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Vladimir Putin Appoints New General To Lead Russia's War In Ukraine; Russian Military Convoy Heading Towards Donbas; Russian Soldiers Discuss Killings Ukrainians Over Radio; Sanctions Imposed On Putin's Daughter; Macron And Le Pen To Fight For The Presidency; Pope Francis Calls For Truce In Ukraine; Fears Of Recession Looming In Wall Street; Tucker Carlson Accusing News Outlets Of Lying About The War. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 10, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. A new commander takes over Russia's brutal war against Ukraine and his track record sparks fears of more brutality. Vladimir Putin has appointed Army General Alexander Dvornikov following major military losses in a failed effort to take Kyiv. And this general is no stranger to the horrors of war.

He led the charge in Aleppo, Syria when Russia backed the Assad regime in a bombardment that caused mass civilian casualties. He could bring focus, coordination and ruthlessness to the Donbas region where Russia is gearing up for a major assault. Ukrainian officials urging some residents to leave that area before it's too late.

Nine evacuation corridors were opened in southern and eastern parts of the country today in what could be a preview of things to come. These brand-new satellite pictures show an eight-mile-long Russian military convoy approaching the regional capital of Kharkiv. Already, the Dnipro airport has been completely destroyed by a Russian strike.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy predicting that a meeting with Putin could happen, but only after a major battle for Donbas. And we continue to learn more about what happened in the battle for Kyiv now that Russian troops have withdrawn from the area.

New U.K. intelligence reveals Russia disproportionately targeted civilians subjecting them to barbaric acts by using them as human shields and tossing their bodies into mass graves. We've seen some of those images so far. They are absolutely appalling.

CNN's Nima Elbagir is in Kyiv for us. Ed Lavandera in Odessa, both very important places in all of this. Nima, let me start with you. Do we know if this new general that Vladimir Putin has appointed will drastically change strategies? It sounds as though this is a signal that things could get even more severe than things have already been, and we know that has been horrific up until this point. NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT:

This is the man responsible for those images that we -- that we associate with the horrors of Syria. The bombed out apartment buildings, cities, towns, homes. Men, women and children running screaming, crying, the horrific loss of life. Syrian human rights activists were able to document over 5,600 civilian deaths in the Syrian conflict, a quarter of which were the deaths of children.

This is the man who was able to do that and do it with impunity. What is different here in this context? Well, in Syria, he was able to rely on the superior air capabilities of the Russian air force. That hasn't been the case here.

And in addition to that, what the Ukrainian forces have been able to achieve in Kyiv and its surroundings in terms of successes against Russian forces has also been different from what happened on the ground in Syria. The support that allies like the U.S. and the U.K. have given to Ukraine is different than what the Syrian rebels were given.

The Ukrainians have received significant anti-aircraft capability. So he is coming into a very different theater of war. But he is coming in with a reputation for brutality, a reputation for intentionally targeting civilians. We're not talking about the loss of civilian life as a tragic consequence of law. We are talking about the loss of civilian life as a mode of terror to subjugate the civilian population. And that has already been part of the playbook here in Ukraine.

So the fear is that that will only be amplified. What this does tell us, though, that despite what President Putin has said, that he is not immune to the reality of the humiliations that his forces have faced on the ground by changing tactics, bringing in this new general, and that this is part of the disinformation campaign, both internally and externally.

Inside Russia, this is the man that was able to deliver what the Russian forces delivered in Syria. Outside Russia, if you're talking about war crimes prosecutions, if you're talking about complicity, this is the man that got away with it for so long.

There is so much at stake here. Not least because the Ukrainians are saying that until they are successful in the east, they will not negotiate for peace. They will not sue for peace. So, so much at stake here in Ukraine, Jim.

ACOSTA: Right Nima. I mean, with Russia having been accused of war crimes up until this point, it's astonishing to think that Putin would put somebody in charge of this campaign who seems to have this as his specialty, this kind of warfare as his specialty, Nima. Let me turn over to Ed.

Ed, this new eight-mile convoy that's been spotted in satellite imagery, does it reveal what the Russian forces may be planning in the days ahead?

