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Interview With Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ); Ukrainian Armed Forces: "Increasingly Hostile" Situation Developing; United Nations: More Than 4.8 Million Refugees Have Fled Ukraine; Germany Seizes Superyacht Connected To Russian Oligarch; NY State On Alerts For Two Covid Subvariants As Philadelphia Reinstates Mask Mandate On Monday; U.S. Inflations Hits 40-Year High, Rising 8.5 Percent In March; Stolen Innocence: Russia's War Taking The Lives Of Children. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired April 16, 2022 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:01:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST (on camera): Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, new shelling across Ukraine as Russia intensifies its attacks in the country.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): CNN teams on the ground in eastern Ukraine witnessing a Russian strike on a market. We'll have more on that in a moment. But first, the new attacks in the West.

Air raid siren sending chilling warning today in Lviv and Kyiv explosions in the capital city. At least one person and -- was killed and several others were injured.

The mayor warning those who fled the city that it is still not safe to return. And now, we're getting a gruesome picture of the horror left behind as Russians retreat from Kyiv. Ukrainian officials say more than 900 bodies of innocent civilians have been discovered there so far.

While in the south, the besieged port city of Mariupol is a hollow shell of its former self.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAVLO KYRYLENKO, HEAD, DONETSK REGION MILITARY ADMINISTRATION: The enemy cannot seize Mariupol. The enemy may seize the land that Mariupol used to stand on. But the city of Mariupol is no more.

The city of Mariupol has been wiped off the face of the earth by the Russian Federation.

WHITFIELD: Ukrainian officials say Russia's relentless new onslaught in southern Ukraine is revenge for the sinking of a prized Russian warship in the Black Sea.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a dire message to the world that Russia could eventually use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD (on camera): Officials in Mykolaiv, Ukraine describe the situation there as incredibly hostile.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): CNN's Ed Lavandera, joining me live now from Odesa. And the mayor of Mykolaiv says Russian troops attacked the kindergarten -- the school, a building today. What more can you tell us?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Right, the mayor sharing those images of a -- what he says is a destroyed kindergarten building. There's also images of shelling that landed in a playground area.

And this really kind of goes in line with what we have seen when we were there yesterday, the indiscriminate shelling of that city. The front line in that region of South Central Ukraine is about 35 miles to the east of there.

There's a city called Kherson that is occupied by Russian forces right now. And that is where a lot of the artillery fire and the rockets and cluster munitions that we have seen evidence of has been fired from.

So, this is, you know, part of a -- what seems to be a stepped-up relentless attack on that city, very indiscriminate in nature, which Ukrainians believe is designed to sow panic in the city.

But I can tell you, on when we were there on a day where there were three or four different locations where explosions were heard, five people were killed, 15 others injured, you can be in different parts of the city, and almost be totally unaware that this was happening.

So, it's a bit of a surreal mixture when these attacks in this -- in this indiscriminate way, land on a city like Mykolaiv. But the significance of this area, Fredricka, I think will continue to grow here in the coming days and weeks as we have seen an offensive and a put -- in the renewed push from Russian forces there in the south of the country to continue moving toward the west, or at least, inflict a great deal of damage on cities on the edge of those front lines to kind of sow the seeds of fear.

And also, the city is dealing with now for days without water. In fact, we were at a location yesterday where people were coming with buckets and bottles to fill up water from a river and the natural stream.

WHITFIELD (on camera): And then, Ed, the Ukrainian military, and regional officials say that there have also been intensified Russian attacks in the east of the country. What more do you know about that?

[12:04:58]

LAVANDERA: Yes, if you look at new video we have for in the city of Kharkiv, which is in the northeast area of Ukraine, this is an area that has undergone intense shelling and attacks for several days now.

Ukrainian military officials believe that what Russian forces are trying to do is to essentially cut off the city and soften it up so that it would give Russian forces time to regroup and re-gather. And they believe that this is the shelling, that is kind of marking the beginning of a ground offensive that they expect to take place in the coming days.

And so, that relentless attack continues not just there in Kharkiv, but further south into the Donbas region that is obviously an area that we've talked about so much.

