Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Inside The Lockdown In Shanghai; Russian Warships Sinks, Ukraine Claims Missiles Strike; On The Front Lines Of The War In Eastern Ukraine; Russian Warns Against Sweden And Finland Joining NATO; CIA Chief: Russian Nuclear Threat Cannot Be Taken Lightly; Palestinians: At Least 59 Injured In Jerusalem Clashes; Russia's Navalny Urges Social Media Campaign Against Putin; ICC Investigation Alleged War Crimes; Top ICC Prosecutor: "Ukraine is a Crime Scene"; Ukrainian Railway Says It has Evacuated Nearly 4M People; Shanghai Reports 95% of all New COVID Cases in China; Young Woman Recalls Harrowing Experience in Mariupol. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired April 15, 2022 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States, and around the world. I'm John Vause, live in Lviv, Ukraine.

And on day 51 of Vladimir Putin's war of choice is guided missile cruiser Moskva, now at the bottom of the Black Sea. Sent there by either Ukrainian missile attack or incompetence by Russian sailors. Either way, a huge blow to the Russian military.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And live from CNN World headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Michael Holmes.

Ninety five percent of China's new COVID cases in one city will take you inside the lockdown in Shanghai.

VAUSE: With a crew of 510 of the very latest and high-tech weaponry. The Moskva was the crown jewel of Russia's Black Sea Naval Fleet, a symbol of national pride and naval firepower. And now the guided missile cruiser has sunk. The victim of an apparent missile strike by the Ukrainian military.

Satellite images show the Moskva in port in Crimea just last week. Sources say U.S. and Western Intelligence believes Ukraine's claim of a missile strike, a credible. Russia says a fire broke out on board the ship igniting munitions. The Moskva was involved in a now famous incident in the place called Snake Island.

When its crew told Ukrainian Coast Guardsmen to surrender. The Ukrainians responded, telling the ship where to go. Ukraine's national security adviser says the strike on the Moskva is just the first with much more to come.

And in the U.S. the Pentagon Press Secretary played up the victory for Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PRESS SECRETARY, PENTAGON: This is a big blow to the Black Sea Fleet. This is a cruiser very, very capable warship with almost 500 sailors on board and a key part of their efforts to execute some sort of naval dominance in the Black Sea. So this is going to have an effect on their capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And a Senior U.S. Defense Official announces the first Russian troops, which withdrew from Northern Ukraine to regroup, now appearing in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine, parts of which are already controlled by Moscow backed separatists. Much of the area is in during constant bombardment, civilians are paying a heavy price. CNN's Clarissa Ward shows us the anguish in one town in Donetsk.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The town of Avdiivka is no stranger to war. For eight years this has been the front line of Ukraine's battle with Russian backed separatists. People here are used to shelling and they have never experienced anything like this. A missile can be heard overhead said as an emotional man approaches us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They smashed the old part of town he says.

WARD: As we talk, the artillery intensifies. I told him it's better to go home now because there's a lot of shelling, and he said there's more shelling where he lives. As Russia prepares a major offensive in the East, frontline towns like Avdiivka are getting pummeled.

So, you can hear constant bombardment. This is the bomb shelter down here but you can see this building has already been hit. More than 40 people are now living in what used to be a clothing store.

Lida (ph) and her two sons have been here for three weeks. She wants to leave, but says her boys are too scared to go outside.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We're afraid to stay and afraid to go, she tells us. But it's fate, whether you run or don't run.

WARD: On an apartment block, an icon of the Virgin Mary has been painted. Plea for protection, but there is no respite in the bombardment. If you look over here, you could see the remnants of some fresh strikes.

37-year-old government worker, Ratislav (ph) looks at what remains of his family home. He takes us inside to see the full scale of the destruction. It's completely destroyed. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Nothing.

WARD: Mercifully, no one was at home at the time of the strike. [01:05:03]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's was for the albums. My children's photographs.

WARD: His family has already left, but he says he plans to stay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm afraid like anybody else, only the dead aren't afraid, he tells us. But a lot of people are still here Avdiivka living in bomb shelters, and we need to support them.

WARD: Authorities say roughly 2,000 people remain in this town. There is no water, no heat, electricity is spotty. The local school has become a hub to gather aid and distributed to the community.

