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10 Million People Forced to Flee Their Homes; More than 200,000 Evacuees Seeking Safety in Lviv; Chinese State Media: No Plane Crash Survivors Found So Far; Hearings Begin for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson; Ukrainian Musician Helps Defend Kyiv from Russian Attacks; Bombs Falling Every 10 Minutes In Mariupol; At Least Eight People Killed In Russian Attack On Kyiv Shopping Center; Nearly 3.5 million Ukrainians Flee The Country; EU Doubles Its Military Aid To Ukraine. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 22, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:26]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome everyone to our viewers around the world and in the United States this hour. I'm Hala Gorani live in Lviv, Ukraine. It is just past seven in the morning and we just heard an air raid siren rang out across this city.
Now, Mariupol, Ukraine is refusing to surrender to Russia. And now bombs have been raining down on the city quote every 10 minutes, according to Ukrainian officer.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Mariupol is being quote reduced to ashes, but that it will survive. The EU foreign policy chief calls this bombardment a massive war crime.
The Russian Defense Ministry meanwhile, claims more than 62,000 Mariupol residents have evacuated to Russia in quote complete safety. But the city council says thousands were in fact taken against their will.
In Kyiv, authorities say a recent missile strike on a shopping mall has killed at least 88 people and they warned that number could rise, eight people. Russia says that attacked the mall because Ukrainian troops were using it to hide rocket launchers.
Now, Russia's Defense Ministry released this drone video that appears to show some sort of weapons system and accuses Ukraine of using social facilities as human shields. Ukraine denies this. This is the aftermath though of the strike on the mall at the capitol is under a curfew until Wednesday morning, local time.
Russia's war in Ukraine is now approaching the one month mark. The fighting has left hundreds dead and caused untold damage across the country. And there's no end in sight to the suffering unfortunately, CNN's Alex Marquardt has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Across Ukraine, the sounds and scenes of war these air raid sirens in the western sanctuary city of Lviv, while snow covers the debris after Russian airstrikes destroyed these residential buildings on the other side of the country in Sumy and in the capital, Kyiv and overnight attack on a shopping center, which local officials say killed eight.
The besieged port city of Mariupol is emerging as a critical fight in this war. The Ukrainian officer tells CNN that bombs are falling there every 10 minutes. Russian forces bombed in art school being used to shelter around 400 people, according to the city council, with a number of casualties still unknown.
Satellite images show the aftermath of the bombing of that theater were over 1,000 civilians were reportedly sheltering with the Russian word for children written clearly on the ground.
Ukraine rejecting a Russian ultimatum to surrender this crucial city, which stands in the way of connecting western Russia to the Crimean peninsula. The mounting death toll across Ukraine, particularly among civilians is the result of what American and NATO officials see as a stalled Russian military campaign.
LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The Ukrainians have continued to attract his forces, and they've been very effective using the equipment that we provided them.
MARQUARDT: Even in the few cities that Russia has taken like Kherson, citizens have been bravely protesting. This shocking video capturing the moment that peaceful protesters were interrupted by Russian gunfire and explosions that left at least one civilian shot and wounded elsewhere.
As the Russian forces run into stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia has escalated their weaponry. U.S. officials now confirming Russian claims it used hypersonic missiles that fly at five times the speed of sound and are difficult for missile defense systems to shoot down.
AUSTIN: I think, again, the reason that he's resorting to using these types of weapons is because he's trying to reestablish some momentum.
MARQUARDT: The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's ready to speak directly to President Vladimir Putin warning of the disastrous consequences of failure.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I think 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.
MARQUARDT: Alex Marquardt, CNN at the State Department.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
GORANI: Liubov Tsybulska, an advisor to the Ukrainian military and government and she is with us from Warsaw, Poland. Thank you for being with us. The Russians are alleging that that shopping mall was used to store and hide rocket launchers and that's why they targeted that particular residential area. What's your reaction to that claim?
