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NATO's Readiness for War with Russia; Ukrainian Orphans Evacuate to Romania; Ukraine Faces Severe Cold Blast; Yaroslava Antipina is Interviewed about Documenting the War. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 10, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: What would that look like? We've already seen a bit of distance between the first time we've seen it really throughout this war between the U.S. and Poland over the transfer of these MiG-29s. The U.S. saying that it's just not tenable. What do you make of this because clearly this came on the behest of Zelenskyy making the pleas to international leaders that he needs these planes desperately.

STEVE HALL, FORMER CIA CHIEF OF RUSSIA OPERATIONS: Well, again, Zelenskyy is doing exactly what he should be doing, which is trying to protect his electorate, protect his people, protect his country from complete invasion. So, the situation with Poland and the MiGs, the aircraft that the Ukrainians actually could fly if they got them, you know, it's a -- it's -- I understand why there's interest in doing this, but -- and I'll defer to our military analysts -- but there is a question I think, first of all, as to how useful would such would such airplanes be, would such jet fighters be in this theater, as compared to, for example, shoulder-fired missiles that are very effective against Russian planes.

It's really easy to bomb runways. And so the idea that this would actually be useful to the Ukrainians, I'm not sure that's something that would be a good idea. But this, you know, sort of this issue between the United States and Poland. I mean when you have a democratic alliance, like NATO is, 30 countries, I mean you're going to have, you know, disagreements or emphasis that are -- that are different. And that sometimes happens when you have a democratic alliance.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, it was just unusual to see it play out so publicly, right, where you would have thought that the two sides could have coordinated a bit better. The U.S. being caught off guard.

You've got a piece out this morning talking about really the palace intrigue going on in the Kremlin. The Kremlin, clearly Vladimir Putin and those aides around him, not anticipating the level of sanctions that have been directed at Russia. You're questioning now his security in power. I haven't heard from sources yet that we're at that point. But, of course, these happen so quickly. He's been in power for 22 years. Do you have any sense now that that may be a bit more unstable today? HALL: I think when you ask the question, as many as of have been, why

is Vladimir Putin acting a little differently or a little strangely? There's, of course, obviously, you know, the pressures of war and the internal politics inside of Russia. But with these withering sanctions that the west is imposing upon him, I do think that this group called the civil (INAUDIBLE) -- this is the security military elite. Not the oligarchs. Not the man on the street. But people with intelligence and military training who know how to keep things quiet and know how to run secret operations, this is, I think, why we're not seeing any signs of this. But I'm sure that Putin, who comes from that background himself, must be worried about what people are thinking. He remembers Gorbachev in 1991.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, they're all ideologically aligned, a lot of them, with that KGB background. Haven't heard from them yet. Don't know if we will. But, of course, this is the question we will be continuing to ask as this war continues to unfold.

Steve Hall, thank you, as always.

HALL: Sure.

GOLODRYGA: We appreciate it.

Alex, back to you.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Bianna, thanks to you and Steve for the analysis.

Now, the scores of victims in Putin's war do include Ukraine's most vulnerable citizens. CNN's Miguel Marquez meets with Ukrainian orphans whose lives have been further upended by this Russian war. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:19]

MARQUARDT: Hundreds of Ukrainian orphans have crossed the border and made it into neighboring Romania this morning, forced to flee as Russia intensifies its attack on this country. Venerable children who are already dealing with a separation or a loss of their parents now having to travel long distances to safety into a new country and an uncertain future.

CNN's Miguel Marquez has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SASHA RESNICHENKA, NINE-YEAR-OLD UKRAINIAN ORPHAN: Hello. My name Sasha.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Nine- year-old Sasha Resnichenka, one of hundreds of Ukrainian kids with no parents, or separated from them, now being cared for in Romania. I have no mother and father. They died, he says. I lived in several

places, and I know it's important to listen to my teachers and behave myself.

This government facility north of Bucharest has taken in 27 kids, all with varying degrees of physical or mental disabilities.

This is a tragic moment for all of us, she says. It's a huge challenge for the system and our community. But we have the resources to care for these children.

These kids, along with a few teachers, fled Ukraine's southern Odessa region last week.

Our trip took all morning and all night, he says. I don't know how to explain it.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Was it a long trip?

MARQUEZ (voice over): Stas Glikman turned eleven the day we visited.

I wanted a smartphone for my birthday, he says, but I'm afraid to ask the teachers.

Angelina, Stas' big sister, says their mother is still in Ukraine, unable to travel.

