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Ukraine Hoping To Negotiate Mariupol Evacuation; Ukraines Describe Russian Assault On Towns Near Capital; U.S. Justice Department Appeals Mask Mandate Ruling; Anger And Frustration In Shanghai Over COVID Lockdowns; Macron, Le Pen Clash in Debate Ahead of Presidential Runoff; Ukraine's Farmers End Up on the War's Front Line. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired April 21, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause, live in Lviv, Ukraine with the rush to evacuate more than 100,000 civilians still trapped inside Mariupol, days or even hours before the city could fall to Russians.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kim Brunhuber at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta the Biden administration fighting back against the decision to end mask mandates on public transportation.

VAUSE: Day 57 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and we begin with a bleak assessment from the Luhansk military governor who says no town is safe. Russian troops are destroying everything in their path.

The governor says 80 percent of the Luhansk region is under Russian control as they push on with this new offensive to capture all of the Donbas in the east.

U.S. defense officials tells CNN Russia has added 17 battalion tactical groups in Ukraine in the past week. But so far, Russian forces have not made any major territorial gains since the Donbas offensive began.

To the south, Ukraine is hoping to try again in the coming hours to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol. The Deputy Prime Minister reports a humanitarian corridor did not work as planned on Wednesday, Russian forces were not able to ensure a proper ceasefire.

Mariupol is under constant bombardment according to Ukrainian Marine commander and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his horses do not have the heavy weapons needed to defend the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): According to our information, they are keeping 120,000 People in besieged Mariupol. Crimes that are happening there are far more scary and in larger scale than Borodyanka. I'm confident that with combined efforts, we can bring all of those responsible to justice. And I promise you, we'll find them all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Two senior Ukrainian negotiators say they are prepared to travel to Mariupol to secure the evacuation of civilians and soldiers. And a U.S. State Department official tells CNN NATO allies could also be part of the process.

We have more now from CNN's Matt Rivers.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Azovstal steel plant housing Mariupol's last line of defense, if the defenders here fall, so goes the city.

A few days ago, George Kurparashvili says he was right in the heart of the fight.

GEORGE KURPARASHVILI, AZOV BATTALION COMMANDER: Honestly I'll tell you that I've never seen such a brutal, devastating war, because Russians are just trying to execute civilians.

RIVERS: He spoke to us via video chat from undisclosed location. Severely injured during the fighting, he says he was smuggled out to recover. He is a Georgian national and a commander in the Azov battalion, one of the few remaining units left defending the city.

He says he was among the soldiers fighting the Russians, while at the same time taking care of hundreds of civilians sheltering the area, some of which purportedly seen here in video CNN can't verify posted on Ukrainian government's social media.

So, how long do you think your group can take care of all those people and yourselves?

KURPARASHVILI: It's hard to answer. That's hard to answer for me. Time is short, that's all I can say.

RIVERS: Tens of thousands of citizens in besieged Mariupol still need to be evacuated. On Wednesday, a slight glimmer of hope. A humanitarian corridor agreed to by both sides where civilians could evacuate Mariupol, heading to Manhush, then Berdyansk, and then onward, eventually to the Ukrainian held city of Zaporizhzhia. The city's mayor urging people to use it.

He said: Dear people of Mariupol, during these long and incredibly difficult days, you survived in inhuman conditions, you may have heard different things, but I want you to know the main thing, they are waiting for you in Zaporizhzhia. It's safe there. Video from Mariupol City Council shows buses lined up ready to take those who wanted to leave. It's unclear how many got on, but a regional official says fewer people left than he hoped.

For many, leaving is a difficult choice, it requires trusting that the Russian military will not harm those trying to leave and yet, this is the same military that has spent the entire war systematically targeting civilians across the country.

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RIVERS: And yet, the city has become unlivable. For the military units still resisting, Kurparashvili says they're caring for soldiers and civilians, sometimes with the same injuries due to Russian shelling.

KURPARASHVILI: It's a triage, child or soldier, and I've seen a lot of times a soldier saying, go ahead, take a child, it's a priority.

RIVERS: A commander inside the steel plant has urged the international community to set up an evacuation route using a third party, another country that may be able to facilitate the transfer of soldiers and civilians to safety. If that doesn't happen, Kurparashvili says Russia will continue the bombardment and it will end only one way.

