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Refugees Top 1.5 Million As Exodus From Ukraine Grows Amid War; Western Allies Weight Plans For A Ukrainian Government In Exile; Civilians Struggle To Escape As Russians Hit Evacuation Routes. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 07, 2022 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:33:03]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. As of this morning, nearly 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled over the border -- you can see all directions -- getting out as quickly as they can. The U.N. refugee commissioner calls it the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. It is mostly women, children, the elderly trying to reach safety however they can.

CNN's Ivan Watson is live over the border in Moldova. Ivan, what are you seeing?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a border crossing here. We're actually probably only about 30 yards from Ukrainian territory. All of these folks -- most of them are coming from the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. They're clearly deciding it's time to go right now.

Coming across the Moldovan border over here -- everybody bringing a rolling suitcase. You can just see the number of children here. People clinging to pets as well.

The United Nations and the Moldovan government says more than 230,000 refugees have crossed the Moldovan border in just 10 days since the first day of the invasion.

And John, I spoke with the Moldovan prime minister. Take a listen to what she had to say to me yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATALIA GAVRILITA, MOLDOVAN PRIME MINISTER: So, every eighth child in Moldova is now a refugee, so about three-fourths of the refugees are actually staying with families. A lot of Ukrainians have friends or relatives in Moldova, but also regular people have just taken in Ukrainian families into -- and invited them into their homes.

WATSON: Complete strangers.

GAVRILITA: Yes, absolutely.

WATSON: Do you think the refugee exodus will get worse in the days and weeks ahead? GAVRILITA: I'm afraid so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, John, I just met Olga here who just crossed the border with her three children and her dog Lucky, who is in the back here. Olga, what did you decide to leave today to Odessa -- from Odessa?

[05:35:04]

OLGA, REFUGEE: Well, we were thinking about it but if we were just to run, I and my husband, we wouldn't leave anywhere. But we have three children and I have responsibility for them. And so, I have to think about them and I have to protect them and that's the way I do that. That's the only way I see in that situation -- crazy situation -- to protect them. So that's why we are here.

WATSON: Well, we hope that your family stays safe. Thank you, Olga.

OLGA: Thank you.

WATSON: Now, John, let me just explain. Moldova is a tiny country -- 2 1/2 million people. According to the Moldovan government, one out of every eight kids in Moldova is now a Ukrainian refugee.

The government is providing free transport to everybody who comes across the border to get into these buses and then to move deeper into the country. Many of the more than 230,000 people who have arrived in the last week and a half then move on into other European countries, but some stay behind. The Moldovans need help right now to deal with this massive refugee exodus.

And, you know, I just -- I cannot stress enough just how upsetting it is to see people having to leave with their children like this. I've seen a 5-month-old baby being carried in the cold here. It's snowing right now.

And this is happening at every border I've been to. I've been across four countries in the last five days bordering Ukraine and we see similar scenes here. And it is likely to get worse, as we heard from the Moldovan prime minister -- John.

BERMAN: Ivan Watson. This is Moldova right here, so people can see -- fleeing from Odessa trying to get over the border if they can. And that statistic, Ivan, you gave us, one out of every eight children in Moldova now is now a refugee. That tells the story.

Thank you so much for being there for us, Ivan.

So, Ukraine's president has stayed in Kyiv to fight but Western officials still quietly planning for the possibility of a Ukrainian government in exile. What might that look like just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:41:48] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: It is something that many Western officials and experts have regarded as inevitable but have avoided discussing publicly. How would the West support a government-in-exile helmed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should he have to flee Kyiv.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is at E.U. headquarters in Brussels. And Natasha, I wonder what the nature of these discussions are, especially considering the resistance is really built on the inspiration that he has provided and he shows no indication that he's going to leave?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's exactly right, Brianna.

So, what sources are telling me and my colleague Kylie Atwood is that U.S. and European officials have begun to have these kind of preliminary discussions about how they might support a Ukrainian government-in-exile. And the options right now range from Zelenskyy and some of other -- his other government officials moving to Lviv in western Ukraine to having to set up a potential government structure in Poland if it turns out that Zelenskyy and his officials have to flee the country altogether.

Now, interestingly, it has been quite difficult for U.S. and European officials to actually broach this with Zelenskyy because as you said, he is very reluctant to leave. And any conversation that is broached with him about the potential of setting up shop elsewhere has been met with very staunch skepticism by him. He does not want to leave Kyiv and he has made it clear that he wants to stay there and fight for his people.

So, among the discussions going on right now is the potential for some members of his government to kind of go out ahead of him and start setting up some kind of infrastructure elsewhere in case Kyiv does fall.

Now, asked yesterday on CBS whether the U.S. and Europe and even Ukrainian officials have plans in place in case anything were to happen to Zelenskyy -- who, as you said, has become this kind of icon of this movement -- the Secretary of State would not go into detail. But he did say that the Ukrainian government has plans in place for continuity of government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS MODERATOR, "FACE THE NATION": President Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that these may be his final days. If Russia kills him, what will be the consequence? And are you working on a contingency plan to support a Ukrainian government without him at the helm?

