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Ukraine: Russians Have Reduced Severodonetsk to Ruins; Ukrainian Fighters Mount Defense in Luhansk Region; Russia Gains Ground in Donbas, Moves on Severodonetsk; U.S. Senator Voices Support for Taiwan During Visit; U.S., Russia and China Race to Develop Hypersonic Missiles; January 6 Committee Preps for High-Profile Public Hearings. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 31, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares. If you are just joining us, let's bring you up-to-date with our top stories this hour.

In the coming hours a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers will meet virtually in an effort to find common ground on gun legislation. The meeting comes one week after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

And U.S. President Biden is expected to meet with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to discuss America's inflation crisis. Ahead of that meeting in an op-ed, Mr. Biden laid out a plan to address rising prices and supply chain issues.

Now Russian forces are gaining ground in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine and are focusing much of their firepower on the city of Severodonetsk. Authorities says Russian troops are gradually moving toward downtown by having captured the whole city. Ukraine's defense ministry reports battles have reached maximum intensity with artillery strikes on much of the frontline. A spokesman says the Russians are trying to encircle the Ukrainian troops in Donetsk and Luhansk. Severodonetsk is said to be in ruins with two thirds of its properties destroyed. And street fighting is under way between Ukrainians and Russian troops.

Meanwhile an adviser to Ukraine's president says military victory against Russia is unlikely if the U.S. refuses to supply long range artillery. The official says as few as 20 multiple launch rocket systems could be a game changer. But U.S. President Joe Biden sounds like he has ruled out that request. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to send long range rocket systems to Ukraine?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, CNN reported last week that the Biden administration is planning to step up the kind of weapon its sending to Ukraine, a large package of military aid is expected to be announced next week.

Russian forces are closing in on another key city in the Luhansk region. Most residents have fled for safer ground, but those who remain are preparing for the worst. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the last road into Lysychansk. Putin's forces have moved with rare focus here, and they soon encircle the pockets of two cities on the river we're driving into.

Ukrainian forces we saw here, mobile, tense, at times edgy and this is why. Across the river here, the besieged city of Severodonetsk increasingly more in Russian hands, whoever you ask.

We can hear the crackle of gunfire down towards the river below.

WALSH: What we were told, the Russians have tried already to get into town, and it looks like we might be witnessing another attempt over there. That smoke near one of the remaining bridges into the city.

[04:35:00]

WALSH (voice-over): Our police escorts shout drone, often used to direct artillery attacks. We are on high ground, exposed and scattered. It is a tale of two desperations here, that which makes people stay, and that which makes them finally flee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We've not slept for three months.

WALSH (voice-over): Leonid is the latter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Shooting. Windows shaking. It's a catastrophe. One man told me the Germans (in the war) were better.

WALSH (voice-over): Some who stay are increasingly angry of what's left of the Ukrainian state here. A young woman was killed here, a day earlier by a shell. And locals told us not to film, saying cameras attracted shelling.

Russia's bloody persistence and unbridled firepower is bringing the kind of victory in the ruins they seem to cherish. This cinema was a bomb shelter. Local officials said it's unclear if, when the huge airstrike hits, the Russian military was aware it had been empty days earlier.

WALSH: Just startling how whole chunks of this cinema have been thrown into the crater there. This is the ferocity of the airstrikes we're seeing here, designed simply to get people out of this town.

WALSH (voice-over): Those who stay among the shards of glass feel abandoned already.

ANYA, LYSYCHANSK, UKRAINE RESIDENT (through translator): Many, many people, but there is no gas or water, or power, or anything. We asked the aid workers today when it will all come back, and they say there are only prostitutes, junkies, and alcoholics left. That means the aid workers have left here.

WALSH (voice-over): Lydia (ph) is carefully picking up the pieces of the air strike, which she felt the full force in her apartment, eight floors up.

There's an old lady on the first floor and me, with my disabled son, she says. He doesn't really understand the war is happening.

Retreat lingers in the empty air. If Putin takes here, he may claim he's achieved some of his reduced goals in this invasion. It's the unenviable choice of Ukraine's leaders if this is The Hill its men and women will die on.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Lysychansk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And this just came in to CNN in the last few minutes. A ship has left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, and it's the first to depart since Russia took the city about two weeks ago or so. We know this is from the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic speaking on the telegram channel, speaking on behalf of the Russian authority. He says the first ship has left Mariupol and it's heading it seems for western Russia. This is headed for Rostov in western Russia. This is supposed to be carrying about 2,500 tons of hot rolled steel sheets. So of course, this is since Russia took over control of really of Mariupol. That huge fight that lasted for months with Russia taking control of it in the last two weeks or so. We'll stay on top of that story.

