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First Ukrainian City Appears to Have Fallen to Russians; Officials Warn Russia Seeking Slow Annihilation of Ukraine; Ukrainian Jews React to Putin's Nazi Rhetoric. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 03, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: It is a very strategically important city of some 300,000 people now under Russian control. They mayor confirmed that Russian soldiers have entered the city hall to begin installing a new government. The mayor urged people to follow their orders.

We have brand new images into CNN just moments ago showing how the Russians are intensifying their air war. You can see there a shell a hitting an oil depot in Chyornaya. That's about 50 miles north of Kiev. No word on victims or injuries there, but you can see the effort to fight the blaze.

Also, we have new satellite images from Maxar Technologies of that same region showing homes on fire, buildings, leveled, huge craters, as you can see all over this imagery.

Further south, explosions continue to rock the Ukrainian capital. That was a huge blast that lit up the night sky. In Kharkiv, in the northeast, at least three schools have been hit. Look at the holes in the walls of the schools here, attacks by the Russian military. No injuries reported here but Kharkiv authorities say that 34 civilians have been killed in the city in the last 24 hours alone.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: Ukrainians are facing a relentless bombardment, yet they refuse to give up. Watch these protesters in Melitopol' stare down Russian military vehicles.

You see, there are dozens of unarmed Ukrainians trying to push back Russian troops. They were eventually pushed aside and that convoy, that Russian convoy, did continue through.

Moments ago, we spoke with the deputy mayor of Mariupol, which is a city surrounded and under siege. He says they need help fast. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEPUTY MAYOR SERGEI ORLOV, MARIUPOL, UKRAINE: We do not have electricity in whole city. We do not have water supply. We do not have sanitary system. And we do not have heating.Only natural gas supply is left. And that continues for one day and a half. So, we have continuous shelling for 26 hours. 26 hours, they are destroying our city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And chilling words a short time ago from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He said a Third World War involving NATO and Russia would be nuclear and destructive.

Our coverage begins with CNN's Jim Sciutto in Lviv, Ukraine, this morning. Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna. What we're seeing now is really what the Pentagon has described as Russia's new plan, slow annihilation, that the words from a defense official to describe the new strategy here.

You'll remember going in, U.S. intelligence indicated that Russia's hope or plan was for a shock and awe campaign and a very quick capitulation. They had expected the capital Kyiv to fall perhaps as quickly as within 24 to 48 hours. That hasn't happened. So, as plan B, it's a slow grind.

And the sad fact is Russian forces are making progress around the country. You mentioned Kherson with Russian tanks now in the center of that city there. Also slower progress but still progress in the east and the north as Russia attempts to surround Kharkiv and later Kyiv.

As that happens, Russia also showing less and less restraint when it comes to civilian targets. In fact, evidence frankly that they're deliberating targeting civilian structures or at a very minimum not carrying that some of these barrages, rocket barrages, artillery barrages are raining down on civilian neighborhoods.

You showed those picture of schools, apartment buildings, strikes falling close to hospitals, maternity wards. And that is something that U.S. officials have told me, U.S. intelligence indicates as well, that Russia, as it continues this slow annihilation, will be less and less concerned, frankly, about killing civilians in the process.

And, by the way, when you are doing urban warfare, which is what they are gearing up for, even in Kherson, as they've controlled that city, those are cities full of hundreds of thousands, millions of people. And they're going to be caught in the crossfire and might very well be targets.

KEILAR: Yes, they certainly are. And we're also keeping an eye on these talks, I think, with some doubt as to whether they will yield something. But the Russians are waiting to talk to the Ukrainians in Belarus today if the Ukrainian delegation shows up. What is the chance for diplomacy here?

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, if you look at the track record, very low, right? Because, remember, remember all the attempts at diplomacy we were describing in the days leading up to this invasion.

[07:05:01]

In fact, right up to a day or two before the invasion, discussions, you'll remember of that floated idea of a Biden-Putin summit. As it turns out, Russia was talking while it was putting the final touches on its invasion plan.

So, just as we took those promises, hopes, expressions of interest and peace with a grain of salt, we should take these talks with a grain of salt because they're taking place as Russia increases, doesn't decrease the scope of its invasion.

