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Couple Remember the Nightmares of War; Mariupol Turned into Ashes; World Sympathizes with Ukraine's Suffering; President Biden Traveling to Europe; Businesses Warned of a Potential Cyberattack; Holocaust Survivor Killed in Ukraine; Stalemate is Possible Between Russia and Ukraine; Chinese Plane Crash Killed 132 Passengers; Alexei Navalny Not Going Out Yet. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired March 22, 2022 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world, and in the United States this hour. I'm Hala Gorani reporting live from Lviv in Ukraine.
Our breaking news this hour, after days of fighting the Ukrainian army forces say they have regained control of a key town near the capital. Makariv had sustained major damage from airstrikes, but Ukraine's military says that the country's flag is once again flowing over this community.
However, in other parts of Ukraine, the violence is still raging. Take a look. Well, Russian forces are accused of firing on any protest in Kherson and wounding at least one person. The southern city has been occupied by Russian forces for about two weeks now.
And Mariupol is still defying Russian demands to surrender. And remains under constant bombardment. With reports of strikes every ten minutes. This drone footage from a unit of Ukraine's National Guard shows explosions at an industrial compound in Mariupol.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the city is being reduced to ashes, but that it will survive.
The E.U. foreign policy chief calls the onslaught a massive war crime. And the Pentagon says the uptick in Russian airstrikes is due to ground troops failing to achieve many of their objectives.
Now Russia's war in Ukraine is approaching the one-month mark. The fighting has left hundreds dead and caused untold damage across the country. And unfortunately, there is no end in sight to the suffering.
Here is CNN's Alex Marquardt.
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: 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 the capital Kyiv, an 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. A Ukrainian officer tells CNN that bombs are falling there every 10 minutes.
Russian forces bombed an art school being used to shelter around 400 people according to the city council with the number of casualties still unknown. Satellite images show the aftermath of the bombing of that theater where 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 NAT officials see as a stalled Russian military campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The Ukrainians have continued to attack forces and they have been very effective using the equipment that we provided them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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 which fly at five times the speed of sound and are difficult for missile defense systems to shoot down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AUSTIN: I think again, the reason that he's resorting to using these types of weapons is because he is trying to reestablish some momentum.
MARQUARDT: The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is willing to speak directly to President Vladimir Putin, warning of the disastrous consequences of failure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (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.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUARDT: Alex Marquardt, CNN at the State Department.
GORANI: Well, Orysia Lutsevich is the head of the Ukraine forum at Chatham House and she is with me now from London.
[03:05:01]
Why is Mariupol, why are Russians so relentlessly bombarding and striking Mariupol trying to terrify its civilian population and really trying to subdue it. Even according to some reports, forcibly moving some of its residents to Russian controlled territory.
ORYSIA LUTSEVICH, RESEARCH FELLOW, CHATHAM HOUSE: Hala, Mariupol is key for two reasons. One is of course on the way to creating a land bridge to connect occupied Crimean Peninsula to the Russian Federation through land. Because of this point the only connection is through that long bridge Putin has built over the years.
On the other hand, Mariupol is the key sea port for Ukraine where it's used for the export of grain, steel, it's an important industrial port. And I would also add there's even another under kind of emotional reason. Is that it's been a headquarters of the Azov battalion that actually took Russians and kicks them out of occupied Mariupol in 2014.
So, if Putin wants to show this de-Nazification he wants to have those combatants and those military personnel arrested and kind of a parading show showing this is how de-Nazification looks.
GORANI: Will Putin succeed here?
LUTSEVICH: Well, obviously he has not succeeded to making city authorities and military defenders to capitulate. They've said it clearly. They will not capitulate so it will be a fight till the last bullet. And I think that is symbolically also important, but also strategically Mariupol keeps quite a lot of Russian forces engage so that they don't move on another target such as Mykolaiv or then Odessa. So, the longer Mariupol holds, the longer other coastal key cities hold under Ukrainian control.
GORANI: Right, because, I mean, we've talked a lot in the last month about how the Russians obviously have heavier weaponry, they have long range missiles, they have, they're using airstrikes as well that they can cause a lot of damage but they're having a lot of trouble taking cities and holding them. Holding them is something that considering just how overstretch this Russian military is will be another challenge altogether.
LUTSEVICH: Well, absolutely. You know, bombarding and destroying the city, it doesn't necessarily mean taking over civilian infrastructure. And in a way operationating (Ph) it, making it a base for your military and for occupation authorities and basically saying we establish control. In military terms, people know that once you bombard the city, it's very difficult to actually than control it. And very costly to restore --
GORANI: Yes.
