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Television Tower In Kyiv Targeted By Russian Airstrike; Ukraine Interior Ministry: 5 Killed In Strike On Kyiv TV Tower; Massive Air Strike Hits Government Building In Center Of Kharkiv; Heavy Fighting In Kharkiv As Russian Convoy Closes In On Kyiv; Zelensky To Europe: "Prove That You Are With Us"; Polish Diplomat: Ukraine "Not Last Item On Mr. Putin's Menu"; WH: Biden Revised Portions Of Speech To Reflect Russian Invasion; Biden Speech To Focus On Ukraine, Economy, COVID & Supreme Court. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 01, 2022 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Hello everybody, and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King of Washington. Thank you for sharing this very sobering day with us. New horrors this hour in Ukraine. Its two largest cities are under intensifying Russian attack. In Kyiv, the country's capital largest city. You see it right there. Air raid sirens blaring again, and a massive TV tower hit by a Russian military strike. The attack Ukraine says, killed five people. Moscow is warning Kyiv residents more strikes are coming.

Right now, there was a 40-mile-long Russian military convoy on the city's outskirts. An all-out siege appears to be in the near future. Ukraine's president accuses Russia of committing war crimes. He says deliberately targeting indiscriminately bombing city centers. CCTV capturing this, a Russian rocket detonating directly in front of a government building in Kharkiv. That's the country's second largest city.

A fireball right there in Freedom Square. This is what it looks like now. Sea of debris, broken glass and shattered concrete. At least 10 reported dead there. American officials say there is heavy fighting in and around Kharkiv today. Resistance so far, the American officials say rappelling Russian forces both there and outside of Kyiv. But to the south, Russian gains are piling up much more quickly.

Also, this hour an important news. CNN interview with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. He pledges to stay in the capital, Kyiv. He says, he will leave the country from a makeshift bunker. No matter why? More on that, important conversation in a few moments. Let's begin our coverage right there in the capital Kyiv, where Russia warns of coming attacks on military and other government installations. CNN's Alex Marquardt is there for us. Alex, what's the latest?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we are getting these warnings directly from the Russian. So, it is clear that they do plan on stepping up their attacks on the capital Kyiv, of course, they have not been able to take it now six days into this war.

We have just seen tonight an attack around the area of Kyiv's TV tower. That's about three miles from the city center. And the interior ministry just said that some five people have been killed. We have also heard that some channels have been knocked offline.

But this is a very significant development, because of course, we have wondered, at what point with the Russians trying to go after communications and go after the power grid, for example. And it appears at least on the communications front, that they are starting to do that.

Now, they have announced also, John, that they are planning on targeting the SBU facilities of the SBU that is Ukraine's security service. And that they will also be going after, what they called an inflammation and psychological operation center. They're going to be using, they said high precision strikes.

Now, of course, this is in a city of 2.9 million people. It is densely populated. So, you have to imagine that some people may end up getting hurt and killed. As we've seen in this strike tonight. Five people, as I mentioned, have been killed. They also warned Ukrainians to get away from what they called relay nodes, which we understand to be, you know, towers like the one that we mentioned off the top. So, this is a significant development. The Russians appearing to start to target communications, they say----

KING: Yes, Alex Marquardt, little technology issue there. We'll keep in touch with Alex. We believe he's safe, just the technology issue, but we'll stay in touch there. Now let's move to CNN's Fred Pleitgen. He's in Belgorod, Russia. The staging point for Russian troops, artillery, and missiles laying siege to Kharkiv, Ukraine second largest city. Fred, what is the latest from your vantage point?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Like we saw that escalation in Kharkiv with that massive explosion that took place in the early morning hours of today. Now the Ukrainian government, says that that attack was actually conducted by a cruise missile. As you've mentioned, they said that 10 people were killed, also said that dozens of people were wounded as well.

It certainly took cleanup crew, a lot of time to dig through the rubble to try and get everybody out of time, eight cleanup crews were involved. That was according to the Ukrainian government. And you know, John, all this comes at the fighting really remains very intense there. In Kharkiv, it's one of the main focal points right now of the Russian military.

Also, quite frankly, one of the places that many observers would have thought that the Russians would have taken by now, it's right at the Russian border. Not very far from where I am, at all, but still a lot of battles going on there. And the Ukrainians are still in control of that town, even though some of the fighting is happening in the streets.

Now, from our vantage point, of course, John, we can sometimes see the kind of deer that the Russians are moving into that battlefield and that sometimes is a projection of what they're going to do in the future. And today, once again, we saw them move heavy rocket launchers into the area of Kharkiv, 70 miles so they could ease Kharkiv from that border area.

