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Zelenskyy Asks UN Security Council To Hold Russia Accountable And Provide Guarantees To Ukraine; Red Cross Team Released After Being Detained In Russia-Held Area. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 05, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:04]

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And this is just another one of these dwindling Republican voices that are leaving the party who aren't necessarily happy with the direction the party is heading in and it just goes to show what type of Republican caucus we could see should they regain the majority after the midterm elections -- Victor and Alisyn.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Ryan Nobles on Capitol Hill -- Ryan, thank you.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLACKWELL: Top of the brand new hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Victor Blackwell.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy addressed the United Nations Security Council today. He laid out the brutalities the Russian forces are inflicting on the Ukrainian people. We want to warn you, these images that you're about to see are very graphic, they're disturbing. And Zelenskyy played a video similar to these.

He talked about the Ukrainians killed. Some of them he said are toddlers. Some civilians had their hands tied behind their back. Their bodies were left on the street of Ukrainian cities. He compared to acts by the terror group, ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in middle of the road just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs, cut their throat, slashed their throats, women were raped and killed in front of their children. They were -- their tongues were pulled out only because they did not hear what they wanted to hear from them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: President Zelenskyy also said the world has yet to see what Vladimir Putin's soldiers have done in other parts of Ukraine. BLACKWELL: New footage of the village of Borodianka shows destruction

everywhere. Zelenskyy said there's already information that the number of dead is even higher in that village. He urged the international community bring the Russian military and its leaders to justice immediately.

A Human Rights Watch investigator was in Bucha on Monday chronicling the carnage there. NATO also says that it's gathering evidence. The U.S. is announcing its support for multinational team as collecting proof for a future war crimes prosecution.

The U.N. says Putin's war has forced 11.3 million people from their homes. That's one in every four Ukrainians; 4.2 million have left the country and are now refugees.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Jake Tapper is in the western city of Lviv for us.

Jake, it's good to have you there, to know what's happening on the ground. Ukraine's president compared Russia's mass killings in Bucha as we just said, to the terror acts of ISIS. But he pointed out that unlike ISIS, Russia has a seat on the U.N. Security Council.

So, now what?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Well, I think, right now, this crisis, this unprovoked war by Putin on the people of Ukraine is prompting, in many ways, some existential questions about NATO and about the United Nations Security Council. I mean, President Zelenskyy was accurate in saying this is a Security Council. Where is security? I mean, here we have a sovereign nation, a member of the U.N. Security Council.

We should note that that happened when it was the Soviet Union and Russia inherited that. There's an argument to be made that Russia had no right to be at that table, as USSR did. But beyond that, there's an existential question that what the U.N. for, what is the U.N. Security Council for if they are not able to take any serious steps to stop what is going on here. And, in fact, one of its own members is the one -- the party that is inflicting these crimes and these attacks on innocent civilians.

BLACKWELL: Jake, I don't want to rush by these numbers because they are staggering from the U.N. -- 11.3 million people forced to find somewhere else to live, 4.2 million forced to leave the country. They are now refugees.

It really is hard to wrap your mind around these numbers.

TAPPER: It is. Although here in Lviv, I mean, the entire city is full of, you refer to these 11 million internally displaced Ukrainian refugees, refugees in their own country. We went out today and you can't go anywhere without meeting these people. People who have fled their homes in the east, fled their homes in the capital, in the capital of Kyiv and so many of the Ukrainian people are hoping their homes and businesses to provide shelter for these individuals, for these families. Remember, most of them are women and children. We went to a local soccer club, the Glecian (ph) Lions, the owner has

opened his offices. It is now a makeshift shelter for some of these refugees and we met a couple of refugee families there.

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Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And where is your husband?

TRANSLATOR: He is serving the Ukrainian military.

TAPPER: Has he always been the military or did he just join?

TRANSLATOR: He wasn't in the military before.

TAPPER: How are you doing?

TRANSLATOR: Good, fine.

TAPPER: How is the journey?

