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Russia Demands All Fighters Leave Mariupol; Hundreds Seek Shelter Near Sievierodonetsk; U.S. Sending High-Powered Equipment in Latest Aid Package; Kim Jong-un Observes Test of New Type of Weapon; Trains Become Lifeline for Ukrainians Fleeing Conflict; Wounded, Orphaned and Taken by Russians; U.S. Officials Warn of Putin's Unpredictable Behavior; Police Tear Gas Paris Protesters; Panicked Chinese Stocking Up on Food; Ukrainian Postage Stamp Selling Out Fast. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired April 17, 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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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, welcome to viewers in the United States and around the world, I'm John Vause, live in Lviv Ukraine. The clock ticking down for the remaining fighters in Mariupol, Moscow demanding they lay down weapons and leave in six hours and lives will be spared.
Russia claims to have cleared all urban areas of defenders and is now in control of the strategic city.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And I'm Michael Holmes, live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
North Korea test firing what it calls a new tactical guided weapon. Already its 12th missile test so far this year.
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VAUSE: The battle for Mariupol may be coming to end, with Moscow claiming to have cleared urban areas of almost all Ukrainian forces and demanding all remaining Ukrainian troops lay down weapons and ammunition and leave.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the city was in the grips of a humanitarian crisis and suggested Ukrainian soldiers have suffered significant losses.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The situation in Mariupol remains as severe as possible. Just inhuman, this is what the Russian Federation did, deliberately did, and deliberately continues to destroy cities. Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there in Mariupol.
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VAUSE: Russian strikes continue to hammer other areas in southern and Eastern Ukraine. Officials in Kharkiv say at least two were killed, 18 injured, after a cruise missile attack.
To the south, officials in Luhansk say Russian strikes damaged nearly a dozen infrastructure facilities, including an oil refinery.
All as the White House says more weapons, ammunition and other military aid has started arriving in Ukraine. For the first time this U.S. package will include additional high-powered equipment, like helicopters, Howitzer cannons and more drones.
On Saturday the Russian military claimed it shot down Ukrainian aircraft carrying Western military equipment near Odessa. But CNN has been unable to verify that claim or if any U.S. shipments were arriving near there.
Another Russian military leader killed in action in Ukraine. Major General Vladimir Frolov died on the battlefield.
Russian troops are reportedly preparing for a ground offensive in Eastern Ukraine soon and near one town that could be in the path of a Russian advance, hundreds of residents are seeking shelter and living underground. Many people there either cannot or will not leave. CNN's Ben Wedeman is there.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The shelling comes early and often. With Russian forces massing nearby this is a portent of things to come. Firefighters brave the threat of shelling but few others brave the streets of Sievierodonetsk.
Life for those who haven't fled is moved underground. To stuffy shelters where safety trumps comfort. Around 300 people call this temporary home on the grounds of a sprawling chemical plant.
Maxim and his wife Ira try to keep 7-month-old baby Artum (ph) distracted. They're recent arrivals having fled their home ten days ago. Maxim shows me cell phone pictures of the cellar they hid out in before coming here.
Disabled, Tatiana stays in bed most of the time. She would prefer to be at home but what home?
"There's no electricity, no cell phone signal, no water, no gas," she tells me. Everything is shaking from the bombing. The windows are shattered.
Tamara tutors her grandson, Timor (ph), a retired English teacher, she's been here for more than a month.
TAMARA: A lot of people can't leave this place because of problems with health and they don't have enough money to leave and other places. They have to stay here.
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WEDEMAN (voice-over): 73-year-old Vasyli (ph) struggles to move about the shelter. He's not leaving town.
"I was born here and I'll stay here," he says.
Nearby, tanks at an oil refinery burn after a Russian strike. Not the first time it came under bombardment. The shelling here comes early and often -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, outside Sievierodonetsk, Eastern Ukraine.