[17:04:57]

We were talking to General Hertling earlier on in this program and he was, you know, thinking that perhaps this has something to do with resupplying Russian troops. And as we know throughout this, this invasion, that's been a problem for the Russians.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I think at this point, the best indication we have is that this is all part of the effort to regroup and re-attack with force in the eastern section, in the Donbas area of Ukraine. So, that convoy coming from satellite images and it continues to move. And, you know, right now, if you can kind of imagine a crescent-shaped section there of eastern Ukraine covered by Russian forces.

In the middle of that, there are Ukrainian forces fighting there on the front lines. And the suspicion has been that this would be an effort to kind of come in behind those Ukrainian forces on the ground there and block them off, trap them to some way and create, you know, kind of a connection to Russian forces down in the southern part of the country.

But, you know, as we know, Russia has -- and the Russian forces have struggled with resupplying issues and keeping these convoys moving. So whether or not they'll be able to carry through with all of that is really not clear at this point.

ACOSTA: And Ed, what about the airport in Dnipro, destroyed after some heavy shelling? What can you tell us about that?

LAVANDERA: Yes. So kind of in that area that we're talking about, there is the city of Dnipro and it was attacked, the airport there was attacked several weeks ago. The runway there hit pretty hard. And now more air strikes apparently today.

And officials there in the Dnipro area saying that basically, the airport has been dismantled and, you know, so that's a significant area. It's a little bit more to the interior of Ukraine from where we have seen the bulk of the fighting so far. So that's a pretty important kind of thing to continue watching in an area where strikes are happening.

And Jim, we can also tell you that here within the last hour in the city of Mykolaiv, which is about 85 miles or so east of where we are here in Odessa, there have been multiple large explosions felt in that city and seen. We are working to get details on exactly what was hit, what is transpiring there, but significant explosions being seen in that city here tonight.

ACOSTA: All right. Ed Lavandera. And our thanks to Nima as well. Thanks to both of you. Joining me now is former Defense Secretary William Cohen. Secretary Cohen, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it. This Russian general who Putin just swapped in to lead this invasion, he is responsible for many of the atrocities the world witnessed in Syria.

That brutality turned the tide of the war for the Russian-backed Assad regime. What are your thoughts on this? How do you see this shaping up? It sounds as though Putin is bringing in the heavy artillery, so to speak.

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Jim, it's good to be with you again. But the suggestion made earlier, this might be a change in tactics on the part of Putin. I think it's just a reaffirmation of the strategy of targeting innocent civilians to be as barbaric as possible. And of course, just when you think you reach the end of a broken heart, they throw another bomb into a train station killing women and children and just slaughtering them as if it were a butchery, an abattoir as such.

So, I don't think it will be a change in tactics as far as killing innocent people and slaughtering them. What I think he's brought in to do is to try to combine their air and sea and land campaigns in some kind of organized way. Russian troops have been defeated to date. They have been disorganized. It's not been well planned, well led.

He is being brought in not only for his barbarity, but theoretically, to be a more competent general organizing the forces that the Russians have. But I think we have not seen the end. It will probably be even worse in terms of the slaughter of innocent people that will take place.

ACOSTA: Right. And the early messaging from the Kremlin was that this invasion was going according to plan. But with this leadership shake- up, less than two months in, does that suggest Putin and his cronies are no longer living in denial about the reality that's happening on the ground. Perhaps they never were. Perhaps they understood full well that this wasn't going according to plan and they were just BS-ing the world about it.

COHEN: The notion that Putin doesn't know what's going on, he has been, you know, in the dark on how his troops have performed, I think it's absurd. We keep telling ourselves that well, maybe he just kind of isolated. Maybe he doesn't know what his generals are doing, and I think that's absurd.

I think he knows exactly what's been taking place and he is angry about it. He should be angry about the lack of performance on the part of this imagined Russian powerhouse that has shown to be quite weak and ineffective to date against a much smaller, much more capable Ukrainian military.

[17:10:07]

So the notion that he didn't know what's going on is a surprise. Now he gets a new general. No, I think he has found out that his military has been defeated and he risks a defeat in Donbas as well. And he is going to do everything in his power to bring havoc and destruction upon the innocent people in Ukraine.

