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Massive Anti-Aircraft Fire Erupts Above Kyiv; Arms Depot In Mykolaiv Hit By Russian Strike; President Zelenskyy Says Failed Negotiations With Russia Could Mean Third World War; Russia Claims First Combat Launches Of Hypersonic Missiles; Ukraine War; Senate Confirmation Hearings. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired March 20, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:23]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. And we begin with a dire prediction from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He tells CNN if peace negotiations fail in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin will not stop until he has triggered a third world war. Putin already proving that his ambition knows no bounds. These tanks opened fire on a nursing home in eastern Ukraine. Officials say 56 elderly residents died. Putin's forces bombed an art school overnight where about 400 people were sheltering in the city of Mariupol. People still trapped in rubble there and at other sites around the besieged city.

Russia claiming to launch more hypersonic missile strikes on Ukraine. Last night and earlier today President Biden travels to Europe in the coming days to meet with world leaders as the crisis grows more urgent. Several areas of Ukraine have fallen under Russian control including Kherson. At least that's according to Russian officials.

New video here shows protesters yelling at military vehicles, bravely rejecting the notion that Kherson is anything other than Ukraine, their home. But as of today, 10 million people have been forced to flee either displaced inside Ukraine or as refugees abroad. That includes these 71 children evacuated from an orphanage in Sumy, safe now after spending two weeks hiding in bomb shelters.

And in this photo from Kyiv, you're looking at the antithesis of Putin's brutality. After his forces bombed a Mariupol shelter clearly marked as housing children, this mother used her own body to shield her 1-month-old daughter from Russian shelling, her face quite literally bearing the scars of love.

I want to go to CNN's Fred Pleitgen first. He is in Kyiv. Fred, you've seen anti-aircraft fire in the capital just a short time ago. Tell us, what's going on now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Jim. Yes, it's certainly has been quite an active evening as far as anti-aircraft fire is concerned. Generally as far as firing is concerned we have heard a couple of bangs, possible explosions around the city over the past couple of minutes. I'd say in the past half hour or so, but it was really that anti-aircraft fire that erupted here in the evening that was very strong.

Certainly a lot more than people have seen over the past couple of days. And it seemed to us as though it was both flak cannons firing into the sky and then also surface-to-air missiles shooting as well. What we did see in the night sky was sort of an illuminated dot going across the night sky over the Ukrainian capital here. Unclear whether or not that was a Ukrainian aircraft, but it certainly appeared to us as though that was possibly what these surface-to-air weapons were firing at.

And that lasted for several minutes. So you can see, it's been quite active here in the Ukrainian capital over the past hour, over this past day. Of course, as the U.S. and its allies say that the Russian offensive still essentially remains bogged down and hasn't been advancing much towards the capital of Kyiv but certainly not for lack of trying. The Russians still have a very, very large force especially to the north of the Ukrainian capital -- Jim.

ACOSTA: And Fred, Russian troops are trying to advance on Kyiv. They're now at risk of being stalled because of a flooding. A dam north of the Ukrainian capital apparently is flooding.

PLEITGEN: Yes.

ACOSTA: What more do we know about that?

PLEITGEN: Yes, one of the many problems that they seemed to be facing. It's a dam that apparently is flooding into the Irpin River, a basin, that's an arm of the Dnieper River, which is a mighty river that goes here through the Ukrainian capital. Certainly one that's definitely very hard to cross in any case. And it has caused substantial flooding to the north of Kyiv and that is, of course, where a lot of these Russian forces are stationed and are trying to advance on the Ukrainian capital.

Now apparently there are several reasons for why this is a big problem for Russia. On the one hand, it obviously makes it a lot more difficult to cross that river, to try and get across. They've apparently been trying that with pontoon bridges, so far unsuccessfully, some of them get blown up by the Ukrainians.