But they believe that all of this is part of a -- of a tactical plan to soften up Ukrainian targets, make it more difficult for them to work, inflict as much damage as possible with aerial munitions before they move in on the ground.

WHITFIELD: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much from Odesa. Continue to be safe.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): And this new video just into CNN of shelling at a market in a town in the eastern part of Ukraine. A CNN crew witnessed the strikes there, capturing this video in the Luhansk region.

The videos shared on social media and geo-located by CNN also show burning buildings following the attack at that market earlier today. No word yet on casualties.

And CNN crews also captured video of a large plume of thick black smoke, as you see right there, rising into the air after a fuel depot was hit by strikes in the same region.

WHITFIELD (on camera): Russia's war on Ukraine began more than 50 days ago.

WHITFIELD (voice-over): And in that time, the U.N. says more than 4.8 million people have left Ukraine in search of safety from the bombings, missiles, and other deadly attacks.

More than half of those people have taken shelter in Poland, as they wonder where they're going next.

Salma Abdelaziz is on the border with more.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER (on camera): This is going to be an unimaginably difficult holiday weekend for Ukrainian refugees. 2.7 million of them are here in Poland.

And I'm at a train station, that's essentially a reading point, a halfway point for many of these refugees, because what they do is they get here, and then, take a look. They sit and they waited out. They try to figure out where they're going to go next, where they're going to spend the night.

Because many people don't have a plan. They don't know what they're going to do. They just know that they're fleeing for safety. And they have with them only what they can carry, and of course, the little ones with them. You can see this one is waiting it out with her mom here, until they see where they can go.

So, this refugee -- this train station is in a way, a refugee shelter. This young man has his dog with him, you can see that there. So, that's a lot of what you see here is refugee pets too.

And, again, when these refugees arrive here, they need help. They need support, they need assistance.

I'm going to show you another thing here. This is a medical station. So, somebody needs to get some help, they can do that. And that's what's offered at this train station, warm food, medical assistance, a friendly face, if that's what you need.

So, you have these 2.7 -- over 2.7 million refugees now here in Poland. But they are not static, they are constantly moving, shifting, trying to find out where they go and what they do next. That's why there's a question. How do you continue to support them? How do you give them a more permanent sense of home? Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, on the Poland-Ukraine border.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk more about all this with Congressman Tom Malinowski. He's a Democrat from New Jersey and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Good to see you again, Congressman. You're own family history is tied to fleeing communism during the Cold War. So, how does this refugee crisis resonate with you right now?

REP. TOM MALINOWSKI (D-NJ): Well, I, you know, all of this reminds me of stories that my family told me about hiding from the Nazi invaders of Poland during the Second World War.

It brings back a lot of those family memories. They're not my personal memories, of course. But look, the good news in this huge refugee crisis is that unlike most of the world's refugees, these Ukrainian families have Western Europe, wealthy countries as their first port of call. They're not in a refugee camp with no food and water.

And even more important, they're not looking for permanent resettlement. They are looking for temporary safety, and then to go home to Ukraine, to a free and liberated Ukraine as quickly as possible.

And so, as we think about all of them on this Easter Passover weekend, let's redouble our efforts to help Ukraine win, so that these folks can go home as soon as possible.

[12:10:02]

WHITFIELD: So, thus far, the U.S. has pledged to welcome up to 100,000 refugees from Ukraine. In your view is it happening fast enough? Does it seem like there's real clarity on that open invitation? MALINOWSKI: Look, I think it's a -- it's a wonderful gesture that we have made. And some of these Ukrainian families have family in the United States. And those are the ones I think we will be prioritizing for resettlement in the U.S.

But again, I just want to stress, the overwhelming majority of these refugees are not refugees in the classic sense, they are not looking to permanently move to Europe or to the United States. They have male relatives, back home and Ukraine who are fighting to liberate their country.

And if, you know, if we take hundreds of 1000s, of people of Ukrainians to the United States, that would be a failure. Success is helping them go home. And so, the main thrust of our effort has to be to help them liberate their country, and then to help them rebuild their country. That is a success.

