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Horrific Scenes Emerge in Borodianka After Russians Retreat; EU will Place Further Sanctions on Russia; Deutsche Bank Forecasts U.S. Recession Next Year; U.N.: More than 4.2 Million People have Fled Ukraine; Southeastern U.S. Hit by Multiple Tornadoes; Tiger Woods Returns to Golf After Horrific Car Wreck. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired April 06, 2022 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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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
PLEITGEN: 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 had houses like these that were completely destroyed. But if we look over here, you can see 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.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And the Russians made sure to show they owned this town, painting the letter "V" on occupied buildings, even defacing Borodianka's city administration. V is the letter the Russians used to help identify their forces that invaded this part of Ukraine.
Oxana Kuchenchenko (ph) and her husband just returned here and found Russian soldiers had been staying in their house. She says they ransacked 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 corps of a man they found in their backyard. His hands and feet tied. Severe bruises on his body. A shell casing 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 a 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.
The most awful thing is those are not soldiers laying there. Just people. Innocent people, Gennady (ph) says. For no reason, I ask. 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 fire power they unleashed on this area.
PLEITGEN: 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.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): That devastation cuts through the towns and villages north of Kyiv where the number of dead continues to rise. Now that Vladimir Putin's 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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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Those disturbing images of death and destruction that Fred just showed us there in Ukraine are escalating efforts from the West to hurt the Russian economy. The U.S. is expected to impose new sanctions on Russia today. The European Union is pushing for a fifth sanctions package against Moscow. Clare Sebastian is here. We've just had some information from Brussels, haven't we?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're just hearing from Ursula von der Leyen, The European Commission chief this morning. She saying that they are going to continue to increase the pressure on President Putin and that will likely, she said, include further sanctions on gas and oil. So, that really is where the crux of the situation lies, Max. They've said they're going to ban Russian coal. That is a relatively small part of the energy. They say that's going target about 4 billion in revenues -- $4 billion in revenues from Russia. Bear in mind, last year from energy is a whole, Russia made well over $100 billion.
FOSTER: But crucially the hard currency they need to keep up their debts, is that correct?
SEBASTIAN: Yes.
FOSTER: Dollars.
SEBASTIAN: Used to pay down their debts to finance the war, the war that is being targeted. And now they're saying they're going to escalate that further and go to oil and gas, which is where the big money lies. Which is where 45 percent of the Russian budget was financed by energy in 2021. So, this is crucial. And this is a serious escalation of the EU's previous timeline. Previously they had set themselves a deadline of 2027 to wean off Russian energy completely. Now based on the atrocities they're seeing in the towns occupied by Russia, likely that they are accelerating this. They're really stepping this up. And this means that European countries are going to have to commit to putting their citizens through hardships. To higher prices at a time were inflation is already extremely high and potential disruptions.
FOSTER: We heard from NATO Secretary General yesterday talking about how military involvement, a wider military involvement in the war is difficult. This could set up a wider war, but at the same time more economic sanctions are difficult as well for the reasons you just described, can set off a recession, certainly in Germany. We're already seeing the signs of recession in the U.S. which will have an impact on Germany as well.
SEBASTIAN: Right, and we're seeing the global consequence of this. Germany has been warned if there's disruption to Russian gas as they head to the summer. And now just this week we get the first banking institution in the U.S. warning of an imminent recession. Deutsche Bank says that they expect the economy to contract by the end of the last quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.
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And the reason for that, Max, is because inflation is now so high in the U.S. It was at 7.9 percent in February based on the latest data. That's so far off of the Federal Reserve's target of averaging out at 2 percent. They say that the cuts to interest rates and to quantitative ease that the Fed is going to have to make will slow down the economy to such an extent that it will end up contracting. And that's the only way, they say, to bring down inflation.
FOSTER: You know, academics are warning of this early on, weren't they, with sanctions. But now reality is setting in for ordinary people. But sanctions aren't a one-way thing, they affect both sides.
SEBASTIAN: Yes. And this is something that you always have to balance when you look at sanctions. Is can you mitigate the impact on the sanction, and while at the same time putting pressure on the person that you're trying to sort coerce into doing something in this case Russia into stopping this military activity. And it's not possible. It's not possible.
But the reason why we're seeing this gradual increase is, one, so that they have time to sort of plan. And don't forget, we don't know how long the phaseout, for example, of coal is going to be. We think that's probably being discussed today by EU ambassadors. But also, so that you can escalate, you know, have more fire power, more leverage as the conflict continues. It's clear that the sanctions in their sort of raw sense haven't worked yet. Because the conflict continues. So that's why they're doing coal first. It's the smallest of the fossil fuel imports into Europe with the view to escalating into oil and gas.
FOSTER: Clare, thank you.
More than 2 million Ukrainians have fled the country to Poland. From where CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us next with the latest.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Max, we are at a train station on the Poland/Ukraine border. Stay tuned to find out more about the refugee crisis here.
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FOSTER: Across Ukraine Russia's unprovoked war has forced millions to flee their homes. More than 7.1 million people have now been internally displaced.
