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Dozens Killed in Strike at Kramatorsk Train Station Crowded with Evacuees; Russian Forces Leave Trail of Destruction in Northern Ukraine; Finland and Sweden Could Soon Join NATO; Religion Bolsters Ukrainians' Resolve to Fight Invasion; Poland Focusing on Mental Health of Ukrainian Refugees; Visiting with Ukrainians Sheltering from Invasion; Ketanji Brown Jackson Speaks about Her Historic Confirmation; Academy Bans Will Smith from Oscars for 10 Years. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 09, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause, live in Lviv, Ukraine. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world.
Russia's long list of alleged atrocities against Ukrainian civilians hit a new low Friday, with a devastating missile strike on a crowded train station in Kramatorsk, a major rail hub in the east, where men, women and children were waiting for a train to escape the conflict.
Local authorities say the station was hit by two Russian missiles. Dozens were killed where they stood. Ukraine's president vowed to pursue the attack as a war crime. Here he is.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): We expect a firm global response to this war crime. Like the massacre in Bucha, like many other Russian war crimes, the missile strike on Kramatorsk must be one of the charges at the tribunal, which is bound to happen.
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VAUSE: There are allegations the Russian missiles delivered cluster bombs, which scatter and explode over a wide area. The Pentagon says Moscow's denial of involvement is simply not credible.
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ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We find unconvincing Russian claims that they weren't involved, particularly when the ministry actually announced it and then, when they saw reports of civilian casualties, decided to un-announce it. So our assessment is that that this was a Russian strike and that the
use of short-range ballistic missile to conduct it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And Ukrainian military commanders say Russian forces, massing near the eastern Donbas region, are almost ready to launch an all-out assault. And the United States has been ramping up its military presence in neighboring Poland, conducting joint exercises with Polish forces.
CNN's Phil Black has more now on the aftermath of Kramatorsk. A warning, the images in his report are shocking, the details are graphic but all of this reveals the true level of brutality the Ukrainians are blaming on Russian forces.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For many who fear what is coming in eastern Ukraine, Kramatorsk Station has been a gateway to safety. Crowds of people have packed its platforms in recent days desperate to increase their distance from a region Russia says it will soon conquer with overwhelming force.
Witnesses say thousands came again on Friday morning. They sought safety, they couldn't escape the war.
These are the moments after a ballistic missile exploded at the station after debris and shrapnel tore through the crown.
"So many dead bodies," a person cries. "Only children, just children."
When the screaming eventually stopped, the broken bodies of the innocent remain. We have to hide much of this scene; most of those lying, bleeding and still, are women and children. Survivors fled. We managed to contact some by phone while they sheltered together in a public building, still scared and shaken.
This woman says she looked up when she thought she heard a plane then it exploded and everyone went down.
This man says he heard the blast and threw his body over his daughter. The remains of the missile that terrified and hurt so many crashed down near the station.
Hand-painted Russian words mark its side, declaring the weapon's avenging purpose.
It says, "For the children."
The author and their intent are unknown. The result is yet another moment of horror in a war with endless capacity for taking and destroying innocent lives -- Phil Black, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: There's now belief that Russia has already lost more than 15 percent of its military assets sent into Ukraine. A senior U.S. Defense official says Moscow is down to less than 85 percent of the combat power it initially set aside for the war.
That assessment including Russian tanks, fighter jets, missiles and troops. The official did not say how many Russian troops have actually been killed in battle so far.
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VAUSE: Much of northern Ukraine is in ruins following Russia's failed push on the city of Chernihiv. Russian forces have now abandoned the region, as they focus on the east. CNN's Clarissa Ward shows us the trail of destruction left in their wake.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what remains of Russia's presence in much of northern Ukraine, a hastily abandoned camp by the roadside, just 30 miles in from the Russian border, where soldiers dug in and prepared for their advance, their foxholes still littered with their rations.
WARD: So this is where it looks like they were doing their cooking. You can see onions, coffee and water, some cans over there. But what's so striking, walking around this camp, is that it's just a mess. It seems there was a total lack of discipline.
WARD (voice-over): Around the corner in the village in Chernihiv, Lyudmila Stefanov (ph) tells us residents hid their valuables as Russian forces looted the area.
