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Ukrainian Forces Battle Russians Near Kherson; Children Paying the Heavy Price of War; China Denies Providing Military Assistance to Russia; Ukrainian Forces Repair, Reuse Russian Military Hardware; Cyberwarfare in the Digital Fight with Russia; Hong Kong Announces Lifting of Some COVID Restrictions. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired March 20, 2022 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

BURNETT: Subway still has 446 locations operating in the country, though the company says they're operated by franchisees. Coke Industries is also continuing to do business in Russia. A spokesman saying leaving would do more harm than good.

Thanks for joining us. Our coverage continues.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN HOST: Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Paula Newton at CNN headquarters in Atlanta and we begin with breaking developments out of Ukraine where officials are rejecting Russia's demands to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol. That deadline was scheduled to end this hour, in fact.

Mariupol has been the scene of some of the worst attacks by Russian forces leaving behind widespread devastation like the one you see there, and of course, unfortunately, countless casualties. While so many civilians remain trapped amid the heavy bombardment, 7200 were evacuated from Mariupol Sunday. That was through four, just four humanitarian corridors, and from what we know, though, tens of thousands could be still in that city.

And as the fighting of course around that city rages, we're learning a senior Russian naval officer is among those killed. That's according to Ukraine, a total now of five Russian generals have also been killed since the invasion began. And in just the last few hours several explosions have rocked Kyiv. One, you see it there, was caught on CCTV video. We're told both residential and business areas have been hit, at least one person has been killed.

Ukraine's president spoke with CNN earlier today in a wide-ranging interview warning this war in Ukraine could lead to an even larger conflict. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): We're losing people on a daily basis, innocent people on the ground. Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us. And we can demonstrate the dignity of our people and our army that 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 a possibility of negotiating, a possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third world war.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: OK, meantime the White House now says U.S. president Joe Biden will travel to Warsaw, Poland on Friday after his meetings this week with NATO allies, G7 and E.U. leaders in Brussels. Now he's set to meet with the Polish president and will discuss the response to the humanitarian crisis created by Russia's war on Ukraine.

Now we've seen of course the carnage unleashed by Russia's unprovoked attack with no concern it seems given to innocent civilians sheltering from the violence. And now we're waiting to learn more about these latest strikes including one that hit an art school in Mariupol. An adviser to the city's mayor says officials are still trying to find out exactly how many people survived that bombing. Earlier we learned the building was acting as a shelter for about 400 people.

We also still don't know how many survived the attack on a theater in the city four days ago. You'll remember this theater. It was also being used as a shelter for as many as 1300 people. So far 130 have been reported to have survived. And we're just learning about an attack on a care home in eastern Ukraine. It happened nine days ago. The head of the Luhansk region says 56 elderly residents were killed when a Russian tank opened fire.

CNN has not been able to independently verify that claim.

Now some of the heaviest fighting in recent days has been around Kherson. It is a southern city occupied by Russian forces now. They're pushing out the attack to surrounding villages in the drive to try and seize Mykolaiv. And that is a crucial city in Russia's quest to control Ukraine's southern region and of course its important port cities.

Ukrainian forces have held the Russians back so far, but as Nick Paton Walsh reports, they haven't been able to limit the destruction of Russia's relentless missile strikes and of course the shelling. A warning, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): This is what the slow route of Russia in southern Ukraine looks like, Kyiv's forces are pushing close to Kherson, the first city the Kremlin took.

[23:05:06] (On-camera): Here so many people being evacuated day by day, and the eerie quiet in contrast to these impacts we see all around in the fields, just constant barrage over the past days.

(Voice-over): The bus is the last way out of here, going from door to what is left of every door. The village of Posad-Pokrovske has been Ukraine's last position for days, and so this is what Russia left of it.

The noise is the village gas main leaking furiously. Putin's war of annihilation was sure not to overlook this school, its front torn off by a missile. It is hard to imagine life returning here even when the shelling stops, which just now it does not.

We run-down for cover. The marines here are mobile, pushing forwards where they can. Kherson's nearby airport, their prize.

DANIYEL SALEM, FORMER LEBANESE SOLDIER: Now we have a little mission. To kill the (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

WALSH: Daniyel is a former Lebanese soldier working in TV, married to a Ukrainian.

SALEM: Two weeks ago this place had life and now nothing.

