Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Shells Hit Private Home, Apartment Building in Kyiv; Russia Steps Up Air Attacks as Ground Offensive Stalls; Romanians Are Mobilizing to Help Ukrainian Refugees; Children Paying the Heavy Price of War; Russian State TV Employee Disrupts Broadcast, "No War"; Experts Say Russia Could Default on Deby within Days. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired March 15, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and right around the world. I'm Isa Soares in London. And we are following the breaking news coverage of the war in Ukraine. And just ahead right here on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Horrific and war crimes. Two sentences Putin is doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mariupol is the center of the hell that we see in Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have no idea what to do. Where to go and when we will be able to return to our homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to be with Ukraine. I want to be with my family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need peace. Peace for the people of Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SOARES: It is Tuesday March 15, 10:00 a.m. in Ukraine where Russia is widening its assault striking military, as well as civilian targets in multiple cities. Ukraine said the private home and an apartment building in two Kyiv neighborhoods were hit today. At least one person was wounded and taken to the hospital. When the ten-story apartment block caught fire. Emergency crews were able to quickly put out a fire at the private home and no one there was hurt.

Also in Kyiv, closed-circuit video shows a man walking through a park as an explosion goes off behind him on Monday. Reuters reports a bus and several other vehicles were damaged. At least one person was killed and six others wounded in that strike. Emergency crews rescued more than a dozen people. An apparent missile strike hit the city of Donetsk in the east killing

a number of people. The region held by Russian backed separatist and they blame Ukrainian fighters for the attack. Russian forces are encircling at least four major cities -- as you can see there -- including Kharkiv. That's the second largest in the east.

An adviser to Ukraine's president says the Russians are, quote, wiping out Mariupol in the south. Officials claim more than 2,500 people have been killed there. In southern Ukraine the port city of Mariupol is in shambles. You can see in that video. Drone video released on Monday shows plumes of thick, black smoke rising from an industrial area. You can also see a supermarket gutted by fire and more smoke from an apartment complex.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian military will be ultimately held responsible for war crimes. He posted these comments online directed at Russian soldiers. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I know that you want to survive. We hear your conversations in the intercepts. We hear what you think about the senseless war, about this disgrace and about your state. Your conversations with each other. Your calls home to your families. We hear it all. We draw conclusions. We know who you are. Therefore, I offer you a choice. On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I give you a chance, a chance to survive. If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated, as people, decently. In a way you are not treated in your own army and in a way your army does not treat ours. Choose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Volodymyr Zelenskyy there addressing Russian troops.

CNN's Scott McLean is live this hour for us in Lviv, Ukraine. And Scott, as we we've just really laid out there. There's been no letup in Russia's attack on Ukraine. Those loud explosions heard in central Kyiv -- I believe early this morning -- what can you tell us about those?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Isa, yes, it seems like if the Russians can't make progress with their forces on the ground, for the moment at least they're content to just lob explosives into the city. And it seems like those explosions are getting closer and closer to the city center. So, there were two this morning before 6:00, which is about four hours ago. The first hit a house, a private house, two stories. There was a crater left in the backyard, another one in a suburb really close to the city center, about a mile or so just north. Hit an apartment block. Fire broke out on the bottom five floors. Amazingly only one person was injured there.

And it seems to be really part of a pattern, Isa. Yesterday the Kyiv mayor was surveying the damage from another one of these military strikes. This one had destroyed a bus near a park, again, leaving a huge crater behind. And then yesterday again, another apartment complex was hit. One person was killed there and it sparked a rescue effort from firefighters.

[04:05:03]

A senior U.S. defense official yesterday gave a briefing, a background briefing to journalists where he said that all the information that they have shows that the Russian advance has stalled nearly everywhere in Ukraine. And so, in Kyiv particularly it's still about 10 miles outside of the city when we're talking about that northeastern front and that infamous military convoy that was coming down towards the city. It's largely dispersed and it didn't make any meaningful progress it seems over the weekend. And so, as I mentioned, it seems like for the moment the strategy is just to lob explosives into the city center.

One other thing that that U.S. official points out is that they don't believe that the Russians have made any meaningful progress in recent days and getting any closer to taking the city of Mykolaiv. This place is strategic. It's in the southern part of Ukraine. Because if the Russians were to control that city, they could then go west and open a new front on Odessa or they could also go north and start attacking Kyiv from the south which we have not seen yet.