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: The leadership that President Zelenskyy has shown -- the entire government has shown -- is remarkable. The Ukrainians have plans in place that I'm not going to talk about or get into any details on to make sure that there is what we would call continuity of government one way or another, and let me leave it at that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So all of these discussions are coming, of course, as Russia has continued its onslaught against Ukraine and, of course, intensified it in many places, according to one senior Western intelligence official, preparing to potentially bombard these cities into submission. They are, of course, continuing to try to capture Kyiv where Zelenskyy has been. And questions remain about whether or not he will be able to get out alive -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much for that report.

So, more and more, we are seeing these heartbreaking images of families trying to flee Ukraine -- some, children without their mothers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LITTLE BOY (walking alone and crying).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: More on this story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:49:17]

BERMAN: The breaking news this morning, the U.S. and NATO members have sent Ukraine 20,000 anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles since the war began. This is as Ukrainians fight back against the Russians.

Joining us now is Anastasia Lapatina. She is a national reporter at the Kyiv Independent. And, Anastasia, you wrote on op-ed over the weekend that said the Russians picked the wrong country to mess with. What do you mean?

ANASTASIA LAPATINA, NATIONAL REPORTER, KYIV INDEPENDENT (via Webex by Cisco): Thank you for having me, first of all.

And yes, that's -- that is exactly what I meant. I think Putin severely underestimated the strength with which we're going to be fighting back, and we're seeing this all over the country.

[05:50:00]

There are all of these stories of civilians unarmed going against Russian tanks, Russian military vehicles. There are protests happening in occupied cities like Kherson where Ukrainians are jumping on tanks and grabbing Ukrainian flags and protesting against oppression and protesting against the Russian army.

And this is something that I think Putin really did not expect because as we know, there has been intelligence that he thought this was going to be a quick but easy run in a few days. But it's the 12th if I'm not mistaken, and Ukrainians are actually coming back to their country from all over the world. We now have data that over 100,000 Ukrainians actually came back.

Of course, many more are fleeing but we still see the sense that even those who are fleeing are very reluctant to do so. They want to hold their ground. They want to stay home. And it is only in the most critical situations where there is direct danger to you that you try to flee. But otherwise, everyone is trying to stay and help in any way possible.

BERMAN: We have seen civilians killed. I had the mayor of Irpin tell me a short time ago -- and we're going to play that interview shortly -- he thinks that civilians are being targeted here. It's on well- known escape routes, civilians dying at Russian hands.

What's the impact of that, do you think, on the psyche of the Ukrainians?

LAPATINA: I honestly don't see the impact that I think Russia is going for because, of course, they are doing this to spread mass panic. But we instead have is more and more Ukrainians incredibly angry and feeling anger of a large scale, which pushes them to resist Russia even more. So I think their plans are failing.

And, of course, it's a tragedy to see what's happening. It's a tragedy to see (INAUDIBLE) corridors and humanitarian efforts fail again and again because of Russian shelling -- Russian bombardment.

But I don't think that they will win and frankly, I don't see anyone who thinks that they will win. And the Ukrainian people will never -- will never have the mass panic that they're going for and they will never give up.

BERMAN: Anastasia Lapatina, the Kyiv Independent is doing such important work. Thank you so much for your efforts.

LAPATINA: Thank you. Thank you.

BERMAN: So as I just mentioned, the mayor of Irpin says the Russians are deliberating attacking evacuation routes. He joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:01]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It is Monday, March seventh, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

There's no end in sight to the targeting and the slaughter of civilians in the mass exodus from Ukraine. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing the Kremlin of murder, demanding new sanctions against Russia, including a boycott of oil, for actions like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Speaking foreign language): Bomb exploding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Eight civilians, including two kids, killed by Russian forces as they tried to flee there -- a suburb of Kyiv. They were on a well- known escape route for civilians. Basically, an unofficial humanitarian corridor, which is raising serious questions about whether the Russians are intentionally targeting that route -- targeting civilians.

President Zelenskyy is warning that Ukraine's third-largest city, Odessa on the Black Sea coast, could be targeted next, and he's expecting imminent bombings on that front.

Also under assault, Mariupol, where there has been no water or power now for several days.

BERMAN: The Ukrainians obviously are fighting back. Special forces taking out two Russian tanks in a small village about 30 miles northeast of Kyiv. You can see the aftermath right there.

According to a senior U.S. official, Russia has now fired 600 missiles since the start of the invasion, with 95 percent of its combat power now fully deployed inside Ukraine.

This morning, a senior official tells our Jim Sciutto that the U.S. and NATO members have sent Ukraine 17,000 anti-tank missiles and 2,000 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and that's just so far.

At this point, more than 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled over the Ukrainian border into neighboring countries. You can see the mass exodus of people. Ukraine is pushing back at Russia's claims that Russia somehow opening up humanitarian corridors for civilians in four cities, in part because Russia keeps bombing them. We're monitoring that development as well as a third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia that are expected to begin sometime today.

But I am getting word that we have our Matthew Chance who is on the ground in a town, what, southwest of Kyiv, Matthew? Tell us what you're seeing.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm in a -- I'm in a town John about 50 miles south of Kyiv. It's called Bela Tserkva.

And a couple of days ago it was struck randomly by a Russian artillery or rocket shell. And you can see the devastation it's caused right here in this totally civilian area. I mean, there are no military installations in this area. We've come right in the middle into it.

And these houses were filled with families -- children, husbands, and wives -- shaken out of their -- out of their lives.

[06:00:00] point in a Kyiv suburb Sunday, killing a family with two children and

several other civilians trying to flee the Russian invasion.>