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Russian Ground Assault on Kyiv Halted; Russian General: "First Stage" Over, Focus Now on Eastern Ukraine; U.S. Formally Accuses Russia of War Crimes in Ukraine; Warsaw Mayor Pleads for Help with Refugees; Checkpoints, Barriers Set up in Kyiv City Center; Ukrainian Mourners Burying War Dead Near Homes, Playgrounds; Russia Deployed Infamous Mercenaries; Foo Fighters Drummer Taylor Hawkins Dead at 50; Stars Voice Support for Ukraine during Awards Season. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired March 26, 2022 - 02:00 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): Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world and in the United States. I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops have put up such stiff resistance over the past month, U.S. officials now say Russian forces are no longer trying to move toward the capital. Video from an eastern suburb of Kyiv shows damaged Russian tanks and vehicles after Russian troops were allegedly routed.
The U.S. says Russia is now bringing in reinforcements from Georgia, which Russia invaded, you'll remember, in 2008.
And a top Russian general on Friday said his forces would now focus on Eastern Ukraine and the, quote, "complete liberation of Donbas" as the primary goal of this invasion. The general also said some 1,300 Russian troops had died in the fighting, the first casualty update in some time.
Ukraine's president, though, and NATO officials believe the actual Russian death toll 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP) GORANI: And you might remember that theater that was bombed in Mariupol about 10 days ago. Well, we are getting new video from inside the building. About a thousand people were believed to be sheltering there. Local officials now estimate 600 people survived the horrific attack but that 300 were killed.
CNN's Oren Liebermann has more on Ukraine's apparent successes in blunting the Russian offensive.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Ukrainians show them off like trophies, Russian tanks captured or destroyed in battle. Small victories in a bigger, bloodier war.
West of Kyiv, this drone footage shows the horrific aftermath of heavy fighting. Russian forces have dug into defensive positions around the capital city. According to a senior U.S. defense official, their progress stalled by a determined Ukrainian resistance.
MAYOR VITALI KLITSCHKO, KYIV, UKRAINE: We never ever go to the knee, better we die, than give up.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Russia's attacks have intensified from the air with little progress to show on the ground claiming a strike on a large Ukrainian fuel depot near Kyiv. Russia has been unable to encircle the city.
ANDRIY YERMAK, HEAD OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): They have not been able to fulfill any of their strategic plans they intended to attain during this aggression. They hoped that the invasion of Ukraine would be a walk over.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): A Ukrainian attack on the occupied city of Berdyansk destroyed a Russian warship as Ukrainian forces hit back against Russian forces in some places. Russia perhaps moving its goalposts.
A top general says the first stage of the operation is nearing completion. So far, he says 1,351 Russian troops have been killed, a number far lower than the up to 15,000 dead that NATO officials estimate.
Gen. Sergei Rudskoi says Russian forces will now focus on liberating part of southeast Ukraine, controlled by Russian backed separatists.
GEN. SERGEI RUDSKOI, HEAD OF RUSSIAN GENERAL STAFF MAIN OPERATIONAL DIRECTORATE: The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes it possible. I emphasize it once again, to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal: the liberation of Donbas.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): One month in, the cost of war is growing for Russia but so too for Ukraine. Video now emerging from the attack on the theater in Mariupol, an adviser to the mayor says about 300 people were killed while sheltering inside when the Russians bombed the building, 600 survived, the adviser says, even as the Russian word for "children" was written outside. Russia denies targeting the building.
Elsewhere in the city, video showing makeshift graves in a residential block and near a playground. The U.S. now believes Russia is running low on air launched cruise missiles, according to a Defense official and their precision munitions are failing at rates between 20 and 60 percent.
Despite Russian claims of not targeting civilians, new video shows the moment a strike hit a line of people waiting for humanitarian aid in Kharkiv, near the Russian border. The regional governor says six people were killed.
