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U.S.: Some Hope Russia Will Let NATO Evacuate Mariupol; Ukrainians Look for Mines Left Behind by Russian Troops; Anger Mounts in Locked-Down Shanghai with No End in Sight; More Ukrainians Returning to Their War-Torn Country. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired April 22, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date on our breaking news coverage of Ukraine. CNN has just learned that there will be no humanitarian corridors opened on Friday, and that is according to Ukraine's deputy Prime Minister, who blames danger along the route.

An evacuation can't come soon enough for those trapped in that steel factory in the battered city of Mariupol. The plant's -- as you can see there -- owner says there was plenty of food and water, but it won't last forever.

Meanwhile, take a look at this. Satellite images show the cost of Russia's efforts to take over Mariupol. The photos appear to show mass graves along a side road near there. Also, just into CNN, heavy fighting in the Donetsk, as well as Luhansk regions over the last 24 hours, has resulted in Russia taking over 42 more settlements. A presidential adviser made the remarks on Thursday evening on television, and she adds the military expects to get them back on Friday.

Meanwhile, President Biden announcing another $800 million in military aid will be heading to Ukraine. And those weapon shipments include howitzer cannons, 144,000 artillery rounds, and a type of attack drone the Pentagon tailored to Ukraine's needs.

Let's go now live now to Brussels and CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me with more. And Nic, I want to focus, if I could, on some of the comments we've heard from the Czech foreign minister in the last 24 hours or so, who talking about the situation, the dire situation in Mariupol, has said that NATO involvement in the Mariupol evacuations would be a game changer. How would, exactly, would these evacuations take place and how would perhaps Russia react here?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's not clear that NATO is going to get involved in these evacuations. Perhaps not through a lack of desire, but through a lack of a clear way to do it. And a lack of potential support from the Russians. Look, we know that President Putin really over the past 24 hours has doubled down on his position and said, OK, let's just seal off the center of Mariupol. Said that not even a gnat, not even a fly can get in.

President Putin seems quite content to see the videos that are being released by the military commanders of the Ukrainian forces that are still trapped inside Mariupol there. Those leaders calling for international help to try to get civilians out, to get them the fighters out of Mariupol. So, from President Putin's propaganda perspective, this is great. It makes it look like, you know, that the Ukrainian forces are begging for help. It makes it look like this is a huge success. He's claiming Mariupol as a success.

So that sort of mitigates against anything that NATO might do. Although you could say, look, if he's declaring a success there, then there's a potential to help the civilians. The reality is, that's not the way that President Putin strategizes or thinks about the situation. NATO is not saying anything officially. It's not saying anything behind closed doors. The last sort of top international diplomat in Mariupol was evacuated from there. The Greek consul general was evacuated a month ago. He talked about the terrible destruction. So, yes, Greece has an interest, sort of a diplomatic interest in potentially helping out the NATO nation.

[04:35:00]

Turkey, the other NATO nation, obviously, is directly on the Black Sea. And has, you know, naval assets that potentially could go to help -- got to the port of Mariupol, assuming that the harbor site is not too destroyed -- and give some relief and help there.

But again, this is all ideas. And it's not reality on the ground. There's no doubt that discussions are going on at NATO at the moment about what else that they can do to support the situation in Eastern Europe. You have the German foreign minister today in Lithuania, just met with the Lithuanian president. Lithuania president thanking Germany for their support that it's giving. Germany of course, leading a battalion of NATO troops that have ramped up their numbers inside Lithuania as they have done in the other Baltic nations.

But what we're hearing from the Lithuanian president today, in the last few minutes, is saying, look, we need to ramp this up further. NATO needs to go from battalion size -- 700 to 1,000 potentially more or less people there -- to a brigade size. That's three times the size. A brigade has much bigger clout, much bigger sort of resources, assets, ability to do things and presents a much bigger message to Russia that NATO is in sizable presence on its border. You know, the Baltic states, Poland, others along the eastern flank of NATO are worried. So, I think at the moment, that's where a lot of the sort of NATO discussion is, no doubt they would like to help in Mariupol, but it does seem unlikely at this stage.

SOARES: Nic Robertson live for us in Brussels this hour. Thanks very much, Nic, appreciate it.

Well, as the Russian military moves through Ukrainian, they are leaving more than just destruction and heartbreak, as our Phil Black now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Weaving through the trees, this brave stretcher crew is carrying a delicate cargo. Not the wounded, but something with the potential to seriously wound or worse. They're collecting the active munitions Russian forces left behind.

BLACK: This forest is scarred by battle, there's blackened earth and splintered tree pretty much everywhere. Ukrainians say the rockets rained down on Russian positions here. This is what's left of a Russian weapons system. They say the battle may have lasted hours, but the cleanup will take much longer.

