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Vladimir Putin: Talks With Ukraine Are At A "Dead End"; NYPD Identifies "Person Of Interest" In Subway Shooting; Manhunt Underway For A New York City Subway Shooter; Russia Accused Of Launching Mines Into Kharkiv; Small Farming Town Battled Russians, Now A Refuge. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired April 13, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

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[00:00:33]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and I want to welcome all of our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Paula Newton at CNN headquarters in Atlanta and we are following late breaking details on the manhunt for the person accused of opening fire on a crowded subway train in New York City.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Vause live in Lviv, Ukraine with the latest Russia's military buildup for the Eastern offensive as the U.S. president accuses Russia of committing genocide.

NEWTON: We begin this hour though with that man hunt for the Brooklyn subway shooter. Police say the suspect set off two smoke grenades Tuesday morning before firing his gun 33 times, shooting at the crowds both on the train and the subway platform. At least 10 people were hit. No one was killed.

Police have identified the man you see right there and they have identified him as a person of interest because he's believed to have rented a U-Haul van, whose keys were actually found at the scene.

Now, he has not been named as a suspect. Authorities are investigating any possible connection he could have to the shooting. And we will have much more on the story in a moment.

But first, we want to bring you the latest on Russia's war in Ukraine.

VAUSE: Thank you, Paula. Well, for the first time, U.S. President Joe Biden is accusing Russia of committing genocide in Ukraine. Biden made the comment when talking about an increase in gasoline prices and then, doubled down on the accusation later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I call it genocide because it becomes clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian. And the evidence is mounting. We'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: President Biden's words were welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called them the true words of a true leader.

Meanwhile, new satellite images revealed military equipment deployed on Russian soil not far from Ukraine's border. And military convoys have also been seen moving through eastern Ukraine near the Donbass. And on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary State Antony Blinken said it could not confirm the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, but noted there is credible information that Russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents.

And here's what the Ukraine's president had to say about a potential chemical weapons attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Given the repeated threats of Russian propagandist to use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol, and its repeated use by the Russian army, such as phosphorus munitions in Ukraine, the world must respond now, react preventively.

Because after the use of weapons of mass destruction, any response will not change anything. And it will only look like a humiliation for the democratic world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And now, we're hearing from the Russian President Vladimir Putin, he says peace talks are at an impasse. And the war he says will go on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have again returned to a dead end situation for ourselves and for all of us. The military operation will continue until it's fully completed, and the objectives that were set at the beginning of this operation are achieved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: As Russian forces retreated from areas in the north of Ukraine, they littered the area with explosive devices, many drop from the air, others placed in homes or even stuffed in children's toys according to Ukrainian officials.

Many of these devices are antipersonnel mines or anti vehicle mines set to exploit by timers or triggered by detecting nearby emotion.

As CNN's Nima Elbagir reports sweeping the area is slow, dangerous, and potentially deadly work.

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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: This is the central market area in Kharkiv, and this is the site of most of last night's strikes. We've come here with emergency service first responders because the Russians have come up with a new tactic to ensure that the devastation of their attacks lasts far beyond first impact.

Lieutenant Colonel Igor Ovcharuk is head of the bomb disposal team.

[00:05:06]

LT. COL. IGOR OVCHARUK, HEAD OF PYROTECHNIC GROUP, EMERGENCY SERVICES (through translator): The mines explode by themselves and cause damage. These elements can detonate between three and 40 hours later, so we have to detonate them remotely to avoid damage to the civilian population.

ELBAGIR: There are unexploded mines all over this area, so they can't get too close. What they do is they wrap plastic explosives around a wire, link it to a detonator, that's then placed next to the unexploded ordnance. They retreat, then they blow it up.

A brutal new tactic leaving death to lie in wait for unsuspecting civilians.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Kharkiv.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: For now, let's get back to Paul Newton standing by in Atlanta, Paula.

NEWTON: Thank you, John. And more now on the investigation into the New York subway shooting. Police are looking for this man who they've identified as a person of interest, though not a suspect.

62-year-old Frank James is believed to have rented a U-Haul van that could be linked to the shooting. The keys were found along with what police say were the shooters belongings.

