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Azov Commander Says Order Given To Stop Defending Mariupol; Former Afghan President Karzai Fights For Women's Rights Under Taliban Rule; Biden Kicks Off First Presidential Asia Tour; Several Countries Confirm Cases Of Monkeypox; North Korea Scrambling To Contain Massive COVID Outbreak; Russia To Cut Off Natural Gas Supplies To Finland. Aired 2-3p ET
Aired May 20, 2022 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone, I'm Lynda Kinkade, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta. Tonight, a commander inside the still plant in Mariupol says Ukraine's military has ordered their defense to stop. We'll have the latest on the besieged city. Then, Afghanistan's former president speaks to CNN as he fights for women's rights under Taliban rule. We'll go live to Kabul. And later, U.S. President Joe Biden starts his first presidential tour of Asia. But what is top of the agenda?
Russia says it's close to capturing the eastern Luhansk region as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describes the Donbas situation as hell. He warns the entire region is completely destroyed after nearly three months of war. Luhansk officials says Russia is doubling the intensity of shelling in Severodonetsk, destroying civilian areas, house by house.
The eastern Kharkiv region is also coming under attack, a Russian missile destroyed a cultural center in Lozova. Ukraine says seven people were wounded, including a child. President Zelenskyy says Russia is deliberately targeting civilians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT, UKRAINE (through translator): The bombing and shelling of other cities, the aerial missile strikes of the Russian army, all this is not just hostilities during the war, this is a deliberate and criminal attempt to kill as many Ukrainians as possible, destroys many houses, social facilities and surprises as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: In Mariupol, a commander still inside the Azovstal Steel plant says Ukraine's military has ordered the last hold outs to stop defending the city. Russia says nearly 2,000 soldiers have already surrendered. Some of the fighters' wives spoke out today and said their husbands are going from one hell to another.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Today, we have connection with our husbands. Someone texted two days ago. Someone texted two hours ago. Now they are on their way from hell to hell. Every inch of this path is deadly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, I want to bring in now, Suzanne Malveaux, who joins us live from Lviv. And Suzanne, Azovstal was the last place of resistance in Mariupol. It may soon be over. The question is, how will it end? What are you learning?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a very good question and as that wife described from one hell to another, there are certainly not a lot of good options at this point for those who are still inside. And as she had expressed as well, we are hearing from those inside the steel plant via social media, Instagram, various ones -- different types of status within the military are now posting.
And we've been following as well as verifying those posts. One soldier who has been providing what he wanted to say and as like to display his beautiful pictures, the most beautiful pictures, perhaps award- winning, he says, because it seems as if it is a goodbye message in his Instagram. He says, that's it, thank you for the shelter. Azovstal, the place of my death and of my life. We have also heard from commanders, deputy commanders, one of them who says the war is not over. This is just the start of the war.
But the top commander saying, please, begging with those troops to give themselves up to surrender. And I want you to listen to and hear this deputy commander who says there is something that is a foot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My command and I are on the territory of Azovstal plant, an operation is underway, I will not give any details. I'm grateful to the whole world and to Ukraine for support. See you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[14:05:00]
MALVEAUX: So, Lynda, all they can do at this point is simply watch and wait and get those kinds of messages from their loved ones inside to see what -- how this all unfolds. But there are not a lot of good options there, and they realize that the most painful part at this point is simply the pain of the unknown.
KINKADE: Yes, such a -- such a difficult situation. And Suzanne, I want to ask you about Russia's military strategy, pummeling villages in the east. The President Zelenskyy said the Donbas is hell, and there are of course fears that Russia is preparing to annex parts of the southeast just as it did of Crimea. MALVEAUX: Yes, and that is the goal to essentially make a bridge, if
you will, a land bridge to the Crimea to essentially take over that area to get to the waterways, to be able to disrupt trade and economics and the grain exportation, and really to destroy the Ukrainian people's way of life. They have been pummeled in the Donbas area, particularly in the Luhansk region, that is where -- that's where Zelenskyy was saying that it is hell there.
The civilians who have been attacked, we see these pictures of these high-rise apartment buildings in the aftermath of these missile attacks. Twelve civilians killed, sixty buildings destroyed within Severodonetsk, the city itself, 70 percent of the housing is now gone. And so, it is becoming inhospitable for even its citizens to be there in that area, that is exactly what the Russians are trying to do. But nevertheless, President Zelenskyy and the military of Ukraine saying that the Russians have not gained territory.