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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.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us now from a train station in Poland near the Ukrainian border. And the first people to leave Ukraine were people that had places to go, right. They had relatives in nearby countries or other parts of Europe. We're now into the groups of people who actually don't have anywhere to go and just have to get out of the country.
ABDELAZIZ: And more than that, Max. The people who fled initially were fleeing in anticipation of Russia's invasion. Now families are fleeing after being under Russian occupations potentially for weeks in places that were bombarded, in places that were hard struck. And so, the volunteers here know that they need a little bit of extra support.
We've just heard there's another train that arrived from Ukraine just a few moments ago. Those families are being processed now. And I want to show you, Max, how volunteers prepare for their arrival. Again, we're at this train station right at the border. And you can see here the volunteers have lined up all of these little teddy bears for children when they come. They've unpacked the little juice boxes right here. They want to make sure that every child that comes through gets a sense of safety, gets a smile, gets a little juice box and teddy bear if that's what they need.
I'm going to walk further to show you more. Right here is an information point. And this is important because, again, there's concerns about where refugees go next. They're relying on the kindness of strangers. And what polish officials want to do is provide them with a sense of security, let them know the police are here to answer any questions. That there is medics if they need medical attention. That there is a system in place, if you will, once you arrive to make sure that wherever you go next you will have a bit of safety.
But for many of these families, Max, they don't know where they're going to go next. They're crossing this border. Yes, they're in safety but again remember, people of fighting age -- men of fighting age rather, cannot cross. So, that means you're looking mainly at women and children crossing alone. That adds an additional layer of vulnerability and an additional layer of concern. And they get here to this train station and they don't know where they're going to go next. They arrive here and that's when they start making a plan.
So, this is not just a transport hub, it's really a halfway point to offer medical attention, to offer a warm meal and for people to start figuring out what they do next -- Max.
FOSTER: Huge amount of appreciation I'm sure about the support they're being given particularly by countries like Poland. But is there frustration as well that within the country more isn't being done to help them, you know, militarily or, you know, even in terms of just equipment. Because Zelenskyy was obviously, pretty powerful with his words yesterday at the U.N.
ABDELAZIZ: Max, no refugee I have spoken to so far has said, yes, I'm going to be a refugee, I'm going to stick it out here. Every single person has said, I believe I will go back. I want to return to my home. But that requires peace to come back to their country and they feel very strongly. I think the one thing you'll hear over and over again from Ukrainians, is why is the international community not putting in a no-fly zone. Now, President Biden, NATO, has said that's absolutely off the table. But there's a sense especially with these horrific reports of massacres, the images we're seeing from places like Bucha that Ukrainians are, yes, supported when they flee their country but on their own back home.
FOSTER: Salma on the Ukraine/Poland border. Thank you.
The southern U.S. is getting is being it hard this week by deadly storms. Meanwhile, hail and tornadoes and more severe weather could be on the way. We'll have a forecast for you just ahead.
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FOSTER: You're looking at a tornado that hit brain County in the U.S. state of Georgia on Tuesday, just outside of Savannah. At least one person is dead there and officials said that earlier people were trapped in their homes. There were more tornadoes and storms throughout the southeastern U.S. over the past few days. This is damage caused by a tornado in Johnson County, Texas, just outside of Fort Worth. Another man was killed further east near Tyler, Texas. Meteorologist Gene Norman is monitoring all of this destruction for us -- Gene.
GENE NORMAN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Max. When we came to you yesterday at the same time, we were following those storm out of Texas. And we told you they would race across the southeast and that's exactly what happened. You can watch the line of storms -- these red boxes. The over 80 tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service throughout the day on Tuesday and of course typically they go out and do a damage survey after the storms. They kind of confirm the tornado and rate the intensity. However, they won't be able to do that today because more storms are
expected. They may not be able to get to the damage surveys until Thursday. No doubt about this, a tornado for sure. Mary Edwards pulled off the side of her road -- off the side of the highway as she was headed to Savannah and captured this amazing site. She called it humbling. Thankfully it didn't change direction and head back toward her.
Now the tail end of the system will continue to bring some rain across sections of D.C. and up into the northeast. Could be a soggy start to the day there for sure. And we're also tracking some new storms forming along a cold front that's going to make its way across the middle of the country. Already some storms approaching Memphis.
That front will plow into moist humid air and trigger another round of storms. So, let's time it out for you. Again, wet in the morning in the northeast but it's in the afternoon that we focus on that severe threat indicated by that big red area.
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Any of those states could see some intense stores that can produce the kind of damage that we saw on Tuesday on into Wednesday and then on into Thursday as well.
The highest risk includes cities Atlanta and Birmingham and even down towards Savannah. They could see another round of rough weather. In fact, they have one of the highest probabilities of seeing a tornado. And then that story threat -- less of a tornado threat, more about wind threat along the Carolinas and into central Florida. Along with that, heavy rain. You could be looking at anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of flood threat across southern Georgia.
So, Max, we continue to deal with severe weather. No doubt the beginning of spring storm season here in the U.S.
