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Ukraine Marks One Year Since Russia's Invasion; New Sanctions on Russia; Matt Gallagher is Interviewed about Volunteers in Ukraine; Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) is Interviewed about Ukraine; Classified Documents found after FBI Searched Mar-a-Lago. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:39]

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Kristin Fisher.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Happening right now, President Biden is meet virtually with G-7 leaders and the Ukrainian president as the world marks one year since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This morning, the U.S. has pledged another $2 billion in aid to the country. It's also announced new sanctions against Russians, and the people who help them around the world, particularly in procuring weapons for that invasion.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin vows the U.S. will stand by Ukraine, using a phrase we've heard frequently of late, that is, for as long as it takes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: As long as Ukraine continues to conduct operations and continues to work to take back its sovereign territory, we'll be there with them.

And you can expect that the international community will be with Ukraine once the fighting stops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: And just look at how the front lines of this war have evolved over the course of the past year. In that time, more than 8,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, entire communities have been decimated, leaving 5 million people displaced in their own country and another 13 million refugees scattered around the globe. And still Russia occupies only 11 percent of Ukraine's land.

This morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking directly to his troops, confident that they'll be able to get all of that territory back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): It is you who decide whether we are all going to exist, whether Ukraine is going to exist. Every day, every hour, it is you, Ukrainian soldiers, who decide it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: And we have our reporters on the ground following the very latest on this historic day. CNN's Clarissa Ward joins us from Ukraine and CNN's Kylie Atwood live at the United Nations.

SCIUTTO: First to Clarissa Ward in the capital Kyiv.

It's been interesting, we just showed a map there that showed how Russian forces have been pushed back from many areas, including from around the capital, where in those early days the predictions have been it would fall. Of course, it didn't. Here we are, a year later. It's a brutal war. Russia digging in.

When you speak to Ukrainians, do they see any light at the end of the tunnel?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting, Jim. When you talk to Ukrainians, they tend to take an approach that they believe victory will come, but they do not fixate on any one specific day or pin too much hopes on achieving that objective in the near-term future because I think there is a kind of a clear-eyed understanding increasingly that the fighting in the eastern part of the country has really devolved into a sort of grinding stalemate with a very high rate of attrition on both sides. Many Ukrainian casualties, though the Russian casualties are even higher.

And that's why you're hearing the leadership saying again and again, Jim, that in order to really finish this off and to do it in a timely manner, they need heavier weaponry. They need long-range artillery. They need F-16 fighter jets. No indication that they are going to get those things from the U.S. certainly, although the U.K. has said that it would start training their troops on U.K. fighter jets. But I spoke to a senior Ukrainian official who said that this was a message they had pressed upon President Biden again when he visited, and he said America understands. It is now in their hands.

FISHER: And, Clarissa, you have this really incredible special out tonight looking at how the Ukrainian people who have really defied just so many odds over the last year. What was it like speaking with these Ukrainians ahead of today's anniversary?

WARD: I think it's just an extraordinary thing that Ukraine has come this far. And they've done it through a number of different means. Obviously, courage is a big part of the puzzle. Resilience is a big part of the puzzle. Technology, cutting edge technology, as we found out, is a hugely crucial part of the puzzle. And ordinary people who have put their lives on hold and devoted themselves to the cause.

[09:05:01]

Ordinary people like Olga Shpak, who used to be a whale scientist, living in Moscow, renowned in her field, and now spends all her days on the frontlines and working with communities who are living in these liberated areas where it's very difficult to get food, to get resources, to get heat, to take - to get power.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARD (voice over): It is here in the Ruski Tishki (ph) village that we meet volunteer Olga Shpak. A Kharkiv native who had lived and worked in Moscow since the '90s. In her previous life, Olga was a renowned whale scientist. But, since February 24th, she is dedicated 24/7 to helping the people of Ukraine to survive and to defeat the Russians.

