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Horrific Scenes Emerge In Borodianka After Russians Retreat; Mariupol Remains Under Siege As Civilians Try To Evacuate; More Than 80 Ukrainians Freed In Exchange With Russia; U.S. To Announce New Sanctions Against Russia Wednesday; Atrocities Spur Fifth Round Of E.U. Sanctions Against Russia; U.N.: Russia Repeats Claim That Bucha Images Are Fake. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired April 06, 2022 - 00:00 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: Hello, I'm John Vause live in Lviv, Ukraine. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Thank you for joining us for our breaking news coverage of Russia's brutal military offensive now in to day 42.
We begin with signs that Russia's war on Ukraine entering a new phase, giving little hope that it will end anytime soon. NATO expects Russia to launch a new offensive in Southern and Eastern Ukraine likely in a matter of weeks. But we're already seeing evidence of those new tactics.
Leaders in the Kharkiv region right next to Russia's border say more than 50 Russian strikes have hit that area in the past 24 hours alone. That's about two strikes every hour. Ukrainian officials say at least six people have been killed in those attacks.
And to the South, Mykolayiv, local officials say Russian troops shelled a children's hospital on Monday. Security footage appears to show the moment the strike hit, an ambulance parked outside. A team from Doctors Without Borders was on site at a nearby hospital confirmed strikes there as well as at the children's hospital.
Meantime, America's top ranking military officers warning that Russia's war in Ukraine could be the first sign of similar conflicts to come.
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GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We are entering a world that is becoming more unstable, and the potential for significant international conflict between great powers is increasing, not decreasing.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Ukraine's president is demanding the United Nations do more to end Russia's invasion, questioning the Security Council's very mandate. Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed the U.N. a graphic video documenting the death and destruction in cities across his country. He described the atrocities against civilians he saw during his visit to Bucha, calling Russia's actions no different than those other terror group.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They killed entire families, adults and children and they tried to burn the bodies. Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs, slashed their throats, women were raped and killed in front of their children. Their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: President Zelenskyy says Borodianka is another Ukrainian town where Russia's brutality against civilians is coming to light now that Putin's troops have retreated.
Borodianka is near the town of Bucha. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has a firsthand look at the carnage and the widespread destruction there.
And a warning, some of the images and the details in his report are graphic and disturbing.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine, few places have suffered more than Borodianka, occupied by Vladimir Putin's troops since late February recently taken back by Ukraine's army.
Borodianka was held by the Russians for a very long time and just to give you an idea about the scale of the destruction, you have houses like these that were completely destroyed, but if we look over here, you can see that even large residential buildings have been flattened. This entire building was flattened, it was connected with this one before but now, there's absolutely nothing left of it.
And the Russians made sure to show they owned this town painting the letter V on occupied buildings even de-facing Borodianka's city administration. V is the letter the Russians used to help identify their forces that invaded this part of Ukraine.
Oksana Kostichenko (PH) and her husband just returned here and found Russian soldiers had been staying in their house. She says they ransack the place.
Alcohol is everywhere, she says, empty bottles in the hallway under things, they smoked a lot, put out cigarettes on the table. They also showed us the corpse of a man they found in their backyard.
His hands and feet tied, severe bruises on his body, a shell casings still nearby.
Russia claims its forces don't target civilians, calling reports of atrocities fake and provocations. But these body collectors are the ones who have to remove the carnage Russia's military leaves in its wake.
In a span of less than an hour, they found a person gunned down while riding a bicycle. A body burned beyond recognition. And the man still stuck in his car gunned down with bullet holes in his head and chest. He was believed to be transporting medical supplies now strewn near this road.
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PLEITGEN: The most awful thing is those are not soldiers laying there, just people, innocent people Ghenadi (PH) says. For no reason? I asked. Yes, for no reason, killed and tortured for no reason, he says.
The road from Kyiv to Borodianka is lined with villages heavily damaged after Russia's occupation. Destroyed tanks and armored vehicles left behind, but also, indications of just how much firepower they unleashed on this area.