Now, Tuesday morning's attack began with a smoke grenade before gunman -- a gunman opened fire. A man who was wounded in the shooting described what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOURARI BENKADA, SUBWAY SHOOTING SURVIVOR: Normally, the train from 59th Street to 36th Street usually takes two minutes. But the train kept stopping in between tunnels. In between 40, 50. It took forever, you know?

And it's an old style train, you can't switch cars, you know, some will -- we had to break -- somebody broke the first door down. The second door is really hard to break. And I was just focused on the pregnant woman. And that's when I got struck in the leg, man. I was just on my way to work.

I was shocked. I'm still shocked and I'm shaking. I don't even know how I'm holding my phone. You know, I don't think I could ever ride a train again, to be honest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Steve Moore is a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent. He joins me now from Los Angeles. And it is good to see you.

What a day and just listening to his account, thinking about him being trapped in the car that way. This is everyone's definition of terror.

I mean, you can't see for the smoke, then all of a sudden you start -- you start having trouble breathing. And then, the shooting starts. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

STEVE MOORE, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Yes, this is the nightmare scenario that we've -- that law enforcement has been working to try and neutralize since 9/11. It's no secret, excuse me, that the -- that subways are somewhat vulnerable. And we have to work towards getting those -- getting those security as soon as possible.

This does point out the vulnerabilities of the subway, and in an ironic twist, that may have been the purpose of the shooter.

NEWTON: Now, I'm going to lean on your investigative experience here. It is long, especially in the years after 9/11. Also, with active shooters, does it surprise you at this point in time? He was on a public train that whoever did this is still at large at this hour?

MOORE: Yes, I think it doesn't surprise me so much that he was able to get away with this or at least get away from this temporarily. He was not very sophisticated. But he was smart enough to know that if you create confusion and havoc, the smoke, the panic, you're going to be able to make some distance between yourself and the scene of the crime before law enforcement people get there.

NEWTON: You know, many people have remarked it could have been far worse. The most puzzling question now. Like always, right, is why? What could the motive possibly be?

When you hear that police found on the train a handgun, at least two smoke grenades, a hatchet, fireworks, gasoline, what does all that tell you?

MOORE: Well, it tells me that he had bigger plans or he had alternate plans. You have the gasoline and the fireworks, obviously, that's to set something on fire and have it burning pretty fiercely, pretty quickly. He didn't do that.

He had a hatchet, didn't use that. He had a gun, didn't use that. And this must sound horrible to the poor victims of this, but he didn't use it extremely lethally.

He -- the wounds I've seen -- every wound I've heard of so far is in the legs. That may be an indicator that he doesn't know how to shoot. Maybe the smoke got him too. But we're just grateful for that. Although leg injuries can be -- can be fatal also.

NEWTON: Yes, absolutely. And there were certainly some victims who remained in serious condition.

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MOORE: Absolutely.

NEWTON: I want to ask you about what investigators do now, though, to try and track this suspect whomever it is?

MOORE: When you catch this guy, and it's not going to be long, I'm fairly certain of this. When you catch him, I've been in interviews the morning after a shooting like this, and the one thing they do is they tell you why they did it. You're not going to find this guy lawyering up immediately and saying, I wasn't there. I don't know what you're talking about.

This guy based on what we've seen of his social media presence and things he said that are very disturbing, this guy wants people to listen to him. This guy wants credit for what he did. And this guy is going to want to explain to law enforcement why he did it. That's part of his satisfaction in this.

NEWTON: All right, we'll leave it there for now, Steve Moore. A reminder at this hour, investigators police still searching for a suspect in that terrible day of terror there on the subway. Steve Moore, thank you.

Now, one small Ukrainian farming town came under attack. What was just a few dozen people, can you imagine? They managed to push the Russians out.

We'll go back to John Vause live in Ukraine for that story ahead and later, how top Kremlin officials with government salaries live in the lap of luxury. We'll dive into what one expert calls Russia's government of thieves.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. I'm John Vause live in Lviv.

Now, as this war continues, it seems there is a growing list of war crimes, at least evidence of war crimes being committed by Russian soldiers, notably leaving behind thousands of unexploded explosive devices actually in areas which are civilian areas.

For more of this now, we're joined by Matthew Schmidt, he's a professor of national security and Political Science at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.

Matthew, thank you for being with us. I just want to be clear, leaving behind mines on bridges and roads and leaving explosives in refrigerators, living rooms and booby trapping children's toys, the only way Russian soldiers have not committed war crimes here is if someone else did that. And that seems about as likely as a snowball's chance in hell.