TRANSLATOR: It was very long, but I'm very happy now that we're in safe place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, that was one of two families that we met in the offices of the Glecian Lions (ph). Both women and their two children each, six people traveling total, four of them children, had to leave their husbands behind back east on the Donetsk region of the country. These kid, that was 11-year-old, Yigor, I met him and the three other kids. They have to comfort their little siblings. They have to reassure, I was talking to a 9-year-old girl, talking about how she tried to comfort her 3-year-old sister. How he had to comfort his 4-year-old sister, telling them that things are going to be better.

But the truth is, Victor, the truth is, Alisyn, nobody knows that things are going to get better.

CAMEROTA: Yeah. And this is not what children should have to deal with. These kids, when you talk to them, Jake, are so stoic and yet I'm seeing just unthinkable things.

Jake Tapper, it's great to have you there. Thank you very much for sharing your reporting.

BLACKWELL: Let's turn now to CNN's Ivan Watson in Ukraine. He's in Zaporizhzhia.

Ivan, tell us about the -- we understand the fighting in the southeastern part of the country. What do you know?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, as the Russians have withdrawn from the north of the country, north of the capital Kyiv, the fighting still continues in the northeast, the east, the south. The country's second largest city, Kharkiv, which is very close to the Russian border, has been pummeled. The military governor of that city saying there's been 54 long range strikes on that city in the last 24 hours and they killed six people and wounded a number of additional people.

We have images from another town to the southeast of there, called Kramatorsk, it's in the far east of a school that was hit by purported Russian strike. Just to give you a sense of the kind of buildings that are being hit by air strikes and by long range strikes as well. In the south, along the coast, you have a town called Mykolaiv, which is in Ukrainian hands, and there the organization Doctors Without Borders, they had a team visiting the city's oncology hospital and they witnessed what they said could have been a Russian strike with cluster bombs that hit the oncology hospital and the nearby pediatric hospital.

So, Doctors Without Borders put out a statement saying, quote, In the past two days, three hospital in Mykolaiv have been hit by strikes. This fit a much larger pattern where the United Nations says that there have been at least 85 attacks on health care facilities recorded since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Of course, the Russian government consistently denies that it is targeting civilian infrastructure, things like hospitals, though the evidence of these types of airstrikes is just overwhelming right now.

Finally, there's another city to the southeast here, this port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, that's been encircled in the modern day siege, led by the Russian military, for the better part of a month now. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been trying to get there for days to help facilitate the evacuation of some of the 100,000-plus civilians believed to be stranded there in ongoing fighting. The ICRC team was actually arrested by the Russian military on Sunday overnight and was released on Monday, the ICRC says.

They are still trying to reach that city, also to deliver humanitarian aid. The Russian defense ministry last week said it was going to try to help do that but that is not translating to the forces on the ground so the people inside Mariupol, the stricken civilians there, still trapped, still not getting assistance.

[15:10:03]

And international aid organizations like the Red Cross are not basic allowed by the Russian military to help.

Back to you.

BLACKWELL: Unbelievable. Most of the buildings there destroyed and people -- thousands of them trapped.

Ivan Watson for us in Zaporizhzhia, thank you.

CAMEROTA: We're joined now by Ukrainian parliament member Alex Goncharenko. Alex, thank you so much for being here. We're hearing about the horrors in all these different cities from Bucha to Mykolaiv, as our correspondent just reported. You're tweeting today about what's happening in Mariupol. You say that Ukrainians who've managed to evacuate Mariupol say the Bucha massacre is only part of the Kremlin atrocities. When the world sees Mariupol, you won't have enough tears.

Do you know what that means?

ALEX GONCHARENKO, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENTARY MEMBER: Unfortunately, yes. I understand what they're speaking about, because I've been personally to Bucha, been to Hostomel and all this area, I understand what Russians died there during one month of occupation.

But Mariupol is now one month in siege, and there in Mariupol, where the start of invasion, half million people, half million. So, it's much bigger number than it was. We know Russians just completely destroyed the city, half million population city is destroyed. So, there the number of victims is counting in thousands.

