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President Biden Calls Putin A Butcher After Meeting Refugees In Poland; Three Additional Blasts In Lviv, Ukraine Near Poland's Border; Interview With Actor Sean Penn About Humanitarian Efforts In Ukraine; Biden: Putin Cannot Remain In Power; Volunteer Driver Helps Ukrainian Refugees, Delivers Supplies; Sean Penn Calls For Boycott Of Oscars If Zelenskyy Is Not Invited To Speak. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired March 26, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:31]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM in Washington, and we are following breaking news. President Biden going off script in his major address today from Poland. Biden veered away from prepared remarks saying at the close of his speech that Vladimir Putin should no longer be Russia's leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But shortly after President Biden spoke, the White House said the president was not calling for a regime change in Russia. And just about 250 miles away from where Biden made that speech on NATO territory, smoke still fills the air in Lviv in western Ukraine after Russian missiles struck a fuel depot there.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer is in Warsaw, Poland, where he'll be anchoring a special weekend edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" coming up in the next hour.

Wolf, the president just delivered a major speech where he said that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power. That obviously carries a lot of weight coming from the president of the United States. The White House is now saying that that was not in the president's prepared remarks.

Wolf, I was just wondering, you were witnessing all of this and watching and listening. What did you make when you heard the president utter those words?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I was pretty surprised, stunned. I would use that word. I was sitting with our chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins and we were listening to the whole speech. It was under half an hour, about 27 minutes or so, and we're going through the whole speech, and at the very end he uttered these words, I'm looking at my notes as you just heard, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power." We both looked at each other and of course that was the first point

that I made coming out of the speech, I said that's a major change in U.S. policy because in days earlier, U.S. officials, top U.S. officials, have been saying the U.S. is not interested in regime change in Russia, that they were criticizing Putin. But as I was, you know, thinking about this, you know, it should not have come as a huge surprise because earlier in the day, Jim, the president, looking at my notes, the president said that Putin is a butcher.

And in recent days, he has called him a pure thug, a murderous dictator and a war criminal. So someone who's a war criminal, a butcher, a pure thug and a murderous dictator, should that person really remain in power? So when I heard the president say, for God's sake this man cannot remain in power, I said, well, that's the natural follow-up to all of the other statements that he had made about Putin.

And as we were leaving, I look at, you know, Kaitlan and I said, I wonder how long it's going to take for the White House to try to clean up what the president was saying, and obviously within a little while we heard what the White House was trying to do to clarify that the president was not supposedly talking about regime change.

And then it immediately dawned on me a few days earlier when the president first said that Putin was a war criminal, within a very short time the White House was putting out statements, State Department was putting out statements that the president was simply speaking from his heart.

He didn't really mean that technically legally that Putin is a war criminal. Well, a few days later the Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially, publicly, legally said that Putin is the -- the U.S. regards him as a war criminal. So my next thought, Jim, was when is the White House going to go further and say, well, yes, for God's sake man cannot remain in power. So it was a little awkward to see the White House, you know, clarifying what the president was saying because if someone is a pure thug, a dictator, a war criminal and a butcher, should that person really remain in power?

ACOSTA: Right, of course, and naturally it follows that President Biden would want to say something like that, of course as you know, Wolf, from covering these sorts of things for so many years, I covered the White House for eight years, when an administration declares that it has a policy of regime change aimed at a particular country, that certainly escalates things and that would have been the effect if President Biden was in fact saying he believes that there should be regime change in Russia.

That would carry with it essentially a policy directed at seeing Putin removed from power. But the White House was very careful as the president is heading back to Washington and saying that that is not exactly what he was trying to do say.

But, Wolf, I also think it was important what the president said at one point when he told Vladimir Putin in a very stern warning, quote, "don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory."

[16:05:12]

What is the sense where you are in Warsaw? I know I was talking to you just before you came on for this live report that you were telling me that people in Warsaw, people in Poland, are very concerned about what Putin is doing right now. They understand this neighborhood all too well. And they know how Putin can destabilize things very quickly.