So, we can say very categorically that war crimes are being committed.

MATTHEW SCHMIDT, PROFESSOR OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT: Absolutely, these are war crimes. If you see this in isolated incidents, then you might say, you know, an incidence of individual short soldiers sort of going overboard. But we see this systematically throughout the theater.

VAUSE: And this is something that the Russian soldiers are actually known for in the past, they have often left behind in the old Soviet days, when there was Soviet military, they've left behind, you know, areas covered in landmines, oftentimes, so that when the civilian population returns or, you know, the liberating forces come through, they're met with essentially death and destruction, right?

SCHMIDT: This is a strategy, the civilian population is the pivot point in this war and what the Russian troops are trying to do right now, what they've been ordered to do is essentially to put so much pain, but so much horror into the civilian population that forces Zelenskyy to negotiate from a position he may not be ready to negotiate from.

On the other hand, it also forces him to act before he's ready, particularly in the Donbass right now. And so, you know, the new General Varennikov can sit here and use this kind of policy, this strategy of committing war crimes, and terrifying the civilian population to control the negotiating standpoint of his enemy.

VAUSE: Well, we heard from the Russian President Vladimir Putin actually talking about those peace negotiations that had been ongoing. He spoke publicly. It's been a while since he's actually made any kind of public remarks.

And he said that Ukraine had violated agreements which had been reached during those talks earlier, by trying to apply security guarantees to areas of Ukraine, which are under Russian control.

I want you to listen to a little more from Vladimir Putin. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN (through translator): Now, security requirements are one thing. And the issues of regulating relations over Crimea, Sevastopol and Donbass are taken out of the scope of these agreements. That is, we have again returned to a dead end situation for ourselves and for all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So if peace talks, according to Putin are at a dead end. What does that then mean? Looking -- how can you directly link that to what will happen to civilians -- to the civilian population?

SCHMIDT: Well, they're at a dead end on both sides. Because Putin has been ordering these war crimes. He's also put Zelenskyy in a situation where, because he needs a national referendum to get through any kind of peace agreement, he's unlikely to get that now. The sense of the Ukrainian population has turned.

On the other hand, Russia has never been negotiating from a position of good faith. And so, both sides now are racing to get positioned in the Donbass. The Russians are flipping the battlefield. They're going from the offense to the defense in large part because they've lost so many junior officers that they need to be in a defensive position where it's easier to operate, right where that the simple order is hold the line, and they can wait to try to remand when they get the new conscripts trained up and moved into place.

So, that's the game that's going on right now. And I wouldn't put any faith into these negotiations.

VAUSE: We continue to see these Russian forces moving into the east, and they're bringing this military offensive and material with them. I want you to listen to President Zelenskyy. He had this reminder of where the war stood right now. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:09]

ZELENSKYY (through translator): Do you remember how Russia bragged that they would cease Kyiv in 48 hours?

Instead, Ukraine has been repelling the enemy for 48 days. Today, it is worth remembering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, it's a good point. But can the successes they've had in the early part of this conflict, can they now repeat that if they are forced, you know, to take on the Russians who will then be in those defensive positions as they wait to rearm and get reinforcements?

SCHMIDT: Well, it's worth bearing in mind that Ukraine hasn't won this war, that the Russians for all the problems they've had are still controlling operational tempo and making the Ukrainians respond to them and not the other way around.

Now, Zelenskyy is trying to flip that back and take off tempo on his side, but what he needs are weapons. But the announcement today that the United States is going to be sending over things like up armored Humvees, which will stand in as sort of substitute for tanks gives the Ukrainians a lot of hope that they can do this.

But again, it's a race. It's how fast can that material flow into the theater of operations and how quickly can Ukrainians utilize it to keep the Russians from establishing a line of contact that takes over the whole Donbass? VAUSE: So, it's all about timing and it's all about the urgent need for weapons. And I guess we'll continue to see what happens with that.

Matthew Schmidt, it was great pleasure to have you with us sir, thank you.

SCHMIDT: My pleasure.

VAUSE: Well, Russia has shifted his strategy in Ukraine, President Putin has made it clear he has no plans that this war will come to an end anytime soon. As senior U.S. defense official believes Russia still has about 80 percent of the combat power that had masked before the invasion began.

