Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Mariupol Mayor Reports New Mass Grave Near City; Zelenskyy: U.S. Officials Should Not Come Empty-Handed; Ukraine Celebrates Orthodox Easter Despite Dangers Of War; France's High-Stakes Presidential Runoff; Latin American Economies Hit Hard By Inflation; Anoosheh Ashoori Speaks About Imprisonment In Iran. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired April 24, 2022 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello and a warm welcome to viewers joining us in the United States and right around the world. I'm Isa Soares, coming to you live from Lviv in Ukraine.
Coming up this hour, there are high expectations on this Easter in Ukraine, with the arrival of a pair of top U.S. officials in the capital, all while Ukrainian defenders fight Russia's plan to take the south of the country.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Kim Brunhuber, live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
French voters cast ballots in a presidential election set against the backdrop of that war. We're live in Paris with the latest.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
SOARES: Welcome to the show. It is 10:00 am here in Ukraine.
Orthodox Christians across this country are celebrating Easter Sunday -- or at least trying to amid the ongoing Russian shelling. In the past hour, we have received the latest intelligence assessment of the war from the British defense ministry.
They say that numerous Russian assaults in the Donbas have been repelled this week. The intelligence update shows some Russian gains but at, quote, "significant cost," because, of course, strong Ukrainian resistance.
It really underscores an anticipated visit to Kyiv today by U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. That was announced earlier by the Ukrainian president. It would be the first high-level American delegation to Kyiv since the war began, though no confirmation has been provided by the U.S. side so far.
Russia's no-holds-barred assault is now entering a third month. On Saturday, a Russian missile slammed into a residential building in the southern port city of Odessa. The mayor says eight people were killed, including an infant, a baby girl. President Zelenskyy is vowing to punish the Russians for all they have done.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It is only a matter of time before all the Russian murderers feel what their response to their crimes are. It is only a matter of time before we can all bring all the deported Ukrainians home.
It is only a matter of time before all of our people all over Ukraine feel what a strong peace is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Well, Ukrainians continue to fight back. The defense ministry reporting taking out three Russian aircraft, five cruise missiles and nine tactical drones just on Saturday. It also claims two Russian generals were recently killed in the Kherson region. CNN unable to verify those claims.
CNN's Matt Rivers has more on the top U.S. officials visiting Kyiv and what Ukraine's leader hopes to get out of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): High- profile visitors for the Orthodox Easter holiday in Ukraine. On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters he would meet with top U.S. officials in Kyiv on Sunday.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I don't think this is a big secret. The people from the U.S. are coming to us tomorrow. I shall be meeting with the state secretary, Mr. Blinken, and the Defense Secretary. And we will be waiting for the time when the security situation allows for the president to come and talk to us.
RIVERS (voice-over): The U.S. State Department and White House declined to comment on the matter. But Zelenskyy said talks alone won't help Ukraine.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): Why is it important for leaders to come to us?
I will give you a pragmatic answer. Because they should not come here with empty hands now. We are waiting not just for presents or cakes. We are expecting specific things and specific weapons.
RIVERS (voice-over): On Friday, a Russian general made clear one of Moscow's goals in Ukraine by saying Russia intends to seize southern parts of the country to create a land corridor between the Eastern Donbas region and Crimea.
On Saturday, for the first time in weeks, Russia launched major strikes on the southern port city of Odessa, which Ukrainian officials say hit a residential building, killing at least eight, including an infant.
The Russian defense ministry said it was targeting a terminal which housed weapons supplied by the United States and European nations. There was also no letup in the bombardment of the Eastern regions of the country.
Kharkiv, once again, came under fire after a barrage of Russian shells fell on the city.
[03:05:00]
RIVERS (voice-over): And the governor of the Luhansk region urged civilians to leave if they could, describing the situation there as around-the-clock bombing.
