Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

One Killed as Debris from Downed Missile Hits Kyiv Building; Zelenskyy Appeals to U.S. Congress for More Help; Biden Announces Additional $800 Million in Security Aid; ICC Chief Prosecutor Investigation Potential War Crimes; Ukraine: Bomb Hits Mariupol Theater Serving as Shelter; NATO Allies Against Establishing No-Fly Zone in Ukraine; Ukraine's Zelenskyy Addresses German Bundestag. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired March 17, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max foster in London. We are following the breaking news on the war in Ukraine. Just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putin says he's only targeting military targets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (BLEEP). Sorry, Russia bombed the building. The word "dete" was written on both sides of the building. It's Russian for children.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, I think he is a war criminal.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I am addressing President Biden. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

FOSTER: It's Thursday, March 17th. 4 a.m. in Washington, 10 a.m. in Ukraine. We begin this hour with that breaking news.

At least one person is dead and three others wounded after debris from a downed missile hit a residential building in Kyiv. Authorities say a fire broke out in the 16-story building but it was put out quickly. State emergency service reports 30 people have been evacuated from the site and rescue operations are ongoing.

Meanwhile, in the southern coastal city of Mariupol, what could be one of the most brutal attacks since Russia invaded Ukraine last month. Local officials say Russian forces bombed a theater in the heart of the city where hundreds of people were taking shelter. It's still not clear how many were killed or wounded. Here's part of what makes this attack so merciless. Satellite images

show the Russian word for children spelled out in large letters on two sides of the building unmistakable.

Ukraine blames Russia for another attack on civilians in the northern city of Chernihiv. Witnesses say 10 people were queuing for bread and were killed by shelling. Russia denies its troops are responsible.

Protestors turned out in another city after Russian forces detained the mayor, his deputy and the city council secretary. Russian troops responded with tear gas.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to bring his plea for additional support to Germany's Bundestag this hour. That follows his virtual address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. He urged President Biden there to be a world leader, a leader for peace. And he repeated his request for a no-fly zone saying Russia has turned Ukrainian skies into a source of death. Mr. Zelenskyy compared this moment to turning points in U.S. history where urgent action was required.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): Remember Pearl Harbor? Terrible morning of December 7th, 1941, when your skies was black from the planes attacking. Just remember it. Remember September the 11th? A terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked, attacked from air. Yes, just like no one else expected it, you cannot stop it. Our country experienced the same, every day, right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: After Mr. Zelenskyy's speech President Biden announced an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine. It'll include anti-air kraft systems, drones, grenade launchers, guns and ammunition. Mr. Biden said the world is united in its support for Ukraine and in its determination to make Vladimir Putin pay a very heavy price. In a separate event Mr. Biden made his harshest criticism yet of Russia's president. The Kremlin called unforgivable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Putin a war criminal, sir?

BIDEN: Oh, I think he is a war criminal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The president's allegations have to be proven in court to have legal weight. It's the kind of thing the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is here -- is in Ukraine to investigate his part of his exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KARIM ASAD AHMAD KHAN, ICC CHIEF PROSECUTOR: We have reasonable grounds to believe crimes within the jurisdiction of the court have been committed.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You have reasonable grounds to believe that alleged war crimes, alleged crimes against humanity have been committed.

KHAN: Absolutely. And, you know, one when sees -- one thing is clear, I mean, the law is clear on this, it is a crime to intentionally target civilians. It is a crime to intentionally target civilian objects. Now, of course, there's has to be further investigation, whether civilian objects being used to launch attacks that made them legitimate targets.

[04:05:00]

But even then, it's no license to use cluster bombs or use disproportionate attacks in, you know, concentrated civilian areas. There is a duty of distinction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Russian troops in Ukraine may be getting some badly needed help from back home it seems. Japan has released new images of Russian warships passing through its waters possibly carrying troops and combat vehicles.

