Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Air Raid Sirens, Explosions in Kyiv as Curfew in Effect; Polish, Czech, Slovenian Leaders Meet Zelenskyy in Kyiv; Evacuations from Kharkiv Interrupted by Shelling; Ukraine Destroys Russian Helicopters in Kherson; Russian Forces Change Tactics as Ground Invasion Stalls; Ukrainian Citizens Unite to Defend City of Vinnytsia. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 16, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:15]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world this hour. I'm Hala Gorani live in Lviv, Ukraine.
The country's capital Kyiv is now under a 35-hour curfew. As CNN teams on the ground report air raid sirens and many explosions overnight. Russian attacks on Kyiv and its suburbs have hit homes and apartment buildings, killing a number of civilians.
Four people died in the shelling of this neighborhood in western Kyiv. And a dramatic move amid the fighting the Prime Ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia made their way to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy. The Czech leader says the main purpose was to tell Ukraine it's not alone in its fight against Russia.
In this video from Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv and the East local officials report 65 instances of shelling on Monday alone with 600 residential buildings destroyed since the invasion began.
And civilian evacuations were interrupted on Monday by the renewed attacks. Kharkiv's mayor says 50 schools, plus medical facilities and hospitals have been attacked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IHOR TEREKHOV, KHARKIV MAYOR (through translation): Unfortunately, shelling is continues, both in the center part of Kharkiv. And in suburbs, it just continues incessant shelling and firing. And it seems like it has actually increased towards the evening. And we've had more air strikes. And it seems like more of them actually hitting it residential blocks and buildings infrastructure of the city. So basically the situation is dire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, people in the southeastern port city of Mariupol are also desperate for help. A local official says Russian troops are holding doctors and patients against their will at a hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAXIM BORODIN, MARIUPOL CITY COUNCIL DEPUTY: Situation is catastrophic. I speak with my friends who today is go out, like to go out from Mariupol. And it's terrible. Because Russians terrorists, not military. They are terrorists. Take them as hostages, not only people in hospital, they take hostages all 300,000 people of Mariupol for about 10 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, farther west, Satellite images show at least three Russian helicopters destroyed by Ukrainian forces at the airport in Kherson. Several military vehicles were also hit.
Now, the Russian advance is stalled in parts of Ukraine even as Russian forces pound cities with shelling usually on the outskirts. Western observers say Moscow's initial playbook for invading Ukraine has not gone according to the Kremlin's plan.
CNN's Phil Black takes a look at why the invasion is not unfolding the way Russia predicted.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Russian ammunitions are still having a devastating impact on civilians in key cities. In Mariupol, in the capital Kyiv, but Russian forces are still making little progress advancing across Ukrainian territory. The core us assessment hasn't changed for much of the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kremlin's forces remain stalled in many areas.
BLACK: And experts agree almost three weeks in Russia is in trouble.
MATTIEU BOULEGUE, RUSSIA & EURASIA PROGRAM AT CHATHAM HOUSE: No wars go according to plan. The problem is that Russia's plan was extremely bad.
BLACK: The key question, why?
BOULEGUE: I would argue it is a mix of everything. It is a failed or botched concept of operation with plenty of wrong assumptions about the very nature of the battlefield. Russia believing in a way that Ukrainians would capitulates or Ukraine would crumble.
BLACK: And experts believe Russia's failure to secure a quick definitive win has revealed another major flaw in its planning.
BRIG. GEN. KEVIN RYAN (RET.), DIRECTOR DEFENSE AND INTELLIGENCE PROJECTS AT HARVARD: Russia is out of available combat forces to put into this fight.
BLACK: Analysts say Russia's limited forces are now divided between taking territory and laying siege to major cities, reducing the ability to do both tasks effectively. And that means Russia must be reassessing what victory looks like.
BOULEGUE: At this stage, we are still talking about limited games and goals. There's simply not enough troops potentially coming from Russia or elsewhere to do a sort of massive full scale ground invasion of Ukraine, keep that territory, hold it and then fight a very costly counter insurrection war.
[01:05:18]
BLACK: U.S. officials say they're seeing some early efforts to boost troop numbers with foreign fighters.