[12:05:00]

So, a lot of firepower moving in there that it seems as though the Russians are also rotating forces through, and we saw a massively long convoy pass us a little earlier, with dozens of vehicles in that convoy, but they certainly seem to be logistics vehicle sauce.

Now, whether or not, that means the Russians might be having trouble with the logistics, whether they're just rotating forces through to try and keep them fresh. That is something that at this point in time, we don't know. However, one of the things that we can ascertain right now is that now, six days into this conflict, Russia has not managed to take the city of Kharkiv.

Even though many believe that that was actually one of the primary objectives that Vladimir Putin had to take that city because of course, it is a city with a lot of Russian speakers. And it is a city that is very close to the border with Russia itself. John?

KING: Fred Pleitgen, appreciate the very important live reporting. Keep in touch. Let's get some important perspective now from Ambassador Richard Haass. He's the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also the author of "The World: A Brief Introduction." Richard, grateful for your time today.

Just from your level of experience at the state department, other purchasing government. When you listen to the report from Kyiv, the report there from just across the Russian border from Kharkiv, intensifying attacks on the two largest cities in Ukraine, that convoy just outside of Kyiv. What is your take on what Vladimir Putin plans next?

RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT. COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Just what he's doing, John, and he keep doubling down, essentially, increase the quantity and the quality like of conventional munitions against a wide range of targets military and civilian. And I think he's trying to break the will or the back of the Ukrainian resilience and resistance, it may well have, to some extent the opposite effect. But he does have the advantage again of quantity and quality on his side. He can destroy an awful lot.

KING: Well, I want to talk about that and what the world must do at this moment. But let's start with the personal, the powerful personal, example of President Zelensky. Our Matthew Chance, just sat down with him. We're going to have a little bit more of that conversation later in the program.

He says, he's staying in Kyiv. He says, he knows, he's a target. He knows he's a threat, but he believes is important for him to stay right there at the seat of government. This Richard is President Zelensky earlier today, speaking remotely to the European parliament, begging, asking for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE: So, do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you indeed are Europeans. And then, life will win over death and light will win over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is Richard Haass, a country of 44 million people under attack by Russia's Putin. How important is the powerful example of this one man?

HAASS: He was extraordinarily important. He's really risen, as they say to the occasion. When he says, he's the number one target. I don't think he's exaggerating. It's important that he survived. John, it's important. Yes, he stays in Kyiv. But it's him, it's even more important you survive. And he be the nucleus of a government that's located in the west of the country or wherever.

So, you know, that's going to be a balancing act. But at some point, he may - if things continue to go badly, he may need to take refuge in the west of the country. Because again, it would be, I think, psychologically quite a blow, to say the least. If the Russians were to either kill him or capture him, on top of everything else.

KING: What we're seeing is already unthinkable. We have a land war in Europe. We have Russia essentially trying to steal another country, as Vladimir Putin tries to move his borders. And he claims Ukraine as part of Russia, of course, it is not. The question is, would he move on from there. Listen to the Polish ambassador to the United States earlier today saying, I bet he will.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR NEW DAY: What do you worry is Russia's next move after Ukraine?

MAREK MAGIEROWSKI, POLISH AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: I'm pretty sure that this is not last item on Mr. Putin's value. Unfortunately, Poland will be targeted, the Baltics will be targeted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Do you believe that to be true that Vladimir Putin, it's taken him 10 years to do this? He's taking little bites of Ukraine. Now he's trying to take it all. Do you believe Vladimir Putin has broader plans? And at this moment, then what must the United States, the NATO allies in the western world do? HAASS: The honest truth, John, is nobody knows. But I don't think any of us can dismiss that possibility. We're obviously going to see escalation in terms of munitions. I don't think we can rule out the use of say chemical munitions. We obviously can't rule out the use of cyber against a wide array of targets in Europe and United States and that this idea of war widening.

[12:10:00]

I can imagine Mr. Putin to go after the Baltics, conceivably Poland. Also, conceivably a sanctuary in a place like Poland that was being used to supply the Ukrainian resistance. And I think the lesson of this is we've got to be prepared for all of it, we've got to think about what we might signal to Russia to determine. Again, that the big lesson of this is, no, it'd be really careful about assumptions, what this rational leader might do, because he might not be rational.

KING: He might not be rational. That's important. Well, let me ask you just quickly in closing, then you say what the signal to Putin. What should the signal be from the president United States to Vladimir Putin right now?

HAASS: He should understand the enormous price that Russia would pay, if he does any of these escalatory options, that more than anything, and that we are determined to help Ukraine defend itself. The sanctions are only going to be ratcheted up. Again, we're not going to commit through forces directly that we don't want to have direct confrontation between the United States and Russia, but we are determined that Russia will not prevail.