But the other thing that happened, and this is also really important, especially when you consider fighting in a place like Ukraine with a lot of farmland, is that the earth here gets really, really soggy and that literally bogs those Russian forces down. The Ukrainians put out some video today, Jim, showing a convoy of Russian armor that they say they attacked and destroyed.

Of course, that's something that's not very seldom. We do see that quite a lot as Ukrainians are saying and continue to have a lot of resistance towards that Russian advance -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. No question about it. All right, Fred Pleitgen, could be a busy night in Kyiv. Thanks very much for that report.

I want to start next in Mykolaiv and CNN's Nick Paton Walsh. He's there for us.

What are you seeing there, Nick?

[16:05:05]

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, we've had on the skyline behind us a number of explosions over of the last hours or so. Roughly distant to the city center, fitting with the pattern of essentially Ukraine having a better time here over the past days or weeks. They have managed to push Russian forces back towards the first city Russia managed to occupy, Kherson. We were down the road where that fight is happening just earlier on today to see the progress that's being made.

But that has come at a cost, Jim, certainly here, because of the use of missiles, cruise missiles, that hit Monday morning -- sorry, Friday morning against two key targets here in the center of Mykolaiv. Military targets causing we believe somewhere in the region of about 30 Ukrainian military lives have been lost. No official numbers have been released. But that's what we understand from some officials we've talked to, and also 40 injured according to a medical official we've spoken to as well.

That would make it one of the worst publicly known losses of Ukraine military life since this war began. And it is also in keeping with the use of very heavy weaponry around this town during Russia's offensive on the ground. But possibly more so since they found themselves strategically losing ground around here. There's been a claim by Russian defense officials that, in fact, a hypersonic missile was used on an arms depot not far from here.

Possibly in keeping with reporting from Ukrainian officials saying that (INAUDIBLE) to the north of where I am an arms depot was in fact targeted. But it's very hard to tell when Russia talks about hypersonic missiles exactly what they're using.

It's their own propaganda often trying to suggest that sort of mythical renewing of the Russian military much flaunted by the Kremlin over the past 10 years has seen fruit sadly for Moscow and possibly for the benefit of the Ukrainian army here, we're seeing very little signs of a modern Russian army on the ground.

They do appear particularly around Mykolaiv to have been blundering in their bids to get in. They appear to have lost a lot of armor often frankly it being taken by the Ukrainian military instead. The regional governor here has joked the biggest contributor to Ukraine's forces here is in fact the Russians who've left behind weapons for them to fight.

And a more grisly note, too, just yesterday the regional governor here, Vitaliy, came -- rallied people through his Telegram channel around air raid sirens, around the fight here, he said that there was going to be a very difficult problem for locals here in the days ahead.

That there were many Russian bodies still left on the battlefield and that as the temperature warmed, the spring came forward it would become difficult for these to be collected. They're becoming increasingly decayed, sadly. And he appealed to locals to try and pick those bodies up. Now that feeds into the general broader Ukrainian theme here that the Russians slogan if they don't leave theirs behind, that's part of the Russian propaganda.

It doesn't really hold true when it comes to Russia's dead here and we have seen I think a lot of signs here of Russia trying to get into the city. Doesn't seem to be adequately planned or supported. Failing. And subsequent Russian move after that is to use heavy weaponry against often civilian areas or in the last 48 hours military targets.

But as I say, Jim, explosions on the horizon here tonight and the night before as well. We often don't know what they're targeting but a sign that certainly Russia is trying to make its presence felt although we know they have been pushed back significantly -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Nick, looks like it'll be a busy night for you as well. Nick Paton Walsh, in Mykolaiv. Thank you very much.

In an interview with Fareed Zakaria of CNN, President Zelenskyy says negotiation with Putin are always on the table to stop the war. He also opened up about what his young children know about the horrific violence that his country has been experiencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, GPS: President Biden has called Vladimir Putin a war criminal. And yet you have called for negotiations with him. Will it be hard, will it be painful for you to have to sit down with Putin were he to agree and negotiate with him?

