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At Least 53 Dead in Chernihiv from Russian Attacks; Ukrainians Pitch in to Aid War Effort; Biden and Xi to Talk for First Time Since Invasion; Blinken Accuses Russia of War Crimes in Ukraine; Ukrainian Man in U.S. Helps Rescue Sister from Ukraine. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired March 18, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: And in the United States, as well. I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv, Ukraine.
[00:00:07]
The past 24 hours of Russian attacks on Ukraine have been especially deadly. Dozens of people have been especially deadly. Dozens of people have been killed across the country. Authorities in Kharkiv say Russian shells hit a sprawling market, causing a huge fire with plumes of black smoke that spread to nearby homes. You can see the devastation there on your screen. Kharkiv's mayor says a rescue worker fighting that fire was killed.
Another Russian attack on a nearby school and arts club killed 21, according to local officials.
In the southern coastal city of Mariupol, survivors have started to emerge from the rubble of that bombed-out shelter, which was a theater initially. Authorities say more than 1,000 people were sheltering inside when it was hit by a Russian bomb. It's not clear how many survived the attack.
The city is under siege by Russian forces, and emergency services have broken down, so residents are digging through the debris by hand.
And drone footage shows the aftermath of a missile strike on an apartment building in Kyiv. Ukraine's defense minister says Russian forces have made no significant progress around the capital in the past two days. So for that reasons, they have resorted, according to him, to chaotic shelling.
The American president, Joe Biden, will speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in the coming hours, with a warning that Beijing must not support Russian aggression in Ukraine. Mr. Biden met virtually with the Irish leader on Thursday, offering some choice words for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And you know, other republic standing together against a murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine. (END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, Ukraine's president delivered a stirring speech to German lawmakers for not doing more to end the war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned German businesses with ties to Russia and said that economic sanctions and come too late. He also made reference to the Berlin Wall and to the Holocaust.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Every year, politicians say never again. Now, I see that these words are worthless. In Europe, a people is being destroyed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, in northern Ukraine near Belarus, Russian forces have stepped up their bombardment of the city of Chernihiv. Local officials report at least 53 deaths there since Wednesday, including one American.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen has those details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As Vladimir Putin's military rains bombs, rockets, and artillery on Ukraine, civilians are paying the highest price. Scores killed and maimed.
In Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, rescue workers dug out the bodies of an entire family, killed when a residential building was hit. Dozens more civilians lost their lives in attacks, the Ukrainian government now confirming that U.S. citizen James Whitney Hill was among those killed.
I asked Chernihiv's mayor to tell me about the situation in his city.
MAYOR VLADYSLAV ATROSHENKO, CHERNIHIV, UKRAINE: The intensity of the shelling has increased. It's been indiscriminate, apparently random. We're not talking about certain certain military infrastructure buildings being bombed. In reality, houses are being destroyed. Schools and kindergartens are being destroyed.
PLEITGEN This graphic video shows the gruesome aftermath of an attack on people waiting in a bread line in the same town. Witnesses say at least ten civilians were killed. Russia's military cynically claiming it wasn't them.
MAJ. GEN. IGOR KONASHENKOV, RUSSIAN ARMY: All units of the Russian armed forces are outside Chernihiv, blocking the roads, and no offensive actions are being taken against the city.
PLEITGEN: Other cities are getting shelled, as well. One of the hardest hit, Mariupol in the southeast. Several were killed and wounded, mostly women and children, when a maternity ward in children's hospital were hit last week.
And then, the main theater, where the U.S. believes hundreds of people have taken shelter, was bombed. A small miracle: the bomb shelter under the building held up, helping some of those inside survive, though it's still unclear how many.
Authorities say efforts to pull people from the rubble are being hindered by the total breakdown of public services and the threat of further Russian attacks.
Aerial images show the building was clearly marked as having children inside, leaving Ukraine's defense minister irate.