ACOSTA: And Mr. Secretary, what is your assessment of these new satellite images of this convoy? It's an eight to ten mile convoy, something in that neighborhood, near Kharkiv? We were talking to General Hertling about this. He was, I guess, surmising that perhaps this has something to do with trying to improve the resupplying of these badly resupplied troops, these Russian troops have been sort of left, you know, out flailing in many cases and so on. What's your assessment? When you see these satellite images, what do you think?

COHEN: Well, I would defer to General Hertling. He is in a much better position to at least speculate or guess in terms of what this column is doing. As I sit back and watch this, I wish that the Ukrainians had a greater air force capability because all of those armored vehicles and trucks and tanks would be sitting ducks for a capable air force to go down and target them and take them out.

What I hope will happen is that the Ukrainians can organize fast enough and start attacking them on the ground with anti-tank capability, maybe IEDs (inaudible) improvise explosive devices. Do whatever we can to take that column out. It's not impossible to do and I hope that the Ukrainians will now go on the offense instead of just playing defense and defending their country and their cities.

Go after that convoy and prevent whatever they're doing, prevent the resupply of either food, fuel or ammunition. It would be a great target of opportunity if they can marshal the capability, and if we can help them get that capability. They ought to have anti-ship capabilities. Go after their ships in the Black Sea. They ought to have anti-air, anti-tank, anti-everything in terms of taking down Putin's soldiers.

ACOSTA: And is it -- just to follow up on that, Mr. Secretary, is it your view that the United States, its allies, that they're not doing enough in that department?

COHEN: I think we're doing more now. In the beginning, I think we were pretty tentative, that we not cross some line that Putin has set. I mean, the irony. He launches a major offense, which is a war crime in itself, an aggression against a neutral country. He launches it and says you can only use these weapons against me as supporting --

ACOSTA: Right.

COHEN: -- So, I think that we had not been aggressive enough initially. We are now. And that's why the Ukrainians are prevailing on the battlefield because they're now getting what they need to defeat the Russian military or Putin's military not the Russian.

ACOSTA: And Mr. Secretary, I really wanted to get your thoughts on what you -- what's going through your mind yesterday when you saw the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson meeting with President Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Some of the images that were sent all over the world, I mean, this is just absolutely, you know, people may or may not like Boris Johnson, but it was good to see the British prime minister with President Zelenskyy.

COHEN: It was good to see him and the signal of support that he is sending to the world, not only to President Zelenskyy, but to the world. You also have been covering the former prime minister, Boris -- I'm sorry, not Boris, but help me out here, the former prime minister of Great Britain was talking about having a special war crimes capability put together to try Putin and his generals and to do it more quickly, just on an act of aggression.

I think that makes a lot of sense. Even though Putin himself may never be tried in a court of law for his war crimes, the fact that he would be indicted would be the essence of putting a watermark on his forehead that every time you put a light on it, it would say war criminal. It may not deter him, but it certainly would have an impact on Russia's ability to deal with other countries in the future.

But all I can say is I hope that takes place. Everybody is debating, is it a war crime? Is it genocide? We ought not to get caught up in those kind of details at this point. War crimes or something like the Supreme Court used to say about pornography. We know it when we see it. We have seen war crimes being committed. We're seeing the aftermath of that. We're predicting what's going to take place in the future.

ACOSTA: That's right.

COHEN: I think that war crimes have been committed. He ought to be indicted for it, even though he may never face justice.

[17:15:03]

ACOSTA: And we're going to be talking about that at the end of the show, this intentional targeting of civilians over and over again. All right, Secretary Cohen, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

COHEN: Good to be with you.

ACOSTA: Good to be with you. And coming up, disturbing radio communications released by Ukraine said to be Russian soldiers talking frankly about killing and raping civilians.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Kill them all, for (BLEEP) sake.

UNKNOWN: Got it. But all the village here is civilian.

UNKNOWN: What's wrong with you? If there are civilians, slay them all.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

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ACOSTA: Intercepted communications released this week by Ukraine security service and analyzed by CNN appear to show Russian soldiers in Ukraine talking frankly about shooting civilians, destroying villages, and rape. And we want to warn you, what you're about to hear is disturbing.

