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Russian Troops Leave Behind Horrific Sights In Bucha, Ukraine; Russian Strike In Odessa Damages Fuel Depot; Family Looking For Journalist Kidnapped By Russian Troops; Sarah Palin Announces Run For Congress In Alaska; Capitol Controversy; Tiger Woods Fuels Speculation He Is Playing In The Masters. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired April 03, 2022 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington, and we are following breaking news on a horrific discovery in Bucha, Ukraine. As Russian troops abandoned northern parts of Ukraine, they leave behind evidence of a massacre. The images are graphic but we want to show them because they reveal the truth behind Putin's war.

This is a mass grave site you're looking at now, up to 300 people could be buried there according to the town's mayor. Russia wants you to believe this is staged. The CNN crew that we've been speaking with today saw it with their own eyes. At least a dozen bodies piled here on church ground. Some people are not yet buried, their bodies still contorted on the streets or tied up with their hands behind their backs, killed execution style.

In a brand-new video address, Ukrainian Resident Zelenskyy says these are war crimes, he calls it genocide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): When we find people with, with hands tied behind their back and decapitated, such things I don't understand. I don't comprehend. The kids who were killed and tortured, so it wasn't enough just to kill for those criminals. Indeed this is genocide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And CNN's Fred Pleitgen travelled to Bucha and got a firsthand look at the atrocities that the Russians are calling fake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They said that their withdrawal from this area, it was something that they had been planning all the time, they've been doing on purpose, that they hadn't really been taking major losses but what we've seen seeing Jim, especially the northwestern part of Kyiv, is just destroyed Russian armor everywhere. They've certainly taken a lot more losses than anybody would have

imagined and certainly than the Russians are willing to admit. And then you have the civilian casualties. You know, from having been on the ground there we saw a lot of dead bodies on the streets and then we saw that mass grave as well. So as more of this is coming to light we certainly can see that the amount of civilian casualties has been a lot higher than anybody would have thought and certainly, also, a lot higher than the Russians for their part would ever be willing to admit.

Here's what we witnessed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): As Russian forces retreat from the area north of Kyiv, in their wake, scenes of utter destruction. Whole blocks of houses flattened, Ukrainian authorities saying they believe dead bodies are still lying underneath. But here, the dead also lay in the open. Ukrainian National Police showed us this mass grave in Bucha, saying they believe up to 150 civilians might be buried here but no one knows the exact number. People killed while the Russian army occupied this town.

This is what it looks like when the hope is crushed. Vladimir has been searching for his younger brother, Dmitri, now he's convinced Dmitri lies here even though he can't be 100 percent sure. The neighbor accompanying him with strong words for the Russians.

Why do you hate us so much, she asks, since the 1930s, you've been abusing Ukraine, you just want to destroy us, you want us gone, but we will be, everything will be OK. I believe it.

Video from Bucha shows bodies in the streets after Russian forces left the area. Some images even show bodies with hands tied behind their backs. The Russian Defense Ministry denies killing civilians and claims images of dead civilians are, quote, "fake."

But we met a family just returning to their house in Borodianka, which they say was occupied by Russian soldiers. They show us the body of a dead man, in civilian clothes, they had found in the backyard. His hands and feet tied with severe bruises and a shell casing still laying nearby.

Russia's military appears to have suffered heavy losses before being driven out of the area around Kyiv. This column of armored vehicles in Bucha completely destroyed.

(On-camera): The way the Ukrainians tell us is that the Russians were trying to go towards Kyiv and they were then intercepted by Ukrainian drones, artillery and also the Javelin anti-tank weapons. It's not clear how many Russians were killed here but they say many were and others fled the scene.

(Voice-over): A national police officer says the Russian troops were simply too arrogant. They thought they could drive on the streets and just go through, he

says. That they would be greeted as though it's all right. Maybe they think it is normal to drive around looting, to destroy buildings and to mock people, but our people didn't allow it.

And now it appears all the Russians have withdrawn from here. Ukraine says it is now in full control of the entire region around Kyiv but it is only now that the full extent of the civilian suffering is truly coming to light.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: And of course, Jim, that is the case there in Bucha but I have to tell you. We were going around large parts of the area north of Kyiv today.