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): I am ready for negotiations with him. I was ready over the last two years and I think that -- I think that without negotiations we cannot end this war. I think that all the people who think that this dialogue is shallow and that it is not going to resolve anything, they just don't understand that this is very valuable. If there is just 1 percent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance. We need to do that. I can't tell you about the result of these negotiations.

[16:10:04]

In any case, we are losing people on a daily basis, innocent people on the ground. Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us, and we have demonstrated the dignity of our people and our army, that we are -- we are able to deal a powerful blow, we are able to strike back, but unfortunately our dignity is not going to preserve the lives, so I think that we have to use any format, any chance in order to have the possibility of negotiating, the possibility of talking to Putin, but if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third world war. But if we were a NATO member, a war wouldn't have started. So now I'd

like to receive security guarantees for my country, for my people. If NATO members are ready to see us in the alliance, then do it immediately because people are dying on a daily basis, but if you are not ready to preserve the lives of our people, if you just want to see us straddle two worlds, if you want to see us in this dubious position where we do not understand whether you can accept us or not, you cannot place us in this situation. You cannot force us to be in this limbo.

ZAKARIA: When you hear Vladimir Putin talk about the Ukrainian government as being full of neo-Nazis, as somebody who is of Jewish descent, how do you react to those statements?

ZELENSKYY (through translator): Well, there are rare occasions when I smile and when I laugh, and for me to hear it, it's as if something similar to a joke. I cannot take this statement seriously.

If he thinks that this is his mission to conquer our territories and if he sees signs of neo-Nazis in our country then many questions emerge about what else he is capable of doing for the sake of his ambitions and for the same of his mission. So this what gives rise to a feeling which is not very pleasant and which is very frightening, very hazardous. That it can't be an information bubble which will continue to exert pressure and it will pressurize Putin to further escalation.

ZAKARIA: You're a young man, you have a young family, and I have to -- I keep wondering, how do you explain to your children what is going on?

ZELENSKYY (through translator): My children know for sure what is happening and I don't know whether it's good or bad. I have not explained anything to my children. They have said to me that war is raging in Ukraine and at our home we have the same freedom of speech as we have in our country and they know what we are fighting for.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Coming up, Ukraine reporting that Russia has suffered unprecedented losses on the battlefield with some units up to 90 percent destroyed. So will Russia use even more brutal tactics to compensate for a war that is not going according to plan?

Our military analyst comes in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:04]

ACOSTA: Vladimir Putin may have started a troubling new phase of hypersonic warfare. A Russian military official claims they have fared off more hypersonic missiles into Ukraine last night and again today, this time targeting the Mykolaiv region. It comes days after hypersonic missiles hit western Ukraine. That launch was confirmed by the U.S. and marks the first time these missiles were used in combat. Prior Russian test launches have shown off the high-tech weapons which

the U.S. is working to develop. They travel at least five times the speed of sound and fly lower than your standard missile making them harder to detect and better at evading defense systems.

Let's bring in retired Brigadier General Peter Zwack. He's a former senior U.S. Defense attache to Russia.

And General Zwack, thanks so much for joining us. There's been a lot of talk about these hypersonic missiles and we know Russia has been relying on less sophisticated unguided weapons in this war. Why do you think they have all of a sudden, it seems, decided to unleash these more advanced missiles?

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Mission is not going well for the Russian Federation, and their forces on the ground are getting chopped up and salami sliced in the way they've been pushing. To what -- to date, you know, they've been using some precision weapons. We've seen that. And a lot of what they call dumb bombs.

The hypersonics, part of it is, frankly it's a marketing thing, I believe. 2018, Vladimir Putin went out in their state of the union and talked about six new weapons systems. New hypersonics, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of flash that goes to the talk, but it is serious. Now, you know, a lot of missiles already, in, what, MACH 5? Five times speed of sound is I guess what puts you in hypersonic. Bottom line, they're really fast, they're really evasive, and they are a step up in technology.

