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Erin Burnett Outfront

Ukraine: 54 Strikes In Kharkiv Region Over Past Day, 6 Killed; Diplomats To NYT: EU Sanctions Will Target 2 Putin Daughters; Russian Lies Exposed; Russia Doubles Down, Claims Video Of Bucha Atrocities Was Faked Despite Proof From Satellite Images; Calls Grow Louder To Prosecute Putin For War Crimes; Tiger Woods To Play In The Masters. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired April 05, 2022 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:25]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the breaking news, explosions rocking a major city in Ukraine tonight as the evidence of atrocities goes way beyond Bucha. One eyewitness says she saw Russian soldiers doing unmentionable things to innocent civilians in the town of Borodianka.

Plus, the EU now reportedly going after two of Putin's daughters. But will sanctioning them be enough to get the Russian president's attention?

And Russia claiming the images of mass graves with innocent people tortured and killed, they're all fake. How one journalist disproved that. He's my guest tonight.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, deadly explosions rocked Ukraine's second largest city. According to officials, Russia has carried out at least 54 strikes in and around Kharkiv over the past 24 hours.

And tonight, NATO fearing more attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: In the coming weeks, we expect a further Russian push in the east and southern Ukraine. So, this is a crucial phase of the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: A crucial phase.

And the chairman of the joint chief of staff, General Mark Milley, warning the situation on the ground now has the potential to spiral out of control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEF OF STAFF: The potential for significant international conflict between great powers is increasing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Increasing at this point. These are strong words from the United States and its allies. And they come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demands the United Nations hold Russian accountable for Putin's brutal and unprovoked war, going into graphic detail about what happened in Bucha, a town that has become the first evidence of Putin's brutality.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to bring the bodies. Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs, slashed their throats, women were raped and killed in front of their children, their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Volunteers helping to recover bodies in Bucha tells CNN that the number of body bags are in the, quote, hundreds, not dozens. The atrocities committed by Russia spread beyond the horrors that the world is already seeing in Bucha.

So, in a moment, I'm going to speak to Paul Ronzheimer, the reporter you met last night. Today, he was in Borodyanka, just about 40 miles west of Kyiv. Just look at what's left as he drove down one road. It's a nine-story apartment building you see a second ago, a hold middle, these other buildings collapsed after being hit by Russian missiles, crushing anyone who happen to be inside.

Ronzheimer also spoke to a woman who 78-year-old sister was shot while out looking for food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They shot her below the waist as she was with her back to them. She remained there lying in the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That woman's sister is sadly one of nearly 1,500 Ukrainian civilians that the U.N. estimates have so far been killed by Russians. And I just want to be clear here, that the real count, I think we all can just know it and say at this point, no one has any idea. We do know one thing, it's going to be way higher than that. Christiane Amanpour is OUTFRONT live in Kyiv tonight.

And, Christiane, what is the latest on the ground tonight?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, as you know, around here, the situation is calm in terms of Russian activity, but what, of course, you are seeing on the ground is the situation anything but resolved. You see reporters and others keep going and uncover all of this stuff, what we are getting to see.

You mentioned Kharkiv, I was there over the last 24 hours, there was a lot of artillery duels but no sign yet there that Russians had any ability or attempt to try and take it again. They tried once in February in the early days of war, and they were pushed back.

And then, of course, we had a prisoner of war exchange whereby prisoners of war, Ukrainians should be returned. They did tell us what they had gone through under the Russian captors. They also said they want to go back and fight, Erin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Back home and free, these former Ukrainian prisoners of war once held by Russian forces are greeted by friends and colleagues in Kyiv. Freedom for now is the drag of a cigarette, walking on home turf, even if that means using crutches.

[19:05:04]

Bags of food are handed out to the more than 80 former Ukrainian POWs released in a prisoner exchange with Russia. It is a welcome meal and a moment to decompress and reflect on what many here say was the physical and mental abuse they endured in Russian custody.

One POW named Gleb said he was captured nearly a month ago while evacuating civilians. He was beaten by Russian soldiers.

GLEB, FORMER POW (through translator): They hit me in the face with machine gun butts and kicked me. My front teeth were also chipped.

AMANPOUR: Anya and Dasha were in the same unit. It was shelled by Russian troops who they say tried to break them, making them shout "glory to Russia", and they shave their heads, telling them that it was for hygiene purposes.

ANYA AND DASHA, FORMER POW (through translator): Maybe they were trying to break our spirit in some way.

