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President Biden Gives Speech In Warsaw, Poland, Condemning Russian Invasion Of Ukraine; Russian Forces Strike Fuel Storage Facility In City Of Lviv In Western Ukraine; President Biden States During Speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin Cannot Remain In Power; White House Official Clarifies That President Biden Not Calling For Regime Change In Russia; Activist Describes Extensive Damage And Destruction Of Mariupol, Ukraine, By Invading Russian Forces. Aired 2- 3p ET

Aired March 26, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A war criminal.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: -- and now calling for regime change.

BLITZER: Major, major developments indeed. The president of the United States, I think it's fair to say, not mincing any words at all in blasting Putin, the leader of Russia.

To our viewers, thanks very much for joining us. I'm Wolf Blitzer here in Warsaw, Poland. I will be back later today, a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. CNN Newsroom continues right here with my good friend Jim Acosta. Stay with us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington, and we are following major breaking news this hour. President Biden in Poland moments ago in a flamethrower of a speech, declaring the Russian President Vladimir Putin should no longer be the leader of his country as he warned Putin against moving an inch onto NATO territory. Russian missiles are streaking Lviv, Ukraine, just an hour's drive away from the NATO territory.

Let's begin with CNN's John Berman who is in Lviv, Ukraine, for us. John, this caught everybody by surprise, I know where you are, because things have been relatively quiet in Lviv when you are compare it to the rest of the country, and on the same day that President Biden is giving this fiery speech in Poland, what more are you learning about what is happening on your end?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it was interesting, President Biden in his speech warned Russia not the touch one inch of NATO territory. He didn't, but he got pretty close, right. I'm about an hour's drive from the Polish border, which is NATO territory, and today Russia carried out a series of airstrikes on this city, Lviv, in western Ukraine. You're looking at pictures now. That was an oil, a fuel, I should say, storage facility that was hit,

and I believe is still ablaze as we head into tonight. There were three explosions before that was set on fire, and then about an hour and a half later, we heard a new series of explosions. And just a short time ago a statement from the mayor of Lviv did confirm that there was a hit on the infrastructure in this city, a hit on infrastructure. He said firefighters are working to put out the fires there, but he did also add that there were no strikes on residential areas.

Can you hear that? That's an air raid siren again. We haven't heard an air raid siren since the one that came shortly before we heard the blast that ended up being the strikes on that fuel storage facility. But once again, we are hearing air raid sirens in the city. It had been relatively quiet here for days, Jim.

But what's notable, again, is the location of Lviv. It's in the far western part of the country. This is a city of some 800,000 people. This has been a transit hub for millions of Ukrainians as they try to get out of this country safely, so the population here has swelled. People consider themselves relatively safe here.

They were out on the streets today en masse shopping, eating. I saw a wedding party getting photographed today just a couple of hours before what you are looking at there, the airstrike on that fuel storage facility, the smoke rising from it before the sunset. Firefighters were on the scene working feverishly to put out the blaze.

And again, this came just a short time before President Biden gave his speech in Warsaw just over the border, saying to Vladimir Putin, don't dare touch an inch of NATO territory. The president also harkened back to history, and I think one thing I want to point out, is history is not the past for the people of Ukraine. Not at all. You don't have to go far to find a Ukrainian whose grandmother who was in the gulag because of Stalin, for instance. I literally was speaking to someone today who told us their grandmother was in the gulag.

You don't have to go far to find people who lost friends in battles over the last few years. They've been at war, in their minds, with Russia since 2014, since the fighting in the west. So history is very much a part of their lives, and so when President Biden makes reference to that, it is something that people here, I think, feel acutely very acutely, Jim.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. John Berman, we can hear those air raid sirens behind you. Please stay safe, and keep us posted if anything develops on your end. It could be a busy night there in Lviv. John Berman, thank you very much.

And let's go now to CNN's Phil Mattingly in Warsaw, Poland, where President Biden just wrapped up a major speech. Phil, this was, as I was saying a moment ago, a flame thrower of a speech directed at Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian leader not to touch one inch of NATO territory, and saying that he can no longer remain in power, or he should no longer remain in power.

[14:05:07]

I am curious, Phil, sometimes the administration is careful about saying whether or not they're talking about regime change. Is the White House saying that President Biden is indeed or is that something perhaps that you guys are trying to track down at this moment? What is the latest?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Still trying to track that down right now. I am not totally sure that was planned based on how the remarks actually played out, but I also think it underscores the view that the president has long had of Vladimir Putin that has only hardened, grown darker, grown more caustic over the course of the last several weeks.

