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United States and Ukraine Sharing Intel as Russian Convoy Encircles Kyiv; Nearly 836,000 Refugees Have Left Ukraine Since Russian Invasion; Ukrainian Teacher's Sons Join Frontlines to Fight Russians; More Explosions in Kharkiv. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 02, 2022 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We don't have confirmation of casualties on either side at this point.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Is it frustrating, Jen, for the president or for people working in the White House, I know the president feels he's doing everything he can. You used that word everything he can. But is it frustrating still to see the advances on civilian centers, to see the Russian military making progress in some areas?

PSAKI: Of course. It's not just frustrating, it's upsetting, it's horrifying. You know, I was at the State Department. The president was the vice president the last time Russia invaded Ukraine. This is a pattern of horror from President Putin and from the cronies around him. So it's more than frustrating. It's upsetting and it's disgusting as we're watching what happens here on the ground.

You know, I think this is one of the reasons why back in October, back in the fall, the president took steps when the world was not focused on this, to rally global leaders, to ensure we were going to be united and making sure we have the ability, the preparations, the capacity to put in place these crippling sanctions, to prepare military assistance, to do -- take a range of steps we could to support Ukrainian leadership.

BERMAN: The president's State of the Union last night wasn't just focused on Ukraine. It was also focused on many domestic issues and he talked about his domestic agenda without talking about Build Back Better specifically. He talked about parts of Build Back Better. And apparently Joe Manchin, who I don't have to tell you, who was the obstacle to getting it all passed last year, not happy with some of the things that President Biden said.

Manchin said, quote, "They just can't help themselves. There might be parts they want to talk about. I don't know. That was just too far."

So where are you with Senator Manchin this morning?

PSAKI: Well, we remain in touch with a range of senators, including Senator Manchin, across the Democratic spectrum, and certainly Republicans, too, on a range of issues. I would say, look, there is an agreement on a range of priorities that the president talked about last night. Whatever you call it. The name is less important than what you're trying to do for the American people. And these are steps that Senator Manchin and others have talked about supporting.

Lowering the costs of prescription drugs, lowering the costs of health care, lowering the cost of child care. When we talk about inflation and costs and how they're impacting people in their living rooms and at homes, that's what we're really talking about. The bottom line. You know, how are they balancing their checkbooks for the month. How are they paying for the things that are huge costs for them.

So there is agreement on the need to address that. Is there agreement on a final package? Obviously not because the president would be signing that into law. But we remain committed to it. That's a big step that we can take as a country. The president can take, Democrats in Congress can take, we welcome Republicans, too, if they want to be a part of it, to lower cost and address we know is a root issue for Americans across the country right now.

BERMAN: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, thanks for being with us this morning.

PSAKI: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, we are seeing new explosions in major Ukrainian cities. Citizens now fighting back. Stay with us. Our special live coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:37:19]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Just in, the Ukrainian government confirming that a second round of talks will take place with Russia today with the same delegation that was sent on Monday. This as Ukrainian refugees are evacuating in droves. They're desperately seeking safety in neighboring countries. With the air space closed over Ukraine to commercial flights, trains are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with passengers fleeing the violence of the Russian invasion.

CNN's Scott McLean is live for us in Lviv, Ukraine with more.

Scott, look, we've seen you for days now reporting these packed trains after packed trains. What are you seeing today?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we're seeing much of the same today. My apologies, we can't show you more people. There are so many people at this train station that our signals clogged up and so we actually had to come over here where it's a little bit quieter in order to get on air with you right now.

This train is obviously not bound for Poland, which is why there's nobody wanting to get on it. If you look over here, you can see the number of people outside the station. There are more around the corner where they're boarding buses to places as far as Latvia and Prague. The chaos today is a little bit more organized than it has been in

past days. They are still prioritizing by and large women and children. But there seems to be a lot more trains going. And they are letting, at least on one dedicated train or one dedicated platform, they are allowing foreigners on. Foreigners, obviously, they are especially anxious to get out. There was an Indian student killed in Kharkiv just yesterday waiting in line for the grocery store.

We met a Pakistani man yesterday who after he got out of the city here in Lviv, his building was hit with rocket fire as well. And one other thing to share with you, we actually ran into, Brianna, a woman that we had sat next to taking the train into Ukraine. She was working in Poland. She went back to Ukraine to collect her two young children. She has them now. We just ran into her. Now she's going the opposite direction.