[19:05:04]

In fact I was in four or five different districts and small villages, and in all of them we saw exactly the same site. We saw a lot of destruction, we saw buildings where they said that there were still bodies buried underneath, and then of course we also saw bodies on the streets. That body in the backyard as well. So this is certainly something that is awful, something that is not necessarily unique only to Bucha, and certainly something that we believe more of which will come to light as time progresses, and as the Ukrainian forces move into more and more areas that were held by the Russians before.

ACOSTA: And Russian military officials confirming today that they launched missiles in the Ukraine strategic Black Sea port city of Odessa.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is there for us right now.

Ed, the Russians say they targeted an oil refinery and some fuel storage facilities. Does that line up with what you're seeing?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It did early this morning, but, Jim, I also want to mention here about an hour ago we heard another round of strikes and explosions here in the city of Odessa so this has been a day bookended by air strikes and violence, and many people here in the city trying to come to terms with what it all means.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The missiles exploded in a startling, violent barrage. About six strikes lit up the sky. Russian military officials say the attack on Odessa was launched from the sea and land using high precision missiles.

The massive plumes of black, swirling smoke covered much of the city of one million people. The strikes landed in a largely industrial area, destroying an oil refinery and fuel storage facilities.

(On-camera): Multiple air strikes hit the port city of Odessa here in southern Ukraine just before sunrise, Sunday morning. There were no air raid sirens that went off before the blasts, and the explosions could be felt and seen from miles away.

(Voice-over): Ukrainian officials say there were no injuries but Tatiana Gerasim says the explosions threw her from the chair she was sleeping in and window glass shattered all over her. Tatiana volunteers in this building late into the night cooking meals for Ukrainian soldiers. In recent days, she says reconnaissance drones were flying over the fuel storage facility. Two other residents told us they saw the drones as well.

TATIANA GERASIM, ODESSA RESIDENT (through translator): The drones were flying around and I knew they were up to something, and could bump the depot. And we've been thinking where we could hide in case something happens.

LAVANDERA: A small pocket of apartment buildings and homes sit just across the street from the bombing site. Families stood outside their homes under the clouds of dark smoke. Watching flames shoot up into the air. The explosions shattered windows and any remaining sense of security these residents had left.

GERASIM (through translator): Of course I'm scared, and now they're hitting everywhere. They are doing it in all cities. We know it. We see it.

LAVANDERA: The attack on Odessa follows a similar pattern Russian forces have carried out for weeks, hitting fuel storage facilities across the country it claims are supplying their Ukrainian military. But if the Odessa strike is a precise attack, Ukrainian officials say the strikes hours later in the neighboring city of Mykolaiv have no rhyme or reason and are designed to harass and panic civilians.

Despite being this close to the bombing and with tears in her eyes, Tatiana Gerasim says she refuses to leave Ukraine. She tells me these bastards won't get away with it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: You know, Jim, what's fascinating about the air strikes today in Odessa as we've spent several days speaking with residents here, and what we heard repeatedly from people is that even though it had been relatively calm here in this city for the last week or so, they all felt that things could change in a moment. This is exactly the kind of thing that they're talking about. This is one of the most significant attacks this city has seen since the invasion of Ukraine started more than a month ago -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Just devastating, Ed. Ed Lavandera, thank you very much for that report.

And still to come, how will the U.S. respond to these images we are seeing tonight of apparent atrocities in Bucha. Former Defense secretary Leon Panetta joins me, next. There he is so we'll talk to him in just a few moments.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:13:47]

ACOSTA: Russian forces retreated from northern Ukraine and appear to have left a sickening trail of senseless death in their wake. I have to warn you the images you're about to see are very graphic and truly horrific. Bodies of executed people, civilians lining a street in the town of Bucha, which is near Kyiv. It is the same place where our own CNN crew saw with their own eyes a mass grave where officials think hundreds of people could be buried.

And former Defense secretary, CIA director, and White House chief of staff, Leon Panetta, joins me now.

