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New Images Show Damage to Mariupol Theater after Bombing; Former Ukrainian President Urges Sanctions on Putin's "Propagandists"; Ukraine Says Fifth Russian General Killed; Ukrainians Fearful of Russian Operatives among Them; Ukraine Fighting Creating Humanitarian Crisis in Europe; Over 2 Million Refugees Flee to Poland; U.K. Prime Minister Says Putin in "Total Panic" over Democracy; Protesters in Los Angeles Denounce Russian Invasion; Arnold Schwarzenegger Joins Push to Pierce Putin's Digital Iron Curtain; U.S. Trucking Hit Hard by Rising Diesel Prices; Ukrainian Hockey Refugees Stick Together. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired March 20, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everybody. I am Hala Gorani reporting to you live from Lviv in Ukraine.
New developments this hour. It is just past 6:00 am Ukraine time. We are learning that 71 children from an orphanage in northeastern Ukraine have been evacuated to safety after spending two full weeks in a basement, sheltering from Russian shelling.
Meantime, also new this hour, Ukrainian officials say another Russian general has been killed amid fierce fighting in southern Ukraine. The military says five Russian generals have been killed so far since the invasion started. However, CNN cannot independently verify those claims.
On Saturday, officials in the U.S. confirmed that Russia has launched hypersonic missiles against Ukraine. Russia says they were used to target an ammunitions warehouse on Friday. This is the first time we know of that hypersonic missiles have been used in combat.
And yet a new report from British intelligence says Russian forces still have not managed to gain air superiority over Ukraine.
And meanwhile, officials in the southern port city of Mariupol say Russian troops are taking residents to Russia against their will. The city council says thousands have illegally been taken to camps and some moved to remote cities in Russia.
It comes as Mariupol now faces almost constant bombardment. You are seeing images from that port city now. Also, I want to show you new satellite images that reveal the
devastation after the city's theater was bombed on Wednesday. Officials believe hundreds of people were taking shelter inside that building when it was hit, with the Russian word for "children" clearly written to the side of that building, either side of it.
Despite Russia's relentless attacks, Ukraine's president says his people will continue to fight for their country.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukrainians have proven that they can fight more professionally than an army that has been waging wars for decades in various regions and conditions. We respond with wisdom and courage to the great number of their equipment and soldiers sent to Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, CNN's Sam Kiley is on the ground in Kyiv, where intense fighting continues around the capital city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sirens have continued to go off here in the capital of Kyiv, as the ministry of defense on the Ukrainian armed forces continuing to claim that they are pushing the Russians back.
They've been fighting them hard in the north of the city, to the southwest, west and indeed to the east. They've inflicted casualties, some of which have been caught on video.
These are Russian soldiers who have been killed fighting here. And according to the Ukrainians, the Russians are running out of logistical support, out of weapons and they have been pushed back at least 70 kilometers in the east.
Now we have got no independent verification of that. But clearly there has been slight shift in tactics by the Russians here, using long- range missiles to attack the capital rather than artillery, which would indicate that their artillery has now been either destroyed or pushed further away.
But miserable scenes have also been witnessed on the other side, if you like, down in the south of the country in Mykolaiv, where there is now images coming of mass casualties among Ukrainian forces, after their barracks were hit in air attacks on Friday.
Scenes in the hospital, very bloody scenes indeed. And no great surprise that there are people bloodied and damaged and mortally wounded in the hospital, because there were more than 200 soldiers in this location.
In a city that has fought very determined defense, indeed, against the attempts by the Russians to capture that port city and push on to Odessa. It'd been a critical fight there and one that, so far, the Ukrainians have managing to sustain quite well.
In -- further east, though, in Mariupol, a continued bombardment there. And now, we are getting reports of people forced, in the words of the local administration, into the hands of Russians and suffering some kind of screening process, even allegations they are being shipped off to remote parts of Russia.
We don't have independent information on that. But that would be consistent with attempts by the Russians in the past to force refugees out into their territory, rather than into the hands of the Ukrainian government -- Sam Kiley, CNN, in Kyiv.
