Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

NATO Formally Invites Finland And Sweden To Join; Colombia's Truth Commission Gives Scathing Report On Civil War; Court In France Sentences Paris Attacker Guilty Of 2015 Terrorist Attack; Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Scorched Earth Tactics, Recovers 95 In Prisoner Swap; Verdict Delivered In Paris Terror Trial; Hong Kong Anniversary. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired June 29, 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]

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone, I'm Eleni Giokos, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Dubai. Tonight, Sweden and Finland are on track to become NATO members as the alliance formally invites them to join. But how will Russia react to the expansion? And then, damning new testimony about Donald Trump's actions on January 6th.

We'll explore what might be next for the former U.S. President. And later, 17 years, that is how long it would take to read aloud the names of every victim of Colombia's civil war. We'll have the details on a new bombshell report. It has been a monumental and incredibly productive day for NATO. The alliance has just formally invited Sweden and Finland to join. The move will expand the bloc's shared border with Russia by more than 1,300 kilometers.

The U.S. and fellow NATO leaders also unveiled plans to strengthen its forces along the eastern flank. U.S. President Joe Biden promising to send more troops, installing more military bases and deliver more equipment to help counter Russia. NATO members are reiterating that Russia is the most significant threat to security and stability in the region. Something Ukraine and its president know all too well.

Mr. Zelenskyy addressed the summit virtually, asking what more Ukraine has to do to join NATO. And asking whether it hasn't already paid the price of membership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT, UKRAINE (through translator): if you truly define Russia as a threat, your main threat, you have to fully support its main and first target. This is not the war of Russia against Ukraine, this is the war for the right to dictate conditions for Europe, for the future world order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Right, let's get straight to our team in Madrid. We've got CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson standing by, and we also have senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly joining us. Great to see you both. What a day. Nic, I want to start with you, Turkey was the biggest obstacle for Sweden and Finland.

And after lengthy discussions, something changed. Could you give me a sense of, firstly, what the shifts were in these discussions? And importantly, whether other leaders feel that Turkey created -- sort of rattled NATO unity.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, if we go back to the moments when Finland and Sweden said that they wanted to join -- officially said they wanted to join NATO, that's when Turkey came out of the wood work. President Erdogan said that he didn't want this to happen because he was concerned about their treatment of PKK, Kurdish separatists who are in Turkey, terrorists in those countries.

And he wanted that changed. It was very public debate. It went quiet, there was a lot of back-scenes diplomacy, and a lot of that played out behind closed doors here yesterday. The president of Finland and the prime minister of Sweden and President Erdogan both meeting with Jens Stoltenberg as well. President Biden played a role in all of this behind the scenes. But when I sat down earlier today with Iceland's Prime Minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir.

She was quite frank in her assessment of what President Erdogan had done here. She really felt that he and -- she gave -- she didn't go into detail about why, but she really felt that President Erdogan had sort of hijacked this process for gains of his own. This is how she framed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATRIN JAKOBSDOTTIR, PRIME MINISTER, ICELAND: When we said we will support Finland and Sweden's application, we did that unconditionally out of respect for their democratic wishes. And I think actually what we have seen is that Turkey has been taking unrelated matters and putting them in as conditions. I think it's -- yes, that's not the right way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So President Biden had a conversation with President Erdogan today, we know that there's a commitment from President Erdogan to help get Ukrainian wheat and other agricultural products through the Black Sea safely to the international market, to try to provide some level of security or inject some level of security into the sort of global food insecurity situation.

What else was discussed in that meeting is unclear, but there's clearly a sense among some of the NATO leaders that President Erdogan used that as an opportunity to get things that he needed.

[14:05:00]

And it's well known that he would like to get new F-16 fighter aircrafts from the United States, something that's been beyond his reach for the past few years.

GIOKOS: Phil, I want to bring you in here, and President Biden announcing a slew of new commitments. A new presence, a stronger presence of the U.S. and Europe. I mean, some of the new U.S. warships going to Spain, fighter jets, squadrons to Britain. More troops to Romania. Give me a sense and break this down for us, in terms of what Biden's strategy is going to be in Europe going forward?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think the best way to look at this moment and just how dramatic the last 24 hours have been, has been to look at NATO when President Biden took office last year. It was kind of adrift, there was some sense that it was listless in terms of its direction.