They have not made much progress on the ground, nevertheless, the Ukrainian civilians paying dearly.
KINKADE: Yes, so, they're continuing --
MALVEAUX: Lynda?
KINKADE: To paying the price. Suzanne Malveaux for us in Lviv, thank you so much. Well, Ukraine is accusing Russia of launching constant strikes on the region of Odessa. Officials say the attacks have damaged infrastructure and destroyed buildings across the sea port. A scene that Sara Sidner reports, they've also devastated the lives of ordinary people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The moment a Russian missile slammed into an apartment building on Easter weekend in Odessa. Yuri Gloda's(ph) family was inside, waiting for him to return from the grocery store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): On the way home, that's when I heard an explosion, I felt immediately something bad had happened, I tried to call my wife, she did not answer. When he got there, chaos. Police and EMS had arrived, he and a bystander ran in to try and find his family. We began to clear away the rubble, and this is how, alongside EMS staff, we were able to find the bodies of my family, all murdered.
SIDNER: First, they found his mother-in-law, Lewd Miller's(ph) body, then his wife's body. But his three-month-old daughter was missing. They were being told to leave for fear of a building collapse. "I was constantly shouting", he says. "There is still a child up there, did you find the child or not?" But eventually, they found her, her little body lifeless. He returned to find her blood-soaked baby stroller the next day.
"it's hard to live with this, my family was my whole life. I lived for their sake. When my baby came along, I understood the meaning of life", he says. Nineteen-year-old Alexei(ph) can't believe he is still alive. He was in the same apartment complex. The explosion sent slabs of scorching hot concrete and shrapnel into his body.
"I realized that a rocket had hit my place, and I started to burn", he says. "I thought, another minute and I would definitely turn into ash. I felt everything". Twenty percent of his body was burned. His hands, arms, and back. Jagged pieces of shrapnel had to be removed from his legs as well. He cannot do simple things for himself at the moment. But he is thankful for simply being alive.
"It's a miracle for everyone, for me as well", he says. Before the blast, he was preparing to take to the seas and work on a commercial supply ship. Now, he's just practicing walking again. His neighbor, once surrounded by family, now walks alone.
"We used to walk in the park when my wife was pregnant." Every place he now goes in Odessa, a reminder of what a Russian missile took from him. His wife, child, and mother-in-law now dead and buried. With each deadly strike, a new and terrible story is born in Ukraine. Sara Sidner, CNN, Odessa".
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[14:10:00]
KINKADE: And we are trying to connect with a top adviser to President Zelenskyy's office, as soon as we establish that connection, we will bring you that interview. For now, I want to turn to Afghanistan. Its future at a turning point. The country's Taliban leaders have said that they will let girls return to secondary school, and they've promised that they will let women remain in the workplace. But those promises are not matching reality.
And Taliban restrictions are threatening to sound the death knell for women's freedom. Afghanistan's former President Hamid Karzai is still in the country, and he is fighting to keep those freedoms intact. Our Christiane Amanpour joins me now from Kabul, where she spoke with the former president a short time ago. Good to have you with us, Christiane. You've been reporting from Kabul all week. Showing the world what's going on there, living under Taliban rule, the poverty levels and obviously women's rights being crushed.
You spoke to the former president a short time ago, who of course, has three young daughters of his own. What's his assessment of where things stand? .
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, he basically said that if women and girls are not part of the solution to this country, he told me that this would be a dying country, a dead country. Because it simply will not be able to be independent, it will constantly be a supplicant state, it might be a failed state. And so, he is doing just about everything he can and any engagements he has with the Taliban, and now obviously, regularly, in tweets and in public, like talking to me on -- you know, on an interview.
He is saying that they have to reverse immediately this ban on girls' high schools. And furthermore, it is something that the entire country wants to happen. Even ever since the Taliban made this decree that girls wouldn't be allowed to go back and refused to reverse it, we have seen clerics all over the country, we've seen men all over the country, not to mention women, of course, absolutely decrying that Taliban edict. So I put all this to Hamid Karzai on this issue, this is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID KARZAI, FORMER AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENT: Absolutely important. Absolutely important. The issue of girls education is fundamental to the dignity of Afghan life. Therefore, there is no compromise there. Therefore, the call is very clear on the Taliban government or the current government, that the Afghan people will never accept that decision. That the best for them in the country is to have girls go back to school as soon as possible.