The Russians say this is a special operation, not a war, and that they don't harm civilians, but look how much ammunition they left behind simply in this one single firing position here. This is ammunition for heavy weapons with devastating effects on civilian areas.
That devastation cuts through the towns and villages North of Kyiv, where the number of dead continues to rise. Now, that Vladimir Putin his armies have withdrawn, Ukraine's leaders still believe many more bodies could be buried beneath the rubble.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Borodianka, Ukraine
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VAUSE: And to the South, of siege city Mariupol still a hotbed for heavy fighting and airstrikes. Now, a civilian ship is reportedly on fire and sinking in Mariupol's port, that's according to Ukraine's interior ministry, which says the ship was under a Dominican Republic flag when it was hit by shelling.
Weeks of intense fighting have decimated the city. Drone footage taken Tuesday shows Mariupol residents waiting in long lines to receive humanitarian aid from the people who have done this to their town, the Russians.
The mayor says more than 100,000 people are still trapped inside that city, most without running water, food, medicine, or electricity.
Maxim Borodin is an elected official with Mariupol city council. He joins me now from somewhere in Western Ukraine. Sir, thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
I want to start with these reports. What do you know about hundreds, possibly thousands of Ukrainian women and children being forced onto buses, and taking the so-called filtration camps inside Russia? What do you know?
MAXIM BORODIN, MARIUPOL, UKRAINE CITY COUNCIL DEPUTY: Hello, I know that people in Mariupol now don't have a choice where to go. And if they have a chance to go out from the Mariupol in any side, they choose to go out because they don't have electricity, they don't have heat, they don't have eat -- food, they don't have water. So, there are no choice for them.
And Russians don't let to get Ukrainian humanitarian to the Mariupol for about one month, they only shows that they're side are helping to the people. But the thousands of tons of humanitarian help medicine, food, water, they don't allow it to the Mariupol. And I think they don't want to show the real situation to do the Ukrainian government, to the local government in Mariupol because of their atrocities.
VAUSE: We know that the city remains under siege by Russian forces. But after everything that we've seen in Bucha and beyond, there must be real concern now for the fate of residents, and what they have endured at the hands of Russian soldiers.
So, what do you know at this point? What are you hearing from residents? What have they said to you about what's been happening in those areas which are controlled by the Russian troops?
BORODIN: In Mariupol today is catastrophic. And Russian is a country of lying, because you see they show in their T.V., in their media that Russians don't strike on civil buildings. But look to the Mariupol.
Mariupol buildings is about 90 persons totally destroyed. And they show the Mariupol buildings destroyed and say they don't use airstrikes on the buildings. They're lying in their online media.
So, it's -- we can't trust Russians in anything because they kill people, but they say they don't kill people.
VAUSE: We've also seen the International Committee for the Red Cross repeatedly try and gain access to Mariupol, not just to deliver humanitarian aid but to get civilians out as well, they've been denied access.
So, when we look at people receiving humanitarian aid, they're receiving that aid from the Russians, the very same people who have done this destruction to their town.
BORODIN: But we've seen main of the aid is Ukrainian aid, which they are stolen from Ukrainian humanitarian convoy. And another thing, Russians lost today's (PH) are claiming in their -- in their media news that Ukrainian military are striking on the humanitarian corridor, but the Russian controls over all around the Mariupol about 300 of kilometers. There are no Ukrainian military near the humanitarian corridor and Russians still say that Ukrainians military don't allow to get humanitarian convoy and humanitarian help.
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BORODIN: So, they're lying directly to all the world.
VAUSE: Well, it makes no sense to assume that the Ukrainians will be firing on those humanitarian corridors at all. So, clearly, it is the Russians who are doing it.
The mayor of Mariupol says the city is now on the edge of humanitarian disaster for more than a month now, no food, no running water, no electricity, it is hard to imagine how life there could get much worse.
BORODIN: I don't have words to describe the situation. A lot of people die, and not about of the shelling or the bombing. But about they're starving, or about they don't have a dehydration, they don't have any water.
