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President Zelenskyy to Visit Washington; Donald Trump's Tax Returns Now Released; U.S. Southern Border Brazing for Influx of Migrants; Immigration Bill Proposed to Control Migration in U.S.; Bomb Cyclone Getting Stronger. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 21, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Kristie Lu Stout.

And just ahead, after years shrouded in secrecy, Donald Trump's tax documents set to be released just days from now. What the public may finally learn about the former U.S. president's personal finances ahead.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy heads to Washington, the Ukrainian president preparing for a day of high stakes meetings on his first foreign trip since Russia's invasion began.

And 70 million people are under winter alerts in the United States as a phenomenon known as a bomb cyclone develops.

In the coming hour Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Washington for his first trip outside Ukraine since the war began 10 months ago. Now the White House says President Joe Biden invited Mr. Zelenskyy to underscore the United States enduring commitment to Ukraine.

The two leaders are set to meet at the White House. The visit will coincide with an announcement by Mr. Biden of another aid package for Ukraine totaling almost $ billion, which will include the highly advanced Patriot missile defense systems.

In a tweet, Mr. Zelenskyy confirmed he is headed to the U.S. to, quote, "strengthen resilience and defense capabilities. He will also address a joint meeting of Congress. The U.S. House speaker says it will be in honor to have him on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), U.S. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: To have an out complete total hero in the Congress of the United States fighting for democracy, leading people who are fighting for democracy would bring honor to the Congress of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us live from London with more. And Clare, this will be Zelenskyy's first trip abroad since the Russian invasion. So 10 months into the war. What's at the top of the agenda?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Kristie, I think it's a sort of dual mission. One is symbolic to send a message, particularly to Russia that the western alliance, particularly the U.S. are still behind Ukraine and still willing to provide support.

And of course, the second part of the mission is substantial. President Zelenskyy wants more aid, more weapons, and is set to get that. President Biden, according to the sources to CNN is set to provide a package of assistance worth almost $2 billion including the much sought-after Patriot missiles that Ukraine has spent months asking for, as for what's on the agenda.

He is set to meet with President Biden at the White House, hold bilateral meetings with other lawmakers and then address a joint session of Congress. Now, President Zelenskyy, clearly this is a major risk leaving the country's security concerns were very high on the agenda. He didn't actually confirm that he was doing this until he said he was on his way in a tweet just about two hours ago.

But he did drop a hint in a visit to the frontline city of Bakhmut on Tuesday where he was presented with a flag by Ukrainian soldiers to deliver to the U.S. Congress. Have a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): It is a complicated situation. The enemy increases the number of its troops. Our boys are braver and we need more sophisticated weapons. We will pass on gratitude from our boys to the U.S. Congress and U.S. President for their support, but it is not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So that will be quite a visual seeing him present that flag if he does indeed do it to the U.S. Congress. The timing of this, Kristie, also is significant, 300 days exactly since the start of the conflict. We're just a couple of weeks away from a new U.S. Congress, also taking office where clearly President Zelenskyy wants to make the case to continue with the level of support that he's been seeing so far.

LU STOUT: Yes. And if Zelenskyy returns home to Ukraine with that sup, military assistance and defense weaponry from the U.S., including possibly U.S. Patriot missiles, what would it mean for Ukraine?

SEBASTIAN: So, really, Ukraine is in a position now where it is reliant on western support to continue this fight. Taking the individual weapons, the Patriot missiles would be crucial in Ukraine's efforts to thwart Russia's air assault that continues to bombard energy and civilian infrastructure in the country. [03:04:59]

And Ukraine's air defense systems have been fairly effective in stopping a large majority of the missiles and drone attacks that have been coming in. But the Patriot missiles are longer range, higher altitude and would provide another layer on top of that. Another type of weapon that the US is said to be thinking of providing are precision bomb kits, a way to sort of convert what are called dumb bombs to sort of regular bombs into guided ones.

And that would help attack Russian positions, which we course also know, we know are entrenched in both the southern and the eastern front lines.

