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CNN International: World Leaders Gather In Italy For Annual Meeting; Sources: G7 Countries Expected To Offer A New Loan To Ukraine; Meloni's Party Had Big Wins In European Parliamentary Elections. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired June 13, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and this is the CNN Newsroom.
Just ahead, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine loom large over this year's G7 summit, as leaders of the world's most powerful democracies gather for their annual meeting in Italy. From a prison cell to the frontlines, Ukraine recruits convicts to boost the military. We'll look at how the new prospective soldiers are being screened. And life- threatening flooding in Florida, over a foot of rain has fallen, and the threat is not over yet.
At this hour, the heads of the world's richest democracies are meeting in southern Italy for this year's G7 summit. They just posed for the traditional family photo. Here you see the seven leaders, along with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Then, it was off to work. They participated in a roundtable meeting on development in Africa and climate change. Looming over this year's summit are the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as far-right gains in recent European Parliamentary elections.
Our International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is in Italy, and he is joining us right now live. Good to see you, Nic. So, we hear the G7 nations plan to announce a new loan for Ukraine. Any details on that?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah. We are getting some details. It's kind of complicated because it's deep in the weeds in international banking and finance. And frankly, it's never been done before. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian assets were seized, right, a lot of those assets seized in Europe, total value about $300 billion. So, the aim here is to take the profits from that, not the goods themselves, the profits from that, and use them to give a $50 billion loan to Ukraine. It's a loan, right? Ukraine has to pay it back.
Here are some of the catches and the final details that the G7 leaders will be figuring out. Who is going to put up the other money over and above the predicted profits from this $300 billion that's just sitting there, and who is essentially going to catch the can if Ukraine defaults on payments? And it looks like it's going to be split between the United States and the European Union. How it's split, precisely the mechanics of how it's all underwritten, if you will. And that's what will be hammered out today.
But, in principle, the deal is there and done for President Zelenskyy to know that by the end of the year he will be $50 billion better off in a loan that is being funded. This is something he has pushed for, for a long time, which is to use those seized Russian assets, while Russia is attacking Ukraine, to use them for a good use, rather than just letting them sit there.
WHITFIELD: And Nic, in a separate deal, there is a security deal between the U.S. and Ukraine, and it's been closed at this summit. What do you know about that?
ROBERTSON: Yeah. This kind of follows up on the NATO summit last summer, where President Zelenskyy who, by the way, is right now just about arriving at the G7 leaders' summit. He is going to be there all afternoon, bilateral meetings. He will meet with President Biden, as well have a joint press conference. That's what we're expecting. But, this follows on from that NATO summit last year where Zelenskyy went in there, hoping that he will get some really firm assurances from NATO that as a group, as a bloc, that NATO would give Ukraine what it gives itself, which is this Article 5 protection, an attack on one is an attack on all. He didn't get what he wanted.
But, what he got was a commitment for bilateral security arrangements with each of those now 32 nations, and this is the United States becoming the 15th of those nations to give this security commitment to Ukraine. We're not hearing or being told about a financial figure that's being given. But, it's those assurances that Ukraine wants, and that it's hearing now, we understand from the United States, in the sort of language that says, look, if in the future you're attacked again by Russia, we'll be on the phone. We'll be dealing with it within 24 hours. Obviously, there is a lot more to it than that because Ukraine is obviously already getting substantial military and humanitarian and rebuilding aid from the United States and other countries.
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But, by the fact that President Biden is going to do that today, that's a signal for those other 17 NATO nations who haven't made these or finalized these bilateral security relations with Ukraine for them to get on and do it in short order.
WHITFIELD: All right. Nic Robertson, check back with you. Thanks so much.
All right. Let's talk further now. We're joined now by Max Boot, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a columnist at The Washington Post. He also has a new book coming out in September about former President Ronald Reagan, called "Reagan: His Life and Legend". Congratulations on that, Max.
MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, & COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Thanks very much, Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk more now about the G7 leaders and their plan to announce the use of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. What kind of impact do you believe it might have on this war?
BOOT: I think it's going to be very helpful to make clear to Putin that Ukraine is going to have funding that will extend even beyond this year's American aid package of $61 billion. Frankly, I think it would be more helpful still if the U.S. and Europe were to agree to send Ukraine all of the $300 billion of frozen Russian assets. I don't see why Russia gets to keep its money when it so blatantly violates international law and invades its neighbors. But, this is better than nothing, and it's certainly better than just giving Ukraine the interest alone on a $300 billion because this is something that the U.S. Treasury conceived to use that interest to fund a larger loan and provide $50 billion.
