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Russian Forces Slowly Pulling out of Northern Ukraine; Thousands of Civilians Trapped in Mariupol; Sanctions on Russia Unlikely to Prompt Change; Northern Ukraine Still Hit with Shelling, Missiles; Death Toll Rises after Attack on Government Building in Mykolaiv; U.S. Says Russia Repositioning Troops to Use Elsewhere; Houthis, Saudi-Led Coalition Agree to Two-Month Truce; Sri Lanka President Declares Public Emergency after Protest; Academy Accepts Will Smith's Resignation. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 02, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause, reporting live from Lviv in Ukraine.
Well into its second month, the Russian offensive on Ukraine is stalled and now Ukrainian forces are beginning to retake territory lost in the early days of the invasion.
The Kremlin has indicated its main goal now is control of the Donbas region to the east. Russian troops are noticeably being redeployed from northern Ukraine. Here's Ukraine's president.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The occupiers are withdrawing forces in the north of our country. The withdrawal is slow but noticeable. Somewhere, they are expelled with battles. Somewhere, they leave positions on their own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Satellite images show Russian armor and artillery have abandoned the Antonov airbase near Kyiv. The airfield was captured on the first day of the invasion and Russian forces were well dug in. It's unclear where they went.
And now to some disturbing video: a few miles south of the airbase, Ukrainian forces report retaking the town of Bucha. Images show widespread damage from shelling and dead bodies left in the street.
Across the border in Russia, Ukraine will neither confirm nor deny it attacked a large fuel depot in the city of Belgorod. Russia says two Ukraine helicopters flying at low altitude struck the facility early Friday, causing a massive fire.
And the U.S. has announced another $300 million in military assistance for Ukraine, including so-called suicide drones and night vision equipment.
After that attack on that fuel storage facility in Russia near the Ukrainian border, the Ukrainians have neither denied nor confirmed they were the ones responsible. But it does appear the Ukrainians may have been the ones behind that attack. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has all the latest details.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It could be a brazen and bold counterattack by the Ukrainians.
This social media video seeming to show two attack helicopters penetrating Russian territory and firing at an oil depot, setting the facility ablaze. The Russian military publicly acknowledging the incident.
On April 1 at around 5:00 am Moscow time, two Ukrainian MI-24 helicopters entered the airspace of the Russian Federation at extremely low altitude, the spokesman says.
Ukrainian helicopters launched a missile attack on a civilian oil storage facility located on the outskirts of Belgorod. As a result of the missile hit, individual tanks were damaged and caught fire.
Video from the aftermath shows the facility engulfed in massive flames, with firefighters struggling to put out the blaze.
Belgorod is a highly militarized city right across the border from Kharkiv in Ukraine. It was from here that Russian forces crossed the border and attacked Kharkiv, moving large amounts of tanks, armored vehicles and trucks towards Ukrainian territory.
But the Russians also have massive military support facilities in this area. But Ukrainians so far have not acknowledged they've hit the depot.
DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I can neither confirm nor reject the claim that Ukraine was involved in this simply because I do not possess all the military information.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The strike comes as Russian forces have been suffering setbacks in their invasion of Ukraine, withdrawing some forces from the area around the capital, Kyiv, after failing to storm the city.
The Russians now saying they want to focus their offensive on the east of the country, which includes Kharkiv, where authorities report a major uptick in shelling in recent days.
All this as talks between Russia and Ukraine to try and end the fighting continue. But Moscow now saying Vladimir Putin has been briefed on the chopper attack and it could have a negative impact on the talks.
Of course, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for continuing negotiations, the Kremlin spokesman said.
The strike on the oil facility will probably do little to hold up Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But if the Ukrainians are behind it, it would show they are not afraid to strike back at the country that is attacking them -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
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VAUSE: In the coming hours, a convoy of buses will again try to reach the besieged city of Mariupol to evacuate civilians, who have endured weeks of a brutal Russian military assault. An estimated 100,000 people are still trapped there.
On Friday, an evacuation organized by the Red Cross was denied access, preventing thousands from leaving.
