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Evacuation out of Mariupol Plant; Kyiv Bombed During U.N. Chief Visit; Evidence of Progress by Russia; Health Conditions in Ukraine; January 6th Committee to Hold June Hearings. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:26]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: A critical operation to evacuate civilians holed up in a steel plant in Mariupol begins today. That plan could already be doomed.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto reporting from Lviv, in western Ukraine.

Right now hundreds of civilians, including children, are thought to still be trapped in that Mariupol steel plant, where they have been taking shelter. Officials say it was hit by 50 air strikes in just the last 48 hours, injuring some 600 people. And now a Ukrainian officials say that Russian troops are blocking evacuations from part of that complex, breaking promises again.

In the east, U.S. and NATO officials acknowledge that Russian forces there are making incremental progress. I'm told that the U.S. has seen some evidence of improvement in the Russian military's ability to combine air and ground operations, as well as its capacity for resupplying forces in the field. Two issues, two problems they ran into up north, Bianna.

KEILAR: Yes, they are making adjustments and making some inroads there.

Plus, breaking overnight, alleged Ukrainian counterstrikes. A fuel depots with attacked and set on fire in part of the Donetsk region controlled by Russian-backed forces.

Now, all of this as we're learning of another American casualty in this war. A 22-year-old who was fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. We'll have more on that in just a moment. SCIUTTO: Yes.

Some of the many, many internationals who have come here to join the fight.

First, let's bring in CNN international security editor Nick Paton Walsh. He's in Kryvvi Rih, Ukraine, just down there in the central part of the country.

So tell us, Nick, first, what is the latest on this off again -- on again off again plan to evacuate civilians trapped in that steel plant? I mean is there a path out? Is Russia respecting it?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: I have to say it is hard to tell but it does look like the statement from the Ukrainian president's office that renewed plan would be put into effect today to get civilians out, giving very little details. And I think many may have speculated possibly on the back of work done by the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who met Vladimir Putin and then was in Kyiv to possibly engineer some kind of humanitarian corridor, although that work seemingly disrespected by the Russian decision to hit Kyiv with air strikes the moment that Guterres was in the capital city.

That plan may be faltering. There are suggestions that we can't verify ourselves that the Russians are blocking access to the Azovstal steel plant from the north, from a direction of Vasilka (ph) Park there. That may be related to possibly this corridor, if it ever got into existence, and then also to deeply troubling suggestions from Ukrainian officials too that the number of injured from recent air strikes, remember, there was intense bombardment in the last 24, 48 hours, possibly as many as 50 air strikes, Ukrainian officials have claimed numbers we can't separately verify that the number of injured may be up to now 600.

So, clearly, Jim, here, a deteriorating situation fast inside that one pocket of resistance inside Mariupol. The fate of it so vital, not just because of what it says about that important port city, but what it could potentially do to the ability for Russia to redeploy forces elsewhere in its fight. Here's what we heard, though, from one commander inside that city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJOR SERHIY VOLYNA, COMMANDER, UKRAINE'S 36TH SEPARATE MARINE BRIGADE(through translator): I don't know the details. I know that the mission has arrived in Zaporizhzhia, and that they are going to try and mount a rescue operation.

These are hundreds of people. And they have dozens of children with them. The youngest is four months old.

Yesterday was a heavy strike on -- a direct hit on the field hospital that is situated inside Azov steel plant and the operating theater was hit directly. And all the surgical equipment, everything that is necessary to perform surgery has been destroyed. So right now we cannot treat our wounded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: So, extraordinary, frankly, that this number of weeks in, Jim, we're still talking about scenes of such staggering inhumanity, children trapped undergrounds, talk of humanitarian corridors but an army that supposedly as disciplined as the Russians clearly not, in terms of what we've seen on the ground here, unable to let that humanitarian disaster out for help.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[09:05:01]

Yes, listen, people at home who might wonder why are they taking refuge there? They're in the steel plant because it was the only safe place they could find as Russia continues to bomb that city and civilians have been suffering.

Nick Paton Walsh, in Kryvvi Rih, Ukraine, thanks so much.