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VAUSE: The British prime minister promised the U.K. will stop at nothing to ensure Ukrainians have what they need to defend themselves against Russia. Boris Johnson spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, reaffirming his support and discussing next steps.
They talked about the need for a long-term security solution and the current situation in Mariupol. Military aid coming from the U.K. should arrive in the coming days, which will include armored vehicles and antiship missiles.
Joining me from Los Angeles, retired U.S. Army Major General Mark McCauley.
General, it's been a while. Thank you for being with us. We appreciate it.
MAJOR GENERAL MARK MCCAULEY, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Good to be here.
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VAUSE: -- Mariupol, does seem to be beginning of the end. The last Ukrainian fighters are holed up apparently in this sprawling iron and steel plant.
Is there any point to continue on with the fight or should they surrender and get out of this alive?
MCCAULEY: John, we really have to salute the courage and valor of those Ukrainian forces at this moment who are holed up in that manufacturing facility. But from military analytical perspective, it appears there will be no, as we call in the Army, no cavalry coming to save those Ukrainian service members.
We don't have any long range artillery. We can't attack the offshore Russian vessels throwing down fire on the remaining Ukrainian forces. I think in the next few hours the president of Ukraine is going to have to make a very, very difficult decision and relay it to the soldiers still on the ground.
It is not a good thing. I'm not going to necessarily go so far as to suggest this is beginning of the end but this is a significant loss, not only in terms of territory and access to the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea but really to the morale of the Ukrainian people. So, yes, I'm concerned.
VAUSE: This is the iron and steel factory, where the Russians suggested earlier the possible use of chemical weapons, clearing the site would be costly in terms of Russian troop losses.
But if the Ukrainian fighters in this steel plant don't give up, are chemical weapons on the table as far as the Russians are concerned?
MCCAULEY: You've asked perhaps one of the most important questions facing world leadership, especially the West.
Will the Russians, in the manner in which they've conducted the war, turn deliberately to use chemical weapons, especially as we move into what will be a protracted campaign in the Donbas region?
That's a difficult urban environment, densely populated. There's a huge temptation on the part of an army, with the tactics demonstrated by the Russians in the last six weeks, no doubt there's a big question whether they'll resort to some manner of chemical weapons. If that happens, everything's off the table.
VAUSE: Seeing some U.S. military aid arriving within the hour, apparently, including APCs, long range artillery Howitzers. It's clearly too late for Mariupol.
Is it too late, too little?
MCCAULEY: Any resupply of that nature is valuable. The fight that I think the Ukrainians now have to focus on is the Donbas region. You see that the Russians are massing both in the northeast and the southern part of Ukraine for that, what Russians consider the big assault into that territory, that Putin has long considered part of Mother Russia.
So if the Ukrainians can use and certainly long-range artillery, the 155 Howitzer is valuable. Not enough of them. The hip helicopters, the MI-17s, for transport and some delivery of missiles from the helicopter platform, everything will help.
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MCCAULEY: But the big, key question is, how can the Ukrainians, perhaps with a force between 30,000 and 40,000 present in that part of the country, can defend against perhaps 70,000, the residue of Russian forces?
And the Russian forces, with the ability amplified by their own set of drones, missiles, artillery and offshore batteries, this is going to be one heck of a very dirty fight.
For historians, it appears to be something reminiscent of the battles of Stalingrad and Leningrad, that house to house fighting that's bloody and gruesome and it's exactly what we saw in Mariupol. VAUSE: Essentially when does it begin?
Is it matter of timing for Russians, to rearm and resupply?
Or other factors, like they want to move on firm, hard land, not muddy areas, that kind of thing?
MCCAULEY: It's interesting you make reference to the mud. Some have said that the mud was what restrained and constrained the Russians to use the highway network in the first two, three weeks of the campaign.
So there's value for any tactical commander on the ground if you can enter without getting vehicles bogged down and move off-road. Perhaps that's one of the requirements that the command staff of the Russian army is looking at.
