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Moscow: Will "Drastically Reduce" Assault On Kyiv, Chernihiv; Pentagon Gives Update On War In Ukraine. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 29, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:23]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Victor Blackwell is off today.

We're awaiting a briefing from the Pentagon at any moment. We'll bring you that live as it happens.

This as the U.S. sees a major strategy shift by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Both the U.S. and Ukraine see signs of Russian forces starting to withdraw troops away from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

The Russian ministry of defense confirmed that Moscow will now, quote, drastically reduce military activity in Kyiv and Chernihiv, but one Russian negotiator clarified the de-escalation is, quote, not a cease- fire. Russia's comments follow today's so called de-escalation talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul. For the first time, after multiple rounds of hearings, Russia and Ukraine say there is enough progress to potentially warrant a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.

Despite these positive signs, there are word of caution from President Biden and his top diplomats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll see. I don't read anything into it until I see what their actions are. Let's just see what they have to offer. We'll find out what they do.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: What can say is this, there is what Russia says and there's what Russia does. We'll focus on the latter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So, while Russian troops maybe pulling back in some spots. Russian airstrikes continue in others.

For more on that, let's bring in CNN's Don Lemon. He's in Lviv, western Ukraine. So, Don, tell us about this deadly missile strike in Mykolaiv.

DON LMEON, CNN HOST, "DON LEMON TONIGHT": Yeah, Alisyn, the death toll climbed in the last hour or so. At least 12 people were killed when a missile struck the office of a military governor in the Mykolaiv region. Local officials say that.

And you can see the attack blasted, opened a giant hole in the office building. Look, incredible. Ukraine emergency services said 33 people were injured in that blast.

So, let's start with the very latest on the Ukraine-Russia talks, and I want to bring in now, CNN international diplomatic editor, and that is Nic Robertson.

Nic, good to see you. Nic is in Brussels by the way.

For the first time, we're hearing optimism from both sides.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, there's potential of a road map forward, but I think there's a lot of caution being applied here, because Russia's position is they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy in the past.

We heard Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier today saying that he thinks that Russia is trying to deflect and deceive. U.S. officials are saying, rather than withdrawing Russian forces around Kyiv, they're really just redeploying --

LEMON: Nic, unfortunately, I've got to cut you off. We have to get to the Pentagon. There's a press conference happening. I'm sorry. There's Nic Robertson in Brussels.

We'll go to the Pentagon, John Kirby --

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: So, if you just bear with me here.

I do want to take a couple of minutes at the beginning of the briefing to talk about things in Ukraine.

There's been a lot of reporting today on withdraws and, you know, Russian decisions and I think it's really important that we put a little bit of this into context.

So first, again, we've seen that Russia has attempted, now, for going on a month, to sell this war of theirs to its domestic audience as a, quote, liberation of the Donbas. However, the intensified rhetoric over the last year and in the lead-up to Russia's invasions demonstrated that the Kremlin's real intent was to overthrow the democratically elected government and to occupy or annex large progressions of Ukraine. The posture of Russian forces around Kyiv, along much of the Black and Azov Sea coasts and central and northeastern Ukraine indicates the geographic scale of this ambition. They've been attacking Ukraine as we have been talking about now for several weeks on multiple lines of axis. Russia's intent was to replace Ukrainian regional and national

authorities and create so-called peoples' republics as displayed recently in Kherson province. The rapid advance to Kyiv in initial days of the war showed very clearly for all of us that Kyiv and the capitol city was a key objective for the Russians. So we ought not be fooling and nobody should be fooling themselves by the Kremlin's now recent claim it will suddenly reduce military attacks near Kyiv or any reports that it's going to withdraw all its forces.

Has there been some movement by some Russian units away from Kyiv in the last day or so?

[15:05:07]

Yeah. We think so. Small numbers. But we believe this is a repositioning, not a real withdrawal. And that we all should be prepared to watch for a major offensive against major areas of Ukraine.

It does not mean the threat to Kyiv is over. Russia has failed in its objective of capturing Kyiv, failed in its objective of subjugating Ukraine, but can still inflict massive brutality on the country, including on Kyiv. We see that even today in continued airstrikes against the capitol city.

Mr. Putin's goals stretch far beyond the Donbas. The Russian ministry of defense's recent talking points may be an effort to move the goal post, moderating Russia's immediate goals and spinning its current lack of progress as part of what would be next steps, but it's too early to judge what additional actions the Kremlin may take. No amount of spin can mask what the world has witnessed over the past month and that's the courage and military prowess of Ukraine's armed forces and its people which are proving to be more than what Russia bargained for in its unprovoked and unjustified invasion.