There are new images into CNN of fresh damage in Kyiv. President Zelenskyy accuses Russia of firing five missiles into the Ukrainian capital. This was at the same time that the U.N. secretary-general was there finishing up his visit with the Ukrainian president, and following his visit just the day before in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.

CNN's Matt Rivers is in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy says, Matt, that this shows Ukrainians cannot relax, no matter where they are. We have certainly seen that here in Lviv, missiles can strike anywhere in the country.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And it had been a few weeks since we have seen cruise missiles strike here in Kyiv. These latest strikes coming not from where we are in a central part of Kyiv. We heard the explosions. We saw the smoke. And, once again, Jim, we are reminded that even though Russia says it was targeting a military facility, what ends up happening is that civilians are injured and killed.

So what we're hearing from the defense ministry of Russia is that they were targeting a factory in -- you know, near central Kyiv that is one of Ukraine's, if not the leading manufacturer of air to air guided missiles and also aircraft parts. Russia saying that it hit that factory. But we also know, based on our own reporting on the ground, that what they did the most damage to was a residential building where we know at least six people have been hospitalized as a result of that attack because of a fire subsequently that happened because of that missile strike, with carbon monoxide poisoning, other injuries. And we also know that at least one person was killed as a result of that strike, a 54-year-old woman working in Kyiv as a journalist.

We have a little bit of sound for you from an eyewitness at that scene, a Ukrainian American.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIRO POPOVICH, U.S. CITIZEN FIGHTING IN UKRAINE: One building was completely on fire. Like the whole -- you know, you can see the whole story is on fire. And story above it is on fire. And the building next to it, high rise apartment building, the chunk -- chunk of it is gone, up to four floors, first four floors, like, half gone. I have no information if there was somebody there or not on this, but, ye, it looked really gruesome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: And, Jim, I mean you talked about it off the top here, but what message does this send from Russia to the United Nations and the rest of the world? The U.N. secretary-general was here, not far from where those missiles struck. Russia knew that and yet they went ahead with these strikes anyway. If you were hoping for some sort of breakthrough where the U.N. secretary-general managed to make some progress with Russia about humanitarian corridor, I think we have our answer.

SCIUTTO: And, listen, whatever the Russian defense ministry says, you invade a country, you drop bombs and missiles on its cities, civilians are going to die. And we've seen that by the thousands here since the invasion.

Matt Rivers, in Kyiv, thanks so much.

Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Well, CNN has confirmed that an American citizen, 22-year- old Marine veteran Willy Joseph Cancel of Tennessee, was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in Ukraine. According to his family, he was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on Monday. His mother tells CNN he believed in what Ukraine is fighting for and wanted to help contain the conflict, quote, so that it didn't come here, and that maybe our American soldiers, excuse me, wouldn't have to be involved in it. His mother says Cancel's body has not yet been found. Just a tragedy there.

John Kirby, this morning, acknowledging his death and the fact that he is a father of a seven-month-old baby.

Well, let's bring in retired General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander and a CNN military analyst.

General Clark, great to have you on.

So let's pick up on U.S. assessment that Russia is slowly making inroads in the east there and in the south.

This comes as they're still having the logistics issue with food, ammunition, and weaponry there, supplying their troops. But how concerned are you to hear that they are actually breaking more ground? GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it's to be

expected that they're learning some lessons on this. What they're doing is they're taking it slow, they're moving forward in company columns. They're mostly road bound. They've got some helicopter support behind them. They've got lots of artillery. And they're trying not to outrun their artillery, not to lose communications with the helicopter, and not to outrun their logistics. And they're meeting tough resistance. But with enough artillery support and the helicopter support, you know, they can -- they can force the Ukrainians back. So this is a concern.

There's about 120 kilometers distance between the north and the south arms of that double encirclement.

[09:10:03]

So if they could close that distance, even by half, it puts the Ukrainians in a really tough box. They're already fighting in 270 degree directions. So every additional kilometer is a painful loss for the Ukrainians. So, yes, we're concerned.

