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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Updates War in Ukraine; Civilian Death Toll Rises in Ukraine. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 17, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:13]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

People are emerging alive from the rubble of the Mariupol theater in Ukraine. Roughly 1,300 people had been sheltering there when witnesses say a Russian bomb destroyed it yesterday. One former local leader in Mariupol says about 130 people have made it out so far.

This video that was shot a week ago shows how packed the theater was with people living in darkness and not enough food. The word "Children" was painted on the ground in Russian on both sides of the building. Those letters were so large they could be seen by satellite.

BLACKWELL: The theater is the latest example of the indiscriminate onslaught on civilians by Vladimir Putin's forces, hospitals, maternity wards, apartment buildings obliterated.

The British Defense Ministry believes Russia is resorting to older, less precise weapons that are more likely to result in civilian casualties. Today, Ukraine's president continued his pleas to Western governments to help stop the killing of his people. This time, he addressed Germany's lawmakers and invoked a reference to the Holocaust.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Once again, you find yourselves behind a wall. It is not a Berlin Wall. It is a wall in the middle of Europe between freedom and bondage. This is a wall that is getting thicker with every bomb falling on our land, on Ukraine. Every year, politicians say never again. Now I see that these words

are worthless. In Europe, a people is being destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Let's bring in Anderson Cooper. He's with us again in Lviv, Western Ukraine.

So, Anderson, tell us about these humanitarian corridors that were helping -- have been set up to help Ukrainians get out of the way of these Russian strikes.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, the Ukrainian government says it's established nine corridors, such corridors for today.

The corridors lead out of a number of different cities including Mariupol. A short time ago, the city council said that 30,000 of its people have fled the city, even, as you know, Mariupol has been surrounded, just bombarded. The city council says about 80 percent of Mariupol's housing structures are now destroyed.

Ukrainian officials said that the corridors are to allow safe transport out for people who want to leave as well, as safe entry for humanitarian aid.

I want to bring in CNN's Nick Paton Walsh in Odessa.

Nick, initially, there were sort of ad hoc or unofficial corridors, and it was only people in personal vehicles. Is it still that way?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes.

I mean, look, we are talking about more officially established possibilities at this stage. But that always come with the extraordinary caveat that, in the past, even according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, these corridors have come under attack by Russian sides. They have essentially been not a safe passage to leave that area.

And that has, of course, inhibited people's ability to get out. Now, there are apparently somewhere north of 300,000 civilians still inside Mariupol at this time. And, as you can see from the video that was being played earlier about the conditions inside that bomb shelter, food is scarce. People are crammed underground because of the damage done to the amount of housing in that town, in that city, and because of the consistent nature of the bombardment.

It's that intense shelling that has impeded rescue efforts after the bomb struck, the airstrikes struck yesterday. Unclear how many people were in the bomb shelter at that time. As of this morning, Ukrainian officials talking about 1,200, 1,300.

Possibly 130 having been rescued, according to the most recent statement, the issue being that the entrance to the bomb shelter was hit in the airstrike, collapsed, essentially. There were no emergency services to come to the aid of people in there. And intense shelling impeded any possibility for that anyway.

And so slowly that work has got under way today, and small numbers have been brought out. We still can't answer the question as to how many people were in there. And we, unfortunately, still can't answer the question as to how many lives may be lost or how many may be injured.

What is clear, what we do have an answer to is that Russia is quite capable of targeting a building that is obviously a bomb shelter for children and women, that has children written in enormous letters all around, visible from space. That's not a problem for them and their airstrike -- Anderson.

COOPER: What's the latest in Odessa?

[14:05:00]

WALSH: Yes, I mean, just before we came on air here, we heard again the kind of rattle of what sounds a bit like anti-aircraft gunfire, much further away from where we heard it yesterday.

And I should say, in an urban environment, it's often hard to work out quite what the noises are. But this has been a city more on edge since a local military official said, look, these videos being passed around on social media showing Russian ships on the horizon, well, yes, there are Russian ships on the horizon here.

The official warned that people should not be overly anxious because of that, that these were maneuvers designed to kind of spook the habitants of this, the third largest city in Ukraine, a key maritime port.

The problem I think here is, we are seeing slowly over time the military activity around here escalating, two days ago, two jets shot down, according to Ukrainian, shelling on parts of the coastline here, these ships on the horizon too. We went to have a look ourselves, and I was amazed to see sort of 20 residents with binoculars trying to see what the fate for their city had in store for it on the horizon.

