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CDC Mask Mandate For Travelers Struck Down; Interview With Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor; Russia Strikes Lviv. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 18, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:15]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: I'm Alisyn Camerota.

New this afternoon ,Ukrainian defense officials believe Russia has completed the regrouping of its troops to launch that anticipated eastern offensive. According to a U.S. defense official, Russia has added 11 battalion tactical groups to their forces in the East and South Ukraine since last week.

The U.S. believes that Russia is learning from their failures in the north of Ukraine and applying those lessons in the east and the south. Then, to the north and west, there's no video of one of several Russian missiles hitting Lviv. The strikes...

BLACKWELL: The strikes caused the first wartime deaths since -- inside Lviv since the invasion started 54 days ago.

Now, the attack overnight killed at least seven people, injured several others, including a child. In the south, Ukraine is still desperately trying to hold on to the port city of Mariupol amid intense shelling.

Ukraine rejected a Russian deadline to surrender. President Zelenskyy told Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview that Ukraine will not give up any territory to end the war with Ukraine -- with Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukraine and the people of our state are absolutely clear. We don't want anyone else's territory, and we are not going to give up our own. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Matt Rivers live in Lviv, where those deadly strikes hit overnight.

So, Matt, just tell us what you're seeing and hearing around you.

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we heard those explosions loudly this morning here local time in Lviv, with four different missiles hitting across Lviv, the city of Lviv.

Ukrainian officials giving a midday update here talking about what they knew. Three of the four missiles, they say, targeted various military infrastructure around the city of Lviv, but the fourth just hit an auto body repair shop. And we know that because my team and I managed to make our way to the scene of that fourth strike.

When we arrived, we saw an impact crater easily five meters' across. We saw two buildings that were on fire at the time. Those fires have since been put out, but those buildings totally destroyed. And those were just civilian targets. We talked to the owner of that auto body shop, who said that his employees had come into work, about a dozen or so people, maybe a few more than that.

They had come into work and were planning to open up their shop at 9:00 a.m., like they always do. And the missile hit somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30. He said multiple employees at his store were killed. Many others were sent to the hospital. He said he's not a military target. He's not of strategic importance to the Russian military, so why was his auto body shop targeted?

Yet another example, Victor and Alisyn, of the brutality of Russia's military in this war.

BLACKWELL: There are so many of them.

Let's go to Mariupol, speaking of that. Ukraine refuses to surrender there. We know that there's intense fighting. What can you tell us about the city?

RIVERS: This city has seemingly been on the verge of falling to Russian forces for weeks now. And yet, day after day after day, we continue to get word from the Ukrainians that fighters remain defending that city.

And that appears to be the case now, with the siege of Mariupol lasting for weeks. We don't know exactly how many fighters on the Ukraine side remain in there defending that city. It's very difficult to get information out of that city, because reliably contacting people with a lack of Internet service for us to independently verify information is all but impossible.

But it does appear that the resistance there continues, even in the face of this Russian onslaught. We should add there's someone 100,000 civilians that Ukraine says still need to be evacuated, no humanitarian corridors open over the weekend .Russia now saying they have closed entry and exit to that city, which means no humanitarian corridors are possible.

Ukraine says that amounts to war crimes.

CAMEROTA: Matt, tell us about this video that Ukraine has released that shows pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk asking Putin to use him in a prisoner swap for Ukrainian troops and civilians who are trapped in Mariupol.

RIVERS: Yes, this was pretty striking.

This is a pro-Russian politician. He's a Ukrainian oligarch known to be close to Vladimir Putin. And he was captured, according to President Zelenskyy, here in Ukraine in what they're calling a special operation over the last few days. He's been appearing in this video where he directly calls on Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy to come up with a deal, where he, using his singular life, will then exchange his life for the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and an unknown number of fighters in Mariupol in some sort of, you could say prisoner swap.

[14:05:05]

But, basically, it's one life in exchange for thousands and thousands of others.

