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Russia Bombards Ukrainian Cities; Sri Lanka In Crisis; Middle East Diplomacy; Breaking Glass Mistaken For Active Shooter At Las Vegas Hotel; Family Pleads For Help Finding Missing Student In Mississippi; Western Europe Extreme Weather; U.S. Demands Moscow Stop Forcibly Deporting Ukrainians; Nasa And Roscosmos Agreement. Aired 5- 6a ET
Aired July 17, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Kim Brunhuber. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, wildlife killed, water supply shortages and more. The war in Ukraine is taking a massive toll on the environment. We're live in Kyiv with the details.
Plus --
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QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) fist bump, Mr. President?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Why don't you guys talk about something that matters?
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Back home from Saudi Arabia and on the defensive. The blowback from his controversial fist bump with the Saudi crown prince.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And record-setting temperatures and massive wildfires as parts of the U.S. and Europe bake in the sweltering heat wave.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: We begin in Ukraine and word about a new barrage of Russian missile strikes in the south. Ukraine says at least 10 missiles hit Mykolaiv Sunday morning. Two industrial facilities were hit but there are no reports of casualties.
Russia also fired five cruise missiles elsewhere in the south. Russian missiles also set a industrial facility in Kharkiv on fire, injuring one. In the east, Ukraine said it's holding the line against Russian
attacks. Eight settlements came under fire Sunday morning but Russian troops didn't make any gains.
Meanwhile Russia's defense minister was in Donbas, ordering troops to increase operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes in the region. President Zelenskyy said his country is making progress and will keep up the momentum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Ukraine has withstood Russia's brutal blows. We have already managed to liberate part of the territory that was occupied after February 24th. We will gradually liberate other regions of our state that are currently under the occupation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: It's taking a toll on the environment. Industrial sites, oil depots, chemical facilities have all come under Russian attacks, including the oil refinery in Odessa, hit in April. All those strikes are already doing damage to the environment. For more, Scott McLean joins us from Kyiv.
You've seen with your own eyes the devastating effect this war has had on human lives. But you've been looking into a different angle, damage that could poison Ukraine for decades. Take us through that story.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We talk about this every single day on the battlefield, oil depots, electrical substations, they are all routinely hit by Russian long-range missiles.
What we don't talk about often the environmental, the health damages, they can linger on for decades. Of course we're always tallying up the human toll. But the environmental costs are much harder to quantify.
Now the Ukrainian government is aiming to do exactly that and their hope, their goal here, is to eventually get Russia to pay.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCLEAN (voice-over): On March 24th, a Russian missile landed right on target, this oil depot outside Kyiv. Yuri Odinet (ph) says it won't take long for the contamination to reach the local water supply. He said it has already poisoned the nearby pond, where he used to fish every summer, 1,000 fish washed up dead in a matter of days.
"Now there is nothing but anger," he says.
Some of the fish still look OK but as soon as you put them in the pan, they smell like diesel. The water is regularly tested for pollutants now. So is the soil at the blast site, which sits next to a field of sunflowers, a Ukrainian symbol of peace. Ukraine's environment minister says that the country has logged 257
cases of alleged war crimes against the environment, including burnt forests, blown up chemical facilities and sewage spills.
History has already shown the harmful environmental effects of war. In Iraq, birth defects and high cancer rates were blamed in large part on the toxic byproducts of battle.
"We have to show the whole world that war is expensive. Destroying oil depots, shelling rivers and wetlands expensive. And when they understand that it's expensive, the risk of the next war will be reduced."
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MCLEAN: It is not just oil depots and industrial sites; across the country there are lineups of burnt out tanks or graveyards like this one for destroyed vehicles. The problem is, that left uncollected, all of this is toxic to the environment.
And so now the Ukrainian government is collecting and compiling data on all of this in hopes of one day sending the bill to Moscow. It will ultimately be the Ukraine prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova's job to build the case and convince the International Criminal Court to take it.
Can you honestly see the day where Russia cuts you a check?
IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA, UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL: Maybe. I know Russians better than you. Never. Only when we have the process of sanctions, where they don't have right, do it or not, when they have strict rules and have strict obligations, only in this way. It is Russians.
