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Russian Heavy Shelling Continues During Orthodox Easter Sunday; Zelenskyy Said He was Meeting Blinken and Austin Today in Kyiv; FDNY Firefighter Dies Battling Blaze in Brooklyn; Public Versus Private Doublespeak Among Trump-Fearing Republicans; New Film about Alexei Navalny Premieres Tonight; SpaceX All-Private Mission Begins Journey Back to Earth; Viral Video Shows Police Blasting Music While on Patrol; Ukrainians Describe Horrors of Russian Brutality Near Kyiv. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired April 24, 2022 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Ukraine, the weekend, the Orthodox Easter has seen no significant reduction in violence.

REP. VICTORIA SPARTZ (R-IN): The world has to help Ukraine to win this war. Bring the peace back to Europe, and bring the international order back.

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I wear a mask when I get on a plane, while I'm boarding and also while I'm getting off the plane. When you're at 10,000 feet, there is pretty good air filtration on a plane. So I don't feel at risk at that moment so I take my mask off.

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If there was any hope officials here in Shanghai were going to ease some of the lockdown restrictions, it's quickly diminished. Social media videos are capturing work crews installing steel fences and blockades on public roads and inside residential compounds. They're essentially being caged in.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): All I did was walk through like anybody would what are the different scenarios that will happen.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor. This is outrageous. An attempt to overthrow our government?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Sunday.

In Ukraine the sacred holy day of Orthodox Easter has passed with more Russian attacks and signs of worse days ahead. In the Kherson region, lower left on your screen, a Ukrainian military official says Russian forces are preparing for an offensive likely as part of Russia's goal to secure the south and east.

Just days after Vladimir Putin said his troops would not attack the last holdout of resistance in Mariupol, Ukraine says the siege has resumed. Ukrainian officials say 1,000 women and children are trapped in the complex and at least 500 people are wounded. Ukraine also says a humanitarian corridor wasn't open today because Russia wouldn't guarantee a cease-fire.

Now look at the spotlight on your screen. That is a Russian missile slamming into an apartment building in Odessa. The new video shows yesterday's strike that killed eight people, including a 3-month-old.

Let's go now to Ukraine's capital city, CNN's Matt Rivers is in Kyiv. Matt, tell us about today's heavy shelling.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, unfortunately, Pamela, what we did not see is this holy day here in Ukraine give respite to very weary Ukrainians who are dealing with a horrific war. All across the country we have seen shelling, including in the eastern part of the country which should come as no surprise given that Russia's offensive is very much ongoing with their overall attempt, their overall goal there to capture the Donbas region.

As a result, we have seen multiple civilians killed in both the Donetsk and the Luhansk regions, the primary regions that make up that part of the country. Also you mentioned Kherson in the country's south with reports that people who want to leave that city cannot get out because of heavy shelling, heavy fighting from Russian forces with one Ukrainian official saying that there is a looming humanitarian disaster in that city.

And we know there is already a humanitarian disaster in the city of Mariupol just to the east of Kherson where residents have been besieged for weeks, since the beginning of this war frankly, by Russian troops who have encircled that city, captured the vast majority of it. We know that there continues to be Ukrainian resistance in a small pocket surrounding what's called the Azovstal steel plant, a multiple square mile complex where fighters have sheltered right near civilians, frankly, as Russian forces continue to try and take that steel plant.

A humanitarian corridor not open today. Once again Ukraine saying that Russia did not meet the conditions for a humanitarian corridor to be open saying that they have violated multiple cease-fires over the past few days and once again did the exact same thing today.

And Pamela, before I send it back to you, we are still waiting on news of a supposed meeting that took place here in Kyiv today. Would be the highest-level U.S. delegation to come here to Kyiv since this war began with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, apparently here in the city according to President Zelenskyy. At a press conference last night, you and I were talking about it, Zelenskyy said that that meeting would take place today in Kyiv. No official word yet on if that happened.

It is pretty standard protocol for news about these meetings to not be broken until those high-level officials actually leave the country, so anybody's guess as to when we're going to get an official readout from both the Zelenskyy administration and the White House, but that is something we're watching very closely -- Pamela.

BROWN: OK. Matt Rivers, thank you so much.

I want to bring in Lieutenant General Mart Hertling. He is a CNN military analyst and was the commanding general of Europe and the Seventh Army.

