed the truth about what's happening in Ukraine. We'll have much more news ahead right here on the show.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, ACTOR, "THE POWER OF THE DOG": Worrying about should support Ukraine and the people. That is a society remind us we're here to stop there, they're to escape, who have to lose homes and families at risk. And to just be ever present of the horrors amongst this celebration which casts a shadow on all of us. It's a two-and-a-half-hour fight from here. So, I made just experience in the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:55:00] SOARES: The 2022 BAFTAs were held here in London on Sunday with actors and filmmakers wearing blue and yellow pins, as you can see, or ribbons to show their solidarity with Ukraine. The show kicked off with a statement of support for the people of Ukraine, and journalists, of course, covering the conflict. Actress and comedian Rebel Wilson insulted Russian President Vladimir Putin while introducing sign language interpreters giving the middle finger to the camera. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REBEL WILSON, ACTRESS AND BAFTA AWARDS HOST: Our thoughts are also at this time with the people afflicted by the conflict in Ukraine. In all sign languages, this is the gesture for Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: That does not in translation. Well, it was an emotional return to the pitch for Ukraine's Andriy Yarmolenko, on Sunday. The West Ham striker came off the bench to score the teams opening goal. And he broke down in tears after celebrating with his teammates. He scored the team's opening goal and broke down in tears after celebrating with his teammates. Yarmolenko is also the former captain of Ukraine's national team. He's been granted compassionate leave from the West Ham since the invasion began. And this was his first time back on the field. West Ham went on to win the match 2-1.

Well, it turns out retirement doesn't sit well with Tom Brady. The 44- year-old legendary quarterback says he'll return for his 23rd season in the National Football League. Just last month Brady, if you remember, after his second season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But he tweeted this on Sunday.

These past two months I've realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands. That time will come, but it's not now.

It didn't last very long, did it? That does it for this hour. I'm Isa Soares in London. Our breaking news coverage on the war in Ukraine continues on "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett. They are back. You are watching CNN. I shall see you tomorrow. Bye- bye.

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