The Ukrainian government add new curfews across the country, saying there could be an increase in Russian attacks over the holiday weekend. Fierce battles for the territory that Zelenskyy will no doubt press his potential VIP visitors Sunday for more help in trying to win -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: Now when those high-profile visitors arrive in Kyiv, they won't be empty-handed. The latest round of military aid from the U.S. is valued around $800 million. And the package includes heavy weapons, like howitzers, thousands of artillery rounds and tactical drones modified for use in Ukraine, we've been told.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he'll ask Congress for more funds for Ukraine later this week. For more perspective on all of this, we're joined by Tymofiy Mylovanov. He's the president of the Kyiv School of Economics and an advisor to President Zelenskyy.
Thank you for taking time to speak to us, Timothy. I know it's an important holiday in this country. Let me start off by asking you what we can expect from this meeting. We heard President Zelenskyy announcing yesterday in this two-hour press conference that secretary of state and Secretary of Defense of the U.S. side were coming here.
Can you confirm whether that's still happening?
TYMOFIY MYLOVANOV, ADVISER TO THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: I can not confirm or deny, as they say. But if this happens, I think at least three things are very important. One is, of course, the diplomacy of this, that the world stands with Ukraine and the leader of the world, the United States, of the democratic world.
SOARES: We have seen a lot of European leaders coming to Kyiv.
(CROSSTALK)
SOARES: How important is -- are the optics here? MYLOVANOV: The optics in Ukraine is important because, at times, you know -- it goes in waves up and down. There are hours almost every day, where we feel abandoned. And we feel sometimes that we need more support, more hope.
So visits like that daily, weekly, continuing visits show us that there is a -- we're part of the civilized world of democracy and we stand together. Even though we are hoping for more support. But it is extremely important for morale.
SOARES: Is President Zelenskyy, Ukraine still hoping that President Biden will make it here at some point?
MYLOVANOV: Yes, we do and it'll be a really strong point. But these optics are also important for Russia because it demoralizes the troops. Not everyone has access to the information but it also shows Russia versus Ukraine, very clear contrast. The way Ukraine is with the world and Russia is isolated.
SOARES: Let me ask you something President Zelenskyy said yesterday, that when the U.S. visitors arrive, they shouldn't come empty-handed.
What is he asking for here?
MYLOVANOV: The other two points at least. One is military assistance. We need heavy weapons. In Donbas, you see how the theater is developing. It's a very different situation from the north of Kyiv, from the battle of Kyiv.
The terrain is different. The tactics of the Russian force is different. They have -- and we do have -- been there for a while. So there are contact lines fortified. So it's a very different scenario. So we need different types of weapons.
The second one is financial assistance for the economy and the recovery because everyone is talking about recovery will have to happen after the war. It's happening now in Kyiv, in Bucha, in Berdyansk. We need that support now.
SOARES: Especially since there's some 7 million people displaced within the country.
MYLOVANOV: Exactly.
SOARES: On the weapons front, we saw from the United States two kind of aid packages announced in a period of two weeks; $8 million was the last one.
So what more are you wanting?
I know you mentioned some of the weapons.
What else?
MYLOVANOV: OK, so training.
SOARES: OK.
MYLOVANOV: There's this narrative around, that we can't supply modern weapons because they require training. Well, the war is not stopping tomorrow, so start training yesterday. Get people trained.
A lot of us have been in the military. A lot of them have worked with NATO, have been to Iraq, have been to other theaters. People have been trained, people are Western educated.
And specifics of the weapons, because details matter, it has to be not necessarily always something which was there, something in storage, you know. It's better to have something which we can put to the theater tomorrow.
SOARES: We've seen the success of having those weapons. We saw in the last -- just on Saturday, Ukrainians fighting back. I think we had the defense ministry saying they've taken now 17 Russian air assets -- three Russian aircraft, five cruise missiles, nine tactical drones. It proves the point you're making.
MYLOVANOV: We also see that Russia, the Russian troops have thrown not everything but almost everything they've had in the east of Ukraine.
[03:10:00]
MYLOVANOV: They pulled the troops from the north of Ukraine, brought it to the east. They have been really pushing.
But their advances are very, very small in terms of actual territory. That shows also that these weapons and Ukrainian morale and training and perseverance together do the job of resisting. But we need to get the Ukrainian military kind of technically on top of Russia, not being -- you know, fighting with them or struggling. It would be better --
(CROSSTALK)
SOARES: So more on the offensive rather than defensive?