But the Ukrainians continue to defy expectations, and that resistance continues to show. Their resolve has been plain to see, especially in one small farming town, as CNN's Ed Lavandera reports.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): One look at these massive craters in the small Ukrainian town of Bashtanka, near Mykolaiv, and it's not hard to imagine the horror inflicted by Russian forces bombing this neighborhood.

Bashtanka mayor Oleksandr Berehovyi brought us here. He says the Russian plane that dropped the bombs circled over these homes several times before unleashing the explosive attack.

This is a simple peaceful town, he says, with just ordinary people, no military. Farming is what we do here to feed the country and the world.

There was a 70-year-old man in this house peeling potatoes when this bomb struck. What happened to him?

God decided not to take him away, he tells me the man survived.

For more than a week in March, this little town of 12,000 people fought off the Russians any way it could.

Town Council Member Vitaliy Homerskik put out a Facebook plea that if anyone knew how to fire a cannon, they should race out to help.

A humble force of about a hundred people pushed the Russians out. More than 170 buildings were damaged. The charred wreckage was left all over town.

But the mayor tells the story of one fighter who became an instant legend, a 78-year-old man who was told he was too old to fight.

Instead, he made a Molotov cocktail and threw it at a Russian artillery system blowing it up. We've asked to speak with the man, but we're told by city officials that they're protecting his identity to keep him safe. The town might have won the battle but this war never ends. Bashtanka

is now a frontline refuge for thousands of Ukrainians hoping to escape.

Every day at this church, buses drop off refugees fleeing Russian occupied areas just a few miles away.

Zakruzetska Ruslana says she left the city of her Kherson after enduring weeks of bombardment with her two children and nieces.

ZAKRUZETSKA RUSLANA, KHERSON RESIDENT (through translator): They break into people's homes every night, drag people out, beat them up. My neighbors were beaten up. Thank God they're still alive. They're probably doing that to scare people so they're always in fear.

It was horrible there. Every day people are going crazy, to be honest. It's intolerable. The children detention is terrible. We don't know if we'd wake up alive.

LAVANDERA: Escaping alive is a dream as we found closer to the front lines. The nearby village of Yafkino (PH) has endured weeks of shelling.

You can see the munitions and the shrapnel. You can see this building over here peppered with holes.

As we meet with the village headman, it's clear the fighting isn't over.

[00:25:02]

LAVANDERA: What is that noise?

Yes, they are firing, he says. Oleksandr Covriga (PH) tells us Russians fired cluster artillery at a group of young people charging their phones in this spot.

The do it on purpose so people will panic, he tells me.

We understand that there was a refugee 17 years old who came here trying to escape and she was killed?

Lydia Dominica (PH) couldn't escape the Russian strikes. A young woman trying to reach Bashtanka. Her mother says she was studying food production and shared these photos, so her daughter could not be forgotten.

Inside Bashtanka's war room council member Vitali Homersky (PH) shows us the calendar where they mark the days of war.

When the war started, our life was divided, he tells me. There's before and after we mark every day we survive this battle.

Right now, the Russian army is regrouping and is expected to attack again from the East. We are 25 miles away from the front line. How concerned are you that the Russians are going to be able to get back here?

The mayor says we are not concerned, our country is good at two things, making bread and fighting. If we need to fight, we all rise up and fight. If we don't need to fight, we grow bread.

But right now, the town of Bashtanka remains on the front lines, giving families like Zakruzetska Ruslana and her daughters a way to catch a bus and leave the war behind.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Bashtanka, Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Great report there by Ed Lavandera. We'll take a short break.

When we come back, the U.S. president refusing to send active troops to Ukraine. So, American military veterans are coming here anyway. One retired Marine colonel training Ukrainians to fight back. More on his story in a moment.

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NEWTON: And welcome back. Recapping the manhunt that's underway for a gunman who reportedly set off two smoke bombs, then opened fire in a New York City subway. Now it happened Tuesday.

[00:31:35]

Authorities say 33 shots were fired. Ten people were hit, including five students commuting to school. All, thankfully, are expected to survive.

Police named Frank James as a person of interest. Keys to a U-Haul van were found at the scene, and that van was later discovered in Brooklyn. Police say James rented the van, but they don't know if he has any connection to the subway attack, and he has not been named as a suspect.

The U.S. is expected to announce another round of military aid for Ukraine. Two sources tell CNN the package will be close to $700 million.