This goes to the essence of our life and existence as a dignified society. So I denounce it in the strongest word, and want the Taliban to allow girls to go back to school as soon as possible.
AMANPOUR: That's very strong --
KARZAI: Tomorrow.
AMANPOUR: Tomorrow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So he's very adamant about it. And I just spoke a few moments ago with Debra Lions, now, she is the special representative for the United Nations here in Afghanistan. She's been here more than two years. And she is the western official who's had the most meetings, the most interaction with the new Taliban government. And she says that basically, they know from her that women's rights, human rights, and basically abiding by the norms of the international community, but most especially on the issue of women's and girls' rights.
Is a condition for what the Taliban wants, and that is lifting of sanctions, that is a restart of the economy, that is international recognition. And she's been telling them that none of this will happen unless they come to the table and actually meet their promises. They made public promises, they did so in Doha during the so-called peace negotiations, and they have done, anytime, anybody asked them.
That these girls schools will reopen. That women will be able to go to work. But with each day that passes, as we heard from Ukraine, the pain of the unknown increases. It's really dire, and people here, especially women are just not sure which way this is going to go now. Lynda?
KINKADE: And Christiane, this week, an inspector general's report came out here in the U.S., blaming the current and the former U.S. administration for the collapse of the Afghan military. But it also criticized the former Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, who of course fled at the time. What did Hamid Karzai say about Ashraf Ghani and the way that unfolded?
AMANPOUR: Well, he was -- you know, he didn't want to do a sort of a blanket criticism, but on the issue of fleeing that very crucial day, in the afternoon of August 15th when the Taliban was arrayed basically at the doors of the city, he fled with one or two aides, and Hamid Karzai said, I wish he hadn't done that, and then he said, and the fact that, that did happen, did lead to the precipitous collapse of Kabul and therefore Afghanistan.
[14:15:00]
Now, what might have happened, and I've spoken to the U.N., I've spoken to others, obviously to Karzai and even the Taliban themselves, they say, had he stayed, some of the arrangements that they had already put into place would have been carried through. Of course, nobody knows, nobody can for sure tell, but this is what they're saying now, that they had expected to come into this city with a government still in place, and then to negotiate a surrender or some kind of future coalition.
Obviously, with the Taliban from their perspective being in the majority. But they did not expect to come into this city and find a total vacuum. And from that day forth, it has been a scramble to try to put things together. Again, we can't know for sure whether the Taliban would have acted any differently, but the situation on the ground, the security, the panic on the ground might have been avoided.
KINKADE: Yes, we will never know. Christiane Amanpour, you and your team have done such a wonderful job reporting from Kabul this week. Our thanks to you. Christiane Amanpour in Kabul, Afghanistan.
We're joined now by the deputy head of the Office of the Ukrainian presidency. We have managed to establish those connections. And I want to welcome Ihor Zhovkva who joins us now from Kyiv. He's the chief diplomatic adviser to the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Good to have you on the program.
IHOR ZHOVKVA, DEPUTY HEAD OF OFFICE OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Thank you for having me.
KINKADE: So, only two months ago, you said that Mariupol will never surrender. What are your fears now for the Azov commanders still in that steel plant. Is there a way out for them?
ZHOVKVA: Well, as soon as the last soldiers turned in Mariupol, Mariupol has not surrendered, they will never surrender. Because Mariupol, its people, even those people who stayed in Mariupol, and civilians, more than 100,000 of them are staying in Mariupol, will not surrender to any occupation authority of Russia federation, to any armed forces. They definitely will be dreaming of coming back to the Ukrainian state. So that is why -- yes, some soldiers are still there in the Azovstal Steel plant, and they are fighting for their city.
KINKADE: We've been reporting on the first Russian soldier facing a war crimes trial. Do you think that trial could potentially hamper any chance of freeing the Ukrainian soldiers who have been -- who have surrendered from Mariupol?
ZHOVKVA: No, absolutely. This has nothing to do with these. I mean, we're always saying that those who are -- who are guilty of making atrocities in the territory of Ukraine being whenever, be it in Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka, or any other city, should be brought to justice. And it will definitely be as this.