[16:20:04]

They used -- and you saw that in the Kinzhals that were just fired the other night. Can be fired off of a -- off of a Russian air superior fighter, right under the wings. They're versatile. Then you have a variation of that. More cruise missiles. They were just fired the other night from the Caspian flotilla, and these were the same type that were fired into Syria, if you remember, in the autumn of 2015 with great fanfare.

Bottom line, they're fast, they're lethal. Not a gigantic change in the technology. It's not going to change the situation on the ground, but the fact that the Russians are talking about it is also designed to threaten and to intimidate.

ACOSTA: Right. And let's talk about Russia's advance on Kyiv, which apparently was dealt another major setback. Satellite images show a dam north of Kyiv has flooded leaving the European river basin completely waterlogged from what our reporting on the ground indicates. The main bridge was already out.

What does it tell you that Russia's advance on the capital, which you'd expect to be carefully game planned and really already accomplished at this point, seems to be going so poorly?

ZWACK: I think that most of us that have been studying the Russians and Soviets before, because of these relatively big distances, they would have had, in their minds, a major armor thrust. They'd be in the suburbs in two days and take the city in four. Remember all that? That was a month ago. And it's hard to believe, and they're still stalled.

I think part of it is their armor and all that got out in front of their logistics, which was already weak and not well trained. And the Ukrainians basically, when you hear these units getting 80 percent, 90 percent, these are forward formations that got ahead, cut off, tanks knocked out. Stingers, then all the other, RPGs and all of that, and they destroyed the whole column. And I think that's happened in a number of places and stalling, is in part, logistics reforming and also to get those Russian soldiers back into the game.

They've lost five generals which is extraordinary when you look at it. And the last thing here. We are hearing accounts that they've gone ground, they've dug in. The panzer assault has been stopped. And now when they stop, now the Ukrainian forces to kind of coalesce and kind of amass on artillery batteries that are dug in, and if you're dug in you are now a semi-static target and you still have your long supply lines which are now just being, I believe, more and more pounded by everything from Ukrainian military.

ACOSTA: Yes.

ZWACK: Home guard and territorials to civilians with light but dangerous weapons. The Russians have culminated. That's the term we've heard and now we wonder what is coming over the horizon, and they are now bombarding, as they have done in the past.

ACOSTA: Well, and that's what I wanted to ask you about because it seems as things are going poorly for the Russians, they are upping these brutal attacks. Bombing schools. Attacking nursing homes. You know, you have to ask the question, whether or not, you know, yes. Strategically things are not going well for the Russians, but can they bomb their way to victory in all of this?

ZWACK: It will be -- Jim, it would be horrific, but I don't see it. I think that they have, you know, you have a quarter million Ukrainian military and then a quarter million territorial -- but you probably have a couple million of military-age, everywhere from 16 to 60 or 70, people that can carry weapons, and even small arms would raise havoc on the Russians especially if they become more vulnerable and static.

Yes. I think, I kind of think of the Russian blitz. Excuse me, forgive me. The Nazi blitz on London. That just made the Brits, the Londoners even more determined and I think the Russians so in their disdain for the Ukrainians and this, this translates into Putin's disdain for Zelenskyy, that they can't find a way to finish it so they want to go full violence. Full violence and it will blow up in their faces as horrible as it is for the Ukrainian population.

[16:25:02]

ACOSTA: Well, and the world has just been horrified by everything that Russia has done up until this point.

General Peter Zwack, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. Thanks for your comments.

ZWACK: Always, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up a spotlight on some of the youngest victims of this war who remain stranded in Ukraine. Some newborns given birth to by surrogates who are facing a very uncertain future. As bombs drop around them, the question is, will their parents from other countries ever be able to come and get them?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:00]

ACOSTA: In Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, newborn babies, given the gift of life by surrogates, are among those being shuffled to safety. They are trapped by the violence and waiting for their parents to come get them. But as this war intensifies, their fates are growing more and more uncertain.