LU STOUT: Clare Sebastian reporting live from London for us. Thank you so much.

And we will have more on Ukraine later this hour, including an exclusive report from Snake Island. A symbol of resistance in the early days of Russia's invasion when Ukrainian troops as you recall, refused to surrender this small outpost located on the Black Sea.

A CNN team is the first international media to visit the island since it was recaptured. We have that report coming up in about 30 minutes from now.

Now Democrats in the U.S. House have been fighting for four years to get their hands on Donald Trump's tax returns. And now within just a few days those documents will be made public. The ways and means committee has voted to release Trump's 2015 through 2020 returns. An accompanying report shows the former president claimed huge operating losses to reduce his tax liabilities to zero and it raises questions about millions of dollars in charitable contributions.

Now the committee says the Internal Revenue Service never properly audited Trump as required by the mandatory Presidential audit program.

CNN's Manu Raju has more.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, it's been years since House Democrats after they came to power in 2019, demanded Donald Trump's tax returns. Went through a court fight that Donald Trump took all the way to the Supreme Court to try to shield those tax returns from becoming public. He lost that fight.

Ultimately, those returns turned over to Democrats just a matter of weeks ago. But in a party line vote, the House Democrats in their final days in power, the ways and means Committee voted to release those tax returns from six years, six recent years, as well as not just his individual returns, but his business returns as well.

That vote 24 to 16 along party lines to release both a report from the committee investigating this, as well as all of those returns. Now at first on the report, there were two that were released late on Tuesday night. One of which is a committee's investigation that found that the mandatory presidential audit system, that the IRS employees for all sitting president, they say that it was dormant during the Trump years.

They say that is an essential program because they need to ensure that a president is not compromised in any way in signing legislation into law. But they said it was not essentially in use until April of 2019.

That is when Richard Neal, the Chairman of The Ways and Means Committee, a Democrat, started to inquire about Donald Trump's tax returns. They say at that point, that's when the IRS audit program kicked into gear, and they said it never was completed over the six years of returns that they ultimately obtained.

Now, there was a separate report by the Joint Committee on Taxation analyzing those returns, it raises some question about some of the deductions that Donald Trump took suggested that perhaps more investigation might be warranted.

It did not make a judgment one way or the other, but it got into the numbers of his deductions, his losses, and the income that he reported. But we expect a lot more, including all details of those tax returns in the days ahead. Right now, the committee is trying to redact some of the sensitive security information, some of the confidential information like social security numbers and the like.

Once that is done, they will be released this and it will come out before Democrats are no longer in power in the House. January 3rd is when Republicans take over. Republicans attacking Democrats for misusing their power in releasing Donald Trump's returns. Donald Trump's spokesperson also attacking committee Democrats.

But nevertheless, they are moving forward, and also moving forward on legislation to mandate, mandate how presidents are audited under the -- by the IRS. That is something Nancy Pelosi in her final days of speaker plans to bring to the floor.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

LU STOUT: Let's discuss with Norman Eisen. He is a CNN legal analyst and the former House judiciary special counsel in Trump's first impeachment trial. He joins us from Washington, D.C.

Sir, thank you very much for joining us.

First, we have to address that revelation of the IRS failure to audit. After the vote, house Democrats revealed that the material that they obtained showed that the IRS failed to audit Donald Trump's tax filings during his first two years in office. This is something that is mandatory for sitting presidents. So, what happened here?

[03:10:02]

NORMAN EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's right, Kristie. There was a major breakdown of the presidential audit program when it comes to Donald Trump. And I think that's one of the reasons that these returns are being released. The House Ways and Means Committee is putting out a report detailing that there were failures to do the required oversight that the IRS is supposed to do over every president to make sure that they don't have financial conflicts and that they're following the tax law.

And it didn't happen with Donald Trump. We are going to need to ask some very serious questions about why did he get special treatment once he was in control of the government. That's one of the reasons that we need to get these tax returns out in the public to back up this very important revelation and very important report that the committee put out.

LU STOUT: Let's talk about the decision to release, because you know, Republicans had been rallying against it hard, saying it would set a dangerous precedent, saying that could be used to target political enemies.

