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CNN This Morning

Ukraine Stands Tall One Year After Russian Invasion; China Offers Peace Proposal for War in Ukraine; NTSB Says, Ohio Train Derailment was 100 Percent Preventable. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

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JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: That's a pinnacle of my life. And we've had 69 years together, still together. And so that's the best thing that happened to me.

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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The Carters share four children together, combined 22 grand and great grandchildren. I just love their love story, almost 80 years.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The perfect couple.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: He invited her to sit in on cabinet meetings at the White House.

HARLOW: I love that.

COLLINS: It's amazing. Like their influence on his president is amazing.

HARLOW: Yes, thinking about all of them right now.

CNN This Morning continues now.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: A year ago on this day from the same place around 7:00 in the morning, I addressed you with a brief statement.

We are strong and we are ready for anything. We will defeat everyone. This is how it began February 24th, 2022.

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LEMON: I think everyone will attest to this, it is surprising that we are still here in this war that Ukraine is still hanging on, still fighting back. Because as we know, Russia, Vladimir Putin thought, hey, we go into Ukraine, it will be done zip, zip, zip, that is not happening. And that is what we are talking about as we are marking this one year.

Good morning, everybody. We're so glad that you could join us. Ukraine stands defiant, unconquered on this grim anniversary. Vladimir Putin's invasion now entering its second year. So, what is next for Russia after a year of heavy losses? Fred Pleitgen is going to join us live from Moscow.

COLLINS: Also China now stepping up and taking a more active role. Can Beijing help broker a peace deal or will they get involved more on Russia's behalf?

HARLOW: Plus, the toxic train disaster in Ohio, we now know the engineer tried to stop the train after that alarm went off but it was too late. Why? The head of the National Transportation Safety Board will join us live this hour to talk about her preliminary report.

LEMON: But we're going to begin this hour in Ukraine after a year of endless bloodshed and horrific atrocities.

Ukrainian President Zelensky delivering a special to his troops this morning as he marks one year since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion. Ukraine's leader vowing to make 2023 the year of victory.

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ZELENSKYY: It is you who will decide whether we are all going to exist, whether Ukraine is going to exist. Every day, every hour, it is you, Ukrainian soldiers, which will decide it.

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LEMON: One year ago today, Ukraine's future was in doubt. Russian tanks and troops stormed across the border from the north, south and east.

But the out gunned and outnumbered Ukrainians stunned the world and forced the Russians to retreat from Kyiv.

COLLINS: And now as the conflict is grinding on, entering its second year, China is stepping up trying to cast itself as a potential peacemaker. Beijing now calling for a ceasefire but U.S. officials and the broader west are skeptical.

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VICTORIA NULAND, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Any peace, be it just peace and a durable peace, it cannot simply be a cynical ceasefire that allows the Russians the time to go home, rest, refit and return.

Listen, if Xi Jinping can get Putin and his army out of Ukraine, I think we'd all applaud and give a peace prize.

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COLLINS: President Biden set to meet virtually with G7 world leaders and President Zelenskyy just hours from now. The White House is announcing even more sanctions aimed at crippling Russia's economy.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is here on set. This idea of a peace proposal is now coming after we heard that they may be preparing in China to provide weapons to Russia. So, what is this actually looking like?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. So, that is the backdrop here. When you look at this peace proposal that China just put out earlier this morning, a lot of the points in it are not all that controversial, right? You have these concepts, respecting sovereignties of all countries, seizing hostilities, resuming peace talks, facilitating grain exports. Those are all ideas that those who want an end to this conflict would support.

But it's coming from the Chinese. And as you said, we need to consider kind of the backdrop here, which is, number one, they have been economically allowing Russia to maintain this war, build up its economy while they have engaged in this war. And then the other thing is they have been providing Russia with non-legion lethal support and the Biden administration is warning that they might provide Russia with lethal support. So, that is the backdrop here.

It doesn't seem like this Chinese proposal is going to be the one that is going to kind of actually kick-start any negotiations. But as you spoke with the secretary of defense, he said he thinks negotiations is going to bring an end to this.

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So, people are still looking for an idea, for a time for that to come.