BLITZER: They are very nervous. Not only here in Poland, but in all of these NATO allied countries along Russia's border right now. They don't know what to expect from Putin. Most of the people in this part of the world, including in Ukraine for that matter, when Putin was deploying, you know, 100,000 and then 150,000 and then 180,000 troops along Ukraine's border, and in Belarus, just north of Ukraine, they were saying, well -- Putin kept saying these are just training exercises, these are war games, it's not really -- there's not going to be an invasion.

U.S. intelligence had confirmed earlier and they were correct that this was going to be an invasion, that Putin was basically lying. But most of the people in this part of the world thought yes, but just a little -- in a word game -- a little exercise, some training exercises and stuff like that. So they are really wondering what is Putin up to right now. His economy is in trouble. The people in Russia are suffering as a result of these enormous economic sanctions, these political sanctions.

Is Putin really going to do something to generate some sort of attack on one of the NATO allies? And people here in Poland, you're absolutely right, I've been here now for, you know, two days and what I've been hearing is they're very nervous that you don't know what Putin is going to do and they're wondering if Putin is going to do something. U.S. intelligence fears there is a possibility he could use chemical weapons.

And if he does use chemical weapons, is that a red line? How's the U.S., how are the NATO allies going to respond? So there's a lot of tension right now that's going on. And it's underscored by the fact that the U.S. has now deployed here in the NATO countries 100,000 U.S. troops. Recently it was down to 80,000, then 70,000. It was not that long ago, and you and I will remember when there were on 30,000, 40,000 U.S. troops in Europe after the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, now back to 100,000 U.S. troops here in Europe.

That's a lot of troops. And people are very, very nervous. And I don't blame them for being nervous because they don't know what Putin is going to do.

ACOSTA: Exactly, Wolf. And as you and I both know, that what is happening in Ukraine right now is a reminder why NATO exists. If anybody anywhere around the world needed a reminder, it is unfolding before our eyes.

Wolf Blitzer, we know you'll have much more coming up at the top of the hour for a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER."

Wolf Blitzer, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.

BLITZER: All right, thanks very much.

ACOSTA: And now let's go to CNN's Don Lemon and John Berman who are in Lviv, Ukraine, where Russian missiles strikes hit an oil depot earlier today. That was, you know, obviously what the president had to say earlier today, John, was quite dramatic. But on top of that, you have the Russians hitting an area of Ukraine that they have not been hitting very much and doing so in a way that obviously is going to raise all sorts of attention and raise the question as to whether or not the Russians were trying to send a message.

I know, John, you heard these explosions while you were reporting on the air and then Don went down to the scene. Tell us more.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, look, we're just an hour from the border with Poland right now. So President Biden was speaking in Poland. The Polish border just an hour away and the strike, the first series of strikes in broad daylight.

Let's just walk you through what happened. We heard an air raid siren in the afternoon. And then listen closely, we're going to play it for you now. You can hear a series of three blasts. Listen.

After those three blasts soon we saw smoke rising, and CNN's Don Lemon raced to the scene. What'd you see there, Don?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I saw really a scene of chaos when I got there, and then very quickly I saw the emergency workers bringing at least the situation outside of that facility under control, trying to get the residents out and move the media to a safe place. And even some of the emergency workers, police officers, and military personnel on the scene to safety. But we saw those plumes of smoke. And we saw firefighters rushing in, heroes because they were rushing toward the danger, trying to put retardant on that chemical fire or that gas fire there.

[16:10:07]

We asked an official on the scene exactly what it was and they said that it were diesel burning. But this was, as the mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, just a couple of minutes ago, holding a press conference, saying that these struck in residential quarters.

BERMAN: Yes, how close were the houses to you?

LEMON: I mean, it was -- not even just across the street.

BERMAN: Right.

LEMON: Let's just say across the street. Like across our neighbor across the street. So this was as you said when they want to be precise, when they want to shoot off whatever it is, that precision or missile or rocket or whatever, that they have the capabilities to do it because these were both -- there were two, this one and the first one -- was close to the residential neighborhood just around the street just around the way. So it was pretty close.