It was a shock, but then we are strong girls, you know?

AMANPOUR: Dmytro says he was taken by Russian soldiers in Mariupol and suffered daily beatings during his captivity.

DMYTRO, FORMER POW (through translator): They would be this 5 to 6 times a day for nothing. They would just take us into the hallway and beat us up. AMANPOUR: It is an ordeal, and it will take time to heal both

mentally and physically, though many say they want to go back to their units and continue fighting.

But before that, Gleb shows us a slip of paper with what he says are the phone numbers of love once of prisoners still held captive by the Russians. He says that he will tell the families that they are still alive and not to give up hope.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Christiane, what more did the POWs, the former POWs tell you?

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, they told us a lot about their conditions. We tried to give you the local attorney general here saying that Russian captors violated the Geneva Convention in terms of how they treated their prisoners. I think the clear thing is that they do want to go back to the front. They know that the Russians are repositioning, and I think everybody is embracing a big fight around the Donbas in the east -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. So, Christiane, please stay with me with all your reporting here.

I want to bring in Paul Ronzheimer, deputy editor of chief of "BILD".

And, Paul, when we spoke yesterday. You had been to Bucha. And today, you were in Borodianka. And I just briefly showed some of the images that you film today. I want to show more that your team captured.

This is what is left. Complete and utter devastation and destruction. Buildings completely taken down, rubble in the streets, it was amazing that you can move.

At this point, do you -- it seems that this is the norm. I would imagine that we expect to see more and more places like this?

PAUL RONZHEIMER, DEPUTY EDITOR IN CHIEF, BILD: You are totally right. It seems to me that Bucha was just the beginning when the world was watching, like the world sees, okay, there are so many civilians dead. But when we came to Borodianka, and as a journalist came to other places, we see there's a lot of Buchas all over Ukraine.

And while we are talking, there are attacks in the east. And people here, government officials from Ukraine tell me secretly, they say there will be a huge attack and we need help. And why is it, they asked me specifically, because I am German, they asked me, why is Europe's government not doing more?

BURNETT: So, Paul, I played a brief clip from one of the people you spoke to today in Borodianka. The woman talked about her 78-year-old sister, right, that she said was shot in the back when she's out trying to get food and just left there to die on the road. She was out to get me.

And here's some more of what she told you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They searched the people. They took their stuff, home appliances and even underwear. Forgive me for mentioning this, women's and men's underwear, dinnerware, gold, it goes without saying.

And then they were taking men. There's this paved with asphalt placement at the church, they were tie up the men there, put them under asphalt and torture the men. They beat them and then -- and then they committed indecencies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: They committed indecencies. We heard what Zelenskyy says are horrific acts. Again, I hate to use the word norm because it is anything but. That appears to be what happened, again and again in town after town, Paul?

RONZHEIMER: Absolutely, and it's like when you go there and meet women like Hannah, and she starts crying in front of you and telling you this story about her sister and how they were together in the cellar.

[19:10:07]

And her sister just wanted to go out and get food, to get something, and then she got shot. Hannah, when we interviewed her, she started crying again and again because the sister is the only one who was left with her.

Then she told us about the people, the men in this village, she said, look, I do not know what happened to them. I know many were captured, some were freed, but others we don't know what happened. We know many were tortured, but many we don't know where they are now.

BURNETT: Christiane, today, the NATO secretary general, Jen Stoltenberg, said that NATO is expecting Russia to conduct a very concentrated attack in eastern Ukraine, with the aim of capturing the entire Donbas region. So, you know, that would be putting all of their firepower in a much smaller place, upping the intensity and upping the potential victory.

What are your sources telling you?

AMANPOUR: Well, the same. Certainly, here on the ground, that is what the thinking is as they see what the Russian soldiers have done in terms of moving and regrouping and redeploying, not just in the east in Donbas but maybe also in the south in order to continue this horrendous pounding of the besieged city of Mariupol, to try and get that city as a sort of land bridge from Russia, from Russia-controlled territory and bridging them all.

But Donbas, as you know, since 2014, the Russians have had a little bit of it. Now they want a whole lot of it. And this has been something that even the Russian ambassador to the U.N. said today to Zelenskyy, when he was busy denying all that Zelenskyy was saying about the terrible crimes we have been witnessing, the execution-style murders that we've been seeing, and Paul had seen and our colleagues have seen out in the suburbs around Kyiv, and deny that, although satellite photos have shown that it was happening there were no other forces were there. So, they are very concerned about the east now.