You know, let's put this debate to rest. You know, were the returns released for political reasons or was there, is there a legislative purpose and what is that?

EISEN: I worked up on the Hill. I know Chairman Neal. And the majority members of this committee and the chairman and his membership have been extraordinary and careful in how they have handled this with patience and with discretion.

The only precedent that we should be worried about is the precedent of an American president taking over the government and then not getting audited as required by law. Or Kristie, the president of a presidential candidate and a president not releasing their tax returns. A break by Donald Trump with all modern presidents.

When I worked in the White House as a lawyer, my job included releasing President Obama's tax returns. Those are the kind of precedents that we should worry about. I think the committee is doing the right thing by backing up their very important report with the evidence. That's what we do up on the Hill. That's what they're doing here. It is not.

LU STOUT: So, years of Donald Trump's tax returns will soon be released to the public. We do have to wait because redactions are being carried out. So, his, you know, social security number won't be re be revealed, et cetera, but it will soon be released to the public.

You know, Trump on Truth Social claimed you can't learn much from tax returns. But Norm, what will we be able to learn and what will you be looking out for?

EISEN: Kristie, the House of Representatives has released just tonight a detailed analysis, almost 40 pages long of these tax returns and associated papers. It's not just the tax returns, it's other materials that the IRS has turned over under U.S. law.

So, those -- that analysis raises questions about what were Donald Trump's actual assets. What was his income? What were his deductions? Did he take more deductions than he was entitled to? Did he understate his income? And these kinds of questions about whether his deductions were properly documented. Did he follow the law?

With Donald Trump it always comes down to that question, our principle that no one is above the law. In this case it's tax law. And I will be looking to see whether the law was broken here. His company was already found guilty in a New York court of two tax fraud charges. And now we're going to ask the question, does that apply to Donald Trump or not? We need to study the actual returns to determine the answer to that question.

LU STOUT: Donald Trump looking legally vulnerable right now. Norman Eisen, we thank you so much for joining us.

EISEN: Always a pleasure.

LU STOUT: You're watching CNN Newsroom. And still to come, the Supreme Court could soon decide the fate of Trump era border policy Title 42. The Biden administration wants it to end, but it's asking for an exception. We'll explain coming up.

Plus, a major winner storm is growing over the U.S. Tens of millions of people are under threat. We are tracking the dangerous bomb cyclone with our meteorologist Derek Van Dam right after this short break.

[03:15:00]

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LU STOUT: Welcome back. Now the Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to end a Trump era pandemic policy restricting migrants from entering the U.S., but not for at least a week. It's requesting the top court to reject an emergency bid by Republican led states to keep Title 42, but wants the policy to stay in place until next Tuesday to have time to wind down the program.

Now meanwhile, cities and states on the southern border are preparing for a massive influx of migrants once the restrictions are lifted. The Department of Homeland Security says officials have already moved more than 9,000 migrants out of El Paso, Texas in the last week.

Meanwhile, the Texas National Guard has blocked access to parts of the border.

Now CNN's Ed Lavandera has more from El Paso.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just hours before sunrise, Texas National Guard Soldiers and Texas State Troopers constructed a nearly mile long fence covered in razor wire along the Rio Grande in the very spot where federal border patrol agents started processing thousands of migrants in the last week.

The Texas military department says the National Guard did not alert the border patrol or local officials that this fence would be constructed. On Monday, El Paso officials said National Guard soldiers would primarily focus on humanitarian efforts and with security of migrants who were already in the city not with deterrent efforts.

[03:19:58]

MARIO D'AGOSTINO, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER, EL PASO, TEXAS: The state is preparing resources. They are relocating them to El Paso. They're -- they're not activated anything other than security, so at this time it's for the what ifs.

LAVANDERA: El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego says the newly installed fence and razor wire is a political stunt and a misuse of resources at a critical time.

RICARDO SAMANIEGO, EL PASO COUNTY JUDGE: Standing on the border and putting barbed wire and fences is not what we need. We're the epicenter right now of migration. And you've got the governor not calling the mayor and myself.