KURPARASHVILI: There will be nobody left in this area. There will be dead, all the children, I'm not talking about the soldiers, but the civilians will be eliminated. And it's going to be on us, on a civilized world.

RIVERS: Matt Rivers, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.

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VAUSE: Russia test fired a newly developed advanced intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, the RS-28 Sarmat, dubbed Satan 2 by NATO is capable of carrying a much bigger nuclear payload. President Vladimir Putin said it should make Russia's enemies think twice.

Despite the timing, the U.S. says it's not overly concerned about any security threat from the missile.

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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They provide advanced notice of this launch under its new START treaty obligations that are planned to test this missile. The Defense Department said today that we did not deem the test the threat to the United States or its allies and the timing and the scope of Russia's missile tests do not influence our approach to countering Russia's further invasion of Ukraine's.

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VAUSE: New U.S. sanctions announced on Wednesday targeting Russia's financial system, as well as punishing those who've attempted to evade sanctions already in place. A commercial bank companies engaged in mining cryptocurrency and a

large global network aligned with a sanction oligarch have all now been hit with new sanctions. Visa restrictions were also imposed on more than 600 Russian individuals.

European Council President Charles Michel became the latest Western leader to travel to Kyiv. During Wednesday's meeting, Michel and President Zelenskyy discussed possible new tougher sanctions on Russia as well as rebuilding Ukraine once the war is over.

It has been almost three weeks now since the Russian retreat from regions near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. And there continues to be more and more horrible, terrible stories being revealed by -- once they have now left that region. Ukrainians who survived the onslaught are speaking out about what they endured as well.

CNN's Phil Black has the story.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Andrey Bychenko says his life will forever be split in two -- before and after the day the Russians came.

He remembers the skies over his home in Hostomel, near Kyiv, suddenly swarming with dozens of attack helicopters.

He says they flew in a low formation, like they were on parade and soon after, he says, Russian ground forces approached his home.

This is where, he says, they opened fire from a distance. An explosive round landed close by, fracturing his leg, shrapnel piercing much of his body.

But Andrey says he was lucky. He got to hospital before the Russians worked out, he used to fight pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine. He says many veterans from the east were deliberately killed during the occupation.

If I had not been wounded, I would have been shot too, he says.

Vasiliy Hylko also survived Russia's occupation but at great cost. Vasiliy was shocked by the Russian numbers and firepower that rolled in to Bogdanovka, a tiny village northeast of the capital.

So many tanks passed, he said, so much ammunition, every house had 20 soldiers occupying it, including the house where he, his neighbors and family were sheltering. They stayed in the basement, the Russians moved in above.

One night, Vasiliy says, four drunk soldiers pushed open the basement door and screamed, everyone out by the count of 10 or all will be killed. Vasiliy says women were screaming, children crying, and as he was the last one through the door, he was blasted from behind with a shotgun. He says nothing was left of the leg, all bones destroyed, just a puddle of blood in minutes. He says two days later, some Russian soldiers helped him get to hospital. He still thinks they're beasts, not people.

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BLACK: The Russian invasion of areas around Kyiv violently interrupted and ended many peoples' lives and some would somehow survive brutal intimate encounters, leaving them forever changed.

Phil Black, CNN, Bogdanovka, Ukraine.

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VAUSE: We'll take a short break. But when we come back, my colleague Kim Brunhuber will have details on passengers cheering this new ruling about the mask mandates, why the Justice Department is now appealing that ruling. Cracking down mask mandates on public transportation.

Also, even the elderly are not spared as China sends all COVID cases to government quarantine centers under its strict zero COVID policy, details on that in a moment.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Justice Department is appealing Monday's ruling striking down the mask mandate for public transportation. Airlines and transit agencies moved quickly to make masks optional. The White House said it would wait to hear from the Centers for Disease Control before taking further action.

Jeremy Diamond has details.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Three days after a federal judge struck down the federal mask mandate for travelers, the CDC announcing that it is asking the Justice Department to appeal that ruling by a federal judge.

Now, the Justice Department just a day earlier, they had said that they would indeed move forward with an appeal if the CDC deemed it necessary. And that is now what is happening.

