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Fears as Bloodshed as 40-Mile-Long Russian Convoy nears Kyiv; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is Interviewed About Ukraine and President Biden's Supreme Court Nominee. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 01, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Tuesday, March 1st.

An act of undisguised terror. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky reacting to the Russian cruise missile attack that destroyed a government building in Kharkiv's historic Freedom Square. This is the second largest city in Ukraine. And Ukrainian officials now say that at least 10 people were killed in this, 35 injured in that air strike. They're expecting to find even more victims in the rubble as well.

Just moments ago, an emotional Zelenskyy telling the European parliament that Ukraine will not back down in the battle with Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We are fighting just for our land and for our freedom. Despite the fact that all the cities of our country are now blocked, nobody is going to enter and intervene with our freedom and country. Believe you me, every square of today, no matter what it's called, it's going to be called, as today, Freedom Square, in every city of our country. Nobody is going to break us. We're strong. We're Ukrainians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: There is also grave concern this morning for Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. New satellite imagery showing a massive Russian military convoy that stretches for more than 40 miles, reaching the outskirts of the city. And this convoy appears to include armored vehicles, tanks, and also tote artillery.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meantime, Ukrainian citizens continue to resist the Russian forces. Video from one town shows residents, you could see them here, using their cars and their bodies to block this Russian advance of about 40 military vehicles. Those vehicles did eventually turn around. People in another town, you can see them putting up barricades and metal spikes on the ground to block an incoming Russian advance there.

But the Russians still are advancing around the country. There is a map we have seen all morning long showing all the areas essentially under Russian control. It has prompted an exodus. You can see about half-a-million people have left Ukraine already, going over the border to neighboring countries. The most heading over into Poland, and we do expect this number to increase.

With us now is Oleksiy Sorokin, political editor and COO of "The Kyiv Independent." Thank you so much for being with us. I know that you just left Kharkiv. What can you tell us about this missile strike there?

OLEKSIY SOROKIN, POLITICAL EDITOR AND COO, "THE KYIV INDEPENDENT": Well, the missile strike is clearly, as the president said, a terrorist attack. There was zero military infrastructure in the neighborhood. The only government building was basically the regional administration. And this is absolutely shocking to every Kharkiv resident.

KEILAR: What does this -- put this into context, if you would, Oleksiy, this area, this space, and how often people might walk by this.

SOROKIN: Well, it's Kharkiv's Times Square. It is the center of the city. Obviously, it used to be packed with people before the war, and now it is all ruins. This was the landmark for Kharkiv, and I think that that's when the war hits you, when you see some so important being turned into rubbish.

KEILAR: Something you have been by so many days without a thought, seeing it destroyed like that. Oleksiy Sorokin, thank you so much. Please stay safe for us.

BERMAN: You can see here on this map now, all the areas in red. These are areas essentially under Russian control at this point. And one area of major concern now is near Kyiv, where you see this convoy, 17 to 40 miles long, of Russian military vehicles moving ever closer to the city. Just a small gap, maybe 20 miles separates the end of that convoy from the downtown.

I want to bring in Clarissa Ward, our chief international correspondent who is in Kyiv this morning. Couple the existence of this convoy with the new reporting from Jim Sciutto, Clarissa, there is a sense among U.S. intelligence that Vladimir Putin is going to only escalate the violence that he's perpetrating.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. And I think there is a grim sense here in the capital as that convoy bears down on Kyiv.

[08:05:00] And with the knowledge of what's happening in Kharkiv today, and with a huge uptick in civilian infrastructure being targeted and civilians being killed, there is a growing sense of dread that things could get much, much uglier here in the capital.

What is extraordinary to see, though, John, and this is what we have seen on the streets, is that people are extraordinarily courageous and defiant. They are not just lining up to get groceries, but also lining up to volunteer and be involved in any small way that they can to be part of the resistance. I talked to one man who was volunteering to help build sandbags, or put together sandbags for defensive positions, and I said to him, are you concerned about the situation? He said, you know what, I'm a retiree, I've had a long life, and so I'm OK with dying now. I'm ready to do that if that's what needs to happen to protect my country.