LEMON: Good morning. Good to see you. As we have been watching the polls, American polls, the polling here, support has been dwindling. Not a ton, but it has been dwindling. And I'm wondering if it's happening across the western world because Blinken is heading to the U.N. later this morning. How does he plan to underscore American support on this one-year anniversary?

ATWOOD: I view today as the closing argument of the Biden administration. We have seen this momentous week. We saw President Biden visit Kyiv. We saw him in Poland. We have seen so much in terms of a moving compelling case from the Biden administration for why it's so important to support Ukraine, not just for Ukraine to live through this conflict but for democracy as a concept to live.

I think the secretary is going to hit on that as the final closing argument this week, as we enter this one-year anniversary of the war. But it is important to note that American public, there is a softening of support for continued support for Ukraine. And I think that that is something that Biden administration officials are keenly cognizant of as they figure out what this next year is going to look like.

LEMON: Softening is a good way, because I said, dwindling, but not quite, but softening. Very good.

COLLINS: Yes. Kylie, we know you'll be there covering it today. Thank you so much. LEMON: Good to see you.

HARLOW: So, what is next for Vladimir Putin? That's the question.

Our Fred Pleitgen joins us live in Moscow again this morning. Good morning. So, it's one year, right? Where does he see this going?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is a very good question, Poppy. It was so interesting, because I heard Don, I think, say that the Russians thought this was going to be over in a couple of days, and they certainly did. I was actually standing at the border on the Russian side between Ukraine and Russia seeing those Russian columns move into Ukrainian territory, seeing them shoot rockets into Ukrainian territory as the war started. And certainly the troops that we saw there, they were waving at us, they thought that all this would be over quickly.

Well, it's a year on now and the Russians certainly are having a lot of problems. We saw this the entire week, and folks can see some of that on their screens, you could see it there as well, Vladimir Putin really trying to rally this nation. But the fact of the matter is, in the last couple of months, there really hasn't been very much in the way of territorial gains on the part of the Russian military.

And one of the reasons for that seems to be that they've mobilized a lot of people but they cannot really get that many weapons to people. It's unclear whether or not that's because their industry seemed to be -- isn't efficient enough or whether or not sanctions are taking a toll on some of that. But right now, you have a case where people are talking about an offensive that is about to happen, but so far, very little in the way of gains, if that offensive is indeed already underway.

And in the last couple of days, we've heard Vladimir Putin speak pretty much every day. There was little except, we are going to continue, we will win, Russia will win in this war, it's a just fight for Russia, very little on how exactly he plans to make a lot of headway except for sending more people there to the frontline, which right now, at least for the time being, doesn't seem to be having the desired effect for the Russians, Poppy.

HARLOW: Let's talk, Fred, about the China component of this. Because as Kaitlan and Kylie were just talking, so now China puts forward this sort of 12-point peace plan, how they think they can mediate it, at the same time that Blinken is really worried -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is really about China potentially providing lethal aid to Moscow and to Putin. A very high ranking Chinese official met with Putin this week. And now, Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, is going to meet with Putin in Moscow.

PLEITGEN: Yes. You know what, I think it's important for us viewers to know that it's almost impossible to overstate just how important China has become for Russia in the past year. I mean, if you look at all the sanctions that have been levied on Russia, a lot of that, they're trying to offset by improving their relations with Russia. We see it day-to-day here on the ground in Moscow, with all the Chinese products that are coming here, Chinese cars that are on the road right now, that China is really becoming an important player.

And as far as this peace plan is concerned, it's certainly one -- I've been taking a look at it this morning, that's being hailed by a lot Russian officials. They believe that it's essentially a pro-Russian peace plan, if you will, one that they could certainly sign off to, which is probably one of the reasons why it's getting so much criticism in Ukraine and also in the west as well. But I do also think that it's part of the way Vladimir Putin sees all of this going forward, keeping the country afloat financially, possibly, to certain extent, military as well, that Chinese play a massive role in that, Poppy.

HARLOW: Huge, and what are they really going to do next is the key question. Fred, thanks so very much for the reporting from Moscow.

LEMON: So, here we are at this moment. CNN has been on the ground covering Russia's assault on Ukraine since this moment on our air one year ago. Watch.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I just heard a big bang right here behind me. I told them we should not have done the live shot here. There are big explosions taking place in Kyiv right now.

