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Biden: Vladimir Putin "Cannot Remain in Power"; Biden Warns Russia away from NATO Territory; Russian Missiles Striking Ukrainian Fuel Depots; Ukrainian Forces Retake Several More Towns; Refugee: All Infrastructure Destroyed, Nowhere to Live; Norwegian Paramedic Transports Ukrainians to Poland; Missiles Striking Lviv Injure Five; Taliban Renege on Allowing Girls back in Schools; Omicron Subvariant Drives Surge in U.S. and European Cases; 100+ U.S. Fire Departments Send Gear to Ukraine. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired March 27, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): 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 this hour. I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv, Ukraine.
The American president, Joe Biden, wrapped up his trip to Europe with a blunt declaration that Vladimir Putin needs to go. It was a shockingly candid remark and it came at the very end of the president's speech in Warsaw and provoked a response from the Kremlin.
The White House quickly clarified that Mr. Biden was not calling for regime change in Moscow. Even as Mr. Biden was in Poland, Russian missiles struck another fuel facility; this time in Lviv, not far from the Polish border and quite close to our position here.
Ukrainian forces claim they've recaptured several towns from the Russians, including this village near the Russian border. New video purports to show the Ukrainians attacking Russian troops holed up inside a school. Ukraine's president, again, issued an urgent call for more military assistance from the West.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles using shotguns, machine guns, which are too much in supplies.
It is impossible to unblock Mariupol without a sufficient number of tanks, other armored vehicles and, of course, aircraft. All defenders of Ukraine know that. All defenders of Mariupol know that. Thousands of people know that.
Citizens, civilians who are dying there in the blockade, the United States knows that. All European politicians know. We told everyone and they should be known as soon as possible, by as many people on Earth as possible, so that everyone understands who and why we are simply afraid (sic) to prevent this tragedy.
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GORANI: That was Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Now Mr. Biden's speech also pushed back against how Russia has tried to frame the war from the get-go. The U.S. President described it as part of a larger battle between democracies and autocracies and he urged democratic nations to prepare for a long fight on that front. Phil Mattingly is in Warsaw.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For God's sake, this man cannot remain power.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, President Biden delivering a forceful and dramatic condemnation of Vladimir Putin.
BIDEN: A dictator vent on rebuilding an empire will never erase the people's love for liberty.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The White House later clarifying Biden was not calling for regime change but an unmistakable message.
BIDEN: Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): As Biden delivered a clarion call to Western democracies at the moment of the highest stakes, drawing parallels to Eastern Europe's emergence from Soviet rule.
BIDEN: It was a long, painful slog fought over not days and months but years and decades, where we emerged anew in the great battle for freedom, a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The speech a capstone of a European swing, defined by unity in the face of searing images of disaster, just a border away.
BIDEN: Ukraine and its people are on the front lines fighting to save their nation and their brave resistance is part of a larger fight for essential democratic principles that unite all free people.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Biden's remarks coming just hours after new Russian strikes in Lviv just 40 miles from the Polish border and as Biden's caustic view of the Russian President grows even darker.
QUESTION: You're dealing every day with Vladimir Putin, I mean, look at what he's done to these people, what does it make you think?
BIDEN: He's a butcher,
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And his warnings to the Russian leader of NATO's commitment goes even sharper.
BIDEN: Don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. We have a sacred obligation, we have a sacred obligation under Article V to defend each and every inch of NATO territory for the full force of our collective power.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): In the final day of an urgent and hastily arranged trip to Europe that brought Biden face-to-face with dozens of Western leaders, he sat down with Polish President Duda pledging close ties for a NATO country housing 10,500 U.S. troops.
BIDEN: We do acknowledge that Poland is taking on a significant responsibility that I don't think should just be Poland, it should be the whole world -- all of NATO's responsibility.
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MATTINGLY (voice-over): And more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees, Biden meeting some firsthand.
BIDEN: Can I hug you?
You're so brave. You all brave, brave, brave.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And just hours after a surprise meeting with the Ukrainian foreign and defense ministers.
DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The only thing is that since the beginning of the war, I learned how to sleep under any conditions.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): A face-to-face sit down where Biden pledged even more U.S. support, a welcome commitment for a country under siege in western democracies facing a challenge now reshaping European power dynamics.
BIDEN: It will not be easy. There will be a cost but it is a price we have to pay.