Obviously, the four years in President Biden's predecessor, NATO was not always the most popular alliance in that White House. That has shifted dramatically in the U.S. posture along with the rest of NATO has shifted demonstrably. And today is such a great representation of that. You look a permanent headquarters now being placed in Poland, 3,500 grand troops being sent to Romania. You mentioned the fighters going to the U.K., the ships going to Spain.

In every way, air, land and sea, weaponry as well, the U.S. is upping its commitment in a surge-type capacity that we haven't seen since the cold war. And this was a U.S. that had been rotating away from Europe as a kind of a central point of its defense posture, and then probably the decade leading up to it. It went from 80,000 troops in the area up to 100,000 after Russia's invasion, that will be increased by what's happening here.

And there's a very clear sense, both from White House officials I've spoken to, also from the strategic concept of the alliance agreed on today, the once in a decade document, that Russia and Europe in the strategic posture in Europe is very much in a different place than it was just two years ago, because President Putin decided to invade. One other element here that I think is important obviously, Europe and what's happening in Ukraine, the focal point of a lot of the discussions today as well.

But the strategic concept, the document laying out concerns related to China specifically, which is also been a big push from the U.S. side. This underscores I think what has been a significant amount of work behind the scenes on the U.S. side to try and bring this alliance back together, closer perhaps than it's ever been. And really put concrete issues on the table that they feel like can be deliverables coming out of this summit. Deliverables they've already locked in halfway through the summit.

GIOKOS: Yes, and what a big change, right? From the U.S. almost leaving NATO to now increasing its presence in Europe. Phil Mattingly, Nic Robertson, thank you so much for that insight, great to see you both. Now, let's get more context from CNN's chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour joins us now live from London.

Christiane, really good to see you. I tell you, you know, until yesterday when, you know, we thought Sweden and Finland still face one of the biggest obstacles in joining NATO, something has changed dramatically in those discussions. Turkey is now out of the way. You've been speaking to the Swedish PM. What is she telling you about the concessions that perhaps had to be made to get to this point?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, they don't talk about concessions. They say Turkey had, you know, national security concerns. For instance, about the Turkish group known as the PKK, which in fact, all the western countries, including the United States, have labeled as terrorists. And they say, we haven't agreed to anything that is not already in our national law.

They've heard Turkey's concerns, they say that they're going to, you know, beef up their -- you know, their own terrorist legislation. But nonetheless, they have terrorist legislation, you know, in Sweden and in Finland. So, I think that they've talked a little bit of course about lifting an existing arms embargo on NATO or rather on Turkey, which is a NATO member. And they say that they needed to do all this because they actually need to become members of NATO because of what Putin has done to threaten not just all of Europe, but them as well, after all these decades of their neutrality.

But when I actually asked her about the nitty-gritty, which is, what are you going to do about Ukraine, and aren't you concerned about what Boris Johnson; the British Prime Minister has warned that could become Ukraine fatigue, this is what the Swedish Prime Minister answered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGDALENA ANDERSSON, PRIME MINISTER, SWEDEN: I'm definitely concerned about potential Ukraine fatigue. And therefore, I think it's so important that we, who are leaders of our country, that we also take the time to explain to our citizens that Ukraine is not only fighting a war for Ukraine, but also for democracy's right to choose their own destiny and live in peace and freedom.

And I know that the whole world is now affected by this war, but that is because Russia has decided to invade a peaceful and friendly neighbor. And therefore, this war has to stop and Ukraine has to win the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:10:00]

AMANPOUR: And on that note, that Ukraine has to win, as she said. You know, Sweden is not even a NATO member yet, but she said that the country is already preparing its next package of military equipment to Ukraine. And she did agree that, actually, this whole situation calls for an escalation of military aid to Ukraine now, when it needs it most. Eleni?

GIOKOS: Yes, such a vital point. And to be honest, when you see the messaging coming through from a country like Sweden, that is abandoning 200 years of non-alliance, it basically brings to question whether Putin does in fact pose a risk to Europe beyond Ukraine. The leaders that you've been speaking to, Christiane, are you getting the sense that they are very concerned about this risk that could be a reality? AMANPOUR: Well, I also spoke to the Spanish Prime Minister who, of

course, is hosting the NATO summit. And you know, I think what NATO countries do believe is that unless you -- you know, unless, you actually show some steel in front of Putin, he's going to try to push where he sees the soft underbelly. And that, of course, has now been reinforced since he invaded Ukraine with no provocation.

