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Top U.S. Officials Wants to Weaken Russia's Defense; Kyiv Under Another Curfew; Mariupol Civilians Running Out of Food; Kim Jong-un Pledge to Strengthen Military Might; Lockdown in Shanghai Going Extreme; Russia Says No Ceasefire for Now; Volunteer Risking Her Life So Others May Live. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired April 26, 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]

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ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a very warm welcome to our viewers in the United States and right around the world. I'm Isa Soares, live in Ukraine, where Russia says the nuclear option is very much on the table, while Ukraine claims its resistance against stepped attacks are going strong.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Rosemary Church, live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. I'll have all our other top stories, including the multibillion-dollar sale of Twitter, what it could mean for the social media giant, and is Donald Trump's return to the platform now a possibility?

SOARES: Welcome to the show, everyone.

Well, there's a flurry of diplomatic meetings today to really push for peace, yet again, as Russia ramps up strikes on Ukraine. We'll be watching Moscow next hour, where U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is expected to meet with Russian leaders, he is set for a working lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

And then in Germany, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will be holding a meeting on the situation in Ukraine with his international counterpart at the Ramstein Air Base. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is expected to be there too.

All this coming after Austin, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, that happen on Sunday. They aren't the highest-level U.S. officials to have travel to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began since 60 days ago. And they had some pretty strong words for Moscow after their visit, have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine. ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: 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 is on the scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Meanwhile, Ukraine's capital, Kyiv is under a nighttime curfew this week, authorities say it's to protect people in Kyiv from Russian attacks. The curfew coming as heavy fighting continues in the east of the country. Nonstop shelling, Russian shelling has been reported in Luhansk, as well as Donetsk regions.

Ukraine says it has successfully repelled attacks, several attacks, as Russian troops are ramping up their offensive in, quote, "all directions." Though Luhansk administrators says the Russians are raising everything to the ground.

He referred specifically to this tiny village on the front lines, which has seen intense shelling, intense fighting over the past week, and now really just lies in ruins, as you can see there. Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists blaming each other for the destruction. And now, there is this new warning from Russia's foreign minister. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): A nuclear war cannot be won, and must never be fought. The danger is serious and real, and it should not be underestimated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: We've shown you the situation in the east of the country around the besieged southern city of Mariupol, there is still no safe way out for hundreds of civilians sheltering inside the Azovstal steel plant.

On Monday, Ukraine say it was unable to establish humanitarian corridors to evacuate the plant, and conditions inside seem to be growing increasingly desperate. Ukrainian forces released this video on Sunday, and it appears to show women, as well as children sheltering in an underground bunker. One woman says the children haven't seen day -- sunlight in more than a month and a half, and food and water as well, we've been told running out.

But the CEO of the company that owns the plant tells CNN it's been impossible to get more supplies into the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YURIY RYZHENKOV, CEO, METINVEST: We stopped the shelters before the war. We stopped with food and water, which we thought was enough for two or three weeks, but now we are well over months so, to be honest, I'm surprised they still have food and water there in the shelters. And we couldn't get any help into Mariupol because the Russians did not allow us to do this humanitarian convoys into the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: A truly dire situation inside that steel plant.

Well, joining me now is Matilda Bogner who is the head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

Matilda, thank you very much. Good morning to you. Thanks very much for joining us here on the show.

[03:05:02]

Just so our viewers understand, really, your task, and it's an impossible incredibly hard job of course that you have, and your team has of recording, as well as verifying human rights abuses in this country. Give us a sense of what you and your team have heard and seen in the last 60 days or so of this war.

MATILDA BOGNER, HEAD, U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING MISSION IN UKRAINE: Unfortunately, each day continues, we receive more and more very concerning information, awful stories of people, civilian suffering due to what's going on here in Ukraine. Civilians are being killed through the hostilities, civilian objects are being targeted including hospitals, including schools.