SCIUTTO: General Clark, the Russian intention here, to grab new territory certainly, but also to attempt to surround those Ukrainian forces fighting, you know, in those 270 degrees, as you described, if Russia gets there, right, is able to do that. I mean is there a point where U.S./NATO military support has to go beyond supplying weapons and imposing economic sanctions? Because, you know, that scenario could be devastating for the Ukrainian military.

CLARK: That's right. There will come a point, Jim, where the Ukrainian military has to decide whether it holds on to those very strong defensive positions in the far east at the sort of top of a horseshoe, if you look at it that way, or tries to pull out and save the bulk of the force by coming back across the Dnipro River. And when they do that, that's a big move and it puts everything in motion and it's all at risk at that point. So, I'm sure the Ukrainian commanders are looking at this and considering. But, really, it's a race against time to get the additional U.S. and NATO support in there.

Most of that support hasn't arrived, as I would see it. So the 90 tubes (ph) of artillery, the potential himars (ph) that might be there and so forth, it's probably not there yet. Poland's supposed to supply a bunch of tanks and self-propelled artillery. That's probably not there yet. So you can be sure that there's a real race logistically of -- in Kyiv to pull that equipment in, form it up with units and move it into reinforce the shoulders, to protect that horseshoe.

GOLODRYGA: Right, because it was received with open arms and jubilation yesterday in Ukraine to hear President Biden say that he'll be asking Congress for $33 billion in additional funding, $20 billion of that just for military help to Ukraine. But, obviously, that takes time to get there and it takes time to train the Ukrainians as quickly as they're trying to expedite that.

I wanted to get your response to an aide to President Zelenskyy, who said that it would probably be by the end of May when they would have sufficient training and sufficient armory to really push the Russians back. He said, quote, by mid-June, we will be ready to go on the attack. What do you think about that time frame and any concerns you may have about those few weeks in the interim, basically the entire month of May?

CLARK: Yes. Well, there is concern. And as Jim said, there might be a decision point here that we have to do something more than what's being done. Right now I'm sure that's being looked at on the inside.

I think the Zelenskyy aide comments are realistic in terms of timing and that assumes some Russian attempts to interfere with the logistics flow. But I do think that the Ukrainians are thinking about this the right way. You're not going to get to a successful end to this conflict until Russia is pushed out of Donbas.

And at that point, there is an incentive on the part of Russia to negotiate. Let the diplomats argue about Crimea. Let the Ukrainians retake the south. But then you've got a chance to end the conflict successfully without an aggressor being rewarded for his aggression.

So, I think that the Ukrainians are thinking about this in a realistic way, but, obviously, it's an opposed action. So having said that, then, obviously, Russia is going to try to reinforce more.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I think folks want this to be a short war, but there are a lot of indication it will be a long one.

General Wesley Clark, always good to have you on.

CLARK: Thank you, Jim and Bianna.

SCIUTTO: Coming up next this hour, a lack of food, water, basic sanitation also posing a threat to those people left behind in Mariupol. We're going to speak to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about all the health risks. And they're severe.

Plus, President Biden, as we mentioned, wants $33 billion more to send to Ukraine in both humanitarian aid and weapons aid. I'll speak to the first Ukrainian born member of Congress, a Republican, about whether her party will support it.

GOLODRYGA: And the chair of the January 6th committee says he wants to speak to more of his fellow lawmakers about the Capitol attack. Could the investigation prompt a new batch of subpoenas?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:00]

GOLODRYGA: Right now an estimated 100,000 people still live in the besieged port city of Mariupol despite weeks of heavy fighting and the absence of a centralized water supply.

SCIUTTO: Local authorities are now warning these people are vulnerable due to lack of food, water, extremely unsanitary living conditions, including, sadly, all the dead bodies left behind. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now.

You know, we use the term besieged every day. This is a siege, we're seeing, undertaken by the Russian military, to squeeze the population, not just to bomb them, but to deprive them of basic services. What does that mean for their health?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it can be awful as you might suspect. I mean, first of all, you know, with regard to the horrific situation with so many bodies, corpses there, that is a horrible situation. That typically does not lead to spread of infectious diseases. However, most infectious diseases are spreading from live bodies to live bodies.