LUTSEVICH: -- everything you've destroyed.
GORANI: Especially as you mentioned there the longer the Ukrainians resist, the more opportunity there is for western, NATO allies, to supply them with the kind of weapons they need to resist attacks from the sky as well.
LUTSEVICH: Absolutely, and we see this new appeal for several countries including the U.S., Baltic states, Eastern Europeans, the Netherlands to establish more assistance for Ukraine on the air defense. And I'm sure that NATO allies will be talking about it how this will be done on a multilateral level to ensure Ukraine can resist. But also, because the longer Ukraine resist, the better deal it will get out of this war. And it is at this point keeping a strategic momentum and superiority on the battlefield.
GORANI: Sure. And what about this top of increased sanctions against Vladimir Putin's oil and gas sector? I mean, it is an idea now for western countries to go all out? To play every sanctions card that they have? Or, in terms of keeping some leverage for the future, is it a better idea to hold back?
I mean, I've heard both analyses, this is not a question of rewarding Vladimir Putin for anything that he's done. It's just strategically what could the best approach be here right now?
LUTSEVICH: I think our approach should be as it was expressed by President Biden that Putin -- we should cripple Putin's economy and dry out his war chest not to be able to finance this war. And the same was expressed by the British prime minister who said that Putin must absolutely fail.
And I think the more forcefully we act at this point where, you know, we already see quite substantial escalation with the supersonic, with you know, nuclear rattling, you know, more verbal way. But even putting including strategic nuclear forces on alert.
GORANI: Yes.
LUTSEVICH: I think the oil and gas embargo should be clearly put on the table especially because it would take time for the European markets to adjust, find an alternative supply.
[03:10:08]
But this should be clearly communication -- communicated to Putin that this game is over. Regardless of when this happens, this is going to happen because of the strategic decision. Russia depends on oil and gas, its economy is really, you know, a resource economy. And this is what allowed Putin this re-armament program is this expansion in trade of oil and gas.
GORANI: Orysia Lutsevich of Chatham House, thank you so much for joining us live from London. The United Nations says Russia's war on Ukraine has driven nearly
three and a half million people out of the country. The vast majority are heading west to neighboring countries. And if you include those who are internally displaced, but still inside Ukraine, the number jumps to at least 10 million people. That is almost a quarter of Ukraine's total population that has now been forced from their homes.
This as the U.S. says it sees, quote, "clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes." On Monday, the Pentagon spokesperson said the U.S. is helping collect that evidence. The Defense Department said Russian forces are targeting civilians intentionally in Ukraine.
Well, the Lviv Art Palace has been turned into a makeshift distribution center for aid to Ukraine with some volunteers coming from thousands of miles away.
Here is our report from Ben Wedeman.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sometimes the kindness of strangers comes in boxes and bundles. Blankets, food, diapers, bottled water. Svetlana Gajaev drove 1,000 miles from France to deliver aid to Ukraine.
"Our small town of 2,000 people has already sent three shipments of supplies here," she tells me.
Michael Jaipur left his family in London to pitch in at this distribution center in Lviv.
MICHAEL JAIPUR, BRITISH VOLUNTEER: What inspired me to come here was seeing the women and children suffering in distress. Even the men and just seeing them being pushed out of their homes and leaving everything behind. I just had to come out and give them the help with my two hands and my two feet. And do the best that I can, and hopefully it's helping them.
WEDEMAN: Lviv's Art Palace is a hive of activity. Taken over by volunteers overcome by a deluge of donations. Relief supplies continue to arrive at this distribution center and others like it around Lviv from ordinary citizens and from abroad amidst the bitterness of this war, the milk of human kindness hasn't soured.
In the basement, Dr. Victoria Parek (Ph) sorts through thousands of boxes of medicine.
UNKNOWN: We are really thankful to them because our pharmacies are empty.
WEDEMAN: Those in need come here for help which goes only so far to dull the pain.
"We feel the support," says Zenaida Nabukah (Ph), "but without tears it's impossible to think about my home, my city Kharkiv which is completely destroyed."
And even the kindness of strangers can't change that.
Ben Wedeman, Lviv, Ukraine.
GORANI: Well, still ahead on this special edition of CNN Newsroom, U.S. President Joe Biden's new warning for American businesses about a possible Russian cyberattack. That story is next.