[17:19:57]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Kill them all, for (BLEEP) sake. UNKNOWN: Got it. But all the village here is civilian.

UNKNOWN: What's wrong with you? If there are civilians, slay them all.

UNKNOWN: Do they feed you well?

UNKNOWN: Yes, ok. We feed ourselves alright. We butchered a dog and ate it. It was ok.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN national security analyst Steve Hall joins me. Steve, I'm sure you've seen that footage and heard it. It's downright chilling. It's horrible to imagine how much more brutal this can get in Ukraine, but yet Putin is staying focused on getting a victory by this May 9th holiday that folks have been talking about in Russia, what's known as Victory Day. What are your thoughts? Are you anticipating Russia to kick this brutality up a couple of notches if that's even imaginable at this point?

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, Jim. I think there is sort of three directions that this thing can go in now and some of the options are much more, you know, plausible than others. I mean, the first one, you know, would be is that Putin, you know, who has had his nose bloodied by the strong Ukrainian resistance simply says okay, this is not worth it. This didn't go the way I thought it was going to go and so, you know, we need to withdraw, we need to regroup. Perhaps we need to return the Donbas in Crimea and so forth.

Low probability that's going to happen I think. The second option is I think a little a bit of what we're seeing now where troops are regrouping and preparing to attack again. But there is still the thought that, you know, perhaps at some point, it is going to be too difficult for Moscow, and they're going to say look, we need to somehow get out of this, with some sort of face-saving device.

Maybe we hold on to Crimea in parts of the Donbas and we just, you know, tell Ukrainians you guys have the rest and we tell Russia it all worked out just as we thought. And then most unfortunately, I think the third option is what we look at is an extended war of attrition where Putin basically just says, look, I'm all in on this. I'm not going to stop until I absolutely at least believe that I have complete control over Ukraine.

And that's going to involve a lot more of the atrocities I think that we have seen already in terms of the killing of innocents, the leveling of cities, the destruction of cultural and infrastructure objects that type of thing. So, unfortunately, I think it's going to be one of the last two and probably not the first one at this point.

ACOSTA: Right. And I guess that gets me to my next question about, you know, can the west, can the international community find Putin's pressure points? And this latest round of sanctions that is targeting Putin's daughters, who have remained out of the public eye, Putin has been very uncomfortable when he has been asked about his family in the past, which, you know, I find to be interesting. Let's listen to some of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVER STONE, MOVIE DIRECTOR: Are you a grandfather yet?

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: Yes.

STONE: How do you -- you like your grandchildren?

PUTIN (through translation): Yes.

STONE: So, are you a good grandfather? Do you play with them in the garden?

PUTIN (through translation): Very seldom, unfortunately.

STONE: Very seldom. You're a very lucky man. Two good children.

PUTIN (through translation): Yes, I am proud of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Very strange conversation there with Oliver Stone. What do you think about these sanctions targeting Putin's family?

HALL: Well, Jim, you know, it's difficult for me to sit by and watch the killing of Ukraine's children and daughters and the rape of Ukraine's children and daughters and not think that something should happen to Putin's daughters. I'm not implying they should be killed or raped, obviously.

But what I am implying is as if from a moral and just perspective, from the civilized perspective in the western world, I think it would be outrageous if we didn't somehow take some sort of action, even if it's symbolic against Putin's family and his daughters because, you know, yes, I think it's probably true that in the large picture is this -- is that going to be the thing that, you know, breaks the camel's back for Vladimir Putin? Oh, no, they suddenly sanctioned my daughters and so therefore I'm going to stop the war. Obviously, not.

But it's impossible for civilized countries everywhere to watch the destruction of the daughters of Ukraine and think that somehow Putin's daughters are exempt. They shouldn't be.

ACOSTA: And getting to the recklessness of what the Russians have been doing in Ukraine, Fred Pleitgen had this amazing report where he was walking around Chernobyl that we aired yesterday. And I just have to ask you what, do you make of these images of these trenches found near Chernobyl?

