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Ukraine Rejects Russia's Demand to Surrender Mariupol; Children's Laser Tag Arcade Becomes Wartime Shelter; Biden Embarks on Diplomatic Efforts This Week; China Denies Providing Military Assistance to Russia; African Leaders Hesitant to Criticize Russia; Kremlin Ramps Up Propaganda Offensive as Invasion Fails; 30 Taxis Made 40-Hour Round Trip from Madrid to Poland; China Doubles Down on Zero- COVID Policy as Cases Soar. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired March 21, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[00:00:24]

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world and in the United States this hour, as well. I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv in Ukraine, where it is just past 6 in the morning.

Officials here in Ukraine are flatly rejecting Russia's demands to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol. The deadline from Moscow, by the way, passed a couple of hours ago.

Mariupol has been the scene of some of the worst attacks and devastation by Russian forces, leaving behind widespread destruction and countless casualties.

While so many civilians remain trapped amid the heavy bombardment, 7,200 were evacuated from Mariupol Sunday through humanitarian corridors.

And as the fighting around Mariupol rages, we are learning that a senior Russian naval officer is among those killed. Since the start of the invasion, Ukraine says five Russian generals have also been killed.

And in just the last few hours, several explosions have rocked Kyiv. One that was caught on CCTV video. You see it there. We're told both residential and business areas were hit, and at least one person was killed.

Ukraine's president spoke with CNN earlier and said he is ready for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I am ready for negotiations with him. I was ready for the least two years. And I think that -- I think that without negotiations, we cannot end this war. I think that all the people who -- who will 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 -- we need to take this chance. We need to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: That was President Zelenskyy.

Now, the expanding bombardment of Mariupol has killed an unknown number of civilians so far. Hundreds have been sheltering in the buildings that Russia has hit.

The city council says some residents have been forcibly deported to Russian territories. And as Phil Black reports, there is no safety for those who remain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some of the buildings being destroyed in Mariupol have been crowded with desperate people, civilians hoping to find refuge from Russia's assault. The city council says that now includes a bombed school, thought to be sheltering hundreds of people, including women, children, the elderly. Have any survived? No one knows for sure.

A local official says there is nowhere to get the information from. Mariupol's civil collapse is total. It's been days since we heard anything about efforts to rescue people from this side.

The last report said 130 people pulled from the debris of the theater, where around 1,000 or more said to be sheltering, mostly in the basement.

This video was shot inside the theater before the attack. The Russian word for "children" spelled out on the ground outside in huge letters didn't prevent the strike, which destroyed most of this building.

Caterina Iskaya (ph) lived across from that theater and delivered food and other aid to the people hiding out there. She says it's difficult to describe the sympathy she felt for them. They were terrified, cowering in horror at the sounds of planes overhead, always afraid of a bomb dropping.

Helgatina Schwitova (ph) lived under Russian attack in Mariupol for 21 days. "This is not just a city," she says. "This is my whole life." She survived without power in freezing conditions, with little food, with eight other members of her family until the building was hit.

They pulled dead neighbors from the rubble and decided to leave the city.

Helgatina (ph) says she can't imagine life without Mariupol. She will return, but now in her burning city, there are lots of people, lots of children under rubble, others in shelters. The journey out of the besieged city is slow and dangerous, but every day, relatively small numbers are leaving whatever way they can along what are supposed to be agreed corridors. A local official says some people have been fired upon. Others have had their vehicles seized at Russian checkpoints.

[00:05:08]

The people of Mariupol have no good options. Stay and endure the horror of Russia's bombardment, or face danger and uncertainty, leaving all they know behind.

Phil Black, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Horrible situation there in Mariupol. And joining me now to discuss the latest developments is Robert English. Robert English is the director of Central European Studies at the University of Southern California. Thanks for being with us. Nice to talk to you again.

Have we reached a stalemate, in the sense, not that Russia is, obviously, stopping its campaign of relentless bombardment, hitting civilian targets, as well, but that Russia is not able, really, to advance in any significant way into the city center, a month in?

ROBERT ENGLISH, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: I think we are. And it's notable that not only have Russian advances essentially halted, but Ukraine is making some counterattacks.

And on the Mykolaiv front, right, the Russians' hoped-for offensive to the West towards Odessa, they're now in partial retreat. Well, I think on the whole, this is a stalemate. It's ground to a halt, and the killing goes on, but there's no military purpose. There's no advance at all.

