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Explosions in Ukrainian Cities; Mark Hertling is Interviewed about Ukraine; White House Walks Back Comments; Burke Bryant is Interviewed about his Rescue Project. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 28, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Powerful explosions strike a fuel depot in central Ukraine. More attacks hit the western part of the country. Ukrainian officials say that Vladimir Putin is trying to wipe Ukraine, quote, off the face of the earth.

Good morning. I'm Jim Sciutto.

Overnight, numerous explosions reported in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Putin's invading army so far failing to overtake or even surround the capital. But an advisor to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warns that Russia is, in fact, ramping up its attacks. They say that Putin may try to split Ukraine into two, somewhat like North and South Korea.

Right now, President Zelenskyy says that he is ready to accept neutral, non-nuclear status for his country ahead of new talks between Russia and Ukraine. Of course, the question is, what is Russia willing to give. Those talks will begin tomorrow.

Also new this morning, Ukraine is vowing to conduct an immediate investigation, this after a video surfaced of soldiers shooting Russian prisoners in the legs. We are covering every angle of this story as only CNN can. Our reporters, correspondents in the country throughout Ukraine as well as back home.

CNN's John Berman reporting from Lviv this morning.

John, good morning.

Tell us what you're seeing there this morning.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jim, great to see you this morning.

You know, a fresh round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine set to take place in Istanbul. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that peace and restoration of normal life, normal life, he says, are the, quote, obvious goals. That will be difficult. How do you get back normal life when a city is destroyed? He went on to say that effective security guarantees for Ukraine are

mandatory and that he will be willing to agree to a non-nuclear status as part of a deal.

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PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE (through translator): Our priorities in the negotiations are known. Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory. Our goal is obvious, peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, joining me here, CNN international correspondent Phil Black.

Phil, we have seen these strikes overnight. Jim Sciutto was just reporting across the country, particularly some of these infrastructure locations.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. So, Russia is continuing to show it has the will and the capability to launch cruise missile strikes anywhere across the country. And its focus at the moment has been, for the last few days, have been support, logistical infrastructure.

So, once again, yes, another fuel depot was hit in the Volen (ph) region. That's only a short distance northeast from where we are. That's what they struck here in Lviv in Saturday, too. We've seen that in Mykolaiv, in south, near Kyiv. All of this in recent days.

They've also been hitting weapons storage locations in different parts of the country as well. All of this is a clear effort to disrupt the supplies to Ukraine's fighting units because if you interrupt their supply of fuel and weapons, then you put pressure on their defense and increase the likelihood that that defense will falter.

BERMAN: There's been so much focus on the city of Mariupol and the Sea of Azov that has been under siege. But President Zelenskyy, he gave an interview with Russian media. It was a fascinating interview. But one of the things he said, is he said, he acknowledges the difficulty that they're having in Mariupol and the difficulty the Ukrainian troops are there. And he says he's told the troops there, he's been in contact with the troops, he said to them, if you need to get out, get out, but so far they've refused.

BLACK: They've refused, he says, because they refuse to leave the wounded. He says they refuse to leave the dead. He says they want to keep fighting.

The bitter reality is perhaps that they have no way of getting out. This is an encircled city. It's been under siege for weeks. This is a place that the Russians really want to take and they would be unlikely to allow those soldiers to leave safely. In order to get out, they'd have to get through Russian territory. The British ministry of defense assesses that this is a place where Russia continues to make gains, more so than anywhere else. The rest of the battlefield looks pretty static. This is where Russia is showing its true commitment, its wiliness to take this place. And we've seen that based upon what they've been prepared to do to the city over the last few weeks. It has been bombarded. It has been destroyed. It is largely a city without life now. That's why people are comparing it to Aleppo and other cities that have been destroyed under bombardment.

We know that Russia really wants to establish a land corridor from its border all the way to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed back in 2014.

[09:05:08]

That could be considered a bare minimum of Russia's goals here. So we know they're going to keep pushing until they take that city.

BERMAN: Willing to destroy it in order to take it.

Phil Black, thank you very much for that.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, CNN teams reporting constant explosions as Russia continues its bombardment of the city. President Zelenskyy says there is new evidence that Russia thought it would be holding a victory parade within days of the initial investigation.

CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen in Kyiv with more.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Jim.

You know, we're hearing massive shelling here in Kyiv, in the Ukrainian capital today. And it's really something that's pretty constant. We also heard it throughout the entire night and the morning hours. Also had those air raid sirens going off again.

And as I'm speaking to you right now, we can hear a lot of those noises once again. And what we've been seeing is plumes of smoke, especially over the northwestern districts of the Ukrainian capital. There's, of course, that suburb that we keep talking about called Irpin, where a lot of the fighting seems to be concentrating.

The Ukrainians are saying that they control about 80 percent of that. However, they do say that the Russians heavily shelling that area. So, obviously, a big fight going on there.

Also quite interesting, the spokesman of Ukraine's army, he came out and he said that the Russians had launched what appeared to be maybe some sort of counteroffensive where he said they were trying to take streets and smaller villages. But he did say that the Ukrainian military is holding them up. Also, the deputy defense minister saying that the Russians, as she puts it, are trying to create corridors around the Ukraine capital, seeming to mean that they're trying to encircle it. But, once again, the Ukrainians are saying, at this point in time, they have that under control and they've launched counter offensives as well.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also saying that apparently dress uniforms or ceremonial uniforms were found with Russian soldiers which seemed to indicate to them that the Russians were actually preparing for a victory parade here in the Ukrainian capital. Obviously, that's not something that's going to be happening any time soon as the Ukrainians are saying the defenses here very much holding up, Jim.

SCIUTTO: No question.

Fred Pleitgen, there in Kyiv.

Joining me now to discuss, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's former commanding general for U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army.

General, good to have you on this morning.

I wonder if you could begin with a big picture, state of play in Ukraine today. Is the Russian invasion effectively stalled at this point?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), FORMER ARMY COMMANDING GENERAL, EUROPE AND SEVENTH ARMY: I think what we've seen is the attacks, the counterattacks, the active defense of the Ukrainian forces conducting these very pointed counterattacks against the Russian force. I would say, yes, Jim, it continues to be stalled. You're going to see some actions by Russian forces, not only north of Kyiv. They're shelling those outskirts of the city, Irpin, as Fred just mentioned, because that's what they can reach with their long-term artillery.

The Ukrainian force and the Russians are going toe to toe in terms of ground maneuver forces. But Russia certainly has the advantage in the artillery, missiles and rockets category.

What I think we're seeing, Jim, if I may, we're seeing shifts in war aims, strategy and tactics within this entire fight. You know, both sides are talking about what they might do, what they will do, but we're seeing also a culmination and really a testing of the battle of will and logistics. That's what we're going to see over the next several weeks. Each force is going to adapt, and you're going to continue to have, while all this occurs, the conundrum of the horrors of the civilian attacks on the city.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HERTLING: You know, Russia may be shifting their focus of attention. Ukraine is going to continue to fight to ensure the capital of Kyiv is not overwhelmed. They're going to have limited counterattacks in other areas, but there's a lot going on in this -- in this very large country right now.

SCIUTTO: No question.

HERTLING: And, you know, there's really some challenges.

SCIUTTO: And to be clear, as we've been showing pictures there of civilians still under attack here. Even if the advance is stalled, you make a very good point there, that Russia is not -- is unrelenting, arguably increasing its attacks from afar on civilian areas.

Let me ask you this. There's been a lot of talk about whether -- and speculation as to whether Russia can somehow rejuvenate their assault. There's been talk of them moving in reinforcements from Russia and elsewhere, the talk of the possibility of the Belarusian army -- and I know your opinion of the Belarusian military as not being particularly formidable. But given the state of the Russian military here, the losses in personnel and equipment that it's already encountered, is that possible, as a practical matter, that Russia can reenforce to an extent in which it can advance again?

HERTLING: I don't think they can reenforce on the original axes of advance.

[09:10:02]

The six that they started out with, Jim. But that gets to my point about the adaptation of each force. Will Russia not only redeploy back into Belarus and Russia and try and reconstitute their force? That will be extremely difficult. And I'll say why in a second.

But then, will they take that reconstituted force and perhaps direct it in another direction where there's the potential for generating mass, something that the Russians did not do in the original attack.