I'm thinking about my family, she says. My mother can't walk. She was injured in a vehicle accident.

They all know a war is happening back home. They don't totally understand it.

There is a war in Ukraine, he says, so the director of our school decided to bring us here.

Nearly 220 Ukrainian children, like Sasha, are now in Romania, say immigration officials here. Their futures before the war, uncertain. Today --

MARQUEZ (on camera): How long will you stay here?

MARQUEZ (voice over): Maybe two or three months, she says. Maybe four months.

Just this one county sheltering 66 Ukrainian children in three different facilities. Kids who have no parents with them and, for now, no country.

MARQUEZ (on camera): How do you feel they are doing?

MARQUEZ (voice over): They are feeling good, she says.

[06:40:01]

They're sleeping well, playing lots of games, and eating well. These teachers and staff from the Ukrainian school upended their

lives, too. Leaving loved ones behind, they stayed with these kids. Their responsibilities for them and hope for their homeland, boundless.

MARQUEZ (on camera): How do you feel about the future? Where will all this go?

MARQUEZ (voice over): We believe in a better future and that the war will be over, she says. I believe Ukraine will stay united as a nation.

And, like kids everywhere, they have dreams. Big ones.

MARQUEZ (on camera): What do you want to be when you grow up?

MARQUEZ (voice over): I want to be an American, he says. Then adds, I also want to fly into space and take my teacher with me.

Those caring for these kids have a simpler, maybe more impossible hope.

MARQUEZ (on camera): If you had a magic wand and you could wish for one thing, what would it be?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language). Peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language). Peace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language).

MARQUEZ (voice over): Peace. Only peace. No translation needed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: (Speaking in foreign language). Peace. We hear that from so many people.

Miguel Marquez, thank you so much for that report from Romania.

Now, more on our breaking news.

Officials in the city of Mariupol this morning say that Russians are dropping bombs on a humanitarian corridor meant for civilians to evacuate from that southern city. We will be live on the ground.

Plus, temperatures in Ukraine are expected to plummet as hundreds of thousands are already without heat and electricity, as millions try to make their way for the border. We'll have more of their live coverage, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:06]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Right now the weather in Ukraine has, unfortunately, taken a turn for the worse with an arctic plunge in temperatures as many are already just trying to survive without heat and electricity.

So, let's go now to our meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, what are they experiencing there?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, Brianna, it's the middle of the day now on this side of the globe and temperatures are in the teens or even to Lviv, I mean temperatures 28 there. We are going to talk about colder weather from here.

There's not a lot of snow on the ground. That's one good thing, except through the Carpathians here. Some of the passes there, difficult to get through.

And it does warm up a little bit as we work our way into the weekend. And Sunday is back to above normal.

But everywhere across the entire country, temperatures will be below freezing for the next four days. The windchill in Kyiv later on today, 15. That's the afternoon high. By tomorrow morning, temperatures get cold again, down into the teens. Windchills in the single digits.

Now, look out here toward Kharkiv. Notice this number here. Because when the skies clear by Saturday morning into Sunday, temperatures really take a plummet below freezing. These temperatures are in Fahrenheit. This is not Celsius, because I'm kind of talking to the American and also the international audience. Temperatures here in Kharkiv, Celsius, will be somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees below zero Celsius. That's how cold we are going to see these temperatures on Saturday into Sunday.

Now, it does warm up. Taking a look at Kharkiv, back up to 33. That's not much help when your house doesn't have heat or electricity. We warm up again here across parts of Lviv and, for that matter, into Kyiv as well. But this is a very cold number of nights in a row for people just trying to survive.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, especially as we're looking at Mariupol, where they do not have heat, they do not have electricity. And certainly other cities are going to experience that.

Chad, thank you so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

MARQUARDT: Well, a Ukrainian woman has been documenting her life during this Russian invasion so that the world can understand what's going on here.

Yaroslava Antipina calls it her Twitter War Diary. And she has seen her following just skyrocket from around 10,000 to almost 80,000 followers on Twitter. And she started tweeting as the first bombs dropped on Kyiv. On February 25th she wrote, quote, at night there were many explosions. Too many of them. Russian tanks are moving to Kyiv. We're fighting not to let them in.

She eventually decided to leave the capital of Kyiv with her son and join her mother in western Ukraine. And she wrote, it's all I can take with me. All my life is in this bag, posting that picture.

The reunion with her mother, you see here, received almost 30,000 likes.