MYLOVANOV: Right. So the way, they bring artillery now, long-range artillery. So we need long-range -- longer range --
SOARES: Longer, OK.
MYLOVANOV: -- right, because otherwise you pay in lives. If you are shorter range or you don't have enough of longer range artillery or assets, anti-aircraft and so on, then you pay in lives because they can reach you, then bombard the units, then they try to take the territory, which will be difficult.
So the tradeoff is very simple. Either longer range or killer remote, precise artillery, not only artillery but the entire range of heavy weapons.
(CROSSTALK)
SOARES: And training --
MYLOVANOV: And training --
SOARES: -- critical. Let's talk about the situation in Mariupol that's been really truly devastating. We've seen the images, still that holdout there inside the steel plant. One guest told me in the last two hours or so that, from his contacts, from some of the soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers still inside, that they were being resupplied.
Is that possible?
Has that happened?
MYLOVANOV: I will say, we can't confirm or deny. And I got emotional when you talk about Mariupol.
SOARES: Sorry.
MYLOVANOV: But it's true. It's true that we are -- people are holding out. If you put two and two together, they've been there for, you know, close to 60 days in Mariupol alone. And no supplies last that long. So they have been -- there have been ways to resupply.
SOARES: There have been resupplies?
MYLOVANOV: I cannot say whether they have been resupplied in the last two, three days.
SOARES: When was the last time you believe they were resupplied?
MYLOVANOV: I can only speak for what we do. We supply, as the Kyiv School of Economics, I'm not talking in an official capacity, I can only speak for what we do.
We have been able to supply medical equipment, protective equipment, as recently as maybe 10 days, 12 days ago. We've been shipping it to those areas. How they get it inside, how much of it gets inside, whether it's on the outskirts or not, I don't know.
But we have been getting orders, continuous orders. Small batches, not large. But there are probably ways to get through, at least as of a week ago or 10 days ago. I don't know the situation yesterday or today.
SOARES: In the meantime, Russians are tricking Ukrainians into getting into buses, thinking they were going to safety; instead, they're going to Russian-held territory?
MYLOVANOV: Yes. They have been doing it. It's the Soviet Union technique. What they are doing, I'm sorry I'm going to say it, you know, they're kind of trying to do -- to depopulate the east of Ukraine.
I think the message they are sending is very clear. If you surrender, like Crimea in 2014, nothing is going to happen to you. If you resist, like Donbas, you'll be destroyed. Doesn't matter if you're civilians or military. There are no military strategic objectives in Mariupol. They keep killing people -- or Odessa for that matter.
SOARES: That we just saw, airstrikes.
MYLOVANOV: This is a very clear message. This message makes sense in the longer game in the sense that Russia is sending a message not only to us but also to other countries around Russia, to the rest of the world: surrender or be erased.
SOARES: Tymofiy Mylovanov, thank you very much.
MYLOVANOV: Thank you.
SOARES: Wishing you all the best. Thank you very much indeed.
Evacuations from Ukraine's war-torn areas are becoming increasingly difficult. While some were able to evacuate from the port city of Mykolaiv on Saturday, authorities had hoped to get civilians out of Mariupol in a column.
But city officials say that effort was thwarted by the Russian military. The head of one women's shelter in Mariupol had to relocate the shelter after it became too dangerous to remain in the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Shells constantly flew in the place where we collected water. We understood that, on a certain day, there may not be water and food. We knew we needed to leave.
We saw people were leaving and we started to go. We put 12 people in a passenger car. They were children and women. We just started driving out of there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: So far, more than 5 million people have fled the fighting in Ukraine to other countries. You can see there on your map. The U.N. says more than 7.7 million are internally displaced within the country.
