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Ukrainian Forces Exploit Design Flaw in Russian Tanks; U.S. Official: Russia Making Slow, Uneven Progress in Ukraine; Ukraine: Steel Plant Evacuation Planned for Friday; China Reports 15,588 Total COVID Infections on Thursday. A Million Acres Have Now Burned Since January. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired April 29, 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: I'm Isa Soares live in Lviv, Ukraine. An effort to rescue civilians from the Mariupol steel plant could begin anytime now. The Ukrainian president's office says the operation is planned for some time today but offered no further details. It is believed around hundreds of civilians are trapped inside the sprawling complex which has endured relentless Russian shelling for weeks now.

Meanwhile Ukrainian officials are condemning a barrage of Russian strikes on the capital. These are new images of the aftermath. Ukraine's president says that five missiles struck Kyiv while the U.N. secretary-general was visiting.

And in Washington the U.S. president urged Congress quickly approve an additional $33 billion in aid for Ukraine. That is the largest funding package yet. The bulk of that would go toward military assistance.

Russia's renewed assault on eastern Ukraine may not be going as well as Moscow had hoped. A senior U.S. defense official says Russia's military progress in the Donetsk region is, quote, slow as well as uneven. And as Oren Liebermann now reports, this is not the only time Russia's invasion isn't going to plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Near the city of Kyiv, a Russian tank flaw laid bare, the turrets separated from the body of the tank. A problem seen in other destroyed tanks as well. It's a design flaw in Russian tanks that Ukrainian forces have exploited.

MAJ. GEN. PAUL EATON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: If the turret is penetrated and all our weapons penetrate the Russian turrets without problem particularly the Javelin from the top where armors are the thinnest. But that exposed ammunition will cook off immediately. It will go high order and the whole exposed ammunition program inside the turret will blow.

LIEBERMANN (voice over): Russia's invasion of Ukraine has revealed to the U.S. and the world many problems within one of the world's largest militaries. The Kremlin has tried to hide its losses from its own people, but Ukraine's messaging since the war began has cranked out videos of Russian armor being destroyed. The U.K. estimates Russia has lost as many as 580 tanks since fighting began.

LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The Russians had -- have significant mechanized capability. But as you look at the techniques and tactics, procedures that they used, they were not very effective. And so, you question the training, the leadership at the noncommissioned level -- noncommissioned officer level and their ability to provide basic logistics to a force that size.

LIEBERMANN (voice over): Russian forces are now focusing on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine where a senior U.S. defense official says they've made some progress. They're trying to fix many of the problems that plagued the early invasion using their advantage in firepower and trying to coordinate air and ground attacks. But officials say they don't appear to have learned those lessons yet. The performance of Vladimir Putin's military has surprised the U.S.

AVRIL HAINES, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: We did not do as well in terms of predicting the military challenges that he has encountered with his own military.

LIEBERMANN (voice over): With the war now in its third month, no one's talking anymore about this ending quickly. Russia is attempting to regroup with a new goal in mind in southeast Ukraine. With U.S. and Western support, Ukraine is bracing for a long, brutal fight that the Biden administration has framed as much bigger than about one country.

LIEBERMANN: A senior defense official says the Russian forces are trying to learn from the mistakes they made early on in the invasion. Mistakes we saw carried out multiple times around Kyiv. But they have yet to determine if they'll be able to do so. Their still seeing some of the same logistics and sustainment problems and one of the key issues that will be very hard to fix is the morale issues.

[04:35:00]

A senior defense official says the Russian conscripts come in very amped up for the fight they have been, quote, feasting on Russian propaganda. Only to find out that the battle on the ground in Ukraine is going very differently.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Let's get more on all this. CNN's Nada Bashir joins me now live from London. So, Nada, how much progress is Russia making in the east, and critically here how does this impact the dynamics of the battle?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, Isa, you heard there in Oren's reporting that this has been deemed to be small and uneven in terms of the progress observed by U.S. and Western officials. We have seen Russia doubling down on its efforts in the southeastern region of Ukraine, heavy bombardment there. And as Oren mentioned there, Russia appears to have been learning the lessons of the challenges it faced in the first phase of its invasion of Ukraine. Particularly in terms of the supply issues.

We saw significant and logistical supply challenges faced by the Russian armed forces particularly in terms of fuel, armament, food and medicine for troops and convoys. That was a significant challenge for the Kremlin. And also, in terms of the command issues and of course coordinating those attacks.

According to U.S. officials, the coordination of land and air attacks has been somewhat improved. And crucially what we've heard from Western officials is that the Kremlin appears to be prepared to throw as many troops as it will take to achieve its objectives in southeastern Ukraine.

Now, although that has been noted by several Western officials, Russia is still facing significant challenges. You heard in the reporting there from Oren, that Russia has lost nearly 600 tanks -- according to U.K. intelligence. And we continue to see the all-important issue of low morale amongst the troops. Particularly according to Western officials in terms of the poor training and practical experience amongst the lower ranks.