OLEKSII REZNIKOV, UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: You can see from the map, from the drones that are around this theater, big letters of "children" were written so that the pilot of the plane which was throwing the bombs could see. And still, in spite of that, this monster has bombed the theater.
[00:05:10]
PLEITGEN: Russia has denied it was responsible for the attack, and the Russians claim they only target military installations, sending out this video of them allegedly destroying Ukrainian howitzers.
But the U.K.'s Defense Ministry says the Russians are increasingly hitting cities with heavy and less accurate weapons, because they're simply running out of precise munitions as the war drags on. Experts believe it will only get worse.
MASON CLARK, LEAD RUSSIA ANALYST, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: They're very intentionally targeting water stations, and power supplies, and Internet towers, and cell phone towers, and that sort of thing, in a very deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for the defenders to hold out and try and force them to capitulate.
PLEITGEN: But, despite bringing massive firepower on civilian areas, the U.S. and its allies say Russia's offensive in Ukraine has stalled, and recent territorial gains have been minimal.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Joining me now from Washington is CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Thanks for being with us.
So do you agree with the analysis that Russia's ground offensive is stalling, that they haven't taken big cities, and so they're resorting to these cruder tactics that are not as precise, and end up really hitting the civilian population hard?
COL. CEDRICK LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I do, Hala, and it's a -- it's a symptom, I think, of their failure to advance. When you look at the way they are on the map in and around Kyiv, in and around, you know, any of the other major cities like Kharkiv. It's very clear that they are not advancing in the traditional sense. They've been stalled. And the resistance has, I think, surprised them.
So the typical Russian answer to this -- and historically, we've seen it before -- is to bring up the big guns, literally. In this case, the artillery, and a bombing campaign from the air.
And they do want to soften up the population that's remaining in the cities. They want to make it absolutely miserable for anybody to remain there. And it's going to be a very rough, and I think, a deliberate campaign on their part of intimidation.
GORANI: And to achieve what, in the end?
LEIGHTON: Dominance. I think total dominance is what they're trying to achieve, Hala. I think Vladimir Putin wants to subjugate Ukraine. I think he wants to take over the territory, and if possible, eliminate as many Ukrainians as he can. And that is how we're -- we're seeing this.
I think it's going to be a very brutal way forward, if he gets his way. And the Ukrainians, I think, are realizing this and that it's basically a fight for, not only their territory, but their very lives.
GORANI: What did the Ukrainians need to do? Is every day they hold out, a day they can get more arms, more training, and more of a fighting chance against some of that air superiority on the Russian side?
When I say air superiority, I mean that their air force is obviously much larger, and they're able to target some parts of, especially the southeast and the South of Ukraine with deadly, though indiscriminate, efficiency.
LEIGHTON: Right, so yes, they don't have complete air superiority, but they're certainly, you know, far more prevalent in the air than the Ukrainians are. That's absolutely true.
So what you're seeing, I think, here, is that they are moving forward, you know, in that way, the Russians are.
But the Ukrainians, what they need to do is they need to make sure that they can keep their supply lines open, that they don't let themselves get encircled in -- especially in Kyiv, but in any of the other cities, as well.
And they need to make very sure that they can have a lifeline of whatever type, whether it's, you know, via air or via land, preferably, to get these supplies back into them and replenish them.
It's basically, you know, an army fights on its stomach, and this is going to be one of those times when the replenishment of the Ukrainian forces is going to be critical to their success.
GORANI: Just an air raid siren has just gone off here in Western Ukraine, in Lviv. Can the Ukrainians win this? Because we're seeing the Russians take a
lot of losses in hardware, in vehicles, and in troops. Can they win this? And if so, how?
LEIGHTON: It's going to be really difficult for them to win outright, but I think there is some historical precedent for the Ukrainians to do very well, and potentially save their country.
And I'm looking back at history of Finland, you know, what Finland experienced in 1939 in 1940 against the Soviet Union. They were able to maintain their independence, with a lot of concessions, but there is still able to maintain that independence to a relative degree throughout the cold war.