Volunteer Igor Golotovs (ph) spends his days visiting the elderly and disabled. Today, he is checking in on 86-year-old, Lydia (ph), petrified and alone he has yet to find an organization willing to come and evacuate her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When there's no electricity and it's so dark and there's shelling, she says, you can't imagine how scary it is.

WARD: She tells us she recites prayers to get through the night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I never imagined that my end would be like this, she says. You can't even die here because there's no one to provide a burial ceremony.

WARD: For Igor, it is agony not to be able to do more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I promise you, he says, I will help you to be evacuated.

WARD: As we leave, Lydia is reluctant to say goodbye. It is terrifying to live through this time to do it alone is torture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's so nice to see real people, she says. Probably it's going to get worse.

WARD: A prediction all but certain to come true because a second Russian offensive draws near.

VAUSE: Meantime, the Kremlin is warning against the further expansion of NATO threatening consequences should Sweden and Finland join the Alliance. Former President, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now part of Russia's Security Council says such a move would cause the Russian military to more than double its forces on its western flank. He suggested that the Baltics would lose their non-nuclear status. But Sweden and Finland are edging closer to applying for NATO membership. Decisions are expected in the coming weeks.

Meantime, the head of the CIA has warned Russia's nuclear threat must be taken seriously. And the Russian President, Vladimir Putin has an increased appetite for risk as this war goes badly for him. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BURNS, DIRECTOR, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they've faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low yield nuclear weapons.

VAUSE: Joining me now is Steven Pifer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, a William Perry Fellow at Stanford University. Mr. Ambassador, thank you for taking the time. I guess there are still concerns that Russia could turn this disaster of a military offensive around with some kind of success in the South and the East. CNN's Fareed Zakaria wrote this in the Washington Post. If that happens, "Russia will have turned to Ukraine into an economically crippled rump state, landlocked and threatened on three sides by Russian military power always vulnerable to another incursion from Moscow."

Here's the thing, for the past 51 days assessments of the Russian military have been way too optimistic while Ukrainian fighters have been way underestimated every step of the way, and the experts seem to keep getting it wrong. Why assume they suddenly get this right?

STEVEN PIFER, SENIOR FELLOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION'S CENTER: Well, I'm not sure at this point that the Russians can prevail. You have seen over the last 50 days, a remarkably determined and tenacious Ukrainian defense. They have driven back the Russians. The Russians have withdrawn from North of Kyiv, the Russians have withdrawn elsewhere in Northern Ukraine. And it appears that the Russian military has significantly downsized objective, it's no longer trying to take Kyiv or the Eastern 2/3 of Ukraine, it's focused now on Donbas.

And so I'm not going to make the assumption that the Russian military can, in fact, win this fight.

VAUSE: Yes. In the early days, when that Russia invasion began, it seems like the best most likely outcome for Ukraine would be to officially recognize what was the status quo, acknowledge areas of Ukraine controlled by Moscow backed separatists, you recognize Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. But now you have 57 days into this. It seems that that's really changed now. That is not on the table anymore. The Ukrainians are going for a lot more here.

PIFER: Well, I think so. I mean, there was a readiness by Ukrainian president Zelenskyy to negotiate, but there was no sign that the Russians were prepared to do anything other than advanced their maximalist demands.

[01:10:10]

PIFER: The Russians still to believe that the Kremlin still seems to believe that they can attain victory on the battlefield. But the Ukrainians have gained a lot of confidence over the last SEVEN weeks with their ability thus far to stymie-Russian plans.

And I think that confidence is perhaps getting them the sense that they in fact, can prevail on the battlefield or at least prevent the Russians from prevailing. And then that gives them a much stronger position, if and when you get to a negotiation.

VAUSE: So that's a question. What does victory look like for Ukraine? And are the Ukrainians on the same page as the U.S., as NATO and the Europeans?

PIFER: Well, I think the Ukrainian definition ideal and the Ukrainians would like to drive the Russians out of Ukraine, and get back at least to the status quo ante on February 23rd. Zelenskyy, as I said, is also I think, prepared to negotiate. He wants to stop the killing of Ukrainians. And there's going to be some hard decisions. On the one hand, Zelenskyy wants to stop the killing of Ukrainians. He also has positions of principle that he wants to protect. And my guess is he understands that some concessions if you were to conserved them might face some blowback from a Ukrainian population, which I think is becoming more determined as a result of this fighting.

