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Reports of Ukraine Striking Fuel Depot in Belgorod, Russia; Red Cross Sending Staff to Help Evacuate People from Mariupol; U.S. Ally Weighs Security Guarantee for Ukraine; U.S. Economy Adds 431K Jobs in March; Mother and Daughter Seek Refuge in Texas After Fleeing Ukraine. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 01, 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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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And if you want to find out how you can support Dr. Ala Stanford's work and nominate your own CNN Hero, go to CNNheroes.com.

CNN's coverage continues right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Fighters raging this morning, you see them there, after an attack on a fuel depot inside Russia. Moscow blames Ukrainian forces as new video suggests that Ukraine's military may have launched an air assault there. That would be a major development.

Very good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Erica Hill. CNN has not independently verified these claims. Take a look, though, at these images that we do have from the city of Belgorod in Russia which could be evidence if, in fact, it was, of a first Ukrainian air strike on Russian soil since Moscow invaded five weeks ago.

SCIUTTO: And this would of course be after many hundreds of air assaults by Russia on Ukraine. Also overnight, Russian forces continue to move on the offensive in parts of the country. Putin turning his military's attention, though, to the east, to the Donbas region, away from places like the capital. Several towns in eastern Ukraine slammed by heavy shelling and bombardment.

And the mayor of Chernihiv, just outside of Kyiv, says the Russians there, though, attacked a hospital, also destroyed a cancer unit as they did so. He's calling the situation there a humanitarian catastrophe.

CNN's John Berman is reporting from Lviv, Ukraine.

John, good morning to you. This attack on this fuel depot inside Russia would be a major development for Ukraine's military. The capability of doing so, but also of course it raises questions about how Russia would respond.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, no question about that, Jim. And you also bring up rightly this comes after Russia has specifically hit any number of fuel depots all across Ukraine including one right behind me one week ago. An extraordinary possible counter attack, reprisal attack by the Ukrainian forces. Russia says 3.5 million barrels of fuel are on fire.

I want to bring in CNN International correspondent Phil Black who is here in Lviv.

And Phil, again, we just got a response I understand from Ukranian officials on this, so what are they now saying?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it is a surprisingly unclear almost cagey response from the Ukrainians. But first, if we start with what we know, we know that this explosion took place. We've got video of it. We've seen it. We can see the facility going up in flames. We even have video which shows in the moments before that initial blast incoming fire impacting that site. So it would show that someone shot at it. The question is who?

It is a local Russian official that says two Ukrainian helicopters crossed the border, flew low over Russian territory and fired their weapons at that fuel storage site, creating that explosion. What we know is that President Putin is aware of this. That's what his spokesperson says. His spokesperson also says that this is the sort of event that could impact the mood, the atmosphere surrounding the diplomacy that is also taking place to try and forge a peaceful settlement to this war.

Now from the Ukrainian themselves, well, it is neither a confirmation nor a denial. A short time ago, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military said this, said I would like to emphasize that Ukraine is performing a defensive operation against Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine. That doesn't mean Ukraine has to be responsible for every miscalculation or event or catastrophe that occurred on the territory of the Russian federation. This is not the first time we are witnessing such accusations. Therefore, I will neither confirm or deny this information.

So the take away there, John, if the Ukrainians did it, they're not cheering about it.

BERMAN: If the Ukrainians did it, they're not cheering about it. But if they did do it, it does indicate they have, A, the capability of doing it. And B, that the Russians couldn't stop them. So at least in that specific area, Phil, again, if it did happen the way the Russians are saying, you Russians don't have the kind of air superiority you might think.

BLACK: Yes, that's right, John. I mean, that is the implication because Russia claims its air superiority is total, it is well- established. This would suggest otherwise. It would suggest that Russian airspace can at least be penetrated in a very careful manner such as this, which the Russian simply weren't expecting.

And in terms of capability, it does raise -- just raise questions about just what Ukraine is capable about. Because if you'll recall when we were talking about the Ukrainians destroying that Russian landing ship about a week or so ago, in a port that was controlled by Russian forces, one of the questions there was, how did they do that? What capability did they deploy?

[09:05:09]

They didn't answer the question then so it might be a pattern of behavior, where they are going after these high profile, high valued targets, but not being too willing to talk about just how they're doing it.

BERMAN: Yes. It is very interesting with huge potential military implications and diplomatic implications as well.

Phil Black, thank you so much for that reporting. Appreciate it. Jim, Erica?

SCIUTTO: And that's a good point as well in that attacking Russian forces inside Ukraine from the air is significant enough to be able to do so inside Russian territory, despite their defenses, that would be remarkable.

Other line we're following in Ukraine this morning. The Red Cross says it is sending humanitarian aid into Mariupol today, much needed there, and that it's also trying to evacuate people after days of being blocked from that city by Russian forces.