[00:10:18]
They were, of course, kind of a bridge between East and West as a result. And they didn't necessarily like that status. But that is something where they can at least keep their independence, and that may be no necessarily a desirable path but a possible path for the Ukrainians.
If they're lucky, the Ukrainians can do even better, potentially. And with a lot of Western help, achieve far more gains in a political sense.
And of course, the big card here is also, I think, this. If there are further fissures in the Russian state, then things are going to look a bit different, and that could also help the Ukrainian effort.
GORANI: Colonel Cedric Leighton, as always, live in Washington. Thanks very much.
It is ten minutes past six a.m. here in Lviv, Ukraine, and the sound of air raid sirens ringing across this Western Ukrainian city.
There are many refugees in the city. "Internally displaced people" is the technical term; "refugees" if they cross over the border. Those numbers are growing, as more Ukrainians flee out of their country to safety. According to the U.N., more than 3.1 million people have escaped to other countries.
Poland alone has taken in nearly 2 million Ukrainians. The U.N. says more needs to be done to support the countries dealing with the massive influx of refugees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAOUF MAZOU, ASSISTANT HIGH COMMISSIONER, UNRCR: With the current state of refugee outflows, the capacity of neighboring countries are being tested and stretched. We can and must do more to support, and we must do it now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: CNN's Miguel Marquez is in one Romanian city that is having to scale up services as more people continue to pour across the border.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Who are all these people?
"Friends, fellow citizens, and colleagues," she says. "Family, too." All from Donbas, in eastern Ukraine.
Refugees after the war there in 2014, refugees again.
"Some people cross the border on foot," she says. To borders. Not everyone is lucky, as 86-year-old more high-level, who had arrived. She survived World War II. Now she's in an apartment in central Romania with her daughter, lots of friends, and her cat named Moshe.
ANTONINA MIKHAILOVA, FROM OUTSIDE ODESSA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MARQUEZ: "My childhood was spent during the war," she says. "Now in my old age, there is war again. And for what? In the name of all people, God, please stop the war."
The medieval city of Brasov, not far from Dracula's castle, is preparing a thousand beds for Ukrainian refugees. Those beds, in a hotel in its historic center, a business development center, and a brand-new apartment building in the new part of town.
MAYOR ALLEN COLIBAN, BRASOV, ROMANIA: The main challenge is how to scale it up, because this is only the first wave of refugees.
MARQUEZ: Olga Kieper (ph) from Odesa is here with her two daughters.
(on camera): How do you feel being here?
OLGA KIEPER (PH), REFUGEE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MARQUEZ: "Other than perfect," she says. "They gave us medicine and new beds. They fed us." Then added, "It's very, very, very good."
The city of Brasov preparing for even more refugees, who the mayor believes will need even more support and possibly stay for a long time.
COLIBAN: If you're a mother with a child, you can come to Brasov. We can offer you a job. We can offer, and we are discussing about solutions for daycare, for children, helping to put them in the educational system.
MARQUEZ: The city planning the future, but meeting basic needs, too, coordinating with local restaurants providing thousands of meals. Today, on St. Patrick's Day, prepared by Deane's Irish pub. Luck of the Irish.
ALINA COLCERU, DEANE'S IRISH PUB & GRILL: It's more than just providing meals. We're kind of providing hope to them, and they do need that. And then you could see that on their faces, and I think that's really important. MARQUEZ: Tatiana Kiriukhina and Natalia Zhivika, mother and daughter
from Mykolaiv got here only three days ago.
"If not for the help here," she says, "I don't think our nerves could have taken it. There were air raids day and night. We couldn't eat. We couldn't sleep."
"In Mykolaiv," she says, "the planes were flying right over our heads. Flying, flying, flying. I can't find words to explain. It's very scary."
[00:15:00]
Antonina Mikhailova has a simple wish.
"In my old age, I only wanted peace and prosperity," she says, then added, "I'd like everything to be OK, but for now it's not."