We should add we do not know if the video was made under duress. He is in -- Medvedchuk is in the custody of Ukraine. So, we don't know if he made this video willingly or was compelled to do so. But no matter, it is very striking to see someone known to be close to Vladimir Putin, be a pro-Russian politician, make this plea, his life in exchange for thousands of others.

CAMEROTA: OK, Matt Rivers, thank you very much for all that reporting.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Matt.

Joining me now is a U.S. Army veteran from Connecticut who is fighting on the front lines in Ukraine, James Vasquez.

Thank you so much for being with me.

As you might have heard at the top of the show, a U.S. defense official says that the regrouping has been completed, now moving to the east. What are you seeing where you are?

JAMES VASQUEZ, AMERICAN FIGHTING IN UKRAINE: Well, kind of just exactly that.

Where -- I can't really tell you where I have been and where I'm going. However, I can tell you that, wherever I have been, yes, we have seen a lot less activity where we were. And they are doing a regrouping. It is going to be a Russian offensive in another area. I have just left my unit that I was in for the last few weeks to go to a different unit, which is going to be doing a night recon in order to kind of identify them before they get to us. So I have been wearing a lot of hats over here.

BLACKWELL: So I'm -- we are certainly sensitive to the security concerns. We are only saying that you're in Ukraine. We're not going to speak about specific locations.

But you tweeted on Saturday that your area had been bombed. Can you tell us if the -- what was hit was a civilian target, if it was a military resource? What can you tell us about that?

VASQUEZ: I would love to tell you exactly what happened, but I can't, because it would be -- and I have footage of it. I actually took footage of the bombing. But I can't release that right now.

It's too easy to geolocate. And while I'm not in that area anymore, there are still people that are there, innocent civilians. And I don't want to put that out there, because I don't want them to continue bombing this area. So...

BLACKWELL: Understood.

Your unit, are you all Americans? Are you working with foreign fighters from other countries?

VASQUEZ: No. To be honest with you, this is a crazy situation, and it will take a long time to explain.

But, right now, I'm pretty much a ghost. Me and a British soldier, him and I have been kind of like going from unit to unit wherever we're needed the most. If I see a unit slowing down to combat, I try to find a unit that's more combat-expedient.

And we are not signatory to anyone. I am not signed up with the Foreign Legion. I am not signed up with the Ukrainian army. I'm not signed up with anyone. I am simply here helping whoever I can help. And they -- they welcome us with open arms wherever we go. We have a little bit more experience than these guys, so we try to give all our knowledge, train, help, fight for these guys, and just keep fighting the good fight, I guess.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

So I have been on your social media, on your Twitter page. And you have posted where resources are coming in, where you get vehicles, you're getting weaponry, you're getting some gear. Is that coming from fund-raising? Are there people sending it to you? Where are you getting your support?

VASQUEZ: It's a little bit of both.

I'm getting a lot of fund-raising that I -- funds that I have raised. So, when it comes to like gear, like really making our weapons sophisticated enough to be as sophisticated as the Russians' weapons are, and I just have iron sights with AK-47s. I don't know if that's Chinese to some people. But a lot of it is donations. A lot of it is -- now that we're

starting to see an influx of weapons, ammunition coming in, body armor, which is obviously important, Kevlars, all the things that we need just to fight like gentlemen, really -- and it seems to me we're getting more and more.

I hear stories that we got tanks on the way, we have helicopters on the way, we have all this stuff. I haven't seen them yet. I just hope these are true stories, because we really need them.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: James, last thing for you.

VASQUEZ: Sure.

BLACKWELL: You said that you're not signed up with the Ukrainian military, any other military force.

[14:10:02]

Have you registered with the Ukrainian military -- government? Do they know that you are there? Is there any cooperation?

VASQUEZ: I don't think there's any secret from here to the U.S. that I'm here. Nobody gives me any guff about it, though.

They are happy to have us. That's all I can say about that.

BLACKWELL: All right, James Vasquez, who is there, Connecticut veteran who is in Ukraine, fighting there to support the Ukrainian people, thank you for your time, sir.

CAMEROTA: Just amazing to hear the story of an American who has left behind his relatively cushy life to go over there and fight.