GEN. FRANK MCKENZIE, U.S. CENTCOM COMMANDER: We believe that out of Syria, there perhaps small, small -- very small groups of people that may be trying to make their way to Ukraine.
BLACK: How the next phase of the war plays out, will be significantly determined by Russia's intentions in Kyiv. Trying to take the capital would likely involve months of bombardment and urban warfare.
ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.) FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: That's going to be a tough order of business. Those Ukrainians know every single alley, every backroom, every road, every intersection, the Russians are going to find themselves in a hard fight.
BLACK: Slow Russian Progress can help Ukrainian forces by allowing them more time to prepare and be resupplied with advanced weapons from allies. But experts say it could also inspire greater brutality from Russia, a willingness to escalate and destroy in order to compensate for its stalled invasion. Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Joining me now from Sydney, Sam Roggeveen, Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute. Thanks for being with us. So we just aired a report on why Russia's military plans are not going as well as they might have hoped. Did you attribute that to their disorganization, their lack of planning, or a fiercer and stronger than expected Ukrainian resistance?
SAM ROGGEVEEN, DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM, LOWY INSTITUTE: Well, it appears as if Russia underestimated to what they were going to face in Ukraine. And it also underestimated I think, the -- not just the level of resistance within Ukraine, but the sheer scale of the effort of Western nations to harm the Ukrainian military.
So within the first six days of military action of the Russian invasion, beginning, Western nations are transferred something in the order of 17,000 anti-tank weapons alone, not to mention anti-aircraft weapons, and some intelligence support where we're told that Western powers are providing as well. So you know, that has made a substantial difference, no doubt.
GORANI: In the absence of implementing a no fly zone, which Western and NATO allies have said, is off the table right now. Are Ukrainians in need of more anti-aircraft weaponry, is that the key here for them to be able to resist, if Vladimir Putin decides to use much deadly or airstrikes as he's not advancing on the ground?
ROGGEVEEN: Look, what one of the surprises of this campaign has been the relative lack of Russian air power that's been imposed. In fact, most of the good judges still argue that the Russians don't have full control of the air, they don't have total air superiority. I think if you'd asked me at the time, I would have said that the Russians will essentially destroy the Ukrainian Air Force within the first sort of 48 to 72 hours, that simply hasn't happened. So that's a surprise.
And I think, if anything that now what I would argue is that if the Russians do start to use more blunt force, more brute force, it won't be so much through airpower, although that as well, it'll be through artillery and rocket artillery.
GORANI: Right. But that means they'd have to advance on the ground if they're going to use artillery, but why not establish air superiority earlier on, from the Russian perspective, what's going on? Do you think they certainly have a much, much bigger air force than the Ukrainians?
ROGGEVEEN: I think one thing is a lack of precision guided munitions. So we saw this in the Russian campaign in Syria, that they use dumb bombs a lot, which are capable of causing widespread destruction and very dangerous to civilians, but don't help you very much to achieve military objectives. So that's one reason and perhaps another reason experts on the Russian military doctrine will tell you that there's a there's a doctrinal difference here. So the American and the Western method is very much airpower focused. So you know, the first weeks of a campaign like this, if you look, for instance, the comparison with the Gulf War in '91, or the Iraq war in 2003. You know, the, the initial objectives are very much around air power and you don't apply a land power until you've really saturated the opposition with air power, but evidently, the Russians don't operate that way.
[01:10:01]
GORANI: Yeah, clearly not. What -- I mean, what is the likely outcome here? At some point, the Russians whether Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia realizes it or not, at some point he'll have to, that his military hasn't advanced, certainly hasn't entered the city centers of Kyiv and other big urban areas and entering them and holding them are two entirely different ballgames anyway, at what point is there an off ramp here for both sides for this fighting to stop because it is demolishing big parts of the country, and it is creating misery with millions of refugees having to flee their homes.
ROGGEVEEN: Yeah. Look, I'm a little bit cautious to really buy into the idea that the Russians are losing entirely. I mean, we're getting a very incomplete and sometimes biased picture in the West, particularly those of us who follow the social media feeds very carefully.