KINKADE: So, you don't think so, even though Russian has accused some of those soldiers of war crimes?
ZHOVKVA: Well, I don't know if Russia accused anyone, but we know about their atrocities that Russian soldiers are doing in the territory of Ukraine, it's witnessed now by all the world, we all saw the pictures from the cities of Bucha, Borodyanka and Hostomel. So this is the best proof. But very important to bring those responsible to justice. And that's what we will do.
KINKADE: Mr. Zhovkva, from your perspective, from what you know, is Russia preparing to annex parts of the southeast of Ukraine? Just as it did in Crimea?
ZHOVKVA: They are trying to do this, they are trying to sort the occupation powers in the city, but look at what is happening. No one recognizes those occupation powers among the local citizens. People are still going out on the protests, people are protesting with Ukrainian flags. Just today, the Ukrainian flag was put on one of the buildings in the occupied city of Kherson, and this is what will happen -- will be happening further on.
They were trying and make some -- you know, rumors about possible referendums. The kind of illegal referendums they had back in 2014 in Crimea or in the occupied parts of Donbas. No one recognized those referendums except themselves, except Russians.
So, whatever they will do -- they will try to do to legalize their temporary occupation, this will never happen, this will not be recognized by international community and definitely those states will be very soon, no matter liberated, provided that it will have enough heavy weapons from departments such as the U.S..
KINKADE: Mr. Zhovkva, the biggest question is whether there will be peace between Ukraine and Russia. Peace talks have collapsed, what can be done now to move the needle? How do you see this war ending?
[14:20:00]
ZHOVKVA: The war will only end by the victory of Ukraine. Look, if in the beginning of war, many partners in the world were not believing in the possibility of Ukraine to win this war. They would rather follow the Russian narrative, the Russian speculations about capturing Ukraine or you know, conquering Kyiv within three or five days. Look, we are nearing this -- the third month of the war, nothing even close to any victories of Ukraine on field. Yes, they managed to occupy temporarily some smaller cities, but haven't managed to do this with Kyiv, with Kharkiv, with Odessa, with Dnipro, with Mykolaiv. So, the only end of war will be victory. The question is about time,
and then definitely, much here depends not only in the Ukrainian armed forces, but one of the trained and skillful in Europe. But also on the arms deliveries of the weapon deliveries, on the heavy weapon deliveries which we're expecting in massive quantities from our world partners.
KINKADE: Yes, I want to ask you about that. Because the U.S. has just agreed to another aid package of some $40 billion to help Ukraine. Germany said it's going to send its first 15 anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine next month. What else is needed right now?
ZHOVKVA: We badly need artillery systems in order to be able to shell the Russian armed forces from the longer distance. We badly need multi-launch rocket systems. We badly need armored vehicles and tanks, and definitely we badly need the anti-air defense system, anti-jet defense system in order the close Ukrainian skies.
KINKADE: Well, we hope you get it, and we wish you all the very best, we'll have to leave it there for now. Ihor Zhovkva; the deputy head of the Office of the Ukrainian President and the Chief diplomatic adviser, thanks so much for joining us.
ZHOVKVA: Many thanks.
KINKADE: Well, still to come tonight, Biden arrives in Asia, how the U.S. President plans to strengthen key relationships amid global unrest. We'll have that story ahead. And home at last. After being held for years in a Russian prison, a former U.S. Marine shares his horrific tale with CNN in an exclusive interview.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Lynda Kinkade. Well, the U.S. President has touched down in Asia for the first time since taking office.
[14:25:00]
First, on the agenda was a meeting with the newly elected South Korean President in Seoul. The two were at a Samsung microchip factory, and the trip's key aim is bolstering relationships in the Indo-Pacific region at a time of global instability.
Well, CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins me now live from Seoul. Good to have you with us, Jeremy. So, you've been traveling with the U.S. President. Just give us a sense of what Mr. Biden had to say to the new South Korean leader about security.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, in his first remarks on South Korean Seoul -- soil, ascending, very close to the South Korean president. President Biden hailed the U.S.-South Korean relationship as quote, "a linchpin of peace, stability and prosperity." And that is why President Biden says that he chose South Korea as the first Asian nation for -- that he has visited as president. President Biden visiting this country to reaffirm that alliance, that
relationship. And it comes of course, at a time of increased tension with North Korea. U.S. Intelligence indicating that North Korea could potentially test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile while President Biden is in South Korea, certainly, while he is in the region with Intelligence indicating that they may be taking steps to fuel a rocket, which would be one of the final stages before such a test would actually take place.