[01:05:10]
LIUBOV TSYBULSKA, ADVISER TO UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY: The reaction is the same like they keep saying that we keep weapon in maternity hospitals, we keep weapon in drama theaters. The thing is that they're killing civilians, and we have a lot of interceptions of their soldiers. We have minister's Lavrov words, where he admits that they kill civilians, they bombed theaters, hospitals, schools and kindergartens, and they kill civilians. This is Russia's tactics. They know what they're doing.
GORANI: They know what they're doing. But at the same time, they're not taking city centers. They're not taking occupying and holding the big cities. They're really having to use crude weapons in order to terrify the civilian population into leaving, like in Mariupol. Talk to us a little bit about, I mean, the ultimate I imagined target for Vladimir Putin would be Kyiv. So far, though the city has resisted.
TSYBULSKA: Absolutely, they try to take cities but they cannot enter and take control over Ukrainian cities. They did it in Kherson. But people keep protesting. People keep resisting and they basically Russians don't know what to do with them. And the same with Mariupol and Kharkiv and Kyiv, of course, they can shell that can kill civilians, but they cannot take control over these cities.
And as you said, the ultimate goal is of course, Kyiv. But now Kyiv is a fortress, it will be very, very difficult, if not impossible to take the city. But of course, Russia wants to frighten civilians. They want to spread panic and demoralization, and basically reduce the support of Ukrainian army from Ukrainian population.
GORANI: And you've looked a lot at disinformation efforts on the Russian side, what have you been able to observe? Because it really does sound like at least from our reporters inside Russia, that these disinformation and propaganda campaigns are effective with a pretty big portion of the population? How do you combat that?
TSYBULSKA: Of course, Russia launches different campaigns for different audiences. There's campaign for Russian audience, there's campaign for Ukrainian and there is another one for the Western audience.
In Russia, they try to portray this as a big fight against great evil, against Nazi West. They want to mobilize the whole country. And of course, there's a shortage of soldiers. There is a shortage of those who are ready to fight. So they want to mobilize basically old and young, everybody to participate in this war. And, as you said, support of the war is absolutely significant. Around 70 percent of Russian citizens support this aggression, unfortunately. GORANI: Yes. And what, I mean, we're almost a month in, which is just absolutely so tragic for Ukraine, obviously. But where is there a potential exit here? Not obviously rewarding Vladimir Putin for his unprovoked attack, but where can we find some sort of exit to this? And to stop to the suffering? What's the best case scenario now in in your view?
TSYBULSKA: I think that the best case scenario is if something happens in Russia. We know that there is division between Russian elites, first of all, security and defense leads, like FSB against military and of course, many people within the government understand that this war is going to bring Russia to collapse.
So, of course, we do expect that they will do something in Russia. We cannot expect that having the support of the world, people would go and protest and, you know, make basically revolution. But there are some chances that Putin will be -- his power will be limited by his own people.
But again, we don't know. Now they're killing civilians. Now they are bombing our cities and hospitals and schools and kindergartens.
[01:10:02]
Again, a lot of people are trying to narrow down this whole war to only Putin's responsibility. I think it's a big mistake. We should speak more about shared responsibility, because these are -- these processes within Russian society are absolutely dangerous. And if they do not go through recognition of this problem, then we are going to have this problem again in a few decades, not we but the whole world, of course.
GORANI: Yes. Liubov Tsybulska, thank you very much for joining us from Warsaw this morning.
The United Nations has Russia's war on Ukraine has driven nearly three and a half million people out of the country. Take a look at the map. The vast majority of these people are heading west to neighboring countries. And if you include those who are displaced internally, but still in Ukraine, that number jumps to at least 10 million.
To put it into perspective, that's almost a quarter of Ukraine's population now forced from their homes. The UN says more than 90 percent of the people who fled Ukraine are women and children, remember men between 18 and 60 have to stay in the country to fight and they are at a quote, these women and children heightened risk of gender based violence and other forms of exploitation and abuse.
In Romania, families who've escaped the war are coming to terms with what they've lost as they try to envision a path forward. Some of the families waiting in a Bucharest shelter spoke with CNN's Miguel Marquez, about their struggles.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ludnida Zhidik (ph), her two teenage daughters and her father arrived last night.