"Five weeks they were staying here. Tanks were all around us. At night, they would shoot at the houses with machine guns," she says. "But, praise God, they didn't touch us."
As the Russians continued their lightning offensive down to the city of Chernihiv, their tactics grew more brutal. Faced with stiff resistance on the ground, they doubled down on bombardment from the skies.
Ukrainian soldier Bogdan Barditski (ph) shows us what's left of this village of Novoselivka, just outside Chernihiv. The scale of the destruction is jaw-dropping. Not a single house is untouched.
Bogdan explains this was the final push to get into the city. He's saying this was a Ukrainian position, the Russians bombed it heavily and then Russian soldiers were actually here in this area just a mile away from the city.
Nikolai Krasnato (ph) never saw the Russian soldiers here but felt the full force of their assault.
"This is my cellar," he says. He tells us his nephew was sheltering from the bombardment there when it took a hit. Pinned down, Nikolai was forced bury him there in a shallow grave in the garden.
"We put a cross and we covered it with the shields, so the dogs won't give dig him up," he says.
"I feel such hatred for Putin. I want to tear him apart. I lived through 70 years but I never saw a beast like this."
Many here fear they haven't seen the last of him. On a destroyed bridge, an emotional Tatyana and Svetlana are returning from their first visit with their parents since the war began. They're worried they may not see them again.
"We don't know if the Russians will come back to the village where my parents are," Tatyana says. "And this is so scary."
In the end, Russia's offensive in the north was a failure but the scars of its assault remain deep, with the prospect of a return to normalcy still seems far away -- Clarissa Ward, CNN, Chernihiv region, Ukraine.
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VAUSE: Tymofiy Mylovanov is the president of Kyiv School of Economics, he's a former economics minister. He now serves as an adviser to the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency.
Tymofiy, Thank you for being with us. As we take a close look at the drone footage we've been seeing from the city of Mariupol, for example, the extent of the destruction there, before the Russian invasion, it was a beautiful city. But now it's a pile of rubble; 90 percent of the buildings either damaged or destroyed, according to the mayor.
How can that city be rebuilt?
Apart from the loss of life, the economic cost must be staggering.
TYMOFIY MYLOVANOV, PRESIDENT, KYIV SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Yes, in Mariupol, it's probably (INAUDIBLE) dollars or more already alone. We have an estimate (INAUDIBLE) in the areas which have been (INAUDIBLE). It's on the order of $68 billion.
And that's not counting (INAUDIBLE) Kharkiv. Those areas (INAUDIBLE). And Mariupol is in rubble. So it's -- the amount is staggering. Just to compare it, to give a perspective, compare it with Syria, the numbers there was about $40 billion.
VAUSE: So where does that money come from?
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VAUSE: Is it possible, given the fact that we have heard intercepted radio chatter that the Russian soldiers have been sent out to deliberately cause this extent of damage on civilian infrastructure, is it possible to get that funding from those frozen assets, the Russian foreign reserves, for example?
There's $320 billion there.
Can that be used to rebuild this country?
MYLOVANOV: That can be. We have experience with Yanukovych assets, that was the president in 2013-2014, who started all of this and who was ousted, after which Crimea was annexed.
Many of his assets in the world and of his buddies were restricted and frozen. But almost none were then returned to Ukraine.
So what we have learned, that the legal process will not be very effective -- or at least it has not been very effective. It has been a political process. And the governments have to make decision to confiscate these assets now and put them aside and then later they can be used for reconstruction.
VAUSE: Many cities have all experienced major damage, as the civilians are living without electricity, without running water.
Is it possible to begin reconstruction, to try to give them some relief while this offensive is still ongoing?
Is there a concern, if you do start to rebuild, it just becomes a target once more for the Russian military?
MYLOVANOV: Again, I think we can and should look into the history of what we already know about Russia.
In the east of Ukraine, the hot war in Donbas and in Donetsk and Luhansk has been raging for eight years and has never been a clear stop to the war. So I think, with this war, it will be something similar, where we'll end up having the end of the hot stages of the war but some skirmishes and some attacks will continue for a long time.
So reconstruction and rebuilding should be happening now to the extent it is possible, because there will never be this clear a moment that everything is over.