WALSH: The bus has filled with anyone left who wants to leave, anyone who can move themselves. We are asked to take those who cannot. And who remember the last time war came to Europe.

As we leave, shelling hits the village. It had become a deathbed riddled with cluster munition mines, this man said.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): Civilians, they killed all the civilians. These are bastards, reptiles, parasites. They don't fight troops. They fight people. Worse than the fascists. Yes, worse. Worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): I remember how the Germans attacked us. They didn't mess with us like this.

WALSH: Over days the road out of there has been fought over. Its pockmarked concrete lined with these tiny peaceful worlds ripped open. This woman was in Poland when Russians took her hometown Kherson, where her children are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text translation): I need to go home.

WALSH: Nikolai (PH) can't really hear the blast at his age but sent his wife to live with his daughter in the city. He has stayed to protect whatever they have left. Shelling hits the road out again. And we drive past the earth Putin's shells have happily scorched as his army slowly loses. Whatever ground here it gained, Ukraine's guns pushing them back.

But Moscow imposes a cost. These barracks torn in two reduced to rubble by missile strikes that killed dozens of Ukrainian soldiers some as they slept Friday morning in one of the worst known losses of the war. This trauma unit struggles with some of the 40 injured.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text translation): Girls, I need the anesthetist here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): Where are my people? Yaroslav?

WALSH: One soldier asking --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): Valka?

WALSH -- for his friends by name. Not all injuries involve blood. This soldier was in bed on the third floor when the blast hit, and he found himself on the second with both legs smashed losing consciousness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): We know the enemy. In the end, the world must see and hear this. I don't know. How many death will it take for everyone to see?

[23:10:02]

WALSH: That night the Kremlin's blunt force hits another target around Mykolaiv. Moscow may be losing ground here but does all it can to crush and stifle what it cannot have.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Posad-Pokrovske, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: For analysis I'm now joined by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis. He's a retired U.S. Army officer and senior fellow and military expert at the Defense Priorities think tank.

So difficult to really look at military strategy when we see the devastation there among civilians. I mean, let's deal first with this ultimatum apparently that the Russians gave to Ukraine. They rejected it. Mariupol they say will never surrender. From the point of a military strategy here, why the ultimatum? Why now?

LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS (RET.), SENIOR FELLOW AND MILITARY EXPERT, DEFENSE PRIORITIES: I mean, honestly, from what we can gather there's two separate issues. It makes sense from a humanitarian perspective and from a military perspective. If you can take the city with less combat power being expended then from the Russian perspective that's good, but they also don't want to just kill, you know, a bunch of civilians if they don't need to.

I know a lot of people say they do. I don't see any evidence. I think they're careless a lot with that, but I think that they have some just normal humanity and they don't want to if they don't have to. But I honestly think going back to the military perspective the best thing that the Ukrainian people can do at this point is the city is going to fall. The Russians have more power than Ukraine can bring to defend it.

Look, the city is going to fall. Better I think to limit any more civilian destruction, and they need to reposition their military into another place, which apparently the Russians have said they will allow the military to go out. They don't have to surrender. But just to keep fighting means that more civilians are going to die, and I think they should probably reconsider that.

NEWTON: You know, these have been tough calls to President Zelenskyy, and he's not reacted too well to these, although he does say that he does want to keep talking and wants peace talks to work. He told CNN earlier with our Fareed Zakaria in an interview that if those peace talks fail it could mean a third world war. Is he right?

DAVIS: No, he's not right. And the West leaders need to be just very firm on this. President Biden and all the leaders of the West in the NATO countries need to make certain that this does not escalate beyond the borders of Ukraine. As bad as this is, as much of the suffering that -- that whole segment you just had, just gut-wrenching to even listen to or even hear would be catastrophic if it expands beyond there.

You can say whether it's Polish countryside or into Slovakia or God forbid if it escalates into a nuclear exchange and then you have whole cities being torched. Nobody wins in that, and we must keep this contained within Ukraine no matter what.

NEWTON: Containment seems a bit callus, though, at this point. Given what we just saw, what we have been seeing in reports like Nick's, are NATO and its allies just going to sit back really and watch this siege warfare? It's essentially a terror campaign. It could engulf as you know more of Ukraine. And this is not -- I want to make clear this is not collateral damage. Those of us who covered Chechnya know what it is. This is the whole ball game. They are direct targets, the civilians.