And I asked her what it was like when she reunited with her kids and she knew that they were safe, and she didn't speak English well. She didn't have the words in English but I don't think she would have had them in Ukrainian either. Just pure relief.

KEILAR: Indeed pure relief. Scott, thank you so much. Really, really appreciate that report from -- actually I have another question for you, Scott, before I let you go. What can you tell us about a Ukrainian brewery that is now making Molotov cocktails?

MCLEAN: Yes. So we went there yesterday. This is the kind of place that you could imagine being in Brooklyn and filled with hipsters on the weekend. But now all of a sudden this sort of Brooklyn hipster brewery is making Molotov cocktails out of the same bottles that they normally make their beer in. Now they wouldn't show us where the production is actually happening where they have a few dozen people making them day in and day out because obviously they want to keep it a secret.

[07:40:06]

They don't want it to be a potential target for the Russians. But what really struck me, though, is not just the fact that there's Molotov cocktails in beer bottles but the fact that these guys just a week ago were carrying on with their normal lives, organizing parties, brewing beer, that kind of a thing. And what a difference a week makes. They're getting ready for war and they didn't have a second thought about it. All of them told me that it's simply their duty to fight back -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, it's just one of these many vignettes we're seeing of this mass mobilization of civilians to help the resistance.

Scott, thank you so much for showing us that.

Russian tennis star Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova making a dangerous decision to speak out against Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. The move could be a risk for her safety and her career. But in a CNN exclusive interview earlier, Nastia told me that is not what is most important.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANASTASIA Pavlyuchenkova, RUSSIA'S TOP RANKED WOMAN TENNIS PLAYER: I think it's not about sport or tennis right now. As Andrey Rublev said earlier during the tournament here in Dubai which he won, it's true I think we don't have to be or I'm not going to be selfish and talking about sports and my career, which is very important to me. But I think right now it's more about our future and our life really. It's more than the sport right now.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Yes, I was going to say, it really does seem that all the Russians who are out of the country right now and free to speak are appalled by what they're seeing.

KEILAR: They are. And I think, you know, one of the things we keep hearing them say, I think kind of the, the sort of like buzz words are I'm opposed to this war. And I know that a lot of them aren't calling out Vladimir Putin by name, but it's pretty clear what they mean. And it's not like there isn't something at stake for them in this, right? You know. They still have so many friends and family and go back to Russia. And to hear it from Nastia, I mean, she is the number one Russian tennis player in the world and she is out there, you know, speaking her mind.

BERMAN: Yes. And I'm sure the message is getting back one way or another to the people inside Russia.

KEILAR: Yes. Ukraine's president with a new message for his people released just moments ago. What he is telling them as they are fighting for their lives and for their future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:46:37]

KEILAR: Breaking news. Right now Russian troops stepping up attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. People who live in these targeted areas and beyond are on guard. They are bracing for more strikes, which do seem imminent.

I want to bring in Olga Serostanova. She is an English teacher and she's preparing for the worst as she hunkers down in her hometown in central Ukraine.

Olga, thank you so much for being with us to tell us what it is like there in Ukraine. I do know that you have three sons and that two of them are joining the resistance. How worried are you?

OLGA SEROSTANOVA, ENGLISH TEACHER IN UKRAINE: I'm very worried because they live near Kyiv, and the situation is very tough there. And it is very -- it is terrible to know and to wait and not to be able to hear from them for some time. So it is really frightening. And it is frightening also to know that my little grandson, who is only a year and a half, has to be taken to the underground parking lot very often and spend nights there in the car because it is very dangerous to stay at home. And my two little granddaughters, 3 and 9 years old, who are (INAUDIBLE) in the north of Ukraine are also taken to the underground shelters when the sirens reach you, warns people about the air raids or Russian missiles or planes.

KEILAR: Look, and Olga, I can't imagine the fears that you have for your sweet little grandchildren and for your sons. I know two of them are pilots and one is a plane mechanic. What are your concerns for the future of your grandchildren if Russia takes over the country?

SEROSTANOVA: I -- I don't think about it. I cannot think about it because it is too terrible to think about such a perspective. No, no. I hope it will not be so.

KEILAR: I know, Olga, that you have been, you and your neighbors have been sort of taking it into your own hands, trying to prepare, trying to make things more difficult should Russian troops come in. Can you share with us anything about that?

SEROSTANOVA: Yes. I live in a town which is situated rather far from Kyiv, about 400 kilometers and near the regional center. And we don't, we are not having any battles here now but our town is preparing for this situation.