OLGA SHPAK, HUMANITARIAN VOLUNTEER: I arrived in the morning of the 23rd. And I just said, mom, I'm coming.

Just take a look what they - what they did to us. I'll be moving slowly. I want you to have time to see. To see how my town looks now.

WARD (on camera): Did you have any conversations in the early days of the war with any of your Russian friends? I mean you lived in Moscow for many years.

SHPAK: Plenty.

WARD: I'm sure you had lots of Russian friends.

SHPAK: Plenty.

WARD: What were they saying?

SHPAK: They were scared. They were desperate. One of them said that the tears of blood of like running down his face, and neither them - neither their grandchildren would be able to wash out this dirt and this blood from their faces.

They tell me maybe you take your mom and move to Moscow. It's safer now. I just tell them, do you think your grandmother would go to Berlin during the Second World War? Do you? Moscow is the fascist Berlin to us now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: Olga lives in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. It's really just less than 30 miles away from Russia. It has a long, deeply complicated, but certainly deep relationship with Russia. And so you see, by spending time with these different Ukrainians from different walks of life how complex all of this is, how their lives have been impacted, changed forever. And, honestly, at this stage, with no end in sight.

FISHER: Yes.

Clarissa Ward, thank you so much.

That special airing at 8:00 Eastern on Sunday. And thank you for your reporting on this conflict throughout the past year.

And as I said, that's going to be at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, "The Will to Win: Ukraine at War," a CNN special report.

SCIUTTO: Kylie Atwood, she's at the United Nations.

Kylie, new U.S. sanctions on Russia today. I mean we've seen a series of these. They come particularly. Is there something particularly different or impactful about these new sanctions?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, what the Treasury Department is saying is that these are some of the most significant sanctions that we have seen today.

A few things that we should note. First of all, the United States is taking a lot of this action alongside G-7 allies. So, they're not just cutting off these entities, these companies, these individuals from the U.S. banking system, but also from all of the countries that are part of the G-7. This is a widespread effort from the U.S. government. Treasury is involved, the State Department is involved, the Commerce Department is involved.

The State Department, on its end, is rolling out 200 plus new sanctions on individuals and entities for supporting Russia's war in Ukraine, going after proxy groups in Ukraine. That's just one example. The Commerce Department is going after exports that are going to Russia. That is critical right now. They are targeting more than 90 companies across the world, we should note, including Chinese companies, that are enabling Russia's military to evade sanctions that are already in place. That is really critical here.

And another thing that they're doing is going after Russia's mining sector, its minerals sector. Those are some of the sectors that are enabling Russia to prop up its economy while it continues to wage this war.

We're also seeing from the Biden administration today $2 billion in additional weaponry to Ukraine. We have heard the Biden administration talk about the fact that this additional support was coming. It includes ammunition, artillery, drones. And I think it's important to note that just last night, on the CNN town hall, we heard from a Ukrainian soldier on the frontlines asking National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for more ammunition. So that is one of the exact things that the United States is giving them more of today. But what this list does not include is more advanced weapons that the Ukrainians have been continually asking for.

[09:10:03]

Guys.

SCIUTTO: There's always a new weapons system that they're asking for.

Kyle Atwood, thanks so much.

FISHER: And we're joined now by former U.S. Army Captain Matt Gallagher. He actually traveled to Ukraine when the war began and spent weeks training a group of civilians in combat basics and self- defense. SCIUTTO: Matt, also a contributing editor - writer, rather, for "Esquire." He wrote a piece on volunteers and foreign fighters who've dropped everything, risking their lives to defend Ukraine.

And, Matt, it's good to have your on. You have your own military service in your background.

What struck me reading your piece is the cause, right? I mean you describe it as fighting at democracy's edge. And you asked one of those volunteers, and he said that not once have I asked myself are we doing the right thing.

Do you find that commitment to the larger cause is still there after one year of bloody -- fighting a bloody war? Is it fading at all or has it held fast?

MATT GALLAGHER, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "ESQUIRE": Good morning. Thanks so much for having me.