Yaroslava Antipina joins me now.

Yaroslava, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

Can you just tell us why you started this, why you felt it was important to do?

YAROSLAVA ANTIPINA, UKRAINIAN RESIDENT KEEPING WAR DIARY: Hi, Alex, and everybody.

As for my Twitter War Diary, as I am used to call it right now, I actually started it, as you said, before actually in the morning on February 24. And at that moment I decided that I needed to document at least for myself maybe because before this time, in that life, as I used to call it, I had my paper diary. And already I just wrote down all kinds of things. Usual things, yes. And I decided in that moment that it might be good to have my Twitter diary because I didn't understand, you know, to realize you could any access to papers. So, yes. And this started, this war diary. And now it helps me a lot. Yes, I've got --

MARQUARDT: What --

ANTIPINA: Yes, yes, sorry.

[06:50:00]

MARQUARDT: How does it help you? What does it do for you? How does it help you cope with what your country is going through, what you and your family are going through?

ANTIPINA: You know, there are a lot of different reasons. I think about (INAUDIBLE). The first one is that I can see that life. That life that I (INAUDIBLE). My usual life I've got, yes, this freedom, this freedom of movement, this -- I don't know, just regular, as you can imagine. And to the second one, the second reason is that I needed this support from the world to understand that I am not alone in all this. It helps me. And I hear thanks a lot for every my subscriber follower who post pictures of their coffee's (ph), their interviews for me. And that's great.

MARQUARDT: What has the response been like? What has it meant for you to get these responses from around the world?

ANTIPINA: It's tremendous support, you know. And I feel that my people -- these people are part of my life right now. It's so great. And actually, yes, Twitter actually -- this diary helps me just to share my thoughts. Maybe I just think right now they help others. After the war, after maybe in 10, 20, 50 years, just to realize what ordinary, regular people feel during these horrible times. And also what I would like to tell, to mention, I just announced -- noticed it for a few days that people in other parts of the world became -- understand how lucky they are. They are free. They have this peace coffee, not war coffee, as I usually have during this time. Yes.

MARQUARDT: Well, Yaroslava Antipina, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, for sharing your photos, for sharing your fears and concerns. It's so important for everyone outside this country to hear about what is going on here, particularly from the people who are going through it. So, thank you very much.

ANTIPINA: Thank you, Alex. Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Now, this photo is shocking the world and forcing everyone to see the senseless brutality of what is going on in this war here in Ukraine. Those victims, a mother and her two children, have now been identified. And we will be telling you their story. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:59]

KEILAR: The image so devastating it shocked the world. A Ukrainian family lying dead on the pavement, killed by Russian mortar fire as they tried to flee the town of Irpin. We now know their names. Tatiana Parabenus (ph), who was a PR manager for SE Ranking (ph), a bay area tech company, and her two children. Elisa (ph), who was just nine years old, and Makita (ph), who was 18. The man that they were traveling with was named Anatoli Beresni (ph). He was a 26-year-old member of a church group who, after helping his own family get to safety, went back to help others.

This wasn't the first time that the family was forced to leave home, having moved from their hometown of Donetsk in 2014 to escape violence between Ukrainian forces and Russian separatists. This time, after hiding out in a basement when a bomb hit their apartment building, the family decided to flee because they thought they had been offered safe passage by a temporary Russian ceasefire. Instead, after crossing over a damaged bridge, they were met with mortar fire. "The New York Times" reports that when the shelling began, Anatoli ran to help the family get to safety. He risked his own life to try and spare theirs. Their last moments captured in this horrific video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language).

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No. No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're (ph) OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on back (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Sergei Parabenus, Tatiana's husband, was taking care of his ill mother in eastern Ukraine. He was not with them as they tried to leave, telling "The New York Times" that he found out about the death of his family on Twitter.

"The Times" reports that he broke down in tears during their interview, telling reporters, the night before her death, he told his wife that he was sorry for not being with her. He says she replied, don't worry, I will get out. He also said he felt it was important that their deaths had been recorded in photographs and video because, quote, the whole world should know what is happening here. This image, a horrific reminder of the human toll of Russia's invasion.

And NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It is Thursday, March 10th. I am Brianna Keilar in Washington, joined by Alex Marquardt, live from Lviv, Ukraine.

And in moments, Vice President Kamala Harris is going to be speaking live in Poland as the two nations have a dispute over giving jets -- whether to give jets to Ukraine.

[07:00:07]