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New Day

Biden Slams Putin's War on Ukraine in State of the Union; Shelling Underway in Kharkiv. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 02, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: This must have been a bit of a wakeup call.

[05:59:19]

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And look, the entire response of NATO and the West, Brianna, has been a wakeup call for Vladimir Putin. It's been a wakeup call for many of us ourselves who have been participating in the media discussion here.

There was a lot of concern that the West was not going to be as strong and united as it's been. Just remember a week ago, the concern about, well, how strong are the sanctions going to be imposed? Are they going to go after the biggest Russian financial institutions? After they going to go after the Central Bank?

People thought, Well, no, the blowback on Western economies is going to be so great you're not going to be able to get everyone together.

Russia has, in fact, united, solidified NATO, solidified opinion in the United States to its disfavor. And that is a consequence.

It doesn't mean that that's necessarily going to deter Vladimir Putin from his course. And the president in his speech last night acknowledged uncertainty. We don't know where Russia's going to go. Are they going to push West? And that raises questions, of course, about what the U.S. and NATO response will be then.

But at this moment the unity that has been created by this situation is pretty profound. And that's something that President Biden took advantage of in the remarks last night.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: John Harwood, great to see you this morning. Thank you so much.

And NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Wednesday, March 2. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

And the breaking news, Russian heavy weapons hitting Ukrainian civilians. This is new video from overnight. An attack in Kharkiv. A regional police department hit by a military strike. Kharkiv's national university also targeted.

According to preliminary data, four people have been killed, nine injured among this large-scale shelling and bombing across the city of Kharkiv today. Authorities say that at this moment the firefighting is under way.

Also overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry claims it is taking control of a key port city. That's the city of Kherson in the southern part of the country right now. The Russians say they've captured it. New images show Russian military vehicles parked in a main square in the city.

Now, defense officials deny that Kherson has fallen. They say a battle is still raging for control of that city. CNN has not been able to independently verify the Russian claims.

KEILAR: Heavy shelling also being reported this morning in the southern town of Mariupol. Dozens are reported injured there. Russian forces have now surrounded the city, and electricity has been cut off.

Hundreds of workers at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant are blocking entrance to Russia forces. And Ukraine is asking the International Atomic Energy Agency for immediate assistance to safeguard multiple nuclear sites.

In the meantime, a Kremlin spokesman says a Russian delegation will be in place today for a new round of talks. But the other side may not be there.

Let's go first now to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh. He is live for us in Odessa, Ukraine in the south where many eyes are trained right now. What's going on?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, and this city deeply on alert at the moment.

Just talked to the mayor of the city, who has got to at any moment, frankly, fear there could be some sort of Russian amphibious landing here. And social media circulating unverified pictures of ships, potentially on the coastline.

Not -- I say that to you not because it's a fact that contributes to the threat here but it tells you the mind-set of people in this, the third largest city of Ukraine, a vital port city, Russian speaking.

The mayor also said to me they were concerned, potentially, that they might see, if this city was attacked, troops coming from the West of Odessa, a part, an unrecognized part of the neighboring country, Moldova.

That's the scale, potentially, of the military maneuvers there. So that's unconfirmed. But it plays into the mindset here of concerns in this city about what might be ahead of them.

And that is reinforced by the broader picture of the Black Sea at this point. You mentioned Kherson (ph). We were there about four days ago to see the heavy fighting for a strategic bridge to its east. That seems, obviously, to have been conclusively now held by the Russians as a key conduit North from the peninsula of Crimea for their forces.

But we were wondering what would they do about the populated -- heavily-populated town of Kherson itself. The answer came last night, yesterday. They started to move troops in.

Speaking to residents there, they are concerned about looting. Fires appear to have started there. I've just seen a video from the square there which shows a local man waving a Ukrainian flag at assembled Russian arm there.

There's a split screen here, Ukraine saying the fighting continues; Russia saying they have the town. That's the problem going forward, Brianna. Essentially at what point does a town give up, do local officials say we accept the Russian troops now call the shots?

That is going to play out in cities across Ukraine, potentially, in the weeks ahead. And the snapshot we're seeing in Kherson at this point, with Russian troops pictured wheeling away goods from stores, marching away, at gunpoint, local men, is an ugly one, indeed.

And it's one that informs the fears here in Odessa. There are concerns because of the explosions they're hearing in Mykolaiv. That's the major other port city en route to Odessa here, if you are a Russian force moving West.