Our beautiful parks or beautiful square, she says, everything is ruined. From Kharkiv city punished by Russian artillery and rockets. A school teacher, Zhidik has some savings but not much. Their three-day journey brought them to this shelter run by the city of Bucharest.
I'm shocked war is possible in 2022, she says. Everything was good. I could walk with my friends. I love my home city. It was very difficult to leave watching.
Sofia's (ph) sister says it's hard to believe their lives have been thrown into such enormous uncertainty.
ANASTASIA ZHIDIK, FLED KHARKI, UKRAINE: I really miss my house, my country, my city. And I hope that this war is going to finish.
MARQUEZ: Andrei Tesman (ph), a furniture maker had his own business. He's here with his wife, kids in all a family of eight and their Chihuahua. Bruno.
(on camera): Do you know when you will go home?
ANDREI TESMAN (ph), FURNITURE MAKER: Big question.
MARQUEZ: Big question.
(voice-over): A friend sent video of what their home now looks like. This is your home.
TESMAN (ph): That is my home. This is my room. Bedroom.
MARQUEZ: Bedroom.
TESMAN (ph): It's my bedroom.
MARQUEZ: Unlivable. The entire neighborhood destroyed by possibly a rocket or artillery fire. Nothing to go back to.
(on camera): At 60 years old, are you starting over again? I don't want to, he says, but I have to. His son is in Florida. The family has inquired about visas to travel to the U.S. but so far -- we haven't tried to apply for visas, he says. His wife adds my son sent several messages to embassies and to people in Washington DC. The message they got back, America does not accept refugees for now.
The Biden administration looking for ways to speed up applications for now World Vision is helping these refugees and tens of thousands more in Romania alone. There needs deepening.
ANDREA BUJOR, WORLD VISION ROMANIA: The people that are coming now. These people really, really need help and there are a lot of people we were at the border and I was at the border I talked to a lot of people that didn't have any money, any plan.
MARQUEZ: Julia Muliarchuk and her eight-year-old son David named for David Beckham from Kyiv, arrived two weeks ago. (on camera): When you decided to leave. How long did you have to pack?
JULIA MULIARCHUK, REFUGEE FROM KYIV, URKRAINE: Well, I had to run three hours.
MARQUEZ: Three hours.
MULIARCHUK: Yes, yes. Yes.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): A few bags, documents and family photos.
(on camera): Who is this?
MULIARCHUK: It's me and my husband 10 years ago.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): She calls her mother in Kyiv every morning.
MULIARCHUK: So it's like Hello, Mom. Are you OK? And we talk and talk, she say, yes, it seems like it's been quiet night and then I'm speaking to my husband and my friends.
[01:15:09]
MARQUEZ (on camera): It's like a full time job.
MULIARCHUK: Not a full time job but you have to be sure that everyone is OK because it's nothing for sure now. Nothing.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): She wants to go home. But when.
(on camera): When do you think you can go home?
MULIARCHUK: God knows when. Nobody knows.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Miguel Marquez, CNN, Bucharest.
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GORANI: Well, still to come, oil prices are climbing as the EU considers sanctions on Russian energy imports. We'll bring you that story and we will explain the risks involved in delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine. As donations keep coming in from around the world. We'll be right back.
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[01:20:14]
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani live in Lviv, Ukraine. The European Union says it is ready to impose more penalties on Russia over its actions on Ukraine. This includes discussing sanctions on Russia's entire energy sector, which some countries have resisted so far, and potentially joining a U.S. led embargo of Russian oil. The EU also reached an agreement on Monday to provide an additional $551 million in military and other aid to Ukraine. Here's more from the EU foreign policy chief. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEP BORRELL, EU HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIARS: What's happening in Mariupol is a massive war crime, destroying everything bombarding and killing everybody in English in related manner. This is something awful. We have to condemn in the strongest terms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, cutting off Russian energy would be no easy task for the EU because some countries depends so much on it and diplomats warned that every country has its own red lines on this particular issue. CNN's Anna Stewart takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER (on camera): With no sign of the conflict in Ukraine easing, oil prices started the week sharply higher, and as foreign ministers arrived in Brussels. That was huge interest in whether the block might announce a ban on Russian oil imports, speeding up its current timeline of five years to phase out Russian energy and following in the footsteps of the U.S. and other Western allies who've already announced a ban on Russian oil.