Now, in terms of the reconstitution, you can cluj (ph) together forces that aren't damaged that are at 70 or 60 percent and put two forces together. What you can't do, Jim, in this kind of a fight is regenerate leadership, training, type of doctrine, senior officer leadership. There's still no NCO core. So it's difficult to reconstitute a force that doesn't have the culture of what they're attempting to do.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HERTLING: So, yes, you can say, hey, we need to change our axis of attack and do different things, but can you do it with the kind of force Russia has? I'm not so sure you can truthfully.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean the lack of an NCO force corps, which you've highlighted is one of the reasons you have so many generals close to the front line. And, in fact, paying the price for this.

But before we go, you have this discussion, Ukrainian officials saying, what Russia may want now is to split Ukraine in something along the lines of North and South Korea, have a kind of a permanent line of assault there dividing the two armies. Do you see that as a new potential goal for Russia or perhaps a short-

term goal, right, to retreat to that advance point and then hope for a better time later?

HERTLING: Yes, that -- that gets to my point of massing their forces. Could they shift from attacking Kyiv and the various ports in the south to perhaps going back to a focus on the Donbas? Now, that doesn't necessarily just mean a frontal assault into the Donbas. The Russians have been relatively successful in destroying the city of Mariupol, and they've also been -- you know, had some huge success in Kharkiv, but they've backed off that a little bit.

Look at that town in the middle of the map, Dnipro. If Russians can again go back to an attempt to have an enveloping action north from Kharkiv, south from Mariupol and link up at Dnipro, will they be in effect surrounding the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian force? That's not necessarily a complete split in two along the Dnipro River, which runs north and south, but it certainly would be in line with Putin's goal to take off a bite of Ukraine. But it's not in line with Mr. Zelenskyy's goal of territorial integrity and the sovereignty of the Ukrainian nation.

SCIUTTO: And to your point, you know, even that lesser goal far from guaranteed given the pushback that Russians have seen around say a city like Kharkiv despite the punishing, punishing attacks Russia continues there.

Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thanks so much.

HERTLING: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, White House officials now are attempting to walk back President Biden's comment that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power. That remark off script apparently came at the end of the president's speech in Poland on Saturday.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House now.

Jeremy, the president himself has also clarified his comments to say, the U.S. is not calling for regime change here.

Tell us what the White House position is this morning.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, these remarks from the president came at the end of this speech in Warsaw that was meant to be the capstone of President Biden's trip to Europe, wondering which we saw the president try and rally the world against Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and also remind the world of what is at stake here and steel the world for the possibility of a long slog here. A war that did not take days as Russia had expected, but instead is going on for weeks now and could go on for several weeks or month more. We saw White House officials immediately come out after President Biden said Putin cannot remain in power, saying that his point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over neighbors in the region, but insisting that he was not discussing regime change. We heard similar from other U.S. officials yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: As you know, and as you've heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else for that matter.

JULIANNE SMITH, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: In that moment, I think that was a principled human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day. But, no, as you've heard from Secretary Blinken and others, the U.S. does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, full stop.

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DIAMOND: And so we also saw some criticism from Republican Senator Jim Risch, top member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate, and others. And it was not the only unscripted remark by President Biden that White House officials had to walk back. They also had to walk back a comment by President Biden where he told U.S. troops that they would see the heroism of Ukrainian forces when you're there. U.S. officials making very clear that President Biden's vow not to send U.S. troops to Ukraine still remains in effect.

[09:15:07]

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond at the White House, thanks very much.

Still ahead, I'm going to speak with a U.S. military veteran who has been working on rescues of injured Ukrainians. What he's seeing on the front lines. It's going to be a rare look for some of the folks making the biggest sacrifices.

Plus, CNN rides along with Ukrainian police to see how they are enforcing a daytime curfew. This with Russian forces less than 20 minutes away.

And later, just a shocking, embarrassing moment at the Oscars that has so many folks talking this morning. Will Smith hits Chris Rock -- hits him -- over a joke about his wife.

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CHRIS ROCK: I'm out here. Uh, oh, (INAUDIBLE).

Oh, wow. Wow.

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SCIUTTO: Nearly 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine. That's about a tenth of the population in a little more than a month. Officials say that thousands of civilians, however, remain trapped in basements with no access to food or water as Russian forces continue to bombard cities across Ukraine with artillery, rockets, missile strikes every day.