And of course, we have heard from Western officials that the death toll within the Russian armed forces in Ukraine certainly stands at least in the thousands. The Kremlin has been forced to acknowledge this. There was a long period of time where they were trying to hide the death toll. But clearly, now we've heard from Peskov acknowledging significant losses in the armed forces -- Isa.

SOARES: Nada Bashir for us in London. Thanks very much for that update, Nada.

Well, McDonald's temporarily closed restaurants in Russia and here in Ukraine, the fast food company says that the move cost it $127 million in the last quarter. Part of the loss is because it continues to pay the tens of thousands of employees in both countries. But most of the financial hit, $100 million of it to be exact, is from having to get rid of food. McDonald's say the restaurants in Russia and Ukraine accounted for 9 percent of revenue in 2021.

Now the city of Mariupol -- as you can see -- is in ruins. But a small group of soldiers and civilians inside a steel plant really -- the Azovstal steel plant -- they're holding on. We'll hear from an investigative reporter on the ground there who spoke to them recently. That is next.

[04:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: Ukraine's government has just announced an operation is planned for today to get the civilians out of that steel plant in Mariupol. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are holed up there under heavy bombardment from Russia. A "New York Times" reporter Michael Schwirtz spoke with some of the soldiers inside the plant and shared with me what he'd heard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: The situation continues to be grim. Obviously, this -- these rocket attacks and the heavy bombardment that we saw yesterday continues to drive them further and further into a corner. The situation was already becoming untenable. They're out of ammunition -- running out of ammunition, they're running out of food and water.

What I'm told about the bombardment yesterday is it caused a cave in, as your report said, in a field hospital. Then I spoke to one of the commanders last night, who told me it's impossible to say how many people might have been killed or injured in that attack. He was showing me video that he had taken from inside that field hospital a few days ago, in which there are dozens of wounded laid out onto the floor, some of them with absolutely gruesome injuries.

They're out of medicine. They're out of -- running out of anesthesia to carry out surgeries. They do have some clinicians, some doctors, some surgeons still on staff.

SOARES: And just explain to our viewers, Michael -- because I think this is really important -- why they simply just don't walk out? What are their fears here?

SCHWIRTZ: One of the fears is they don't trust the Russian government to honor the rules of war. They feel, many of them, the ones that I've spoken to, that if they were to hand themselves over to Russian forces and just surrender, they will be killed or executed.

Russia has, in the past, offered terms of surrender to -- surrender to Ukrainian troops, only to turn around and kill them later. And so, there is -- there's no -- there's no faith in any kind of Russian deal at this point.

The soldiers are willing to negotiate some kind of a deal that will allow the civilians, at least, to get out. But so far, any sort of green corridor that they've attempted to negotiate hasn't been brought to fruition. The Russian government hasn't permitted it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES (on camera): Michael Schwirtz speaking to me earlier. And of course, we have heard in the last hour or so from Ukrainian officials that an operation is planned for today to allow civilians inside the Azovstal steel plant out. Of course, we don't have many more details. As soon as we have, we'll bring them to you. But potentially some very good news indeed. I'm Isa Soares live in Lviv, Ukraine. We've got much more ahead on our

breaking news coverage of the war in Ukraine at the top of the hour. In the meantime, I'm going to send it back to Max.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Isa, perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel for many people in Shanghai hard hit by COVID and the lockdown. According to city health officials, more than 12 million people in Shanghai live in low risk areas and can now leave their homes. That's millions more than just nine days ago.

And that is the sound of banging pots in Shanghai as people protest from their balconies over insufficient and inequitable distribution of daily supplies and the month-long lockdown. Officials say almost all of the more than 15,000 new cases across China on Thursday were reported in Shanghai. For more on that I'm joined by CNN's Steven Jiang who's live for us in Beijing for us now -- Steven.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Max, as you can see, I'm actually surrounded by plain clothes agents here at this testing site.

[04:45:00]

Actually, not far from our office. Just to show you the political sensitivity of this issue. You know, we talked about how the Chinese authorities have been doubling down on their zero COVID policy. Because for a lot of local officials, this is more about COVID containment. This is really a test of their political loyalty because this policy and its strict enforcement come from the very top, China strongman leader Xi Jinping has put his personal stamp of approval on this policy.

For many officials, not only they cannot change or tweak it, they have to really reinforce this because this is about their political future. They are fearful of political consequences which is also why you see all these agents are just surrounding me. They were trying to stop us from going live here even though we are perfectly fine in public, not really interfering with this testing site behind me.

This is one of the many testing sites in the city because the authorities here have ordered most of the capital cities 20 plus million people to go through three rounds of mandatory tests this week. And you can see still some people lining up behind me to get their third test because that's part of the requirement.

But it is very interesting because obviously so far, the case numbers in Beijing still relatively low, but they have closed all schools and a growing number of major hospitals being shut down as well. So, all of that is really a rather ominous sign.

But still right now in the city, we are still seeing mostly things being semi normal, shops are still open, supply seems to be ample. And for the most part, they're still doing targeted lockdowns with a lot of neighborhoods with confirmed cases. But people are getting worried. People are stocking up because of what happened in Shanghai. A lot of people have been reminded that you cannot really trust what the officials say because of the fiasco in Shanghai -- Max. FOSTER: And we can see these officials around you, the police around

you, obviously they've been trying to interfere with the coverage. But everything behind you looks pretty ordered and organized. What specifically are those police around you concerned about?