Now, on the flipside, the biggest development from the Ukrainian military side in the last 24 hours is news that the U.S. has sent in hundreds, hundreds of stinger anti-aircraft missiles. That's significant. Germany has now pledged more than 2,000, close to 3,000 shoulder-fired missiles. These are the kinds of things -- they're not leveling the playing field here, but they are giving Ukrainian forces a fighting chance, and Russian losses are mounting.

The thing is, Russian President Vladimir Putin does not seem to -- just as he doesn't seem to upset by Ukrainian civilian losses, he doesn't seem to be deterred by Russian military losses either.

KEILAR: No, he certainly does not. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

You know, it does appear that a massive Russian convoy, we have been talking about this for days, this one pushing its way toward, Kyiv, that it stalled, leaving it open to Ukrainian attacks. U.S. officials actually believe the Russians are trying to regroup, facing a lack of food, fuel and also spare parts.

CNN's Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon with more. I mean, this would explain why they are all just all kind of sitting there, Barbara. What are we learning?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this convoy may be emblematic of the entire picture that we're seeing right now. As you just said, stalled north of the capital, food, fuel, logistics, spare parts, all a problem. The Pentagon believes the Ukrainians have tried to hit that convoy a couple of times but it's just not really moving. So, the Russians trying to regroup.

Just as they are regrouping on this broader scale in their Ukraine war campaign, in their invasion, you've had these initial moves, But now the Pentagon believes it's in a deeper, darker, second phase, the bombardment of cities, population centers, Russia moving heavy weapons in basically the kind of destructive tactics that they used years ago in Chechnya, basically sort of Stalinistic war tactics. This is what is of such concern, the anti-air, the anti-tank weapons that the coalition is giving to Ukraine will be a good attempt to hold the Russians off. But the Pentagon view is, make no mistake, The Russians have massive a lot of combat fire and troops that they can still put into this campaign of theirs. And there is every indication they are going to do that.

KEILAR: Yes, very important to put that in context. Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon, thanks.

BERMAN: So, some western officials are saying that Putin's invasion of Ukraine could shift to this grinding war of attrition. We're seeing evidence of that. The deputy mayor of Mariupol said they have been under 26 hours of consistent shelling.

Joining me now is retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, he was the commanding general of U.S. Army Europe from 2014 to 2017. General Hodges, thanks so much for being with us.

The news today is Kherson, this city near the Black Sea, has fallen, and Mariupol right here under siege. We just spoke to the deputy mayor who said they're surrounded, Russian forces here on all sides. He thinks they can hold out several days if they get help. About you if this is a war of attrition, General, what does it mean for the Ukrainians?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY FORCES IN EUROPE: First of all, what does it mean for the Russians? A war of attrition requires time, it requires lots of ammunition, and it requires lots of troops. And I do not think the Russians have the capacity to fully, successfully carry out this new approach that they're trying.

Ukrainians, obviously, in a war of attrition will also require people, they require logistics. But the logistical challenge for the Ukrainians is actually, I think, less difficult than it is for the Russians. Where the Russians have had success, finally, after eight days in Kherson, that's their easiest logistical operation to support because of Crimea and the Black Sea fleet. So, I think if it does turn into a war of attrition, Ukraine is going to win out in the end.

BERMAN: That's interesting. So, if it becomes this war of attrition or slow annihilation, as U.S. officials were telling Jim Sciutto, you think that gives the Ukrainians a chance assuming they can get supplies. How will they be supplied and resupplied?

[07:10:00]

HODGES: Well, John, you're exactly right. I've been impressed with how the west has begun to push more and more weapons and ammunition and equipment to Ukrainians. You just mentioned the stingers and the anti-tank systems that are coming in. I would imagine that our logisticians from U.S. Army Europe, U.S. European Command and other nations on NATO's eastern flank are developing the distribution network, building up supplies that are coming in. And this is how it is. When you have to go from a cold start, a logistical buildup is always very difficult in the beginning. But once it gets going, I mean, things will come pouring in there and the Ukrainians, of course, on the receiving end, will have directed, hey, we need more stinger over here, we need more ammunition over here. And I think the Ukrainians and our allies will figure this out, how to do the distribution very quickly.

BERMAN: I mean, how? I mean, you just drive it over the border from Romania or from Poland?