And so it seems to me that the position for the United States in the West is let Zelenskyy and his government determine the terms of any settlement, if it gets to that point. You know, we can't tell him to accept a bad deal. And also, if there's a deal that he believes with current interest, we should not tell him not to take that deal. It should be his lead.

VAUSE: Putin is-- absolutely. Putin is looking like a total loser out of all of this in many ways. You know, the Russian economy is heavily sanctioned, it will be suffering from those sanctions for a generation or more. NATO is likely to expand, his military has been exposed as being sort of a paper tiger and all of this. When does that start to impact on his hold on the leadership on the presidency of Russia?

PIFER: That's a really good question. Because if you look at this war, it really has been an unmitigated disaster for Russia. You know, they've taken perhaps as many as 10 to 15,000 soldiers killed in action, 1,000 of pieces of military equipment destroyed. They galvanized the West, Sweden and Finland had now expressed readiness to try to join NATO, because they see that isn't their security interests. And you have the sanctions which is just beginning to take their toll on the Russian economy, which the world bank expects to contract by 11 percent this year.

I don't see how anybody in Moscow simply doubt can consider this a victory for Russia. But I don't know if there's anybody in that inner circle who's prepared to basically go to Putin and say we need to change course. VAUSE: That's what happens when you surround yourself with Yes, men

and those who just tell you what you want to hear, I guess. Ambassador, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

PIFER: Thank you.

HOLMES: Now, the Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 59 people have been injured in clashes at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. That's an area known as the temple mount to Jews and the noble sanctuary to Muslims. Israeli police say violence broke out when some Palestinians used

fireworks and threw stones, and Palestinian State Police then entered the compound. This comes after hundreds of people turned out for the funeral Thursday of a 14-ye-old Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli soldiers in a West Bank village. The second fatal shooting by Israeli forces in the village in five days. CNN's Hadas Gold standing by in Jerusalem with the very latest. What more do you know how does

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael, I'm at the Damascus Gate which is one of the main entrances for Muslim worshippers to enter the Old City. We've actually been here all morning long. And what started as a calm morning, today's a big day. It's not only Ramadan, it's also good Friday and the beginning of Passover quickly turned violent. We were able to hear the booms, the shots, the fireworks going off from where we were just outside of the compound.

What we know is shortly after around 4:00 a.m. or so clashes broke out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound also known as the Temple Mount, the noble sanctuary as you noted before. And we know from the Palestinian Red Crescent at least 50 have been injured, the Israeli policing that they were responding to violent rioters that they say were throwing rocks and fireworks. Police are saying that three of their officers were injured.

There haven't been clashes this bad, Michael at the Al-Aqsa Compound since this time around last year, which of course helped set off that 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. As you know the tensions have already been pretty high across Israel and the West Bank. The Israeli military have increased their raids and operations in the West Bank in response to a series of terror attacks in Israel that killed 14 People in the span of three weeks.

[01:15:06]

GOLD: Now, if you noted there have been several deaths of Palestinians just in the past few days in the West Bank as a result of the clashes. And while that tension is there, it actually-- the spark to what these clashes today at the Al-Aqsa Compound may not actually be what's necessarily happening in the West Bank. And that's because there was a threat from some Jewish extremist groups to go up to what they call the Temple Mount and potentially perform some very ancient Passover ritual sacrifices.

There was a lot of activity, both (INAUDIBLE) Hamas, the militant group that leads Gaza with-- was also warning against it calling on its followers to defend Al-Aqsa. So, now the question will be what will happen next? How will Hamas respond? And it's still early in the morning. What will happen throughout the rest of the day? From what we understand as of right now, young men are not being allowed onto the Al-Aqsa compound but older people as well as all women are being allowed onto the Al-Aqsa compound. Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Hadas Gold, thanks so much appreciate it. Quick break here on the program. When we come back. A prominent opposition figure calls for an all-out social media campaign against Vladimir Putin. We'll have the details after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:20:20]

HOLMES: A Russian opposition leader is urging the West to launch a major social media campaign against the Russian president, who he calls the war criminal from the Kremlin. Alexei Navalny, who's serving a nine-year sentence, after being convicted of fraud last month says in his tweets that, quote, "Truth and free information hit Putin's insane regime just as hard as javelins", which are of course, the U.S. anti-tank weapons being used so effectively by Ukrainian forces.

