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Ukraine Tells Citizens to Leave Russia Immediately; Stocks Fall, Gas Prices Go Higher as Putin Enters Ukraine; Trump Sides With Putin as Biden Tries to Stop a War. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: In the face of mounting world pressure, bragging about weapons that have no equal while insisting Russia's interests and security are non-negotiable.

[07:00:09]

And new satellite images from Maxar Technology show the Russians are adding logistics infrastructure near the Ukraine border, including a field hospital and shelters.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Pentagon is moving F-35 fighter jets and apache attack helicopters already in Europe to the Baltic states and NATO's eastern flank. About 800 U.S. troops are also being repositioned from Italy to the Baltic region.

Overnight, NATO secretary-general announced there is evidence that Russian troops have moved in to Donbas and Eastern Ukraine. Ukraine is now calling on all of its citizens in Russia, and there are many who go back and forth over the board, Ukraine wants its citizens in Russia to leave, get out.

The country's foreign minister says diplomacy is still plan A, but plan B is to fight for every inch of land in every city and every village. And here in the United States, U.S. businesses are being warned to watch fought for potential ransomware attacks in retaliation.

CNN has reporters on the ground in two critical locations of this conflict, Sam Kiley in the Donbas region of Ukraine, where shelling has been reported, and Frederik Pleitgen in Russia, where there has been a mass movement of troops and equipment toward the Ukrainian border.

I want to begin with you, Fred. You are just over the border in Russia, sort of a transit point into Eastern Ukraine. What have you been seeing where you are?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, you're absolutely right, John, we are really right at the border with Ukraine. Now, that Donbas region, and I can tell you, it is a gigantic area where we see those troop concentrations of the Russians. And the big question here on the ground is what you were mentioned before in the intro, is whether or not those Russian forces have already crossed the border into the Donbas region. Now, when we were traveling here, today and yesterday, you did see a large concentration of Russian forces. But some of the things that local people have been telling us, a lot of the people we have been speaking to, is they say that the amount of troops we're seeing on the ground is actually less than they had seen in the days leading up to this. And they believe some of those forces may have already been deployed into Donbas.

There is no evidence at this point that that is really the case, but that certainly seems to be what folks here on the ground are thinking. As you mentioned, there are some western officials who say they believe that troops could already been in Donbas.

Yesterday night, Vladimir Putin, once again, had a press conference. And in that press conference, he said, look, it's not even clear whether or not forces are going to go into Donbas. But when they do and if they do, it's also not clear how far they are going to advance. Are they going to advance to the places where right now you have those pro-Russian separatists, or are they going to try and go further, which would obviously mean taking on the Ukrainian military and possibly a devastating war.

What we have been seeing on the ground here, John, is a lot of forces and a lot of forces who appear to be in a posture where they seem to be ready to go at any point in time. You don't see military vehicles loaded on the back of trucks, you see them in the field. You see soldiers inside them and you see large columns also of troop carriers as well with soldiers also in them.

So, certainly, from what we can see on the ground here is there's a lot of Russian army here. They're covering a very large area. And they certainly are extremely close to the border area, not just of those separatists republics but generally of areas in Ukraine that are actually controlled by Ukrainian forces as well, John.

BERMAN: Frederik Pleitgen, it is a unique perspective where you are, just over the border in Russia. It gives us perhaps an early warning of what is to come. Thank you so much. Please keep us posted.

We now want to go to CNN's Sam Kiley, who is in the Donbas region, where recent shelling has been reported. We can see some damage to the building behind you, Sam. Tell us what's going on.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, Brianna, I'm in Novoluhans'ke, which is where I'm standing is about 500 meters to the frontline. And two days ago, at least three, possibly four shells hit this town.

Now, it's a town that's been, for the eight last year, living almost on the front line. They are used to the threat of battle, but very few people could be used to that kind of impact.

Let's take a closer look if take you into the home of where it happened. You got the remains of a piano, a really devastating attack on a civilian home that has been blamed on the Russians. You can see, this is, in a sense, the exit wound. This is where the blast actually went through the building and exited through that window. You can see how the infrastructure has been bent out.

But let me take you inside because then you'll get an idea of just how terrifying this was. Now, the good news is that the family who live in this home were not actually in these rooms when it struck. They were in their right next door in their outside kitchen. Isn't that a good thing. This is what remains of their sitting room.

The shell came in through that window, exploded in her, there's shrapnel on the floor.

[07:05:00]

A lot of the clutter has already been removed. But you can see the devastating effects on the ceiling here, for example. You look at those holes that have been punched in, that is high explosive rounds, or rather high explosive rounds that have caused shrapnel damage. The shrapnel causes cynically designed to tear into flesh, to rip people apart.