MCLEAN: Why should Russia pay when this kind of a thing seems like the normal collateral damage of war?
Surely an oil depot is a legitimate military target.
VENEDIKTOVA: They won't tend to sweep oil depots (ph). And we all understand that it will be every (INAUDIBLE) is a terror military (ph) target or not. If we look at this situation objectively, if in any more war in any size, it is again huge damages for environmental sphere. And someone should pay.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCLEAN: In some ways Ukraine here is entering uncharted territory because this kind of case is unprecedented at the International Criminal Court because ecocide is not an international crime that falls under their mandate.
There's some hope, though; Kuwait was able to get compensation from the Iraqis for environmental damage caused by the Gulf War but that was through a special U.N. body. And it took three decades for the final bill to actually be paid up. And even if the Ukrainians could manage to get something similar
created today, well, it would fall under the jurisdiction of the Security Council, where Russia has veto powers.
BRUNHUBER: Scott McLean, thanks so much.
As the fighting rages on, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are believed to have been taken to Russia against their will. Later in the show, we'll talk about that.
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BRUNHUBER: A cargo plane crashed a short time ago in northern Greece, up to 10 people were reported on board, not clear if there are any survivors. You're seeing the crash scene near the city, operated the Ukrainian cargo airline Meridian.
The plane was carrying what it called dangerous cargo. Now that cargo hasn't been identified. But it may be ammunition. It was flying from Serbia to Jordan, when it crashed. Authorities haven't recovered its black box. We're bring you more on this developing story as details become available.
Sri Lanka's parliament is getting ready to choose a new president. They'll accept nominations on Tuesday. That may not satisfied the protesters, who helped drive out Rajapaksa. The island remains in dire financial straits, reportedly seeking aid from China. CNN's Will Ripley is in Colombo.
What's the latest there?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fundamental issue that exists here is that you have the acting president is the prime minister, that protesters took to the streets, demanding resign.
And he's the ruling party's candidate to get the job for the next couple of years, to fill out the remaining time that's left in his term.
So where does that leave Sri Lanka?
Really at a turning point.
Do they actually form this all-party government and try out somebody new?
Or if it's more of the old?
Will protesters, who emptied the streets, will they come back out in force?
One thing is for sure, times are very, very tough here in Colombo and across Sri Lanka. It's easy to see where this anger is coming from.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SAJITH PREMADASA, SRI LANKAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I see it on a daily
basis. I see the gas queues. I see the food queues. I see inflation going up. So the situation is very, very bad.
RIPLEY: How did Sri Lanka get here?
PREMADASA: It's a consequence of unfortunate economic decision- making. I call it voodoo economics.
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RIPLEY: Voodoo? Why do you call it that?
PREMADASA: For example, a 600 billion rupee tax cut for the super- rich, which resulted in state income reducing from 12 percent to 8 percent of GDP. That's a very, very scary scenario.
The retort that you get from the government is, oh, that's an international conspiracy. That's why I call it voodoo economics. It's highly illogical, highly impractical.
And what's most astonishing is the fact that we had the COVID pandemic. To at least reverse some of the illogical decisions that they made because of COVID, they just stuck to their guns. They did not want to listen to the others. Here the outside opinion is not reflected in parliament.
RIPLEY: But then how does that bode for what we've seen in recent months, with the anger on the streets and the crowd saying that, if this old guard remains in power, they're going to be right back out there, showing the people's power?
PREMADASA: People power led to Rajapaksa fleeing the country. So people power will decide and determine the destiny of the rest to follow.
RIPLEY: What would you do if you became the president to turn things around for people who are out there, standing in those days-long queues for basic necessities?
PREMADASA: First and foremost, tell the truth. And the truth is very bitter. It's a very hard pill to swallow. But the truth is, you cannot have change overnight. Because for 2.5 to 3 years, this country has been crumbling. And brick by brick, we have to build back.
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RIPLEY: That was Premedasa, the leader of the opposition, who said it could take five years to get Sri Lanka back to the point it was in 2019. Tourism was back on the up and up. Now you have this.
