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U.S. Assesses No Major Territorial Gains for Russia in East So Far; Russia Test-Launches Nuclear-Capable Intercontinental Missile; Report: Rust Movie Crew "Willfully Violated" Safety Rules on Set; U.S. Announces New Round of Sanctions Against Russia. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 20, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:25]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Some of the West's first assessment of Russia's renewed offensive in Ukraine's east show that Ukraine is holding its own in the war. The U.S. is finding so far, Russia has made no major territorial gains in the Donbas. That's according to two senior U.S. officials. The British defense ministry says that Ukraine has been able to repel Russia's attempts to take more land in the area.

A regional leader in Luhansk which is in Donbas says that Russia has control, though, of 80 percent of the territory. He said that Ukrainians are succeeding at destroying Russian equipment, but it is clear that Russia is going to push on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERHIY HAYDAY, HEAD OF TEH LUHANSK REGIONAL MILITARY ADMINISTRATION: The whole of Luhansk territory is being shelled. There is no safe town. We understand that the Russian government is going to push ahead and going to destroy everything on its path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin tested an intercontinental ballistic missile today. The ICBM was fired toward a peninsula in Russia's far east. The U.S. was notified of the test, as part of an international agreement with Russia.

Also today, all eyes are on the besieged city of Mariupol. The Azovstal steel factory there has been a sheltering place for as many as 1,000 civilians. Vladimir Putin's forces have surrounded that place and the new deadline has passed for the people inside of that factory to get out before it is destroyed.

Now, we have new video into our newsroom that shows residents, men, women, children, the elderly, they're gathering outside and trying to evacuate on a supposed humanitarian corridor. There was a convoy of buses set up. However, minutes ago, Ukraine's deputy prime minister said the humanitarian corridor, quote, did not work as planned.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Matt Rivers joins us now from Lviv. That's in western Ukraine.

Matt, when we spoke last hour, we had to put an asterisk right after this establishment of a corridor because for the last several months we know that these often fall apart, they often come under attack.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and it does appear that that has once again happened this time. Now, I don't think this corridor came under attack per se but this did not go according to plan because what we're hearing from Ukrainian officials at least is that Russia was not respecting the cease-fire. Now, exactly what that means per se, I think we're trying to get more details as to exactly what happened here. But the end result is the same.

The fact that this humanitarian corridor did not result in large-scale evacuations today from the city of Mariupol as had been hoped for, there had been some hope from Ukrainian officials that up to 6,000 people perhaps in a single day could be evacuated from the city, and it didn't happen. That is exactly what needs to happen because of the huge amount of people that are still in Mariupol that need to be evacuated.

Some 100,000 people across that city, in and around it, need to be taken out. After weeks and weeks of no food, no water, no medical supplies, a lack of infrastructure for communications, for power in general, it is an incredibly dire situation for those people there which is why you've seen such an emphasis in recent days from Ukrainian officials to try and get people out. And yet their best attempt today after there being some hope over the fact that simply a humanitarian corridor was established, which hadn't happened in many days, it did not work out as planned.

BLACKWELL: Matt Rivers for us there in Lviv -- thank you, Matt.

CAMEROTA: For more on Russia's missile test, let's get more information now because the state media reported that Putin says this launch will, quote, give thought to those who are trying to threaten Russia.

BLACKWELL: CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with us now.

Barbara, what's the view from the Pentagon?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, here at the Pentagon, officials are saying they knew the missile test was coming, that in fact the Russians had correctly and appropriately notified the looming test to international authorities under arms control agreements. They knew the launch window was open and when it did launch from northern Russia to this peninsula out in the far east of Russia, U.S. satellites, U.S. intelligence assets were able to track it all the way. So, not a particular risk in and of itself, no threat to the United

States. But officials also saying in this period of heightened tensions, maybe not such a good idea, not great timing for the Russians to decide to do this, well aware of Putin's constant escalatory and inflammatory language.

