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Zelenskyy Calls for Humanitarian No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine; Biden to Announce $800 Million in New Aid to Ukraine as Russia Invades; Top Republicans Urge Biden in Letter to Provide Air Defense Systems, Fighter Jets to Ukraine. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 16, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Erica Hill.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

An impassioned plea for help, Ukrainian president taking his messages directly to Congress and the U.S. president this morning, his requests, more weapons, a humanitarian no-fly zone over Ukraine and a direct plea to President Biden to rise to the occasion to defend not just Ukraine but the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Today, it's not enough to be the leader of the nation. Today, it's takes to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

This, in your country, it doesn't depend anymore only on you and your people. It depends on those next to you and those who are strong. Strong doesn't mean weak. Strong is brave and ready to fight for the lives of his citizens and citizens of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Those words in English there from President Zelenskyy coming after he showed a graphic, frankly, heartbreaking video of what the war really looks like on the ground. It is a video that shows clearly just how much has changed in Ukraine in the short period of three weeks.

I do want to warn you, this is graphic.

That was just a portion, of course, of the video shown that ended on a black screen which said, close the sky.

President Biden not expected to answer that call from President Zelenskyy for a no-fly zone, but we do know Biden is set to announce $800 million in additional security assistance when he speaks next hour. That would bring the total U.S. contributions for Ukraine to $2 billion since the beginning -- since the start of the administration.

SCIUTTO: And we have new reporting this morning about surface-to-air missile systems already on their way to Ukraine from the U.S. and its NATO allies.

We are tracking it all the latest developments here in Washington and in Ukraine, and that's where we're going to begin with our CNN team in Southern Ukraine, CNN International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh. He is in Odessa, yet another city facing just brutal Russian attacks.

Nick, a critical moment for the people of Ukraine, Zelenskyy has become a very public national hero there, but international one. What do Ukrainians say to you about the level of U.S. support now? Do they say, as Zelenskyy just said, they need more and they need it fast?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes. I think when we spoke to Ukrainian soldiers, there is an element of them thinking that they can probably do this themselves, but also at the same time being very grateful for any technological assistance they might be able to get. And, obviously, the anti-tank weapons have made a huge difference here.

The border question of a no-fly zone is, I think, increasingly complex when you actually look at it on the ground, given that so much of the damage being done to cities. And I should point out, Odessa, we've heard explosions on its outskirts, but at this point, it's still bracing for attack rather than the full-fledged brunt of it.

So much of the damage done the city is from multi-rocket systems, it's from ballistic missiles that have fired. Airstrikes are in place too, but less to a certain effect.

Here is the appeal from President Zelenskyy himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY: At this moment, every night, for three weeks now, various Ukrainian cities, Odessa and Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Sumy, (INAUDIBLE) and Lviv, Mariupol and Dnipro, Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people.

Is this a lot to ask for, to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine to save people? Is this too much to ask?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, obviously, it shouldn't be when you see the horrific scenes on the ground here, but it's such a deeply complex, frankly, military task. If you can imagine, if you want to stop missiles and the rocket launchers too, doing so much of the damage here, then, essentially, you would have to have anti-missile systems most likely on the territory of Ukraine. That would involve NATO personnel likely being inside of Ukraine. And then, essentially, well, how does NATO fight wars? They're predominantly from the air, anyway.

And so that no-fly zone, if it was to effectively cease the bombardment that he talks so passionately about there, we have to involved so many more resources and just simply NATO planes in the skies here. And I think that's where the intense complexity comes in for decision-makers in NATO. Jim?

SCIUTTO: No question. And we did see Zelenskyy grant that difficult to say, in effect, in his speech, if that is too much, please give us those surface-to-air missile systems, additional ones, really, because we know that many have already arrived there but also the possibility of further jets.

Nick Paton Walsh in Odessa, thanks so much.

Let's go to Capitol Hill now where the president, of course, just addressed Congress. Our CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju is here.

Manu, I wonder what happens now, right? Universal bipartisan support for the Ukrainian president, that standing ovation. Do we see legislation on sanctions or additional military support to follow?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It remains to be seen, Jim. There is a support for taking some actions that have already been underway on Capitol Hill, whether it's to impose that oil import ban that has already passed the House, awaiting action in the Senate, revoking the trade standards of Russia. That is something that the president supported. That is something that is still being discussed on Capitol Hill.