HILL: CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson is following all of this for us from Zaporizhzhia.

Now, Ivan, I understand a bus did just arrive. I don't know if that's also a siren that we're hearing as well, Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HILL: So set the scene for us, between obviously the sirens that we're hearing but also this bus and whether we think it's going to be successful at this point today.

WATSON: Right. Well, I mean, we are hearing an air raid siren and some thugs in the distance that sound like some kind of impact or blast. So not really sure what's going on. It's new. I have not heard that here before. What is going on right now is that there is a constant stream of vehicles, yes, about 10 minutes, 20 minutes ago, there's a big bus with red crosses on it that unloaded a lot of people.

You have cars like this that have just rolled in with the words in Cyrillic, that means children on the side. And you see a little doggy here. Everybody is fleeing the Russian occupied areas of southern Ukraine and the combat zones in between and mostly everybody is from that besieged port city of Mariupol. And I have spoken in the last half hour to a man who had scabs and bruises on his face.

He said that his apartment had been hit and Rubble wounded him. Everybody that I've talked to says that their home has been destroyed in the constant Russian shelling that's been going on. And so what we see is people trying to get out for the most part here with their own -- privately-owned vehicles. Some of them with smashed windows from the artillery sites that have been pounding Mariupol for a month really.

Now, on top of that, there is this effort to try to do a bigger evacuation. We understand that there is a convoy of some 52 buses that the Ukrainian government sent down to the Mariupol area to try to evacuate people who do not have their own cars, who need help to escape. That convoy was on the move, escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, by emergency workers.

But we understand there are many Russian checkpoints on the way and it gets held up on the way. If it makes it here, we are hearing that there are about 2,000 people and they would be welcomed here. Part of the processing that goes on here is you have Ukrainian police that have to check people's documents and check that everybody is above board. That there aren't any potential threats.

And then there's a remarkable volunteer effort in the superstore over my shoulder where people are welcomed. There's a lady standing with fur toy -- fuzzy animal toys to give to kids that are coming in. There's warm food, there are medics standing by. And this is a part of the welcoming committee that have sprung up for these tens of thousands of people who are fleeing, a city that -- and this is very unusual.

The spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross says they're running out of adjectives for the horrors that have been taking place in that city encircled, besieged and pummeled by Russian artillery for the course of the last month. Back to you.

SCIUTTO: Millions of people fleeing for their lives. I'm pleased you and your team find out what's happening with those air raid sirens and get safe. That's most important.

And joining us now retired Army Major General Michael Repass. He's former commander of U.S. Special Operation Forces in Europe.

Good to have you, sir. I wonder if we could begin with the news overnight of an attack inside Russian territory as you saw there. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry is not owning this but they're also not denying it. If this is a Ukrainian operation, what's the significant of the ability to strike inside Russian territory?

MAJ. GEN. MICHAEL REPASS, FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES IN EUROPE: Well, it sends a very visible message -- an undeniable message to the Russians, specifically that Ukraine is both capable of going into Russian territory and destroying targets of value.

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And they are willing to do it. So this would be a horizontal escalation of the conflict in that they're expanding the scope of targets in the terrain at which they are willing to go after those targets. HILL: And what does it say about Russia's efforts to stop an attack

like this? That local Russian official as we heard from Phil Black saying that they saw these two helicopters flying low. The fact that they weren't stopped, that's also important.

REPASS: Yes, so I mean that's indicative of military radars in that they have a challenge in low altitudes because of terrain masking, either through hills or mountains or trees, et cetera, so when you fly in a tree top level you have less chance of being detected by radar. This is a common military tactic. I think it proved very effective in this case. That's an aerial infiltration as we call it in the military. So it also indicates that their S-400 radars and ought areas in the area aren't doing so well. It's a good indicator.

Perhaps they weren't on, perhaps they weren't expecting it, or the Ukrainian found a gap in radio coverage that they exploited for this operation.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Flying literally below the radar there. We're seeing, according to Ukrainian officials Russian forces moving out of the Chernobyl nuclear site. This is an area, just as you know, to the northeast of the capital there. And taken together with other movements of Russian forces outside of that area in the north, either back to Belarus or most of them being repositioned inside the country.

Do you see this as a long-term shift, a long-term shrinking of Russia's ambitions for this operation?

REPASS: No, I don't. On one hand I say no, on the other hand is obviously the other answer is yes. Why I say no in the long term is because Russia hasn't abandoned strategic objective which is to secure a land bridge between the Donbas and Crimea. So the other objects are really to take terrain, as much terrain as possible and force friendly terms to -- on the Ukrainians for cease-fire and peace negotiations.