President Biden also talking about the economic relationship with South Korea and he'll also do so as he heads next to Japan. We heard the president even invoking the current war in Ukraine as he talked about disruptions to the supply chain. And emphasized the need to not rely on autocracies that he said don't share the United States and other democracies values. While, the president was talking in that instance about Russia, the subtexts could not have been clear that he was also referring, of course, to China.
And that's something that I expect will be a through line during this trip, just as it has been a through line during his presidency. This struggle that he has talked about between democracies and autocracies, sure to be at the forefront of this multi-day visit to South Korea and Japan.
KINKADE: Yes, no doubt. And Germany -- back here in the U.S., a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine has been passed by the U.S. Senate due to be signed by the U.S. President while he is in transit. Take us through what this package includes, and how soon could it get to Ukraine.
DIAMOND: Yes, it's a hugely significant build-up passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate. Just 11 Senate Republicans voting against this $40 billion aid package. And it includes a range of aid, $11 billion in additional presidential draw-down authority, which is what allows President Biden to send U.S. military weapons stock to Ukraine, to help Ukrainian government beat back this Russian invasion.
It includes $9 billion to restock the U.S.' stock of weaponry, those weapons that have been sent already to Ukraine. It includes billions of dollars to help Ukrainian government continue to run, continue to be able to pay its employees. And it also includes billions of dollars in food assistance and other international aid. Because all of the disruptions that we have seen. Now, this bill, I'm told, is being flown to South Korea so that President Biden can sign it.
It's being carried by somebody who, I am told, was already headed to South Korea as part of their official duties. President Biden will then sign that bill here in South Korea so that, that military aid can continue to flow into Ukraine undisturbed. Lynda?
KINKADE: The trouble never ends. All right, Jeremy Diamond for us, staying up in the wee hours there for us in Seoul, our thanks to you. Well, U.S. markets closed in an hour and a half, and the Dow is set for its longest losing streak in nearly a century. Markets have slipped after initially opening higher. They Dow is off by more than 4 percent for the week, which would be the eighth-straight weekly loss. And that is the longer since 1923.
The S&P 500 meanwhile has entered bear market territory after dropping 20 percent from its all-time high in January. And of course, we'll have much more on that next hour with "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS". Well, still to come tonight, health officials around the world are monitoring a rare disease being reported in several new places, including North America, Europe and Australia. We'll have a live report when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:30:00]
KINKADE: Welcome back. A rare disease that's normally found where -- in West and Central Africa is being reported in several other countries. Monkey pox is a virus related to smallpox. And it's been found in the United States, in Canada, Australia, the U.K., France, Spain, as well as several other European countries. Initially, symptoms are similar to the flu, and they can lead to pox or blisters.
To weigh in on just how big a concern is this, Elizabeth Cohen joins us to answer our questions. And before I want to get to you, Elizabeth, I just need to warn our viewers that some of the pictures we'll be showing of this disease are quite shocking. And they may want to look away.
Elizabeth, I have to ask you, it felt like we were over the worse with the COVID pandemic, and now we're hearing about these cases of monkeypox. Just explain what it is and how infectious it is.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. A lot of people haven't heard of monkeypox. And Lynda, I want to start off by saying you and I have been talking about COVID for two years together on your show. This is not COVID. It is not COVID. It is much harder to get this than it is to get COVID. And I think when we go over some of the basics here, that will become more and more clear.
So since 1970, there have been various cases of monkey -- cases of monkeypox in various countries. For example, in the U.S. in 2003, there were 47 cases, but no there were 47 cases, and it ended and that happens in other countries. There's some cases and it ends. That didn't happen with COVID. It just kept going. There is no specific treatment.
When we look at symptoms, it starts off, as you said, is feeling kind of like the flu, swollen lymph nodes, headache, fever, and then lesions all over the body. Once you get those lesions, that rash, it's clear that it's monkeypox, it's very distinctive.