[03:15:00]
SOARES: Ukrainian officials say Russia rejected a holiday cease-fire for Easter. Despite the dangers and being separated by the fighting, many of the faithful are coming home to spend the holiday with the family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES (voice-over): As fighting rages on in the east of Ukraine, in Lviv, a city that has mostly been spared by Russia's wrath, parishioners gather for protection and reflection, a somber affair for many this year. "It is less festive this year," this mother of three says. "But we
want to keep our traditions and we want our kids to understand that God is with us. He helps us. We will win and, in this big day, the victory will be ours."
Despite calls to stay home, young and old line up with their adorned food baskets for a blessing from above.
Around the corner, kindness shared with strangers.
SOARES: Very good.
SOARES (voice-over): An opportunity, too, for many Ukrainians to support the troops on the front line, with food donations and prayers.
"We are both sad and joyful in this day because we believe in our soldiers," this parishioner tells me. "We are worried for them. We are praying for them. And we are asking God to help all of us."
Others, though, are still too scared to venture to church this Easter.
So we meet Bilika Fortunes (ph), a young family that today is also feeling thankful.
"I think I've never been this happy in my life," tells me this young mother. Annamaria (ph) says she left Ukraine for Poland when the war started, alone, nine months pregnant and carrying a world of worry on her shoulders.
"When we were separated from each other, it put a huge burden psychologically on us. We were constantly reading the news," she says. "And the situation in Ukraine in general, we were very worried."
Without her husband or family by her side and while her own country was being ripped apart by suffering, the 25-year old in her own agony gave birth to a little miracle, Baby Marita (ph).
And this gushing father couldn't be happier to have his girls by his side.
"I have realized that my wife is not just a woman, she is a hero," he says, "and that if I was in her shoes, I wouldn't be able to. I would have broken down."
A family finally reunited and counting their blessings this Easter in the long and dark shadow of war.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: A proud grandmother there.
If you'd like to safely and securely help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food, water, go to cnn.com/impact. You'll find several ways that you can help.
BRUNHUBER: Touching story, Isa, thanks so much. Voting is underway in an election that could shape France for many
years to come. Next we go live to France, as Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen go head to head in a presidential runoff.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:20:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Polls have been open for more than an hour now in the high-stakes presidential runoff in France. The contest is a showdown between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and the far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
Whatever the outcome, the election is expected to have a profound effect in France and abroad. Jim Bittermann is outside a polling station in Paris, where voting is going on.
I can see, as we speak, Jim, going into this, considering that voter apathy was a big concern and turnout for the first round was fairly low, you've been talking to some of the voters there.
What sense are you getting?
What are they telling you?
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, the fact is we're seeing no evidence of apathy here. Quite a few people have come this morning. You can see there's now a waiting line out here, outside the polling place, which goes all the way inside, where they will actually cast their ballots.
So from this perspective, it's a very small perspective, there's not too much absenteeism in this polling place. We'll know more nationwide around noon, when we get the first figures on absenteeism across the country.
One of the very first people in line, in fact, the very first person in line this morning, was a Lithuanian refugee, 70-year-old daughter of a Lithuanian mother, who was also voting, both have French nationality.
They came to France in the '90s, took refuge here. I asked them, with what was going on in the Ukraine, the world situation right now, why it was important for them to come out and vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIOLETTE TRILIKAUSKAITE, LITHUANIAN EMIGRE (through translator): France welcomed us. France gave us everything. It's so lucky to have such a president in this period, someone on that level who made such sacrifices. He carried everything on his shoulders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BITTERMANN: That was the kind of attitude she expressed because she said they had lived under Russia's -- the Russian thumb, the thumb of Moscow, under both Stalin and Putin.
As a consequence, they were quite wary of what's going on in the Ukraine. However, that does not mean she voted for Mr. Macron, who basically she praised, because she also said that Marine Le Pen had motherly qualities she liked. So she left it kind of ambiguous for us.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting perspective, Jim.
[03:25:00]
BRUNHUBER: Let's look ahead beyond this presidential election to the legislative elections coming up in June for the national assembly.
What do you expect and how do you think that will play into and affect the agenda of whoever wins this presidential campaign?
BITTERMANN: That's going to be a much different election, Kim. In fact, in that election, there's going to be an election of all the members of parliament and those members, from a lot of different parties, 12 different parties, as many as 12, could be presenting themselves, presenting candidates in the parliament.
