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Russia Demands All Fighters Leave Mariupol; Families Look for Loved Ones in Bucha; Gathering Evidence of War Crimes in Ukraine; Zelenskyy: Russia Is Committing Genocide; Polish Train Station Becomes Rest Stop for Ukrainian Refugees; British Prime Minister, Senior Officials Barred from Russia; South Carolina Mall Shooting, 14 Injured; Ukrainian Rock Star Uses Music to Lift People's Spirits. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired April 17, 2022 - 01:00   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 our viewers in the United States and around the world, I am John Vause, live in Lviv, Ukraine, on day 53 of Vladimir Putin's war of choice.

A Russian ultimatum to the last remaining soldiers of Mariupol: lay down your weapons and leave and your lives will be spared.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I am Michael Holmes at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

Kim Jong-un overseeing testing of what North Korea claims to be a new tactical guided weapon. South Korea confirmed that two projectiles landed on the sea just miles off the Korean Peninsula.

VAUSE: The battle for Mariupol may be coming to an end, with Moscow claiming to have cleared urban areas of almost all Ukrainian forces. They demanded from 6 am that all Ukrainian troops lay down their weapons, ammunition and leave within the next five hours.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the city is in the grips of a humanitarian crisis. He suggested that 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: In the meantime, Russian strikes continue to hammer other areas in southern and Eastern Ukraine. Officials in Kharkiv say that at least two people were killed, 18 hurt after a cruise missile attack.

To the south, officials in the Luhansk region said Russian strikes damaged at least a dozen infrastructure facilities, including an oil refinery.

All of this as the White House says more weapons, ammunition and other military aid is now starting to arrive in Ukraine. For the first time, the U.S. aid package will include high powered equipment, like helicopters, Howitzer cannons as well as more drones.

On Saturday, the Russian military claimed it had shot down a Ukrainian aircraft delivering Western military equipment near Odessa. CNN has not been able to independently verify that claim. It is also unclear if any U.S. shipments were arriving near Odessa.

Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, the mayor says that at least one person was killed, several others hurt, after a strike on the city on Saturday. Kyiv has continued to come under heavy fire even after Russian troops withdrew from the region.

In the wake of their retreat, scenes of horror and destruction have emerged in towns like Bucha. ITN's Dan Rivers went there to see the firsthand devastation that Russian troops left behind.

Just a warning: the images you're about to see are very graphic and it is hard to watch. It is, however important to show this as investigators document potential war crimes.

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DAN RIVERS, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If there is one place in Ukraine which has come to symbolize the barbarity of this war, it is Bucha. The images which emerged from this town gave the world its first glimpse into the terrible consequences of a conflict prosecuted without limits.

Today, the drive into Bucha looks very different to those first hours after it was liberated, on the 1st of April.

This was the first evidence of the crimes perpetrated here, the bodies of civilians left decomposing where they fell.

For more than six weeks, the world's attention has focused on the horrors unfolding in Ukraine; in particular, the town of Bucha to the West of Kyiv. We have investigated three separate atrocities in Bucha to give a sense of the widespread, indiscriminate murder being carried out by the Russian army.

The first involves a man, whose body was found at this mass grave, next to St. Andrew's Church, where investigators are beginning to uncover the scale of the slaughter in Bucha during the nearly month- long Russian occupation.

Volodymyr Stefianko (ph) is just one of dozens of relatives looking for answers. The number of bodies buried here is unknown. But it is thought that there are at least 150.

They were hurriedly interred here by locals; most were shot on the streets of Bucha. Now each is being carefully recovered for a full forensic examination. We are with Volodymyr as he waits to find out if his brother, Dmytro (ph), is among the dead. As the face of each is uncovered, suddenly, the awful moment of recognition.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): We accompany him to the place where his brother, Dmytro (ph), was killed. We find an eyewitness, who was there that day and detained moments later by the same group of half a dozen Russian soldiers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): Oleg's (ph) testimony matches the physical evidence here. We find a 7.62 shell casing from an RPK machine gun on the ground, where Dmytro (ph) was executed. Bullet holes in the fence match Oleg's (ph) description of the shootings. Other neighbors here heard shots at around 10:30 on March the 26th, the day he disappeared.

Oleg (ph) recognizes the photo of Dmytro (ph) and confirms he was shot dead here, adding, another man who was with Dmytro (ph) managed to escape.