[20:05:03]

Ukrainian officials, General, say that Russian forces appeared to be preparing for an offensive around the Kherson region and southern Ukraine. What do you make of this?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, there's going to be a couple of offenses, Pamela. Kherson region, Kharkiv and Donbas, the areas around that, southeast, Zaporizhzhia, there are going to be multiple offenses. The Kherson-Mykolaiv operation zones I believe is a secondary attack. The Russians do not currently have the amount of personnel they would need to conduct that operation in my view.

They certainly don't have the logistics support to do it especially while they're conducting operations in the east. So I'm going to personally be watching three different areas, the northeast, the southeast and the south. And I think the northeast and the southeast are going to be the key focus of attention of Russian forces over the next couple of days if they can get their operations started.

BROWN: The latest $800 million weapon package is being delivered. There was one -- we've actually had two in the last week, right, one just recently approved and then a week before that another one. Today the White House deputy national security adviser says to expect more announcements of help in the days ahead. Do you think those weapons will look any different than what the U.S. had been sending prior to this?

HERTLING: I think they could, Pamela. I think what we're talking about is in this, if we want to call this a second phase of operations, it's in an open space, an open area. There's a lot of maneuver ground, and the Russians will continue to try and use artillery fires, long range fires, but this time they are going to be using it not only against the cities to criminally attack Ukrainian citizens. They are also going to be using that artillery to try and thwart Ukrainian operations.

Ukraine has to counterfire back. That's what we've seen in the last two packages. A lot of artillery pieces, a lot of ammunition, a lot of intelligence-gathering capability with the drones and with other intelligence assets. So what you're talking about in this next phase is a counter artillery fight and a maneuver fight.

I think what probably Secretary Austin and Blinken talked about today is what's going to happen next, the long-term fight, and Ukraine has been demanding and President Zelenskyy has been demanding, excuse me, a lot of equipment that would modernize his army on a grand scale. That may be part of phase three, but something like that takes on an awful lot of time to get training, to get the maintenance and logistics support, to get individuals who can provide the logistics tale for a modern army.

Ukraine can't do that in my view while they are also conduct the warfare against the Russians in the east.

BROWN: I want to ask you about some visits that have been going on apparently. Zelenskyy said that there was a high-profile visit from the U.S. delegation, Secretary Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin. The U.N. secretary-general is expected to travel to Moscow Tuesday and to Ukraine a couple days later. Do you think that these visits can at least broker a deal on humanitarian corridors and evacuations and help with the current situation on the ground there?

HERTLING: Yes, you know, in any kind of conflict, Pamela, there are these brokerings of deals of humanitarian relief. You know Red Cross aid, the ability to open up corridors. That normally takes place between warring parties. President Zelenskyy has been willing to do that from the very beginning. Unfortunately, the president on the other side, Mr. Putin, has not. You know, and we have seen in the past Russia continue to try and couch humanitarian assistant column or, you know, a refugee opportunity, and when it comes to the point where it's about to be executed, he shuts it down.

And that's all part of the terrorist approach of ensuring that people remain confused, remain dazzled and lose hope. I don't anticipate the Russian president allowing those kind of things to happen any time soon. He may try and talk that game to get people hopeful, but I'll tell you, Pamela, from the past, and what we've seen not only in this campaign but in other things the Russians have done, I wouldn't count on any corridors being opened up any time soon, even with outside influences like the U.N. or the secretary-general of NATO.

BROWN: Yes, like you said, for Putin it's psychological warfare, and that is why he is keeping those humanitarian corridors closed.

General Mark Hertling, thank you very much.

HERTLING: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: Turning now to the big lie. At a rally in Ohio last night former President Trump continued his fixation on his debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen which we know it was not. Earlier tonight, I asked Republican Senator Roy Blunt whether Trump's refusal to honor the results should disqualify him from being president in the future, and why he won't commit to supporting Trump if he runs in 2024.

[20:10:13]

BROWN: Other Senate Republicans are also non-committal. I mean, Mitch McConnell as well.

SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): Yes. BROWN: Why -- I'm just -- why is it? I mean --

BLUNT: Well, I don't think -- I think there'd be a mistake to be overly committal. A lot of things will happen between now and 2022, let alone election year this year, let alone next time.

BROWN: But where's the line? I mean, where is the line and why is Trump's push to overturn the election result and his continued insistence the election stolen not an automatic disqualifier?