DAVIS: It's complete warfare. It's absolutely full-scale warfare. You're dead right. There's no question about that. But what we have to be strong on is that as bad as these things are, if we escalate this, it's not likely that if we choose to use military power we can prevent that or we can stop it, almost certainly it would expand it, and then now that you'll have more communities, more countries suffering the same destruction, and it's only going to escalate beyond that.

So we have to keep it here so it doesn't go more. Nobody has helped, and these countries expressly are not at war. If they suddenly go to war because we try to do something militarily. The fact is the harsh truth is this is a full war, and we have to keep it from going more or more people are going to suffer.

NEWTON: You know, a lot of what you're saying may make sense in terms of strategy. And it is harsh to hear especially if so many have elevated of course, not just President Zelenskyy --

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: It's harsh to say, I know.

NEWTON: Yes. Believe me, I hear you. But so many of us are thinking of it as we see those civilians. And as much as everyone admires the bravery, we're wondering how much further can this go. You know, in our CNN interview President Zelenskyy directly was asked, you know, had you agreed to neutrality sooner maybe there would not have been a war. He responded saying, no, there's no way.

At this point, do you think that if he reviews kind of what led up to this war that there are lessons there that can be taken so that more civilian lives are saved?

DAVIS: Yes, I watched that whole interview, and of course, I mean, my heart goes out to Zelenskyy.

[23:15:01]

He has got the most difficult job of anybody on the planet right now, but unfortunately I don't agree with him on that because Russia had been emphatic about saying neutrality and no NATO in Ukraine for more than a decade and a half. And even in the last few months before this begin, they said the same thing. On February 13th just less than 10 days before the war, the U.K. ambassador -- I'm sorry, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.K. floated the idea that maybe we would just say there's no NATO.

Immediately Lavrov jumped on that and said, yes, if we could talk that, that could probably prevent war. And then of course Zelenskyy came back 24 hours later and said that's not what he's going to do, and that is now nearly the same deal that they're being offered now. So I think that there's a good reason to say they could have stopped the war at that point from even happening. But not did, and so it doesn't matter.

What we need to do now is put so much effort I think as a global community on negotiations to get the fighting stopped, then we can negotiate the details. But first we have to get the killing stopped.

NEWTON: Yes, and even at this hour a cease-fire just seems so far away unfortunately for the entire country.

DAVIS: It does.

NEWTON: Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis, we really appreciate your insights. Thanks so much.

DAVIS: Thank you.

NEWTON: Now in one positive development about half of the staff that's been working at the Chernobyl nuclear plant basically since the war began has been able finally to rotate out and return home. Now the International Atomic Energy Agency says those employees have been working nonstop at the radioactive waste facilities for more than three weeks when Russian forces seized the site.

Those workers have now been relieved by Ukrainian staffers. The IAEA is hopeful that the rest of the staff can rotate out soon.

OK, still to come for us, meet some of the youngest victims of Russia's war in Ukraine. They are orphaned babies and toddlers that survived Russian bombardment but are still in danger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:20:38]

NEWTON: Now with Russia's indiscriminate bombing campaign only growing more and more, innocent children are suffering the consequences. And among the most vulnerable dozens of orphaned babies and toddlers who have already survived Russian bombardment but remain in extreme danger.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are too tiny to understand the meaning of war, but these orphans are already victim to its cruelty. They are among the 71 children that were rescued from the hard-hit northern city of Sumy. Many are disabled, all under the age of 4. Some requiring constant medical attention.

These are the kids from a Sumy orphanage, the doctor in the video says. They were evacuated yesterday and miraculously they brought them here to Kyiv. Their journey was very difficult, he says.

For two weeks, caretakers sheltered the babies and toddlers from Russian bombardment in a basement, and when a humanitarian corridor finally opened, they made the dangerous journey here to the capital. Each little one arrived with an orange tag with minimal details. Name, birth date and their most urgent medical needs.

We were able to track down four of the children now at Kyiv's City Heart Center. Over a shaky video connection, the staff told us of their harrowing journey. All the children were packed across just four ambulances with only two doctors among them.

OKSANA, NURSE, KYIV CITY HEART CENTER: Just four baby in the car journey from Sumy to Kyiv during six hours. Without a doctor, just a driver. Just a driver.