And so voters will have a lot of choice, a lot more choice than they're getting this time around and will have an effect and direct impact on what the next president, whether or not the next president succeeds in their mission because it could be a parliament that's dead-set against the kind of program that the president would have.
BRUNHUBER: Fascinating contrast. We'll be watching throughout the day. Jim Bittermann, thank you so much.
Of course, be sure to join us today, 8:00 pm Paris time, 2:00 pm Eastern in the U.S., for special live coverage of the French election, right here on CNN.
A boat carrying approximately 60 people sank off the coast of Lebanon on Saturday. At least one person has died, a child. More than 40 people have been rescued, a government official tells Reuters.
It happened near the city of Tripoli in the northern part of the country. According to the state news agency, the boat was sailing illegally toward Europe and Cyprus. The army, Red Cross and other agencies are searching for those not yet accounted for.
Ukraine is expecting some high-profile guests. We'll look at why the announcement of visiting U.S. officials took some by surprise. That plus the latest on the war in Ukraine after the break.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching here in the U.S., Canada and all around the world.
In any other year, Ukrainians would be celebrating Orthodox Easter Sunday. But this year, celebrations are being marred by Russia's war. More than 5 million people have fled to other countries and more than 7 million are displaced within Ukraine. Many won't have a home to return to.
Meanwhile, the carnage continues. Officials say Russian missile strikes in Odessa killed eight people. The city's mayor says an infant was among the dead in a residential building.
Ukraine's defense ministry says it had some success Saturday, killing two Russian generals in a strike in the Kherson region. The ministry adds it hit 17 targets, including Russian aircraft. No comment yet from the Kremlin and we haven't verified those claims.
We're also awaiting word that U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have arrived in Kyiv. In a rare move, President Zelenskyy announced their visit Saturday. Those kinds of visits usually aren't announced ahead of time.
The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church has expressed his full support of Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. Fredericka Whitfield spoke to Russia expert Tom Nichols and asked why the Russian president thought he was doing God's will.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM NICHOLS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": Well, Putin has been surrounded for years now by nationalistic, right-wing figures and clerics and priests in the Russian Orthodox Church, including the patriarch, who has a long history of being, to put it gently, very comfortable with the security services and with state power.
And was this the Putin of 20 years ago?
Hard to say. I think he misses the Soviet Union but that nostalgia for the Soviet period has translated into this notion goaded on by the people around him that he can restore something even bigger than the Soviet Union.
He can put the Russian world back together under the aegis of Orthodox Christianity. And I think he genuinely believes it now.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And how did we get here?
How did he get to this point?
He didn't appear to publicly strengthen his ties until his third term in office.
What was the catalyst for this change that you just stated, which really does solidify his power base?
NICHOLS: Yes, that's a great question, Fredricka, and I'm not sure. I think part of it dovetailed with his personal interests of staying in power forever. Once he decided to go for that third term, I think like any gangster boss, he decided that he was safer in power.
As Tony Soprano once said, guys like him don't retire. They end up in jail or dead. And I think that was a decision that was made easier by having the church say, your rule, as the patriarch said, is a miracle of God and that you deserve to stay in power.
But I also think when the Soviet dream finally ebbed away and it took years, there was a vacuum in both Putin's regime and Russian society that had to be filled with something else.
And I think this messianism that has always been present in Russian culture has now reared its head in this kind of horrific synergy with Soviet imperialism, Russian messianism and what I, on a personal level, consider to be the hijacking and utter grievous maligning of Orthodoxy as the source of the war.
WHITFIELD: Is it really less about his belief and more about the rhetoric and how this is part of the brainwashing mechanism to lead people to believe that his intentions are all based in religion and that he's carrying out God's work.
NICHOLS: At some point, it doesn't matter anymore. Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite lines from the great writer, Kurt Vonnegut, that, "We are what we pretend to be. And so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
And I think that after enough years, with enough people around you, in the bubble that Putin lives in -- and that bubble has only gotten worse during COVID-19, where he's been in isolation-- I think it's easy to believe that your interests, the interests of the state and the interests of Almighty God himself are now all in unison and that you're doing the right thing.
