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Blinken on Putin's War: Russia is "Failing, Ukraine Succeeding"; Blinken, Austin Meet Zelenskyy in Kyiv as Russian Attacks Intensify; Elon Musk to Buy Twitter for Roughly $44 Billion. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired April 25, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:43]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you. I'm Victor Blackwell.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

The U.S. expressing confidence in Ukraine as Vladimir Putin's war enters its third month. The State Department says U.S. diplomats will return to Ukraine. President Biden announcing his pick for the next ambassador to Ukraine.

Plus, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with President Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday. They are the most senior U.S. officials to visit the country since the invasion began.

Secretary Austin assured the world that the people of Ukraine can win this war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: In terms of our -- their ability to win, the first step in winning is believing that you can win. And so they believe that we can win. We believe that we can -- they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support, and we're going to do everything we can, continue to do everything we can to ensure that that gets it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, still, Vladimir Putin's forces are destroying more Ukrainian buildings and lives. CNN is learning of a gas explosion in a council building in the Luhansk region. A Ukrainian official said no one survived.

Russian missiles hit five train stations in central and western Ukraine. This is part of a campaign to systematically destroy railway infrastructure according to the leader of Ukrainian state rail. Look at this video, it shows an electrical substation in Krasne that was damaged in these rail attacks. CAMEROTA: CNN's Anderson Cooper is in the capital of Kyiv for us.

So, Anderson, when will American diplomats return to Ukraine?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": Yeah, Victor and Alisyn, his is news that came out of Secretary Blinken's statement today. The State Department says this week, it will happen. A senior official detailed that first they're going to start with day trips into Lviv, from Poland, in the West, and then gradually increase presence throughout the country, including here in Kyiv. The head of the State Department was just in Ukraine, as you mentioned, Secretary Blinken also put forth a show of confidence in Ukraine.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're seeing that when it comes to Russia's war aims, Russia is failing, Ukraine is succeeding. We don't know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign, independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin's on the scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Let's go now to CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood at the State Department.

So, we saw a shift in tone certainly from Blinken and Austin. The defense secretary said that the U.S. wants to see a weakened Russia. What is the significance of that?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a key comment from the secretary of defense because it put a finer point on what the Biden administration sees as the overall objective with regard to the Ukraine war. Of course, Biden administration officials have been very clear in saying that they want Ukraine to win this war. They believe that Russia is failing because they haven't achieved the objectives they set out to achieve, just look at what happened in the capital city of Kyiv. But the secretary of defense was very clear in saying that the Biden administration hopes that Russia suffers military losses because of this, that really prevent them from building up their military capability in the long-term.

And they believe that this will be a result, if it comes to fruition, because of the losses that Russia has suffered on the battlefield and because of the costs that the United States has imposed, these sanctions that have particularly gone after the military sector in Russia.

Listen to how the secretary of defense put it.

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AUSTIN: We want to see Russia weaken to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine. So, it has already lost a lot of military capability, and a lot of its troops quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: So, very clearly, the Biden administration wants the costs to be high enough on Russia so that they are incapable of invading another European country or perhaps, of course, trying to invade Ukraine once again.

[15:05:07]

We saw in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, and, of course, they still had the military capabilities to try and do it again this year.

COOPER: Kylie Atwood, appreciate it.

Meantime, the Russian military is launching air strikes, including the port city of Odesa where some residential buildings were hit.

The mayor of Odesa told CNN several people were killed over the weekend and his mother and 3-month-old baby girl were among them. The mayor said, quote, she hadn't seen life yet. You Russians are monsters, burn in hell.

Today, several rail stations and substations were hit by air strikes as well.

CNN's Sam Kiley is in Kramatorsk.

What are you hearing (ph) on the attacks on railways and the Russian strategy behind them, Sam?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, today, Anderson, I think what we can is we saw a continuation of these long reach precision air strikes by missiles, by Russia, they attacked when you were in Lviv, the last tour of duty here, and the long range missiles far from where you were, they have been picking up these infrastructure supply lines. That's certainly how it's been by the Ukrainian government, who say that they see these attacks on five different railway stations and the electrical supplies to those railway systems, I should say, around the country.

Clearly an effort to try to prevent the movement of troops and material, particularly material coming in that's a military hardware coming in particularly from Poland, supporting the war effort, the sort of war effort that Secretary Austin has been in Kyiv to try to support, Anderson.

At the same time, of course, they're continuing with more traditional battle front preparations, particularly here around Kramatorsk as part of an effort to try to squeeze in on a city that I'm in at the moment, perhaps turning it into the next Mariupol, Anderson.

COOPER: The regional council for Zaporizhzhia says that they are preparing for Russian offensives. Zaporizhzhia is where some of the Mariupol evacuees have been brought to. What more do we know about the likelihood of an offensive there? KILEY: Well, I think from the perspective of the local authorities,

we have talked to them over the last few dates, their idea or their analysis is that the second offensive, the second phase is already beginning almost. There is a discernible build up of troops, an increase in violence, coming along their front, and if you imagine it, it runs from Zaporizhzhia, essentially due east that, front line to north of Mariupol.

