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Officials Estimate 600 Survived Mariupol Theater Attack, 300 Died; Russia Claims Loss of 1,351 Troops; Russian Ground Assault on Kyiv Halted; Ukrainian Refugees Face Tough Visa Process in U.K.; Air Bridge Welcomes First Refugees from Moldova; Russia Expands Laws Criminalizing "Fake News"; North Korea Ballistic Missile Launch Condemned by 15 Countries; Week Four at War: Voices of Lviv. Aired 1- 2a ET
Aired March 26, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers around the world and in the United States this hour. I'm Hala Gorani reporting live from Lviv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian counter attacks against the invading Russian army have apparently stopped many Russian tanks in their tracks. Video shows damaged Russian tanks and vehicles after Ukrainian soldiers claimed to have routed the Russians from a suburb east of Kyiv.
A senior U.S. Defense official says the Russians have stopped trying to actually advance on the capital and instead are taking up defensive positions. A top Russian general now claims this is all according to Moscow's battle plan from the beginning and that its focus will now turn to Eastern Ukraine.
The general also said some 1,300 Russian troops have died in the fighting so far. That is the first casualty update in some time from Russia. However, this does not square with the figures we're hearing from Ukraine. Ukraine's president as well as NATO officials believe the actual death toll on the Russian side is far higher.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The number of Russian casualties in this war has already exceeded 16,000 killed. Among them are senior commanders.
There have not been reports about killed Russian colonels, general or admirals yet. But the commander of one of the occupying armies and deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet are already there.
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GORANI: Well, we are now getting new video after a theater in Mariupol was bombed 10 days ago. You'll remember that incident. About 1,000 people were believed to be sheltering inside and local officials now estimate 600 people survived the attack but 300 were killed in that single offensive.
And we're getting a closer look now at the intense ground fighting being waged near Ukraine's capital. CNN's Brian Todd has that report.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New on-the-ground footage of the combat and carnage in Ukraine showing how Ukrainian forces may be holding off the Russians, including in the territory east in the capital, Kyiv.
When this video begins, there's gunfire all around, a soldier seen crouching. Seconds later, an explosion and a cloud of smoke. The person taking the video runs toward it; a man comes into view, running toward the camera with a shoulder-fired missile launcher.
He appears to be handed a missile from the person taking the video, as he runs past.
This intense footage is of a firefight at a train station in a village 18 miles northeast of Kyiv, published by a Ukrainian politician. CNN has verified its authenticity. After a soldier moves back to be handed another missile, he loads the launcher, standing in the open by the track. Bullets firing all around, he fires.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is close infighting. And when they do this, they are literally killing people as this happens.
TODD (voice-over): Analysts tonight are praising the Ukrainians tactics as heavy fighting continues near Kyiv.
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, EUROPE: The Ukrainians are fighting this wonderful, skirmishing, rear attack ambush kind of fight that frustrates the military advance of Russia.
TODD (voice-over): Here, in a social media video geolocated by CNN, ground-level footage of the aftermath of heavy fighting in the settlement of Lukyanovka, some 35 miles east of Kyiv. Ukrainian troops are shown with a captured Russian tank. In that same village, this Ukrainian soldier, on another captured tank, claims victory.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The operation has been a complete success. We decisively repelled the enemy.
TODD: There's no way to verify the soldier's claims. These battles exacting a dreadful civilian toll. This drone footage from Irpin, bordering Kyiv to the west, shows fires raging amid a tangle of burned out abandoned homes, the mayor telling CNN the town had come under heavy rocket fire.
A senior U.S. Defense official saying tonight Ukrainian forces are pushing the Russians back in places like Chernihiv, where buildings are seen on fire in this footage.
How might the Russians change tactics?
LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY FORCES IN EUROPE: I feel like we're just within days of the Ukrainian really being able to get the momentum.
TODD: On Friday, the Russian ministry of defense said about 1,350 Russian military personnel have been killed so far in Ukraine. But U.S., Ukrainian and NATO estimates put those Russian losses much higher, two senior NATO officials this week estimating the number of Russians killed to be between 7,000 and 15,000 -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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GORANI: Well, in the coming hours, U.S. President Joe Biden will give what the White House calls a major address on the war. Earlier he announced a new push to deny Russia some of the cash flow that it needs to finance this invasion.