Meanwhile, President Putin is lashing out at Western countries which he claims are trying to cancel Russia. Still, the Kremlin says he's open to talks with President Biden despite Western sanctions. And Mr. Putin also condemned Russians who are protesting against his special military operation calling them scum and traitors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): That's any people, the Russian people especially are able to distinguish true patriots from bastards and traitors and will spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths. I am certain that this necessary and natural self-cleaning of our society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, togetherness and our readiness to answer any calls to action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Natasha Bertrand is in Brussels, Belgium with the latest on NATO. But first, we're going to go to Lviv, Ukraine where Scott McLean is standing by for us. It's very hard, isn't it, to see the images coming out from Mariupol but particularly that satellite images with, you know, the words children standing out so clearly written in Russian. We haven't had any verified information from there yet, have we?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, we are waiting on more information on what the death toll might be. But you have to imagine that it is not going to be good. That is because local officials there, Max, say that was the largest shelter in the city center housing more than 1,000 people. In fact, a video taken a week before then shot by a government film crew showed volunteers helping to feed the women and children and some men who were staying in that shelter. And they said in that video that there were more than 1,000 people there.

Now there were military people guiding them through, the film crew through that shelter, but there's no indication it was being used as a military site. No indication that there were artillery positions there either. In fact, as you mentioned, the satellite image shows the word children written out in Russian was clearly visible from the skies for any Russian airplanes to see.

Ukraine of course, is blaming this on Russian airstrikes. The Russians though have a very different story. They say that there was an ultra- nationalist militia that's been incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces that bombed this theater saying that they wouldn't have seen it as a legitimate target.

There was also a swimming pool about 2 1/2 kilometers away that was hit. And local officials there, Max, say that only pregnant women and only women with children under 3 years old were able to shelter there. Again, waiting for more information on the death toll, on the casualty counts.

One other thing to mention, that's a little bit of good news for Mariupol in that people are starting to get out. More than 10,000 of them, according to officials on the ground, yesterday alone, though one convoy of some 70 vehicles did take artillery fire. Thankfully no one was killed. But five people were injured, according to local officials, two of them were children.

FOSTER: Just take us through as well what we're learning about this visit to Kyiv from these East European leaders. Obviously, the security was shrouded in secrecy at the time because it was such a dangerous mission. But you learn a bit more about that.

MCLEAN: Yes. So, I spoke to the CEO of Ukrainian railways to learn more about how this was arranged. And he told me that this was actually the idea of the three Prime Ministers from Slovenia, Czech Republic and Poland to take the train because they figured it was the safest option. Obviously, the head of the railways certainly agrees. So, it was pretty hastily arranged in only about 1/2 a day. They left early in the morning. It took them about 8 or 9 hours to get there. They spent a few hours with the president and then they got straight back on a train back in Poland.

And once they were there safely, he told me a little bit more about their journey. And something in particular that surprised them, which is the fact that they announced their visit while they were still en route to Kyiv before they had arrived there safely. Obviously, some safety concerns there were top of mind for the head of the railways. He said that, look, I was keeping this secret. When they made this public, I was pretty surprised. He called that move naive -- Max. FOSTER: OK. Thank you, Scott. Natasha, we're going to look at NATO

with you. We're heading towards this big summit, aren't we, where President Biden is due to attend. And this is going to be a big show of unity. But how are preparations going for that? Because it's got to be a big message coming out from there?

[04:10:00]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, in preparation for Biden's visit next week to NATO, they are looking at what kind of deliverables that they could announce during that summit, kind of more humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, more lethal aid that the NATO countries perhaps will be sending to Ukraine. But they don't know yet what those deliverables will be. And this will ultimately be more of a symbolic visit than anything else of course. The president visiting on this very kind of hastily arranged emergency summit at NATO in the middle of this Russian onslaught in Ukraine.

But ultimately also, you know, the goal of this is going to be to get all of the NATO leaders on the same page here about the new security environment that they are facing given this Russian onslaught there. The fact that the nature of the European security has really changed and that they need to really come up with a way to fortify even further those eastern flanked NATO countries who of course are feeling very vulnerable and threatened in the face of this Russian aggression.