But additional legislative action uncertain. Already, $14 billion in aid has been signed into law, calls for more aid after today's speech, calls for more sanctions, but that could potentially be done administratively without an act of Congress. And also there are still some concerns about some of the things that Zelenskyy called for, including imposing a no-fly zone.

And those concerns are on both sides of the aisle, including from one top Republican, Roy Blunt, a member of GOP leadership, who told me that going that far could draw the U.S. into a conflict, a war with Russia.

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RAJU: Are you concerned that might go too far to impose a no-fly zone?

SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): It does. It does. I mean, any time you put American pilots and American planes in the sky with Russian pilots and planes in the sky, you're really taking a chance that we may engage at a level that I don't think we're prepared to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, even as Zelenskyy also called for transferring those aircrafts that he has called for to come into his country, there is still some resistance from Democrats in particular, one of them the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Mark Warner, who told me earlier right after the speech that going that far might not be the most effective route, instead calling for those anti-craft missiles, anti-tank missiles, those Stingers that have been transferred over to Ukraine, additional military support in that regard.

So, there is support for taking some steps, maybe not as far as what Zelenskyy wants, but, undoubtedly, there will be more action by Congress. Whether that's enough to deter what's happening in Ukraine right now remains to be seen, but still debate about how far Washington should go.

SCIUTTO: No question. It's a good point, because the view of U.S. military officials is that the key is surface-to-air missile support at this point. They downplay the actual battlefield impact, for instance, of further military jets, surface-to-air missile support, and there is, as we were reporting, further systems in that category going in.

Manu Raju on the Hill, thanks so much.

Coming up next hour, President Biden is expected to unveil $8 billion in additional security assistance to Ukraine.

CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood, he joins me now with more. John, do we know what specific weapon systems are in this package?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think what we expect, Jim, is that this $800 million will include more Stinger, surface-to- air missiles, perhaps different kinds of surface-to-air missiles, more of the Javelin anti-tank weapons, but not crossing the line that Roy Blunt was signaling there about a no-fly zone and that Mark Warner was signaling in Manu report about transferring those fighter jets.

As you indicated, the White House, Defense Department, both do not believe that the additional jets would provide that significant, an increase in actual battlefield effectiveness for Ukraine. They have got some jets that have not flown, they may not have enough pilots to put all those planes in the air.

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So, I think what President Biden is going to do is try to respond to the pressure that Zelenskyy put on Congress, that Congress is putting on President Biden without crossing the lines that he thinks are unwise and potentially escalatory toward a direct conflict with Russia.

So, you see that with the military assistance 200 billion over the weekend, 800 million today that the president is going to announce. We've had a couple of billion dollars since President Biden has taken office. You've also just had Congress pass legislation with $13 billion total in aid to Ukraine. There is a lot of humanitarian assistance there.

And as our colleague, retired General Hertling, has said, there are a lot of things that the United States is doing that are under the radar that we don't know about. The United States is going to continue doing that but try not to cross the lines that President Biden and his military are determined not to cross.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And, frankly, they don't want to advertise some of this stuff before it goes in, because they do not want to jeopardize that material getting on the ground there before Russia can do anything about it.

John Harwood at the White House, thanks so much.

Joining us now to talk about this, Ambassador Richard Haass, he is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Author of The World, A Brief Introduction, also served in the George W. Bush administration.

Ambassador, I want to begin, if I can for a moment, set aside military assistance, and talk about the progress of negotiations, because in the last 24 hours, there seems to be some movement. You have the Ukrainian president saying that we may not need a NATO commitment, right, for membership to be satisfied, but other security guarantees, and you have the Russians saying -- or at least removing their demand for de-Nazification. It's a word I use reluctantly because there are no Nazis running the government there, but that's the way the Russians have describe the Ukrainian government. Do you see in those two movements the outlines of potential agreement or is it a path to agreement?

AMB. RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: I can design a possible agreement. It would have to deal with those issues, with Crimea, with the state of the republics -- quote/unquote, republics in the east, issues of our militarization and so forth.