WHITFIELD: So, you see this as an opportunity for, you know, as a temporary refuge, the U.S. was, would act as a temporary refuge.

MALINOWSKI: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: OK, well, let's talk now about Russian assets. German authorities just seized a yacht connected to a Russian oligarch. And it's believed to be one of the most expensive in the world, as we see right there. And then you actually co-wrote an op-ed this week about legislation that you have introduced, that would give President Biden authority to seize Russian assets and also increase support to Ukraine.

Explain how you see this working, the -- you know, seizing the assets and how that would then translate or turn into assistance to help rebuild Ukraine.

MALINOWSKI: So, look, first, we have to help them win. Second, we've got to plug the holes in the remaining sanctions. There is still too many opportunities for these Russian oligarchs and the Russian government to make money and to hide it in third countries around the world.

But third, we got to start thinking about how we rebuild Ukraine in partnership with the Ukrainian people?

We have seized we have frozen over 200 -- with our allies, over $200 billion of Russian Central Bank assets.

We have seized or frozen yachts, and villas, and private planes, and bank accounts belonging to Russian oligarchs all over the world.

And the reality is we're not going to be returning that wealth to Putin when there is a ceasefire. Not well, Ukraine lies in ruins.

So, the question is, what do we do with that massive amount of wealth? And I think we need to find a way to repurpose it, for the purpose of rebuilding the country that Putin is destroying. And this week, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy asked President Biden to name Russia as a state sponsor of terror. And currently there are four, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria, that would seem to escalate the level of sanctions against Russia even further, right?

I mean, is that something the U.S. should consider?

MALINOWSKI: I don't think it would have any material impact on the sanctions because we are already massively sanctioning the Russian government, people who support the Russian government. It would be a symbolic step.

And I understand President Zelenskyy wants us to label Russia with every possible horrific, negative label that they -- that they deserve. That's good symbolism.

But in terms of the sanctions, I don't think there is much more that we that we would do with such a label.

The important thing is enforcing the sanctions that we've already put in place. I don't like reading stories about Russian oligarchs setting up shop in the United Arab Emirates, for example, that's supposed to be an ally of the United States. I don't -- I don't love hearing about India, stepping up purchases of Russian oil, or Russian diamonds being laundered through the Gulf States or Israel to reach the United States.

All of these things have been sanctioned on paper, but, you know, it's hard work to actually enforce them and make sure that all of these third countries around the world are choosing the right side.

WHITFIELD: All right, Congressman Tom Malinowski, thank you so much for being with us today.

MALINOWSKI: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Russia is going to great lengths to downplay the sinking of that Russian warship on Russian state medium. There was no mention of the sinking of the Moskva. When there was the Russian people were fed lies about what exactly happened.

Here is CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Russia's biggest naval loss in a generation hidden by propagandists state T.V.

[12:14:59]

ROBERTSON: Top story on Russia as most-watched primetime news show, gas exports.

Anchors railing against the west.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Moskva. ROBERTSON: Almost half an hour later, the first mention of Russia's prestigious prized Black Sea fleet flagship, the Moskva, they've buried the lead. Now they lie about it. Claiming it's afloat, there's no open fire.

Ammunition explosions are contained. It's another six hours near midnight, most Russians asleep, when Russia's military finally acknowledged what Ukrainian officials have been saying for hours that the $750 million, according to Forbes Ukraine, nuclear capable guided missile cruiser has sunk.

It's not the first Russian naval ship. The Ukrainians say they've hit, March 24, claiming to have destroyed an amphibious assault ship. Putin's losses are mounting. A failed assault on Kyiv, 1,000s of troops killed, massive economic sanctions is apparent callous indifference to naval losses has a track record as long as his reign.

In 2000, during training exercises, the nuclear-powered Kursk submarine sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea. Putin was on vacation, reluctantly only returning to Moscow nearly a week later. 218 men died.

LARRY KING, HOST, ORA T.V.: What happened?

ROBERTSON: When confronted back then by CNN's Larry King, Putin stark solitary comment.

It sank.

Lithuania's defense minister claims 485 crew, reboard the Moskva, noting Turkish rescue boats picked up only 54 of them.