Look, Jim, you know this very well, oftentimes he'll try and set expectations in advance of his speech, and the White House set the expectations very high, and it seems in the wake of this speech that the president delivered on that. A lengthy speech, probably a speech that will be remembered in his administration in terms of its ability to tie this moment to history, the parallels to communism, to the Soviet Union, to the Berlin Wall, to the Iron Curtain, and the importance of not just eastern Europe, not just Europe writ large, but of Poland where we are right now in Warsaw, to that moment, to that struggle, to that fight, and how that ties to the fight that the U.S., Europe finds itself watching and happening in Ukraine, and participating in to some degree from the outside.

But the president also making clear that Poland is a NATO ally, the NATO alliance in general, which I think has been reinvigorated by what we've seen over the course of the last month stands critical. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yesterday, I met with the troops that are serving alongside our Polish allies to bolster NATO's front line defenses. The reason, we want to make clear, is their movement on Ukraine, don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. We have a sacred obligation --

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: -- we have sacred obligation under Article Five to defend each and every inch of NATO territory with the full force of our collective power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Jim, it was an unequivocal message, and just one of the many unequivocal messages in terms of the U.S.'s willingness to stand by Ukraine throughout this, stand by eastern Europe and Europe overall throughout this, but also a very clear call to European leaders, to the leaders of western democracies, about the stakes of this moment, the urgency of this moment, and the necessity to do more than just say the right things, that this is going to take time, it's going to take work. It's likely going to cause pain in everyone's domestic economies.

We've seen it play out over the course of the last month, but it is an absolute necessity given the challenge of this time, and I think it is a challenge that has become so vivid, so visceral to some degree, and so acute over the course of the last month, and that more than anything else was what the president wanted to convey in these remarks.

But no question about it, the president saying explicitly that President Putin should no longer be in power. That's the headline. That is new, and that's very significant, Jim.

ACOSTA: No question about it. Phil Mattingly, and I'm sure White House reporters are going to be peppering the traveling press aides who are going to be on this trip for some more answers on all of this as I know you will be doing that as well. Phil Mattingly, thank you very much.

And joining me now is retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Peter Zwack, a former senior U.S. defense attache to Russia, and Larry Diamond, director of the of the Center of Democracy Development and Rule of Law at Stanford. He's the author of "Ill Winds, Saving Democracy from Russia Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency."

Larry, thanks so much being with us, General, thanks so much for being with us. Larry, let me ask you first about the president's speech a few moments ago. How significant do you think it is that President Biden said that Vladimir Putin could no longer remain in power, should no longer remain in power.

Is that remark a gamechanger? We know a few moments ago Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, said that's for the Russian people to decide, not an American president. Of course, they don't exactly have free and fair elections in Russia.

LARRY DIAMOND, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION: Well, I don't think it's a gamechanger, Jim, because we don't have the power on our own to bring about a change of leadership in Russia. But I think that the speech overall is a gamechanger in its Churchillian call for democratic resolve among the entire NATO and, by extension, really, global democratic alliance.

And he reminded Americans at a time when I think they need to be reminded after a period of complacency after all these wars that every generation has had to defeat democracy's moral foes. Those were his words.

[14:10:00]

And every generation is called upon to rise out of its apathy and its absorption with its own affairs and realize that we remain in the existential struggle against tyranny, and now we are again. And I think he is exposing the stakes here for the American people and the NATO alliance.

ACOSTA: And General Zwack, Biden, the president, also reiterated the idea that Putin made a critical error in thinking the west and NATO would not be unified. We heard during the speech that the president was essentially shaping this up as a struggle between democracy and autocracy. He has done that on many occasions. Strategically, how important has this trip and how important was that speech to Biden and his strategy of rallying NATO around this cause of standing with Ukraine and standing up to Putin?

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK (RET), U.S. ARMY: Jim, it was strategic. I think that it was a really, really, the speech was really, really well done, and it touched on several strategic points. Number one, it framed for Europe and the greater likeminded world how we are not afraid. And basically, it was a rallying call, is a rallying call that has been shown by deeds and not just words, and certainly in last six to eight weeks. So one, this was galvanizing and unifying for NATO.