We're now more of course than three months into the war in Ukraine and how Moscow's goal is lining up with its accomplishments. We asked CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton for his thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: At first what they were talking about was taking the whole of Ukraine. They wanted to eliminate Ukraine from the map as a viable country. But when you look at the area right here, this is the Donbas region, the Russians have occupied a major portion of this area since 2014 as we know.

But they will have achieved if they take this area, this area right in here, this pocket of Ukrainian control, if they take that and this is in the Luhansk Oblast, if they take that they will have achieved a partial war aim. If they take this area right here from Lyman, Sloviansk and down

through this part of the Donbas, then it will be a major war aim that the Russians will have achieved. Is the war over at that point in time? It depends on what the Ukrainians want to do next and what the Russians want to do next. So, I believe the answer to that question is no at this point in time. But at some point, both sides are going to be exhausted. It depends on which side gets there first and how quickly one side can recover as opposed to the other.

I think the war aims are going to continue to develop and the Russians will not deviate from the path of actually taking control of the entire country as far as a war aim is concerned. I don't think they will be successful in doing that, but I think that's what they want to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And our thanks to CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton there.

[04:40:00]

The U.S. may be falling behind Russia and China in developing hypersonic missiles. Coming up, the bottleneck in testing a weapon that could be the future of warfare. We'll explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Our president has shown his support for Taiwan. You've heard from our military. And as a member of the legislative branch, I will tell you that it is a bipartisan agreement that the U.S.A. should stand with Taiwan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth there delivering strong words of support during an announced visit to Taiwan. The Senator arrived in Taipei on Monday, the same day Taiwan says mainland China flew dozens of warplanes into its Air Defense Identification Zone. Duckworth's visit drew backlash from China's embassy in Washington.

For more, let's bring in our CNN Kristie Lu Stout who joins us now live from Hong Kong. And Kristie, this visit of course comes at a time of growing tensions between China and the U.S. I remember those comments I think last week from President Biden that he said it would -- the U.S. would intervene militarily -- I think were his words -- if China attempts to take Taiwan by force. So, give us a sense of what came out of this meeting and how this meeting was received by China.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Isa, well, as you reported, a U.S. Congressional delegation led by the U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth is in Taiwan for this unannounced surprise three day visit. And as expected, earlier today, this morning they discussed economic cooperation, trade and regional security issues. And President Tsai thanked Senator Duckworth for America's donation of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic as well as for U.S. support on the security front. I want you to listen to this from the Taiwan president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TSAI ING-WEN, TAIWAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We look forward to deeper and closer U.S.-Taiwan relations in matters of regional security. At the same time to address the challenges of the post- pandemic era. Taiwan and the U.S. have reviewed and assessed the many facets of our trade cooperation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:45:00]

LU STOUT: Now China as expected slammed the visit with its embassy in Washington saying it firmly opposes it and that the U.S. should, quote, stop all forms of official interactions with Taiwan. The visit comes right after the U.S. president's visit to the region and his assertion that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China tries to take Taiwan by force. It's a comment that he's made before and it was a comment that was quickly down played again by the White House.

But tension is rising. In fact, Monday Taiwan's ministry of defense said some 30 Chinese warplanes made these incursions into Taiwan's air defense zone, that is the highest daily figure in more than four months. Back to you.

SOARES: Important perspective there. Kristie Lu Stout, thanks very much, Kristie.

Well China and Russia are reportedly moving forward at a quicker pace in developing hypersonic weapons technology leaving the U.S. behind to play catchup and what looks to be a new arms race. CNN's Kristin Fisher has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS COMBS, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO: This is where all the magic happens. This is where a converging, diverging nozzle. Without this, you don't have a hypersonic wind tunnel.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chris Combs runs the hypersonic lab at the University of Texas, San Antonio, home to a new state of the art Mach 7 wind tunnel, a key tool in helping the U.S. catch up to China and Russia in developing weapons that travel more than 5 times the speed of sound.

Hypersonic missiles and aircraft could be the future of warfare because their speeds and maneuverability make them extremely difficult to defend against.

COMBS: There were one of only about five in U.S. academia that can do Mach 7 plus.

FISHER (voice-over): And there's only a handful of government-run industrial grade hypersonic wind tunnels in the U.S. In fact, during a meeting with a defense secretary in February, two people in the room told CNN that CEOs of America's largest defense contractors describe the scarcity of wind tunnels as a choke point in testing.