Mykolaiv, we were in, as well. We heard intense shelling around the edges of it there. That is deeply concern, that it may see Russian armor move into it.

All of this about Russia trying to get the leverage of securing the Black Sea coast. But with each move forwards, we see the resistance of local Ukrainian populations and, of course, the fear that Russia will simply use more barbaric tactics to suppress that local resistance.

Some signs of that already in Kherson, which is why that city, by itself, you know, strategically on the route, is beginning to provide an early picture about what Russia's presence may look like as it moves into population centers.

KEILAR: Yes, look, signs -- Signs of more -- of heavier artillery, heavier weapons being used against civilians in the North, as well, in Kharkiv. So that seems to be, maybe, a broad tactical shift we are seeing. Nick, thank you.

BERMAN: Obviously, Nick talking about the battles down here and the efforts to make this a whole Russian-controlled area. But a lot of activity happening around Kyiv where we have seen a number of aerial attacks in the last few days.

Let's go to our senior national security correspondent, Alexander Marquardt. He is now at the site of the TV tower hit yesterday -- Alex.

ALEXANDER MARQUART, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. Not just an increasing number of attacks around Kyiv but in Kyiv, as well.

This TV tower right here, just three miles from the city center.

We've spoken with guards who were here yesterday. They say this attack from the Russians came with no warning. They believe that there were around four missiles that hit all across this area, including a direct impact on the tower itself.

You can still very much see the damage, of course. A blackened area around the middle of it, as well as windows that have -- that have been shattered. But there are clearly a number of rockets that landed all over here. Lots and lots of collateral damage.

Now, we know from Ukrainian authorities that some five people were killed. You can still see some of the blood on the sidewalk.

Now, of course, we are across the street from that tower. But just take a look at this, at this building and the state that it's in now. It is completely destroyed.

Here on the ground floor, this is clearly a gym. You can see all the gym equipment, stationary bikes, elliptical trainer. There is still a fire going on there. Lots of smoke coming out of this building. Utterly destroyed, John.

Now, this is an area called Babyn Yar, which is where one of the worst massacres of Jews in World War II happened. Some 30,000 people killed over the course of two years. So it's a very, very symbolic area.

Here you have an attack by a man, Vladimir Putin, who claims that he is trying to de-Nazify Ukraine on what is essentially hallowed grouped.

This is, in the words of the secretary of state, Tony Blinken, an appalling attack. President Zelensky also saying that this is evidence of history repeating itself.

John, we have heard time and time again from the Russians that they are they are not targeting civilian infrastructure. We heard that claim again today. But clearly, they are hitting civilian infrastructure and, clearly, killing a growing number of Ukrainians -- John, Brianna.

BERMAN: Yes, the elliptical machine there has no military purpose, Alex. That is a civilian gym, to be sure.

And when you talk about Babyn Yar, the site where some 30,000 Jews were killed in just two days, the chief rabbi of Ukraine said, of the victims of Babyn Yar, they just keep killing us.

Alexander Marquardt on the ground there, at the site of destruction. Thank you so much for being with us.

KEILAR: And now let's talk with Lieutenant General, retired, Mark Hertling. He is our CNN military analyst, a retired Army commanding general of Europe and the 7th Army. General, I do want to head back down to the southern part of the

country as we are looking at some moves that have happened here in the last 24 hours. What are you seeing?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. Three big things, Brianna. First of all, the south, you see the places where the reporters just came from. The South, Kyiv and Kharkiv.

What we're talking about in the South is this town of Kherson, which is about the size of the town of Tampa in Florida. Three hundred thousand people. You're seeing what the Russians are attempting to do. They're attempting to spread both West to connect Mariupol to Mother Russia and going to the -- I'm sorry, to the West to get Odessa, to the East to get Mariupol.

But this map and the other maps where you see a Russian-controlled red, that's a huge area. And Russia does not control all of that red. There's a lot of Ukrainian fighters in that area.

[06:10:02]

And what I would suggest as we continue to see that red eke out into various areas North, East and West, it opens up the supply lines. It opens up to more Ukrainian fighters going against those Russian convoys.

And the most important thing here in the South is this is the Black Sea. What you're talking about is resupplying through that Black Sea. That's very difficult to do for a naval force, especially one that Turkey has said they will stop. And there are other NATO vessels in that Black Sea.

Russia considers that a Russian lake. It is not. There's a lot of NATO forces in that area.

