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Captured Residents Taken To Camps, Sent To Remote Russian Cities; Four U.S. Marines Killed In NATO Training Exercise In Norway; Russia Uses Hypersonic Missiles To Destroy Ammo Depot; Putin's War Sparks Massive Humanitarian Crisis; Vladimir Putin's Stranglehold On The Media Means Russian Citizens Are Getting Steady Diet Of Lies About The Conflict; COVID Variant Causing Uptick In Worldwide Cases. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired March 19, 2022 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:42]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Russia is surprised by the ferocity and scale of Ukrainian resistance.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The armed forces of Ukraine continue to deliver devastating blows to groups of enemy troops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need support from all countries. Russia aggressor every hour kill children, old people, and women.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What the European Union is warning of is that if this continues at this rate, the E.U. could see some 15 million Ukrainian refugees over the course of the next few weeks.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We heard an air- raid siren, and I might add that this morning the city leadership here in (INAUDIBLE) says that their air defenses shot down three rockets over this city.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Beyond this truck here, beyond the JCB working, a kindergarten. Mercifully, no children in it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The rescue operations are underway right now. These were barracks that were bombed we understand Friday by five bombs dropped by two Russian fighter jets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is genocide of the Ukrainian population. You have to act now. Stop passively observing and stop doing business with Russia. Do it now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Hello from Washington, I'm Pamela Brown. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM with breaking news tonight on several fronts in the war on Ukraine. Leaders in the city of Mariupol say several thousand people who live

there have been taken against their will and forced to cross into Russian territory by Vladimir Putin's forces. The Mariupol City Council claims they were taken to camps where Russian forces kept their phones and documents, then redirected some of them to remote cities in Russia.

Now the council says it doesn't know what happened to the rest of them. We're going to be following that story tonight.

And in Mykolaiv, rescue efforts continue at last word after a missile strike hit military housing killing dozens of Ukrainian troops. A warning now. You may find the video we are about to show you disturbing.

Hospitals are filled with victims. Some are the survivors here you see in this video. Reports say Russian fighter jets dropped what appeared to be five bombs on that city.

And meanwhile, Ukraine's former president speaking to CNN made an extraordinary suggestion for President Biden. Listen to what Petro Poroshenko told my colleague Jim Acosta this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I know that President Biden plans to go to visit Europe next week. And I think that he analyzing the possibility. Why don't very good friend of mine and very good friend of Ukraine, Joe Biden, the leader of the global world who demonstrate now the leadership. Why don't he can visit Kyiv next week?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Our senior international correspondent Sam Kiley joins me now live from Kyiv.

So, Sam, Kyiv obviously a critical stronghold. What is the latest there?

KILEY: Well, I think the first thing to say is notwithstanding Mr. Poroshenko's appeal to Joe Biden to come visit this location, I think the chances of that are nil. It is still very much under attack, although according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, in the last three or four days, a counterattack they say has been successful. So successful perhaps that the Russians are now having to rely on longer- range missiles to attack the city. And we certainly saw evidence of that yesterday.

But in the last 24, 36 hours, Russian Ministry of Defense saying that they have pushed back the Russian forces from positions to the north of the city, to the southwest, and indeed to the east. In the east, they claim they have pushed the forces back more than 70 kilometers. But as you can hear behind me, there goes another air raid siren. These are warnings not only against aircraft but, of course, long- range ballistic missiles which seem to be the weapon of choice in attacking the capital. [19:05:02]

Similarly, in the far southeast of the country, in Mykolaiv where you were showing there pictures of soldiers who have been injured in the -- what could be the single biggest loss in a single day to the -- that we know of -- to Ukrainian forces. This was the attack on their barracks in Mykolaiv. A fiercely contested town. A town that the Russians assumed that they would be able to walk into after successfully capturing nearby Kherson.

They have been unable to do that. Vitaliy Kim, their mayor -- the mayor there, local citizens and the Ukrainian army and reservists have put up quite a startling level of resistance and as a consequence of that, they have been attacked in this latest air strike. That was reportedly an air strike. But we have seen missiles used of course also in Mariupol.