I can hear rumblings right now.

LEMON: Matthew, is it safe where you are?

CHANCE: Yes, I think it's relatively safe at the moment. I have got to --

LEMON: There's another one.

CHANCE: I've got a flak jacket right here. Let me just get it on.

Since we last spoke, it has gone quiet again. But we did hear that flurry of explosions, maybe seven or eight distinct explosions.

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LEMON: Well, that was exactly when the first missiles pierced the night sky in Kyiv. The invasion forcing millions of Ukrainians to flee.

CNN's Clarissa Ward was there witnessing it all, desperate Ukrainians forced to leave their homes, their lives and homes behind. Clarissa was just outside of Kyiv, where the Ukrainian forces have destroyed a bridge. They had hope to stop Russians from moving in on the city. In the middle of her reporting, Clarrisa stopped to help elderly Ukrainians make their way through the rubble with their belonings.

So, about a month later, our Ben Wedeman and his crew were in Southern Ukraine where this happened.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Down here, John, down here. Keep on rolling. You see it over there?

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LEMON: A year later, Ukraine is bracing for more war. But the Ukrainians and their neighbors are still not backing down.

And just days ago, our Kaitlan Collins was in Warsaw, Poland, where she met these civilians training to join the Polish version of the National Guard.

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2ND LT. MARK ZALUSKI, POLISH TERRITORIAL DEFENSE FORCE: So, we slowly turn civilians into soldiers. We teach them the structures. We teach them how to wear the uniform. We teach them how to behave. We teach them when to salute, when to not salute. And throughout the very short period of time, you see civilians turning into really amazing soldiers.

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LEMON: Again, here we are one year later. It's easier to get access. It's not the easiest thing, but it's easier than in the beginning. And distinctly remember, Kaitlan, I think in the beginning of this war, we were doing a live shot with you and I. You were at the White House. Matthew Chance was in Kyiv on a balcony. And there was someone else who was with us. But no warning for Fred Pleitgen, and no warning, and then the bombs just started going off, we could hear it in the background. And so the war started in real-time here on CNN.

COLLINS: Yes, it is remarkable. Also when you talk to White House how they felt that night, you would think it was chaos, it was kind of crazy. They had an idea that it was happening. They were prepared for it. And they kind of had already prepared this checklist, Jake Sullivan said, of what -- here is what we're going to do, when and if this happens.

LEMON: Yes. There was also a time when I was on the ground, you were in Poland with the president. It's interesting, I was in Ukraine, you were in Poland. And I think just days before, I was at a field depot, we had some of the stuff and --

COLLINS: Yes, when that fire happened.

LEMON: Yes. Everyone thought like if you were in Lviv, whatever the sort of -- we're in this safe space, but as it turns out, it was a false sense of security because they bombed a fuel depot. And I think that was the furthest into Ukraine that they had gone. And this happened I think just before the president maybe took his trip and you were following here. And then he made that thing about Vladimir Putin should not be in power. And we discussed that on the air as well.

COLLINS: It was not in the scheduled remarks but he said that at the end of his last speech that he gave in Poland.

And one thing I hear people talk about is, yes, Putin was wrong and his assumption about what happened, but the human toll has still been just so hard to see.

HARLOW: And this continued striking of civilian targets, right?

LEMON: And that's -- you covered the human toll and you have been particularly interested in the children and the families.

HARLOW: Well, the kids. Because remember when the maternity ward was bombed and you saw pregnant women about to deliver, being carried out on stretchers. And then you'll also remember the theater in Mariupol. That was like more than 600 killed, a very civilian target. Remember the theater, it was in Russian, large letters that you could see from the sky, painted children across. And the toll now is about 500 Ukrainian children have been killed in this war, about 1,000 have been injured.

And I remember vividly The New York Times reporting over the summer talking about a lost generation. And one of the experts saying there is not one of the 5.7 million children in Ukraine who is not psychologically impacted by this.