So anything outside of that strategic objective of getting a land bridge is I would say bargaining chips. So containing or controlling Chernobyl, circling Kyiv and sieging that, all of that is negotiating material. That's not a part of the strategic objective here. It's something that Putin must have. Everything else is a nice to have. And on the withdrawal from Chernobyl, first off, how would you like to be the commander in charge of securing a nuclear waste site?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REPASS: That didn't go so well for them. One of the messages I got this morning was, yes, they are departing the Chernobyl area. The troops have dug in, in fortifications in the Chernobyl area which immediately exposed them to harmful radiation.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REPASS: So a number of those troop coming out of there are likely contaminated with nuclear radiation. Perhaps to unhealthy levels.

SCIUTTO: I mean, the degree to which the military has abandoned, the Russian military, its own forces there in many ways is just remarkable.

Major General Michael Repass, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

REPASS: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: And this morning, CNN has learned that the U.S. and it allies have been weighing how the West could provide Ukraine with alternative security guarantees, alternative to membership in NATO, that is if Ukraine abandons its quest to join NATO as a possible concession to Russia to end the war.

CNN White House reporter Natasha Bertrand with us now.

Nataska, during negotiations with Russia, Ukraine has proposed a couple of things. I mean, permanent neutral status. They want something in return. They want to be able to protect themselves against a future Russian invasion. Do we know what the outlines of such a security guarantee might be?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, what the Ukrainians want is an Article Five type commitment from Western countries. And when I say that I mean this commitment that's outlined in the NATO charter essentially saying that if one country is attacked in the alliance, then the entire rest of the alliance essentially has to come to their defense.

And Ukraine has been asking the West for a similar kind of guarantee, that if Ukraine is attacked again in the future, if these peace talks do work and if there is no more war in Ukraine, then they want the rest of the West to come to their defense here. There are two big problems with that, though, the first is that it's unclear whether Russia will even agree to that because of course the whole idea they say of their invasion of Ukraine has to do with them not wanting NATO to expand further east and not wanting Ukraine to have the support of the entire alliance behind them.

The second, of course, has no do with the U.S. and the West writ large. Their reluctance of course to put U.S. forces -- Western forces in direct confrontation with the Russians on the ground there.

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So it's kind of -- presents the same kind of issues here. The Ukrainians want a legally binding security guarantee from the West, from the U.S., the U.K., other countries that says if we are attacked again then we have a guarantee here that we will have Western troops in our country defending us.

The West of course is weighing how they can kind of thread that needle. How can they provide some kind of security guarantees to Ukraine without providing something that's legally binding. Because of course if Russia were to invade again, which the West is of course not convinced that they won't, given their record, then is the West then prepared to enter into a World War III, which is what they believe would occur? So it remains to be seen what kind of deal is going to be worked out

here. The U.S. and Western nations are watching very kind of trepidaciously as these talks progress because they still don't believe that these peace talks are real negotiations -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. What is a security guarantee without a guarantee, right? It raises that question as well.

Natasha Bertrand, thanks so much.

HILL: This just into CNN. The U.S. adding 431,000 jobs in March as the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent. That is a new pandemic-era low.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joining me now. So as we look at these numbers.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

HILL: Unemployment dropping a little bit more I think than was expected.

ROMANS: Yes.

HILL: What does it tell us?

ROMANS: It tells us that companies are aggressively hiring across the economy and the economy is continuing to briskly add jobs back two years -- more than two years into this crisis. 431,000 net new jobs. In normal times, these are just phenomenal numbers. Unemployment rate 3.6 percent again the lowest since February 2020. That is a very low rate there. It's come down quickly. But if you look at the jobs added over the past year, Erica, look carefully at this chart. 11 months in a row of jobs gained over 400,000 and for first quarter of this year, on average, 562,000 net new jobs added back into the economy.

Those, again in normal times, are very strong numbers. They show a red-hot job market with companies looking for workers like crazy. The unemployment rate sliding here at its worst, worst point of the -- you know, of the COVID, the COVID crash. You had an unemployment rate of 14.7 percent. Millions of people tossed out of a job. Last year it was 6 percent now falling quickly to 3.6 percent.

And it was widespread hiring across the board, 112,000 net new jobs. In leisure and hospitality obviously this was the centerpiece of where we saw the jobs lost. But professional business services, retail, manufacturing, and wages up 5.6 percent. That's the strongest wage growth year over year in a couple of decades.

So a strong report overall. I was glad to see more than 400,000 people entering the job market. They're seeing these headlines about -- and they're talking to people who are getting raises, and are job hoping and doing well in the labor market. And so they're coming back into the job market. So that's something, a good thing to see as well. That high wage number can feed into the inflation story. That's where

the Fed will be aggressively raising interest rates. For you the consumer, that means look, if you are in the market to lock in a mortgage rate --

HILL: Do it now.

ROMANS: Or a loan number, I'm telling you, do it now, because the Fed will be raising rates aggressively this year.

HILL: Christine, thank you.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HILL: Appreciate it.