This is the statement from the CDC they say, "To protect CDC's public health authority beyond the ongoing assessment announced last week, CDC has asked DOJ to proceed with an appeal. It is CDC's continuing assessment that at this time, an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health".

Now, the CDC also says here that they're going to continue to monitor public health conditions as it relates to the necessity of this mask mandate going forward. But what's really interesting here is that the CDC is explaining its

rationale on two fronts. On the one hand, they're saying that look, we believe the conditions right now in the country make it necessary for this mask mandate to still be standing for travelers to be required to wear masks on planes, for example, as well as trains and other modes of public transportation.

But what they're also saying is that they're appealing this decision in order to preserve that legal authority that they had to institute this mask mandate in the first place.

And the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, she made this point earlier on Wednesday as well, when she said that look, there are going to be highs and lows in this pandemic and that should there be some kind of a new variant of a more serious strain or an uptick in cases once again, that the CDC wants to retain that authority, that legal authority to be able to reinstitute that mask mandate if necessary.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

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BRUNHUBER: All right, for more on this, let's bring in CNN Legal Analyst Areva Martin, who joins us now from Los Angeles. Areva, thanks so much for being here with us.

So, on the appeal, first off, does the DOJ have a shot here? After all, it would be heard in the relatively conservative Eleventh Circuit, right?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, that's definitely one consideration, John, but what we do know is that there have been challenges to the mask mandate. And prior to this one district court judge sitting in this Florida, you know, courtroom, making the decision that the mask mandate was basically not legal, that the CDC and the Biden administration had overstepped its power. Other federal courts looking at the same issue had determined that the CDC did have and the Biden administration did have the authority to make these kinds of protocols mandatory to address a public health crisis.

So, I think the DOJ had no choice but to challenge this ruling, given how sweeping it was and how sudden it was and how quickly it changed the policy that had been put in place by the CDC.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so now to the process. I mean, there seems to be a lot of confusion here over the White House response to this, which took several days, what do you make of their appeal, the way it sort of went about and maybe crucially, whether they'll seek an emergency order to reinstate this requirement?

MARTIN: Yes, that's a good question, John, because the question now is, are they going to ask for a stay of this order, basically, that would allow airlines to reinstitute the mandate.

And we know many airlines are quite happy with the judge's decision. They didn't want to continue with the mask mandate. But I do think the DOJ and the Biden administration created more confusion by not immediately coming out and saying that they were going to file an appeal, that significant issues where at stake, the issue primarily of whether the government has the authority, the legal authority to impose these kinds of mandates during a public health crisis.

I said this on the program the other night that that was what was most troubling about this judge's decision. It was so sweeping in nature, she essentially said the Biden administration never had the authority to implement a mask mandate.

And this is a single judge, just been on the bench two years, really substituting her opinion for that of public health officials who've been telling us for months and months, that mask weren't necessary to reduce the spread of COVID while in airports and train stations, so a very troubling decision.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so Areva, overall, I mean, we've seen several other pandemic related requirements overturned by court. So, what's next here? Are there targets for opponents of COVID related mandates and other policies that might also be overturned?

MARTIN: Well, you know, that's a great question, because what we have is how -- what we've seen is how political these mandates and these protocols to mitigate the spread of COVID have become.

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MARTIN: So, rather than everything related to COVID, being looked at through the lenses of health -- of public health officials, and what's in the best health of the public is come down to these political wars. And in many cases, culture wars, we saw that's what happened with respect to wearing of the mask, it became a sign of, you know, whether you support it what some call liberation and freedom, versus whether you support it, what public health officials said was necessary to mitigate the spread of COVID.

And again, that's been very disturbing, particularly as you think about how disproportionate the outcome has been for African Americans and Latinx communities, those that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID. Many of those communities wanting to continue with protocols where others are saying we're over, COVID is over. We're done with the social distancing, we're done with masking.

But clearly, we're seeing numbers rise in the northeastern part of the country. So, COVID is not over.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, so much at stake as you say. Always appreciate your expertise. Areva Martin, thanks so much.

MARTIN: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Shanghai reported no new COVID infections outside quarantine areas in two districts on Wednesday and some factory employees are beginning to go back to work. And anger and frustration are growing among those still under lockdown. So, have a look here. This new social media video shows an elderly

woman who appears to have left quarantine trying to enter a neighborhood and she's seen arguing with COVID workers who are trying to force her to go back to the quarantine center.