You have to watch this report. CNN's Sam Kiley has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is precious cargo. Not cash in transit, but week-old baby Lawrence in transit to a new life. Born to a surrogate mother under bombardment in Kyiv, he is raced through the Ukrainian capital to a nursery in the southwest of the city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

KILEY: It's perilously close to Russian troops and easily within range of their artillery. This is gauntlet his new parents will have to run when or if they come here to collect him. For now, he'll be among 20 other surrogate babies destined, it's hoped, for new lives in Argentina, China, Spain, Italy, Canada, Austria, and the U.S. Parting from the child she carried as a surrogate, Victoria is inevitably tearful. Her pain intensified by uncertainty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translator): It is even harder that he is in place where they're shelling. And when will his parents get to take him away because of it? It's really hard.

KILEY: This missile struck about 500 yards from the nursery while we were there.

(on camera): There are constant explosions we can even hear in the basement and the Russian military is reportedly consolidating and planning to push in further into the city from the east. So, the future of these children is even more in doubt. How long will it be before it's impossible, completely impossible, for their new parents to come and rescue them?

(voice-over): The nannies here cannot join the exodus or civilians from Kyiv. These babies may be tiny, but they're the heaviest of responsibilities. Antonina's husband and daughter have already traveled to safety 130 miles south.

ANTONINA YEFIMOVIC, NANNY (translator): These babies can't be abandoned. They're defenseless. They're defenseless. They also need care. And we really hope that the parents will come and pick them up soon.

KILEY: An Argentine couple collected their child the day before. But a combination of the pandemic and now war, has meant that some have been stuck here for months.

DR. IHOR PECHENOGA, PEDIATRICIAN, BIOTEXCOM (translator): It all depends on the strength of the parents' desire. I met with parents who came to Kyiv to pick up their baby. They had tears in their eyes. They had waited 20 years for their baby. And there are such couples who are afraid because there is a war going on here.

KILEY: These infants are oblivious to the doubts over their future and the dangers that they've already survived. There's abundant hope that it stays that way. Sam Kiley, CNN, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Remarkable story.

Coming up, I'll talk to a member of the Ukrainian Parliament whose family is fighting to stay alive in the besieged city of Mariupol. His childhood home destroyed by a tank and his parents are now melting snow just to have water. That story is next.

[16:33:15]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: An update on something we brought you yesterday during my conversation with former Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko. He called on President Biden to add Kyiv to his itinerary when he travels to Europe this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Joe Biden, the leader of the global world, would demonstrate now the leadership. Why don't he can visit here next week?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Today, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, tweeted in response to that, in part. The trip will be focused on continuing to rally the world in support of the Ukrainian people and against President Putin's invasion of Ukraine, but there are no plans to travel into Ukraine.

In the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, officials say an art school, where about 400 people were taking shelter, was bombed by Russian forces earlier this morning. Information on casualties isn't clear right now, but officials say people are still trapped under the rubble there.

Apparently, nothing will deter Putin, not even shelters, like this one clearly marked with the word, children, in Russian writing which was also bombed there earlier this week. This is what life looks like in Mariupol. Homes destroyed. The city unrecognizable. Look at this video. Food, water and safety nearly impossible to find.

And joining us now is Dmytro Gurin. He is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament whose parents are trapped in Mariupol right now.

Dmytro, thank you so much for being with us. I'm so sorry for everything that your country is going through, what your family is struggling with right now. Tell us, how are your parents surviving right now?

DMYTRO GURIN, MEMBER, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: I haven't heard from them in several days. I know they're alive, and that's all that I know. I think they are surviving, like everybody else in Mariupol. There's 300,000 people in the mouse trap without heat and electricity, water, without food, without any medicine.

You know all the stories about drama theater, art school and maternity hospitals. (INAUDIBLE) stories and all the world, you know, trying to imagine that it's going on in their cities, peaceful cities. And everybody's frightened.