I asked Volodymyr (ph) if he feels he got closer to the truth about how his brother died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): Dmytro's murder was just one of possibly hundreds of similar summary executions.

But a mile north of the place he died is a children's camp, where there's evidence of more organized killing.

What you're about to see is a video recorded by the Ukrainian authorities after they first entered the basement of the building used by the Russians.

Their hands bound, they appear to have been shot as they knelt on the floor. While the Russian government has accused Ukraine of faking massacres like this, we found several pieces of evidence pointing to Russian responsibility.

The children's camp was marked with a V, a symbol used by Russian forces to identify themselves. Russian ration packs litter the entrance to the cellar. But inside, there are more clues.

RIVERS: You can see the boot marks still in the wall here, the angle that the bullets came in is coming down, suggesting the person was standing over there and the victims were down here.

There is actually a bullet down here, which is a 545 kind of a Kalashnikov bullet with a steel core, which is only issued to the military.

RIVERS (voice-over): We were given access to this cellar because forensic teams have concluded their work. The identities of the men found here have now been established. They were Sergey Meteshko (ph), Volodymyr Pachinko (ph), Viktor Plutko (ph), Valeri Plutko (ph) and Dmytro Shulmeister (ph).

Dmytro's (ph) sister says he and four others refused to flee, deciding to help others to escape Bucha until the Russians caught them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): Two miles south of the children's camp is the site of another massacre, this time even larger. Outside an agricultural construction agency, the bodies of eight men were found near these steps to the side of the building.

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RIVERS (voice-over): Three more were found elsewhere on the site. This is the scene which investigators found.

This man had his hands bound behind his back and his fingernails removed. One has electrical cable tied around his feet and has been beaten across the back. A military crate with the markings of the 7th paratroop unit was found close by.

Inside the building was another body on a stairwell.

RIVERS: This is where some of the most harrowing images to emerge from Bucha were taken. The police have found eight bodies here and more inside. They don't know how many people were killed here in total. Forensic officers are continuing to comb this building for clues. But it appears this was some sort of torture center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): By "filtration activities," he means selecting which prisoners would be executed. We've identified one of the dead men found here as Anatoly Prohitko (ph), who was born in 1983 and may have been targeted because he was with Ukraine's territorial defense.

A witness who saw his body told us, his cheek had been cut out. There were multiple stab wounds on his torso and he'd been shot through the chest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): One man has spoken to us, who saw, heard and survived the massacre. Speaking for the first time but still too scared to show his identity, he says Russian soldiers were going house to house, rounding up civilians, to decide who to execute. He was only spared because he could prove he'd fought in Afghanistan

as a Soviet soldier 40 years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): As the war crimes investigation starts, there are, of course, questions about whether these three cases were part of a wider campaign of orchestrated murder, directed by senior leaders in Russia, something I put to Ukraine's prosecutor general.

RIVERS: Was this orchestrated or was this from just rogue units of the Russian army?

IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA, UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL: Of course it was ordered to kill civilians because we see (INAUDIBLE) that's why it's actually -- it was ordered. And what you'll see here in Bucha and down there in small cities, small villages, which were occupied (INAUDIBLE) the region, actually you see it's not only war crimes; it's crimes against humanity.

RIVERS: To what extent does President Putin hold responsibility for this?

VENEDIKTOVA: President Putin is a main war criminal of 21st century. Of course, he's responsible of all of this, what is going on now in Ukraine. But you remember that it was in Chechnya and what is after Chechnya, it was in Georgia, it was in Syria.

And he's still not held responsible for all these crimes against humanity. That's why we should do everything to punish people who are responsible for this.

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RIVERS (voice-over): The service to remember the victims of Bucha at St. Andrew's Church involves a choir, now a quarter of the size it used to be. One has died, the others have fled. But the Russian occupation hasn't silenced those who remain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): But while survivors search their souls for the strength to forgive, Bucha will never forget what happened here. And neither should we.

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VAUSE: That was our old colleague, Dan Rivers, who now reports for ITN, with that indepth coverage.

On Friday, Ukrainian officials said more than 900 bodies of civilians had been discovered since Russian forces withdrew just from the Kyiv region alone -- Michael.

HOLMES: Incredible, important reporting by Dan Rivers there. Thanks, John.

Well, South Korea's president is telling his ministers to keep a close eye on North Korea's next moves, after a military test that Pyongyang says will boost its nuclear capabilities. Seoul reporting the North fired two projectiles on Saturday.