And I think the inability of the people around him to sway him on any of this, if they tried at all, really, I think, testifies to that.
WHITFIELD: And then what's the explanation of the head of the Russian Orthodox church who is willing to call Putin a miracle of God?
What's behind that?
NICHOLS: Yes. Kirill has always been ambitious. He likes the good life. The Russian Orthodox Church had to scramble a while back to try to airbrush out the fact that he walks around wearing $30,000 watches.
I think this is greed, an appetite for power. And also, there's an internal feud in the Orthodox Church. Remember that a few years ago, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church split away from the Moscow patriarchy, from Moscow's ecclesiastical control.
And Kirill was furious about that. And so Kirill is acting like any other member of the Russian imperialist leadership. The fact that he happens to be a priest and going it under the guise of religion doesn't change the fact that he's basically part of the leadership team that literally has blessed this war.
WHITFIELD: Willing to be bought, willing to be persuaded by gifts or money.
NICHOLS: Well, it's not just being bought. It's that he's a powerful man. He enjoys being a powerful man. He doesn't like that the other Orthodox in Ukraine have broken away from Moscow's control.
And I think he believes what Putin believes, that the Russians have a destiny to control the Slavic Orthodox world. There's no tension between opportunism and deeply held beliefs in this case. Both of those things are at work here.
WHITFIELD: So if Putin is able to use religious as an aspect in starting the war, might that also be the gateway of potentially ending it?
NICHOLS: One would hope. But I think it actually makes it more difficult to end it without some sense of a victory.
If you begin a war believing that you are actually doing something that has existential importance, it would almost be easier to end this war if Putin were just making a land grab or trying to control gas and oil or coal. You can negotiate with someone like that.
I think it's going to make it more difficult for him to climb down after all of this soaring rhetoric about the Slavic world and our brothers and sisters and liberating them from Nazis. It's clearly happening. The Russians have been toning down the rhetoric even while they're amping up the violence.
But I think part of the reason that world leaders have found him difficult to talk to about this and several have -- the Austrian chancellor, the French president, they have all come away saying, this guy, you just can't talk to this guy.
I think that's part of the reason. This kind of existential belief in his mission is partly what is making this war so difficult to negotiate Russia's way out of.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: IMF says the war in Ukraine is contributing to higher prices and supply chain issues around the world. Journalist Stefano Pozzebon is looking at inflation's impact in several countries in Latin America, some with presidential elections in the near future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the slum of Pamplona Alta in the outskirts of lima, Elena Rodriguez sets off shopping for her lunch service. Rodriguez works as a cook in a soup kitchen, preparing meals for some of the most vulnerable residents of the slum. But lately, even simple soup has become too pricey.
ELENA RODRIGUEZ, SOUP KITCHEN COOK (through translator): Before things were accessible, everything -- vegetables, potatoes -- now all of that is very expensive. Prices have gone up so much, I don't know what to do anymore.
POZZEBON (voice-over): Rodriguez said she started cutting down on meat to keep her cooking at an affordable price. But her situation is far from alone. In the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, her colleague, Antonio Silma (ph), has a similar recipe.
ANTONIO SILMA (PH), COOK (through translator): Poor people can only eat fish, sausages and chicken. They can forget about meat.
[03:35:00]
POZZEBON (voice-over): Inflation triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and by rising oil prices around the world is hitting hard in Latin America, where millions are exposed to rising food prices with no safety net to fall back on.
Peru's inflation in March reached the highest level in 26 years. Brazil had last seen these levels of inflation when it created a new currency to escape an inflationary wave in the 1990s. In Argentina, along with a textbook case of hyperinflation, the president launched a new offensive against an old foe.
ALBERTO FERNANDEZ, PRESIDENT OF ARGENTINA (through translator): On Friday, we start a new war. It's the war against inflation.
POZZEBON (voice-over): Prices are spiking just as economies were beginning to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns. According to the United Nations, an additional 14 million Latin Americans have gone hungry since 2019. Thousands have taken to the streets.