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GORANI: Well, thanks to Sam for that. He is in the capital.
A former Ukrainian president is calling for sanctions on the Russians who do President Putin's PR bidding. Speaking on Saturday, on CNN Saturday, Petro Poroshenko argued for sanctions against what he called propagandists, who promote the invasion.
He also asked for more weapons, telling the telling the West, Ukrainians are fighting your fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Here in the last two week, Russian troops around Kyiv do not move one single meter because we have Ukrainian armed forces, which demonstrate and maybe they surprise not only Putin but they surprise the world.
We here fighting for the European security, freedom and democracy and for the global security. And for you, also, for the United States, because my request is please help us to save the world. Help us to save Europe. Help us to save you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, Poroshenko also urged U.S. President Joe Biden to visit Ukraine during his trip to the NATO summit in Brussels next week.
Now as we mentioned, U.S. officials are confirming to CNN that Russia has used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine. As CNN's Kylie Atwood reports, it most likely was intended, in part, to send a message to Western countries.
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KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Russia used hypersonic missiles against Ukraine last week, according to U.S. officials. And this is the first known instance of these types of missiles being used in combat.
And it's significant, of course, because hypersonic missiles travel at five times the speed of sound or faster. That obviously makes defense incredibly challenging to stand up.
Now according to U.S. officials, the United States was able to track these occurring in real time and the U.S. officials said that they believe that Russia was doing this to demonstrate their capabilities, their military capabilities.
But of course, concerning to introduce these new types of missiles to this war that is ongoing in Ukraine with all the death and destruction that have already occurred.
Now the Russian ministry of defense said that these missiles destroyed structures in Western Ukraine. And we should note that the United States has it as a top priority to develop their own hypersonic missiles, because both China and Russia are developing their own.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Kylie Atwood there.
CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton joins me now from Washington, D.C., with more analysis.
These hypersonic missiles, why do you think Russia is using them now?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Hala, I think the report that Kylie just gave us is on the mark. I think they are trying to send a message.
The Russians, you know, not only wanted us to know about them when they first unveiled them a year or so ago but they also wanted to prove that they could use them in combat.
And this is very important because they wanted also to see how we would respond in terms of our radars and our intelligence collection capabilities and to see whether or not we could divine that they had used them.
So this is one of those critical junctures in development of weapons, where something new has come to the battlefield. And we have to see now how effective it actually was.
GORANI: And how effective was it?
Can we assess that?
LEIGHTON: Well, we can tell, based on, you know, whether or not it hit the intended target. And it appears to have done so. So not only is it a fast munition, hypersonic ammunition, but it is also apparently an accurate munition.
And that is worrisome because what it means is that, you know, if we don't have the right defenses against something like this, we could be quite vulnerable.
Now the fact that we were able to track this weapon as it was being deployed and as it was in flight to the target shows that, you know, we can at least detect it. Now we have to figure out if there are mechanisms to shoot it down or to at least make it where it's safe in that case. So that's I think the big issue here.
GORANI: Sam Kiley was reporting that the Russians seem to be using more often longer-range missiles in the last 24 or 48 hours than artillery, which suggests that they are either taking losses in terms of their artillery or ground troops or just want to stop the type of troop losses that we've been reporting in the thousands.
What do you make of what they are doing?
And the potential effectiveness of switching to that type of weaponry at this juncture?
LEIGHTON: So this is interesting because artillery is generally a shorter-range weapon than long-range missiles are.
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LEIGHTON: And it shows that, you know, perhaps the Russians are not as close in to Kyiv as they once were. That could be good for the Ukrainians.
But the fact that they are using longer-range weapons, that means that they are setting the stage and have really begun the process of shelling the city for a long period of time. What they want to do is, in essence, take everything out, make it uninhabitable and then come in and take over the ruins.
So that's what their strategy is. It's a gruesome strategy but that is something that they have practiced for a long time, if you look at what happened in Grozny and even before that. These are the kinds of things that they do in their -- in their doctrine. So it means that they are preparing for a long effort to go in and take these cities.
