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Zelensky To Putin: You Are "Not A Fuhrer"; Kherson Mayor: City Has Fallen, Now Under Russian Control; Kyiv Bracing For More Attacks After Day Of Heavy Shelling; Ukraine's President Vows "We Will Not Surrender"; Right Now Russian Pres Putin Delivering Address; Russian State Media Spreads False Anti-Ukraine Messages; CNN: Thousands Of Russians Arrested In Anti-War Protests Since Ukraine Invasion Began; Russian Airline Pulled From Global Reservation System; WH Request $10 Billion For Lethal & Humanitarian Aid To Ukraine. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 03, 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, and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your very, very busy news day with us. Today evidence, the Russian strategy to bomb Ukraine. The submission is working, slowly but working. You see here intense shelling this morning in Mariupol, that's on Ukraine south-eastern coast. Homes there reduced to burning concrete husks. On CNN, Mariupol deputy mayor says, they cannot count all the debt. The Russian playbook he says, is to starve its 400,000 people into surrender.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEPUTY MAYOR SERGEI ORLOV, MARIUPOL. UKRAINE: We do not have electricity in whole city. We do not have water supply. We do not have sanitary system. We have continuous shelling for 26 hours, 26 hours they are destroying our city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The Mariupol assault follows Russia's first major military game. Russia now controls the southern port city of Kherson. The Russian focus cutoff supply lines and link forces from the south and the east that can then overwhelm Ukraine's major cities.

This morning Vladimir Putin telling the French President Emmanuel Macron in a contentious 30-minute phone call that this war, Putin's war will continue. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky asserts the Russian advanced is failing. And listen, aims this broadside at the Russian president. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE: You are not a star. You did not get this power from somebody up high. You're not a monarch. This is democracy. You are president. People elected you and you are the CEO of your country, not a tyrant, not fewer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And new satellite images, you see them right there, demolished Russian tanks and troop carriers. Signs the resistance is indeed quite stiff. But again, in Kyiv, air raid sirens and explosions. And in the northern city of Chernihiv, Ukrainian officials say nine people were killed when Russian strikes rocked apartment complexes in the city center.

Let's start our coverage this hour near Kyiv, the capital where another round of Russian shelling set Ukrainian scrambling this morning. CNN's Alex Marquardt right there. Alex, what's the latest?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we just heard from President Volodymyr Zelensky, a short time ago who made an impassioned plea for a no-fly zone. He says this is critical. Now, Ukrainian forces are still contesting the skies over Ukraine. Of course, Russia has significant air superiority in terms of their capabilities. But they are not dominating the skies, they do not own the skies. That is for now.

Zelensky, saying that no-fly zone is needed right now. This is not something that NATO, the U.S. and the rest of NATO have shown a willingness to offer to Zelensky in the same way that they do not plan to send forces on to the ground. President Zelensky asking rhetorically, how many people should be blown up. President Zelensky also saying that if Russia is not stopped in Ukraine that this war will not stop here that it will go on to Eastern Europe that Putin, he thinks it will continue with his March westwards.

Now, John, as you were saying, the Russians making significant advances on the southern flank of Ukraine. They appear to have taken the city of Kherson. Local officials saying that Russian forces have taken over the local administration building, that citizens should listen to the Russian forces that Ukrainian forces are no longer in that city.

That is significant because these are Russian forces that have come out of Crimea, which of course, was illegally annexed back in 2014. If they move westwards, past Kherson, they will be on their way to Odessa, the of course the key port city on the Black Sea.

Now we are also seeing to the east, Russian and pro-Russian forces from the Donbass region and circle Mariupol, another key port town that is on the sea of Azov. If that city is taken, then President Putin will be well on his way to grabbing that land bridge, as we've been calling it, between Crimea and western Russia, connecting those two with a strip of land that runs straight through Mariupol. So, Russian forces, really making a lot of headway down there on the southern flank. At the same time, we are continuing to hear and see aerial assaults, bombing in and around Kyiv, as well as other northern cities, including the second major city Kharkiv. John?

KING: Alex Marquardt, grateful for the live reporting from the scene. Very important day. Let's get some perspective now, from the former Director of National Intelligence, the General James Clapper, joins our conversation. Just imagine that you were still the Director of National Intelligence today, and I just want to show our viewers. So, we look at the battlefield right now.

[12:05:00]

You see the Russian gains here in the south. Obviously, they're trying to get the full southern. There's a port city here and port cities over here still in Ukrainian control, but you can see that the Russians are trying to take away the shipping lanes there in the southern part of the country.