GORANI: So what do -- what options do the Ukrainians have right now?

ENGLISH: Well, it's an interesting question. Because some -- even some friends of Ukraine are asking Zelenskyy to consider surrendering Mariupol, because it's hopeless. It will fall, and the cost to civilian life will be high, as well as the decimation of all the city's defenders.

That might make sense --

GORANI: Yes.

ENGLISH: -- in a very narrow framework, but I think they're going to fight to the end. And this will become something so important, so motivating.

Remember Stalingrad? Right? Remember Thermopylae, when the Greeks thought the Persians? We have, in history, these battles that go down as iconic, where the bravery of their defenders, even if they went down in defeat.

GORANI: Yes.

ENGLISH: And they served a larger purpose of mobilizing support at home and abroad. They might keep fighting.

GORANI: Yes, exactly. Because morale is still very high among Ukrainians, and also, the other question is, if you do surrender Mariupol, you're rewarding absolutely horrific behavior. And we know Vladimir Putin is not willing to stop, despite the fact that, as we've discussed now, his military is not making the advances that he'd hoped for.

ENGLISH: Not only are they not making the advances, but I'm increasingly convinced that they're hollowing out. We are seeing units --

GORANI: Right.

ENGLISH: -- up in Kyiv and Kharkiv that are 80 or 90 percent depleted. They are simply gone. They can't be reinforced. Those units have to be replaced.

We are seeing the call-ups. We're seeing mobilization, right, of conscripts that were not supposed to be mobilized, all over the country, from the far east, to the Ural Mountains, north, and south. And we are even seeing the recruitment of some kids, from 17-, 18- year-old kids, who are, essentially, in the Young Pioneers, these sort of army patriotic clubs, now being prepared to go into combat.

This is desperation. This is scraping the barrel. And I don't know how long the Russians can hold out. The Ukrainian resistance. You know what Napoleon said. We've all heard this. The moral is to the physical in battle as 3 to 1. And the Ukrainians are fighting like it's 10 to 1.

GORANI: Right. Yes, absolutely. We're also seeing mercenaries from Khadirov (ph), Chechen mercenary supporters, private mercenaries, as well, joining the fight, which I know you've said in the past is a sign of weakness.

All of that being said, the Russians have formidable weapons. They have the hypersonic missiles. They have air power. They don't have air superiority, but they have air power. They have very long-range missiles, as well, that they've been using on the outskirts of Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine. This is something very difficult for the Ukrainians to defend against at this stage.

ENGLISH: It is. And I suspect we'll be seeing a boost in the Ukrainian air defense capabilities, because they're getting some systems from our British allies, and possibly some older Soviet-built but highly- qualified systems from the Polish NATO allies.

And maybe the Ukrainians will chip away at that air superiority. There's no doubt you're right. The Russians continue. They can continue to rain terror down on these cities, but they can't advance and take them. So even though the killing will be horrific, it is a stalemate.

And I'm really hopeful that within maybe two weeks, hopefully less, we'll see some serious movement from the Russian side at the cease- fire talks. It's serving no purpose now, but just to wanton destruction and loss of life.

[00:10:11]

GORANI: All right. Well, let's hope so. Thank you very much, Robert English, as always. A pleasure talking to you.

Now, what once was an arcade where children played in pretend gun fights has now become a place for Ukrainians to escape from real ones. Many of them are fleeing the port city of Mariupol, as we've discussed, which has been under siege for weeks by Russians.

Ivan Watson has our story from Dnipro.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Normally, this is an arcade, a place where children come and play laser tag. Instead, now that there's this awful war in Ukraine, people have been using this as an improvised shelter.

The owners have opened up their doors to ordinary Ukrainians. Civilians, who for the most part, have been fleeing the port city of Mariupol, which has been under Russian siege for weeks now.

And we've been talking to some of these displaced Ukrainians, who have described horrific conditions, where they are hiding in basements, where the -- there is no electricity, no running water, no heat, constant bombardment from warplanes, from artillery, rockets, and even now, reports from Russian ships, in the Black Sea.

What the owners here have done is they have provided a space for families that have endured the unspeakable to come here and get several days of rest and relative quiet, which is, really, a blessing.

