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Putin Marks One Year of 'Special Military Operation' in Ukraine; Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal Shooting of Catholic Bishop; EPA Chief Returning to Ohio as Health Clinic Opens. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 21, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:20]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We've done absolutely everything, everything possible to resolve this problem peacefully. But a new scenario has been unleashed, and peace initiatives have been completely subverted by lies and hypocrisy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. Sara Sidner is with me again here in New York. Good to have you.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Nice to be here.

HARLOW: Thank you for getting up early for us. A big day. Also, Don will be back with us tomorrow. Kaitlan is anchoring live in Poland. Good morning, Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And here, we have been watching a speech that President Putin just finished, a fiery response after President Biden's surprise trip to Kyiv yesterday.

Putin's warning to America and the West overall as Russia's invasion of Ukraine is nearing that one-year grim milestone.

President Biden is preparing to deliver his own dueling speech here in Poland in just a matter of hours from now.

HARLOW: Plus families complaining of rashes, headaches and nausea, but are the symptoms actually linked to that toxic train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio? The head of the EPA is returning to East Palestine as the feds try to figure all this out.

SIDNER: And an arrest in the death of a Los Angeles Catholic bishop, who was beloved. Who is the man in custody, and what's his connection to the church leader? That's coming up.

HARLOW: But we do begin with the showdown on the world stage, quite a morning already. Vladimir Putin and President Biden delivering dueling speeches this morning as we approach the one-year mark of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vladimirovich Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We just heard Putin address the nation in Moscow. He condemned the United States and NATO countries for supplying weapons to the Ukrainians. He described them as, quote, "terrorists," and he accused the West of starting the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN (through translator): We have to continue to make sure that the threat to our lands is removed.

The elite of the West do not conceal their ambitions, which is to strategically defeat Russia, finish us off once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Putin signaling there is no end to the war anytime soon. And hours from now, President Biden is slated to give his own speech here in Poland after that surprise trip to Kyiv yesterday, the middle of the warzone, with no U.S. forces on the ground.

Later this hour, he is scheduled to arrive at the presidential palace here in Warsaw to meet with Polish President Duda.

All of this is coming at a critical and symbolic moment. The Ukrainians are begging for more and more weapons as the bloody conflict is dragging on, with no end in sight.

The big question right now that everyone here has, from Poland to Washington, is how long until the American public and European allies grow weary about sending billions of dollars' worth of aid to Ukraine.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is standing by live in Kyiv. But first this morning, we want to get to Fred Pleitgen, who is in Moscow, where President Putin has just finished that address.

Fred, I know that Putin often saves, you know, his -- any announcements or news for the end of these speeches. What stood out to you?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this certainly was one announcement at the end of the speech.

First of all, you're absolutely right, Kaitlan. it was a very long speech that Vladimir Putin gave. And I would say that it was sort of subdivided into three different phases, where on the one hand, he said that Russia tried to do everything to prevent this war. However, it was, as he put it, the regime in Kyiv that kept attacking Donbas.

But I think one of the other important things that he said, or kept saying, is that he tried to make this into a conflict between Russia and the West, Russia, the U.S. -- and the U.S., rather than Russia and Ukraine, because it was clear to see that he doesn't even consider Ukraine to actually be a state.

One of the other thins he pointed out was the resilience, as he put it, of the Russian economy in the face of all this. Obviously trying to portray that Russia is still going strong.

But he did keep, really, the biggest announcement for the last part of it, saying that Russia is going to suspend its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Obviously, that is something that is pretty major. Both the Russia and U.S. have been trying to extend that treaty. It runs until 2026. It sets caps on the amount of nuclear warheads and nuclear weapons that both countries are verifiably allowed to deploy.

And I think one of the interesting things that we heard from Vladimir Putin is he said that he believes that the risk of allowing, for instance, U.S. inspectors or other inspectors onto their bases is that he's afraid they could get attacked by drones from Ukraine.

[06:05:09]

So obviously, likening that to the war in Ukraine, as well. That was the sort of big major announcement.

But really, on the whole, you could see Russia absolutely not willing to back down in any way, shape or form. Instead, Vladimir Putin really trying to mobilize Russians for a protracted special military operation, as he calls it. Obviously, the war in Ukraine -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: So Fred, he said he is suspending Russia's participation. That doesn't sound like he's saying they're fully pulling out. You know, what are the implications of this? Why is he doing it? Is it because the U.S. wants to come and inspect these military options in Ukraine? -- or in Russia, excuse me. What's the -- what's the situation here?