BLUNT: Well, he can have his own opinion. I mean, that's not a disqualifier because you may have one issue you disagree with. You know, the president has a lot he could be talking about. If I was him I'd be talking about energy policies that made us the top energy producer in the world and energy independent. I'd be talking about a border that in his last year in office I think 17 people came across the border and went into this wait for trial as opposed to 80,000 that came across last month, the highest month in his last year. He's got plenty to talk about, but he gets to decide that.

BROWN: But he's not, yes.

BLUNT: He gets to decide that and then eventually if he decides to run again people get to decide what they think about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And coming up live this hour, the crew of the all-private SpaceX mission is set to start the journey home from the International Space Station. Also ahead, people in Shanghai being fenced into their own homes as China struggles to contain a COVID outbreak. Also ahead tonight, we just learned that a New York firefighter has been killed and several others have been injured in a residential blaze in Brooklyn. We've got a report from the scene up next.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:16:05]

BROWN: Just into CNN, New York firefighters battling a huge three- alarm house fire this afternoon in Brooklyn. The blaze is now out, but one firefighter died. And several others were injured.

Here's the latest from NY1 reporter Alyssa Paolicelli.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALYSSA PAOLICELLI, SPECTRUM NEWS NY1 REPORTER: And still a very active scene here off the intersection of Avenue N and East 108th Street. I'm going to step out and show you just the still activity going on here. Now that this fire is under control, you can see members of the FDNY beginning to clean up, rolling up the hoses. You can see the somber expression on their faces. But it was a long Avenue N just before 2:00 this afternoon when calls came in about a fire at the roof of a building there.

Inside, FDNY members fighting that fire when there was a partial collapse. Four members got caught in that collapse. Three were able to make it out. One, 31-year-old Timothy Klein, was not able to. Despite the great efforts of the FDNY they still were not able to save him in time. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Those other members of the FDNY are considered to be in stable condition.

Timothy Klein, the 31-year-old, is a six-and-a-half-year veteran of the FDNY. He is the second member of his firehouse to have died in the last four years, so a difficult day for the department, a difficult day for the firefighters here who now have to continue to figure out what caused this fire and what caused that collapse that killed Timothy Klein.

Alyssa Paolicelli, NY1.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, China is doubling down on its zero COVID strategy by putting up steel fences and blockades in Shanghai to stop people from traveling, and it's partitioning buildings to prevent people with positive COVID cases from leaving. Officials say the lockdown in Shanghai will remain in effect until the spread of COVID is eliminated.

Last week saw a new round of double speak involving Donald Trump and Republicans. Up next, a closer look at the flap over who said what then denied it, "For the Record."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:22:36]

BROWN: Blistering headlines in the "New York Times" saying GOP leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell were apparently ready to cut ties with Donald Trump in the days after the January 6th attack. Writers Alexander Burns and Johnathan Martin have the receipts including audio of McCarthy telling Republican leaders, quote, "I've had it with this guy." McCarthy also said he planned to advise Trump that he should resign citing an impeachment resolution in the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTHY: There are discussions that I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: But then that reporting dropped. McCarthy denied ever pushing Trump toward the exit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MCCARTHY: Let me be very clear. I have never asked the president to resign, so what the book said was not true. All I did was walk through like anybody would what are the different scenarios that would happen, and all we did was put out the different options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And just to be clear, the book never said he told Trump to resign. It was that he said he told other Republicans that he would offer -- he would give his counsel to Trump and tell him to resign. Now he says he actually never followed through on that, but Senator Elizabeth Warren, she is not about to let him wriggle out of this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor. This is outrageous, and that is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now. To say one thing to the American public and something else in private. They understand that it is wrong what happened. An attempt to overthrow our government?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: In their upcoming book called "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future," Burns and Martin say Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was also predicting Trump's political demise, although nothing we've yet heard on tape except when he said this on the Senate floor two weeks after the Capitol riot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:25:00]

BROWN: And then there was this moment, again on the Senate floor, but only after McConnell voted to acquit the former president on a charge of incitement of insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCONNELL: There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president, and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet earth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: "The Times" says McConnell predicted his party would break sharply with Trump in the hours following the Capitol riots. They say he even asked a reporter about the 25th Amendment and whether the Cabinet would actually vote to use it to remove Trump from office. They also quote him citing the impeachment resolution days later saying, "The Democrats are going to take care of the SOB for us."