In Brazil, where inflation will play a key role in the presidential elections later this year or in Peru, where at least six people died during this general strike against rising fuel prices.
In Pamplona Alta, Rodriguez has managed somehow to fill her pots and lunch will be served for now. Outside her kitchen, the pots are empty, filled only with cries of anger: hunger awaits us -- Stefano Pozzebon, CNN, Bogota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Musicians, floats and colorful dancers parade in Rio de Janeiro, loudly celebrating the return of the carnival. Some of Brazil's top samba schools performed as part of a contest Friday. The parade competition is one of the top attractions of the carnival.
Celebrations have been on hold for the last two years due to COVID-19. This year's carnival was postponed from its traditional date in February.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Hong Kong will allow nonresidents to enter the city starting May 1st, ending a two-year ban. Visitors will need to be fully vaccinated and provide a negative test before entering state managed quarantine for at least seven days.
Hong Kong will continue to suspend incoming flights for five days if three or more passengers test positive or have insufficient health records.
In Shanghai, officials announced 39 new deaths Sunday, a record high since city officials first reported fatalities on Monday in the city's ongoing outbreak. The government says it's racing to contain the outbreak, as the city endures a weeks-long lockdown.
Try to imagine being locked in an Iranian prison for almost five years. That happened to Anoosheh Ashoori.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANOOSHEH ASHOORI, FORMER EVIN DETAINEE: You don't need to be physically tortured to go through hell. Psychological torture is more effective than physical torture.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Hear what he told Becky Anderson about how he was treated by his captors and he and his family endured this trying experience.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:40:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Anoosheh Ashoori traveled to Iran to visit his mother in 2017 but what started as a family trip turned into a nightmare as he found himself arrested and sent to an infamous prison for nearly five years. He was finally released by Iranian authorities last month. He spoke to CNN's Becky Anderson about his harrowing ordeal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
A. ASHOORI: This is the yard and there will be two trees here. That is before I had made that shelter for myself.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Anoosheh Ashoori showed me the yard inside Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where he worked hard to create a semblance of normality.
A. ASHOORI: So I used to sit here, even during winter and when it was even snowing. ANDERSON (voice-over): It's been just over a month since Anoosheh was released from Evin prison, along with the British Iranian aid worker, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. At his home in South London, he's far from the Iranian prison where he spent nearly five years.
ANDERSON: How does it feel?
A. ASHOORI: Fantastic, unbelievable. Still, I am adjusting to my new environment, I'll wake up sometimes. And our fear that it may still be a dream.
SHERRY IZADI, ASHOORI'S WIFE: It still doesn't feel quite real sometimes. Because you know, it was so unexpected. We didn't have any time to prepare mentally for his return.
ANDERSON: You left here to go and see your mom back in 2017. Take me back.
A. ASHOORI: She was living on her own and she needed my help. And as I was walking down the street, because my mom lives on the top of a hill in north of Tehran, four men jumped out of a car in front of me.
And they asked, "Are you Mr. Ashoori?"
And I said yes. And the others actually told me to go and sit in the middle of the backseat. And we suddenly took off.
ANDERSON: The charge was ...
A. ASHOORI: Spying for Israel.
ANDERSON (voice-over): It was the beginning of what would be a horrifying ordeal for Anoosheh and his family.
IZADI: To describe it as a nightmare would be an understatement really, because every second of the day, I'd be asking myself, what's happening to him now?
Is he alive?
Is he being tortured?
Is he being interrogated?
A. ASHOORI: Because I was threatened that my wife and my kids would be harmed. So I said, if I don't exist any longer, then they will be out of harm's way. I did make a few attempts.
You don't need to be physically tortured to go through hell. In fact, psychological torture is more effective than physical torture.
ANDERSON (voice-over): As he languished in prison, the U.K. foreign office advised the family to stay quiet, that diplomacy will be their best chance at freeing Anoosheh.
ELIKA ASHOORI, ANOOSHEH'S DAUGHTER: I knew that wasn't going to be productive. So when we did make that decision and when we were free to really campaign, I was very, very happy.