GORANI: Well, what's the point ultimately?
I mean, they thought it would be quick. They thought that they could install a puppet government quickly. It didn't happen.
But what is the point of eventually, you know, bombing and striking a population into reluctant submission and then trying to occupy a city of 3 million, where really pretty much no one wants you there?
How is that, in any way, a quote-unquote "victory" for the Russian side?
LEIGHTON: Well, I think it would be a pyrrhic victory for them, Hala. I think it would be -- it's a very bad move on their part for a variety of reasons. But from a strictly military perspective, it is a -- you know, a very counterproductive strategy because it damages the entire infrastructure of the target.
And the country that you occupy should be one that you want to make work for you, once the combat operations have finished. That is not going to happen in this case, no matter how much territory they even temporarily occupy. They will never be able to completely subjugate Ukraine.
And that is something that I think they are making a very big mistake in.
GORANI: We are hearing the Western part of the country, where there was an air raid siren that went off around 5:30 in the morning. We hear one pretty much every night and we know that the Russians targeted a -- an aircraft repair facility a few days ago.
They really have to block or at least try to block these supplies coming from the West and supplying troops in the east and in the south and in and around Kyiv.
And do they have the -- I guess, do they have the resources to continue a fight on that level in a country this size over the longer term, since you were talking about the fact that striking with missiles meant they were probably hunkering down for the long term?
LEIGHTON: They really don't, Hala.
You know, when you look at the number of soldiers that they have in place, you know, around 190,000 or so, probably augmented, you know, with few reinforcements in the next few weeks, I would say that they don't have the capacity to permanently occupy anything in Ukraine, except for a few enclaves that they have already taken.
And many of those, they already took in 2014. So this is, you know, I think for them, a very dangerous strategy, because it is not allowing them to not only take this territory and keep it permanently but it's also creating a problem where they are going to have very great difficulty holding it.
And in terms of interdicting the supply lines, they are going to try to do that. That's going to be one thing that they can try to do, to keep the Ukrainians from fighting to the end. And that is something that I think will not be successful, unless they do something completely different and completely unforeseen.
GORANI: All right. Thank you so much, Cedric Leighton, for joining us.
Well, with the war now in its fourth week, Ukrainians are fearful of potential Russian saboteurs on their soil and even asking people to show their papers on the street to make sure that it's not a Russian person, trying to create havoc in any way.
But in a country where many people actually speak Russian, it's not always obvious to tell if they are friend or if they are foe. Scott McLean has that story.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days after the invasion began, this Lviv office was set up to help Ukrainians fleeing war. But not everyone who comes here is welcome. Shortly after we arrived, the man we're filming draws suspicion from staff. They tell us he has links to Russia. Police are called, documents are checked, questions are asked, more than an hour passes and then tells us his only link to Russia was a five-year-old passport stamp.
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MCLEAN (voice-over): They let him go.
MCLEAN: Even here in Lviv, a city that is far remote from the front lines we've had the police called on us twice, we've been asked to show our documents more times than I can count.
And some people even say that random ordinary citizens are asking total strangers to produce identification. But if somebody asked you for your identification or your passport, you wouldn't think it was weird.
ANATOLII HRYHORIV, LVIV RESIDENT: I wouldn't think -- for now I wouldn't think.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Anatolii Hryhoriv says two weeks ago he was walking home after sheltering in this bunker during an air raid alert.
MCLEAN: And you saw two guys that look suspicious.
HRYHORIV: Yes. And they were going to the bushes.
MCLEAN: And they're walking through the bushes.
HRYHORIV: We physically grabbed them here and didn't let them cold. We would probably let them go but if they could show us some documents or something like that but they didn't.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state. We have information that enemy sabotage groups have entered Kyiv.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Ever since the president's warning, CNN found that, in Mykolaiv, any men out after curfew get special attention from police. And in Kyiv, even those fleeing through humanitarian corridors don't escape scrutiny.