[03:15:00]
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GORANI: Welcome, back. U.S. intelligence has been pretty accurate in predicting Russian President Vladimir Putin's moves even if the weeks before he invaded, even I should say, in the weeks before he invaded Ukraine.
So a new warning that Russia could launch cyberattacks against U.S. businesses is getting quite a lot of attention.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more from the White House.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tonight, President Biden is preparing to embark on one of the most consequential trips of his presidency.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There will certainly be deliverables.
COLLINS: Before Biden heads to Europe for urgent talks with allies, he spent 58 minutes on the phone with his counterparts in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PSAKI: They discussed their serious concerns about Russia's brutal tactics in Ukraine, including its attacks on civilians.
COLLINS: Also tonight, President Biden is warning companies to harden cyber defenses, quote, "immediately" based on evolving intelligence that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks.
ANNE NEUBERGER, DEPUTY U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This is a call to action and a call to responsibility for all of us.
COLLINS: Russia is claiming it summon the U.S. ambassador and threaten to cut diplomatic relations with the U.S. after President Biden called President Putin a war criminal and pure thug.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A pure thug.
WENDY SHERMAN, U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: We think it's important always to maintain diplomatic relationships because that's a method of communication. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Biden's upcoming visit to Europe follows several rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine that haven't yielded any real progress, as Russia has continued to ramp up its attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Each day brings more harrowing attacks. More innocent men, women, and children killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: On Wednesday, Biden will travel to Brussels for a full day of meetings with critical allies on Thursday before heading to Poland on Friday and sitting down with Polish President Duda on Saturday to discuss the crisis in Ukraine.
[03:20:01]
Despite some current and former Ukrainian officials calling on Biden to also visit Ukraine, U.S. officials say it's not on the schedule.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: You have to remember we have discouraged Americans from going into Ukraine. This is a country at war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: While Biden is in Europe, Poland is expected to provost conducting an international peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, but top U.S. officials are ruling out any U.S. military involvement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS-GREENFIELD: The president has been very clear that we will not put American troops on the ground in Ukraine. We don't want to escalate this into a war with the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: That was CNN's Kaitlan Collins reporting there from the White House.
All right. The European Union adopted its long-awaited -- long-awaited strategic compass document on Monday, it's part of a plan to beef up the block's military defenses as Russia goes to war against Ukraine. Here is more from the E.U. foreign policy chief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEP BORRELL, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: It is certainly a turning point for the European Union as a security provider and very much an important step for the European security and defense policy. I think that the adoption of this document sends a strong signal of unity and resolve and it comes at the very, very important moments, because we certainly need to increase our capacities on security and defense. Certainly, it is not an answer to the Ukrainian war, we start working two years ago, but it's very timely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Josep Borrell there. Meantime, E.U. leaders also agree they are ready to impose more penalties on Russia over its actions in Ukraine. This includes potentially targeting Russia's energy sector with sanctions.
For more on this, let's bring in CNN's Natasha Bertrand in Brussels. I was speaking with the Lithuanian foreign minister, and though he did concede that there was more discussion in the direction of agreeing to more sanctions on Russia's energy sector that they weren't, it didn't sound like they were close to any kind of agreement on this.
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Hala, there are still so many disagreements within the E.U. itself about how exactly to target Russia's energy sector without causing a lot of pain to the Ukrainian countries themselves.
So, the Baltic states right now they are all in, they really want to impose sanctions on the energy sector. But Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, they say that it's not possible at this point because of how much their countries and the E.U. writ large relies on Russian oil and gas. And so, it just remains to be seen whether there is any kind of agreement that it's able to be had here.
And what are the red lines of course? Because if Russia were to escalate, for example, in the form of a chemical weapons attack, or a complete bombardment of Kyiv, would that change minds within Europe about the need to really hit Russia where it hurts, which of course is its energy sector.
Because, as we've seen, Russia has not been deterred so far by the sanctions that have been imposed by the west. Really tough sanctions on over 600 Russian oligarchs, on Russian businesses, on banks. And their bombardment of Ukraine has really only escalated in its brutality. And that is because, according to the U.S. and western officials that we have been speaking to, Russia's ground campaign has stalled.
And because of that they have only resorted to more brutal tactics from the air including shelling, airstrikes, and those have yet to abate. And according to one western intel official that we spoke to they still believe that despite all the sanctions that have been imposed by the E.U., by the U.S., despite all the losses that Russia has incurred over the last month, thousands of Russian soldiers that have been killed, Russian president Vladimir Putin still believes, and still wants, to take the entire country of Ukraine, Hala.