ABDELAZIZ: Now the babies are receiving the medical attention they require, but with Russian forces shelling Kyiv, they are still not safe. Nurse Oksana has a simple plea.

OKSANA: Children, don't die.

ABDELAZIZ (on-camera): You don't want children to die?

OKSANA: Yes, yes.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): But in an unprovoked war where the most innocent are targeted, there are few guarantees.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, Lviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NEWTON: So Ukraine's neighbors, too, are doing their best to help the flood of refugees crossing their borders. In Romania emergency workers are welcoming them with hot meals and toys for the kids. Most Ukrainians are fleeing to Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia. The U.N. says about 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes, and of course that includes more than 3.3 million who have had to flee Ukraine all together.

Now Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Israeli Knesset Sunday by video link. He mentioned the protection provided by the country's air defense system, Iron Dome, while pleading for help against Russia's invasion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): Israel knows well that the Iron Dome, your missile defense system, is the best. We know that you know how to protect your interests and that you can definitely help our people. Save the lives of Ukrainians, of Ukrainian Jews.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Zelenskyy also said the people of Israel and Ukraine shared an intertwined history in his words but added that it is time for Israel to make its choice.

China's ambassador to the U.S. meantime is rejecting rumors Beijing may be providing military assistance to Russia but says Beijing is conducting business as usual with Moscow. He told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the countries are still cooperating on economic, trade, financial and energy matters despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and claims China is only sending humanitarian aid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QIN GANG, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: There's a disinformation about China providing military assistance to Russia. We reject that, and what China --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You won't do --

QIN: What China is doing is send food, medicine, sleeping bags and baby formula, not weapons and ammunitions to any party. And we are against the war, as I said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:25:11]

NEWTON: OK, for more now we want to bring in CNN's Beijing bureau chief, Steven Jiang.

It's good to have you weigh in on this right now. We've heard the ambassador's remarks. He's been quite active actually speaking all week. Does it really signal any kind of change in China's policy towards this war? And I will also say that he went on to make the point that, look, our neutrality is of benefit to the world because it means we could perhaps help with a brokered cease-fire or peace agreement.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Paula, that's a very interesting question because in the past few days we have started noticing some subtle changes in official's rhetoric about this war even though they still refuse to call this a Russian invasion. But they have started mentioning Ukraine's security concern as part of their consideration and their position and stance.

And as you have just heard the ambassador they have also started highlighting China's humanitarian assistance to Ukraine even though it's still very small in scale, and state media's coverage of this war, even though still largely pro-Russia, has also started to include some of the information from the Ukrainian side and even censors have started allowing some more neutral voices to seep through their great firewall.

So all of this of course could be the Beijing leadership being pragmatic, given how the war has been going but also could be they're still trying to maintain some sort of moral high ground with their foreign minister saying over the weekend that how time will eventually prove China's position to be on the right side of history. However, their officials including President Xi Jinping still very much pointing to NATO's eastward expansion as the root cause of this conflict.

So that of course is not only a crumbling talking point but also really a major strategic concern of China. That's really what's been bonding Putin and Xi Jinping in the past few years, that is these U.S. led alliances encircling their respective countries. That's why a lot of analysts say what China wants to see out of this war of course is a weakened U.S. and its alliances, as well as a new international order more favorable to authoritarian governments.

That's why at the end of the day Putin losing power would be their ultimate nightmare. So at this stage very few people to see China really pull back from its close ties with Russia despite repeated warnings from the U.S. -- Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, and as we wait for more definitive signs if China is serious about trying to help at least get a cease-fire here.

Steven Jiang for us in Beijing. Appreciate it.

Now coming up, one of the reasons Ukrainians are still in this fight is their ability to capture and repurpose Russian military equipment. We go behind the scenes. You'll want to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:31:27]

NEWTON: Welcome back. I'm Paula Newton. A closer look at our top story this hour. Ukrainian leaders are refusing Russia's demands to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol. Moscow's deadline passed about an hour and a half ago now. And bombardments in Mariupol have made it difficult, of course, to get civilians out of that besieged city or get any aid in.