But the U.S. president is standing by his refusal to send active-duty troops here to fight. But there are a growing number of U.S. veterans making their way to Ukraine, volunteering to help Ukrainian fighters in a war where they're outnumbered and outgunned by the Russian military.

CNN's Jake Tapper has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Current U.S. service members are not in Ukraine. But U.S. veterans, they damn sure are.

At an undisclosed location in Ukraine, a retired U.S. Marine, veteran Colonel Andrew Milburn is training Ukrainians to fight the Russians.

Melbourne knows what it's like on the frontlines. An American who grew up in the U.K., he has served in Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

COL. ANDREW MILBURN (RET.), U.S. MARINE CORPS VETERAN TRAINING UKRAINIANS: You know I went through the battle of Fallujah. I would rather do that again than -- than confront, you know, a 12-hour barrage of Russian artillery like the one we're seeing.

TAPPER: Having retired from the U.S. military in 2019, Melbourne runs an organization that brings in other former Special Forces members to assess the needs of various militaries.

After losing the battle of Kyiv, leaving behind devastation and evidence of atrocities, the Russians are now returning to the Eastern flank of Ukraine to what will likely be a series of large-scale battles.

MILBURN: Ukrainian military at large is more adaptive than the U.S. military, and I think -- I think I feel justified. I mean, I'm qualified to say that.

TAPPER: This more open, less wooded terrain in the East could be more challenging for the Ukrainian military, which was able to rely on guerilla tactics and calling in targeted strikes in the North.

MILBURN: It is going to be a significant challenge. Russians are much stronger in the -- in the defense.

TAPPER: Milburn trains ordinary Ukrainians to fight in the resistance, as well as training more elite Ukrainian Special Forces like Mykola.

Ukrainian success, Mykola says, are because of help from the U.S., other NATO countries, and individuals like Milburn.

MYKOLA, MEMBER OF UKRAINIAN SPECIAL FORCES: Also because of your help, we were quite successful with the first attack. So Russians leave our territory, not for their own wishes. They lost a lot of troops, a lot of tanks, a lot of armed vehicles. We were using -- we were using modern Europe and American anti-tank missiles. And they lost a lot.

TAPPER: He knows what's to come will be tough.

MYKOLA: We need more. Now, yes, you are right, we have a pause. But it's not -- it doesn't mean that the war has stopped already.

TAPPER: Melbourne agrees. The Ukrainians still need a great deal.

MILBURN: They need drones, right? They need drones with a range longer than the DJ-1. They need secure radios, because they need to communicate. Those are very basic things. They need medical equipment.

TAPPER: Even upgrading the basic equipment they already have could make a big difference, he says. MILBURN: A lot of times they're just -- they're coordinating by cell

phone, or by just, you know, kind of regular Motorola radios, which can be intercepted, geolocated, jammed.

So anyone who's been in any western military would be astounded.

TAPPER: But weapons and equipment are not the only need. Training, he says, is key.

MILBURN: They lack medical training. And evidence of that is, if you talk to Ukrainian medics, there are some horror stories out there. So injuries that would be easily survival in Iraq or Afghanistan by U.K. or U.S. force soldiers, Ukrainians are dying from here.

TAPPER: Milburn is proud of his time in uniform. He is proud to be a Marine. But there is something purer about this fight, he says, than the others he has fought.

MILBURN: But frankly, you know, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially Afghanistan after the debacle back in -- you know, I want to say August, there was always a kind of moral ambivalence. There was always a feeling of being an invading army, right. Even -- even at the beginning of those conflicts, we thought our courses were clear (ph).

So there was always that -- there was always kind of that dissonance between the idealism that pulled you into the military, and then what you found yourself doing.

Here, there's no such thing. You've got one sovereign nation being invaded by another. And yes to your point, when it comes down to it. It is evil; good versus evil. And this time it's all very squarely on the side of good.

TAPPER: Jake Tapper, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Paula Newton will take over after the break, and I'll be back at the top of the hour.

And when she comes back, the British prime minister gets fined for breaking COVID rules. A hundred quid, it seems. But the political fallout from Partygate could be very costly.

And in a city under lockdown, a mother in Shanghai goes to extraordinary lengths to get medication for her sick child.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:03]

NEWTON: The British prime minister has apologized and paid his fine but is refusing to resign for his role in the so-called Partygate scandal.

Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak are among those fined by London's Metropolitan Police for attending illegal parties in government buildings during COVID lockdowns. CNN's Nada Bashir picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In yet another shocking development in Britain's Partygate scandal.

(voice-over): Prime Minister Boris Johnson, alongside his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and his wife, Carrie Johnson, have been issued with a fixed penalty notice for taking part in social gatherings in breach of COVID regulations.

And this fine in particular centers around a social gathering which took place in June 2020.

(on camera): We've heard from the prime minister. He said the event in question was a celebration with colleagues in the cabinet at 10 Downing Street to mark his birthday.

Now, he has issued an apology for taking part in this social gathering, but he also said that he wasn't aware at the time that this event was in breach of those COVID regulations put in place by his government.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I have to say, in all frankness, at that time, it did not occur to me that this might have been a breach of the rules. But of course, the police have found otherwise, and I fully respect the outcome of their investigation.

BASHIR: Now that police investigation is still ongoing. We, of course, heard over the Christmas period of several parties and social gatherings which took place within Downing Street and across other government apartments and offices.

So there are still some questions as to how many other politicians will be implicated in this scandal.

(voice-over): The prime minister has since confirmed that he has paid the fine, but that will come as little consolation to the many politicians and members of the public who have been calling on the prime minister to resign over the scandal.

We've heard from the opposition leader, Keir Starmer; Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon; and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, all calling on the prime minister to step down from his position.

But the prime minister did address these calls for resignation. He said he wants to draw a line under the scandal, to move forward, and to focus on delivering his policy priorities for the country. And of course, to focus on Britain's response to the war in Ukraine, as well as the humanitarian effort on that front.

(on camera): But for the many people who lost loved ones as a result of the COVID pandemic, who were forced apart from friends and family while abiding by those COVID regulations put in place by the prime minister, the news that he has now been fined for breaking those regulations will only heighten the anger and frustration that we saw over the Christmas period, when the revelations of these parties came to light.

And with local elections coming up just around the corner in May, the government will be waiting to see how this frustration translates at the ballot box.

Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: The deputy director of China's National Health Commission warns Shanghai's COVID-19 outbreak has, quote, "not been contained effectively."

The city has seen tens of thousands of new cases for days. With 220,000 new infections since March 1.

CNN's Anna Coren joins us now from Hong Kong.

You've been following this each and every day. We talk about whether or not there has been some slight easing of restrictions but I guess the heart of the matter is, is there access to better food, and, crucially, medicine?

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, you know, certainly the people we are speaking to have yet to see the results of that.

We know the food and medicine shortage has been 25 million people in Shanghai have been experiencing since the end of March.

[00:45:04]

Obviously, we know that delivery platforms have -- have resumed operation. There should be more movement around the city. But there are still neighborhoods going without. And that is incredibly distressing.

What we know is that about 4.8 million people are now allowed to leave their homes, leave their compounds, leave their neighborhoods and walk around their neighborhoods.

We should also stress, though, that the public transport system has been shut down, as have supermarkets. So herein lies more problems.

But for 20 million other people, Paula, they cannot leave their homes and some can't leave their compounds. They may be allowed out of their homes but not out of their compounds.

As you said, you know, we heard from the National Health Commission that said that this outbreak had not been effectively contained, and yet, it would seem that they are relenting to that pressure that has been applied to them over the last few weeks, you know, by residents taking to social media, venting their anger and frustration about what they are enduring.

I mean, this is the economic engine of Shanghai. This is an international city, under 25 million people, and yet it is not feeding these people that they have kept, as one resident said, like caged animals.

I now want to play you, Paula, a clip which is really quite alarming and perhaps shows the desperation that people are experiencing.

This is a distressed mother, who was looking for medicine for her baby who had a fever at 2 in the morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GRAPHIC: I am from room 305. Do you have medicine for a fever? My child has a fever! Is anyone home? Excuse me, sorry to bother you! Anyone? Is anyone awake?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: You can only imagine the distress that she was going through. We've since heard that the baby' s fever has come down and that she had contacted the ambulance service. They said, There are 300 people in the queue before you. We can't attend to your baby.

NEWTON: Just so shocking. So Anna, thanks for being on top of it. Appreciate it.

Still to come, how the kids of Russia's elite are able to afford the best the world have to offer, despite a very small government paycheck.