This rise in (INAUDIBLE). They're preparing. And they have formed the Regional Territorial Defense Unit. And they are making building fortifications and block posts along the roads, around the town.

[07:50:00]

And we are making some Molotov cocktails and (INAUDIBLE), and we are removing the signs, the street signs, and house numbers from the buildings in order to confuse the enemy who can enter our town.

And we are also trying to reach out to the Russian people, through the internet, to let them know about what is going on in Ukraine so that they could do something, they could stop their insane leader.

KEILAR: Olga -- Olga, I just want to say please do your best to stay safe. We are thinking of you. We are thinking of your sons and your grandchildren, and we'll be keeping an eye on your town. It is so important, I think, to hear your voice talking about what is going on there and what is at stake and what you're doing. So we really appreciate it, Olga. Thank you so much.

SEROSTANOVA: Thank you.

KEILAR: There are some new video this morning of civilian targets hit by Russian air strikes. This is why people like Olga are terrified. CNN is live on the ground, where debris is still smoldering.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:24] KEILAR: So we have more on the breaking news. Russia stepping up attacks on civilians. The Russian military claiming that it has captured the city of Kherson, which Ukraine denies, and analysts really doubt, and new explosions are rocking cities across the nation with some major shelling.

I want to bring in CNN global affairs analyst and contributor to "TIME" magazine Kim Dozier and CNN political and national security analyst and White House and national security correspondent at "The New York Times" David Sanger.

Can we talk a little bit about where the Biden administration is on its calculus, David, about what they can and cannot do and maybe what the limitations are?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the trick that President Biden is trying to deal with right now, and you saw it in the speech yesterday, and what he said we were doing and what he didn't say is that he can't let the United States become what's called a co-combatant in the war. He has said we are not going to be a direct participant. So obviously we're feeding them arms.

Obviously we're feeding them some intelligence. But what happens when you get to those next steps, whether it is helping interfere with communications, whether it is sending in people to go try to protect Zelensky himself, because it's very important to the U.S. government that Zelensky stay alive. If he doesn't, the Russians are simply going to turn around and say we're going to give you a government and we happen to have three candidates lined up.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: At some point they might have to think about spiriting Zelensky out, at least to another city just so that he can survive because he's the face of the resistance right now. But, you know, what if they give them targeting information, for instance? Does that make them a co-combatant? And the other issue is, though, the -- no poll that I've seen of Americans' attitudes towards this conflict, nobody wants to see U.S. troops on the ground.

KEILAR: In the conventional sense.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: There's a squishy line, right?

SANGER: Yes. Particularly in the world of cyber, where people are still trying to define what is an actual military activity, what is preparing the battlefield, what is intelligence gathering. You know, if you put a node in somebody's network, you can use that node to collect intelligence, that's a standard intelligence collection. I think we do it around the world. You can also use that node to inject malware and do something destructive. And depending on what that is, and how permanent it is, you could become the co-combatant.

KEILAR: What if -- what if some of these efforts, let's say even if it doesn't make the U.S. the co-combatant but they're being liberal with some of these things, if these things don't work, right, if these things short of military action don't work, I understand we're all watching, the U.S. is very clear, it's looking at polls, the administration is, and saying no, we can't go in militarily, can they afford to watch Kyiv get creamed though? Can they really?

DOZIER: Look, smashing and crushing Kyiv is the Russians' only play and it's a play that they've used in multiple conflicts before. That's what that whole convoy of vehicles coming in is all about. That's why they're warning Ukrainians to get away from certain targets. The next step is to bombard that city in a way that they push enough of the nonhardened combatants and remaining civilians out so they can try to find Zelensky, try to find the key areas of resistance, and take the symbolic territory of the capital.

So that means we -- as long as the reporters are able to be there, we're going to have these images coming back here of destruction. That is the way the U.S. prosecuted the war against ISIS in places like Raqqa and Mosul. It is -- you flush out the population to try to hone in on the main targets.

KEILAR: This is a conundrum for the Biden administration, because there isn't this appetite as Kim points out to go in militarily. But at the same time I wonder how Americans would respond if what could go down actually does go down in Kyiv.

SANGER: So it's beyond a question of political appetite. They're not a NATO member, right. And we go in and we defend NATO members and we do not have a treaty obligation, we can debate whether we have a moral obligation, but we don't have a treaty obligation to do it.

What you didn't hear last night from President Biden was a George H.W. Bush like this will not stand.

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