In all likelihood in the attack against the theater there where large numbers of or relatively large numbers of people are now being, according to local authorities, as you were saying, being forced into the hands of the Russians as part what the Russians are describing as a humanitarian response. That is certainly not the view of the Ukrainians here -- Pamela.

BROWN: Wow. Sam, just so chilling to hear those air sirens. I know you are probably used to hearing them now but it's just a sign of the danger that those in Kyiv, including yourself, face and we just hope that you stay safe, Sam. Thank you.

Well, meantime, four American service members are dead now confirmed by the U.S. Marine Corps. They were killed in a crash of an Osprey aircraft in Norway during a NATO training mission.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is in Brussels, where President Biden will arrive in the coming days -- Natasha.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Pam, the U.S. Marine Corps has confirmed that four U.S. Marines were involved in a training accident as part of a training mission in Norway. Now it is unclear exactly who these service members were. The Marine Corps has not released their names yet but the Norwegian prime minister did say that these U.S. service members had lost their lives in this training accident.

Now it's important to note here that this is part of a much bigger NATO training mission that they hold regularly as part of their exercises to prepare the NATO alliance for a potential attack. And these U.S. service members were part of thousands of U.S. Marines that had been taking part in these exercises that are due to be wrapped up on April 1st.

Now of course, this accident comes at a very fragile moment for the alliance as they are facing this Russian aggression in Ukraine, which has of course gotten very close to NATO's doorstep. However, this exercise did not have to do with this Russian attack per se. Of course, it just has to do with military readiness. Now, part of the reason that they chose Norway for this exercise is

because of those very challenging weather conditions, of the challenging terrain in order to prepare the troops for anything that they may experience in real life. And that is part of the reason U.S. and Norwegian officials say this Osprey that the U.S. service members were traveling on likely crashed as it was heading toward a peninsula north of the Arctic Circle -- Pam.

BROWN: Thank you so much.

Well, U.S. officials tell CNN the Russian military, for the first known time in combat, is using hypersonic missiles. These missiles were used to destroy a military warehouse in western Ukraine yesterday.

Now we don't know if yesterday's launch was from a plane but these images we are showing you are from a month ago. Multiple sources say Friday's launches were likely meant to test the weapons, and send a message to the West about Russian capabilities. Hypersonic weapons are difficult to detect. They can travel at five times the speed of sound and at a lower trajectory than high arching ballistic missiles. And they can evade missile defense systems.

In addition to the new weapons, Russia is also literally digging in to protect its military positions northwest of Kyiv. These new satellite images from MAXAR Technologies show a protective structure constructed around the military equipment there.

And in Mariupol, we are getting a new look at the massive destruction to that theater that was serving as a shelter. As many as 1300 people were believed to be inside when a Russian air strike hit and this new satellite image from MAXAR shows two-thirds of the building, as you see, destroyed. Just the western section of that building is still standing. And you can still see the Russian word for children printed in large letters on the ground near the front entrance.

To really understand the scope of the damage, look at the before-and- after pictures. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says 130 people have been rescued from the theater.

And with me tonight to discuss more on all this, retired major general and CNN military analyst, James "Spider" Marks.

Hi, General. Nice to see you. So I want to start with the use of these hypersonic missiles by Russia.

[19:10:06]

How much could this change the state of play of this invasion?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, pretty significantly. Hypersonics as you described are incredibly difficult to detect. They fly at very low altitudes. You know, essentially, just above the ground what we call nap of earth. They are immensely maneuverable and they travel as you said, you know, at excess of Mach 5. So the key thing is that there is no radar capability that's ground based that's effective against picking this up and then trying to direct something against it.

Any defenses that the Ukrainians would have or anyone would have against a hypersonic weapon is not fast enough and maneuverable enough. And so we are at that stage of immense vulnerability if Russia continues to use these. We simply don't know how many hypersonics they have in their inventory. But it is -- it is a game-changer in that it can be launched from distance and the munitions on the tip of that could be conventional or it could be inert.