Here's another strategic point. He reached out to Russian people in language that would be visceral for them. He invoked the memories of the Nazi invasion of Barbarossa, the siege of Leningrad, and the fact that the Russians, the Soviets, the Russians suffered hugely, and then transferred it into a visualization of the horrors happening in Ukraine today, telling the Russians, because for the Russians a lot of the narrative, the justification of this is going back and twisting the narrative of World War II and giving them the justification, where for -- and when I was in Russia often, going out to the cemeteries and the ceremonies for the Great Patriotic War is deep and deep to them.

And I think President Biden was able to turn that around while also reaching out to Russian people who, the older ones, the grandparents, the babushkas, World War II and these horrors are not just history, they are in memory. He mentioned that as well. A very, very well executed speech passionate.

ACOSTA: And I see you nodding there, Larry, if you want to chime in on that. You heard the president there saying a few moments ago that the Russian people are not the enemy of the American people. He was really trying to drive a wedge, the president was, between Putin and the people of Russia.

DIAMOND: That's right, Jim. General Zwack would know better than most because he served as our most senior military representative and not that long ago, so he is acutely well aware of this. And many of us who have been there and engaged Russians know that there is, it may not be a majority, but a strong, younger, forward looking liberal element that is simply appalled by this.

And even one of the more extended oligarchical wealthy supporters of Putin over the last two decades, Anatoly Chubais, has now defected, and I think we need to try to promote more defections and cracks in his ranks.

But most of all, Jim, we need a much more sophisticated information campaign to try directly to reach the Russian people in innovative ways on their mobile phones, through their messaging, in a variety of ways that we haven't really tried before that push out the envelope to try to bring to them the truth about what their country is doing in Ukraine and how pointless and destructive it is, not only to the 44 million people of Ukraine, but to the more than 150 million people of Russia.

ACOSTA: General, how about that? How important is that going to be? You worked inside Russia, you know many of your counterparts and had good relations with them, professional relations with them during your time as an attache. How do we get this message, or how does the U.S. communicate this message directly to the Russian people and get around what the president was really talking about during parts of his speech that Putin has the propaganda blockade essentially in effect where the Russians are as a matter of public policy trying to keep out anything that flies in the face of the party line, the Kremlin line?

[14:15:21]

How does the rest of the world do that? How do they get around that?

ZWACK: I think that there are, again, there are two -- there is an operational front, which is the horrific fight for Ukraine. And that is, as we talked earlier, the longer the Ukrainians hold out, they are putting extreme pressure on what may be the decisive front. And that is the hearts and minds and perceptions of the Russian people.

I believe that the Russians see the world or paint the world through a prism of existential threats. There are real ones they've had in their long history, including the Mongols and the Nazis, existential, perceived threats, and all the perceived threats of what you see in NATO, and then what we would call contrived threats, which is what this regime does. It filters and builds on these perceived threats, paints NATO and the United States as the equivalent of modern day fascists with Ukraine as an agent.

And breaking through that firewall is the decisive battle, because my experience on the ground, and I have been in and out of there for 33 years, I have been to a lot of the memorials and have gone to a lot of the battlefields, is the Russians are not endlessly enduring and compliant. They desperately want the believe their nation's narrative, they desperately want to believe Putin.

But I think that it's getting through, it's going to shake them, and eventually, and we see it already is these tremors in the military and their security forces, and thousands of people being arrested. This is just the beginning of a strategic, geostrategic phenomena that may actually take not as long as we think. If I may throw it. So the --

ACOSTA: Fascinating. All right, well, excellent analysis from both of you. General Zwack, Larry Diamond, thank you very much. We'll see what the reaction is, I am assuming there's going to be more reaction coming out of Moscow to the president's speech. We appreciate both of you joining us this afternoon. We appreciate it.

Much more on our breaking news coverage of Russian missiles striking Lviv as President Biden visits neighboring Poland. Don't go anywhere. We will have more on all of this. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:22:05] ACOSTA: Back now to our breaking news in Lviv in western Ukraine where

a fuel storage facility was hit by Russian missiles today while President Biden was just across the border in Poland. I'm joined now but CNN's Don Lemon and John Berman. They're both on the ground in Lviv.

And joining me now, Don, you were there just a short while ago, and I suppose had to hustle out of there because of the risk to just being in that area, and John, I know you have been there for several days now, and I know you can both speak to the fact that this is just unusual to see this level of activity in that part of Ukraine. I know we have seen some here and there, but Don, to you first. Your thoughts of what you saw on the scene?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we were both here, and John was actually on the air, and I think that you were on with a general when the air raid sirens, Wesley Clark, am I correct?

BERMAN: General Wesley Clark, we hear the air raid sirens going off.