People don't have enough water to drink, they don't have food who are in the areas of hostilities and people have been deliberately killed as well. We have been documenting summary executions and other forms of unlawful killing. We also see sexual violence, as well as arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearances.

SOARES: So incredibly vast, and really right across the board from what you're outlining. Any sense there, Matilda, of the numbers here, the contempt of civilian casualties and deaths that you and your team have been able to verify?

BOGNER: Again, unfortunately, each day the numbers are going up. We're up to over 5,000 civilian casualties, and that -- these are only the cases that we have individually verified. The actual numbers are thousands, higher than that unfortunately.

Also, in terms of arbitrary detention and of forced disappearances we are currently investigating over 150 cases. Again, the numbers of cases are higher than that, these are just the cases that we have sufficient information about to already look into.

In terms of unlawful killings, we are investigating more than 300 unlawful killings including summary executions. So that just gives a sense of the scale.

SOARES: It's just staggering when you break that down for us, and we're only what, entering the third month of this war, and we're seeing of course this new offensive in the east of the country. We have been hearing here in Ukraine, our teams on the ground have been hearing of, you know, allegations of rape, of torture, you mention executions as well. What kind of stories have you been hearing just so our viewers around the world can get a sense of exactly what's unfolding here?

BOGNER: I mean, we are hearing in some of the areas occupied by the Russian Federation, that they are targeting people who have pro- Ukrainian views. For example, local officials, their activists, human rights defenders, sometimes journalists who they consider have pro- Ukrainian views are being detained. They often disappear.

Some have been released, which is good, but others have since been found dead. We have five cases of what started as forced disappearances, and now their bodies have been found. So, this is just one example.

We are also trying to document cases of sexual violence, unfortunately it's very difficult to get full information. Victims usually are not willing to speak when they are still in areas that are unsafe, when they haven't had services provided to them.

So, it is very important that these services are provided, that people are able to have access to move to safer areas. It's only when that happens that we will start to get the fuller picture of what's really going on in the country.

SOARES: Matilda Bogner, I appreciate you taking the time to speak to us. And thank you for all of the incredible work you and your team are doing on the ground. Let's definitely stay in touch in the next few weeks or so. Matilda Bogner there. I appreciate it, Matilda.

And I'll have much more from Ukraine later this hour. Up next, though, Rosemary Church has more on the day's headlines, including yet another grand parade by North Korea, marking its latest military milestone, and a new nuclear warning from Kim Jong-un in.

Plus, the growing backlash against China's strict COVID lockdown, how residents are expressing their angry on social media. That story just ahead right here on CNN Newsroom.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. South Korea is calling for complete denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula just hours after North Korea stage its latest grand military parade.

On the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army. Kim Jong-un vow to strengthen and develop his nuclear force, quote, "at the fastest possible speed." And this all comes after a flurry of missile test by North Korea this year, and warnings by South Korea and the U.S. that Pyongyang could resume nuclear weapons tests for the first time in five years.

CNN's Blake Essig joins me now from Tokyo with more on this. Good to see you again, Blake. So, what more are you learning?

[03:14:57]

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Rosemary, North Korea's highly anticipated military parade celebrating the founding of its armory was held late last night, there had been speculation that it was supposed to take place a day earlier, but rain may have caused the delay.

Now according to North Korean state-run television KCNA, both Kim Jong-un and his wife were in attendance, Kim was dressed in a white military suit and delivered a speech not only saying that North Korea will continue to strengthen and develop its nuclear force, but that the North Korean armed forces are fully prepared for any fight.

Now Kim's comments made last night, as well as the parade that took place at the same time as South Korea's welcoming a new president. The president-elect had pledged to take hard line against North Korea which he calls the main enemy of South Korea.

Now, in the past these parades have been used to unveil updates to its missile arsenal, and KCNA is reporting that the Hwasong-17, its longest-range developmental ICBM and super-large multiple rocket launchers were part of the celebration. While it doesn't -- they haven't released a lot of pictures and video yet, we still don't know every piece of military hardware that was displayed last night.