MATTINGLY: And the president is now aboard Air Force One, flying back to the U.S. But just because the European trip is complete doesn't mean this issue is complete or dissipating in any way.
White House officials are very clear: they know it's a long road ahead. It was really the genesis of the president's decision to make these remarks in Warsaw, to underscore that the Western unity, that we have seen over the course of the last four months, it can't just be a one-time thing or a one-month thing.
It has to be sustained, not for days, not for weeks, not for months but for years, maybe even longer, as the world, at least according to the president, has entered a very clear and very real inflection point.
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GORANI: Phil Mattingly, thanks very much in Warsaw.
Here in Lviv, fire crews were battling a huge blaze after Russian missiles struck a fuel storage facility. CNN's Don Lemon was on the scene moments after the attack.
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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You could hear the flames roaring in and what they're concerned about is another one of these tanks exploding, so they're pushing people back until they can get control of this blaze.
You were mentioning how close it is to a neighborhood, it's really close to a neighborhood. It's on the other side, there's a little valley in here and another side of a retention wall.
And, Pete, if you can just go around just a little bit and show them how close this is to a neighborhood quickly and then we'll get back in the frame.
So it's really, really close.
This is a neighborhood where everyone has gathered, all of the rescue people and they have done this on a number of different streets. So if you'll come back here, so we are, you know, just within a 10th of a mile or so from where this is happening.
But again, look at those flames. They are just roaring, black smoke coming out of there.
And you can see them putting the fire retardant, spraying the fire retardant on this.
And -- but again, as you said, it is a chaotic scene. They're running fire hoses through this residential neighborhood, the -- this retention wall, and into the other side of that valley and tanks.
Think of it, as you will, you know, for those of you who live near a chemical plant and you see these large, round storage facilities that carry either fuel or grain or what have you, that is what is happening here.
This is a fuel storage facility, northeast of the city. Again, we're told it's not anywhere near where that those -- that blast went off just a couple of weeks ago when they hit that airplane repair facility.
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GORANI: That was Don Lemon. Let's bring in CNN military analyst, Colonel Cedric Leighton. He is in Washington.
So this isn't the first strike on the western city of Lviv, where we are reporting from. We had one against the military training facility, against an aircraft repair hangar near the airport. Now these fuel storage tanks.
And also we understand from the mayor, a location was hit south of the city that appears also to have been some sort of repair facility.
Do you think this was a message sent to Biden, who was just one border away yesterday?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I do, Hala. You know, it's very clear to me that the Russians are sending a message, not only to Biden but to NATO at large.
And that message basically is this, we can strike anywhere in Ukraine and will strike even close to NATO. And we will have the precision munitions that are capable of doing that fairly accurately.
So you know, they are -- I think they are trying to counteract some of the reporting that we've done, that says they use a lot of munitions that aren't precision-guided, that are, in essence, dumb bombs that go in and hit anything that happens to fall in their -- in their path. And that's -- that's kind of the difference.
There was, you know, that part of the Russian inventory that can do things quite precisely. But the vast majority of the Russian inventory of weapons is not that precise.
GORANI: Right. And it's not a huge surprise that they would target something like a fuel storage facility. I mean, the concern I had with the strike in the south is that really, just a few meters away, was a residential tower block. So all you need is really one misfire, one miscalculation.
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GORANI: And you are hitting densely populated civilian areas in a city, as west as Lviv, which has been relatively safe so far.
LEIGHTON: Yes, that's true. And, you know, it doesn't take much to make -- you can type in the wrong coordinates, you know, if you are the weaponeer for a weapon like this, somebody who's setting the targets for a weapon like that and states (ph) like that.
And not only in terms of, you know, the wrong target hit but especially in terms of civilian lives affected. And that's a very big danger in a situation like this.
GORANI: Yes. So this comes -- literally it came a few hours after the Russians claimed that their phase one was over, according to our sources. They were now going to concentrate on the east and "liberating," quote-unquote, these eastern regions. And that very day, they decide to strike at least two targets in the west.
Are they just plain lying?
LEIGHTON: Yes, they are. What they are doing is, you know, it may be true that they are going to put a preponderance of their effort into the east. That was one of their original war aims.
But their war aims also included going after Kyiv and going after Kharkiv and other cities and also attacking in the south. So they found it difficult to do all of that. And they may very well be concentrating on the east, because that, you know, would make sense from a military perspective.