But more importantly, time is on the Russians' side, not the Ukrainians' side. Though we're all anticipating the attack will take place today, really Monday, there's no requirement on the part of the Russians to move out at that time. They can wait, assemble forces, get necessary artillery.
They're receiving resupply of missiles and drones. They want to be set to go in and they have a campaign outline. That campaign is basically to terrorize and to basically destroy the remnants of the Ukrainian army any way they know how.
VAUSE: Will be quite the battle in coming days and weeks.
MCCAULEY: Yes.
VAUSE: General McCauley, thank you sir.
MCCAULEY: Thank you.
VAUSE: Michael, back to you.
HOLMES: John Vause in Lviv.
South Korea's president is telling his ministers to keep close eye on North Korea's next moves after a military test that Pyongyang said will boost nuclear capabilities. Seoul reporting the North fired two projectiles Saturday. North Korean state media says leader Kim Jong-un observed a weapons test.
It says this was a new type of guided weapon to improve the nation's nuclear operations. Paula Hancocks is live in Seoul.
Talk to me about the significance of the launch in terms of the alleged type of missile.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was a shorter range missile. Just the fact that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was there to witness it and guide the launch is significant. He doesn't usually turn up for the short range ones. So it shows this is considered an important weapon in North Korea's
arsenal. They say it was new type of tactical guided weapon. We've heard from Kim Jong-un himself, saying he wanted tactical nuclear weapons, that was on his wish list.
It would be significant because what it means, it could be put -- a nuclear warhead could be put on a shorter range missile, of which we know North Korea has many. It could also be a lower yield and it means they will be able to use them shorter range but far quicker and more efficiently on the front lines of any potential battle.
So this is something Kim Jong-un has said he would like to master. He wants this weapons capability. The fact that he was there at a shorter range weapons launch shows that this is significant in his mind.
HOLMES: And why the uptick in the number of tests?
Also with North Korea, timing is often relevant.
Why this test now?
HANCOCKS: It's a very significant time in the North Korean calendar. Last Friday, you had 110th anniversary of the birth of his grandfather and the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, always going to be a very significant time.
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HANCOCKS: There's been plenty of festivities around this time. And it's also been the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong-un becoming party leader. So that's significant as well.
Coming up, potentially early as this week, we don't have the exact details from the U.S. military at that point, but there will be joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korea. That's historically always annoyed Pyongyang and they've always had a reaction to that.
These exercises have been less in recent years, even postponed or canceled by the former president Donald Trump. But this is a time tensions are going to be higher as well because of many factors.
Something that North Korea is always focusing on, is the birth date of their founder. But any anniversary that ends in a 0 or 5 in North Korea's mind is far more significant. So it was always going to be a busy time of the year for them.
HOLMES: All right, great analysis, Paula Hancocks in Seoul, as always, our thanks.
Railways have been a lifeline for millions fleeing Russian attacks in Ukraine. We'll be hearing from a doctor treating life-threatening injuries on board a train. Stay with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody.
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VAUSE: As the Russian campaign intensifies in Eastern Ukraine, it's increasingly dangerous for civilians to escape. A number of humanitarian corridors were opened Saturday and nearly 1,500 evacuated from areas of heavy fighting.
Only 170 escaped from Mariupol and had to use their own vehicles or other transportation. So far more than 4.8 million people have left Ukraine for other countries. More than 7 million are internally displaced since the war began, many fleeing by rail. CNN's Jake Tapper looked at how trains are now a lifeline for many.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Close to 6,000 war crimes being investigated, potentially tens of thousands massacred. And Russia repositioning for a new assault. These Ukrainians are not waiting for what's next.
SVETLANA, KHARKIV EVACUEE (through translator): A week ago, we were thinking and hoping that it would stop. It will be calmer. But it didn't change.
TAPPER (voice-over): Less than a week after Russia bombed, a crowded railway platform in Kramatorsk, those lucky enough 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, UKRAINIAN EVACUEE (through translator): It's 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 (voice-over): Baby Maxim (ph) and his mother Marina are from Zaporizhzhya but plan to wait out the war in Germany.