SOARES: Yes, and in the meantime, we are expecting another round of talks between Russia and Ukraine. What happened yesterday first of all, Scott?

MCLEAN: Yes, so going into these talks, Isa, it was actually quite remarkable. Because given all the destruction and the tough talk on the ground, there was actually cause for optimism. Both sides said that they expressed some level of optimism that progress could be made in these talks. The Ukrainians even saying that the Russians seemed to be more understanding of their position. The Russian side saying that they were confident that in the coming days some kind of an agreement might be signed. What that is, well, neither side is prepared to get into the details.

Now the president described these talks as difficult. One of the negotiators yesterday also said that they were quite hard blaming it on the different political systems in each country. So, where things stand right now is that they met via video link. They're now meeting on a daily basis. And instead of breaking off those talks as we've seen in the past, well, they're pausing them so that each side can go back, clarify a few items and then come back today, we understand, and continue that. So that has to be seen as a good sign. We're not seeing the two sides just sort of firing ultimatums at each other. It seems like they're actually talking, perhaps even having a meaningful discussion. But you know, any progress on this really cannot come soon enough considering the humanitarian situation in many parts of the country -- Isa.

SOARES: Indeed. It's very promising. Indeed, we shall see what comes out of these talks. Because obviously the crisis in the country, the humanitarian crisis is very dire indeed. Scott McLean for us there in Lviv. Thanks very much, Scott, good to see you.

Well, the Ukrainian refugee crisis, as Scott was saying, is growing by the day. More than 2.8 million people have now fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. And many of the refugees have crossed into neighboring Poland. Now I want to show you this map really highlights the other nations where Ukrainians are fleeing including, as you can see there, Romania. And as CNN's Miguel Marquez reports, Romanians are going to great lengths to make them feel welcome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They arrive by the hundreds. Normal Ukrainian citizens one day, refugees the next.

VALERIA PAVLIN, REFUGEE FROM KHARKIV, UKRAINE: This is stressful, yes. Because we have no idea what to do, where to go, and when we will be able to return to our homes.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Pavlin is from Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city, which has been devastated by Russian artillery and rockets.

When I was packing my clothes, she says, I thought it would all be over in three days.

For many, just arriving on Romanian soil, emotional. One woman cries as a volunteer hands her a bottle of water.

DENIS STAMATASCU, RESTAURANT OWNER AND VOLUNTEER: All the Romanian people are mobilized and to help these people.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Romanians stepping up, trying to make the Ukrainians feel a little bit at home. Denis Stamatascu closed his restaurant in Constanta. He now serves meals free to refugees.

STAMATASCU: We closed the restaurant and we are coming here to help these people. Chicken, pork? Chicken, pork?

MARQUEZ (voice-over): And for all those getting out, a few going back in. Alexander Pahomenka (ph) is returning to Mykolaiv. Russians have hammered the city.

MARQUEZ: And you are willing to die for Ukraine.

We all die, he says. Then adds, I'm afraid to die, but I'm not a coward.

Tatiana Butkyetava (ph) from Odessa along with her daughter, Miroslava (ph), their dog and two cats, she says they left because of what they heard was happening in places already controlled by the Russians.

[04:10:00]

I've heard about the violence, she says, and killings of peaceful people without any reason. She added, I had to leave. I was too stressed about it happening to me and my daughter.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Isaccea, Romania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: While many of the refugees fleeing Ukraine are children, our Miguel Marquez met with some kids who are displaced or orphaned and being cared for by their teachers in Romania. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice-over): These kids along with a few teachers fled Ukraine's southern Odessa region last week.

Our trip took all morning and all night, he says. I don't know how to explain it.

MARQUEZ: Was it a long trip?

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Stas turned 11 the day we visited. I wanted a smartphone for my birthday, he says, but I'm afraid to ask the teachers. Angelina, Stas's big sister, says their mother is still in Ukraine unable to travel.

"I'm thinking about my family," she says. "My mother can't walk. She was injured in a vehicle accident." They all know a war is happening back home. They don't totally understand it.

"There is a war in Ukraine," he says, "so the director of our school decided to bring us here."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well, joining me now from Ukrainian/Romanian border is the Rabbi Refael Kruskal CEO of the Jewish Orphanage in Odessa. Rabbi, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us here on CNN. Give our viewers a sense right around the world of the children in your care, how many you've been able to evacuate from Odessa.