Now Ukraine does say that about 7,000 people were able to escape on Sunday. But of course more remain trapped, and civilian shellers are still coming under attack, and that is including an art school and a theater where people were sheltering. Meantime fierce fighting is also raging around Ukraine's capital Kyiv. On Sunday several explosions were reported near the city center. Kyiv's mayor says at least one person was killed.

Officials say a shopping center also caught fire with flames reaching as high as the third and fourth floors. Amid the devastation and violence Ukraine's president remains steadfast saying his country will keep fighting. He tells CNN's Fareed Zakaria the support Ukraine has received from around the world gives him hope for the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): The people throughout the planet have shared values. It's not simply about give us help or save ourselves or about the fact that we have to be united. We are fighting for our freedom, for our lives. Unfortunately, we have to fight for our lives at the expense of another lives. We have to earn the life for the entire civilization, and in order to make this happen we are giving up our own lives. This is not right so we have to unite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now over the last few weeks we've shown you, of course, all those abandoned Russian vehicles in Ukraine, and some of them, in fact, get repaired and repurposed to fight the invaders. Ukrainian forces have been able to use captured Russian equipment against their former owners.

Here's Fred Pleitgen with that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Another setback for Vladimir Putin's army. Ukrainian forces say they destroyed this column of Russian vehicles, but believe it or, not some might be used by the Ukrainian army soon.

This unit of Ukraine's Territorial Defense fixes up captured Russian military hardware. Mechanics working day in and day out often using scrap parts to get armored vehicles back on the battlefield.

(On camera): Look at all the stuff that they have here. They have old metal, cables. The guys here tell us that they use everything that they can to make these vehicles fit again and beat Vladimir Putin with his own weapons.

(Voice-over): When we visited, the group was fixing up several armored personnel carriers and a fuel truck. They also showed us this video of rockets they claimed they captured and which they also say had already been fired back at the Russians.

While some of the vehicles are captured during battle and the Russian crews killed or captured, often Russian soldiers simply abandon their gear and run away. Yuri Golodof (PH), the deputy commander of this unit, tells me.

The Russian soldiers are frightened and demoralized, he says. They are afraid to be separated from each other because they are being shot at from every bush. We call it Safari, civilian hunters are now hunting for those Russians who fled through the forests.

The Territorial Defense Unit also trains new fighters to help defend Ukraine's capital.

[23:35:12]

And they show us some of the arms they have received from the U.S. and allied nations like this German-made Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapon.

Is it effective, I ask the deputy commander. Very effective to shoot tanks, he says.

Ukraine's forces continue to hold off Russian advances in Kyiv and elsewhere, but their own losses are significant as well. Both military personnel and civilians getting killed by Russian fire. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an exclusive interview.

ZELENSKYY (through translator): 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 able to deal a powerful blow. We are able to strike back.

PLEITGEN: They strike back with any weapons they can get their hands on, whether those come from allies abroad or from their enemy. These fighters say anything that drives and shoots will be put to use against Vladimir Putin's invading force.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: So to another dimension of this war now. Just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine you might remember a series of cyberattacks hit the country. The Web sites of Ukrainian agencies and big banks went offline in what officials said was the largest cyberattack in the country's history. Now the White House blamed Russia, the Kremlin denied involvement. But U.S. officials warned that a wave of debilitating cyberattacks could accompany Russia's war. So far it just hasn't happened.

We're going to take another look here. Last week Russia's military warned that it is facing in fact an unprecedented volume of attacks from foreign hackers. Intelligence officials are contemplating this as we all wait for that next phase of war. If it happens. Eric Noonan is a former U.S. Marine and CIA agent. He's now a cyber security expert and the CEO of CyberSheath, and he joins us now from Western Virginia.

And really important to get you to weigh in on what's happening now or not happening. We all know that a cyber escalation could definitely materialize at any moment. I mean, look, it is heartening to see that that hasn't happened yet, because I think some people don't really realize how dangerous that could also be. Could you give us a state of play right now in terms of that cyber effort and why you believe it hasn't escalated thus far.

ERIC NOONAN, CEO, CYBERSHEATH: Well, Paula, you know the international effort to defend against these cyberattacks has been very well coordinated in advances. There's been a tremendous amount of intelligence sharing for every country potentially involved and it goes beyond Ukraine here in the United States. Certainly we're susceptible given the sanctions that we've taken against the Russian government. And so it's really been a global effort.

