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Civilian Evacuations Underway in 6 Areas in Russia-Ukraine Deal; U.S. Rejects Poland Sending Fighter Jets to Use in Ukraine; Gas Prices Rise Again as U.S. banks Russian Energy Imports. Vice President Harris Travels to Poland. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 09, 2022 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:21]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning here to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is Wednesday, March 9th. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

And moments ago Ukraine says it has agreed to a Russian offer for a cease-fire to get civilians out of six areas. I've circled them here on the map so you can see roughly where they are. One of these areas is Mariupol right down here which is completely surrounded by Russian troops at this point. We're going to speak to the deputy mayor of Mariupol a little bit later in the show. He says he just witnessed the digging of a mass grave there.

Now it's impossible to tell whether this agreement will amount to anything. We're watching it very closely. The Russians have attacked the humanitarian corridoes before. One of the cities under discussion, Sumy, 5,000 people were able to evacuate over the last 24 hours. 21 people had been killed by Russian airstrikes there including two children.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Fighting has been fierce there in Sumy. This drone video showing a Russian military vehicle destroyed in a battle with Ukrainian troops. And looking at this eyewitness video, you can see the Kremlin move in armored military train from Crimea into Ukraine's Kherson region. This is nine cars long. It has at least two apparent gunner cars and the letter Z of course painted on some of the cars.

In southern Ukraine, heavy shelling and explosions overnight in the city of Mykolaiv. The mayor there in Mykolaiv claiming that Russian forces are retreating after an attempted attack on the city's airport.

Scott McLean is beginning our coverage live from Lviv, Ukraine. What is the latest today, Scott?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna. We know that yesterday there was some level of success in getting people out of Sumy, that city in northeastern Ukraine. Many of them more than 700 foreign students able to evacuate some 100 miles to another city in Ukraine. There has been considerably less success, though, with some of these humanitarian corridor routes, less agreement between the Ukrainians and the Russians in part because some of those roots would have gone to Russia, something that the Ukrainians are not interested in doing because they say that it would simply feed into the Russian propaganda war.

Today, though, the Ukrainians say that they have agreed to new humanitarian corridors leading six cities in particular or six areas in particular to safety so that people can get out of what are really deplorable conditions. These discussions, though, these negotiations to make these corridors work have been suffering from a serious lack of trust. The Ukrainians say that it is difficult to trust your occupiers and for good reason.

They have accused the Russians of shelling humanitarian corridors in the past particularly in two cities, Volnovakha and Mariupol, in recent days where there have been very few people been able to get out of those areas. So the deputy prime minister of Ukraine who said -- who made the announcements that these routes had been agreed to said in particular, I appeal to the Russian federation, you have made a formal commitment.

Also, Brianna, one of the routes that's been agreed to is from Enerhodar. Enerhodar is the city where the nuclear power plant is now being occupied by Russian forces so people will be able to get out of that area assuming that all those go according to plan. The mayor of that city says the organization of that convoy is already underway.

KEILAR: Yes, look, this is essential that this succeeds but it is by no means guaranteed.

Scott McLean, live for us in Lviv, thank you.

BERMAN: So this morning a major development, a possible moment of friction in the effort to arm the Ukrainians. This is about getting jets, MiGs, into Ukraine. Now Poland proposed sending all of its MiG fighter jets to a U.S. base in Germany first for ultimate delivery into Ukraine. The Pentagon, though, is dismissing this offer calling it not tenable.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand live at E.U. headquarters in Brussels. What is the friction here exactly, Natasha?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, the effort to get additional fighter jets into Ukraine is getting a lot more complicated now. All because of that escalating fear of Russian retaliation against NATO. Now the U.S. is now saying that that surprise offer by Poland last night to transfer Polish fighter jets to a U.S. airbase in Germany so that the U.S. might then transfer those jets back into Ukraine directly is untenable. [05:05:01]

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby released a statement late last night saying that it is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it. We will consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents but we do not believe Poland's is a tenable one.