Russia's invasion looking more and more like a scorched earth campaign in places as Western countries fear other types of weapons.
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO GENERAL SECRETARY: And the use of chemical weapons or nuclear weapons will totally change the nature of the war in Ukraine. It will be absolutely unacceptable.
LIEBERMANN: Just as Russian forces have been unable to encircle Kyiv, they have also been unable to encircle Ukrainian forces operating in the Donbas region. But that, according to both the U.S. and the Russians, is what they'll attempt to do now.
Will they succeed?
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LIEBERMANN: That, of course, is a question we'll be watching very closely in the days, weeks, months perhaps, ahead -- Oren Liebermann, CNN at the Pentagon.
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GORANI: 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 said 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: Well, after his summit with allies in Belgium, Mr. Biden flew to Poland, meeting American troops stationed there. He said the reason he wanted to see them was very simple. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: I came for one simple basic reason, not a joke, to say thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you for your service. Thank you for who you are. And thank you for what you're doing.
And as my grandfather would say, every time I walked out of his house, he goes, "Joe," he was screaming, he said, "Keep the faith."
My grandma -- my grandmother would yell, all kidding aside, this is serious, she'd yell, "No. Spread it."
You're spreading the faith.
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GORANI: Well, in addition to that major address today, Saturday, Mr. Biden will also speak with 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 he joins me now live from Warsaw with more.
What do we expect from this, quote, "major address," Kevin?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think this is a chance for the president to really recap his visit here to Europe and sort of set the tone for what American officials say is really the next phase, both in the war in Ukraine and in the Western response.
And as American officials say that Russia has reached a stalemate on the ground there, they want to maintain the pressure that's coming from sanctions and also to re-up this deterrence mission that the president was at NATO discussing earlier this week.
And one thing that the president's aides say that he wanted to accomplish by coming here to Europe, coming here to Poland, was to sort of put a more human dimension to these decisions that he's making in Washington and in Brussels, to talk to people on the ground here and to see how they are feeling about what's going on.
And you saw, when the president was in that town in southeastern Poland yesterday, about 60 miles from the Ukraine border, really, the American commitment to security here was evident, as Air Force One was taxiing. You could see those Patriot missile batteries on the ground, armored trucks, all provided by the United States in this effort to deter Vladimir Putin.
Today, when President Biden meets with refugees, he will, again, try and put a human face on the suffering that's existing in Ukraine, on people who are fleeing their homes. And when the president was meeting yesterday with the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, he talked about the mental anguish of these refugees, calling them wounded persons.
One thing that the president of Poland has requested of the United States is that they do more to expedite refugees coming to the U.S. who have family there. He made that request when Vice President Kamala Harris was here in Warsaw only about 1.5 weeks ago.
Since then, President Biden has said that the U.S. will accept up to 100,000 refugees in the United States. Of course, that's only a fraction of the number who are fleeing the violence in Ukraine. And so, the day will culminate with that major speech.
I think one of the themes that you'll hear from the president in that speech is this overarching frame for his entire foreign policy, which is pitting democracies against authoritarian regimes.
He discussed that with the U.S. troops from the 82nd Airborne yesterday. That's something that he has talked about for months and months, even before he became president.
Now those themes are really becoming very real life. These are very evident in this current war in Ukraine. And that's something that the president will want to put a stake down when he delivers those remarks later today, Hala.
GORANI: Kevin Liptak in Warsaw, thanks very much.
Kira Rudik is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and joins me now live from Kyiv with more.
I know that you have been asking from the beginning for NATO and Western allies to enforce a no-fly zone over your country. They have not come any closer to granting Ukraine's wish in that regard.
But is there anything that you heard in the last few days in Brussels that has satisfied you from the countries, that say they really want to help your country repel the Russian invasion?
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KIRA RUDIK, UKRAINIAN MP: Good morning. Thank you for having me.