And so, what the Spanish Prime Minister told me is that, maybe in the past, we were somewhat, quote, "naive" is his word, about Putin. Because you remember, in 2010, they actually invited Russia, then it was President Medvedev of Russia to the summit in Lisbon, and they called Russia a strategic partner.

He told me, Sanchez, today, that, that was probably a bit naive, given what we already knew about Russia and what it was gobbling up in Georgia and what Putin had said about NATO and so-called U.S. hegemony around the world, that we should have understood Russia's goals earlier.

He also talked to me about how this was massively important, not just saving Ukraine's independence and its sovereignty, but that meaning that it really reinforces and saves western values and way of life. Its democratic values built around the rules of the road, the rules of law and international norms. So, that's what's at stake at this NATO Summit and going forward, frankly.

GIOKOS: Yes, exactly. And it's, you know, a huge tectonic shift for NATO, just seeing what they're doing on the ground. Christiane Amanpour, really good to see you, thank you so much for that insight. Now, moving on. Shocking new details have emerged from the January 6th hearings with a former top aide in Donald Trump's White House, testifying that the president and his inner circle were all well aware of the potential for violence on the day of the insurrection.

Cassidy Hutchinson gave the committee stunning insight to the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol. CNN's Pamela Brown has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER AIDE TO MARK MEADOWS: As an American, I was disgusted.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bombshell testimony from surprise witness Cassidy Hutchinson. A former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

HUTCHINSON: That evening was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on January 6th.

BROWN: Hutchinson telling the committee, White House officials knew something big was brewing for January 6th. Testifying that four days prior, Trump's former attorney, Rudy Giuliani told her Trump himself plan to go to the Capitol on the 6th.

HUTCHINSON: We're going to the Capitol, it's going to be great, the president is going to be there, he's going to look powerful.

BROWN: And when she approached Meadows for more details, she says Meadows gave an ominous response.

HUTCHINSON: He didn't look up from his phone, and said something to the effect of there's a lot going on, Cass, but I don't know. Things might get real bad on January 6th.

BROWN: After things did get real bad at the Capitol. According to Hutchinson, lead White House counsel Pat Cipollone pleaded with Meadows to get Trump to do something to stop it, saying --

HUTCHINSON: Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your f-ing hands. This is getting out of control.

BROWN: And even when the rioters began to chant --

(CROWD CHANTING)

CROWD: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

BROWN: Meadows told Cipollone, Trump believed Pence deserves it.

HUTCHINSON: Mark responded to something to the effect of, you heard it Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.

BROWN: Hutchinson said on January 7th, Meadows encouraged Trump to condemn the rioters to salvage his legacy.

HUTCHINSON: He's already talked about invoking the 25th Amendment, he needs this as cover.

BROWN: And Hutchinson describes seeing Trump express rage various times over stories regarding his 2020 election loss. One such time, after his former attorney general told the "Associated Press" he had not seen widespread fraud that would change the election.

[14:15:00]

HUTCHINSON: There's ketchup dripping down the wall, and there's a shot at porcelain plate on the floor. The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general's "AP" interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall.

BROWN: A former Trump loyalist, Hutchinson testifying that watching the violence and destruction unfold on January 6th was devastating.

HUTCHINSON: It was unpatriotic, it was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie. That's something that I -- it still -- I still struggle to work through, the emotions of that.

BROWN (on camera): Another revelation coming out from Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony is that, Mark Meadows, her former boss and Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani sought presidential pardons relating to January 6. Now, we do want to note the Secret Service released a statement in the wake of the allegations that the former president launched at the wheel in the presidential motorcade because he wanted to go to the capital.

Now, in response to that, the Secret Service says that it has been cooperating with the select committee since its inception in Spring 2021, and will continue to do so including by responding on the record to the committee regarding the new allegations surfaced in today's testimony. Pamela Brown, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Hutchinson's testimony has brought strong responses among U.S. lawmakers and the public. But what lasting impact might it have. Many Americans on both sides of the aisle already had made up their minds about Donald Trump and the Capitol attacks. CNN's Ryan Nobles joins us from Washington to discuss what comes next.