And a global in many ways public-private partnership between private industry and governments across the world sharing intelligence and then improving defenses. So that's certainly one reason is there's the possibility that we've actually just been better globally actually at defense. And then the other potential reason that we haven't seen the impacts that we expected is that Russia just hasn't deployed those attacks yet.

We don't know if that's the case. We can't be certain of that yet. There's theories that potentially they didn't want to damage an infrastructure that they thought they could quickly take over and leverage. So there's many reasons potentially, but I think one of the ones that we can maybe take a little bit of a silver lining in this conflict is the fact that our defenses are well coordinated and there's a tremendous amount of intelligence sharing going on.

NEWTON: And so we've also been hearing reports that, in fact, Ukraine that had been on the defensive with these kind of cyber warfare tactics has now actually been using some of those tactics themselves. Is Russia now more defensive here in terms of what Ukraine's been able to do?

NOONAN: Well, there's been a lot of reports now. It's tough to verify those reports as some of them come from the Russian government. So it's very difficult to know whether they're accurate or not, but there's certainly many, many aspects of volunteerism that we've never seen before. So this new dimension, Paula, as you mentioned of cyber being an active part of warfare, one of the things we're seeing is the volunteerism of not just nation states and countries like Ukraine being involved and actively potentially attacking their adversaries but volunteers across the globe potentially attacking countries like Russia.

Now, in parallel to that we've seen the two major ISPs, internet service providers in Russia actually effectively make the decision to isolate much of the country.

[23:40:11] So we can't be sure whether or not these attacks are actually happening because a lot of that infrastructure that we can use to leverage the attacks has actually gone dark.

NEWTON: Interesting. You get to these volunteers. I'll call it freelancing. There has been some of that out there. Can it make any kind of decisive difference in this conflict?

NOONAN: I think it can make a tremendous difference, and I think there will be many, many lessons learned for many years, you know, as we move away from this conflict eventually. And one of them will be the impact of these volunteers. And so it's one thing to defend against a nation state who whether or not has spoken, you know, publicly, each knows the boundaries and how far they may push the limit before they do something that is an escalation.

When it comes to volunteers, they may not know those boundaries. They certainly may not respect those boundaries until one of the great risks of this kind of volunteerism is the risk for an escalatory action that is perceived to be from an adversary, which is actually the action of volunteer. So it's a big risk, actually. Some of the benefits kind of being able to martial this great force, you know, those are the benefits but there's a lot of risks that comes with that as well.

NEWTON: Yes, you know, I don't have a lot of time here but I do want to ask you, I know that President Biden actually had the heads of major banks before this invasion -- this war started to make sure that other -- that they were protected. That's just one example.

Quickly, Eric, do you think that this is in hand, or do you think we should all be prepared for this to escalate and escalate beyond the borders of Russia and Ukraine?

NOONAN: Well, I don't think it's in hand because I think it could escalate at any given time. But I think the United States and their partners around the world have done a great job of sharing information and trying to improve defenses globally so that if it does escalate we will be prepared to defend ourselves appropriately.

NEWTON: OK. I'll have to leave it there. Eric Noonan, always fascinating to get to this aspect of modern warfare. I want to thank you for your insights. Appreciate it.

Now still to come for us, could Hong Kong ease its COVID restrictions amid an outbreak of thousands of new cases each and every day? We are live in the city with the latest on that zero COVID policy and what leaders may be thinking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:46:11]

NEWTON: So just into CNN, Hong Kong's leadership is announcing the lifting of some COVID-19 measures, and significantly it includes ending flight bans for the U.S., U.K. and several other countries. Now, Hong Kong has seen nearly 6,000 COVID related deaths. Most of those in the past few weeks. That's according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Now Hong Kong enacted a zero COVID policy similar to mainland China in an effort to try and slow the spread, and that's resulted in business closures and restrictions on movement.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us now from Hong Kong with the latest.

And Kristie, this is significant news, right.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very significant. We've been monitoring the press conference which I believe is still underway in the last half hour or so. Hong Kong's top leader Carrie Lam has announced new changes to the city's tough zero COVID policy, a policy that has isolated this once thriving international business logistics and aviation hub. In the last half hour she announced a number of changes including this, the flight bans on nine countries including the U.S. and the U.K. will be lifted starting April 1st.