It's just the speed does immense damage when it hits its target. But it's not good against maneuvering targets and that's what the Russians have demonstrated. They don't have any tactical intelligence, targetable intelligence. They are only going after facilities.

BROWN: Right. And you had mentioned that we don't know how many hypersonic missiles are in the Russian arsenal and it does make you wonder about that because we are nearly a month into this invasion and now apparently according to what U.S. officials are telling us, they are just now starting to use these. What do you make of that?

MARKS: I really -- as been described by Secretary Austin earlier today or yesterday with Don Lemon in that the Russian forces are upside down and naked as we say. They're totally screwed up. They are not applying force appropriately. They are trying to find their -- themselves in terms of what they need to do next. They have culminated. They haven't taken Kyiv. They haven't taken Kharkov. They have taken Mariupol in just a brutal assault.

And so they're exercising tactics now where they hope to regain the momentum so they are using hypersonic -- they are going to pull out every weapon system they have in the kit bag and let's hope they don't use weapons of mass destruction. But they are going to use hypersonics, they are going to use rockets. They are going to use missiles. They are going to use artillery. They're going to back those things off, which is the imagery you showed of the berms, the earthen berms around equipment, indicate that the Russians are in a defensive posture.

They're kind of at a stall. They are not maneuvering and the Ukrainians are taking great advantage of this Russian lack of mobility.

BROWN: I want to turn to question from our viewers. They have been flooding in today. This viewer is asking, how long will it take for Ukraine to receive the military equipment and the new U.S. aid package? A lot of people want to know about that and how that equipment is still able to get to the Ukrainians who need it.

MARKS: Yes. That aid is coming multiple ways, obviously, Pam. And I am not inside baseball. I am not privy to exactly what is happening. But what is happening is NATO has pre-positioned stocks. The United States have stocks that are in various NATO countries.

So the additional aid simply ensures that there will be a robust and full, you know, very fulsome pipeline. The equipment that's in place right now is continuing to go across the border from Poland, from Romania into Ukraine, and handed off to Ukrainian forces. And then they move them into their battle positions. What the aid does is make sure that that spigot doesn't turn off.

BROWN: All right, General Spider Marks, thank you so much.

MARKS: Thank you, Pam.

BROWN: And what do you want to know about Russia's war on Ukraine? Send me your question. You can submit on Twitter, Instagram, e-mail me, at PamBrownCNN@gmail.com. I may ask it to our experts this weekend.

And coming up this hour, misinformation virus. How Putin's propaganda machine is using right-wing U.S. lawmakers to brainwash Russians.

Also ahead, favor returned. Descendants of a family who saved a Jewish man from the holocaust now find refuge in Israel.

And as a new COVID variant starts spreading, how worried should we be about another wave? That is the last thing we want to be thinking about right now but we are going to be asking Dr. Leana Wen right after this break.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:54]

BROWN: The U.N. says nearly 900 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began. That is likely a vast underestimate. But we now know at least one American is among them. This weekend, Americans are taking to the streets across the country in support of Ukraine.

CNN's Camila Bernal is in Los Angeles where people have been demonstrating there all afternoon.

What are you seeing there, Camila?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Pam. Just so many passionate and really frustrated Ukrainians and people from all backgrounds who are here supporting them. The organizers say that they are asking for a couple of things. They want people to protest the war. They want people to sign petitions and to reach out to their representatives or their senators, and to ask for specific things.

Today, they are begging for a no-fly zone. They say they want more aid for Ukraine. And they say that, really, what they're doing here is trying to show support in any way possible. Many of the Ukrainians that I have talked to have told me, look, we're in constant communication with our friends and our family members in Ukraine. And we can't just sit back and watch. And so, that's why they're here today.

