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Blasts Reported in Three Russian Regions Bordering Ukraine; Close-Up Look at Destruction in Kharkiv from Russian Shelling; Texts Reveal Congressman's Efforts to Overturn U.S. Election; At Least 11 Major Fires Burn Across Southwester U.S.; One Million Under Lockdown in Sanhe, China. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired April 27, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares. If you are just joining us, let me bring you an update on the breaking news coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine.

Ukraine is acknowledging this morning it's losing some towns in the eastern part of the country as Russia ramps up its offensive. And in the south, railway officials say that Russian missiles have damaged a key rail as well as a road bridge near Odessa twice just in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, British intelligence says the majority of Russian airstrikes in the besieged Mariupol are likely being conducted using unguided free-falling bombs. And those bombs greatly, of course, increase the risk of civilian casualties.

And just across Ukraine's border, a local Russian official says a fire is blazing through an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region of Russia. And this comes as several blasts were reported overnight in three Russian regions bordering eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, an adviser to President Zelenskyy says Russia remains focused on encircling Ukrainian forces. CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton has more on where the fighting may be headed next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: If you look at the northeast right here, you see Russians in this town of Izyum right here, this is going to be a major issue for them, for the Ukrainians. Because once the Russians go through here, they could potentially move on this way to Dnipro or they could also move their forces from Kherson where they've established the regional government, over to Odessa.

So, there are possible things that the Russians could do. But the key thing to remember is that they are stretched fairly thin. They have not been able to completely reconstitute the forces that were damaged and destroyed in some cases in the Kyiv area, so there are some significant areas where they really might have some difficulties. But the key thing to remember is the Ukrainians have to be careful not to get encircled in this region. That's the key area that they need to really watch out for.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Col. Cedric Leighton there.

Well, Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine -- as you saw on the map -- is among the hardest hit cities from Russian bombardments. Our Clarissa Ward gives us a close-up look at the damage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There's no rest at night for the people of Kharkiv. Flares light up the sky as artillery thunders through the air.

For nearly nine weeks, Ukraine's second largest city has been shelled relentlessly. Only by day, you see the full scale of the destruction.

[04:35:00]

The neighborhood of Pavlova Barkolya (ph) was hit repeatedly last month, as Russian forces tried to push into the city. No site was spared, not even the local nursery school.

WARD: So, it looks like this was some kind of a dormitory. You can see children's beds here all around. And then, in the next door room over there was their classrooms.

WARD (voice-over): Their shoes still litter the locker room. Mercifully, the school had been evacuated, so no children were killed in the strikes.

WARD: The mayor of Kharkiv says that 67 schools and 54 kindergartens have been hit here since the war began. And what's so striking when you look around is that it's so clearly not a military target. This is a residential neighborhood.

WARD (voice-over): Just a few blocks away, the bare skeleton of an apartment building. Authority say more than 2,000 houses have been hit here. The sounds of war are never far away.

WARD: So, you can see this is what's left of the bedroom here. It's just astonishing.

WARD (voice-over): Two doors down, we see a figure peeking out. 73- year-old Larissa Klarina (ph) is still living there alone. WARD: So, she's saying that she does have a sister who she could stay with but she also lives in an area that's being heavily hit and she's living in a shelter at the moment.

WARD (voice-over): "it's from all sides," she says, "from there and there they can shell." With her fresh lipstick, Larissa is a picture of pride and resilience.

Much like this city, still standing tall in the face of a ruthless enemy.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kharkiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well, Tuesday was the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The biggest of course, nuclear accident in history. And Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the now infamous plant -- as you can see there. Remember only a few weeks ago it was occupied by Russian forces. Well, Grossi praised the plant operators who kept working amid the invasion possibly averting a new disaster. Grossi also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv where the two men held a joint press conference. Grossi sad the IAEA would continue its work to restore capacity, as well as infrastructure damage during the intervention.

I am Isa Soares coming from you live from Lviv, Ukraine. We'll have much more ahead on our breaking news coverage over the war in Ukraine at the top of the hour on "EARLY START." For now, let's go to Max Foster in London with some our other top stories -- Max.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Isa, up next, text messages obtained by CNN are shining new light on a Republican Congressman and his efforts to overturn the 2020 U.S. election. We'll have those for you just ahead.