And if Russians really care about the people, for first, they don't start this bloody war. And for second, if even they started, they let the Ukrainian side to go into the city and to kill the people and to get to help get out most of the people. They only need the picture that they're liberators. They don't care for us, for the people. It's inhuman.
VAUSE: It is inhuman, and it is obvious what is happening. And Maxim Borodin, a member of the city councilor in Mariupol, thank you very much, sir, for being with us. We appreciate your time and stay safe.
Well, a group of Ukrainian POWs returned home recently as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia. CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour spoke with several of them about their treatment in Russian captivity. She has more now in this exclusive report.
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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Back home and free, these former Ukrainian prisoners of war, once held by Russian forces are greeted by friends and colleagues in Kyiv.
Freedom for now is the drag of a cigarette, walking on home turf, even if that means using crutches.
Bags of food are handed out to the more than 80 former Ukrainian POWs released in a prisoner exchange with Russia. It's a welcome meal and a moment to decompress and reflect on what many here say was the physical and mental abuse they endured in Russian custody.
One POW named Gleb says he was captured nearly a month ago while evacuating civilians. He was beaten by Russian soldiers.
GLEB, FORMER POW (through translator): They hit me in the face with machine gun butts and kicked me. My front teeth were also chipped. AMANPOUR: Anya and Dasha were in the same unit. It was shelled by Russian troops, who they say tried to break them, making them shout glory to Russia. And they shaved their heads, telling them that it was for hygiene purposes.
ANYA, FORMER POW (through translator): Maybe they were trying to break our spirit in some way.
DASHA, FORMER POW (through translator): It was a shock. But then, we're strong girls, you know?
AMANPOUR: Dmytro says he was taken by Russian soldiers in Mariupol and suffered daily beatings during his captivity.
DMYTRO, FORMER POW (through translator): They would beat us five to six times a day for nothing. They would just take us into the hallway and beat us up.
AMANPOUR: It's an ordeal, and it will take time to heal, both mentally and physically, though many say they want to go back to their units and continue fighting.
But, before that, Gleb shows us a slip of paper with what he says are the phone numbers of loved ones of prisoners still held captive by the Russians. He says he will tell the families they're still alive and not to give up hope.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Kyiv.
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VAUSE: We'll take a short break, but still ahead this hour, Russia's brazen denial of the Kremlin is explaining the horrific scenes from Bucha as well as other cities across Ukraine.
Then, why a new round of eminent sanctions could hit very close to home for the Putin family. More on that in a moment.
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VAUSE: 18 minutes past the hour. We have this just into CNN, India's U.N. representative has condemned the killings in Bucha, Ukraine and call for an open investigation. India has been reluctant to speak out against the invasion of Ukraine by its longtime ally, Russia.
So far, it has called for an anti-violence and diplomacy and dialogue. But this is significant. This is a significant move by New Delhi in condemning in what's happened in Bucha.
Well, images of those atrocities committed across Ukraine escalating efforts now to punish Russia. A Biden administration official says the U.S. will impose new sanctions in the coming day. This sweeping package expected to bend new investments in Russia, target financial institutions as well. The U.S. also targeting criminal officials and their families.
Meantime, the European Commission is pushing for another round of sanctions on Moscow, the fifth round of sanctions, this time proposing everything from a ban on Russian coal, as well as other raw materials to prohibiting transactions with major Russian banks.
In a moment, we'll hear from CNN's Nic Robertson about the rest of those new E.U. sanctions. But we'll hear first from Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): On Wednesday, the White House will announce a new sanctions package on Russia after those horrifying images emerged from Bucha and other places in Ukraine of these atrocities committed by Russia.
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COLLINS: And we are told that this new package will be done in conjunction with the European Union and G7 allies for the United States. But for the United States' part, this is going to include a ban on all new investments in Russia, a tightening of the sanctions that are already in place on these Russian financial institutions and state owned enterprises, and also more sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members.
And that latter part has raised some concerns about whether or not some questions about whether or not that would also include two of Putin's daughters who the European Union has discussed sanctioning. And, of course, people have asked the White House whether or not that is something that they are also considering doing. But the White House has not yet disclosed that.