The problem, though, in any negotiation is less the details than it is the willingness and ability of the parties to strike a deal to compromise. And up to now, you've got a government in Ukraine that is willing to compromise, not at any price but at some price. The problem is you don't have the parallel in Russia. You don't have that with Vladimir Putin.

So, if Mr. Putin, at some point, decides he's ready to make a deal or if he's pressured from within Russia to make a deal, then, yes, I think there is the potential for progress, but we're not there yet.

HILL: Still looking at where we are, then, I'd assume that it stood out to a lot of people in this speech that we just heard President Zelenskyy to Congress, is not a lot of mention of NATO. But what he did say, he talked about essentially the relevance and he said, if needed, we propose to create an association, a union of responsible countries that have the strength and consciousness to stop conflicts immediately, provide all the necessary assistance in 24 hours. What do you think we should make of that comment?

HAASS: Look, this is someone who is frustrated with the reluctance or refusal of NATO to come to Ukraine's direct defense. You're not going to create some new organization that's going to be more capable than NATO. You're not going to create some new organization that would, within 24 hours, be willing to come to Ukraine's direct defense. So, I see it more as a plea. I think the more serious question is, will the United States or will the other members of NATO provide more in the way of military equipment qualitatively and quantitatively than they have to date? That's the question at hand. If and when this crisis is behind us, we can look at all sorts of questions, including the possibility of new security arrangements in Europe, but that's not particularly relevant now.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, Ambassador Haass, because you're aware of the arguments for stopping short of direct NATO involvement here, the possibility of direct, deadly contact between Russia and NATO and U.S. forces, which could lead to an escalation. Do you believe that threat is overblown? Are you saying that NATO can, in effect, push back harder without tempting escalation?

HAASS: Look, NATO can push back harder militarily and prevail. The problem is the decision-making in Russia is concentrated on one individual who is essentially operating without restraint. And that's not a concept I'm particularly anxious to test. So, I would essentially suggest that all these people calling for full or limited or no-fly zones take a deep breath because to do so does require going to war.

[10:15:02]

You have to, for example, take out air defense systems several hundred kilometers inside Russia. So, this is not some antiseptic operation.

And I would say again the focus ought to be giving Ukraine the means it needs for its self-defense. I think that would be a robust thing to do, but I also think it would be a somewhat wise and restrained thing to do. And I think we have got to get that balance right.

HILL: Ambassador Richard Haass, always good to have you with us. Thank you.

HAASS: Thank you.

HILL: Still to come, President Biden under pressure, as you've been hearing, to do more not just in Ukraine but also here in the U.S. He's now taking on oil and gas companies over those skyrocketing prices you're seeing at the pump, what it could. That's ahead.

SCIUTTO: And next, Republican Congressman Michael McCaul will join me live here at the Capitol with his reaction to Zelenskyy's impassioned plea to the U.S. congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY: In the darkest time for our country, for the whole Europe, I call on you to do more.

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SCIUTTO: We witnessed history this morning. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an address to Congress this morning, again, making an impassioned plea for further help to protect his country, asking for a no-fly zone, aircraft, additional air defense systems, as well as additional sanctions on Russia.

This comes as top Republican lawmakers just provided the Biden administration with a long list of arms and equipment, additional ones, they want sent to Ukraine. This includes a number of things, surface-to-air missile systems, also further fighter jets. So far, at least on the fighter jets, the administration is concerned that might escalate direct tensions between NATO and Russia.

Joining me now to discuss, one of those Republican lawmakers, he's Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas, sitting on both the Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security Committees. Congressman, thanks so much for taking this morning.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Thanks, Jim. Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: So, first of all, you were in the room for what was the first time, as I understand it, a virtual address. But considering this is a Ukrainian president speaking from a war-torn capital, tell us what it was like to be in the room to hear from him?

MCCAUL: Very powerful, very emotional. The video showing Ukraine before the Russians started bombing and now after, the images were extremely emotional, a lot of members in tears, and we hadn't seen anything like this, really, since my father was in World War II.

I just got back from Poland, saw the refugees going across the border. And the world is watching right now. History will judge us as to what we did when the bombing started and how did we help Ukraine. I've been pressing the administration to do this for quite some time. I'm glad the weapons are finally going in.

