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Ukraine Continues Fighting Russian Forces One Year after Russian Invasion; Ukrainian Resident Whose Parents were Killed in Russian Missile Attack Interviewed; Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Interviewed on Possible Legal Proceedings concerning Train Derailment that Caused Chemical Spill in East Palestine, Ohio; Defense Secy Austin: U.S. Military Aid Will Change The Dynamics; Secy Austin On Whether China Will Provide "Lethal" Assistance To Russia In Ukraine; Austin: U.S. & Chinese Military Have No Open Communication Line. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Rotating through the Philippines bases. That is a way of force projecting. Add to that a U.S. deal to build nuclear submarines with the U.K. and Australia. That may be a way to try to keep pace.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Ivan Watson in Okinawa, Japan, thank you very much for that, Ivan. Appreciate it.

CNN this morning starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Here we are now a year later. Ukraine is still standing. It remains free. It remains independent. Putin's first objective was to erase Ukraine from the map, to erase its identity, to absorb it into Russia. That has failed and will never succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Antony Blinken weighing in one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. It's remarkable to see what they were doing a year ago, where they are now, what their assessment is and what's going to happen next potential.

LEMON: We'll talk about all of that this hour.

COLLINS: Yes. Good morning, everyone. Undaunted and undefeated, Ukraine still standing one year after Russia invaded. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is making a bold vow this morning, telling his forces that 2023 will be, quote, the year of victory. The big boost Ukrainian troops are getting on the battlefield.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: You will also this hour see more of Kaitlan's sit-down exclusive interview with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Will China supply Russia with weapons? How worried is the U.S.? LEMON: So here is a question for you. How did you sleep last night

and the night before? The answer to those questions could provide a clue to your heart health. It's serious questions there. Our Sanjay Gupta is going to explain for you.

COLLINS: One year ago today President Putin made his ultimate move. Russian troops, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets poured into Ukraine. Missiles raining down as Russian paratroopers closed in on Kyiv. It looked like Ukraine's capital could fall. But the outnumbered Ukrainians stood their ground. They drove the Russians back and inflicted heavy losses with the help of weapons from the U.S. and the west. Now, one year later, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says he believes 2023 is going to be the year of victory for Ukraine over Russia. He rallied his troops with this message this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Zelenskyy was visiting wounded soldiers in the hospital and awarding medals. He is also preparing to give a news conference shortly. And Poland, and this is sniff, just announced that it has made its first delivery of those Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. These are cutting edge, German made battle tanks, something that Ukraine desperately wanted. This morning you see the White House there, President Biden is set to meet virtually with Zelenskyy and other G7 world leaders on the grim anniversary. We have seen a show of solidarity around the world as this anniversary hits. The Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and other landmarks across the globe lit up in blue and yellow.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is on the ground in Ukraine. Clarissa, you have covered this war since before day one in the preparations when it seemed like it was inevitable. What is it like being there on the ground a year after this invasion first started?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kaitlan, it's hard to imagine that this time a year ago we had been up all night watching explosions light up the night sky. Intelligence services at that time were predicting that within a matter of days probably the city of Kyiv would fall. Quite clearly, it has not fallen. It is still standing strong. The Ukrainians have made a series of impressive gains on the battlefield with counteroffensives taking back territory around the country.

But the Ukrainian leadership is telling us that their goal is to take back everything that was taken, even dating back to 2014 when Russia first annexed Crimea. And there is no question that that is going to be a challenging road ahead for them, particularly when you look at the fighting in the east which is grinding on. It's almost looking like something of a stalemate. And that's why I think you're seeing the Ukrainian leadership repeatedly asking the U.S. and NATO and its supporters for the heavy weaponry that they believe is needed to finish this off, to win this war once and for all.

I asked one senior Ukrainian official whether that message was imparted once again to the Biden administration when President Biden visited here. He said, yes, of course, we spent a lot of time discussing it. America understands and it is now in their hands, Kaitlan.