For 100 days, people have been out there. This is the only government building they continue to occupy. But it's just down the street that you have the presidential palace that they stormed. And we saw the footage of them swimming in the pool, Kim, working out at the gym. Frankly, protesters say if this new government doesn't reflect the
will of the people, then they might right back here on the street, protesting again, and all the unrest, the chaos and potentially the violence could flare up in Sri Lanka.
BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much, Will Ripley.
President Biden is home this morning following his four-day trip to the Middle East. Among other things, the president was looking to reset U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia. That effort was highlighted by his fist bump greeting with the Saudi Arabia crown prince. Now when asked about the gesture, Biden seemed annoyed. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: The Saudi foreign minister said he didn't hear you accuse the crown prince of Khashoggi's murder.
Is he telling the truth?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) fist bump, Mr. President.
BIDEN: Why don't you talk about something that matters?
I'm happy to answer a question that matters.
QUESTION: Will inflation go down from here, Mr. President?
BIDEN: I'm hoping.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Biden went on to say we should know sooner whether that should happen. That photo may be upsetting to many people but in Saudi Arabia it's proving extremely popular. CNN's Phil Mattingly explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: White House officials are keenly aware there will be one image that really captured the entirety of President Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia. It is the fist bump.
There are several different angles, there are videos, all of which you can find on official Saudi sources because official Saudi sources didn't waste any time blasting it out, a clear acknowledgement that it was the moment they wanted to capture. It was the moment they wanted to elevate.
It was the moment they believed bestowed legitimacy on a crown prince that, the past 18 months, has only gotten the cold shoulder from President Biden and top U.S. officials. That has now changed dramatically. However U.S. officials were aware they would face sharp criticism and
they acknowledged their calculation was trying to rekindle a relationship that had been fractured was simply a necessity, not just for oil production, though that was a key component of President Biden's meetings here, but for the broader relationship in the region.
It's something that Biden alluded to when he addressed the sharpest and most personal criticism he got from the meeting from Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sorry she feels that way. I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today. What I have -- this is a meeting not -- I didn't come here to meet the crown prince.
I came here to meet with the GCC, nine nations, to deal with the security and the needs of the free world; in particular, the United States and not leave a vacuum here, which was happening, as it has in other parts of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: That vacuum was a really key element of President Biden's decision to lay out key principles, really driving the future role of the U.S. in the region before he departed Jeddah.
He hit on a number of key notes that regional leaders have been hoping, wishing the U.S. would draw on over the course of the last 18 months, where they really felt the U.S. had turned a blind eye to the region, had disengaged from the region. That had created very clear opportunities.
That was a driving force, perhaps more than any other, behind the decision for Biden to come here. Yes, they needed to recalibrate the relationship with the Saudis. Yes, they needed to officially have the president sit down with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.
But they also recognize that, for a region that is in the midst of a rapid transition, alliances seemingly shifting on a yearly basis, the U.S. needed to play a role. If they didn't, others would step in to fill the void.
That is something Biden thought simply wasn't an allowable situation. Now the U.S. is laying out its new role in the region, one that will take time, work and effort but one U.S. officials believe they took a critical first step toward on this trip -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Saudi Arabia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Still ahead, nearly revealed memo shedding light on some of the extreme legal advice that former president Trump received before the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
And family members are pleading for help after a 20-year-old college student disappears in Mississippi. We'll have that story and much more after the break.
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BRUNHUBER: Reports of an active shooter on a Las Vegas strip Saturday night wound up being a false alarm. According to police, someone threw a rock at the glass door of the MGM Grand Hotel.
That set off a chain reaction of people, who thought there was a shooting. One person suffered a minor injury. The person who bloke the glass at the MGM was taken into custody. Las Vegas is the site of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history; 58 people were killed at a music festival there in 2017.
All right, now to the investigation into the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. We're days away from the committee's last planned hearing and new developments are piling up. The Secret Service has been asked for deleted text messages from January 5th and 6th.
We're learning about some of the fringe figures in contact with former president Trump during that time. "The New York Times" revealed a stunning memo Saturday from a little-known conservative lawyer looking to overturn the 2020 election.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: "The New York Times" has unearthed a memo from a conservative lawyer, who was speaking directly to Donald Trump in December 2020 about what Trump could do with the presidency to block the election result.