VAUSE: How important is it right now for the United States and the Europeans to mount some kind of Marshall Plan, some kind of massive effort, to finance the reconstruction of this country, not just to lift the morale of the people of Ukraine but also to send a message to Putin that, whatever he does here, will be undone?
MYLOVANOV: In the end, it will be determined by whether the monies, you know, is available, right, whether there is actual liquidity to start rebuilding right away. So there is a lot of talk about it and that's good.
And there's a lot of different groups and governments and think tanks and international financial institutions trying to organize such a relief effort. But you know, many of them are not going to be effective. For example,
UBR deal with (ph) the World Bank or the IMF, they still have Russia as a shareholder. So that's going to be problematic. They should be a stand-alone agency. And that agency has to be on partner terms with the Ukrainian government.
And then the reconstruction effort should be split in two. Those money, which goes just for rebuilding what was lost has, to be managed by the Ukrainian government. Everything which has to do with reconstruction, with developing, has probably to be done by an agency, which has to be created yet.
VAUSE: There is also this bizarre circumstance, though, where we had the Europeans talking about helping with the reconstruction of Ukraine. But at the same time, right now, they continue to send $1 billion every day to Moscow for oil and gas.
So in a way, they're funding the war and then they want to try and fund the reconstruction, it seems sort of bizarre.
MYLOVANOV: Indeed. And it's even worse than that. You know, some of the European countries are worried that, if they stop funding the war, if they impose an embargo, they're going to enter a recession or lose some of the GDP.
So they are saving this GDP so that the part of it, later, is going to be used to reconstruct and rebuild Ukraine. So it's problematic, from the moral point of view, from ethical point of view. But those are from an economic point of view. I think it's a false hope that somehow managing with Russia will be economically profitable.
VAUSE: Yes, it's a long road ahead for the reconstruction clearly and this isn't over yet. But there are people who are living in terrible circumstances, so they need relief now. Tymofiy Mylovanov, thank you very much for being with us.
MYLOVANOV: Thank you.
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VAUSE: Well, there is new evidence that Vladimir Putin may have badly miscalculated if he thought invading Ukraine would make NATO back off from an eastward expansion.
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VAUSE: Officials now tell CNN, discussions about Finland and Sweden joining the alliance are now extremely serious. Public opinion in favor of the alliance is growing significantly in both countries.
The Kremlin says Russia would be forced to rebalance the situation if Finland joins NATO. And Finland, just to note this, was hit by two cyberattacks and an airspace violation by a Russian plane on Friday.
Still to come, the Russian president has tried to use religion as justification for this invasion. But Ukrainians are finding strength in their faith as they resist the Kremlin's aggression. Christiane Amanpour will have that story in just a moment.
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VAUSE: Well, Vladimir Putin says Ukrainians and Russians are one people, joined, in part, because of religion. He even counts on the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church as an ally. But as CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports, religious identity is a source of strength for Ukrainians, as they fight to save their homeland.
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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Among the most spectacular sights all over Ukraine are the golden domed Christian orthodox churches. Here, especially in wartime, they've taken on the outsized role of nationhood.
At St. Michael's, Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and all Ukraine leads his parishioners praying for peace and victory.
METROPOLITAN EPIPHANIUS OF KYIV AND ALL UKRAINE, PRIMATE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE (through translator): We suffer together with Ukrainians, who are a part of our Ukrainian people, especially now when the aggressor, the Russian federation, especially Putin is trying to destroy us as a Ukrainian nation.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): When a Kyiv prince converted to Christianity in the year 988 A.D., he started this church and the one in Russia, which then grew to be the dominant branch. But Metropolitan Epiphanius says that now Russia is losing religious and political influence over Ukraine.
Over the years, Vladimir Putin has harnessed himself and his project for a greater Russia to the church. And so, parishioners here know that their church's very survival hangs in the balance; 54-year-old Tatiana pushes piety aside just for a moment.
TATIANA, PARISHIONER (through translator): Putin is such a cynical man that any evil is easy for him. I wish he was dead. Sorry, you can't say that in a temple but it is honest.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): And Metropolitan Epiphanius has harsher words for his Moscow counterpart who supports Putin's vision of an empire centered on the church.