BERMAN: We do have a little more information.

LEMON: Yes. It's going to take a while for that fire. That has to --

BERMAN: I assume it's -- I assume it's still burning right now.

LEMON: That's going to take a while to burn up because it's not like you can just go in and put it out like a house fire. That -- it's a lot of fuel in there.

BERMAN: Now after that series of strikes, and you were on that scene, we did hear more air raid sirens and there was another series of three blasts. And we understand that was a military infrastructure target.

LEMON: The mayor saying that each site was hit by two missiles.

BERMAN: Yes.

LEMON: Two strikes on each site.

BERMAN: Yes.

LEMON: And there were, one place, a kindergarten he said was damaged. And there were I believe, what, five people at the first site. At the scene. Injured.

BERMAN: Five people at the scene injured. But they are saying no deaths at least from the first series of explosions.

LEMON: But listen to that. Listen to that fire. I mean, if they were concerned. John, that another one of those tanks would explode, and, you know, if that had happened, who knows, you know, another or another or another, but it was, you know, very tense there for a while.

BERMAN: And let me just read the end of the statement from the mayor who you and I have both had the chance to interview. Very charismatic guy. He says, quote, "We do have some wounded and I believe this is how the aggressor is saying hello to President Biden who is in Poland now."

LEMON: Yes.

BERMAN: And we know Lviv is only 70 kilometers, 40 miles from Poland, so all the world needs to understand the threat is serious.

LEMON: There is a sense here, if we can I want to talk about the president's statement, and then Jim can weigh in because Jim was a White House correspondent. First of all, the president saying there needs to be a regime change. I think if you talk for any Ukrainian, anyone outside of Russia, they would say the exact same sentiments as the president of the United States.

I am quite frankly flummoxed why they would take that statement back. Maybe for some diplomatic reason they, you know, the president should not have said that. I think the entire world is saying the same thing. My mother is saying the same thing. When are they going to do something about this man, when are they going to take him out, not necessarily I don't mean to kill him, but when are they going to take him out of office? Or do something.

And I think that Ukrainians feel the same way. The mayor, a quote that I'm paraphrasing from the mayor -- it's not, I'm paraphrasing. He says Putin equals Hitler. And then he said that the Russian people equals Nazis. This is what Nazis do to people. So, you know, the president of the United States saying that there needs to be regime change, I was not surprised by it. May have seemed like a harsh statement for the people who are insiders, travel with the president.

But the overall sentiment from most of the world, maybe not the Russians, is that there should be a regime change and that Vladimir Putin should no longer be in power. So I was surprised to hear him -- hear them sort of walk that back. I thought it was a strong statement from the White House, quite frankly.

BERMAN: All right. Jim, let's go back to you.

ACOSTA: Yes. Yes, I mean, Don, it makes perfect sense as to why the president would put things in that kind of language. I will say as somebody who did cover the beat for a little while, I think that, you know, when you put out the kind of line that the president did, that Vladimir Putin should no longer remain in power, obviously that is something that just about everybody around the world who is not Russian agrees with at this point.

The question becomes whether or not that changes the administration's policy and then puts out a policy essentially that the U.S. supports regime change in Russia which of course would, you know, might be welcomed as a gift by Vladimir Putin because Putin can say, ah-ha, see, the Americans, they're coming to get me and so on. So I think that might be part of the driver as to why the White House wanted to tweak that.

But I mean, you know, he's a thug, he's a butcher, he is a killer, he is a war criminal. Of course he should no longer remain in power and I think that's what the president was trying to say in that moment. And we're seeing, you know, what you witnessed earlier today, Don, that attack on that fuel depot in Lviv. Obviously, you know, it appeared to be some kind of message being sent to the Americans as they are just across the border over in Poland.

It's another situation that Putin and the Russians, it seems to me in my mind, they are getting increasingly desperate about how things are going in Ukraine.