So what's important about this is that it gives us a little bit more knowledge about what was happening, what Donald Trump was hearing, what he was thinking, what he may have been planning in late 2020 after the election leading up to January 6th.
So William Olson is the lawyer here. He's writing a memo. "The New York Times" has posted it publicly.
In it he says, he and Trump spoke on Christmas Day; they had a discussion. He's following up and says, you know, I want to walk through what my suggestions are again to tell you that I know you, too, Donald Trump, will be following up on as well.
He says that the lawyers around Trump are not serving him well as president and that, as president, Trump should really take control and give some orders to make sure that he can win the election. That includes -- Olson is insulting the Justice Department at one
point. He says White House counsel's office were being shameful and dismissive toward him as president.
And then he says to Trump, here what is must be done. You should replace the White House counsel.
He tells Trump he should order the Justice Department to file a lawsuit challenging the election result or, if that won't be done by the Justice Department, Trump should get rid of that leadership over there.
And then he describes potentially working on other things that the presidency could do using its powers. And that's when Olson writes, the media will call this martial law but that is fake news.
So he's saying that to Donald Trump. After that, what we know from the record already is that Trump did want to do some of these things, including potentially firing his attorney general and putting in place someone sympathetic to these very ideas William Olson was writing about in late December -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The family of a missing American college student is pleading for help finding their loved one; 20-year-old Jimmie Jay Lee was last seen leaving an apartment complex on July 8th. Nadia Romero has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The search continues for a missing college student and we're hearing passionate pleas from his family, with any information to come forward.
Ole Miss University student Jimmie Lee, who also goes by the nickname Jay, was last seen last Friday, July 8th, about 6:00 in the morning outside the Campus Walk Apartments.
You can see here his car was recovered by police on Monday at Molly Barr Trails apartment complex, just over 2.5 miles away.
In some photos and videos, Lee is wearing dresses and makeup. A local station in Oxford, Mississippi, said they caught up with his sister, with others in the community doing searches on a nearby trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAYLA CAREY, LEE'S SISTER: Just to see people come out and actually help us, that shows us that it's actually some people in this world that actually care.
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CAREY: If there's anybody out there that know anything, anything, it's just anything. A simple clue, a simple piece, simple something, just to get something, to find him, pretty much, because that's all we want. We just want him home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMERO: Jimmie Lee's disappearance is also impacting students at Ole Miss. The university released an alert, "We understand that this may be a very distressing time for members of our campus community and you may feel a need to speak with someone."
The statement goes on to identify ways students can reach out for help. Police say they executed a dozen search warrants on digital and physical elements, as well as interviewing people in the area, urging people to come forward even with the smallest tip to help them find Jimmie Lee -- Nadia Romero, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris says the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was, quote, "deeply harmful to our nation." As Harris reaffirmed the president's commitment to protect women's reproductive rights, the vice president sounded the alarm about the repercussions stemming from the decision. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are talking about a situation in our nation right now where states and so- called leaders are passing laws that would criminalize medical health professionals, health care providers. We are talking about several states in our nation who will not allow an exception for rape or incest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: That scenario is playing out right now in Indiana, where a physician is under investigation for providing abortion services to a rape victim, who's only 10 years old. Polo Sandoval has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Caitlin Bernard from Indianapolis, the OB-GYN who's come forward and identified herself as the doctor who helped this 10-year old from Ohio terminate her pregnancy after being raped, that doctor is now also finding herself the subject of an investigation that's being led by the state's Republican attorney general, looking into the potential failure to report that abortion.
Just a few days ago, AG Todd Rokita announced the inquiry in order to find out if Dr. Bernard adhered to that state law, which is basically requiring any abortion procedure performed on any person under the age of 16 to be reported to the state no more than three days after that procedure is done.
Documents independently obtained by CNN reveal Dr. Bernard did notify the state health department just two days after that procedure was done. AG Rokita saying they are still gathering evidence, they are still conducting their own legal review, which remains open.
Dr. Bernard's attorney insisting that review is unnecessary, especially if you dig up these publicly available documents. In fact, on Friday an attorney sending the attorney general a letter, a cease and desist letter, calling on him to, quote, "stop making false and misleading statements" about alleged misconduct by Dr. Bernard in her profession.