No such announcement was made Monday. The EU High Commissioner said the EU stands ready to take further measures against Russia. But it wasn't the day for such decisions. He did though reference the thorny issue of energy.
BORRELL: Ukrainian war has been a kind of awakening for our conscience. For example, the energy dependency is something that we have been increasing of energy dependency from Russia for years. And now we take full conscience of the weaponization of dependencies. Dependency become a weapon. It is a weapon that is being used as a weapon. And we have to react with someone uses something as a weapon against us.
STEWART: The block depends on Russia for about 40 percent of its natural gas and over a quarter of its oil imports. European businesses and households are already struggling with record high prices.
Even without an oil embargo from the EU though Russia is feeling the pinch. Last week, the IEA, that's the International Energy Agency, said Russia may be forced to cut oil production by 30 percent due to a slump in demand.
Russian oil is struggling to find buyers and is actually now around $30 a barrel cheaper than Brent.
According to Russia state media outlet TASS, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on Monday that if Russian oil was rejected from global markets, prices could skyrocket to $300 a barrel, even $500 that is far above estimates from any analysts or experts CNN has spoken to.
Minister Novak also said that Europe does not have a substitute for Russian oil. On that point, he may be right at least for now with the EU has made clear it wants that to change so Russia can no longer wield the weapon of energy dependence. Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
GORANI: Well, countries around the world are pitching in to help Ukraine but as aid pours in delivering it, throughout the country is becoming increasingly more dangerous. CNN's Melissa Bell explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From all over the world, boxes of donations, food, medicine and clothing, now piled high and being sorted by volunteers in a disused warehouse at the Polish town of Shimshal (ph), note far from the border of Ukraine.
KATARYNA GORZALA, WAREHOUSE VOLUNTEER: At the beginning, I was really surprised that so many people wants to help but now I think I am used to it. You know, how wonderful people are.
BELL: Donations that Ukraine desperately needs. Loaded into vans to be taken to the border and then into the war torn country. The land routes from Europe are now Ukraine's lifeline. The main roads humanitarian organizations use to bring in their much needed supplies. And they are far from safe. One Ukrainian driver didn't want to be identified sharing some of his drive telling us off several places.
PRANAV SHERRY, PROJECT HOPE: I think we've kind of seen that civilian targets are not off limits in this crisis and so that's a constant issue in the back of most humanitarians minds is how do deal with the potential risk of directed attack. How do we ensure that our aid is seen as separate from as we know all of the military aid that's going into Ukraine.
[01:25:23]
BELL: Last week, Russia delivered a chilling warning.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: While we clearly said that, any cargo moving into Ukrainian territory, which we would believe is carrying weapons would be a fair game.
BELL: On Thursday, the United Nations got its first convoy of aid into the heavily damaged town of Sumy, calling it a breakthrough for cities facing quote, fatal shortages of food, water and medicine.
And as the violence worsens, the need for medical supplies to help the wounded continues to grow, as does the West's determination to help President Joe Biden signing $13.6 billion worth of aid only last week.
ROBERT MARDINI, DIRECTOR-GENERAL INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: The bottleneck is not funds because there has been a great deal of solidarity and generosity. So we now really need to step up the operation and response inside the country.
BELL: In the knowledge that the longer the conflict lasts, and the more the aid is needed, the more dangerous it will become to deliver. Melissa Bell, CNN, Szczecin (ph), Poland.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
GORANI: Still to come, seeking safety in western Ukraine. Thousands displaced by the war are now here in Lviv. We'll hear the heartbreaking story of one family, next.
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[01:31:06]
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
I'm Hala Gorani reporting live from Lviv Ukraine.