ZELENSKYY: And, Paul, the people that you spoke to in these villages are the people that stayed. Where are they going to do now? Do any of them have any sense of what happens now?

RONZHEIMER: They are just happy to be alive, to be honest. I mean, they know what happened to so many relatives, to so many friends of them, you know, we were in Bucha for two days. When you see the hundreds of people killed, especially men, the people you met on the street, first of all, they're happy to be alive. I mean, they are under shock, clearly.

And I think they will only understand in some days, weeks, months maybe what really happened in their village. It's --

BURNETT: Thank you very much for your reporting, both of you, so very much.

And next, the EU reportedly planning to go after two of Putin's daughters. So, what do we know about them? This is a big step.

Plus, Russia with a new excuse tonight who they claim who is behind the graphic images that the world is witnessing in Ukraine.

And the calls to put Putin on trial for war crimes are growing louder, but here is the real question: will the Russian president ever face real punishment? We have a special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:22]

BURNETT: Tonight, the EU getting ready to sanction two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is according to "The New York Times," citing two European diplomats. And the White House would not comment when asked about this today, but said new sanctions from the U.S. and EU will target, quote, Russian government officials and their family members.

Now, we all know, though, that there is so much mystery and uncertainty surrounding Putin's family, so it is unclear who these two daughters are actually are, and where they will be sanctioned.

OUTFRONT now, Steve Hall, former CIA chief of Russian operations, and Ronald Marks, the CIA official who oversaw actions against Russia spying operations.

Glad to have both of you on together to talk about this.

So, Steve, let me show you the images of one of the women, believed to be one of Putin's daughters, she is speaking in this picture at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which used to be the central place that Putin would it appear globally. Now, we've been unable to confirm, Steve, these reports of sanctions with our sources at this point. But, obviously, sanctions on Putin had really limited impact on him.

What about on his daughters who are much more global, and spend more time outside of Russia?

STEVE HALL, FORMER CIA CHIEF OF RUSSIA OPERATIONS: Yeah, Erin, allegedly, one is possibly in Paris, or another European place. And, of course, you got the one who is apparently still in Moscow. There is probably not a whole lot of actual strategic or tactical advantage, that the sanctions are going to have aside from putting personal pressure on Putin.

And we've seen that he responds to this personal pressure in sort of a strange way, in sort of a chip on the shoulder way. You recall earlier when President Biden and other Western leaders referred to Putin as a war criminal, he did not say things like Russia would never involve ourselves in the activity, or that we were professional. What he said through his spokesman, I think it might have been Lavrov, the foreign minister, he said this is offensive for President Putin to be called a war criminal, almost as if it was a personal affront.

And that's the kind of personal pressure that I think these types of activities, these types of sanctions are targeting, and they're trying to up the psychological pressure, per se, on Putin.

BURNETT: So, Ronald, you know, this is the interesting thing. Putin rarely talks about his family members, I mean, he completely loathed to do so. But he did once in an interview, a very friendly interviews, that he did with Oliver Stone.

And maybe because it was such a friendly setting and a friendly interview, when the topic came up, Putin actually said something. Here's the exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVER STONE, HOST: Are you a grandfather yet?

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: Yes.

STONE: Do you like your grandchildren?

PUTIN: Yes.

STONE: So, are you a good grandfather?

[19:20:01]

You play with them in the garden?

PUTIN: Very seldom unfortunately.

STONE: Very seldom. You are lucky man.

Two good children.

PUTIN: Yes, I am proud of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Okay. Ronald, you know, obviously, he didn't want to talk about it with Oliver Stone, right, but he got him to say that he's got children, he's got grandchildren, he seldom plays with them.

These are the children that we know about, of Putin's, and their children. There are other things that we don't.

RONALD MARKS, FORMER CIA OFFICIAL: Right.

BURNETT: Now why is there so much mystery about this, Ronald?

MARKS: Yeah, I was going to say, he would've looked happier if he's under deposition.

BURNETT: Yeah.

MARKS: Well, he has portrayed himself as the quintessential Russian czar. I mean, this is about a man of international mystery and power, if I can quote Austin Powers. I mean, the idea of the personal -- Western politicians love the personnel. And we see it all the time. You see it all the time on the air, we all see it on commercials, where family members are mentioned.