Transmission. This is the important part here, is prolonged face to face contact. And an emphasis on the word "prolonged." Also direct or indirect contact with bodily fluids or skin lesions. Now, this is a disease with a pretty high mortality rate, up to 10 percent of patients die, mostly young people.
So think of it this way, if we see it sort of appear and disappear in various countries as we have over the past few decades, that tells you that this isn't COVID because once COVID appeared, it just went everywhere. And now all of us I think have to think hard of someone we know who didn't get COVID.
[14:35:00]
I know I do. That is not the case of monkeypox. It is just simply much harder to transmit, Lynda.
KINKADE: All right. We'll leave it there for now. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for breaking that all down for us. Much appreciated.
COHEN: Thanks.
KINKADE: Well, in North Korea, more than three quarters of a million people are now receiving medical treatment for what officials are calling fever cases. State media there say the total number of reported fever cases now exceeds 2.2 million. CNN's Will Ripley tells us more about what's believed to be super spreading -- the super spreading source of this outbreak and what it could mean for the country's leader.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The mood was triumphant. The crowd massive, most people not wearing masks. At last month's military parade in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised to protect his people from hostile forces like the U.S. Protection from the virus that would soon ravage his unvaccinated population? Non- existent.
Weeks later, a devastating fever believed to be undiagnosed COVID-19, infecting and killing some of Pyongyang's most privileged citizens.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAD O'CARROLL, MANAGING DIRECTOR, NK NEWS: So the military parade was a super spreader event. And we know that they flew in citizens from across North Korea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: some of those citizens from the Chinese border region, a place I visited five years ago. North Koreans are living a literal stone's throw away from the raging Omicron outbreak in China. Beijing pledged to help Pyongyang the outbreak, the hermit kingdom's hermetically sealed border apparently breached by the highly contagious variant. Two years of pandemic isolation. Two years of sacrifice gone in one parade.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'CARROLL: That's the perfect petri dish for this virus to spread. So I think that that parade will go down in history as a very bad idea for North Korea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: A colossal miscalculation and experts say the likely cause of North Korea's explosive outbreak. An unprecedented nationwide lockdown, skyrocketing infections and deaths, a dilapidated healthcare system on the verge of collapse, lacking even the most basic medicines and medical equipment. Millions of malnourished North Koreans at higher risk of severe infection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'CARROLL: I think it's going to test his leadership certainly, and it's going to create some urgency for very creative storytelling in the North Korean propaganda apparatus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: North Korean propaganda, crucial to keeping the Kim family in power, even during times of crisis, like the deadly famine of the late 1990's when citizens literally a tree bark to survive. The Kims rule over a police state that relies on heavy surveillance, restricted movement and brutal political prison camps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINA YOON, SENIOR KOREA RESEARCHER, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: They strengthened social controls because they had the fear that, you know, if there is an outbreak, that if there is a crisis, that was what happened in the 1990's that, you know, the police, the secret police, the military, they all went hungry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: Now they're getting sick. State media says around two million fever cases in one week, a crisis of Kim's own creation, potentially devastating hardship for the North Korean people. Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, still to come tonight, Russia is taking away a critical energy source from Finland as the country makes moves towards NATO. We'll tell you how Finland is responding.
Also ahead, a prisoner swap brought this former U.S. Marine home. He lived through a two-year nightmare in a Russian prison. He shares his story in an exclusive interview with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:41:18]
KINKADE: Welcome back. The first Russian soldier to be tried for war crimes in Ukraine says he did not want to kill an unarmed civilian. The 21-year-old tank commander has pleaded guilty to the fatal shooting, which happened in northeast Ukraine on the fourth day of the war. But he says he was nervous and regrets his actions. His lawyer says the court should blame Russia's leadership instead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIKTOR OVSYANNIKO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY (through translator): The leadership of the Russian Federation is to blame for this war, not this boy. He was trying to save his own life, especially from the threat that came from his fellow servicemen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence. The judge could hand down a verdict on Monday.
In just a few hours, Russia will stop sending natural gas to Finland. It'll become the third European country cut off from Russian energy supplies. It's a complicated situation for Finland but officials say they've been preparing for this for a while. Nada Bashir explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as tensions mount over Finland's bid to join NATO, the country's state-owned gas company, Gasum, said Friday that Russia's Gazprom is halting flows of natural gas to Finland as of Saturday morning. The move comes after the Finnish gas firm said it would not pay for Russian gas in rubles or use Gazprom's proposed payment scheme for gas.