METROPOLITAN EPIPHANIUS OF KYIV AND ALL UKRAINE (through translator): As head of the church, he should be telling the truth to Putin and Russians about what is happening in Ukraine, not supporting and blessing it. So I would tell him to be a pastor and not a murderer of Ukrainians. AMANPOUR (voice-over): But this nationalist conflict waged in part through religion has been brewing ever since the church here became independent in 2019.
AMANPOUR: When this church was actually granted its formal independence, it added a whole new layer of grievance and outrage and protest from Russia. President Putin even warned that darkly that switching allegiance by the Ukrainians could lead to serious dispute and even bloodshed, he said.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): There seems to be few limits to what triggers Putin and his Russian nationalists. Take the idea that he launched this war to denazify Ukraine.
So we visited Kyiv's Holocaust memorial at Babyn Yar to try to understand that term in a nation with a Jewish president and several ministers, who have outlawed anti-Semitism.
AMANPOUR: When they say, you know, so-and-so Ukrainian is a Nazi, it means anti-Russian or anti-Semitic?
RUSLAN KAVATSUIK, DEPUTY CEO, BABYN YAR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER: Definitely, Putin doesn't care about Babyn Yar, he doesn't care about Holocaust, he doesn't care about Jews when he is speaking of denazification.
AMANPOUR: How powerful an entity are ultranationalists or fascists here?
KAVATSUIK: In Ukraine, they try to go for elections a couple of times, every time succeeding to 1 percent. So it's a very -- people are very reluctant to give any power to the Right.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Ruslan Kavatsuik is deputy director of Babyn Yar. He tells us "Yar" means "ravine." And he shows us the precise site where more than 30,000 Jews were executed on September 29 and 30, 1941.
Today the most beautiful synagogue has been built to memorialize them. The Swiss architect and Ukrainian engineers have devised an elaborate and complex structure, revealing itself through a system of pulleys to be, in part, based on the synagogues that used to dot the ancient countryside.
Over 1.5 million Jews lived here before World War II. About 1 million were killed in the Holocaust. It's believed that 43,000 Jews still live in Ukraine, although perhaps four times that number claim Jewish ancestry.
As we peer into the audiovisual history of how more than 100,000 Jews and others were simply gunned down during World War II in this area alone, Ruslan tell us that Russia needs to respect Ukraine's tragic past, not distort it.
And back at St. Michael's, here's 80-year-old Irina.
IRINA, PARISHIONER (through translator): I would tell Putin to come to his senses and not to harm people.
What right does he have?
Well, who is he and why is he destroying us like this?
We pray and ask God that it will be over soon.
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AMANPOUR (voice-over): The wall around St. Michael's is dedicated to some of the 14,000 soldiers who have been killed since Putin first invaded back in 2014. And the people pray for Ukraine to win what they call the struggle against evil and stop it spreading any further -- Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Kyiv.
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VAUSE: If you would like to help the people of Ukraine, please go to cnn.com/impact. So far, CNN viewers have raised millions of dollars to help not just Ukraine but neighboring countries, to provide shelter, food, water and everything else that is needed.
I'm John Vause. For our international viewers, stay with us. "CONNECTING AFRICA" is up next after a short break. For our viewers in North America, I will have a lot more live from Ukraine in just a moment.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause live in Lviv, Ukraine.
And Ukraine now calling for a top global response to Russia's attack on the Kramatorsk train station, that left at least 50 people dead and wounded dozens of others. According to the Ukrainian foreign minister, Russian forces were aware that that train platform was filled with civilians -- moms, dads and kids -- all waiting to be evacuated. But that missile strike went ahead anyway.
This was the scene moments before the attack, crowds of people inside the station. All of this was recorded by Ukrainian journalist Oleksiy Merkulov, who was there to cover the evacuations. He spoke to CNN's Erin Burnett and described the moment the missile hit.
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OLEKSIY MERKULOV, JOURNALIST (through translator): When that horrible thing happened, what I could feel right away was this just air blast, this really powerful wave, something -- although the explosion itself didn't seem to be that hard. The wave was unbelievable. It's as if something just hit you on your
head and your legs couldn't keep you any longer. You couldn't stand on them. And you understand that something terrible happened but you're not aware of what it is. And you're afraid to look up but you know you have to do something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, as Russia steps up the attacks in the east of the country, the Ukrainian government has said to civilians, if they can evacuate, they should. According to officials, more than 6,600 people fled by humanitarian corridors on Friday.