Look, many people have faced charges that were directly involved. But could Trump and his team face charges as well. I mean, this is now the big question, do these hearings have any repercussions for the people involved at the top?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Eleni, there's no doubt that, that's the biggest question that many people still have as this committee continues to push forward with its work. And I think there were a lot of people that were skeptical that these hearings would really move the ball in the direction towards possible prosecution. And it is clear that, it is starting to change some minds.

Members of the committee have openly said that they believe that enough evidence has been uncovered to charge the former president and some of his top deputies with a crime. And what we saw in this testimony yesterday was the testimony that the White House counsel at the time, Pat Cipollone was warning the former president that if he continued down a certain path, that he could be at risk of legal exposure.

The big question though is, does the Department of Justice feel that way? They're the only ones that have the authority to bring in a grand jury and panel of grand jury, hand down an indictment and really truly open up a prosecution. There's the possibility that the January 6 Select Committee, which has no prosecutorial oversight may actually formally ask the Department of Justice to do that. That has no legal standing.

It would just put on political pressure on the Department of Justice, but it is clear that, that pressure is increasing with each new bit of information that the January 6 Select Committee has to offer.

GIOKOS: Right, Ryan Nobles, thank you so much for that update. Right, and still to come tonight, verdicts are coming and right now in France in the trial over the 2015 Paris terror attacks. We'll go live to the French capital with details on that verdict. And also, Russia is escalating attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. We'll talk about the war with an adviser to Ukraine's defense minister. Stay with CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:00]

GIOKOS: Welcome back, I'm Eleni Giokos in Dubai. Now, the head of Colombia's Truth Commission says it would take 17 years to read aloud the name of every victim of the country's brutal civil war. The commission's 800-page report just out now, details how Colombia's military battled rebels. Known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC for nearly six decades.

The conflict during paramilitary groups and the U.S. which gave billions of dollars to Colombia to fight the rebels and the drug trade that funded FARC. Most of the conflict's victims were ordinary Colombians, and at least, 220,000 people were killed and 34,000 children were seized by gorillas to fight.

Stefano Pozzebon joins us now live from the Colombian capital, Bogota. Stefano, I mean, listening to some of those details is going to take 17 years to read aloud all the victims of the civil war. Give me a sense of some of the outcomes, some of the things we've seen in this 800-page document.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Yes, Eleni, what really stands in front -- at the forefront of these historic reporters, just the sheer scale of this conflict that really touched every single aspect of Colombian society. And the main finding is that the vast majority, the sheer majority between 70 percent and 80 percent of the casualties in the conflict were civilians, ordinary Colombians.

And so, this report is that, if you want the final moment in a long healing process that this nation has gone through since beginning of the negotiations between the Colombian state and the FARC back in 2015, that, that blossomed into this historic disagreement in 2016. And for the past 6 years, this Truth Commission investigated, it researched, held more than -- spoke with more than 30,000 people to get to the bottom of what happened and how it could be allowed to happen.

Perhaps, the most important part of the report that was published yesterday are the recommendations that the president of the Truth Commission, Padre Francisco de Roux, gave to the Colombian elected -- president-elect, sorry, Gustavo Petro. Among the recommendations are a complete overhaul of the way that the Colombian military forces run, and a strategic rethinking of the war on drugs.

Which of course, in a country like Colombia, plays a large part in this conflict, because It's not just about the past and how much suffering has this nation lived through, but also about the future. And how can this country and the rest of the world learn from this conflict to prevent similar situations, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yes, and this Truth Commission, this report, are there going to be any repercussions? I mean, what is the outcome going to be at the end of the day? POZZEBON: Well, it might sound strange if you're not familiar with

the Colombian peace process. This report is not legally binding. So, there are no sentences. But there's another institution that is also spurred from the Colombian peace process, which is a special jurisdiction for peace.

[14:25:00]

A peace tribunal that is hearing -- trying armed doctors and people who were involved in the conflict, and handing out sentences. The report from yesterday was more of a moment for the nation to come together and try to understand just the scale, the magnitude of what happened in this country. It's a process that has been linked or compared to the end of the troubles in Northern Ireland or to the end of the apartheid in South Africa.