Now one of the things that we will not see likely coming out of the summit is the imposition of a no-fly zone. That is something that Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, made very clear yesterday during a press conference. He said that the allies are united on this. They do not want to see NATO forces in the air or on the ground imposing that no-fly zone. Because of course it would put those NATO forces potentially in direct conflict with the Russians.

Now President Biden did call President Putin a war criminal yesterday so it raises more questions about what the United States and what NATO to do to prevent these from being carried out. Right now, though, all they are saying and all NATO is saying in our conversations with, you know, NATO officials, is that they are intent upon giving Ukraine the kind of defensive assistance that it needs to effectively fight the Russians.

And we saw the president of the United States announce just yesterday another $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine bringing the total just over the last week to about $1 billion in new security aid. Some really important and key weaponry that they are going to be sending to Ukraine, including armed drones and other equipment that they hope can really change the balance of the conflict here. But ultimately what we're hearing from NATO sources is that, you know, all of these proposals, for example, the Polish proposal to send a peacekeeping force of NATO forces into that territory, the idea of a no-fly zone, they are just untenable at this moment. Because they do not want to put those NATO forces in confrontation with Russia.

FOSTER: Thank you to Natasha. Also, to Scott. We're going to cut you short because we want to go to the German Bundestag, the parliament where Volodymyr Zelenskyy is addressing the politicians there.

ZELENSKYY (through translator): As Russia bombs our cities ruining everything Ukraine has, when residential buildings, churches and schools are being destroyed with missiles and heavy artillery. Many Ukrainians died. Thousands died in these three weeks. The occupiers -- the occupiers killed 108 children in the middle of Europe here in the 21st century.

I address you after many meetings, talks and requests for support, some of which is too late after sanctions which are too few to stop the war. After we have seen how many links your companies have with Russia, a state that is simply using you and some other countries to fund its war.

In the three weeks of the war, we knew what we knew -- the last three weeks have proven what we knew before. What was not noticed before, but you must have noticed behind the wall that you are -- that we are now behind the wall. It's not a Berlin Wall but it is a stronger wall with each bomb falling on our Ukrainian land and every decision taken for the sake of peace and help. When will that happen? Dear politicians, dear German people, when we spoke, these are not screams but is an out call that I do often keep. (Translation to German)

FOSTER: OK, lots of translation issues there as Zelenskyy speaking to the German Bundestag given his latest view. Speaking there also about the Nord Stream pipeline, a concern of about the second one that's being written off by the German leader but he's also addressing that and no doubt addressing the no-fly zone as well, as he has done in all of these parliamentary sessions. We'll monitor that and bring the highlights to you back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: President Zelenskyy speaking to the German Bundestag. He's speaking English. Let's just have a quick listen in.

ZELENSKYY (through translator): ... convoy into our besieged city. For five days Russian troops have not stopped shelling so that our people could not be saved.

[04:20:00]

You can see all that if you rise above this wall, if you remember what the Berlin average would have meant for you if we had a safe sky because in our country now if we can't even have an air bridge and we are struck by Russian missiles, I address the older people above you who have survived the Second World War who were rescued during the occupation, who survived Babi Yar. Babi Yar where President Steinmeier visited last year for the 80th anniversary of the tragedy and where Russian missiles struck. It was there that families were killed.

Again, 80 years later I address all of you who heard politicians say every year, never again, but I can see these words are worth nothing. Now our whole nation is being exterminated in Europe.

FOSTER: President Zelenskyy, as he often does in these speeches to parliamentarians and politicians around the world when he's addressing those nations referring to that nation's own history and making comparisons to the Ukrainian crisis there, the Ukraine war and the Berlin air bridge. So, evoking those memories, trying to connect with politicians and trying to get more support for them in this fight against the Russians as a result.

So, this is the Zelenskyy show, I guess, that we've been seeing recently traveling the world and his unique ability to bring global support to his country's cause. Joining me from here in London, is Orysia Lutsevych, director of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House. I mean, we've spoken so much, haven't we, about what a towering figure he's become in global politics, but again channeling Ukraine's experience to those of the nations he's speaking to.