Chilling, frankly, to live here with that potential constant threat and try and decipher what the noises you occasionally hear in the dark over Odessa after curfew. Whether or not Russia has the ambition, the military might to extend itself this far for yet another probably quite bloody fight, we don't know yet.

But it doesn't keep people here any less anxious -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, listening for noises in the dark.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.

I want to go to Ukraine's capital now, Kyiv. Our Sam Kiley is standing by.

Kyiv just wrapped up a 35-hour curfew earlier in the day. What have things been like today? SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, now we're

back on the overnight curfew schedule.

So far, this evening has been relatively quiet. It wasn't quiet, though, this morning when a downed cruise missile, one that was shot down by Ukrainian authorities, hit an apartment block. And then we had news coming from Chernihiv, about 100 miles or less to the north of us here, the last town, effectively, before the Belarusian border, the first town that the Russian invaders went through or around.

That hasn't fallen to the Russians, but it has fallen to the Russian wrath. In the last 24 hours, the regional authorities, the regional governor has said the 53 people were killed, 10 people were killed in a bread queue.

And now we have just learned, Anderson, that at least one U.S. citizen, one American citizen is among the dead. We don't have any more information about that individual. That person has been identified, we understand, from the police authorities. And, of course, they're working on informing the next of kin and the U.S. authorities.

But it just goes to show here in this part of the north of the country that, whether you're in Kyiv or in outlying towns, the bombardments continue, Anderson.

COOPER: There's been shelling, I understand, by Russian forces of a town near Kharkiv.

KILEY: Yes, there has, Kharkiv, another town that has been probably the town, other than Mariupol, that has been hardest hit in terms of deliberate targeting of civilians.

The death toll there remains unknown. But we do know now that more than 20 people were killed in a town 25 kilometers outside to the southwest of Kyiv. That's essentially close to the main road west and southwest out of the city, a road I have actually driven myself.

And there have been other strikes like this. Not long ago, about 10 days ago now, a village was hit in similar circumstances with a substantial death toll there. In this case, what was targeted appears to have been a community center and a school, but more than 20 people there, the local authorities saying, I think, 25 people killed.

These figures frequently change, as we know, Anderson, because, of course, people get buried under the rubble and then people, unfortunately, die later on for their injuries. But the initial reports are that those civilians have been killed there too.

And all of this is being denied in most cases by the Russian authorities. And here in Kyiv, following the death of that one individual, this was the reaction to those denials from none other than the mayor of Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Putin says he's only targeting military targets.

VITALI KLITSCHKO, MAYOR OF KYIV, UKRAINE: Bullshit.

Sorry. Where is military target? This building is military target?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY: A pugilistic response from the former boxer, now the mayor of Kyiv.

And it indicates a level of frustration with the kind of ludicrous statements. Nick Paton Walsh was reporting there about the Russian denials, suggesting that the Azov Battalion had blown up the theater in Mariupol. They said that the people who died in the bread queue in Chernihiv had been killed by the Ukrainians in a false flag effort to blame the Russians.

[14:10:00]

There's no need to blame the Russians for murdering civilians, because it's happening all over the country, even, indeed, in the part of the country that was considered safe until recently, where you are, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, the evidence is all around.

President Zelenskyy continues speaking to lawmakers in -- yesterday, he spoke to the U.S. Congress. Today, he spoke to German lawmakers, tailoring his remarks to German history, repeating the phrase never again.

He's really trying to continue to rally the world to the cause and also to have a regular supply of weapons and, obviously, as many weapons as possible.

KILEY: Yes, and he pulled that punches in his speech to the Germans today, to the German Bundestag, as you rightly point out, saying that building more walls and dredging up the memory of the Holocaust to try to elicit a degree of empathy, because the Germans have -- in the Ukrainian view, have been dragging their feet in terms of sanctions.

They are, of course, part of the European Union sanctions, but they have a lot of bilateral sanctions that they could apply in the Ukrainian view to Russia. A lot of businesses have not yet shut down their operations in the way that so many U.S. businesses have, I think.

And he made that very, very abundantly clear that that was unsatisfactory, as far as he was concerned. But he's also drawing attention, which I think is very important to them. Remember that he was speaking to politicians living in a city that had been divided, physically divided by a Berlin Wall.