FOSTER: You'll be watching it, Gene. Thank you very much, indeed.
Now Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former U.S. President Donald Trump and a former White House senior adviser, met virtually with the January 6th committee for nearly eight hours on Tuesday. Sources say the interview was voluntary and she was cooperative throughout. The committee is investigating the Capitol Hill insurrection. Ivanka was with her father most of that day and in the Oval Office for key meetings.
Police in California have arrested a third man in connection to the mass shooting in Sacramento which killed six people and wounded a dozen others over the weekend. He's being held on gun charges but is not believed to have fired during the attack. The crime scene was littered with more than hundred shell casings underscoring the chaotic moments in the early hours on Sunday. Police say they cannot rule out gang violence as they work to pinpoint the exact motive.
The mayor of Minnesota is ending a no-knock search warrants by police from Friday. The tactic has come under criticism after police in several cities fatally shot people inside residences. The new policy in Minneapolis requires police to knock repeatedly, announce their presence and wait 20 to 30 seconds before entering. The mayor admits there will still be some circumstances that require unannounced entry.
America's top expert on infectious disease says the U.S. could be out of the woods with Omicron coronavirus variant soon. Dr. Anthony Fauci says there's a high level of immunity in the population and it's unlikely the U.S. will see a big surge in Omicron hospitalizations again.
Legendary golfer Tiger Woods is returning to the Masters tournament 14 months after a car crash that many thought would end his career. Brian Todd explains how Woods got to this point and the challenges he'll face on his return to Augusta.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tiger Woods said that right after his horrific car accident almost 14 months ago, there was a chance one of his legs might have had to be amputated. On Tuesday, he said the words many thought might never come, just ahead of golf's premier tournament, the Masters.
TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: As of right now, I feel like I am going to play as of right now.
TODD (voice-over): The 46-year-old is scheduled to tee off on Thursday morning when the Masters begins at Augusta National Golf Club. Just rumors of a Tiger comeback, when he played some practice rounds on Monday, drew a large crowd of fans now that he's playing competitively.
CHRISTINA BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: And the TV ratings should just go through the roof, probably Tiger-esque as they always are. But this time, it's like we stepped into a movie set, you know. This story is just -- it transcends golf, it transcends sports.
TODD (voice-over): Police said Tiger Woods was driving 85 miles an hour in a 45- mile-an-hour zone when his car crashed on a winding road near L.A. on February 23rd of last year. Law enforcement officers said there would've been a much different outcome had he not had certain safety features in his vehicle.
SHERIFF ALEX VILLANUEVA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: Thankfully, the interior was more or less intact which kind of gave him the cushion to survive what otherwise would have been a fatal crash.
DAN RAPAPORT, STAFF WRITER, GOLF DIGEST: His leg was basically crushed under the weight of an SUV. It looked life threatening initially, certainly career threatening. And he was in a hospital bed for three months.
TODD (voice-over): After multiple surgeries and a rod, plates and screws placed in his leg and excruciating rehab, Tiger Woods now says it is not his swing that is the issue. WOODS: I can hit it just fine. I do not have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint. It's now walking is the hard part.
TODD (voice-over): And analysts say the course at Augusta is one of the hardest to walk on the tour.
BRENNAN: You don't see the hills on TV. But I watched him walk up that first fairway in his practice run on Monday, as the throngs, the masses were following him like it was a Sunday afternoon. I watched him walk up that hill and he looked older. His shoulders were hunched, and he was going much slower. Those hills are going to be brutal on him.
TODD (voice-over): Still Woods said he would not be playing if he did not think he could win which would be his sixth Masters title and his 16th major tournament win. Can he pull it off?
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RAPAPORT: I do not expect him to win. But again, I am done -- I'm done doubting Tiger Woods. I have done it too many times and I've been forced to eat my words way too many times.
TODD: One of Tiger Woods' biggest motivations to play and one of the great joys of his life is playing with his 13-year-old son Charlie, who he has been playing practice rounds with in recent weeks. Dan Rapaport of "Golf Digest" says Charlie Woods has a perfect swing and, of course, a great coach. But he says it is too early to speculate if Charlie is headed for the pro tour. And he says Tiger Woods will not push his son to play professionally.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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FOSTER: Former U.S. President Barack Obama made his first trip back to the White House since leaving office five years ago now. He joins current President Joe Biden for the event announcing improvements to the Affordable Care Act -- commonly referred to as Obamacare.
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It took a while for the American people to understand what we had done. But low and behold, a little later than I expected, a lot of folks, including many who had initially opposed health care reform came around. And today the ACA hasn't just survived, it's pretty darn popular.
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FOSTER: Joe Biden, of course, served as Obama's Vice President. Obama found time to crack some jokes about Mr. Biden remembering their time serving together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: Vice President Biden. Vice President. That was a joke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: The Affordable Care Act was one of the hallmark pieces of legislation from Obama's time in office. The two presidents announced steps the White House says will make health care more affordable for Americans.
Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. Our coverage continues on "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett in New York, Brianna Keilar in Lviv, Ukraine You're watching CNN.
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