In the coming hours, humanitarian corridors will open for Mariupol, Zaporizhzhya and the Luhansk region.
According to the U.N. more than 4.3 million people have fled Ukraine and more 7 million remain internally displaced.
A bipartisan group of more than 60 U.S. lawmakers is now urging President Joe Biden to do more for Ukrainian refugees escaping Russia's invasion. And those who manage to escape without physical harm, they say, there is still no escape, rather, from dealing with the mental and emotional trauma. Here's CNN's Dana Bash.
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DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight-year-old Yana (ph) is used to going to gymnastics class six days a week in Odessa, Ukraine. Now she practices here, a refugee center in Warsaw, Poland.
BASH: Do you know why your mom decided it was time for you to go?
YANA, LIUDMYLA'S DAUGHTER (through translator): Well, because there were explosions there and stuff like that.
BASH: Did you hear explosions?
Did you see any of the war?
YANA: Yes.
BASH (voice-over): She left Ukraine with her brother and mother, Liudmyla.
LIUDMYLA BATS, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: The journey was very hard because we decided -- we decided to go there through Moldova, through Romania, through Hungary and so Slovenia and then Poland.
BASH (voice-over): Yana (ph) sits at a table full of donated supplies and goes to school remotely, on her phone, right in the middle of this Warsaw refugee center.
BASH: And she's OK?
BATS: She says yes. BASH (voice-over): Liudmyla Bats is not so sure about her own trauma.
BATS: Even here, every time when I hear there some sounds and when the airplane is flying, I'm afraid.
BASH (voice-over): Poland's generosity toward Ukraine's flood of refugees -- shelter, food, baby supplies -- is well documented. Less known is a focus on what you cannot see, the mental health of the mostly women and children who crossed the border.
BASH: You've redirected a lot of the psychiatrists, psychologists to the Ukrainians.
MAYOR RAFAL TRZASKOWSKI, WARSAW, POLAND: Yes, I have.
BASH (voice-over): Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski says tending to Ukrainians' emotional wounds is critical. Foundations drop leaflets, encouraging Ukrainian refugees to seek counseling.
TRZASKOWSKI: Those kids are incredibly resilient. But you never know, you know, what's beneath the surface.
BASH: But it wasn't that long ago that people just kind of said, suck it up, you just deal with it. But that's not where we are in society anymore.
TRZASKOWSKI: No, I mean, when you -- especially when you see what's happening in Ukraine, how vicious this war was and all of those atrocities committed by Russian soldiers and those kids watch TV, you know, they see it.
BASH (voice-over): In this group session, the mental health professional for Ukrainian women is a fellow refugee. In the women's circle, as they call it, varied emotions spring to the surface.
While mothers tend to their own mental health, their children are in a makeshift day care on the other side of the room. Little Yana (ph) is thrilled by the toys and new people to play with, young enough not to know too much.
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BASH (voice-over): Her big sister, Antonina (ph), knows far more, experienced more than any 8-year old ever should.
BASH: Antonina (ph), why are you here in Poland?
Do you know?
ANTONINA (PH), LIUDMYLA'S DAUGHTER (through translator): Because of the war. Because, I don't know, Putin has something in his head.
BASH: Turns out not all grown-ups make good decisions, huh?
ANTONINA (PH): When it comes to Putin, yes.
BASH (voice-over): To better take care of her girls, their mother takes care of herself in this therapy session.
BATS (through translator): With like-minded people it's easier to talk. They understand you.
BASH: Why did you want to have these sessions?
MILENA KONOVALOVA, CRISIS PSYCHOLOGIST AND UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): When we talk to other women, we hear that we have the same problems and we see our situation from a distance.
The most prominent trauma is that women don't see tomorrow. They're not sure. They're frightened and scared. They don't feel protection anywhere. And it's important to convey to them that there is tomorrow.