LAVANDERA: But this is the kind of optics and strategy that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has long supported. The Republican governor has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for not doing enough to secure the border.

But the newly installed fence isn't stopping migrants. CNN captured these images just a few hours after the fence went up of a group of four migrants crawling through the razor wire despite warnings from border agents. They were taken into custody.

UNKNOWN: And who's got the keys to that?

LAVANDERA: As the uncertainty of what will happen with Title 42 looms over this border city, local officials and migrant advocates say they will continue preparing as if the public health rule that was used during the pandemic to block migrants from entering the U.S. some 2.5 million times will be lifted.

But those leading the humanitarian efforts like Ruben Garcia are frustrated. Garcia runs the migrant shelter Annunciation House and has served migrants for more than 40 years in El Paso.

RUBEN GARCIA, DIRECTOR, ANNUNCIATION HOUSE: The federal and the state government are fighting with each other. So, they're not working together. One of the reasons we face moments like this is because our political leadership does not sit down to work out, you know, comprehensive reform. That takes into account the phenomena of refugees.

LAVANDERA: The El Paso mayor tells CNN that the Texas Governor's office told him that the efforts to build this chain-link fence with the razor wire was supposed to be a three-hour training mission for the Texas National Guard. Those three hours have long passed and the fence and razor wire remain in place.

Now, the mayor says he wants to speak with the Texas Governor's Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety to see why it's still standing.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, El Paso.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: For more on the situation at the border, I want to bring in Texas Congressman Vicente Gonzalez. He joins me from Brownsville, Texas.

And Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

Before we talk about your plan, your bill to address the pressure on the southern border, I want to get your reaction to Title 42. Why are you relieved to see Title 42 stay in place?

REP. VICENTE GONZALEZ (D-TX): Well, first of all, we've got to begin with the idea that we're still in a pandemic, right? We still haven't completely cleared COVID and other, other illnesses that are being transmitted from person to person.

Also, we have an overwhelming amount of people who have accumulated themselves across our southern border. And we are small communities from Brownsville, Texas to Harlan or Weslaco, McAllen. They're all small towns having to use their person city resources to address a federal problem that the federal government has a responsibility to address.

And until we do it with a real plan. For the last six years that I've been in Congress, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, if you have a Republican in office, Democrats come down here and point fingers at them and talk about how horrible of a job they're doing on the border.

And when a Democrats in office, Republicans come down for the same photo ops to point fingers at the president. But I haven't seen any real proposals coming out of Congress or even the administration for that matter that can really address this massive influx of migrants in a meaningful way that will be impactful for not only this moment, but for decades to come. And my proposal does just that.

LU STOUT: I think it's important to point out that Title 42 is a public health measure. You know, it was invoked by the Trump administration years ago --

GONZALEZ: That's right.

LU STOUT: -- to fight the spread of COVID-19. But how do you judge it? How do you judge Title 42 as a border management tool?

GONZALEZ: Well, I think that we should continue implementing Title 42 until certainly, until COVID cases go down and things change, and that we have a real policy solution to the massive migration that's accumulating on our border. But certainly, President Biden has all the cover in the world right now to continue with Title 42. And obviously that's why the Supreme Court did it.

But you know, I understand the administration is under a lot of pressure from some of the migrant activist groups around the country. And we are compassionate people on the border and we welcome immigration, but we want to do it in an orderly way.

And what my Safe Zone Act does is just that it creates a safe zone on the border of Mexico with Guatemala and creates a new law of how we deal with asylum seekers. And it creates a place where American -- there's an American operation in conjunction with local governments where they process an asylum claim.

[03:25:03]

And at that time, if we're going to let them in here on our southern border, the exact operation that's happening here should happen there 1,500 miles away. And if ultimately, we're going to let them in under the credible fear standard, which is the standard that's used at the border, and then we let them in, and then -- and then eventually they go and have their court hearing, which sometimes is years away. Why don't we do it from that juncture and let them fly directly to their final destination.