But they are not going to give up on attacking other areas because they want to keep the Ukrainians guessing. They want to make sure that there is as much uncertainty as possible, not only among the government in Ukraine but also among the civilian population.
And that's part of -- part of their effort. They are very good at deception. And that's, you know, part of that plan.
GORANI: But I wonder -- I mean, does this -- and the president, Biden, did say that this was a long-term fight.
Does this mean that -- that -- that the Russian military, rather than acknowledge that their initial goals have not been met, kind of try to face-save by saying this was always about the Donbas region and that they would come up with some sort of way to climb down from this, rather than that scenario, which would be the best-case scenario, I guess, that really what they are doing is obfuscating and hitting targets outside of the areas that they've said they would hit and that this is really going to be a long-term, long slog and that we should be prepared for that?
LEIGHTON: Yes, I think that's the case, Hala. I think we should be prepared for a long slog, unfortunately, because that is kind of their way of doing things. You know, they did, you know, indicate that they wanted to, you know, attack these areas in one way or the other.
And they find it, I think, useful from their perspective to try to keep the Ukrainians off balance. That's -- that's, in essence, what's happening here. But they are, you know, clearly doing things that, you know, indicate that their first plan has really failed.
It's -- it's really, you know, kind of a sequencing issue for them, I think, more than anything else. They've -- they thought that they could conquer Ukraine very quickly. That did not happen. So this is, in essence, plan B, a corollary to plan A, which was to take the whole thing.
GORANI: But -- and lastly, I mean, that's -- obviously, this is plan B. But it's -- it's going to -- I mean, this costs money. They are not able to raise as -- funds in the way they were before. Now they're ostracized from the banking system. They are -- their central bank can't raise funds.
The ruble is collapsing. So they do have gas and oil money coming from some countries, not all of their previous customers.
But so how long -- what is the staying power of the Russian military here?
LEIGHTON: Well, that's a really good question. We're not quite sure, to be honest, Hala. That's something we are not quite sure of. But you know, if I were venture to make a prediction here, this is something that they will definitely run out of time. But they are racing against the clock. But they are betting that they
can withstand anything caused by the sanctions and by other efforts to keep them boxed in.
And they think that they can withstand that long enough in order to create the situations that they want in Ukraine, which is to destabilize the government and possibly to let it fall and then to take over at least a portion of the country, so that they can say, look, we have accomplished our aims, whether those are the real aims or not.
That -- that is what they are going to say. And it's, you know, going to certainly cover up for any malfunctions and disappointments, you know, to use their term, in this situation.
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GORANI: Well, thank you very much, Cedric Leighton, as always. Pleasure talking to you this evening. Or this morning. This evening your time. This night, your time, I should say. Thank you so much.
Russia claims one of its cruise missiles destroyed a fuel depot in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. The city near the Black Sea has been devastated by fighting, with homes reduced to rubble in Russian air raids.
Despite the violence and despite the danger, some families in Mykolaiv are trying to hold on to some semblance of normalcy. CNN's Ben Wedeman has our report.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once more, the people of Mykolaiv can have their daily bread.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN: "I see a change," says Maxim.
"Now it's getting back to normal. I really hope it will last."
The Ukrainian army and volunteer fighters have pushed Russian forces east, sparing this port city, blocking Russia's push to seize the country's entire western Black Sea coast. The supermarkets are fully open, even if some shelves are empty. Fresh milk still missing.
Alexander and his family seem to savor the mundane task of grocery shopping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): He begins to tell us the Russians stopped, when his wife interrupts him to say, "We're still afraid."
WEDEMAN: On the surface, life seems to be resuming most of its regular rhythms. But that's just the surface. All over the city, there are piles of these old tires, intended to be set alight to obscure the vision of invading Russian forces. And there's also, among the tires, Molotov cocktails.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Around the city, signs of destruction. This empty hotel struck several days ago in the early afternoon.
Natasha wasn't home nearby when it happened. In this predominantly ethnic Russian city, she scoffs at the idea Russia is waging war on her behalf.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not for our home. And not for Russian people.
WEDEMAN: The Red Cross has turned this wedding hall into a center providing medicine, diapers and other supplies. What they can't provide, however, is a sense this nightmare is coming to an end -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: And still to come. A Norwegian paramedic would not stand by while people flee for their lives in Ukraine. We will have more on the lifesaving service he and others are offering. We'll be right back.