And we can see, the children have really responded positively in this space that was, quite honestly, built for them in the first place.

The attacks and the horrors in Mariupol, though, for the parents, though, it's really traumatizing. We've been talking to people who have left behind parents and grandparents, who are still under Russian bombardment. People who are now trying to figure out where to take their families left, if there are other safe places in this country. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Mariupol had a population of more than 400,000 people.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Dnipro, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: And still to come on CNN, NATO leaders will meet in Brussel, this week. For, perhaps there, most consequential gathering in decades. A preview of the historic event, amid Russia's war in Ukraine, is next.

And despite calls for diplomacy in Ukraine, China continues its business relationships with Russia. After the break, why a Chinese official says that is not going to change anytime soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:16:41]

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv, Ukraine. NATO allies are meeting in Brussels this week in what's being called an extraordinary summit to address the Ukrainian invasion of Ukraine.

The American president, Joe Biden, will be there where he will meet with G-7 and E.U. leaders followed by a visit to Poland to address the growing humanitarian rights -- human rights, I should say, crisis unfolding due to the war.

CNN's Arlette Saenz has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden is set to embark on a high-stakes diplomatic endeavor this week as the U.S. and its allies continue to craft ways to punish Russia for its attack against Ukraine, as well as offer additional assistance to Ukraine as they defend themselves against this invasion.

Here in Washington on Monday, President Biden will meet with business leaders as he outlines the U.S. response to Russia's invasion. And then on Wednesday, he will travel to Europe, where he will hit the ground running on Thursday with a day full of meetings beginning with an emergency summit with NATO specifically focusing on Russia's attack against Ukraine. They will be discussing deterrence and defense measures. And it will give Biden an opportunity to reform the U.S. commitment to defending NATO allies.

President Biden will also attend a summit of the European Council and meet separately with G-7 leaders.

Now much of this will amount to a western show of unity against Russia, but the U.S. and its allies have continued and talked about ways they can further punish Russia as well as offering security assistance to Ukraine amid this invasion.

Now additionally on Sunday the U.S. confirmed the death -- deaths of four U.S. Marines who were killed in an Osprey crash during a NATO training exercise in Norway. The Marine Corps released the names of those four Marines. Those include Captain Matthew Tomkiewicz of Fort Wayne, Indiana; Captain Ross Reynolds of Leominster, Massachusetts; Gunnery Sergeant James Speedy of Cambridge, Ohio; and Corporal Jacob Moore of Catlettsburg, Kentucky.

Now the deceased Marines have been removed from the crash site and are in the process of being returned to the United States, where they will be reunited with their families in a dignified transfer. Now this exercise was a long-standing, long planned NATO training

exercise. And NATO says that it did not have specific ties to Russia's attack against Ukraine.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QIN GANG, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: There is disinformation about China providing military assistance to Russia. We reject that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You won't do something (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

QIN: What China is doing is sending 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)

[00:20:08]

GORANI: All right. CNN's Steven Jiang joins me now with more. So the Chinese ambassador is saying no weapons, no armor. We're just sending, basically, baby formula and humanitarian assistance.

Is that what we're seeing on the ground, just a very surface humanitarian level of support, or does it go deeper?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Hala, it's really interesting, because in the past few days, we have started noticing some subtle changes in officials' rhetoric about this war, even though they still refuse to call this a Russian invasion.

But they have started to include Ukraine's security concern as part of their consideration in their position and policy. And as you have just heard from the Chinese ambassador, they have also started highlighting China's humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, even though it's still very small in scale.

And the state media here, even though their coverage of the war is still very much largely pro-Russia, has also started including some information from the Ukrainian side. And even censors here are now allowing some more neutral versus to emerge on Chinese social media.

Now all of this, of course, could be the Beijing leadership being pragmatic, given how the war has been going. But also some say they still want to maintain some sort of moral high ground, with their foreign minister insisting over the weekend that time will eventually prove China's position to be on the right side of history.

However, senior Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, still pointing to NATO's eastward expansion as the root cause of this conflict.

Now that, of course, is not just parroting a Kremlin talking point but also a reflection of Beijing's strategic concern about the U.S. building alliances to encircle China. And with Chinese officials increasingly using the term of the Indo-Pacific version of NATO, that's an issue that's been really bonding Putin and Xi Jinping in the past few years.