So, that's in the ballpark of this year's U.S. aid package. So, that's a significant amount of money that will help Ukraine to defend itself and help Ukraine to rebuild. But, it's not going to obviate the need for more aid from the U.S. and Europe in the future. And we're going to have these major political fights going forward.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's also talk now about the Israel-Hamas conflict. That will be front and center for these G7 leaders. Are they in agreement about any potential next steps to bring about some sort of ceasefire?
BOOT: I would say that G7 leaders are in agreement about the need for a ceasefire, and I think they're all pretty supportive of what has been called the Biden plan. But, in terms of how do you actually get Hamas to agree to the Biden plan, I don't think anybody has a clue. I think the U.S. has tried its best by trying to apply pressure through Egypt and Qatar and other states that have relations with Hamas, and all that pressure hasn't worked, because we saw just a few days ago,
The Wall Street Journal reported on the messages sent by Yahya Sinwar, who is the senior Hamas leader in Gaza, basically saying that he sees all of these Palestinian casualties, these -- this horrific loss of life among civilians as being to Hamas' advantage because it puts pressure on Israel, and he is not going to give up because he thinks that he can still wait out the Israeli offensive. So, he is not going to agree to the terms that Israel is offering, backed by much of the rest of the world. So, I just don't see much hope for a ceasefire. Sadly, that's terrible news because it means unfortunately that the suffering will continue in Gaza.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk about the electorate (ph) impacting the European Union. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party had a strong showing in the European parliamentary elections. At the same time, we saw far-right parties doing very well, and that impacted France in an adverse way in terms of Macron's administration. How do you see all of this impacting this year's summit?
BOOT: I think it's a major cause for worry. This is something where President Biden can commiserate with European leaders, not Meloni, obviously, because she is on the far right, but certainly he can commiserate with Scholz and Macron and other European leaders, because they're all facing a very similar nativist, xenophobic, right-wing threat. And those parties have the potential to take over, although I think the danger is much greater in the United States with the Donald Trump campaign than it is in Europe. And we should keep what's happening in Europe in mind, despite the strong showings of far-right parties in France and Germany.
Overall, they're not anywhere close to taking power. They're only the fifth largest party in the European Parliament. But, it is worrisome and it's something that, while it concerns the G7, I think it's something that plays to Putin, unfortunately, because Putin and Russia have been backing a lot of the far-right parties that oppose Ukraine and support Russia. Not sure the Meloni party in Italy. They're pro- Ukraine, but some of the others, especially the AfD in Germany, is very pro-Russia. The National Rally in France has been pro-Russia. They are claiming they're not anymore.
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We'll see if that's the case or not. But, this is something that can also affect alliance unity against Russia, and that's why Russia has poured resources into encouraging these far-right parties to break up the unity of the West, which is pretty strong right now.
WHITFIELD: All right. Max Boot, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.
All right. As we mentioned, the war in Gaza also looms large over the G7 summit. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Italy from a tour of the Middle East, where his latest diplomatic push has so far failed to secure a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is demanding numerous changes to the proposal, currently on the table, which is backed by the UN Security Council. Blinken says work will continue and he'll try to bridge the gaps between the two sides.
CNN's Oren Liebermann joining us now live from Tel Aviv, Israel. Good to see you, Oren. So, what more can you tell us about the ceasefire, proposed ceasefire, Hamas's response.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Secretary of State Antony Blinken wasn't looking to seal a ceasefire and get it done, and voila, in his short trip in the region, where he met with Egyptians, Israelis, Jordanians, and Qataris, but he was trying to make progress for a brief period while here. It seemed like that might be the case.
Hamas finally responded to a proposal that the U.S. publicly backed from President Joe Biden after 12 days. But, that response was, according to Qatari officials, neither an acceptance nor a rejection of the deal. Instead, it's a framing of the deal, according to Blinken. They have requested numerous changes. Some are workable. Some are not. And now, he says it's the job to see if there is a window here to move forward and to bridge the gaps between the two countries, between -- rather, between Israel and Hamas. Israel, however, framed it as a Hamas rejection of the proposal on the table. The question, where do you go from here? Hamas says they had responded
positively to what's on the table and showed a willingness to negotiate. They insist their changes are insignificant, though a source familiar with the talks said one of the changes they had proposed was that the timeline for a permanent ceasefire, and that remains the key sticking point as it has been for so many months now and in so many different efforts to get a ceasefire in place.