COLLINS: And I think the big question going forward is what happens in the next 90 days when it comes to what's actually happened on the battlefield. That's what -- I was in Poland and in D.C. yesterday. When you talk to U.S. officials, that's what they are watching, to see, does this change, does it become even more of a stalemate. We talk with about the F-16s. I am told that is not happening in the short-term right now, unless something drastically changes, maybe long-term.

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But they don't think that that is something that's going to be happening --

LEMON: Well, you're going to have more of your interview with the defense secretary, remember, and I interviewed him there, and some of what he said to me has changed obviously in the year since you have spoken to him. So, it's particularly interesting to see when he said he thinks it would be a negotiated end. This was in Bulgaria that I did on the tarmac there in a training area.

So, here we go, Kaitlan's interview with the defense secretary, the second part of it, coming up shortly here on CNN.

HARLOW: 100 percent preventable, what we are learning from a new report on the Ohio train derailment. The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board is with us next.

LEMON: And the photo journalist that was shot and saw his reporter get killed speaking out from his hospital bed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JESSE WALDEN, PHOTOJOURNALIST INJURED IN SHOOTING: Every step of the way, I have been blessed. You know, just people care.

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JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIR: This was 100 percent preventable.

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We call things accidents, there is no accident.

Had there been a detector earlier it would not have -- that derailment may not have occurred.

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HARLOW: Welcome back to CNN This Morning. The people of East Palestine, Ohio, are learning a lot of new information about what led to that toxic train derailment that has devastated their town. A preliminary investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board details rapid overheating in one of the train's wheel bearings. According to those sensors, that bearing was 253 degrees above the temperature outside when the train derailed. The NTSB says the sensor did trigger an alarm to alert the crew but the bearing had already likely failed by then.

And this investigation plays out, as it all plays out, fingers are being pointed. Listen to this plea from the chair of the NTSB.

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HOMENDY: Enough with the politics on this, enough with the politics. I don't understand why this has gotten so political. This is a community that is suffering.

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HARLOW: So, with me now is Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the NTSB. Thank you, Jennifer, very, very much for your time.

You had a great conversation with my colleague, Jake Tapper, where you taught us a lot last night about what happened. So, let's carry it on from there. Is your big question this morning, what caused the wheel bearing to get so hot?

HOMENDY: We have a lot of questions, Poppy, and thank you for having me on the show. We have a lot of questions. We know for a fact what caused this derailment. It was the failure of that bearing and the failure at that car number 23. Now, it's looking at how we got there. What conditions were present to allow that to happen? And then we are going to look at what would prevent it from reoccurring in the future. HARLOW: One of the things that I really find striking that I think people need to understand is that this railroad operator has these hot box detectors along the track, right? They detected this wheel bearing getting hotter, okay, but not until the third time did any alarm go off to notify anyone. So, even when the first reading registered over 100 degrees above air temperature, it did not alert anyone. And the rule, I looked, by Norfolk Southern is that it doesn't have to alert the crew until it's 137 degrees Fahrenheit. Is that evidence the system is inadequate?

HOMENDY: Yes. And actually the 170, for some reason, increased over a couple of days, now it's 200 that they consider as critical. And, you know, what the crew gets when it's the first way side detector detected it at 38 degrees above ambient. They will get a proceed, non- critical alert alarm. And then they'll get one at the 103. And at the 200 or 253, they got an urgent alarm telling them to slow and stop the train and set the car out. But those temperature thresholds are not set by regulation, they are not set by guidance, they vary by railroad and it's their decision.

HARLOW: They are set by the company. Is that a mistake?

HOMENDY: That's right, we'll be looking at that. It could be. I mean, we have a lot of questions, Poppy, about the thresholds and why they vary so much between railroads. Why aren't they more conservative? Should they be lower? All of these questions we are going to ask repeatedly in our investigation to try to get to the bottom of how this occurred and what led to this.

HARLOW: There were only three employees on that train of 150 cars. Is that safe?

HOMENDY: It's pretty typical of a freight train. And there are proposals right now to go down from two to one crew. In this one, there were two crew members and one trainee, which is pretty typical. The crew did not do anything wrong. In fact, they were already slowing the train when they got the alert. They further slowed the train to stop the train, then the derailment occurred and the emergency brake was application was applied. Then they disconnected the locomotive from the train and moved about a mile up, which is standard procedure. So, they did not do anything wrong.