So, yes, unfortunately, I'm just scared to think what's happening in Mariupol where these people are without water, electricity, food supply for one month.

CAMEROTA: Alex, why are the Russians lying about this? Why are they claiming they didn't do this? Why are they claiming these weren't civilians? Are they ashamed of what the soldiers did?

GONCHARENKO: Oh, they understand they will need to pay for this and they understand the whole world is watching it and they tried to make some false stories to call it fake and so on. Like Russians, you remember, like they lie for one year that they were not preparing an attack against Ukraine. When American administration was saying they are preparing, they said, no, no, we're just military training. But now, we all know what it's worth and American intelligence was completely right.

And, by the way, I want to remind you that at that time American intelligence said Russians are preparing the campaign of terror against Ukrainian activists. Now we see just against everybody who are Ukrainians and who believe in their country. So, this is real genocide and certainly, they want to hide this genocide with the words that they're trying to do in United Nations and elsewhere.

Russian propaganda is a big machine. They're looking for internal Russian people, but also to try to make concerns externally. But definitely, all of this is a lie and that is what Putin is doing all the time.

CAMEROTA: You, as well as other Ukrainian officials, as well as so many other Ukrainian civilians have had to become part of the army and fight for your country. So, intel says that Russia is now consolidating its forces in the southern and eastern part of Ukraine.

Is the Ukrainian army prepared for that? Are you moving your resources and manpower and weapons there as well? GONCHARENKO: I just want to remind you that at the beginning of this

invasion, the world has given Ukraine, two, three, four days but we will fail under Russian attack. But as you see, the second month, we have not failed. We are liberating our territories like in Kyiv.

We won the battle of Kyiv. Our army knows what to do. We are prepared and we will fight. We're not only holding the ground but we are ready to counter attack them. The only thing we need, just give us instrument and we will finish the work like Churchill said.

Please help us with weapons, first of all, air defense, aircrafts, and we will do all the work because we can do this, because this is our land. And we are not going to give up.

CAMEROTA: I mean, obviously, I don't want you to reveal that would put you in jeopardy but where are you getting your marching orders?

GONCHARENKO: Sorry? Can you repeat your question?

CAMEROTA: Where are you taking your marching orders from since you're part of this civilian army, where -- how is it being organized?

GONCHARENKO: It is organized like everywhere in the country. More than 100,000 people joined. It's a territorial base.

[15:15:00]

In some areas of Ukraine, this is a territorial army, civilian militia, just helping the army, some assistant missions.

And me personally, I was taking part in a recreation missions, and just assistant mission. I was not on the battlefield. But in some parts of the country where Russian army is taking the cities, territorial defense is fighting against Russians. I can tell you that thousands of Ukrainians are fighting with Russians, even not members of territorial defense. I met such people in south in Ukraine, north in Ukraine, eastern Ukraine, which just like hunters, just local farmers, who are fighting in their villages or near towns against occupants.

CAMEROTA: Yes, the bravery that we've seen of regular Ukrainians has been inspiring and jaw-dropping for us.

Alex Goncharenko, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us.

GONCHARENKO: Thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Well, America's top general says Russia's war on Ukraine is the greatest thing to Europe and the world in decades. We have an update on Russia's latest moves. That's next.

CAMEROTA: And former President Barack Obama was back at the White House podium today, alongside President Biden to mark the anniversary of Obamacare. What he says about the upcoming midterms. That's ahead.

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[15:21:01]

BLACKWELL: There's a dire warning today from America's top general. He told Congress Russia's war in Ukraine is the biggest threat he's seen in his entire military career.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We are witness to the greatest threat to peace and security of Europe and perhaps the world in my 42 years of service in uniform. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to undermine not only European peace and stability but global peace and security that my parents and a generation of Americans fought so hard to defend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: General Milley told lawmakers that he supports rotating U.S. forces through permanent bases in Eastern Europe to protect Europe from any further Russian aggression.