We have now learned that Ukrainian forces have just regained control of Makhariv, the city west of the capital Kyiv. And to the south, a Ukrainian officer says bombs are now falling every ten minutes in the besieged city of Mariupol. The city has spent weeks under almost constant attack by Russian forces.
This video shows the moment a Russian strike hit some factory building there. Local officials say at least one major steel plant has been destroyed.
Ukrainian officials also believe tens of thousands of residents are still trapped inside Mariupol, without water, heat, or power. They're having to melt snow for drinking water.
On Monday the European Union foreign policy chief called the situation in Mariupol a war crime. Ukraine's president has echoed that sentiment, but insists that the city will survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Hardworking, honest city of Mariupol which is being destroyed by the occupiers and being reduced to ashes but it will survive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry released this video showing Monday's attack on a shopping center in Ukraine's capital, you will remember we showed you yesterday the first images of the aftermath of that attack.
Russia claims that the mall was being used to hide rocket launchers. Ukraine is dismissing that claim saying Russia is targeting civilian areas deliberately.
And this is what the scene looks like now. Today, officials in Kyiv say at least eight people were killed, but warned that the number could very well rise. The city is now under a strict curfew until Wednesday morning.
While this is all causing so much grief for so many million people, more than 10 million people in fact, nearly a quarter of Ukraine's population have been forced from their homes as the war rages on. And many evacuees from the eastern part of the country have traveled west seeking relative safety right here in Lviv.
CNN's Don Lemon spoke with one family who escaped Russia's assault.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN HOST (voice over): Darina Rusanova (ph) was at her mother's house outside of Kharkiv when Russian bombardment drew closer.
DARINA RUSANOVA, UKRAINIAN EVACUEE: Everything was doing this --
LEMON: Shaking.
RUSANOVA: -- yes. Yes it was shaking. We were laying on the ground. And like praying we would be safe and alive.
LEMON: After taking cover with her mother and a neighbor, they are emerged to destruction.
RUSANOVA: Everything is bombed. A lot of glass was broken, the garage was entirely blown off.
LEMON (on camera): This is your house?
RUSANOVA: Yes, mine.
LEMON: Oh my goodness.
(voice over): Her mother Tatiana had lived there for 50 years. Now an evacuee with her daughter.
(on camera): Why did you come to Lviv?
TATIANA RUSANOVA, UKRAINIAN EVACUEE: My home was destroyed.
LEMON: Your home was destroyed.
(voice over): Her dog Martin, two cats, and a backpack of documents and family photographs were all she and Darina were able to bring.
D. RUSANOVA: I think I was shocked, I couldn't even cry. I didn't feel anything. I was like I am happy I'm alive. I didn't need the house. I don't need anything. I just want to be alive and safe.
And each day I was praying my mom, I, our dog are safe and that's actually all I need.
LEMON: Are there lots of people like you?
T. RUSANOVA: Many.
LEMON (voice over): The war weary, now a common sight in Lviv as many Ukrainians came here to escape Russian strikes in the east. [01:34:53]
LEMON: Lviv is a relatively safe city, as safe as you can be in war, usually more than 700,000 people live here.
(on camera): Now there are more than 200,000 new refugees. You don't have to go far to find a family or someone who has been displaced.
(voice over): Even in Lviv, the fighting is never far away.
D. RUSANOVA: Here we feel much more safely, although here also some air signals and we need to go to shelters anyway. And we cannot relax here fully.
LEMON: The war hasn't just changed her external circumstances, it has changed something deep inside.
D. RUSANOVA: I didn't know I could hate people so much, but I really hate people who came to our country, and did all that with my beloved city, with my neighbors, with my friends. A lot of people lost their homes, their families, their pets. They had to flee somewhere. Not knowing if they find shelter or not. That is so awful, I really hate all that.
LEMON: And without an end to the fighting in sight, Darina, her mother, and so many Ukrainians have no idea what to expect next. What else could change?
D. RUSANOVA: I am just here with one bag, and with my cats, and mom too, with her bag, and with a dog. And that's all our life now. We cannot really plan something, we just plan our next step for the next day.