PLEITGEN: Yes, that was -- that was one of the reasons that was given, but there were various reasons that were given.

On the one hand, he said, Look, right now, we have these sites in Russia. He doesn't believe that they should be inspected by the U.S. or by any other sort of other outside entity, because he obviously believes that that is something that could be detrimental to Russia in their campaign in Ukraine.

He was specifically speaking about those places getting attacked.

He then went on to say, Look, it's one thing about having something with the United States, having an agreement with the United States, but what about France and the United Kingdom? They have nuclear weapons, as well. And obviously, he sees himself in a major conflict with the collective West, as he -- as he kept putting it.

So he's saying, and he made clear, to say this twice, that they are suspending their participation, but they are not going out of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty altogether at this point in time.

He did, however, say that, if the United States decides to develop or further develop any nuclear weapons, that Russia would then obviously do the same, as well. So there is a clear warning in all of this. It is a pretty big decision on the part of Vladimir Putin to make, but certainly not one that he couldn't walk back from.

SIDNER: Thank you to Fred there. You told us that that was going to happen, and that is exactly what happened in the speech. President Putin not backing down; in fact, being more aggressive.

Let's go now to Clarissa Ward, who is in Ukraine for us in Kyiv. Obviously, this speech was had, and I'm sure it was being watched by the leadership there in Ukraine. What are you hearing from them?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sara, we've only heard reaction from one senior adviser to the presidency, Mykhaylo Podolyak, but I'm sure it reflects the general thinking in the leadership here.

He said, quote, "Putin demonstrated irrelevance and confusion, because everywhere there are Nazis, Martians and conspiracy theories." Really referring there to this kind of alternate reality that Putin appears to be presenting.

He accused the Ukrainian government of being responsible for destroying the economy, destroying the lives of its citizens. He accused them of being responsible for starting the war. He accused them of paying more attention to the interests of the West than to the interests of their own Ukrainian people.

Really reflecting a sort of startling take on the actual events that we have seen transpire on the ground in the last year. He said, quote -- talking about the Ukrainian government again -- "They unleashed the war, and we continue to use force to stop it."

This kind of thinking, this sort of alternative reality, I think, really underscores why it is that the Ukrainian government has shown such reluctance to really sit down at the negotiating table with Vladimir Putin or with his emissaries and try to hash out some kind of a political situation.

Because at this stage, it's clear that there is such a discrepancy in understanding and perspective on the war, and there's such a complete lack of respect for truth and for facts, that the Ukrainians just don't believe there's any prospect of being able to take Russia at its word, even if it were to offer a more conciliatory approach.

So while you won't see most people here on the ground focusing too much on Putin's speech today, I do think it's fair to say that the leadership will be offering this as classic evidence for why a political solution is just not feasible at the moment.

SIDNER: And that is the problem with lies. Clarissa, thank you so much. When you hear stuff like that from Putin, you can see why the

Ukrainians say he's not dealing in reality. We're not going to deal with him.

HARLOW: And we can't go to the negotiating table there.

SIDNER: That's right.

HARLOW: There's no negotiation to have -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, it was quite a lengthy speech there from Putin. The White House, we should note, said President Biden likely was not watching it, but he will be updated on it.

So for more on this, let's bring in CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger, who is also the White House and national security correspondent for the "New York Times."

David, so good to have you here in Poland with us. You were listening to Putin's speech, as I was, and you heard him saying that they are suspending participation in that nuclear arms treaty. What does that say to you?

[06:10:10]

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first, Kaitlan, what a remarkable two days, to have the president in Kyiv yesterday, here today. And here Vladimir Putin a year into this with a narrative that still is living in sort of his own head here.

I mean, as Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, put it to us earlier today, if the Russians pulled out of the war today, the war would stop. If the Ukrainians pulled out of the war today, Ukraine would just be absorbed into -- into Russia.

COLLINS: Pushing back on what Putin has said, that this is because of the West, that this war is underway.

SANGER: That's right, that somehow the West, you know, was threatening him.

And New START fits into this. So New START is the last remaining treaty between -- arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. It covers the -- the biggest weapons, the strategic weapons that go on ICBMs and that could hit the United States or other countries, or that could hit Russia.

And under that treaty, both sides are supposed to be able to inspect the other to make sure that they are complying with the number of warheads that they could have, the deployment of strategic missiles, and so forth.

Those inspections haven't happened in the past few years. First because of COVID, and then because the Russians would not allow the inspectors back in. What he has done now is said, I'm done with participating in this inspection thing. What he didn't say was that he's going to build more weapons beyond

the 1,550 that are allowed.