KEILAR: And it sounds like, judging from what Nick Paton Walsh was saying, there are rumors of perhaps an amphibious assault in Odessa. Right? So what would that look like? Would that be -- you see from Kherson, Mykolaiv, would that be Russia trying to establish some sort of beachhead in the --?

HERTLING: Exactly right. It's a beachhead, would probably be preceded by a lot of artillery strikes, naval gunfire gunfire. If they do it right, there's going to be some air forces go in there.

But again, you're talking about -- This map is a PowerPoint slide. It doesn't show the size of this area. This is a couple of hundred miles long between Odessa and over here in Mariupol, with -- with Crimea in the middle. It would be very difficult to have a continuous assault onto those beachheads with the forces that Russia has in this area.

KEILAR: All right. General Hertling, thank you so much. Next hour we're going to have you back, and we're going to be talking about Russian objectives and whether they have met them. I will say a little bit of a teaser. No, they haven't. So we're going to be going through that, through that formula and looking at that. General, thank you.

HERTLING: You got it.

BERMAN: So university war (ph), Holocaust memorial site, just some of the civilian locations hit by Russian attacks. This is CNN's special live coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We have new developments next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:04]

BERMAN: All right. New video in overnight. This is an attack in Kharkiv, the northeastern Ukrainian city, the second largest city in Ukraine. The Russians hitting this police building. We also got word that a university complex was hit.

We now are being told that there are at least four dead from this round of attacks, several more injured. and you can see the flames there. We're told that firefighting operations are under way.

Just some of the targets, including civilians, being hit over the last several hours. That's happening up here in Kharkiv; in Kyiv, as well. We all saw the video of the television tower being hit right there.

Joining me now is Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at the New School in New York. She's also the co-author of "In Putin's Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones."

Professor, thank you so much for being with us.

NINA KHRUSHCHEVA, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, NEW SCHOOL: Thank you.

BERMAN: Hitting a television tower and a Holocaust memorial site. What does that tell you about what Vladimir Putin is thinking this morning?

KHRUSHCHEVA: I mean, it's inconceivable. I just -- I want to hope that this is -- all these precision strikes that they've been telling us about, they are just not that precise. Because imagining that they are actually targeting -- not only they're targeting civilians, they're targeting universities and buildings and notions of civil and human society is inconceivable.

And I was looking at the Babyn Yar pictures, and that's absolutely heartbreaking, because that is such a holy site. And no Russian would ever, in any mind, sane mind would be thinking that that might be somehow attacked.

In fact, they've been such a pain (ph) for Ukraine for so many years, and they just built a new -- a new monument there, just a new complex. In fact, the Russians and Ukrainians both agreed on it. The Russians contributed to that. It was built by a Russian designer and architect and sort of cultural -- cultural creator. And yet, now the Russians are attacking Ukrainian sites or other sites

of worship, of Nazi -- anti-Nazi struggle. And then Putin says that he's actually de-Nazifying the country. So in some ways, I can't even put those words together, sentences together in my mind.

BERMAN: Well, look, whether it's intentional or indifference, the impact is the same, which is that innocents are being killed; memorials are being destroyed there.

And I do wonder -- I know that the Russian people are not seeing all of this. They see a limited diet, controlled largely by Vladimir Putin. But some of it has to be seeping in there. And if the Russian people were to see the Babyn Yar site hit by missiles or a university hit by missiles, what would the impact be on their support of Putin?

KHRUSHCHEVA: Well, but it's already support is -- support is completely waning. And we've seen it. And when I said, I don't imagine intentional, I'm not saying that it matters anymore. But I'm just saying that if it is intentional, the barbarity of it is 10-fold already to what it is inconceivable.

No, the Russians are -- many Russians are absolutely qualified. They go to the streets. Reporters, people quit their jobs. People are fired for speaking against it. There were people who were arrested just for wearing lapels with Ukrainian flag in the lapel, with a little -- a little thing.

They are -- there are mothers coming with children to bring flowers to the Ukrainian embassy. They're arrested for that. They're threatened their children will be taken away.

[06:20:04]

I mean, it is -- the whole thing is barbaric. The whole thing is impossible. And it does seep in. And people do see once in a while -- Those who have relatives in Ukraine, so it comes through the phone. Now they're jamming those phones.

So we should act as the worst criminal, at this point, as we learn to -- to denounce since World War II.

BERMAN: Look, and we're all learning to believe that what we thought was impossible might, in fact, be possible. Professor Nina Khrushcheva, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

KHRUSHCHEVA: Thank you.