We should note that as the White House is continuing to tighten the screws, apply more sanctions and more pressure on Russia, Putin has continued with this brutal assault.
And according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who was testifying on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, he warned that this invasion, this protracted battle could go on for potentially years.
That comes after the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had said he believed this next phase where Russia is repositioning its forces around Ukraine after not achieving their initial objectives could take months and now Chairman Milley saying this is something that could last for years as he talked about the increased instability across the globe, of course, all caused by Russia's invasion.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (on camera): With the atrocities in Bucha spurring, the European Union to trigger a fifth round of sanctions against Russia, banning the import of Russian coal. That's worth $4.3 billion a year to Russia.
But to give an idea of that, compared to all the energy imports from Russia, coal, oil and gas, since the beginning of the war, about 40 days ago, that cost has already exceeded $21 billion.
So, coal a relatively small fraction of Europe's energy imports from Russia. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president saying that this new round of sanctions would bite harder into the Russian economy.
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: The four packages of sanctions have hit hard and limited the Kremlin's political and economic options. We're seeing tangible results.
But clearly, in view of events, we need to increase our pressure further.
So, today, we are proposing to take our sanctions a step further. We will make them broader and sharper, so that they cut even deeper into the Russian economy.
ROBERTSON: She also said that sanctions would target for key Russian banks, including the VTB Bank, Russia's second largest. She also said that they would target $10.9 billion worth of exports to Russia, including high tech items like quantum computers, and rare semiconductors.
She also said that they would target Russia's shipping that Russian vessels and Russian operated vessels wouldn't be able to use European Union ports. This is Europe's effort to ramp up the economic pain on Russia.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Brussels.
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VAUSE: And the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner says the horrific images from Bucha, Ukraine show all the signs that civilians were directly targeted and killed. The Ukrainian army was out on the streets Tuesday collecting discarded weapons and unexploded ordnance. Many of the bodies have already been taken away now that Russian forces have withdrawn.
The senior U.S. diplomat says the images of mass graves and body bags reinforced the need for countries around the world to hold those responsible accountable.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: What we've seen in Bucha is not the random act of a rogue unit. It's a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov calls the videos from Bucha artificial, meant to derail peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. But he failed to mention satellite images that helped prove the atrocities are real.
A warning, our report now from Matthew Chance contains graphic content yet again.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): If you think Russian soldiers are human, he says, just look at this. The sharp words of a Ukrainian driver recording these appalling scenes on the road into Bucha.
But what took place here is beyond words, beyond outrage.
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CHANCE: Ukrainian officials say the bodies being retrieved are civilians killed by Russian forces in the town. Some with their hands tied behind their backs before being shot dead, evidence of war crimes. The charge the Kremlin and its propaganda machine is categorically denying.
This is how one of the top anchors on Russian state television explained the massacre.
It must have been the work of British specialists, he says, because the town of Bucha and the English word butcher sounds so similar.
Maybe it is a joke, but no one is laughing.
Certainly not the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, who has dubbed the killings a well-staged tragic show and a forgery to try to denigrate the Russian army.
A huge amount of data, he told journalists clearly indicates this is faked, staged, say Russian officials after their troops had left.
But satellite images of Bucha first published by The New York Times show bodies had been strewn across the streets there for weeks, at least from March the 18th when the town was under Russian control, photographic evidence that contradicts the Kremlin's claims.
It's also raising concerns that more killings will be unearth as Russian forces withdraw.
Ukrainian president seen here visiting Bucha accusing Russia of trying to hide the traces of their crimes in other parts of Ukraine that remain under Russian control. It makes a peace deal even harder.
Every day we find people in barrels, strangled or tortured in basements, President Zelenskyy says. It's very difficult to negotiate when you see what they have done here, he adds. It is sickening to accept that the sacrifice of these people may have actually push backed the chances of peace in Ukraine, instead of bringing this appalling conflict to an end.
Matthew Chance, CNN.