North Korean watchers do expect the parade will likely feature weapons from Kim Jong-un's weapons wish list. Now that list includes items like hypersonic glide vehicles and a 15,000-kilometer intercontinental ballistic missile.

Now so far, this year, Pyongyang has conducted about a dozen weapons tests, and based on last night's speech from Kim Jong-un and the Biden administration's more muted response to dealing with North Korea, there are no signs that it's going to slow down its military development.

In fact, South Korean military officials have reported for weeks now that the North has been working to restore tunnels at its main nuclear test site, a sign that North Korea could be preparing for its first nuclear weapons test since 2017. Rosemary?

SOARES: All right, Blake Essig, joining us live from Tokyo. Many thanks.

Beijing is rolling out mass testing for another 16 million residents this week, that is in addition to 3.5 million people already being tested in China's capital. It's part of a bid to contain a COVID outbreak described as urgent and grim, and it has led to panic buying with Beijing residents rushing to stock up on food, and essential supplies amid lockdown concerns.

I want to turn now to Shanghai where many of the city's 25 million residents have been under a strict lockdown for weeks as China doubles down on its zero COVID policy. The lockdown has sparked widespread anger.

And as CNN's David Culver reports, the government centers are struggling to silence the complaints.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the video Chinese censors do not want you to see or share. As it sparked a rare digital uprising on social media this weekend, highlighting a shared misery and helplessness felt across Shanghai.

The video points to dysfunction, mismanagement, a city in chaos, struggling to cope with a surge in COVID cases. It resonates with so many of Shanghai's 25 million residents, feeling trapped, turning to the most popular Chinese communication platforms Weibo and WeChat to vent.

Amidst what is government-controlled internet with any dissent quickly suppressed and erased China censors over the weekend struggled to keep up no sooner where they block one version of the video, did another resurface, rapidly multiplying, flooding China cyberspace.

Some versions even disguised as QR codes to throw off the censors. The online rattling of social stability was a growing rejection of China's harsh COVID containment measures. Some even sharing this clip from the 2012 movie "Les Miserables," referencing a 19th century uprising in Paris.

The censors swiftly clamp down, extinguishing the spread. But the users also taking aim at the obvious censorship itself, sharing clips of their own officials proclaiming Chinese citizens have a right to freely express themselves.

Seemingly ironic, given even the first line of China's own national anthem is now blocked online. The words, "rise, those who don't want to be enslaved," now used as a veiled reference to criticize their own government. For some, Shanghai feels like the world's largest prison. CNN witnessing it firsthand.

[03:19:59]

The extent of my freedom, is all the way to my terrace door here, we are lucky enough to at least get some fresh air outside. Our community volunteers sending me this image of what's on the other side of our door, a freshly taped paper seal, a reminder not to leave.

And if I managed to get out, there is now a COVID guard post a day and night. Outside several apartment compounds, fences going up, neighbors sharing shocking images of new barriers on social media. Listen to them howl from their balconies, and they are further caged in.

Some finding work-arounds, buying groceries through the added layer, others desperately rattling locks, hoping to escape, and then there are those who managed to tear down the walls. For folks locked into their homes, scenes like this are a terrifying reality.

An apartment fire over the weekend in Shanghai's business district, state media quick to report that everyone got out safely. But it raises questions, might these COVID barriers be more of a danger than the virus itself?

And if you thought the city might be near reopening or easing lockdowns, images from the streets of Shanghai show giant containers, not bringing in much-needed supplies, but rather helping to build more blockades.

This, as more positive cases and close contacts are rounded up and sent to government quarantine facilities. Some left to sleep in tents in the middle of deserted streets as their dormitories are disinfected.

As the rising tune of discontent echoes throughout the eerily empty metropolis, for many, Shanghai has fallen.