And so the echoes of another wall going up separating this democratic country of Ukraine from the rest of the democratic West in Europe, he would hope, would try to resonate. And then, of course, in the background, he's also demanding that the Germans increase their efforts to supply arms. They have supplied more arms to the Egyptian dictatorship than they have to Ukraine in the last year -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes.

In fact, they were blocking German weapons from being sent to Ukraine. They finally had a reversal on that policy. But it was certainly late in -- after the invasion had already begun.

Sam Kiley, thank you so much.

During the press conference with his Slovakian counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated the U.S.' decision to keep Ukrainian airspace -- well, to not have some sort of a no-fly zone.

CNN's White House reporter Natasha Bertrand joins me now live from Brussels.

So, talk about what the defense secretary said. He said there's no such thing as a no-fly zone-lite.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Anderson.

So he was asked again about the possibility that NATO could set up some kind of no-fly zone there, in accordance with the demand that President Zelenskyy has made to close the skies in Ukraine.

And he reiterated what we have heard over the last several weeks and months from U.S. and NATO officials, which is that this is just not feasible for us, because not only would NATO forces have to patrol the sky and potentially shoot-down Russian aircraft and basically get in a direct confrontation a direct war with Russia, but they would also have to take out Russia's air defense systems, which, of course, have been stationed both in Ukraine and in Russia.

So take a listen to what he had to say about the possibility or un- possibility of a no-fly zone-lite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: So what this really means is that, in order to control the skies, you have to shut down the air defenses that are on the ground. And some of those air defense systems are in Russia.

And so, again, there's no easy or simple way to do this. There's no such thing as a no-fly zone-lite. A no-fly zone means that you're in a conflict with Russia. So, from a U.S. perspective, where, again, our position remains that we're not going to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So, basically, what he's saying here is, of course, there is no middle ground. If they wanted to set up a no-fly zone, they would essentially have to go all in here and place those forces in direct confrontation with Russia, and that it's just not something that they are prepared to do at this point.

Of course, President Zelenskyy said there are alternatives to that no- fly zone, which would be increased weaponry, increased defense -- air defense systems going to Zelenskyy, so that Ukraine can actually shut down their skies on their own, of course, with the help of that Western weaponry -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes.

You also got new reporting about at least three incidents where a drone either flew into or crashed into a NATO member's territory.

BERTRAND: Yes, so a trio of drone incidents here, including one that was armed with a bomb that actually made its way about 350 miles west of Ukraine's western border and landed in Croatia, somehow without NATO's air defense systems capturing it.

And it raises a lot of concerns, obviously. That was only one of three drone incidents. Another one landed in Romania, evading kind of detection there, and another one actually entered Ukraine up from Polish airspace, a Russian drone.

So it raises a lot of concerns among the NATO alliance about the potential for these drones to pose a threat to NATO member states. Of course, the war is just so close to Poland's doorstep, to those eastern flank member countries' doorsteps, that they're taking a number of precautions now to ensure, after these incidents, after the war has begun, that this does not pose a threat really to those NATO countries.

[14:15:18]

And one of the things that we saw today, actually, the U.K. announced that it is sending a brand-new air defense system to Poland, as well as 100 personnel to actually man that air defense system. NATO has stepped up its air patrols along the border there with Ukraine, and they have also begun to move additional forces to that eastern flank.

So, obviously, a lot being done here.

COOPER: I'm sorry. I have got to jump in.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is giving an update on the war in Ukraine. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: ... including this week alone a hospital, three schools, a boarding school for visually impaired kids in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.

Yesterday, Russian forces bombed a in Mariupol, where hundreds of people had been taking shelter. The word "Children" had been written in Russian in giant white letters on the pavement outside the building, so that you could know from the air that there were children inside. Russian forces also opened fire on 10 civilians who were waiting in

line for bread. These incidents join a long list of attacks on civilian, not military locations, across Ukraine, including apartment buildings, public squares, and, last week, a maternity hospital in Mariupol.

I doubt that any of us who saw those images will ever forget them. We have seen Russia use similar tactics before in Grozny and Aleppo. They stepped up their bombardment with the goal of breaking the will of the people.

Yesterday, President Biden said that, in his opinion, war crimes have been committed in Ukraine. Personally, I agree. Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. After all the destruction of the past three weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise.

The consequences of Moscow's war are being felt around the world in rising food costs, concerns about fuel supplies, more broadly in worries about how this war will affect the global economy and the fight against COVID-19. These are serious issues that the global community urgently needs to address. This war is making that much more difficult.