LEMON: And I looked to see what was happening, and then we went downstairs and rushed to the scene, got there as quickly as possible. John and I talked about this earlier. I was surprised at how close this actually is to the center of town, it is in Lviv itself, not in the city center proper, but I was thinking it was going to take a while to get, there because the shot we had here, it looks like it was further in the distance, and they said there was a valley before we got there.

But lo and behold, we got in the car, and we were there within 10 minutes maybe, and that is with traffic. And so we got there. It was a residential neighborhood. There were people leaving the neighborhood, emergency workers trying to get people out, and there were obviously a number of different emergency personnel on the scene, firefighters, ambulances, police officers, military folks as well directing traffic.

And so we went through, and they directed us to a place where we could go, and then we came up on this place. But when we got there, John, the concern was one of the tanks that was close to one of the tanks, and they thought that it might actually catch fire and blow as well, so they kept pushing us back and pushing us back. And Jim, you are right, they pushed us back for safety, and also in case there was another strike.

BERMAN: Which there was. People should know that after this, and you are looking at this fuel storage facility on fire there, after this, about an hour, hour-and-a-half later, we have heard a series of additional explosions that the mayor of Lviv put out that said some kind of additional infrastructure facility was hit. He didn't say what, but he said that firefighters were working to put that out as well. What he did say is that there were no residential areas hit in the second round of the air strikes.

LEMON: But look at that, John. I saw the pictures on the air for a short while after we left, and when I got there, I was surprised at just the enormity of this fire, just how big it is. And the smell that this plumes and plume of black smoke, and then that just big, roaring orange fire.

[14:25:05]

And you could smell the gas burning. I talked to one of the firefighters on the scene and asked him what it was through the interpreter, and he said it's diesel, it was diesel that was burning. So it was pretty darn scary, and in these situations you don't know, why they are targeting Lviv of all places.

BERMAN: Well, they're targeting fuel facilities because of the logistics. It's the logistics of the military effort here of the Ukrainians who have been fighting back, in some cases very successfully, against the Russian forces there. You can see the precision that the Russians are capable of when they want to.

LEMON: When they want to.

BERMAN: Here, because you were a block away from houses and residents.

LEMON: No, we were there. The houses were right there, we were maybe two football fields away from this, three football fields away from the actual fire. And from the distance, it looked like they were donning hazmat suits, but those were heat shield suits so they can get close to the fire without being burned, those big silver bubble space looking suits that they have.

But a couple times, you saw live on the air, John, I was talking to you, and the firefighters were being moved back, the fire was pushing them back, and they lost control of the hose at one point. So it's a dangerous situation. I can still smell the smoke on my clothing and in my nostrils there.

BERMAN: Just a little bit more of the context, again, this is one of the western most cities here in Ukraine, certainly the biggest western point here. And this is a transit point for many of the millions of Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing the country. It's normally a city of about 800,000, well more than that now. So it's scary for the people who have fled other parts of the country to be here now only to hear the explosions.

And actually, I think we have, we're going to play the explosions here for your so you can hear them. You're not going to see anything, but listen closely, and you're going to hear three blasts. Here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSIONS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So that is what we heard.

LEMON: And I was in the room, and I thought, wow the wind is really going out there, but it was right after the air sirens went off.

BERMAN: And I do think it is fair to ask, Don, given that President Biden was due to speak just over the border, it's only an hour drive to the Polish border from here, the timing before the president's speech, and everyone knows this is where the western media is. Everyone knows that if something gets set on fire in Lviv, the pictures are going to get around the world, if somehow this was some kind of message. I don't know if it was a message of strength from Vladimir Putin, but a message.

LEMON: Of desperation.

BERMAN: Maybe.

LEMON: And one of terror and of fear. That is also a tactic, as we both know, of war is to terrorize people and to scare them. Could it be to send a message to the west, to send a message to the president of the United States and to NATO, possibly? But we don't know at this point, and who knows what Vladimir Putin is thinking.

And it's also, the timing of this, as you said, the president at the Polish border, but also when the Russian official said yesterday, we are going to scale back, the first phase of this mission, we have accomplished it. We know that that is rhetoric, that is B.S., and then to move into this, because this is nowhere near the Donbas area. We couldn't be further away in this country and a major city. So this does not appear to be a pulling back or a change in strategy from the mission. This appears to be either desperation just to show strength, or to terrorize.