BERMAN: Look, we all know about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant up here in Ukraine. But we are getting word that at another site, plant workers are blocking a road from Russian forces. And Russia -- and Ukraine, I should say, is requesting immediate help in protecting nuclear sites. We have new details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:08] BERMAN: All right. This is the new video into CNN just a short ago. You can see this air attack in the Northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. This was some kind of a police building.

Also hit in this attack, we are told, a university complex. At least four dead, several others injured. A firefighting operation now under way there.

Let me give a sense where it is. This is up here in Kharkiv, the upper Northeastern part of the country. You can push in here and see the Russians moving ever closer to the city.

Our Frederik Pleitgen is over the Russian border, here near Belgorod. Fred, give us the latest on what you're seeing there.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.

That's where we're seeing that logistical operation that essentially feeds the offensive that's going on there in Kharkiv right now, which as you correctly say, really does seem to be intensifying. What we're hearing right now overhead is actually Russian warplanes.

We've been hearing them for a little while. It's unclear whether or not they're also striking areas in Kharkiv, as well, or whether it's some sort of surveillance flight or something like that.

But of course, as you've noted, and as the folks here in Kharkiv have said, as well, the operation there intensifying. And more and more of the area inside the city being hit. Not just those two explosions early this morning but in general also, fighting going on there, as well.

Nevertheless, we do have to say, as far as the Kharkiv operation is concerned, there were many here in Russia who thought that Kharkiv would actually be one of the first cities to fall to the Russian military. And that city, obviously, still holding out.

If you look at what the Russians have here, it's pretty much an ideal situation for the attack on the city of Kharkiv, because we're very close to the border. Belgorod, of course, right across from the border, where I am, from Ukraine. And it's pretty easy for them to bring logistics and bring support towards their Kharkiv battlefield.

And that's certainly something that we've been seeing here throughout the course of the day, as well. We had a convoy that went past us, large military convoy, which seemed to be supply and possibly also communications vehicles going in that direction, going towards the Kharkiv front line.

That's been a theme that we've seen throughout the entire time. Also, heavy military vehicles going in, as well.

As we've been reporting, some of the Russian stuff also breaking down, though, on its way towards that front line. We've seen some -- some military vehicles that needed to be towed or on the back of trucks throughout the day, as well.

So the offensive in Kharkiv, from everything that we're seeing on this side of the border, as far as the logistics are concerned, still very much going on at full stream.

And certainly, the folks there at Kharkiv obviously feeling that and the full brunt. But Kharkiv still a city where the folks there are holding out, and the town is still holding out, as well, John.

BERMAN: You can see the push here. The red area under Russian control, pushing over the border toward Kharkiv but not there yet. Not inside. Not just yet.

Frederik Pleitgen, where we can see the supplies moving behind you. Thanks so much for being with us.

PLEITGEN: Yes. KEILAR: All right. Joining us now is David Priess. He is a former CIA officer who served during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. And he's also publisher of "Lawfare," which is a blog that covers national security issues. And he's also the author of "The President's Book of Secrets."

David, I'm wondering if you think Russian -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting an accurate picture here? Is Russian intelligence good?

DAVID PRIESS, FORMER CIA OFFICER: That is a tricky question, Brianna. Russian intelligence is very good at several things, ranging from counterintelligence to actual kinetic operations.

But they do not appear to have a long, storied history of telling truth to power, a phrase that is very common in the United States and other Western intelligence services.

And what I mean by that is taking information, compiling all of it, analyzing it, and then presenting to senior policymakers your best objective assessment of what's going on, whether the policymaker wants to hear that news or not.

In United States history, we've had cases where this has led to real conflict. In Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson did not like the intelligence he was getting from the CIA and others about what was going on on the ground there, because it wasn't what he wanted his policy to be resulting in.

But our system generally works. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. But generally, that's what we do.

There is no indication that Vladimir Putin is getting that kind of objective reality from the intelligence services. In fact, some reports are coming in saying that they are not warning him about the actual situation on the ground. And that leads to poor strategic decision-making.

KEILAR: So one strategic decision that appears to be made, and this appears to be made broadly, according to our reporters there in Kharkiv and also in the South, is that you have heavier weapons being used against civilians. So what does that tell you about the intelligence that Putin is getting?

PRIESS: Well, I'm not sure that it does, because there's three different levels here at play. One is the soldiers on the ground and how much leeway they have to fire weapons such as that at-will.

[06:30:00]