Well, what we heard is that it is OK for us to die of bullets, OK for us to die of missiles, OK for my people to die of hunger in the occupied cities. But if and when the chemical weapons will be used, then there will be a change.
And you can imagine that this was extremely painful, that this was extremely annoying because, on the day one of war and on the day 31 of war, we do need the same thing. And we are asking for the same thing to help us, to close the sky, to give us the weaponry.
We don't need NATO troops on the ground or in these jets. We need for us to be able to protect ourselves. You know, it's 8:00 am right now in Kyiv.
You know how many air raid sirens we heard during the night?
Eight, eight times Russians tried to attack my city. Eight times, there were a risk that I would not be able to take this call today because there is no protection, because it could have hit anyway -- anywhere. And this is why we are asking for the thing that we do really need,
the jets, the Air Force protection, the Patriots.
And we are saying that, look, are the deaths not enough?
The amount of deaths for the whole month of war?
Or is our bravery that we are showing as an army, as Ukrainians, is not enough?
So like, what is the reason that we are not getting the weapons?
And if the -- the whole world is so afraid of Putin, then why Biden is saying, well, I will change our mind if there will be a chemical attack?
Do we understand how cruel this sounds?
GORANI: Yes. I mean, obviously, we've spoken a few times before, Kira, and I don't have to tell you. But just to explain to our viewers the position from these countries, that providing fighter jets would be an escalatory move, in the sense that Russia could perceive this as a direct confrontation between NATO allies and Russia.
And then potentially use much more deadly weapons on Ukraine.
It -- that -- you don't buy that, though?
You don't think that that's a risk?
RUDIK: I don't think that Putin is not ready to proceed with all the risks that he is threatening. Look. He does not hope, after every single Western response to his actions. Sanctions do not stop him. Like additional aid that we are getting did not stop him. It's only our army right now that is stopping him and he is pushing back.
And he is adding more and more military to that. I will give you, like, a comparison. In Syria, there was hundred of missiles used over the whole war. In Ukraine, right now it's already 1,200 missiles. So you can imagine the scale.
And he already said that he will go all the way, that he will conquer the whole Ukraine.
So my question is, like, what needs to happen for us to get this support?
Like, when the Russian forces will be near NATO countries?
GORANI: Sure. I mean, in Syria, as you know, the aerial bombing flattened entire -- entire cities and, God forbid, something similar should happen to the bigger cities like -- like Kyiv and elsewhere, though we are seeing tremendous destruction -- destruction in Mariupol.
Are you, in any way, encouraged -- and I hesitate to use that word -- but when the Russian top-level general is saying the first phase of our mission is over, the ultimate target is to protect the Donbas, liberate the Donbas, whatever term he used, it appears as though the Russians are now downgrading the objective of their overall mission.
They are not talking about regime change. They are not talking about occupying Kyiv and the entirety of the country.
What do you read into these Russian statements at this point of the war?
RUDD: They will make the war slower. So they are coming on to defense around the cities and then just continue killing us the ways that are cheaper to them. And these ways are from the air.
We have been at war with Russia for eight years prior. So we know how they act. They will slow things down right now. They will continue surrounding the cities. They will continue shelling the cities.
But there will be no, like active attacks from the ground. And this is the most painful because we feel helpless. We are training our army. I am training with my rifle. We are like all trying to protect ourselves.
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RUDIK: But there is no result to that because we -- because it change the way that they are attacking. They are attacking where we are the most weak.
GORANI: So what do you think then if -- if what you're saying is, you believe that the Russians are slowing down the pace of the war, ultimately, what do you then think is their -- is their objective here?
Because I mean, there -- there is some analysis that perhaps they are saying this now in order to be able to claim victory in a region that they have already pretty much secured and occupied, to be able to then scale -- scale this invasion back, because they can't eternally finance this level of warfare.
They are cut off from the international financial system.
You don't think that's what's happening, though?