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VAUSE: Still ahead this hour, war stories from some of Ukraine's seriously wounded fighters and civilians of the Russian invasion has changed their lives.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We were given permission to film here, provided we not named the hospital nor the city that we're in. And that's because the Ukrainian authorities fear that that information could lead to the Russian military directly targeting this hospital.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. Thirty-two minutes past the hour here.
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Now, the United Nations reporting nearly 1,500 civilians have been killed, more than 2,100 injured since Russia invaded Ukraine, but there is a general agreement those are drastic underestimates.
CNN's Ivan Watson received permission to speak with some of the more gravely rounded Ukrainians. We cannot tell you where the hospital is for fear it may become a Russian target. And again, this report contains some graphic images.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shattered bodies in the intensive care unit of a Ukrainian hospital. Men and women from the Ukrainian military whose war wounds are so catastrophic they need machines to breathe.
These deeply uncomfortable images a glimpse of the physical toll this conflict is taking on both soldiers and civilians.
(on camera) The general director of the hospital says that after the first couple of days of this new war, at least 30 medical personnel resigned because of just the trauma of seeing these kinds of injuries up close.
(voice-over): A soldier named Yuri (ph) wants to communicate.
(on camera): He can't speak, because he's still on a ventilator. He has regained consciousness after 11 days in a coma. (voice-over): We won't identify him, because doctors say his family
does not yet know of his injuries.
(on camera): He has one child.
(voice-over): "A daughter," he signals, "13 years old."
Writing in my notebook, Yuri (ph) tells me he's been in the military for two years.
(on camera): The doctors say that he has a very good chance of surviving very serious shrapnel injuries to his body.
We were given permission to film here, provided we not name the hospital nor the city that we're in. And that's because the Ukrainian authorities fear that that information could lead to the Russian military directly targeting this hospital.
(voice-over): In every room here, there's a patient whose bones and tissues have been ripped apart by flying metal.
(on camera): Vladimir (ph) is a volunteer. He signed up on the second day of this war in 2022.
(voice-over): This electrician turned volunteer soldier comes from the Russian-speaking city of Kharkiv. Three days ago, a battle left him with two broken arms and wounds to the stomach.
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(on camera): Vladimir (ph) says his sister lives in Russia, and he no longer communicates with her. I asked why? He said that she believes that the Ukrainians are enemies.
This is a family that is split apart by this war and different narratives of who started it.
(voice-over): Vladimir (ph) and the soldier with a fresh amputation lying next to him both insist that only force can stop Russia's war on this country.
Down the hall, I meet a young civilian, also horrifically wounded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WATSON (on camera): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Dima (ph) is 21 years old. Where are you from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mariupol.
WATSON (voice-over): Dima (ph) is a recent university graduate, photographed here with his mother, Natasha.
"My mother died when this happened to me," he says, adding, "I've cried it off already. I'm calmer now." He says on the night of March 9, he and his mother were hiding in the
bathroom of a two-story house in the center of Mariupol, when they heard warplanes overhead, bombing the neighborhoods.
Mother and son were hiding in the bathroom shortly before 1 a.m., he says, when the bomb hit the house.
When he woke up, his legs were gone. He never saw his mother again. During my visit, a friend gives Dima (ph) a phone.
(on camera): This is the first time he's seeing the building where he and his mother were sheltering when they were hit. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) The red car here, that is destroyed in front of the ruined building, was his mother's car.
DIMA (ph), AMPUTEE (through translator): Of course, I get angry. I get sad. I get depressed at times. But I can't lose my cool. Because those who did this to me, they probably want me to sit here crying and weeping.
WATSON: Don't let the silence in these halls fool you. There is deep seething anger in this hospital at the country that launched this unprovoked war on Ukraine.
Ivan Watson, CNN, in Eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A lot more from Ukraine at the top of the hour, but let's hand it back to Rosemary Church. She is live at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
And Rosemary, it is not, you know, a small threat that the Russians could target that hospital. Vladimir Putin used similar tactics, you know, during the siege of Aleppo, targeting medical centers, deliberately targeting medical centers there. And similar seems to be happening here right now in Ukraine.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, I mean, these are tough stories to tell, aren't they? Thank you so much, John. We will see you again at the top of the hour.