He says the U.S. and the E.U. will work to wean Europe from its dependence on Russian oil and gas and prevent Moscow from reaping profits.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know that eliminating Russian gas will have costs for Europe. But it's not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint. It's going to put us on a much stronger strategic footing.
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GORANI: All right. Not many details on how this could happen and obviously these types of things don't happen overnight. But that is the plan. After his summit with allies in Belgium, Mr. Biden flew to Poland. He met American troops stationed there. He told them that the international pushback against Moscow is about more than Ukraine itself.
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BIDEN: The question is, who's going to prevail?
Are democracies going to prevail and the values we share?
Or are autocracies going to prevail?
That's really what's at stake.
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GORANI: Well, in addition to that major address Saturday, Mr. Biden will also speak with the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, and meet Ukrainian refugees, after setting aside more than $1 billion in new humanitarian aid for them.
Kevin Liptak is traveling with the president and joins us live now from Warsaw, Poland, with more on what to expect from the U.S. president today -- Kevin.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president really wants to put more of a human dimension on this war in Ukraine, on the decisions he's making in Washington, on the discussions he was having in Brussels earlier this week.
He wants to take in what is happening here in much closer view. And you saw that yesterday, when he traveled to that town in southeastern Poland. It's about 60 miles from the Ukraine border.
And it was really evident, as soon as he touched down there, the American commitment to this region. Air Force One taxied right past those Patriot missile batteries, armored trucks, all provided by the United States both as a deterrence and as a reassurance effort here in Poland.
And when President Biden was meeting with U.S. troops, he did say that he would have liked to visit Ukraine itself. But of course, was prevented from doing that for security reasons but really wanting to take a much closer view on the ground of what's happening.
And you'll see that again today, when the president meets with refugees here in Warsaw. Poland has been one of the top destinations for people fleeing the violence in Ukraine; 2.2 million Ukrainians have come to this country.
The president, Andrzej Duda, said yesterday that they were being welcomed as guests. But he did talk about the mental anguish of these refugees, what they had been through, sort of the experience and their plight in fleeing the violence there.
And one thing that the American administrator of USAID, Samantha Power, said, that in the coming months, the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine would top the number of Syrians who had fled that country during the entirety of that war.
So really putting the scale of the crisis on display. Now the president will sit for bilateral talks with President Duda today. One thing that the war in Ukraine has really underscored is how much closer Poland is becoming to the United States.
Previously the U.S. had kind of iced out the Duda administration. President Biden had lumped in Poland with Hungary and Belarus, when he was talking about the rise of authoritarian regimes around the world. And that had really caused some offense among Duda's supporters here.
Remember, President Andrzej Duda was a huge supporter of president Trump. And when president Trump was confronting some of these issues, President Duda said he would name a base after Trump in Poland when he was talking about a more permanent structure here. That idea was eventually dropped. But certainly the issues that
underscores, the issues of protection and reassurance, all on the table today when they sit down for talks -- Hala.
GORANI: All right. Kevin Liptak, thanks very much for that.
Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights lawyer based in Kyiv and the head of the Center for Civil Liberties there and she joins me now live.
Oleksandra, you can hear me?
OLEKSANDRA MATVIICHUK, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: Yes, I hear you well.
GORANI: Talk to me what it's like being in Kyiv, one month into this invasion, what life is like on a daily basis for you and your colleagues there.
MATVIICHUK: We are regularly under Russian shellings. It's why we have to spend our nights in bomb shelters. And you, if you spent one month in Kyiv, you have already got used to here alarms and don't even take a huge attention or (INAUDIBLE) during the day.
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GORANI: You have not left.
Can I ask you why?
MATVIICHUK: Because we are fighting for our city and for our country. And there are a lot of people whom I love and they remain in the city.
GORANI: You told one of our producers that you believe Russia is intentionally targeting civilians?
MATVIICHUK: Yes, and there is a lot of arguments why it's the truth. Because we observe (INAUDIBLE) war crimes and they have very systematic and large-scale character.