In a statement on Tuesday, the company said negotiations over a long term gas contract with Gazprom were in dispute, and that it would be taking Gazprom to arbitration to try and resolve the matter.
Gasum's CEO, Mika Wiljanen, and has described the decision as highly regrettable, but has said that the company has been carefully preparing for exactly this sort of situation.
Over the summer season, the firm says it will supply natural gas to its customers from other sources, with Finland also receiving gas via Estonia. Gasum says it's hopeful it will be able to spike all its customers over the coming months, although the firm's vice president has conceded that the winter season will be challenging.
Russia has already been blasted by NATO members and allies for imposing sanctions on foreign energy companies in retaliation to Western penalties over its invasion of Ukraine, with Germany's Vice Chancellor accusing Russia of using energy as a weapon. The European Union has since proposed a total ban on Russian oil, with member states committing to phasing out their dependency on Moscow. Nada Bashir, CNN, London.
KINKADE: 985 days. That's how long a former U.S. Marine from the state of Texas was detained in Russia. Much of that time spent in a disgusting cell with seven other prisoners who he describes as having severe psychological health issues.
In his first TV interview since returning home last month, Trevor Reed described his experience to CNN's as Jake Tapper. And Jake joins us now from Washington D.C. with more from his exclusive interview with Reed. Great to have you with us, Jake. Such an incredible interview. You have been following this case as Trevor Reed languished in a Russian prison.
He's now finally home. You spoke to him in what was his first interview since his release. Just explain for us how he's doing, what he told you.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD: He seems to be doing as well, if not better than can be expected after almost three years of this ordeal being held in unfairly by Russians in a prison cell in a, in a jail cell and in a work camp for these trumped up charges.
He has put weight back on. He lost about 45 pounds in captivity. He's put weight back on. Psychologically, he seemed great. I mean, obviously it's going to be an adjustment, but he seems -- he was laughing, he got emotional, he got angry.
[14:45:02]
I mean -- but he seemed very solid. If you met him in the street, you would have no idea that he'd been through what he'd been through.
And I asked him actually, you know, what was the worst of it? Because there was a lot of horrors that he went through. And he said it was when the Russians punished him for continuing to appeal his sentence, they punished him by sending him to this psychiatric prison hospital. And take a listen to how he describes it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: What was the worst conditions that you've had that you experienced during that time?
TREVOR REED, FORMER U.S. MARINE RELEASED FROM RUSSIAN PRISON: The psychiatric treatment facility, I was in there with seven other prisoners in the south, they all had severe serious psychological health issues, most of them, so over 50 percent of them in that cell were in there for murder, or like, multiple murders, sexual assault and murder. Just really disturbed individuals.
And inside of that cell, you know, that was not a good place. There's blood all over the walls there where prisoners had killed themselves or killed other prisoners or attempted to do that.
The toilet's just a hole in the floor. And there's, you know, crap everywhere, all over the floor, on the walls. There's people in there also that walk around that look like zombies. Just --
TAPPER: Were you afraid for your life?
REED: I mean, I did not sleep there for a couple of days. So I was too worried about, you know, who was in the cell with me to actually sleep.
TAPPER: You thought they might kill you? REED: Yes, that's what -- there was a possibility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: At one point, he also describes knocking on the cell door in the psychiatric facility. And at which point he was told by some of the inmates not to do that, because they would think, the guards would think that he was being disruptive and they would jab him with a tranquilizer, turn him into one of the zombies like at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. So that he said was the most harrowing part of the ordeal.
But I mean, honestly, so much of this, the three years that he describes, were like something out of a horror movie, just in terms of the sickness, in terms of the malnutrition, in terms of the deprivation, that the Russians subjected him to. And for these for this nonsense charge for what he -- there was no evidence that he did.
KINKADE: Yes. And for two years, he had to put up with that. Here in the U.S. during that time, Jake, there was a campaign to seek his release led by his family. What did he say to you about how he mentally survived as his family held out hope for his release?