OLEKSANDR KAMYSHIN, CEO, UKRAINIAN RAILWAYS: Because we are afraid that Russians may have sent some of their own.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Ukraine's rail chief says security has been beefed up to guard against saboteurs planting special targets to guide Russian missiles. Staff detained this man near Kharkiv.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Constantly gauge them and send them to police.
MCLEAN: How do you know for sure?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russian documents (INAUDIBLE) -- MCLEAN (voice-over): A few days into the war, Volodymyr Lytvyn's wife
says she spotted suspicious vehicles without headlights outside their home near the airport. By the time he went to investigate, police were already there pointing guns in his direction.
VOLODYMYR LYTVYN, LVIV RESIDENT (through translator): And it was an unpleasant experience for me. But I'm happy that there are such security measures. If you're an honest person and have no bad intentions, there's nothing to worry about.
MCLEAN: Was the word "saboteur" in your vocabulary before the war started?
LYTVYN: (Speaking foreign language).
MCLEAN (voice-over): But finding links to Russia is complicated in a country filled with Russian speakers.
ROKSOLANA YAVORSKA, UKRAINIAN SECURITY SERVICE SPOKESPERSON (through translator): It is simply impossible to consider every Russian- speaking person is saboteur. A saboteur may have a characteristic Russian accent, not just be a Russian speaker.
MCLEAN (voice-over): The Ukrainian security service in Lviv says only soldiers and law enforcement can demand a person's documents. But in wartime --
YAVORSKA (through translator): To detain or not to detain a suspect with your own hands is the decision of each person.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Despite all the hype, she says not a single person in Lviv has been charged yet with sabotage -- Scott McLean, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: It is tense. It is tense everywhere in this country.
Ahead on CNN, acts of kindness for refugees fleeing the fighting in Ukraine. How volunteers in Poland are helping those escape the horrors of war.
And we will also take you to Romania's Transylvania region, where Ukrainian refugees are finding open doors and open arms.
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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GORANI: Well, according to the U.N., nearly 850 civilians have been killed and about 1,400 more injured in Russia's war on Ukraine so far. But experts say those numbers will likely climb higher.
Since the beginning of the invasion, more than 3 million refugees have fled the country. That is more than the total population of Chicago, to give you a sense of perspective. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says Europe has not seen a refugee crisis that's escalated this quickly since the Second World War.
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FILIPPO GRANDI, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: I have worked in refugee emergencies for almost 40 years. And rarely have I seen an exodus as rapid as this one. Hour by hour, minute by minute, more people are fleeing the terrifying reality of violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, the U.N. estimates that 90 percent of the Ukrainian population could face poverty and economic vulnerability if the war carries on for longer. That could set the country and the region back decades, leaving some deep social and economic scars for many generations to come.
CNN's Melissa Bell reports now from Poland, where at least 2 million people have sought refuge.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than three weeks into this war and still train stations like this one at the Polish-Ukrainian border continue to see a steady trickle of mainly women and children making their way across the border. And the stories that you hear in train stations like this one are quite extraordinary.
First of all, just to show you a little bit, even late at night, what is going on, (INAUDIBLE) volunteers that have come from places like this, they will give toys to the children that arrive, try and organize the temporary accommodation of the refugees, who will often be taken to a school gymnasium or somewhere, where beds have been set up, at least for a night or two, until they can find something more permanent.
But the strain on a town like this one of some 60,000 people and all these refugees that have been coming through now for more than three weeks, again, mainly women and children.
Down that hallway, all the people who don't get priority for some of the beds that have been set up inside this train station, the strain on a community like this one, quite extraordinary.
And what we have seen over and over again are extraordinary acts of kindness, generosity, volunteers that have gone out of their way, either to work in places like this train station or further afield, to accommodate refugees in their homes.
And perhaps, you can see, once they leave the train station, it is toward those buses that they head, that will take them to often that temporary accommodation. And it is amidst the scale I think really easy to forget the individual tragedies, the scale of what people have been through.
We have been hearing stories of people fleeing. One woman, who told us earlier on of leaving the town of Sumy, one of those areas that have been particularly hard-hit. She was traveling with her cats, her mother.