Navalny went on to say, "More than 85 percent of Russian adults use YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google, and Facebook every day." He is calling for lots of antiwar advertisements.

Joining me now from Washington, DC is CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Susan Glasser. And good to see you, Susan. So what do you make of Navaly's suggestion, and what would it look like such a campaign if he had his way? What might that look like?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I mean, look, Alexei Navalny, you know, my goodness, he's already in a Russian penal colony, and he's communicating with us. And he's found a way around Russia's censorship, and it's sort of new Iron Curtain. So obviously, it is possible. And I do think that's one of the points, right, is that the new Iron Curtain is not the same information-wise as the Old Iron Curtain.

And it is clear that certain information and tools are available to those who have VPNs inside of Russia, just as inside of Iran, or North Korea, you know, or China, right? So it's possible to get information now, in a way that wasn't the case in the past. But how do you crack the mentality of, you know, a people that has been fed propaganda, not just in the last few months of the war, but for years, really? And that I think is no easy task.

HOLMES: How much influence do you think he has, Navalny, and how much reach inside Russia? I mean, how's he viewed there?

GLASSER: Well, you know, it does speak volumes in a way that the Kremlin considers him such a serious threat, that they would throw him into jail after poisoning him, when he stepped off the airplane literally and returned to the country after having been poisoned. They immediately sent him to jail for years, then they re-upped him, right? In the middle of escalating this campaign against Ukraine for, you know, years more. So the Kremlin clearly considers him to be a politician who is a threat to Putin and his regime.

HOLMES: And you mentioned this too, I mean, he's in this penal colony. But in these tweets, he called Vladimir Putin, quote, "The war criminal from the Kremlin." He's in the penal colony, but what risks does he take with what he's doing and saying? He could be putting himself at even worse risk.

GLASSER: Well, that's certainly true. And I-- you know, one can only imagine how horrific the conditions are there and how much worse they could get. No question. You know, these are absolutely Soviet style repression techniques being used against Navalny who is at this moment, I guess, perhaps the most famous dissident in the world.

He is being unjustly persecuted for his beliefs. I think he's used the term war before remember, they passed a new law at the beginning of this war, that even calling it a war could get you sent to jail for up to 15 years. So obviously, he places himself at risk of additional sentences.

HOLMES: So, what do we know about what outside information non-state media information is actually getting through to ordinary Russians? I mean, he points out in his tweets that there is reached through WhatsApp and Facebook and so on.

GLASSER: I think that's right. I do believe and anecdotally, it's certainly true that if you want information in Russia today, you can get it. And again, I believe that you know, in the cities, VPN usage is probably widespread as well as you know, platforms like WhatsApp and the like, you can get information. But remember that state run television has been the main purveyor of news to the Russian people throughout the Putin era as it was during the Soviet era.

And that means that you know, the vast mass of Russian people are receiving their news, you know, directly from television that is spouting (ph) not just propaganda, but you know, really insane propaganda, talking about Nazis in Ukraine and the need to de-Nazify a country run by a Jewish President that Russia attacked without provocation.

HOLMES: Yes.

[01:25:05]

GLASSER: So you know that's what most people are hearing.

HOLMES: And Navalny has claimed is that, you know, contrary to Kremlin messaging, there is widespread public opposition to the war in Ukraine. And that the polls don't count. And he makes a good point here, he says the polls don't count when voicing opposition could land the respondent or the person asking the question in prison giving the new laws enacted recently. Has a good point there, doesn't he?

GLASSER: Yes. Look, it really reminds me of the Soviet era, right? Of course, there was opposition inside the Soviet Union. But it was very hard for the United States to understand and to gage accurately what that was because people only feel comfortable speaking at the kitchen table, not cooking it. And I think we've sadly reverted to that situation once again, in Russia, where it's dangerous to say what you think but that doesn't mean that you don't think it.

But the level of disinformation and misinformation, look, I'm sitting here in Washington, DC at a time when millions of Americans according to our public opinion polls continue to believe that the 2020 election was not legitimately won by Joe Biden. Okay? So propaganda works and lies work. And I can only assume that in Russia with its Soviet tradition that is even more vulnerable to lies and propaganda about the war in Ukraine.