REFAEL KRUSKAL, CEO OF JEWISH ORPHANAGE IN ODESSA So, we have -- good morning -- and we have a large group of people here that the community and the children. We've been able to take out so far 260 children from Odessa. 180 of which are children who are from our children's home's orphanages and we're trying to do our best to give them some kind of normalcy during this very, very trying period.

SOARES: And were there children you simply could not move?

KRUSKAL: We were extremely lucky. We were able to take over -- take out all the children in our care. We took them to -- at the beginning to western Ukraine and from there we took them to Romania so we had double the amount of kids on buses who were scheduled. So, we've been able to take everyone out, everybody in our care.

And that decision, rabbi, to move the children from their homes and from -- surely wasn't an easy one. At what point did you decide, look, we need to get out now?

KRUSKAL: So, when a bomb landed half a mile from the (INAUDIBLE), it was a huge explosion, it was supposed to land in the airport, so our next (INAUDIBLE) missed. That when -- and the girls were so traumatized, we decided we had to leave. There was no question. And we're now trying to give them the psychological help they need. Everyone has been through a trauma and seeing people at the borders and the crying and the waiting and the cold. It's something you can't describe. It's something you have to see and feel in order to understand how desperate and the pain which people are going through just refugees were there. Everyone's left their home with a little bag of all their worldly possessions. It's just a terrible thing to see and we're trying to get the children through this trauma.

SOARES: And it is a trauma and it's not just what they're seeing and they're hearing, but also the journey itself being up ended. Their lives up ended so quickly. Talk to us about the physical and emotional toll it's taking on the children.

KRUSKAL: So, besides the first of all the journey was horrific. We went through places where the sirens were going off and we saw smoke on either side of the road. We knew that there had been bombings there just minutes earlier. There was an airport nearby one of the places where we went. The journey itself was very, very harrowing. And then on a bus with the teachers and counselors and they can see how worried they are. And they understand the danger. The children, they pick up very, very quickly on the motions. And there's one child who hasn't spoken since he came to Romania. We pull them all over into the wind but he hasn't spoken just because he's so traumatized by what he's been through. And that's just on a bus. Just imagine all the other refugees and children who are going through this. This is terrible.

SOARES: And that is -- that's truly saddening and shocking to hear what you're saying, Rabbi.

[04:15:00]

I mean, how do you explain what is happening to young children? We heard from our correspondent from some children in an orphanage who knew there was a war but didn't quite comprehend it. How do you explain that to the children in your care?

KRUSKAL: There's nothing to explain here. It's a wicked and senseless killing of innocent people. A bomb doesn't choose where it's going to land. And we can hardly explain why somebody is bombing your home which they felt was the safest place or we felt was the safest place for them. All we can tell them is that we're taking you to a better place. We're taking you to a safer place. We're going to go back to Ukraine when everything is over. And I as the son of a Holocaust survivor let's just say I never thought I would be running the same way as my father was running. I never thought I would be in the same position.

SOARES: It is truly shocking, especially like you said it's completely senseless. It's unprovoked and the justification that denazification is I'm sure would send shivers down your spine, Rabbi.

KRUSKAL: Indeed. I mean, we never felt antisemitism in Odessa where we were living. Never all the years. And now we're running away, so I don't know what denazification is. But we never felt any bad feelings from the Ukrainian people. On the contrary they always helped. And now in Romania, what they're doing the Romanian government and people, they were told to take care. It's unbelievable the care which we are being shown by other people.

SOARES: And of course, just for viewers to understand, you know Odessa had a thriving Jewish community. So, that is incredible to see you are out safely, the children are out safely as well. But like you said, Rabbi, now is not to try to explain it but give them the care and the love that clearly, they need. Rabbi Refael Kruskal, stay in touch. Thank you very much for taking time to speak to us.

KRUSKAL: Thanks for having us. Thank you.

SOARES: And still ahead right here on the show, Russian state TV broadcast was disrupted by an antiwar protest. What we're learning about the woman who pulled it off and why she said she did it. That is next.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, PUTIN CRITIC WHO SURVIVED TWO ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS: Nothing will stop Vladimir Putin. The only strategic endgame for this is for Putin no longer to be in power in Russia. This is the only strategic solution. Needless to say, only Russians can do that. Only Russians can effect political change in our own country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: A Putin critic there who survived two assassination attempts. Saying it's up to Russians to kick the president out of power. And dissent is growing in Russia.