RUDIK: No. I don't think that -- that they will be stopping. Slowing down, yes. Stopping or scaling down, no. They still have enough of their forces on the ground in Ukraine to go and try and take more and more cities.
They still have the objectives of creating a bridge in between Russia and Crimea on the ground. They still have many tactical objectives, like they are going and they surrounding the -- the city of Kyiv right now. And they will, at some point, get the entrances and exits of the city.
Putin has so much money saved that right now we realize that he is able to do this for a while. Look. It's been a month of these sanctions. He didn't step back like for an inch. He didn't, like, beg or try to agree to anything.
He was selling the gas and oil to the world for so long that, right now, he can stay in his own siege for much longer than we anticipated, than the Western countries anticipated.
GORANI: Kira Rudik, thank you very much for joining us, a member of the Ukrainian parliament coming to us from Kyiv, Ukraine, and I hope you can stay safe.
It's 8:16 in the morning across this country. At Poland's border, women carry their children and what little else they can as they flee the horrors of this war.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Even if a woman walks out with a white flag and a child, they don't look. They just shoot, kill. They spare no one.
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GORANI: Coming up, what Europe is doing to help the millions of people trying to escape the bloodshed. That is coming up.
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GORANI: The mayor of Warsaw is pleading for help after his city welcomed 300,000 Ukrainian refugees since the war began. While some plan to go elsewhere from there, the influx has left public services struggling to cope. The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council met with the mayor and told reporters that all of Europe must bear 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: Well, take a look at this map. Most of the refugees from Ukraine have gone to Poland. Indeed, gone to Poland. Ukraine's other neighbors have welcomed less than a million people each. Poland is helping more than 2 million Ukrainians.
Germany has taken 130 Ukrainians who were in Moldova. That is a small number but Germany officials call it the start of a so-called air bridge, that will take some 14,000 refugees across Europe.
And the great majority of those fleeing the fighting are women and children. Our Melissa Bell brings us some of their stories from a Polish border crossing.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For a month now, they have arrived day and night at Medyka crossing, mothers and their children carrying little, burdened only by the images of what they've fled.
BELL: Where is this, Chernihiv?
TATYANA ZELENSKA, REFUGEE: Chernihiv.
BELL (voice-over): Tatyana spent more than two weeks getting to Medyka with her niece, nephew and daughter, traveling by day and sheltering in basements at night, in fear of the sound of constant shelling.
But she says, worst of all, the sound of planes at night dropping bombs.
"They drop them on the hospitals where the sick are," she says, "on the bakeries where they make bread so we don't have anything to eat; on the water facilities, so we don't have anything to drink."
DARYA MALEVANCHUK, REFUGEE: The most scared was when the plane --
BELL (voice-over): For Darya as well, it was the sound of the planes at night that scared her the most on her three-day journey from Kharkiv. It was that sound, she says, that forced her and her son from their first underground shelter.
"As a mom," she says, "I was scared. My son handled it better. It's harder for the mother."
And for a grandmother, perhaps hardest of all. Larissa (ph) and her daughter, Elizabeta (ph), escaped from Irpin more than a week ago.
"A shell hit our house," says Elizabeta (ph). "That's it on the fifth floor. We had a Ukrainian flag hanging on the balcony, so they targeted it."
That was when the family decided to flee, heading from Irpin through other occupied towns like Hostomel and Bucha.
"People can't get out," says Larissa. "It's too dangerous because, even if a woman walks out with a white flag and a child, they don't look. They just shoot, kill. They spare no one. Anyway, we can't go home now," she says, "because there is no home."
So like millions of others, they head into Europe after crossing a border they never wanted to have to cross -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Medyka, Poland.
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GORANI: A shift in strategy for Russia as its advances stall. What it now says is the focus of its war on Ukraine.
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GORANI: Welcome back. I am Hala Gorani in Lviv, Ukraine.
Russia claims it has achieved its initial goals in Ukraine and will now focus on, quote, "the liberation of the eastern Donbas" region.