David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Extraordinary report, there. And still ahead this hour, a CNN exclusive newly-revealed text messages exposed some Republican reaction to the January 6th U.S. Capitol riot, and it's very different to what they are saying now.

And then later, Elon Musk is now set to acquire one of the world's most influential social media platforms. Why his Twitter takeover is already sparking concerns.

Plus, risking her life to help Ukrainians caught near the front lines. How one volunteer is helping those who have stayed behind. Isa Soares has that story and more from Lviv after the break.

[03:25:00]

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SOARES: More on our breaking news story this hour. A few high-level diplomatic meetings on the conflict in Ukraine will be held in the coming hours. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will be meeting counterparts in Germany, and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. But Russia is not giving any indication it's ready for a ceasefire. Have a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMITRY POLYANSKIY, DEPUTY RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Secretary general asked, president accept it, so that's very simple. If you ask, we accept. You don't ask, we don't accept.

UNKNOWN: Is it time for a ceasefire?

POLYANSKIY: Sorry?

UNKNOWN: Is it time for a ceasefire? POLYANSKIY: I don't think so.

UNKNOWN: If the secretary general asked for a ceasefire, will Russia comply?

POLYANSKIY: I think -- I think he asked for Easter ceasefire, and this Easter is over right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, meantime, Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have stepped up their offenses and are trying to take Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region. While partially blockading the city of Kharkiv.

Life is becoming increasingly more difficult as you can imagine for Ukrainians who have stayed behind as Russian forces continue spreading across parts of the country.

Our Sam Kiley spoke with one woman who is trying to convince others to leave, and doing all she can to help those who refuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At 21, Maria Shtern is a war veteran. She's been a volunteer on Ukraine's front lines in the Donbas for five years. Today, she's delivering medicine and food to villages within range of Russian artillery. A new phase in Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is underway. And it's sometimes hard to understand while people stay in front line villages.

MARIA SHTERN, UKRAINIAN VOLUNTEER (through translator): I'm asking people a specific question. Are you ready to hear children crying and saying "mom, I'm scared to die?" It gives me the creeps to hear them say that to myself.

KILEY: Russian forces have captured Izyum a few miles to the north. Pounding nearby towns with artillery and rockets they're slowly advancing south towards Sloviansk and the city of Kramatorsk. Russia's aim is to capture this territory. To do so, it needs to overrun this landscape.

Maria is heading towards them. About three miles from the latest reported Russian forces and heavy shelling. She ignores air raid sirens. A family who has become friends are hanging on in their home. And she is bringing them food.

On arrival, good news. They've agreed to pull out. A last run in the springtime garden for Evgenya (Ph) and Alexandra (Ph) who ignore the town sirens.

[03:30:05]

NATALIA MALIGON, MYKOLAIVKA RESIDENT (through translator): My sister woke up this morning and said we have to leave. So we packed up. We didn't want to leave until the last minute. But then something made her want to. So we had to.

KILEY: It's an emotional wrench, but it's a relief. The importance of groups like Maria are part of a volunteer army right across Ukraine, here in the front-line villages is not just humanitarian, it's political. It's about trying to hold on to as much Ukrainian government territory as possible for as long as it's possible.

The lessons from Bucha and other towns captured by Russia is that many civilians may not survive occupation. A neighbor herself, frightened and confused, still refuses to go. She's got a job at the local power plant joining Ukraine's millions of refugees risk the life of deeper poverty.

MARIA SHTERN, UKRANIAN VOLUNTEER (through translator): It's simply a genocide of the Ukrainian people. I don't know how else to explain it to you. And you just asked for what?

UNKNOWN (through translator): We are not planning to leave here. It's my homeland. My relatives are here. I cannot leave anyone here. My elderly grandmother is 80 and can hardly walk. I cannot leave her. Do you understand?

KILEY: There is no joy in escape for grandmother Luba (Ph). Not for anyone in this family. Tens of thousands of people are staying on in their homes across this region. In a nearby church, orthodox Easter services are dominated by prayers for peace. But the unholy ghost of war looms heavily here.