State T.V. claims all the crew survived. Russia's most disastrous naval adventure was 117 years ago against Japan. They lost the whole fleet.

Eventually, the Tsar and his family paid the ultimate price in Russia's revolution. Too soon to say if the Moskva sinking can punch a hole below Putin's propaganda waterline.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And still to come, the graphic images shook the world. And now we are learning the stories of the hundreds killed in Bucha. And later, stolen innocence. How Russia's war is taking the lives of Ukraine's children.

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[12:21:37]

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has called Ukraine a crime scene, after visiting the ravaged town of Bucha. Since Russian troops pulled out of the town near Kyiv, hundreds of bodies have been found and many more people remain missing.

And now, we are getting the first look at the efforts to document the horrific violence there. And we do want to warn you that these images are graphic.

Here now with CNN's Phil Black.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The operation to recover and investigate Bucha's dead is now industrial in its scale. Teams of people are working to empty the town's mass grave and many smaller ones.

The victims of Russia's occupation are being retrieved from the earth. There are so many bodies rarely do those doing the digging. Know the stories of how each person lived and died.

Here, two men are being exhumed from the grounds of a small church. The priest who oversaw their first burial didn't know that.

He says he thinks one was a scientist, the other a school bus driver.

He thinks they were shot and killed in the street. Among the now notorious images from Bucha's road of death, Yablunska Street was this man, lying beneath his bike.

His name was Vladimir Brovschenko. Svetlana is his widow.

She said she told her husband don't go, they're shooting. The tanks are already on Yablunska Street. But he insisted on leaving the house. She says the 68-year-old grandfather was killed as soon as he reached the road. His bike is still there.

And this building stands near Bucha in the village of Vorzel, among those killed here were Julia's parents, Natalia (PH) and Victor Mezzuha (PH). She says her mother was helping a young injured woman who had been discarded by a Russian soldier when more soldiers suddenly entered their home.

She says, they came in, shot the woman, shot my mother, and then my father ran out when he heard something was wrong, and they shot him.

The young woman was Karina Yurshuva (PH), she was 23 years old.

Karina's mother says a police told her, her daughter was raped before she was shot.

It's more than two weeks since the Russians withdrew and the operation to account for all the bodies, they left behind isn't finished.

Mourning each victim, remembering how they lived, understanding why they died will take much longer.

[12:24:25]

Phil Black, CNN, Bucha, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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WHITFIELD: All right, now to the latest on that COVID front after a two-month decline in cases, health officials in New York State are bracing for a surge, while Philadelphia is set to bring back its masking mandate.

On Monday, this, as the FDA authorizes a new COVID test for emergency use, which flags the virus in your breath.

Joining me now, emergency medicine physician Dr. Anand Swaminathan. Doctor, good to see you. So, before we talk about that, you know, breath test, what's happening there in New Jersey and what are your worries about any potential upticks there?

DR. ANAND SWAMINATHAN, ASSISTANT CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL, PATERSON, NEW JERSEY: What we're starting to see is some real rise in cases, Fred. And it's very worrisome because we're seeing that rise in cases in the highly vaccinated northeast area.

And the rising cases is actually a little bit falsely suppressed. Because so many people are testing at home, they're showing a positive, but then they're not reporting those positives. They're not getting confirmatory testing, which is OK, but it means that the surge is actually considerably larger than what we're seeing.

What we're also starting to get a clearer image of is the rise in hospitalizations.

[12:30:00]

We had been hoping that we wouldn't see a rise in hospitalization with rising cases, but it's just not true. We're seeing rises in all of the Northeast states in New York in Massachusetts in New Jersey. And what really worries me is the rise in hospitalizations in cases in the highly vaccinated areas, and how that's going to translate as this moves across the country where people are less protected where there are lower rates of vaccination, lower rates of boosting, less likelihood of embracing good public health policies, like the masking mandate that's coming back in Philly.

And so we might see a real big surge, especially as this moves across the country. And it's-- it hurts because we wasted the two months where Omicron was tailing off or at low levels.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SWAMINATHAN: Where we should have been really reinvesting in public health. Reopening those testing centers, pushing for more vaccinations, and more boosting. Our children are very unprotected at five to 11 group has a very low vaccination rate. And what the other states can do before this starts to hit them is to reopen those testing centers to allow people to test, to support people staying home when they're sick, and to reinstitute those mask-mandates in public places.