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GORANI: That is where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years.
Now the apparent change in strategy comes as Russian advances on major Ukrainian cities continue to stall. A senior U.S. Defense official says Russian forces around Kyiv are in defensive positions and that all ground movements toward the capital have stopped, although long- range strikes and air attacks are obviously continuing.
The Russian advance on Kyiv may be halted for the moment but Ukrainians are not letting their guard down. Fred Pleitgen shows us how the capital is preparing for what might come next.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is still very much on a war footing. We're right in the city center. And as you can see, there's a tank barrier that was set up here with sandbags, obviously a defensive position.
And this is something that you really see throughout the entire city with a lot of checkpoints, a lot of soldiers on the ground, defense forces there as well.
And just to give you an idea, we are literally in the city center. Over there, you see the Maidan, of course, right in the middle of the Ukrainian capital.
At the same time, though, you do get the sense here right now that the people here have a little more room to breathe and they feel a little more secure because of some of the gains that the Ukrainian forces have been making.
For instance, at a checkpoint like this one, you do see a lot more vehicle traffic than, for instance, we have been seeing over the past couple of days. There's more cars going through here. Nevertheless, of course, the situation still remains very dangerous,
with Russians saying that they hit a fuel depot just south of the Ukrainian capital. And in general, of course, fighting still going on, not very far from where we are.
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GORANI: That was Fred Pleitgen there, in the center of Kyiv.
A top Russian general says the encirclement of Ukrainian cities like Kyiv is a deliberate plan. A colonel says their aim is to down Ukrainian forces, to prevent them from focusing on the separatist regions of Donbas. But CNN military analyst retired General Mark Hertling is not buying that explanation.
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LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's a pretty bold strategy to say you've succeeded in phase one and you are about to transfer to phase two after you've wrapped 190,000 Russian soldiers around a front that was 14 mile -- 1,400 miles long and then say, yes, what we really wanted to do was go into the Donbas, an area that they had already had a stalemate in.
It's just beyond belief. It's laughable. And it shows that not only is Putin incompetent as a strategist but his generals must be really sycophantic in terms of their comedic display of support for something like this.
It just doesn't coincide with any kind of military plan or activity that I've ever seen before and, certainly, one that doesn't have victory as an end state.
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GORANI: And that was Mark Hertling. Let's bring in Atika Shubert. She is following this story. She is in Valencia, Spain.
So, Atika, I spoke with a member of parliament, a Ukrainian member of parliament, who believes this changed, sort of strategic goal announced by the Russians isn't about finding a way out of the conflict but it's about slowing it down so that they can continue their kind of relentless, at a slower pace, encirclement of cities and occupation of as much territory as possible.
ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST: Yes, well, we don't know what it's going to mean on the ground yet. But it's clearly a change in public messaging from the Russian military.
And this was, you know, given by a very senior general. He is the first deputy chief of the Russia's general staff. So it is a significant shift. Previously, the goals were much more amorphous.
The way that Russian president Vladimir Putin described the so-called special military operation was that it was to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, by which, he presumably meant regime change, toppling the Ukrainian government.
And clearly, none of that has happened. They have not been able to capture any of the major cities; least of all, the capital, Kyiv. However, now with what we're hearing, by saying the main goal -- and those were the exact words used -- the main goal is the liberation of Donbas.
What that could mean then is that we are going to be seeing more of the military offensive moving into that area, which is perhaps already what we're seeing, for example, in Kyiv, where, you know, you have seen the stalling of Russian military forces.
Unfortunately, it could mean we see an increase in fighting in areas around Mariupol, for example, which is in the disputed Donetsk area.
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SHUBERT: So I -- you know, whether or not we will see a intensification of the fighting in that Donbas, the Luhansk and the Donetsk area, is, I think, what many Ukrainians would worry about.