Sam Kiley, CNN, in Mykolaivka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Moving piece there from our Sam Kiley. Well, if you like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food, and water, please go to cnn.com/impact, and there you will find several ways that you can help.

This just coming into CNN, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. is holding off on sanctions against Vladimir Putin's rumored girlfriend. Alina Kabaeva is a Russian gymnast and lawmaker, and now the chair of the pro-Putin new media group. She's also allegedly the mother of at least three children fathered by Putin.

The White House tells the Wall Street Journal they're not imposing sanctions because they feel like it would be too much of a personal escalation. Kabaeva made a rare public appearance over the weekend at a gymnastics event she hosts in Moscow.

And live from Lviv in Ukraine, I'm Isa Soares. I'll see you in about 30 minutes time or so, with much more what's happening in the ground, the war in Ukraine.

Rosemary Church picks things up after a very short break. You are watching CNN.

[03:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: This week CNN brings you the stories of innovators tackling some of the world's biggest challenges through missions in science.

CNN's Rachel Crane looks at how technology could replicate something that mothers have done around the world for centuries.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION & SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Courtney Miller is a mom of two and a lactation consultant from Cary, North Carolina. It's her job to help parents breastfeed. But even for a professional, this is a harder than it looks.

COURTNEY MILLER, LACTATION CONSULTANT: I was like, I'm a mother baby and I got this. Like, I've taught moms how to breastfeed, sure they'll be fine. But I realized I only knew the first two to three days, and then from then on, I mean, things change.

CRANE: Oh, yeah. Biologist Leila Strickland knows how it feels. In 2009, she struggled to make enough breast milk for her child and had to rely on formula. Strickland wondered if she could create an alternative in the lab, one that's a lot more like mother's milk.

LEILA STRICKLAND, CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF SCIENTIST OFFICER, BIOMILQ: What would this mean for mothers and fathers and babies if we could produce human milk outside the body.

CRANE: Over 10 years later Strickland is getting closer to finding out. She cofounded BIOMILQ to develop cell culture technology. It's the same kind of process used to make lab grown meat, but BIOMILQ is culturing human milk making cells.

STRICKLAND: We're collecting cells from two different sources.

CRANE: Right.

STRICKLAND: The milk is from the tissue.

CRANE: That milk contains many of the beneficial fats and proteins you normally only get from breasts, Strickland says. It's the first step towards a potential solution for parents who can't breastfeed their babies, or access donated milk. The bio milk is still a long way

The BIOMILQ is still a long way off from selling a product, at least three years, Strickland says. First, BIOMILQ needs to grow memory cells at a much larger scale, at a lower cost. And convinced regulators that the product is safe for our most vulnerable humans, Strickland says. Even if BIOMILQ gets that far, the products won't be exactly the same as mother's milk, experts say.

NATALIE SHENKER, UKRI FUTURE LEADERS FELLOW, IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON: Not all components of human milk are produced by the cells that have been cultured in these bio reactors. Most of the fatty acids the fats that help brain developments, they come from the mother's blood. [03:39:59]

CRANE: But Strickland believes BIOMILQ's work can also help further our understanding of breast milk. And that can lead to new scientific breakthroughs.

STRICKLAND: While breast milk is a collection of many thousands of molecules that all have beneficial effects throughout the human body.

CRANE: It's enough to convince investors like Bill Gates breakthrough energy ventures, which hopes BIOMILQ's product will be more sustainable than formula. Miller too. She is donating a few ounces of her own milk to BIOMILQ's research.

MILLER: Some may see it as a replacement to breast milk, and I don't see it that way. I see it as just another choice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Fascinating, isn't it? And thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. For our international viewers African Voices Changemakers is next. And for those of you here in the United States I'll be right back with more news after the break. You're watching CNN.

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[03:50:00]

(AFRICAN VOICES CHANGEMAKERS)

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