Israel insists and has insisted, according to Israeli officials, that the proposal on the table allows them to continue pursuing their war goals, whereas Hamas is looking for an end to the war, a permanent ceasefire as part of this proposal. With the proposal on the table, this three-phased approach, there is a permanent ceasefire but only in phase two, and there is no specific timeline to get there. So, it is stumbling upon the same sort of issue where it has been before. And the issue, Fredricka, is there is no clear path to get past that. The hope was that a UN Security Council resolution would put pressure on Hamas along with the Egyptians and the Qataris, and it's just not clear that that's the case. Meanwhile, Hamas insists it is Blinken who should put pressure on the Israelis.
So, even as these ceasefire negotiations are ongoing, there is clearly an effort here trying to frame the narrative as blaming the other side for the failure in negotiations, if that is indeed what happens.
WHITFIELD: All right. Oren Liebermann, thank you so much.
All right. Still to come, South Florida swamped with heavy rain and life-threatening flooding. A live look at the conditions, straight ahead.
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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. Donald Trump returns today to a place where he has not been since before the January 6 riot, Capitol Hill. He will be meeting with Republican lawmakers to discuss the upcoming election as well as their legislative priorities if he wins the White House again. He meets first with House Republicans, most of whom are already fierce allies. But, his meeting with senators could be more frosty. This will be Trump's first face-to-face meeting with Republican leader Mitch McConnell since Trump left the presidency, and several Republican senators have not yet committed to attending the meeting.
Let's go now to CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill with a very latest. Good morning to you, Lauren. So, I know House Republicans are treating this like a party. Matt Gaetz says it would be like a pep rally, in fact, but Trump's relationship with the Senate GOP, a little bit more frosty. Explain.
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Fredricka. I mean, it really depends on each member. Some of these senators who are in the Republican conference, they have had an ongoing relationship with Donald Trump, traveling to Mar-a-Lago, trying to spend more time with the President, having an ongoing phone and texting conversation with the former President. That is all part of the dynamic when Donald Trump walks into the room today.
Yes, his relationship with Mitch McConnell has been icy. The two of them have famously not spoken since the election was certified back in 2021, and that happened, of course, just hours after the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill that at the time Mitch McConnell said Donald Trump bore responsibility for. Now, Mitch McConnell has said in the past that he will support the Republican nominee. He has made it clear he plans to support Donald Trump because he has been selected by the voters to be the Republican nominee. And McConnell actually addressed this yesterday at a press conference, saying that this has been his stance all along, and he will look forward to hearing from former President Donald Trump in the meeting today at the National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters.
But, another dynamic when Trump walks into this room today is going to be the fact that there are a couple of people in the audience who could potentially be his Vice President, and that includes Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Senator Marco Rubio. It's going to be really interesting to see whether or not Donald Trump gives any sense of where he is leaning when it comes to that decision in the room today. That was something that Senator Tommy Tuberville, a close ally of Donald Trump's, told me. He was sort of looking for trying to read the tea leaves once they get in the room later today.
Now, the first meeting, as you mentioned, will be with House Republicans. That's beginning in just a little over an hour at this point. That is expected to be more of an easy audience for Donald Trump. He has continued having close relationships with many House Republicans, including the House Speaker Mike Johnson. I think it'll be a really interesting dynamic to see whether or not he talks more about the campaign strategy, whether he talks about what he wants to see legislatively. As Thom Tillis put it to me yesterday, it's probably a little naive to assume that Donald Trump is going to spend much time talking about the substance of what he wants to do after he is President, given the fact that the focus should probably be on winning the election first. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.
All right. In about two hours, Washington will turn its attention across the street from the U.S. capital to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices are scheduled to issue decisions today. We don't know which decisions will come down, but there are several major cases undecided, among them, the question of presidential immunity raised by Donald Trump, the issue of whether the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6 were obstructing a congressional proceeding, and the legality of sending abortion pills through the mail.
U.S. House Republicans have voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress after he refused to release audio from President Biden's interviews with former Special Counsel Robert Hur during the classified documents investigation. Garland said it's deeply disappointing that House Republicans have turned congressional authority into a partisan weapon.