In this way, Russia's actions are having an impact on every person on the planet, wherever they live. We also feel the impact right here in this room. There should be a seat reserved here today for Benjamin Hall from FOX News, who was injured badly when his vehicle came under attack near Kyiv.

Many of us, myself included. have gotten to know Ben very well as part of the traveling press corps. He's an incredibly talented reporter, always asking tough questions. He's a lovely person as well. Our thoughts, my thoughts are with him and his family, including his three little kids.

Two of Ben's FOX News colleagues, Pierre Zakrzewski and Sasha Kuvshinova, were killed in the attack. And Brent Renaud, a reporter on assignment with "TIME" magazine, was killed in a separate attack a day earlier.

I know that everyone in this room, in particular, feels these losses deeply. Being a war correspondent is vital work. They make sure that the world knows what's really happening when armies move in and bombs start falling. It also takes incredible courage. They go into war zones, when others, understandably, are heading out as fast as possible.

So these are huge losses, of course, for families, for friends, but also for their colleagues, their profession, their readers and viewers, who understand world events because of them.

Our experts are in the process of documenting and evaluating potential war crimes being committed in Ukraine. Beth Van Schaack, whom the Senate finally confirmed this week is our ambassador at large for global criminal justice, will be leading that effort within the State Department.

We will make sure that our findings help international efforts to investigate war crimes and hold those responsible accountable. I'd also mentioned that there are several other nominations before the Senate with a direct bearing on our ability to support Ukraine, including for assistant secretary of state for popular refugees and migration, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, and our coordinator for sanctions policy.

[14:20:08]

So I urge the Senate to confirm these nominees quickly, so that they can get to work as soon as possible.

A few weeks ago, just days before Russian's invasion began, I went to the United Nations Security Council to lay out what we believed was about to happen. Again today, we have a strong sense of what Russia could do next.

We believe that Moscow may be setting the stage to use a chemical weapon, and then falsely blame Ukraine, to justify escalating its attacks on the Ukrainian people. Manufacturing events and creating false narratives of genocide to justify greater use of military force is a tactic that Russia has used before, including in Georgia.

We believe Russia will bring its mercenaries from private military groups and foreign countries to Ukraine. President Putin acknowledged as much over the weekend when he authorized the recruitment of additional forces from the Middle East and elsewhere, another indication that his war effort is not going as he hoped it would.

They're also likely to systematically kidnap local officials and replace them with puppets. Again, this has already begun. The mayor of Melitopol was grabbed off the street several days ago, released yesterday in a prisoner exchange. The mayor of another city in Southern Ukraine was also kidnapped. He hasn't yet been let go.

This is a terror tactic, grab local officials, depose local governments, put proxies in their place.

After devastating Ukrainian cities, Moscow may bring in officials from Russia to serve as local government officials and surge what they describe as economic support in an attempt to make the people dependent on Moscow for survival, again, something that Russia did in Georgia.

President Putin's invasion of Ukraine is not going to plan. The Ukrainian people haven't welcomed the Russian military. They haven't submitted. On the contrary, they're fighting with extraordinary courage to protect their homes, their families, their country.

Russia has been hit by unprecedented sanctions and cut off from the global economy. Its own economy is in freefall. Hundreds of corporations have closed operations. In a matter of weeks, President Putin has destroyed 30 years of opening to the world and economic opportunity for the Russian people. Dozens of members of the Kremlin's corrupt power base have been

sanctioned. Several have lost their mega-yachts and villas. President Putin has derided those sanctions, using recent public diatribes to mock Russians living abroad as too dependent, as he said, foie gras and oysters.

Meanwhile, he sits in his mansions, having accumulated billions, taking wealth from the Russian people, while they stand in long lines to access cash and watch as stores close and the ruble plummets in value. It's no wonder that brave Russians continue to protest the war and be beaten and arrested for it.

And Russian journalists are resigning from their jobs at state media outlets because they can't stomach parroting the Kremlin's lies any longer.

Still, President Putin is not relenting and, in fact, may be growing more desperate. And so, yesterday, President Biden authorized -- announced -- excuse me -- and I authorized another $800 million in military aid to Ukraine. That brings our support for Ukraine's front- line defenders to more than $2 billion during this administration, $1 billion in the last week alone.

We're grateful to have a determined and generous partner in Congress, which this week provided more than $13 billion in urgent support to Ukraine. And we will continue to work with lawmakers to support Ukraine and hold the Kremlin to account.

