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Ukraine Targets Russian Airbases In Military Operation; South Koreans Vote In Presidential Election; Boulder Suspect Charged With Federal Hate Crime; Families Mourn Loved Ones Killed Sunday Near Aid Center; Tourists Flee As Sicilian Volcano Spews Lava And Ash. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired June 03, 2025 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers, joining us from all around the world and everyone streaming us on CNN MAX, I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, maximalist demands and minimal negotiations. Why the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine seem to be at a standstill, even after Ukraine's strategic drone attack.
South Koreans are voting for their next president after protesting in favor of democracy when the former president declared martial law.
Plus, fleeing Mount Etna. We will show you the moment the volcano erupted and why one tour guide called it a close call.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
Well, Russian and Ukrainian officials met for a second round of peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, but the discussions ended nearly as soon as they began and without any major breakthroughs. Both sides did agree to work on a new prisoner exchange. However, on the matter of a ceasefire, statements from both delegations indicate that neither side budged on their positions.
Moscow, for its part, maintained its maximalist terms, which include Ukraine's surrender of four mainland regions that Russia attempted to illegally annex soon after the invasion in 2022, and the international legal recognition of Russia's control of Crimea. That's according to details of the peace memorandum reported to Russian state media.
Following Monday's meeting the Ukrainian president revealed that his Turkish counterpart suggested a meeting between themselves, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. The direct peace talks came just one day after Ukraine's daring drone strike operation targeting airfields deep inside Russia. The strikes damaged or destroyed dozens of Russian aircraft, according to the Ukrainian Security Service.
Nick Paton Walsh breaks down how Ukraine carried out the operation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A bird's eye view of humiliation. Ukrainian drones halfway across Russian Siberia. Seconds from hitting the Kremlin's most prized bombers.
But the data was bad for Moscow. 117 drones hitting 41 long-range bombers across Russia, a Ukrainian security source said.
A torn-up skyline here in Belaya. Exactly what Moscow dreaded and Ukraine needed, a boost to its flagging morale. Damaging Russia's war machine, for sure, but maybe also its calculus in peace talks.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Our Operation Spider Web yesterday proved that Russia must feel what its losses mean. That is what will push it toward diplomacy.
PATON WALSH: Ukraine hit Irkutsk, 4500 kilometers away from Ukraine, where Google Earth still shows similar propeller-driven aircraft in the open. But they also struck Olenya right on the Arctic Circle. Similar planes also on Google. Another example of something that just was not meant to happen in Russia's brutal war of choice.
The how was as extraordinary. Ukraine's Security Service head Vasyl Malyuk commenting here.
VASYL MALYUK, UKRAINE SECURITY SERVICE HEAD (through text translation): How beautiful it looks, this airbase Belaya.
PATON WALSH: And releasing these images of the wooden mobile homes they used the roof cavities of to hide the drones. Before their release once Ukraine said all their operatives were out of Russia. The planes hit mainly the Tupolev 95 and Tupolev 22, the Ukrainian source said, aging, easy to damage, hard to replace.
They were partly behind the nightly terrors that beset Ukrainian civilians. Whether these strikes make a dent in this daily toll will take weeks to learn, but it may also damage the Kremlin quicker away from the front lines, its pride hit hard, although state TV put on a fierce display of why Russia has been pummeling Ukraine so relentlessly.
It may also, too, change its thinking, perhaps towards peace talks that continued Monday in Istanbul, and of how long Russia can sustain this war if Ukraine keeps throwing painful surprises its way.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Earlier, my colleague John Vause spoke with defense and intelligence expert Matthew Schmidt on the message Ukraine's latest military operation sends not just to Russia but the world at large.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: We'll start with that audacious drone attack on Russia by the Ukrainians described by "The Economist" as an astonishing raid deep inside Russia, rewriting the rules of war. Ukraine's president says it was a show of force, and not just for Moscow. Here he is.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): We don't only demonstrate it to the Russian aggressors but also to all those allies that once were strong allies and have now started doubting us. The trust towards Ukrainians and faith in Ukraine has returned.