The red areas up here, all Russian gains in the last week. Kyiv still of course not, you know, President Zelensky appearing again today, but Russian troops General Clapper coming down this way and this way. If you were the DNI today, preparing a brief for the president United States on the state of the battlefield, it would say what?

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Well, I would say that, oh, what I'm going to try to do if I were DNI is to provide as much intelligence particularly if it's anticipatory as I possibly can, to the Ukrainians, to enable them to kill as many Russian soldiers as possible, and to destroy as much Russian equipment as possible.

The prize for the Russians remains Kyiv. And so, as much information as I could provide to President Zelensky and to his minister of defense and the armed forces of Ukraine where they can have the most impact. Now I say that, not knowing exactly what the communications arrangement is, and how secure it is, between us and our intelligence partners in the region and Ukrainian.

KING: Let's just address this head on because people around the world ask this question. President Zelensky has become an icon here for his bravery in Kyiv. When he says, I need NATO. I need the United States and the NATO allies to give me a no-fly zone. That the United States has is off limits because of the danger involved. Right? You'd have direct intersection between NATO aircraft and Russian aircraft, which could propel a big war.

CLAPPER: Well, you know, John, I wonder how long we're going to continue to watch this graphic brutality play out. And we're seeing more of it. This wanton mindless destruction and the uprooting of the Ukrainian citizenry. How much longer we're going to tolerate that and watch it? It kind of reminds me of the Balkans, where we went for quite a while, tolerating a slaughter there before we got involved.

KING: Close images (Ph) did not have the air force that Putin has, that is the question. How do you draw that line? What risks are you willing to take?

CLAPPER: Well, that's exactly the point. And that's why it's easy for people like me, formers who don't have a responsibility. Can you know, talk about these things? Because those are the risking judgments that have to be made. But I do think the pressure is going to increase as this wanton mindless destruction by the Russians increases much it will.

KING: And so, we see the physical, the kinetic war. And we also see there's that information war happening, a competition of ideas happening. I want you to listen to a little bit about a President Zelensky, who now is sitting in Kyiv, essentially daily. He says, I'd like to talk to Putin, I think that's the only way to end the war, as much as he opposed Putin. But listen to him today, essentially, poking Putin, say you're trying to take my country, and so far, it's not going that well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. ZELENSKY: We don't have a great territory from one ocean to the other. We have no nuclear weapons. We don't feel the world market with oil and gas. But we have our people, our land and this is our goal. And this is what we're fighting for. They wanted to destroy us so many times, but they couldn't. Wanted to erase us from the face of the earth and they couldn't. They hit us in the back, and we are still standing. They wanted us to sit silent, but the whole world can hear us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: On the one hand, he's appealing to the western world. The President United States and NATO allies, stay with us. Send us more. Here I am. What message does Vladimir Putin take from that?

CLAPPER: Well, I think he's going to take defiance from that. And I think actually Putin is a bit back on his heels because of the very resolute or response of the Ukrainian citizens. And this is the important intangible, John, his will to fight and the Ukrainians habit. And it's pretty clear the Russian soldiers, rank and file soldiers don't. That makes a big difference. And Zelensky, maybe because of his background, you know, he can really project a strength and leadership and inspiration and he's doing a great job. And he's winning the information warfare campaign right now.

KING: And you make a key point. So, this has not gone in eight days anyway, like Putin had wanted. He thought his army could roll into Ukraine. He thought by now he'd have Kyiv encircle. He thought by now he needs to have Zelensky or Zelensky would have fled. And it has not gone that way, which is a positive except of the unpredictability of Vladimir Putin. And what does he do next? We know what he did in Chechnya, when they had setbacks, for example. And this is from his foreign minister today.

Everyone knows the third world war can only be nuclear, that from Sergey Lavrov, who is one of the few people Vladimir Putin actually talks to. Normally he would say that's just bellicose rhetoric. They just throw it out there, but the Russians have a different nuclear doctrine than the United States does. When Sergey Lavrov says something like that, that is meant to say there will be - do not NATO put up a no-fly zone. Do not NATO continue doing things, we consider provocative.

[12:00:00]

CLAPPER: Well, this is part of the information campaign, you know, the rhetoric and the threatening rhetoric. So again, get back to your first question. If I were DNI, I would be paying a lot of attention to Russian strategic nuclear forces, which is a high priority anyway, to see if there are actually any physical changes that would indicate alert or preparation for usages or something like that.