What we don't hear about very much, first of all, we get a very incomplete picture of how the entire campaign is going. But particularly we don't hear much about Ukrainian losses, I find it very hard to get reliable information on that. So without that, it's very difficult to know just exactly how well or how badly this campaign is going. But with the information we have in hand, I think you have clued that the maximalists Russian objectives look to be out of reach. So a complete collapse of Ukrainian government, you know, installing a sort of puppet regime in Kyiv, that appear you had of reach. So the delicate shape now is to --
GORANI: I wasn't suggesting that the Russians were losing entirely at all, I was just saying that they're advanced, certainly doesn't seem to match their expectations, you would imagine off the top was to take Kyiv, install a cup of government, do all of that. That's not happening. And the Ukrainians were here in the country are extremely motivated to fight back. And they've held those forces off of the city centers where the fighting is happening mainly in the suburbs, as you know.
ROGGEVEEN: Yeah. So I think the delicate -- the really delicate diplomatic task now for the Western powers is to maintain enough pressure that you do convince the Russian side that it will be impossible to achieve their objectives with military means, but not so much pressure, that you actually provide incentives for Russia to escalate this conflict. What we don't want to see is, you know, a sanctions regime in particular, which is already of unprecedented scale and severity, that a sanctions regime that completely crushes or collapses the Russian economy and puts Putin in a position from which they feel they have to escalate in order to get out.
GORANI: Right, right. Sam Roggeveen, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate your analysis on CNN this --
ROGGEVEEN: Thank you.
GORANI: Well, it's this afternoon, your time and it's this morning, Ukraine time. Thank you very much.
Former Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko says Russia's president underestimates a lot about Ukraine, including the unity of the Ukrainian people. This is something we've discussed over the last several weeks, now faced with losing everything they have. Everyday citizens are coming together to stand against the Russian invasion. CNN's Ivan Watson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dawn breaks over the city of Vinnytsia with an air raid siren. The ground war has yet to reach this city in central Ukraine. But locals aren't taking any chances. This is the entrance to a village on the outskirts of the city, a checkpoint protected by volunteers, an ex-cop, a fireman and an electrician. (On camera): Look at how this village is protecting itself. Homemade tank traps, which the locals call hedgehogs. They've sown netting and put up sandbags. And around the wall here of this checkpoint, they've got boxes of Molotov cocktails ready. This is all locally made. These are improvised defenses. And this is just one Ukrainian village.
(Voice-over): Just down the road, I meet 0:04:18, who seems like a sweet 71 year old grandmother. By the way, Nina (ph) says that if she saw, Vladimir Putin she would strangle him with her own hands right now.
I'm ready she says, if by God, the Russians come here, I'll shoot them all in my hands won't even shake. I'll throw grenades at them.
There is seething anger here at Moscow's invasion. And at the same time, examples of tremendous generosity. Stacked inside a garage, humanitarian assistance trucked in from Europe, personal donations of clothes and food for the struggle people of Ukraine, aid that will then be shipped off to frontline cities.
[01:15:06]
VLADYSLAV KNYVESHKO, DISTRICT HEAD, VINNYTSIA CITY TERRITORIAL COMMUNITY: I want to say thank you for the rest of the world, for the world. I want to say that we need help. We need and we will need help.
WATSON: Is Vinnytsia ready if the Russian military comes to the city?
KNYVESHKO: Yeah. And other cities give us a time. We have two weeks to make good defense. Today, we are ready. But we don't want this.
WATSON: The war effort extends to Vassily Solski (ph) and his farm, where workers labor listening to news of the war. Vassily donates free food to Self Defense Forces.
Vassily Solski (ph) says he's doing his part to help with the war effort. He says he's planting more crops, and he's going to try to grow more food to feed Ukrainians, who may be in need in the weeks and months ahead.
One of Vladimir Putin stated objectives for his war on Ukraine was to demilitarize the country. Instead, he has mobilized farmers, grandmothers and electricians to form a grassroots resistance against the Russian invasion. Ivan Watson, CNN outside Vinnytsia Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, if you'd like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of basic things like shelter, food and water, go to cnn.com/impact you'll find several ways you can help them.
And still to come, the refugee crisis only continues to grow, as the number of those fleeing Ukraine reaches yet another staggering milestone.
