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CNN Crew Spends 21 Hours Trying To Leave Ukraine Amid Invasion; Massive Russian Convoy Nears Kyiv As War Enters 6th Day; Ukraine's Navy: Guards Who Told Russian To "F*** Off" Are Alive. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired March 01, 2022 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:33:03]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: As we've been reporting more than half a million refugees have now fled Ukraine since Russia invaded. Thousands more are leaving every hour and many of them are enduring treks that take days instead of what would normally be just a few hours -- something that CNN's Erin Burnett and her crew saw up close on their own 21-hour grueling journey to get out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT (voice-over): The day began well before dawn with air raid sirens.
BURNETT (on camera): Those sirens you hear actually mark the end of the air raid warning that we just had. The air raid actually went off while it was still dark, while I was getting ready. I had to go to the basement for a little bit. Obviously, it was full because the hotel is absolutely full of people who are fleeing to try to get further west.
Now we're loaded up -- a few minutes delayed because of that -- and we're about to be on our way to the border.
BURNETT (voice-over): We were in the van at 7:00 a.m. driving through a shellshocked city -- a city where many had already fled and others were arriving en mass from points farther east. The cold is cruel. There are young children everywhere -- exhausted families. Most have nowhere to go, their destination still unknown.
BURNETT (on camera): This is the main train station here in Lviv. It is unbelievably crowded and most of these people -- this is the final stop they can get west. Many of the men are trying to board buses to go to Poland. It's an unbelievable hoard of humanity here and I will say this is the most diverse group of people that we have seen since we came into this country.
BURNETT (voice-over): Some head straight from the trains to the bus depot.
BURNETT (on camera): So you buy the tickets on the bus?
YON POMRENZE, ERIN'S PRODUCER IN UKRAINE: Where do you -- where do you go buy the tickets, ma'am?
BURNETT (on camera): So that's what they're jammed -- sort of, first come, until the bus is full to get the tickets.
BURNETT (voice-over): We see a group of women and children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
POMRENZE: We had to get bus tickets.
[05:35:00]
BURNETT (on camera): Are you clear how to get bus tickets -- trying to get a taxi?
POMRENZE: How to get a taxi.
BURNETT (on camera): They came from Kyiv. Your whole family?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were separated where -- we don't know each other.
BURNETT (on camera): Don't know each -- know each other?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We met at the train.
BURNETT (on camera): Oh, and now traveling together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We're trying.
BURNETT (on camera): Yes, trying -- oh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just (INAUDIBLE).
BURNETT (on camera): OK. All right, so we can see they're on a -- a (INAUDIBLE). They're looking at trying to get a car to Poland.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm turning around.
BURNETT (voice-over): And back in our van, about one hour later, we saw where those ride hires ended.
BURNETT (on camera): We've just come to a complete stop. We are 28 1/2 miles from the border, exactly. You hear or see cars going the other direction. Now we understand why. I was wondering why they were there. It's because people are getting to this point and just turning around and giving up.
We should be like planning our gas situation because I --
BURNETT (voice-over): The gas here, long gone. Now we know why we've seen abandoned cars. We were stunned. People who had been living normal lives in comfortable houses in wealthy cities, going to work, to school days before now with just the clothes on their backs. Others reducing their entire lives to a suitcase, their babies strapped on -- strollers, pets, toddlers walking.
These people are 30 miles from the border. They may spend nights in the biting cold.
POMRENZE: I wonder if there's anyone who --
BURNETT (voice-over): Our team -- here you see Yon, Hannah, and James didn't have any idea about what to do either. There is no answer.
POMRENZE: They're going to start calling the people we have, at least on the other side of the border, to see if we should try to go to one of the other Polish ones. And then, you know, they say they don't have anyone in terms of figuring out Slovak or Hungarian.
BURNETT (on camera): Right.
POMRENZE: But even, hopefully, just if they can look at -- if there's news reports or something that's somewhat recent maybe it could help us make a decision.
BURNETT (on camera): Right. People who are posting on social media or something.
POMRENZE: Because they're going to get -- I think it's just if we do the 3 1/2 hours down there and it's also bad, and then where do we -- which quarter do we end up spending the night in the car?
BURNETT: I know.
BURNETT (voice-over): This woman was hoping to eventually get to Germany.
BURNETT (on camera): So in an hour and 10 minutes we went about one- half of one mile. So that means, obviously, if you do the math -- the distance to the border -- it would take us 57 hours to get there at the pace we're going now. And the situation at this border crossing, we understand, has deteriorated dramatically.
There's a lot of tension here. We just saw a skirmish the other moment. Someone tried to come in -- cut in and come through here to the gas station. And literally, the car here was just cutting them off and wouldn't even let that person in. When you're 57 miles -- 57 hours away from the border it's just -- it gives you a sense of how desperate people are.
BURNETT (voice-over): So we turned around. Behind us, the end of the line. People here not yet aware they are 30 miles and several days from possibly crossing the border.