[19:20:03] They say that not only being present, but being on social media and doing that political action is what makes a difference. I spoke to one of the organizers, and here's what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we know that people still care, that they are ready to do something to help Ukraine directly and I know that it's not just our city. It's all the cities, you know, in the United States and across the world. It's not just Ukrainians that come here. We have, you know, communities of different European diasporas that feel for Ukraine and naturally all the American people that I spoke with, they all understand clearly what is happening in Ukraine.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And as that organizer mentioned, this is not the only protest or demonstration that we saw today. We saw some in New York, in Paris, in other cities. Ukrainians and supporters who are coming out to do anything they can to show their support for the people of Ukraine. Here, they say they are not losing hope and they say they will continue to have these demonstrations every week for as long as this war continues -- Pam.

BROWN: And we also know, Camila, at least one American has been killed in Ukraine. James Hill. What more can you tell us about him?

BERNAL: Well look, Pam, his family today posting an update saying and reminding people that James Hill was in Ukraine for his love for his partner, Ira. They were there because she was battling MS and unfortunately he passed away in this war. The family is saying that he loved his partner Ira but that he loved Ukraine and that he was always someone who pushed for peace.

The difficult part of this story is that all of us were able to read and essentially follow along during his last days in Ukraine because he posted all of this on social media numerous times saying that there was constant bombing. Describing how they were cold, how they were hungry, how they were losing hope. He said people were depressed.

And so all of this was documented on social media. His friends and family members, following along. And unfortunately, his family now saying that they still do not know where his body is. So they say that it is going to be very difficult for them to get closure. And of course, most likely, it will be very difficult to find that body and for them to be able to say their final good-byes. And unfortunately, he is also not the only one so this is a devastating story.

And just as we followed along on social media, now what you see is a Facebook full of condolences. People honoring and remembering James Hill saying that he was a caring, loving person who loved to travel, loved to teach. And really, everyone just saying that this is tragic and that this may not be the only loss -- Pam.

BROWN: We just think about his family and our hearts go out to them.

Camila Bernal, thank you.

Up next, her great grandparents risked their lives to save a Jewish Soviet soldier during World War II. 80 years later, a family in Israel is now saving her from Russian bombings. The incredible story, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:27:45]

BROWN: As we mentioned earlier, nearly 900 Ukrainian civilians have been confirmed killed so far in Russia's brutal and unprovoked invasion of that country. Hundreds more are wounded and that's just what the United Nations can confirm. The actual totals will, no doubt, be much higher once updated information arrives from areas where fighting has delayed reports.

But in addition to the dead and wounded, more than three million people have fled Ukraine according to the U.N. Three million. That is more than the total population of Chicago. The U.N. reports that half of them are children. Russia's war is creating a humanitarian crisis in Europe and around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: These refugees are mostly women and children. They stuff their lives into backpacks and left their homes and everything they knew behind.

Today, many of them know that their apartment buildings and streets have been bombed to rubble. And the horrors continue for those who remain in Ukraine.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The U.N. estimates that 90 percent of the Ukrainian population who remain in Ukraine now face poverty and economic vulnerability. It could set that region back decades and leave deep social and economic scars.

Meanwhile, the war is tearing families apart. "The New York Times" reports that an estimated 11 million people in Russia have Ukrainian relatives. And many Ukrainians are ethnic Russians. But Russia's disinformation campaign has some cross-border families arguing over what's true about the war.

And here, in the United States, the White House is working to provide special pathways to admit Ukrainian refugees. Some states are already accepting refugees, and others are making plans to do so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): We are concerned about people of Ukraine. We're concerned about the families who have been forced out of their homes, their neighborhoods, their country because of this barbaric war. Ohio welcomes and will welcome any refugees who come from Ukraine.

[19:30:01]

We're a welcoming people. We're a nation of immigrants. We are a state that was built by immigrants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Also, and the people who fled their homes in Ukraine are finding safety in Israel, including a woman and her daughter with unique historical ties to that country.

CNN's Hadas Gold reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For hours, Katya Gusarov waited anxiously for two Ukrainian refugees to emerge from Tel Aviv's Airport.

Finally, she spots them, Alla Misiuk and her daughter, Liza.

It's a warm embrace, but before today, they had never met.

Katya is a researcher at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Ala is the great granddaughter of a couple deemed Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem for helping save the life of a Jew during the Holocaust.

