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Maria Avdeeva is Interviewed about Kharkiv's Damage; Manhunt for Inmate and Corrections Officer; Israel Summons Russian Ambassador. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 02, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:09]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Officials say at least three people were killed, eight others injured by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region Sunday. Russian forces still attempting to make gains there as Ukrainian units try to disrupt Russian supply lines from the border.

Joining me now is someone who is seeing all this play out firsthand. She is Maria Avdeeva, a security expert who lives in Kharkiv. She's also the research director for the European Expert Association. And you're seeing some of it here. She shared extensive video of the damage that she and others there have experienced.

Maria, it's good to have you on today.

I feel that folks don't often hear from people like you who are in the middle of it and trying to live through this every day.

What is the status of the Russian attack on Kharkiv today? Is it still coming with full force?

MARIA AVDEEVA, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, EUROPEAN EXPERT ASSOCIATION: Yes, it is still coming. Probably not as intensive as previously, but now Russia changed its tactics and if, in the previous week, they -- Russian troops were mostly shelling residential areas close to the borders of the city where the troops, Russian troops were stationed and they were as close as probably one mile, two miles away from the last line of the apartment buildings. But now they shell throughout the city. And it means that nowhere in the city you can feel safe.

I, today, was at the scene of such shelling that happened just yesterday. And that area was previously like normal or relatively safe and people were not evacuating from there. So they were trying to live their normal lives and then the shelling overnight happened and everywhere there I can see the great munition marks and the cars burned and the windows broken. So -- and it happens all over the city.

AVDEEVA: Yes. Yes, I mean we've been showing pictures as you've been speaking there so folks could get a sense of just how extensive it is.

You were with a CNN team that included our Clarissa Ward last week as you spent -- as they spent 24 hours with paramedics in the region there. We're just going to play our viewers a quick clip of it and I want to get your sense of how it all played out.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: In that attack, you cut your hand on broken glass. Tell us what it was like. And, did you fear for your life in that moment?

AVDEEVA: Yes, it was pretty scary. And the paramedics also told me that every time they go on such a call to the scene of shelling, they are afraid because it's normal feeling, but then when they are there, they're just doing their work.

[09:35:08]

So, Clarissa and her team, with me, we follow these courageous team of first emergency ambulance. And they came to this scene of shelling to get a patient who was wounded because of the shelling. And then what happened is what is called double tap attack. So it -- what Russia now uses. They wait 20, 30 minutes while emergency services come to the scene, and then attack again so that there will be more casualties and more people wounded. And the ambulance car with which we came there actually was damaged and our car as well. And we were hiding under the staircase because two shells landed in the building we were in probably 15, 20 meters from where we were at the moment.

SCIUTTO: That double tap strategy, what's remarkable about that, that's a terrorist tactic. Terrorist groups do the same thing, set off one bomb, wait for first responders to come and onlookers, and set off another one. It's remarkable.

You said earlier that people are still trying to live their normal lives as best they can in Kharkiv, which is the second largest city in the country. How do they manage that? I mean what combination of strength and spirit and hope allows people to do that?

AVDEEVA: Exactly. So, there are some areas which were under the heavy shelling all the time and there are people live mostly in the shelters or in the subways. But other parts of the city, which are further from the border, and where Russian troops are situated, people try to live their normal lives. The city council even plants a flower there so that people -- it will -- it gives people the hope and understanding that the war will be over at some moment and that living in Kharkiv will resume because now the city is totally devastated, and many people have left. And many still wait for the moment when they will be able to return because it is still not possible and not safe here.

And you mentioned that the terrorist tactics of the double tap attacks. So, the General Dvornikov, which was previously the general who run the Syrian operation of Russian troops, now is appointed to run this military offensive operation here on the east of Ukraine. And that means that probably Russian troops are now using more and more tactics that have already done in Syria.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And as I always remind people, this is not new. This is the way Russia has conducted wars for two decades. Maria Avdeeva, thanks so much. And, please -- please, stay safe.

AVDEEVA: Thank you so much.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A Ukrainian soldier named Valerie (ph), who was on Snake Island and taken prisoner, is now a free man and he's also a newly married man. It's tough to forget that famous radio exchange between Ukrainian soldiers and a Russian warship in the early days of the war when the Ukrainian defenders told Russian forces to go f themselves.

Well, initially it was thought that those Ukrainians had been killed. But, of course, it turned out Valerie and his fellow soldiers had actually been taken prisoner by the Russians. They were then freed in a prisoner swap. As soon as Valerie got home, he proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Vladislava (ph), and the two were married over the weekend. Valerie's commanding officer attended the ceremony. Congrats to the both of them. A nice little bit of joy amidst all of this.

Just ahead, the manhunt for an escaped prisoner and the correction officer who checked him out of jail. CNN spoke to the sheriff there this morning. We're going to get you up to speed on everything we've learned, next.

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[09:43:33]

SCIUTTO: There's now a widening manhunt this morning for an escaped inmate and correction officer who checked him out of an Alabama jail. Inmate Casey White and Officer Vicky White, not related, disappeared Friday after she said she had to take the inmate for a mental evaluation at the county courthouse. That apparently wasn't true.

HILL: Apparently it was not. The two, not only did they never arrive at the courthouse, but authorities soon discovered there was actually no evaluation or hearing scheduled for Casey White that day.

CNN's Nadia Romero joining us now.