BERMAN: I'm glad you are back safely from the site where those missiles struck. There is a lot more to come. This is CNN's special live coverage. More right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:33:28]

ACOSTA: Back now to our breaking news in Lviv, Ukraine, where a fuel storage facility was hit by Russian missiles today not far from where President Biden was just across the border in Poland.

Artist and activist Diana Berg is with me know. She escaped the devastation in Mariupol, which has just been atrocious and has shocked the world. I guess, Diana, thank you so much for joining us. I wanted to get your quick reaction to what you heard from President Biden. I don't know if you watched the speech, but from your perspective, was it good to hear the American president in neighboring Poland, I guess, issuing those kinds of warning to Vladimir Putin? What were your thoughts?

DIANA BERG, ACTIVIST AND ARTIST WHO FLED MARIUPOL: I think it wasn't not only me, too, who heard the speech of Biden, but I think that those missiles, the explosions, the rockets that headed to Lviv directly here a couple of hours ago, that was probably one of saying hi, greetings to Biden's visit to Europe and Poland.

So, I think that everyone is watching what's happening, and we are really appreciate how President Biden is showing his concern about Ukraine and actually support.

[14:35:00]

But unfortunately, how -- no matter how much you do to support Ukraine, whether it's helping with humanitarian aid, it is taking escapees and refugees or providing with military help, it's never enough when it comes to war with Russia. So we are very grateful to U.S. and all international partners, but sorry, it is not enough when it comes to Russia. There is no such thing as enough. And just recent rockets, missiles just proved it.

ACOSTA: Diana, I know that you escaped Mariupol, you still have some friends who are there. For our viewers who see the pictures and we are showing some of the pictures now, it is absolutely heartbreaking what has happened to that city. Tell us what life has been like in Mariupol? And how are your friends doing there? Are you even able to speak with them?

BERG: The thing is that the most devastating thing is not only how Russia is exterminating the city to the ground and how people have to survive there in that ruins, but it's total informational blockade. So if you can contact someone from Mariupol, if you see they are online after one month of being offline, it only means that they just escaped. There is unfortunately no way to chat or to talk to, almost to zero possibility to talk to anybody in Mariupol.

But thank God, people during last week, they managed to escape, not much, not many of them, but only up to, I think up to less than 100 people, and around 200,000 people, sorry, are still staying there. And the good news is that our friends and close ones managed to do that, to escape.

And just today, we -- our dear friend and very close colleague just came today, and I hope he will be able to talk soon. But this month in Mariupol in this besieged city, was a very shocking experience that no one is ready to. So, he is kind of a most fresh, if I can say so, source of information about what is there. And what I hear is just shocking. He saw just bodies lying with -- bodies without legs or without parts.

He was -- there were 14 of them hiding in a basement for three weeks. They were sharing one dish like for two weeks of potato soup, because they managed to get some potatoes. They had to take risks and go to the spring to get some water. It was very cold. He did not change his clothes for three weeks. And it was constantly, constantly brutally bombed and shelled.

And the whole center where he was staying -- and yes, then they walked by feet to a village 50 kilometers under the shelling and missiles and airstrikes and mines. And I think he really needs some moment to take some breath. But unfortunately, there are still people left there, left behind. And it is the biggest quest of our life to coordinate, to organize the evacuation of civilians who are being destroyed.

ACOSTA: Well, Diana Berg, we appreciate your coming on and sharing that story with us. Our hearts go to you and all of your friends still there in Mariupol. Thank you for your time, we appreciate it.

[14:40:00]

BERG: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And stay with us. We are continuing to monitor the breaking news in Lviv and the rest of Ukraine. Russian strikes hitting Lviv earlier today as President Biden was visiting neighboring Poland. Don't go anywhere. We'll have more in just a few moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: This was President Biden moments ago in Warsaw, Poland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:45:02]

ACOSTA: CNN's Phil Mattingly is with me now. Phil, the White House is clarifying that statement from the president, you and I were talking about this at the top of the hour, wasn't exactly clear at the time whether or not the president was officially calling for regime change in Russia. There is obviously a diplomatic distinction, the secretary of state was asked about this earlier in week and said that was not the administration's policy.

And now the White House is saying that was not exactly what the president was saying. and there is President Biden leaving Warsaw, Poland, right now. He's heading into Air Force One at this moment. Phil, sorry, didn't mean to cut you off there. What's the latest?

MATTINGLY: Yes, there is now a little bit of clarity, or clarifying going on with that statement from President Biden, which, as we discussed, was very striking, because the administration from the secretary of state on down have been very, very clear, they are not calling for regime change, they have never called for regime change.