The grandmother had been left behind and it was as much the fear for what was still going on back home as it was the uncertainty of what lay ahead.
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BELL: Melissa Bell, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, countries dealing with the massive flow of refugees are having to figure out what to do with them once they arrive. Romania has already taken in nearly half a million displaced Ukrainians and more are coming every day. CNN's Miguel Marquez is in one Romanian city that is having to really scale up its services.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Who are all these people?
"Friends, fellow citizens and colleagues," she says, "family, too," all from Donbas In Eastern Ukraine; refugees after the war there in 2014, refugees again.
"Some people cross the border on foot," she says. "Two borders."
Not everyone is lucky as 86-year-old Antonina Mykaelova (ph), who had arrived. She survived World War II. Now she is in an apartment in central Romania with her daughter and lots of friends and her cat, named Musha (ph).
"My childhood was spent during the war," she says. "Now in my old age, there is war again.
"And for what?
"In the name of all people, God, please stop the war."
The medieval city of Brasov, not far from Dracula's castle, is preparing 1,000 beds for Ukrainian refugees. Those beds in a hotel, in its historic center, a business development center and a brand new apartment building in the new part of town.
MAYOR ALLEN COLIBAN, BRASOV, ROMANIA: The main challenge is how to scale it up because this is only the first wave of refugees.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Olga Keeper from Odessa is here with her two daughters.
MARQUEZ: How do you feel being here?
OLGA KEEPER, ODESSA RESIDENT: Oh. Very perfecto.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): "Other than perfect," she says, "they gave us medicine and new beds. They fed us," then added, "it's very, very, very good."
The city of Brasov preparing for even more refugees who, the mayor believes, will need even more support and possibly stay for a long time.
COLIBAN: If you are a mother with -- with a child, you can come to Brasov. We can offer you a job. We can offer -- and we are discussing about solutions for day care for children, how to integrate them in the educational system.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): The city planning the future but meeting basic needs, too, coordinating with local restaurants providing thousands of meals. Today, on St. Patrick's Day, prepared by Deane's Irish Pub, Luck of the Irish.
ALINA COLCENU, DEANE'S IRISH PUB AND GRILL: It is more than just providing meals. We're kind of providing hope to them. And they do need that. And you can see that on their faces and I think that's really important (ph).
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Tatiana and Natalia, mother and daughter from Mykolaiv, got here only three days ago.
"If not for the help here," she says, "I don't think our nerves could have taken it. There were air raids day and night. We couldn't eat. We couldn't sleep."
"In Mykolaiv," she says, "the planes were flying right over our heads, flying, flying, flying. I can't find words to explain. It's very scary."
Antonina has a simple wish.
"In my old age, I only wanted peace and prosperity," she says, then added, "I like everything to be OK. But for now, it's not" -- Miguel Marquez, CNN, Brasov, Romania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, the Ukraine war is looming over the upcoming NATO summit in Brussels, with Russia now unleashing advanced missiles, never used before in modern warfare. The latest from the White House, when we come back. Stay with us.
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GORANI: Welcome back. I am Hala Gorani live in Lviv.
Ukraine says a fifth Russian general was killed last week in southern Ukraine. Now CNN can't independently verify the claim. According to the Ukrainian military, though, the general died in fierce fighting, when Ukrainian troops attacked Russian forces occupying an airfield near the city of Kherson. You see it there, highlighted on the map.
The U.S. now confirms that Russia struck Western Ukraine with hypersonic missiles, similar to what you see here on your screen. Last week's attack is believed to be the first time a weapon like that has ever been used in combat.
Russia says it targeted an ammunitions warehouse. And there are disturbing reports out of the besieged city of Mariupol, of residents being forcibly taken to Russia.
The city council claims thousands of Ukrainians have been rounded up by Russian troops over the past week and taken across the border to remote locations in Russia against their will. Ukraine's president says history will judge Russia's actions harshly.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The besieged Mariupol will go down in history as an example of the responsibility for war crimes. What the occupiers have done to Mariupol is an act of terror that will be remembered for centuries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, there is some hopeful news, though. A local official says 71 orphans, all under the age of 4 and many with special needs, were safely evacuated from a care home in the town of Sumy.