More now from CNN's Manu Raju.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, along mostly party lines, the House moving ahead to refer the Attorney General of the United States to be held on contempt charges. The vote 216 to 271, a member defecting. That was Republican David Joyce of Ohio. But, what we saw in this fight was Republicans demanding that Garland comply with a subpoena, the subpoena demanding audio recordings of an interview that the Special Counsel Robert Hur did with President Biden over Biden's handling of classified documents. Of course, in that report that Hur released months ago, it details how Joe Biden responded some questions, question about whether Biden could have even been prosecuted over this because he believed the jury would view him as a sympathetic elderly man with a poor memory.
Now, there was a transcript that was released that the Democrats and the Justice Department believe are sufficient to satisfy Republican demands. But, Republicans one of the audio tapes as well, something Democrats believe will be used for political purposes. The Justice Department contended that releasing that audio tape essentially would impair the ability to go ahead and interview witnesses in separate investigations in the future, perhaps witnesses would not want to come forward if they were concerned that audio would release publicly or released to Congress.
But, even as this vote happened today, some Republicans called for prosecution of Merrick Garland, and even some said he should go to prison.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Is Merrick Garland above the law? I mean, I thought the whole argument is that no one is above the law, and now that we've held him in contempt of Congress, he should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice, and he deserves the exact same fate as Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon.
REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): Oh, I mean, the Department of Justice isn't going to go prosecute the Attorney General. I mean -- but, it's --
RAJU: It's more symbolic.
ROY: I wouldn't call it symbolic or hold them in contempt. We'll see what he does. I mean, hopefully, he'll look at this and see the error of his ways.
RAJU: But, there is virtually no chance of prosecution of the Attorney General of the United States, in large part, because this now gets referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia, which is under the Justice Department. Now, on top of that, the White House has asserted executive privilege on those audio tapes, and the position with the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is that the -- if the President asserts executive privilege and they affirm that it was correct in this regard, that -- essentially, that is the correct position of the executive branch.
So, this is essentially a dispute between the executive branch and the legislative branch. And ultimately, if this gets resolved, it would have to be by the courts to determine whether Congress has the right to that audio. If this plays out in the courts, it's going to take months and months and months to resolve, certainly after the November election. So, ultimately, that's how it could play out. But, prosecution, as Republicans will concede, highly, highly unlikely.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Manu.
Turning to a storm of another sort in South Florida where more than eight million people are under a flood watch. Torrential rain swamped the Fort Lauderdale and Miami areas, streets turning into rivers, as you see right here, forcing a lot of people to leave their cars and then wade through the high water. Some areas have seen more than 18 inches of rain over the past two days. That's more than a month's worth.
Joining me right now from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, CNN's Carlos Suarez. So, how is it looking? Am I seeing standing water behind you? Yes, I am. That's a lot of water still.
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. Good morning, Fred. So, the good news at this hour is that some of the flooding across South Florida has receded. The bad news is that more rain is in the forecast. We're in a neighborhood just north of Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport where, as you can see here, the folks that live on this street here are still dealing with some flooding at this hour. It's been quite difficult for a lot of them to get out of their homes and into their cars and to go about their days.
This that you're taking a look at is a result of the last 48 hours when more than a foot of rain fell across parts of Fort Lauderdale. It was a similar scene down in Miami-Dade County, in Miami Beach, as well as in the city of Aventura, where anywhere between six to eight inches of rain fell over the last two days.
Now, over in southwest Florida, on the other side, on the other coast of Florida, folks that live in Fort Myers and Naples, they are still drying out after nearly a foot of rain fell there on Tuesday and Wednesday. Now, as a result of all of this rain and all of this flooding, Governor Ron DeSantis, he declared a state of emergency in five counties, including here in Broward County and down south in Miami-Dade. That allows the Florida Division of Emergency Management to go ahead and start getting staff and some resources out into some of these neighborhoods, all in an effort to try to get some of this water out.
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Now, Fred, we were in this very neighborhood in April of 2023 when a similar system moved through, except in that case, more than two feet of rain fell over the course of several days. Now, after that happened, city officials here in Fort Lauderdale, they installed new drainage systems. They bought new water pumps. And they essentially were preparing for something like this to happen again and again. But, as you can see, despite all of these improvements, the roads improvements, the drainage improvements, these water pumps, it is incredibly difficult to get all of this water out. And so, Fred, with more rain expected throughout the day today and into tomorrow, we can expect folks out here are still going to be dealing with all of this flooding.
WHITFIELD: Yeah. Too much at once. All right. Carlos Suarez, thank you so much. Look out for those reptiles in the water. It's all I got to say. It's Florida.
All right. And more rain is expected to drench South Florida today. CNN Meteorologist Elisa Raffa joining us now with a look at the forecast. How is it looking? I don't like that graphic behind you. That says a lot more rain on the way.
ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Yeah. This is the rain that fell, and we're still looking at four to eight inches on top of this. I mean, it's just incredible the amount of rain that we've already gotten, and four to eight inches of rain is nothing to sneeze at. I mean, look at some of these totals over the last 48 hours, huge swaths of 10 inches or more of rain. We're talking about some places got up to 20 inches of rain. Fort Lauderdale officially a foot of rain, Miami, nine inches, Sarasota, more than seven. In Fort Lauderdale, just in one day, we got nine and a half inches of rain. Not only is that an entire month's worth of rain, but it makes it the eighth wettest day on record. Period. So, just incredible prolific amounts of rain.
Still looking at flood risk as we go through the day today. It's a moderate level three of four where we can still get downpours because we have this stationary front chest part and all this tropical moisture that just keeps feeding in it. That's why we've had some of this flooding rain as we went through the last couple of days and it continues through the day today. As we go into the weekend, it starts to ease up a little bit and will start to dry out a little bit more. But, again, until then, through Friday, we're looking at another four to eight inches of rain in this area. Some totals up to 10 inches possible, again, from Fort Pierce down to Miami and then back to Fort Myers.
Now, we do know that our rain is getting more intense. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. That means we can squeeze out heavier downpours. And we see a little bit of an uphill trend here with that for here your average hourly rainfall rates in Miami since 1970. And that's a trend really for a lot of the country. When you look at the southeast, on our heaviest one percent of days, those heavy rainfall days are 37 percent heavier, the rain again just squeezing out in larger deluges. If you look at the northeast, you're looking at a 60 percent change in heavier rain.
And again, what we find especially is that we have more extreme hourly rainfall rates, right? So, if you look at all the rain that we get in a year, maybe the yearly rain isn't going up. But, what happens is, is we get a lot all at once. We're changing the extremes. Heavy rain is heavier and droughts can become more extreme. All because we're fueling that atmosphere even more, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Elisa, thank you so much.
Still to come, some Ukrainian convicts get a chance at redemption if they agree to go to the battlefield. That story coming up. Plus, the family of a hostage rescued from Hamas speaks to CNN. The dramatic details of what Andrey Kozlov endured during captivity, coming up.
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WHITFIELD: All right. The leaders of the world's richest democracies are meeting in Italy, and they have a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the West will not abandon Ukraine. The three-day G7 summit is now underway. The focus is expected to be on aid for Ukraine, and according to sources, the G7 nations are poised to announce agreement on a new loan for Kyiv.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents are set to meet in the coming hours. The summit comes less than one week after the far-right parties dominated in European parliamentary elections.
NATO defence ministers are gathering in Brussels, meantime, for a two- day meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg said he welcomed the choice by many countries in the alliance to let Kyiv fire across the border into Russia. And in opening remark shortly after, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said there have been at least 350,000 Russian casualties since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
CNN's Clare Sebastian joining me now live from London. Good to see you, Clare. So, what is expected to come out of this meeting?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Fred, this is the last high- level meeting that we're really going to see from NATO members before we get to the leaders' summit in Washington in July. So, the idea here, according to comments that we've had from Jens Stoltenberg this morning, is to try to finalize what he is calling a more robust framework, which will see the NATO alliance take over more of the coordination for security and assistance deliveries to Ukraine. That includes, of course, training of the troops as well. This will also include, he says, a financial pledge. So, we may expect to hear more details on that at the end of this two-day meeting, and of course, that will all push ahead to Washington in July.
This is about NATO institutionalizing, making more predictable aid to Ukraine. Of course, the backdrop to this, number one, is that European countries in particular are looking to what might happen in November in the U.S. election. Perhaps a return by former President Trump would aid to Ukraine more uncertain. So, they're trying to enshrine this ahead of time.
And secondly, looking at what happened between October and April, the delay in U.S. aid to Ukraine because of the wrangling in Congress and the untold damage that that did to Ukraine's fortunes on the frontlines, Jens Stoltenberg saying that he wants to avoid those gaps and delays in future. Fred.
WHITFIELD: And let's talk more about those plans to fill in the gaps in manpower on the frontline.
SEBASTIAN: Yeah. So, Ukraine is obviously trying to mobilize a lot more men. This is the other part of this. This is not just the lack of weapons that has been the problem. There is also a lack of soldiers as well. We know that many thousands have died and others need to be rotated out. So, one of the ways they're doing that is looking to try to recruit inmates from prisons. This is a very new experiment just a few weeks in, and CNN gained some exclusive access to how that recruitment drive is working.