SCIUTTO: So, let's speak about weapons specifically, because one of the things Zelenskyy has asked for has been complex mobile air defense systems, including the S-300, which is a Russian-made system. Is it your understanding that is going in?

MCCAUL: Yes. I've been pushing very hard for this and I'm pleased to say that they do have S-300s in the country now. That would be the anti-aircraft. That's what they need, is the anti-aircraft. Those were the planes that took the maternity hospital out, the Russian aircraft, and that's what President Zelenskyy asked for. But he needs a lot more too. And the lethal drones, we need more of those in the country as well.

People talk about a no-fly zone. Well, they can create their own if we give them the military equipment and weapons.

SCIUTTO: That's an interesting point. The S-300s, we should note, as you're watching at home, that is news. It's been asked for. We did not know to this point that that is going in. That raises the defense to a high altitude given the S-300's capability.

To your point, the combination of that, Stingers which have a lower altitude capability, other systems we reported earlier this morning, they're medium altitude, can that add up to effectively closing the skies over Ukraine, as Zelenskyy is asking for?

MCCAUL: I think so. You're right. The Stinger is very effective with helicopters. We saw the Mujadeen do that against the Soviets in Afghanistan. But the S-300s are the high altitude, sort of like our Patriot battery missiles, anti-aircraft system. So, the fact that they're in country and more coming, it's going to be very effective.

I'm so impressed by the Ukrainian people, the resistance movement, the idea that Kyiv, what's happening in Kyiv right now. The fact -- we were told it would be over in three to four days, and here we are day 20 and the fight is still strong. We need to help them.

SCIUTTO: I will say in my time there, I was amazed and impressed by the members of the military and then the folks who were volunteering for the military, including foreigners, but also average Ukrainians who were contributing and standing up any way they can.

You're frequently briefed on the state of the invasion and we hear regularly about Russian losses and also the stalling of the Russian advance. Based on what you know, is it solved? Has it reached something of a stalemate?

MCCAUL: Well, we saw the convoy stuck in the mud for a very long time. It's too bad we couldn't have taken out the convoy when they were most vulnerable. However, the Ukrainians are making great strides on the ground right now, particularly in Kyiv.

Urban warfare is very difficult.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MCCAUL: And I always say that the morale and the will of the Ukrainian people is stronger than the Russian soldier.

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I don't think the Russian soldiers even know why they're there. They've been lied to, they're going to liberate Ukraine from the Nazis, they say. And I think the morale is very low.

And when you look at killing innocent civilians, I don't think they are prepared for that.

SCIUTTO: It is interesting. There have been a number of counts of soldiers, and U.S. defense officials have said that, yes, some of the conscripts thought they were going on an exercise, didn't know that they were going to war there.

What are your concerns today about what Vladimir Putin does next? Because his playbook, and we saw this in Chechnya and we saw it in Syria, when he faces obstacles on the battlefield, he becomes more, not less, ruthless. And we've seen some evidence on that already, increased attacks on civilian centers. Are you concerned that that is his reaction?

MCCAUL: I am. I think he is very frustrated. I think he was told by his military they could finish this in three to four days. He's getting desperate. I think he's doubled down. He's spent 100 percent in Ukraine now. And it's going to escalate on his side.

What I worry, Jim, mostly is weapons of mass destruction. At what point are we going to have a red line -- at what point is he going to use chemical weapons? We've already seen some evidence of false flag operations on the bio facilities that he's going to throw chemical weapons into the scene.

I think the worst nightmare scenario would be these short-range tactical nukes, that he has a lot of those. And if he gets very desperate, like a scorpion backed into a corner, he may sting with a short-range tactical nuke. That would be a nightmare scenario.

SCIUTTO: Well, a nightmare for sure. You're saying that that's not out of the realm of possibility, that he would resort to that?

MCCAUL: It's not out of the realm at all. In fact, it's in a lot of our discussions as how far is he going to go? Because at all costs, he wants to win, this is his legacy. But I think his legacy, he's a war criminal. And that's going to be his legacy.

SCIUTTO: Congressman McCaul, thanks so much for taking the time. We know you've got a lot on your plate in the midst of all this.

HILL: Communication attempts ignored, new details that we're learning about NATO's efforts to reach out to Russia. As we update you on those efforts, stay with us. We'll be right back.

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