That's not how these guys work. This is about -- and somebody, him in particular, this is about projection of power. Family, interesting he acknowledges, but really that does not indicate what he wants, they are not going to be around his statue when he wants that statue in Red Square, okay?

It's an adjunct to it. It's just something that you want to keep out of the way, you acknowledge are a good family man, but he is more interested in appearing with the Russian orthodox church, or in military situations, or writing shirtless on a back of a horse to project his power. That's power. Family in many ways is weakness.

BURNETT: Right, which is an interesting power. It's also interesting, of course, why it's taken so long with the daughters, there are other possible children that we don't know about. All of this, strategically, asks -- begs so many questions.

In this context, Steve, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. today talked about what Putin is doing now. These are reports that thousands of Ukrainian citizens are being taken out of Ukraine, against their will, into what is called, filtration camps. It is a very specific word, filtration camps.

Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AMB. LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Reports indicate that Russian federal security agents are confiscating passports and IDs, taking away cell phones, and separating families from one another. I do not need to spell out what these so-called filtration camps are reminiscent of. It's chilling and we cannot look away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, Steve, these filtration camps, this is a war that has used before, we understand from relatives going to them. They checked their cell phone, who you are talking, to filtering you for how Russian you are, or whether you are a, quote/quote, Nazi, all of these things. It's a very-charged term, filtering.

Why do you think Putin is reportedly now using these camps, and how big are they?

HALL: First and foremost, it is important to realize when a long history of these camps have. The original filtration camp started in the 1940s, after the Second World War, when the then Soviet Union used filtration camps to filter its own troops, Russian troops returning from the front and sometimes returning from POW camps, where the Germans had held them. They're basically testing them to see if they were still loyal Russians.

The other thing we're doing, that they're still doing today is they're recruiting -- their intelligence services who run these camps are recruiting people in these camps to spy on each other, inside the camps, as well as other targets.

So, fast forward to Chechnya, where they also used these filtration camps, that's when Putin started to use these camps as torture locations, as also places to do interrogations. And again, to recruit people to spy against, in that case, the Chechnya targets.

So, now, fast forward again to Ukraine, what you got is a filtration, who is pro-Russia, who is not pro-Russia? Again,, very importantly, there is not just abuse, but there is force abuse going on.

The Russian intelligence services are trying to recruit or forcing basically Ukrainians to say, look, we're going to let you go and not kill your family, if you promise to go back to your hometown in Ukraine and be a spotter for us or be a spy for us back there. That is some of the ways that these filtration camps, which again have a long history in Russia, that some of the stuff they are up to.

BURNETT: And, Ron, do you say that the reports have filtration camps and what you are seeing here at the worst in three decades. Ukraine says right now, at least 45,000 citizens have been forcibly deported to Russia. So, 45 -- that's a huge number, we don't even know the extent of it. Go ahead.

MARKS: Yeah. No, I'm sorry. I lived through Southeastern Europe. I watched what happened in Srebrenica. I watched what happened in the former Yugoslavia and all of this is coming back in a bad nightmare to me personally.

[19:25:02]

But I would say to you, Erin, you know, fear equals power. Fear and bigotry equal power. Putin knows that. The Russians know that.

And this kind of camps, whatever they cared to call them, and their internment camps, or other words for them as well, these are meant to -- these are meant to frighten, these are meant to project power, these are meant to sort those out that are loyal, those who aren't. But this kind of behavior, and the criminality and fall within that behavior, I can't urge everybody enough, having gone through this process, the international court of justice and all this, for god's sakes, we've got to record this stuff. We have to keep track of this stuff.

We have plenty of information, and there has to be some reckoning for this. Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. He's been encouraging war criminal-like activities and there's no two ways around it. However he wants to try to color, that's the way it is.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much.

Next, the satellite images that disprove Russia's lie that Russia was not behind the horrific attacks in Bucha. Tonight, we are learning about new satellite images, we are going to say exactly what they show when they were taken and what they prove.

Plus, children who fled Ukraine now playing in a storage room. Computer desks turned into dinning tables. We're going to take you inside an office building that's been home for Ukrainian refugees.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:30:20]

BURNETT: Forgery, the Russian ambassador to the U.N. saying that horrific images out of Bucha are fake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VASILY NEBENZYA, RUSSIAN UN AMBASSADOR (through translator): Once again without any evidence based on the presumption of guilt, the Russian army is being accused of evil deeds. This is an incredibly low blow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And that's just the beginning of the Russian propaganda.