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SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Think twice before coming to us, says this battalion commander of Ukraine's Third Assault Brigade. We are really tough. This is Ukraine's newest effort to solve a crippling manpower shortage on its frontlines. CNN gained exclusive access inside a Ukrainian prison, as inmates are given the chance to choose another path.
SERHII, UKRAINIAN PRISONER WHO WANTS TO ENLIST (Interpreted): It so happened that during a fight I killed a person. I foolishly killed a man.
I have a wife and children. I have to protect my wife, my kids, my family.
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SEBASTIAN (voice-over): The vetting process is stringent, less than a month since President Zelenskyy signed the law, allowing some prisoners to apply for early parole to join the armed forces. Ukraine's Justice Ministry says from almost 5,000 applicants, nearly 2,000 prisoners have been released to fight. Basic training already underway.
For 28-year-old Dmytro, the decision was personal.
DMYTRO, UNRAINIAN CONVICT RELEASED TO FIGHT (Interpreted): Two missiles hit my house. I had two small children and a wife. Nobody survived. At that moment I was already in prison in Kharkiv. I am here not only for revenge, but also for people who are suffering.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Ukraine is keen to differentiate its prison recruitment efforts from that of Russia, the late Yevgeny Prigozhin drafting thousands of inmates into his Wagner paramilitary group, the so-called meat grinder assault in Bakhmut that cost thousands of lives. DENYS MALIUSKA, UKRAINIAN JUSTICE MINISTER: We selected the best prisoners we have, and those who volunteer to participate in the mechanism, we passed them through all legal and healthcare checks.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): The Justice Ministry says, so far, the experiment is going well.
MALIUSKA: My understanding is their morale is far better than any other conscripts. They receive good salary, respect, uniform, better living conditions.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): And yet, for some of these men who may be on the frontlines by the end of summer, this was not an easy decision.
VITALIY, UKRAINIAN PRISONER WHO WANTS TO ENLIST (Interpreted): My family is very worried. To be honest, they don't support me. It's a choice. Because now the situation at the front is difficult.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): A chance to turn around their own fortunes and they hope the fate of their country.
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SEBASTIAN: So, so far, the numbers are relatively small, as you heard there. Around 2,000 so far have been officially freed by the courts out of some 5,000 applicants, if you consider that President Zelenskyy said in February that he estimated 31,000 Ukrainians had been killed. By the way, that is less than half of the U.S. estimate. You can see that this is only part of the solution. But, clearly, Ukraine has to do everything it can, look for weapons from its allies and try to mobilize more men at home in a variety of different ways. Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Clare Sebastian, great report. Thank you so much.
All right. Now, to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The family of an Israeli hostage who was rescued in the IDF raid in central Gaza on Saturday is sharing details of the abuse and punishment that he suffered during months of captivity. Andrey Kozlov was working as a security guard at the Nova Music Festival on October 7 when he was kidnapped by Hamas.
CNN's Paula Hancocks spoke to his family about his rescue and what the future holds.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the Israeli military launched Saturday's rescue mission in Gaza, one of the hostages thought they had come to kill him. Andrey Kozlov shanked (ph) his name in terror to the troops. His family says the Hamas guards told them for months, the sounds of war they were hearing were Israel trying to target them because they were causing trouble for the state. His brother Dmitry tells me he didn't understand why the IDF came. He was afraid they came to kill him. It took some time to realize they had come to rescue him. Psychological abuse coupled with frequent punishments marked Kozlov's captivity, according to his family.
They were trying not to leave marks, his brother says, because eventually, it is their reputation, but they would still punish him this way or the other. He has told us there were some moments he will never share with us, his father says. But, what he did share is that at the hottest time of the day, they would cover him in blankets. It's a difficult ordeal to be dehydrated through heat. Kozlov, 27-years- old, is a Russian citizen who moved to Israel almost two years ago. He was working as a security guard at the Nova Music Festival on October 7 when he was kidnapped and taken into Gaza. His parents flew from Russia Sunday for an emotional reunion, one they hadn't dared to hope for after eight long months.
This is the best scenario we could have hoped for, his father says. To see him alive, to feel his presence and to hook him, it is outstanding. His mother says we are infinitely happy to see him. He laughs. He jokes. He enjoys communicating with all of us, with his family, with doctors, with the people who surround him.