Of course with the squeeze on Mariupol being reduced, reducing the amount of resistance to about a thousand troops in that steel factory, the massive steel factory there, they are able, this is the Russians able to redeploy troops to reinforce that extra front there, in order to push north, just as they are pushing south, not far from here down from Izyum. But it's all part of this effort to try to kind of close the jaws on the bulk of the Ukrainian forces here in the east, Anderson.

COOPER: Yeah, those were the focus. Sam Kiley, appreciate it.

Let's go back to Victor and Allison.

BLACKWELL: All right, Anderson. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We have some breaking news right now. Elon Musk is buying Twitter for an estimated $44 billion.

Let's get right to CNN chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, and CNN reporter Matt Egan.

OK. Let's start with you, Matt.

This wasn't going to -- it was on, it was off. It was off, now what?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: It's on, it's on. This means that the world's richest man is going to effectively control one of the most influential platforms in the internet. This was weeks after Elon Musk, you know, launched this hostile bid to try to acquire twitter. There was a lot of resistance, a lot of people were betting against it.

Now, the board is out, they have reached the deal. Elon is going to buy the company for $54.20 in cash. Values Twitter at $44 billion. The deal is expected to close later this year.

In a lot of ways, this is classic Elon Musk. I mean, everyone was skeptical that he could pull this off, he doesn't have the cash, even being serious here. He is being serious, and now they have a deal.

BLACKWELL: He's been critical of twitter for quite a long time now. How do we get to this point now that it's his?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, number one, he surely had the financing a few days ago. He started to woo large shareholders, large investors. And that's why over the weekend, Twitter's board had to sit down with him, strike a deal, overnight, that finally was announced a few minutes ago. So, how do we get to this point? Well, here is someone who was able

to prove he could actually do this, prove he could bring the company private. And now barring any hiccups, it is his.

[15:10:02]

He does say in a statement here, free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. So, in his mind, this is very serious and has been all along. He says he wants to make Twitter better than ever by, quote, enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open, open sourced to increase trust, defeating the spam box, he says, and authenticating all humans.

So, he is approaching this in the same way he approaches Tesla and SpaceX. He's on a mission. He wants to save the digital planet and in his mind, Twitter is critical to that.

CAMEROTA: Except that we're all more affected by this than we are SpaceX and Tesla. This affects all of us in terms of misinformation. How will this change our lives and when he says open it up to free speech, does that allow more misinformation on the platform?

STELTER: I think we're going to have to see what he does, and exactly what rules he decides to follow and not follow. They're obviously local and state and federal laws all around the world that apply to these platforms. He's going to have to follow at least some of those rules I would expect. So I think it remains to be seen.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

EGAN: It does, and he hasn't really released any details, any specifics yet, and he hasn't had to about what this vision of making Twitter, you know, more about free speech. How is he going to pull that off, we don't know.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. He said in his offer letter that Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company. There are a lot of people that believe as he talks about free speech, and he says he hopes even his worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means. What does this mean for the former president who's been kicked off of the platform?

EGAN: And that spirit, which is on screen right now, that is actually -- that's the right spirit, right? He wants his fiercest critics to be in the debate, on Twitter and be heard. What that means for Donald Trump, and other politicians who get booted off this platform, that's going to be a big question on day one, whenever he walks into the office and takes control of this platform.

He can in theory rewrite all of those rules. When I refer to laws about hate speech and about pornography on platforms, you know, there's not a law that forbids Twitter from having Donald Trump on. That was a company choice, a company policy chance.

I suspect those policies are going to change. Reading through the lines of this press release, the board decided it had to take this offer. The board did not want to take this offer necessarily. They looked for other buyers with every indication, they now have to hand over the keys to Elon Musk unless there's a snag. I do suspect we're going to see politicians who were booted off to get back on.

Whether that's a good thing for Donald Trump? Completely a different question. Whether that's a positive to be back on Twitter? Completely different question.

CAMEROTA: Why wouldn't it just be a positive? He --

STELTER: To have him back in the news cycle around the world --

CAMEROTA: For him to be -- no, meaning for him, why wouldn't it be positive for him to be back, to have a huge megaphone, to maybe run for president with his huge megaphone, this would be a plus for Donald Trump.

STELTER: You could make the case that Donald Trump, back in the news, visible in a way that he hasn't been would remind people of exactly why he was -- why he lost his election and why he was booted from office.

So, look, who knows? I think that's an example of a broader question for Twitter, which is if you -- if you get invited to something where there are no rules, where there is total freedom for everybody, do you actually want to go to that party or are you going to decide to stay home?

And that's a question for Twitter users. Some might love the idea there's no moderation and no rules at all. Others might not to be anywhere near that! Am I crazy, Matt?

EGAN: No, you're right. What happens to the advertising? I mean, if there's no moderation, do the advertisers stay away. What does that do to the business prospects for itself?

BLACKWELL: All right.

STELTER: That's very much an open debate, and we don't know the answer yet, and we're going to find out from Elon Musk.

BLACKWELL: We'll see where it goes. Ryan, Matt, thank you.