As far as I know, there hasn't been. So, this is the war of nerves that we're into right now with the Russian rhetoric and how to take it seriously. I personally believe that I'm stepping out of intel realm here that we need more in the way of force, military force in Europe deployed as a deterrent.

KING: More U.S. military force deployed as a deterrent. General Clapper, as always, grateful for your important insights. Right now, the Russian President Vladimir Putin is giving a national address. This as Russian forces continued to violently attack Ukraine. Will bring you more next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Right now, the Russian President Vladimir Putin is delivering a national address. This as his troops, Russian troops continue their invasion of Ukraine. We've been listening to the speech. And so far, Putin says this war is justified in his view. And he says, contrary to what we have seen that it is going according to plan. Let's get straight to CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson. He's live in Moscow. Nic, what else are we hearing from the Russian president?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, John, there was a one strange thing about this broadcast for President Putin. He's normally really uncontrolled. He looked angry. We've seen him look in that way over the past week or so. But getting towards the end of his speech, he sort of finished, and didn't seem sure if he was finished.

Got up, and then sat back down again, and then told her, you know, the audience here that the war was going well, everything's on track. It's all up to speed. But I think the thrust of this speech was all about trying to keep Russians on track with him and with his war. He spoke about giving posthumous medals to those soldiers who were killed, 498 according to the Russian military that was announced yesterday.

So here you have a day after, only seven days into the war as well, Putin handing out posthumous medals by name and saying that any family of a soldier who was killed would get $65,000, any family of a soldier injured, and that soldier presumably would get $40,000. Also saying, that there'll be insurance for the soldiers, presumably he means in a medical context here. So, Putin really trying to keep the country on board, even while he's saying it's going on track. The evidence, of course, we see and hear it's not, and of course, he denied heading civilian targets again, John?

KING: To that point to extend by because I want to get deeper into these elements of the Putin propaganda machine. Just today, Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs warning extra measures would be taken against any unauthorized anti-war protests. The threat of arrest and aggressive prosecution, of course, part of how Putin stifles dissent. You can see here, he's a Russian officers in riot gear, detaining an elderly woman protesting the war in Ukraine.

At least 350 protesters arrested yesterday in Russia's second largest city, St. Petersburg, that according to local monitors. More than 7000 anti-war protests arrested over the past week, but not a single of these detentions, not one of them has been mentioned on Russian state television. Putin's iron grip is shielded by a Soviet style propaganda machine. That listen here, churns Kremlin lies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The leading Americans - American news media, under pressure from the government and the empire of lies, as the president says, the aim is to lock him with the Russian military operation denouncify and demilitarized Ukraine, and to cost divisions among the people and to scare the Ukrainian population.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Nic, you watch this play out every day, the Russian propaganda machine more independent outfits, a couple of them at least have been shut down because they dare to try to speak the truth. You're out in the streets all the time. What are you seeing? How do average Russians believe their president, if you will? And do these threats, essentially stifle the dissent?

ROBERTSON: The threats do have an element of stifling dissent for sure. Because look, if the people weren't getting arrested in such big numbers, they'd be out protesting and way, way, way bigger numbers that we can be sure of. I was talking with people on the streets today. And I think part of Putin's problem, messaging problem here is it's just old school. He thinks that state TV is what everyone watches and that's good enough.

And you know what, it kind of works with his generation. You do find a sort of generational split on the streets. Older people I talked to today said, yes, this is unnecessary war. In fact, this is not starting a war, we're stopping a war. We are denouncifying them. This is a war that Ukraine has been waging against us for the last seven or eight years.

So, there are this older generation that fall into line with what the Kremlin saying. The younger generation, and one young guy I spoke to today said, look, I'm really sad about these independent media outfits that are being shut down. But I'm going to find them. They're going to come back on YouTube. They'll be back in other places. We'll watch it there.

He and several other people told me straight up, the Kremlin is lies, the government lies, they're not telling us the truth. So, there is this younger generation who are obviously using social media, the internet talking to friends outside of Russia, who get what's going on. They're just not the majority right now, John?

[12:20:00]

KING: Remarkable, important reporting, Nic Robertson, grateful. Grateful for all the work you're doing there. This another blow to Russia. Here will explain, Russia's government owned airline just been yanked from the global reservation system. That could be a crippling blow to the economy and to travel within Russia.