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NEWTON: In his latest public appearance Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin shrugged off sanctions, saying that it would be impossible to isolate his country, even though so assets have now been targeted.

Now, although Russian government employees, including some in the Kremlin, have railed against the West, a quick look at their lavish lifestyles begs the question: How are they able to afford any of this?

CNN's Drew Griffin finds out.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Putin's atrocities continue in Ukraine, he falsely blames the West and Europe for the war.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The whole planet is now paying for the West's ambitions and the West's attempts to maintain its elusive dominance.

GRIFFIN: Yet, his own adult daughters, sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, both have reportedly owned property in the West, including this seaside mansion on the French coastal town of Biarritz.

JODI VITTORI, PROFESSOR, WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: It's hypocritical to deride the West and their liberal values and then still rely on the West and their liberal values.

GRIFFIN: That hypocrisy -- criticizing the West while family members live in the West -- is shared by Putin's inner circle. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov's unofficial role as Vladimir Putin's chief liar.

DMITRY PESKOV, KREMLIN PRESS SECRETARY: Russian military are not hitting civil aims, civil targets.

GRIFFIN: He spent his life in government jobs, official salary about $173,000 in 2020; yet, has been spotted wearing a $600,000 watch, according to an anti-corruption group.

His socialite daughter, Lisa, went to a boarding school in France, interned at Louis Vuitton and posted pictures of an enviable life in Paris, filled with fashion and glamour.

ELIZAVETA "LISA" PESKOVA, DMITRY PESKOV'S DAUGHTER (through translator): I consider myself a person of the world. I was born in Turkey, lived in France, studied in Russia and France. That is, I don't have any favorite country. I love each place in its own way.

GRIFFIN: So how does a family live like this on a Russian government salary? Lisa Peskova once wrote a tongue-in-cheek post, saying she's the daughter of the main billionaire and thief of the country. The U.S. Treasury all but used the same language when they sanctioned her and other family members, saying they live luxurious lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov's civil servant salary and are likely built on the ill-gotten wealth of Peskov's connection to Putin.

Peskova called the sanctions a "witch hunt" on Telegram, saying, "accusing family for enabling war in madness" and she's "proud to be Russian."

Jodi Vittori, Georgetown University professor, specializing in illicit state financing, says it boils down to Russia's current governmental system: kleptocracy.

VITTORI: A kleptocracy is merely a government that is ruled by thieves and where the policies and decisions made are on behalf of those thieves.

GRIFFIN: It's a similar story with Russia's foreign minister. Sergey Lavrov officially makes $142,000 a year. But the 27-year-old who's been described as Lavrov's step-daughter by the British government has been living a lavish lifestyle. Her name is Polina Kovaleva.

The anti-corruption foundation says she attended a British boarding school. Like Peskov's daughter, she's left a social media trail of exotic trips, filthy rich adventures, and high style across Europe and beyond.

And she reportedly owns a 4 million pound property in London, according to the U.K., where she's been sanctioned for "benefitting from association of those responsible for Russian aggression."

[00:55:11]

Though the accounting is almost impossible to trace, Russian anti- corruption investigator Maria Pevchikh is convinced the apartments, the mansions, lifestyles are the real salaries being paid to Putin's allies.

MARIA PEVCHIKH, HEAD OF INVESTIGATIONS, ANTI-CORRUPTION FOUNDATION: The system works in a way that's in order to keep those people that are willing to be the face of Putin's regime, like the ministers, they need to be incentivized. Their salary is not enough.

GRIFFIN: Georgetown's Jodi Vittori says the people in Putin's inner circle know it could all vanish in an instant.

VITTORI: He can turn on any of his regime at any time he so chooses. Your assets can be frozen. You can go to jail. Your family can go to jail. You could find yourself chased out.

So moving as much has you can out of the country also just makes sense.

GRIFFIN (on camera): As for a response to this from the Kremlin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tells us that neither Putin nor Lavrov have accounts in Britain or anywhere else abroad. And as for the sanctions against Putin's daughters, a spokesperson told us this: that Russia will respond without fail and will do so as it sees fit.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

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NEWTON: Thanks for spending some time with us this hour. I'm Paula Newton at CNN Center in Atlanta. We will be right back and go live to Ukraine with John Vause for the latest on the Russia conflict.

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