So a lot of analysts say what China wants to see out of this war is a weakened U.S. and its alliances, as well as a new international order more favorable to authoritarian governments. That's why Putin losing power would be their ultimate nightmare.

That's why, at this stage, very few people see China pull back from their close ties with Russia, despite repeated warnings from the U.S. -- Hala.

GORANI: But at the same time, this is hurting China economically. And China has big business with western countries. So it is walking a tight rope. It's not as clear-cut as just wanting Russia in its sphere of influence against a weakened NATO, which would be its ultimate desire. But it can't weaken its business partners too much. It must really want an end to this war.

Is it likely to use its influence at all with Moscow?

JIANG: Well, at this -- at this stage, we're not seeing a lot of real signs of them doing that, because a lot of people have said Xi Jinping could just pick up the call [SIC] to call Putin to say this. But obviously, we're not seeing a sign of any signs of this.

And also, of course, as we have been talking about, this impossible balance they're trying to strike, including how to minimize Chinese entities' exposure from the western sanctions. And that's something we have seen on some movements of this from including, for example, even China -- this China-backed entity, Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, for example, halting Russia-related projects.

And then, of course, there are some signs of some other investments being suspended. But at this stage, at least publicly, they're still very much putting on a brave face about their, you know, high-minded approach to peace instead of actually doing anything more concrete than what they have been saying -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Well, we'll see how that develops. Steven Jiang in Beijing, thanks very much.

Now African students were among those forced to flee when Russia invaded this country, but many African leaders have been hesitant to forcefully condemn the Kremlin for its war. CNN's Stephanie Busari explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SUPERVISING EDITOR, AFRICA (voice-over): In the three weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin's actions have been strongly condemned by several African nations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ghana remains deeply concerned about the escalation of military bombardments and several cities of Ukraine.

BUSARI: But many African states, while still denouncing the violence unleashed on Ukrainian civilians, have been much more muted in their response to Russia. When the U.N. General Assembly voted on the resolution, urging the Russian cease-fire and withdrawal, 17 African countries abstained, including Senegal, whose president is the current chair of the African Union.

REMI ADEKOYA, ASSOCIATE LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF YORK: There is also a strong strand of thought in African diplomacy that says African states should maintain the principle of non-interference. And so they shouldn't get caught up in proxy wars between the East and West, as some states did get caught up in proxy wars during the Cold War, for instance.

[00:25:06]

BUSARI: Nelson Mandela once put it like this. It is a mistake to, quote, "think that their enemies should be our enemies."

South Africa also abstained from the U.N. vote, and President Cyril Ramaphosa has since blamed NATO for considering Ukraine's membership into the military alliance, which Russia is against.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years. We are insistent, we are insisting that there should be dialogue.

BUSARI: South Africa has historical ties with the former USSR, which supported its fight against Apartheid. Former President Jacob Zuma, seen here with Putin in 2013, even recently said he believed the Russian president is a man of peace who would take steps to make peace a reality.

ADEKOYA: There are many people in many parts of the world who would like to see other regions gain in strength, and would like to see the end of western domination of the world order, putting it simply. And now, of course, no right-thinking person in Africa or anywhere in the world looks at what is going on in Ukraine now and thinks that is a good thing.

BUSARI: In recent years, Russia has established itself as one of Africa's most valuable trading partners, becoming one of Africa's major suppliers of military hardware, with key alliances in Nigeria, Libya, Ethiopia, and more.

Given the strategic economic concerns, African leaders would likely continue to tread carefully in response to the war in Ukraine. Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Well, in one positive development, if we can call any development positive in this war. About half of the staff that's been working at the Chernobyl nuclear plant basically since the war began has been able to rotate out and return home.

Remember, we were telling you last week they were utterly exhausted. The International Atomic Energy Agency says those employees have been working nonstop at the radioactive waste facilities for more than three weeks when Russians 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, as well.

As Russian troops get bogged down in Ukraine, Moscow is ratcheting up its propaganda campaign at home. We'll tell you about the messaging from the Kremlin, and why it's not working on everybody there. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:31:30]

GORANI: Welcome back. I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv, Ukraine.

Ukrainian leaders have refused Russia's demands to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol. Moscow's deadline, in fact, passed a few hours ago.