[08:40:00]
His family says Kozlov was shocked when Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to visit him and the three other hostages rescued while in hospital. As for those hostages still in Gaza, his father says a deal or a rescue, whatever it takes to get them out.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Tel Aviv.
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WHITFIELD: All right. A fire is burning out of control at an oil depot in northern Iraq. No word on the cause, but the blaze reportedly began at an asphalt storage warehouse at the depot in Erbil late Wednesday. At least one person was injured and many others have breathing issues. About a dozen firefighting teams are working to put the flames out.
All right. Still to come, one member of a k-pop super group, BTS, is out of the military and back on stage. We will tell you the unusual way Jin is reuniting with his fans.
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WHITFIELD: On Wednesday, several dozen students who survived one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, graduated high school. They were first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when a gunman murdered 20 of their classmates and six adults. The new graduates tell CNN's Randi Kaye how their lives have been shaped by the tragedy and how they are determined to keep massacres like it from happening again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE FISCHER, NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE: Super excited about heading to college. It's definitely a very bittersweet kind of emotion. RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bittersweet because Grace Fischer is graduating Newtown High School without 20 of her classmates. They were killed in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary nearly 12 years ago. Emma Ehrens was there that horrible day too and lost her best friend.
EMMA EHRENS, NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE: Thinking about all the what-ifs of what if they were sitting next to me at graduation? What if we were still friends? Where would we be?
KAYE (voice-over): Both Emma and Grace were just six-years-old in 2012, and seated in their first grade classrooms when the gunman stormed into their school.
EHRENS: We thought it was construction because it's been going on for the past couple days on the roof. And then a guy, armed, came into my classroom and started shooting all of my friends and my teachers and my classmates. His gun had been jammed. And a friend of mine, Jesse Lewis, had yelled at us to run and that's what we did.
FISCHER: We kind of sectioned ourselves into the cubby area, which is kind of like an indent. So, from the door, we're absolutely hidden. I remember feeling like I was in danger.
KAYE (voice-over): Emma remembers bumping into the gunman in her rush to get out. The boy who yelled to her and others to run, Jesse Lewis, was fatally shot on the spot.
KAYE: I mean, you believe he saved your life.
EHRENS: I do. I really do. In the hallway right by the main entrance, there was chairs in front of the office, and under the chairs was -- were people because of the force of impact of the bullets.
[08:45:00]
They were blown under the chairs.
FISCHER: When we got to the firehouse, we had a line-up like by grade, and that's when my teacher was really like, this is really not OK, because when we lined up by grade, like half of our grade was missing, and everyone else was there.
KAYE (voice-over): In the years since, both girls have struggled to cope with the memories from that day.
EHRENS: I've gone to therapy for like six or seven years. I have survivor's guilt. PTSD.
FISCHER: It definitely instilled like a lot of fear in me. And even now, I don't think I've been to a single concert in my entire life, just because I'm really worried about that big crowd of people and not knowing where to go in case of an emergency.
KAYE (voice-over): They've turned some of that anxiety into action.
EHRENS: I want to live in a nation that values children more than guns.
KAYE (voice-over): Both are members of the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, which promotes gun safety.
FISCHER: I do not want future kids of America to have to be scared in the classroom. We really are pushing obviously for a federal assault weapons ban. But also, we do shift our focus to like safe storage laws and also mental health resources.
KAYE (voice-over): They've met with members of Congress about gun laws, and just last week, Vice President Kamala Harris. And yet, school shootings continue.
EHRENS: It's definitely like a knife to the heart when you see it happen again and again after fighting so hard.
KAYE (voice-over): On graduation day, the names of those lost were read, and ribbons marking the day of the massacre worn in their honor.
FISCHER: Because their lives were lost so early, and I went through that at such an early age. I feel like it's my purpose to continue my life like in honor of them.
EHRENS: I know, whatever I do, they will be proud of me. I like to believe that.
KAYE (voice-over): On the most recent anniversary of the shooting, Emma posted this photo on her Instagram, writing in part, "I just want to live in a safe world. I miss you guys every day. I hope you're happy in heaven." The picture shows Emma with her best friend, Avielle Richman, who died in the shooting.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Newtown, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Still to come, Elon Musk under the microscope. He is facing a lawsuit from former employees and a shareholder vote that's worth billions. The details, after this.
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WHITFIELD: SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk are facing a lawsuit filed by former employees of the company. They say they were fired for raising concerns about gender discrimination and sexual harassment. But, the challenges for Musk don't end there. In just hours, Tesla is set to announce the results of a shareholder vote on Musk's contentious pay package valued at some $50 billion. Musk himself claims that shareholders are back in the deal.