But what is clear is the message from Russia is the goal is no longer to topple the government but now to secure these disputed areas, the Donetsk and Luhansk. What that means militarily, we are going to have to see what Russian troops on the ground do next.
GORANI: Thanks so much, Atika Shubert.
That is going to do it for now from Lviv for me. I will be back at the top of the hour but, after the break, my colleague, Kristie Lu Stout, has this story. After a week in a dingy basement in the besieged city of Mariupol, a young woman and her family managed to escape. Why her phone was so important.
Plus, Ukraine says Russia has not given up its plan to assassinate President Zelenskyy. And now, he's reportedly being targeted by a group that some describe as Putin's private army.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I am Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong.
And we are getting a painful look at how death and destruction are spreading across Ukraine. The casualties are just so staggering that people are resorting to burying the dead in their back yards.
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STOUT (voice-over): In this video, you can see wooden crosses marking graves next to an apartment building in Mariupol. One woman who buried her stepfather near a playground is sharing their story. He died after the car he was in was bombed while a doctor was trying to get him to the hospital.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When the doctor was taking our stepfather to the hospital, we found the doctor in the nearby building. And this guy took a seat in the car instead of me. And they blew him up in this car. It could have been me.
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STOUT: The U.N. says it has, quote, "increasing information" corroborating the existence of mass graves in Mariupol, including one that appeared to hold 200 bodies. The organization says that more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Russia's war in Ukraine.
Now an 18-year-old university student and her parents say that they barely escaped the besieged city of Mariupol alive, missing a rocket that hit the street right in front of them.
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STOUT (voice-over): This video shows the basement the family lived in, sharing the space for a week with strangers before they finally decided to leave. The father kept this video in his phone, despite demands by Russian soldiers at checkpoints to delete negative content.
Now his daughter, Maria, whose last name we are not using, she spoke to CNN's John Berman from a location outside Mariupol.
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MARIA, MARIUPOL REFUGEE: I don't think that nobody abroad can understand truly what just happened in my hometown. Like you can't even imagine living in the basement is not the worst thing happening in Mariupol. Like this town turned into a ghost.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: "This town turned into a ghost."
I know there were explosions all around you. In one case there was a shell that hit, what, I think we have pictures?
You have pictures of it hit 30 meters from you.
MARIA: Yes, we have lots of pictures of rockets fell down on the street, in our houses, in our cars on the streets, on the hospitals and the schools and it's actually terrifying. Like the sounds of bomb being just makes your blood stop and boil because of fear and the only thing that you -- that you are thinking about is like how to make out alive of it. BERMAN: When you were in that basement, how many were you?
And did you think you'd make it out?
MARIA: I can't count the amount of people living here because this basement was like a huge basement and, you know, almost every house has such basements and there are lots and lots of people.
Like I think by that moment nobody is living in their houses. They are just -- they have moved all into basements to save their lives because staying in your home is not safe anymore.
BERMAN: Staying in your home is not safe anymore but also trying it leave can be incredibly dangerous. You managed to get into a car and to try to make your way out of the city. Talk to me about the Russians as you were leaving. They were telling you to delete the pictures on your phones.
What were they saying?
MARIA: You know, the story was like that. We were standing in a huge line to leave the city on a Russian checkpoint and I remember the friend of my father came to my car and he said delete everything you can delete.
Delete every photo of the Mariupol -- photos of destruction, photos that agitate for Ukraine. Delete as much provocative messages in your own messages as you can so you don't provoke the soldiers to leave you in the city.
And I remember when we just came to a checkpoint. They literally took our phones and they were scrolling and scrolling to find anything that can provoke them and luckily we deleted almost everything so we could go through a checkpoint.
BERMAN: They didn't want any pictures of what was happening there. You think they wanted to hide the truth?
MARIA: You know, it's -- yes. They just wanted to hide -- to hide the truth, block the truth but these photos cannot be hidden. Somebody catch it on the internet, somebody shares it with their friends and relatives, so these photos are worldwide.