Ukrainian officials say Russian forces dug them in the highly radioactive Red Forest in that area where Chernobyl lies. It's an area that has been off limits. And you know, Fred was painting this picture in his story yesterday of people traipsing this radioactive soil around the facilities. I mean, it's bonkers. HALL: Yes. You know, Jim, I once had a Russian intelligence officer

tell me, you know, you guys in the west like to think that we're like you. You like to think that we're European somehow like you, and we're just not.

[17:25:00]

And you're seeing that time and time and time again in stark contrast I think in this conflict. So, I mean, you know, any western military is going to tell its troops, look, you're going into a very difficult area. Perhaps I wouldn't send them, you know, common sense says why send them at all to a place like Chernobyl?

But if you're going to send them there, your troop safety is going to be critical. You're going to be really concerned about force protection. You're going to be really concerned about making sure that there is no radiation sickness or horrible things that can happen if you don't know precisely what you're doing in a highly radioactive zone.

The Russians simply don't care. The Russian command and control system says hey, these are Russian soldiers. They do what they're told. And if they end up, you know, sick or doing things they shouldn't do, it doesn't really matter to us that much. Putin himself is like that. He's trying the overwhelming force and he doesn't really care that much about what happens to his troops, much less what happens to innocent Ukrainians and non-military targets in Ukraine.

So I think this just another example of a real difference between how Russians see the world and how they value life, specifically of their own people, and how the west does.

ACOSTA: All right. Steve Hall. It's a sober assessment, but I think right on the money. Thank you so much as always. We appreciate it.

HALL: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up, a new look at a Ukrainian city shattered by Russian invaders. Residents living in fear that Kremlin forces who retreated may soon return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:00]

ACOSTA: Thousands of miles away from the war in Ukraine, a presidential election with major consequences is under way in France. Incumbent Emmanuel Macron is facing a serious challenge from far right candidate Marine Le Pen, who has a history of sympathizing with Vladimir Putin. CNN's Melissa Bell and Jim Bittermann are joining us now from Paris.

Melissa. You're at Macron's election headquarters. What are we learning about the vote?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a lot of enthusiasm here earlier, Jim, simply because Emmanuel Macron's supporters had not expected that he would do as well as he did, getting more than 28 percent of the vote of the first round, better than he did back in 2016. And this, remember, was a new political entity just five years ago, sweeping aside as he did the political forces that have dominated thus far.

So, an important win for Emmanuel Macron. And yet in a speech he made here a short while ago, Jim, he was very much focused on the fact that what happens now matters most of all. The two-week campaign into the second round that will see him as in 2017 face off against Marine Le Pen, that far right candidate that you mentioned.

This time though, the polls suggest that it could be much tighter than last time. And what the president said tonight was that it was going to be all about convincing the French, making sure that they got out to vote. Managing to convince those who haven't for in this time to get out. And you're right. It is so much that hangs in the balance, the future of Europe, the position of France in the world.

And you have to remember that although Emmanuel Macron got 28 percent of the vote tonight, a good win, better than expected, the extremes, whether it is far left or far right saw more than 5 percent of the vote tonight. So there are a lot of people extremely dissatisfied with what he had to do who voted either far right or far left.

It is them he is going to have to convince. And again, we're likely to see one of the tightest second rounds that we've seen here in France for a long time, Jim.

ACOSTA: Right. And now they're going to have to make a choice. All of those folks in France who voted for these other candidates besides Macron and Le Pen. Jim Bittermann, you're at the Le Pen headquarters. And for American audiences who aren't familiar with these candidates, Le Pen, if she were to somehow shock the world and win and beat Macron, that would have major implications for what is happening in Ukraine right now, and potentially for the NATO alliance. Jim, what do you think?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Jim. In fact, I just checked the Le Pen's party's website this afternoon to see if their stance had changed at all because Le Pen during this campaign has softened her stance a bit on Europe and on NATO. Nonetheless, when I checked the website, it is still on the website that part of their platform is to abandon NATO, abandon the integrated command structure of NATO.