Jim, I think it's held fast. I was really struck by the resolve, both of the local Ukrainian volunteers that we met with and spent time with, whether knitting Ghillie suits, or rolling homemade cigarettes in community gyms, and also the internationals, many of whom - you just quoted William McAnulty (ph), who heads up Operation White Storm (ph) and they hand out medical tourniquets to frontline soldiers and territorial defense teams. And they spoke often, William amongst them, of the difference of resolve in this war, because it's an existential fight. If Ukraine loses, there is no Ukraine. So, Ukraine must win. It's -- there's just not a question about it.

SCIUTTO: I mean when we met volunteers like that there, what struck me is some of them are veterans. They have fighting experience. But some of them are - I mean we met nurses, right, folks who had not been in combat zones before, willing to risking their lives.

FISHER: And holding a gun for the very first time.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FISHER: Matt, you were there at the beginning of the war. Then you went back a few months ago to kind of see how things were almost a year in. What changed during that span of time in terms of the volunteer and foreign fighters that you had helped train?

GALLAGHER: I think there was an understanding that this was going to be a slog. Just kind of like Clarissa Ward just mentioned a couple minutes ago. That the welders, the bus drivers, the teachers that we had trained in February and March now were fighting. We spent an evening this last trip in November with a territorial defense team of drone hunters in the Mykolaiv area. You know, these are regular people who all of a sudden spend every night armed with a Browning (ph) machine gun on the back of pickup trucks waiting for a call to shoot down the Shahid kamikaze drones that may be inbound to protect their community, to protect their homes. And, again, these were just regular people one year ago who felt

helpless, who felt like victims. And now they've decided to become agents. Agents of resistance. Agents for their country. And it really -- that resolve really permeates every aspect of Ukrainian society across social, economic, and cultural divides in a way that I think it's hard for Americans who haven't been there maybe to understand.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Are these volunteer fighting units, I mean, they bring people from all over the world, many with combat experience, but a lot not with combat experience. Are they integrating well into -- have they integrated well into Ukrainian defenses? Are they a key part of Ukraine's defense?

GALLAGHER: Right. Yes, early in the war there were a lot really kind of bad stories that came out from those kind of early volunteers, those early legionnaires, you know, because the Ukrainian military was just trying to throw everything they had to stop the Russian advance. I think there were a lot of hard lessons learned from those days. And, you know, speaking to the international legionnaires this most recent trip, a couple things have happened, One, the Ukrainian military has gotten very organized. Every international military group is headed up by a Ukrainian company commander. So, there's integration into their defense. And also the reality is, after a year, people that are there for the right reasons have stayed.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GALLAGHER: You know, it - any kind of warzone attracts some lost soul types and some goones (ph).

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GALLAGHER: They have been weeded out for the most part is what we found. And the people still there fighting, both Ukrainian and international, they're there because they believe in this cause, and they're going to stay until it's over with.

SCIUTTO: Yes, war can do that. Well, the peace is "The Secret Weapons of Ukraine." It's in "Esquire" right now and it really is worth a read.

Matt Gallagher, thanks so much.

FISHER: Thank you, Matt.

GALLAGHER: Thanks so much for having me.

SCIUTTO: Russia's war on Ukraine has been a series of instances of disbelief disrupted by reality. Sometimes surprising reality. In the weeks before the war, many doubted Putin would invade, even as the U.S. declassified intelligence showing Russia's enormous military buildup.

[09:15:04]

When Russian tanks did move in, and the missiles started falling, we were there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: This is the scene of one of the missile strikes this morning. You can see the emergency responders back here. But as we arrived, another air raid signal went off. These soldiers concerned that this will be a secondary strike on the same target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Many doubted, once again, that Ukrainian forces could successfully defend their country for so long. Those same U.S. intelligence assessments predicted Kyiv would fall within days. But it didn't.

People doubted the Ukrainian people would stand together. We watched them volunteer to fight in droves, and they are still volunteering and still fighting.