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VAUSE: Those who have been able to leave were taken to the Ukrainian- controlled city of Zaporizhzhya. It took 11 hours for buses to pass through military checkpoints controlled by the Russians, what would normally be a drive of less than three hours.
Russian troops who occupied the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl may have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. That's according to Ukraine's state energy company, which says the activity of the Russian forces there remains unclear. CNN's David McKenzie reports now from London.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the very early stages of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, you'll remember those images of Russian tanks entering Chernobyl, the site of the worst accident in nuclear history.
And now in the recent hours, there's been questions raised about the state of Russian soldiers that departed the Chernobyl area in recent days, within the last 24 hours, in fact.
There is a statement from the state-owned nuclear agency in Ukraine, saying that they believe that Russian soldiers had built fortifications and dug trenches in the Red Forest. Now that is an area that saw the worst fallout from that nuclear accident in 1986.
Now radiation levels have, of course, dropped drastically since then. But that state-owned agency says that those soldiers were panicked before they left. CNN couldn't independently verify that assessment.
But there is worry that they could have had some level of radiation exposure. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency spoke to CNN on Friday, saying there were some levels of raised radiation but, after so much time since that accident, that the levels overall in Chernobyl are low.
They are requesting information from the Russians about possible exposure and he's looking to go to the site as soon as possible -- David McKenzie, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: Well, Russia needs to walk the walk if it wants its talk about peace to be taken seriously. That's the message from Germany's foreign minister. She said Russia cannot talk peace and attack civilian areas in Ukraine at the same time. CNN's Christiane Amanpour asked the foreign minister what President Putin's end game might be.
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ANNALENA BAERBOCK, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Unfortunately, I would say nobody knows, because nobody could have imagined that a president from a European country would attack so brutally its neighbor, because it's not only a neighbor; there are so many families, friends, relationships between Ukraine and Russia.
We have also seen that this is not only an attack on Ukraine but it's also an attack on the European peace order.
So that's why we have answered as we did, together with the United States, together with Canada, together with many other countries aboard, but especially together as the European Union, with the strongest sanction package we have ever had, to make sure that this breach of fundamental international law and of the European peace and security order is not being tolerated in any way and that we will stop Putin with whatever we can do.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Let me ask you about that, then, because the French prime minister, your counterpart, has said that winning this is a strategic necessity for the West. That's a big, big aim, a strategic necessity.
If that's the case and whether you agree if that's the case, do you believe you're doing enough to actually achieve your strategic ends?
Your Polish compatriot, the prime minister opponent, I spoke to yesterday and he said, look, the Russian ruble has -- is doing fairly well against the dollar. It's not really yet impacting Putin. He is getting oil revenue.
How do you expect to influence him going forward?
BAERBOCK: Well, I think we have to be very honest in this so difficult situation, because we are all humans. And everybody from us is a mother, is a grandmother, is a sister, is a father, is a nephew.
And everybody from us wishes that peace would be there tomorrow. But the brutal reality is that Putin himself has chosen to do the opposite, to fight a war against civilians and to fight a war against the European peace order. And this is why we have answered with the sanction package. But we have to face reality also that we are in a situation that NATO is standing there, in solidarity with Ukraine and, on the other hand, Russia, which has made clear that there are no red lines for themselves.
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BAERBOCK: So this is why we support military-wise with weapons as Europeans. We are supporting also from Germany with weapons, which we haven't done in the past, because the reality has changed so brutally. We have set up this sanction package but it is in Putin's hands, because he's the one who started the war without any region -- reason.
And this is now his responsibility to end the war. And we pressure the system of Putin by the sanctions, so that he's being isolated. And we, as an international community, are making very, very clear that these are heavy costs on his own society, on his own citizens.
But, unfortunately, in this world, in the 21st century, we are all in dependence -- we are all connected to each other.
So, therefore, the question you were raising about fossil fuels, oil and energy, Europe is connected with Russia and, therefore, we are working every day to phase out also with regard to our fossil dependency on Russia.
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VAUSE: When it comes to that fossil dependency on Russia, the foreign minister said many European countries just simply ignored what she called was Putin's blackmail when he demanded that Russian natural gas should be paid in rubles.
