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Tennis Pro Returns To Ukraine To Join Fight Against Russia; Russian Forces Strike More Civilian Sites In Ukraine; Biden Announces $800 Million More In Security Help For Ukraine; NATO Chief: Alliance United In Stance Against No-Fly Zone. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 16, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

REP. VICTORIA SPARKZ (R-IN): And then we can help people that really need it.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Congresswoman Victoria Sparkz, thank you so much for your time.

SPARKZ: Thank you for having me.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: So, we've seen these stories of Ukrainian citizens doing what they can to stop the Russian advance. And that includes a professional tennis player who said good-bye to his family and picked up a gun. His story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Just into CNN, the Ukrainian government says it has rescued the mayor of the southern city of Melitopol who was detained by armed man in the Russian occupied city five days ago. Ukrainian officials say a special operation was carried out to rescue the mayor and that he's spoken with President Zelenskyy. We're told he will return to his duties as mayor, soon.

My next guest is the Ukrainian man who rose to fame by beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon and in 2013, Sergiy Stakhovsky. But about a month into his retirement from the world of professional tennis, he made the difficult decision to leave his wife and three young children at their home in Hungary so that he could come back to Ukraine and defend his city. Sergiy Stakhovsky joins me now. Thank you so much for being with us. First of all, how are you doing? How have the last few days what have they been like in Kyiv?

SERGIY STAKHOVSKY, RETIRED UKRAINIAN PRO TENNIS PLAYER: Good day. Well, the last few days been more hectic and more bombs coming into Kyiv. The prior week to that was pretty quiet. There's still no Russian troops into the city of Kyiv tonight. But today there was a major offense you can say, of trying to push the Russians out of Buchyn and we have been pushing hard. For off (INAUDIBLE) there'll will be not inside the range of putting some systems in Kyiv. So, it's tougher the last couple of days.

COOPER: Can you talk about the decision you made to come back and to defend your city?

STAKHOVSKY: It can be said, I'm really proud of that decision, but for me it was not a win situation. It was a lose-lose. I made a decision that would make -- I would feel guilt right now. I'm in Kyiv trying to defend my city and my country. And I'm feeling guilty because I left three kids at home and a wife. I would sitting at home with them and I would feel the same guilt by not trying to help my country to survive during this time.

COOPER: Have you told -- do your kids know what you are doing?

STAKHOVSKY: No, they're way too little. And I'm trying to avoid the fact that they would know that their father was in a war, during a war or any of that matter. I think they don't need (INAUDIBLE) in the first place.

COOPER: Have you carried a weapon before? What is it like on a daily basis?

STAKHOVSKY: Definitely I'm not used to it. It's unpleasant. I've had a private experience with guns on a shooting range. I not a part of any militia or any military units. It is definitely different. I wouldn't say that I'm -- I could say that I can feel comfortable now around it. But I don't know what the future holds in terms of using it.

COOPER: There's been a 35-hour curfew in Kyiv. I believe it ends in the morning. It's now 9:30 p.m. here. Have you been out working? Do you work every day? Is there a set schedule?

STAKHOVSKY: Yes, I'm working two hours, over sick hours of rest. In the curfew we still patrol the streets. We checked the documents. I mean, nobody should be out. So, we stop all the cars moving in and moving out. We do just the things we did before. Nothing changes for us.

COOPER: You still have family, I believe, in Kyiv. Your grandmother, I'm told, your father, your brother. How are they doing?

STAKHOVSKY: My father actually yesterday took his nephew and her kids out of Ukraine. He drove out. I think it took him 40 hours to get out. So, my brother stayed here. He's a doctor. And my grandmother also stayed here. She decided not to leave. So, now we have to take care of her as well.

COOPER: Sergiy Stakhovsky, I so appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. And appreciate what you're doing. Thank you.

STAKHOVSKY: Thanks. Thank you very much.

COOPER: Alisyn and Victor, there are so many Ukrainians who are abroad who have come back here to help in whatever way they can. Yesterday I spent time with three American combat vets who decided on their own dime to come back here and start training a local volunteer defense force and they had put them through a two-week training. They took them from without having any experience, most of them with any kind of weaponry, to being able to move silently on patrol to clear rooms. [15:40:00]

It's really remarkable to see the outpouring of people who want to try to contribute in whatever way they can.

CAMEROTA: I thought that Sergiy captured it really well. Which is, if he were home, he would be tormented by not trying to save his country. He's in his country and tormented by not being home with his three children. Obviously, it's a hellish situation for all Ukrainians trying to figure out what to do. Anderson, thank you very much.

COOPER: Thanks Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: So, the U.K. is revealing intelligence that shows that Russia is facing continued personnel losses. And now Vladimir Putin is calling up reinforcements from across the country. What this could mean for the future of the invasion. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Russian shelling continues to hit civilian cities across Ukraine or civilian sites, I should say. New video just in to CNN shows firefighters, look at this, battling this fire. This is at a market in Kharkiv. A senior U.S. defense officials said that Russia has now launched more than 980 missiles against Ukraine since the start of this war.

CAMEROTA: I mean, the aftermath is just incredible when you see it on your screen like this.

