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U.S. Marine Veteran Trevor Reed Released In Prisoner Exchange With Russia; Ukraine Loses Several Eastern Villages As Russia Steps Up Attacks; Putin Vows "Lightning-Fast" Response To Any Foreign Interference In Ukraine. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 27, 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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[15:01:09]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Victor Blackwell.

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

American Trevor Reed has been released by Russia in a prison swap with the U.S. Reed, a former marine, is reportedly on a plane to the U.S. as we speak. Russian state TV broadcast the exchange of Reed for a convicted drug smuggler. You can see it here on your screen. This took place on a tarmac in Turkey.

The 30-year-old former marine has been held in Russia since 2019. This afternoon, Reed's parents spoke to reporters from their home in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA REED, MOTHER: Finally, after waiting all this time I'm going to be able to hug my kid, put my arms around him.

JOEY REED, FATHER: The biggest issue is his health. If you've seen any of the videos today of him getting out of the FSB van to get into the FSB jet --

P. REED: He looks terrible to us. As his parents, we know he does not look well. He's very thin.

J. REED: He was walking strange. They had to help him get into the airplane.

P. REED: Yeah, he didn't look good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, parts of Eastern Ukraine continue to be under intense bombardment. Ukrainian armed forces now acknowledge the loss of several towns in the Donbas to Russia.

BLACKWELL: But they say Ukrainian troops were able to destroy several Russian tanks and artillery systems. Also, there are reports of blasts inside Russia and three regions that border Ukraine including an ammunition depot in Belgorod. Ukrainians are not claiming responsibility. A senior adviser to President Zelenskyy said instead karma is a cruel thing.

Now, today, Vladimir Putin is not only going after Ukraine, but also Poland and Bulgaria, both NATO allies. Russia shut off supplies of natural gas to the two countries for their refusal to pay for the gas in rubles. The EU calls that move blackmail.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now.

So, Matthew, you followed this case for a while, of Trevor Reed. I mean, what a relief for his parents, but of course as they expressed, they're also quite concerned about his health, so explain how this all came to pass.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, before we get to years because there have been negotiations underway for the three years between the U.S. authorities and the Russians to try and orchestrate some kind of deal, agree something that would get Trevor Reed out of there. He was convicted just under three years ago, remember, of endangering the life and health of Russian police officers. But, you know, what prosecutors said is basically police guy was being taken to a police station in Moscow after a night of heavy drinking. And he apparently had to wrestle with one of the police officers. No harm was done to anyone.

But he was sentenced to nine years in prison, and the thought back then was that Trevor Reed was a bargaining chip for the Russian government to try and get some of the Russians that are being held in U.S. jails back into Russian territory, and that's exactly what's happened, he's not the only U.S. citizen in a Russia jail. He has been swapped now, and we saw the dramatic images, something out of a spy novel of Trevor Reed walking across the tarmac, as this other Russian individual walked towards the television cameras.

That's a guy called Konstantin Yaroshenko. He's convicted of conspiracy to smuggle drugs. He was sentenced to 20 years back in 2010. He served 12 years of that sentence. And he's been something of a cause celebre inside Russia because there have been allegations that he has been mistreated while in custody, allegations that have been denied by U.S. officials, and of course the whole way in which he was detained, arrested in Liberia, and extradited from the African country is something the Russians have always said that was not lawful, was illegal.

And so they have been campaigning hard on their part to get him released as well. So, that's now finally happened, and it's good news, really, for both of their families, but particularly, of course, the U.S. family.

[15:05:06]

We saw them there, we saw the pictures of Trevor Reed as well.

On his health, there are real concerns about that because he has been badly affected in the COVID-19 pandemic. He's believed to have had COVID. He's also believed to have had TB, tuberculosis for some time while in a Russian prison. So, there are real concerns about his welfare, and he's getting checkups now.

BLACKWELL: Matthew, Russia, as we mentioned at the top, is suspending gas to Bulgaria and to Poland in retaliation, also for, you know, not paying in rubles. What more do you know about that?