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GORANI: Now safe in Poland, refugees are describing horrific conditions brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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OLHA MOLIBOHA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): People have nowhere to live. All infrastructure is destroyed. There is no water, no electricity, nothing. But our people are like this. They will simply start defending themselves. We will defend ourselves to the last as long as we are alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: That old lady and her dog, according to the U.N., more than 3.7 million people have fled to safety in other countries since the war began.
While in Poland, President Biden met with Ukrainian refugees at the national stadium, carrying a Ukrainian girl, at one point, in his arms and offering comfort to those who've been displaced.
Despite the millions who have already fled Ukraine, there are countless others still trying to escape. One Norwegian volunteer paramedic is bravely making daily trips to Ukraine to help as many -- help as many people as he can flee to Poland. CNN's Ed Lavandera has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At any given moment across Ukraine, there are countless people on the streets, doing whatever they can to help in the war effort. So when missile strikes happen near a populated area, like we saw on Saturday in Lviv, that sends shivers down the spines of all those people trying to help.
LAVANDERA (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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): He's part of a volunteer team evacuating critically ill hospital patients and refugees from Ukraine.
GUNNESTAD: I just wanted to help, do something. Not sit at home and just look at everything on the TV.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): 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 Saint 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, SAINT 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 (voice-over): Hospitals are struggling to handle all the patients needing critical lifesaving care.
That's where Didrik's 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): Didrik and his team of paramedics and nurses have spent almost three weeks crisscrossing the city, answering any call for help that comes in.
LAVANDERA: How stressful is it to drive around Ukraine right now?
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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.
LAVANDERA: 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.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): For Didrik Gunnestad, it feels like the road to saving Ukrainians goes on forever.
LAVANDERA: I spoke with Didrik just moments after that explosion happened in Lviv on Saturday. And he told me that he happened to have three patients in the back of his ambulance at that very moment, that they weren't too far away from where the explosion detonated.
He said it took him a little while to figure out exactly what the sound was and where it was coming from. But as soon as they put it all together, they stopped everything and started driving straight to the Polish-Ukrainian border.
And he tells me that they all made it across safely late Saturday afternoon. And, in his eyes, it's three more people that he's been able to evacuate safely out of this war-torn country.
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GORANI: That was Ed Lavandera.
And still ahead, the mood appears to be improving in some parts of Kyiv, though we are using those words carefully still, as Ukrainian troops press forward with a counter -- counteroffensive around the capital city. We will bring you that story, coming up.
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GORANI: Welcome back, I am Hala Gorani, reporting live from Lviv in Ukraine.
Well, the fire is still raging at a fuel depot here in Lviv, following multiple Russian strikes on Saturday.
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GORANI (voice-over): Take a look at the scene during the day as flames and thick black smoke rose from one of the targets. Ukrainian officials say at least five people were hurt in this attack. Lviv sits close to the Polish border. And so far it's largely been spared the relentless bombardment we have seen in many other cities, though it suffered a few attacks.
Now this assault came as the U.S. President Joe Biden was in Poland just a few hundred kilometers away, wrapping up a four-day trip to Europe, aimed at rallying Western support for Ukraine. He capped off his visit with a powerful, yet apparently unscripted, rebuke of the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Listen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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BIDEN: For God sake, this man cannot remain in power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Those comments -- this was one of the last things he said -- but obviously they made the headlines. They sent shock waves around the globe. But the White House later tried to clarify, saying Mr. Biden was not calling for regime change.
However, the U.S. President did deliver a stark warning to Vladimir Putin, should Russia's attacks extend beyond Ukraine's borders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. We have sacred obligation. We have a sacred obligation under Article 5 to defend each and every inch of NATO territory with the full force of our collective power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops say they have recaptured several towns near the Russian border, including this village in northeastern Ukraine, where soldiers engaged in a fierce firefight with Russian troops, reportedly holed up inside that building, which is -- or was, I should say -- used as a school.
We are also seeing Ukrainian troops making gains around Kyiv, though intense fighting continues near the capital city. Our Fred Pleitgen is in the capital.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Massive battles continue here around the Kyiv area while it seems, though, the Russians might be somewhat on the back foot.