Now that prowess is not accidental, we talked about that a little bit. It's part as result of the training and support we and other allies over the last eight years have given to the Ukrainian armed forces. United States together with our allies and partners are going to continue to provide that support going forward, to meet their security needs as they bravely stand up to this Russian aggression. I thought it was important to set the level straight there on that because I've seen a lot of reporting here on the so-called withdrawals.

Now, in other news, Balikatan 22 started this week. It's a longstanding annual bilateral military exercise conducted between the U.S. military and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It's a key component of our alliance cooperation. The exercise features planning, operations, exchanges and activities that increase both our nation's military capability to see provide for the mutual defense of the Philippine archipelago.

Exercise activities will occur at multiple locations throughout the Republic of the Philippines and will consist of three primary components, a bilateral staff exercise, joint interoperability events, and combined interoperability events, as well as humanitarian and civic assistance efforts. With more than 3,800 members of the armed forces of the Philippines and 5,100 U.S. services members, this will be the largest iteration of Balikatan to date.

We look forward to a meaningful productive exercise and we're grateful for that terrific relationship that we have with the armed forces of the Philippines.

And last but not least, today, the final COVID-19 response teams and active duty status supporting 59 cities across 30 states completed the mission at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City. Since the onset of outbreak, more than 44,000 military members provided service to the whole of government effort. This support included 5,800 military medical providers in civilian hospitals and other medical civilians, more than 5,000 military medical personnel administering vaccines at federal community vaccination centers, as well as military personnel who assisted citizens when they were initially repatriated back to the U.S. in the very early days of the outbreak.

In January of this year, department activated more than a thousand service members in the direction to mobilize additional medical personnel. And of those service members, DOD deployed nearly 700, who supported 25 hospitals in 14 states just from January to March. The rest of these military members were on standby throughout that time period, ready to deploy at the request of FEMA if they were required.

It's important to note that while the Title 10 COVID-19 response may have come to a close as of this morning, there are still more than 10,800 national guard soldiers and airman supporting COVID-19 response efforts in at least 43 states, territories and the District of Columbia. And I also want to add that NorthCom remains postured to deploy more personnel if requested and, of course, the secretary wants to take this opportunity to pass on personal gratitude and all senior leaders of the department for the extraordinary work the men and women of this department have done throughout the pandemic and certainly just in the last few month to see work so hard in support of our civilian medical practitioners.

With that, we'll take questions.

Bob?

REPORTER: Thank you, John.

On Ukraine, when you say are seeing small numbers of Russian troops moving, you say they're repositioning. Would that be quite small or you mean like less than battalion tactical group?

[15:10:04]

KIRBY: I would -- this is very early on, Bob. So, I don't -- we don't have a number estimate, but it's certainly not a significant chunk of the multiple battalion tactical groups that Russia has arrayed against Kyiv.

So we can confirm we've seen a small number start to reposition but I'd be really reticent to get into exact number or put a unit on it. It's not anywhere near the majority of what they already against Kyiv.

REPORTER: When you say reposition, like moving north into Belarus or repositioning for what you described as potentially offensive somewhere else?

KIRBY: I would say at this early stage, we see the movement more northward, but again, it's too early to tell, Bob, what the destination is, what the final purpose is, and, you know, where exactly these troops are going to go long-term. We believe, we believe, we assess, that it is likely more repositioning to be used elsewhere in the Ukraine. Where, exactly, we don't know.

I would just note that the Russians themselves have said in the same breath they're saying they're withdrawing, that they are reprioritizing the Donbas area eastern Ukraine.

REPORTER: So they could move their (INAUDIBLE)

KIRBY: Again, that's a question better put to the Russian ministry of defense if they'll ever give you a straight answer, but again, they said themselves they're reprioritizing that part of Ukraine. Yeah.

REPORTER: You mentioned obviously that if they're redeploying, have you seen signs Russia pulled back and actually sending supplies into Ukraine? Are they still basically, you know, issuing own convoys, moving supplies, fuel, food, anything like that, or if they stop doing that and just the troops that are basically --

KIRBY: Again, very early stages here. They only just recently in the last few hours made this proclamation. So we have seen a small number begin to move away from Kyiv, that's really the most I can give you.