Plus, Syrians say they understand what Ukrainians are going through on the 11th Anniversary of the conflict in Syria. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:21:21]
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani live in Lviv, Ukraine. The refugee crisis keeps growing by the day in this part of the world. The U.N. says more than 3 million people have now fled Ukraine since the invasion started nearly three weeks ago.
Poland has taken in the most refugees by far, almost 2 million as of Tuesday. And take a look at the map it shows you the other neighboring countries where Ukrainians are fleeing. As we reported, the majority of people leaving are women. They're also the most vulnerable leaving children and the elderly.
The president of Georgia it says about 20,000 Russians had fled their own country to Georgia since the invasion. Georgia has had a difficult relationship with Russia since it gained independence from the Soviet Union 30 years ago. Russia has the backing of two breakaway self- proclaimed republics erupted into a full blown conflict in 2008. Georgia's President is concerned about where Mr. Putin could turn, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SALOME ZOURABICHVILI, GEORGIAN PRESIDENT: We are all worried in one way of what Putin might do next, and he's using quite a lot of these threats, some psychological, some military on all countries, including talking about nuclear arms. And Georgia as Moldova has to be worried more because we have had the experience and we have our occupied territories.
So yes, we need more. That's why we are reiterating our calls towards the European Union. And we're continuing our paths towards NATO. One thing is sure is that if the 2008 war against Georgia was aimed at preventing us of continuing our paths towards Euro Atlantic integration, it has not succeeded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, on the 11th anniversary of the start of the Syrian uprising, which transformed into a horrendous Civil War, thousands of Syrians gathered in Idlib to protest after years of conflict serious economic and humanitarian situation is dire. And millions of Syrian refugees have fled the fighting or been internally displaced.
This year's anniversary comes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it is important to note that Russia has also been involved in the Syrian conflict since 2015, very much helping the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stay in power. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has that story, and a warning, you may find some of the images in her report disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Russia's vicious war in Ukraine has shocked the world. But no one should be surprised. For years Russia's ruthlessness played out so openly for all to see in Syria, where countless civilians paid the price for Putin propping up his ally Bashar al-Assad. Syria is where Russia boasted about testing more than 300 types of weapons. It's also where it tested the world's limits. And there seem to be none.
It's war has no rules. No one is spared. And no place is safe. Russia's bomb hospitals markets in schools. The U.N. called them more crimes, but no one has faced justice. Russia denies it's committed these crimes, but it's cool attacks no bounds. Even those rushing to rescue the injured have been targeted by its infamous double tap strikes.
ISMAIL ABDALLAH, WHITE HELMETS: I lost two of my team, my colleagues in one second. They were -- we will try to respond to save others.
[01:25:08]
KARADSHEH: Ismail Abdallah of the white Helmets survived one of Russia's most brutal campaigns in Syria, as it helped the Assad regime besieged, starve and bombard eastern Aleppo into submission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are forced to leave.
KARADSHEH: His beloved Aleppo was reduced to rubble.
ABDALLAH: Aleppo was like doomsday. I saw buildings collapse on their -- on the heads of their -- on the heads of the families, member of the families, children by using the bunker buster bombs. Now, this kind of weapon is used for the basement, military basement that weapon was used on civilians to target the shelters for the civilians.
KARADSHEH: In the little that's left of rebel health Syria, the White Helmets are an alert. There's a French on ceasefire here. They also want to help Ukraine. They know Russia's playbook all too well.
ABDALLAH: They would bomb everything. And then their media will say that we targeted, we targeted place for soldiers, we targeted Ukrainian armies.
KARADSHEH: So many here feel the pain Ukrainians are going through, pain inflicted by the same aggressor who's shattered too many Syrian lives.
ABDEL KAFI HAMDO, DISPLACED SYRIAN: This is my daughter Lamar (ph).
KARADSHEH: English teacher Abdel Kafi Hamdo with his baby girl by inside appeal to the world time and time again to save Aleppo in 2016. But the world look the other way.
HAMDO: I mean, I don't know why the world is not learning. I mean, not stopping Russia in Syria is affecting -- affected Ukraine. I mean, not stopping Putin in Ukraine will do the same in many other countries. KARADSHEH: It's been more than five years since Hamdo was forced out of his home. Life is not the same, he says, but life does go on. Right now he says he just can't stop thinking of Ukraine.