And essentially what they are saying here is that it raises serious concerns about the security of the NATO alliance. The Polish leaders have been willing to transfer their jets to Ukraine but they want a workaround. They want to first provide them to the United States so that the U.S. can then provide them directly to Ukraine because they have been fearing this retaliation potentially by Russia if they were to provide those jets directly.

Now President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has been pleading essentially with the U.S. and with its European allies to provide those fighter jets because the U.S. and NATO have said that they are not willing to impose the no-fly zone. And so what Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials are saying is that well, at least help us regain control over our airspace by giving us those jets that can give us this edge.

It remains to be seen what kind of solution is going to be worked out here. But the U.S. was very caught off guard by this Polish proposal last night. And of course Kamala Harris, the vice president, is scheduled to arrive in Poland today. There will be a lot of discussions surrounding this proposal, I'm sure -- John.

BERMAN: All right, Natasha Bertrand, thank you very much, in Brussels for us.

We're going to have much more ahead with our military experts.

KEILAR: With a Russian ceasefire in place in at least six areas, the question now is can Ukrainians trust that these humanitarian efforts are actually going to be enacted to save so many innocent lives?

Joining us now from Kyiv is Yaroslav Trofimov. He is the chief foreign affairs correspondent at the "Wall Street Journal." He's been doing incredible reporting there on the ground throughout this entire conflict.

Yaroslav, what do Ukrainians think first -- we'll talk about the ceasefire in these corridors in a second. What do they think about the disagreement over the MiGs?

YAROSLAV TROFIMOV, CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, it sounds a bit farcical but I think the crux of the matter is that Russia has warned any country that will supply these jets to Ukraine, that that country will be seen as a co- belligerent by Russia. And so Poland has a very legitimate fear of Russia retaliating militarily. Of course if I understand, especially now that it's become so public. But obviously Ukraine really needs those planes to be able to protect its cities that are being struck by Russian airstrikes.

KEILAR: And they need to get the innocents out. So this word of this potential humanitarian corridors or this agreement on them and the potential for actually getting people out, is there hope that that's going to work?

TROFIMOV: Well, that worked a little bit yesterday so (INAUDIBLE), the city of Sumy in the northeast and the suburbs of Kyiv, such as Irpin and Bucha, and the same is likely to happen today. So I think the only problem is the biggest problem. But the biggest problem is the city of Mariupol in the southeast which has been besieged for days, where food and water has run out and where that doesn't seem like much progress has been achieved so far in the evacuations.

KEILAR: You mentioned in your latest piece for "The Journal" that the mayor of the town of Hostomel was killed by Russian forces while delivering aid as we understand it.

What can you tell us about that?

TROFIMOV: Well, you know, Hostomel is -- wasn't the first and the major battlefield around Kyiv in the first day of work, you know, the Russian forces airdropped their airborne forces there and then that has continued. Happens until now. And so the mayor was trying to deliver foods for the residents and he ran into a Russian checkpoint as far as where we stand, and he and three people were shot dead in their vehicle.

KEILAR: And that's an area I believe that would be serviced by a humanitarian corridor. Right? It sounds like the conditions are terrible there.

TROFIMOV: Yes. Exactly. So the corridor will run from Hostomel, Bucha and other cities and towns to the northwest of Kyiv that have been under Russian control since the beginning of the war. And people would be able to come to a bridge leading to Kyiv that had been blown up and then they'll have to walk over that bridge to board buses and that gets you to the relative safety of Kyiv and then further beyond.

KEILAR: You in your latest piece in "The Journal" talk about how World War II is factoring so large in the information and the propaganda from both sides in this. Can you tell us a little bit about that one discussion you had with the Ukrainian who was talking to a Russian relative who just couldn't believe that Russia was attacking Ukraine, that relatives said, no, it must be the Nazis?

TROFIMOV: It's very, very common to hear this actually. In Russia, you know, in mentioning the word war is illegal. For them, it's a special operation to get Ukraine rid of as they call it neo-Nazis, and you know, President Putin claims that Ukraine's President Zelenskyy who is of Jewish origin and whose grandfather fought the Nazis, is a Nazi himself.