ORYSIA LUTSEVYCH, DIRECTOR, UKRAINE FORUM, CHATHAM HOUSE: President Zelenskyy is really bringing his voice, but this is really the voice of millions of Ukrainians because he has a very, very strong backing as to the way he's leading the nations through this war of terror. We do see over 80 percent of Ukrainians support what he does. And I was struck yesterday by the public opinion poll where almost 76 percent Ukrainians said Ukraine is moving in the right direction.

So, there's a very strong belief in the victory as long as the democratic world stands hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and this is what President Zelenskyy's calling. I think it's quite striking at the time when Russian leadership is absolutely mistrusted. We've seen all these lies coming out of Russia, from MH 17. They were not involved in Donbas. I think President Zelenskyy's words really resonate well and people understand and take deeply his words.

FOSTER: What's fascinating about him speaking to Germany is perhaps Germany is the country that's changed the most in response to this crisis, of course, apart from Ukraine. But the way that they are now buying U.S. military planes, they are increasing the military budget. When in the past they've always avoided this, you know, with a legacy of World War II and how actually they may be stepping up into a bigger NATO role. And that's in response to Zelenskyy and, you know, what's happening in Ukraine.

LUTSEVYCH: Absolutely. The change in Germany is a real watershed moment, and it's not just rhetoric, it's actually stepping up finance for the defense sector. I mean, Germany's the third largest economy, will be now, the third largest military defense spender. This is unthinkable, right? But I think this exactly proves how Putin is completely wrong, where his actions are generating the opposite result as to what he's trying to achieve. And that is why I think his strategy is doomed.

Of course, at the high cost to Ukrainians already and I pray that it, you know, doesn't spill over, but I think that what Europe is doing and the way Europe is united jointly with the United States and now this upcoming NATO summit is key. Because I emphasize, Russia can never win against the united world. I don't think we should too much evoke these comparisons to speak of World War III. Honestly, who is on the Russian side. [04:25:00]

The whole U.N. General Assembly condemned this aggression. So, the whole world is seeing what it is Russia is doing, and I think we can and should prop Ukraine to stand, defend its territory and we'll all be better off.

FOSTER: What do you make of what happened in Mariupol, what's clearly unfolding into a true tragedy, an attack on that theater where we understand hundreds of civilians were hiding with the words children written in Russian on the ground outside. Clearly labeling this was a site which was housing children. We're seeing the scenes there. We also heard President Biden speaking. You know, perhaps he felt it was off camera, but speaking to reporters yesterday calling Putin a war criminal. Are we moving into a new phase of this war where civilians are clearly being attacked and there are war crimes to answer for.

LUTSEVYCH: Well, absolutely. It's atrocious. It's hard for me and for most of us to find words to say how we feel. And we've moved into that phase of civilian targeting already several week or two because Russia was not able to achieve this kind of a surgical takeover operation of Ukraine. And is deploying these almost second world war tactics of city sieges when you think about what they are doing.

And it's interesting that when this war started, I think it started because the crimes of Stalinism and Putinism, repressions that were performed in Russia and in the region, were never actually punished. So, Ukrainians right now have a very strong sense that there must be justice for war crimes and there is already International Criminal Court from the Hague.

But something interesting in that there was also a special declaration by Gordon Brown, Philippe Sands and several artists calling for a special tribunal. And we need that special tribunal because Russia doesn't recognize the stature International Criminal Court. But also, those Russians thought by military and political leadership would like to defect, they may be granted immunity from the prosecution. So, that for us is another way to split Russian elite and to single out Putin because honestly this is just a war of several man who captured Russia.

FOSTER: Orysia Lutsevych thank you very much indeed for joining us with your insight.

The latest on the fight in Ukraine coming up after the break including an attack on the theater where hundreds of Ukrainian women and children and the elderly were taking shelter from the war.

Plus, some Eastern European countries are being put to the test as Ukrainian refugees flood across the border. We'll talk to the Spanish Foreign Minister as he takes a firsthand look of a massive refugee crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]