WHITFIELD: Yes. So you've got these two subvariants switch are causing 90 percent of the infections in central New York. What should health officials there be most concerned about?

SWAMINATHAN: I think what we have to be most concerned about is tracking the rise in hospitalizations as that happens. And as we see cases, we know the hospitalizations will lag. And that signal of rising cases is when we should be reinstituting those public health protocols to help to protect people.

If we wait for hospitalizations to rise, we've kind of missed the boat. By the time we reinstitute public health precautions when hospitalizations are rising, people have already been massively affected by this. So I think what we can still do is to support those public health initiatives, and to start really making sure that we have enough of the things that we need, like enough of the medications that people who really need those medications will have ready access to them. Also things that we can still start to ramp up.

Whitfield: Yes. All right. So now to this COVID breath test, what do you like about it or what concerns you about it?

SWAMINATHAN: It's always good to see another modality to get people tested on the spot with a rapid return. This is a three-minute turnaround on the test. So it's really good. It seems to perform extremely well in the study that we have in a couple of thousand people. We do need to see the real life data.

So as this rolls out into real life, how does that translate as it continues to perform well? And then we have to figure out where are the places to use this? Where there can be the best yield? Could this be something that we could use as an event where you have a couple of hundred people gathering, we have a couple of these suitcase size gas chromatography machines that we can then test people on the spot before they are coming into contact with each other.

So, there's some real potential here. It's great to see a new modality. And I'm really going to wait to see how best this can be rolled out to protect people.

WHITFIELD: All right. And then what do we do more immediately? It is, you know, Easter weekend, lot of families getting together, what are your recommendations to make sure that everybody stays safe?

SWAMINATHAN: Fred, I'm going to sound a little bit like a broken record, because we have been talking about this for two years across multiple different holidays. But it's the same precautions that we've been talking about all along. And it's not too late. If you're gathering tomorrow for Easter, there's still time to make changes to your gathering plan to protect everybody.

If you can do an outdoor event, do an outdoor event. If you can keep the group small, keep the group small. If you can guarantee that everyone's vaccinated. That is obviously the best situation. And even better to add on to that is that layer of protection from a test. Everybody get a same day test before gathering especially if it's an indoor gathering.

And if you can't do those things or if you're visiting someone else, and you know that they are not going to have those precautions in place where they're gathering. If you're going to be indoors, wear a mask that really is the best thing to do. If you're not feeling well, stay home, isolate. If you come back from your trip and you're not feeling well stay home and isolate so you don't spread to others.

It's the same things we've been recommending all along. They continue to hold up regardless of which variant we're talking about.

WHITFIELD: You're right. Broken record. But important to hear. Music to our ears. All right. Dr. Anand Swaminathan, thank you so much. Have a great holiday weekend.

All right. Home is where the inflation is. Next, why the American dream of home ownership and renovation is quickly becoming a nightmare for so many?

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[12:39:08]

WHITFIELD: All right. This week, the U.S. Labor Department released new inflation numbers showing prices rose 8-1/2 percent over the last 12 months. That's the highest inflation rate in the U.S. in more than 40 years. Prices are continuing to rise on everything from gas, to food costs and housing.

For more on the rising cost of housing. Let's bring in CNN's Camila Bernal who was in Sherman Oaks in that neighborhood of Los Angeles. So Camila, how is inflation impacting the price of homes?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, so for the most part, it's only contributing to that increased price. I talked to a housing expert who told me that because interest rates have gone from about three percent to five percent that reduces the amount of homes that someone can afford by about 25 percent.

So instead, a lot of people turn to remodeling, the problem there is that the cost of materials and matter what you're talking about has also increased dramatically.

[12:40:04]

UNIDENTIFIED Male: This?

CHEN YAACOV, OWNER, PEARL REMODELING: Yes, because this needs to be flushed with a counter.