Secretary Panetta, I have to imagine in all your years of government service that you maybe didn't see too many occasions like the one that we're witnessing tonight, this savagery, this brutality that has been revealed in Bucha by international journalists, including journalists here at CNN. What is your reaction to what we're seeing there?

LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, Jim, these are, without question, the most disturbing images I've ever seen because it's inexplicable brutality and, you know, there's only one word that can explain it which is I think what President Zelenskyy called it, which is genocide, which is the destruction, deliberate destruction of a people.

[19:15:20]

And that's what the Russians seem to be intent on. I think it's part of their humiliating retreat. I mean they're retreating here because they've been humiliated by the fact that the Ukrainians have stopped a larger force in terms of its invasion. And throughout history when there are retreating armies they usually engage in these kinds of acts to kind of express their humiliation and that's what we're seeing.

ACOSTA: And is this or should this push the Biden administration in the direction of describing what we're seeing in Ukraine as genocide? The Secretary of State Antony Blinken didn't really want to go there it sounds this morning on whether what we're seeing is in fact genocide. Do you think, in time, perhaps they want to do more investigation, that sort of thing, that we're going to be moving in that direction, of using that kind of language?

PANETTA: I just -- I struggle to define any other words that can define the kind of images that we're seeing. And I think, I think that what's important right now, look, obviously, we've witnessed war crimes, we've seen the evidence of it, but right now, I think the most important thing is to get the Russians to remove themselves from Ukraine, and the best way to do that is for the United States and our allies to do everything necessary to provide the weapons that Ukrainians need in order to finish this task.

That really has to be what we concentrate on because in the end the only way we're going to end the kind of unspeakable brutality we've seen is to bring this war to an end.

ACOSTA: And I have to get your take, Mr. Secretary, on, you know, the Russians had the gall to say that, you know, this was staged and fake and so on. You know, it's just getting to be like Baghdad Bob, you know, hour over there at the Kremlin because, I mean, how are the Ukrainians supposed to stage all of this? This ugliness, this evil? I mean, to me, it's just, I don't understand how they can even say the words. It's just baffling to me.

PANETTA: Well, look, Putin's been lying for a long time. That's what tyrants do is lie. He's been lying to his own people and in some ways he lies to himself. And so it doesn't surprise me that they would try to defend in some way, what the press and what the world is seeing in Ukraine. But it only speaks, I think, to their total humiliation. Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine because he thought he could take control of Ukraine within a few days and he failed to do that.

And the Russian army failed to do that, and now they're leaving the capital area, trying to move to these other areas, but it only prolongs what I believe is the defeat of the Russian army in Ukraine. And ultimately, Putin has to decide whether he's going to continue the lies that he's trying to convince the world about in Ukraine or whether he's going to make what is the right decision right now which is to basically come to some kind of negotiated agreement, remove the Russian forces, and get a ceasefire in place.

ACOSTA: And CNN spoke with Ukrainian prisoners of war after they were rescued, and this is what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANYA, UKRAINIAN PRISONER OF WAR (through translator): At first they took us very aggressively and made us shout, glory to Russia. And whoever didn't want to do that they used physical measures.

GLEB, UKRAINIAN PRISONER OF WAR (through translator): They hit me in the face with machine gun butts and kicked me. My front teeth were also chipped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I mean, what do you make of these experiences, these firsthand accounts?

PANETTA: Well, again, these are abuses of prisoners that is unacceptable and that violates the rule of law. You know, it doesn't surprise me that they would to that.

[19:20:04]

The Russians have pretty much displayed that they're not operating by any rules whatsoever, and so this only accumulates more evidence that the Russians, as I've said, rather than enjoying the victory that they hoped they would be able to enjoy are suffering the humiliation of a defeat and it's showing itself in all of the facts and evidence, the brutality that we're seeing. That is evidence of a humiliated defeat. ACOSTA: Yes, and I have to ask you, do you think word of this

humiliation is getting back to Putin? Does he know that they are being humiliated? What is your sense? I mean, there are reports that this information is not getting to him.