So, Nadia, what more are you learning from officials at the jail this morning?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica and Jim, we know that there are leads coming into the county sheriff's office. They're going through those leads. But their biggest hurdle is they just don't know what vehicle the two were able to escape in. Remember, this happened on Friday, and there had been several hours before anyone realized they were missing.

But the sheriff was able to give us some more details about Officer Vicky White. So he said that she's been in the department for nearly 17 years. She's the assistant director of corrections. And that she would have had access to all of the prisoners, including inmate Casey White. He says that she filed her retirement papers on Thursday, the day before the escape.

Now, we also heard from Pat Davis. She spoke to a local news station there in Alabama. She says she's the mother of Officer Vicky White, and she says she's shocked that her daughter never mentioned this inmate or her retirement, and that she believes her daughter is in danger.

[09:45:01]

Now, the sheriff says all indications point to Officer Vicky White being involved, but to what extent? Here's the sheriff when asked about that.

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SHERIFF RICK SINGLETON, LAUDERDALE COUNTY, ALABAMA: She could have willingly participated, you know, but we're also concerned that maybe somehow someone got to her and coerced her or threatened her, forced her to assist in this escape. We're not sure. I don't know if we'll know the answer to that until we locate her.

She is -- she's definitely in danger, willingly or not. This guy is no one to mess with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: We know that inmate Casey White has a long list of convictions stemming from a crime spree in 2015, included attempted murder, robbery, burglary charges. He was already serving 75 years in prison.

And I want to be clear here, this has turned into a nationwide manhunt for both of them. Vicky White there could face charges, the sheriff says, depending on her involvement. We know that the ATF, local authorities, the FBI, U.S. Marshals are all involved looking for them. And they've had quite the head start. Several hours before people knew they were missing on Friday. And now, a couple of days later, they still don't know what car they're likely in.

Erica. Jim.

HILL: It is such a wild story.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Nadia, appreciate the updates. Thank you. We know you'll continue to stay on it for us.

Meantime, an emotional night as The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, just a day after the death of Naomi Judd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THE JUDDS (singing): Love can build a bridge between your heart and mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: There you see them performing just last month at the CMT Music Awards.

SCIUTTO: When Wynonna and her sister Ashley announced the death, they wrote, quote, we lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. They did want the induction ceremony to continue, however, in Nashville. Here is some of how they remembered their mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY JUDD, DAUGHTER OF NAOMI JUDD AND ACTRESS: Momma loved you so much, and she appreciated your love for her. And I'm sorry that she couldn't hang on until today.

WYNONNA JUDD, DAUGHTER OF NAOMI JUDD AND SINGER: I'm going to make this fast because my heart's broken. And I feel so blessed. And it's a very strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Naomi Judd was 76 years old.

And we'll be right back.

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[09:52:09]

SCIUTTO: Israeli officials have now summoned the Russian ambassador to Israel over some just appalling comments from the Russian foreign minister, making a comparison between the Ukrainian president and Hitler. Sergey Lavrov trying to reinforce one of the series of blatant lies that Russia is de-Nazifying Ukraine, saying that Zelenskyy may have Jewish blood but so did Hitler. Lavrov then tried to use this as part of a justification for Russia's invasion.

HILL: Yes.

CNN's Hadas Gold is joining us now from Israel.

So, Hadas, Israel is actually calling this out now.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: There had been a lot of questions about what Israel would say especially given what we've seen thus far in the war.

What more are we hearing?

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, these comments came from Lavrov in an interview he made with an Italian news channel. As you noted, he was asked, how can you de-Nazify a county essentially with a Jewish president. And he said, quote, Hitler also had Jewish blood. And he also said the most ardent anti-Semites are also true. These are essentially very old conspiracy theories that are unfounded. It's also what the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum and Site has said that these are dangerous, absurd and completely unfounded claims.

The Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called them lies that are intended to accuse the Jews themselves of the most horrific crimes in history. And I want to pull up what the foreign minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, pulled out (ph), which was even stronger. He said that the remarks are both unforgivable and outrageous statements, as well as a terrible, historic error. He also says that the lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism.

Now, these statements coming from Israeli officials. And, of course, they've now also summoned the Russian ambassador to Israel for talks. These statements are notable because I believe it's the first time that Israel has publicly contend the Russian claim that Zelenskyy is somewhat a Nazi. But for those people out there who are hoping that these statements will help push Israel further to potentially joining these western sanctions fully against Russia, that may not be happening.

Now, there's a lot of different interests at play here for Israel. Although Israel has been growing tougher against Russia, they've condemned the invasion. The foreign minister has called out Russian war crimes, he says, and Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine. But Israel has tried to maintain a sort of delicate, diplomatic dance between the two countries. Also to act as a mediator because the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has been speaking to both Zelenskyy and Putin, but also because of Israel's concerns about Russian military activity in Syria. Israel essentially feels that its northern border with Syria might as well be a border with Russia.

Jim. Erica.

SCIUTTO: And Israel wants to maintain the ability to strike within Syria without Russian interference there. But interesting to watch the change of tone.

Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thanks very much.

Coming up next, in a short time we're going to speak to the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on her first day back in the country since the invasion.

[09:55:08]

That's coming up in just a few minutes. You'll want to watch it. (INAUDIBLE).

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HILL: Good Monday morning. I'm Erica Hill.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Happens right now, evacuations underway in Mariupol following yet another night of intense shelling by Russia. About a hundred civilians, they've been able to flee the Azovstol steel plant that has become their lifeboat there really, but hundreds more remain. [10:00:01]

They're barricaded in the basement. CNN has exclusive, new satellite images showing what that plant looks like now after just days and weeks.