[09:20:04]

But all the other things that you mentioned, both acutely and sort of longer term, can be -- can be really problematic. And it's an issue of basic things, like the most important thing was that there are shortages of water and food and medical supplies and then there's difficulties distributing what little they do have. So that's -- that's obviously the most significant.

But then you talk about exacerbating existing conditions because of the low vaccination rates, because of the poor living conditions, and just worsening of chronic diseases because you can't get people medications, basic medications for heart disease, diabetes, things like that. So, it really becomes this confluence of events.

You see this in situations of conflict. You see this after natural disasters. And I remind you, you may remember, like even in Haiti, for example, after the earthquake, it was several months later when you started to see significant cholera outbreaks. So, you know, again, we talked about this acute period right now because of the obvious acute needs, but you have to -- you have to sort of forecast months into the future about that impact as well, which is what public health officials try and do.

GOLODRYGA: And, Sanjay, what makes this more troubling is that even before the war, and before Covid, Ukraine had one of the lowest routine immunization rates in the world.

GUPTA: Right

GOLODRYGA: But we know that that country is not alone in that respect, especially after the past couple of years of the pandemic. How serious of an issue is this?

GUPTA: I find this to be an incredibly serious issue. And, as you point out, it got worsened by the pandemic. But even before that, you know, we're talking about vaccine preventable deadly diseases. So, preventable. You know, totally preventable with vaccinations. And yet in so many countries around the world, Ukraine already being one of them, but also, you know, Afghanistan, Somalia, places like that, there are these vaccination campaigns that are sort of these catch-up vaccination campaigns. And I was just jotting this down, you know, beforehand. They say there was -- in 2019, 57 campaigns that were supposed to take place in 43 countries. And look at the number. I mean it's affecting, you know, hundreds of millions of people. At least 200 million people. Many of those campaigns ended up getting postponed because of the pandemic.

So, point is, they were already behind. Campaign to catch up started to go into place. And then the catch-up campaign had to essentially be delayed as well.

And, you know, you're talking, you know, measles, tuberculosis, things like that, polio, that potentially, you know, are not being addressed. And then you lay on all the other acute problems we're just talking about. And that's the real issue. I mean, you know, I don't want to overstate things because people always imagine these gigantic epidemics or outbreaks that emerge after this, and, you know, they certainly can, but the real problem is, because of the lack of infrastructure in the first place, the lack of a centralized water supply, the lack of those vaccination campaigns, it takes the current situation and just, you know, accelerates it.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, such an important issue. According to UNICEF, only 10 percent of Ukrainian children have been immunized against hepatitis b. And that's from 2016. This is pre-war, pre-pandemic.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, coming up, hearings on the January 6th insurrection in primetime. We'll have details on the select committee's plan up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:06]

GOLODRYGA: New this morning, congressional hearings on the January 6th riots in primetime. Congressman Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee, says the panel plans to hold eight hearings on the insurrection throughout the month of June, with the earliest set for June 9th.

Now, this comes as Rudy Giuliani has agreed to meet with the panel next month.

CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez has been following all of this for us.

So, Evan, what can we expect from these hearings in June?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, I think the committee wants to present a compelling picture of exactly what happened in those key days in December, in January, around the January 6th riot, the attack on the U.S. Capitol. And so they haven't said exactly who they're going to present, these witnesses that they're going to bring in for these hearings, eight hearings in all, beginning on June 9th. Some of it in primetime. But we probably can expect that they will be some administration officials who had a good place to witness what was going on around the former president, in those key days.

Here's the chairman of the committee, Bennie Thompson, discussing what he's planning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): I think there are some members who need to explain some of the information that we found out during our investigation.

We have come up on significant information about a lot of people, the majority of whom have come in, voluntarily, talked to us, and we've cleared up some things. These things with respect to some of these members need clearing up and part of our responsibility is to invite them, based on this information, to come in and explain their side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And, Bianna, what he's referring to is that he wants to invite members of Congress, some of whose text messages, of course, we've now seen in the recent days, in CNN's great reporting from Capitol Hill.