HOLMES: Yes. I was in Ukraine last month, and remember speaking to ordinary ethnic Russians whose own families back in Russia did not believe what they were being told by their sons and daughters about the realities on the ground, which speaks to your point. Susan Glasser, thanks so much as always appreciate it.

GLASSER: Thank you.

HOLMES: People who have fled Ukraine and more are leaving each and every day. After the break. How trains have become an integral lifeline to escape war.

Plus, CNN speaks with the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court as he travels to Ukraine to document evidence of alleged atrocities by Russian forces.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:28]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Just gone 31 minutes past the hour. Welcome back everyone. I'm John Vause, live in Ukraine.

And Ukrainian officials here for weeks have claimed Russia's actions constitute genocide. And on Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament put that in writing. The legislator adopting a resolution calling out Moscow's military offensive as an attempt to wipe out Ukrainian culture and national identity.

The lawmakers cited mass atrocities, willful killing of civilians, the forcible transfer of children to Russian territory as justifications for calling it genocide.

The International Criminal Court at the Hague investigates crimes of genocide. It's already looking into allegations of atrocities here in Ukraine. And after visiting the cities of Bucha and Borodyanka, the courts top prosecutor, Karim Khan, declared Ukraine a crime scene.

In an interview with CNN, Khan said the world had seen horrific crimes many times before but failed to stop them form happening. He says he hopes this time, it is different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARIM KHAN, CHIEF PROSECUTOR, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: The indications are that there will be support, not just for Ukraine but across the situation, this great (ph) realization that a common front needs to be built based upon legality because it affects Ukraine, but it affects all parts of the world because of the rules-based system and the principles of public international law that have to be rendered much more meaningful not to judges in their gowns or advocates in the courtroom, but to the men and women and children that you see on the streets and refugee camps, that are completely innocent and they suffer horrendous crimes, time and time and time again. And we tend to have not only short memories but also an absence of shame that we then wait for hostility and we look at lessons learned. We wait for crimes in different parts of the world and say never again and we see again, time and time again, and it should put us to shame.

So we have to decide well when will we act based upon our shared humanity. And I think this is a moment that should wake everybody up. Many other instances should have. But certainly this is the moment where we should consolidate, wake up and fight for something that is very important, which is legality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: As this conflict drags on, more and more Ukrainians are fleeing their homes for the relative safety of the west of the country and beyond. Many are traveling by train, a safe option and a lifeline for those escaping Russia's aggression.

CNN's Jake Tapper has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Close to 6,000 war crimes being investigated, potentially tens of thousands of massacred, and Russia repositioning for a new assault.

These Ukrainians are not waiting for what is next.

SVETLANA, EVACUATING FROM KHARKIV REGION (through translator): A week ago, we were thinking and hoping that it would stop. It will be calmer. But it did not change.

TAPPER: Less than a week after Russia bombed a crowded railway platform in Kramatorsk, those lucky to evacuate on these trains believe the ride was worth the risk. With air travel now non-existent and unexploded bombs and Russian checkpoints on the roads, trains remain the safest way to flee.

MARINA, MOTHER OF TWO FROM SOUTHEASTERNRN UKRAINE (through translator): It is not only the question of shelling, but the question of safety that some people may come and just take you away. We can't stay.

TAPPER: Baby Maxine and his mother Marina are from Zaporizhzhia but plan to wait out the war in Germany.

[01:34:56]

TAPPER: Outside the main Lviv train station, volunteers at this booth answer questions and help coordinate transportation and safe housing in Germany, Poland, Lviv and more where most want to go is back in time.

VIDA, EVACUATING FROM BUCHA (through translator): We want as soon as possible to continue living as before. TAPPER: Vide and her husband are just two of nearly 4 million

Ukrainians the railways says it has evacuated since the Russian invasion began.

VIDA: People say on the Internet that anything can happen, even here. So we hope it will be easy. We left everything behind.

TAPPER (on camera): Thousands and thousands of Ukrainians fleeing their hometowns come here to the Lviv train station. They try to get accommodations, they can get food here from the World Central Kitchen (ph). There is a fire over there, a wood burning stove heating up water.

People just come with whatever belongings they can take and their loved ones just trying to get to some place safe.