[16:40:01]

GURIN: But we have to understand that there is no Mariupol anymore. I talked today with the mayor's office and everything is destroyed. All hospitals. Almost all schools. We don't have half a million people city just in two weeks.

ACOSTA: And my understanding is your parents have had to draw water from radiators in the house and from a well by melting snow. That they're cooking on an open fire. What's it been like, personally, for them just to -- just to try to live?

GURIN: Yes. The city and the people who are -- three weeks ago, it was a peaceful city, and they just lived their life. And now, they are melting snow for water. They are using water from a radiator system. They prepare food on the open fires. You know, the trees that they cleaned (ph) up when I was -- when I was a child. So, they cut it just for preparing food.

And the house of my parents, it's 200 apartments. It's a nine-story building. It was hit by tanks several times. And it's completely burned. And all the houses around are burned. And there are street fights in the city. And the street fights are intense.

So, it's not -- you know the story, you are out of water, and you are out of food. And you just cannot even go out and take some water in a small dirty river that there is in Mariupol, because there are street fights all the time. And you are just inside the street fights.

So, it's a total disaster. It's humanitarian catastrophe and all the world are saying that we are all united around Ukraine just looking how Mr. Putin is starting a hunger in the middle of Europe. Because we clearly see now that he wants to start a hunger to enforce his position in diplomatic processes. You know, and we -- the people are the most important thing for us. The most important for us is the Ukrainian people. Not for him.

So, it's very clearly see -- we clearly see that it's a goal is hunger.

ACOSTA: Yes. That is very much the case. He is trying to torment the people of Ukraine until they give up, it seems. And, you know, one of the things that we're learning, in just the last couple of days. We're learning from Ukrainian officials that residents in Mariupol are being taken to Russia against their will by the Russian forces. What can you tell us about that, and what goes through your mind when you hear something like that?

GURIN: That's going on really. They force people to go to Russia and they take their phones. They take their passports and documents. So, we really don't know what's going on with them. We don't have any contact.

But, you know, when people just bomb peaceful cities, it's not -- it's not the story about military infrastructure. When you're destroying half a -- half a million people city, it's not about military infrastructure. It's just terror. It's mass murdering.

So, what can surprise us? They have forced people to leave Mariupol and go to Russia. They killed us all the time. So, they're forced to leave. They killed civilians. Like two -- 2,500 people died in Mariupol. That's official numbers. That's only people that bodies were found in streets.

And by my estimate, it's like from 20,000 to 30,000 people dead in Mariupol. And we don't know how many people will die from hunger in several days, every day.

ACOSTA: Dmytro Gurin, thank you so much for your time. I'm so sorry for what your family is going through. What your city is going through. It's just heartbreaking to watch and listen to. But we're going to keep telling your stories, so the world can find out and understand what is going on in Ukraine. Thank you very much for your time, Dmytro. We appreciate it.

And for information about how you can help Ukrainian efforts to receive these humanitarian supplies, desperately needed humanitarian supplies, go to CNN.com slash impact and help impact your world.

Coming up, how contentious will the Supreme Court hearings be next week? The GOP has been dropping some hints what to expect when Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson takes questions on Capitol Hill.

[16:44:54]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ACOSTA: Tomorrow is the first day of confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who would be the first black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. The White House says Jackson has met with 44 senators, including every member of the Judiciary Committee that she will face this week.

But Republicans are already sharpening their lines of attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: President Biden is deliberately working to make the whole federal judiciary softer on crime. If any judicial nominee really does have special empathy for some parties over others, that's not an asset. It's a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:50:05]

ACOSTA: Joining me now is CNN Chief Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Jeffrey, you know, there were some indications that maybe this would go a little more smoothly than we've seen with confirmation proceedings in the past. But it's starting to ratchet up, some of the partisanship. How do you expect these hearings to go? Will they be contentious?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think they will be contentious. I think the outcome is likely to favor the nominee.

But one important fact to remember about these hearings is that there are four members of this committee on the Republican side who are likely candidates for president in 2024. You have Hawley. You have Cruz. You have Cotton. And you have Sasse.