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Brasov, Romania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: And CNN takes a closer look on the Russian strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol which Moscow claimed was legitimate. We used modeling technology and video evidence to check that allegation, and you'll hear what we found.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: We now want to dig deeper into one of the most horrific events of the war in Ukraine so far. On March 9, a Russian airstrike hit this maternity hospital in Mariupol, killing at least five people and leaving more than a dozen injured.
[00:20:09]
Much of the world was shocked by the sheer brutality of that strike.
Russia said the attack was legitimate, because Ukrainian troops, it said, had allegedly overtaken the civilian facility.
CNN looked into this incident using modeling technology, satellite images, and witness accounts. As Katie Polglase reports, there isn't a shred of evidence to support these Russian allegations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATIE POLGLASE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kharkiv, Isbin, Melitopol, now Mariupol.
MARIANA VISHEGIRSKAYA, SURVIVOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: It happened on March 9 in Hospital Number 3 in Mariupol.
POLGLASE: Despite being an apparent war crime, medical facilities have been repeatedly hit by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. And with each hit, a new justification. For Mariupol, Russia set the stage days before the attack happened.
VASILY NEBENZYA, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.N. (through translator): The armed forces of Ukraine have set up a fire position there.
MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN (through translator): Expelled the staff and patients from the maternity hospital and equipped combat positions in it.
POLGLASE: CNN has found zero evidence that such military positions where present at Mariupol's maternity and children's hospital on the afternoon of March 9.
And it was civilians that emerged from the buildings. Pregnant women, injured and distressed. City officials say 17 people, including children, women, and doctors, were injured.
Since then, at least five people have died.
CNN built a model that revealed many signs that civilians were still using this hospital, and therefore, it was not a justifiable military target. This satellite image, taken just hours before the attack, shows cars parked outside.
This is the crater left behind. War crime investigators Truth Hounds told CNN it is consistent with a 500-kilogram, high-explosive bomb, dropped from an aircraft. Just meters away, this sign reads "Children's Diagnostic Consultancy Unit."
According to the hospital website, it housed children with immune diseases, among with other illnesses.
Over here is where people began emerging after the strike. Women, heavily pregnant, being carried with arms draped over the shoulders of others, helping them get out of the chaos.
And here, firemen can be seen running inside, assisting people to escape.
The internal devastation is significant. The voice you're hearing is of one of the survivors, speaking to Associated Press, who gave birth shortly after.
VISHEGIRSKAYA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: We were lying in wards when glass, frames, windows and walls flew apart. We don't know how it happened. We were in our wards and some had time to cover themselves. Some didn't.
POLGLASE: Another, seen here being stretchered out, later died, alongside her newborn baby.
These women's stories have epitomized the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. And yet, even their suffering has been questioned, with Russian officials claiming on Twitter and in news programs that they must be actors. ALEKSANDR VASILEVICH SHULGIN, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO NETHERLANDS: This
is only one woman, rushing down the stairwell. Here, she changed clothes, and she is being brought on the stretcher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you're showing this to me, but if you have any real evidence --
SHULGIN: Yes, this is real evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- that is not as been stated, why don't you show it to me. I'm just a journalist in the Netherlands? Why don't you show it to the United Nations?
POLGLASE: While Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov returned to the original line, this attack was justified.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): This maternity hospital had already been seized by the Azov Battalion and other radicals. All the pregnant women, all the nurses, all the service personnel, were already expelled from there.
As these attacks on hospitals, even ambulances continue, CNN Is tracking each one. In total, we have verified 14 incidents across Ukraine.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has confirmed at least 31. And with each hit, the ability of people in Ukraine to get medical help during this conflict is made more and more difficult.
Katie Polglase, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Not everyone in Ukraine has military training or knows how to fire a weapon, but those living under Russian shelling are finding other ways to support the frontline troops. Their story is just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:38:
I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities say Russian attacks against civilians have increased in intensity in recent days. Russian shells hit a sprawling market in Kharkiv, near the Russian border. Their mayor says rescue workers fighting the blaze were killed.