HODGES: Well, okay, good question. Of course, it needs to be on the scale of the Berlin airlift. I mean, that kind of intensity and quantity, but flying into Ukraine is going to be very difficult because the Russians still have superiority in the air. So, I think what we are seeing is a combination of kind of a transfer point, if you will, where the NATO countries bring supplies into Poland in the border, and then either through contract or Ukrainian vehicles are taking it further onward into Ukraine.

I mean, it is frankly no to make light of it, but it's the same thing that DHL or Amazon does. They have a central distribution point, then it goes out to where it's needed. The key is the expertise that's required to manage all that with so much stuff coming in. But U.S. Army logisticians and U.S. Air Force logisticians are the best in the world, and I am very confident that they're going to make this happen.

BERMAN: Very quickly, General Hodges, and you have experience in Iraq, where the U.S. was an occupying force for some time. We talk about Kherson, this city, falling. What challenges are there for the Russian military in occupying or running this city now?

HODGES: Well, of course, as I discovered, I was not prepared when my brigade took over the city of Najaf. I was totally unprepared for the requirements to make sure the water is going, the electricity stayed on, food delivery. And I'm willing to bet that the Russians also are not prepared for this. And they are hoping that city government officials there will be able to keep things going.

I think this is important here where resistance begins to set in. Do people resist, actually getting the city going, balancing that with humanitarian requirements, I think this is going to be a nightmare for Russian forces.

BERMAN: Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, an education, thank you so much for helping us out this morning.

HODGES: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right. New explosions from Russian airstrikes in a major Ukrainian city, as we were just talking about, Kherson, now in Russian hands.

And the sports star going back to Ukraine to join the fight against the Russians, he joins us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: One of Vladimir Putin's lies as he has invaded Ukraine has been to suggest it was somehow for some sort of de-Nazification of the country. That's why he said he invaded. But after a rocket attack this week damaged an area very near the site of the Babyn Yar massacre, that happened during the Holocaust, 30,000 Jews killed over two days, CNN Sam Kiley visited a Jewish pilgrimage site where the synagogue is providing a bomb shelter for Jews and gentiles alike.

And Sam joins us now from Uman. Sam?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, yes. I mean, central to the whole propaganda from the Russians predating this war for many years, indeed, indeed going back to 2014, has been the claim made by Putin in particular that Ukraine is a nest of Nazis and gangsters and neo-Nazis. He uses the phrase in almost every broadcast to describe the leadership here notwithstanding the fact that indeed the president of the country, Mr. Zelensky is Jewish.

And on top of that, there is no need for de-Nazification because Jews, particularly here in Uman, have enjoyed a renaissance in terms of the huge numbers of pilgrims that have come to this sacred place where Rabbi Nachman of the Hasidic movement was buried. And this is how things look now, though.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (voice over): Air raid sirens in Uman, civilians seeking shelter from Russian bombs in what Vladimir Putin says is partly a campaign to rid Ukraine of a Nazi leadership. The absurdity of this claim lost on no one, here heading to the basement of a synagogue.

The Jewish population of Ukraine has suffered terribly over the last few hundred years. It's had programs that have been inflicted on it by the Tsarist regime. It suffered miserably under Stalin. And, of course, the Jews were murdered en masse by Hitler.

The tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is a pilgrimage site for thousands of Hasidic Jews and is flourished under the Ukraine's recent government. Now, the streets of its Jewish community are almost deserted, the result of Putin's so-called de-Nazification program.

A military site in town was bombed on day one of the Russian campaign against Ukraine.

Do you think the Ukraine has a government of national socialists or Nazis?

[07:20:01]

That is what Putin says.

YEHUDA TURGIMAN, WORSHIPPER IN UMAN, UKRAINE: No. I think Ukraine -- you see that Ukraine in the last year, they give us to come to Rabbi Nachman. They don't make us a problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been living here seven months, and it's been amazing, very loving and very caring to the Jewish people.

KILEY: Putin has called on Ukraine's military to rise against the government, which he says is a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who settled in Kyiv and took the entire Ukrainian people hostage.

On Tuesday, Russian bombing of Kyiv's radio tower also damaged a Holocaust memorial at the Babyn Yar, where more than 30,000 people were murdered in 1941. Many tens of thousands were murdered later.