Well, it seems those international sanctions are now starting to bite across Russia. In many stores, there have been scenes of people and customers scrambling for basic goods like sugar. Here's CNN's Matthew Chance.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Russia, they're calling it the sugar panic. As Western sanctions on the country bite, ordinary people have been snapping up essentials. They're jostling with each other in the Russian city of Saratov to buy sugar off the back of a truck.
"God bless you," the voice says, as a supermarket worker pushes a trolley of sugar toward anxious shoppers, who scramble to grab as much as they can before supplies run out. Pleas from Russian officials for the public not to panic buy are going unheard.
But now a prominent Russian economist tells CNN this economic pain is set to deepen.
CHANCE: We're seeing the shortages now and that's bad enough for some people in Russia. But what you're saying is that soon we could see a much bigger, much more serious economic impact because of these sanctions.
RUBEN ENIKOLOPOV, NEW ECONOMIC SCHOOL: Yes. Most of the shortages are a temporary problem, so that will be solved and these goods will appear. There will be a very acute phase and everything is fine. With the quality of life, actual real income, that is not that apparent yet.
But that will be -- this problem will be accumulating and becoming more and more apparent in the coming months.
CHANCE (voice-over): In fact, that impact on quality of life is already being felt. These are the crowds that flocked to an IKEA superstore in Moscow the day before it closed down last month.
Across Russia, Western brands have suspended production or simply pulled out over the invasion of Ukraine. Jobs may soon go permanently.
Even more seriously, there are concerns a shortage of Western medicines is starting to have a real impact on people's health, people like Anastasia in Moscow and her father, who she says has been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.
"We asked everywhere but no one had his medicine," she says, "now he feels sick."
Russian officials say they are aware of the shortages and are trying to address them. But if sanctions persist, Russia faces being cut off from medical advances and other technologies that may set it back, even cause harm.
Many Russians accustomed to hardship remain unshaken by the economic doom threatening their nation.
"I was born in Soviet times," says Larisa in the Russian town of Pokrov.
She then speaks of the challenges since then like economic restructuring and food stamps.
"We got over it all," she says.
Valentina, also in Pokrov, says she doesn't mind that prices have gone up at all.
"In a month, it will straighten out," she hopes.
After years of navigating Western sanctions, there is a belief -- perhaps misplaced -- things will work out this time, too.
ENIKOLOPOV: When Russians are seeing this, I mean, yes, psychologically, they are used to sanctions. But in terms of the effect on the economy, it is much more damaging than the sanctions that were previously implemented.
CHANCE: Well, previously as well, the sanctions haven't really worked in terms of changing Russia's policy, changing the Kremlin's policy.
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CHANCE: Do you think there is a chance that these sanctions in that case will work and they will force the Kremlin to change course?
ENIKOLOPOV: Honestly, I doubt it. Just with the logic of the current regime in Russia, they -- it's a thing about Putin, that he doesn't give up under pressure. It makes him even more persistent, at the expense of the country.
CHANCE (voice-over): Economic pain, it seems, is a price the Kremlin is willing to let its own people pay -- Matthew Chance, CNN.
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VAUSE: It's just gone 15 minutes past the hour. You're watching CNN. Our breaking news coverage continues after a short break.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone.
Well, truth is often the first casualty of war and so it is here in this conflict. Both sides are guilty of playing fast and loose with the facts, although the Russians appear to be the masters of disinformation.
But for many Ukrainians, getting access to independent, credible journalism and reporting is often difficult. And that's where our next guest comes in. Journalist Oleksiy Sorokin of "The Kyiv Independent" joins us now from Kyiv.
Thank you so much for being with us. We'll talk about "The Kyiv Independent" in a moment.
But I want to get to the situation on the ground there in the capital, because the mayor of Kyiv has warned residents who fled it's still not safe to come back, because, despite Ukrainian forces retaking some territory, the Russians continue to fight.
So what is the situation around the capital right now?
How significant are the gains which have been made by Ukrainian forces?