GORANI: Yes. And there are organizations, individuals on the ground, collecting, already, evidence, video, all sorts of other kind of elements to support this notion that Russia is committing potential war crimes in its invasion?
MATVIICHUK: Yes. We restore our initiative here (INAUDIBLE) and several hundred volunteers of the country are also in the process of collecting such (INAUDIBLE) evidence. We also focus on testimony of victims of war crimes violations and witness.
GORANI: Yes, and among those documents, photos, footage that your volunteers are collecting, what is standing out to you?
What, in four weeks of war, have you found most noteworthy, that you can share with our viewers around the world?
MATVIICHUK: It's very unusual for me because I'm human rights lawyer. And my (INAUDIBLE) the law is to answer when somebody ask me what Ukrainian need at the current moment, to answer that we need long- range distance weapons.
We need fighter jets and air defense systems. I have never expected from myself that I will ask for this.
GORANI: Yes. As a human rights lawyer, you would never have expected what you're saying, that you would be pushing for more weapons to be sent to your country in order to repel the invader.
But you're put in this position because -- because why?
Because you realize that really is the only way out?
MATVIICHUK: Because I'm, as a human rights lawyer, now have a very challengeable question, not only how I have to very quickly document all evidence of war crimes but what I can do in order to stop these war crimes, to prevent victims of war crimes to emerge. And this is very difficult question.
GORANI: What is morale like?
I'm in Western Ukraine, obviously much, much safer than where you are and we continue to see people mobilizing, volunteering, doing what they can, based on, obviously, the expertise that they have. Not everybody is picking up arms.
But what about in a city like Kyiv?
What is morale like, one month in, as the Russian troops -- they're stalled on the ground but they're still attacking.
MATVIICHUK: We have a huge wave (ph) of solidarity in the city and across the country. And it's a very interesting time because people express their best teachers. This war provide us a chance to be better than we are.
GORANI: Yes.
What do you mean by that?
MATVIICHUK: I mean that ordinary people start to do unordinary things. They care about each other. They have risked their life because of people whom they never seen before. And this is very sharp moment when we feel what does it mean to be a human being.
GORANI: Yes, so ordinary people doing extraordinary things, a good test of character is always being faced with a crisis.
And are you feeling a renewed sense of belonging to your country, a renewed sense of pride in Ukraine as a result of this?
MATVIICHUK: I feel a huge love to my country. I feel a huge love to Ukrainian people and huge love to our values of democracy and freedom. And that's why we are ready to continue our fight for these values to the end. GORANI: Oleksandra Matviichuk, thank you very much for joining us live in Kyiv. Please be safe.
Many nations have opened their arms to the masses of people who have fled the war but some refugees are running into a bureaucratic nightmare as they try to make their way to the U.K.
Well, that's been going on for weeks now. We'll bring you that story when we come back.
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GORANI: Poland has welcomed more refugees from this war than anyone else, so it's no surprise that the mayor of Warsaw is asking for help. At the opening of a refugee assistance center, he said, we cannot do it on our own. The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council agrees and says it's time for everyone in Europe to share the burden.
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JAN EGELAND, SECRETARY GENERAL, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: We need European responsibility sharing now. This is the worst war in Europe since the Second World War. It is not for the neighbors to respond to this. It's for the continent to respond to this.
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GORANI: And you can see on the map here, more than 2 million refugees have fled to Poland. Germany, meanwhile, has taken 130 Ukrainians who were in Moldova.
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GORANI: German officials call it the start, the very start, of an air bridge that will take some 14,000 refugees across Europe.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians seeking shelter in the U.K. are struggling to get there. A program provides funds for residents to host refugees but they have to make it into the country first, right?
So frustration is growing over long wait times for visas. Nada Bashir has that story.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): After an agonizing wait, Victoria and her mother have finally been reunited in London, life returning to what little normality is left after Russian forces closed in on their hometown of Donetsk. Like many Ukrainian refugees, Victoria's parents fled first to Moldova and then Romania. But actually getting to the U.K., where Victoria has lived for more than a decade, proved to be one of the most difficult parts of their journey.