Plus, crews are battling about a dozen major wildfires in the U.S. Here's meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And dire drought situation around the Western United States, really widespread coverage of this and of course the biggest concerns right now are the four corners region with the active fires in place. We'll break this down in further detail coming up in a few minutes.

[04:40:00]

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FOSTER: New revelations emerging from text messages showing the role one little known Republican Congressman played in efforts to overturn the 2020 U.S. election. CNN's Ryan Nobles has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania has been steadfast in pushing the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

REP. SCOTT PERRY (R-PA): The president's going to win Georgia. The president is going to win North Carolina. It's all going to come down to the Keystone State.

NOBLES (voice-over): But a new batch of text messages obtained by CNN which have not previously been reported, illuminate how active he was behind the scenes as well. New messages showing he had a role at almost every turn in scheming to reverse or delay the certification of the 2020 election. On November 12th, five days after the election was called for Joe Biden, Perry texted Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

From an intel friend, DNI needs to task NSA to immediately seize and begin looking for international comms related to Dominion. Was China malware involved?

This text has never been revealed before. And it shows Perry encouraging Meadows to get John Ratcliffe, then the Director of National Intelligence, to look into false conspiracies about Dominion Voting Machines being hacked by the Chinese.

Perry also claimed the, quote, Brits were behind the plot and that CIA Director Gina Haspel was, quote, covering for them.

He texted Meadows: DNI needs to be tasked to audit their overseas accounts at CIA and their national endowment for democracy.

Despite the push from Perry, a source tells CNN, Meadows did not approach Ratcliffe about those requests. Perry also was insistent that Meadows put DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark in a position to investigate voter fraud claims. Perry was the one who introduced Clark to Trump.

On December 26th, Perry texted: Mark you should call Jeff. I just got off the phone with him. And he explained to me why the principal deputy won't work especially with the FBI. They will view it as not having the authority to enforce what needs to be done.

Meadows responded: I got it. I think I understand. Let me work on the deputy position.

And Perry replied: Roger. Just sent you something on Signal.

NOBLES: And Congressman Scott Perry's power here in Washington is on the rise. He was recently elected as the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, this is the most conservative sect of Republican members of the House. And should the Republicans take the majority in the fall, their power would only increase.

Now, Perry did not respond to multiple requests from CNN to respond to our report. I did catch up with him outside the Capitol on Tuesday to ask if he had any explanation for his communication with Mark Meadows. He only responded, heck no.

Ryan Nobles, CNN on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: Funeral services will begin in a few hours for former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She died last month at 84. President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy at the service with more than 1,400 people expected to attend. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, who was also Secretary of State, will speak as well. Albright was a central figure in the Clinton administration and he remembered her as, quote, a passionate force for freedom, democracy and human rights.

[04:45:00]

At least 11 major wildfires are causing widespread destruction across the U.S. southwest. New Mexico is amongst the hardest hit states. CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri explains what's fueling the flames and challenging efforts to put them out.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Max. The Southwestern United States really in a desperate need of some rainfall. At least the next couple of days you see the situation here, it's been very rough. 11 active fires across the Western U.S. spanning some six states and parts of New Mexico and Arizona seeing some of the larger fires right now. We've talked about this in the last few days the Tunnel fire, about 20,000 acres of land consumed, only 30 percent containment. And the Calf Canyon fire, 60,000 acres of land consumed and about 12 percent containment.

Now the winds have been generally calm in the last few days. We do expect them to remain somewhat quiet. Maybe get some 25, 30-mile-per- hour gusts each of the next couple of afternoons. And then late this week, say Friday even into Saturday, we do expect the conditions to worsen here. So that is the concerning elements in the fire weather forecast.

But notice that the fire weather concerns of red flag warnings that are widespread across the region of eastern Arizona, western areas of New Mexico, really going to keep the area for firefighters very challenging. And you'll notice, of course, it's not just in region. 90 percent of the Western U.S. dealing with drought situations, in fact, upwards of almost 40 percent in that extreme even worse category of the drought concerns.