OLEKSIY SOROKIN, "THE KYIV INDEPENDENT": Well, yes, they're pretty significant. Yesterday Ukraine was able to liberate around 20 villages. We know that Kyiv suburbs are now under Ukrainian flag and as north as
the city of Ivankiv, which is a crucial point on the road that was used to supply Russian troops in the northwest of Kyiv, is now also under Ukrainian flag. And we can say that the capital currently is safe.
VAUSE: What about the Russian ongoing offensive?
Because during the week, we heard that Wednesday night, overnight into Thursday, U.S. officials estimate about 300 air sorties had been flown by the Russian air force, many targeting Kyiv.
Have those air attacks continued at the same pace or are they easing off?
SOROKIN: They continue. Yesterday, the head of the Ukrainian air force said that Russia is now relocating its resources into Donbas. So the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts are continuing to being shelled and are facing airstrikes.
Kyiv also faced several airstrikes in the past days. And the mayor expects the city to be shelled continuously. So that's why he doesn't want residents to just rush into the capital, which he thinks is not yet safe.
VAUSE: OK, your outlet less than six months old, mostly home to former editorial staff from the old "Kyiv Post," all people who refused to give up their journalistic independence.
In fact, on your website, you vow to serve as the true independent voice of Ukraine. That's quite the commitment to make.
How difficult has that been over the course of this conflict?
Have you covered difficult stories, like Ukrainian soldiers shooting Russian prisoners of war?
SOROKIN: First of all, I want to say that it's been very hard to keep up with the facts because we understand that, during war, both sides don't share information that they feel can be used by the opponent. So it's been very hard to try to find actual information.
That's what we're doing on the ground. We have people in Kyiv. We have people in other cities. And, yes, we are looking into all possible misgivings by both sides. Obviously we are now seeing multiple, multiple violations and war crimes by Russia.
But we also have to understand that, if those war crimes and if something like that happens from the Ukrainian side, then it's our job as journalists to cover that as well.
VAUSE: Because your website, a fairly rudimentary basic website, has gone from a few thousand followers to -- how many is it now?
How many subscribers or readers every day? SOROKIN: Well, our Twitter account went from 20,000 in the beginning of the war to 2 million. And we had our audience skyrocket 10 or even 15 times.
VAUSE: So clearly there is a desire out there for many to get accurate and unbiased news.
Is that what you're hearing back from the people who are reading your website and getting your information?
SOROKIN: Yes, obviously that's what is keeping us going. We have multiple feedback about how "The Kyiv Independent" is crucial in covering the war, how "The Kyiv Independent" is basically the most trusted resource in Ukraine on the ground currently that covers the war.
And that makes us double-, triple-check everything we do, all our news stories and that's why we are continuing to move forward, even though we didn't hire a single person in this month. And we just have to work even harder ourselves.
VAUSE: Why did everyone leave the "Kyiv Post?"
What was the reason behind the desertion there?
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SOROKIN: Well, as we understand, the owner didn't want to contradict and have a bad relationship with the government. So back then, as we understood that the general prosecutor of Ukraine didn't like what we were writing, didn't like our coverage of her work and that caused first problems for the owner.
And then the owner decided to give us problems. And obviously we understood that we can't work in that kind of environment. We said no to the owner and the owner fired us. And now we feel much more independent, because this is a newsroom that's owned by journalists.
And we are allowed and we can do actual journalism. And nobody can basically make us silent.
VAUSE: I want to mention your GoFundMe page. It's for "The Kyiv Independent." Last time I checked, I think you'd raised more than 1.5 million pounds because independent, quality journalism does not come cheaply. But I guess it is worth every dime.
So how dependent are you on raising money, you know, in a way that people just feel like they need to donate to you?
How dependent are you on those donations?
SOROKIN: Well, basically that covers our budget right now. Before the war, donations accounted for about a fifth of our budget. Now, because Ukraine is in the spotlight, because more people trust "The Kyiv Independent," because they see that we do quality journalism, obviously the donations also went up. And we are able to survive this year and maybe even next year. But what we fear is that we see a drop in people's interest in the war in Ukraine. And we understand that this will also have an impact, first of all, on our readership and, second of all, on our donations that we receive.