VICTORIA ANDRIY, UKRAINIAN BRITISH CITIZEN: I was the only source of information and I was guiding them through like, you know, step by step, what to do, helping with the applications. So it was all hectic. There were no instructions.
BASHIR (voice-over): Government data shows thousands of Ukrainians hoping to join relatives in the U.K. are still waiting for their applications to be processed. A separate scheme set up to allow U.K. citizens to open up their homes to refugees is also proving to be riddled with red tape.
Only in the fine print are applicants told they'll need to find someone to sponsor on their own.
ELSA DE JAGER, HOMES FOR UKRAINE: It feels, genuinely, every step of the way, as a deterrent to people applying. That's how it feels.
BASHIR (voice-over): Hoping to open up her London home to someone in need, Elsa connected with a support group helping Ukrainian refugees on Facebook.
It's here she connected with Yana, still in Ukraine with her 4-year- old daughter, desperately trying to make it across the border in the hope of reaching the U.K.
JAGER: I mean, it's so frustrating because our houses are sitting, not empty but the rooms are sitting empty. There's room for people today to come in.
BASHIR: This shouldn't be this kind of red tape when people are getting bombed every day.
Do you think that's intentional?
JAGER: I think it's absolutely intentional. It's in my mind a PR stunt to say we're going to open U.K. homes to refugees.
BASHIR (voice-over): The two are perfect strangers. But they've been required to share sensitive personal documents with one another as part of the application process. And Yana, in turn, left a trust in Elsa's generosity.
JAGER: If something happens to them whilst we're waiting for somebody behind a desk to put a stamp on it, on a visa for them. I mean, I don't know how it feels. But I'd be more than devastated.
BASHIR (voice-over): The government has said Ukrainians are welcome, asserting that its schemes will allow refugees to live and work in the U.K. for up to three years. But there is growing impatience about Britain's approach, which they see as more bureaucratic than some of Ukraine's neighbors. LAURA KYRKE-SMITH, U.K. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: But it still involves this lengthy process to apply for a visa and what a far better system would be is for visas to be waived all together. Every human being has the right to seek asylum under international law.
BASHIR (voice-over): The U.K. Home Office says it's streamlined its visa application process in order to help people as quickly as possible. But for so many, the experience has been far from straightforward.
ANDRIY: If government is afraid that this people will stay here for longer term, I don't think that's the case because their families are still there. Men are still in Ukraine fighting. As soon as there is a chance, they will go back home.
BASHIR (voice-over): Despite the devastation at home, Victoria's mother, like so many, remains hopeful she will one day is able to return to a peaceful country, her life no longer in limbo -- Nada Bashir, CNN, London.
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GORANI: Still ahead, some of the youngest victims of the war here in Ukraine. We'll take you to a hospital, where severely wounded children are being cared for. We'll be right back.
Plus an animal sanctuary is --
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GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani in Lviv, Ukraine.
A major shift in Russia's stated goals for its war on Ukraine, just as its advances on major cities stall. A top Russian general is now claiming that the first stage of the invasion is complete and that efforts will now focus on Eastern Ukraine and, quote, "the liberation of the Donbas."
That's the region with the two Russian-backed, self-declared republics that they have secured already. A senior U.S. Defense official says Russian forces around Kyiv are in defensive positions and that all ground movements toward the capital have now stopped, although it has to be said long-range strikes and air attacks are continuing and causing tremendous misery.
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GORANI (voice-over): These are new satellite images of the Russian ship that was destroyed in a southern Ukrainian port controlled by the Russians. It's one of the counterattacks touted by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He says Russian forces will be met with resistance everywhere.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): I am grateful to our defenders, who showed the occupiers that the sea will not be calm for them, even when there is no storm, because there will be fires and on those Russian ships that departed this week on the famous route from the port or Berdyansk.
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GORANI: Now Ukrainian children are all too often the victims of Russia's indiscriminate attacks.
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GORANI: Among them an 11-year-old girl, wounded as she fled Mariupol. Ivan Watson has her story from the children's hospital where she's now being treated.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eleven-year-old Milena Uralova lies in a hospital recovering nine days after a Russian soldier shot her through the face. Horribly wounded and yet quick to show off how she can count in English.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, (INAUDIBLE).