LEMON (on camera): Day to day.
D. RUSANOVA: Yes, day to day.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Day to day.
D. RUSANOVA: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: That was Don Lemon speaking to one family. If you would like to assist people in Ukraine, you have compiled a list of organizations that have been assisting people in need of basics like, food, shelter, at CNN.com/impact.
Well I'll have more from Lviv, Ukraine at the top of the hour. First though let's bring in John Vause in Atlanta.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hala, thank you for that.
Now so far -- no survivors have been found after China Eastern Airlines flight crashed on Monday. State media also reports that search and rescue crews are likely to be hampered by bad weather.
After losing airborne contact, the Boeing 737-800 with 132 on board plummeted from around 30,000 feet, nosediving into a mountainous region outside the city of Wuzhou.
The latest now from CNN's Will Ripley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These could be the final seconds of a doomed Chinese airliner. Surveillance video from a mining company in China shows a plane hurtling headfirst into the ground.
CNN cannot verify if this video is authentic, or if that plane is China Eastern flight 5735, a flight that met its fiery end Monday, 132 people on board.
An airline statement expresses sorrowful condolences to the passengers and crew members who died.
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It can only be horrific for the passengers, just a terrible thing to endure, but it did not last long, they were going 400 miles an hour and dropping very, very fast.
RIPLEY: Chinese investigators and state media say the plane lost contact with emergency services suddenly descending 25,000 feet, more than four miles in less than three minutes. A nosedive, witnesses say ended with a fiery explosion. Huge smoke plumes and wreckage scattered in the woods.
Bad weather making it even harder to reach the remote crash site. Mountains on three sides, only one narrow path in, no electricity.
Chinese President Xi Jinping issuing a rare statement within hours, saying he was shocked. Sending a small army of investigators to the crash site in southern China's Guangxi region.
SOUCIE: The fact that the president made such a pronounced and quick response to this, tells me that they are taking it very, very seriously.
RIPLEY: This is China's first deadly commercial air crash in more than a decade. Since 2010 China made sweeping safety improvements after a series of crashes in the 1990s and 2000s.
Monday's crash involving a Boeing 737 800, now grounded by China Eastern Airlines. The dual engine jet, a workhorse for global airlines. Thousands flying around the world, not the embattled 737 max that shook Boeing to its core.
SOUCIE: Any accident hurts the entire industry, but a Boeing accident in particular at this time --
RIPLEY: A company statement says "Boeing is in contact with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and our technical experts are prepared to assist with the investigation led by China's Civil Aviation Administration." Experts say information sharing could be extremely difficult.
For the already troubled U.S.-China relationship this crash could not come at a worse time. For the families of 123 passengers and nine crew members, closure may never come.
The impact so violent investigators say even identifying remains could be nearly impossible.
Will Ripley, CNN -- Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:39:57]
VAUSE: When we come back, history in the making in the U.S. Capitol as Senate Republicans have some tough questions for the first black woman nominated to the Supreme Court. That is next right here on CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The U.S. Senate is making history, meeting with the first black woman ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. With Monday's introductions now complete, it's time for questions and some Republicans are already drawing their battle lines.
CNN's Jessica Schneider has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please raise your right hand.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An historic first for America's highest court as confirmation hearings begin for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman ever nominated to the Supreme Court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE NOMINEE: I hope that you will see how much I love our country and the constitution, and the rights that make us free.
[01:44:59]
SCHNEIDER: Senators of both parties made note of how monumental this moment is.
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): You are showing so many little girls and little boys across the country that anything and everything is possible.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I have said in the past and I think it's good for the court to look like America. So count me in on the idea of making the court more diverse.
SCHNEIDER: But Republicans previewed lines of attack they'll roll out during the question and answer sessions that begin tomorrow.
Senator Josh Hawley leading the charge laying out several cases where Jackson, while a federal trial court judge in D.C., used her discretion to hand down lighter sentences for child pornography offenders than prosecutors had requested.
SENATOR JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Prosecutors recommended 24 months in prison, Judge Jackson gave the defendant three months in prison.