North Korean state media say leader Kim Jong-un observed the weapons test. It says that this was a new type of guided weapon that will improve the nation's nuclear operations.

North Korea has stepped up its missile activity this year, including what's believed to have been an intercontinental ballistic missile test last month. That was North Korea's first such test since 2017.

But as much as North Korea flexes its military muscle with missile tests, it chose not to do that during its biggest holiday on Friday. The nation did hold a massive parade to mark the birthday of its founder, Kim Il-sung. As Will Ripley now reports, the usual display of troops and military hardware, well, that was missing.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The grand finale of North Korea's biggest holiday celebration, the country launched a new tactical guided weapon, observed by its leader, Kim Jong-un, a show of force to mark the 110th birthday of the country's founder and Kim's grandfather, the late Kim Il-sung.

The show in the sky followed an extravagant parade on the ground. On Friday, Kim and his top aides, including sister, Kim Yo Jong, watched columns of colorful performers pass by. But there were no tanks, missiles or other military hardware that had been showcased in the past.

This latest launch not entirely unexpected by experts after the country conducted a powerful intercontinental ballistic missile test in March, though some experts now question North Korea's claim the launch in March was a new missile, saying it was actually an older model.

The Pentagon has also expressed concern Pyongyang is preparing for a possible underground nuclear test for the first time since 2017. In a New Year's speech, Kim praised military advances but mainly spoke about domestic issues, like food shortages, which have been made worse by the country's self isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, the United Nations warned more than 40 percent of North Koreans are food insecure. The new launch, an old tactic by the rogue nation, trying to deflect from the problems that are persistent in the country, even before Kim came to power.

And in another made-for-TV moment, Kim bestowed the gift of a luxury apartment earlier this week to long-time news reader Ri Chun-hee, who was given a VIP tour of the flat. Kim has a development plan to build 50,000 new apartments in Pyongyang over the next five years. This building, like so much else in North Korea, is reserved for the elite -- Will Ripley, CNN, Taiwan.

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HOLMES: Straight ahead, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with CNN in an exclusive interview, as our coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine continues in a moment.

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VAUSE: The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke with CNN's Jake Tapper for an exclusive interview. He described the horrors of war, the cold-blooded murder of so many civilians and Russia's scorched Earth policy in Ukraine. He says there is only one conclusion from all this: Russia is committing genocide.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I have the same opinion as President Biden and I immediately saw what was happening here, especially what happened in Bucha and to the east of our country, my country.

I speak about this because Russia calls it a military operation and not a war. But look what happened in Bucha. It's clear that is not even a war. It's a genocide.

He just killed people, not soldiers, people. They just shot people in the streets. People were riding bicycles, taking the bus or just walking down the street. There were corpses lining the streets.

These were not soldiers, they were civilians. They bound their hands. They forced children to watch as they raped their mothers. Then they threw them in a well; mass graves, children, adults, the elderly.

And we have substantial evidence that points to this being a genocide, audio and video, where they talk about just how much they hate us. I did not even know that there was such hatred of the Russian military for the Ukrainian people.

They say they are going to destroy us. Just to steal a toilet and a washing machine from an apartment, they shot an entire family. That is genocide.

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VAUSE: The full exclusive interview can be seen in just a few hours from now on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION." Jake Tapper will be live in Lviv from 9:00 am Eastern time, that's 2:00 pm in London.

As the Russian campaign intensifies here in Ukraine, it's getting harder and more dangerous for civilians to flee. A number of humanitarian corridors opened Saturday. Officials say nearly 1,500 Ukrainian civilians evacuated areas of heavy fighting. Notably only 170 escaped Mariupol.

They had to use their own transportation. Buses were bogged down in some muddy parts of the road and could not get through. So far more than 4.8 million people have fled this country since the fighting began. More than 7 million are internally displaced.

Most of those refugees are fleeing to Poland, more than 2.7 million of them so far. Many have no idea where they're heading next or what is next in their lives. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports from inside a train station, which has become a temporary rest stop for thousands of Ukrainians.

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

And I'm at a train station that's essentially a greeting 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 wait it 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, their 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 will show you another thing here. This is medical station. So if somebody needs to get some help, they can do that.

That's what is 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.

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.

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VAUSE: "AFRICAN VOICES: CHANGEMAKERS" is up after the break for our international viewers. For everyone else, I'll be back with the breaking news. You're watching CNN.

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VAUSE: Welcome back.