Matthew Chance is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you think Russian soldiers are human, he says, just look at this. The sharp words of a Ukrainian driver recording these appalling scenes

on the road into Bucha. But what took place here is beyond words, beyond outrage.

Ukrainian officials say the bodies being retrieved are civilians killed by Russian forces in the town. Some with their hands tied behind their backs before being shot dead, evidence of war crimes -- the charge the Kremlin and its propaganda machine has categorically denying.

This is how one of the top anchors on Russian state television explained the massacre.

It must have been the work of British specialists because the town of Bucha and the English word butcher sound so similar.

Maybe it is a joke, but no one is laughing. Certainly not the Kremlin spokesperson, the Dmitry Peskov, who has dubbed the killings a well- staged tragic show and a forgery to try to denigrate the Russian army.

A huge amount of data, he told journalists clearly indicates that this is fake, stage, say Russian officials, after their troops had left.

But satellite images of Bucha first published by "The New York Times" show bodies had been strewn across the streets there for weeks, at least from March the 18th when the town was under Russian control, photographic evidence that contradicts the Kremlin's claims.

It is also raising concerns that more killings will be unearth as Russian forces withdraw. Ukrainian president seen here visiting Bucha accusing Russia of trying to hide the traces of their crimes in other parts of Ukraine that remain under Russian control. It makes a peace deal even harder.

Every day we find people in barrels, strangled or tortured in basements, President Zelenskyy says. It's very difficult to negotiate when you see what they have done here., he adds.

It is sickening to accept that the sacrifice of these people may have pushback the chances of peace in Ukraine, instead of bringing this appalling conflict to an end.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (on camera): Erin, U.S. officials say they concluded that the Russians have committed war crimes in Ukraine. The information that we have seen there from Bucha is further evidence that will allow them to be more able to hold people responsible for what's taking place there.

In the meantime, the U.S. says it is working intensely with European allies to impose more painful sanctions as a result of this on the Russian state -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Matthew Chance, for that report. And I want to go to Malachy Browne, because he's a Pulitzer Prize-

winning senior story producer for the visual investigations team at "The New York Times".

I want to warn everyone, Malachy, as we speak, that the images that we're going to share in the segment, some of them are obviously very graphic and disturbing. It is important because they are the reality that is being denied by the Russians to the world and to their 150 million citizens.

So, Malachi, I want to show some of the satellite images from Maxar, the satellite company. These are taken in mid-March, okay? I'm going to show that, and I'm going to show video from Bucha in Friday.

So, in each case, what you're looking at your screen everyone are the same locations, exact same locations, and objects, like a bicycle near an intersection. Also, Malachi, what appears to be multiple bodies lying in various parts of the street.

Again, the satellite images showing these things are from mid March. The Russians are alleging that Ukrainians that this as the Russians were leaving this past Friday. So, this shows the reality, Malachy. What else can you determine when you go through all of the satellite images as you have done so extensively, what else can you determine?

MALACHY BROWNE, SENIOR STORY PRODUCER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, our process of that is really to fact check the Russian statement. There is a confidence to it, they didn't feel like they had to launch an investigation and the rebuttal was very, very firm. And although, you know, journalists couldn't get in there to document what was happening, or citizens, satellite are passing it every day and taking images if it's not cloudy. And so, that's what we did.

You know, we looked at the position and the orientation of the bodies on the street. They match up the perfectly. They didn't move. They laid there in the same position for weeks, they after day. Those images captured in the same position.

And we know that Russia was in control the town at that time. Today, we just published new imagery, video footage of a cyclist approaching that same intersection. You see a convoy of Russian military vehicles. So, we now know they were positioned along that street where dozens or more bodies were found, as the cyclist turned a corner, two artillery vehicles opened fire. One of them apparently into the path of the cyclist and a plume of smoke comes from that position.

And by zooming in on the aerial footage capturing that moment, you can see that the cyclists clothes, and then weeks later, there is horrific video of what appears to be the same person, the same clothes in that position, lying beside a bicycle, you know, feet away from where the Russians opened fire. So, this is further evidence that absolutely rebuts Russia's claims that this is manufactured evidence and that they weren't there, the bodies didn't appear while they were in the area.

BURNETT: All right. So, I just want to be clear on a couple things you said, one, you talk about the bodies that have been there for weeks and not just there but oriented the way they were. When the journalist first went in and took the pictures, right, you sort of had a body in front of each house. Everyone remember that, some of the hands tied behind the backs, right?