WATSON (voice-over): "She can't speak loudly," her mother, Elana, explains.
"She has a bullet wound to her jaw and the base of her tongue," she says.
The bullet was lodged in her throat near her carotid artery.
WATSON: Milena does gymnastics. She's going to show me a couple of videos.
WATSON (voice-over): This was Milena before Russia invaded Ukraine, flipping and dancing. But now she can barely walk. We met Milena here in a makeshift bomb shelter in the basement of a children's hospital.
WATSON: The nurses here say that six or seven times a day and night, due to air raid sirens, they have to bring these newborns, who all have medical complications, in and out of this room for hours at a time for their safety.
WATSON (voice-over): The windows protected by sandbags. On March 16th, Elana, her two daughters and mother-in-law fled from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol after enduring weeks of Russian bombardment, jumping into the back of a car with two strangers to escape.
They navigated many Russian military checkpoints and then, at around noon, Elana says they made a turn toward the town of Vasylivka and stumbled across Russian soldiers, who opened fire on the car without warning.
ELENA URALOVA, MILENA'S MOTHER (through translator): We started turning and that's when they started firing at us from submachine guns. After that, of course, the driver stopped.
We started opening our doors, walking out with our hands up, after which they were shouting something -- we did not know what. And that is when we saw what happened to my daughter, the younger one. We took her out of the car as she was wounded.
WATSON (voice-over): Her mother says, realizing their mistake, the Russian soldiers gave her daughter first aid and sent her to a nearby hospital in the Russian occupied town of Tokmak. A Red Cross vehicle later brought her to this hospital for lifesaving surgery. The hospital has treated nine wounded children in the last two weeks.
WATSON: What injuries are you seeing now?
IVAN ANIKIN, ANESTHESIOLOGIST: Different injuries, different trauma. It's head trauma, it's amputation, traumatic amputation. It's bullets trauma.
WATSON (voice-over): Dr. Ivan Anikin says Milena is now stable and will live, hopefully without long-term physical disability.
ANIKIN: But she has not so good psychology status. She worries, she cry, she afraid different sounds.
WATSON (voice-over): Milena's mother has a message for the Russian soldiers who shot her daughter.
URALOVA (through translator): Go back home.
Why are they here?
They're mercenaries, don't care about us, don't care about the situation in this country or this war. They don't care who they are shooting at.
WATSON (voice-over): As for Milena, she shows photos of her cats, Musa (ph) and Boucher (ph), and looks forward to, one day, going back to doing gymnastics -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine.
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GORANI: The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has accused Western nations of trying to cancel Russian culture. In a televised meeting with cultural figures, Mr. Putin complained that Russian cultural events around the world had been canceled in recent weeks and he called such actions Nazi-like.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): The proverbial cancel culture has turned into a canceled culture. Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff are excluded from concert posters and Russian writers and their books are banned.
The last time such a massive campaign to destroy unfavorable literature was carried out was by the Nazis in Germany almost 90 years ago.
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GORANI: All right, many factually incorrect statements there. Mr. Putin also compared the treatment of Russian culture to the backlash, strangely, against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling over her opinions on transgender issues.
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PUTIN (through translator): Children's book author J.K. Rowling was recently canceled because she, the author of books that spread far and wide and hundreds of millions of copies, did not please the fans of the so-called gender freedoms.
Today, they are trying to cancel a whole 1,000-year-old country, our people.
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PUTIN (through translator): I'm talking about the increasing discrimination of everything related to Russia, about this trend which is unfolding in a number of Western states.
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GORANI: Well, for her part, Rowling pushed back against being brought into this discussion.
She tweeted, quote, "Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance or who jail and poison their critics."
Our Anderson Cooper spoke with former world chess champion and Russian pro-democracy leader Garry Kasparov about all of this. He says President Putin is searching for an ideological way out of this war.
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GARRY KASPAROV, RUSSIAN PRO-DEMOCRACY LEADER, AUTHOR AND FORMER WORLD CHESS CHAMPION: Putin has been desperately trying to find the right message, to split Western unity. You talked about it's unity that bothered him so much. And that was his -- one of his miscalculations.