PANETTA: Well, I've read the reports that intelligence has provided that Putin is being misled and, you know, I don't question the fact that I'm sure those around him are misleading him and trying not to tell him the brutal truth, but on the other hand, Putin has survived because he's KGB and he survived over 20 years by establishing his own sources of information and Putin knows very well, I think, what has happened in Ukraine.

And that probably makes it even more bitter for him to accept. That's probably the problem, most fundamental problem we're dealing with is a humiliated leader who doesn't quite know how to try to be able to escape a terrible situation he put himself and his country into.

ACOSTA: All right. Former Defense secretary Leon Panetta, always great to have you on. Always appreciate the insights. Thank you very much.

PANETTA: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And coming up, a family's desperate search for their relative who they say was abducted by Russian troops. That story next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:26:39]

ACOSTA: In the weeks since Vladimir Putin's military first invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian people have been living in fear not knowing when Russian troops would attack or what will happen to their homes, their family, their country. In that time, Ukrainian officials say dozens of civilians have been abducted by Russian forces.

Here's CNN's Ivan Watson with the story of one woman's disappearance and her family's heartache -- Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, amid all the fighting and destruction in Ukraine, we're also hearing anecdotally about Ukrainian civilians who disappear after Russian troops advance into their towns and villages. And this week we met a family who claims that their daughter was actually taken hostage, kidnapped, they allege, by the Russian military.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON (voice-over): Masha plays by the banks of the Dnipro River, under the watchful eye of her grandmother. In a few days, she'll be turning 4, but her mother may not be there to celebrate.

Irina Dubchenko is missing, taken captive, her family says, by the Russian military. The family last heard of Irina on March 26th when she called from her home in the Russian-occupied village of Rozivka saying Russian soldiers had searched her house.

ALEXANDRA DUBCHENKO, MISSING JOURNALIST'S SISTER (through translator): She was very frightened. She told us that the Russian soldiers said we know everything about you and you should be shot on the spot for what you did.

WATSON: The next day neighbors say the Russians returned and detained Irina, who worked as a freelance journalist. They haven't heard from her since.

DUBCHENKO (through translator): We don't know where she is now, we have no information about her.

WATSON: The alleged Russian abduction of Irina Dubchenko fits a broader pattern. Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Russian forces of detaining at least 55 civilians since invading Ukraine on February 24th. A Kremlin spokesman has told CNN he is not aware of cases of disappearances but adds that they should be examined carefully.

At least 11 detained civilians are elected mayors like Ivan Fedorov. A security camera caught Russian troops kidnapping Fedorov on March 11th in the Russian occupied town of Melitopol. He says he was later released in a prisoner exchange for nine captive Russian soldiers.

WATSON: I would happily offer myself in a prisoner exchange for her freedom, Irina's mother Larisa says. Just let her go. She has a child.

Larisa and her husband tried to rescue Irina from her Russian occupied village on March 7th.

(On-camera): This is your mother's car.

(Voice-over): But they were forced to turn back after gunfire shattered their car window.

(On-camera): Larisa is showing me a bullet encasing from a round that she says hit her car on March 7th when she tried to reach the village that her daughter lives in. She says Russian soldiers opened fire on her vehicle.

(Voice-over): At some point, in the first weeks of the war, Irina took in a wounded Ukrainian soldier.

DUBCHENKO (through translator): Irina told me on the phone that this military guy was at her home. That she was treating him, changing his bandages.

WATSON: When Russian troops searched Irina's house on March 26th, Alexandra he says they detained the wounded Ukrainian.

[19:30:06]

DUBCHENKO (through translator): He was wounded in the arm and the leg, they handcuffed him and took him out right away. WATSON (voice over): On March 28th, after Irina's alleged abduction, her mother made it safely to the occupied village. She says the Russian officer told her that Irina had been taken to the Russian- backed separatist City of Donetsk to be tried in court for sheltering the wounded Ukrainian soldier.

But that's not a crime according to International Laws of War.

CORDULA DROEGE, CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: The first Geneva Convention is a convention that protects wounded and sick soldiers in the field.

WATSON (on camera): If a civilian treats a wounded combatant, according to the Geneva Convention, is that allowed?