Well, the Russian military has issued an ultimatum to the remaining Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol, lay down their weapons and leave the city immediately. They've been given less than five hours to comply.

Russia's defense ministry claiming to have shut down a Ukrainian transport plane carrying military aid from the West. This apparently happened in Odessa in the south but there's no confirmation.

The U.S. says its first shipment of heavy weapons has arrived in the country ahead of a renewed Russian offensive. This includes 18 Howitzer cannons and 40,000 artillery rounds.

So U.S. military officials are working the phones daily with allies to try to speed up shipments of weapons, ammunitions to Ukraine. CNN's Arlette Saenz reporting in from the White House.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The first round of that more sophisticated and heavy duty military assistance from the U.S. to Ukraine has started to arrive in the region. That's according to a White House official.

The plans were to send that equipment into the region and the Ukrainians would pick up the military assistance at the border and transfer it into the country themselves. It is unclear at this moment whether that transfer has started.

While the Pentagon would not detail a list of what this first shipment entails, officials expected it would include some of the more pressing needs, things like Howitzers and ammunition as well as radar systems.

Now this is part of an $800 million package President Biden announced earlier in the week and will also include helicopters and more Switchblade drones.

Now there had been some Biden administration officials, who previously were hesitant to send this type of equipment into Ukraine, worried that it could pose a risk of escalation in the view of Russia. But the Ukrainians have asked for this type of weaponry and they're

also preparing for a heightened battle in the eastern part of the country, where the terrain is different and they need more equipment.

Now Russia is also protesting this military support that the U.S. has been offering to Ukraine. Sources tell CNN that Russia sent a diplomatic note to the State Department warning of, quote, "unpredictable consequences" if the U.S. moves forward with supplying more military weaponry to Ukraine.

That raises questions about what Russia exactly could do next, at a time when Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is warning that the world should be on alert for the possible use of nuclear weapons by Russia.

Now the U.S. at this moment remains undeterred by Russia's warnings, continuing to provide this assistance to Ukraine, especially as they see an evolving battlefield and are adjusting the types of assistance that they're offering to the country, as they're preparing for those battles in the east -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

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VAUSE: Defense support was also discussed by the leaders of Ukraine and Sweden on Saturday. The Ukrainian president wrote on Twitter, he described the situation in Mariupol as critical. He also thanked Sweden for supporting Ukraine's efforts to join the E.U.

Sweden's prime minister said the government and E.U. are working relentlessly to impose sanctions on Russia and ensure accountability for Russian war crimes. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has revived a lot of talk about Sweden joining the NATO alliance.

Those talks came hours after Russia lashed out at the British government over its hostile sanctions and for encouraging Western allies to support Ukraine. The Kremlin on Saturday announced that the British prime minister, the foreign secretary, the defense secretary and other officials are banned from entering Russia.

How about that?

CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas is live with us from Los Angeles.

You know, unless Boris Johnson wants to summer in Siberia, this seems puerile in a way. It's meaningless.

But I guess by singling out Boris Johnson as well as the defense secretary, does that mean he's managed to hit a nerve, that the Brits have managed to hit a nerve with Putin, more than any other European leader, in the support that Ukraine has shown from the U.K.?

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DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I think it is, in technical terms, practical terms, meaningless, as you just pointed out, especially given the fact that senior E.U. officials, senior Biden administration officials have also received similar kinds of notifications about travel bans.

But I do think the fact that Boris Johnson is putting so much attention on the Ukraine crisis, it's, of course, a useful distraction from domestic issues that he has confronted. It's precisely because the U.K. or London more specifically over the last 15 or 20 years has become such a privileged safe haven for so many influential Russian oligarchs.

And the fact that the sanctions from the U.K. have been so massive in that regard has potentially disproportionately impacted some of these individuals in relation to some of the issues and sanctions imposed by the European Union.

And that this is causing some problems for President Putin. And he's sending, therefore, a message to Boris Johnson here.

VAUSE: On the other side of this equation, you have the Biden administration, which has been taking this approach with sanctions, that unity is more important than severity or punishment, which means that the end result, it's all a bit like weak tea and kind of ineffective.

Then you also have the military side drawing a red line around NATO and Europe as an area of escalation, which has essentially giving the green light to Putin to do his worst, do whatever he wants in Ukraine.

Supplying weapons, that's good, that's the easy part.

But when does NATO and the U.S. get serious about trying to stop Russia?

THOMAS: Well, I think, John -- and you're on the ground there covering this and know this. And I think unfortunately that moment could be coming upon us.