HAMDO: None can understand Ukrainians, none of the world but Syrians. None can understand them more than Syrians. We will understand -- we understand them more. And this is why I cannot nowadays, I cannot teach well, I cannot do anything because I'm just following what's going on Ukraine. In fact, what's affecting me a lot that all the world is repeating the same mistake.
KARADSHEH: The mistake of letting Putin get away with it all, the impunity in Syria that may have emboldened him to invade Ukraine. Many here feel their fate is now tied to Ukraine. If Putin has not stopped the if you're Russia will unleash hell here again, to help Assad reclaim what's left of this devastated land. Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: And still ahead, a dramatic antiwar protest on Russian state television could signal that cracks in Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine are starting to show, details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:32:28]
GORANI: Welcome back. I'm Hala Gorani live in Lviv, Ukraine. Our top story this hour. CNN crews in Kyiv are reporting a busy night of explosions in the capital. The city is now under a strict curfew until Thursday morning. And this comes after Russian attacks hit at least four residential buildings around Kyiv within the space of an hour on Tuesday. Kyiv's mayor says several people were killed in those attacks.
We are also getting a new look at the damage left behind in some cities. This is drone footage from a town in northeastern Ukraine where shelling and bombs have ripped open massive craters in the ground and reduced some homes to rubble.
Meanwhile, and this is -- this is a bold move by some of these E.U. leaders, who traveled to Kyiv Tuesday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in person, reaffirming their support for Ukraine's fight and calling on the E.U. to grant candidate status quickly.
Now, the Russian journalist who staged a dramatic protest against the invasion during a live TV broadcast and released a video slamming what she called Kremlin propaganda has been fined and released from police custody. But the Kremlin's crackdown on anti war messages continues unabated.
CNN's Nic Robertson has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: These are editor Marina Ovsyannikova's last moments before arrest, bravely protesting Russia's war in Ukraine. Her banner, "No war. Do not believe the propaganda. They tell you lies here."
Seen live by hundreds of thousands of Russians on the state's prime propaganda channel, Channel One. In court, the following day, found guilty of an administrative offense, organizing an unauthorized event, fined 30,000 rubles, about $280.
An apparent reference not to storming the set but to a video she posted on social media shortly prior calling for protests.
MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, RUSSIAN JOURNALIST (through translator): Go to the rallies and do not be afraid, they can't arrest us all.
[01:34:44]
ROBERTSON: Russia has banned all anti war protests but they continue. More than 900 arrested this past weekend, almost 15,000 since the war began according to an independent human rights group. Most getting a beating, a fine, and overnight detention.
Unclear if the Kremlin is trying to minimize Ovsyannikova's extraordinary primetime protest or if she'll face stiffer charges later.
Initially, state media reported, investigators were considering charges under Russia's new draconian laws that prohibit what it calls disseminating false information about Russian forces and can carry a maximum of 15 year jail sentence.
Ovsyannikova whose father is Ukrainian and mother Russian appears to have expected to be silenced. Her pre-recorded social media post pulling no punches.
OVSYANNIKOVA: What is happening now in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor country. And the responsibility for this aggression lies in the conscience of only one person. This man is Vladimir Putin.
ROBERTSON: That she was allowed to speak following her conviction perhaps unexpected. Her harsh treatment in detention likely not.
OVSYANNIKOVA: The interrogation lasted for more than 14 hours. I was not allowed to contact my relatives or provided with any judicial help.
I was in a rather tough situation. All the comments will made tomorrow. I just need to rest today.
ROBERTSON: The question for some now is her protest an indication Putin's propaganda machine is faltering?
STANISLAV KUCHER, RUSSIAN JOURNALIST: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter where, whether she had spent days preparing for that or hours. It definitely shows a change in the mood of those working on Russian state TV.
ROBERTSON: The continuing street protests show how many Russians remain ready to put their liberty on the line, heartwarming for Ukrainians but so far, the numbers nowhere near the tipping point for the Kremlin.