And definitely, the war is not going the way he wanted. So he's looking for the way out, ideologically. And instead of mumbling about Mother Russia and restoring Russia's greatness and the roots of Orthodox Church, he's now trying to change the language. But it doesn't sound convincing.
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GORANI: Garry Kasparov there, former world chess champion and pro- democracy leader.
A sanctuary in Lviv is taking in some special displaced creatures, not human beings but beloved pets, left behind by their owners in the chaos of the war. Some of them had to be evacuated because of fighting in the shelters they were being looked after in.
Earlier I visited a pet shelter to meet some of these furry friends.
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GORANI (voice-over): These animals were never supposed to be here, dogs of all sizes, cats; some calm, others a bit mouthier. In what used to be a playroom for a few resident cats, these domestic animals are all here because of Russia's war on Ukraine.
This place was almost exclusively an exotic animal sanctuary but is now pitching in to help welcome pets abandoned in conflict zones.
NAZAR DULYSH, CO-FOUNDER, HOME OF RESCUED ANIMALS SANCTUARY (from captions): We are here at the sanctuary for wild animals. We never dealt with dogs. The pace of adoptions is unbelievable.
GORANI (voice-over): On a sunny Sunday afternoon in the western city of Lviv, there are still a few parents bringing their kids to see foxes, a few exotic birds, a couple of rabbits and a monkey.
Among them are new arrivals, like this eagle, once used as a tourist attraction in the eastern city of Kharkiv, and a couple of wolves, brought in from a private zoo near the front lines.
In the middle, a literal mountain of donated pet food, some sent from as far away as Sweden and Spain. Locals, like this Lviv resident, sometimes drop off a single bag to help any way they can.
The workers here are mostly volunteers. Occasionally, they look after the pets of families forced to flee, like these two beagles, Kiki and Riki.
In the last few months, one thing has been clear: Ukrainians love their pets. Images of the displaced carrying their cats and dogs to safety have made the news around the world.
Here at the Home of Rescued Animals Sanctuary, I bond with one particular quiet female dog, still apparently willing to trust a human's touch.
Shortly afterward, a charity picks up the newly arrived pets, loads them onto vans and drives them west to Poland, to a new life and, hopefully, to new caring owners. In the chaos, it's the best anyone can hope for.
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GORANI: Well, there you have it.
Still ahead, condemning North Korea's newest ballistic missile launch, my colleague, Kristie Lu Stout, has the latest from the United Nations Security Council -- when we come back.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong.
And 15 countries, including the U.S., France and Germany, have condemned North Korea's launch of this ballistic missile on Thursday.
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STOUT (voice-over): It follows a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, where the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said that the launch poses a threat to the entire international community. CNN's Richard Roth has details.
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RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: The United States' ambassador to the U.N. led a pack of U.N. member countries to stand in front of the U.N. Security Council Friday evening, following a day of discussions about North Korea's latest missile launch, an ICBM test.
However, Russia and China were not among the group. They oppose U.S. and Western approaches diplomatically regarding North Korea and its ongoing missile tests. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council at the formal meeting on Friday that the U.S. was going to propose a new resolution --
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ROTH (voice-over): -- updating and strengthening existing sanctions by the council on North Korea. The ambassador also told her fellow colleagues that the time to act is now.
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LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: This launch violated multiple Security Council resolutions and poses a threat to not only the region but to the entire international community.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROTH: China and Russia have their own U.N. Security Council resolution prepared. But imminent action is not expected.
The Chinese ambassador told the Security Council in the formal meeting that the U.S. needs to engage in direct political talks with North Korea. The Chinese ambassador, noting the Ukraine situation, said it's time for action on the Korean Peninsula.
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ZHANG JUN, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. (through translator): Right now, all is not quiet on the international front. No party should take any action that would lead to greater tensions and the peninsula cannot afford the risk of any dramatic change, much less a reversal of the situation with dire consequences.
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ROTH: The Security Council deadlock on Ukraine is likely to repeat itself on North Korea, with the big powers disagreeing on whether new sanctions are needed -- Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.