BASH (voice-over): As for today, seeing their children playing, smiling, laughing, it helps get them to tomorrow -- Dana Bash, CNN, Warsaw, Poland.
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VAUSE: Let's get to Paula Newton, standing by at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
Paula, the numbers of the children that have been affected by this conflict, UNICEF says almost two-thirds of the children in this country, all of them have been forced from their homes. Either they've moved from the east to the west or they're refugees in another country.
Those numbers are staggering and that will have implications for years to come.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, as you say, a staggering need and implications for years. And I can't help by watching that, just to think of all those children that are missing their fathers, their uncles, their grandparents, the fact they've had such separation in these families that will continue to go on for months.
John, thanks again. We'll join you again at the top of the hour.
Now amid the ruins of their city in Ukraine, a couple is showing their eternal love, dressed in their bride and groom finery. You see them there. These two lovebirds used the aftermath of Russia's heavy bombing as their wedding backdrop.
The Kharkiv couple have volunteered as medics since the start of Russia's invasion. When asked about the decision to tie the knot during all this turmoil, the groom said, "Love will defeat anything."
And the bride adding, "Only these feelings will help us win."
Quite a bit of resilience on display there.
Coming up, we visit with refugees who consider themselves lucky. They sleep on mattresses on a university floor. And it's far away from Russia's bombs. They tell their stories to CNN. That's after the break.
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NEWTON: While millions of Ukrainians have left their country, instantly becoming refugees, many are still there. But nonetheless, they've been forced to leave their own homes.
Now CNN met 700 people, who now call a university floor -- that's right, the floor -- home because, in many cases, they don't have homes to return to anymore. Each has a unique view of this tragedy and shared their stories with CNN's Jake Tapper.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Beneath the punching bags in this university gym in western Ukraine, those civilians able to flee their homes in the east and south and dodge the Russian military's relentless barrage are catching their breath. No one wants to be but it beats the alternative. And the stories they tell us reveal why they fled.
ANYA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): We were very close to Irpin and it was very scary. The explosions were very loud. We spent two days in the basement. The kid was very scared and we decided to go.
TAPPER (voice-over): Anya, who once worked as a nanny and her 1-year- old daughter Margarita, fled Kyiv on February 28th, with nothing but their documents and their dogs.
ANYA (through translator): We had to decide either bag or dog and we decided to take the dogs.
TAPPER (voice-over): The dogs, too, are a mother and daughter, the mattresses on this gym floor their home since March 1st. The fate of so many close to Anya, friends and Margarita's classmates, unknown.
ANYA (through translator): I have a lot of friends, including some of them which cannot be reached at this moment. You try to track them down on Facebook but you see they don't come online and it's scary.
TAPPER (voice-over): Anya has been able to connect with her husband still back east who now works for the local defense forces.
TAPPER: Is he fighting?
ANYA (through translator): Yes, in territorial defense.
TAPPER: And how is he doing?
ANYA (through translator): It's better not to say.
TAPPER: They come from Luhansk. They come from Donetsk. They come from Kharkiv. They come from Mariupol. They come from Kyiv. They come from Bucha to here, to this university, to this beat-up old gymnasium, just for a safe place away from Putin bombs and bullets.
YULIA LOZNITZA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): Putin is an a- hole.
TAPPER (voice-over): Yulia Loznitza, who has called this mattress her home for one month as of today, tries to brighten her small part of the gymnasium floor.
LOZNITZA (through translator): These are not even my things. It is hard to bear it, to have to wear someone else's clothes. That's why I like to have flowers to somehow make it comfortable and beautiful.
TAPPER (voice-over): Yulia was once an administrator for a chain of sushi restaurants. A chain that shut down after Kyiv came under attack. She fled in part because she needed to come somewhere where she could still buy vital medications for her aging mother, which she sends back through the still functioning post office.
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TAPPER (voice-over): Yulia lived once just about six miles from Bucha, the site of so many atrocities.
LOZNITZA (through translator): It is hard to speak without crying because a lot of friends and colleagues leaving Irpin and Bucha. It is all impossible to imagine because it's so close and I might have known these people.
TAPPER (voice-over): She recently spoke with one of her friends, Oleksiy (ph).