CHANCE: Yeah, it's a retaliatory gesture, and part of Russia's cantor strategy in response to the sanctions that have been imposed against it because of its invasion of Ukraine. It said, look, to support the Russian currency, we're going to insist on anyone who buys Russian gas and oil has to pay for it in the local currency in Russian rubles.

Now, Poland and Bulgaria have refused to do that. Other European countries have found a work around. They have been transferring euros or dollars into a Russian bank account, and then transferred into rubles and the Russians have got their money, and an enormously strengthening impact on the Russian currency.

But Poland and Bulgaria, two of the countries that have held out against that, and Russia has made good on its promise. So, if you don't pay us in rubles, we're not going to give you anymore gas, that's what they have done, cut off Poland and Bulgaria from Russian gas supplies, it's very important because like many countries in Europe, these two countries are heavily dependent on energy from Russia.

It's something they have been moving more and more towards over the course of the past several years and several decades, but cutting in half will cause a huge economic crisis, potentially, even though they're looking for other sources of gas now, but a huge economic crisis in those two countries.

CAMEROTA: OK. Matthew Chance, thank you for the reporting.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk more about the release of Trevor Reed now with Texas Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee. She is one of the U.S. lawmakers who has been active in these efforts to get him released. She's with us now.

You were thanked by the parents in their first statement today, have you spoken with them today?

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): We've communicated by text and I wanted to give them their space, and we will be talking. I wanted to let them absorb the excitement of Trevor Reed being released. I'm ecstatic about his release and would jump in to help anytime an American citizen is wrongly held, viciously held by a despot like Vladimir Putin.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. You heard from the parents that their biggest concern is his health. They say he did not look well. He needed help walking today. Signs of tuberculosis, here's the video as he's getting out of the van here. They said he had COVID as well. Do you have any information about his health, how he's doing right now? JACKSON LEE: Well, I kept up with the parents. You're absolutely

right, the last time we heard he was bleeding from the lungs. COVID certainly took a toll on him. He was not getting the proper medical treatment.

This is the kind of vicious cycle that the Russian authorities led by Putin does to innocent persons because the allegations have never been proven or they have been exaggerated. He's a former marine, and so, no, he is not in good health, as we have understood.

I think the important point is for us to get him home, and to get the other hostages home, like Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner. This is only a political ploy, a vicious ploy, when our citizens who are there visiting tourists activities, not on anything having to do with government, all of a sudden they now in the grasp the claws of the Russian, illegal legal system, and they wind up getting these kinds of sentences.

We don't want to see this, and when I say that, the United States congress, Congressman Pfluger and I worked together along with Texas members and others. We don't want to see this, and I am applauding President Biden for taking the steps that he did. I asked him to speak to the Trevor Reed family, and he did.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

JACKSON LEE: I'm going to be asking that we look to these other families because these people cannot tolerate the viciousness of Russian incarceration, and particularly Brittney Griner has not been indicted for anything.

BLACKWELL: I'm glad you brought up the two other Americans. Let's put the pictures back up. Paul Whelan who's been detained since 2018. Brittney Griner since February, we learned of it in March. Specifically on Griner, and she's the WNBA player, we all know by now. There was reporting then that intense media coverage of her case would make her more of a valuable bargaining chip.

[15:10:04]

But a Biden administration source says today that the media interest in the Reed case helped secure his release. Does the media attention on these cases help or hurt to bring them back home?

JACKSON LEE: Well, you know, I want to respect the family and all of those who love Brittney for their assessment being guided by the Russian lawyers.

But let me just speak for myself. I absolutely believe that the media attention helped Trevor and hopefully will help Paul, and now it needs to help Brittney. I'm of the view that we need to tell the story because Russia is vicious. They're killing babies in Ukraine. They're bombing shelters where people are trying to save themselves, civilians, not allowing humanitarian rounds.

So, there is no consciousness in both the leader of Russia, Mr. Putin, or those who are his henchman. What we need to do is to tell the world about Brittney Griner, what a sweet and wonderful person she is -- her high school students and teachers who love her. The idea that she would give the shirt off her back, that she is a renowned, outstanding, both basketball player, as an Olympian but also as a professional and that she needs to be released now.