Later this hour, we will speak with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. He'll join me as we talk about the jobs report. How the Biden administration is planning to combat that rising inflation as well.

SCIUTTO: First, though, we're going to speak to a woman from Ukraine who escaped to the U.S. with her daughter, there she is there, but had to leave her 19-year-old son and her husband behind as they're joining the fight against Russia.

And the CDC is expected to officially lift a Trump-era border restriction today. We're going to be live in Texas as Homeland Security officials prepare for a big influx of up to 18,000 migrants a day.

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SCIUTTO: The U.N. reports now that more than four million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country. That's about one in 10 Ukrainians. And many other millions had to flee their homes inside Ukrainian to other cities. One Ukrainian mother and her daughter escaped their home in the capital Kyiv and made it all the way here to the U.S.

HILL: They made it here, but they were forced to leave part of their family behind to defend the country.

Joining us now is that mom, Kateryna Krezhenstovska, her daughter Alice and their dear friend Yana Kristal who is hosting them in Houston.

It's good to have all of you with us. Katerina, this was a very difficult decision for you and for Alice and I'm sure for your husband. Your husband and your son can't leave Ukraine. But you and your daughter decided you needed to go. How are you doing this morning?

KATERYNA KREZHENSTOVSKA, FLED UKRAINE WITH DAUGHTER: It was really very hard decision and I spoke with my husband and decided to save one of our child.

SCIUTTO: You described, Kateryna, that you were a moving target for the Russian army as you left there. Tell us about how you managed to get out.

KREZHENSTOVSKA: They had a long trip to the border because from Kyiv to border, they came something about 10 hours and something about near there it was very dangerous.

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Russian troops standing in the route. And they might shoot at us. So we was like a moving target, yes.

YANA KRISTAL, HOSTING FRIEND WHO FLED UKRAINE: Yes, the way they described it to me is that they had to wear all black and had their headlights off because there were instances that they were there prior to their travel were a family of three including a young daughter who was sick was killed by the Russian army. So this was a really dangerous journey.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Kateryna, do you feel safe now? Does Alice feel safe?

KREZHENSTOVSKA: Thank you. Yana and her family and all who helped me, yes.

SCIUTTO: Yana, I've met other Ukrainians outside the country who have worked to get their family members to safety. It's not easy, right, traveling through the country is dangerous, as you know. Getting out, and then getting all the way to Houston. How did you manage it? And how long did it take?

KRISTAL: So it took about a week. And the way I would describe it one of my favorite movies is a movie where they get the refugees, this is actually at the time in Iran, where they were getting -- Ben Affleck was getting the refugees out. So it felt a little bit like that. It was very surreal. So we had to find somebody to actually take them across the border, because Kateryna's husband is of the military age, so he couldn't leave the country.

So we had to find somebody that would take them across the border. And then I really want to send a huge thank you to the Polish people. There were a lot of people who helped them. But the Polish people, in particular, were amazing. We had them teared up and emotional just talking about it in the midst of such tragedy, having a complete stranger travel to the border, got Kateryna and Alice from the border, hosted them in their home, opened their heart, opened their arms, opened their home up to them to the airport it was just so heartwarming in the middle of all of this disaster.

HILL: And those stories, as you point out, are so important in the midst of this disaster and this humanitarian crisis and tragedy.

Kateryna, your husband and your son can't leave because of their ages. I know you're in touch with them. How are they doing?

KREZHENSTOVSKA: Every day, my husband has his decision to defend Kyiv. And my son, too, because they both don't want to be visits here. So I have -- it's very hard to say. Both of them in touch with --

SCIUTTO: Yes. When I was there, I saw so many families leaving the country. Mothers and children, right, because they had to leave their sons, their husbands behind.

Kateryna, I do want to ask, your 12-year-old, she's there, she's in a new country. Had to leave her home, had to leave her father and brother behind. How is she doing. How's Alice doing?

KREZHENSTOVSKA: Same. Yana one more time and her family now I think not bad.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen --

KRISTAL: I do want to say that this is very -- sorry, I'm interrupting. This is very traumatic. We had a few instances where we have construction in front of our house and we've had some plates that dropped. And you could tell that they just got all shriveled opened and shaken because they are still impacted. They're still thinking there may be a bomb dropping on top of them at any second.

HILL: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Goodness, the war travels with you. That's a lesson we've learned in so many places. Well, listen, Kateryna, Alice, we're glad you're safe. We wish your family back in Ukraine safety as well. And Yana, thanks so much to you for the hospitality, the generosity you've shown.

KRISTAL: Thank you.

KREZHENSTOVSKA: Thanks.

SCIUTTO: One of millions of stories coming out of Ukraine now.

Well, the CDC is set to announce the end of a pandemic era policy that had blocked migrants from entering the U.S. but that change could bring a huge wave of migrants the critics say the U.S. is just not ready for.

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