Nic Robertson, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, the war here in Ukraine has claimed the lives of two more journalists. The tragic news underscores the danger of covering this conflict. Fox News reports veteran camera man Pierre Zakrzewski and freelance journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova were killed as the vehicle they were traveling in came under fire near Kyiv. They were working with Fox correspondent Benjamin Hall when their vehicle was attacked. Hall was injured and he has been hospitalized.
Their deaths come after American journalist Brent Renaud was killed this past Sunday. Ukraine blames Russian forces for all three deaths.
I'll have more from Ukraine later this hour.
But first let's bring in John Vause in Atlanta.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hala, thank you.
We'll take a short break here. But when we come back, the ties that bind.
We'll take a closer look at the relationship between China and Russia. And why Beijing is bristling at U.S. warnings not to help Moscow.
[01:37:57]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: When it comes to its relationship with Moscow, Beijing has delivered the diplomatic equivalent of butt-out to the U.S. China was walking a fine line when the war in Ukraine began but as the conflict drags on, support for Russia has become increasingly obvious.
CNN's David Culver has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beijing fighting back against the U.S. warnings not to help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Today a foreign ministry spokesperson strongly urging the United States not to undermine China's legitimate rights and interests when dealing with U.S.-Russia relations adding, "China and Russia will continue to conduct normal economic trade cooperation". But might that cooperation soon include military support?
JUDE BLANCHETTE, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Beijing would think of this as a tightrope walk. But I think from the perspective of most external observers, they see Beijing as really being an active support for Moscow.
CULVER: While both Beijing and the Kremlin deny that Russia made a request for aid, sources say Russia has asked China for drones and prepackaged military food kits or MREs.
In a seven-hour meeting Monday in Rome, China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi told U.S. National security adviser Jake Sullivan that China wants peace and could serve as a mediator, adding that Beijing is also providing emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
ZHANG XIN, EAST CHINA NORMAL UNIVERSITY: Chinese government are juggling between several different goals (ph) and trying to be friends with all parties involved.
CULVER: China is already Russia's biggest trading partner, and likely the only superpower that could help slow Russia's economic freefall.
About three weeks before the invasion, President Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin announced an energy deal totaling about $100 billion including construction of a new gas pipeline. Beijing also agreed to purchase 100 million tons of oil from Russia over the next ten years.
Then there is agriculture. The same week the west launched severe economic sanctions on Russia Beijing announced details of a new wheat deal expanding imports from all regions of Russia. It adds to what was an already massive surge in Russia-China trade.
Chinese state media says in 2021, trade between the two jumped $150 billion over the year and includes Russian seed oil, barley, and beef. Every dollar counts when you're losing customers as quickly as Russia.
And as the west cuts Russian banks out of the dollar denominated SWIFT system, Russia could look to settle its trade debt with China using Chinese currency instead. Though some analysts believe all of China's potential economic relief efforts still won't be enough to back fill the massive void in Russia, left by western nations.
And with China's Russian trade volume dwarfed by Beijing's deals with the E.U. and U.S., the economic risks might be too great for China.
[01:44:59]
BLANCHETTE: It is doing deep significant harm to China's interests to attach itself to the burning and sinking ship that is Vladimir Putin. China has backed the wrong horse.
CULVER: But with the stated willingness to mediate the crisis, China appears to still be straddling how best to keep its economic ties to the west, without abandoning its ideological allegiance to a fellow autocracy.
David Culver, CNN -- Shanghai.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back the U.S. war veterans traveling to Ukraine training volunteers for combat. Up next they explain why they are compelled to get involved in someone else's fight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:49:46]
VAUSE: For the most part the world has stood back and watched as Ukrainians face the might of Russia's military and despite all expectations continue to put up a hell of a fight. While NATO and the U.S. insists they will not send troops, a small group of American war veterans went anyway training ordinary Ukrainians to defend their families, their homes, their country.
CNN's Anderson Cooper has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: In Lviv, men who have never fought now train for war. They practice clearing rooms in a stack formation, using hand signals to move in silence.
It is a two-week crash course in combat, the bare essentials to stay alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok. As always keep clear of that doorway, right.
COOPER: Matt Gallagher (ph) served in Iraq, Adrian Bonenberger (ph) did two tours in Afghanistan -- both American Army vets who come here to help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. Exactly right. Think about where you were two weeks ago.