[15:05:09]

But you'll remember that the U.S. actually postponed and then cancelled its own intercontinental ballistic missile test earlier this month because it did not want it to be misinterpreted by the Russians. It didn't want to give the Russians any excuse for saying that the U.S. was escalating things with what was another routine test on the U.S. side. Now we're going to have to wait and see if the U.S. decides to put future ICBM tests back on the calendar and have them happen. They're watching the Russian tests very closely and still analyzing it of course, but they don't see it as a particular threat or risk at this time.

CAMEROTA: Well, that's a relief. Barbara Starr, thank you very much for that reporting.

Joining us now is CNN military analysts and retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and former director for Russia on the national security council, Jeffrey Edmonds.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being there.

General, I want to start with you on what's happening before our eyes right now minute by minute in Mariupol. So, there are people trapped there. They are surrounded by Russian forces. There are people that have been sheltering for weeks in this steel factory -- children, elderly, mothers, everything.

Today, they were going to have an opportunity to have a humanitarian corridor allegedly set up so that some of them, a thousand maybe, could escape. Here they are waiting for these buses. You see them with their pets. You see them with children.

And then we just got word from the Ukrainian deputy prime minister that says this evacuation, the humanitarian corridor did not work out as planned today because the Russians, or as they call them the occupiers, were unable to secure a proper cease-fire. There was disorganization, negligence, and not timely transportation to get these people to the buses and ambulances that were waiting.

Is there anything, General, that NATO can do to step in here, or how do you see this dire situation?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I'll talk about how I see it first. This is a psychological operation. Russia has been known to do this kind of thing before. It gets the hopes up of the people who have been trapped in Mariupol for weeks, thinking that they were going to get out. Russia has planned humanitarian corridors in the past and has never delivered them. It is -- you get the hopes up of the people who think they're going to

leave. Suddenly they're dashed again. You know, the long lines of people still in the cold out there after having hunkered down in basements, it's just another disappointment. It's an attempt by the Russia forces to continue to threaten and use tactics which harasses the civilian population.

Can NATO do anything about this? No. They have already -- NATO, the U.N., other organizations have already asked for humanitarian corridors. There's not much else you can do inside of a war zone when you can't get forces in there to help people get out.

BLACKWELL: Jeffrey, on the intel side of this, is this typical to kind of play on the inability to communicate with forces on the ground? Is this Russian strategy to rely on the inability to get to those troops along the corridor?

JEFFREY EDMONDS, FORMER DIRECTOR FOR RUSSIA, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: No, I think it is. To the general's point, this is information warfare and something the Russians have practiced quite a bit. So I think this very much falls in line with the tactics they would use in a situation like this.

CAMEROTA: By the way, we were just looking at video there. I think those were empty buses. I think the buses we saw on the move were empty and the people loaded into actual shuttles, we just don't believe that they were able to get out. I don't know if they were then unloaded.

But according, again, to the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, it didn't happen. They didn't make it to that safe humanitarian corridor.

And, General, I just want to challenge you a little bit because the undersecretary of state for political affairs, Victoria Nuland, said this morning that NATO allies would have to be involved and perhaps would be so let me play that for you for a second.

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VICTORIA NULAND, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS: There will be NATO allies involved in that is my understanding if it happens, but primarily the Russians have to allow safe passage if this is going to happen and this has fallen apart a number of times before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So this often falls apart and the Russians don't make good on it. But I don't understand logistically how NATO could be involved, but is there some possibility for that?

HERTLING: Well, her operative phrase, Alisyn, in that statement is "if it happens." Certainly, NATO, any other organizational body like the United Nations could be involved, but as you noticed, Victoria Nuland said if the Russians allow it. You're talking about in the middle of a combat zone.

[15:10:02]

Usually when warring parties come together and they act -- they act under pragmatic and humanitarian rules, they will allow for these kinds of things to happen. But we're seeing Russia do anything but act under humanitarian rules. They are in fact using those kind of rules to -- it's like putting a meal in front of a starving man and then saying, no, not so fast, we're not going give it to you.

It is again part of the information ops, the psychological operations to crush the will of the Ukrainian people and they have been very effective in trying to do that.