[05:10:05]

So it's a really warped image. And in Russian media, the only destruction that you see on television is the Ukrainian Nazis bombing their own citizens to make Russia look bad. And so it's very heartbreaking for families here in Ukraine if you're talking to the relatives on the other side of the border and not find any compassionate because there's just this belief that, you know, the news about what's actually happening here.

KEILAR: Yes, it's really stunning to hear these personal conversations that they're having. I wonder, Yaroslav, as you're talking to people who are leaving, who are fleeing, how is their morale?

TROFIMOV: Well, you know, I drove out of Kyiv this morning and there were more people coming in. They're leaving today, for example. There are lots of people coming back to Ukraine. Ukraine's (INAUDIBLE) 20,000 people have returned to the country. Mostly men coming to fight. So it's not just a one-way street. So people, you know, women, well, a lot of the military (INAUDIBLE), children, the elderly are leaving but there are also people coming back to defend cities in Kyiv and Kharkiv.

KEILAR: Yaroslav, thank you so much. Thank you for the great reporting. Please stay safe and we'll talk to you soon.

TROFIMOV: Thank you.

KEILAR: Gas prices were already surging before the U.S. announced a ban on all Russian energy imports. So what does this mean for Americans? What does this mean for their pocketbooks? What are you going to be paying?

Plus a chilling warning from the commander in charge of America's nuclear weapons. Why he calls Russia and China's advancement breathtaking.

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[05:16:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The decision today is not without cost here at home. Putin's war is already hurting American families at the gas pump. Since Putin began his military buildup in Ukrainian borders, just since then the price of the gas at the pump in America went up 75 cents and with this action it's going to go up further. I'm going to do everything I can to minimize Putin's price hike here at home.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Biden announcing a ban on Russian oil imports to the United States but warning that it will increase gas prices here in the United States which are already high.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans here with that -- Romans. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The idea here is

to starve the regime from the funding that allows it to go to war. Right? To take Putin's cash pile away from him, the cash pile that he gets from selling oil and gas. And what that means, the president being very blunt there, it means higher gas prices for you.

He's right. Look at just since the invasion, more than 70 cents on a gallon of gas here. Just last night it jumped to $4.25, the national average, from $4.17. A week ago it was $3.65. We've never seen the speed of an advance like this.

But, John, I really want to make sure that Americans aren't overreacting to gas prices here because if you want to go back to the record high in 2008, to match that adjusted for inflation, it has to be $5.25. Now there could be more pain ahead, I've got a lot of people forecasting $5 national average for gas here. But keep in mind, adjusted for inflation, that wouldn't be a record. And this is what the folks over at Capital Economics say which I think is really important.

With consumers able to cushion their blow in the near term by reducing their savings, we think oil prices would need to rise much further here to seriously hurt the United States economy. And also they're saying that there could be a lot of investment in the shale as well. We are an energy powerhouse in the United States. So these higher prices at some point may actually cause us to start producing more.

BERMAN: Right. They have to see the availability of profit later on.

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: A long-term gain there. Romans, something happened over the last 24 hours, which has huge symbolic significance. McDonald's closing all its restaurants in Russia.

ROMANS: Rewind to the year 1990 when the first McDonald's in Moscow opened. This showed that Russia was a part of the world. Russia had joined globalization and the West and the Russian people were the beneficiaries of things like a McDonald's. Now McDonald's is announcing it is temporarily closing all of its locations in the country joining a long, long list of companies who have suspended or completely pulled out of the Russian market because of the risk that Putin and his ambition and paranoia means for their own business and for their neighbors.

Look at all of these companies. Just yesterday McDonald's, Pepsi, Starbucks, and Coke announcing that they would be pulling out. Others, Shell. You know, we heard Shell yesterday. Because, you know, they can't really operate in the country anymore, right, if Russian oil and energy is going to be sanctioned. So this is a really big isolation of this regime. Big isolation.

And, you know, he had tried to build this fortress balance sheet, 600 and some billion dollars in foreign currency reserves and the West has cut him off from being able to use that. So he is very isolated here. So he is very isolated here. And so the Russian people, he has pined for a pre-'91 Russia. He is giving his citizens a pre-1991 Russia again.