At least 21 people were reported killed in other attacks in the city.
In Chernihiv, at least 53 people have died since Wednesday. Rescue workers clearing bombing degree discovered the bodies of a family of five, an entire family. The youngest victims were three years old.
And in the key coastal city of Mariupol, survivors have started to emerge from the basement of that bombed-out theater. Authorities say more than 1,000 people were sheltering inside, when it was hit by a Russian bomb. It is not clear how many survived the attack.
Meanwhile, we are hearing some studs in the distance here, I've got to tell you, Russia wants the world to believe it did not carry out the attack, despite evidence to the contrary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZAKHAROVA (through translator): The Russian armed forces do not bomb cities, this is well known to everyone, no matter how many videos are edited in NATO, no matter how many clips and fake photos are thrown in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:
All right, yes, we're hearing some explosions here in the background. And there was an air raid siren that went off just a few minutes ago. So we're going to have to wrap it up from our location here, and handed back to Atlanta.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hala, thank you very much. You go and be safe for now, and we'll catch you up with you when it is safe. Thank you for now.
We'll move on. Ukrainians apparently have no illusions right now. Their backs are against the wall in this war.
But that's only motivated many of them to fight back any way they can. Even if they don't carry a gun.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the youth library in Lviv, the old adage rings true. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Here, eager volunteers are cutting old clothing into strips, shredding and tying it to large pieces of mesh, and making camouflage netting for the frontline troops. Lead coordinator Natalia Komivaska (ph) tells us everyone here feels a sense of purpose.
NATALIA KOMIVASKA (PH), VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR: We will be more powerful, because each lady, each child, and each grandmother are with our army.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could help my country.
ABDELAZIZ: Eighteen-year-old Maria Yarlova (ph) fled Kyiv with her family about a week ago, leaving her cat behind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel panicked a bit, because I don't want to leave my home.
ABDELAZIZ (on camera): When you look around you how do you feel?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel very happy, very strong, and a bit safer, and calm.
ABDELAZIZ: In the war effort, nothing is spared. Every single scrap is put to good use. Russia might have the more powerful military, but Ukrainians say it's their resourcefulness that will win them the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You go to wood part.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): In peacetime, Andrea Levitskiy's (ph) workshop makes household furniture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we make, like, those drawers.
ABDELAZIZ: But they've stopped making money, and started making anti- tank barriers for checkpoints.
(on camera): Did you ever make things for the military before?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Because, now it's necessary to help. I was soldier. I was a refugee, and so on and so on. So we look on the Internet how to --
ABDELAZIZ: You looked up online how to make it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And after that --
ABDELAZIZ: You watched a YouTube tutorial?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): And when tens of thousands fleeing violence flooded Lviv, the Les Korva (ph) Theater set the stage for their most important role: hosts.
"These beds that you see here are not beds at all. They are parts of our fold-up theater," she tells me. "The few at the front line are supported by the many of us at the rear."
Creativity and tenacity, bolstering a nation's resistance against a superpower reliant on brute force.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, Lviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: If you would like to help the people of Ukraine, who are in need -- many are in need of shelter, food, water medical supplies -- please go to CNN.com/impact. And there, you will find ways to help.
In the coming hours, U.S. President Joe Biden will speak by phone with Chinese president is Xi Jinping, their first conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The White House is growing increasingly concerned that Beijing is at least considering a Russian request for military and financial aid.
President Biden expected to warn Xi Jinping, any help to Russia will come with a cost. Right now to Hong Kong.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is standing by. And early on Thursday, the secretary of state, he was kind of really blunt about this, saying the U.S. would punish China for helping the Russians. Do we know what that punishment might be?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Yes, that punishment could come in the form of secondary sanctions. We know that Russia has been squeezed by sanctions for its actions in Ukraine. It relies heavily on China for trade.