In an interview with CNN, the attorney for Dr. Bernard called this ongoing investigation by the state, quote, "a smear campaign."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN DELANEY, DR. CAITLIN BERNARD'S ATTORNEY: Even the barest minimum of homework on his part would have found that that report have been timely done.
So we want him to stop this smear and then we want him to stop this dangerous rhetoric he's using, where he is whipping people up into a frenzy at a very unsettled time in our nation's history. And we want to make sure that our client stays safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: In light of this cease and desist letter, we have reached back out to Indiana's attorney general. We are still waiting to hear back -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: In just a few hours, families of the Uvalde shooting victims will get the preliminary findings of the Texas house investigation. The report is focused on a timeline of events, law enforcement manifests and details about the gunman and also to clarify conflicting accounts of what happened.
The committee will present the families with surveillance video of the school shooting that was leaked to a Austin newspaper; 19 children and two teachers were killed in the massacre.
We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Millions across the U.S. are currently under heat alerts. More than 20 high temperature records are at risk of being broken today and early next week. In the Plains, this means many will see triple-digit temperatures. In the Texas, the power grid will be put to the test with rolling blackouts possible throughout the day.
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BRUNHUBER: Now to Europe, where a scorching heat wave is sparking wildfires from Portugal to Greece and pushing temperatures in many areas to record highs. Have a look here, this is France, where fires have forced thousands of people to flee their homes. Those fires are still far from being under control.
In Spain, the estimated death toll from extreme heat has risen to at least 237, according to the country's health ministry. More deaths are expected as temperatures continue to rise.
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BRUNHUBER: We're getting more information about that cargo plane that crashed a short time ago in northern Greece. Eight crew members were reported on board. Now it's not clear yet if there are any survivors. Have a look here, this is the crash scene.
The flight was operated by the Ukrainian cargo airline Meridian. The plane was transferring equipment to Bangladesh. All those onboard are Ukrainian and the cause of the accident is believed to be engine failure. Authorities haven't recovered the black box. But they're at the scene investigating.
All right, still ahead on the program, the U.S. demands that Russia stop forcibly deporting Ukrainians from occupied areas of their country. We'll hear from an expert on the subject straight ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The United States is demanding that Moscow stop sending Ukrainians to Russia by force. U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken calls the practice a war crime that goes against the Geneva conventions. As many as 1.6 million Ukrainians, including up to 260,000 children, are estimated to have been forcibly taken to Russia.
So for more on this story I'm joined by Nadia Dobrianska, the project manager at the Human Rights Centre ZMINA.
Now we're not disclosing her location due to the nature of her work.
Thank you so much for being here with us on this important story.
So just go through for us what exactly is Russia doing, who are they taking and where? NADIA DOBRIANSKA, PROJECT MANAGER, HUMAN RIGHTS CENTRE ZMINA: So primarily in danger are Ukrainians in regions under Russia control. So this is the Donbas region. And these people are facing impossible choices.
So if they want to leave these occupied territories, Russia either forcibly deports them to the Russian controlled territories or they leave them no choice but to leave to the Russian-controlled territories by their own cars.
Or they're redirecting the buses that are trying to evacuate people so that they can only go to the Russian-controlled territories. And these people are then further taken to filtration camps, where their possessions are gone through and they're checked for tattoos.
And some of them are let go further; others are not. And it's very hard to know exactly what's happening to those who don't pass filtration and those people who are let go.
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DOBRIANSKA: Sometimes their passports, their documentation are taken away from them. And these people are facing real challenges to leave Russia ever after, while some other people, their passports stay with them. And they're further evacuated from Russia to the European Union.
BRUNHUBER: So for those who are taken, I mean, you mentioned some of the circumstances and some of the things they're facing.
I mean, how do you hear from them, how many of them you don't hear from about their situation and how they're being treated and so on?
DOBRIANSKA: So naturally people who go through filtration, they're not exactly eager to discuss this because this experience is extremely traumatic.
So those people who are open to share with the media, who give interviews and talk to human rights defenders, and they're describing horrific procedures of checks conducted by Russians on them.
Some people get abducted during filtration process and they're not released. And recently, for example, a boy of 16 years was released after being abducted during filtration, because his father, it turned out, was a local official and Russians found out that from his phone.