They doubted Europe's hospitality for millions of Ukrainian refugees would last. We watched them head for safety. And those refuges, those families, they're still welcome in Europe.

Many also doubted that the U.S. and its allies would unite, would stay together. But NATO is perhaps stronger than before, and Europe is stopping the flow of Russian energy it depended on at great economic cost to itself.

As Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley told me early on, Ukraine is a defining battle for the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: If this is left to stand, if there is no answer to this aggression, if Russia gets away with this cost free, then so goes the so-called international order. And if that happens, then we're heading into an era of seriously increased instability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, we are seeing that increased instability now from growing Russian threats to other nations in Europe, such as Moldova, to a worsening standoff with China. But Ukraine, defying expectations, has survived the year, and more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Joining me now to discuss the war, where it stands, Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley from Illinois. He's co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus. He's been to Ukraine himself as well.

Congressman, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): Thank you. Good morning. SCIUTTO: So, we're a year in today. Remarkable to imagine. Do you see

any way out of this war? There have been hopes that Putin might be exhausted by this, see the writing on the wall, but he's doubling down. Should we prepare ourself for a much longer war there?

QUIGLEY: Umm, in a couple of hours I'm going to go to the St. Nicholas school here in Chicago and do a little prayer service for those students. Seventy so of those students are Ukrainian refugees.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

QUIGLEY: It's hard for me to go there and not be committed to giving their home country the weaponry it needs to win and not be in a long stalemate. I fear that we're giving them just enough to be a static war and have it protracted.

As you said in this opening, I think Putin is not going to get war weary. I'm concerned that the west might. So - and indeed what I've been saying since the first day of the war is, we need to give them whatever they need to win this war.

SCIUTTO: What is that exactly because we've seen armored personnel carriers go in. That's new. We've seen tanks go in. Those considered essential to allowing Ukrainian forces to punch through Russian lines, gain back territory. But, for instance, Jake Sullivan, speaking on our air last night, said that fighter planes are not what Ukraine actually needs right now.

Do you disagree?

QUIGLEY: Well, look, everything we give them, almost everything we're giving them now was viewed at once not necessary or escalatory.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

QUIGLEY: So, tanks are a good example. That debate over tanks was finally ended, but because of that delay, I don't think the first Abrams will get to Ukraine before 2024.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

QUIGLEY: The same thing will be said in the future for F-16s or ATACMS, the longer range weaponry. We saw HIMARS be discouraged, and then they changed the course of the war to a large extent. They pushed the Russian forces back 50 miles and their munitions. Can we continue to do that?

Putin won't change his mind on this, but what Zelenskyy said when I was in Ukraine, and what he said when he came to the capital of our country was, help us win quickly. It's important that this be ended as quickly as possible because Putin doesn't care. He seems to send his people as cannon fodder. It's a different story for the west.

SCIUTTO: Secretary Lloyd Austin said the war -- on "CNN THIS MORNING" -- that the war will most likely end with negotiations. China says it has a peace plan. Do you consider China a credible mediator to this war?

QUIGLEY: Not a mediator, but they can play an important role.

[09:20:01]

You know, which China are we talking about? The China which seems to want to normalize relationships with the U.S., where the president is meeting -- Secretary Blinken meeting with his counterpart? Or the China that sends a spy balloon down the center of the United States, and apparently making noises about sending weaponry to the Russians?

So, I think our goal needs to be diplomatically, unify the west to let China know it will be isolated if it does more. So I'm not sure they can be a credible mediator, but I do think they can play a role pressuring Putin to move toward a resolution of the conflict.

SCIUTTO: The U.S. concern is that China may do just that, is become more involved, provide lethal assistance. And we're hearing, including from Jessica Yellen, the treasury secretary, discussion of what penalties might look like economically. What penalties are necessary to deter China from taking this step?