And obviously, she's not the only one who's tired of being under quarantine or lockdown in Shanghai.

CNN's David Culver looks at the tense situation there as China doubles down on its zero COVID policy.

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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Shanghai residents pushing back after nearly three weeks of lockdown. These videos circulating on social media show people confronting police for being forced from their homes. These are not folks with COVID-19, but rather, people whose apartments are being turned into government quarantine facilities to cope with the surging COVID cases.

The rising tensions come as Chinese officials vow to send every positive case of COVID-19 and any close contact to government quarantine, no matter the age.

Here, you see an elderly man, shuffling towards a group of other senior citizens. Some, in their 90s, most in wheelchairs, transferred from their nursing home to this isolation facility after testing positive. Video shared from inside of another center, shows elderly patient seemingly left unattended, cots set up in the halls, with wooden boards and thin sheets as bedding.

Since the start of this outbreak in early March, more than 400,000 cases have been reported in the city, according to China's National Health Commission, and most in this metropolis of more than 25 million people are still in strict lockdown.

CNN has been living through it, we've mostly been sealed inside of our homes. Led out only for mandatory COVID tests, and the occasional government distribution of groceries.

Chicken, potatoes.

Last week, we had a brief taste of freedom. I could step out of my apartment, and walk all the way to the compound gate. Still double locked. But, since, a reversal for our community, new restrictions have us sealed back inside our properties.

The draconian and inconsistent policies, coupled with the constant uncertainty, weigh heavily. People, tired, pushing back, physically, and through words. These banners appeared on the streets of Shanghai in the cover of night. This one calling residents to resist the limitless lockdown. This one, reading, people are dying, referring to the dire struggle to secure food and medical care.

Online, a flood of frustration surfacing on China's heavily controlled internet. On Chinese social media platform Weibo, users began quoting the first sentence of China's national anthem. It reads: Rise, those who don't want to be enslaved, a rally called no longer aimed at foreign oppressors, but rather Beijing's pandemic response and its harsh restrictions.

That line now censored. Some residents even boldly calling out Chinese officials for a perceived hypocrisy. This person wearing a photo of one of China's foreign ministry spokespersons, who repeatedly accused the Western governments' COVID response of harming people's well- being. The sarcastic critique shared repeatedly online.

The backlash likely to worsen as the weeks-long lockdown drags on, further damaging China's economic engine.

YANZHONG HUANG, SR. FELLOW FOR GLOBAL HEALTH, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Implementing this strategy might -- in an excessive manner, by itself, that leads to exactly what the zero COVID strategy wants to avoid.

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CULVER: The growing dissent calls into question China's zero COVID strategy at a critical time. Later this year, President Xi Jinping is expected to assume an almost unprecedented third term, paving the way for him to rule for life. But the highly anticipated coronation now marred by discontent over a policy so closely tied to the people's leader.

David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.

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BRUNHUBER: Conditions in the war torn city of Mariupol had been described as truly horrific. After the break, my colleague John Vause will be back to talk with the head of one organization that's trying to get Ukrainians the help they need. Stay with us.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. I'm John Vause live in Lviv, Ukraine, just on 29 minutes past the hour.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister says a humanitarian corridor out of war-torn Mariupol did not go as planned Wednesday. She blames Russian troops, who did not honor a planned ceasefire.

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Russian-organized transportation also failed to get residents to departure sites on time, which meant Ukrainian government buses and ambulances were left waiting. And many refused to board those buses, because the evacuation route had been determined by Russian officials.

The U.N. says more than 5 million Ukrainians have now fled this country since the war began. Another 7 million people are displaced within Ukraine. Most are heading or crossing the border into Poland. But the Polish border guard reports over the weekend more people

returned to Ukraine than traveled to Poland -- into Poland for the first time since this war began two months ago.

Well, for more now on the humanitarian crisis, we're joined now by Jan Egeland. He's secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

And you've been on the ground here for a while, doing a lot of work here over the last couple months, the last couple years.

I want to get your impressions, though, because you've just been up around the Kyiv area. You were there before the war. You saw with those towns and cities were like. You've just seen them now. What was your impression?