"The Times" says McConnell's office has declined to comment on their reporting. "For the Record," it is jarring to see how Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy viewed Trump's complicity immediately after the fact on January 6th, predicted his expulsion from the White House and the party, but then walked that back publicly in the face of Trump's explicit and implicit threats.

And when he was asked to comment, Donald Trump told "The Wall Street Journal," "I think it's all a big compliment frankly. They realized they were wrong and supported me."

The first all-private mission to the International Space Station is about to head home. The SpaceX crew is due to undock from the ISS at any moment. And ahead I'm going to talk live with astronaut Chris Hadfield about this historic mission.

And then right after the show, the unbelievable true story of a man who took on Vladimir Putin and lived to expose the truth. The Sundance Award-winning CNN Film "NAVALNY." I'll talk to the director right after the break, but, first, here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through text translation): It's Alexei Navalny calling and I was hoping you could tell me why you wanted to kill me?

Hung up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Remarkably Vladimir Putin faces a legitimate opponent, Alexei Navalny.

NAVALNY : I don't want Putin being president.

If I want to be leader of a country I have to organize people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kremlin hates Navalny so much that they refuse to say his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passengers heard Navalny cry out in agony.

NAVALNY: Come on, poisoned? Seriously. We are creating the coalition to fight this regime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are killed, what message do you leave behind to the Russian people? NAVALNY: It's very simple. Never give up.

ANNOUNCER: "NAVALNY," next on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:33:02]

BROWN: Russian opposition leader and fierce Putin critic Alexei Navalny has now been in jail for more than a year. The story of how he ended up there after surviving an alleged murder attempt and tracking down his own would-be assassins is told with the urgency and drama of a spy thriller in the new CNN Film "NAVALNY." Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAVALNY: My message for the situation that I'm killed is very simple, not give up.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do me a favor and answer this one in Russian.

NAVALNY (through text translation): Listen, I've got something very obvious to tell you. You're not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power, to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes. We don't realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The director of "NAVALNY" Daniel Roher joins me now.

So, Daniel, this film is coming out at such a critical moment with Russia's invasion of Ukraine growing more destructive by the day. How does Navalny's story and former understanding of what Putin is doing in Ukraine?

DANIEL ROHER, DIRECTOR, "NAVALNY": That's an excellent question, Pamela. I think more than anything what this film --

BROWN: Uh-oh.

ROHER: Putin's plain strategy is. All of these elements and --

BROWN: Sorry. I just -- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt, but we had a bad signal and we lost you for a second.

ROHER: Yes.

[20:35:02]

BROWN: But go ahead. I think we're reconnected now. ROHER: What I think our film really underscores is all of the

nefarious elements from Putin's playbook that go into this insidious conflict, the disinformation, the violence, this campaign of murder. This is what the Putin regime has been peddling for many years, and it's come to a tragic explosion with this conflict in Ukraine. The government is committing war crimes. The regime is committing war crimes every single day and it's an extraordinary human tragedy.

BROWN: Even in prison Navalny has been an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and he has shared words of encouragement and support for all the Russians protesting the war. Do you see his influence and this outpouring of protests we've seen in Russia over the past several months?

ROHER: Well, absolutely. I think what Alexei Navalny represents is the moral conscience of the nation. Alexei Navalny chose to go back to Russia. He didn't have to, and in going back he understood that he would be arrested and detained maybe for a decade, maybe forever, and I think it's that moral clarity and that absolute courage that the Russian people need to look at right now as an example.

The Russian people need to understand two things. They need to understand that they mustn't be afraid in the face of this regime, and they must remember that Vladimir Putin isn't Russia and Russia isn't Vladimir Putin, and that's a message that the whole world needs to understand in this perilous moment.

BROWN: Daniel, thank you so much for coming on. Really looking forward to watching this film. The new CNN Film "NAVALNY" premiers just minutes from now at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, history is being made in space. Right now as we speak the first all-private mission to the International Space Station is about to head back to earth. We have some live pictures right now. Take a look at your screen. Look at this. The exciting developments coming up right after this break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:41:28]

BROWN: The hatch is closed on the SpaceX Crew Dragon as the first all- private mission to the International Space Station comes to an end. We're watching for this capsule to undock and begin the journey home. Just seconds ago that undocking was delayed until at least 9:15 p.m. Eastern Time.