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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We want as soon as possible to continue living as before.
TAPPER (voice-over): Vida and her husband are just two of nearly 4 million Ukrainians. The railway says it has evacuated since the Russian invasion began.
VIDA, BUCHA EVACUEE (through translator): People say on the internet that anything can happen even here. So we hope it will be easy. We left everything behind. TAPPER: 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. There's a fire over there. Wood burning stove heating up water. People have just come with whatever belongings they can take and their loved ones just trying to get to someplace safe.
TAPPER (voice-over): Away from the crowds at a smaller train station nearby, the most fragile passengers have their own carefully coordinated welcome.
TAPPER: Doctors Without Borders arranged this train. There were a few cars with kids from an orphanage. And now in these remaining cars, there are 10 people, nine of them children, almost all of them wounded in the attack on Kramatorsk. They're getting off the train and getting into these ambulances.
TAPPER (voice-over): 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.
Their train to Lviv is outfitted with medical equipment in each car as well as a team of doctors and nurses. Dr. Stig Walravens was the ER physician on board for the 24-hour journey, overseeing some complex injuries along the way.
STIG WALRAVENS, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: So they had actually pneumothorax, which is air in between the lung and the chest, that was due to actually a penetrating trauma of a blast.
TAPPER: These are the kinds of wounds that normally you see and normally one expect to see in soldiers not in children.
WALRAVENS: You expect to see that in war-struck areas, where civilians are also close to the firing line.
TAPPER: Pretty tough stuff to see kids hurt like that.
WALRAVENS: Always remain tough, yes.
TAPPER (voice-over): He says his team has been going back and forth on these kinds of medical transports for 10 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.
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VAUSE: A Russian missile strike has hit a restaurant in Kharkiv, which had partnered with the aid group World Central Kitchen. At least four staff members were injured, taken to hospital.
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VAUSE: CEO Nate Mook put a video on Twitter, describing the horrific scene after the attack.
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NATE MOOK, CEO, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Absolutely horrific brutality. We are going to head to the hospital now, check on some of the restaurant staff. We're told they're OK.
But this is the reality for so many right now in Kharkiv. Coming to work, cooking for people that are hungry, is an immense act of bravery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: World Central Kitchen was founded by Chef Jose Andres. But Mook said no one was killed at the restaurant. But Saturday's missile strike did kill another person. CNN has not independently confirmed that yet.
When we come back, she was wounded, orphaned and taken by Russian soldiers. Now she's in a Russian controlled hospital and her surviving relatives fear they will never see her again. That's next.
Also analyzing Vladimir Putin.
Is he rational?
Is he insane?
We'll talk with a retired U.S. senior CIA officer about trying to work out what's going on in the brain of the Russian president.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, I'm John Vause live in Lviv, Ukraine.
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VAUSE: The Russian military issued an ultimatum to all fighters in Mariupol, lay down weapons, leave the city, effective immediately. They have until 1:00 pm local time to comply.
Russia's defense ministry also claiming to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane with military aid from the West. This supposedly near Odessa but there's been no confirmation.
Despite that, the U.S. says first shipment of heavy weapons has arrived in country ahead of a renewed Russian offensive expected any time. It includes 18 Howitzer cannons and 40,000 artillery rounds, which may last only a few days if Russia launches another offensive. The White House now scrambling to secure more ammunition and get it to
Ukraine as soon as possible.
Since the war began, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been reportedly taken from their homes and relocated to Russian territories. One is a girl from Mariupol, taken by Russian troops and now she's being featured in a propaganda Russian video. CNN's Phil Black has more.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's almost hard to comprehend. This was Mariupol not long ago when its people knew safety and happiness.
The girl in pink is Kira Obedinska -- joyful, loved, 12 years old.