GORANI: Natasha Bertrand, thanks very much live in Brussels.
And still ahead, a children's arcade in central Ukraine is now sheltering dozens of refugees. We'll hear from one family who escaped Mariupol after weeks of attacks.
[03:25:00]
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GORANI: Welcome back. I'm Hala Gorani in Lviv, Ukraine.
An update on our breaking news this hour. Ukraine's army says it has managed to regain control of Makariv, a city located west of the capital Kyiv. But to the south, it is still a scene of carnage and destruction.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the besieged city of Mariupol is being reduced to ashes. The city has injured weeks now of near constant Russian attacks. A Ukrainian soldier says bombs are now falling every 10 minutes.
And while some have escaped from the city Ukrainian officials believe that tens of thousands are still trapped there without water, heat, or power. And new satellite images give you an idea of the scale of the disruption. Entire apartment buildings burning. And Russian artillery deployed around the city.
And Ukraine's capital, there is a strict curfew in effect until Wednesday morning after that powerful explosion that ripped through a Kyiv shopping mall on Monday.
[03:30:06]
We are being told eight people were killed but officials on the ground warned that number could still rise.
In between attacks, residents of Ukraine's capital continue picking up the pieces. Video from Monday shows a man going through his belongings in an apartment building after shelling ripped the wall clear off his home away.
Well, the U.N. reports nearly one in every four people in Ukraine has been forced from their home by the Russian invasion. More than three million had fled the country and nearly six and a half million others are internally displaced,
CNN's Ivan Watson spoke with one family from Mariupol.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Children at play, frolicking in an arcade meant to host games of laser tag. But these are not normal times. The owners here have turned their children's entertainment business into a makeshift shelter. A place to house dozens of Ukrainians who just fled the besieged port city of Mariupol.
DMYTRO SHVETS, FLED MARIUPOL: In the last couple of weeks, it would be like hell. WATSON: Dmytro Shvets and his wife Tanya and their daughter Vlada,
escaped Mariupol on Thursday. They endured weeks of Russian bombardment from artillery and airstrikes.
SHVETS: Each 15, 20 minutes, you can listen the airplane. It was like targeted, targeted. And the sounds hew, ba-bam.
WATSON: Tania kept a journal. March 2nd, say seven of the war, nothing has changed. She writes, no electricity or heat. And there is no running water now as well. They lived in the basement, and when they are merged, Tania took photos and videos of their apartment building pock marked with bullet holes, unexploded shells in residential streets. Desperate people looting a bomb-damaged store for food.
SHVETS: The problem is water. There is no water to drink.
WATSON: They scavenged for drinking water. Pulling buckets from street sewers.
SHVETS: We were taking the water from the rainwater. We are taking, we have been waiting for the rainwater.
WATSON: Heavy shelling on nearby houses, Tania wrote on March 5th. We all went to sleep with the thought of how to survive and stay alive. One day, a shell exploded near Dmytro as the stood in line for water.
SHVETS: The bomb fell down and killed like three people in front of us. One guy was without hit, who was like taking the water. Another one in the line was like a half of the head and the last one was killed. With my own eyes like not in a general, like three people completely I saw killed. And we were making a grave for them,
WATSON: You dug a grave for them
SHVETS: Digging, yes.
WATSON: In your neighborhood?
SHVETS: Yes.
WATSON: Finally, it was all too much.
SHVETS: The last day, I saw my father because my mother was completely destroyed mentally, I mean, it was like completely depression. She was sitting in the cellar and she haven't left the cellar since the beginning of the war, just staying inside. Unfortunately.
And, the last day I saw my father, and he begged me, like please, guys leave, leave somewhere. I don't know where. Just escape this. Escape this. And he was crying.
WATSON: Dmytro and his wife and daughter piled into a car with friends and spent 15 hours driving through Russian frontlines to escape the siege of Mariupol. Their parents refused to leave. SHVETS: I don't know if I'm going to see my parents or listen my
parents again. I don't know. No idea. It's like living from day-to- day. Today, we are live, tomorrow maybe not.
WATSON: In the relative safety of this arcade built to entertain children, the kids welcomed the escape from the conflict.
"I really want to say hello to other children," Tania's seven-year-old daughter Vlada says. "And I want the war to and quickly."