But China has other priorities. Namely, its own stability and continued economic growth.
Look, according to Chinese state-run media, they are closely watching this upcoming phone call between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. They say that both sides will exchange views, discuss areas of common interest.
But according to that White House statement released on Thursday, it said that they will discuss managing competition, as well as Russia's attack on Ukraine. Both those issues, interestingly enough, were not mentioned in Chinese state-run media.
In the run-up to this phone call, the Biden administration has been making these assertions that Russia is seeking China's help, economically and militarily. This is something both China and Russia deny.
We heard from Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, who said that there's high concern that China could very well help Russia, and there have been these warnings from the United States of imposing costs, should China do so.
Now, the Biden administration is also trying to seek clarity on China's position, and it's easy to understand why. If you look at recent events, for example, that summit in Beijing between the Russian president and Xi Jinping, when they declared that their alliance had, quote, "no limits." There's a picture there of that summit.
[00:35:03]
And then what happened earlier this week, on Monday, in Lviv. We'll bring up the photograph for you, where we had China's top diplomat in Ukraine shake the hand of the Ukrainian prime minister and say that China would never attack Ukraine and would be willing to provide support economically.
Interestingly, that moment was not screened on Chinese state-run media.
And then you had an event that happened on Thursday, a meeting between a higher up Ministry of Foreign Affairs official with Russia's ambassador to China. That moment, not reported in Chinese state-run media.
China has this position of neutrality. And when you talk to analysts about the position it's going to put forward during this phone call, it's going to be this. It will continue to have this position of neutrality. Listen to this from Yun Sun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YUN SUN, DIRECTOR, CHINA PROGRAM AT THE STIMSON CENTER: So neither leaning towards Russia nor leaning towards Ukraine, and instead, trying to present itself as a neutral third party and communicating with the United States about China's position and also, the injustice if U.S. decides to pursue secondary sanctions on China, because obviously this is not a relationship with Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT: So is China on the side of Russia or Ukraine? According to Yun Sun, she says it's both, in this delicate diplomatic dance of balanced diplomacy.
Back to you, John.
VAUSE: You can't walk both sides of the fence for long, they say, so we'll see what happens. Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout there in Hong Kong.
STOUT: Got it.
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. Is levying war crimes accusations against Russia overs its actions in Ukraine. Up next, why the U.S. secretary of state believes war crimes have been committed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:40:37]
VAUSE: Across Ukraine, the Russian military appears to be stepping up attacks on what's called civilian infrastructure. What that means is schools, hospitals, homes are being targeted, even a grand old theater with the word "children" spelled out in Russian in big letters on the pavement, front and back.
Rescue crews are still trying to reach those who survived the airstrike on the theater in Mariupol. Hundreds of civilians have taken refuge inside, after their homes were destroyed.
And once again, the U.S. is accusing Russia of war crimes. The secretary of state echoing a similar allegation made by the president a day earlier.
The International Criminal Court in the Hague has opened up a war crimes investigation. Not surprisingly, no one has been charged, and there are doubts anyone ever will be.
But Secretary Blinken made the point that Russian actions speak for themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: 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 few weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Kathryn Stoner is director of the Center of Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. She's written or co-edited six books on contemporary Russia. She's with us this hour from Toronto.
Welcome to the program.
KATHRYN STONER, DIRECTOR, CENTER OF DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT AND THE RULE OF LAW, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: OK. So I want you to hear from an elected member of the Ukrainian parliament, talking about some of the death and misery caused by Vladimir Putin and his military so far in Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARYAN ZABLOTSKYI, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: I think that Putin has crossed all the red lines possible. We have over 100 children dead already, and thousands of civilians killed indiscriminately, but sometimes with precision fire and civilians. I think this is the 1938 or the 1939 moment when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia or Poland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Putin must know what he's done. He must be aware that he is responsible for actions which rise to the level of war crimes, and he's a repeat offender, from Chechnya, to Syria, to Ukraine. He must know he's committed crimes against humanity. But at the end of the day, it seems, what, he's OK with that, he just doesn't care?