JIANG: Well, that's our question as well. We are obviously not interfering with their testing process. We are in a very -- actually, rather empty place here. A testing site again, very confined area, not far from the office. So, I think in general they are just considering the issue so sensitive that they just don't in a way want -- they don't want foreign media coverage of anything related to their COVID strategy right now. Especially I guess with all the negative reporting out of Shanghai -- Max.

FOSTER: But they're just concerned about the images, aren't they? There's not a wider issue with you, you know, you don't feel more threatened than that, just trying to stop the coverage.

JIANG: Yes, as far as I'm concerned, I don't see what's wrong with us reporting from here. We were just -- you know, we are trying to do a live shot and not even interviewing people. But again, this is just more than a health care issue, a public health issue, it is always a political issue. I think that that is of course something they're increasingly concerned about.

Because when we are talking about lockdowns, it is not just in Beijing or Shanghai, it's really by our own calculation affecting at least 180 million people across the country. That's half of the entire U.S. population. And remember many people in smaller cities have been living under lockdown for months with very little outside attention and with no end in sight -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, well, we've got the live shot done. Steven, thank you very much for bringing that to us under those, you know, very difficult conditions with all those people surrounding you. Thank you.

Weather is contributing to a critical fire danger in parts of the U.S. We'll get the details from the CNN weather center just ahead.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: More than 5 million people are under red flag warnings in the Southwestern United States. Stronger winds, lower humidity and dry terrain could cause new or existing fires to spread uncontrollably this weekend. Officials say more than a million acres have been scorched in the region since January. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam looks at the threat.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right, Max. In fact, we have several weather headlines to discuss from severe weather to fire weather and just talking about how much acreage has been burned gives us a good idea of the difficult nature of the fire conditions we've had so far this season. We've burned over a million acres -- as you stated. But on average to

date, we should only experience about 600,000 acres of charred landscape. And of course, we've seen significantly more than that. Here is one of the large active fires still ongoing, that is coming out of the U.S. state of Nebraska. We have 14 active large fires burning across eight separate states as we speak. Many of them focused in on an area known as the Great Basin or the Four Corners region. There is new Mexico. There's Arizona.

This is just two examples of fires. We have seen some improvement in terms of the containment, the Tunnel fire now 89 percent contained. The Calf Canyon fire just outside of Santa Fe, at 33 percent containment. But you can see the thousands of acres that have burned with just those two fires alone.

Now once again, a recipe for disaster today unfolding before our eyes. We have an extreme fire risk from southeast Colorado into portions of Kansas. Once again strong winds, warm temperatures, very low relative humidity. Those are all the factors that the Storm Prediction Center or the National Weather Service puts in when they decide to put up these red flag warnings advising people to take care.

Now, look at the winds alone, we anticipate these to gust anywhere from 50 to 60 kilometers per hour through this afternoon and evening starting to get a little bit better as we go forward in time through the course of the weekend.

The other weather headline -- like I mentioned -- is the severe weather across the central U.S. Look at that shading of red, this is where the storm prediction center has highlighted with enhanced risk, tornadoes, large-scale, damaging winds, Nebraska through central Kansas, all the way to Oklahoma City need to keep an eye to the sky. The storm's evolution over the next 24 to 36 hours shows that severe weather advancing further eastward into Chicago by Saturday -- Max back to you.

[04:55:00]

FOSTER: Thanks. Thanks to Derek. Now, our dreams became reality for some talented American football players on Thursday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

The Jacksonville Jaguars select Trayvon Walker, linebacker, Oregon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The university of Georgia defensive end Trayvon Walker was the first pick overall in this year's National Football League players draft. The 21-year-old had led his Georgia Bulldogs to a national championship. The NFL draft has become a primetime spectacle as teams try to recruit the best prospects. So, watch also for these other future stars. The Detroit Lions pick, Aidan Hutchison. And for the Houston Texans, Derek Stingley Jr., respectively number two and three at the draft. The NBA playoffs are in full swing with three teams closing out their series to advance in Toronto. The Philadelphia 76ers defeated easily defeated the Raptors 132-97. They will now take on the top seeded Miami Heat in the next round.

The Phoenix Suns also closed out their series against the New Orleans Pelicans. Thanks to the return of star guard Devin Booker. The Suns won 115-109. They'll next play the Dallas Mavericks after they defeated the Utah Jazz by two points Thursday night led by Slovenian superstar Luca Doncic, just 24 points, the Mavericks won 98-96.

Now some incredible pictures from the U.S. Space Agency of wreckage found on Mars. Sorry to disappoint you it's not from an alien spaceship. And NASA's Mars helicopter ingenuity did locate the photograph of the parachute that helped it's rover the Perseverance land on the red planet, as well as the shell that protected the rover's landing capsule. Of course, landing a rover on Mars is no small feat. It survived extreme gravitational forces and high temperatures as it screamed into the Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 miles per second -- would you believe.

Thank you for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. Our coverage continues on "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett.

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