They were brought out by a humanitarian corridor after spending two weeks in a bomb shelter. Some will stay in Kyiv for now, while others will go to Lviv.
One of the questions about the war in Ukraine has been why?
Just why did President Putin invade?
Among his explanations was that Ukraine would join NATO, which he framed as some sort of existential threat to Russia. But the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, now claims there is much more to this story. He says Mr. Putin's real concern was that Russians could take a cue from Ukrainians.
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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: He has been terrified of the effect of that Ukrainian model on him and on Russia. And he's been in a total panic about a so-called color revolution in Moscow itself.
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JOHNSON: And that's why he is trying so brutally to snuff out the flame of freedom in Ukraine. And that's why it is so vital that he fails.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, Mr. Johnson made the comments at a Conservative Party conference in the U.K.
The U.S. and its allies know that Russian president Vladimir Putin's brutal assault on Ukraine cannot go unanswered.
By the way, I don't know if my mic can pick it up but you are hearing air raid sirens here across the city. This is not the actual air raid siren telling us to take shelter. It is the all clear. We got the initial air raid siren about 1.5 hours ago, just in case you can pick that sound up on my microphone.
Now I was talking about how the West has reacted to this Russian invasion. In the nuclear age, every option poses enormous risks of miscalculation. Yet, that's exactly what U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders will be grappling with when they meet this week at the NATO summit.
CNN's Arlette Saenz has more from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The White House has described President Biden as a big fan of face-to-face diplomacy. And he will have the opportunity to engage in just that when he travels to Europe on Thursday.
The president will have a host of meetings with allies, beginning with an extraordinary NATO summit to discuss Russia's war against Ukraine. Leaders are expected to speak about defense and deterrence measures.
And it also gives Biden an opportunity to reaffirm to NATO allies that the U.S. remains committed to them and their ability to defend themselves.
Additionally, Biden will be meeting with the European Council at a summit, where they will take about a host of issues, such as sanctions and humanitarian assistance.
And later in the day Thursday, he will attend a meeting with G7 leaders. This was a meeting that was called by Germany, where they will also talk about further ways to respond to Russia in the wake of their aggression toward Ukraine.
Now the U.S. has been working very closely with allies over the course of the past few months every step of the way, as they've crafted these responses to both Russia and also developed ways to assist Ukraine going forward. This will give Biden one of his first opportunities to sit face to
face with so many of these leaders, as the U.S. continues to want to show this united front against Russia's aggression toward Ukraine and also developing ways to help Ukraine defend itself amid these attacks -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: That is going to do it for now from Lviv. I will be back at the top of the hour with more breaking news coverage.
But coming up, protesters around the U.S. are showing they stand with Ukraine. We will hear from an organizer for demonstrations in Los Angeles. Stay with us.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And welcome back. I am Paula Newton here, live in Atlanta.
The U.N. says nearly 900 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began. Now as we have been telling you, that is likely an underestimate.
But we know at least one American is now confirmed among the dead. This weekend, people are taking to the streets right across the U.S. in support of Ukraine. CNN's Camila Bernal spoke to protesters in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So many passionate and frustrated Ukrainians and people from all backgrounds who are here supporting them.
The organizers 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.
They are begging for a no-fly zone. They also want more aid for Ukraine. Many say that, since the invasion of Ukraine, they have shifted their focus. They say they've reached out to their families and friends. And that's why they're here. They feel like they can make a difference by posting on their social media, by speaking out.
They're encouraging people to be proactive.
MYKHAILO LAVRYS, STAND FOR UKRAINIAN FOUNDATION: 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.
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BERNAL: And they are not losing hope. They say that they will continue to hold these events here in Los Angeles at least once a week, as long as this war continues.