And it does two things. One, it takes the pressure off our southern border and allows border patrol and law enforcement to do their job and do what they've been trained to do. And it takes the cartel element out of the equation. Right now, cartels are charging migrants 6,000 to $8,000 a head to get to our southern border.

Just last year, I calculated that they had made around $5 billion enriching themselves on human smuggling, and we need to have out of the box solutions. And this could be a pilot program, and if it works there we can do it in other countries around the world.

LU STOUT: You're calling for a real policy solution to the border crisis. You've put forward your bill, the Safe Zones Act to help relieve the pressure on the southern border while getting the cartels out of the equation, ensuring the humane treatment of migrants. But you also need the buy-in of foreign governments. Are you already having conversations --

GONZALEZ: Yes, so --

LU STOUT: -- with them?

GONZALEZ: Yes. Very good question. Yes, so I've spoken both to -- I've spoken to the president of Guatemala, President Giammattei, who is willing to partner with us on a program like this. I did the same thing four years ago prior -- right prior to COVID with President Morales from Guatemala at the time, another president, when President Trump was in office, and I brought that proposal back to the White House back to President Trump at the -- Trump at the time, and they were interested.

It's a good idea whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. What happened though is that we went into global COVID and they triggered Title 42 and it really just put a Band-Aid on the problem. And here we are four years, three, four years later, and we're dealing with the same thing.

And I believe that until we have a long-term immigration infrastructure in place further away from our southern border, we will always deal with -- and we don't change the laws. We will always be dealing with this massive influx of asylum seekers and migration on our southern border.

LU STOUT: Well, here's hoping that your fellow lawmakers recognize the urgency of the issue here. We're going to have to leave it at that, But Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

GONZALEZ: Thank you.

LU STOUT: A storm known as a bomb cyclone is developing right now over the U.S. and about 70 million people or under winter weather alerts, and that number is expected to grow over the coming days.

Our CNN meteorologist, Derek Van Dam is tracking the storm for us.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. All the ingredients coming together for a blockbuster winter storm. This is a multifaceted winter storm with a potential for blizzard conditions, flash freezes, and an arctic outbreak like I've never seen before.

This storm means business. We have 70 million Americans under some sort of winter weather alert, stretching from the Pacific Northwest through the Great Lakes. Note the blizzard warnings across south central Minnesota. Likely to see those expand in coverage as we go forward in time.

We have windchill alerts stretching from the border of Canada all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, 75 million Americans under windchill alerts as we speak. Here's a look at a term known as a bomb cyclone, and we will certainly meet this criteria with this strengthening and deepening low pressure system associated with our storm.

Here it is in its infancy, yet it's still impacting the Pacific Northwest. It's going to gather some steam throughout the course of the day today. And by the time it reaches the northern sections of Colorado, Denver, you'll see your temperature drop roughly 50 degrees Fahrenheit in a matter of a few hours from Thursday into Friday. Incredible.

Cold front moves east. We'll see our first flakes of snow fly in Chicago by Thursday midday. And then we start to see when this storm means business. It wraps up, intensifies, goes through that bomb cyclogenesis that we're talking about, and it's really the wind that is concerning here and the cold arctic air behind it. Because both of those are going to factor together, reduce our visibilities to near zero in many instances.

We'll likely see more flight cancellations, if not complete closures of airports. This is where we anticipate the heaviest snow downwind from Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Ontario, and, Huron. But still considerable amount of snow for places like Minneapolis, St. Louis, as well as Chicago.

Now, check out these forecast wind gusts. You can spot the cold front right there as it races eastward. We're going to see the wind pick up Thursday afternoon for Chicago O'Hare. But then really start to howl overnight into Friday morning. And that is when we anticipate the worst of the storm as it sets up shop across the Great Lakes.

Temperatures are going to be very, very cold. And this storm means business. In fact, National Weather Service using terminology like life-threatening wind chills, where you could be outside on any exposed skin and receive frostbite in less than five minutes.