This is Kira after the Russians came -- orphaned, injured, alone in a Russian-controlled hospital.
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BLACK (voice-over): Russian media released this video showing Kira in Donetsk, the capital of a Moscow-backed separatist region in Ukraine's east.
It shows her telling some of her story. Why she fled Mariupol.
KIRA OBEDINSKA, UKRAINIAN ORPHAN IN RUSSIAN CUSTODY: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK (voice-over): "There was a lot of shooting," she says. "Our building was hit."
So was her father. Yevgeny Obedinsky, the former captain of Ukraine's national water polo team, was shot from a distance and killed as Russian forces fought their way into Mariupol on March 17.
Days later, Kira, some neighbors and her father's girlfriend, tried to flee the city on foot but someone stepped on a mine and Kira was injured in the blast. Russian soldiers then took her to Donetsk.
BLACK: The Russian military, which killed your son, now has your granddaughter.
OLEKSANDER OBEDINSKY, KIRA'S GRANDFATHER: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK (voice-over): Kira's grandfather, Oleksandr, tells me her mother died when she was a baby. Now she's watched her father die. She misses her remaining family and wants to return to him.
Oleksandr is scared he may never see Kira again. He says an official from the breakaway government in Donetsk phoned and invited him to travel there to claim her. That is impossible because of the war.
When Oleksandr spoke to the hospital, he says he was told Kira will eventually be sent to an orphanage in Russia.
OBEDINSKY: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK (voice-over): "They took her documents," he says, "and said they'll provide new ones when they send her into Russia."
The Russian government has said it's helped move at least 60,000 Ukrainian people to safety across the Russian border.
The Ukrainian government has said around 40,000 have been relocated against their will, describing it as abduction and forced deportation.
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BLACK (voice-over): The Russian media video shows Kira talking happily about how she's sometimes allowed to call her grandfather.
OBEDINSKA: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK: "I called him today," she says. "I'll also call him in the evening."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language)
BLACK (voice-over): A Russian TV presenter called the video proof Kira wasn't abducted, proof of yet another Ukrainian fake.
Kira also sometimes sends her grandfather audio messages like this one:
OBEDINSKA: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK (voice-over): She first tells him not to cry but she can't stop her own tears.
OBEDINSKA: (Speaking foreign language).
BLACK: "I haven't seen you for so long, I want to cry," she says.
The voice of a young girl who has lost her family, her home, her freedom, all to Russia's war -- Phil Black, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.
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VAUSE: More from Lviv top of the hour. Back to Michael.
That's just one of the most horrendous stories --
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HOLMES: Yes, and the one closer the other day with that old lady, who they eventually got out to a care home as well.
It's countless, story after story of just horrible things happening to people, isn't it?
VAUSE: Yes. It never ends, it seems.
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HOLMES: All right, John Vause there in Lviv, we'll be back with you a little later, John.
Meanwhile, we're following news of another high-ranking Russian military leader, killed in Ukraine. Major General Vladimir Frolov, reportedly a deputy commander of Russia's 8th Army. He's claimed to have died in battle with what he called Ukrainian nationalists. CNN could not confirm the circumstances.
But he would be among several top Russian officers believed killed in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Douglas London is a retired U.S. senior CIA operations officer, an adjunct associate professor with Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies and the author of "The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence."
Good to see you, Doug. You wrote a piece in foreignaffairs.com related very much to the intel world, and raised the issue of what America could do covertly to undermine the Kremlin. Give us some examples.
DOUGLAS LONDON, FORMER U.S. SENIOR CIA OPERATIONS OFFICER: Well, I would expect the CIA would be continuing and probably expanding the training and support it's likely been providing since the Russians invaded in 2014.
But the agency has some unique abilities that include access to covert supply lines, to foreign sourced weapons and the ability to provide targeting support and actual intelligence that the DOD might not be able to do.
There's also a lot of room to accelerate. The biggest vulnerabilities that Putin probably thinks he has, his client states, Belarus, Chechnya, Kazakhstan, all of which have been subject to long periods of unrest.