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VAUSE: So is the message here to the U.S. president that, yes, Ukraine actually does have some cards left to play?
MATTHEW SCHMIDT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF NATIONAL SECURITY, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAVEN: Oh, absolutely. That might have been the main message because strategically, you know, Zelenskyy has to get the U.S. back in the game really if he wants to continue to compete consistently on the battlefield. There's no question about that. But this was just an extraordinary attack that really did change the way all the major powers are looking at how war is going to happen going forward.
VAUSE: And the White House right now seems to be working from an assumption that Ukraine has already lost this war. It's just a matter of time. How does the drone strike actually move the needle on that, and, you know, and that sort of perception that they've already lost?
SCHMIDT: Well, it lets Moscow know that over the long term, with a limited amount of resources, right, even the amount of resources they might be constrained to, if, you know, with the U.S. pulling out or some kind of ceasefire, Ukraine can still do serious damage to Russia. But this isn't just about taking out the bombers. These attacks went deep enough into Russia and were spectacular enough and close enough to population centers that they got around the media straightjacket that Putin has put the population in.
So this is being talked about. People know it. They can see and smell and feel the war right now in a way that they haven't for the last three years. And that might be more important than taking out the planes.
VAUSE: Well, these talks in Istanbul Monday, the Russians produced their long awaited for peace memorandum outlining their demands for an end to the fighting. There are two options, apparently. First option, for a complete Ukrainian military withdrawal from four regions illegally annexed by Moscow, currently under Russian occupation at least in part. That's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
The second option is described as a package deal, which calls for the demobilization of the Ukrainian military and an end to all foreign military assistance, as well as intelligence sharing. That is quite the opening gambit claim, and it's not new. And yet that took, what, almost a month or so for the Russians to come up with? SCHMIDT: They're not serious about negotiating there. They're using
the negotiations right now to buy time to play a political game. And their intent, even before this attack, was to spend the summer pushing west into Ukraine as much as they possibly could and to try to keep splitting America off from NATO. And they're going to do that before they get serious, to sit down for peace talks.
You're not going to see real ceasefire talks until the fall, maybe even early 2026, given what just happened this weekend.
VAUSE: Yes. And you look at that drone strike by the Ukrainians. One of the big impacts could be creating some uncertainty in Moscow over what Ukraine might be able to do next. But will that be negated without follow-up strikes by Ukraine of a similar caliber?
SCHMIDT: Yes and no. Right? On the one hand, Russia doesn't know if those attacks are coming or not. And so you sort of wait and build that anticipation and, you know, that still has a strategic effect. But eventually at some point, Ukraine has to continue to demonstrate that it has the capacity to punch Russia. So, yes, it's going to have to do that. Is that in two weeks? Is that in a month? Is that in six months? It's hard to say.
VAUSE: And clearly this was a strike not using Taurus long range missiles from Germany or any long range missiles from any of the other European allies, which sends a message in itself, right?
SCHMIDT: Yes, this was a really technically incredible feat. You have to just boil this back and recognize that a non-top tier power just spent a few million dollars, three, four, five, maybe $10 million and took out 40 or so $250 million nuclear bombers. Right? They just took out part of the strategic triad of the largest nuclear power on planet earth. We have to stop and pay due respect to what that was. And they did it without satellites, without their own space program.
They did it by piggybacking onto Russia's local cellular network and controlling those drones from Ukraine. That might be the most spectacular technical feat we've seen here. And so they've really changed the way all the major powers have to look at force protection in the next, you know, decades.
VAUSE: As "The Economist" said, rewriting the book, I guess, for military strategy in many ways.
Matthew, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
SCHMIDT: Any time, John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: South Koreans are going to the polls right now to pick a new president. Voting will last for about seven more hours, with results expected soon after. Liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung is considered the frontrunner. His main rival is conservative Kim Moon-Soo. The country is hoping to move on from months of political turmoil and division after the brief martial law declaration by former president Yoon Suk Yeol in December.