And that is an attitude that is, frankly, staggering, but we are seeing a lot of it around this city. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WARD: The people of Kyiv are mobilizing. Across the capital, volunteers are pouring in, building up the city's defenses with whatever they can. Women bringing empty bottles to be made into Molotov cocktails. The leaders of in militia say Ukraine will win this war, emboldened by recent successful operations to repel Russian forces. One shows us his passport. "I am originally Russian," he says. "But no Russian boots will stand here."

Do you have a message for President Putin?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putin --

WARD: It's a popular sentiment on the streets. This man's sign is too vulgar to translate. Another billboard warns invading forces. "Russian soldiers leave. How will you look your children in the eye?" Ukraine has borne the brutality of this invasion with patient grit and determination. Outside every supermarket there are long lines and scarce supplies. But no one is complaining.

It's amazing to see the optimism of people here. They have been waiting in this line for about 40 minutes to get into the supermarket. But still they're saying everything is going to be OK. You can feel a growing confidence among people that they do have a chance to defeat Russia.

In an eastern suburb of the city, Ryisa (ph) Schmatko's (ph) front yard has turned into a staging area. So you can see they're collecting things to donate to people, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, pickles, foods. Schmatko is a grandmother and a retired economist. Now she spends her days preparing for battle.

OK, this is where they make the Molotov cocktails? She says she's going to show us them now.

These are the only weapons she has, but she says she's ready to fight. "Let those Russian shits come here," she says. "We are ready to greet them."

How did you learn how to make Molotov cocktails? "Google helped," she tells me. You Googled it? "Of course," she says.

If Russian forces push into the capital here in Kyiv, what will you do? "We will beat them. They won't come," she tells us. "I believe in our Ukraine. I believe in Ukrainian people."

Moments later, she is off. Russian forces are still moving forward. And there is much work to be done.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WARD (on camera): Now, remarkable and impressive as that confidence and that optimism is, of course the reality is that there is a serious David and Goliath dynamic to this conflict that is playing out. And the fear is that as that convoy continues to bear down on the capital, and with the uptick in targeting of civilian infrastructure that we're seeing in Kharkiv, that things will get much worse here in the capital. We heard from Russia's defense minister earlier today, and he said, he accused the Ukrainian military of essentially using civilian infrastructure to hide military hardware. That is something we have heard from Russia before in previous conflicts in Syria and other places, and unfortunately, it's usually a precursor to increased targeting of civilian areas. So while people are defiant, there is still a sense of dread, as I said before, John, that things could be getting much, much worse soon.

[08:10:06]

BERMAN: Heroic defiance there. And that woman you spoke to, she's not hiding any Ukrainian military equipment. Clarissa Ward, thank you so much for that report.

KEILAR: And let's go now to CNN international security editor Nick Paton Walsh, who is in Odessa there in the southern part of Ukraine. Nick, what can you tell us? What are you seeing there?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, this is the third largest city in Ukraine, very much braced for the absolute worst. We were out with people today preparing food for the military, seeing civilians contributing towards the defenses here. Essentially what has got this town deeply on edge is about 30-minutes drive up the road, there have been intense clashes and some shelling, and I think that has many concerned that the progress we're seeing the Russian military slowly and brutally making along the Black Sea coast is essentially routed towards this strategic port city.

You can't control Ukraine or Ukraine's economy unless you hold here. It's a Russian-speaking town, driven with snow at the moment, but essentially paralyzing its center by a series of blockades awaiting any potential Russian amphibious invasion for which they have, frankly, been deeply on edge for weeks.

So the east of where I'm standing in a town called Kherson, which we were in about four days ago, there are videos that appear to show, I spoke to a resident that confirmed this, Russian troops now walking in the streets of that town. It was always a debate, frankly, we were having locals there as to whether the Russian military would feel they needed to come into the population center. They were fighting for the bridge, strategic to the town's east, and essentially, they seemed to have won that fight.