Technology company Sabre, says it's cutting ties with Aeroflot, saying the airline will no longer be able to use that central reservation network used by travel agencies, travel websites and big corporations. Just earlier this week, Boeing and Airbus also saying, they will no longer do business with Russian customers.

Ahead for us back to Ukraine, CNN's Sam Kiley visits a site of Jewish pilgrimage. He takes us inside a bomb shelter, beneath a synagogue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Just moments ago, the Russian President Vladimir Putin, delivering a national address. Praising his troops as they continue their invasion of Ukraine. Earlier today, Ukraine's president lashed out at Putin. Yet, President Volodymyr Zelensky also saying, he sees just one way to end Putin's war.

PRES. ZELENSKY: It's not about I want to talk with Putin, I think I have to talk with Putin. The world has to talk with Putin, because there are no other ways to stop this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There are talks underway right now between the Ukrainian delegation and Russian counterparts. Not a lot of optimism though. Here's more evidence of that. Earlier today, President Putin telling the French President Emmanuel Macron, he will continue his invasion. This hour Ukraine city of Mariupol under siege, surrounded by Russian forces. In Kharkiv, at least three schools were hit by Russian missile strikes. Near Kyiv, the 40-mile-long Russian convoy of tanks and military vehicles remains stalled. And there are more brave scenes of resistance. This is Mariupol. Listen, Ukrainians facing down Russian military vehicles.

(PLAYING VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You see those brave locals. They're blockading the Russians from advancing any way they could before eventually being pushed aside. The White House today asking Congress for $10 billion in new emergency aid for Ukraine. Ukraine also tops the agenda of a 2pm cabinet meeting today.

And this morning, the president held a joint call with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan to discuss next steps in the global response to Putin's invasion. Let's get straight to the White House and our chief correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, this has dominated the President's Day.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely is. And starting with that call at 9am this morning with those allies that is the so-called quad India, Japan, and Australia. And of course, that comes that call with President Biden after India abstained from that United Nations vote that was condemning the war in Ukraine and calling on Putin to pull his troops out of there and stop the invasion.

So, it remains to be seen if that was brought up during this call. We haven't gotten a readout from the White House yet, John, but it does come just hours ahead of this cabinet meeting that President Biden is going to have. The first one that he's had since November, which was focused on infrastructure. Of course, the subject matter today is very different, much more grave given what is happening.

And this invasion really looming over it, as it is touched almost every part of the United States government, not just the Pentagon in the state department, but also the treasury department, the commerce department have all played a role in this. And so, that will be something that we are told President Biden will address the latest developments at the beginning of that meeting, that's set to kick off in just a few hours.

And of course, this comes as the White House is also requesting about $10 billion in more funding to help Ukraine, not just when it comes to defense and those stinger anti-aircraft missiles that we've seen delivered to Ukraine in recent days, but also to protect their electrical grid. And of course, for this humanitarian crisis that is happening as a result of this invasion.

KING: And Kaitlan, I understand you also have some new information about a White House effort to join a global effort to crack down on Putin's friends, the Russian oligarchs?

COLLINS: Yes. We are expecting more sanctions to come from the United States possibly as soon as today, John, on these Russian oligarchs, on their family members. We've seen the European Union take those steps in recent days. And it's just part of President Biden's plan to try to continue to squeeze though those who are around President Putin in his inner circle to try to make this as painful, as possible after he said the other day that he was instructing the justice department to go after their yachts, go after all of their assets for those who are on the sanctions list, John? KING: Kaitlan Collins, grateful for the live reporting from the White House to the Pentagon. Now brand-new information to CNN this hour, from a top U.S. defense official about Russia's targeting of civilian sites across Ukraine. Let's get to Barbara Starr. Right now, with the latest, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, the senior defense official a short time ago, making very clear, what I think we all suspect is, which is that Russia is perfectly willing to target civilian areas. You are now seeing this happen across Ukraine. Just look at, you know, this cities like Mariupol in the south where the deputy mayor earlier today told CNN, they have no water, no heat, no sanitation, because of the Russian onslaught against their city.

Now, a lot of focus continuing on Kyiv, the capital. There is still that string of Russian vehicles some, you know, 40 miles long north of the city still stalled to some extent because of their problems with those Russians with food, fuel and supplies. The Ukrainians trying to hit back against that convoy to keep it out of the capital. But right now, the Pentagon desperately worried that the Russians are going to make progress that they will get to Kyiv that they will encircle the city---