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Yoon was impeached last year and still faces insurrection charges for sending troops to parliament. He denies any wrongdoing. Lee made headlines by live streaming himself and other lawmakers pushing past soldiers and voting to lift martial law.
CNN's Mike Valerio joins us now live from Seoul.
Good to see you, Mike. So analysts say this election is all about a crucial reset for South Korea's democracy. What are the stakes people are describing to you as they vote?
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, I think when people come up to us over the past couple of weeks in Seoul and throughout the country, no matter what party they're from, they certainly want a restart to South Korea's democracy and stability.
But, Rosemary, when we're talking about hitting the reset button, just imagine whatever country you're watching from today, if you have had not one but three acting presidents running the show within the past six months, that is what South Korea has had to deal with after its former president removed from office, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law when he was in the middle of a political logjam.
And then when we're talking about stability, the economy is front and center. South Koreans need somebody to say yes or no to the particulars of a future trade deal with the United States. And somebody, frankly, Rosemary, to go on the world stage and reassure democratic allies that a brush with authoritarianism, that is never going to happen again. So let's listen from the voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIN KA-RAM, VOTER (through translator): I'm not in the generation that participated in the previous democratic movements, but I felt that democracy was under threat and that feeling pushed me to come and vote today.
PARK RYEO-WON, VOTER, (through translator): We shouldn't have to go through things like early presidential election again. It makes people exhausted. I think for the country to be stable, we need to avoid this kind of situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIO: So let's talk about the candidates as we give you a quick primer into South Korean politics. The one who is expected to win, Lee Jae-myung, looks like Lee in English, in South Korea it's pronounced, Lee Jae-myung. He is from the Liberal Democratic Party.
Rosemary, he was the former governor of Gyeonggi Province, the most populous province in South Korea. Also, the mayor of Seongnam City, which is a key part of South Korea's version of Silicon Valley. What he wants similar to the Democratic Party in the United States, liberals around the world, government spending to spur the economy. Government spending on R&D, research and development, A.I. as well.
He in the past, Rosemary, has kind of likened himself to a South Korean version of Bernie Sanders, who wants a degree of universal basic income to start with youth, population and farmers, and then to expand to the entire country. He certainly wants, in terms of foreign policy, a strong rapport with the United States, but also less frosty relations with Beijing, with Moscow and with Pyongyang, which is a departure from the past president, who was removed and impeached.
Going on to the conservative candidate, wrapping up Kim Moon-soo. He's expected to come short in second place. He was a former labor minister under former President Yoon and similar to Republicans in the states sees tax cuts and deregulation as the main means of spurring the economy. Certainly wants a bear hug of a relationship with the United States, he's willing to talk about paying more for U.S. troops who are stationed on the Korean Peninsula and wants to keep a tough stance against North Korea, which is in keeping with the former president and his politics.
So, Rosemary, after midnight local time, maybe around 2:00 a.m., we should know who is going to be captain of the ship once again. And then in the morning, around the 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. hour, the winner will be certified by the National Election Commission. And then South Korea moves on from there. Again, reassuring the world that it is in a new chapter and trying to provide a mark of stability -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. We'll be watching to see what happens.
Mike Valerio, live in Seoul. Many thanks for that report. Appreciate it.
VALERIO: Thanks, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Well, disturbing details are emerging in what authorities are calling a targeted antisemitic attack. Ahead, what the suspect has told authorities and a look at the charges he faces. Back in just a moment.
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CHURCH: The suspect in the violent attack on a Jewish community event in Boulder, Colorado, has been charged with a federal hate crime. Authorities accused Mohamed Sabry Soliman of using incendiary devices in the attack they say he'd been planning for a year. He's also facing 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
CNN's Whitney Wild has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a male with a blowtorch setting people on fire. You know, there is at least one party rolling around in flames.
MOHAMED SABRY SOLIMAN, SUSPECT: End Zionists!