Now, the whole treaty expires in early 2026. And one of the big questions is, is this a Vladimir Putin who's even interested in having a follow-on treaty?

COLLINS: A worthwhile question.

HARLOW: David, you wrote last night that these vastly different world views that we're seeing on the world stage today between what Putin just said and what the president will say shows, quote, "echoes of exactly what President Biden wanted to avoid: a replay of the worst days of the Cold War."

The difference, though, of course, is the China factor, right?

SANGER: That's right, Poppy. The -- the China factor is a big element to this because in the Cold War, it was basically between the United States and -- and the Soviet Union.

Now we have a much larger third player. And that makes this a lot more complicated.

It's also a player on whom we are dependent for technology, for a lot of trade. We were never, in the Cold War, dependent on the Soviet Union for key technologies.

Every Apple iPhone that you pick up is made -- or just about every one -- is made in China. Think about that. Almost everything you see at Walmart, or much of what you see, is made in China.

So this is a much more complicated dynamic. And that's why it's particularly important, Poppy, that we're seeing the top foreign affairs official in China in Moscow today meeting, we think, with President Putin, certainly with other Russian officials, while the president is here giving his speech.

HARLOW: Well, Sara, it was notable that just yesterday, President Zelenskyy told a German newspaper, essentially, if China does provide lethal aid to -- to Russia, we're going to have a world war.

SIDNER: Right. And that is what has been the big concern here, because we're talking about nuclear powers now and world war.

I do want to ask you, David: you talked about the importance of China. You talked about, you know, where Russia stands and how -- we are all connected, whether we like it or not.

I am wondering about what you think the possibilities are for Ukraine, assuming, let's say, that Ukraine ends up keeping its territory. Can they join the E.U.? Will they be given a position, for example, in NATO? Do you think that that is a possibility after all that has happened now in this scenario?

SANGER: Well, there's a big argument, Sara, about whether this would be a wise time to let Ukraine into NATO or not.

Think about this: Ukraine is at war. If it became a member of NATO tomorrow, NATO would be obliged to enter that war directly.

So far, it's been indirect. The United States, NATO countries have been providing arms. They've been providing intelligence, but they haven't been providing actual human forces.

And President Biden has made it pretty clear that, while he wants to support Ukraine, he does not want to risk World War III, as he puts it to his staff; and that means no direct conflict with the Russians.

That would end if they entered NATO.

Entering the E.U. would be a different thing, and you could make an argument that, if you really wanted to support the rebuilding of Ukraine, you would bring them into the E.U. right away.

[06:15:09]

COLLINS: We'll be watching to see what Biden says today about that. He's speaking just a few hundred feet away from where we are sitting now.

David, great analysis. Thank you for joining us with that --

SANGER: Thank you.

COLLINS: -- with your reporting.

SIDNER: Thank you, Kaitlan, there in Warsaw, as well.

Back here in the United States, a man is in custody this morning after a Catholic bishop was killed inside his own home. There is a connection between the man and the community leader that people loved.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just heartbreaking to see what happened to him. I'm broken-hearted. I've been crying for the last few days, knowing that he's no longer here to share all of his inspiration and his prayers and everything with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You can hear the pain in her voice. That was a grieving parishioner, talking about how the death of a Catholic bishop has affected her and her community.

David O'Connell was shot and killed over the weekend at his home near Los Angeles. Authorities now have a man in custody, and they say that the attacker knew him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF ROBERT LUNA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: The person of interest was identified as Carlos Medina. Medina is the husband of Bishop O'Connell's housekeeper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Let's now go to CNN's Josh Campbell, my friend, who is live there in Los Angeles up and early this morning.

Josh, what more are you learning about what happened here? I know there are so many people that are heartbroken that this bishop has been killed.

[06:20:09]

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Sara, good morning to you.

You know, 65-year-old Carlos Medina was arrested yesterday by a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department tactical team after this hours'-long standoff.

And just to walk you through the time line here, authorities say that Bishop David O'Connell, who was renowned for his work as a community peacemaker, was found dead Saturday in his home. A church deacon actually went to check on him after the bishop was late for a meeting.

The sheriff says it was a tipster who helped them solve the case. That unidentified person told police that Medina had been acting strange and made comments about the bishop owing him money.

Now, sheriff's detectives also were able to gather surveillance footage near the crime scene, which allegedly showed an SUV similar to Medina's pulling into the bishop's driveway and departing a short time later.