Throughout this whole process, it's not been so much really the extent of what NATO and the United States have been doing, although the question is always, you know, have they done enough?

But is what they're doing actually working on the ground?

And I think when you see countries like Finland and Sweden looking at NATO membership, because of the way NATO has responded in terms of not getting involved ultimately on the ground, you can see that Russian aggression has served as a catalyst here.

But I think when it comes to the bigger picture, as far as President Putin is concerned, he's already at war with the West. And there's this complicated physics dynamic that's in place. Each action of aggression by the Russians leads to a response. And the response serves as an accelerator as well.

Unfortunately, we're moving toward even greater escalation. And it's just a matter of time before a NATO country gets embroiled directly in this conflict.

And the question will always be, ultimately, should they have had troops on the ground earlier?

And should they have responded two months ago, rather than 60 days into the conflict, by being there and, as President Zelenskyy has been calling on them, all of this time?

VAUSE: You know, we've had an election in Hungary, which saw Putin's BFF Viktor Orban easily win another term. And now in France, Marine Le Pen, anti-NATO, anti-E.U., close ties to Russia is the main challenger for Emmanuel Macron.

So how much does this reflect support in Europe, maybe off of Putin but maybe for his white nationalist, antidemocratic style of governing?

THOMAS: Well, I think, John, certainly historically -- and that white nationalist agenda and the autocratic nature of the Russian leadership has really intersected with far right views and policies.

And when you consider the funding that they have received from Russia, it really provided the oxygen for so many of these movements. But I think the conflict in Ukraine, the war in Ukraine, has been a game changer.

And that it is unambiguously clear who is at fault and who is the aggressor is. And any political leader now in Europe, whether in power or aspiring to seek political office, who wants to withdraw from NATO, weaken the European Union and undermine the multilateral order, is simply on the wrong side of history.

And when you consider Marine Le Pen's previous statements, the refusal to entertain a gas and energy embargo on Russia, I really hope that, disappointed as they may be, that French electors are able to send a powerful message next Sunday, that this is not what Europe needs right now, John.

VAUSE: It seems like this conflict will only end through some kind of negotiated settlement. And that's what Zelenskyy has said he wants, he wants it to be ASAP, which means some kind of diplomatic solution here.

If that happens, where does that all leave this talk about war crimes and prosecutions for crimes against humanity and holding Putin accountable?

You can only have a Nuremberg trial if there's a clear winner and a clear loser. And the winners hold the losers accountable.

THOMAS: Yes. Obviously, John, the absolute priority right now is peace and to avoid any kind of escalation.

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THOMAS: I mean, Zelenskyy, his number one goal is to protect his country, protect his people and to avoid any further kind of horrors on the ground. So I think that, unfortunately, the question of accountability, of

even enforceability of any kind of findings or legal proceedings that entertains genocide or war crimes, is going to have to be secondary and, ironically, perhaps paradoxically, this may be something that is only pursued in a post-Putin era, where, hopefully, new Russian leadership emerges and he may have to be held accountable through his historical record for these particular actions.

But right now they're clearly secondary to the imperative of stopping this aggression in the Ukraine right now.

VAUSE: Absolutely. Dominic Thomas, thank you, live for us in London. As always we appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, Ukraine's president has been handing out medals to members of the country's armed forces. In images released by the government on Saturday, Zelenskyy was praising the troops, handing out medals at a ceremony at an undisclosed location.

Zelenskyy thanked the soldiers for defending the country's sovereignty. He said their service has allowed civilians to have a constant connection with their government and has been an incredible front against the Russian military.

That's it for me from Lviv. Just ahead, my friend and colleague, Michael Holmes, takes a closer look at a mass shooting at a shopping mall in South Carolina. The latest on those injured and those detained.

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HOLMES: 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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HOLMES: Health officials say at least nine of these injured in the shooting were treated and released from the hospital.

New COVID-19 cases are ticking up again in the U.S. but are still a fraction of what they were at the height of the Omicron surge. Health officials keeping a close eye right now on New York state. Polo Sandoval tells us why.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: COVID cases on the rise in communities throughout the United States. Health authorities, though, are concerned about a recent uptick here in New York state, mainly in the central regions, where an average daily case count has nearly doubled in the last two weeks.

Two offshoots of the Omicron BA.2 virus are likely to blame, causing more than 90 percent of infections in central New York and also in the Finger Lakes region. It's unclear if these subvariants will eventually overtake the BA.2 variant here in New York and other parts of the country.