And bombardments on Mariupol have made it hard to get civilians out, or get aid in. Ukraine says more than 7,000 people were able to escape on Sunday, but many more remain trapped, and civilian shelters are coming under attack, including an art school and a theater.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting is also raging around Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. On Sunday, several explosions were reported near the city's center. You see one of them there. And the mayor of the city 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.

Well, Western leaders continue to coordinate on sanctions aimed at punishing Russia. In the coming hours, the American president, Joe Biden, will hold a call with several European leaders to discuss their response. Their continuing response, it should be said.

It comes ahead of Biden's trip to Europe to meet with NATO leaders, NATO allies later this week. Meanwhile, Ukraine's president says he is ready to negotiate with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke exclusively with CNN on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA 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?

ZELENSKYY (through translator): I am ready for negotiations. I was ready, and over the last two years. I think that without negotiations, we cannot end this war. I think that all the people who -- who will think that this dialogue is -- is shallow and that it is not going to solve anything, they just don't understand. That this is very valuable. If there is just a 1 percent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we -- we need to take this chance. We need to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Zelenskyy, there.

The U.S. has confirmed reports that the Russian military has used hypersonic missiles against Ukraine, and the Kremlin may be using the advanced weapons to send a message to the west.

CNN's Barbara Starr has more from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.S. officials now confirming to CNN that the Russians did fire so-called hypersonic missiles. These are air-launched. They travel five times the speed of sound. Very tough to track, very tough to shoot down, if there's an ability to shoot them down at all.

The Russians using them against targets in Ukraine, the U.S. not able to confirm to CNN what those targets were.

Now, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin refused to discuss that these kinds of missiles were actually used, but he had plenty to say about what it all means.

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I would not see it as a game- changer. I think, again, the reason that he's resorting to using these types of weapons is because he's trying to reestablish some momentum. You kind of question why he would do this. Is he running low on precision -- precision guided munitions? Does he have, like, complete confidence in his ability to -- the ability of his troops to reestablish momentum? But -- but I don't see this, in and of itself, a game changer.

[00:35:19]

I cannot confirm or dispute, whether or not he's used those weapons.

STARR: Sources are telling CNN that the U.S. was able to track the missiles in flight. But using these missiles is a message from Putin in the United States. He knows that they are almost impossible to shoot down, that the U.S. has no defense against them, and that the U.S. military, so far, has been unable to develop its own hypersonic missiles.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Well, Russia isn't just intensifying its battlefield attacks. The Kremlin is also wrapping up the propaganda fight. As the invasion in Ukraine stalls for its forces, an offensive is taking place at home to cover up Russia's brutality, and not everyone is buying it.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): As President Putin's slaughter in Ukraine stalls, his offensive at home to hide its brutality is ramping up, marking as enemies, Russians who don't buy the Kremlin's propaganda.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Russian people especially are able to establish true patriots, from bastards and traitors and will spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths.

ROBERTSON: What is coming, out of the mouths of Putin's state media propagandists, is a full-throated defense of Russia's killing of Ukrainian civilians, falsely claiming Ukraine started the war, that civilians are being used as human shields.

Putin's Kremlin cronies double down on the lie, blaming the U.S. and Europe for the civilian deaths.

MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN (through translator): The Russian armed forces do not bomb cities. This is well known to everyone, no matter videos are edited in NATO; no matter how many clips and fake photos are thrown in.

ROBERTSON: Yet an indication how flimsy the Kremlin may fear its fabrications are. Putin held a rare rally. Seemingly, seeking to scotch concerns over mounting casualties, of low morale among soldiers.

PUTIN (through translator): Our boys are fighting in this operation shoulder to shoulder, shielding one another with their bodies on the battlefield. We haven't had this unity for a long time.

ROBERTSON: For many Russians, knowing fact from Kremlin fiction is getting impossible.

His heavy-handed riot police routinely drag anti-war protesters off the streets. Draconian new laws ban criticism of the war. Max penalty: 15 years in jail. Access to Facebook and Twitter, restricted.

And since the war began, Russia's few remaining independent outlets have been shut down, including TV Rain, whose viewership rocketed. News director and anchor Ekaterina Kotrikadze fled for safety. EKATERINA KOTRIKADZE, TV RAIN NEWS DIRECTOR AND ANCHOR: There are many

people, a lot of people, millions of Russians, who understand that something terrible is going on and who understand that they need these alternative sources of information.