Her parents appear haunted, clearly traumatized. Tania gets a call from her mother in Mariupol, weeping. And saying goodbye because she fears she will not survive the night.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Dnipro, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, another grim reminder that the horrors of war are relentlessly repeated. Is the death of a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor. He was killed during a Russian strike on kharkiv. Boris Romanchenko had survived four concentration camps including Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen during World War II. But it is this war started by Vladimir Putin to, in his words, de-Nazify Ukraine that ultimately claimed this man's life.
President Zelenskyy's office noted Romanchenko's death, saying each passing day makes it increasingly clear what Russia's de-Nazification is really all about.
[03:35:04]
And if you would like to assist people in Ukraine who need shelter, water or food, go to cnn.com/impact to find ways to help.
All right, I'll have more from Lviv in the coming hours, but first, let's go to Rosemary Church in Atlanta. Rosemary?
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much, Hala, for reporting from Lviv.
And still to come here on CNN, is Russia's war on Ukraine nearing a stalemate? Assessments from the U.S. and NATO just ahead.
[03:40:00]
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Officials from NATO to the Pentagon are giving us a better sense of military campaign that remain stalled on the ground. A senior NATO official say the signs are pointing to a stalemate in Russia's war on Ukraine from ground forces to combat aircraft that have failed to achieve the advantage in the air.
But the official says Russia isn't backing down. It's assembling reinforcements as it continues to resort to less precise and more brutal weaponry against civilian in targets.
A similar assessment from the Pentagon spokesperson who says Russian forces have failed to achieve many of their objectives on the ground. He says Russia is increasingly turning to long range strikes from cruise missiles to artillery fire.
Steven Horrell is a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, he joins me now from Annapolis in Maryland. Thank you so much for being with us.
STEVEN HORRELL, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN POLICY ANALYSIS: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: So Russia's war in Ukraine is apparently nearing a stalemate that is according to a NATO intelligence official where neither side can win and both refused to surrender. Would you agree with that assessment?
HORRELL: That is certainly a possible outcome. A stalemate on the ground, but there is also a wide range of what that could be if they get to a stalemate. And I think a lot of the cases it would be a lot worse than anyone perceiving a ceasefire or a truce.
If you look what happened in eastern Ukraine you had this opposing sides dig in, get entrenched that still be exchanging artillery. And if the current lay down that would be Russia still continuing to shell Ukrainian population centers.
CHURCH: So, if this war in Ukraine is indeed nearing a stalemate, it appears Ukraine's President Zelenskyy is aware of this and is therefore ready to negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin but Putin isn't ready. So, what happens next, what are the possible outcomes of a stalemate situation?
HORRELL: The peace talks that are ongoing and what's been reported to be coming out of them are very interesting. I think and even in his remarks to the U.S. Congress where President Zelenskyy said I recognized that we're not likely to be allowed into NATO, he's putting that sort of neutrality, I think on the table in those peace talks.
But I would expect that the trade-off for that neutrality would be some security guarantee. The U.S., U.K., Turkey have been mentioned as guarantors of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and such a ceasefire situation. But in that case, I would also expect that president Zelenskyy in Ukraine would want that Ukrainian territory to be that from before 2014. I think the question should --
(CROSSTALK)
CHURCH: Of course, Russia wants a whole lot more than just Ukraine saying we won't be a part of NATO, right? So, I mean, at this stage, Presidents Zelenskyy has to be very careful that he doesn't compromise too much.
HORRELL: Very challenging to think of what could look like a win for President Putin in Moscow if there is a stalemate sort of a situation. Look at the desired strategic end state, it's a completely compliant, totally non-western leading Ukraine, that seems almost impossible. And with all the expectations, I think he built up of a quick victory it's hard to see what sort of concessions would be acceptable at all to Russia.
CHURCH: And of course, Russian bombardments from afar continue targeting civilians, and growing and intensity and brutality. But as this war becomes bogged down, how much do you worry about what Putin may do in the midst of his desperation, he is back against the wall here, given we have now learned that he has used his hypersonic missiles, and will likely use more. Do you worry this could expand to a NATO/Russia conflict, possibly even by miscalculation?
HORRELL: That is definitely a worry, and that sort of escalation it's very important for Ukraine to continue to get -- continue military assistance from the west, that's coming overland now from NATO countries and I think Russia has to realize how important the continued resupply of Ukraine by the west is. So as those become targets, that becomes a lot more of a risk for that NATO/Russia escalation.
CHURCH: And is Russia's relentless bombardment of Mariupol in particular part of Russia's effort to create a land bridge to the Russian mainland from the Black Sea, and essentially cut Ukraine off from the coast to create a landlocked nation, and could Putin accomplish that, and perhaps other initial strategical goals that he had?