BERMAN: This is a kind of self-sanctioning here. These companies are doing it on their own because of the social and moral pressure here. But they're doing it. And McDonald's, by the way, they sell a lot of Big Macs in Russia. And the Russian people will notice this. I don't want to suggest that the suffering that they're going to undergo is anything like the people in Kharkiv or Kyiv right now.

ROMANS: No.

BERMAN: But the Russian people will notice that all these McDonald's, all these Starbucks are closed.

ROMANS: I mean, the isolation is pretty much across the board at this point. And I think that there's a tradeoff here, too. American citizens are going to see these higher gas prices. We'll have to see what the polls say about the tradeoff here. Do you punish Putin by pulling him out of the global system? Will that mean a few pennies on the gas tank and are Americans willing to pay that?

[05:20:02]

BERMAN: And meanwhile, the Russian Stock Exchange still closed?

ROMANS: Still closed. Still closed.

BERMAN: All right, Christine Romans, thank you very much.

All right, this surprise move. Why U.S. officials were caught completely off guard by Poland's offer of fighter jets to Ukraine. The offer to send them through Germany. Stay with us.

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KEILAR: The Biden administration racing to catch up to news that Poland is offering to provide used fighter jets, MiGs, that could ultimately be delivered to Ukraine.

[05:25:01]

Multiple sources telling CNN that report initially caught U.S. officials completely off guard. In fact, you had a U.S. official on the Hill saying that they were caught by surprise.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joining us now. All of this happening, we might add, as the vice president heads to Poland. And she's going to have to take a position. She doesn't have a choice because Poland has forced the issue.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It was already expected to be discussed because there have been conversations for days now between U.S. and Polish officials about how to potentially make this work. But now that the trip by Vice President Harris taking on new importance. It's remarkable to see that these discussions have been happening behind the scenes between U.S. and Polish officials, and then suddenly this statement from Poland announcing that they were ready to give these MiGs, these Soviet jets, to the United States presumably for the U.S. to then transfer then to Ukraine.

And for the U.S. to be completely caught off guard by that. You had the Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland yesterday. She was testifying in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and she said I saw that announcement as I was driving here today. Completely caught off guard by that. And multiple sources also confirming that sentiment.

The issue here is that, look, the U.S. still wants to try and make this happen but logistically it's how to do it without becoming a direct participant in the conflict, something that Russia has warned the U.S. and NATO allies about. Poland didn't want to have that impression on them by Russia. And so they thought by transferring it to the U.S., perhaps that could work. But really this just speaks to how logistically challenging it is to get these jets to Poland -- to Ukraine.

Who would fly them there? Would it be Ukrainian pilots? Would it be American or Polish pilots? All of those issues coming up as the U.S. and NATO try to avoid becoming direct participants in this conflict. U.S. officials say they still want to make it happen. A senior official briefing reports last night on this trip by the vice president and said that she is going to talk to them about other potential options.

We will see whether or not they can make it happen. Ukraine has been desperate to get these fighter jets to help them win the war against Russia.

KEILAR: They say they want to make it happen. But how do they really make it happen if Poland is in NATO, the U.S. is in NATO, Germany -- this is a NATO-U.S. base that it would be going from in this proposal, but whether it's Poland or Germany, or the U.S. the problem is all the same. So do they get past that?

DIAMOND: Yes, I think the main issue is who would fly the jets and I spoke with one official earlier in the week who told me that the most likely scenario would be Ukrainian pilots coming to pick up the jet somewhere else and then fly into Ukraine rather than having American or NATO pilots, for example, but again those things are still being worked out. Who knows if this actually goes through?

KEILAR: Yes, we should also note that the Russians have made clear any country that -- from which war fields, do you even have Ukrainian pilots launching planes, they say they basically consider them complicit in this. So that even adds to it even more.

Jeremy, really appreciate the report. Thank you so much. And of course we'll be watching the vice president's trip here today.

Stalled and frustrated. Is Vladimir Putin likely to escalate Russia's military assault on Ukraine? What U.S. intelligence officials are saying about his next moves.

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