And he was held in detention center to clean up the cells where the torture was taking place, wipe off the blood. Even though he wasn't tortured himself, he told the journalist that he spent this time in horror.
And an inmate tried to kill himself in his cell. And these are the conditions that we know for sure. And the exact numbers of people in this filtration, there's no way of knowing until the war ends.
BRUNHUBER: I mean, we heard secretary of state Blinken call it a war crime. Ukraine's prosecutor general had a very controversial term she used to describe Russia's actions when it comes to abducting children. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA, UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL: From first days of the war, we started this case about genocide. And one of the qualification of genocide, it's very hard to prosecute such cases because we're sure to find (ph) all evidences. And forcible transfer of children is part of qualification of genocide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: I'm asking you, do you agree with her assessments, is this genocide?
DOBRIANSKA: Yes. This is definition of genocide. There are other features of genocide, as mass killings and systematic killing with the aim of to destroy the whole ethnicity or part of them.
But removal of children is definition of genocide.
BRUNHUBER: So again, coming back to Antony Blinken, he is asking Russia to stop this but they're clearly continuing this.
So what more can the international community do to stop this?
DOBRIANSKA: The big part of this is giving publicity to these cases, because this information is drowning under other news. And while all other news is important, the fact that Ukrainian children are being deported and Ukrainian families, especially this is dangerous for children who were born after the Russian occupation.
They're not documented under Ukrainian rules. There's huge danger of their assimilation and basically them being deprived of their identities. And families won't be able to find them because maybe their parents died in shellings by Russia.
And then Russia will be able to implement the genocide, to wipe out the identities of the children, bring them up as Russian.
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DOBRIANSKA: It's important to advocate, to raise awareness about war crimes but also to advocate for international organizations to have access to the facilities where these people are held, because while some of them are just redirected in their own cars or private buses, many of them are taken and are held in specific facilities in far different cities in Russia. So international organizations should have access --
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BRUNHUBER: We really appreciate you shining a light on this tragic situation. Unfortunately, we'll have to leave it there.
[05:50:00]
BRUNHUBER: But thanks again for speaking with us, Nadia Dobrianska.
We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: While U.S.-Russia's relations may be in a rough spot right now, their cooperation in space may be on the mend with a new deal between their respective space agencies. Michael Holmes has the story.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A collaboration in space when relations between Russia and the U.S. on Earth are at their worst in decades. NASA and Russia's space agency say they've signed a seat swapping agreement which would allow astronauts and cosmonauts to exchange places on upcoming missions.
NASA says the first of these cross-flights is expected in September, when U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio blasts off to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. And cosmonaut Anna Kikina joins the fifth SpaceX Crew Dragon launch the same month.
Historic rivals, space exploration has always been a point of highs and lows for Russia and the U.S., both trying to outdo each other in the 1960 space race.
[05:55:00]
HOLMES (voice-over): The Soviet Union sending the first man into outer space; the U.S. landing the first crew on the moon.
But in recent decades, space has been more of a joint effort between the two nations, especially after the creation of the ISS, which is operated by NASA, Roscosmos and several other space agencies.
Both the U.S. and Russia have hitched rides with each other. Russian cosmonauts flew on the U.S. space shuttle before the fleet was retired in 2011.
After that, American astronauts traveled to the ISS on Soyuz spacecraft until NASA resumed its own launches in 2020 by partnering the with the commercial space company SpaceX.
But the war in Ukraine has caused some tension between the two agencies. On Friday, Russian president Vladimir Putin replaced Roscosmos' head, Dmitry Rogozin, who made several controversial remarks and threatened to suspend cooperation with the U.S. and allies in space in response to Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin gave no reason for the change in leadership. NASA also recently criticized Roscosmos over a photograph of cosmonauts on the ISS holding the flags of two separatist, self-proclaimed regions in Ukraine, saying the ISS is about furthering science for peaceful purposes.
A lofty goal and one the new ride-sharing agreement could reinforce, showing there can be common ground between Russia and the U.S., even if it's in space -- Michael Holmes, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. For viewers here in North America, "NEW DAY" is next. The rest of the world it's "LIVING GOLF."