She also announced that a mandatory 14-day quarantine for most incoming travelers could be lessened or lowered to at least seven days depending on the country of origin and the vaccination of the traveler. That should kick in starting next month. But a host of tough social distancing zero COVID measures may remain in place and they won't be revisited or relaxed until after April 21st.

Among them you have the ban on social distancing, the ban on social gatherings of more than two people. Schools remain closed, a number of businesses like gyms, cinemas, bars remain closed. There's an estimate that 50,000 small businesses in Hong Kong will be shuttered because of the fifth wave of infection because of the zero COVID policy that's in place here. That is the reason why we have seen this mass exodus of tens of thousands of people leaving the city in recent weeks.

It prompted Carrie Lam last week to concede that there was an issue, that public tolerance had reached a limit. We have the statement for you. And she name checked the financial sector in particular as being the catalyst for this change. She said this last week, "I have a very strong feeling that people's tolerance is fading, I have a very good feel that some of our financial institutions are losing patience about this sort of isolated status of Hong Kong, as Hong Kong Is an international financial center."

Now on Sunday, Hong Kong reported just over 14,000 new cases of COVID- 19, the lowest number in nearly a month but the number of deaths caused by the virus continues to rise. Recently Hong Kong has set a world record in terms of the rate of COVID-19 deaths. Hospitals remain overwhelmed. Morgues have reached capacity. There's a shortage of coffins here in Hong Kong. And I want to show you this image. A series of very disturbing images that had been circulating across Hong Kong and causing much distress to residents here.

People are horrified by what they're seeing on your screen right now, showing body bags piling up in COVID-19 wards next to elderly patients. The Hong Kong Hospital Authority was forced to address the situation, said that the situation, quote, has been rectified. Many of the COVID deaths in Hong Kong are due to the elderly not getting vaccinated before Omicron hit. And even though we do get this welcome news of these new measures being relaxed, the damage has been done. Images that you've seen here, the high death rate has caused trauma and sadness to this once great city.

Back to you.

NEWTON: Absolutely, Kristie, and so chilling. I know people have been afraid to go to hospital because of those kind of images that you just brought to us.

Kristie, I really appreciate the update. Thanks so much.

Ahead for us, top dancers from around the world unite for a special performance in London. A look inside the gala and the money raised to help Ukraine.

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IVAN PUTROV, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, "DANCE FOR UKRAINE": It's so inspiring to see all the artists and musicians that have joined us. We have dancers from Brazil, from U.K., from France, from Ukraine and from Russia. I feel it's important to stress that Russian doesn't equal aggression. Russian doesn't mean support for genocide in Ukraine.

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NEWTON: OK. That was the Ukrainian-born creative director for Saturday's "Dance for Ukraine" charity gala in London. International ballet stars came together for the performance to send a message of peace. Some audience members were draped in the Ukrainian flag, and the stage was lit in shades of yellow and blue. Organizers say tickets sold out in less than two days, and the show raised more than $184,000.

Now a Ukrainian woman who was injured while protecting her 1-month-old baby during a Russian attack is speaking out about the horrifying experience. Olga used her body as a shield to protect her daughter from flying debris as their home came under fire in Kyiv.

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Thankfully, her child was unharmed. Her husband, who you see there in the photo as well, was injured during the attack. I want you to listen now as Olga describes those terrifying moments.

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OLGA, WOUNDED WHILE SAVING HER BABY (through translator): I was wounded in the head and blood started flowing. And it all flowed on the baby and I couldn't understand. I thought it was her blood. Dmitro was taking the baby away. I'm screaming that she is covered all in glass, all in blood. He tells me, Olga, it's your blood, it's not hers.

And in the morning I woke up to feed the baby again. I gave her a bath, and I just sat down to feed her, and I like to sit down with knees up like this, and I cover her with the blanket so she's warm, too, and that's what kept the baby alive. I just got her covered in time and then Dmitro jumped up and covered us, too.

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NEWTON: What a terrifying experience. Olga and her husband are thankfully now recovering from their injuries.

And if you would like to help the people of Ukraine, please go to CNN.com/impact. There you'll find several ways that you can help and so many of you have already helped going to that Web page.

I'm Paula Newton. Stay with us. Our breaking news coverage continues live from Lviv, Ukraine with Hala Gorani. That will be right after the break.

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