So it's impossible to hide anything because we see it. We live in that condition, so we cannot be just defeated easily. And they cannot tell us that this is our soldiers shooting themselves because we see everything. We are not fools.
BERMAN: You are also -- we are not fools. You are living truth, Maria. Your mere presence, your being here with us telling the story tells us everything. And just one more thing. I do understand that even as you left and made it through the Russian checkpoints you felt like the Russians were firing on you as you were leaving.
MARIA: Yes, there's a story of us leaving Russian checkpoints, you know, of who is joining you from the city we have passed maybe six Russian checkpoints. They were like each 30 kilometers. They were checking our baggage, our documents, our phones, et cetera.
And I remember the story when a Russian soldiers -- Russian soldier, after checking our documents, he wished us having a nice trip. And I was very confused by this word -- by these words.
And then 20 minutes after the rockets just began shooting in our spines, on the cars of the civilians, cars where kids were in. And they were just shooting on the civilians leaving Mariupol.
BERMAN: Maria, as I said, thank you for sharing your story. They cannot hide the truth. They cannot hide these stories. People like you who I know you were a colleague student home on break basically and then this is what you had to live through.
We're so glad that you and your family made it out safely. We wish you the best. Please let us know if there's anything we can do.
MARIA: Unfortunately, you cannot help Mariupol now. The only thing you can help is people going on protest and educate to close the sky in the Ukraine because the main weapon of Russian soldiers are rockets and bombs dropping from the sky.
You know, a week ago they dropped a huge bomb on the drama theatre in the center of the city and there were lots and lots of people hiding here. And today our government said that nearly 300 of people are dead, buried alive in the drama theatre.
BERMAN: Three hundred people killed in that theatre and we've seen some of the pictures for the first time and it's devastating. Maria, thank you for being with us. Please stay safe. Be well.
MARIA: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT: Ukraine accuses Russia of deploying an infamous mercenary group as part of its invasion. Independent researchers say Wagner mercenaries are guns for hire, who do the Kremlin's dirty work but provide plausible deniability.
As David McKenzie reports, Ukraine says that the mercenaries have been sent there on a specific mission. And a warning: the images in this report, some are graphic.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Russian mercenary takes a selfie video in Syria. It's a recruitment- styled pitch --
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MCKENZIE (voice-over): -- allegedly for the notorious Wagner Group, a brutal force believed to be linked to the Kremlin.
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[02:45:00]
MCKENZIE (voice-over): In the shadows of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian defense official tells us that Wagner contractors were in the country and had a very specific mission.
MCKENZIE: What is the objective, do you think, in Ukraine, right now?
MARKIYAN LUBKIVSKY, ADVISER TO THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE OF UKRAINE: They wanted to assassinate the leadership of Ukraine, our president and prime minister. So that was the goal. And a couple of groups, couple of people, were sent to Ukraine, without any success.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): I am here. We are not putting down arms.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The primary target, he says, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine's military says documentary evidence gathered by intelligence officials and special forces outlines their alleged mission. He says several Wagner operatives have been eliminated, identified by their unique dog tags. CNN couldn't independently corroborate the account.
LUBKIVSKY: We need to find all these people and they need to go to the court. They're absolutely illegal.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Wagner contractors surfaced in Eastern Ukraine in 2014, exposed by research groups and CNN investigations. Their operations span the Middle East and Africa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
MCKENZIE (voice-over): U.S. officials accuse Wagner of multiple human rights abuses in multiple countries.
In this disturbing 2017 video investigated by CNN, Wagner mercenaries appear to be torturing and murdering a Syrian man as they make jokes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The Kremlin said the incident had nothing to do with the Russian military operations in Syria. And they've repeatedly denied any links to Wagner.