So, you are saying you could check the orientation of those bodies, none of that change. I want to just give a chance to Malachy to play the video that you just referred to that you just got in -- I want to be sure that I am understanding what you are saying. You are saying that this shows the Russian tanks and clearly from where we end up seeing in the satellite images and subsequent video where the dead, the bicyclist is appears to show the moment that that bicyclist was killed by that Russian convoy, correct?

BROWNE: That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. It turned -- the cyclist turns the corner into the direction in which the cannons from those armored vehicles are pointing. One of them appears to be pointing -- firing down the street already, in the direction of where many of those other bodies are found. They're scattered across a half a mile either side of that intersection that you see the cyclist approaching, and that cyclist appears to have been killed as well.

BURNETT: All right. Malachy, thank you very much. It's incredibly powerful. It's -- the reality of the world we live in is that you need this to show the truth, to prove the truth, and it's there. It's all there. It's there in the satellites. It's there in the images and it's there again and again and again -- painfully there.

Malachy, thank you very much.

BROWNE: Thanks.

BURNETT: And as I said, Malachy is the senior story producer for the visual investigations team at "The New York Times" doing this incredible work.

And next, breaking news, new video just coming in of a strike on a children's hospital in southern Ukraine. We are learning more about that and we will share it with you.

Plus, Putin's been accused of war crimes before in Chechnya, leveling the capital of Grozny, in Syria, bombing hospitals, bombing schools, all part of the campaign, and yet he got away with it. In fact, he felt it was successful. Will this time be different?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:43:47]

BURNETT: Shocking new video tonight, Ukraine saying Russian forces attacked a children's hospital in Mykolaiv, a children's hospital. The shelling literally caught in the camera that you see.

Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT tonight. She is in Warsaw where hundreds of women and children who were able to escape are now calling an office building home. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This office building in downtown Warsaw is not just real estate. It's refuge.

Ukrainian children play with toys in what used to be a storage room. Strollers sit in corporate hallways. Computer desks are dining room tables. Two stories of the 7th floor office building are now home to refugees.

Like 18-month-old Milana and her mother. We feel safe, she says. There's no sirens, no horrible sounds.

Two and a half million Ukrainians, nearly all women and children, have crossed into Poland since the start of the war.

And you just removed the lights?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We removed the lights and installed this here.

LAH: The country has managed to absorb them in just six weeks through ingenuity.

ANNA FIJALKOWSKA, CEO, TFG ASSET MANAGEMENT: Like elevators, that serves offices, and behind the column, there is an elevator that serves just refugees.

LAH: Anna Fijalkowska is CEO for TFG Asset Management, which owns the building.

FIJALKOWSKA: We have beds and shelves, whatever is necessary.

LAH: The war started on a Thursday. The company had the space available and pivoted from commerce to crisis.

FIJALKOWSKA: So, here, we had like a small reception desk.

LAH: Three days later.

FIJALKOWSKA: None of this existed. It was just a matter of putting in additional installation in piping.

LAH: They had the first of nearly 250 women and children move in.

FIJALKOWSKA: We have this place. We can do something. Do something for real people, right? So, we just decided to do it.

LAH: Was that the hard part or the easy part?

FIJALKOWSKA: That was the easiest part, to set it up. The hardest part right now is to make them feel good, solve their problems, the refugees' problems.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Ukraine.

LAH: Seven-year-old Margot lives here with her mother, Oxana Korobka. This used to be office furniture, she explains, with the addition of a donated bed.

Oh, it's pretty comfortable.

This has been home since the start of the war. Korobka is an accountant. Her husband fights in Dnipro, near the eastern flank.

It's your husband? Please talk to him.

They never know when he'll be able to call.

OXANA KOROBKA, URKAINIAN REFUGE: This is my husband.

LAH: I can't comprehend it, says Korobka. It's as if we're in a 40- day horror movie and we can't wake up.

One floor above, employees do their best to carry on with their jobs.

GRZEGORZ MROCZEK, CAELUM REAL ESTATE ASSET MANAGEMENT: I do not know anybody who is saying, I don't care. Everybody cares. Everybody wants to help.

LAH: His employees sending whatever they can downstairs.

MROCZEK: Whatever is needed, either desks, either vacuum cleaners, we just try to help, to supplement to our new neighbors.

LAH: But war has meant the days of business as usual are over.