TAPPER: Well, it's funny because his family was fighting on the outside so hard, and we interviewed the family as well, his parents and his little sister. But inside, he said, he denied himself hope. He did not want to allow himself to feel optimistic about what was going on. And sometimes his girlfriend at the time, or his father would come and visit him and try to talk to him about ways that they were hoping to get him out of this unjust imprisonment.
And he would chastise them. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to let hope come into his mind because he thought that that would ultimately make his time, his nine-year sentence even more difficult, and he was already planning for when the nine years was up.
The Russian government, the FSB, the successor to the KGB, coming up with some reason to hold him even longer. So, he was preparing himself to die in prison.
KINKADE: Wow. Wow. It's just an incredible interview. I'm looking forward to see all of that on Sunday night. And Jake, no doubt, his family are very grateful for you and all the support you've shown them over the last couple of years. Jake Tapper. Thanks so much.
TAPPER: Thank you.
KINKADE: And for all our viewers, you can watch Jake's interview on Sunday night. That's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong.
Well, still to come tonight, Australia prepares to head to the polls, but one key issue hangs over the election. We'll have that story next.
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[14:51:47] KINKADE: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Well, Australia is headed for the polls on Saturday to choose its new government. The cost of living and climate change, a high on the list of voter concerns. But there is another key factor hanging over the election. And that's China. CNN's Anna Coren has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On the eve of the federal election, many Australians are complaining they don't have much of a choice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARYN IRELAND, VOTER: It's kind of hard in a two-party system when like neither government's doing anything and it's a bit like what do we -- who do we vote for?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Anthony Albanese, the leader of the center-left Labor Party, has been accused of making himself a small target as he attempts to dislodge Scott Morrison and the conservative liberal National Coalition, which has been in power for almost a decade.
The man nicknamed Albo has leaned into many of the policies of a prime minister, who has his integrity constantly called into question. But as the public worries about hits to their lifestyle and their livelihoods --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definitely cost of living, climate change, and housing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: The perceived threat of China hangs over the vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN LEE, FORMER AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ADVISOR: They face the first election in my adult lifetime that China and foreign policy has been a major issue. China is a concern because China has announced itself as a concern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: with the relationship at a historic low, both parties in Canberra have looked to score political points by beating up on Beijing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Why would you take China's side?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, let's get Solomon's --
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, that -- that's an outrageous slur from the Prime Minister.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: The announcement of a security pact between China and the Solomon Islands has shaken Australia, which fears a Chinese military base less than 2,000 kilometers off its coast.
Sharing that concern, the White House deployed a top Asia envoy to the Solomons to try to kill the deal without much success. So how much of what China does can be controlled by Australia? And does it matter who gets elected on Saturday?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: The opposition Labor Party has tried to ensure that there's very little difference between themselves and a government on China. And in fact, you have a situation now where both sides are making the claim that they will be tougher on China.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Dr. John Lee is a former adviser to Julie Bishop, who served as Australia's Foreign Minister between 2013 and 2018.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Structurally, China is in the region. It wants a base there. It will be difficult to stop the Chinese from getting a base in the Solomons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Nevertheless, one of the first tasks of Australia's post- election leader will be to take his place at the meeting of the quad in Tokyo next week. Well, either Morrison or Albanese will join U.S. President Joe Biden, India's Narendra Modi, and Japan's Fumio Kishida, all in lockstep over the perceived threat posed by China. Anna Coren, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, third time's a charm. That's what's Boeing is hoping as the Starliner Spacecraft hurdles towards the International Space Station. The rocket's third uncrewed mission should land this evening at around 7:00p Eastern.
[14:55:01]
It follows two failed missions, one in 2019 and the other in August last year.
If the flight is successful, it is hoped that the Starliner's first crewed flight could take place before the end of the year. Well, the man behind some of the most iconic movie soundtracks has
died. Greek composer Vangelis passed away at the age of 79 in Paris. He is best known for soundtracks for Blade Runner starring Tom Cruise and his most famous work, of course, was Chariots of Fire.
Well, that classic theme won Vangelis an Oscar back in 1982 for the Best Original Score. He was known for his innovative use of electronic music in his work, and the Greek newspaper, OT, reports Vangelis died Tuesday in a French hospital while being treated for COVID-19.
Well, thanks so much for watching tonight. I'm Lynda Kincade. Stay with us. "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.
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