And it's of course, a process that is not free from controversy. While yesterday, the President-elect Gustavo Petro was present and received the report from the hands of Francisco de Roux; the president of the Commission. The current President Ivan Duque who campaigned against the 2016 peace deal was not present in the future.

So, you can see that even after 6 years of that historic disagreement that was signed in 2016, the issue of the peace and how can Colombia heal its wounds remains controversial.

GIOKOS: Yes, that's the thing. It's about healing the wounds, right, through these truth and reconciliation commission. Stefano Pozzebon, thank you so much for joining us. Good to see you. All right, news just in. A court in Paris just handed down its verdict in the trial of suspects involved in the November 2015 terror attacks. The Bataclan Music hall, six bars and restaurants, and the area near the Stade de France stadium were all targeted that night, 130 people were slaughtered.

The main suspect was found guilty of all five charges, including murder and terrorism. The 32-year-old had started the trial by proudly saying that he was a soldier of the Islamic State. He is the only surviving member of the group that is suspected to have carried out these coordinated attacks. Now, the death toll is at 53 in the tractor trailer tragedy in Texas.

The bodies of 40 men and 30 women were found inside a swelteringly hot truck abandoned in San Antonio. They were migrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. Mexico's attorney general is opening an investigation into the deaths. Now, there was no sign of water or any air conditioning in the truck when authorities found it Monday. The route where the truck was found is often used by human smugglers. Three people are currently in custody.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods along the India-Bangladesh border are entirely underwater. The Bangladesh Red Cross says south Asia is being hit by its worst flooding in living memory. Seven million people in Bangladesh alone are in desperate need of shelter and emergency aid. The region has endured weeks of torrential rain, with access to many areas largely cut off. Now, still to come tonight, crews in Ukraine are still searching for

people missing after a strike on a shopping mall. We'll get an update on the war and speak to an adviser to Ukraine's defense minister just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GIOKOS: Ukraine is accusing Russian forces of using scorched Earth tactics as they try to storm the last pockets of resistance in the Luhansk region. A regional governor calls the situation in Lysychansk very difficult, saying it's under constant bombardment.

He says Russians soldiers are planting mines in the city, posing a deadly risk to civilians. Russia is also escalating attacks in the south. The mayor of Mykolaiv says at least four people were killed today in a missile strike on an apartment building.

In central Ukraine, crews are still looking for dozens of people missing after a strike on a shopping mall. This surveillance video captured Monday's explosion. At least 18 people were killed. Correspondent Scott McLean is in Kyiv for us.

Scott, good to see you. We're seeing more and more footage emerging. It's showing the extent of the impact of this missile strike.

Do we know how many people have been impacted by this attack?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As you mentioned, at least 18 dead. We know that there are more than 50 who have been hospitalized. We are told that the vast majority of those are with serious injuries.

We also know, that right now, there are crews who have been onsite since the strike took place, picking through what is left of that shopping mall. Truth be told, there is not a whole lot left. It is a shell of its former self, if you could even call it that.

They're going through, trying to dismantle the steel, the twisted metal that is left of the mall. They are also looking for bodies. They assume that there are no survivors left so they're looking for bodies.

What they have found thus far is 11 body parts. They have to figure out how many bodies those parts actually belong to. It is pretty grim work.

You mentioned the impact. In that really stunning CCTV video, we're talking about a bomb of 1,000 kilograms, 2,200 pounds of payload. That is a lot of explosive material. It is an older missile but still capable of doing a heck of a lot of damage, as we saw.

There's other security footage from a nearby park, where people were taking a stroll around a pond. One person, upon hearing or seeing some kind of a warning a few seconds before, takes a kid, runs behind a tree. Another person actually jumps inside of the pond to try to take shelter from the hot shrapnel that's raining down.

GIOKOS: Extraordinary footage, Scott. We were focusing on Mariupol for such a long time. And then we know that the people who were trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant, many of the soldiers were taken to Russian territory. Now some of them have been released in a prisoner swap.

Could you give me details?

MCLEAN: Yes, so, this was about a month ago when this surrender took place. There's about 2,500 or so Ukrainian soldiers who put down their arms. About 1,000 of them were taken to Russian, to Russia, not just Russian held territory but to Russia for investigative purposes, according to the Russians.