And they are going to be positioning themselves in ways that will appeal to a Republican primary electorate which is a very conservative electorate these days. And that's what they are going to be doing as much as they are evaluating the credentials of the nominee.

ACOSTA: And speaking of them, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, he is pushing the suggestion that Judge Jackson was overly sympathetic to sex offenders, saying she has, quote, "a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook." But a CNN review, as you know, Jeff, and other fact checkers, have shown, that Jackson mostly followed the common sentencing practices in these kinds of cases. And that, in some cases, Hawley was taking some comments out of context. Explain some of this.

TOOBIN: Well, what -- the -- Judge Jackson was on the sentencing commission which sets sentencing hearings. She was also a district judge who imposed sentences. And, lately, an appeals court judge. She has followed practices and advocated for policies that were almost entirely bipartisan in nature. There has been a broad consensus that the penalties for child pornography were too high. But that is not something that Judge Jackson invented or solely advocated for. She has been with Republican officials on that. I think it's very interesting that this is what Senator Hawley is calling attention to. Because there is, frankly, this weird QAnon obsession with imaginary pedophilia that is part of what the extreme right is doing these days. And that's who Hawley is appealing to. And I think that matters more than anything Judge Jackson has done in her career which is, frankly, very conventional.

ACOSTA: Yes. It does have a very QAnon feel to all of it.

And final question, Jeffrey. Senator Lindsey Graham was one of only three Republicans to support Judge Jackson's confirmation last year to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. This time around, he only met with her for about 15 minutes. Do you think that we'll see some Republican votes for Judge Jackson? Might Senator Graham --

TOOBIN: Three, maybe.

ACOSTA: Maybe.

TOOBIN: Maybe. Romney, maybe. Murkowski, maybe. Collins, maybe. Other than that -- you know, in the 1990s and in the 1980s, you had very ideological nominees, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, like Antonin Scalia, confirmed with more than 90 votes in the Senate. Supreme Court nominations have become partisan enterprises.

And what we have seen in the past 15 years is Republicans vote for Republican nominees and Democrats vote against, and vice versa. That -- you know, the Democrats have a narrow but they do have a majority.

So, it's extremely likely that -- as Senator McConnell himself said, it's highly likely Judge Jackson will be confirmed, but the days of overwhelming confirmations are behind us. And as young as we are, I don't think we'll ever see them again.

ACOSTA: I think you're right about that, Jeff. I'm not sure about the young part.

TOOBIN: Yes.

ACOSTA: But everything else.

TOOBIN: Everything else.

ACOSTA: I'll go along with that.

TOOBIN: All right.

ACOSTA: All right, Jeff Toobin, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Residents who escaped the Ukrainian city of Mariupol said the Russian siege has left people without access to drink water. With no end of the war in sight, this is a problem that CNN Hero Doc Hendley knows will likely get worse.

Since 2004, his nonprofit wine to water has worked all over the world to provide clean water to those in need. Now, he and his team are responding to the war in Ukraine with their largest filter system shipment ever. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOC HENDLEY, FOUNDER, WINE TO WATER: Bottled water, and sometimes even tap water, in these communities is a luxury that most people do not have access to right now. We're going to be sending about 12,000 water filters split up between three different drops inside western Ukraine, and then at the two different borders, Poland and Romania. That's enough to clean 2.4 million gallons of water every single day.

People are just scrounging trying to find something to drink. And they end up trying to take water from an unsafe source. It's going to give them diarrhea and dehydrate them even faster.

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HENDLEY: And if we've already gotten word that that's beginning to happen, my hope is we're going to be able to get as many people that are struggling to find clean water, access to clean water ASAP.

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ACOSTA: And to learn more about Wine to Water, and to nominate your own CNN Hero, head over to CNNheroes.com. And we'll be right back.

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ACOSTA: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is warning of World War III, if peace talks fail.