Now, Ukraine's Jewish president suggested that Putin is following Hitler's lead. He said this kind of missile strike demonstrates that for many people in Russia, our Kyiv is absolutely alien. They don't know anything about our capital, about our history. But they have an order to erase our history, to erase our country, to erase all of us.

In Uman, the synagogues underground (INAUDIBLE) complex is a bunker for Jew and gentile alike.

DASHA BORSCHT, LIVES IN UMAN, UKRAINE: I know that Uman is Jewish but exactly this place where we are, I just know that it's safe to be here. That's why I am here.

KILEY: Like many people in this town, Dasha and her family are joining an exodus out of Ukraine. For those left behind, there's little but the promise of a long, hard winter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (on camera): Now, John, I think one of the importance of exploding some of these myths is to try and get back to the Russian people the idea that this is not a nation that is run by Nazis, it is not a nation that -- certainly not in the recent last decade or more has oppressed the Russian-speaking population here. And both of these have been motivations to try to get not just the armed forces moving but the political landscape at least supporting this intervention or this invasion, as I should put it. And I think that's a very important aspect of this.

And I think as the weeks wear on and Russian casualties start emerging and news of the numbers of Russians dying and being mutilated in this campaign get back to Russia, it's going to be harder and harder to continue to motivate troops to cross those borders and come and kill their neighbors, their cousins. John?

BERMAN: That is the Ukrainian hope, to be sure, that that message will get back. Sam Kiley, very, very interesting report, thank you.

KEILAR: Ukrainian men in Ukraine between the ages of 18 to 60 are under orders to stay in the country and fight the Russian invasion. And some Ukrainians are even returning to defend their homeland from the safety outside of Ukraine, and that includes tennis star, known for beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon back in 2013, Sergiy Stakhovsky, who left his family to go back to Ukraine to fight the Russians, and he is with us now. Sergiy, thank you so much for being with us.

Just to be clear, you have a young family, a wife and kids, and yet you left safety to go into Ukraine and no hesitation. Tell us why.

SERGIY STAKHOVSKY, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRO TENNIS PLAYER: Well, there was, of course, a hesitation. It is impossible to make that call without hesitation. I have three kids and a wife. And we were on vacation in Dubai when this happened. And I have been in the tennis tournament, I've seen the guys there. And nothing will say that Russia would wage war and invade Ukraine.

It was not an easy decision. And for me, in these circumstances, it was not a decision which would be right for me. If I would stay home, I would feel guilt that I didn't come back. And now I'm here, I feel guilty that I left them at home.

KEILAR: And your kids think you are at a tennis event, is that right?

STAKHOVSKY: I would say something like that. My wife didn't tell them and I didn't tell them when I was leaving where I'm going. So, I'm guessing they're pretty smart because the elder one, elder daughter, Taysha (ph) she is seven, and middle son, he is six. I guess they will figure it out soon.

KEILAR: So, look, you know the reality of what you're facing. You know the risks that you're taking. How did you have that discussion with your wife?

STAKHOVSKY: Of course, she was mad and she didn't accept that decision. And that's obvious. I mena, we're back to normality. She understood the reasons for me. But for her, it was a betrayal and I totally understand why she feels that way. But I was born in Ukraine. Ukraine, as a country, gave me any support, whether it was developing my sports or in any other matter. But it doesn't matter whether something was given to me by my country.

I was born here. My grandparents are buried here.

[07:25:00]

And I would like to have a history to tell to my kids. And if I would stay home and Ukraine would fail, then there will be no Ukraine, not even in history books. Because according to Putin, Ukraine was established by Lenin in the beginning of the Soviet Union, that it never existed before that. And those lies would be then transformed into history books and the modern history of Ukraine would be nonexistent.

KEILAR: So, like many people who have taken up arms to fight the Russians, you do not have military experience. How are you preparing?

STAKHOVSKY: Well, we've got a basic class of how to shoot. I do believe that people like me will be the last resort. But the problem is that the people of my style are the dominant one. I mean, there's -- I would say there's hundreds of thousands of them. The biggest issue is that nobody hears (INAUDIBLE) in the Russian world. Nobody wants Russia to free them from what they have. They have freedom and democracy. And Russia wants to bring despair and poverty.

KEILAR: Are you prepared to sacrifice your life, Sergiy?