[03:30:07]

Eighty percent of the country, every single state in the lower 48 will feel the arctic air and temperatures below freezing. About 50 million Americans will actually feel temperatures below zero degrees.

That's not a typo. Negative 50, that is the windchill factor. Thursday morning for Billings, Montana. More the same for Minneapolis. Des Moines, Chicago. Look at that, negative 29. That's what it will feel like on your exposed skin Friday morning.

Do take care if you're traveling. Maybe you want to cancel your plans and rearrange those travel dates if at all possible.

Back to you.

LU STOUT: Wow, negative 50. Derek Van Dam there.

You're watching CNN Newsroom. Still ahead, another significant move by the January 6th committee which is turning over troves of evidence to the U.S. Justice Department.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. Another significant development in the January 6th investigation. Now sources say the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot and Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election has started handing over evidence from its probe to the Justice Department.

Now the panels recommending criminal charges against the former president and others.

CNN's Sara Murray.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: As the January 6th committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol prepares to release its final report Wednesday and begins to release its transcript, we're learning from sources familiar with the matter that they've already begun sharing transcripts with the Department of Justice.

[03:34:57]

Now this is significant because DOJ has asked for these transcripts repeatedly from the committee. We've also learned that special counsel Jack Smith sent another letter to the committee just this month, reiterating that ask. Now one source familiar with the matter says they've started handing over materials related to Mark Meadows, who is the former White House chief of staff, including the Mark Meadows text messages that the House Select Committee obtained.

They've also started handing over information related to John Eastman. He's an attorney who worked on these various election schemes with the former president and they have begun handing over information related to the fake slates of electors.

Again, this is important. The committee is now sort of handing the ball over to DOJ. DOJ has had this robust investigation, but is wanting to make sure I can get as much evidence as possible from the House committee.

Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.

LU STOUT: Ukraine's troops captured the world's attention when they made a defiant stand against the Russian Navy at Snake Island.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (on-screen text): Russian warship, go (muted) yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: The defense of the outpost rallied a nation in the early months of the war with Russia. And besides a huge boost to morale, its recapture in the months that followed had a strategic purpose.

In this CNN exclusive, Will Ripley and his team are the first international TV reporters to visit Snake Island since it was seized back by Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the saying goes, whoever controls Snake Island controls the Black Sea. The safest way to get there - the Ukrainian military's inflatable speedboat with seating for six. It's small enough to stay out of sight.

We are really getting tossed around out here, but we need to take a small boat because we need to stay out of the sites of Russian reconnaissance aircraft.

Safer than a helicopter, but no protection from the Black Sea's big waves, bitter cold and whipping winds. Not to mention the mines. By the end of our stomach-turning journey, Snake Island's craggy cliffs are a welcome site. Up close, appear in pieces previews the destruction we're about to see.

We enter Snake Island by climbing up a pile of half sunken slippery sea blocks. We're the first journalists allowed here since Ukraine recaptured Snake Island five months ago. Russia blanketed the island with booby traps before bailing out. The soldiers told us we need to follow in their footsteps exactly, and we need to be very careful where we step. This whole island is litter with landmines, unexploded ordinance. Basically, a powder keg. A powder keg with plenty of cats wandering through the wreckage of 10 brutal months of war, not a snake in sight.

On February 24th, the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion, Russia's Black Sea flagship, the Moskva aimed its arsenal at Snake Island, demanding dozens of Ukrainian defenders surrender or die.

UNKNOWN (on-screen text): I am a Russian ship. I propose that you lay down your weapons immediately or you will be bombed.

RIPLEY: What happened next is how legends are made.

UNKNOWN (on-screen text): Russian warship go (muted) yourself.

RIPLEY: Five words seen at the time as a final act of defiance. Everyone on Snake Island presumed dead. Russian bombs raining down the island's radio went silent. Those five words telling the Russian warship where to go. Instantly iconic, inspiring T-shirts, postage stamps, pop songs.

UNKNOWN (on-screen text): Russian warship go (muted) yourself.

RIPLEY: Ukraine later learned Snake Island's defenders were alive, prisoners of war. Some released in a POW swap earlier this year. Others remain in Russian captivity.