HARLOW: So, I was struck by the fact that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg yesterday on the ground in East Palestine, Ohio, really, I think, asked the question we are all asking. How is it that a train that is carrying cars full of vinyl chloride, which is a carcinogen linked to liver cancer, cannot be classified has high hazard flammable? How can that be? Should that change?

HOMENDY: Yes. The NTSB in 2014, when the original regulation was being considered by the Department of Transportation, we weighed in and said this should cover a broad array of hazardous materials, not just class 3 flammable materials.

[07:25:11] We continue to have that position. That was then locked in by Congress in 2015, that definition. And so it is something that should be reconsidered and we'll be evaluating that as well as part of our investigation.

HARLOW: Listen to this on another issue from Secretary Buttigieg yesterday. Here he was.

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PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: : When you see the twisted metal there, you realize the difference between a fortified tank car and some of the tank cars that don't have that level of fortification. The target date for getting that done, changing some of the tank cars, was 2025. It got pushed out, watered down to 2029.

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HARLOW: There's a lot of action that Congress can take and could have taken for years on these trains that it hasn't. There has been significant lobbying by the railroads. You guys, as the NTSB, make findings of fact and findings of fault. Do you ever think about saying that it is Congress that bears some of the blame for many delays on some of your recommendations?

HOMENDY: Well, that is considered when we discuss the final board product by the board. We'll have a public meeting and a lot of those issues do come up.

With this specific issue, though, both the Department of Transportation at the time and Congress focused on fortifying rail cars that transported class 3 flammable material and specifically crude oil from the Bachan (ph) region. This train only had a few of those cars. But there are other cars, similar cars that also need to be fortified that don't carry those hazardous materials and won't be covered under that rule that we really need to look at.

HARLOW: I just want to quickly end on what you said at the top here that we played. You are really upset about the politics getting so nasty in all of this. Are you also worried, Jennifer, that the politics of this will actually get in the way of results and solutions?

HOMENDY: I am. I am concerned. This is not a time for politics. There is a time for politics, it is not this. This is a tragedy that communities are suffering not just physically, not just damage, but also mentally. We never talk about that. That is significant. Now is the time to talk about potential solutions that would really address this tragedy. And folks need to allow the NTSB to lead this investigation and to highlight the right solutions, not go after the ones that would do nothing to prevent this from reoccurring.

HARLOW: We know you're going to have a rear field investigative hearing in East Palestine to try to help the folks there, give them some answers. Jennifer Homendy, thanks for your work.

HOMENDY: Thank you so much, Poppy.

HARLOW: Kaitlan?

COLLINS: So many would want to know the results of that investigation.

Also, this morning, we are tracking an Orlando T.V. news photojournalist who was wounded in a shooting rampage that left his reporter, another woman and a child dead. He is now sharing his story from the hospital bed.

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WALDEN: Every step of the way, I have been blessed. You know, just people care.

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COLLINS: Jesse Walden, the photojournalist you just heard from, was covering a crime scene with this 24-year-old report, Dylan Lyons when both were shot. Lyons was killed. Walden says the two were close and his colleague loved his job.

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WALDEN: He had a very strong sense of justice. He would really want everyone to follow the rules when it came to people with power.

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COLLINS: A nine-year-old girl that you see here and a 38-year-old woman also were both killed in that shooting spree on Wednesday that the two reporters were covering. 19-year-old Keith Moses has been charged with the murders. The sheriff's office is still investigating why this happened.

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SHERIFF JOHN MINA, ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA: We are still not sure what his motive was, why he did this. But we want to find out because I know the community wants to know.

At this point, we are still trying to figure out if he was at that house before or after he shot the journalist. And we are still trying to see what the connection was to that house.

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COLLINS: Walden, though he's in the hospital still, says he does plan to get back to work after his recovery. And our thoughts are both with Jesse as he is recovering and with the friends and family of Dylan.

LEMON: Right on. Just awful all the way around.

Tanks and banks. Our next guest has some ideas on how the west could stop Putin's brutal assault on Ukraine. [07:30:00]

Russia has declared Bill Browder a threat to its national security. What he can tell us about sanctions and Putin, that is next.