QUIGLEY: Look, if China wants to normalize relationships, we have to threaten them with the opposite. And it, obviously, can't be unilateral. It has to be with their important trade partners. All the more reasons that trade matters, because it influences policy for countries like China. It's why we should have done Obama's trade deal in the Pacific Rim. So, it can't just be the G-7, it can't just be NATO, the EU, it has to be a worldwide effort to convince China this is a bad idea, it's against their economic and diplomatic interest.

SCIUTTO: You and I have talked for some time about Republican colleagues of yours who say it's time to stop or seriously pull back aid to Ukraine. It's not a majority at this point, but a very vocal minority.

Do you see bipartisan support for Ukraine fraying in the coming weeks and months under a Republican-led Congress?

QUIGLEY: Look, I'm concerned about a long-term impact, that this war could go years. But right now I see a very unified, bipartisan support. You're correct, I mean, there's a resolution out there by one of the fringe, far right Republican to end support but it only has 11 co-sponsors. In the meantime, I think it's more instructive that we listen to the statement, read the statements of Chairman Turner, Chairman McCaul. They have more influence and more credibility. But given the speaker's need apparently to illicit and to give this fringe group a disproportionate influence, that part does concern me because they could be the tip of the dog's tail wagging the body politic.

SCIUTTO: Congressman Mike Quigley, Democrat from Illinois, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

QUIGLEY: Thank you. Any time.

FISHER: Still to come, a CNN exclusive. Why did it take so long to find some of the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago? The curious chain of events that led to their discovery.

SCIUTTO: Plus, minutes from now, Alex Murdaugh faces a second day of cross-examination by prosecutors in his murder trial. We're going to bring you that testimony live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX MURDAUGH, DEFENDANT: I would never intentionally do anything to hurt either one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:28]

SCIUTTO: A CNN exclusive this morning. The Justice Department wants answers about a confusing chain of events that delayed the discovery of a box that contained classified documents months after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago. The documents discovered in former President Trump's office just in December.

FISHER: And we've got our CNN Paula Reid here to break it down for us.

You know, Paula, sources say that the contents of the box were copied, they were emailed, and then they were moved off site before being returned to the office. And I think - I guess the big question is, why? Why did this happen?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. That's the question for Special Counsel Jack Smith. He wants to know why classified documents are still showing up at Mar-a-Lago as recently as December. It's been nearly two years since former President Trump left office.

Now, investigators are trying to determine whether this is the result of carelessness or if it's part of an intentional effort to obstruct investigators and their efforts to reclaim government records.

Now, prosecutors are specifically interested in a box that was discovered at Mar-a-Lago by Trump lawyers in December. And we were told this box contained a handful of classified documents tucked in among schedules and other non-classified materials.

Now, further complicating this, back in 2021, a young staffer scanned all the documents in that box onto a laptop at the direction of her supervisor. She scanned the documents, we've learned, with her phone, but our sources insist she didn't know there were classified materials among what she was scanning.

Now, sources tell CNN, after the documents were scanned, that box was moved to an offsite location for quite some time before ending up back at Mar-a-Lago where it was discovered in December in a closet where the former president keeps challenge coins and other mementos.

Now the box, the laptop, a thumb drive, they have all been handed over to federal investigators. And we've learned that in recent weeks that young aide who did the scanning, she sat for a voluntary interview with special council investigators to discuss how this all happened. But, of course, prosecutors, they're continuing to ask why this box conveniently illuded federal investigators and, of course, any role or knowledge that the former president had about all this.

SCIUTTO: And the scanning of every one of those documents, which I suppose is, of course, another exposure of potentially classified materials.

REID: Exactly. On the laptop. On a thumb drive. On the phone and on the cloud.

SCIUTTO: Paula Reid, thanks so much.

FISHER: Any moment now Alex Murdaugh is going to be returning to the stand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX MURDAUGH, DEFENDANT: And, Mr. Waters, just to try to get through this quicker, I admit --

[09:30:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you want to get through it quicker, but we're not. So, answer the question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Testy at times, as you can see there.