BLACKWELL: And getting support from people around the world.

You go to his Twitter page, he shows: We have gotten vehicles. I'm driving on the other side of this vehicle now, which shows where he might have gotten it from and where it didn't come from.

But he's learning as he's there to support people, so interesting element there.

CAMEROTA: There were also two Russian strikes on the city of Dnipro in Central Ukraine.

And that's where we find CNN chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward.

Clarissa, great to have you there for us.

So, tell us what you're learning about the attack there and the fighting that's happening to the east of where you are. CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Alisyn, you

can probably see behind me it's a relatively normal night now in Dnipro.

The streetlights are still on. There's some traffic. The curfew here begins in about half-an-hour or so. There were two large missile strikes overnight. They were just on the outskirts of town. We're hearing that they targeted some kind of infrastructure installation. And this city has been hit before.

Just the weekend before last, the airport was hit. This is a major hub of nearly a million people. And it's the place that is taking a lot of the internally displaced who are now fleeing the fighting in the east. However, this is a relatively safe place. It is a very different story in some of those front-line towns in the so-called Donbass region in Eastern Ukraine.

That's where we have been traveling around for the last few days. We have visited towns under relentless shelling and bombardment day in, day out, people wanting to be evacuated who can't be evacuated, people who refuse to leave because they're so fearful of what will happen to their homes.

And all the meanwhile, everyone is bracing themselves for this Russian and highly anticipated offensive, some Ukrainian officials saying that it's already begun, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that it's coming any moment now, and Ukrainian forces, for their part, launching a series of counteroffensives, trying to stop this Russian offensive in its tracks before it's even started.

So it's an increasingly grim picture. The violence is increasing by the day. And there's a fear that the worst is yet to come.

BLACKWELL: Clarissa, there's a Ukrainian official who says that they have lost control of the eastern town of Kreminna. What's the situation there?

WARD: So, this is the first time we have seen Russian forces push into a town along those front-line positions in the Donbass. And it's significant for that reason.

It's not clear if they're fully in control of the town. What we're hearing is that there's street-to-street fighting going on. It's an incredibly kinetic and dangerous situation. There was also a report from Ukrainian military authorities that a civilian car that was trying to flee with ordinary people inside was fired upon.

And that's the difficulty, honestly. Because this offensive hasn't officially gotten under way, a lot of people are still saying that they won't evacuate. And by the time the violence and the bombardment comes to their towns, it's often too late for them to evacuate.

And, of course, people are looking at what has happened in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, a city of nearly half-a-million people that has been bombarded relentlessly for over a month now, that is probably on the brink of falling, although U.S. officials are saying that it is still contested, and Ukrainian fighters on the ground, soldiers, are refusing still to surrender.

But they see what's happening in Mariupol. And they fear that those scenes and that devastation and that targeting of civilian infrastructure is what will soon be transpiring in towns across Eastern Ukraine.

BLACKWELL: Clarissa Ward for us there in Dnipro, thank you.

CAMEROTA: So, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning of that very incoming offensive by Russian forces in the eastern part of Ukraine and telling CNN that Ukraine is not willing to give up that territory in order to end the war.

BLACKWELL: Plus, Ukraine's foreign minister says the deteriorating situation in Mariupol may be a red line when it comes to negotiating with Russia.

[14:15:01]

We will discuss what this could mean with a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Heavy fighting is ongoing in the port city of Mariupol. Russian forces bombarded a steel plant there that had become crucial to the Ukrainian defense strategy.

BLACKWELL: Now, the Ukrainians have rebuffed the Russian demand to surrender. And President Zelenskyy told CNN that his country will not give up any eastern territory to stop this war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): Ukraine and the people of our state are absolutely clear. We don't want anyone else's territory, and we are not going to give up our own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:20:07]

BLACKWELL: Joining us now, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor.

Mr. Ambassador, welcome back.

If you take that declaration from President Zelenskyy, also what we heard from the Ukrainian foreign minister, that Mariupol is a red line when it comes to negotiations, is there even the potential for a negotiated end to this war?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Victor, there may not be.