(voice over): Away from the crowds, at a smaller train station nearby, the most fragile passengers have their own carefully coordinated welcome.

(on camera): Doctors without Borders arranged this train. There were a few cars with kids from an orphanage. And now in these remaining card, there are ten people, nine of them children, almost all of them wounded in the attack on Kramatorsk. They are getting off the train, and getting into the ambulances.

This was not the arrival they imagined when they came to the Kramatorsk railway station last Friday. But after Russians targeted the crowd on that platform, many of these passengers, these children suffered shrapnel wounds so deep, surgery is required.

They're train to Lviv is outfitted with medical equipment in each car as well as a team of doctors and nurses. Dr. Stig Walravens (ph) was the ER physician on board for the 24-hour journey, overseeing some complex injuries along the way.

DR. STIG WALRAVENS, ER PHYSICIAN, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: So he had actually a pneumothorax which is air in between the lung and the chest and was due to actually a penetrating trauma of a blast.

TAPPER (on camera): These are the kind of wounds that normally you see in -- normally one expects to see in soldiers, not in children.

WALRAVENS: You expect to see that war struck areas where civilians are also close to the firing line.

TAPPER: Pretty tough stuff to see kids hurt like that.

WALRAVENS: It always remains tough, yes.

TAPPER (voice over): He says his team has been going back and forth on these kinds of medical transports for ten days.

This group of some of Putin's youngest victims safe for now and headed for more care. Back at the main terminal, the trains keep chugging in and out and across the country, bringing Ukrainians from the besieged south and the east to Lviv, where they can have the small luxury of a moment to cry.

Jake Tapper, CNN -- Lviv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: John Vause -- I'll see you again at the top of the hour. A lot more from Lviv.

But right now, let's get back to Michael Holmes to pick kick things up with this story after the break.

China's zero COVID policy intensifies amid rampant spread of COVID cases. We'll show you what life is like under lockdown in Shanghai,

All that with Michael Holmes in a moment.

[01:38:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: New York subway shooting suspect Frank James will stay behind bars for the time being at least. He was denied bail during his initial court appearance in New York on Thursday. He did not enter a plea to a charge related to terrorism and an attack on mass transit.

Prosecutors say James set off two smoke grenades and opened fire during morning rush hour on Tuesday. 29 people injured, ten with gunshot wounds. Four victims still in the hospital. Investigators did not say what his motive might have been.

On Thursday, Shanghai reported more than 23,000 new COVID cases. That is 95 percent of all new infections reported across China. This coming as more than 40 Chinese cities are under full or partial lockdown to try to stop the latest COVID outbreak which still maybe getting even worse.

But for the first time in weeks, some Shanghai residents were allowed to step outside their apartments. One of those our own David Culver. He gives a glimpse at what life under lockdown is like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A few steps of freedom granted to some Shanghai residents strolling their own neighborhood as if taking in some strange new world.

(on camera): But where are you going to go. There is nowhere to go?

(voice over): Most shops still closed, and public transportation halted. Still, this woman can't hold back her joy, recording as she and her neighbors roam the empty streets. After forcing 25 million plus people into weeks of harsh lockdown, government officials facing mounting pressure, lifted some restrictions.

For communities like mine, without a positive case in the last seven days, that meant we could actually step outside our apartments. My neighbors enjoying the taste of relative freedom, and so too are pets, eager to stretch their legs still keeping within the confines of our compound.

The extent of my freedom? Is all the way to here, the compound gate. Still double locked, it has been like that for about a month. In recent weeks we had to get community permission to leave our homes, mostly for COVID tests, of which there are many. We can also step outside to pick up the occasional government distribution.

[01:44:54]

CULVER (on camera): Today's delivery, a bag of rice.

(voice over): But even with heavy restrictions still in place, we have it good, for now at least. A majority of the city remains in hard lockdown, kept to their homes, some hungry and suffering. This woman heard begging in the middle of the night, pleading for fever medicine for her child. And this man recording his dwindling food supply.

Then there were those who've tested positive. Tens of thousands being sent to cramped government quarantine centers, whose residents have described a host of problems. Facilities that were quickly and apparently poorly constructed.

Outside of Shanghai, panic spreading quicker than the virus. The horror stories from China's financial hub have residents and other Chinese cities stocking up, from Xuzhou (ph) to Guangzhou. Online, sales for pre packaged foods surging.