LEMON: Clarissa, I have got a question for you. You have a new CNN special report this weekend, and you spoke to a woman who survived a missile attack in Dnipro. What did she tell you?

[08:05:02]

WARD: Don, we think it's really important when talking about the war within Ukraine just to try to remind our audience the staggering scale of the loss, the grief, the sacrifice. This is a young woman who lost both of her parents when a huge Russian 2,000-pound missile, the size roughly of a city bus, slammed into the residential apartment building where she was taking a nap in the next door room as her parents sat in the kitchen. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WARD: When you look at it now, what do you feel?

The missile sliced Nastya's one-bedroom apartment in half, killing both of her parents in the kitchen while just inches away Nastya clung on to life.

I think for a lot of people it's hard to understand why Russia would use this huge missile that's intended to take out an aircraft carrier in a residential area. How do you try to understand why Russia would do something like this?

NASTYA, UKRAINIAN RESIDENT: I don't understand.

WARD: Can you tell me a little bit about your mom and dad, what they were like as people?

NASTYA (through translator): They were very cheerful people. They were always ready to lend a helping hand. And all their lives they were next to each other. And they left behind a person like me. I'm very grateful to them for putting the best in me.

WARD: Do you ever wonder why you were saved? It's this extraordinary image that we see of you surviving the un-survivable.

NASTYA (through translator): I've been thinking about this a lot. Because, well, it's unrealistic. My mother's last words were Nastya, go get some rest. You have to go to work. And the time was late, almost half past 4:00. And I had to leave for work at 7:00.

WARD: Take your time if you want to take a break.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WARD (on camera): Nastya also had just lost her boyfriend about a month before that. He was fighting on the front lines of Kharkiv. And she told us she is trying to get on with her life now. And like so many Ukrainians faced with just unimaginable loss, she really has no choice but to be strong and to move on. Don, Kaitlan, Poppy?

COLLINS: It's amazing.

LEMON: Clarissa Ward, yes, right, amazing, in Kyiv for us this morning. Thank you very much for that. And you can watch all of Clarissa's remarkable special report, "The Will to Win, Ukraine at War," Sunday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

HARLOW: My goodness. Hard to take your eyes off that screen. Clarissa, thank you for that reporting.

Let's turn to this. Federal investigators now say the toxic train derailment in Ohio was 100 percent preventable. That's a quote. But the National Transportation Safety Board says there is no evidence that the train's crew did anything wrong. Its preliminary report finds an alarm went off and warned the crew a wheel bearing was way overheated before the disaster. The engineer tried to stop the train. It was too late. Last hour I spoke to the chair of the NTSB. Here is what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: This is not a time for politics. There is a time for politics. It is not this. This 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 to go after the ones that would do nothing to prevent this from recurring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Really important to hear that. And all 38 cars derailed, 11 of them carrying hazardous material that subsequently ignited fueling fires, and five of those derailed cars carrying more than 115,000 gallons of vinyl chloride which is highly flammable, and the CDC says it could increase the risk of cancer.

[08:10:00]

With us now is the Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. Attorney General, thank you for your time this morning. I have here a civil referral that you received from the Ohio EPA. But you have not yet received a criminal referral from the Ohio EPA like Pennsylvania has from the Pennsylvania EPA. Are you expecting a criminal referral?

DAVE YOST, OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have different laws between our states. In Ohio, criminal jurisdiction in almost all cases, and including this, rests with the local county prosecutor. We have been in contact with the local county prosecutor, and we may be of assisting -- we may be assisting him. But at this point he is not impaneled a grand jury to my understanding.

HARLOW: In your judgment, from what you have seen in reading this preliminary NTSB report, do you think a criminal referral and a grand jury being impaneled would be appropriate?

YOST: Well, I think an analysis of a predicate, whether there is a predicate for an investigation, is entirely appropriate. Remember, we are very early. This is a preliminary report from the NTSB. There are a lot of facts that I still don't know, and we had a craw orc working on this weeks now. This is a complicated situation. And as the chair of the NTSB said, no time for politics.