Is it intimidating to look out and see a giant Russian warship and know that you guys are a small group here?

"If anybody tells you it's not intimidating, he's a liar," says Fortuna (Ph), a volunteer soldier. "It was chaos. The garrison here was small. Russia captured the island quickly. Taking the island back took a long time."

On Snake Island we find a graveyard of Russian weapons, the result of relentless Ukrainian attacks for several months earlier this year. This is one of Russia's most expensive anti-aircraft weapons systems. As you can see, not much use anymore.

In April, Ukraine says its missiles sank the Moskva. Where did it go? The bottom of the Black Sea. A humiliated Kremlin says their flagship caught fire sinking in stormy weather. In May, a Ukrainian drone strike on Snake Island turned this helicopter into a fireball.

This is what's left of that Russian helicopter pulverized, along with its crew of about eight people. A twisted relic of Russia's ill-fated plan to transform this remote Black Sea outpost into a permanent aircraft carrier.

[03:40:03]

What's it like to live out here? "We need to be on guard 24/7," Fortuna says, "so we never get bored." We notice his Russian accent. It turns out Fortuna was born in Russia. He moved to Ukraine and got married before the war. Now, part of a Russian volunteer corps protecting Snake Island for Ukraine.

How do you feel about Russia now? "For us, they're enemies no matter what. Most of the Russian volunteer corps lived in Ukraine before the invasion," he says, "we were living life, had families, good jobs, and here comes Russia attacking us. If some other country attacked us, we would fight too."

Life on Snake Island means almost total isolation. Soldiers tell me the simple act of switching on a cell phone brings Russian rockets within 40 minutes. They say Russia attacked the island just last month.

We are now out of time. We've been on the island just about an hour, and it's important that we get off before the waves get too big and before the Russians know we're here.

The Ukrainians say Russia blew up Snake Island's historic lighthouse and museum on the site of an ancient Greek temple, evil spirits are rumored to roam these 46 acres of rock and sand, bearing witness to centuries of bloodshed.

Ukraine is not the first nation to control Snake Island but vows it will be the last.

Will Ripley, CNN, on Snake Island, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You're watching CNN Newsroom. And still ahead, international condemnation as a Taliban issue another edict cracking down on women's rights in Afghanistan. We'll have a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: And yet another crackdown on women's rights. The Taliban have suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan effective immediately.

[03:45:05]

The U.N. secretary general says he is deeply alarmed. The U.S. also strongly condemned the move. Now, the Taliban had promised a more moderate government after seizing power last year, but ever since they have gone backwards looking more like the hardline rulers of the 1990s.

They closed secondary schools for girls back in March, and women can no longer work in most sectors and have to cover their faces in public.

Now for more on this, let's go straight to CNN's Nada Bashir. She joins us live from London. And Nada, this new Taliban edict is coming out in the middle of an academic year. So, what does this mean for female students in Afghanistan?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Look, Kristie, this is a huge blow to women and girls hoping to return to university, but also, of course, a huge blow in general to the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

As you laid out there, we've already seen the Taliban rolling back the rights of women and girls, freedoms that have been so hardly fought for over the last two decades. They were banned from returning to school in March just as those schools were due to reopen after months of closure.

We've seen tougher restrictions in universities as well over the last few months. Segregated classrooms, different entrances, entrances for women and boys as well, of course in universities. So there have been those restrictions in place.

It may not have come as a total surprise that the Taliban would then take this step to further roll back the rights of women and girls in education. But of course, a huge shock nonetheless for those hoping to be at university. This comes just months of course, after thousands of women and girls took their entrance exams, hoping to go to university, of course.

So, this is a real moment of distress for women and girls at Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch has described this as a shameful decision, and it has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community.

LU STOUT: Yes, and this is the latest, right, that has been taken away from women in Afghanistan. The Taliban had earlier promised to be more tolerant. That is evidently not the case here. And western countries have said they won't give aid until the Taliban gives more equal rights.

So, does the Taliban not want aid or international recognition?