KING: Richard Haass, grateful for your time with this very important moment. Thank you.

HAASS: Thank you, John.

KING: Up next, more Russian gains on the ground in Ukraine. And senators who received a classified briefing on the conflict, say they worry, they fear. What likely comes next.

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[12:15:00]

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KING: A closer look now at the Russian military advances in Ukraine. You see on the map the shaded areas, that is areas seized by Russia over the last five-six days. The Pentagon says, more than 400 missiles have been fired by Russia in that invasion. And senior U.S. officials saying, they believe that morale is lagging now in some of the Russian forces. Kyiv's mayor warns though, the "enemy is on the outskirts" of the capital city.

Let's bring in for his expertise and insights, CNN military analyst retired Air Force Colonel, Cedric Leighton. Colonel, it's great to see you. Let's just start. Number one, you do see, it is not going as quickly as Vladimir Putin had hoped, but you do see Russian making advances. I want to start with Kyiv, the capital city because you see the TV tower bomb tonight.

Russia saying publicly to the citizens of Kyiv, if you live near a military installation, if you live near a relay tower, you should move. We're going to attack them. What does that tell you? And again, in the context of you have this 40-mile-long convoy, but it has not advanced much, it is essentially sitting there 20 miles from Kyiv. In one way a sitting duck. On the other hand, it seems to be, we could just show it up more closely. It would seem to be that it's perched there, waiting to soften up the city. Is that right?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Well, basically, yes. You know, the first softening up if you will, John, will occur - actually is beginning to occur with the missile strikes and the airstrikes that have been levied against Kyiv. Now that convoy is going to basically come through this airport, the Antonov airport. And it will go from here, down this general direction, as you know, as you indicated on the previous map. And that picture is, like an air force target years dream because what they---

KING: I'm going to show some video of it, as you speak. It is just sitting there.

LEIGHTON: It's just sitting there. And so, if you were going in and targeting this, this convoy, you would be one, you'd want to get it at the various choke points, like in crossings, you know, places where they would split up to go and do a development movement and encirclement of the city. That's the kind of areas that you would want to hit.

And quite frankly, because we're talking narrow roads, you would want to hit something like this, or you would want to hit, you know, an area where they're coming in that way. So, that's the kind of thing you want to interdict in military terms, the convoy before it can get into the city and deploy its troops.

KING: There's been some talk by U.S. officials that Russia has not achieved air superiority. But the fact that this is just sitting there, tells you that the Ukrainian air force, Ukrainian air assets of any kind, clearly not operational, because that's a target sitting right there.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely. So, one thing that could be happening, is the Ukrainians might be waiting for that optimal moment. They have about six drones, at least before the war started. They had six drones from Turkey that were possibly armed. And it could be used for reconnaissance purposes. They could potentially cause some major damage. But it's very clear, under normal circumstances, if this convoy were against U.S. forces, that convoy would be gone right now.

KING: So, let's move over to the second largest city. Fred Pleitgen has been doing some fascinating reporting from here, watching more missile launchers come in. You're very familiar with Russian weapons systems and sometimes the brutal way. Vladimir Putin, the Russian army have used them in other conflicts. They're coming in to Kharkiv. Just want to bring up. We did see earlier today, again, the Russian saying government installations will be targeted. You see rocket firing right there. From an intelligence standpoint, when you see a picture like this, sort of what goes through your mind about, A, what they're doing now but what this is part of, what comes next?

LEIGHTON: So, yes, this is exactly part of their plan. So, what comes next is every single government building like this, and you'd mentioned earlier, the communications towers and things like that, all the relay stations. They want to go after everything, so that the Ukrainians become basically blind to what the Russians are doing, deaf to what they're speaking. And they want to be able to make sure that the Ukrainians are basically kept in the dark as to all future tactical moves that the Russians are doing. We know about their strategic moves. But the tactical moves are going to determine the fate of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and any of the other major Ukrainian cities.

KING: You keep hearing promises from the United States, from NATO allies from other western countries. We will give you ammunition. We will give you more military supplies to the Ukrainian people. But some of those were flown in before the conflict started. Now that the conflict is underway, do they have to come in. I can actually bring it up from a NATO map perspective from this way. They'd have to come in from here overland, right? United States air transport can't pop down in Ukraine right now.

LEIGHTON: Unless we do a no-fly zone and that has its own big issues associated with it, because it would directly pit the U.S. and NATO air forces against the Russian air force. We don't want to do that right now. But yes, you're right. Any type of land movement would have to come from Poland, Slovakia possibly in Hungary, Romania, that's about it. Those are about the only crossing points that you have that would be legitimate, unless you didn't have the Russians here in the south, but - because you do, that becomes a problem.