BERNAL: When Chen Yacoov quoted this home renovation project in April of 2021. He estimated the cost to be $600,000. But with the increase in cost and almost everything related to homes. YAACOV: New floors, new baseboards, and new doors.

BERNAL: This general contractor is now dealing with very different numbers.

YAACOV: We're looking at 120 to $150,000 more. So we would be at 720 to 750. Now, just a year apart.

BERNAL: According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation for construction materials has increased more than 23 percent in the 12 months since March of 2021. Metal products, 36 percent, lumber 21.8 percent, and plastic 35.2 percent.

YAACOV: This plywood, it used to be like 20, $25, now you pay almost $50

BERNAL: These price hikes are impacting new construction and existing homes.

RICHARD GREEN, DIRECTOR, USC LUSK CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE: If the cost of producing housing goes up, in order for that housing production to be profitable, you need to charge higher rent, or else you're going to lose money. And that's an important source of where our inflation numbers are coming from.

BERNAL: Richard Green, an economist and experts on housing markets believes house prices will fall next year. And thinks rent will continue to increase, but not as rapidly. And in terms of materials.

GREEN: Geopolitical issues have an enormous impact on the supply chain, which has a big impact on the cost of materials. So you need to be able to do a forecast of how the world is interacting with itself in order to do a forecast on what's going to happen to materials prices.

YAACOV: Wait, what happened here?

BERNAL: To deal with the unknown, Yaacov says he's had to adjust his budgets, take a loss or pass it on to his customers.

YAACOV: We have to adjust it because otherwise, you know, I'm not going to make money.

BERNAL: He's telling me that what he wants is for prices to stabilize. He told me look, it doesn't matter if it doesn't go down but he just doesn't want to see them going up. Everyone I talked to told me that no matter what at the end of the day, it's really the customer who ends up paying for those increases, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Camila Bernal, thank you so much. And we'll be right back.

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[12:49:02] WHITFIELD: In the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine nearly a thousand Ukrainians have lost their lives in Kyiv alone. Well, this morning Ukraine's Prosecutor General says 200 children are among those killed since Russian troops invaded. Including yesterday, a 7-month-old baby was one of two children killed in a Russian strike in Kharkiv.

CNN's Brianna Keilar shares the stories of precious lives cut far too short in this senseless war.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: This war in Ukraine is Stolen Childhood on an unimaginable scale. You saw that stroller in the aftermath of the attack on the Kramatorsk train station that killed five children and wounded 16 other kids.

We have seen parents writing personal and contact information on their children's bodies in case they are orphaned. That's according to The New York Times. And UNICEF says that nearly 2/3 of the kids in this country have been displaced from their homes, fleeing their cities for safer parts of Ukraine, fleeing Ukraine for safer parts of the world.

But some never made it. 12-year-old, Veronica (ph) died in Chernihiv as her family tried to escape shelling. Russian forces hid their car. As Veronica tried to run for safety her mother told the BBC that she was killed as a shell came down near their car.

In Kherson according to ITV, 5-week-old Vanuska (ph) and his 6-year- old sister Sophia (ph) died when Russian soldiers at a checkpoint riddled their family's car with bullets. ITV told her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were no survivors. Sophia, the family's golden girl, her mother, and the children's grandparents, Anna (ph) a teacher, Oleg (ph), a dedicated grandfather. They all perished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILER: Their uncle listen to it on speakerphone. He said he heard the soldiers shoot the car to pieces. He told ITV that he heard five-week- old Vanuska crying. It was clearly injured. He said Vanuska cried for two minutes and then he went silent.

10-year-old, Anastasia Stollo (ph), Nastiya (ph) as she was known, died in Shevchenkivskyi, which is North of Kyiv. Her cousin told The Times of London that Russian soldiers shot their weapons at random. They struck and they killed Nastiya.