VAUSE: Well, (INAUDIBLE) shout out. Keep up the good work. Don't let me down. Oleksiy Sorokin, thank you so much for being with us.
SOROKIN: Thank you.
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, they've destroyed towns and lives. Now Russian troops appear to be on the move.
But where are they going and what do they have in store?
We'll have the very latest from the Pentagon.
Also, Russia reaches out to some of the friends it still has left, to try and cushion the blow of international sanctions.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause, reporting live from Lviv in Ukraine.
We are getting new images of what Russian soldiers are leaving behind, the death and the destruction as they move east.
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VAUSE (voice-over): This is the town of Bucha near Kyiv. The video shows a number of bodies along a roadway, including one person who appears to have been riding a bicycle. It's unclear from these images whether the bodies are civilians or soldiers, Ukrainian or Russian; we don't know.
Witnesses have told Human Rights Watch that Russian soldiers went from house to house during the occupation there, breaking doors and windows, searching and questioning people.
Bucha is another town which Ukrainian forces have retaken from the Russians in recent days.
The death toll from the attack on a government building in Mykolaiv is rising. Ukraine says 31 people were killed in the strike. Now we're hearing from Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, about being Russia's number one target. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Do you know how many assassination attempts you've survived?
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I don't know.
BAIER: But there have been some.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): There are things which is difficult for me to count. My intelligence says there were such attempts. And we saw information about some arrivals, planes; there were other details. But listen, I am alive. I am not wounded. I am intact. So it's hard for me to talk about this. So many people have died in our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The U.S. has announced another $300 million in military assistance for Ukraine, including so-called suicide drones and night vision equipment. CNN's Oren Liebermann has more on the Russian troop movements from the Pentagon.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Pentagon has said, over the last couple of days, that about 20 percent or less of Russian troops have been repositioning from Kyiv, moving to the north. We now have a better sense of what that looks like.
In satellite images, we can see Russian forces have left the Antonov airport in Hostomel, about 18 miles northwest of the city center of Kyiv. It was a major victory for the Russians when they took that airport on the first day of the war.
Russian attack helicopters and transport helicopters essentially overwhelming Ukrainian forces there and taking it very quickly. But that was as close as the Russians would get from the northwest approach or assault on Kyiv.
Ukrainian forces able to hold on from there. In the past couple of days and weeks, the Pentagon has said that Russian forces have stopped advancing and have essentially moved into defensive positions.
And from satellite images, we were able to see that the Russians had built defensive berms around their military equipment and their artillery, as they continued the assault on Kyiv. Now of course, that has changed.
The Russian forces repositioning, perhaps withdrawing, moving north into Belarus. We see that in these satellite images. Ukrainians also having success in other areas around Kyiv; for example, the town of Bucha, not far from Hostomel, northwest of Kyiv.
The mayor there saying that town has been liberated and is now free of Russian forces. The U.S. assesses this is not a withdrawal by the Russians but instead a repositioning or refitting, moving into Belarus, so that they can be used elsewhere -- [01:35:00]
LIEBERMANN: -- perhaps in the Donbas region, so that Russian forces can concentrate there and draw some sort of victory with the Russian assault stalled in many other places around Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia accuses Ukraine of using two military helicopters to attack a fuel storage depot in Belgorod in Western Russia. Now that was a place where Russia had amassed forces and launched an attack on parts of Ukraine from there.
Now Russia accusing Ukraine of attacking back, carrying out an attack on Russia in Russian territory. Ukrainian ministry of defense saying they would neither confirm nor deny that information.
Meanwhile, as the civilian catastrophe continues to grow during this assault, UNESCO says that 53 historic and religious sites have been damaged since Russia's invasion began -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.
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VAUSE: The U.N. is now reporting the number of Ukrainians who have fled this country since the war began has now reached 4.1 million. Many who have been forced to leave their homes were reluctant at first. But the ongoing Russian attack has left many cities devastated without the most basic of services.
Those who have been displaced put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Tragedy, I would never think.
For what?
For ambitions?
The ambitions of the ruler?
I am sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Internally, nearly 6.5 million Ukrainians have been displaced.