BLACK (voice-over): Here, among the natural debris lies the dangerous end of a Russian Udigon (ph) rocket. This soldier says it's filled with cluster munitions. Those weapons are banned by more than 100 countries. This one, standing proud, shows why they must work quickly, when the soldiers last saw this damaged rocket, it was lying horizontally. Someone, foolish, lucky, and unqualified has lifted warhead so it now points to the sky. The professionals carefully stretcher it away and add it to their growing collection.

This was a single 500-pound bomb and that's how you make it safe according to this disposal team. They've got two more to go. They're air-delivered bombs recovered from a downed Russian aircraft and they're going to destroy both at the same time.

The big ones are easy to find and you get the feeling, fun to destroy. Most of the effort, hunting down mines and other abandoned ordnance is painfully thorough, careful work. Scanning and prodding the earth with intense focus for hours at a time. But there's urgency, too, because discarded and deliberately planning weapons are harming people weeks after the Russians left this territory.

This truck hit a mine north of Kyiv incinerating the driver. This emergency vehicle also ran over something explosive, injuring eight onboard. There are many painful legacies to Russia's brief presence in this part of the country. Ukrainians are working to ensure this one doesn't endure.

Phil Black, CNN, in Ukraine's Kyiv region.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: I want to bring you an update about a town we told you about earlier this hour. Ben Wedeman took us to a shelter, if you'll remember, in the town of Rubizhne where a dozen people or so have been hiding in a basement of a bombed-out theater. Well, a short time ago, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration said that Russian shelling disrupted an attempt to evacuate civilians, stopping a bus from reaching the town. Rubizhne has seen some heavy fighting amid a Russian offensive in Ukraine's Donbas region. We'll stay on top of that story and bring you any latest developments when we get it.

[04:40:00]

Still to come right here on the show, emotions are boiling over in Shanghai, as residents are forced into a COVID lockdown. We'll have a live report after the break. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to wait to approve both Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID vaccines for young children at the same time. That's according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who says the two products are similar, but not identical. In the U.S., kids aged six months to five years are the last groups to get access to a COVID vaccine.

Shanghai reported 11 COVID deaths on Thursday. That brings the total death toll to 36 in the latest outbreak. Frustrations are boiling over as the city has been on lockdown for weeks, thanks to China's zero COVID policy. And it's taking a massive toll on residents and ex-pats with no clear end on when the lockdown will be lifted.

Let's bring in CNN's Beijing bureau chief Steven Jiang. Far from things loosening, they're getting tighter in Shanghai, which clearly, you know, illustrates how determined the authority are to stick to this policy.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, Max, this nightmare in Shanghai just seems to be never-ending. Despite official propaganda portrayal of an increasingly orderly and effective lockdown. But what's been happening is for days, the authorities have said that the city is now being categorized into three different zones. And residents from low-risk areas technically are allowed to be moving about within their districts. But for the most part, that has not happened at all, because of the authorities' continued worry about new infections if they're allowing people out of their apartment complexes.

And instead, they're again and again, turning to their familiar playbook, by testing and retesting the whole population, even with growing evidence that many of the newer infections have come from crowded testing sites. And something else they've been doing, of course, is this continued roundup of all the positive cases and their close contact.

[04:45:00]

And now, quote/unquote, without exceptions. And that has meant a growing number of senior citizens, some in their 90s and in many in wheelchairs are now being forcibly removed from their homes and taken to government-run quarantine facilities, which many of those are in very, very crowded and poor conditions with very little medical care being provided on site.

And even on the food and supplies front, despite government pledges, many residents are still facing food shortages, and even those who have received government handouts are now reporting new problems when it comes to food safety, saying some of the food they got had gone bad and causing health issues, including food poisoning.

So, all the mismanagement and the resulted chaos and misery, in a way has really united millions of residents and ex-pats, as we mentioned, regardless of their age, battleground, or political views in their frustration and anger, with many asking, how is it possible to go hunger or even dying from the lack of access to food and medical care in China's biggest and wealthiest city. And the answer obviously is clear, because the country's top leader has put his foot down and saying, this is the way to go, despite all of the evidence pointing to the ineffectiveness of this current approach -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Steven Jiang, live in Beijing. Thank you very much, indeed. It's extraordinary to see what's happening in Shanghai.

Now a surge in COVID-19 cases has forced the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to cancel its world-famous carnival street parades. This is the second year that Rio has canceled its street parties.

Dancers continue to practice for the indoor parade at Rio's Sao Januario Stadium. The city's mayor says the celebration can go on with some health protocols in place. The stadium has a capacity of more than 80,000 people. It's unclear how many people will be allowed to attend, though.

A massive wildfire in the U.S. State of Arizona is forcing the governor there to declare a state of emergency in the affected areas. The 8,000-hectare, 19,000-acre tunnel wildfire begun Sunday just north of Flagstaff and residents in hundreds of homes have been ordered to evacuate. Fierce winds and drought conditions are fueling fire danger across the American Southwest and the high plains. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is at the World Weather Center with more. So difficult to manage these situations, isn't it?