Let's bring in retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson.

General, good to have you. Let's start here with the potential for these permanent basis, a long term commitment. Where could they go?

BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, thank you, Victor.

I could not agree more with General Milley that we have the greatest threat to peace and security of our lifetime. And NATO and the United States need to step up in a big way. I completely agree with General Milley that it's time to really up the ante in Europe.

Right now, of course, we got NATO forces in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. And the secretary general just recently added additional combat power in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

But we need to remind ourselves as Americans that it wasn't too long ago that we had a million people, servicemen and women and families in Germany. And we're down to about 100,000 now. We used to have 5,000 tanks prepositioned at storage locations in Germany. They're gone now.

I mean, we need to change that dynamic. We need to return back maybe not so much to the days, the peak of the Soviet era, but certainly enough where we can quickly reinforce NATO forces and we need to provide a credible threat, a credible deterrent capability by prepositioning significant amount of equipment in NATO.

BLACKWELL: So, let's talk about the equipment. The Ukrainian MP who just spoke with Alisyn said, give us the weapons, give us the tools, we will do the job. We know the pentagon has ordered more drones, the switchblade drones that actually different generation of the drones that were promised back in March. What do we need to know about these?

ANDERSON: Well, the reason the Ukrainians are doing so well are three things.

Number one, the will of Ukrainian people. They are winning that war.

The second is the war of logistics. They're winning the war of logistics. We have seen how terribly the Russians have performed and how brilliantly the Ukrainians have performed.

But the third element is technology. The Ukrainians are leveraging technology. They're using drones in an incredible way. This is one manifestation of that, this drone, the switchblade drone.

Now, the first iteration was the 300. This is -- that's a small tube- launched munition. That's not really that significant and anything other than anti-personnel targets.

This is tank killer. This is the kind of technology that we need to get out there. Now, teh Ukrainians are doing, being incredibly innovative, they essentially skunk works on drones that are happening day by day.

They have a real world laboratory. They have 50 teams. They have placed people that formerly model airplane enthusiasts and put them together into 50 teams. They are launching 300 missions a day and they are doing most of their activity at night.

They have taken out 2,300 mechanized vehicles. They are using the drones to provide situational awareness for their artillery and for the Javelins.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

ANDERSON: It's been an incredible conflict multiplier. We need more of these in their hands.

[15:25:02]

BLACKWELL: General, are the Ukrainian forces prepared for the next phase of this war in which Russian forces will encircle the eastern part of the country. I think they are. But we need to keep doing what we're doing now.

ANDERSON: As we know, right now, there's a huge counter offensive going on.

The Russians are trying to do a withdrawal under fire, a very difficult maneuver, even the best armies can't do it. It is really turning probably into a rout. And why this is so important is because all the equipment, all the personnel that are out there right now, the Ukrainians need to strike now. They need to counterattack now and capture as much of that equipment as they possibly can.

They've already captured 150 tanks. And what they do, and when they get that equipment, they can capture and destroy it. Number one, it's not going to be able to come back and hunt them when the Russians move back around here.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Now, this is going to be a real operation probably. This is 800 miles. This is a distance from Chicago to New York City. This is going to take at least three weeks. We have a little bit of time. But they need to continue their counteroffensive north of Kyiv. They need to grab these assets and they need to redeploy back into this area, because we know that they eventually want to try to take this area right in here.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Now, I would tell you, this is tank terrain. Unlike the area around Kyiv, this is high mobility, open terrain tank. So, that's why NATO needs to push those two T72 tanks, the artillery, the helicopters, all the things that Ukrainians can do so they can maneuver operations, because that's what this phase of the war is going to be, a maneuver war.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, and we know from the secretary general of NATO, he says that this is the decisive stage of this war.

Retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson -- thank you, General.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, we just saw White House reunion of sorts. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were together marking the 12-year anniversary basically of the Affordable Care Act. Former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod is going to join us next with his thoughts 12 years later.

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