[12:20:00]

KING: So, even if you're trying to rush it in, it becomes more complicated.

LEIGHTON: Exactly.

KING: Cedric Leighton, appreciate your perspective. And we come back, a very important CNN interview. Matthew Chance sits down with the President of Ukraine at this absolutely critical moment. That's next.

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[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now a centerpiece of President Biden State of the Union speech tonight. Early drafts were anchored on COVID and the economy, but Vladimir Putin forced to rewrite. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There's no question that this speech is a little different than it would have been just a few months ago. And so, the president will lay out the efforts. We are taking - he has taken, he has led on to rally the world to stand up for democracy in against Russian aggression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With us to share their reporting and their insights, Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post, Laura Barron-Lopez in POLITICO, and CNN's Phil Mattingly. Seung Min, let me start with you. This is from a piece in the post today, your newspaper today, Chris Dodd, longtime senator, good friend of President Biden. This a dicey one. He'll appreciate this is not the moment given the events of the last few days alone, forget about COVID and everything else, to go and try happy days are here again.

It would be a huge mistake. This is a president who ran against Donald Trump saying, I can handle crisis, I will get us out of it. He had hoped. He had hoped this would be the speech where he could say, we're coming out of it and we're making important steps. Now, we're in the middle of a standoff with Putin.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER. THE WASHINGTON POST: RIGHT. And he sold himself as the leader who could handle multiple crises. It's not just that he had deep experience in diplomacy with his years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but that he would be the president to be able to shut down the virus. Now he is juggling many crises on multiple fronts.

So that, whatever tone that he strikes tonight is going to be really critical. And White House officials were well aware of this, and the really a kind of difficult dance that he would have to do in the speech, while before Russia actually invaded Ukraine. But now that adds an extra sort of dimension, that, in terms of the tone in the message of the president has to strike, obviously, you have to send, first and foremost a message of calm to the American people, who are seeing these images and a very worried about what is going on the world.

But on the domestic front clearly, have to strike that right kind of balance between that - between, you know, acknowledging people's pain, knowing where people are coming from, but also being able to paint a path towards, how do we get out of this. What is the future going to be like in America in the next, you know, six or so months?

KING: Six or so months, it's March 1, a midterm election year. And again, first and foremost, as it should be, will be the standoff with Putin. But here's the four areas, The White House says the president will discuss, obviously, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the economy, the COVID crisis, and his new Supreme Court nomination in the context of what the president believes are big decisions for the country right now. Again, in taking those early drafts of a couple of weeks ago, you know, they're in the fireplace or in the shredder, given that you just have to focus. First and foremost, I assume on why this matter? Why staring down Putin at this moment matters most.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: And it really does also speak to, this moment with Putin with Russia also speaks to something that Biden has been talking about since he ran in 2020, which is democracy versus autocracy, which is that democracies need to show that they can function well, again, whether that's at home, you know, battling a pandemic, manufacturing.

But also, in terms of creating those allies, those relationships that previously, you know, the former president wanted to disband. He didn't want to be a part of NATO. He didn't think that it needed to exist. And Biden is trying to show in this speech, I think as well as with his response to Russia, how he's able to keep these relationships going and why they're so important in a moment like this.

KING: It's always the case that the president is trying to speak more to the country, and in this case to the world and the people in the room. But you still have disagreements among Democrats about how much if any of the president's domestic agenda that got left over last year should come back up this year.

You have Republicans thinking, they have the wind at their back, histories on their side, inflations on their side, if you will, in terms of the midterm election year. Is the president speaking to the lawmakers at all tonight? Or is this a speech to the American people, saying need you to rally around me the commander in chief and a speech to Vladimir Putin?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think all of the above to some degree. Look, I think less so to lawmakers. However, I think there will be very specific lines in these remarks about elements of the build back better package, which White House officials are no longer allowed to name publicly. In terms of that tagline, that the president will not only push to pass, but also underscore some elements that maybe will help specific lawmakers get on board, in terms of deficit reduction, in terms of focusing on just a couple of pieces, as opposed to the whole sweeping two plus trillion-dollar package.

So, in that sense, there will be a message to lawmakers. But I do think the broader message, even with everything we've seen over the course of the last couple of weeks, is one for a domestic audience. They know the world is watching. They understand that the world is going to be paying very close attention to what he says on the international and geopolitical fronts. But they also recognize that for everyday Americans, for the individuals who would be tuning in or reading about this speech, what they're dealing with in their day to day lives is price increases.

What they're dealing with their day to day lives is COVID. And so not only, as Seung Min said, acknowledging the realities of that moment, acknowledging the realities of the price increases and the overhang from COVID, but also putting out clear pathways to progress. I think is a clear issue that the White House wants to focus on.