I don't have information on the resupply issues for troops already against Kyiv, I would remind that the Russians still have a significant majority of their assembled combat power to include logistics and sustainment capability available to them inside Ukraine. Yeah.

REPORTER: Thank you, John.

So just, if you're talking about small number, do you think just what you're seeing now or do you think there will be more numbers because you're saying they might be pulling out these forces to redeploy somewhere else, if small numbers, are they going to make any difference if they were redeployed? Is that the beginning of something --

KIRBY: It's a great question for Minister Shoigu. I don't know, Fadi (ph). All I can tell you is what we're seeing. We're seeing a small number that appears to be moving away from Kyiv, this, on the same day the Russians say they're withdrawing but we're not prepared to call this a retreat or even withdrawal. We think they probably have in mind is a repositioning to prioritize elsewhere.

REPORTER: Do they still have enough forces on the ground to run Kyiv in case they decide today basically relaunch some kind of attack on the city?

KIRBY: Again, I'm not going to predict what the Russian military plan is here. My answer to Bob, very small numbers that we've seen move at this point. They still have the vast majority of forces that they had assembled around Kyiv are still there.

As I said before, we largely assess they are in a defensive posture, several days ago stopped trying to advance on Kyiv and sort of took up defensive positions. Yeah.

REPORTER: Thanks, John.

Three questions, please. Can you update us on the number of missiles?

KIRBY: Let me start writing.

REPORTER: Can you update us on the number of missiles? I'll just ask another time. That's easy --

KIRBY: That's actually much easier.

REPORTER: Yeah. What's the number of missiles that Russia launched into Ukraine at this point?

KIRBY: I don't have an update on the missiles. You know, we know they've since the beginning of this, launched more than a thousand, but I don't have an exact number.

REPORTER: Okay, secondly, does the pentagon still consider Russia a near competitor?

KIRBY: I think you can take away from what we talked about yesterday when we released the budget and talked about Russia as an acute threat and that's how we're looking at Russia right now.

REPORTER: That's not the same as what you've been saying, saying peer competitors Russia and China, and now we're hearing acute threat, acute threat. So, is it change in the Pentagon's stance?

KIRBY: We consider Russia as an acute threat certainly what we've seen happen over the last month.

REPORTER: Okay. And then my last question is about Ukraine's peace proposal. It seems like they envisioned some sort of security guarantee like Article Five with NATO with a country like Poland or Turkey or Canada.

So my question is, does the Pentagon think that's feasible? Because these are NATO countries and establishing some collective defense with the country would essentially bring all of NATO with this.

[15:15:03]

So, does the Pentagon find a proposal like that feasible?

KIRBY: I think we're not going to get ahead of where Ukraine and Russia are on their discussions. This has got to be a negotiation between Russia and Ukraine and we're certainly not going to get in the middle of that or get ahead of where that is right now.

I would just say a couple of things, Carla. One, Russia should negotiate in good faith. They have an opportunity here, an opportunity they have missed many times in the last month to end the war, and to do it responsibly and negotiate in good faith. So, we hope that they'll do that, put the war could end today if Putin did the right thing and did withdraw all forces from Ukraine and respect Ukrainian sovereignty.

And again, as for what that settlement looks like, that's really between Russia and Ukraine, we wouldn't dictate the terms and wouldn't want to get ahead of that process.

Let me go back over here, David.

REPORTER: As I understand, military tactics, when you retreat, you leave forces in place to cover the retreat. So, are the movements that you're seeing so far, are they consistent with what a retreat from Kyiv would look like? And what would it take to convince the Pentagon that Russia had given up on its intent to seize Kyiv?

KIRBY: So, too soon to tell on first question, David. Again, this is only hours old that the Russians made this announcement. We've only seen very small numbers of troops actually just begin to move away from Kyiv. So, way too soon to make a judgment on covering forces and that kind of thing.

And I think -- what would it take for us to believe it? I think I'd go back to my answer to Carla, it would be to see them take all their forces out of Ukraine. Move them out. Get them back to home station and negotiate in good faith.

It's just too soon to know based on what they've said today, what their real intent is here. That's said we don't believe -- we believe, let me put another way that this is really more of a piece of reposition. And again, we're basing some of that on the clear indications that they are reprioritizing in the Donbas. Yeah.

REPORTER: I'm going to take another run at the acute threat --

KIRBY: Go for it.