It's not the first time that these subvariants have made their appearance. They've already been reported in at least 50 states and territories here in the U.S. since January. As far as the global tracking efforts, they've already identified them in the U.K., India, Germany, also in Canada.

We should mention, though, the daily reported cases, they are still really just a fraction of what we experienced in the United States during the Omicron surge recently. That was certainly a reason for health officials here in New York state to remind the public of the steps they can do to stay safe.

The state health commissioner saying, while the subvariants are new, the tool we have to fight them are not: things like getting fully vaccinated, getting boosted and getting tested if you've been exposed to the virus and wearing masks in public indoor spaces.

In fact, recently Broadway announced, though they plan to relax their vaccine requirements and don't expect to require proof of vaccination at the end of April, they did announce that they will be extending the mask mandate for Broadway performances, at least until the end of May -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

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HOLMES: In Shanghai, the COVID-19 outbreak shows no signs of slowing. More than 26,000 new cases reported across China on Saturday. And almost all of those were in Shanghai.

That city has been in a strict lockdown for weeks now, as authorities try to curb the spread of the virus. We're also following signs of economic progress. CNN has just learned some key industries in Shanghai will be allowed to resume production again, including companies that produce biomedicines, automobiles and integrated circuits.

More than 600 companies impacted by that decision.

Musicians and artists in Ukraine using their skills to comfort and encourage their fellow citizens. CNN speaks to one rock star, who is using the power of song to help fellow civilians forget about the horrors of war.

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HOLMES (voice-over): There you have music flowing in the streets in Dnipro, Ukraine, in hopes of raising morale as the war rages on. Onlookers gathered as musicians played well known pieces, including music from James Bond films and Ukrainian numbers as well.

The conductor said the goal was bring positivity to people at a difficult time.

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HOLMES: Now a Ukrainian rock star has a similar idea. The famous musician nicknamed the Ukrainian Bruce Springsteen is trying to reassure his audience that, one day, everything will be all right. CNN's Rafael Romo with that story.

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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): There was the orchestra that performed the concert for peace in the public square in the middle of the day in spite of the danger of an airstrike.

And the cellist who defied the invaders by playing his instrument in front of bombed-out buildings.

And who can forget the little girl with the sweetest voice, who made those around her forget they were in a bomb shelter?

One by one, singers and musicians in Ukraine have defied the Russians by using their talent to unite a nation and soothe a terrified population.

SVIATOSLAV VAKARCHUK, UKRAINIAN SINGER: We love singing.

ROMO (voice-over): The most famous one is Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, better known as Slava, who some call the Ukrainian Bruce Springsteen.

VAKARCHUK: Dignity and freedom are basic values. ROMO (voice-over): At the beginning of the invasion, Slava could have

chosen to flee the country. Instead, he decided not only to stay but to visit terrified civilians, like these people seeking shelter in a Kharkiv subway station.

ROMO: You went to a subway station by yourself, where there were many people, and, unannounced, and you started singing.

Why did you do something like that?

ROMO (voice-over): "The whole idea," he says, "is to help people forget, even if it is for a fleeting moment, about the horror of war."

VAKARCHUK: Imagine somebody like me comes and says, hey, guys, everything is fine.

[01:55:00]

VAKARCHUK: Let's sing together. Let's have some fun.

ROMO: Let's forget for a moment that we are at war.

ROMO (voice-over): Yes, that's -- this is it.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ROMO (voice-over): And so he's visited hospitals like this one in Mykolaiv to cheer up victims of a rocket attack, survivors of an airstrike at a train station at Kramatorsk and troops on the front lines.

Songs, he says, are his answer to Russian bullets. Empathy and goodwill are more powerful than any bomb.

VAKARCHUK: Ukrainians are one of the most -- sorry -- the freest nations in the world. We have this gene of freedom in our DNA. That's why probably many Americans instinctively, intuitively support us now.

ROMO (voice-over): In the streets, people greet him and ask for pictures. Slava happily obliges and takes the opportunity to give everybody the same message: everything will be all right, which happens to be the title of one of his songs; his most popular nowadays.

"I hope that everything is going to be all right for everybody," the song says. "Our time is going to come" -- Rafael Romo, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Good man.

I'm Michael Holmes, follow me on Twitter and Instagram. We'll go back to Ukraine and John Vause as breaking news coverage continues in a moment.