And I think the story needs to be told, and I think you need to hear from the family because they love her, and they -- if they desire, need to be heard, so we're hoping that this will catapult Brittney and Paul. We hope the president will consider them hostages and use a hostage negotiator for them as well, and we hope we'll see happy returns like we're seeing now for Trevor Reed.

I want the best for Trevor.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

JACKSON LEE: I want him to get healthy and know his service to the nation, Victor. Let's thank him as a marine, let's thank him for his service to the nation.

BLACKWELL: Well, certainly the gratitude from everyone here. This is a great day for his family. We have had Joey and Paula Reed on the show to talk about him. That is great day for the country that Trevor is on his way back to the U.S.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, always good to have you. Thank you.

JACKSON LEE: Thanks for being with you. Thanks for all you've done. Thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Sure.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's bring in CNN's Anderson Cooper. He is in Kyiv, Ukraine, for us.

Anderson, we're getting new details about this Russian strike on a hospital. This would be in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. What have you learned there?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yeah, there's new video showing extensive damage from that Russian strike. Windows entirely blown out, debris strewn ahead. The head of the Luhansk region military administration said one woman was killed, and out of this particular hospital, one of the two functioning hospitals that remain in the whole region.

Obviously, it's important. This comes as Russian forces intensify their offensive in Ukraine.

CNN's international security editor Nick Paton Walsh joins me now.

So, Nick, you're in a southern city called Kryvyi Rih, I believe it was pronounced, another location that Russian forces are trying to move on. What are you seeing? What's the latest?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: There's been an intense back and forth in the remote farming villages on the outskirts of this key industrial hub, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kryvyi Rih, and there are fortifications around it, as we speak. A fear that this may be the target of that intensive push from the southern city of Kherson that's been moving up the west- hand side of the Dnipro River.

Now, that does potentially provide the Russian military with a number of options. One target could be here, the other could be linking up with forces to the east where you've seen the damage happening in Luhansk, possibly joining up in that eastern offensive, or even as has been suggested by recent Russian planning, are pushed off to the west toward Odesa and Mykolaiv.

But certainly, also adding to those fears, too, has been the thought of a referendum happening in that Russian occupied city of Kherson. That, in fact, have been something which locals have told us repeatedly it was planned for today, that no signs of it happening at all, essentially a sham vote intended to provide that Russian occupation there some sort of sense of legitimacy by forcing people under occupation to endorse the Russia president.

It hasn't happened. Instead, Russia has appointed officials there for themselves to increase their control in the area. But it fermented a flow of individuals out up towards here, 7,000, we're told, coming through these dangerous lanes where there's fighting in the country between Ukrainians and Russian forces -- a real sense of escalating violence here, Anderson.

COOPER: Russia says it was hit by three separate explosions in different regions of Russia itself.

[15:15:06]

What more do we know about that?

WALSH: Yeah, three areas close to Ukraine on the border, Belgorod, where an ammunition depot was on fire, and then Kursk and Voronezh, which has reported explosions around them.

We have had numerous instances of this over the past weeks where it has appeared that saboteurs or possibly strikes have targeted Russia's arms system and infrastructure inside the country, that which is feeding their presence here in Ukraine. Now, many have thought obviously Ukraine must have been responsible for those counter attacks. A bold escalation, frankly, but little publicly was said, the same today by the defense ministries as well.

No public claim, but an adviser to President Zelenskyy essentially saying that this was possibly the repaying of a debt to Russia, replicating their terminology of the need to demilitarize Russia. Russia has been talking about the need to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine as their warped justification for this unprovoked invasion, and also suggesting, people, too, that karma can be tough, can be cruel.

A bold escalation if it is indeed Ukraine behind this and something I'm sure that those in the Kremlin were not thinking it would be part of how this played out when they thought their initial incursion would take a matter of days to control the whole country, Anderson.

COOPER: Yeah, that's for sure, Nick Paton Walsh, thanks very much, we'll come back to you later on.