18-year-old Mikita (ph) Perabynas and his 9-year-old sister Elisa (ph), they died with her mother in Irpin. The New York Times capturing the moment that a Russian border struck a known evacuation route used by civilians fleeing the suburb of Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (BLEEP) Shit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Mikita and Elise's dad says he learned of their death after seeing a photo of their bodies on Twitter because he recognized the luggage that was lying next to them. He spoke to CNN's Erin Burnett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:50:02]

SERHIY PEREBYNIS, UKRAINIAN CITIZEN (through translator): They are normal cheerful children. My son was the older, he was 18, and he was in second year of university. He studied and want to become an IT professional. Started programming. And my daughter was nine years old. And what she like dancing, painting, she studied English. They were normal cheerful children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: A cluster bomb killed another girl named Alisa (ph). Seven- year-old Alisa FLazh (ph) near Sumy after it fell on her school according to an Instagram post from the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenka. Alisa died with her grandfather as he used his body to try to shield her according to the post.

Russian forces shot and killed 10-year-old, Pualina Zapadinskia (ph) and her parents as they tried to escape Kyiv in a car. They injured her 13-year-old sister Sophia and her 5-year-old brother, Semyon (ph) as well. Samyen died a few days later after Paulina at a children's hospital. That's according to the Telegraph.

And his sister Sophia, in critical condition at that time, unaware that she was the only member of her family left. Near Kyiv in Dniprovskyi Russian forces shelled the home of 2-year-old, Stefen Schpak (ph), killing the little boy as he slept in his bed. His father Oleg burying him in a small coffin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I don't know if there is a God. What is all this for? For what? A 2-year-old child who hasn't experienced life yet. A 2-year-old child who died for nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILER: 4-year-old Sasha Yakno (ph) was fleeing with his grandmother Near Kyiv when the boat that they were trying to cross the Dnipro River in capsized. Voice of America reported that they were under heavy artillery fire at the time. His grandmother drowned and Sasha's body was found last week his mother said on Facebook.

The Ukrainian government says nearly 200 children have been killed in this war here so far. But that is the official count though it is likely a gross underestimate that doesn't include those killed in places where active fighting is underway, where officials are still working to confirm deaths. Like Mariupol where the mayor says 210 children had died in his city

as Russians lay siege to it. The Washington Post reporting this out of Finland a protest 210 little pairs of shoes symbolizing their lives.

Russian forces bombed the drama theater in mid-March there as more than a thousand civilian sheltered. Children clearly written in Russian on the pavement outside.

Russian shelling killed an 18-month-old named Karel (ph) in Mariupol. Sky News capturing footage of his mother Marina (ph) and her boyfriend running the toddler to the hospital. Doctors tried to revive him, but they could not save him. Marina, seen in a photo kissing the lifeless body of her little Karel.

Russian forces also bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol injuring this pregnant woman. The picture of her on a stretcher shown around the world. A surgeon performed a C-section but told Ukrainian television that the child did not survive and neither did the mother. And there are so many more that we don't have pictures or names of.

Human Rights Watch has documented the death of a 14-year-old in the village of Vorzel Near Kyiv. Russian forces threw a smoke grenade into a basement and as the teen and a woman fled from their shelter they were both shot.

And associated press photographer says he witnessed the death of a 6- year-old in Mariupol. Russian forces shelled the building where she was staying and she was wearing unicorn pajamas as an ambulance rushed her to the hospital where she died.

So many have been injured, so many others. 15-year-old Marsha (ph) -- pardon me. From a small town Near Zaporizhia, she had her right leg amputated above the knee. She had her right hand shredded by shrapnel according to investigative reporter, Tanya kozyreva.

TANYA KOZYREVA, INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, BUZZFEED: It's a town where there is no military basis and there is no military objects. And she just caught the shrapnel in her-- into her body while she was walking around her town with her mother.

KEILAR: Russian forces shelled the car that 11-year-old Milana (ph) was riding as she escaped Mariupol with her family. According to Kozyreva the head of the intensive care unit where she has been treated says the many of his Russian friends they don't believe the pictures.

[12:55:03]

KEILAR: They do not believe that the pictures of the-- these kids are real. They think they are fabricated by the Ukrainians. But they are real. Veronica, Vanuska, Sophia, Nastia, Mikita, Elisa, Alisa, Paulina Sophia, Semyon, Stefan, Sasha, Karel; Marsha, Milana and so many others whose names we don't know. We'll be right back.

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