Now some of them are now free, on Ukrainian soil. There were 144 Ukrainian soldiers that were swapped for 144 Russian soldiers from Russia and the Donetsk People's Republic, those breakaway regions as well.

We are told that soldiers on both sides are badly wounded; in the case of the Ukrainians, their injuries range from broken bones to burns to amputated legs.

[14:35:00]

The list goes on. Some of these soldiers are in really bad shape.

The question is, will there be more prisoner exchanges for the more able bodied soldiers who were able to hold out inside of that Azovstal steel plant?

Ninety-five of the 144, by the way, Eleni, were inside that steel plant, of the 40, three are the number who were from the Azov Regiment. This is surprising they would be released, considering Russia has really tried to paint this wing of the Ukrainian military as neo-Nazis, as extremists.

They certainly had extremist origins. But they've now been folded into the regular Ukrainian military. It is on the other hand not surprising because, as President Zelenskyy points out, these are some very public prisoners that Russia has. Of course, the world is watching. Eleni.

GIOKOS: Absolutely. Scott McLean, thank you so much.

Let's bring in now an adviser to Ukraine's defense minister. Yuriy Sak is joining us from Western Ukraine.

Yuriy, thank you so much for taking the time to give us an update. We've been watching this footage of the missile attack on the shopping mall in Kyiv. It is incredible to see just the sheer impact and the loss of life here.

Could you give me a sense, in your assessment, what the Russians were actually targeting when they struck the mall?

Some say it might have been a nearby factory.

Or do you believe it was a specific target on civilians?

YURIY SAK, UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTERIAL ADVISER: Good evening, thank you for inviting me.

From the very first day of this war, we knew and we saw evidence of a simple fact: Russia is a terrorist state, which is targeting civilian targets, which is hitting, with their missiles, residential areas, kindergartens, schools, hospitals.

So in the case of the missile strike at the shopping mall, which took the lives of a minimum of 18 people and many more were injured, this is more evidence that Russia is not going to stop.

Russia continues to employ these terror tactics. And this is why we believe that the whole civilized world has to recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Some countries have already done that. Some countries are planning to do that. And it's a very logical step to take following these developments.

GIOKOS: Yuriy, I have to ask you, when the Russians exited Kyiv and there was a sense of safety or some sort of return to normalcy in Kyiv, those are the conversations we've been having with people on the ground.

Do you think there was a false sense of security all these weeks?

Were you shocked by this attack, did you anticipate that Kyiv would once again become a target?

SAK: Well, this latest target, this was a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, not in Kyiv. Kyiv was a target of another attack just three days ago, and other Ukrainian city, Mykolaiv, was a target again today in the early hours of the morning. And a 6 year-old child was removed from the rubble, a dead child.

Overall, 341 children were killed in this war by now. The intensity of the missile strikes, as you know, has increased tremendously during the last couple of days. Russians are shooting over 50 missiles a day, targeting different Ukrainian cities, not just those in the east.

Any Ukrainian city today is a target for a Russian missile strike. This is why our political and military leadership continues to say that we need more modern advanced weapons. We need more anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, because we are fighting for the values of the Western democracy and freedom.

We're fighting for the whole world. All we need is assistance, military assistance, from our international partners.

GIOKOS: Yes, and they've said they're committing to that.

The question is, is it coming quick enough?

Yuriy Sak, thanks so much that's all we have time for but we wish all the best. Thank you so much for that insight.

Let's go back to that breaking news. A court in Paris has just handed down its verdict in a trial of suspects involved in the November 2015 terror attacks. The main suspect was found guilty on all five counts he faced, including murder and terrorism.

The 32 year-old had started the trial by proudly saying that he was a soldier of the Islamic State. He's the only surviving member of the group that is suspected to have carried out the coordinated attacks; 130 people were slaughtered, making it the worst peacetime attack on France. Melissa Bell is standing by in Paris.

[14:40:00]

Melissa, you know, listening to how he started in the trial, saying that he was part of the Islamic State, give me a sense of the -- what we heard in the courtroom and, importantly, the messaging around the verdict.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: War has been so interesting over these last 10 months, as you say, this extraordinary trial, 333 lawyers involved, more than 1,000 civil parties taking part to try and see whether justice can be brought.