REPORTER: Russia being an acute threat. So, does that change in the language signal a change in Russia's priority level for the department? I mean, in your summary documents, it's listed right after China. Does it is still occupy the same priority level? Or has it gone up? Or has it gone down with this new language?

REPORTER: I mean, Russia and the threat posed by Russia has remained a priority here at the Department. You know, if you're asking me to rack and stack it like a baseball card collection, I'm not going to do that.

But clearly, we assess Russia to be a threat. We've been pretty clear about that. You don't have to look any further than what you've seen them do over the last 30 days that we're justified in labeling them such.

And, again, you said it yourself. It's pretty clear in the points that we delivered since delivering the budget yesterday and in our strategy that Russia remains a significant issue for the department.

REPORTER: Just a follow up on the COVID Title X support and that ending. Could you talk about the conditions that led to that decision, the general conditions that led to the decision to end that?

KIRBY: To end the support? I mean, we were doing this in support of FEMA, and the interagency efforts. And so, we took our guidance from the need out there by FEMA.

REPORTER: The reduction --

KIRBY: Yeah. The conditions are better in the country and the need for -- remember what we were doing was taking the pressure off civilian practitioners so that they can do the treatment. So, most of our medical personnel operating in hospital were not doing COVID treat. They were taken the pressure off other burdens, and that pressure was appreciated and welcomed, and has been alleviated in concert with discussions with FEMA and civilian health practitioners. We all deemed collectively that now is the right time to pull back that support.

But I want to state again, as I said in my opening statement, Northern Command stands ready in case there's need.

[15:20:02]

I mean, we can flex. We didn't deploy all the troops we had put on readiness to do this mission. So, we could flex up again if needed. I mean, this pandemic, as you well know, is a living thing and it changes over time.

So, we're grateful for the ability -- we're grateful or the chance that we had to contribute to this and we'll standby and stay ready. And again, at the risk of sounding redundant, I want to point out the fact that you still have more than 10,000 national guardsmen that are at it. They're still at it in the states.

Nancy?

REPORTER: Thank you. I'd like to the repositioning, have you seen any territorial losses or nearly contested areas around Kyiv, for Russia since that reposition of forces? And also, have you seen any change of the amount or type of missile strike Russia has launched on Kyiv in the last few days that you feel would be tied to this repositioning or focus towards the Donbas?

KIRBY: We have seen Ukrainians push back around Kyiv, particularly in suburbs to the west of Kyiv, where the Ukrainians have taken ground. I don't have a list of the towns, but we have seen them retake territories to the west of Kyiv. And as you saw -- we talked about this about a week ago, to the east of Kyiv, where the Russians were in the outskirts of Brovary, and the Ukrainians pushed them back to almost more than 50 kilometers away from the city.

So, we have seen them do that around Kyiv, again, to the west and to the east. I don't have a breakdown of the airstrikes that are happening. I couldn't give you like a number over the course of time. It's just we continue to see Kyiv being struck from the air. So, the threat to Kyiv is not over.

REPORTER: That is, the repositioning in Donbas has not manifested in terms of the marked change in the strikes on the capital? Is that --

KIRBY: Again, I can't quantify it, Nancy, over the course of a day or two. I just -- I don't have a count of how many strikes are happening on Kyiv. And we've -- actually we've never given you that because we just don't have it. But we do continue to see strikes on Kyiv.

So, it's -- we're not convinced the threat to the Capitol City has been diminished here by this proclamation by the Russian ministry of defense.

Bob, do you have one?

REPORTER: No.

KIRBY: No? Donna (ph)?

REPORTER: Thanks.

Could you give us a sense of Russian forces spread evenly throughout Ukraine, or how many battalion tactical groups they kind of concentrated against Kyiv versus the east? And how do you use that shift?

KIRBY: Yeah. Again, as you know, I've been very careful not to lay out Russian operations. It's not prudent for me to do it. We don't have exact details of where every battalion tactical group is. So, I couldn't tell you how many troops are arrayed against Kyiv versus Kharkiv and Chernihiv and certainly in the Donbas.

What I can tell you is that the vast majority of the assembled force that we saw against Kyiv is still there. We've on see a small number begin to move away from Kyiv, mostly to the north.

We'll watch this over the course of the coming days and to the degree we can describe for you what we're seeing, we'll do that. We have seen even before the Russians said they were going to prioritize the Donbas and the east, we saw them pick up the pace there. More aggressive operations, more active campaigning against towns and villages in the Donbas. That continues today.