And still to come, finding safety and shelter in an office building. Up next, we will hear how one company in Poland opened their doors to Ukrainian refugees. We're back with that in just a moment.
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CHURCH: More than 7.1 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine as they were forced to flee their homes amid Russia's brutal invasion. That's a 10 percent increase since the first survey by the International Organization for Migration three weeks ago.
More than 50 percent of displaced households have children, and 57 percent include elderly family members.
On Tuesday, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said more than 3,800 people were evacuated through humanitarian corridors. And the U.N. reports more than 4.2 million people have now fled Ukraine.
And the neighboring country of Poland has seen more than two million refugees cross its border. Most of them are women and children. They are finding safety in shelters, homes, and for some, even in office buildings.
CNN's Kyung Lah has our report.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This office building in downtown Warsaw is not just real estate. It's refuge.
Ukrainian children play with toys in what used to be a storage room. Strollers sit in corporate hallways. Computer desks are dining room tables.
Two stories of the seven-floor office building are now home to refugees, like 18-month-old Mylana (ph) and her mother.
"We feel safe," she says. "There's no sirens, no horrible sounds."
Two and a half million Ukrainians, nearly all women and children, have crossed into Poland since the start of the war.
(on camera): And you just remove the lights?
ANNA FIJALKOWSKA, CEO, TFG ASSET MANAGEMENT: We remove the lights, and we installed this here.
LAH (voice-over): The country has managed to absorb them in just six weeks, through ingenuity.
FIJALKOWSKA: Like elevators that serves offices, and behind the column, there is an elevator that serves just refugees.
LAH: Anna Fijalkowska is CEO for TFG Asset Management, which owns the building.
Fijalkowska: We have beds and shelves. Whatever is necessary.
LAH: The war started on a Thursday. The company had the space available and pivoted from commerce to crisis.
FIJALKOWSKA: So here we had, like, a smaller reception desk.
LAH: Three days later --
FIJALKOWSKA: None of this existed. It was just a matter of putting an additional installation in piping.
LAH: -- they had the first of nearly 250 women and children move in. FIJALKOWSKA: We have this place. We can do something. Do something for
real people. Right? So we just decided to do it.
LAH: Was that the hard part or the easy part?
FIJALKOWSKA: That was the easiest part, to set it up. The hardest part right now is to make them feel good, solve their problems, the refugees' problems.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- from Ukraine.
LAH (voice-over): Seven year old Margo (ph) lives here with her mother, Oxana Korobka.
[00:45:03]
"This used to be office furniture," she explains. With the addition of a donated bad --
(on camera): Oh, it is. It's really comfortable.
(voice-over): -- this has been home since the start of the war.
Korobka is an accountant. Her husband fights in Dnipro near the Eastern flank.
(on camera): Oh, it's your husband? Please talk to him.
OXANA KOROBKA, REFUGEE: Allo.
LAH (voice-over): They never know when he'll be able to call.
KOROBKA: This is my husband, Max (ph). (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
"I can't comprehend it," says Korobka. "It's as if we're in a 40-day horror movie, and we can't wake up.
One floor above, employees do their best to carry on with their jobs.
GRZEGORZ MROCZEK, CAELUM REAL ESTATE ASSET MANAGEMENT: I do not know anybody who is saying, "I don't care." Everybody cares. Everybody wants to help.
LAH: His employees sending whatever they can downstairs.
MROCZEK: Whatever is needed. Either desks, either vacuum cleaners. We just try to help and supplement to our neighbors.
LAH: But war has meant the days of business as usual are over.
FIJALKOWSKA: We really also learning from them. We see how they are coping with this tragic event, and this tragic situation. And it's really make you feel happy, but also makes you feel that you're doing something good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mama!
LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Warsaw, Poland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Bringing out the best in most people.