HARLOW: Yes, no question about that. What is your biggest question this morning?

YOST: Well, I want to know -- at the moment, my burning question is whether there is -- whether had the train been shorter, had there been additional staff, could this have been averted based on the alerts that occurred? How long is the reaction time and how is that influenced by the size of the train? Those are matters that are under the control of the operator. There is a ton more questions out there, and we are just going to have to work through this process.

HARLOW: You talk about the control of the operator, Mr. Attorney General, and that means the company, Norfolk Southern. They and all their big competitors lobby Congress hard. They spend a ton of money lobbying Congress. And subsequently a number of safety regulations have been delayed. I am not saying ones that would have necessarily stopped this accident, the derailment. We don't know that yet. But I do wonder if you put some onus on Congress just in terms of delaying a lot of safety regulations that have been recommended to them?

YOST: Well, recommendations are a dime a dozen. The question is, is a recommendation going to work? Is it worth the cost of it? And I would respectfully suggest to all of the people that are opinionating on this, we don't know enough facts at this point to be offering that. Now, I think every American thinks Congress is somewhat dysfunctional and ought to be doing a better job at its work. But in this particular case, I don't think we know enough.

HARLOW: I hear you. I also know, though, you said a few days ago on another network that you would be looking at changes in the regulatory sphere. Those are your words. And so people don't necessarily understand how the administrative law part of this works. These proposals have to go through notice and comment. That takes a long time. They have to go through a formal cost-benefit analysis, which isn't a bad thing, but it often means that things don't get done.

So to do that point, let's move on to the people. A lot of these folks in East Palestine are being offered money, $1,000 checks from the company. Norfolk Southern says it's OK, you don't waive your legal rights if you take this money. Are you sure of that, sir? And would you recommend these families take money from the company now? YOST: Well, it depends what the paper says, right? If it's simply a

permission to come on to your premises to do testing, that's not a problem. On the other hand, if there is a waiver for damages included, even if it looks like it doesn't extend to that, I would want to get legal counsel before I say. If it was one of my family members, I wouldn't let them sign any papers without knowing exactly what was in front of us and having our own legal counsel. You can bet that the people who drew up that paper had a lawyer.

One other thing about the people there. Everybody and his brother is coming out. And I'm glad that the secretary of transportation came out, even if it was three weeks late, but, look, some of these other folks, people need to get back to their lives. They don't need to be looked at like there is some kind of zoo exhibit. And the disaster voyeurs that are parachuting in to get their 15 minutes on a camera somewhere, give it a break, please. We've got this.

[08:15:00]

HARLOW: OK, final question to you, I think that puts families in a really tough position because many families can't afford legal counsel, to hire a lawyer to tell them if they should take the money, and at the same time, they need the money. So, what did they do?

YOST: Well, they should, there are a lot of lawyers on the ground there. I'm not going to recommend one, but most of them will are happy to talk to you without money.

HARLOW: OK.

YOST: In addition, I'm working with the governor's administration. FEMA could be on the ground to help with some of these pressing economic problems, people that maybe are living paycheck to paycheck.

HARLOW: Yes.

YOST: And hoping that we can get FEMA involved.

HARLOW: OK, we appreciate your time, Mr. Attorney General, thanks very much.

YOST: Thank you.

HARLOW: Don?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR Well, if you have trouble sleeping, you're going to want to hear this new study. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to explain, how that lack of sleep could affect your heart.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also, just ahead, you're going to hear more of our interview with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. His warning for China if it gives Russia weapons to use in Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Today marks one year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. There's no real end in sight right now after 12 months of intense fighting, but Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is declaring that the war will end in 2023, I sat down with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, outside of his office at the Pentagon yesterday for his view on where the war stands. How he thinks it could end.

[08:20:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: When you look at this, and you're making your assessment, do you think this ends with negotiations? Or does it end on the battlefield?

LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Most likely, it will end with some sort of negotiation. Yes, and what the Ukrainians are interested in is getting there -- getting the Russians out of their sovereign territory. And I think that's probably going to be their going-in point. But you know, I'll let the Ukrainians speak for themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Austin and I also discussed the threats that are posed by China and U.S. as concerns about Beijing considering potentially providing Russia with lethal military assistance. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We heard recently, the U.S. revealing some intelligence, they do believe China is preparing to provide potentially lethal assistance to Russia to help them in Ukraine. Tell us what you're saying.

AUSTIN: We've not seen any China provide any material assistance to Ukraine, or to Russia at this point. China hasn't take that -- taken that off the table for sure. I've engaged my counterpart early on, and told him that this would be a very bad mistake. If China were to do this, for the complicate things.

COLLINS: And you think they're preparing to do that?

AUSTIN: I don't, I can't speak for the Chinese. I mean, they have tremendous capabilities. And so, again, if they were to do that, it would be ill-advised.

COLLINS: When it comes to that, if they -- if they do take that step, and China does move to provide lethal assistance to Russia for this. What are the consequences going to look like for China?

AUSTIN: Well, you know, of course, there's reputational risk. And of course, I'm sure China would love to enjoy a good relationship with all the countries in Europe. And again, if you just look at the numbers of countries around the world, that really think that what Russia has done is horrible. I mean, adding to that, I think China, that would be a very, very ill-advised step for China to take.

COLLINS: What if, significantly help Russia, though, if they did add that, you know, how much -- how much of a blow would that be for the Ukrainians? If Russia starts getting that kind of assistance, from China?

AUSTIN: Well, you know, again, I don't want to get into hypotheticals but it's clear that if the China has a lot of capability in terms of munitions and weapons, and if they provide the, you know, substantial support to Russia, it prolongs the conflict.

COLLINS: With China, recently, the tensions have gotten worse between the United States and China, especially after the U.S. shut down that surveillance balloon. You tried to call your Chinese counterpart and they didn't answer.

AUSTIN: Yes, so, Kaitlan, the day that that happened, my office reached out to his office to schedule a call. And they did not schedule the call.

COLLINS: Did that surprise you at all?

AUSTIN: Not really, you've heard me say a number of times Kaitlan, that, I think it's really, really important to make sure that we maintain lines of communication open. I think leaders need to be able to talk to each other to avoid misperceptions and manage crises. And so, this is really important. And so, we hope that the Minister Wei will have a change of heart and schedule that call.

COLLINS: When was last time you talked to him?

AUSTIN: The last time that I talked to him was a couple of months ago. So.

COLLINS: Wow. I mean, how concerning is that the secretary of defense in the U.S. can't get your counterpart in China on the phone?

AUSTIN: Again, I (INAUDIBLE) --

COLLINS: It must be a big risk involved with that.

AUSTIN: I think it's important to be -- it's not like we don't have any lines of communication open. You just saw Secretary Blinken talk to his counterpart in Munich. And so, their diplomatic lines of communication open. But I think for the military, it's really, really important that we maintain open lines for communication.

COLLINS: And right now, there's not really one between the U.S. military and the Chinese military?

AUSTIN: That's right, but it doesn't mean that there won't be want. So, I think, you know, we'll continue to make sure that we stressed the importance of this and hopefully, Minister Wei will schedule that call. He knows where to find me.

COLLINS: He knows where to find you. When it comes to shooting down the balloon, what that looks like. There were questions about whether President Xi knew about exactly where the balloon was going, what it was doing? Is there a disconnect, in your sense between the Chinese president in his own military?

AUSTIN: That could be, I think the Chinese will have to answer that question but -- it could very well be that he was not informed of what was going on.

COLLINS: When it comes to the U.S. response on these spy balloons, we saw several shutdown within a matter of days. We haven't seen any -- that we know of that have been shut down in the last several days. Is that because we're not seeing any, or the United States is deciding and changing the threshold of what it's shooting down and when?