STONER: So, I think he sees the world a little differently. And remember, he's gotten away with those things, as well. So we can call it crimes against humanity, but he really has his perspective would be, Well, I did what I had to do against an enemy that were terrorists.
And I think that's the perspective that he's convinced himself of in Ukraine, as well.
VAUSE: So just to recap that, as long as he can get away with it, it's not a crime?
STONER: Well, there hasn't been any punishment so far for either -- either of those things, right? And he's under sanctions right now by the U.S., for going back into Ukraine this time, but, those sanctions aren't for purported crimes against humanity, at least not at this point. So far, they've been for the very act of violating Ukraine's sovereignty.
And so what happens with attacks on civilians, I think, is yet to be -- yet to be considered.
VAUSE: Maybe this Russian offensive is not going to plan, but if Grozny is an example, the siege on Mariupol is following a very similar timeline and tactics.
Once Putin was done with Grozny, the U.N. described it as the most destroyed city on earth. Different war, same tactics.
2016, during the battle for Aleppo, this time Syrian soldiers did most of the heavy lifting, but with the backing of the Russians and the Russian air force.
So if Putin is true to form, will we be watching mass murder in the coming days and weeks being committed on an industrial scale in Mariupol, and then to Odessa, and then to Kyiv?
STONER: So I would say that's not impossible, and I wouldn't say it's just Putin. And I do think that's important, because he's not the one who's actually launching those missiles that are hitting the Ukrainian buildings and killing Ukrainian civilians. Of course, those are members of the Russian military.
And this is a different military then the Soviet military. That was made up primarily of conscripts. This is made up primarily of professional soldiers who are trained on advanced weapons systems in the way that one-year conscripts can't be.
So it's a different, reformed military, taking direct orders and being paid to do so so.
So, you know, it is -- it is a Russian style of war, and carpet bombing is something they've been known to do before. They also did in the Soviet period, but even with this smaller, more mobile force, clearly, you know, they're willing to do this.
[00:45:02]
VAUSE: If Putin is to be stopped, does it all essentially now come down to China? Is Xi Jinping the only person who can convince Putin it's time to back down?
STONER: Well, they have called one another their very best friends. And they've given each other the equivalent of, in the United States the Presidential Medal of Honor. And they do, you know, speak to one another pretty frequently.
I know that Mr. Putin, when he went to see Mr. Xi before the Winter Olympics just a month and a half ago, that was the first foreign leader that Mr. Xi had seen in two years.
So are they close? Yes. They're close in age. They're both authoritarian leaders. They're both kind of bad boys of the international system.
And there is an interdependence there, so if they were to come down on one side or the other, of course, I think Mr. Xi would be leaning on the Russian side, as opposed to the Ukrainian side, backed as it is by the West, which is a common enemy to Russia and China at this point in history.
VAUSE: Kathryn Stoner, thank you so much. It's a complicated story and one which is just getting more complicated as it goes on, but we appreciate you being with us.
STONER: Unfortunately.
VAUSE: Yes.
STONER: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: Pleasure. Thank you.
Actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has made an emotional appeal to all Russians in a video posted on social media.
The 74-year-old spoke candidly about his father, a Nazi and a member of the S.A., also known as Stormtroopers or Brownshirts. Schwarzenegger warned his father had been misled and filled with lies, just like the Russian government was trying to do with talk of the need to "de-Nazify" Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, FORMER GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: I don't want you to be broken like my father. This is not the war to defend Russia that your grandfathers or your great-grandfathers fought. This is an illegal war. Your lives, your limbs, your futures are being sacrificed for a senseless war, condemned by the entire world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Right now, there are multiple explosions being heard in the eastern city of Lviv in Ukraine. Earlier, we heard air raid sirens going off. And earlier, Hala Gorani, who was anchoring from Lviv, went and seek -- sought shelter in a bomb shelter in that city. We -- as we were reporting, multiple explosions heard at 6:47 a.m. there in Lviv.