BLACKWELL: Jeffrey, on to this ICBM test. The U.S. assessment is that this weapon is not operational in the Russian military. Is the U.S.'s insight into Russian weaponry solid enough that the world can take that to the bank?

EDMONDS: Yes, it is. We've known about the development of this missile for some team. And, actually, you know, regardless whether the Ukraine war was happening, this missile was going to be launched at some point and we've known about that. It's been delayed quite a bit but it's in line with Russia's attempts to modernize its forces.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but here again, General, Russia is playing by a different rule book than the United States is because the United States recognized that a missile test could be seen as provocative or accelerating something, so they cancelled theirs. And Russia went ahead with its missile test.

HERTLING: I'll reinforce what Jeff said. They have postponed multiple tests of this missile over the last five years because they could not get it operational. So, now, suddenly, in this situation, in this time, they say, oh, we're going to launch it. It's a threat. And we don't have to conduct test missile launches because truthfully we know ours work.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. I see you nodding there. So this is mostly a propaganda play, Jeffrey?

EDMONDS: Yeah, I think the timing of this is very much about coercive threats to the west. Putin is known for this. The more that he's losing in Ukraine, the more we're going to see in kind of escalated rhetoric. So the timing of this, certainly his statement about giving his adversaries pause to think is certainly very intentional.

BLACKWELL: Jeffrey Edmonds, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling -- thank you both.

The U.S. has unveiled its latest round of sanctions against Russia. We'll tell you who is targeted this time.

CAMEROTA: And new details tied to the fatal shooting on the "Rust" movie set. New Mexico officials found that the crew, quote, willfully violated safety rules. We'll explain.

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BLACKWELL: Now to an update on the fatal film shooting on the set of that movie "Rust." According to a New Mexico state agency, they released a report, the "Rust" film crew willfully violated safety rules and the mismanagement ultimately led to the incident that cost a crew member her life.

CAMEROTA: Let's bring in CNN's Josh Campbell with the latest. Josh, what does this report find?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn and Victor, a damning report out by the occupational health and safety bureau there in New Mexico, taking to task the "Rust" production company, those in charge of this movie, also issuing a penalty against the production accompany for $136,000. That's the highest fine that's allowed by state law. Now, describing some of their findings, the agency says management knew that procedures -- the safety procedures were not being followed, this after several accidents on set. They also found what they're calling plain indifference to employees' safety on the part of management, who they believe did not do enough to keep these workers safe.

The agency also saying that the set's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who we know has been a subject of the criminal investigation, they say she was tasked with other duties in the props department which raises questions about why someone with a critical role of firearm safety would be pulled away to handle other duties in the props area. Investigators also said that management failed to investigate past firearm incidents on set, which they believe could have helped prevent this fatal shooting.

Now, in summarizing the findings in this investigation, state environment secretary James Kenney issued a statement saying: Our investigation found that this tragic incident never would have happened if Rust Productions had followed national film industry standards for firearm safety. This is a complete failure of the employer to follow recognized national protocols that keep employees safe.

Now, I spoke with Kenney just a short time ago. He told me the impact of this shooting goes beyond one incident. He wants set workers around the country to understand the importance of coming forward when they see something unsafe. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES KENNEY, NM ENVIRONMENT SECRETARY: Every state, including New Mexico, has an OSHA program and every state would want to hear from any employee that feels their workplace is unsafe. So this is something that everybody should take away from this "Rust" productions tragedy, that you have the right to a safe workplace. You just have to raise your hand and tell somebody about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMPBELL: Now, we received a statement from the armorer's attorney a short time ago applauding the findings in this investigation. Of course, the Occupational Safety Bureau's investigation didn't focus on the one key item that remains at the heart of this ongoing probe. Alisyn and Victor, that is how a live round of ammunition got onto that set. We're told by law enforcement that their investigation is ongoing.

CAMEROTA: Okay, Josh Campbell, thank you for the update.

So the people of Mariupol lined up today to try to escape that town and then Russia promised them safe passage, but the residents did not make it to the buses. What happened?

A member of Mariupol's city council is here with us next.

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BLACKWELL: The U.S. just hit Russia with a new round of sanctions over its war in Ukraine.