CNN's Rachel Crane joins me now along with Chris Hadfield, retired astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station. He is also the author of "The Apollo Murders."

Welcome to you both. So, Chris, let's start with you. You have been here before preparing to lead the ISS. What kind of emotion does this stir up for you?

CHRIS HADFIELD, RETIRED ASTRONAUT: Well, they are so focused right now on the equipment and trying to make sure everything is working properly, but I remember just before I got into my little spaceship on my third space flight to come home, it was so wistful and melancholy, and I was just trying to -- you know, I had been up there for almost half a year, but I was still just trying to squeeze every bit of the experience into myself just because it's so rare, you know, all of the human experience and it's so beautiful, and I just -- I didn't want to miss a second of it before we had, to you know, undock and then work to get the vehicle safely back home again.

BROWN: Rachel, I want to bring you in. The Crew Dragon capsule that will bring this team home is designed to fly entirely on its own but there's one former astronaut among the four-man crew of private individuals and two other pilots. Have they all been prepped to take over in case there is an emergency?

RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, you know, I want to point out that, although these are, quote-unquote, "private astronauts," space tourists, you know, there's a debate in and of itself what to call these individuals. They did go through months of training to prepare for this journey that they have embarked on. In fact initially the journey and the stay on board station was only supposed to be eight days but they got a few extra days because this splashdown that we are waiting for, this undocking that we're waiting for, it was pushed by five days.

So these private astronauts, they got a few extra days on board and before their schedule was jam-packed with over 100 hours of experiments in science that they were conducting. They did over 25 different experiments, so they finally got a little extra time to enjoy the space flight experience. I'm sure Chris can tell us a lot more about that and, you know, his experience on board, but in terms of, you know, if anything was to go wrong on board, as you pointed out, there is a former NASA astronaut, Michael Lopez-Alegria, they call him MLA, who is on board. But he is not traveling with NASA.

Axiom Space is the company that organized this trip with NASA and SpaceX, so he is working on behalf of Axiom, but they all have been trained in case anything is to go wrong to step in. But as you pointed out this, vehicle flies completely autonomously. But it is quite a wild ride that they're going to embark on. It's a 16-hour journey that they'll be making once they undock before they come here. There's several deorbit burns that have to happen, and then once they hit the earth's atmosphere, that's when this capsule, you know, the heat around it, we're talking about 3500 degrees Fahrenheit. It's traveling at 17,000 miles per hour, so the --

BROWN: Wow.

CRANE: The earth's atmosphere will slow it down but then, you know, there's a parachuted landing into the Atlantic or off the Gulf of Mexico -- in the Gulf of Mexico rather. We don't exactly know where they will be landing.

[20:45:01]

They are intending to be around Jacksonville, Florida, but, you know, that in and of itself is quite a wild experience. And it can be a little tough on the stomach, so, you know, these gentlemen, they haven't been in space for too long so hopefully they'll be able to get their earth legs back once they get outside of the space capsule Endeavor.

Pamela, but certainly, you know, this mission has been incredible with them on board, but they're about to embark on an incredible journey, just in and of itself this splashdown here.

BROWN: Absolutely. And we're getting ready for that to happen at 9:15. It's been moved to 9:15 but just around the corner from now.

And, Chris, Rachel alluded to this, but just all the training that went into this for these private individuals. We have seen other private missions, but this one is different, and if you would just walk us through how it is different.

HADFIELD: Well, sure. They have one professional astronaut on board, Mike Lopez-Alegria, who has commanded the Space Station before and served 20 years as a NASA astronaut and as naval officer. But the other three guys, they are not slouches, and there's something important to remember, too, when Rachel was talking. This seems like a short flight but it's longer than almost any space shuttle flight ever was.

These guys have had a tremendous experience here, you know, for something that was much longer than planned, but the three guys have been through a bunch of training to make sure they're safe, they know what to do, but they brought experiments from all different types of universities and hospitals and things with them. Each of them turned it into something really significant and they are going to be so thankful for the extra time they had to try and complete all those experiments and for the window time, just the depth of the experience.

But, you know, they've still got a relatively dangerous thing to be able to safely pilot their way back down through the atmosphere and land somewhere where the ocean or the Gulf is smooth enough.