On Monday, we saw this stunning act of protests on state-run TV. With cameras rolling, a woman walked onto the set holding a sign -- I'm going to read it out to you.

No war. Stop the war. Do not believe propaganda.

The broadcast than quickly cutaway to video. CNN has now learned the woman was apparently an employee of the channel. Her lawyer sent us another video which she reportedly taped before her protest. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA OVSYANNIKOVA, HELD ANTI-WAR SIGN ON RUSSIA CHANNEL ONE (through translator): What's happening now in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor country and the responsibility for this aggression lies on the conscience of only one person. This man is Vladimir Putin. My father is Ukrainian, my mother is Russian and they have never been enemies. And this necklace on my neck is a symbol is the fact that Russia must immediately stop this fratricidal war so our fraternal nations will still be able to reconcile. Go to the rallies and do not be afraid. They cannot arrest us all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: And yet Russian police appear to be trying. One monitoring group says nearly 15,000 people have been detained amid the crackdown on anti-war protests.

As the Kremlin tends to snuff out dissent, businesses are facing more pressure to leave Russia. Dozens of corporations have already suspended operation there and now some countries are expanding their withdrawal. On Monday, U.S. bank Citigroup announced plans to widen its departure. Citi was already planning to sell its consumer bank in Russia. But now, the company says it will include other lines of the business in its exit plan. The bank says it will also stop taking on new clients in Russia.

Korean air is suspending passenger and cargo services in two Russian cities until the end of April. The airline says it also plans to reroute other flights to avoid Russian air space.

And now the cost of being locked out of global capital markets could put Russia's economy in an even darker place. Experts say it could default really within days.

For more I'm joined by Nina dos Santos with a perspective on this. And Nina, let's start off with Maria. I mean, what a brave and bold act. Do we know where she is? Have we heard from her?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems as though she's under arrest at the moment. Maria Ovsyannikovas who is an editor at that state-run channel, channel 1. As you saw there, her protest. The first time we've really seen this since the invasion of Ukraine, somebody standing behind the television camera during the main evening news broadcast with that sign. She had obviously taken great care to prepare including the message that is illegal now talking about a war in Ukraine as per the last couple of weeks since Russia changed the law and cracked down on freedom of speech. This is an extraordinarily courageous act by a journalist which could cost her 15 years of her life based on recent Russian rules.

SOARES: And for Russians, as we just outlined, I mean, the pressure is piling on. Markets -- stock markets still haven't opened and there's a fear of course that the country could default. Put in perspective the status of the economy right now and how much that putting pressure perhaps on Putin or is it?

DOS SANTOS: And the ruble has devalued into double digits.

SOARES: Of course.

DOS SANTOS: And this is the crucial thing because Russia has a big interest payment worth $170 million due on Wednesday morning and it's supposed to repay this particular type of debt back in dollars. It can't pay it back in another currency.

[04:25:00] But Russia now says that it will repay investors from unfriendly countries, quote, unquote, unfriendly that have sanctioned Russia, including of course, the U.S. that has cut it out of the U.S. dollar financial system, in rubles and different currencies.

Now Russia has a total of $121 billion worth of debt that's due in various different countries, but this particular payment it has to make in U.S. dollars. And if it doesn't make in dollars and it makes it in rubles instead, it will be worth far, far less. It will be deemed to be in default of its debt. Interest rates could spike and again, this could push the Russian economy further into the doldrums.

Now obviously, one of the reasons why they say they can't pay this back in dollars is because they've lost access to the dollar market. $315 billion worth of their currency reserves. That's half that have been frozen as a result. So, again, this is all about sort of strangling of the purse strings for Russia but it'll also isolates the country economically and again, start to bite ordinary Russians in their pocket.

SOARES: Yes, we've heard from the Russians basically saying we've survived worse economic isolations, we can survive this. Of course, as we can see that from the people on the streets that is quite something entirely different.

DOS SANTOS: This is the first time that they could default since the Bolsheviks were in power after the revolution. So, it really is an important moment in history for Russia.

Nina, appreciate it, thank you very much.

And still to come right here on the show, as U.S. and Chinese officials meet to discuss the war in Ukraine, the U.S. warns it won't stand by if China gives assistance to Russia's invasion. We're live for you in Beijing. That's next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We have communicated very clearly to Beijing that we won't stand by if -- we will not allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)