Not long ago there were hundreds of thousands protesting in Belarus. The agency could reach out to opposition elements. There's already Ukrainian forces made up of Belarusian troops and also Chechens fighting with Ukraine.
There's opportunity to identify those we could help to organize, provide intelligence and ratchet that up to uprisings if possible.
Something we could expand as well inside of Russia. The grassroots opposition is what Putin worries about. Just getting news into the country is something the agency can do covertly.
You take it up another ratchet, there are those in Putin's circle that the agency could reach out to, who might be looking for life rafts or a way out of this. Even the appearance of some of those considering cooperating with the West would probably tap into Putin's paranoia and make him look over his shoulder more so than the Ukrainian battlefield.
HOLMES: Exactly. We often talk of a leader's world view. You also wrote a piece on cnn.com about that aspect of this conflict.
What is Putin's world view as it applies to Ukraine?
LONDON: Unfortunately wouldn't say he's irrational, despite the horrors he's committing. He's a product of the Cold War-era KGB. He looks at the world through a very black and white point of view; might makes right for him.
And he's also been a preacher of the victimization of the Soviet Union collapse which he witnessed firsthand when he was serving in Dresden (ph), when the Berlin Wall fell.
So his practice of denial and deception, likely we're going to see him bark the loudest and make the biggest threats when he has the weakest hand.
He's going to try to wedge the allies, decouple them if he can, to look for daylight, to identify what he thinks is weakness.
But one of the problems is having been in power so long and having built a cult of personality, he's somewhat drunk his own Kool-aid, I think. That's what led him to make serious miscalculations in launching the invasion in first place.
HOLMES: Putin is many things and he won't want to ever appear like he's losing or backing down at all. But he's also about self- preservation.
How does the West best evaluate at what point he's at on the pendulum and exploit that?
LONDON: It's an important balance. This is why his bluster can't be dismissed entirely but his reliance on denial and deception when he has a weaker hand will most likely lead him to make some of his biggest threats, where he feels he's under strain.
But I think there's reasonable concern, recent intelligence has been putting out declassified information, suggesting his possible use of chemical weapons on the battlefield or perhaps even a tactical nuclear device.
I think latter is less likely because it serves less of a military advantage and is more than likely to invite a NATO response. So balancing his bluster, his denial and deception --
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LONDON: -- and his real plans will depend on good sources of intelligence, which to date, based on our declassified reporting being largely borne out by events, we seem to be doing a pretty good job.
HOLMES: Last, if it comes to the point of peace talks, what are the risks of Ukrainian or Western compromise, which Putin would see as a weakness?
How should a deal be handled, given his record of taking advantage of compromise?
LONDON: Well, Putin only understands consequences. He understands strength and he would see concessions as appeasement and as a sign of weakness to exploit. He's going to look for ways to undermine Western unity, undermine the public's response.
And counting on a lack of Western interest over time, that the West will grow tired of it, grow fatigued of its own sacrifices and that its innate weakness, which he believes still, again, from that Cold War KGB conditioning, is going to play to his advantage.
So continued vigilance and continued unity is really key, not allowing for anything other than a certain show of strength and constraining him through a new chapter in containment, which is making sure there's a price he has to pay, not just an incentive he thinks that this will advantage him in the long run.
HOLMES: A man with decades of experience in intelligence community, retired CIA operations officer, Douglas London, always fascinating to chat, Doug. Good to see you.
LONDON: Always my pleasure, Michael, thank you.
HOLMES: When we come back, what life is like for millions under lockdown in Shanghai. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES (voice-over): You hear there and see also tear gas used by French police in a protest in Paris on Saturday. The march you're watching there was against presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and her far-right views.
Other protests around France on Saturday, most of them peaceful. But then loss to president Emmanuel Macron in first round but this time polls show it's closer in the runoff. This is the last week of campaigning before the runoff on April 24.