This as China's National Health Commission warns of more cases. And publicly calls out Shanghai for not effectively containing the virus. Shifting blame to local officials for allowing it to spread to other places.

China's strict zero COVID approach forcing dozens of cities into weeks-long full or partial lockdowns. Residents in Jilin (ph), banging on pots to protest. Most of the 24 million people in the northern Chinese province confined to their homes for more than a month now.

Back in Shanghai, the joys of freedoms for some might last only a few hours, as it takes just one new case nearby to send them back inside, resetting the clock for their community. Another 14 days sentence and lockdown, a seemingly endless cycle.

David Culver, CNN -- Shanghai.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: You're watching CNN, we'll be right back after a short break. [01:41:47]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Now, even as harrowing accounts of destruction emerge from Ukraine, so to are tales of courage and survival. CNN's Ed Lavandera speaks to one resident of Mariupol who tried her best to deliver aid and offer support for civilians in hiding, while she was running for her life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When the first bomb struck Mariupol, Katya Erskaya (ph) thought her most effective weapon would be a gentle smile and the ability to calm terrified families. She lived in an underground shelter, coordinating relief supplies for the trapped civilians of this besieged city.

(on camera): So you are watching your city get bombed and destroyed, people are being killed, you decide not to leave but to help.

KATYA ERSKAYA, It's horrible that the enemies didn't allow even children to go out from the city.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Day by day, the video Katya captured showed life in Mariupol unraveling. She lost touch with the outside world. None of her family and friends outside the city knew if she was alive or dead. Life here was falling into an abyss.

ERSKAYA: It was like Middle Ages.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Like the Middle Ages.

ERSKAYA: Yes.

LAVANDERA: It's almost like you could feel yourself running out of time. There was only so much longer you could stay in Mariupol.

ERSKAYA: I thought I will never go from Mariupol, until the end.

LAVANDERA (voice over): On March 16th, Katya evacuated. She recorded two short videos on her way out just before seeing a family walking on the side of the road, a mother, grandmother, and two young girls.

ERSKAYA: We had two or three places in our car, and we saw this family and we decided to help them.

LAVANDERA: At one of the Russian military checkpoints they stopped in front of a soldier.

ERSKAYA: And he showed us go out then, (INAUDIBLE) to turn on our car. And after that he began to shoot.

LAVANDERA: One of the bullets pierced the car over her head, but in the backseat was 11 year old Milyena Urolova (ph), shot in the face. The Russians, realizing their mistake, sent the girl to a hospital. Katya, now separated, traveled on without knowing if the young girl survived, until --

CNN found Milyena in the basement of a children's hospital in eastern Ukraine, after surviving lifesaving surgery. For Katya, the relief is overwhelmed by the horrors of what she witnessed.

ERSKAYA: I saw a lot of dead people, a lot of common graves on the street, for example in Mariat (ph). And I started to believe that they are crazy because they were like maniacs.

LAVANDERA (on camera): They were maniacs to you?

ERSKAYA: Yes, they are really crazy. Like Nazis in the Second World War.

LAVANDERA (voice over): After escaping, Katya remembered the videos she recorded before the Russians ravaged Mariupol. Ukrainians protesting outside the now famous theater that in a matter of weeks, would be the site of one of the most grotesque bombings in this war.

The theater, still intact, the city's buildings unscathed. She sees the peaceful faces of families and children. The video is hard to watch. Are these people alive or left in makeshift graves around the city?

Katya Erskaya doesn't know and for her there is only one way to deal with this haunting reality.

[01:54:56]

ERSKAYA: I decided that I will cry only when the Ukrainians get the victory.

LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN -- Odessa, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The staff at the Russian embassy in Washington thought they had found a crafty way to thwart a protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're trying to drown you out. They're trying to drown you out. Do you see that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: As you can see, they used a spotlight to try to block out the Ukrainian flag which was is being projected on to the embassy building. A cat and mouse game ensued, the spotlight chasing the flag around the building. The embassy staff eventually gave up. Organizers tell CNN their next protest is to plant sunflowers, that national flower of Ukraine on the vacant lot across the street from the embassy.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

We'll return you to John Vause live in Ukraine in just a moment.

[01:55:57]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)