[03:45:08]
HORRELL: Mariupol has been talked about as key terrain since the initial sort of stalemate in eastern Ukraine in the Donbas. That port city and port highway juncture that's long been thought of as key terrain to link Russian occupied Crimea with the Russian-led separatists in eastern Ukraine.
And the effort that they have expanded to knock that city down and try to conquer it indicates just how important it is. Expanding that further west to the port city of Mykolaiv and Odessa probably more difficult for Russian forces.
CHURCH: All right, Steven Horrell, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Good to talk to you.
HORRELL: You are very welcome. Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: Another story we are following, a senior U.S. air safety investigator will help the Chinese government try and determine why a China Eastern Airlines flight crashed on Monday. The Boeing jet carrying 132 people lost contact before falling thousands of meters over the city of Wuzhou. So far, no survivors have been found according to Chinese state media.
And CNN's Steven Jiang joins me now from Beijing with more on this. Steven, video of this plane going down, it's chilling. And we still don't know why it suddenly fell out of the sky. What is the latest on the investigation, and of course, help that is apparently on the way?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Rosemary, the Chinese investigators dozens of them on the scene now of course face this daunting task of locating, identifying, and then collecting a lot of the pieces and debris of this aircraft.
Now, as you can imagine, their most important and urgent task right now is to find the two so-called, black boxes that already plane's flight data recorders, as well as the cockpit voice recorder. Now these are the recorders that will potentially hold crucial information help the investigators find out what happened at the final moments of this fateful flight to help them find out how the plane behaved and what was being said between the pilots in the cockpit in those, you know, final moments.
And because this is a Boeing aircraft there is also a U.S. investigative team already assembled led by a senior investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board and he is joined by representatives from Boeing but also G.E., the engine maker, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration.
Now this team is now on standby. It is not clear whether or not they will be allowed to come to China anytime soon, but there are things of course that can be done even with them being -- not being on the ground critically information sharing.
Right now, of course, there are some concerns about whether or not this kind of information sharing will be hampered because of political tensions between the two governments, but I think most people believe these are all professionals on both sides who will do their job properly and cooperatively.
Now, given how the plane supposedly crashed, even though the government here still brand -- still branding their mission as search and rescue, this is increasingly turning into a recovery mission. So right now, of course, what's most important for the investigators to do is to piece together all the evidence from the ground, but also talking to eyewitnesses as well as looking to the video as you mentioned to really find out what happened to this modern jetliner.
This is a very complex task that could take months or even years to complete that they are obviously under a lot of pressure because grieving families and the general public demanding quick answers but they really need to take their time.
But Rosemary, a very dark chapter in Chinese civil aviation history because before this accident this country's airlines had been flying continuously and safely for over 100 million hours. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Yes, simply horrifying. Just dreadful for those, the families of the victims there.
Steven Jiang, many thanks joining us live from Beijing. We appreciate it.
And still to come, we are waiting a verdict from a court hearing for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Stay with us.
[03:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Well, right now Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is in court hearing the verdict to new charges against him. Prosecutors are seeking a 13-year prison sentence for Navalny of allegations of fraud and contempt of court.
And CNN's Nada Bashir joins me now from London. So, Nada, what more are you learning about these new charges against Alexei Navalny, this imminent verdict, and of course the timing of all this coming while Putin wages his war on Ukraine.
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, Rosemary, the details are on this verdict are coming in just now as we speak. As you mentioned, there we know that the prosecution is seeking to send Navalny to a maximum security of penal colony for 13 years on those charges of contempt of court and fraud.
Now he and his team have consistently denied these allegations. He is already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony just outside of Moscow. And he has continuously maintained that this is being done to silence him as an opponent of President Putin.
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Now recently in January Navalny and several of his top aides were added to Russia's terrorist and extremist federal register. His opposition movement has already been deemed a terrorist organization, an extremist organization and was shut down. But of course, the timing of this is important.
We have seen over recent weeks real crackdown on opposition in Russia, and of course, a real crackdown on signs of opposition to the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin of course pushing that narrative that this is a special military operation, not a war. And Navalny recently actually shared a message on Instagram urging Russians to oppose the war in Ukraine.
Now we wait to see whether or not the court will rule to send Navalny to this maximum security penal colony for 13 years. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right. We'll wait to see what happens there. But of course, most of us pretty sure what the outcome would be. Nada Bashir joining us live from London. Many thanks.
And thank you for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back with another hour of breaking news coverage after this short break. So, stay with us.
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