John and Don, great to see you. Please stay safe. Every time I see you on, just feels so grateful that we have you both there in Ukraine at the same time.

[16:15:05]

Thanks for being with us on the program today. Really appreciate it. LEMON: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Up next, the war in Ukraine is causing a humanitarian crisis as millions try to flee the violence. Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker and co-founder of CORE, Sean Penn. There he is. He joins me live next. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: The war in Ukraine has created an enormous humanitarian crisis. The United Nations now estimates that more than 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries. The vast majority more than two million have gone to Poland.

And with me now is Sean Penn, Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker and co-founder of CORE, a crisis response organization.

Sean, you've been doing some amazing work over there. You're in Warsaw right now. Tell us what you're seeing on the ground and what stands out to you after spending so much time in that region?

[16:20:07]

SEAN PENN, CO-FOUNDER OF CORE: Well, I guess I mean a great over oversimplification. You've got two immediate crises. One is the refugee crises of those coming into Poland and other border nations. And then this horrifying thing, this horror that's going on in Ukraine. And I guess just as more importantly perhaps is the extraordinary courage and unification of Ukraine and of its leadership.

ACOSTA: And you're the co-founder of CORE, as we've said, and we want to put up some information on the screen for people if they want to donate, they can text CORE to 24365 or go online to coreresponse.org.

What's your response effort been like and, I mean, what stands out to you when you are over there doing this kind of work?

PENN: Well, because I'm in Poland, I should say that one of the things that stands out here is the extraordinary heart that the Polish people and government are showing to these people that have been put in this tragic position of mostly women as you know, and their children. So that's a standout. Again, of course what the Ukrainians are doing, and then there are all of us that are trying to partner with local organizations, understand the needs here and be -- and scale up our support with an intensity.

ACOSTA: And the stories coming out of there, I mean, they just break your heart. You know, I wonder what it feels like to you personally, Sean, to live through this and to talk to these folks. As you know, the U.S. is set to take in 100,000 refugees from Ukraine. It's a large number, but this horrific situation is causing millions of people to be displaced from their homes.

Is 100,000 people enough given what you've experienced and what you've come across? PENN: Well, you know, I'm not going to dazzle anyone with my overall

policy sense of this, but I do believe it makes sense that we understand that whatever countries in the short term and the long term are taking on the lion's share of the burden, they and their municipalities directly have continued international support.

ACOSTA: And I have to ask you about this, Sean, because you met with President Zelenskyy right when this war began. He has become -- and we're looking at some video of this right now -- he has become a hero to people around the world for the way he's led his people courageously and standing up to the Russian invasion. Did you get that sense of what he was made of when you were talking to him at the time? And what has been your impression since this war has begun? I mean, this is the guy who said I don't need a ride out of town, I need ammunition.

PENN: Yes, you know, I had met with the president the day before, initially the day before the invasion and met with him again during the invasion. What I would say is I can't imagine any human being would have fully known that they were born for this moment until this moment would have happened. And so I would say certainly on Thursday I was with, as moving, as courageous, as extraordinary a person and face of his extraordinary country and people as I would expect I ever will witness and certainly that I ever have. An incredibly moving human being on this -- in this minute of time we're all sharing.

ACOSTA: And have you had a chance to speak with him since your meeting?

PENN: Yes.

ACOSTA: And how did that go? How was that?

PENN: You know, all I'll say -- I'll just for the moment echo that aspect of it, that it continues and you know, I don't -- I don't know the consensus, the documentary team I'm with, if I had something that I thought was more valuable to tell you, you know, for the greater problem right now, I would. But right now, I'm going to kind of, you know, refrain.

ACOSTA: I totally understand. And as you know, Sean, the Oscars are tomorrow night. Do you want to see President Zelenskyy speak at the Oscars via some sort of video link? And how do you think the ceremony how the event should recognize what is happening in Ukraine? What would you say I guess if you were there up on stage?

PENN: I'm glad you asked that question because, you know, there are those, and I think it sometimes has validity who would say that, you know, politics are for another place, entertainment is for the another.