Now, this is a family of three people, a husband and wife and a nine- year-old daughter. Her bedroom is upstairs. I'm not even going to attempt to go upstairs. I did earlier on when we were talking to the family, who don't want to appear on camera. When we were upstairs, the bedroom of the child has been utterly ripped apart. It is now too dangerous for us to go up there for the fear that the building may collapse underneath us.

At the same time, John and Brianna, that these salvos were being fired, just about 80, 100 yards from where I'm standing, a man called Roman was killed. And he was killed when he was trying to back his car into his garage after he saw the shells landing here. That was his most valuable asset. He was trying back in to a garage. It would have given it no protection whatsoever against any kind of an artillery piece that was landing in his village, and he was killed. We have just been to his funeral. We will bring you a report of more widely of what happened in this town later on.

But this is a town that is inside the Donetsk Oblast. In other words, it is part of the territory that Putin and his Russian-backed separatists just across the frontline there lay claim to. The big issue here is will they try to push into this territory and expand their territory and expand their war, or are they going to stay behind what's called the line of contact and be satisfied so far with owning or controlling that territory, which, of course, the Russians and the Syrians, their close allies, have now recognized as independent states.

But under international law, of course, they are still Ukrainian territory and it is still being described variously as a low level of invasion, perhaps not the level of invasion that may trigger the overwhelming sanctions that have been threatened Russia but they certainly have been triggering plenty of international outrage. John, Brianna?

BERMAN: I want to point out the structure you are standing in is not a military base. It is some tank. It is a home. It is a home where a family lives, where a nine-year-old has a bedroom upstairs. And this is who is being caught in the middle of this Russian-backed aggression.

Sam, I am interested, you were in part of the Donbas, which is still under Ukrainian control, so to speak. Have you seen any movement of troops or defense or security yourself in that region?

KILEY: There are troops around in relatively low numbers. They are being very careful, the Ukrainians, in keeping the media away, except for right on the frontline, in other words, the established locations of defense. They are keeping all the other troop movements in very, very closely guarded secrets. They do, in a sense, outmatched in terms of numbers, what has been assembled by the Russians on the other side, roughly 200,000, professional servicemen and women up against 190,000 stretched around three sides of the border here.

But, of course, the Russians have got the upper hand in terms of assets at sea, boats, ships, landing craft. They have got four amphibious landing craft based on the Crimean Peninsula, which, of course, the Russians seized in 2014-2015. And on top of that, of course, the Russians have air superiority and much, much more powerful missiles.

So, they are very carefully trying to sort of bed in and hide what it is that they may throw at the Russians were they to start coming into the country. But they have been getting relatively low-level lethal aid though, tank-killing equipment for infantries, rather any serious missile defenses and that kind of thing. But they are saying that they will give the Russians a very, very bloody nose.

And all of the analysts would say that any kind of serious military invasion of this country would result in very serious losses for the Russians and, of course, catastrophic damage, the likes of which is shown here. But you can anticipate and multiply that by, sadly, many, many thousands of times.

BERMAN: Sam Kiley beneath a nine-year-old child's bedroom, thank you so much for being with us this morning. I appreciate it.

KEILAR: Let's talk about this with CNN Military Analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander retired General Wesley Clark. I mean, General, just seeing that, a home of a nine-year-old and her parents caught in the crossfire here, thank goodness they're still alive, but it easily could have gone the other direction. This is really driving home what's at stake.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, this is what's at stake.

[07:10:01]

This Russian occupation is illegal in Ukraine. And it began in 2014. Putin thought he could go in there after Ukrainians, said they wanted to be with the west. Putin thought he could start an uprising because these people speak Russian. Well, they didn't buy it. Putin had to send his own troops in. He's occupied this. The separatists are really Russian-controlled units manned by Russian officers. They will be on the frontlines if an attack is launched, followed by regular forces.

And what you're seeing is a buildup for what may be a breakout attempt from this area that is currently controlled by the separatists, to move at least as far as what they call oblast boundaries to take the whole of these two provinces.

Now, the intent of this would be to draw the Ukrainian forces in and give them a big, bloody nose, get them exhausted and then sweep in behind them with the forces that are in Belarus or forces coming out of Crimea, encircle them, destroy the Ukrainian army, and then move into Kyiv. This would be a classic Russian military plan.

KEILAR: Because as we look into the map, you can see that is the area occupied by Russian-backed separatists. They can control that area. But you can see there are parts of the Donetsk Oblast, the Luhansk Oblast, where they do not. And that's what you're talking about, pushing into there. How bad are the casualties going to be if the Russian military and Russian-back separatists push into that part of these oblasts?