It may be that the Ukrainians have to win, the Ukrainians have to beat the Russians. And they might just do that, if the West can keep up the flow and increase the flow of weapons to the Ukrainians. And if that's the case, then there wouldn't be a negotiation, maybe at the end, once it's clear to President Putin that he is beaten, that he's been beaten north of Kyiv, that he's lost his flagship, that he's losing generals.

Clarissa mentioned the counteroffensives, counteroffensives that are that are going on. So, there's a lot going against Putin right now. And he may figure out that he's lost, in which case maybe he -- then, at that point, he might negotiate.

But for the Ukrainians to negotiate with people who are conducting -- perpetrating these atrocities, it's hard to stomach.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, the West definitely has the will to help.

But, logistically, it's getting very hard to get any equipment into Mariupol for them to hold -- for the Ukrainian army to hold the city. But I just want to talk to you for a second about what's happening in Kyiv, because the Ukrainians were able to force the Russians to retreat from the capital.

And now all sorts of countries, Spain being latest, are bringing their embassies back, deeming it safe enough to have their diplomatic staff there, European Union, Italy, France, Slovenia, Turkey, Czech Republic, Portugal, Moldova, Austria, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland never left, and now Spain.

Should the U.S. follow suit and reopen an embassy there? And if you were still an ambassador, would you feel comfortable being in Kyiv, going back to Kyiv right now?

TAYLOR: Absolutely. Absolutely. The United States should definitely move its embassy back.

I'd be delighted to return. It's important to be there to show that we support the Ukrainians. And it's great that all these other embassies are moving back. I think that's exactly the right thing to do. The Americans won't be far behind, I'm sure.

But, Alisyn, let me just go back to what you said about Mariupol. Yes, I think it's real hard to get weapons and equipment into Mariupol. But no matter how that ends up, Ukrainians are going to see Mariupol as a hero city. They're going to -- they're going to remember Mariupol. That will be a phrase. That will inspire them further to win this war against Ukraine.

So, in answer, yes, we should return, and Mariupol will be a hero city.

BLACKWELL: Mr. Ambassador, I want you to listen to the account from the Austrian chancellor of his face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin, in which he discussed what he took away as Putin's mind-set and perspective. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KARL NEHAMMER, CHANCELLOR OF AUSTRIA: I think he is now in his own war logic. He thinks the war is necessary for security guarantees for the Russian Federation. He doesn't trust the international community. He blames two Ukrainians to -- for genocide in the Donbass region.

I think he believes he is winning the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: If he believes he's winning the war, and that this is a valid fight, there is no incentive to stop, there is no incentive to deter in any way.

TAYLOR: So, Victor, he's not winning the war.

And he will know...

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: But he believes that, Mr. Ambassador.

(CROSSTALK)

TAYLOR: ... there's no genocide going in -- there may be a genocide going on in the rest of Ukraine, and that's -- President Biden has said as much.

But for him to put out, for President Putin to put out these ludicrous stories, I don't think he believes it. I don't disagree with the Australian prime minister. But I don't think President Putin is that ill-informed. He's not winning this war. He saw his flagship destroyed. He's seen his generals killed.

He's seeing his army being defeated on the ground, in particular in the north. So, he's not winning this war, by any means, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Ambassador William Taylor, thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

So, Ukraine's president is accusing Putin of forcing people to flee from Mariupol into Russia, among them, thousands of children. And now President Zelenskyy wants to know where they are.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:29:35]

BLACKWELL: We're just getting this in.

A federal judge in Florida has now struck down the Biden administration's mask mandate for airplanes and other public transportation.

CNN's Pete Muntean has the details.

Pete, what does this mean for all of us?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, the impact here is not totally clear just yet.

We do know what's clear is that this is the biggest challenge yet to the White House's transportation mask mandate that has been in place since the early days of the Biden administration. This comes from U.S. district Judge in Florida Kathryn Kimball Mizelle. And she says this order exceeds the CDC's authority.