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Russia Demands All Fighters Leave Mariupol; Hundreds Seek Shelter Near Sievierodonetsk; Polish Train Station Becomes Rest Stop For Ukrainian Refugees; International Committee Of The Red Cross Providing Food, Hygiene Items, Medical Supplies To Ukrainian Displaced; Kim Jong-Un Observes Test Of New Type Of Weapon; Wounded, Orphaned And Taken By Russians; U.S. Officials Warn Of Putin's Unpredictable Behavior; Panicked Chinese Stocking Up On Food. Aired 2- 3a ET
Aired April 17, 2022 - 02:00 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 United States and those around the world, I'm John Vause, live in Lviv, Ukraine. Moscow demanding the final remaining soldiers in Mariupol surrender, as the Ukraine president warns Russian attacks could make peace impossible.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Michael Holmes from Atlanta. South Korea and the U.S. monitoring what North Korea calls a successful launch of a new type of guided weapon, its 12th missile launch this year.
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VAUSE: The battle for Mariupol may be coming to end. Moscow claiming to have cleared all urban areas, demanding all remaining troops lay down weapons and ammunition and leave by 1:00 pm local time, four hours from now.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the city is in the grips of a humanitarian crisis and suggests 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: Meantime, Russian strikes continue to hammer other areas in southern and Eastern Ukraine. Officials in the northeastern city of Kharkiv say at least two were killed, 18 injured after a cruise missile attack.
To the south, in Luhansk, officials say Russian strikes damaged nearly a dozen infrastructure facilities, including an oil refinery.
On Saturday the Russian military claimed it shot down Ukrainian aircraft with Western military equipment near Odessa. But the White House says more weapons, ammunition and other military aid are now set to arrive in country and for the first time that U.S. aid package will include high-powered equipment, like helicopters, cannons and more drones.
Those coming as Russian troops reportedly prepare for a ground offensive in Eastern Ukraine, near one town likely to be in the direct path of a Russian advance. Hundreds of residents are seeking shelter, living underground, many because they cannot or will not leave. Here's CNN's Ben Wedeman.
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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.
WEDEMAN: 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: 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 injured and were taken to hospital. CEO Nate Mook posted 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.
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VAUSE: World Central Kitchen was founded by Chef Jose Andres. Mook said no one was killed at restaurant but Saturday's missile strike did kill one other person. CNN has not independently confirmed that death.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the country is in a daily state of heartbreak over the needless deaths of so many civilians, especially younger victims. CNN's Jake Tapper sat down with him in Kyiv for an exclusive interview.
First a warning though: this interview contains some very graphic details and images that many will find disturbing.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: I'm sure you have seen the video of the Ukrainian mom, finding her son in a well.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Yes.
TAPPER: And her sorrow, her crying, just is devastating to hear. And you have seen a lot of videos like that. What is it like for you, as the president of this country to see those videos to hear the crying of the moms?
ZELENSKYY: This is the scariest I've seen in my life in principle. I look at this first of all, as a father, it hurts so, so much. It's a tragedy. It's suffering. I won't be able to imagine the scale of suffering of these people, of this woman. It is a family's tragedy. It's a disaster. The dreams and the life you've just lost. We live for our kids. That's true.
Kids are the best; we were given by God and by family. It is a great pain for me. I can't watch it as a father, only because all you want after this is revenge and to kill. I have to watch as the president of the state where a lot of people have died and lost their loved ones and there are millions of people who want to live, all of us want to fight.
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VAUSE: That exclusive interview with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, you can watch in a few hours on "STATE OF THE UNION." Tapper will be live from Lviv, at 9:00 am East Coast time and that's 2:00 pm in London.
Millions of Ukrainians have fled the fighting, more than 2.7 million to Poland. Once they get there, many of them have no idea where to go next. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is reporting out from a Polish train station that's become a temporary rest stop for so many.
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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: Lucile Marbeau is a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross. She is with us from Dnipro, Ukraine.
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
Now that Moscow has made an ultimatum for the last of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to surrender, it seems the city is just hours away from being under total Russian control. At last count there were, what, 180,000 civilians still there.
What are your concerns for them moving forward?
LUCILE MARBEAU, INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS SPOKESPERSON: Well, it's always the same concerns we've been having since a month, as we haven't been able to go inside the city of Mariupol to assess the humanitarian needs.