DROEGE: That is not only allowed, it is also protected. Article 18 of the first Geneva Convention is crystal clear about it and says that no one maybe molested or convicted for treating wounded.

WATSON (voice over): CNN reached out to Russia's Ministry of Defense regarding the alleged detention of Irina Dobchenko, the Ministry never replied.

Irina's family now wait in terrifying limbo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Masha often asks, "Where is mama?" Every day, I say, "She's coming soon. She's coming tomorrow, she'll be here in an hour or two."

WATSON (voice over): The truth is, no one here knows when Masha will see her mother again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON (on camera): Jim, imagine how powerless this family feels. They've gone to the Russian occupying force in the village, they've asked to get their daughter back and we are told there is nothing you can do.

They've then gone to the Ukrainian officials who take note to say that they're going to try to help but they're engaged in a fight to the death effectively against the invading Russian force. So the family is left with little to do, but try to get information about their daughter out to the wider world, which is why they are speaking to journalists like me -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, heartbreaking. Ivan Watson, thank you very much.

And coming up, while the world condemns Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Donald Trump is asking the ruthless dictator for a favor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:36:48]

ACOSTA: Is Sarah Palin trying to make a comeback? You, bet-cha. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: I love those hockey moms. You know they say, the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.

[LAUGHTER]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The former Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential nominee has run out of reality TV shows to appear on, so she is running for Congress. Palin is joining a crowded field of nearly 40 candidates to fill the House seat left vacant by the late Congressman Don Young.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PALIN: I want to throw my hat in the ring because we need people who have cojones. We need people like Donald Trump, who has nothing -- nothing to lose, like me. We've got nothing to lose and no more of this vanilla milquetoast, namby-pamby, wussy-pussy stuff that's been going on. That's why our country is in the mess that we're in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: She's always had a way with words.

And joining me now CNN political analyst and Washington Bureau Chief for TheGrio, April Ryan, and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and former FOX News politics editor Chris Stirewalt. April, let me start with you first.

I can't imagine -- maybe he is, what does Kevin McCarthy's life look like if Sarah Palin comes to Washington? What does her life look like?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sarah Palin, I just can't think of anything, but these words from LL Cool J, "Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years." This is not new.

Sarah Palin, if she is elected in the special election runoff, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert won't be so much of an anomaly. Sarah Palin wrote the script. Remember, she is the one who began the issue of division when Barack Obama was destined for a presidency. She was running against him and she kept pounding the drum of division.

She is just going to continue to perpetuate all of that divisive conversation, that divisive theatrical screenplay that we're watching right now on Capitol Hill, and Kevin McCarthy is in for a ride if he has Sarah Palin, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Wow, what a trio.

ACOSTA: Yes, she's kind of the OG-MTG.

Chris, Kevin McCarthy has another problem on his hands. He says that North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn has lost his trust after Cawthorn alleged cocaine use and orgies happening here in Washington among D.C. leaders. I tried to ask Madison Cawthorn about that. Here's what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Congressman, you got a second? I just want to ask you about the meeting with Leader McCarthy --

REP. MADISON CAWTHORN (R-NC): Well, I still have got to get to the other road. You know, I have to get to -- I apologize.

ACOSTA: He said what you said was not true about the cocaine and the orgies?

CAWTHORN: Yes, I have got to get to the other road.

ACOSTA: What's that?

CAWTHORN: (INAUDIBLE).

ACOSTA: Any chance we get a quick comment here at the cross walk?

CAWTHORN: You have to go through (INAUDIBLE).

ACOSTA: What's that?

CAWTHORN: I am just (INAUDIBLE).

ACOSTA: Can I ask you an unrelated question about --

CAWTHORN: I've got to run.

ACOSTA: Former President Trump saying that he wanted to get (INAUDIBLE) Putin on (INAUDIBLE). You think that's appropriate?

CAWTHORN: If you want an interview, you've got to go through our guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: We did reach out to Madison Cawthorn's office, we did not hear back. But what strikes me is that McCarthy gets upset about this, but has no problem with going down to Mar-a-Lago meeting with Trump after the insurrection.