JAN EGELAND, SECRETARY-GENERAL, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: The two months have really devastated much more of Ukraine then I think the world has understood. This -- these are places that -- where wonderful, like Lviv here. Beautiful places, and now in pieces. And this is happening now massively in the Eastern part of the countries, far away from here, but in, really, crossfire that we haven't seen in Europe since the Second World War.

VAUSE: Do you think the rest of the world really understands the scale of devastation and what's happening here?

EGELAND: No, I don't think they are. I mean, you really have to come and see what a devastated city looks like after meeting a barrage of explosive weapons for many weeks.

That's why also we have this 12 million people who have fled their homes. I don't think we've seen that effort before in human history. We're talking about since the Second World War. Two million people per week. When did that happen, really?

VAUSE: A good point. So a lot of people in a very short period of time. And the speed of this crisis, I think, has taken, in terms of refugees, took a lot of people by surprise.

But we're also looking at the situation in Mariupol. If you want to talk about destroyed cities, this is one which has been under siege for two months. Aid can't get in; people can't get out. So what have you been able to do there, and what are your fears when it comes to Mariupol?

EGELAND: No one's able to help people of Mariupol. That's the whole cruel reality of besiegement. And that's why we now fear in the East, where we are desperate now in distributing food, parcels, hygiene packages, all of what is needed for the people who remain in the East.

I fear these places that I visited just before the invasion would be besieged. That would be a catastrophe. There will be -- there are fighting men in there who are not going to give up, and then it's full of elderly people, disabled people, who cannot leave.

So we need an Easter ceasefire, like the secretary-general of the U.N. has asked for -- It's Easter, Orthodox Easter, now in the next coming of days -- so that we can bring aid in and get the elderly, the disabled people out.

VAUSE: Your biggest concern is that Mariupol will not be the last sort of besieged city which comes under Russian siege. And we're talking about possibly 20,000 dead civilians --

EGELAND: yes.

VAUSE: -- inside Mariupol.

When you talk about these cities, when they get -- when they're besieged by the Russian forces, it is the most vulnerable who are left behind. It is the elderly. It is the disabled, as you say. That presents itself its own unique challenges for groups like yours. So how do you deal with that?

EGELAND: People have to move voluntarily. And my own staff last night, and our colleagues here -- Ukrainian colleagues, who are courageously keeping up these lifelines, they tell about their parents being trapped in the East, that we have both staff, colleagues, and their relatives in areas now controlled by Russian forces, or in areas in crossfire where we've lost all contact with people.

It's a desperate situation. It cannot go on like this for -- for long. The death toll will just skyrocket. It will be a bloodbath.

VAUSE: The initial request from the umbrella aid groups is $1.7 billion. Has that been raised? And is that enough if this continues to go on because obviously, no one thought it would last two months? And now there's fears it could last six months, maybe even longer.

EGELAND: It's not -- it's not enough, at all. I think we've received about 65 percent of what we need for these six months. Organizations like mine are rolling up a major -- a major relief operation, where we have logistics, like, from Poland, from Romania, from Moldova. We are doing distribution and so on.

[00:35:16]

But if this lasts long, we need much, more bigger resources than we have. We are having to scale up much more, especially in the East but also in central parts and Western parts of the country, where people are living in subhuman conditions, in collective centers. Millions of people are internally displaced on top of the 5 million who left the country.

VAUSE: In any war, there are victims on both sides. And there are innocent victims on both sides. What do you know about how civilians are coping on the Russian side on areas close to the Ukrainian border?

EGELAND: There's too little attention on all the -- on all of the Ukrainians who live now under Russian control. We're humanitarians. We need to be there as much as here, because there are great needs there.

We know that there is very little aid operations there. No big humanitarian organizations are doing anything big in the Russian- controlled areas. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have fled into Russia.

So this catastrophe is really reaching a limit. If the war is allowed to go on with explosive weapons in urban areas, I cannot fathom how it will be in months from now. We need a cease-fire now, and we need to be able to start (ph) up in these areas.

VAUSE: It does appear we could be heading towards another Syria-like situation.

EGELAND: That's true.

VAUSE: Jan Egeland, thanks so much. Thank you for everything you do.

EGELAND: Thank you.

VAUSE: We'll take it -- I'll hand it off now to Kim at CNN world headquarters -- Kim.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Thanks so much, John.