And there is this line that "The security of Europe cannot exist without Russia." A kind of a curious thing, given what's going on in the Ukraine. One thing that should be said after having said the positions, it seems a little difficult, a little hard to understand how she can actually find a path to victory after what's happened during the evening this evening as these other candidates in the race have dropped out, many of them have said don't vote for Le Pen.

Nonetheless, I talked to a supporter of hers this afternoon and I asked how is it that she will be able to find a path to victory? Where will she find the votes? Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERVE JUVIN, MEMBER EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: The voters have the choice, and this choice is of great concern for the future of France. This concern will be between these guys who are very comfortable with globalization -- anywhere against the somewhere. The haves against the have-nots. These guys from (inaudible) work and so on and this guy from the small businesses, from family companies holding their grounds, localists and the cities of France. And I think that Marine Le Pen is deeply concerned on the -- deeply in phase (ph) with all the citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:35:03]

BITTERMANN: We'll see if that holds in another two weeks' time when she has to once again turn out the vote. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. Jim Bittermann and Melissa Bell, it will be interesting to see if Marine Le Pen can soften any of those sharp edges. She has not only cozied up to Putin, she styled herself as sort of a French version of Donald Trump. I can't imagine.

That -- it would just be unbelievable for her to beat Emmanuel Macron here in the coming weeks in this runoff. But both of you, thank you very much. Remarkable race there that you're both following in Paris. We appreciate it. And we'll be right back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:00]

ACOSTA: New today, Pope Francis calling for an Easter truce in Ukraine. In his Palm Sunday service in St. Peter's Square condemning the war, the pope appealed for a ceasefire, saying nothing will be gained by being able to plant a flag on a pile of rubble. The address came during the Vatican's first open air mass since the COVID pandemic began.

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For weeks, Chernihiv was completely cut off from the rest of the country. Once a vibrant city of 300,000 people, now parts of it a wasteland. Just 45 miles from the Belarusian border, it was quickly surrounded by Russian forces. There was no power, no water, and little food. 71- year-old Ivan Ivanovic (ph) survived the relentless bombardment, but his troubles are far from over.

(On camera): He is saying that he's hungry. He needs something to eat. He's asked us if we have any groceries.

WARD (voice-over): Less than one week after Russian forces left this area, Chernihiv is reeling and the true scale of its loss is only starting to emerge. Outside the morgue, makeshift coffins stand ready for the dead. Authorities say at least 350 civilians were killed in the bombardment and they expect to find more.

Overwhelmed, morgue director Sergei Andraev (ph) is now using a refrigerator truck to store the bodies of those who have yet to be identified. Their relatives likely fled the fighting or were killed in it. He tells us hundreds more died because they simply couldn't reach the hospital.

There was a constant flow of dead people like this in our morgue. The main reason was heart attacks, pneumonia, diabetes, he says. And I believe all of this was because they didn't get medical treatment on time.

Cut off from the main cemetery by constant shelling, the city was forced to clear a wood to make room for the dead. Buried in large trenches, their names sign posted for relatives to find.

(On camera): What's so heartbreaking to see is people here looking desperately trying to find their loved ones among this mass of new graves.

"Did you find him?" this woman asks. She is looking for her husband Vladimir Shulga (ph). "I can't find him," her daughter tells us. "I need to keep searching." Those who are lucky enough to find their family members can at least say goodbye. The farewell brings little solace.

(Voice-over): At one grave, relatives mourn the death of Vladimir (inaudible), a Ukrainian soldier who was ambushed by Russian forces as he tried to recover the bodies of his fallen comrades. His father, Leonid (ph) says it was 17 days before the Russians left and he could finally reach the place where his son was killed.

"I dug the ground with my own hands. I uncovered his face," he says, "and I recognized him." "We waited for him and then we lost him" Vladimir's wife says. "They took him and we lost him." Russia's war has taken so many from Chernihiv. And while its forces may have retreated, the grief will long remain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Our thanks to Clarissa for that report. For more information on how you can help provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, just go to CNN.com/impact. Our CNN audiences already donated almost $7.5 million and more help is desperately needed.