[16:25:12]

I believe that anyone as an audience or a practitioner of film that understands what that expression is, that to restrict it to just film is to say it can't be on television, it can't be on the stage, to restrict it to any of those is to say it can't be embodied within a human being, that kind of nature of poetic courage and expression that film aspires at its best to be, there is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than give him that opportunity to talk to all of us.

And, by the way, this is a man who understands movies. He's had his own very long and successful career in that. Now it is my understanding that it a decision has been made not to do it. That is not me commenting on whether or not President Zelenskyy had wanted to.

If the Academy has elected not to do it, if presenters have elected not to pursue the leadership in Ukraine who were taking bullets and bombs for us along with the Ukrainian children that they are trying to protect, then I think every single one of those people and every bit of that decision will have been the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history.

And I hope that's not what's happening. If it turns out to be what's happening, I would encourage everyone involved to know that though it may be their moment, and I understand that, to celebrate their films, it is so much more importantly their moment to shine and to protest and to boycott that Academy Awards. And I myself, if it comes back to it, when I return, I will smelt mine in public.

I pray that's not what's happened. I pray there have not been arrogant people who consider themselves representatives of the greater good in my industry that have not decided to check in with leadership in Ukraine. So I'm just going to hope that that is not what has happened and I hope that everybody walks out if it is.

ACOSTA: Well, I hope you're right and we're certainly going to check into that as well because we haven't been able to report on that or independently confirm that. But let me just ask you just finally, Sean, is there any way to put into words what you are seeing, the level of devastation that you are seeing and what Vladimir Putin has done?

PENN: Well, you know, your viewing audience has probably seen more than I've seen of course, you know, it's sometimes less in your face from the street corner.

ACOSTA: Yes.

PENN: But what I can say is on an emotional level. you know, I've never been in a position of what the investment that conflict journalists make where they spend extended periods of time in extremely sketchy circumstances. Certainly I've never been a soldier and I've never been a -- you know, been without a choice to leave a country that is under that kind of pressure.

That said, you know, I have been in some situations that could be considered sketchy for short periods of time. And I've understood what it is to have an anxiety, to have a fear. In this case, on the day of the invasion, my emotional bandwidth was completely taken up with a heartbreak that was certainly immediate as it related to the Ukrainian people. But it very quickly expanded my own children to everybody that believes in dreaming around the world, it was -- it is truly heartbreaking.

So heartbreaking there wouldn't be time for other thoughts. That's what I'm feeling and that's what I'm seeing from what I'm seeing. So I hope that there is a great way to be able to articulate, for all of us to be able to articulate to everyone around the world that this can be the end of dreaming for our children, what this does to the potential for any relative notion of democracy.

Ukraine will win this fight, though. There's no question in my mind. Ukraine will win this fight. And the question will be, where will we when they did?

[16:30:00]

Sean Penn, thank you very much. Thanks for what you do. Thanks for joining us. Get home safe. We appreciate it.

PENN: Thanks very much, Jim.

ACOSTA: And if you want to donate to CORE, as we were just talking to with Sean a few minutes ago, text CORE to 24365, or go to COREresponse.org online. And you can also follow CORE's work on their Twitter page, @COREresponse.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: A short time ago, on the world stage, President Biden took direct aim at Russia's Vladimir Putin, calling him a dictator and closing out his speech in Poland by saying Putin cannot remain in power.

[16:35:02]

Hours before that, Biden was meeting with Ukrainian refugees in a stirring scene in Warsaw, lifting up the children who have been fleeing that country.

And as we were seeing those moving images, Russian missiles were raining down on Lviv just 215 miles away.

What a contrast. The contrast could not be clearer and the timing could not be ignored.

And let's discuss with a retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, former commanding general of Europe and 7th Army.

General Hertling, great to have you on. We appreciate it.

The president, he said something very interesting during that speech, apparently was unscripted. Said that Putin cannot remain in power.

The White House put out a statement after that saying that the president was not calling for regime change. Help our viewers understand why the White House would want to do

something like that after the president said what is on a lot of people's minds.