LOZNITZA (through translator): The Russians couldn't open a cellar so threw a grenade at the door. And the girls were raped by the soldiers that entered the basement. I'm afraid to ask her more detail about it. I will know more when I meet her on the day of the victory.
TAPPER (voice-over): Her nephew's girlfriend is 18 and may have suffered a similar terror no one wants to talk about it.
TAPPER: Are you going to try to leave Ukraine?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes.
TAPPER (voice-over): This 18-year old did not want us to show his face or share his name. His parents live in a part of the Donbas region since taken over by Russians. He does not have the proper paperwork to return there.
And communications from the area have been shut down. He is here with his phone and a few belongings all by himself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My parents are not allowed to leave the Russians.
TAPPER (voice-over): His father is a local fire chief, he says.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He was forced to sign a contract with the Russians. He was given a choice either to lose all his property or to sign a contract to work with them.
TAPPER (voice-over): He was in Kharkiv when the shooting started. He spent 10 days sheltering in a subway then he fled here more than a month ago. He wants to leave Ukraine but he turned 18 seven months ago and he is not allowed to leave.
TAPPER: Fighting aged men have to stay?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Yes.
TAPPER: It must be so tough to be on your own. You're just a kid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, it's true. But I would like not to hear all the sirens and to try and live in peace.
TAPPER (voice-over): Just 18, on his own with nothing, unable to talk to his family, whom he may never see again. It is difficult to imagine. But in Ukraine during Putin's war, this is what is considered relatively lucky -- Jake Tapper, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.
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NEWTON: A day after history was made by a Senate vote, Ketanji Brown Jackson has her moment in the sun before taking on one of the toughest jobs in Washington. Details ahead.
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NEWTON: A day after the U.S. Senate confirmed her as Supreme Court Justice and cemented her place in history, Ketanji Brown Jackson gave thanks at a White House event on Friday. She will be the nation's first Black woman justice, something President Biden calls a moment of real change.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I decided to run, this was one of the first decisions I made. I could see it. I could see it as a day of hope, a day of promise, a day of progress, a day when, once again, the moral arc of the universe, as Barack used to quote all the time, bends a little more toward justice.
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JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I am just the very lucky first inheritor of the dream of liberty and justice for all.
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JACKSON: To be sure, I have worked hard to get to this point in my career and I have now achieved something far beyond anything my grandparents could have possibly ever imagined.
But no one does this on their own. The path was cleared for me, so that I might rise to this occasion.
And in the poetic words of Dr. Maya Angelou, I do so now while bringing the gifts my ancestors gave.
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JACKSON: I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
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JACKSON: In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.
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NEWTON: Good words there from Judge Jackson, who is set to be sworn in this summer when Justice Stephen Breyer retires.
Now to the controversy over that slap. We can't stop talking about at the Oscars. Will Smith will not be allowed to attend the Oscars for the next decade. CNN's Chloe Melas has the details.
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CHLOE MELAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences revealed on Friday the repercussions that Will Smith will now face in the wake of slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
The Academy has revealed that they are banning Will Smith from attending any of their events, not limited just to the Oscars, for 10 years.
In a statement of obtained by CNN, it reads in part, quote, "During our telecast, we did not adequately address the situation in the room. For this, we are sorry. The board has decided, for a period of 10 years, from April 8th, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs in person or virtually, including but not limited to, the Academy Awards."
Shortly after Will Smith released a brief statement to CNN saying, "I accept and respect the Academy's decision." We have reached out to Will Smith's team for further comment and to
the Academy to find out, does this prevent Will Smith from being nominated for an Oscar in the future?
And if he is nominated in the future, does that change the fact of whether or not he can attend?
I recently attended some of Chris Rock's comedy shows in Boston. He said he is still processing the situation; that, at some point, he will address it fully.
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MELAS: It will be serious, he said, it will be funny. And I think that everyone is waiting to learn more and to hear more from both Chris and from Will -- back to you.
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NEWTON: Our thanks to Chloe Melas there.
Now Tiger Woods continues his remarkable comeback after that harrowing car crash that almost cost him his leg and his career last year.
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NEWTON: I want to thank you for spending part of your day with me. I am Paula Newton. Stay with us. Our breaking news coverage continues in Ukraine at the top of the hour with John Vause.