[19:40:10]

ACOSTA: I mean, what about the orgy of violence on January 6th? What about the nonstop lying from Trump about the election? Are those the lines that he should be worried about, Chris?

CHRIS STIREWALT, SENIOR FELLOW, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Well, I think that people -- all the people we're talking about here have something in common, which is they are desperate to be famous and they're desperate to be in power. It matters an enormous amount to them. And I think in Madison Cawthorn's case, look, he has been an unserious member and Palin would join a whole group of backbenchers who never accomplished anything, in both parties who don't do anything, but they can be famous. If you can be in the House, you generate outrage, you can generate contributions, you can generate hot garbage that you can bring around yourself to make yourself more famous.

Madison Cawthorn, I hope, I pray to God given the appearance of many of the Members of Congress that he was lying about the orgies -- the cocaine fueled orgies, I hope this is not true. And if he was lying, he was lying to make himself look good like he was an outsider. What he forgot is, when you say that, he was inculpating Republicans. He was implicating his fellow Republicans with this.

And they said, well, Madison, you can say anything you want about the election being stolen, you can say anything you want about whatever kind of flummery you want, but you can't intimate that there are drug fueled sex parties going on among Republican congressmen, because that makes us look bad and could jeopardize the 2022 election.

ACOSTA: Yes, that doesn't sell back home.

STIREWALT: No.

ACOSTA: And April, this week, and I tried to ask Madison Cawthorn about this, he didn't answer this question either, but this week, Trump brazenly asked Putin to release dirt on Biden's family. And we have heard something like this before. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.

We had a perfect phone call with the President of Ukraine. Everybody knows that.

As long as Putin now is not exactly a fan of our country, let him explain where did -- because Chris Wallace wouldn't let me ask the question -- why did the Mayor of Moscow's wife give the Biden's, both of them, three and a half million dollars? That's a lot of money.

I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I mean, April, Trump asked for the Russians' help with Hillary Clinton's e-mails back in 2016. He tried to do it with the Ukrainians, he got impeached for it. We just showed some of that video there. He's never going to stop doing this, is he?

APRIL: No, Donald Trump is very performative. We have seen, as you've shown from Hillary Clinton to this moment, what it has done to this nation and what it has actually done to his poll numbers. His poll numbers aren't as high as they used to be as he is trying to run for office again, but what is critical that we need to see right now? Donald John Trump, a man who is trying to regain the Oval Office is asking a man who is warring on a country really for no reason, killing people needlessly, displacing people needlessly.

He is asking a war criminal to help him again, to find dirt on the sitting United States President. We talked about breaking the rule of law. There have been investigations before. Now this, it's in your face. So how do you explain this one yet again?

ACOSTA: Yes, Chris. April brings up a good point. And we should note, at a rally last night, Trump was bragging about how he knows Putin. Today, we woke up to images of more atrocities in Ukraine, war crimes. It looks like genocide, I mean, what we're witnessing unfolding before our eyes.

What might the world look like If Trump were still in office as Putin is bombarding and doing these things to Ukraine?

STIREWALT: I have no idea because I don't know what anybody's calculations would have been, but I know this, Donald Trump, when he was impeached for trying to extort help from Zelenskyy, most Americans had no idea who Zelenskyy was, most Americans couldn't have found Ukraine on a map, and that is how he survived politically that first impeachment.

But I'll tell you what, Americans love Volodymyr Zelenskyy -- he -- and Ukraine in a recent survey was more admired, more liked, more American showed support for Ukraine than even Canada and Great Britain. That includes Republicans.

The subgroup of Republicans who were interested in Putin or were Putin curious and hanging out with Trump there, those folks have all gone to ground, right? They're not out there talking. So as Trump does this stuff, there is a small base inside the Republican Party that still will eat this stuff up, but he has found himself in a totally different political reality now as a consequence of Putin's actions.

ACOSTA: April, final thought from you?

RYAN: Final thought, Donald Trump needs to grow up and see the tea leaves. This is not his time. Vladimir Putin is in big trouble in the world and I say it so simply because I guess that's the only way Donald Trump can understand it.

[19:45:09]

ACOSTA: All right, we'll leave it there. April Ryan, Chris Stirewalt, thanks to both of you. We appreciate it.'