We'll have more on the situation in Lviv when we come back. You're watching CNN.
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[00:51:45]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. Well, the exodus of refugees fleeing Putin's war, more than 3 million so far and counting. In many cases, families have been torn apart. Women and children can leave, but men of fighting age cannot. But when Marisa Murga was forced to leave without her husband, she was
not alone. Her brother, Aleksandr, had traveled thousands of miles from the U.S. to be with her and help her navigate a long and difficult journey to safety. CNN's Randi Kaye has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEKSANDR MURGA, BROTHER OF REFUGEE: I felt like being here is not really helpful. I've got to go. I've got to be there.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And just like that, Aleksandr Murga booked a ticket from Florida to Eastern Europe to help get his sister safely out of Ukraine and the region. Marisa Murga was living in Zhytomyr, about 90 miles from Kyiv when the Russian bombs started to fall.
(on camera): How worried were you about her?
Murga: You stay shaken, kind of shaken all of the time. Because it's -- you want to be there. You want to support her. You want to help her. You want to somehow protect her.
KAYE (voice-over): Aleksandr made a plan with Marisha to meet her in Poland. He left his home outside of Orlando around the same time she left hers in Ukraine.
Marisha drove 14 hours to a border crossing, then waited another 14 hours to cross over into Poland. Her husband stayed to fight. But finally, she managed to get to Poland's Brasov airport, and that's where she reunited with her brother.
Without Aleksandr's help getting her a visa, Marisha would be stuck in Poland. It wasn't easy. First he tried the U.S. embassy in Warsaw.
MURGA: I'm standing right now in front of the United States embassy. It doesn't really matter if you're from the United States or not. All they do is you pretty much get pushed away from the door.
KAYE: But Aleksandr kept trying, all the while helping others at the Polish border at Rava-Ruska. These are pictures of other family members Aleksandr helped find safety, 12 in all.
He says he also helped at least 30 strangers get aid and somewhere to stay. It was all very emotional for him, even though he left Ukraine 17 years ago.
(on camera): What did you see on the ground there?
MURGA: Things that none of us should ever see.
It's -- all those people coming out and crying. I saw people here not being able to hold on like they do. It's -- it's really emotional.
I know I'm not able to go there now, help them from inside and fight. But see them.
KAYE: It's OK.
MURGA: Seeing all them out there, being so strong. And just heartbreaking. I didn't expect to see my country.
KAYE (voice-over): Despite the emotional toll, Aleksandr wasn't leaving Poland without his sister. So he tried another embassy in Krakow and was finally able to get his sister a visa. They landed last night in Orlando, the first time Marisha stepped foot on U.S. soil.
KAYE: Will you go back?
[00:55:00]
MURGA: Absolutely. First thing I can do, I'm just going to go back. We have to -- we have to go back. They need us. They need support. All those houses, infrastructure, everything has to be rebuilt. It's been destroyed.
KAYE: How grateful are the two of you to be sitting here together?
MURGA: The best -- the best feeling, the best thing in the world is, you know, being able to hug my sister.
KAYE (voice-over): And while Marisha didn't speak much English in our interview, she surprised us with this message of thanks.
MARISHA MURGA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: Thanks for all people, all country, who help my country and my people.
KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Orlando, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Just a quick recap of what's actually happening in the city of Lviv right now in Western Ukraine.
At least three loud explosions have been heard in the past few moments. Our CNN team there, including Hala Gorani, who was anchoring from Lviv, heard multiple explosions, as well. There are reports that a plume of smoke was seen in the distance, as well.
For the most part, Lviv has been spared the worst of Russia's military offensive. It's not clear if that may soon be about to change. We have a lot more on the situation in Lviv when we come back at the top of the hour. Hala Gorani will be reporting live from there, with the very latest. Please stay with us. You're watching CNN.
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