They say they will keep raising their voice and they will continue to ask others to join in because they say that, even from abroad, they will continue to fight for Ukraine -- Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Now we are also following an antiwar protest in Paris. Several dozen demonstrators gathered at a city square Saturday to chant their support for Ukraine and demand an end to the Russian invasion. The protesters waved blue and yellow flags and carried posters to show their solidarity with Ukraine.
Now Russian authorities have blocked the public from accessing websites and social media services. In so doing, Vladimir Putin, in fact, created a digital Iron Curtain, separating Russia from the rest of the world. Now foreign governments, organizations and a Hollywood star are trying to break through that Iron Curtain. Brian Todd explains.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as entities like the State Department, attempting to tear down Vladimir Putin's propaganda wall.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, FORMER CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: I ask you to help me spread the truth.
TODD: The Kremlin's strongman's digital iron curtain blocking his people from the bleak realities of the war in Ukraine by moving to shut off Facebook, Twitter and Instagram inside Russia.
Schwarzenegger, the Terminator himself, movie star, action hero and former California governor, this week posted a video over nine minutes long with Russian subtitles, telling the Russian people what's really happening on the ground.
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SCHWARZENEGGER: See, the world has turned against Russia because of its actions in Ukraine. Whole city blocks have been flattened by Russian artillery and bombs including a children's hospital and a maternity hospital. TODD: Schwarzenegger posted it to his five million Twitter followers but also tens of thousands of his subscribers on Telegram, a messaging app that can also transmit messages and videos to a wider audience just like Twitter.
Telegram has not yet been shut down inside Russia. Schwarzenegger tailored his message not just to Russian civilians.
SCHWARZENEGGER: To the soldiers who are listening to this, remember, that 11 million Russians have family connections to Ukraine. So every bullet you shoot, you shoot a brother or a sister. Every bomb or every shell that falls is falling not on an enemy but on a school or a hospital.
TODD: And if only virtually, he looked the former KGB colonel right in the eye.
SCHWARZENEGGER: To President Putin, I say you started this war. You are leading this war. You can stop this war.
NATALIA KRAPIVA, ATTORNEY: The Russian public, especially my generation, has grown up watching Schwarzenegger. He's a beloved figure in Russia. And Russians have told me that his video literally brought them to tears because they haven't heard any Russian official speaking to them with such respect and compassion.
TODD: Still, Putin's propaganda and disinformation are unrelenting. This week a Russian website claimed three American so-called mercenaries were killed in Ukraine.
But the U.S. National Guard says that they're still alive and not even in Ukraine. They were Guardsmen sent to train the Ukrainian military a few years ago. Some tech-savvy Russians have used virtual private networks or VPNs plus encrypted apps and other tools to get around Putin's information curtain and access the internet directly. But analysts say there are challenges with those methods.
KRAPIVA: A lot of Russian people still haven't heard of VPNs or they cannot afford to use them.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: What we've learned over in the Chinese model is that over time the state gets better and better about how to choke those off.
TODD: Still, it's possible that the Terminator's message to Russians was seen by a very important audience deep inside the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin only follows 22 people on Twitter. But Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of them -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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NEWTON: Fleeing your homeland is never an easy thing. But these athletes were determined to stay together as they fled the war in Ukraine. After the break, the out-of-the-ordinary place they ended up.
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NEWTON: The U.S. trucking industry has been hit especially hard by rising diesel prices. And the cost of diesel is more than $2 a gallon higher than it was just a year ago. CNN's Ryan Young spoke to some drivers, who are feeling that pain at the pump.
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RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For every dollar the average American sees rising at the pump, truck drivers are seeing double. That's because they rely on diesel fuel. And we all rely on truck drivers.
TODD SPENCER, PRESIDENT, OWNER-OPERATOR INDEPENDENT DRIVERS ASSOCIATION: Seventy percent of all the goods that moved in America move exclusively by truck. Over 90 percent of what most communities need are only delivered by truck.
YOUNG (voice-over): Which explains why, when it comes to large trucks, drivers are at the wheel over five times more than the average car driver and using up to more than 11,000 gallons of diesel fuel a year per driver. And that adds up.