EGAN: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: All right. Russia's relentless shelling has turned homes into rubble, taken countless lives. Up next, a Ukrainian member of parliament tells us about her plan to rebuild the country.

CAMEROTA: And happening now, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is leading a group of lawmakers at the southern border. So, we're live in Eagle Pass, Texas, with what's happening there, just ahead.

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CAMEROTA: Russia and Ukraine both reporting another day of heavy fighting in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine. Russia launching that major offensive in the eastern region.

And today, Defense Secretary Austin says he hopes this war will result in a weakened Russia.

Let's bring in former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor. He's also the vice president for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Also with us, retired Army Brigadier General Kevin Ryan.

General, I want to start with you.

These five train stations we know in central and western Ukraine have been bombed by Russia. How much will this complicate getting the heavy equipment and weapons to that eastern region, which is under heavy bombardment since those were, I assume, supply chains and routes that Russia bombed?

BRIG. GENERAL KEVIN RYAN, U.S. ARMY (RET.): It's hard to tell from here whether those specific rail lines or stations were part of that supply route. Of course, any strikes that go into western Ukraine are potentially disrupting that supply chain. But the Ukrainians so far have done a remarkable job of getting stuff in there all the way from the border, so my guess is that with the amount of equipment and materials that are coming in, that the Ukrainians will still have most of that at the front line.

BLACKWELL: Ambassador, let's talk about this goal settle out by Secretary Austin to weaken Russia.

[15:20:02]

As long as Russia is taking in a billion dollars a day from energy sales, is it plausible that they will be weakened significantly anytime soon?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Well, victor, they've been weakened. When they tried to attack and take over Kyiv, they lost a lot of troops. They lost a lot of soldiers. They've lost a lot of soldiers around Mariupol, Victor. So they have already been weakened.

When they try to redeploy these units that have been in the battle, they're not giving them time to rest and recuperate and regenerate. They're throwing them straight into the battle in the east and around Donbas. So they've already been weakened and the longer it goes, the harder they have, the more difficult it is for them to find the soldiers.

They're looking for soldiers in Syria, and in Libya. And in private firms, the Wagner group, the Belarusians are not eager to fight with them. So they've got them already weakened, and the sanctions, Victor, that are on the military complex will get worse over time. It will be more effective over time at crimping their ability to fight this war.

CAMEROTA: Ambassador, one follow up to that. Do you think it's time to sanction Vladimir Putin's purported girlfriend, supposedly the mother of three of his children, the U.S. had held off doing so because there was some, according to officials, impression that it would be such a personal blow to Vladimir Putin that he would escalate? Do you think that it is time to sanction her? She's also reportedly one of the wealthiest women in Russia because he's storing his cash with her.

TAYLOR: So, Alisyn, we should sanction the leaders like President Putin, and members of his family, where he is likely to stash a lot of his wealth. And if that's a girlfriend, then, yes, that we're at -- we want to make it hard on President Putin, and we want to make it hard on the people around him. And we don't want them to be able to avoid these sanctions by transferring that wealth and that money to their families. So yes, we should go after -- we should go after family.

BLACKWELL: General, let's focus in on Azovstal, that's the steel plant in Mariupol where there are hundreds of civilians who have been there trying to stay safe with the continued shelling in Mariupol. The Russian ministry of defense today offered the humanitarian corridor, saying that they would cease hostilities in any direction the Ukrainians choose. The deputy prime minister says that's worth nothing because Russians systematically attack these corridors after agreeing to them.

So there is no agreement. If that is the starting point for the Ukrainians, how do you ever get these people out?

RYAN: Well, the Russian, if you read the Russian presser or listen to the media, they claim they have had humanitarian corridors out of Mariupol every day since the beginning of the war, really.

So, yes, they're lying about it. The only way that people are going to safely get out of there is with some sort of actual cease fire in the conflict. I don't know when that will come. I believe it will come in the next month or so, but until then, everybody takes their chance when they move in the daylight.

BLACKWELL: All right. Brigadier General Kevin Ryan and Ambassador William Taylor, thank you both.

CAMEROTA: So last night's Republican governor's debate in Georgia turned into a debate over the 2020 election as the Trump-backed candidate blamed incumbent Governor Brian Kemp for turning the state blue. So, how will this play out across the country? Ahead.

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CAMEROTA: Some startling new images show the scope of the destruction in Ukraine. Look at this, this is the town of Horenka. It's just outside of Kyiv.

A U.N. spokesperson estimates that at the end of March, 77 percent of Horenka had been damaged or destroyed.

Alona Shkrum is a member of the Ukrainian parliament. She's with me now.

Thank you for being with me.

I know that you're in Brussels, in part trying to build support for rebuilding Ukraine, and also for EU membership.

Let me talk first about the rebuild. The assessment from the U.S. is this war could go on for months, maybe years. With that forecast, where do you begin, and when do you begin to rebuild?

ALONA SHKRUM, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Well, hello to you.

Well, first of all, we in Brussels talk about the economic side into rebuilding, but also to provide more support and more weapons, I'll be very honest with you, to Ukraine, and also, the weakest and the fastest ascension to the EU, which would also mean more financial possibilities and more protection.