CAMEROTA: CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond is at the White House. Jeremy, how will these new sanctions be different than the others?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, what we've seen from this administration is on an ongoing basis continuing to ratchet up the pressure on Russia, continuing to sanction additional financial and economic entities within Russia as well as those Russian oligarchs.

[15:25:07]

And we're seeing more of those types of actions as well as efforts to try and tighten and close some of the loopholes potentially that have been exploited by some Russian entities as it relates to previous sanctions.

So, let me run you through a few of them. One of the sanctions involves Transkapitalbank, a large private commercial bank inside of Russia that the administration says has been at the heart of sanctions evasion efforts so far. It's also targeting 40 individuals and entities linked to a Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev. Also, a network that according to the Treasury Department is a malign influence network that has been working to evade sanctions. So that's also notable.

And then you also have the first sanctions ever issued so far against virtual currency mining operations inside of Russia, as well as visa restrictions on 635 Russians who according to the Treasury Department who are oppressing dissent inside of Russia and have been involved in activities that the Treasury Department says threaten the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Obviously notable this came just a couple of days after the president met with 11 world leaders from different countries.

This is a continued effort by the president to have a united front and to do these sanctions actions in coordination with other major economies around the world.

BLACKWELL: Jeremy, talk to us about this meeting that's happening next hour. The president with his military officials.

DIAMOND: Yeah, according to an official who I spoke with, this is a meeting that happens once every year. It has not happened in person while President Biden has been in office so far because of the coronavirus. No particular reason for the meeting other than an annual meeting that the president has with his senior military advisers. But, of course, it comes at this pivotal time with the war in Ukraine, the U.S. continuing to step up its military assistance to Ukraine.

As we're learning that the president and the administration are considering an additional $800 million security assistance package for Ukraine, that would bring the total amount of security assistance that the U.S. is providing to Ukraine to $3.4 billion since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. And it would be just a week after the U.S. issued its latest $800 million package that included a lot more heavy weaponry, including artillery and counter artillery that we've not seen the U.S. issue so far.

So, expect more of the same. The president yesterday said he will provide Ukraine with more artillery for this battle that we're seeing now begins to unfold in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine -- Alisyn and Victor.

CAMEROTA: Jeremy Diamond, thank you.

Meanwhile we're watching desperation in the port city of Mariupol. This is new video. It shows people gathering outside to try to evacuate the city on buses. But just moments ago, Ukraine's deputy prime minister said the humanitarian corridor did not work out as planned today. And time is running out with thousands of civilians believed to still be sheltering inside that city's massive steel plant.

Overnight, a Ukrainian marine commander released this video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. SERHII VOLYNA, COMMANDER, UKRAINE'S 36TH SEPARATE MARINE BRIGADE (through translator): We might have only a few days or even hours left. The enemy's units are ten times larger than ours. We appeal to the world leaders to help us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Maksym Borodin is with us now. He's a deputy of Mariupol's city council.

Welcome back. Let's first start with this humanitarian corridor that did not work

out as planned. Do you have any insight, any more information about what went wrong today?

MAKSYM BORODIN, MARIUPOL CITY COUNCIL DEPUTY: I don't believe from the start that it's going to happen because all of the previous attempts going for nothing, because Russia always lies and never do what they say. From the first day of the occupation of Mariupol, the Ukrainian government tried to move a lot of humanitarian aid to Mariupol, but every time, they stop it and don't -- they don't allow any humanitarian aid except to them.

Their humanitarian aid is only like little drops in ocean, because about hundreds of thousands of people are left in the city and it's not enough for them. This is humanitarian aid from Russia side.

CAMEROTA: But, Maksym, just to be clear, you think all those people that we see lined up in this video that we have with their pets, with their children, with their backpacks, you think that the buses that were supposed to be taking them away, this was all a lie?

I mean, they seem -- they seem to believe that this is their last chance and that they could still get out, and in fact the Ukrainian deputy prime minister says tomorrow -- actually the mayor, sorry, the mayor of Mariupol says tomorrow we will resume our efforts and try again. Do you think that's a lie too?