CNN's Anna Stewart has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It sounds like the trailer of a blockbuster movie, featuring fast cars and starring robots. Well, it's not. It's a teaser for a corporate AGM.
[08:50:00]
But, given it involves Elon Musk, it's far from boring.
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: At Tesla, we build our cars with love. Like, we really care.
STEWART (voice-over): This was Musk at the 2018 AGM, after the board agreed an unusual compensation package that gave Musk no salary or cash bonuses or equity that vests by the passage of time. Instead, Elon would get a 100 percent at-risk performance award, with a huge price tag now worth around $50 billion in Tesla shares, if Musk hit a series of performance milestones, which he did. But, a few months ago, the pay day was cancelled by a judge in Delaware.
DAN IVES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, WEDBUSH SECURITIES: This is a game of high stakes poker. It all started with the Delaware court ruling that essentially voided Musk $56 billion pay Compaq (ph) in 2018. But, Musk hit all the issues, all the milestones that he needed to in taking Tesla above trillion dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On June 13, we will hold our annual shareholders meeting.
STEWART (voice-over): The Tesla board is now asking shareholders to reinstate Musk's pay package and to move Tesla's incorporated home away from Delaware to Texas.
IVES: Musk is Tesla. Tesla is Musk. (Inaudible). And ultimately, shareholders need Musk. And if Musk starts to spend less time at Tesla, that's a bad thing for Tesla. And I think that's the issue right now at stake.
STEWART (voice-over): Musk has other companies he can focus on, like SpaceX, Neuralink, the Boeing Company, and X, formerly known as Twitter. And Tesla's shareholders may want his attention if Tesla is to evolve from electric vehicles to humanoids, robotaxis and artificial intelligence.
So, coming soon, to an AGM Thursday --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your vote decides the future of Tesla.
STEWART (voice-over): Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. And BTS is back. Well, at least one member is. Jin, the oldest member of the K-pop super group just finished up his compulsory military service. He is celebrating by getting up close and personal with fans.
Here is CNN's Mike Valerio.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly a sense of Jin jubilation, elation far and wide from here and sold the heart of the FESTA 2024 events, celebrating the christening, the commemoration of BTS when it started 11 years ago today. But, people have been here for going on 15 plus hours.
Let's just show you our field of view. So, over my right hand shoulder, these are people who are still lining up to get in, in anticipation of the concert that will be held tonight. The lucky 1,000 fans, though, have already ascended, or I should say descended upon one of the stadiums here that's in the shadow of Seoul's 1998 Olympic Stadium, that's over my left hand shoulder. Those lucky 1,000 fans getting the chance to hug Jin for about two to three seconds.
And when you run into people from all over the world, this woman from India, for example, she made a photo compilation of her favorite headshots from -- of Jin have. She wanted me to have it. And then a Thai super fan took it upon herself to make these fantastic cute cookies in the shape of a cartoon that Jin created a little while back to help promote his music before he entered military service.
So, in that vein, we heard from Jin just after he was discharged from his military service, and we also heard from the Thai super fan who made this cookie, who was going to have a chance to hug Jin. We heard from her boyfriend as well. Listen to what all of them had to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Interpreted): It was so fun for the last year and six months. It's such a relief. I met so many good people.
(CROSSTALK)
VALERIO: So, the why this matters factor in terms of the cultural context, Jin is the first member of BTS to be released from his compulsory military service, being the oldest member of BTS. So, there are all of these fans who have said this is going to be a new marker, for new creativity for BTS eventually to get back together. The other six members are going to finish up their terms of military service and be reunited a year from now, next June. So, there is a lot of gratitude, a lot of excitement that this could mark a new creative chapter. Of course, this is such a cultural force, K-pop, a multi- billion dollar industry, soft power that is projected from Korea, all around the world.
[08:55:00]
Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOAPE)
WHITFIELD: Oh, very fun. All right. This is fun too. One of South Korea's biggest celebrities has made her first public appearance in China. Visitors were able to witness Fu Bao, the panda munching on bamboo at a giant panda reserve on Wednesday. She is the first giant panda born in South Korea, and massive crowds turned out to bid a final farewell back in April when Fu Bao was moved to her new home in China's Sichuan Province. The panda reserve is offering limited five- minute visits each day to see her, no hugs there, though.
All right. Thank you so much for joining me here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Connect the World with Becky Anderson is up next.
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