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STOUT: Saudi Arabia has launched an air assault on two cities in Yemen. They hit the port city of Hodeidah and the capital of Sanaa. And the assault comes a day after Houthi rebels claimed they used drones to hit an oil storage facility in Jeddah.
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STOUT (voice-over): You can see here a massive plume of smoke and flames coming from that facility. The attack came just as Formula 1 fans from around the world headed to the city for this weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
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STOUT: U.S. officials canceled planned talks with the Taliban over the decision to bar Afghan girls above sixth grade from returning to school. The State Department called it "a potential turning point in our engagement."
The Taliban originally said that schools would open for all students in March on the condition that boys and girls were educated separately. A State Department spokesperson urged the Taliban to live up to their commitments.
A new study from Israel indicates that a fourth COVID vaccine shot increased protection in the short term but that protection waned faster than it did with the third dose. Researchers looked at data from 100,000 people age 60 and up. And they found a fourth dose reached maximum effectiveness after three weeks.
But it declined by half, after just 10 weeks. Pfizer and Moderna recently asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize another shot for some groups. An advisory committee will meet in April to discuss additional boosters.
You're watching CNN. Still to come, music that inspires and uplifts. The Lviv symphony takes the stage for the first time since war broke out. Their moving performance when we come back.
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STOUT (voice-over): The Lviv Philharmonic performing Friday for the first time since Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
In the program, you can see right there on your screen, boxes of medical supplies for Ukrainians in need. The orchestra invited musicians, who fled from other parts of Ukraine, to join the performance.
And at one point, an air raid siren forced the musicians to leave the stage for a shelter but they eventually returned.
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STOUT: It's now been more than a month of war in Ukraine and we have talked to many people who have been forced to endure the unimaginable, to flee their homes, to bury their family members and do whatever they can to carry on amid a brutal onslaught. CNN's Don Lemon introduces us to some of the brave people he's met in Lviv.
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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): I met Tatiana Rusanova on my first morning here.
LEMON: This is your house?
TATIANA RUSANOVA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: Yes, mine.
LEMON: Oh, my goodness.
LEMON (voice-over): She was living at a hostel in Lviv after shelling damaged her home of 50 years outside Kharkiv. She and her daughter, Darina, were forced to take shelter in a nearby cellar with their dog, two cats and a backpack of family photographs and documents.
When the Russian bombardment stopped, they emerged to a home in ruins.
DARINA RUSANOVA, REFUGEE: I think I was shocked. I couldn't even cry. I didn't feel anything. I hope there is some peaceful way to resolve this. I just want my Ukrainian people to be safe.
LEMON (voice-over): Tatiana Nikabadze fled to the relative safety of Lviv as well with her son, Nikita, but not his father, who is fighting on the front lines.
TATIANA NIKABADZE, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): His father is in Kyiv now and fighting for Kyiv. I don't always have a possibility of calling, of knowing he's still alive.
LEMON (voice-over): The war has made Oksana Buhel a single mother, too, her reservist husband called up to fight.
LEMON: How much longer do you think you can deal with this?
OKSANA BUHEL, WIFE OF Ukrainian RESERVIST (through translator): It's hard to say. As long as needed, because I have no options.
LEMON (voice-over): One man feels responsible for everyone in this city, residents and the displaced alike, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi.
ANDRIY SADOVYI, MAYOR OF LVIV: It is a huge responsibility. It is my duty, citizens. My duty, refugees. My duty, maximum support, Ukrainian army. My duty, management, territorial defense. And my duty, help Ukrainian cities.
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LEMON (voice-over): But amid the tragedy of war, I've heard stories of resilience and hope, like Olga and Nika, two complete strangers, who connected on Instagram two days after the fighting began. Both called to help, to do something -- anything. So they teamed up and opened up a shelter in Lviv that now houses about 200 displaced people.
LEMON: What do you want people to know about what is happening here, how -- now the school has become like a safe haven for people?
NIKA HAK, LVIV SHELTER CO-FOUNDER: We really want to show everyone how you show compassion and how you unite and how you help each other in a crisis like this.
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STOUT: And that was CNN's Don Lemon, who says the people of Lviv are resolved to help their neighbors and their country in any way they can.
That does it for this hour. I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and our coverage live from Lviv continues after this.