ROBERTSON: Not all dissent is stifled. News editor Marina Ovsyannikova took her antiwar protests, prime time, on the Kremlin's most popular propaganda machine, Channel One, and was quickly convicted of organizing a public event.

MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, EDITOR, CHANNEL ONE: I have been working on Channel One and doing Kremlin propaganda. And now I am very ashamed of it. It's a shame that I allowed lies to come from the TV screens. A shame that I helped zombify Russian people.

ROBERTSON: The real news, the news we all see, of the lost and shattered lives of terrified civilians, of millions forced to flee bombed-out homes, is barely getting through to Russians. Give Putin more time, and he'll try to shut them off completely.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: That is all for now from Lviv, Ukraine. I'll be back at the top of the hour with more breaking news coverage. but coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, making those in need feel welcomed. How Ukraine's neighbors are helping Ukrainians fleeing the war. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ukraine says another Russian general was killed Tuesday during fighting in southern Ukraine, near Mariupol. Now, while CNN cannot independently verify the claims, Ukraine says several senior Russian officers have been killed so far.

Now, earlier, CNN's Jake Tapper asked retired U.S. Army general, and former CIA director David Petraeus about the situation on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's not common?

DAVID PETRAEUS, FORMER U.S. ARMY GENERAL AND CIA DIRECTOR: It's very, very uncommon. This is in the first three weeks, and these are quite senior generals.

The bottom line is that their command and control has broken down. Their communications have been jammed by the Ukrainians. Their secure columns didn't work. They had to go to single channel, and that's jammable, and that's exactly what the Ukrainians have been doing to that. They use cell phones. The Ukrainians blocked the prefix for Russia, so that didn't work.

Then they took down 3G. They're literally stealing cell phones from Ukrainian civilians to communicate among each other. So what happens? The column gets stopped. An impatient general is sitting back there in his armored or whatever vehicle. he goes forward to find out what's going on, because there's no initiative. Again, there's no non-commissioned officer corps. There's no sense of

initiative at junior levels. They wait to be told what to do. Gets up there, and the Ukrainians have very, very good snipers. And they've just been picking them off, left and right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now, on Sunday, we also learned that a senior Russian naval officer was killed in fighting in Mariupol. That's according to social media posts by two senior Russian officials.

Now, Ukraine's neighbors 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.

[00:45:12]

The U.N. says about 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes, and that includes, of course, more than 3.3 million who've actually had to leave Ukraine altogether as refugees.

Now, a group of taxi drivers in Spain wanted to do something to try and help those refugees, who are thousands of miles away in Ukraine, so they organized a convoy that crossed the continent, bringing back with them 130 Ukrainian refugees.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON (voice-over): Horns blaring, people cheering. It's a hero's welcome for these bleary-eyed taxi drivers and their war-weary passengers. The end of the line for this convoy, or about 30 taxis in a 40-hour round trip that covered more than 3,000 miles from Madrid to Poland and back.

But it's also the beginning of a new chapter for the roughly 130 refugees from Ukraine arriving in the caravan. Some had tears in their eyes and shouted wards of gratitude as they entered shelter in Madrid.

The drivers themselves say they were surprised by the reception. As one driver says, "We are all very moved because of the welcome we had. We didn't expect it." He also says, "We're very tired. We have been driving nonstop."

The convoy began as an idea by a group of taxi drivers waiting outside the Madrid Airport for customers on how could they help the people fleeing Ukraine. Taxi drivers raised about $50,000 for the trip to cover fuel costs and volunteered their time to bring supplies to Poland and returned with as many refugees as they could.

The convoy's organizer says they are proud to bring so many people to Spain but disappointed there are still so many people who need help.

Organizers say the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid helped to select the refugees for the convoy, and the drivers say they hope to do another run soon.

For many of them, it's a ride they won't forget. One man says, while on the road, a commercial plane passed overhead, and a frightened child looked at the sky, and threw himself on the ground, with his hands on his head.

When it came for the final drop-off, there were plenty of hugs and thanks, for the lift out of a place of hardship, for the lift in spirits, and the hopefully new roads ahead for these passengers in need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: OK, coming up here for us on CNN NEWSROOM, China is seeing some of its highest COVID case numbers since the beginning of this pandemic. But will its zero-COVID policy contain the outbreak? We took a closer look. That's just ahead.