In the end, it was 20 suspects on trial, 14 of them have been present over the course of the last 10 months. Six of them tried in absentia, five of them believed to have died in Syria.

But the one everybody was looking at was Salah Abdeslam. You will remember the night of those terrible attacks, when 130 people were killed, between about 9 pm and midnight, when that rampage began, with the simultaneous attacks on bars, restaurants, Stade de France as well, these were 10 men in that commando unit.

Others including those on trial these last 10 months had helped with the logistics, the preparations, as the French president at the time had said. This was an attack that had been planned in Syria, organized in Belgium and carried out on French soil.

The point was what was going to be handed down to Salah Abdeslam, because he was the last surviving member of that 10-man commando, who carried out those attacks, who were here that night in Paris.

Over the course of the trial, Salah Abdeslam changed his attitude. To begin with, after he had been captured in a manhunt and found in Belgium, he'd been remarkably silent. In the beginning, pledging his allegiance once again, explaining that his devotion to Islam and not giving terribly much detail about his participation for many months.

That changed over the course of the last few weeks with Salah Abdeslam giving more information than he had, beginning to speak, beginning to repent, saying that he felt for the people who died.

It's important to point out that his defense had hinged on the fact that, of the 10, his explosive vest had not been detonated. Not only was he the only survivor but he was also, he said, the only one who had not actually killed anyone.

In fact, he said, I didn't even put a scratch on anyone. Therefore, in the very last opportunity he had to speak to the court, he said condemning me for these acts would be an injustice.

And yet, that's what just happened; 19 of the 20 defendants found guilty of charges against them. And he was found guilty of all five counts against him. We expect a little bit later tonight, because it's taking some time to read out not just the convictions but the sentences, to find out what's sentence will be handed down to Salah Abdeslam.

The prosecution has called for life in prison without parole. That is the harshest sentence that French justice can hand down. It's very rarely given down in France. We will find out in a moment whether or not that's to be the case.

GIOKOS: Melissa, we will catch up with you on that as we anticipate the sentencing. Thank you so much.

We will be right back after a short break. Stay with CNN.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GIOKOS: On our series "Mission: Ahead," we introduce you to scientists and entrepreneurs on a mission to change the way we move, even the way we walk. It's an act that many of us take for granted. But for people with physical disabilities, movement can require a lot more thought if it's even possible at all.

Today we meet a professor who is working to change that. Here's CNN's Rachel Crane.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN BUSINESS INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It's an unseasonably cool summer day in Concord, New Hampshire, where Professor Hugh Herr is out for a morning stroll at the vineyard he purchased in 2018.

HUGH HERR, MIT MEDIA LAB: I can really think clearly in such a natural environment.

CRANE (voice-over): An avid outdoorsman since childhood, Herr said he was considered a prodigy in the sport of rock climbing by the age of 13. Four years later, in 1982, he suffered a mountaineering accident that would change the trajectory of his life.

HERR (voice-over): My legs were amputated below the knee, due to tissue damage from frostbite.

CRANE (voice-over): Frustrated by the crude prosthetics he was given, the teenager set out to improve their design.

HERR (voice-over): I developed this passion of returning to climbing and began viewing the artificial limb as an opportunity.

CRANE (voice-over): An imaginative mind bolstered by subsequent degrees in physics and engineering, capped off with a Ph.D. in bio physics led him to the MIT Media Lab.

HERR (voice-over): In the Biomechatronics Group here at MIT, we develop wearable robots, robots that attach to the body.

CRANE (voice-over): It's here that the professor conceived and developed this bionic device and two others on the market today, products that patients access through their insurance plans, Herr says. For each, Herr says it can take around a decade of tinkering and testing, including on himself.

HERR (voice-over): This is the history of the ankles I'm wearing and because I know, technically, exactly what's happening in the prototype, I'm very quickly able to debug, if you will.

CRANE (voice-over): Today in the lab today, two Ph.D. students are working with patient volunteer, Amy Petrofeta (ph), to improve the functionality of a new prototype.

HYUN-GEUN SONG, MIT MEDIA LAB: After we work on the flexor, we will work on the extensor, so we'll have a pair for her ankle control.

CRANE (voice-over): Petrofeta (ph) is one of around 40 patients who has undergone a procedure conceptualized by her and developed by surgeons, Herr says.