BASHIR: Look, this could certainly leave the Taliban more isolated from the international community, as you said that they have, since the takeover attempted to present themselves as a slightly more, moderate entity, perhaps some more modernized entity than we may remember from the late 1990s.

But that simply hasn't been the case. At every turn, we've seen the Taliban rolling back on fundamental human rights, not only of women and girls, but of the Afghan population in general. There's tougher restrictions.

Then we heard yesterday from a U.N. spokesperson describing at this latest move as yet another broken promise from the Taliban.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, U.N. SPOKESPERSON: It's clearly another broken promise from the Taliban. We have seen since their takeover, and also, in the past months just a lessening of the space for women, not only in education, but access to public areas. Their non-participation in the public debate.

It's difficult to imagine how a country can develop, can deal with all of its the challenges that it has without the active participation of women and the education of women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: And look, Kristie, the real concern now is what steps the Taliban will take next to roll back on those rights of women and girls. Of course, we've seen that condemnation from the international community, from the United Nations.

We heard yesterday from the United States condemning this decision. The State Department's spokesperson, Ned Price saying in a statement, the Taliban's recent decision will further alienate the Taliban from the international community and deny them the legitimacy they desire. Kristie?

LU STOUT: Yes. This is a terrible new development for women and girls in Afghanistan.

Nada Bashir, we thank you for your reporting.

Now that ban it came on the same day the Taliban released two Americans who had been detained in Afghanistan since August. One of them is a filmmaker. Ivor Shearer who was arrested along with his producer while filming in Kabul. It's still not clear what led to their release, but the U.S. State Department welcomed the move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, SPOKESMAN, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: We are in a position to welcome the release of two Americans, two U.S. nationals from detention in Afghanistan. We are providing these two U.S. nationals with all appropriate assistance. They will soon be reunited with their loved ones. And we are absolutely gratified, to see that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And sources tell CNN that both men were headed to Qatar after their release.

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Now, a German court has found a 97-year-old woman guilty of Nazi war crimes. Irmgard Furchner was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair on Tuesday as she heard the verdict. She worked as a stenographer and typist in the commandant's office at the Stutthof concentration camp in Nazi occupied Poland. And she was found guilty of assisting in the murder of more than 10,000 people.

Furchner was a teenager where she began work at the camp and she was tried in juvenile court. She received a two-year suspended sentence and apologize. It's believed that she could be the last person in Germany tried for crimes in the Holocaust.

You're watching CNN Newsroom. And just ahead, parade pandemonium. Now millions turned out in Argentina to greet the World Cup champs, but the celebration kind of got out of hand.

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LU STOUT: Well, Buenos Aires through the party of the year to celebrate Argentina's World Cup champions, and everyone was invited. The government declared a national holiday for Tuesday's victory parade. And as a result, an estimated four million people flooded the streets to celebrate the country's first title since 1986.

[03:55:04]

But the street parade, it did get out of hand when two men jumped from an overpass bridge onto the team's open-air bus. Yikes. Now the parade was later halted and, Lionel Messi and his teammates were forced to move their party to the air.

Stefano Pozzebon has the details from Buenos Aires.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: In the end, Lionel Messi and his teammates of the national football team of Argentina were not able to complete the day parade as they were planning to do on an open bus cruising through the streets of Buenos Aires with the World Cup trophy.

That is because simply because there were too many people onto the streets. And after spending more than three hours to do just a sheer 25 kilometers from the international airport, the team decided to jump on helicopters and instead did a flyover over these ocean of people that gathered in around the Buenos Aires obelisk to celebrate the victory in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Now as on late on Tuesday the party here in Bueno Aires is still going. And it's perhaps a sign of how much this victory is felt in a nation that really breeds through football, but is also finding some elation, some relief, and some pride at a deep troubled economy is in dire strait.

But for the past three days, this country really put on a party like no other before.

For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Buenos Aires.

LU STOUT: Some wild scenes there. And thank you so much for your company. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. Do have a wonderful day. CNN Newsroom continues now with Max Foster, next.

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