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is extremely challenging. And we're going to see in the next 24 to 48 hours just how fickle the weather during April can be. I want to point out that extreme fire danger that we have across the Southwest and into Colorado, where you see this purple-shaded area, that's where the extreme fire risk is going to be located.

We've got very dry weather conditions. We've got low relative humidity, and the wind is going to be fierce. We could see those winds topping 70 miles an hour, about 115, 100 kilometers per hour. This is where the warm sector of the storm is. So out ahead of this, this is where we're looking at those gusty winds, but this is a big story system that is pushing in across the interior West and places that will see very mild temperatures will go to blizzard conditions by Saturday.

All right, this kind of depicts the winds. Here's the state of New Mexico, here's Texas. Watch what happens by about 3:00 in the afternoon local time. These winds are going to be howling all across New Mexico, panhandle of Texas, and Oklahoma into Kansas and Nebraska. But it is that east sections of Colorado where I think we'll see probably the greatest risk and the highest winds.

And then going in towards Saturday, you head towards Rapid City, well, these are strong winds, too, but they're going to be cold winds, on the backside of that storm system. So, it just gives you an idea of just how fickle this weather is, with blizzard conditions, heavy snowfall falling across the Rocky Mountains, in the Sierra Nevada and Colorado -- in California, rather, they are looking at snowfall that could be measured in feet, or something just under a meter. We've got major fires, that fire just to the north of Flagstaff could see some strong, gusty winds there for firefighters who are trying to keep a hold on this blaze -- Max, back to you.

FOSTER: Yes, reports really worked out at this time. Karen, thank you very much, indeed.

Now, the mass exodus of Ukrainians into Poland has slowed and maybe turning around. But coming up, why a growing number of Ukrainians are returning home, despite the threat from Russia.

[04:50:00]

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SOARES: Welcome back, everyone. A growing number of refugees in eastern Ukraine are returning to Ukraine despite the threat posed by Russia. More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's full-fledged invasion began two months ago, but the mass exodus of Ukrainians into Poland has actually slowed. Scott McLean explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) In the early days of war, trains leaving Ukraine were standing room only, packed with terrified women and children. Trains going the other way were virtually empty.

As the bombs fell and the tanks rolled, millions desperately tried to get out, most to Poland. Almost two months later, there are now days when more people go back into Ukraine from Poland than come out.

MCLEAN: Do you think that the mass exodus is over?

PIOTR ZAKIELARZ, SPOKESPERSON, POLISH REGION'S BORDER GUARDS: No, we can never say that. We cannot -- it's hard to predict, actually, the direction of the -- of the crisis.

MCLEAN (voice-over): In Przemysl, the first stop in Poland for many Ukrainians traveling by train, the mayor was once overwhelmed by the number of refugees showing up every day. Not anymore.

WOJCIECH BAKUN, MAYOR OF PRZEMYSL, POLAND: It looks better. We're better organized, as well, after that two months of experience. And we're happy. We are so happy that the situation in Ukraine looks better at this moment.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Inside the station, Natalia Belchik and her family are heading back to their hometown in south Ukraine, about 50 miles from the contested city of Mykolaiv.

[04:55:00]

NATALIA BELCHIK, FLED FROM SOUTHERN UKRAINE (through translator): In our town, we had about seven or eight people killed at a military unit when it was bombed. My child was so scared.

MCLEAN (voice-over): They fled to a small town in northern Germany, where the government put them up in a nice hotel. but they say they had little help beyond that.

BELCHIK (through translator): We didn't know what to do. Nobody helped us to find jobs. Well, we were told we needed to speak German.

MCLEAN: You're willing to take a small risk to get your life back?

BELCHIK (through translator): Yes, we want to go back. After all, home is home.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Down the hall, Natalia Vyhivska fled Kyiv just days into the war. While she stayed with friends in Germany, her neighborhood withstood Russian shelling. Now that the Russians have retreated, she's going back.

NATALIA VYHIVSKA, FLED FROM KYIV (through translator): It's a bit scary, but I've been looking forward to seeing my husband. I never thought this would last a long time. I thought it would be for a week or two, I don't want to start a new life in Germany without my husband.

MCLEAN (voice-over): At the border, the lineup to get into Ukraine stretches for five miles. And at the Polish side of the pedestrian crossing, there are more volunteers than refugees.

Oksana Deresh is going back to see her parents in Lviv.

OKSANA DERESH, FLED FROM LVIV: But actually, for Easter because I want to meet my parents. I miss them very, very much.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Scott McLean, CNN, Przemysl, Poland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And that does it here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you very much for your company. I'm Isa Soares in Lviv, Ukraine. Our coverage continues on "EARLY START" with Kristen Fisher. You are watching CNN.

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