But, look, I mean, the Donbas has been in a hot war for the last eight years? And we definitely have seen the intensity pick up. And again, where that goes we don't know. We have seen Ukrainians be just as active in the Donbas and trying to push back on the Russians there.

REPORTER: Can you give us a sense that they through -- that they put the bulk of their forces against Kyiv, or did they --

KIRBY: Again, I don't want to give you a breakdown there. We have been talking now for a month about sort of three main axis of approach by the Russians, right? North and northeast, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv, all really -- that whole northern grouping was really designed against the capital city, the effort to cut off Kyiv.

Then the east, in the Donbas, which again has been in hot war now for eight years, and the Russians pour more resources in there, and then in the south. And then in the south, as we've been talking about, coming out of Crimea, they basically split through the northwest and to the northeast. To the northeast against Mariupol, which obviously there's a lot of heavy fightings still going on there. You guys have seen that for yourselves.

And then to the northwest out of Crimea, up to Kherson, and an attempt of what we saw was an attempt to take a town of Mykolaiv, which they have not been able to do.

[15:25:07]

And as I think we've talked about in recent days, you've seen that the Ukrainians are actually scrapping it out for Kherson as well. So, those are the three main groupings and three main lines of effort. They -- up until recently, we still assess that was their plan was to, as I said in my opening statement to occupy and annex Ukraine using approaches on those three lines of effort.

Again, we now think that they're going to prioritize the east. They have been stalled in the north and the progress in the early days they have made in the south, they have made progress, now that stalled out. And again, we see them prioritizing the east.

But, I couldn't quantify that for you, Tara. I don't have the order of battle on that level of detail.

Let me go to someone on the phone. I haven't done that yet. Let's see, Courtney?

REPORTER: Hi, thanks. Can you talk a bit about president's comments yesterday when he said that U.S. troops, he said U.S. troops are training Ukrainian military inside Poland? What kind of training are they providing and how long has that been going on?

KIRBY: Yeah, Courtney, I think General Walters dealt with this pretty well in his hearing this morning in front of the Senate Armed Service Committee. There's some liaising going on as Ukrainians go into Poland for instance and they are, were transposing shipments and materials to them. And so, there's some general liaising going on in that regard, and that's what the president was referring to.

Jane?

REPORTER: Thank you, John. Ukraine issues.

KIRBY: You want me to stay on -- I'll come back to you. We're going to do that? Would that be fair?

We'll do that. Yeah, I promise. I'll get back to you.

REPORTER: Question of Kyiv, one more question.

From the military perspective, does the Pentagon think the Russian forces were defeated in their attempt to take Kyiv and this campaign --

KIRBY: I said that. I said as much in my opening statement. They failed to take Kyiv.

REPORTER: That's a defeat --

KIRBY: They failed to take Kyiv. We believe that Kyiv was a key objective for them.

Yeah, Louie?

REPORTER: Did you note those small numbers leading before the Russians made public they proposal that this was being done in good faith. So, in other words, are words following actions you have seen taking place?

KIRBY: I wouldn't give you a time, Louie, exactly whether it was exactly the moment that the Russians decided to announce it, roughly same day kind of observation. But we're not taking the say at face value. I'm being as honest with you as I can.

Small number seems to move. We're not prepared to buy the Russian argument that it's a withdrawal. Again, our assessment is their intention is to reposition forces and bolster their efforts elsewhere.

REPORTER: So, the word spin is accurate to what you've been describe, what you described there?

KIRBY: I'm comfortable with the way I characterize it.

Helene Cooper?

REPORTER: Hey, thanks, Kirby.

I want to take another whack at it. I feel like you're describing -- it sounds like you are describing it's been five week, almost five weeks now and it sounds very much like you're describing a failed military campaign. Would you go that far or is that too much? I mean, what we're seeing now, is this a failed military campaign?

KIRBY: I don't think we're prepared to slap a bumper sticker on this thing right now. I mean, there are still people dying. There are still bombs falling. There are still missiles flying. They will still give and take on the battlefield.

So, I don't think we're ready to call it one way or the other here. What I would tell you is, as I said in my opening statement, they failed to take Kyiv which we believe was a key objective. I mean, you have to look at what they tried to do in the early days to see they wanted Kyiv. They didn't get it.

In the last few days, they hunker down into defensive positions, basically stop advancing and now they're saying and we're seeing small numbers move away. So, we'll see where this goes.