CLARK: Well, you're talking about tens of thousands of civilian casualties, because Russian doctrine doesn't actually cover protection of civilians. So, they are going to shell wherever they want to shell. They're going to use very heavy artillery to try to go after the Ukrainians, including something we call thermobaric warheads.

These thermobaric warheads, unlike the pictures we just saw from Eastern Ukraine, these thermobaric warheads penetrate buildings with a fuel-air mixture before they detonate. So, they will definitely take care of people inside buildings. They won't get any protection. And then there could be tens of thousands of casualties if the Russians decide to move forward with this assault.

But where they are right now, even without moving, I want to underscore, it's an invasion. As President Biden said, this is totally illegal. It is against international law. It is war criminal activity. And Putin has to be held personally responsible.

KEILAR: Do you think that the sanctions the U.S. has put forward, the actions by Germany are going to deter Putin from moving beyond the Donetsk region?

CLARK: I don't think the sanctions themselves are likely to deter, but I think the combination of sanctions, Ukraine's determined resistance, additional defensive equipment that will be provided to Ukraine, and the prospect of more sanctions and more resistance, that might deter Putin. But he seems very intent on following through with this plan.

Many of us in the military have been surprised of how long it has taken to unfold, how slow the Russians have been to move. But there's probably concern on the part of the Russian generals, not on the part of Mr. Putin. The Russian generals built these forces. They know they are going to go against heavy Ukrainian resistance. Maybe the Ukrainians don't have the airpower, they don't have the air defense that Russians do, but they their own land that they're going to fight for.

So, I suspect we are seeing some cautious pre-battle, maneuvering and planning by the Russians at this stage. And Mr. Putin, he believes time is on his side. He's still working, trying to pick apart the NATO allies. He hasn't been very successful of that. So, at some point, he is just going to launch those forces. That's what we see coming. I hope it doesn't happen.

KEILAR: I hope it doesn't. General, thank you so much for your insights this morning.

CLARK: Thank you, Brianna.

BERMAN: So, this morning, Americans are bracing for the possible economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, maybe at gas stations and grocery stores, U.S. stock futures now rebounding after a sharp four-day selloff. Well, oil prices, they'd already hit eight- year highs even before this happened.

CNN's Christine Romans, our Chief Business Correspondent, joins us now with a look at where and how this could have an impact.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Putin's vice grip on Ukraine gripping global markets, markets trying to catch their breath this morning after the S&P 500 slid into official correction yesterday, a correction that has 10 percent drop from the recent record high.

The uncertainty stoked by potential war in Eastern Europe ricocheting from stocks, to grain prices, to the oil market. The question now, will new sanctions from the U.S. and Europe stop Putin's aggression or further feed into the global inflation picture? With allies, President Biden sanctioned two big banks and began cutting off Russia from western finance, and this is just the beginning, the White House says more, it depends on Putin.

[07:15:03]

Germany halted certification of that Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that would connect Germany with Russia. It's dramatic because the E.U. depends on Russia for more than a third of its natural gas.

A crisis in Europe has implications for everyone, John. It's a global market for energy. Any supply disruption from fighting or from sanctions could raise prices further. Brent Crude $96 a barrel, had been near $100 a barrel. Gas prices in the U.S. already above $3.50 a gallon, on average, up 20 cents in the past month. You can expect $4 nationwide by the summer.

Now, President Biden pledged to use every tool to blunt gas prices but he acknowledged they are coming. And it's not just energy, food costs could also rise.

Russia is the world's largest supplier of wheat. Ukraine is called Europe's bread basket. It's not far behind. Together, those two countries make up a quarter of global exports. Ukraine is also a top exporter of corn and barley and rye.

Putin's misadventure in Ukraine comes at a time when global inflation already running hot in the U.S. at a 40-year high. Of course, it will be the Fed that will have to be aggressive to fight that inflation, even as Putin is being aggressive in Eastern Europe.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thank you very much. This has a global impact, to be sure.

The former president calls Vladimir Putin's latest move genius. Why the praise for a dictator?

And Phil Mickelson apologizes this morning after remarks about the Saudi-backed golf league. But who exactly is he apologizing to?

KEILAR: And President Biden meeting face-to-face with potential nominees for the Supreme Court. We'll tell you who he has met with.

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[07:20:00]

BERMAN: So, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, praising Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (voice over): I said, this is genius. Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful. So, Putin is now saying it's independent, a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he's going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That's the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border. That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were more army tanks than I've ever seen. They're going to keep peace, all right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to the statement saying, quote, as a matter of policy, we try not to take advice from anyone who praises President Putin and his military strategy regardless if they are a former president.