Well, Russia is pushing for more trade with India as it looks for a lifeline from those crushing international sanctions. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov was in New Delhi Friday meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as other officials.
Lavrov says Russia is standing by, ready to sell India whatever it wants. He also said the two countries will increases the use of its own currencies for trade. During his meetings, Lavrov also thanked India for what he described as seeing the full picture. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: This day, our Western colleagues would like to reduce any meaningful international issue to the crisis in Ukraine. You know our position. We do not fight anything and we appreciate that India is taking the situation in the entirety, not just in a one-sided way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Before his stop in India, Lavrov was in China. Both India and China have refused to directly condemn the invasion of Ukraine.
We'll go back to Michael Holmes in Atlanta.
Michael, this is an interesting one for Beijing. They seem to be wanting to walk both sides of the fence here, having a bit each way. But there will come a point, you would imagine, that sooner or later Beijing will have to pick a side. And it's looking increasingly like they'll pick Russia's side.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it's been notable, though, because, you know, you would expect Russia -- I mean Russia's friend, China, one of their few friends in all of this, that they would have given some modicum of support.
But they haven't. They haven't come out and said they support what is going on. They haven't said they don't support it.
But that neutrality is kind of telling, isn't it?
VAUSE: Well, there's two different stories going on. There's what China says internationally and that's when they take the neutral stance. Internally, though, if you look at what's happening inside China, they are repeating the propaganda that you hear from the Kremlin. They call it a special military operation. They don't call it a war.
And what does seem to be very obvious is that Xi Jinping, who has a very close relationship with Vladimir Putin, is seeing that what is a problem for the United States is good for China and that's where, I think, this is now all going to come down to. That's where China will sit, with the Russians.
HOLMES: Yes, it's a delicate thing for China. They don't want a problem in their neighborhood, either, and they have a lot of economic interest in Ukraine as well that they don't want to mess with. Yes, complicated stuff. Good to see you, my friend. You look a bit warmer today.
VAUSE: It's very nice here today. It's almost zero degrees Celsius.
HOLMES: It's balmy, mate. It's balmy. Good to see you, boysie.
VAUSE: See you next hour.
HOLMES: We'll check in with you later.
All right. Still ahead here on the program, a breakthrough after years of brutal conflict. The U.N. hails a truce between forces involved in Yemen's war. What it means for the country coming up.
Also Sri Lanka's president declares a public emergency. How the economic crisis in that country is becoming dire. All that and more after the break.
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HOLMES: To a major development for one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, the conflict in Yemen.
For the first time in six years, a truce has been agreed between the Saudi-led military alliance and the Houthi movement, which is aligned with Iran. The agreement will see air, ground and marine operations halted in Yemen and around its borders for two months.
The head of the U.N. has welcomed the move, saying he hopes it will mark the start of a better future for the people of Yemen.
Riyadh and Tehran have been engaged in what is widely considered a proxy war, one that has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions of others on the brink of starvation.
The Sri Lankan president has declared a national public emergency. This coming a day after demonstrators clashed with police near his home to protest the country's economic crisis. Vedika Sud has the latest.
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VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What began as a peaceful protest in Sri Lanka's capital Thursday ended in violent confrontation, police firing tear gas and striking demonstrators after imposing and then lifting an overnight curfew; protesters storming barricades, throwing rocks and torching a bus.
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SUD (voice-over): Dozens injured and arrested near the home of Sri Lanka's president, who demonstrators blame for a devastating economic crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think this is the darkest period in this country. We can't do anything with our money. What our leaders are doing is killing us without killing us.
SUD (voice-over): Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis in modern history is becoming increasingly dire. The island nation of 22 million is struggling to pay for vital imports, like food, medicine and fuel, due to an extreme shortage of foreign currency.
To cut energy costs, the government has imposed power cuts for up to 13 hours a day, leaving cities in the dark and forcing shops to close, some hospitals reporting having to suspend routine surgeries.