Diesel is historically more expensive than regular gasoline on a dollar per gallon basis. And now it's hit record highs, surging more than $2 a gallon since this time last year.
SPENCER: Trucks are what keeps our economy going.
YOUNG (voice-over): Todd Spencer is the president of Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which started in the wake of the 1973 oil embargo.
SPENCER: Fuel is the single-largest variable expense that any trucker is going to incur if you're operating the truck yourself. If you own your own truck, that's your largest single cost.
YOUNG (voice-over): For the independent truck driver, they have to absorb the higher fuel costs themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's made it tight. It's made it very tight on us right now. I don't know how we're going to make it.
YOUNG: It's that bad?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's that bad.
BARRY LAGO, PROFESSIONAL DRIVER: We have a lot of drivers and I talk to a lot of them on a day-to-day basis. They're thinking about parking their truck because they can't afford to run it anymore. YOUNG (voice-over): Delia Moon Meier's family has owned Iowa 80, the
world's largest truck stop, for 58 years and she's concerned for her customers.
DELIA MOON MEIER, SVP, IOWA 80 GROUP: There's fuel for their trucks and fuel for their cars. It makes a big difference to them on what they're able to eat, where they're able to stay. Their whole livelihood is based on the price of fuel.
YOUNG (voice-over): She watched in awe as truck drivers kept everything moving when the pandemic shut the country down.
MEIER: I think that is one thing that the pandemic and the supply chain issues has really brought to light, is how important trucking is.
YOUNG (voice-over): Fuel shocks aren't anything new for Americans. And for some of these drivers, the payoff of their job is worth the pinch -- for now.
LAGO: It's like a Friday every time you get in the truck, man. I mean, it's -- you're self-employed -- or I am, anyway. I get to make my own decisions. I get to see the country, I get paid to do so. So it's almost like a paid vacation, no matter what I'm doing.
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NEWTON: OK, our thanks to Ryan Young for that report.
Now in hallways and cramped conference rooms, a group of refugees are now living in the office of a Munich startup after fleeing the war in their homeland. Among them are the Kharkiv Panthers, a women's ice hockey team. They have managed to stick together in a dramatic and traumatic escape from violence.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the office space of a German startup, 22 Ukrainians find refuge from war. Many separated from family and loved ones amid the fighting back home. But among them, one group has managed to stick together.
ALEKSANDRA KOOZAR, KHARKIV PANTHERS (through translator): It's very important to us to be together as a team. We have known each other for many years.
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KOOZAR (through translator): And for me, this is like a family, a second family.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): These are the Kharkiv Panthers, a women's ice hockey team from the now besieged city. Some members also play on Ukraine's national team. Now they're a team of friends, fleeing from war. KOOZAR (through translator): We fled and it was a very difficult
journey. Our escape lasted four days. We're very happy to be here and we are so grateful.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Munich's startup Wirelane made the space in its offices available after the company's CEO was approached by a friend about helping the refugees.
CONSTANTIN SCHWAAB, CEO, WIRELANE (through translator): The Kharkiv Panthers were wonderfully pragmatic and helped with everything from the start. In total, we were able to accommodate 22 people, some of them children. There's also an 87-year-old grandmother among them.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): From young to old to pro athlete, the refugees settle into a temporary home, thankful for a respite from violence.
ANASTASIA LES, KHARKIV PANTHERS (through translator): I was just so happy to finally arrive somewhere. We spent seven days in the subway station. And then it was a long trip to come here. I was just happy to get somewhere, where we can live.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): It's not clear how long they'll have to stay in the startup's office, though German officials have promised to help Ukrainian refugees find semipermanent accommodations.
For now, these conference rooms and cubicles, hallways and reception areas are a shelter from war in and a place to preserve team spirit -- Kim Brunhuber, CNN.
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NEWTON: We've seen so much generosity all over Europe.
That does it for us for this hour, I'm Paula Newton but our breaking news coverage continues in just a moment, with Hala Gorani live from Lviv, Ukraine.