So, any rainfall at this point is beneficial. There is a couple disturbances trying to bring rainfall and we'll see that across parts of the Northwest even into Northern California. But the outlook here for next week does show that the temperature trend to stay above average. And unfortunately, the rainfall outlook to remain below average and that's the concern here at least over the next week around the Southwest -- Max.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One, zero. Ignition. Lift off.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: The latest SpaceX launch there just about an hour ago. It marks the start of the Crew-4 mission. The team of four astronauts are now on their way to the International Space Station. Set to dock around 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. The launch marks the first time a black woman will join the station's crew. NASA Astronaut Jessica Watkins first joined NASA as an intern, but now is flying to the stars.

Still to come on CNN, mass COVID testing in Beijing has sparked fears the city may be placed under strict lockdown just like other cities in China. A live report just ahead.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is in isolation and will be working from home after testing positive for COVID-19. In a tweet, Harris says she doesn't have any symptoms and is grateful to be vaccinated and boosted. She tested positive after returning from California and was taking the Pfizer Paxlovid drug as part of her treatment. Contact tracing is now under way to determine if others around her are infected. The White House says Harris has not been near President Joe Biden due to the recent travel schedules.

In China, a million are now under lockdown in a city east of Beijing after just one person tested positive for COVID-19. Residents can only leave their homes to get a COVID test. Meanwhile, panic is growing in Beijing as the city conducts mass COVID tests there. Residents fear a city wide lockdown may be imminent as cases rise. CNN's Selina Wang joins me now from mainland China. So, what are the conditions? I mean, what's the thinking for the authorities in terms of deciding whether or not to put that major city into lockdown?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the reality of zero COVID China. You just mentioned that city of one million people being put into strict lockdown after just one COVID-19 case was reported. It's of special concern to officials though because this city of Sanhe is just 50 kilometers from Beijing and a lot of people commute between those two cities. And this is as Beijing is dealing with the nascent outbreak. And officials want to do everything they can. They are desperate to avoid this from spiraling into the failures and chaos of what we saw in Shanghai.

So right now, whether or not Beijing goes from the partial lockdown it's in now to a full lockdown really depends on what we see from the results of this mass testing. Right now, they are in rounds of testing of 20 million residents. So far, they've reported 114 COVID-19 cases since Friday. And officials in Beijing, they're trying to reassure residents that they have enough supplies of food and daily essentials.

But still, Max, people are concerned. They saw the horrors of what happened in Shanghai, the lack of food, lack of medical care and the unsanitary conditions at those quarantine facilities. So, you have seen some panic buying in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the anger in Shanghai continues to grow as people have been confined to their homes, many of them for a month or more now. There have been protests, clashes with police. And I want you to take a listen to this video where you can hear the Shanghai residents banging pots and pans in frustrations, to protest the lockdown. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BANGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

WANG: And Max, adding to the outrage in Shanghai are these steel fences and barricades that have started coming up around the city to cordon off these COVID-hit areas and to prevent people from traveling to other districts. In this video you can see a resident kicking down the steel fence in frustration.

But while Shanghai and Beijing have gotten the most attention for their lockdowns, there are millions of people across China confined to their homes, dozens of cities are under some sort of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

[04:55:00]

And in year three of the pandemic, Max, so many people in China are just getting fatigued after years of these on and off lockdowns.

FOSTER: Yes, you've got to feel for them. It's really tough conditions. Selina Wang in Kunming, China. Thank you very much indeed.

Now taking a daily aspirin may be doing more harm than good according to a group of medical experts. U.S. Preventative Services Task Force no longer recommends taking that daily pill to prevent heart seize in some cases, as it may put already healthy people at a higher risk for bleeding in the stomach or the brain. But correcting that behavior won't be easy with at least 29 million Americans with no signs of heart disease using aspirin daily.

The Miami Heat are moving on to the next round of the NBA playoffs. They survived a late charge by the Atlanta Hawks to win game five last night in south Florida. The Hawks De'Andre Hunter scored a game high, 35 in losing effort. Miami goes on face the winner of the Philadelphia/Toronto series. In Memphis, Ja Morant scored 30 points to beat the Grizzlies to a game five win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The victory comes just one day after Morant was named the league's most improved player. The series moves back to Minneapolis on Friday night.

And Phoenix got it done without their star guard Devin Booker. Mikal Bridges led the Suns with 31 points in a game five win over the Pelicans. Game six is slated for Thursday in New Orleans.

Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. Our breaking news coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine continues on "EARLY START" with Laura Jarrett. You're watching CNN.

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