That act of salvation now paid forward. Katya is hosting Alla and Liza after their terrifying journey out of Ukraine. They grow emotional recalling the last three weeks, including nearly 24 hours on a train that came under fire near Kyiv.

ALLA MISIUK, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): We were told to turn off our phones and turn off the lights. So you understand how scary it all was that even small children, two or three years old, they understood that something terrible was going on and even they were silent. They were afraid.

We lay like that for an hour and a half each on top of each other.

GOLD (voice over): Their family ripped apart by war. Liza and her mom forced to leave dad Arthur behind.

GOLD (on camera): Liza, you're only 12 years old. Do you feel like you've grown up very quickly in the last few weeks?

LIZA MISIUK, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): I may look the same on the outside, but my character has changed because I'm ready for war at all times.

The fighting starts to grow and you realize that your life is in danger. You realize that you may never see your family again. That's what changed my character.

GOLD (voice over): Inside Katya's home, a chance to look over why Alla and Liza ended up in Israel.

More than 80 years ago in 1941, Alla's great grandparents, Ivan and Tatiana Parmont (ph) saved the life of a young Jewish man and Soviet soldier named Viktor Rudnick (ph).

Documents detail how they sheltered Rudnick after he escaped from a prisoner of war camp, at one point, risking their own lives by pretending Rudnick was their own son, even while they were forced to host German soldiers in the same house.

A letter in the file written by Ivan Parmont describes how their town near Kharkiv was bombed in 1943. The similarities down to the dates haunting.

A. MISIUK (through translator): The damn Germans bombed us from March 2nd to March 19th, every day from morning to evening. For three days, we were hiding in our cellar. On March 5th, a bomb hit our barn.

GOLD (voice over): Alla grows emotional over the parallels to what the Russian Army is doing now.

A. MISIUK (through translator): They just destroy them, destroy them deliberately, destroy them ruthlessly because well, because it's genocide. It's just genocide of the Ukrainian people.

GOLD (voice over): Katya and Alla's Bond started when Alla reached out to the Museum a year ago via e-mail, simply seeking more information about her family. Then the war started and Alla wrote again, asking for help.

And after days traveling by train, car and on foot, they made it to Poland and soon onto the plane to Tel Aviv.

For now Alla and Liza say they feel safe taken in by Katya's family like Alla's did for Viktor so many years ago.

KATYA GUSAROV, RESEARCHER, YAD VASHEM: This bonding, this bond of helping people, it is just normal, it should be because if you do a good thing, it will be back to you in one way or another.

GOLD (voice over): Hadas Gold, CNN, Modi'in, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A beautiful story.

Well to help people in Ukraine with shelter, food, and water, just go to cnn.com/impact. There, you're going to find several links to several vetted organizations that are working on the ground there.

And just in to CNN, Britain's Prime Minister says Vladimir Putin is in a quote "total panic" over the idea of a pro-democracy uprising in Moscow. We're going to take a closer look at how the Russian President is stamping out any information that goes against his narrative.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:39:33]

BROWN: Apart from the soldiers and tanks and artillery, Russia has another time tested weapon in its arsenal during this attack on Ukraine -- disinformation, like a deep fake video that appeared Wednesday on a hacked Ukrainian news channel using artificial intelligence technology. It purported to show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling Ukrainians to put down their weapons and surrender. Zelenskyy did no such thing. He has been saying the opposite actually.

[19:40:05]

BROWN: And in Russia itself, Vladimir Putin's stranglehold on the media means Russian citizens are getting a steady diet of lies about the conflict.

This man in Ukraine telling CNN, his own father in Russia didn't believe him when he called to report what was happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISHA KATSURIN, UKRAINIAN RESTAURANTEUR WITH FAMILY IN RUSSIA: He started arguing with me, and he told me that, no, everything is not like you are talking about. So in reality, Russia is not bombing you. Russia is making special operation, it is peaceful, and they're trying to kick out the Nazi government from your country.