For the second time this week, Israel is accusing Hamas of firing rockets from Gaza towards Israel.

Israel's military responded with a series of airstrikes on locations inside Gaza. The IDF says it hit an underground complex where rocket motors were made.

Israel says up to five rockets fired on Wednesday. Four were intercepted. One hit an Israeli home but caused no casualties.

All right. Still to come this hour, a fiery debate in France as the two candidates in Sunday's presidential runoff come face to face. That's next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The French presidential candidates clashed in a TV debate just days ahead of Sunday's runoff election. For nearly three hours Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger, Marine Le Pen, sparred over a range of topics, including Russia, France's commitment to the E.U., and the economy.

CNN's Melissa Bell has the details from Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was the only debate of a campaign that has seen two very different visions for France pitted against one another.

On one hand, that of the incumbent, the centrist, globalist Emmanuel Macron. On the other, that of the far-right nationalist, Marine Le Pen.

The debate began on questions of domestic concern, in particular, the cost of living, which has been central to Le Pen's campaign.

MARINE LE PEN, FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (through translator): Here again, I must be the spokesperson of the French people, because Mr. Macron, I heard you with your government, you are delighted to have increased French people's purchasing power.

I only saw French people who told me they can't make it anymore. They can't get by, but they can't make ends meet at the end of the month.

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): I am proud that altogether, we have made it possible to create 1.2 million pay slips, because I was looking at your program, your 22 measures. There is not even the word "unemployment" in it, which is striking.

BELL: The war in Ukraine is another issue that has loomed large in the campaign so far that featured heavily in Wednesday night's debate, with Emmanuel Macron attacking Marine Le Pen, not only on her historic proximity to Vladimir Putin but on her party's loan from a Russian bank back in 2014.

MACRON (through translator): You still haven't paid back that loan.

LE PEN (through translator): It's quite long, Mr. Macron, yes. We are a poor party, but this is not shameful.

MACRON (through translator): I never thought it's shameful, but my problem is, Ms. Le Pen, I hope you'll recognize, is that all this creates a dependence.

LE PEN (through translator): I have no dependence other than repaying my loan, Mr. Macron.

MACRON (through translator): But your loan was not contracted with just any bank, even for Russia, but with the interests, power, and everyone would be able to verify it. And so you need to own up to it. That's all. Own up to it, Ms. Le Pen.

BELL: From Russia, the candidates moved on to Europe. On one hand, Emmanuel Macron, the pro-European federalist; on the other, Marine Le Pen, who while she's come back a little bit from her more skeptic positions of the last few years, still wants to see Europe reformed in order that it become a much looser alliance of sovereign nations.

LE MARINE (through translator): Let me say to Emmanuel Macron that there is no European sovereignty, because there is no European people. There is a sovereignty when there's a people.

There is a French sovereignty. There's no European sovereignty. And I have understood that you wish to replace French with European sovereignty. You've done in symbolically by replacing the French flag with the European one under the Arc de Triomphe.

MACRON (through translator): Changing a club on your own by reducing your membership fee, by saying, I choose my rules, well, either the others follow you, because that's Europe -- there are 27 of us around the table -- or you go your own way.

And what you describe in your program sounds like going your own way. The second thing you propose is an alliance with Russia, which is amongst your priorities. It's always in your program. It's amazing.

[00:45:03]

BELL: In 2017, Marine Le Pen was widely seen to have lost the election on the night of the debate. This time, she'd spent a couple of days preparing.

And if the polls have been widening in favor of Emmanuel Macron, it seems that there is everything to play for when France goes to the polls on Sunday. And as the debate has reminded us, very much at stake.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: The British prime minister is kicking off a two-day trip in India, where jobs and Ukraine are topping the agenda. Boris Johnson reportedly told journalists on the way over that he has every intention of running again in the next election. That's despite the tarnish from the Partygate scandal back home and loud demands for his resignation.

On Wednesday, he apologized yet again for violating his own government's COVID lockdown rules and humbly, he vowed to get on with the job. In the coming hours, Parliament is slated to debate whether a committee should investigate his conduct and whether he misled lawmakers.

Actor Johnny Depp returned to the stand inside of a Virginia court in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard. He described their relationship and how it changed, accusing Heard of calling him names and making demeaning comments.