And Ukrainians are certainly saying they are pressing what they call a counteroffensive, especially toward the northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and also toward the northeast of the capital as well.
The Ukrainians claiming that they took some area back. For instance, if we look at the suburb of Irpin, Ukrainians say that they have about 80 percent of that area right now. However, they also say that they are still being shelled by Russian forces.
Now, needless to say, despite these gains, this city is still very much on a war footing because, of course, the Ukrainians understand that the gains they've made so far are very fragile.
There are still a lot of checkpoints here inside the city; cars being checked, especially by the territorial defense forces. But what we do see is that there are more people who are out and about. There is some shops that are opening.
And also, there seems to be a lot more traffic than there has been in the past couple of weeks. While we also see the territorial defense forces -- they are still preparing for if the Russians might come back and might enter the city -- in fact, we saw some were practicing throwing Molotov cocktails in the most effective way.
Still, they say, right now, the mood here in the city is improving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Old businesses are returning to work, where more and more shops open every day. And you can see even, you know, even traffic is becoming much, much more dense than even two or three days ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was a strong city with strong citizens. And we defend it a lot because this is the capital. And this is, like, logical, that they would try to attack us more, once again and again.
PLEITGEN: But you will win?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. No doubt.
PLEITGEN: While the folks from those territorial defense forces certainly seem to be very confident, I think it's still pretty clear to the leadership here that the gains that they have made so far, especially around Kyiv, are things that can be reversed.
There still is a massive army standing essentially at the gates to this city. And, certainly, going to be some pretty tough battles still ahead -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE) GORANI: Thank you, Fred, for that. That's going to do it from me for now.
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GORANI: Let's go to Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong -- Kristie.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hala, thank you.
And Hala will be back at the top of the hour.
But just ahead, women and girls in the Afghan capital are taking to the streets. Find out what recent Taliban decision triggered this brave backlash.
And U.S. officials -- health officials -- they are expected to sign off on a second COVID booster shot. We'll discuss who will be eligible.
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STOUT: Girls and women hit the streets of Kabul to protest on Saturday, just days after the Taliban in Afghanistan reneged on a promise and made education for many young women difficult, if not impossible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT (voice-over): The demonstrators chanted against the Taliban's decision to keep girls above 6th grade out of school. It's supposedly until sharia-appropriate school uniforms are designed. But demonstrators -- they were not buying that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Unfortunately, by the advent of the Taliban, all our schools were closed. We, girls, are allowed to study same like boys. Islam has given us this right. But the Taliban has taken this right from us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT: The move quickly drew international condemnation.
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STOUT: And the U.S. cancelled planned meetings with the Taliban. Paula Newton has more on the growing outrage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Taliban decision to bar Afghan girls above 6th grade from returning to school has triggered a concrete backlash. American officials say Wednesday's decision could be a potential
turning point in engagement, as they cancelled planned meetings with the Taliban in Doha.
JALINA PORTER, DEPUTY STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: The decision by the Taliban, if it is not swiftly reversed, will profoundly harm the Afghan people, the country's prospects for economic growth and the Taliban's ambition to improve their relations with the international community.
NEWTON (voice-over): For the first time in more than seven months, Afghan schools reopened Wednesday for a much anticipated return. But it was a day that ended in heartbreak, tears and anger for many after the Taliban announced girls above sixth great must stay home.
That decision came just hours after schools have reopened. Many eager female students arriving back only to find they wouldn't be let inside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are they playing with our future?
We have rights. We are humans from this country. We want to be free. We just want to continue our education. Is it a sin that we are girls?
NEWTON (voice-over): A Taliban news agency said the delay is so uniforms can be designed according to Sharia and Afghan customs. But the decision is viewed by many as an excuse as condemnation rings out across the globe.
NED PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: This is a betrayal of public commitments that the Taliban leadership made to the Afghan people and to the international community.
NEWTON: In a tweet, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai says, "I had one hope for today, that Afghan girls walking to school would not be sent back home. But the Taliban did not keep their promise. They will keep finding excuses to stop girls from learning, because they are afraid of educated girls and empowered women."
Others also expressing dismay.
RAVINA SHAMDASANI, SPOKESPERSON, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: This is of grave concern at a time when the country desperately needs to overcome multiple intersecting crises.
STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESPERSON, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: No country can grow by excluding women and girls from education. I mean the fact that we still had to say this in the 21st century --
NEWTON (voice-over): In recent months, the Taliban have repeatedly insisted they would not go back to how things were in the late 90s and early 2000s when women and girls were banned from working or going to school.
It has been seven months since this now iconic scene of thousands stranded at the airport in Kabul, desperately trying to leave after the Taliban's takeover.
Now those left behind, seeing human rights withering away, among them the tearful schoolgirls whose hopes of an education are now shattered -- Paula Newton, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT: Older adults in the United States may soon have the option of getting a second COVID-19 booster shot. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize a fourth dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for those older than 50.
That decision is expected as early as next week. And soon after that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to follow suit with a similar recommendation.
The U.S. is limiting the use of a particular COVID treatment due to a more contagious subvariant. The Food and Drug Administration says that the monoclonal antibody treatment called sotrovimab has been successful keeping people out of the hospital.
But it does not seem to help people who contracted the Omicron subvariant, known as BA.2. The FDA says BA.2 is now the dominant strain in at least eight states, two territories and is rising elsewhere.
It's also driving a surge in cases in parts of Europe, particularly the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands.
And joining us now is Anne Rimoin. She is a professor in the epidemiology department at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and she joins us now, live, from Los Angeles.
Professor, thank you for joining us. Let's talk about BA.2 and what we know about the new Omicron variant. It is apparently more transmissible than BA.1.
But does it cause more severe illness?
DR. ANNE RIMOIN, EPIDEMIOLOGY PROFESSOR, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thanks for having me. And this is a good question. So BA.2 is a -- appears to be more transmissible, maybe even 50 to 60 percent more transmissible. But it does not appear to cause more severe disease, so that's good news.
STOUT: Very good news. And look, we know that cases caused by BA.2 remain relatively high, relatively speaking, across Asia. There is also this new wave of BA.2 infections happening across Europe. And we are starting to see a rise in BA.2 cases in the U.S.
Is this going to be another surge in the U.S.?
RIMOIN: Well, we don't really know. What we are starting to see here in the United States and in northern -- in North America, in general -- is an uptick in wastewater surveillance. So we are starting to detect it in greater and greater quantities
here. It's now becoming the dominant variant here. We've started to see, in New York City, for example, an uptick in cases and in certain parts of the United States. But it's really unclear what kind of an increase we are going to see.
Are we going to see a surge, as we saw before?
Are we just going to see a smaller wave?
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RIMOIN: It really depends upon the kind of immunity that we have here and -- but interestingly, what we are seeing in the U.K., where they did also have a very large Omicron surge, they do have a very high rate of cases, hospitalizations are starting to increase there as well.
So we need to be watching these indicators very closely and be ready to act if we start to see a large increase.
STOUT: Yes, and that action could also take the form of an additional booster shots. You know, in the U.S. the FDA set to approve additional booster shots for adults over the age of 50 next week. I'm already boosted here in Hong Kong. My folks in America, already boosted.
But will we all need another booster shot?
RIMOIN: Well, certainly the world in need (ph) of a booster shot. I think it's pretty clear that the -- that the immunity that we get from the vaccine in terms of preventing infection is waning, although it is still doing a good job at preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death in most people.
Now immunocompromised people need to be very vigilant about getting these doses as they are recommended.
But we are still looking at the data and trying to understand, how important is this next dose?
When does it need to happen?
And what kind of long-term benefit are we going to see?
So we are still looking at the data. But it's great that these doses are going to be available. I think that is a very prudent thing to do, given that even if BA.2 -- this Omicron subvariant -- doesn't create a very large wave, this virus is going to continue to spread.
When it spreads, it has opportunity to mutate. And we need to be ready for the next surge.
STOUT: Yes, and as the virus continues to evolve, continues to mutate and perhaps additional subvariants could emerge, are we seeing a scenario that we are going to have to take booster shots the same way we take a flu shot every season? RIMOIN: I think it's very reasonable to expect that we'll need to have a regular -- a regular shot, like a flu shot. And likely we are going to start to see these vaccines updated on an annual basis, based on what we see circulating.
You know, so I think, you know, right now, we are seeing this -- the vaccines prevent these most severe outcomes. But we really don't know how long that is going to hold out.
And we don't know what variant is going to arise that could evade the immune response that has been elicited by these vaccines, to keep people out of the hospital and from dying.