This is Mark, a career war zone photojournalist. He's filming almost all of what you're seeing here -- lines of cars, more lines of cars, lines of cars. The soul-crushing reality. Rare moments of what is normal life along the way, but mostly this -- sitting, parked, engine off, waiting at checkpoints like this one.
Hannah filmed locals building cinderblock towers and piling up tires to burn to stop a Russian advance.
We lost count of the number of checkpoints but one was worse than all the others.
BURNETT (on camera): So now we're headed for border crossings either on the Hungarian border or the Slovakian border. The line of cars here, though, is actually for a checkpoint. And at this particular checkpoint, we have been in line for almost two hours and we probably have at least that far to go -- all the way up and around that curve, and up that hill.
BURNETT (voice-over): I was wrong there. It took us more than six hours to get past that checkpoint. People fell asleep waiting but no one ever cut around a sleeping driver when the line moved three or four car links. They just waited.
While there, we talked to people, like Oleksander, who is trying to find a border where he could drop his wife off.
BURNETT (on camera): Does your wife want you to fight?
OLEKSANDER, TAKING WIFE TO BORDER: No. She actually like wants to not fight. She's like scared and she says like I cannot like decide it on my own. So I will try to convince her so --
BURNETT (voice-over): Oleksander has a medical degree and says he can help the wounded in an ICU. To him, nothing can be worse than this excruciating wait.
OLEKSANDER: All this lines and queues of cars -- it actually seems more exhausting and more harder than to actually fight those Russians.
BURNETT (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) Yarina has the only store in the tiny cluster of houses.
[05:40:00]
YARINA, UKRAINIAN HEADING TO SLOVAKIAN BORDER: The Ukrainian people very strong.
BURNETT (on camera): Yes.
YARINA: Yes, and very intelligent. I believe for the peace. I believe for the -- everything.
BURNETT (voice-over): She broke the war news to her family in Russia.
YARINA: And the family say, "What? War with Ukraine?"
BURNETT (on camera): In Russia.
YARINA: But nobody knows about the news with Russia. Nothing say about it.
BURNETT (on camera): They didn't know?
YARINA: With Russia, news is absolutely --
BURNETT (on camera): The news is controlled.
YARINA: Not only controlled, absolutely different, and liar. In Russia, it's a lot of people there and people don't want war. It's only stupid, sick, you know who.
BURNETT (voice-over): By the time we passed the checkpoint it was hours past dark. The roads remote, the curves sharp. Suddenly, after so many hours at the checkpoint, it was disconcerting. We didn't see a single car until anywhere near a border.
This line is for the Slovakian border. That line was at least 14 hours long. It may have been much, much longer.
We stopped after 17 hours for our driver to nap. His dedication to helping us was incredible. Of course, he is between the ages of 18 and 60, so he is not allowed to leave Ukraine. He could take us only as far as the border where we unloaded in the frigid darkness.
There, we met a family who described, in shock, how they'd watched Putin's rockets streaking across the sky in one of the attacks. The feeling of knowing the rockets would land seconds later somewhere in their country and destroy and kill leaving them just shaking their heads at us without words.
BURNETT (on camera): So this is Hungary. Behind me, the border. It took us 21 hours to get there. Of course, for us, we're now headed home. And for so many people that we saw, afraid, they're leaving behind their homes and for now, leaving behind the country that they love so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Thank you to Erin for that moving report.
A huge explosion in Ukraine's second-largest city after an airstrike hits a government building and we're now learning more than 20 people were injured in that.
CNN's special coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.
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[05:46:29]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This is a Russian missile attack on a government building in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. This is the second-largest city in Ukraine. And you can see the devastation caused by that.
Ukrainian officials now say there were at least 20 casualties, including at least one child. No report yet of deaths, but you can imagine by the destruction there that we will be hearing soon about that.
The pressure is increasing now on key Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv. Let me show you where that is here on the map. It's in the northeastern part of the country, right here. All the areas in red on this map now are areas under Russian control.
The Russians were pushed back. The initial invasion did not go as planned, we think. However, you can see how slowly but surely they are making gains toward key Russian cities, including the capital -- Ukrainian cities, including the capital of Kyiv right there -- getting ever closer by the minute.
The main concern now near Kyiv is this. This is a 40-mile-long military convoy just a short distance -- maybe 20 miles now -- from the Kyiv city center. This convoy -- I have some video here I can show you it moving. This convoy is made up of tanks, armored vehicles, supplies, infantry troops, we think, getting closer and closer and closer. That is the main area of concern now.
And as you look back again at this map, there is fear among the U.S. Intelligence Community that Vladimir Putin is going to increase the intensity of this invasion into Ukraine -- maybe because it has not gone well -- with little concern for civilian targets and civilian casualties. And we're going to hear much more about that from U.S. officials, coming up -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Well, the Ukrainian Navy says that those 13 soldiers who were feared dead after telling off a Russian warship are actually alive. The soldiers were defending that small Black Sea island known as Snake Island. And they kept two Russian military ships off the island for several hours, but they were ultimately forced to surrender due to a lack of ammunition.