As President Biden described, this new security assistance package includes 800 anti-aircraft systems to stop attacking planes and helicopters before they destroy more of Ukraine, 9,000 anti-armor systems to destroy tanks and armored vehicles, 7,000 small arms, including machine guns and grenade launchers, and 20 million rounds of ammunition.

We're also helping Ukraine acquire longer-range anti-aircraft systems and munitions, at President Zelenskyy's request. And I have been in almost daily contact with Foreign Minister Kuleba, coordinating to respond swiftly to Ukraine's most urgent needs.

Our allies and partners continue to step up with their own significant shipments of security assistance. I have authorized more than a dozen countries to provide U.S.-origin equipment, and dozens more around the world have provided security assistance of their own.

I'd also note that, in addition to assistance from the Department of Defense, we're sending support from other agencies, including $10 million worth of R&D vehicles from our own Diplomatic Security Service.

[14:25:08]

And, yesterday, I announced another $186 million in humanitarian assistance to help the more than three million refugees who fled Ukraine in the past three weeks, the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, as well as internally displaced people still in Ukraine.

This brings our total humanitarian aid since last month to $293 million. And of the more than $13 billion for Ukraine that Congress is putting forward, more than $4 billion of that will go to humanitarian assistance. Ukraine's neighbors in Europe are generously welcoming, supporting refugees. The United States will do our part to help those governments and the humanitarian organizations on the ground meet this tremendous need.

All the steps that we and our allies and partners are taking are aimed at one goal, to end the war. The support we're providing Ukraine, as well as our financial and economic measures against Moscow, will strengthen Ukraine's hand at the diplomatic table.

And we commend Ukraine for staying at that table and continuing to pursue diplomacy, while the Kremlin's brutal aggression continues. We will support Ukraine's diplomatic efforts however we can.

We continue to call on all nations, especially those with direct influence with Russia, to use whatever leverage they have to compel Moscow to end this war of choice. We believe China, in particular, has a responsibility to use its influence with President Putin and to defend the international rules and principles that it professes to support.

Instead, it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction, by refusing to condemn this aggression, while seeking to portray itself as a neutral arbiter. And we're concerned that they're considering directly assisting Russia with military equipment to use in Ukraine.

President Biden will be speaking to President Xi tomorrow, and will make clear that China will bear responsibility for any actions it takes to support Russia's aggression and we will not hesitate to impose costs.

Let me close by saying that President Zelenskyy's message to Congress and to the American people yesterday was incredibly powerful. He's asked for more help, which we are providing and will continue to provide. And he said that the people of Ukraine want the same things for themselves that we want for ourselves, democracy, independence, freedom.

No one who's watched the events of the past three weeks could ever doubt the depth of Ukraine's commitment to these ideals. We will continue to stand with Ukraine as it fights for its future. We will continue to increase the costs on Russia until it ends this war of choice, and we will continue to provide lifesaving aid to the Ukrainian people as they endure the brutal consequences of Russia's aggression.

With that, happy to take some questions.

QUESTION: Sir, what do you think about the talks between Ukraine and Russia? Are they making any progress? President Zelenskyy seems to suggest there are things they are talking about.

BLINKEN: So, we're in close contact, as I said, with Ukraine's leaders, including, in my case, Foreign Minister Kuleba.

We're in close contact with other countries that have in one way or another been engaging on diplomacy. And, to date, I have to say, on the one hand, we commend Ukraine for being at the table, despite being under bombardment every minute of the day.

At the same time, I have not seen any meaningful efforts by Russia to bring this war that it's perpetrating to conclusion through diplomacy. We support Ukraine's efforts to try to de-escalate through diplomacy, to reach a cease-fire, and, of course, the withdrawal of Russian forces.

We appreciate the efforts of other countries, including France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, and others. But, again, from where I sit, diplomacy requires both sides engaging in good faith to de-escalate. And I don't see signs right now that Putin is prepared to stop.

On the contrary, if you listened to just, for example, his most recent remarks yesterday, that suggests that he's moving in the opposite direction. But never mind the words. What we're really focused on is his actions. And the actions that we're seeing Russia take every single day, virtually every minute of every day, are in total contrast to any serious diplomatic effort to end the war.

So, we're looking to see Russia take meaningful actions to de- escalate, to stop the violence that it's perpetrating on Ukraine, and to engage in good-faith talks. We will support any effort that Ukraine makes to do that.