COMBS: For the big wind tunnel facilities, it can be one, two year wait time right in you to schedule things out. I'd say six months would be pretty fast.

FISHER (voice-over): A critical delay as the U.S. is still in the early stages of its hypersonic program with the Air Force successfully testing Lockheed Martin's missile called Arrow last week after three failures.

But Russia isn't just testing these weapons. It just became the first country to ever actually use hypersonic weapons in war, using them at least 10 times in Ukraine, according to the Pentagon.

BIDEN: It's a consequential weapon.

FISHER (voice-over): And China successfully tested a hypersonic weapon that orbited the globe last year.

DR. MARK LEWIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NDIA EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES INSTITUTE: At one point, the Chinese were building their wind tunnels as quickly as we were decommissioning wind tunnels.

FISHER (voice-over): Mark Lewis, a former top Pentagon official working on hypersonic estimates Beijing is building a new hypersonic wind tunnel every six months.

LEWIS: We really need our test infrastructure, our wind tunnels, in order to be able to advance in this field and frankly, we've allowed that capability to atrophy over the past few years.

FISHER (voice-over): This tunnel in Texas is only eight inches wide and took about three years to build. The biggest hypersonic wind tunnels are eight feet wide and would take about five to ten years to build, according to Combs.

COMBS: You're not putting a full-sized airplane test vehicle in any of these facilities. There's nobody in the world that's testing in a 20 foot hypersonic wind tunnel, right? That type of technology just doesn't exist. It's simply too much air.

FISHER (voice-over): So instead, they test small 3D printed models. These are the ones that are unclassified.

FISHER: These are the models that you can show us. How many models do you have that you can't show you say?

COMBS: Well, I can't tell you that. This is the type of thing we can have in our wind tunnel when CNN is here.

FISHER: Now in terms of how long it would take to catch up, this hypersonic wind tunnel took about three years to build but the big ones could take anywhere from five to ten years and China is building a new one almost every six months. Kristin Fisher, CNN, at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And still ahead right here on the show, we are just days away from the January 6 Committee's first public hearing and yet some GOP lawmakers are still refusing to testify. Details after the break.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: Welcome back. In Washington the January 6 committee is preparing for a series of high profile public hearings set to kick off on June 9. Specific details are still being hammered out, but we know that at least two hearings will happen during primetime hours between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. in D.C.

We also know the first hearing will be a broad overview of the panel's ten month investigation into the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But there are still subpoenas out for five Republican lawmakers who have yet to comply. Some have tried to argue that the committee's investigation isn't legal, though judges have rejected that argument. CNN's Ryan Nobles explains the options going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How do they proceed and how do they attempt to enforce these subpoenas. It's something they've been very vague about up until this point. There are a number of options that the committee could take. They could offer up a criminal contempt referral to the Department of Justice. Something they have done with some other witnesses that have not been as cooperative.

But it is a little bit more complicated with members of Congress. And that could be one of the reasons that the committee and its Chairman Bennie Thompson have been reluctant to see what steps that they would take. One other option would be to send this matter to the House Ethics Committee which would then determine the next step forward.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well meanwhile, former Trump White House Adviser Peter Navarro says he has been summoned to testify before a federal grand jury on Thursday after he refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the January 6 Committee back in February.

The jury in the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial could issue its verdict this week. Deliberations will resume in a few hours and the verdict must be unanimous. At issue is the 2018 "Washington Post" op-ed written by Heard in which she called herself an abuse survivor.

[04:55:02]

Depp, her former husband, sued her for $50 million. She has counter sued him for $100 million.

U.S. health officials are investigating a potential link between an outbreak of hepatitis A and fresh organic strawberries. The berries were branded as FreshKampo and HEB were sold between March 5 and April 25th. They were distributed nationwide and sold at a number of retailers including Aldi, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts, Trader Joe's and Walmart. The potentially affected strawberries are now past their shelf life. If people who froze them for later use should not eat them.

Maverick is back. The long awaited "Top Gun" sequel soaring not into the danger zone but rather the top spot at the box office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: Good morning aviators. This is your captain speaking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: How has Tom Cruise not aged? Well, the original film about fighter jet pilot came out all the way back in 1986. "Top Gun Maverick" has already earned $124 million during its opening weekend in the U.S. and do keep in mind it was only projected to bring in $80 million. This is the biggest opening in Cruise's 40 plus year career and the first time he scored $100 million in the first weekend.

And that does it here for me on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett is coming up next. I shall see you tomorrow. Have a wonderful day, bye- bye.

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