And as the whole world knows, there is no Nazi government in my country, and also, he told me the most impressive thing for me that the Russian soldiers, they are given warm clothes and food to locals and to Ukrainian military. So they're quite kind people in the eyes of my father. So that was the story.

I tried to explain him that it's not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: How do you talk to a family member who was so brainwashed like that?

Joining me now to talk about this war of words, Julia Minson. She is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and is an expert on communication in conflict. She recently wrote an op-ed for "The Boston Globe" about reaching people lost in disinformation.

Hi, Julia.

So look, we know that propaganda is a common tactic during war, but Russia seems to take it to a whole new level. Do you agree?

JULIA MINSON, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL: Yes, absolutely. So the Russian government and the government of the Soviet Union have been masters of this game for many, many years, you know, but now there's something different, which is the social media and the access that we have to each other as sort of regular people.

BROWN: Right, so you have the technology, social media, making things worse. Are you surprised that we're not seeing more of these deep fakes? Should we be expecting to see more in the future during this war?

MINSON: Well, I think deep fakes have this really interesting role. I am a psychologist who studies communication in conflict and one of the things that deep fakes do is make people believe that black is white and white is black.

And so that makes efforts like the effort that Misha Katsurin and his family are trying to go through that much harder, right? It's very, very hard to talk to somebody who has been exposed to complete misinformation that they have come to believe because it seems so real.

BROWN: Right. You know, in light of what you just said, after Arnold Schwarzenegger made this direct plea, appeal to the Russian people in this video posted on social media that went viral asking them to resist their country's disinformation and discussing his affinity for Russia, do you think that that is an effective tactic to get through to people who are brainwashed by Russian propaganda? And what else would you recommend?

MINSON: Yes, so I love that video and I love the accompanying article. A lot of what Arnold Schwarzenegger did is very much in line with the research that we have conducted in my lab over the years and the research that I describe in that "Boston Globe" op-ed.

We study an idea we call conversational receptiveness. It is a style of communication that lets a person on the other side of a conflict feel that you really engage with their perspective, and you understand where they're coming from.

And so Arnold Schwarzenegger did that brilliantly by demonstrating that he knows where the Russian people are coming from, and he has respect for them and for their culture, and is coming from a place of understanding. And that's very, very hard to do for a lot of people in this very tragic situation that has made many of us incredibly, incredibly angry.

BROWN: It has, and I just think that's such an important point to just show the other person some respect and receptiveness of what they're going to say, even if you know that it's not true, you don't believe it yourself.

I think we could all have a little bit more of that, not just with this situation in Ukraine and Russia, but even broader. You're seeing how propaganda plays a role in the United States, too.

I mean, the U.S. has dealt with its own disinformation in recent years from lies about COVID, to people who truly believe the January 6th attack was just a bunch of patriotic Americans. But Russia's brainwashing seems so much more overwhelming.

I want to play a comment from the Russian journalist who held up that anti-war sign on camera. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, RUSSIA JOURNALIST (through translator): I have been working on Channel One and doing Kremlin propaganda, and now I am very ashamed of it. It is a shame that I allowed lies to come from the TV screens, a shame that I helped zombify Russian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So she has been fined for that interview with the Human Rights organization, but could face up to 15 years in prison for sharing news about Russia's invasion of Ukraine that goes against the Kremlin official narrative. She is the exception though. How dangerous is Russia's control of the media?

[19:45:06]

MINSON: So it's incredibly dangerous, and what this particular journalist has done is an incredibly brave thing. A lot of people around the world are trying to figure out ways that they can engage and then they can -- you know, what can they do to be helpful, and there are lots of grassroots efforts popping up that allow regular people to engage with people in Russia without taking on such tremendous risk, right? So texts and e-mails and phone calls that we can all engage in to help Russians kind of pop out of this information bubble that they have been placed into.

BROWN: Right, so for example, that Arnold Schwarzenegger video presumably would have to be texted to them, e-mailed or vice versa because obviously the Russian media is not going to play that.

All right, Julia Minson, thank you very much.

MINSON: Thank you.