Back here in the U.S., there are fears that another recession is coming. Here is Alison Kosik with your "Before the Bell" report.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. Inflation is at a 40-year high and prices aren't expected to ease any time soon. [17:45:00]

This week, we get the March consumer price index. Economists forecast a year-over-year increase of 8.3 percent that would be the hottest reading since January of 1982. The Federal Reserve is trying to get inflation under control by raising interest rates. Last week, stocks sold off as the Fed hinted at even bigger, faster rate hikes. Plus, the rapid reduction of its $9 trillion balance sheet. But there is only so much the Fed can do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Obviously, the Fed can't do anything about the contributors to food and energy inflation tied to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They can't ease some of the supply chain disruptions and shortages. But they can bring down aggregate demand and put that kind of pressure on the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: That kind of pressure can push the economy into recession. Last week, Deutsche Bank predicted aggressive federate hikes will cause the economy to shrink by the end of next year and into 2024. It's the first major bank to forecast a U.S. recession. In New York, I'm Alison Kosik.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:50:00]

ACOSTA: With reports of Russian atrocities in Ukraine mounting, the truth about Putin's invasion is beyond dispute. Much of the world agrees Putin's army has committed war crimes by blatantly attacking civilians in Ukraine. Unless you happen to get your news in Russian. Then there's Tucker Carlson who has accused news outlets of lying about what's really happening in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: If news organizations eagerly promoting the lies about a war, then what can the rest of us believe? What can we know is true? And, honestly, it's hard to know what is true. We can be sure that Russian soldiers have committed atrocities in Ukraine. There are countless pictures of that. Some number of them must be real. But we can also be dead certain the war is not, despite what they tell us, a childish tale of good versus evil. This is Eastern Europe, after all. Everything is a lot more complicated than it looks on American TV.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: It's hard to know what is true he said. The war is not despite what they tell us. A childish tale of good versus evil, he said. A reminder that this is the same commentator who said in 2019 that he was rooting for Russia over Ukraine. Last week, Tucker Carlson tried to imply that some of what you are

seeing has been fabricated and then amplified by news organizations. That sounds a lot like what we heard last week from Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who said that images of bodies of Ukrainian civilians lining the streets in the town of Bucha were, "a forgery aimed at denigrating the Russian army."

But news organizations including CNN sent journalists to Bucha where reporters saw with their very eyes, and a reminder this video is disturbing, bodies lying in the streets and piled up in mass graves. Journalists also traveled to a train station in eastern Ukraine where at least 57 people were killed including five children after a Russian missile strike there.

Ukrainian civilians were using the train to flee the violence in that part of the country. Bombing civilians at train stations and hospitals and schools are all part of Putin's war plan to bring the people of Ukraine to their knees.

In Mariupol, there are reports of mobile crematoriums for the dead and Russian forces rather than allowing surviving civilians to evacuate to safety are reportedly being forced into so-called filtration centers. That's right, you heard that correctly. Filtration centers in the east before moving them to Russia. As you ponder that, listen to this audio obtained by CNN that reveals Russian soldiers talking about intentionally killing civilians.

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UNKNOWN: Kill them all, for (BLEEP) sake.

UNKNOWN: Got it. But all the village here is civilian.

UNKNOWN: What's wrong with you? If there are civilians, slay them all.

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ACOSTA: Slay them all. Slay them all. News organizations are not repeating lies as Tucker Carlson put it. Innocent people, children, are being targeted in Ukraine. There is nothing childish about that. And journalists are putting their lives on the line to tell the truth. Something that you would think Tucker would know considering some of the journalists injured or killed bravely reporting the truth work for Fox.

Last week Benjamin Hall of Fox News tweeted about the serious injuries that he suffered during his own coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Two of Hall's colleagues were killed during that attack. It's been reported that journalists from other news organizations worked to move Hall to safety where he could receive medical care.

Journalists are not doing all of this to repeat lies about what's happening in Ukraine, they are just trying to do their jobs and report the truth. The same truth that, yes, some refuse to see. The same truth that some refuse to share with their viewers. But looking away doesn't make it go away. [17:55:00]

So as we did last week, we leave you with just the images of what has taken place this past week in Ukraine.

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That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Pamela Brown takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break.

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