We're tracking yet another mass shooting here in the U.S. At least 14 people injured Saturday after gunfire at a mall in South Carolina. One person arrested in connection with the shooting. The incident happened in the state capital, Columbia. The police chief said earlier three people were detained.
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CHIEF SKIP HOLBROOK, COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, POLICE: We believe that the individuals that were armed, knew each other and they were in some type of conflict that occurred that resulted in gunfire.
This was not a situation where we had some random person show up at a mall to discharge a firearm and this injured people.
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VAUSE: Incredible, it's almost a weekly event. Health officials say at least nine of those injured were treated and released from the hospital.
New COVID-19 cases ticking up again in the U.S. but are still a fraction of where they were at height of the Omicron surge. Health officials keeping a close eye on New York, where two new Omicron subvariants are spreading quickly through the central part of the state.
COVID hospitalizations have also started to tick up there, pushing health officials to promote safety precautions like testing and mask wearing, especially indoors.
In Shanghai, the COVID-19 outbreak shows no sign of slowing; over 26,000 new cases reported across China on Saturday, almost all in Shanghai. That city has been in strict lockdown for weeks, as authorities try to curb the spread of the virus.
But now we're learning some key industries in Shanghai will be allowed to resume production, including companies that produce biomedicine and automobiles. CNN's David Culver is following other signs of progress and frustration in that city.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A few steps of freedom granted to some Shanghai residents, strolling their own neighborhoods as if taking in some strange new world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But where are you going to go?
There's nowhere to go.
CULVER: Shops still closed and public transportation halted, still this woman can't hold back her joy, recording as she and neighbors roam the empty streets.
After forcing 25-plus-million people into weeks of harsh lockdown, government officials facing mounted 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, our 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's been like that about a month. In recent weeks, community permission to leave our homes, mostly for COVID tests of which there were many. We could also step outside to pick up the occasional government distribution.
CULVER (on camera): Today's delivery, a bag of rice.
CULVER (voice-over): But even with heavy restrictions still in place, we had it good, for now at least.
The majority of this city remains in hard lock down, kept to their homes, some hungry and suffering.
This woman heard begging in the middle of the night, begging 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 described a host of problems, facilities quickly and apparently poorly constructed. Outside of shanghai, panic spreading quicker than the virus. The horror stories from China's financial hub have residents in other Chinese cities stocking up.
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CULVER (voice-over): From Suzhou to Guangzhou, online sales for prepackaged 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 banging on pots to protest. Most of the 24 millions in the Chinese province confined to their homes for more than a month now.
Back in Shanghai, the joys of freedom for some might last only a few hours, as it only takes just one new case nearby to send them back inside, resetting the clock for their community. Another 14-day sentence in lock down, a seemingly endless cycle -- David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.
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HOLMES: When we come back on the program, a new postage stamp commemorating one of the most famous moments of the war in Ukraine is becoming a hot collectible. That and more after the break.
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HOLMES: A Ukrainian postage stamp, initially printed as a show of defiance against the Russian invasion, is now becoming a collector's item. The stamp depicting the famous episode of Snake Island, when the now sunken Russian warship, Moskva, ordered Ukrainian soldiers to surrender.
They answered with expletives. In Kyiv, people have been lining up at the central post office to get some of the 1 million copies of the stamp that have been printed.
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IGOR SMELYANSKY, GENERAL DIRECTOR, UKRAINIAN POST: This is a symbol of why Ukraine does not surrender. It does not surrender to him. And on the 51st day of the war and it shows that, I think, closer to winning than -- much closer to winning now than we ever were.
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HOLMES: Not only are copies of the stamp selling out fast, they're also appearing already for resale online because that's how it works.
Remember, you, too, can help the people in Ukraine. Go to cnn.com/impact. There you will find several ways you can help.
That will do it for this hour, I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. Our coverage, live from Lviv, Ukraine, continues after the break with John Vause. Stick around.
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