Joining us now is CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. She's also a contributor at "Time" magazine. We also have retired Army Brigadier General Peter Zwack. He's a global fellow at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute. He also served in Moscow as attache to the Russian Federation from 2012 to 2014. And he's also the author of "Swimming the Volga: A U.S. Army Officer's Experience in Pre-Putin Russia." Great to have both of you. Kim, great to have here in studio us.

Let me pull up what the Biden administration has just announced that they are going to send to Ukraine. $800 million worth of new equipment.

[15:45:00]

800 stinger anti-aircraft systems. 9,000 anti-armor systems, including Javelins. 7,000 small arms, including machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers. 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition. 100 drones. Will this change the equation on the ground in Ukraine?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It will certainly help them keep going and maintain this bloody stalemate and keep beating the Russians back. But it's doesn't include some of the more sophisticated weapon systems that President Zelenskyy had been pushing for. Now the U.S. has said they are not going to object if neighboring European countries want to give Ukraine S-3000s. That's a surface to air missile system. But the U.S. isn't going to send them Patriot missile batteries.

Reason being, for some of the more sophisticated systems you need U.S. contractors and personnel to operate them. And they are also more complex. And what defense officials are telling us is that when you have a force that's under fire, give them what works, what they know how to use. Don't make it complicated because it's working.

BLACKWELL: General to you, is there something here you see on this list that changes the equation there in Ukraine?

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Victor, they are putting more weapons into the arms of more Ukrainians and not just Ukrainian military. But also, the territorial forces and the home guard. And so, in this sense, yes. Because the Russians right, while formidable, are bleeding from a thousand cuts all over the country. And these are the type of weapons that are going to raise havoc on soft skin convoys like we saw north of Kyiv but all over the country. And it will stretch the fight. And I believe that time is not on the Russian side as awful as it is for the Ukrainian people. So, yes, I think this will be a major help.

CAMEROTA: So, Kim, let's talk about that. What is the status of the Russian troops. Do we know? Because I can't tell what's wishful thinking in term of what the Ukrainians are saying they're seeing in terms of the Russians running out of food or being exhausted.

DOZIER: Well, they're official reports of casualties are just in the hundreds. But we're hearing from British intelligence and a senior U.S. defense official just briefed reporters along the same lines that they are seeing the Russians talk about taking such heavy casualties that they need reinforcement. And they're also need extra equipment.

Now the senior defense official told us they haven't seen any of that personnel moving into Ukraine yet. But when you think about the fact that, according to the Pentagon, the Russians have about 75 percent of their military deployed into this operation, that means they don't have a lot left to draw from. And that's why they've also been reportedly looking into bringing in mercenaries, possibly to secure the cities so the troops that are trying to do that can then move forward into the fight, into the aggressive fight to take more territory.

BLACKWELL: And hold the territory that they have already I imagine. Let me stay with you Kim on the question of drones. We know that the Ukrainians wanted drones in this package of 800 million. There will be drones sent. Drones were very effective early on in this war that they got from Turkey. We don't know how many of those the Ukrainians still have. But what do we know about the drones that the U.S. will be sending? The president was very vague. Did we get any details from the Pentagon.

DOZIER: Well, we tried and all we got from the senior defense official is, well you can imagine, we're sending these to have an effect and they will pack a punch. They will not say if they are armed but pack a punch tells you, you know, I don't think they're going to use them Kamikaze dive into something. So, at least some of the drones will be armed.

CAMEROTA: So, as you know, General, once again President Zelenskyy implored the U.S., implored NATO for a no-fly zone. As you know, NATO and the U.S. are not willing, at the moment, to do that. And so, can with these weapons and with what they have so far and obviously, just their general tenacity, can they hold off Russia if they don't have that no-fly zone?

ZWACK: Yes. This is the dilemma. However, as we've seen the administration and also our European allies. It's not just us are grappling with the big picture. If you go with in with a fly zone and then all of a sudden, we're fighting Russians both in the air in trying to suppress air defense. This is again, the equivalent -- the Russians have hit the equivalent of a hornets nest and it grows. It's metastasized in this resistance. And these weapons will do that.

[15:50:00]

The Russians, I think, another major issue with this clumsy attempt to move around Kyiv and other places is because the Russian forces the morale and will to fight. They've got issues among their forces, not just the draftees, but, you know, people that are now in the fight realizing this is not why they were sent in and they're fighting Slav and Slav and seeing the civilian toll.

So, in the aggregate, this is a very tough situation, but the Ukrainians in this growing resistance nationwide, in Kharkiv and down in the south, we just saw an airfield of helicopters, Russian helicopters knocked --

BLACKWELL: We certainly know that the Ukrainians have the will to fight. There's an anecdotal reporting about the lack of will, you have said there, from the Russian forces, but we know the Ukrainians, those in the military and civilians are going to fight. General Zwack, thank you. Kim Dozier, thank you as well.

CAMEROTA: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:00]

BLACKWELL: An 11-year-old Ukrainian boy named Hasan traveled 620 miles by himself to cross the border into Slovakia. He arrived with a plastic bag, a passport, and a phone number written on his hand.

CAMEROTA: His mother put him on a train in southeastern Ukraine. She said she could not leave her own mother behind who could not move on her own. Thanks to that phone number, the Slovak interior ministry was able to locate Hasan's relatives who came to get him. And officials praised Hasan for his fearlessness and determination of a real hero.

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.