I was talking to Don Lemon about this earlier. Obviously, people would not want to see Vladimir Putin stay in power considering all the more horrible things he's done.

But to go to the step of regime change or declaring that you have a policy of regime change, those are two very different things.

LT. GN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILIARY ANALYST: I don't think that anybody declared that, Jim. I think we're getting a little bit wound up.

I think the exact quote from Mr. Biden was that Putin "should not", not cannot, Putin "should not remain in power." He was sending a direct message to the people of Europe and especially the people in Moscow.

And that does not translate to me to regime change. Regime change is a hyperbolic interpretation of that.

What he was suggesting is Mr. Putin is along the lines of Misolivic (ph), Chouchesku (ph), and even Hitler in terms of committing crimes against another nation.

And, in fact, executing a kind of campaign that is attempting to wipe out culture and attempting to subjugate a country that is fighting for its sovereignty, quite frankly.

And then your great reporter, our good friend and colleague, Fred Pleitgen, said afterwards that Peskov said that Biden's speech is inflammatory.

How I respond to that is -- Seriously? Tell that to the three million refugees or the people of Mariupol or the dead children of Ukraine.

We're talking about inflammatory should be a warning to Mr. Putin to stop this illegal campaign that is killing people and trying to subjugate a nation that only wants its freedom.

ACOSTA: And, General Hertling, today, the president warned Putin -- I thought this was also an extremely important part of the speech. He warned Putin yet again about moving one inch on NATO territory.

Why do you think -- obviously, it is extremely important that the president says this. But to say this from Poland sends a strong message.

HERTLING: I'd suggest, Jim -- and I don't know this for sure because I'm not privy to intel, you know, the classified intelligence anymore.

But I think that you have to remember how well the president and his cabinet has been in terms of interpreting intelligence from Russia. They have been on top of it from the beginning or even prior to the campaign started. So I'm thinking that perhaps the administration has some intelligence

that Mr. Putin and his oligarchs in his cabinet might be considering something.

So I think, in my view, this is a preemptory approach, saying don't even think about it. If you do, as I've warned you so many times, we're going to get involved.

And Putin has come increasingly closer to attempting to get the ire of NATO nations to get involved.

And I think that the president and the rest of the NATO are handling this very well in terms of not being pulled into a conflict that would further escalate this from a regional conflict into a global one.

ACOSTA: All right. General Hertling, thank you so much. And our time is tight but, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, always appreciate your insights. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

HERTLING: Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it.

ACOSTA: All right, good to see you.

And coming up, a volunteer driving an ambulance through Ukraine helping to get critically ill hospital patients and refugees to safety. That story is next.

[16:39:18]

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: The mayor of Lviv confirming that today's Russian missile strikes caused infrastructure damage to some infrastructure facilities. But thankfully, no homes were damaged and nobody reported killed.

At least two strikes today caused this storage facility in Lviv to go up in flames.

And we've seen, time and time again, during terrifying incidents like this, bombings and airstrikes, people are risking their lives to help others.

CNN's Ed Lavandera spoke to a volunteer driver of an ambulance who regularly goes into Lviv to help people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(AIR RAID SIREN)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The air raid sirens no longer startle Didrik Gunnestad.

DIDRIK GUNNESTAD, VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE DRIVER: The sirens are telling us it's no danger anymore.

LAVANDERA: With that, he eases the nerves of a mother and her two children he's just picked up at the train station. Tonight, he will drive them to Poland.

Didrik Gunnestad struggles to explain how a 27-year-old from Norway has found himself dragging an ambulance through the streets of Lviv.

GUNNESTAD: That's the most difficult question actually.

LAVANDERA: He's part of a volunteer team evacuating critically ill hospital patients and refugees from Ukraine.

[16:45:06]

GUNNESTAD: I just wanted to help, do something. Not sit at home and just look at everything on the TV.

(SIREN)

LAVANDERA: Most days, Didrik drives into Lviv from Poland with an ambulance full of medical supplies and distributes the loads to hospitals facing grave shortages.