But we know they're huge. We were able to have a convoy with residents from Mariupol, bringing them to safety in Zaporizhzhya. And they were telling us there was barely any food, any water, no electricity and barely any connectivity, so cut off from the world and a huge lack of medication.
What we know from our experience, when cities are with ongoing hostilities, the basics come to lack. That's also for medications. So those who stay behind are usually the elderly, the most vulnerable, people with chronic diseases, with disabilities, problems with mobility.
So we've constantly been calling to the parties to enable us to facilitate safe passage for the civilians from Mariupol but also get humanitarian aid. This is part of their legal obligations.
Civilians are always protected, wherever they are, by international humanitarian law and they are also entitled to humanitarian aid. Of course, when there's constant fighting in cities, it's hard to get in, because we need the security guarantees for our staff, for the civilians we would also help.
But this is ongoing call we're having. And we hope still at some point to be able to go in and assist the population there.
VAUSE: Is it still possible to open an evacuation corridor from Mariupol into Russia across the border?
Is that still on the table?
And do you expect civilians in Mariupol to take that option?
MARBEAU: There hasn't been discussions really about evacuation to Russia. There's been lots of social media disinformation, saying that the International Committee of the Red Cross had evacuated, against their consent, people from Mariupol to Russia. That is false, it never happened and will never happen.
We have a principled approach that we will never evacuate civilians against their own will, against their consent. Just to give a further example, we have teams in Donbas who are doing medical evacuations from Donetsk, as I'm speaking now.
Already in cities, civilians hard hit by hostilities since the end of February. We went into a shelter with many vulnerable people, elderly people, people with chronic diseases in that shelter for weeks.
We evacuated a few but some didn't want to go and didn't want to be evacuated. We won't evacuate them in that case. It's really according to what people want, to their desires, that we're going to do such evacuations.
VAUSE: In Dnipro in central Ukraine, it's been a safe haven for many people escaping the worst of the fighting.
But how safe is it now?
How many have arrived recently?
And what do you need?
MARBEAU: So Dnipro has been a transit city. People also settling in since end of February, coming from north from Kharkiv and from the west from Donetsk and also from Mariupol. Half a million people have passed through Dnipro since the end of February.
Now in the city, 30,000 have settled in. So the response we're doing with the Ukrainian Red Cross also is bringing the basics to shelters. Those who stay are usually the most vulnerable, who also need financial support.
To remain in shelters, they're going to need food, water, hygiene items and the basics. Also we're doing cash assistance so they can decide for themselves and maybe get a bit more sustainable support. We know that, at some point, some displaced persons can get their own apartment and just having something a bit more of a normal life.
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MARBEAU: It will never be normal because they've left their homes and everything behind and sometimes they have left relatives behind. It's an extreme worry for the people when they know other loved ones are still in danger in cities with constant hostilities.
VAUSE: As bad as it has been and the loss of life and destruction has already been, it's about to get a lot worse, especially when the Russians begin offensive in the east.
What are you expecting?
What are your red lines to pull out?
How long will you continue to operate in a war zone? MARBEAU: We'll try to hold as long as possible. What usually happens is, if our colleagues see they're going to get trapped by hostilities, of course, they're going to move out. But we're still going to see how to change our setup to continue supporting civilians, who have stayed and also the medical infrastructures and facilities.
For instance, as we're speaking, colleagues are evacuating patients from a hospital in a city close to the front line. They have the same type of medical evacuations, of vulnerable people from Sievierodonetsk.
And yesterday our colleagues gave 20 tons of food to the authorities for a city in the north on the front line. So teams will do their absolute to be able to assist the civilians left behind.
This is what we're seeing now in the area, many people have left already. Many people have left Kramatorsk, the cities I was talking about. But those who stayed behind because they can't move, they're elderly, they have disabilities. And these are the people we prioritize when we do evacuations.
There's also people who want to stay because they have no money, they don't see -- they don't have perspective, no family members to join either for Western Ukraine or in neighboring countries.
And it's their homes. They don't want to leave and will stay no matter what. These people, of course, are our utmost concern. They have to be spared by combat. And this is a legal obligation for the parties. But we also need to be able to keep on assisting them one way or another.
VAUSE: I hope you do. I wish you best of luck. Everybody at the ICRC, the incredible work you're doing right now is more than valuable, it's so necessary. Thank you, please stay safe.