BROWN: Yes, you know, the one thing I can think of is when a flight is delayed, you're like oh, no, but if you're up in space on the ISS and there's a delay, you're like, heck, yes, I get to spend more time in space. So I imagine it was an incredible few days for them and that delay, they got a lot more done us you pointed out.

Chris and Rachel, thank you so much. We're going to be following this story. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Up next, how police officers are reportedly blaring Disney songs during traffic stops.

One lawmaker says he knows why. He'll join us to explain next. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:52:27]

BROWN: You heard that right. That was Santa Ana, California, police blasting Disney music from their cars on the streets. Santa Anna council member Johnathan Ryan Hernandez says the police have been playing loud music so that video of them on patrol would be taken down for copyright infringement if it's posted online. And now he wants the alleged practice banned.

This all started after a viral video posted on YouTube showing people asking police to stop blasting the music on their street at night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's tell them. Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm trying to go to bed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, what's good?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you turn the music down? I want to go to bed. What's the music for?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And then later in the clip Hernandez appears and asks the officers why they are playing the music.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNATHAN RYAN HERNANDEZ, SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA CITY COUNCIL: Why are you doing this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

HERNANDEZ: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it would be copyright infringement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they know I have a YouTube channel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Well, YouTube says it hasn't received any requests to take the video down.

Councilman Hernandez joins me now. Hi, Councilman. So first off, tell us more about this viral video.

HERNANDEZ: Yes. Well, thank you for having me on the show and for helping Santa Ana take a step towards transparency and accountability. I live right around the corner from where this incident took place. I like many of my neighbors was waken up by the music and as evidenced in the video when I step into frame, that's -- that was my experiences. I was very confused and dumbfounded as to why an officer would ever think this is appropriate.

BROWN: And what made you want to take action after you witnessed this practice in person? HERNANDEZ: Seeing the -- how helpless some of my neighbors felt and

how some of them were pleading with police to stop, I mean, there were children that were in middle school that were pleading, there were mothers and, of course, the community member who was recording, and that's why I felt the need to step in. At the end of the day my job as an elected official is to be voices to those very people that were asking for this to stop.

BROWN: Tell us a little bit more about your interaction with that officer because he eventually apologized.

HERNANDEZ: Yes. And I think to summarize it, you know, there is a person beyond that badge, and I want to remind the public, right, and nobody is perfect. People make mistakes all the time.

[20:55:01]

Now the hard part about this, right, is you're a public servant with a badge and a gun. Mistakes should be few and far between, and that is why I felt the right thing to do was to step in, to not only de- escalate the officer's behavior but to also let my neighbors know that this is something we're not going to support in the city of Santa Ana, and I wanted to make sure that my neighbors were safe, that officer had his body cam off. He was playing music at 11:00 at night. I don't know what it could have escalated to, but I was not going to let anything happen on my watch.

BROWN: And we saw a little snippet there, but he said they were playing that music so that it would be taken down if it was posted online, right, for copyright infringement.

HERNANDEZ: That's correct. That was the first thing he said as evidenced by the video was that when I asked why are you doing this, he said copyright infringement, and at that point I still didn't register with me. Still didn't register with me why an officer would utilize such tactics. I mean, that's very high-level understanding of IP addresses and copyright. He had to have learned that from somebody.

I'm trying to get to the bottom of who's teaching our officers this, because this practice needs to stop. It's unethical. It's a violation of our First Amendment right, and it's not how you build a bridge between a community that has long had issues trusting law enforcement.

BROWN: All right. Councilman Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, thank you for coming on the show. And we want to add in a statement on Instagram, Santa Ana Police said the department was aware of the video that has surfaced and that the Santa Ana Police Department takes seriously all complaints regarding the service provided by the department and the conduct of its employees.

As Russian forces intensify their assault on eastern Ukraine, an official in Luhansk says 80 percent of his region is under Russian control and the military is destroying everything in its path, and we are learning more about the brutality Russian soldiers inflicted on Ukrainian civilians around Kyiv.

Here's CNN's Phil Black.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACK (voice-over): Andrey Bynchenko 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 Bohdanivka, 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.

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, Bohdanivka, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. I'll be back here next weekend. And don't forgot you can tweet me @pamelabrownCNN. You can also follow me on Instagram. You can send me a message. I do check my messages from viewers. The CNN Film "NAVALNY" starts right now.

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