Zoryana Ivanyuk is the medical director of the St. Nicholas Hospital in Lviv. She says, since the start of the war, her hospital has been overwhelmed treating every day seriously ill patients.

DR. ZORYANA IVANYUK, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, ST. NICHOLAS HOSPITAL, LVIV: He brings us some medicines, some equipment, which we need so much. That's why we are thankful for him and his team. It's really a dream team.

LAVANDERA: Hospitals are struggling to handle all the patients needing critical lifesaving care.

That's where Didrik team comes in.

GUNNESTAD: We have just delivered a lot of equipment to that hospital and to another hospital. We went to the train station and picked up a few refugees as well.

LAVANDERA: He's lost count of how many patients and refugees he's driven out of Ukraine.

GUNNESTAD: I have helped a lot of kids, women and children who needs to go out of the country. And in the places we are getting the people, they don't have anyone else. For right now, they only have us.

LAVANDERA: Didrik and his team of paramedics and nurses have spent almost three weeks crisscrossing the city, answering any call for help that comes in.

(on camera): How stressful is it to drive around Ukraine right now?

GUNNESTAD: Oh, my God. It's horrific. And it's not possible to explain.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): This area of Western Ukraine has seen just a few Russian airstrikes since the war started nearly a month ago. But Russian forces have targeted hospitals and civilians in Eastern Ukraine.

Didrik knows he's driving into potential targets. It's a risk he's willing to take.

(on camera): Is doing this worth dying for, for you?

GUNNESTAD: Yes, it is. Because it's so meaningful what I'm doing. When I see this crying children who are really sick and needs to get out, I feel a responsibility.

(SIREN)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): For Didrik Gunnestad, it feels like the road to saving Ukrainians goes on forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And, Jim, I spoke with him this afternoon just after those missile strikes in Lviv.

And he told us that his worst fears. He was actually driving on the streets of Lviv, he tells me, not too far away from where that blast took place.

He had three different patients in the back of his ambulance, including a young boy who had been wounded in the war, in the fight.

He tells me that it took him a while to process exactly what the explosions were. And once they figured it out, they hightailed it out of Lviv.

They have made to Poland safely tonight with three other people evacuated from Ukraine -- Jim?

ACOSTA: Just incredibly brave work on the part of those folks.

Ed Lavandera, great piece. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

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[16:53:01]

ACOSTA: The Academy Awards are tomorrow night. Ukrainian-born actress, Mila Kunis, is expected to present and is expected to honor the country of Ukraine.

Moments ago, I asked Academy Award-winner, Sean Penn, if he wanted to see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak at the Oscars.

Here is what he had to say. He was very passionate about it.

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PENN: If the Academy has elected not to do it, if presenters have elected not to pursue the leadership in Ukraine who are taking bullets and bombs for us, along with the Ukrainian children that they are trying to protect, then I think that every single one of those people and every bit of that decision will have been the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history.

And I hope that that is not what is happening. If it turns out to be what is happening, I would encourage everyone involved to know that, though it may be their moment -- and I understand that -- to celebrate their films, it is so much more importantly their moment to shine and to protest and boycott that Academy Awards.

And I myself, if it comes back to it, when I return, I will smelt mine in public.

I pray that is not what has happened. I pray that there have not been arrogant people who consider themselves representatives of the greater good in my industry that have not decided to check in with leadership in Ukraine.

So I'm just going to hope that that is not what has happened. And I hope that everybody walks out if it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And we should note we have not been able to independently confirm whether or not the Academy Awards are going to give short shift to the war in Ukraine or if they decline to have Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak via some sort of video link at the ceremony tomorrow night.

[16:55:02]

But very important to sum up what Sean Penn said during that interview. And I can just read it to you. He said at the very end of the interview: "Ukraine will win this fight. And the question will be, where will we be when they did?"

Very good words there from Sean Penn.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

Up next, it's a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. Stay tuned for that.

Have a good night.

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