SCHNEIDER: Judge Jackson will likely explain her reasoning for the lower sentences when she answers questions.
Today, Jackson defended her record.
JACKSON: I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me without fear or favor consistent with my judicial oath.
SCHNEIDER: The White House has already said her sentences were in line with what the U.S. probation office recommends. But Senator Hawley preemptively rebutted her response Monday.
HAWLEY: Some have said that the federal sentencing guidelines are too harsh on child sex crimes, especially child pornography. I must be honest, I can't say that I agree with that.
SCHNEIDER: Republicans will likely also target Judge Jackson for being quote, "soft on crime", pointing in particular to her defense of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
SENATOR JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I understand the importance of zealous advocacy. But it appears that sometimes this zealous advocacy has gone beyond the pale.
SCHNEIDER: If Jackson is confirmed, the ideological split on the 6-3 court will remain the same because she is replacing liberal Justice Stephen Breyer for whom she served as a law clerk more than 20 years ago.
JACKSON: I know that I could never fill his shoes. But if confirmed I would hope to carry on his spirit.
SCHNEIDER: Republicans are promising no personal attacks, but things are likely to get a lot more heated Tuesday and Wednesday when the questioning begins of Ketanji Brown Jackson. She will likely have to explain her record as a federal public defender, as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and her near decade as a federal judge.
Jessica Schneider, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: -- during Ukraine's 2014 Maidan revolution and now he's putting away his guitar and fighting to defend that independence.
[01:47:41] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, eight years ago, he was leading protesters in song during Ukraine's Maidan revolution. And now he has put down his guitar, and he is fighting on the front lines to save that independence from a Russian invasion. Here is CNN's Sam Kiley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Singing to protesters in Kyiv's Independent Square eight years ago as a rock star, he helped drive a pro Russian president from power.
Now the lead singer of the band Mandry Serhiy Fomenko is in uniform, fighting Vladimir Putin's invasion the old-fashioned way.
SERHIY FOMENKO, UKRAINIAN SINGER (through translator): Frankly speaking, these days have been very hard. I have a guitar, but I haven't been playing. Also the last two weeks have been very difficult because the enemy was trying to surround Kyiv so there was no music.
We evacuated people from Irpin, and it was a very difficult mission. We also had tasks in and around the city to accomplish. But I can't tell you everything.
KILEY: This though speaks loud, civilian homes ripped open, 3 million Ukrainians now refugees.
Putin says he has sent troops to save Ukraine from fascism. This is the real result.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hate, hate, I am a person who grew up in the Soviet Union. I grew up with the idea that we were brothers and sisters. And now there is nothing but hatred for them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our latest volunteers are working extremely efficient --
KILEY: The singer Fomenko joined a reserve battalion, funded by former president Petro Poroshenko, the billionaire first president after Ukraine shook off Russian influence eight years ago. It's not just Putin he blames for the war.
PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We cannot wait until the Russian people under the sanction pressure will not be happy with Putin. Because Russia has more than 50 percent of the support of the Putin aggression in killing Ukraine, that should be a sanction against these Russian people.
KILEY: The location for the billionaire's 206th battalion is a military secret but the militancy of his volunteers is not.
VOLODYMYR OMELYAN, FORMER MINISTER TURNED SOLDIER: Democracies will always win, maybe it will take longer than everybody is expecting. But Putin has chosen the path of Hitler. And we already know how Hitler ends. [01:54:53]
KILEY: For now though, Ukraine is preparing to defend the birthplace of it's modern democracy to the bitter end.
Sam Kiley, CNN -- Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for being with us this hour. I'm John Vause.
We'll be back live in Lviv, Ukraine with Hala Gorani in a moment.
But we leave you this hour with seven year old Amelia. You may remember her performance earlier this month. "Let it go" from inside a Kyiv bomb shelter. It was heard around the world.
Well Amelia has now since made it safely to Poland. She performed the Ukrainian national anthem at a charity concert over the weekend.
Here's some of them.
(MUSIC)
[01:56:13]
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