MARBEAU: Thank you, bye-bye.
VAUSE: Take care.
Coming up, North Korea says it's boosting its nuclear capabilities. Pyongyang test fires a weapon that may not fly far but it's putting its southern neighbors on edge.
Also analyzing Vladimir Putin, we'll speak to someone who is trying to work out what is happening in Putin's brain. Michael Holmes pick up our coverage after a short break.
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HOLMES: North Korea claims it has taken a new step to boost its nuclear capabilities. South Korea says Pyongyang fired two projectiles Saturday that fell east of the Korean Peninsula. North Korean state media described them as new type of guided weapon to improve the nation's tactical nuclear ability. Will Ripley has more.
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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: And Paula Hancocks is keeping an eye on these developments.
Tell us more about the significance of the launch in terms of the type of missile and what it might be able to do.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a significant launch, with Kim Jong-un attending. State-run media said he was guiding the launch itself. He doesn't usually show up for short-range missiles. That shows it was a significant weapon for him.
They said it's a new type of tactical guided weapon. Kim Jong-un himself last year, speaking at party Congress, said, according to state-run media, he wanted tactical nuclear weapons. This was on his weapons wish list.
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HANCOCKS: He stated for his people and rest of the world a detailed wish list. So this is one step in that direction.
In that respect, it is significant. It means that there can be smaller rockets used, smaller missiles used, in order to deliver low yield nuclear weapons. And it means it can be used more quickly, more efficiently, in a short-range region; for example, against South Korea, against U.S. forces in South Korea and Japan.
So this is a significant development in the fact it is what he said he wants to do, these tactical nuclear weapons.
HOLMES: There have been concerns, too, about an underground nuclear test.
What would that mean in terms of the concerns of the outside world?
HANCOCKS: When it comes to this seventh possible nuclear test, most observers you speak to assume it's when rather than if. They believe what Kim Jong-un wants to do is test this low yield nuclear weapon.
So this nuclear underground test could be imminent. Some have said in the next few months but it's really not certain when. We know for a fact from officials in South Korea and the U.S., also from satellite imagery assessed by experts, there is activity at their main nuclear site, where they've been carrying out previous nuclear tests.
There has been rubble spied (ph) outside one of the tunnels, suggesting they're digging down once again. They did have a show of destroying the entrances to the tunnels in 2018 to foreign media, including CNN.
But didn't destroy them completely if they believe they can do the test once again. So the assessment from officials and North Korea watchers is it's matter of when rather than if, although it could be a lower yield, smaller explosion than the last nuclear test in 2017. Tremors from that were felt in South Korea and neighboring China-- Michael.
HOLMES: Paula, good to have you there.
Paula Hancocks in Seoul for us.
She was wounded, orphaned and taken by Russian soldiers, now she's in a Russian-controlled hospital and her surviving relatives fear they'll never see her again. Her story after the break.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, I'm John Vause, live in Lviv, Ukraine. It's 31 minutes past the hour.
The Russian military issued an ultimatum to all Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol to lay down weapons and leave if they want to live, effective immediately. They have less than four hours from now to comply.
Russia's defense ministry also claims it shot down an Ukrainian transport plane with military aid from the West. This apparently happened near Odessa in the south but there's no confirmation.
And despite that, the U.S. says its first shipment of heavy weapons has arrived in country ahead of a renewed Russian offensive expected anytime now. It includes 18 Howitzer cannons and 40,000 artillery rounds but that might only last a couple of days with another offensive.
It wasn't enough that one 12-year-old girl had both her parents shot and killed by the Russians and that she, too, was shot and wounded and then was taken away from her last remaining relatives to a hospital in Russian controlled territory. But then this girl was used in a propaganda video. He's CNN's Phil Black.
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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).
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BLACK (voice-over): "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: Let's go to Michael Holmes in Atlanta.
It makes you wonder, what is the point?
Why keep a little girl against her will?
HOLMES: So heartbreaking, I mean, yes, exactly.
Why? Why do it?
Because of course, it causes pain, perhaps. John, thank you, John Vause there in Lviv.
Well, Britain's prime minister says the U.K. will stop at nothing to make sure Ukrainians have what they need to defend themselves against Russia. Boris Johnson spoke with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday and reaffirmed his support and talked about next steps.
They talked about a long-term security solution for Ukraine, the current situation in Mariupol and military aid the U.K. will send in the days ahead.