U.S. officials say that Wagner was started by this man, Dmitry Utkin, a veteran of the Chechen conflict and allegedly bankrolled by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch so close to Russia's leader, he's nicknamed Putin's chef. Under multiple U.S. sanctions, Prigozhin denies any involvement in Wagner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want blood. They want to fight. MCKENZIE (voice-over): But this senior researcher at the Dossier Center says Wagner is Putin's private army. We agreed to hide their identity for their safety. They've spent years investigating Wagner's links to the Kremlin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They operate without any law, without any rules. They can do whatever in a way, whatever they want. Then, when there is a call to MOD or there is a call to Mr. Putin, "What your guys are doing in this particular country?" the response will be, "These are individuals. They have no link to the Kremlin."
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Despite the invasion and new allegations of an assassination plot, Ukraine's president says he isn't going anywhere -- David McKenzie, CNN, London.
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STOUT: Now amid the red carpet glitz this year, there are reminders of the injustice of war. How Hollywood stars are showing their support for the people of Ukraine, straight ahead.
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STOUT: Some sad news for rock music fans. Taylor Hawkins, the drummer for the rock band the Foo Fighters has died at age of 50. The band says they're devastated by the tragic loss. Hawkins played with the Foo Fighters more than two decades, joining in 1997 after they released the album, "The Color and the Shape." It's unclear how he died. The band was scheduled to play in Bogota, Colombia.
The band says, "His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever."
Some of the biggest prizes, the Oscars, will be handed out this Sunday. Amid the festivities, some big names are using the spotlight to show support for the Ukrainian people. Stephanie Elam has the story.
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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Red carpet glamor, a world away from war in Ukraine.
BRIAN COX, ACTOR: Really, really awful what's happening.
ELAM (voice-over): But Hollywood isn't ignoring the humanitarian crisis this season.
MICHAEL DOUGLAS, ACTOR: We're getting a great lesson and a reminder about what true democracies are about. ELAM (voice-over): Heavy hitters showing their support for blue and yellow while on the red carpet and at least one star protesting in the street.
JAVIER BARDEM, ACTOR: In my humble opinion, it's better to support the idea of a peaceful resolution.
ELAM (voice-over): Best Actor nominee Javier Bardem saying he joined protesters at Madrid's Russian embassy to demonstrate his support outside of Hollywood.
BARDEN: It's very delicate to say anything when you are having a beautiful, safe life in a safe environment.
ELAM (voice-over): Set to present at the Oscars is Ukrainian born actress Mila Kunis.
MILA KUNIS, ACTOR: Today, I have never been more proud to be a Ukrainian.
ELAM (voice-over): She and husband, Ashton Kutcher, have raised $30 million for Ukrainian refugees.
KUNIS: This is just a beginning to a very, very, very long journey.
ELAM (voice-over): With widespread support for Ukraine, insiders say this Academy Awards will likely be different from the Trump years, when the politics were more divisive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the stars get up and talk about Ukraine, there might be a way for people to rally behind them, that the politics won't be divisive but uniting.
COX: The president of Ukraine was a comic, he was a wonderful comic performer.
ELAM (voice-over): "Succession" star Brian Cox with the most dramatic speech so far at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, calling for support of Russian artists who are at risk if they condemn the war.
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COX: And I think we should really join in celebrating them and hoping that they can actually make a shift, as I believe they can.
ELAM: But the Oscars won't be all serious, with three comediennes hosting, Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall and Amy Schumer.
Producer Will Packer telling "Vanity Fair," "I want this to be an escape." -- in Hollywood, I'm Stephanie Elam.
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STOUT: An artist in northern Portugal used his gift to honor the people of Ukraine. He created this mural, it's called "The Freedom Fighter." This massive work is located in an abandoned factory in the Puerto (ph) region.
The artist, known as Mr. Deal, says the mural started with a self- portrait but it is dedicated to peace and to the people of Ukraine.
I'm Kristie Lu Stout and our breaking news coverage live from Ukraine continues in just a moment.