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Armed with Molotov cocktails and a makeshift flamethrower, authorities say 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman burned at least 12 people at a weekly Jewish gathering in downtown Boulder as they peacefully marched, calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need medical for multiple burns on the courthouse laws.
WILD: According to law enforcement, Soliman sprayed gasoline while holding a lighter in the direction of the marchers Sunday afternoon while yelling, "Free Palestine." The FBI is investigating the case as an act of terrorism.
AV KOMFELD, WITNESS: A person who threw the Molotov cocktail had two more in his hand.
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And he was holding them, and he was yelling and he was screaming at everybody. I think he was saying, you're killing my people.
WILD: An elderly Holocaust survivor was among the victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's making Molotov cocktails.
WILD: Law enforcement says two Molotov cocktails were thrown and 16 more were found at the scene.
J. BISHOP GREWELL, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY, COLORADO: Mr. Soliman stated that he had been planning this attack for a year, and he acted because he hated what he called the Zionist Group.
WILD: During the attack, Soliman took off his vest and shirt as they caught fire according to witnesses. According to an affidavit, he told the FBI he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead, stating he would do it again.
Soliman is in the country illegally, according to Homeland Security. He is an Egyptian national and had lived in Kuwait and applied for asylum, but was denied a visa. DHS said he entered the country in August 2022 as a nonimmigrant visitor, and was granted a two-year work authorization in March 2023 that has since expired. Soliman appeared in court.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the matter concerning Mohamed Soliman.
WILD: Soliman is facing 16 counts of first-degree attempted murder, as well as multiple counts of assault and felony use of incendiary devices, among other state and federal charges. Recent antisemitic incidents have become increasingly violent. Sunday's attack coming after two Israeli staff members were shot and killed in Washington, D.C., outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum nearly two weeks ago. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free, free Palestine!
WILD: And nearly two months after a man set fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion using Molotov cocktails.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILD (On-camera): The Boulder district attorney listed a very long list of charges that Soliman is facing and that's just in state court alone. In total, the state charges could result in a maximum sentence of more than 400 years behind bars.
Back to you.
CHURCH: Still ahead, families in Gaza are mourning loved ones killed while trying to collect life-saving aid. What the U.N. is saying about the deadly incidents. That's next.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. Want to take a look at today's top stories for you.
The second round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended swiftly and with no major breakthrough. Both parties agreed to work on a new prisoner exchange, but remained at a stalemate over a ceasefire. Russia maintained its hardline demands, which would effectively result in Ukraine's surrender.
Election results are expected in South Korea in the coming hours. Right now, voters are deciding who will replace impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol. He was removed from office after declaring martial law back in December. Lee Jae-myung, who leads the liberal opposition party, is considered the frontrunner.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says he will soon call for a parliamentary vote of confidence. This comes after opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki won the country's presidential runoff Sunday. The Nationalist politician will have the power to upend Tusk's centrist government by wielding a powerful veto.
Three Palestinians were shot dead and dozens wounded near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza on Monday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said they fired warning shots towards several suspects who advanced towards them. This comes a day after more than 30 people were killed and dozens wounded at an aid distribution center.
There are conflicting reports on the incident, and the U.N. secretary- general is calling for an independent investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANE DUJARRIC, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPOKESPERSON: It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food. The secretary-general calls for an immediate and independent investigation into these events, and for perpetrators to be held accountable.
Israel has a clear obligation under international humanitarian law to agree to and facilitate aid, humanitarian aid. the unimpeded entry of assistance at scale to meet the enormous needs of the people in Gaza must be restored immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: These are just the latest incidents where Palestinians have been killed while trying to receive aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The U.N. has criticized the U.S. backed initiative, warning that it endangers civilians.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on these deadly incidents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, eyewitnesses on the ground, doctors at local hospital as well as the Palestinian Ministry of Health say that the Israeli military opened fire on crowds of Palestinians who were headed to an aid distribution site in southern Gaza. This all happened in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning. The Israeli military, for its part, says that the military, quote, "did not fire at civilians" while they were near or within this aid distribution site.