[08:25:15]

AUSTIN: There been no threats reported, no balloons that have been reported to me, that we need to be concerned about. But if only evaluate each case on its own merits, Kaitlan, you know, we'll assess the issue if it's a threat, you know, we'll deal with it. In the case of these three balloons that we engaged before, they were all operating in airspace that would present a hazard to civilian air traffic. And they had traveled routes that pass by our some of our sensitive sites and whether or not they had the ability to collect, we don't know. But in exercising an abundance of caution, we decided to take them down.

COLLINS: Is that a pretty jarring blind spot, though, that the U.S. had when it came to what we learned about the balloons that actually happened during the Trump administration, that those top officials, you know, your predecessor said they didn't know about?

AUSTIN: Well, we've learned a lot over the years as we've continued to focus on this problem set. And certainly, you know, we use that knowledge and analyzing, what not only what happened in the past, but what's happening now and what could happen in the future.

COLLINS: And Taiwan is obviously a major part of this. There are reports that the U.S. is preparing to send more U.S. military forces to Taiwan, is that accurate?

AUSTIN: I won't comment on troop deployments, or operations, or our training. And what I will tell you, Kaitlan, as we remain committed to supporting Taiwan, in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act, we're going to do everything that we can to help them acquire the means to defend themselves.

COLLINS: The General who's the head of Air Mobility Command recently sent a memo out saying that, China and the U.S. he believed to be at war. Two years from now, he said quote, my gut tells me we will fight in 2025. Is that true?

AUSTIN: What you've heard me say, in the past and I'll say it again today, is I don't see an imminent attack by China on Taiwan. And -- but what you have to -- what, you know, what we can talk about what we see. And what we see is increased activity by the Chinese and the -- and the Taiwan Strait. They we've seen a number of centerline crossings in the aerospace, we've seen increased activity in the waters around Taiwan, as China continues to try to intimidate Taiwan. COLLINS: So, given that why do you not think an attack is imminent? Given you're seeing that increased activity.

AUSTIN: (INAUDIBLE) there are a number of reasons that, you know, that I won't go into here, but I don't think it's and -- and Xi's best interest to attack Taiwan at this point in time. And you have to judge him by what you're seeing. And again, we are seeing an increased activity, we got to make sure that we have that we remain focused on this. And we have the ability to deter China from making a bad decision. And we will have that -- we have that capability now, we will continue to advocate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: You know, what I think is so interesting, is fascinating interview. When he's speaking to you, he has to choose every single word, because the world is watching. And in that conversation about China. China is watching very closely.

COLLINS: Yes, and the fact that he is not speaking to his Chinese counterpart.

LEMON: Huge.

COLLINS: It's really notable. So, she talks about Taiwan there and talking about, you know, making clear what the risks they believe are, if China did choose to attack Taiwan? He's not even talking to his counterpart, not, I mean, not because it's a lack of trying on his part.

HARLOW: Right.

LEMON: And every pun intended is going to say lots of balls in the air, lots of balloons in the air, when it comes to foreign policy affairs. You got the war in Ukraine, you got what's happening in Taiwan and China overall. So, he's got a lot on his plate as the President United States, we were just with, in Warsaw, making that surprise visit as well to Ukraine.

Collins: Yes. And we talked about the Kyiv visit, off camera just about what it meant for the President to go. And the Kyiv Post, this morning also has this headline, we wanted to show. It's Zelenskyy and, you know, for reflecting on one year look, that's him on the left, obviously before and that some of the right now. How he's been transformed into this wartime leader is also just another really notable aspect of what we're looking at.

LEMON: Just the arc of his career so to speak, right?

COLLINS: A comedian.

LEMON: He looks like a comedian and now he's the president --

HARLOW: He's underestimated by everyone.

LEMON: -- of a country that is holding its own against a world superpower. It is fascinating.

HARLOW: Yes.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely.

LEMON: Nice job. Up next, a new study released moments ago, suggesting that your lack of sleep or collectively.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: on this show, could be affecting our heart.