Victor, and Alisyn, the war, the offensive by Russia continues in the east. Very hard to get battlefield reports from that region. Nick Paton Walsh moving around different parts of the country in the east, coming as close as we have been able to get, more ahead.

Victor and Alisyn, back to you.

BLACKWELL: Fantastic reporting from our team there. Anderson Cooper, thank you.

CAMEROTA: So, a, quote, lightning fast response, that's what Vladimir Putin says we'll see if any country interferes in Ukraine.

BLACKWELL: And Russia's offensive, they go well beyond or goes well beyond the battlefield. Microsoft says the country has launched hundreds of cyber attacks on Ukraine. What exactly they are targeting, that's ahead.

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CAMEROTA: A Ukrainian army commander who's holing up with soldiers and civilians in that steel plant in Mariupol is again appealing to world leaders to organize their safe evacuation through Russian lines. In a Facebook post today, Serhiy Volyna described shortages of food and water, adding that there are more than 600 wounded fighters in that plant with no access to medicine or medical personnel.

BLACKWELL: Meanwhile, in a speech earlier today, Vladimir Putin said any country interfering in Ukraine will be met with a lightning fast response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If someone intends to intervene in what is happening from the outside and creates unacceptable strategic threats for us, then they should know that our response to oncoming strikes will be swift, lightning fast. We have all the tools for this, ones that no one can brag about, and we won't brag. We will use them if needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With us now to discuss, retired Army Colonel Liam Collins. He served as an executive officer for the U.S. senior defense adviser to Ukraine from 2016 to 2018.

Colonel, welcome back. Let's start here with this threat of lightning fast response. There's been a list of threats from Putin on anyone who is offering

weapons for the increase in sanctions. Is this more dire than the others? How do you read this threat from Putin?

COL. LIAM COLLINS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Yeah, this is no different from the start of the war. I remember at the beginning of the war, the first or second week, when he said he was elevating his nuclear arsenal to the highest status, ultimately he never did, but claimed he did.

It's just communication with the West, just ensuring we don't engage in direct confrontation with Russia. It's continuing supplying arms, kind of the way the game has been played back to the Cold War, but direct confrontation is an escalation. This is more of an idle threat or to make sure we understand no direct confrontation with Russia.

CAMEROTA: Colonel, I want to ask you about what's going on on the border with Moldova, because there are unexplained explosions reported there, and we're getting a new news alert that says that the Ukrainian, an adviser to President Zelenskyy just told Ukrainian television that we have always considered in area, which is Transnistria, there you can see, as a spring board for which there may be some risks for us.

So, is this a new front that's being opened?

COLLINS: Russia has really a minimal number of forces. It really couldn't amount to any kind of a significant attack from there. Yeah, I mean, it is a little bit of a thorn in Ukraine's side there, but the combat power of the Russians is minuscule. It's not something that could have a significant attack to influence the outcome the war in any way.

BLACKWELL: Alisyn just referenced this report on what's happening in Azovstal, the hundreds of people who are barely holding on at the steel plant in Mariupol. President Putin agreed in principle to allow the U.N., the Red Cross to assist with a humanitarian corridor. How long does it take to get from in principle to operational, when you're dealing with the Russian troops in this state. We know that they are struggling.

COLLINS: Yeah, I mean, we've seen throughout this war, I mean, all of these, you know, civilian corridors, humanitarian corridors that have been agreed to, and after they have been agreed to by both sides, firing on people trying to take the corridors out.

[15:25:09]

So I mean, it's something that in theory could be as simple as 24 to 48 hours. It doesn't take that long to communicate orders on the ground. This is the route out. You can send it very easily to troops on the ground.

And so, clearly, this is something Putin doesn't want to do. And so he's just going to drag it out as long as possible because they have been, you know, they've held up since strong resistance in Mariupol. He's not going to give them any kind of a way out anytime soon. It's pure rhetoric by Putin.

BLACKWELL: All right. Colonel Liam Collins, thank you, sir.

CAMEROTA: OK. Meanwhile, stocks are staging a comeback after yesterday's steep selloff. But new fears of a recession had investors wondering how long this rally will last. We'll dive into what's happening.

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