Opposing muscles in the amputated limb are reconnected, reestablishing the narrow link between the muscles and brain. Add electrodes and the amputee can control their prosthesis like a natural limb. Herr is now working on a technology that could improve an amputee's use of their bionic limb further, by replacing the electrodes with magnets.

HERR (voice-over): The signal that you get from those electrodes is very noisy. So we want to put the technology inside the body with tiny little magnetic spheres that we use to track the precise movements of the muscles. Then we can communicate that to inform the exact movements of the bionic limb.

CRANE (voice-over): If you think this sounds like the stuff you would only find in movies such as "Star Wars," you might want to think again.

HERR (voice-over): These concepts are no longer in the realm of science fiction. They're becoming science fact. That fundamentally changes how humans move, how we transport our bodies through space.

(END VIDEOTAPE) GIOKOS: We will be right back after the short break. Stay with CNN.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GIOKOS: Welcome back.

Now security is being ramped up in Hong Kong ahead of a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping. His trip on Friday marks 25 years since the city's handover from British to Chinese rule.

Back then, Beijing promised Hong Kong would retain its freedoms. But today, many criticize its lack of autonomy. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has this report on what is left of the promised "One Country, Two Systems."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After Margaret Thatcher reached a deal with the Chinese on the return of Hong Kong, a local reporter took the iron lady to task.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've signed an agreement to China promising to deliver over five million into the hands of a communist dictatorship.

STOUT (voice-over): Thatcher claimed that mostly everyone in Hong Kong was happy with the deal and told Emily Lau.

MARGARET THATCHER, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: You made the solitary exception.

STOUT (voice-over): So what do you make of that answer today in 2022?

EMILY LAU, FORMER JOURNALIST: Many of the journalists who subsequently stood up, they asked similar questions. So even in that room I wasn't a, quote, "solitary exception."

STOUT (voice-over): July 1, 2022, marks exactly halfway through 50 years of the "One Country, Two Systems" autonomy Beijing promised to Hong Kong at the 1997 handover. It aims to preserve the city's freedom of expression and assembly as well as its institutions including an independent judiciary.

But in the wake of the 2019 protests, pressure on the city's freedoms intensified, thanks to a new national security law. Supporters say the law ended the chaos of 2019 and restored order.

But it did more than that. Scenes of mass protests like this are no more. At least 186 people have been arrested under the law included a 90-year-old Catholic cardinal. The opposition is virtually wiped out with many of the city's pro- democracy figures in jail or exile. Politically-charged artworks like the Pillar of Shame Tiananmen Memorial have been removed. Dozens of civil society groups, including the city's largest independent trade union have disbanded.

And national security investigations have led to the shuttering of news outlets like the "Apple Daily." When asked about charges of diminished freedoms, a Hong Kong government spokesman told CNN that many freedoms and rights are not absolute and can be restricted for reasons including protection of national security and public safety.

So as former security chief, John Lee, prepares to lead the city from July 1, what is left of Hong Kong's promised autonomy?

JOHN BURNS, EMERITUS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: We have autonomy in religion, in education, in media, including social media, in the internet, in how we manage our civil service. The second system is still here and it is functioning. It's under stress.

STOUT (voice-over): Lau has always been a skeptic of "One Country, Two Systems" as a reporter, a lawmaker and former chair of the Democratic Party.

LAU: I will not say that "One Country, Two Systems" is completely finished.

[14:55:00]

The fact that I can stand here in the Democratic Party office to talk to you shows that there is some freedom. And there are some differences but they are getting less and less.

STOUT (voice-over): Lau says that she is staying in the city to support her friends and colleagues in prison, abiding by her mantra.

LAU: Be bold, be wise and be careful.

STOUT (voice-over): Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GIOKOS: All right, I want to take you back to one of our breaking stories. That's from Paris, the French court has just sentenced the only surviving suspect in the 2015 Paris terror attack to life in prison, with no possibility of parole.

His sentencing came just minutes after he was found guilty on all five counts he faced, including murder and terrorism; 130 people were murdered in November 2015, where armed terrorists opened fire and detonated suicide bombs at numerous venues across the French capital.

Thanks very much for watching tonight. Stay with CNN. "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next. I'm Eleni Giokos in Dubai, stay safe.