Joining us now is Nina Khrushcheva. She is a professor of International Affairs at The New School. Professor, thanks so much for being with us.

I don't want to take a lot of time focusing on what the former president said there, but what does Vladimir Putin hear when someone like that in the United States is heaping praise on him?

NINA KHRUSHCHEVA, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, THE NEW SCHOOL: Well, he's hearing that Trump continues to like him, and that is something that he may consider interesting. But contrary to what the United States is always saying, people in the United States are always saying, Putin really is quite disdainful himself of Trump. Because one of the reasons this situation has developed is because he thought that Joe Biden meeting with Putin in June, they could make some sort of a deal. They agreed that they are going to have a predictable relationship. That never really happened with Trump because Trump, really, and Putin understood that Trump had very little leverage on making any deals, whatsoever.

So, he's hearing that but he also quite understanding that that means nothing, although the Russians are using it for their own propaganda inside Russia, that Trump was understanding us and Biden does not. And that helps him with the hawks in the administration, his administration. But, really, for Putin, it's not really such a big deal.

BERMAN: I want to ask you. I talked to Garry Kasparov last night, a pro-democracy activist within Russia.

KHRUSHCHEVA: Of course.

BERMAN: He said he thinks that Putin has lost a grip on reality. I wonder what you think of that.

KHRUSHCHEVA: Well, to a degree, I think he has lost a grip on reality because he has been in power 20 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, he really sees the world the way he sees the world, which is his speech on Ukraine, which you covered on Donetsk and Luhansk, the independence declaration. And his explanation that Ukraine is a phantom country, he has really completely lost grip on reality.

However, he has not lost grip on his reality. And that's what he is actually pushing, is that our Russia is our Russia. And as Barack Obama, one time, said to him, or about him, that Russia is just a regional power, basically, his message is this is our region, we're going to do whatever we need to do here and you get out of our region.

BERMAN: How effective do you think the U.S. actions and statements have been toward Putin not just over the last few weeks but over the last year?

KHRUSHCHEVA: I think it kind of went into positive direction at some point. And I think Putin, when he was meeting with Biden, he thought that, because Biden kept saying, we understand each other, I know this kind of people. And Putin thought, okay, he knows me, he knows that I have reasons to behave like I behave. Biden knows the cold war, Biden knows the Soviet Union. Putin does not want to recreate the Soviet Union. He speaks of much greater historical terms. But he is the product of that.

And so he thought that they can, as it was in the Soviet Union, two super powers were sort of leveraging each other, and then it didn't happen. And so then I actually thought that diplomacy on the American side, if we call it a diplomacy, really didn't work, because in some ways, diplomacy was baiting Putin to be more Putin rather than less.

[07:25:09] And all these threats of sanctions actually confirmed him and his idea that America is not going to be a partner, it's not going to be a colleague, and so we are just going to figure out how we are going to behave.

BERMAN: One of the things that we have heard from Ukrainian officials over the last few hours is diplomacy is still our first goal here, preventing further Russian incursion without fighting is our first goal. But if it gets passed past that, we will fight for every inch of territory in every city.

KHRUSHCHEVA: And they will.

BERMAN: So, how bloody do you think this can get? How much fight do you think the Ukrainians have here?

KHRUSHCHEVA: I think Ukrainians 150 percent, 500 percent fight. I mean, they are going to fight like hell. And actually they just passed a law in which guns are allowed to be used freely in Ukraine. So, that is a preparation. So, if every Ukrainian takes a gun, Russians don't have a prayer.

I mean, the military can fight, but it would be Ukrainians, I think, really ready today. That's why I continue to insist that big incursion and that's where, once again, from my point of view, diplomacy was wrong, diplomacy was wrong to say Putin is going to go into Kyiv. Because he lost grip on reality but he's not suicidal. He wants to go in history as a defender of the Russian lands and kind of gather at some degree but he doesn't want to go into history as the creator of another war, because no Russian, even the most patriotic ones, want to fight right now.

BERMAN: Professor Nina Khrushcheva, thanks so much for being with us. I really appreciate talking to you in person. It's very nice.

KHRUSHCHEVA: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning, Ukraine telling its citizens to leave Russia immediately. Again, there's a lot of cross border movement. So, Ukraine telling all of its citizens to get out of Russia is a big deal. Obviously, President Biden told Americans to get out of Ukraine. One of those Americans choosing to stay behind joins us live.

KEILAR: And the Supreme Court contenders meeting face-to-face with the president.

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[07:30:00]