Earlier I spoke with Douglas London, a retired U.S. senior CIA operations officer and 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."
He described how the U.S. might covertly help Ukraine.
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DOUGLAS LONDON, FORMER U.S. SENIOR CIA OPERATIONS OFFICER: Well, I would expect the 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.
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HOLMES: 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 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That's retired senior CIA operations officer Doug London, speaking with me earlier.
Some U.S. states are passing laws restricting abortion. Just ahead, a review of the issue as the Supreme Court is set to deliver a ruling on it within months. We'll be right back with that.
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HOLMES: We're tracking another mass shooting here in the U.S. At least 14 people injured on Saturday after gunfire at a mall in South Carolina. This is at the state capital, Columbia. One person arrested so far in connection with the shooting. Health officials say at least nine of those injured were treated and released from hospital.
Republican-controlled legislatures in the United States have been passing laws restricting and also banning abortions in their state. This is happening even as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on Mississippi's abortion law this summer. Nadia Romero reports.
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NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Using their voices and risking their freedoms.
PROTESTERS: No justice, no peace.
ROMERO: Kate Danehy-Samitz and Sarah Parker lead Women's Voices of Southwest Florida, a nonprofit organized to defend reproductive freedoms.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to speak out.
ROMERO: The group helped raise awareness when the Manatee County board of commissioners discussed the possibility of introducing an abortion ban. SARAH PARKER, PRESIDENT, WOMEN'S VOICES OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: I had to sit down and I cried. We had put so many hours and so much time in that. And we want something.
ROMERO: but their message was not loud enough to drown out the will of Florida's legislature and governor.
PARKER: It makes me angry and it makes me sad and it makes me worried. It feels like we're going backward.
ROMERO: This week Governor Ron DeSantis signing a 15 week abortion ban into law --
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): There you go.
ROMERO: -- without exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
DESANTIS: This will represent the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state in a generation.
ROMERO: Two days before DeSantis, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill that makes performing an abortion a felony except in the case of a medical emergency.
GOV. KEVIN STITT (R-OK): We want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the country. We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma.
ROMERO: And also this week Kentucky's GOP-led legislature overwrote the governor's veto for a bill that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
So far 18 states have introduced legislation banning or limiting access to most abortion. 14 states have passed their restrictive legislation. Three states so far this year -- Kentucky, Florida and Arizona, following a 2018 Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now lets go and sign these bills.
ROMERO: Now some Democratic controlled legislatures aim to protect the rights of Roe v. Wade with new bills of their own. Maryland lawmakers expanding access to abortion.
ADRIENNE JONES, SPEAKER, MARYLAND HOUSE OF DELEGATES: We are preparing for some of the most restrictive abortion actions that we've seen in a generation.
ROMERO: In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer filing a lawsuit to challenge the state's almost 100 year old abortion ban even though it's not enforceable due to Roe v Wade.
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): We have to take those current assaults on women's rights seriously and use every tool we have to fight back. This is not just a theoretical risk. This is a real and present danger. ROMERO: With many states rewriting their abortion laws, all eyes point to the Supreme Court. The court heard arguments on the Mississippi law back in December. Legal experts argue a decision could be handed down in June right before summer break with pro-activists continuing their fight to the highest court in the land.
PARKER: Maybe they'll come back and stand behind Roe versus Wade. I hope they do and I want to believe so.
ROMERO (voice-over): Nadia Romero, CNN, Atlanta.
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HOLMES: Still to come on the program, what life is like for millions of people experiencing weeks of strict COVID lockdowns in Shanghai. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, we'll be right back.
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HOLMES: In Shanghai, the COVID-19 outbreak shows no sign of slowing. More than 26,000 new cases reported across China on Saturday, almost all of them in Shanghai. That city, of course, has been in a strict lockdown for weeks, as authorities try to curb the spread of the virus.
We're also following signs of economic progress. Some key industries in Shanghai will be allowed to resume production again, including companies that produce biomedicine, automobiles and integrated circuits.
More than 600 companies are impacted. CNN's David Culver is in Shanghai following other signs of progress and frustration in the city. Have a look.
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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.
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RIPLEY (voice-over): 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, 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: Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram. We'll be back in Ukraine with John Vause as our coverage continues. Also Kim Brunhuber will pick it up here in Atlanta.