And if you would like to help people in Ukraine in need of shelter, food and water, you can go to CNN.com/impact, and you'll find several ways that you can help.
Still to come, Shanghai announces yet another round of citywide testing as the city reports thousands of new COVID cases. But will those in lockdown submit to another mandatory measure? A live report when we return.
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CHURCH: Authorities in Shanghai say the lockdown in the city will continue until further notice amid yet another round of citywide COVID testing.
More than 17,000 new cases were reported in the city on Wednesday, and officials are building makeshift hospitals to hold thousands of newly- infected COVID patients.
CNN's Selina Wang joins me now, live from Tokyo with more on all of this.
Good to see you, Selina. So what is going on in Shanghai? Authorities scrambling to contain this outbreak, despite an extended and draconian lockdown, where apparently few supplies being made available to citizens.
SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are strong feelings of frustration and helplessness in Shanghai right now, Rosemary. The scale of this lockdown is just staggering: 25 million people locked in. This is China's most cosmopolitan, populous city.
And many have been struggling to get daily essentials, urgent medical care. And now, they're being told that this citywide lockdown is going to continue indefinitely.
But signs of dissent on social media are being swiftly censored in China. Most of the social media videos shown in our story were swiftly erased from China's Internet shortly after posting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WANG (voice-over): Anger is reaching a boiling point in Shanghai. Chinese social media showing residents in lockdown protesting, chanting, "We want jobs. We want freedom." Hundreds in one Shanghai neighborhood broke out of confinement,
pleading for affordable food. This resident confronts the police, yelling, "Why are we being starved?"
Residents of another neighborhood crowded at the gate inside their compound, asking, "Why not put us all in prison? We've been locked in for 26 days anyway."
Shanghai is now the center of China's worst crisis since the early days of the pandemic. Most of the city's 25 million residents are under strict lockdown, with no clear end in sight. Residents aren't even allowed to briefly step outside.
CNN filmed this man walking in his apartment compound. He was immediately escorted back home.
Social media shows children, even infants, separated from their families at a Shanghai hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. Isolated alone, crying.
CNN cannot independently verify the images but spoke to a mother who is separated from her two-year-old daughter.
The hospital later said in a statement that it was moving its pediatric ward to make more room for COVID patients.
CNN spoke to the daughter of this man, who has late-stage stomach cancer. He's supposed to be hospitalized for chemotherapy but isn't allowed to leave his apartment. He presses his chest in pain.
In another heartbreaking case shared online, a woman is screaming in desperation for the paramedic to help an asthma patient. "His heart has stopped," she said, pleading to borrow the ambulance's defibrillator. But the paramedics refused to help.
Soon after, the patient died.
Since confirming its first Omicron case in mid-December, mainland China's average new daily case count has surged, from double digits to more than 9,000. There are more than 110,000 active cases and counting.
But across China, every single case is required to stay at a hospital or quarantine center. Like this makeshift one in locked down northeastern Jilin province.
This patient describes the unsanitary conditions. He says, "There is nothing here. No masks. No medical alcohol. No disinfection. Look at the garbage, the toilets."
And social media shows this chaotic scene outside a makeshift hospital in Shanghai. CNN spoke to a woman who was there. Patients battling for limited blankets and food. No medical staff in sight as medical resources in the city are stretched to the limit.
[00:55:17] The outbreak in China's financial hub is a grim setback for China's economic recovery. To keep operations running, some businesses are quarantining their employees at the office. This video diary shows 75 office workers locked down in 3,000 square feet of space.
The worker said they lived in the office for 12 days earlier in March.
Shanghai, China's bustling cosmopolitan city, now a ghost town.
While most of the world is learning to live with COVID, entire cities and provinces in China are grinding to a halt. But for how long and at what cost?
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CHURCH: Extraordinary report there. Selina Wang, many thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
And be sure to stay tuned to CNN next hour when I'll speak with a journalist under lockdown in Shanghai who says conditions are going from bad to worse.
And thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. I'll be back later next hour. And our breaking news coverage continues with John Vause, live in Lviv, Ukraine, next.
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