Depp also said an argument between the two in 2015 ended with him seeking medical care. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR: She threw the large bottle. And it made contact and shattered everywhere.

And then I looked down and realized that the -- the tip of my finger had been severed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2015 "Washington Post" op-ed in which she wrote about her experience with domestic abuse. Even though she didn't name him, Depp claims it cost him film work. All right. Coming up, on the frontline. Ukrainian farmers already

facing massive disruptions to their business, find themselves in the path of Russian rockets. Their story ahead, stay with us.

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[00:51:33]

BRUNHUBER: Russian tennis players will be banned from competing at Wimbledon this year because of their country's invasion of Ukraine. Belarusian players also can't take part.

Organizers for the Grand Slam event cite Russia's, quote, "unjustified and unprecedented military aggression."

The Kremlin calls the decision unacceptable.

This will affect a number of high-ranked players, both men and women, including world No. 2 and reigning U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev.

And Ukrainian farmers say the war is making it hard to plant or sell crops. They are constantly on alert for the barrage of Russian rockets, bombs and gunfire coming at them. Ed Lavandera brings us their story.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sergiy Yaiichuk runs a one-man dairy operation. He has six cows on a little farm just 15 miles from the front lines of the battlefield in Southern Ukraine.

But neither Russian soldiers or falling rockets have stopped the 49- year-old from tending to his work.

(on camera): That is Sergei's house there, just in the distance and there is an unexploded rocket that landed this close. It landed here about a week ago.

Did you hear that rocket land?

SERGIY YAIICHUK, UKRAINIAN FARMER: Everything happened before my eyes.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The explosions erupted all around him when this strike hit. Russian rockets often target his village of 500 people.

YAIICHUK: We were covered with dust, just dust and shrapnel all the way here. I fell to the ground, crawling, not feeling my legs or arms. It was scary. For those who have not gone through this, you would not believe it.

LAVANDERA: Sergiy keeps one eye on his herd and the other eye on the war.

(on camera): So these are Sergiy's six dairy cows. And if you notice, he has them spread out. He wants to separate them so they don't all get killed in one strike.

(voice-over) He must keep the cows alive. This is the life of a farmer in Ukraine.

Maxim Krivenko and his family grow the traditional Ukrainian crops of wheat and sunflower in these lush wide-open fields near the village of Yakhniki. But the war has upended his business.

MAXIM KRIVENKO, UKRAINIAN FARMER: It's been unfortunate for all of us. Basically, everything has shut down, and we aren't working now.

LAVANDERA: Maxim says the cost of fuel and grain seeds have skyrocketed. It's difficult to find parts to repair farm machinery. He's supposed to plant this year's wheat crop in the coming weeks, but if the fighting returns to this land, it won't happen.

(on camera): So this is the storage area where they keep their sunflower seeds. But they haven't been able to sell it because of the war.

(voice-over): Maxim is also stuck with an entire season's sunflower seed harvest. It just sits in this storage space.

(on camera): Will this war kill your business?

KRIVENKO: It's already killed it. We have stockpiled our wheat production and our sunflowers, but we aren't able to sell them. So I'd say it is the beginning of the end.

LAVANDERA: Ukraine is considered the world's bread basket, along with Russia, producing 30 percent of the world's wheat exports. The United Nations says this war is creating a food production crisis not seen since World War II.

(on camera): Thousands of Ukrainian farmers now find themselves on the front lines of this war. And their growing fields of wheat and sunflower have been turned into debris fields for missiles and rockets and other explosives.

[00:55:08]

(voice-over): The wreckage of recent battles still sit in the farm fields. The body of a Russian soldier is buried next to this ammunition supply truck.

Farm or fight is the choice facing frontline farmers. Sergiy Yaiichuk has already faced this life-and-death decision. When the Russians invaded this village last month, Sergiy joined the fight. He was shot in the shoulder.

(on camera): If the Russians come back, do you want to fight again?

YAIICHUK (through translator): What else can we do? I'll take my pitchfork and go fight. I will defend my village until the end. When the war returns, the harvest will have to wait.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Yakhniki, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber at CNN Center in Atlanta. We'll go back to John Vause live in Ukraine in just a moment. Please do stay with us.

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