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And that's notable, because what we understand from a video at the scene where the gunfire was taking place is that this all took place at the Al-Alam Roundabout, which is about one kilometer away from this aid distribution site.
DIAMOND (voice-over): And we know that the aftermath of this attack was quite grisly, with eyewitnesses talking about individuals getting wounds, gunshot wounds to the head and to the chest; doctors describing a very similar situation, as well.
Eyewitnesses also said that many people fell to the ground to try and avoid the bullets. Some of them got up to try and flee, and they were shot in those moments.
Doctors without Borders has said that, according to the patients they treated, there was gunfire coming from snipers, from tanks, as well as gunships in the Mediterranean Sea.
DIAMOND: Now, all of these individuals were at this site for one reason, and that was because they were trying to get to this new aid site run by the U.S. and --
DIAMOND (voice-over): -- Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
And this is precisely the kind of danger that humanitarian aid officials have been warning about for weeks, as they've been sounding the alarm about this new aid distribution mechanism, which has just a very small, limited number of aid sites in Southern and central Gaza, forcing many Palestinians to walk miles, sometimes, in order to get to these sites, and also having to travel through these dangerous combat zones and through Israeli military positions.
The U.N.'s -- UNRWA's executive director, Philippe Lazzarini. He has said that aid distribution in Gaza has now, quote, "become a death trap."
DIAMOND: He and other aid officials are calling for Israel to open up the borders to Gaza and allow large quantities of humanitarian aid to flow in through traditional channels, rather than through this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Climate activist Greta Thunberg is heading towards Gaza on a ship carrying aid. The vessel departed Sicily and is currently to the South of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea.
A crew of volunteers, including Thunberg and "Game of Thrones" actor Liam Cunningham, is taking what the group describes as limited but symbolic amounts of relief supplies.
Before departing, Thunberg made an emotional appeal for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRETA THUNBERG, CLIMATE ACTIVIST: And we are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it is nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of a livestreamed genocide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: A popular tourist destination on the Italian island of Sicily sees visitors running for their lives. Still ahead, the latest on the largest eruption of Mount Etna in more than a decade. Back with that and more in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Scientists have a new warning about the effects of climate change on the world's glaciers.
They estimate glaciers will lose nearly 40 percent of their mass relative to their size in 2020 [SIC]. And there's nothing we can do about it.
And that's assuming global temperatures stay where they are right now. If they keep rising, as expected, scientists believe glaciers could lose more than three-quarters of their mass.
As the glaciers melt, sea levels will rise, and water supplies and ecosystems will be impacted around the world.
Well, geologists say a huge volcanic eruption on the Italian island of Sicily that forced tourists to flee for their lives on Monday has ended, and the lava is cooling.
Mount Etna began producing explosions overnight and was spewing hot lava until late evening.
CNN's Melissa Bell has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here to see a force of nature.
Hikers and tourists were surprised by a massive eruption on Italy's Mount Etna early Monday and sent fleeing for safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BELL (voice-over): A plume of hot gases, ash and rock billowing high into the air above them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BELL (voice-over): "This is what a close call looks like," the tour guide who took this video says. It arrived all at once: an immense smoke; an immense, immense roar.
The eruption began overnight. Geologists say preliminary observations show a, quote, "partial collapse" of the Northern flank of Etna's Southeastern crater, producing this enormous cloud, seen here in a time-lapse video.
Everyone on the volcano has been evacuated safely, local authorities say. Hikers are being told to avoid the summit area until further notice. Etna is a popular tourist destination on the island of Sicily, visited by 1.5 million people a year, many of whom trek almost all the way to its summit.
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It also happens to be one of the most active volcanic sites in the world. It erupts often. Geologists, though, say that there hasn't been an eruption of this magnitude since 2014.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. WORLD SPORT is next, and I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. Do stay with us.
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