COOPER: Outside, Ben Busch (ph) prepares another group of volunteers. He served two tours in Iraq as a Marine.
BEN BUSCH, MARINE VETERAN: There's a suspected patrol in the area of one or two people, we're not sure.
Squad leader, any questions? There we go
COOPER: Ben, Matt and Adrian are not working for the U.S. military or government and not being paid by anyone. They bought their own tickets here and are doing this for free.
What made you want to be here?
ADRIAN BONENBERGER, U.S.ARMY VETERAN: I came to this country for the first time in 2015. I fell in love with the country. I met my wife here so it was a personal connection.
BUSCH: And our personal connection was to him and to the overall effort of a democracy fighting to be a democracy. MATT GALLAGHER, VETERAN: I kind of landed on an old line from "For
Whom The Bell Tolls". For what are born if not to aid one another. And looking at my two young sons, thinking of that line, I just felt like this was a unique opportunity to help show them how to be the men and grown-up adults I aspire them to be.
COOPER: Two weeks ago, the volunteers they trained had no idea how to clear a building or move as a unit. Most have never fired a gun before.
GALLAGHER: These are teachers, bus drivers, (INAUDIBLE) welders, who want to protect their neighborhood, protect their homes many of whom never thought they would be in this position
BUSCH: We have been doing everything we can to give them the tools that they need to survive because they're going to defend their city one way or another.
COOPER: Some have modern rifles, but others train with antique ones loaned by a local gun collector.
I think I saw -- is that a tommy gun?
GALLAGHER: Yes. That would be from the collection.
COOPER: Is that literally like a tommy gun from the 1930s?
GALLAGHER: Oh yes.
COOPER: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have got some kind of weird machine gun I think I have seen in movies before. All the new weapons are being sent to the front. This is what they have here now. And if the war comes here, arguably that's what they will have to fight with
BUSCH: And they are here every day beautifully, working as diligently as any marines I have trained. And I have trained a lot. And they don't complain they continue to move.
They are at the point now we have worked progressionally to make the leaders emerge because leadership is just going to be necessary for coordination for anything.
And they have emerged. We now know that there is bone to this organization. And that gives me a great deal of confidence because I am not going to be here forever and that's hard for me, the closer I get to them.
GALLAGHER: We'll do it again differently later, right.
Always differently.
Well done.
COOPER: The volunteers covered their faces for their own safety. They know what Russia is capable of. But they also want Vladimir Putin to know they are ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want Russia to know that in each building, in each apartment and in each doghouse, we will be resisting. We will have guerilla movement and we will resist.
COOPER: On the last day of the training course, volunteers get the chance to fire a weapon. They are given just ten rounds for target practice. There is not enough ammo to spare.
GALLAGHER: Already on the firing line, clear to fire.
[01:54:47]
COOPER: They practice on AK-47s, but volunteers have not been issued AK-47s of their own. There are simply not enough for them to go around. They have had to buy whatever guns they can find on the open market. Even then, it is hard for them to find ammunition.
This 20-year-old volunteer says firing the AK-47 was something of a wake up call.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So today, I understand that there can be a person who want to shoot me.
COOPER: What do you think of the American guys who have come to help train?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are really cool, they're maximum cool. Like -- I think that they come here and I appreciate that a lot.
COOPER: Ben, Adrian and Matt hope when they leave other combat veterans will come and continue their mission.
GALLAGHER: You don't have to come here as a combatant at all. You can come here and do this on a very basic level. And if you have a special team, if you have an urge, you know, this is how it is applied. It's not imaginary, it's not mythological. We are actually doing this and you can see the effect.
BONENBERGER: This is what the Germans and French did for us when we were in a similar situation during the American revolution. People came over and helped us train.
GALLAGHER: It just reminds Americans of all ideologies, all politics, however they feel about this war, these are everyday people who want the same things that you and I want back home, right. Peace and prosperity, opportunity for a better life for their children.
COOPER: Anderson Cooper, CNN -- Lviv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: I'm John Vause, hope to see you right back here tomorrow.
Our breaking news coverage though continues with Hala Gorani live in Lviv. That's up next after a short break. [01:56:34]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:00:00]