L.A. Sheriff Robert Luna tells us that the motive right now is unclear, and although there had been reports of some type of financial dispute, Luna said his investigators have not yet drawn any conclusions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUNA: I'm not here standing here in front of you, telling you it's a dispute over money yet. It's something that we've heard to this point, and that is something that the detectives will go out and validate and see if it's true or not.

Based on what I know at this time, the suspect had been at the bishop's house before doing work. So there was some kind of a -- maybe a working relationship, but we're still trying to figure out what that relationship was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, Medina has not yet been charged, and CNN is attempting to identify whether he has an attorney.

But this case is so puzzling, Sara. You know, you and I have covered so many of these murder cases where you often hear from a family member or neighbor saying, yes, this was a troubled person, they had a criminal past.

We're actually hearing from neighbors saying that they were actually stunned to hear that this person has been implicated in this murder. One neighbor telling our colleagues KCAL, our affiliate here in Los Angeles, that Medina was, quote, "your average grandpa."

So a lot of questions that remain regarding him. And as investigators work to piece together what happened here and why, community members of all faiths here in L.A. and, indeed, across the country have been expressing anger and grief over the brutal killing of this beloved bishop -- Sara.

SIDNER: It is really disturbing. Josh, you always have the best information. Thank you so much, joining us there from Los Angeles -- Poppy.

CAMPBELL: You bet. Thanks.

SIDNER: The manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin and a movie set armorer have been downgraded. How this could impact their case.

HARLOW: We're also live in East Palestine, Ohio, this morning as a health clinic for residents affected by that train derailment is going to open up.

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[06:26:34]

HARLOW: Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING.

Happening this morning, the nation's top environmental official is heading back to East Palestine, Ohio. This is 19 days after that toxic train derailment.

And in just a few hours, a new health clinic will open there. People in the area have been reporting headaches and nausea, burning eyes, sore throat since that train full of toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month.

Our Jason Carroll joins us live again this morning in East Palestine, Ohio, with more. Jason, what is that clinic going to be able to give folks and help them?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think for some, Poppy, it will give them some peace of mind. It's scheduled to open at 8 a.m., again, just a few hours from now.

Folks will be able to come here at this church, which has been turned into a clinic. If they are still experiencing symptoms, they'll be able to get checked out by experts. Also, later today Ohio's governor, as well as the EPA administrator,

will be giving us a briefing. State and local officials continue to say that the air and the water here is safe.

In fact, Poppy, yesterday they released new testing data which shows that they, at this point, tested 530 homes, and all of those homes showed no contaminants above safe limits.

Despite that, there's been a lot of criticism directed at state and federal officials about their response. Some of that directed at the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg. He spoke about that yesterday on a call with reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY (via phone): I am very interested in getting to know the residents of East Palestine, hearing from them about how they've been impacted with them and communicating with them about the steps that we are taking.

When the time is right, I do plan to visit East Palestine. I don't have a date for you right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Yes, a lot of criticism directed at him. Some folks here on the ground, Poppy, say that he should have had some face time with them already by now.

Buttigieg has made it clear through tweets that he feels as though there's a need for Congress to get involved in terms of regulating the train industry. So he has spoken about that in the past.

But again, folks here on the ground say he needs to be on the ground here, speaking with them face-to-face -- Poppy.

HARLOW: And Jason, who will be on the ground is the AP [SIC] -- EPA administer -- administrator, Michael Regan. And this is his second visit. But there's so much mistrust that we've seen, you know, through your reporting from the folks on the ground there. What do they want the head of the EPA to assure them with?

CARROLL: Well, that's -- actually, it's a very good point. And you're right. He was here last week, meeting with state and local officials and met with a resident, as well.

I think he will be asked when he comes back here again today -- again, his plan is to do the same: meet with state officials, meet with local officials and meet with a resident, as well.

And again, I think what he's going to be asked and pushed on is the long term. Michael Regan made it clear last week when I spoke with him that he will be here. The EPA will be here as long as it takes.

HARLOW: Yes.

CARROLL: People here want to be reassured of that, Poppy.

HARLOW: And I think they want to know what the air quality is going to be in the future.

CARROLL: Yes.

HARLOW: Could this impact them five, ten years down the road? Look at, you know, what happened after 9/11 --

CARROLL: Exactly.

HARLOW: -- at Ground Zero. So Jason, thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: Prosecutors have downgraded manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin for the fatal shooting on the set of his film "Rust."

He no longer faces a firearm -- firearm enhancement charge. That would have carried a five-year prison sentence, if he is convicted.

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