It sounded like the president was or at least implicitly calling for it. Not so according to a White House official, who says, quote, the president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors in the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change. Just a reminder, the president's comment was "For God's sake, this man can't remain in power."

So a little bit of a cleanup and a walk-back there, what appeared to be, Jim, a riffed line in an otherwise very powerful speech delivered by the president with a much broader message about the urgency and the stakes of the moment. The president clearly laying out the stakes, and seemingly going further than his administration ever had when it came to President Putin himself. The White House trying to make clear in aftermath or making very clear in the aftermath he was not, in fact, calling for regime change, Jim.

ACOSTA: It sounds like the president would like to see Vladimir Putin leave the scene. That is not an unpopular opinion that was expressed in that speech, but I guess the distinction would be whether or not the United States would through some sort of effort on the part of the American government try to see Vladimir Putin's removal from power in some way, shape, or form.

And that is what the White House is clarifying. It doesn't take away the notion that President Biden wanted to get across, that Putin, as he was saying in that speech, is not only a liar and a butcher and so on, but he does not belong in power anymore in the Kremlin.

MATTINGLY: Look, I think it is very fair to say that the president's view of President Putin, which has never been high or positive, but has certainly grown darker and more caustic over the course of the last several weeks, is pretty clear. And I think the administration's is as well.

I think what the administration has been very careful to do, and you have seen it in the types of weapons they have been willing to transfer and those that they haven't, the way that they've approached diplomatic efforts over the course of the last several months is to not ramp things up to a degree where they can't be deescalated, and certainly calling for regime change would be a new level of escalation, and that, according to this White House official, was not what the president was trying to do.

ACOSTA: Phil Mattingly, thank you very much, we appreciate it.

Up next, we go to the Ukrainian capital and the reaction there to President Biden's speech. You are live in the CNN Newsroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

EMILY PILLOTON-LAM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GIRLS GARAGE: There are not nearly enough women in STEM and in the construction trades, and I am determined to change that for the next generation. I'm Emily Pilloton- Lam. When I started working in architectural office and on construction sites, I was almost always the only woman in the room. This is not just a problem of underrepresentation. It is also a problem of who gets to be a part of building the world.

Girls Garage is a design and construction school here in Berkeley, California for girls and gender expansive youth ages nine to 18. We teach building skills and technical skills in STEM field. We build a sort of fortitude for young people to go forth into these careers. This is a superhero team. We all have an average of more than 10 years of experience in our fields.

That means that every young person who enters into the space can see someone who has lived a life like theirs and feel confident to know that there is a path that has been forged that they are invited to join. It is my hope that going forth into the future that being a woman is not the exception, is actually a necessary part of this workforce. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that everyone is equal in the world. We

are all builders, we can build anything.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:54:13]

ACOSTA: President Biden just wrapped up a major speech in Warsaw, Poland, across the border from where missiles struck in Lviv. President Biden has said Putin cannot remain in power. The White House now looking to clarify those remarks.

I want to go now to CNN's Fred Pleitgen who is in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Fred, the White House being careful to say now that the president was not, in fact, calling for a regime change, which, as you know covering these kinds of conflicts for so many years, that can take on much larger implications when the American government is calling for regime change in another country. But at the same time, what do you think the Ukrainian reaction is to what the president had to say? It's still significant that he's saying that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power.

[14:55:00]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly still is very significant. Of course, we have already heard from Kremlin, the Kremlin spokesman there telling me that this is not up to President Biden but up to the Russian people, really shortly after President Biden finished his speech. So far we've reached out to various officials here in Ukraine. So far I haven't gotten a direct response to all this.

However, they have been saying in the past that they do want the U.S. to be more forceful. They want the United States to deliver, obviously, more weapons, and stand by Ukraine. I do think there's a great deal of appreciation for all the help that the Ukrainians have already gotten. Some of the things they've been talking about, like, for instance, a no-fly zone is, of course, something that they I think also themselves understand simply are not doable right now.

However, they do believe that the aid in terms of weapons, in terms of financial aid, in terms of also sanctions against Russia is definitely something that helps them a lot. And I think one of the things that you hear again and again from Ukrainian officials, Jim, is they say they understand that President Biden has united the west. And that certainly is worth a lot right now is the Ukrainians continue this battle. We can certainly hear that tonight again with a lot of thuds that we're hearing big fighting going on outside Kyiv, Jim.

ACOSTA: Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much. And we'll be right back.

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