STIREWALT: Thank you.

ACOSTA: New tonight, golf legend, Tiger Woods says it'll be a game time decision if he plays in the Masters, but he sure is fueling plenty of speculation that he will be there. With me now, Patrick Snell of CNN World Sport. Patrick, every time we talk about Tiger, people's ears perk up. He's keeping the world in suspense yet again.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN ANCHOR, WORLD SPORT: Yes, you're absolutely right, Jim. Talk about moving the needle, Tiger Woods is the needle. There is no question about that.

The excitement, the buzz building up to this year's Masters for one very big reason: Mr. Tiger Woods, who arrived, I can reveal on the course at Augusta National on Sunday, arriving and heading to the practice round, getting some practice in and then playing a few holes as well off the range onto the course at number 10, playing a few holes.

And Jim, just to go back a few days, the excitement reaching fever pitch after report then confirmed that on Tuesday last week, he was here at Augusta National playing with fellow American professional, Justin Thomas, and 13-year-old son, Charlie as well on the course. That's what went viral on social media to get us into this position.

But a word of caution, as you just said in your intro, it is going to be a real moment to decide, a game-time decision, and it is going to be fascinating to see, Jim, how his body reacts to actually playing this notoriously challenging course, all the undulations here at Augusta National. That's going to be the challenge. How does he recover from that?

It's fascinating to see what happens as he tries to win the Masters for a sixth time -- Jim.

ACOSTA: It would be incredible if he does it again. I mean -- and Patrick, correct me if I'm wrong. He will have to play without a cart there at the Masters and the last time we saw Tiger play was back in December with his son in a father-son tournament. Was he playing in Masters' form then?

SNELL: Yes, well, I will say on that occasion, yes, on the cart, no cart from here in Augusta. But look on that occasion in Orlando, Jim, as you referenced, a second place finish for Tiger and son on that occasion.

But I want to tap into some insight here. Tiger Woods doesn't enter competitions unless he believes he can win. He is fueled by success. He wants another career major. He wants career major number 16. He won't be playing on Sunday, unless on teeing off on Thursday, unless he feels he can win this tournament. That is the bottom line, but it is going to be fascinating to see how this plays out. Exciting stuff.

Back to you, Jim.

ACOSTA: And Patrick, now you have me excited to see Tiger Woods play in the Masters. So I hope that this happens for all of our sakes.

Patrick Snell, thank you very much.

And we'll be right back.

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[19:52:33]

ACOSTA: Today, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy described the violence in his country as genocide, adding quote: "This is happening in the Europe of the 21st Century. This is the torture of the whole nation." One of his advisers had this to say quote: "This is a special appeal aimed at drawing the world's attention to those war crimes, crimes against humanity which were committed by Russian troops."

That adviser went on to say quote: "These are liberated cities, a picture from horror movies, a post-apocalyptic picture," end quote.

And we want to warn you that these pictures that we're showing you are painful and incredibly graphic. That adviser I was just talking about added, quote: "Victims of these war crimes have already been found including raped women, who the Russians tried to burn; local government officials killed, children killed, elderly people killed, men killed, many of them with tied hands; traces of torture and shot in the back of the head. Robberies, attempts to take gold, valuables, carpets, washing machines. There have been denials from Russia, but Western leaders are calling for war crimes investigations. That's because our eyes can see through their lies."

Recently, we have tried to end this program with a measure of hope, perhaps a child singing or a band playing in a public square in Ukraine, but not tonight.

Tonight, we leave you with more of these excruciating, but necessary reminders of the evil taking place in Ukraine, not because history can repeat itself, but because history is repeating itself.

I'm reminded of the great Edward R. Murrow decades ago as he was reporting on the genocide at the Buchenwald Camp in Nazi, Germany. He said this, quote: "I pray to believe what I have said. I reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it, I have no words. And if I've offended you, by this rather mild account, I'm not in the least sorry."

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[19:55:02]

ACOSTA: Let those images sink in. That's the news.

Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. See you back here next Saturday.

Pamela Brown takes over the CNN NEWSROOM, live after a quick break.

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