BROWN: Well, a new COVID variant is causing cases to rise in Europe and Asia. Can we expect the same to happen in the U.S.? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:50:30]

BROWN: We'll get back to our coverage of the war in Ukraine in just a moment, but let's first update you on the coronavirus pandemic. We're talking about that again, because look at the numbers. So the U.K. is now scrapping all COVID-19 travel measures including passenger locator forums and proof of a negative test, regardless of your vaccination status.

But as mitigation measures are softened, there is this new variant that is causing cases to rise again in Europe, and now Asia.

So how worried should we be about another wave here in the U.S.? The C.D.C. Director predicts it could be the dominant variant in the quote, "weeks ahead." Dr. Leana Wen joins me now to help us navigate this all.

You know, I say look at the numbers in Europe, Dr. Wen, because we have seen that trend, right, more cases rise, hospitalizations rise in Europe, and then we see that same thing happened here in the United States.

What do we need to know about this new variant and the risk it poses?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, this new variant appears to be even more contagious than the original omicron variant. However, it does not appear to cause more severe disease. And in very good news, the vaccines that we have still provide good protection against it.

So I think it's time for us to change the way that we look at how we measure the severity of a surge that's coming. Is it possible that we're going to see an uptick here in the U.S. as well? Yes. However, as long as our hospitals are not overwhelmed, as long as the vaccines continue to provide good protection against this new variant, I do not think that we need to have new restrictions coming in here in the U.S.

BROWN: And also the omicron variant really swept through and got a lot of people including myself, so if you were previously infected with the omicron variant or past COVID infections, what would that mean for you with this new variant coming in?

WEN: Well, this new variant is related to omicron and if somebody was just infected with omicron, the chance of reinfection is low. But we do know that if you were infected before with delta, or alpha or some other variant, you could certainly be re-infected with this new variant, and so this is even more important for those who have not yet been vaccinated or were vaccinated, but we're not boosted, please go ahead and get that booster dose because we know that vaccines and boosters protect very well, especially against severe illness severe enough to cause hospitalization or death.

BROWN: And speaking of booster, Moderna, once a fourth shot of its vaccine authorized. Do you think we're all going to need another shot soon?

WEN: I want to see the data. Right now, we know that people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised need to have a fourth shot now. It's also likely that individuals who are older, who have other chronic medical conditions will also need a booster shot in the near future as well, but we still need to see the data for everybody else to see when that next booster needs to come.

BROWN: I want to talk about kids. We both have young kids under the age of five. The C.D.C. says two doses of the Pfizer vaccine only cuts the risk of omicron infection by 31 percent for children aged five to 11. What should we be looking at this? I mean, should parents be worried that it provides seemingly so little protection?

WEN: I think the real way that we should be looking at this is to keep in mind what it is that vaccines are designed to do. They are designed to reduce the risk of severe illness. And in that regard, the vaccines are holding up really well across all different age groups, and so should parents be concerned? Well, I think they should know that the vaccines are not protecting against infection as well as we would like them to be, but they are protecting really well against that very serious illness.

Now, I'm still hopeful that we'll have similar types of data for younger kids, kids under the age of five. Hopefully we'll be able to get those data sometime next month and I know that I'll be very eager to vaccinate my children because what I really care about is preventing them from getting really severe illness that lands them in the hospital or worse.

BROWN: Yes, no parent wants to see that happen to their child. Dr. Leana Wen, thank you.

WEN: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: Well, it is confirmed, Russia is now using hypersonic missiles in its war on Ukraine. So does this make the case that it's time to enforce a no-fly zone? I'm going to ask General Mark Hertling about that, up next.

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[19:59:34]

BROWN: This will be one of the images that defines Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine and the brutality of it.

A bruised and bandaged mother feeding her month-old-baby. The mom's heroism, likely saving the child's life. Olga and her husband, Dimitro (ph) were at home when they heard shelling getting closer.

Well after the windows and doors of the building next door were shot out, the couple was hit was shards of glass. Olga shielded the infant with her body.

The child was not injured but both parents were and they are all recovering in a Kyiv hospital. Incredible.

Your next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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