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NEWTON: So the COVID-19 vaccine could someday become an annual shot. And that's according to the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who's also a Pfizer board member.

Now, he compares it with the flu vaccine, which typically is given once a year in the fall and winter in the United States, when the flu risk is at its highest.

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DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER, PFIZER BOARD MEMBER: I think this is really a six-month vaccine in terms of providing really meaningful protection against symptomatic disease and infection. And this is likely to become an annualized vaccine for the majority of Americans.

I think for those who are vulnerable, you should think about getting a shot every six months while we're in a high prevalent environment. And in fact, the shots are authorized for that use. For people who are immunocompromised, there is authorization right now for a fourth booster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now, just over an hour ago, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam announced some of the city's COVID-19 restrictions would, in fact, be lifted. Notably, a ban on flights from nine countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., and that starts April 1.

Now Hong Kong enacted a COVID zero policy similar to mainland China in an effort to try and slow those rising cases, and that's resulted in business closures, in restrictions on movement. The city has been battered by the virus response, with the bulk of its nearly 6,000 deaths now coming in the last few weeks.

China also reported more than 4,300 new COVID cases Sunday. Now, the country has been battling an uptick in cases recently, and it's putting China's zero-COVID policy to the test.

CNN's David Culver explains.

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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): China battling its biggest surge in COVID cases since the original outbreak in Wuhan.

In China, university students seen in long lines for mandatory COVID tests.

At a trade fair in Guangzhou, thousands of people seen trying to escape a snap lockdown. Some hopping fences, after just a single positive case was found among the crowd.

Two years into the pandemic, China is still striving to maintain a zero-COVID policy. To do so, authorities trace positive cases using big data and surveillance. Any sort of privacy, often sacrificed for health safety.

Take this recent case in Beijing. CNN spoke with this woman, Qiao Jing, seen here stepping onto her office elevator. CNN is masking the identities of everyone around her.

But Qiao says building management. following government guidance, released the surveillance footage unedited, because they say there was a positive case on the elevator at the same time. To track down everyone, they circulated the images.

Qiao says even those inside the elevator hours before, and hours after, were like her, considered close contacts. She told us all of them now quarantined for 21 days.

QIAO JING, QUARANTINED (through translator): How could it be me? I never thought it could happen to me.

CULVER: Qiao spoke with us from her quarantine hotel. She says once the positive case was confirmed to have been in the elevator, she and her colleagues were immediately locked down at work. She slept in her office desk for the night.

Even after testing negative, officials transferred her to the government isolation facility.

QIAO: I don't understand it. I really don't. I feel that my time is wasted.

CULVER: Since confirming its first Omicron case in mid-December, China's average new daily case count has surged from double digits to more than 2,000.

Now with more than 17,000 active cases, the virus has spread to 28 provinces and regions across the mainland.

It might not seem like a lot compared to the rest of the world, but for Beijing, one case is one too many, especially as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to assume an almost unprecedented third term later this year.

The leadership linking COVID containment to political legitimacy needs to show its strategy while extreme is highly effective. But it's dealt repeated blows to China's economy, the most recent rise in infections shutting down much of northeastern China's Jilin province an industrial hub, along with tech factories in Shenzhen, where Apple supplier Foxconn had to briefly halt production.

China's bustling financial hub, Shanghai, also increasingly locked down, impacting millions, including us.

(on camera): We just got the community COVID test. You can see they have all the tents set up for everyone, neighborhood by neighborhood, to get tested and then to await the results.

(voice-over) This is happening across communities in China. On Chinese social media, some question how long all this will last. When will China change its policy?

Many are finding creative ways to deal with the new reality, still managing to squeeze in a haircut in lockdown. And even the elevator close contact, expressing her ultimate understanding of the draconian measures.

QIAO (through translator): Because COVID is life-threatening. If my family gets infected because of the government's lack of COVID control measures, I would not be able to accept it.

CULVER: Despite a mostly vaccinated population, Chinese officials are relying on that shared fear of the virus and locking down to justify and enforce its zero-COVID policy, as the rest of the world is opening up.

David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: OK that does it for us this hour. I'm Paula Newton. We continue after a quick break with our breaking news coverage from Ukraine.

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