When Russian forces ordered them to lay down their weapons or face bombing, this is how the Ukrainian guards responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Translated): I am Russian military ship. Propose to put down arms or you will be hit. Acknowledge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (not through the radio): F*** it as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (whispering): Just in case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Translated): Russian warship, go f*** yourself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, the Ukrainian Navy says that the soldiers are being held prisoner by the Russians. Russian state media also showed their arrival in Crimea where they are being held.
Just in, new CNN reporting on Vladimir Putin's mindset are more and more American experts say he's not well -- that he may be acting out of character.
This is CNN's special live coverage.
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[05:54:17]
KEILAR: There are half a million people fleeing Ukraine as the Russian onslaught continues. And our next guest is joining us live from Lviv, there in the west, which has become known as Ukraine's city of refugees. Father Andriy Zelinskyy with us now. He is a military chaplain with the Ukraine Greek Catholic Church, working with refugees who are there heading westward trying to get out.
Father Andre, I know that you've ministered a lot along the frontlines and I wonder what it is like there in Lviv.
FATHER ANDRIY ZELINSKYY, HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY CHAPLAINCY OF UKRAINE: Well, hello, everybody.
Nowadays, Lviv, as you just mentioned, becomes Ukrainian refugee center. Thousands of people who had forcefully to leave their homes and to head somewhere.
[05:55:01]
Nowadays, Ukraine -- I mean, actually, there is no safe place in the whole country. You can't feel safe anywhere, even here in Lviv, despite the fact that there is no air bombardment of the city. But we can hear still shells and rockets here. Well, we do expect -- we do expect the situation like this to start maybe soon.
However, as you can watch the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv, it's very, very difficult to watch the situation that's happening there.
But here in Lviv, we see numberless families with their children and this is a very specific thing. Lots of children leaving their homes and heading towards the border.
KEILAR: Father, can you tell me a little bit about that. We see the video. We're showing pictures. There are so many kids. They're all rugged up in the cold. And a lot of these cases, you have their mothers with them but the fathers are turning back around to fight.
What has your experience been talking to those families?
ZELINSKYY: Exactly. This is the most challenging thing for the fathers -- for the young fathers, especially, to bring their families -- to bring their wives and their kids -- to leave them here, and then to return. Since the situation in which they find themselves -- the circumstances under which they have to fight -- well, this is something.
You know, one of the most -- one of the most frightening thing about this war is that you can't find the answer to the question why -- why is this happening? Usually, wars -- they have some strategic goals and you understand what the other side is trying to achieve. But in this case, you are just a witness to an unreasonable -- well, I would say even insane violence and cruelty.
KEILAR: You're just -- you're a witness to this suffering. What -- Father Andriy, can you hear me? All right. I think -- I think we may have lost Father Andriy and his signal. All right, we're going to try to reestablish that but Father Andriy, if we don't, I really thank you for being with us. Thank you so much.
NEW DAY continues right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
KEILAR: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Tuesday, March first, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.
It is day six of the Ukraine invasion and Russia's onslaught shows no signs of letting up. In fact, some officials are worried it's about to get much worse.
Overnight -- there it is -- a devastating attack in the heart of Kharkiv. This is Ukraine's second-largest city, much of it Russian- speaking. And that was a Russian strike taking out a government building in the historic Freedom Square of Kharkiv.
It reduced it to rubble. And more than 20 people, we've now learned, have been reported injured, including at least one child. Civilians -- people, as we understand it, are also trapped under the rubble there.
There's also some grave concern this morning for Ukraine's capital of Kyiv. These new satellite images show a massive Russian military convoy more than 40 miles long reaching the outskirts of the city. The convoy appears to include armored vehicles, tanks, as well as towed artillery.
And in the meantime, Ukrainian citizens are continuing to mount fierce resistance. Video from one town shows residents using their cars, using their bodies to block an approaching column of some 40 Russian vehicles. And those vehicles eventually turned around and left.
In another town, people can be seen putting barricades and metal spikes in the main access road, trying to stop the Russian military from advancing.
BERMAN: So, as the Russians advance into Ukraine -- and you can see here on the map the progress they are making. All the areas in red now are essentially under Russian occupation. It's prompting an exodus.
Let me show you that. A huge flow of humanity from Ukraine into the neighboring countries. Half a million refugees have already fled to Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, the largest number. Nearly 300,000 there and that number is expected to increase.
Ukraine's President Zelensky is accusing Russia of war crimes for targeting civilians in its bombing of Kharkiv. Zelensky is scheduled to speak shortly to European Union leaders after making an appeal for the E.U. to grant his country immediate membership.
And we have brand-new CNN reporting on U.S. intelligence officials being asked to assess Vladimir Putin's state of mind.
First, we're going to focus right now on this assault on Kharkiv right now. This attack on the government building there. I'm going to go over the border. Here is Kharkiv right here -- over the border into Russia in Belgorod. That's where we have CNN's Frederik Pleitgen standing by. Fred, what can you tell us?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, John.
[06:00:00]