Prices for basic goods have skyrocketed and shortages leave residents queueing for hours. At fuel stations (ph) soldiers were deployed after some people died waiting for hours in the sweltering heat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): People are dying, waiting in queues for petrol, for gas, for kerosene. Three people fainted in this very queue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We are standing here on the streets begging, while our children have been left alone at home like orphans.
SUD (voice-over): Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves have dropped 70 percent since January of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic ravaged its tourism dependent economy; that, combined with other factors, like natural disasters.
In the coming days, Sri Lankan officials plan to meet with the International Monetary Fund in hope of working out a loan program. Authorities trying to find a way out of a deepening economic crisis as desperation and anger grow in Sri Lanka -- Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
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HOLMES: There has been more fallout after Will Smith slapped the comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars. We'll have details on the punishment he faces from the Academy and what the Oscars producer says about that night. That's when we come back.
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HOLMES: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences accepts Will Smith's resignation after the actor slapped the presenter, Chris Rock, on stage last weekend during the Oscars. The Academy says they will continue with their disciplinary proceedings against Smith.
In a statement, Smith apologizing for his actions, saying he is heartbroken and accepts the, quote, "consequences for his conduct."
CNN's Brian Todd with more on that night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oscars producer Will Packer says when he saw Will Smith striding onto the stage, he thought it was a bit.
WILL PACKER, OSCARS PRODUCER: I was thinking, OK, he is going to say something or come at him, something funny is going to happen because that's the nature of Chris and that's the nature of Will.
TODD (voice-over): But then --
CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN: That was -- that was a nice one. OK. I'm out here -- uh-oh. (INAUDIBLE).
(LAUGHTER)
ROCK: Oh, wow. Wow.
TODD (voice-over): Then --
WILL SMITH, ACTOR: Keep my wife's name --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE)
ROCK: I'm going to, OK?
PACKER: Once I saw Will yelling at the stage with such vitriol, my heart dropped. And I just remember thinking, oh, no. Oh, no, not like this. And Chris was keeping his head when everybody else was losing theirs.
TODD (voice-over): But Packer told "Good Morning, America" he still wasn't convinced of what had happened.
PACKER: I said, "Did he really hit you?"
And he looked at me and he goes, "Yes."
He goes, "I just took a punch from Muhammad Ali," as only Chris can. He was immediately, you know, in joke mode. But you could tell that he was very much still in shock.
TODD (voice-over): Packer says the LAPD came to his office and wanted to talk to Rock. Chris Rock, he says, had the power at that moment to have Smith arrested.
PACKER: And they were saying, this is battery, we will go get him. We're prepared. We're prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him.
As they were talking, Chris was -- he was being very dismissive of those options.
He was like, "No, I'm fine."
He was like, "No, no, no," and even to the point, where I said, "Rock, let them -- let them finish."
And they said, you know, "Would you like us to take any action?"
And he said no.
TODD (voice-over): The Academy says it asked Will Smith to leave the ceremony. One source telling CNN they firmly asked Smith's publicist but that he refused. Some published accounts dispute the claim that Smith was asked to leave. Packer told ABC what another production team member told him.
PACKER: That they were about to physically remove Will Smith. And I had not been a part of those conversations. And so I immediately went to the Academy leadership that was onsite and I said, "Chris Rock doesn't want that."
TODD (voice-over): Packer says he and other producers were hoping Will Smith would go onstage in his acceptance speech and make it better.
SMITH: Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said. But love will make you do crazy things.
TODD (voice-over): But Smith wouldn't apologize to Rock for another 24 hours in a written statement.
PACKER: Didn't nail it in terms of a conciliatory acceptance speech in that moment, who then continued to be in the room.
TODD: Will Packer says Will Smith apologized to him the next day. Packer says the energy in the room was amazing and that that moment sucked all the energy out.
He says it was like someone poured concrete in the room. Packer says Chris Rock saved the event, at least what was left of it, with how he handled the incident -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:55:00]
HOLMES: Well, the groups for the men's 2022 World Cup in Qatar are now set. The tournament kicks off in November. It features plenty of story lines, both off and on the pitch.
(WORLD SPORT)
HOLMES: Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Holmes CNN. Do stick around. Our breaking news coverage continues with John Vause after this break.