FIJALKOWSKA: We're really also learning from them. We see how they are coping with this tragic events and this tragic situation. And it's really make you feel happy but also makes you feel that you're doing something good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH (on camera): Now, the big difference here is that there is some semi-permanence to this. The doors of these office rooms actually close. They are not on cots in an arena. There's stable internet so they can do things like connect to their men in Ukraine.

And Erin, this is just one slice, one example of something that's being repeated millions of times over across Europe -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Kyung, thank you very much.

And next, the legal loophole that could be used to prosecute Putin and his inner circle for invading Ukraine.

Plus, Tiger Woods says he's ready to play in his first Major tournament since that horrible car accident last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The question is simple. Do you think you can win the Masters this week?

TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLF PLAYER: I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:52:25]

BURNETT: President Zelenskyy demanding that Russia be, quote, brought to justice for committing war crimes in Ukraine. In a speech to the U.N., Zelenskyy added that Russian soldiers should be tried in a Nuremberg-style tribunal, referencing the Nazi trials following World War II.

But will Putin and his military face any real punishment in an international court?

David McKenzie is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The scattered aftermath of a Russian occupation in Bucha, a war with already so much horror, exposing new depths of brutality and possible war crimes.

My husband had been shot in the head, mutilated and tortured says Tetyana. He was buried a meter deep so the dogs wouldn't eat him. That was it.

For weeks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been calling for justice.

Those calls are growing louder.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a criminal. We have to gather all the detail so this could be actual -- have a war-crime trial.

MCKENZIE: Brutal actions of Russian forces in Ukraine are being investigated by international prosecutors. But Putin faces accusations before. In Chechnya, Russian forces leveled Grozny. In Syria, they bombed hospitals and schools with cluster munitions say multiple reports and no one in Russia was punished.

Russia, like the U.S., isn't a party to the treaty governing the International Criminal Court at the Hague, making it harder to prosecute and investigations at the ICC can take years.

GORDON BROWN, FORMER U.K. PRIME MINISTER: We have to send a message to all those in Putin's inner circle that they cannot act with impunity.

MCKENZIE: Speaking to CNN, former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that at the request of Ukrainian officials, he's lobbying for a special tribunal, modeled on the Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals and the tribunal investigating atrocities in the former Yugoslavia. Like the murder of thousands of men and boys in Srebrenica. How can you realistically get senior Russian officials, including

Vladimir Putin into a courtroom?

GORDON: They said it was impossible in 1942 when the Allies said they were going to try Hitler and his accomplices for crimes, what we call crime against peace, but that happened in Nuremberg.

MCKENZIE: A tribunal creates a legal loophole to prosecute Putin and senior officials for the act of invading Ukraine itself, a crime of aggression.

[19:55:02]

With the right resources, Brown says an indictment could come in months.

Russia has repeatedly denied responsibility for any crime.

And U.S. officials believe that Vladimir Putin will wield absolute power inside Russia, so an indictment could be an empty threat.

BROWN: We have got to set the pace to say whenever Putin leaves the country, whenever he is accessible, he could be arrested. The only thing that he understands is strength.

MCKENZIE: For these atrocities in Bucha and for Mariupol, for the crimes not yet revealed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (on camera): A successful prosecution for war crimes could lead to decades, even lifetime in prison. The former ICC prosecutor told me that even if there is an indictment, the hardest part will be getting Putin and senior members of the Russian government physically into a courtroom -- Erin.

BURNETT: Yeah, absolutely.

All right. David, thank you.

And next, Tiger Woods poised to play in the masters after that serious car crash last year that left many wondering if he'd ever walk again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: And finally, tonight, back in the course. Tiger Woods says he plans to compete in the Masters on Thursday and he thinks he can win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The question is simple. Do you think you can win in the Masters this week?

WOODS: I do.

REPORTER: And what have you seen in your preparation what leads you to believe that?

WOODS: I can hit it just fine. I don't have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint. It's now -- walking is the hard part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Just an incredible thing to say. I mean, look, he's won five times before, but this would truly be one of the biggest comebacks in sports history. Woods has been out of competition for more than a year after a car crash left him with serious leg injuries and fractured his bones directly under the knee.

He said before that amputation was on the table. You heard him talking now about the challenge of walking. So, this is an incredible story. His expected return coincides with the 25th anniversary of his first Masters win in 1997.

Thanks so much for joining us.

"AC360" starts now.