There are groups, however, working to rescue those civilians. And among those groups, Americans, many former service members.

Joining me now from Kyiv is Burke Bryant. He's a former U.S. Navy operations specialist. He's also the founder and CEO of Humanitarian Aid and Rescue Project. It's a non-profit organization that responds to disaster areas around the world.

Burke, good to have you on this morning.

BURKE BRYANT, FOUNDER, HUMANITARIAN AID AND RESCUE PROJECT: Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: So first I wonder if you could explain to folks the work you do. You lead a group of former Navy ops, ex-military specialists on a mission to help people in Ukraine. Tell us what kind of people you're helping and how many you've been able to get out safely.

BRYANT: Sure.

Right now I think we've got a total of roughly anywhere between 25 to 28. We are doing those evacs in I guess you could say extremely hard- to-get places, or the ones that most people don't really want to go into. So, we receive those requests from different organizations that are still here, as well as organizations in the states that are getting that information passed to them. And our guys basically create an op plan and we do our best to find a route and we go in and receive these people, bring them back and get them to safety.

SCIUTTO: We've been showing pictures as you've been speaking there about a story you shared on Instagram of your team rescuing a family of World War II vets from Kharkiv, one of the really just hardest-hit cities in the eastern parts of the country. Tell us about them, how you got them out.

BRYANT: That was a coordinated effort. We had a couple people we were able to get into that area. And then from there we organized meeting up with those people and then getting them to a line that we could potentially cross -- or cross over safely to some degree to where the handoff was possible. And then we rallied them back to our pass-off team, and they made it across. A very, very wonderful family. We're very happy that that worked out the way it did.

SCIUTTO: You and your team, you face risks there because you have at times been very close to the front lines. And the front lines of this war, I always explain to people, are constantly moving because rockets, missiles, they travel a long way.

Tell us about some of those close counters you had and how have you managed to stay safe.

BRYANT: Yes, sir. We spend -- we've spent a great deal of time in those areas. Just

yesterday we were under heavy artillery fire. There's no ROEs it seems in this war. The Russians are taking aim at anyone in a vehicle to demoralize, as well as impede any type of aid or rescue operations going on.

The area we went into yesterday, we got under heavy artillery fire. We had to take cover for about two hours. And as -- it was just a barrage of mortars and gunfire at that point. But I'm happy to say that that operation we were on was successful. We reached our goal and were able to get out safely.

SCIUTTO: I'm glad your safe. ROEs, rules of engagement. As you say, no rules of engagement apparently in this war.

You're a former U.S. Navy operator. You're working with other former U.S. service members there. I've been able to be in touch with former U.S. Marines and others.

Tell us why. Why -- why this war? Why are you taking the risks you're taking right now?

BRYANT: You know, our team consists right now of 18 Delta guys, ex- Navy SEALs, special operators, a really, really great team of guys. And all of them are doing this based upon the experience they have. The guys -- these are the guys that stepped up and said let's do this. The ones that said, there's nothing more rewarding in this world than someone walking up and thanking you for saving their lives as opposed to doing it for a paycheck.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BRYANT: So, we're really fortunate to have those guys on our side that are working with us, that are a part of our team and things like that. And, yes, I can't say enough good things. It takes -- it takes an entire army to go up against an entire army. And I'm really happy to say that the guys we have, I'd stand next to in a battle any day of the week. Wonderful, wonderful people.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, listen, I've met Ukrainians who appreciate the work and sacrifice folks like you are doing there. So, in my experience, I know it's sincere.

Burke Bryant, from our team to yours as well, we wish you -- we wish you safety.

BRYANT: Thank you, sir. Thank you for having us on. Appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: Thanks. And, folks, I'm going to share on social media in a short time a way that you can donate to programs like Burke's and others, because they do depend on our help.

[09:25:02]

Still ahead, officials are imposing emergency curfews in parts of Ukraine. Next, CNN joins police as they enforce a daytime curfew with Russian forces less than 20 miles away.

And we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Stock futures, they're slightly higher as bond yields are actually ticking down. Investors preparing for a busy week rife with key economic data that could position the Federal Reserve to act more aggressively on plans to raise interest rates in the coming weeks and months. We're going to stay on top of all of it.

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