So we are going to have to watch it very closely and be ready to act and everybody should anticipate, sooner or later, we'll need another dose.
STOUT: And I got to ask you about the risk of reinfection.
You know, what if someone contracted a previous variant, could they become reinfected with BA.2?
RIMOIN: Absolutely. We've seen people who have been infected with previous variants get reinfected with the Omicron variant. We've seen people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted get infected with the Omicron variant.
The big question is, if you have had Omicron, will you get reinfected with this BA.2 subvariant?
And the answer is, it's possible. A data study recently in preprint, not yet peer-reviewed, has suggested that you can get reinfected from BA.1 to BA.2 those -- though those reinfections are rare.
STOUT: All right. Professor Anne Rimoin, we will leave it at that. Thank you so much for lending your expertise to our audience. Take care.
RIMOIN: My pleasure.
STOUT: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. Up next, firefighters in the U.S., they want to help colleagues in Ukraine who also fight the flames. After the break, the Americans are collecting all sorts of equipment the Ukrainians might also need. We will talk to guys at the firehouse that started it all.
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STOUT: Firefighters in New Jersey are also joining the aid efforts. They're collecting everything from helmets to boots and tools from around the U.S. to send to fellow firefighters in Ukraine. As CNN's Alexandra Field reports, dozens of fire departments have responded to the call.
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OLEG SKACHKO, CLIFTON FIRE DEPARTMENT: Everything that you see in here in this trailer, it's going to be get shipped out to Ukraine.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Where emergency responders on the front line badly need it.
SKACHKO: I need more.
FIELD (voice-over): Ten tons of firefighting gear and supplies have already been boxed up here in Clifton, New Jersey. They're en route now to the war zone. The plan is to send it all to the Polish Fire Service, which will pass it over to Ukrainian firefighters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's it going?
FIELD (voice-over): The collection effort, nothing short of monumental, was the idea of Oleg Skachko, who was born in central Ukraine and moved to the U.S. when he was 14. Three years ago, he joined Clifton, New Jersey's, Fire Department.
SKACHKO: Seeing how the brotherhood winds through the departments, that was one of the reasons.
FIELD (voice-over): When Russia invaded his home country, Skachko says he knew his Ukrainian brothers needed him, too.
SKACHKO: You see the brotherhood, not just in United States but all over the country and including our cities. Everybody comes in at once in the time of need.
FIELD (voice-over): What started as an effort to collect a few sets of turnout gear to send over quickly turned into 1,100 sets and so much more.
LT. MARK DREW, CLIFTON, NEW JERSEY, FIRE DEPARTMENT: We wanted to focus on firefighter personal protective equipment, which would be your coat, your pants, hood, helmet and gloves and boots.
And then we branched out just a little bit further and told people that we would need hand tools. And then we branched out a little bit further onto the medical side with backboards.
FIELD (voice-over): Today the donations, mostly retired gear but perfectly usable, have come from more than 100 fire departments across the country.
DREW: We were getting contacted by departments in Colorado and Minnesota and Wisconsin and Ohio. That's what firemen do.
FIELD: The deliveries haven't stopped. On this morning a load comes in from Parsippany, New Jersey.
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JIM LUKASHUK, PARSIPPANY, NEW JERSEY, FIRE DEPARTMENT: I am Ukrainian, so when I heard about this through Facebook I brought it up in our meeting. We had some gear that we were going to get rid of anyway.
It's like, why don't you donate it?
Put it to a good cause.
FIELD (voice-over): Another truck full from Haledon, New Jersey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought bunker gear, jacket, helmet, gloves, some boots. You got to help out one another.
FIELD: The money to send the gear is being raised by a nonprofit, New Ukrainian Wave, Passaic, which is relying on a GoFundMe page. Getting it there quickly is now the biggest concern. The shipments will include Ukrainian flags, with the insignia of the departments that donated stitched on them.
SKACHKO: Hopefully, someday, eventually, I'll find the pictures of the flag and the gear making it to the front lines where they need it right now.
FIELD: What do you want to say to the people who will wear this gear?
SKACHKO: The people who wore the gear before you, just know that they stand behind you.
FIELD (voice-over): Alexandra Field, CNN, Clifton, New Jersey.
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STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. We have more of our breaking news coverage live from Ukraine in a moment.
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