And that's almost in a way therapeutic because you can channel everything that you're feeling into your campaigning.
IZADI: I should have started immediately after it was taken. And I honestly urge all families to do the same because it's very easy to be forgotten.
A. ASHOORI: Thursdays and Fridays it was closed. So we had to do something--
[03:45:00]
ANDERSON (voice-over): Anoosheh moved down to the interrogation center and could meet his fellow detainees in what they called the University of Evin, forming poetry societies and creating art.
IZADI: This is just fantastic.
ANDERSON: And how did doing this help you?
A. ASHOORI: You forgot that you were in the prison because you were so engrossed in doing these things. So to finish the day it takes centuries.
But then yes, pause very quickly.
ANDERSON (voice-over): And it took years for the family to realize this Anoosheh's ordeal was linked to a decade's old debt that the U.K. owed Iran worth more than $500 million.
ANDERSON: What did the foreign office tell you about that debt when you first asked them?
Do you remember the day that you raised it with them?
IZADI: The foreign office up until I would say perhaps last year even maybe later denied that there was any link between the two cases between the deaths and the cases of my husband, Anoosheh.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Once the U.K. paid the debt, both Nazanin and Anoosheh were released and on a government plane back home.
In a statement after their release, the U.K. foreign secretary Liz Truss said, in parallel, we have also settled the IMS debt as we said we would.
IZADI: There we go. Yes.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Iran's foreign minister acknowledged the debt had been paid but denied there was any link to the prisoner release.
A. ASHOORI: When we arrived in Britain and I saw Sherry, the way Nazanin saw her daughter and she burst into tears -- and I'm trying to stop my tears now -- and she hugged her daughter, I just forgot about him. It was, it was something. And this should happen to all the other people who are there. They should get back to their families. People should not be traded for money.
ANDERSON: Are you angry?
IZADI: I'm enormously angry. Actually, I'm much angrier than he is, I think. I think he's come to terms with it much better than I have. I am annoyed that we've lost this huge chunk of our lives for nothing. Yes, I am angry.
ANDERSON: Boris Johnson has said that he'd like to meet you.
Is that something that you are prepared to do at this point?
A. ASHOORI: This is an incomplete job. If they are back, then I may consider. But we are two people, where you cannot actually call yourself a winner. You have paid 400 million pounds for two people.
What about the rest?
ANDERSON (voice-over): The fate of these prisoners remains uncertain as the geopolitical game between Iran and the West continues. But for now, one family is trying to move on with normal life -- Becky Anderson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: And Iran has previously defended its judicial process in the case and insists that it respects the human rights of prisoners.
Condolences are pouring in over the passing of former U.S. senator Orrin Hatch. He was the longest serving senator in Utah history. The Republican left the Senate in 2019 after serving 40 years on Capitol Hill.
The chairman of The Hatch Foundation called him a man of wisdom, kindness, character, compassion. Current Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell praised Hatch for playing a key role in what he called major legislative accomplishments. Orrin Hatch was 88 years old.
A strong triple threat storm moving through parts of the U.S. today. We'll go to the CNN Weather Center for the latest details ahead.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:50:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: The first all-private crew on board the International Space Station will spend at least one extra day in space. Bad weather on Earth is delaying their return. Undocking has been pushed back 24 hours because of high winds at possible splashdown sites. As of now the crew is set to undock from the ISS Sunday night U.S.
time. It's thought crew members spent around $55 million each for the 10-day trip.
Shifting winds could help with several strong fires burning across the Southwest. The fires have burned thousands of acres in Arizona, Colorado and especially in New Mexico. Dozens of homes have been destroyed and evacuation orders have been issued for several communities.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[03:55:00]
BRUNHUBER: A couple of Florida neighborhoods got visits from two massive alligators recently and they were caught on video.
This one strolled along a Venice street last weekend. Officials estimate this alligator was at least 3 meters long, roughly 10 feet.
This giant reptile stopped traffic in Venice a couple of days later. Florida wildlife officials say one possible reason for these alligators being out and about, mating season begins soon.
I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM and the latest developments from Ukraine in just a moment.
