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Russian Forces Continue Invasion of Ukraine; Ukrainian City of Mariupol Suffers Continued Bombing from Russian Forces Despite Agreements for Temporary Ceasefires; Vice President Harris Speaks in Warsaw, Poland, about U.S. Providing Defense Systems to NATO Allies. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 10, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:34]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Thursday, March 10th. And I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington with Alex Marquardt in Lviv, Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin's attacks on Ukraine are becoming more horrifying by the hour. A Russian air strike, as you can see in this picture, this was on a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol, which has killed three people, including a child, a little girl, we've learned. This enormous crater in the hospital's courtyard caused by a bomb strike, by an air strike, the facility decimated from one end to the other. Pregnant women dazed and bloodied, evacuated through the rubble. Some of them even on stretchers, unable to move themselves.

The attack coming despite Russia agreeing to a 12-hour pause in hostilities to allow for evacuations. President Zelenskyy calling this proof of a genocide of Ukrainians.

And there is no end in sight to the Kremlin's carnage here. Just moments ago, a meeting in Turkey between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine ended with no agreement on humanitarian corridors or a cease-fire. Moments ago, Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in Warsaw, Poland, addressing the efforts being made by the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are pleased to have announced this week that we have directed two Patriot missile defense systems to Poland, and today I can announce that we have delivered those Patriot systems to Poland. We do this as a reminder and as a demonstration of our commitment to the security of our allies and our commitment in particular to Poland at this moment in time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: In Mariupol where that hospital was hit, a university and city council administration building were also decimated by an apparent Russian missile strike. I have to warn you now, the images that we're about to show are particularly disturbing. But they are the reality of what is happening in Mariupol where residents are digging mass graves. There are far too many bodies for individual funerals right now as they face that Russian onslaught.

Officials are saying that at least 1,300 civilians have been killed in Mariupol since the beginning of Russia's invasion, but many believe that that number could be far, far higher.

Now, this morning, the Ukrainian government is trying to open humanitarian corridors to try to get civilians out of some of the worst hit parts of the country, including Mariupol, where authorities have accused Russian forces of bombing the corridor that was set up there.

We also have brand-new video, take a look, Ukrainian military claiming to have defeated a regiment of Russian troops and killed its commander in Brovary, that's in the northeast of Kyiv. You can see Russian forces approaching in an effort to encircle the capital city. But so far Ukrainian anti-tank weapons have been able to hold them off.

Let's go straight to Kyiv and bring in CNN's Matthew Chance. Matthew, we have seen the Russians pushing in from the north and from the west, but now we also are seeing them make an attempt to come at the city from the east.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. They are engaged in this strategy, it seems, of trying to encircle the entire city of Kyiv, probably with a view of putting as much pressure as they can on the authorities here and on the government here to make concessions at the negotiating table. And it was a day of negotiations that we have been watching so carefully here over the course of the past several hours, with the highest level meeting between the two countries, Russia and Ukraine, since this conflict began more than two weeks ago.

The foreign minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, meeting in the Turkish city of Antalya. They met for just under an hour and a half by our estimates. And they had apparently some quite wide-ranging talks. But those talks did not amount to anything in terms of a cease-fire. They amounted to nothing in terms of humanitarian corridors, which is so urgently needed, particularly in cities like Mariupol, being agreed.

[08:05:01] Look, it was a positive that these talks took place at all, given the security situation, given the ferocity of the fighting. And I think it's also true that both sides went to the negotiating table with slightly compromised positions. The Russians, for instance, appear to have dropped their demand that there should be a change of government inside Ukraine. They wanted to install a puppet government that would be pro-Moscow. That demand is no longer being voiced.

The Ukrainians, for their part have said that they're prepared to discuss the issue of NATO membership and look at other ways of guaranteeing Ukraine's security. So that's a small sign of progress on both sides.

But on the other issues, like the territorial integrity of Ukraine, for instance, the two sides remain a long way apart. And there was some skepticism expressed by the Ukrainians ahead of these talks. After them I spoke to a senior Ukrainian official who had knowledge of the talks, and he said, look, our impression was that Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, he came to listen to the talks, to this meeting. He didn't come to offer any compromises. This is what he said. It takes two to tango, but Lavrov was not allowed to dance at this meeting.

And so this was never, from the Russian and the Ukrainian point of view, going to be the point at which a deal was done. But at least that process, if we can draw a silver lining around this, at least that process it seems is still, in theory, going to continue.

MARQUARDT: Yes, Russia has been coming at these talks with these huge maximalist demands, whereas the Ukrainians have been saying we need to stop the fighting and allow people to get out, really sort of some basic demands right now. Matthew Chance in Kyiv, thanks very much.

KEILAR: Let's talk more about this bombing that we are seeing on a hospital in a -- what was supposed to be a humanitarian corridor area during that time in Mariupol. Joining me now is Mariupol City Council Deputy Maxim Borodin. Sir, thank you so much for being with us. And I know that you actually live near where this hospital was bombed, and your house may be destroyed. What can you tell us about this attack?

MAXIM BORODIN, MARIUPOL CITY COUNCIL DEPUTY: I can tell you that Russian soldiers are cowards. They are afraid to make a street fight with our soldiers. So they decide to destroy Mariupol. Even today in the morning they continue to bomb with -- I don't know how big these bombs, but the holes in the ground are about three heads of men. It's terrible. They don't have any human left with them. Putin makes from them sadists, because who can understand why they need to destroy maternity hospital, why they need to bomb civilian buildings. There are no military bases in the center of Mariupol, but they totally destroyed it. They totally destroyed all the town.

KEILAR: How are people, Maxim, there reacting to this?

BORODIN: People of Mariupol now don't have electricity, don't have heat, don't have water, and a little bit of supplies. Russians especially blocked all the green corridors. They don't want to take the cities. They want to make it a genocide, so the people go out the streets and cry to the Putin, to Zelenskyy, so he stop the war.

But there are no results with these things. Most of the people now are angry with Russia. And I think all the world now needs to help Ukraine with anti-airplane, with anti-air systems and planes, because if all the world do nothing, the people of Mariupol, about 300,000, die for next weeks. Without help we can't fight this monster of Russia.

KEILAR: Maxim, you still have family there in Mariupol that won't leave, is that right? Can you tell me what they're telling you, why they won't go?

BORODIN: I don't have contacts with my parents for about seven days. I hope they're safe, but we can't -- we can't contact them with cell phones because there are no cell phones, only in the center of the city in some places.

[08:10:06]

And all supply to Mariupol which Ukrainian government try to push to Mariupol, they stop it, and they start to shoot it with tanks. So people now in Mariupol are hostages. It's hostages, and all the world looking for it, and do nothing.

KEILAR: Maxim, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine being you and looking at these pictures of your city. I do hope that you're able to be in contact with your parents soon and that they're safe. And I thank you for talking to us this morning.

BORODIN: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Moments ago, we heard from Vice President Kamala Harris. She was speaking in the Polish capital of Warsaw. She stopped short of calling the Russian atrocities that we're seeing war crimes. But she did suggest that they are happening, and talked about the U.S. rejecting a proposal from Poland to send fighter jets to Ukraine to help them in their fight against Russia. She offered these alternatives instead. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- the United States Congress, has now made a decision for $13 plus billion of United States -- of U.S. money to go to Ukraine, and our European allies to assist in terms of both their security and humanitarian needs. We have also just this past week given $240 million in security assistance delivered to Ukraine. And that's on top of the $1 billion in just the past year that we have sent to Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So for more, let's bring in CNN's John Avlon, senior political analyst, and author of "Lincoln and the Fight for Peace," as well as our CNN senior global affairs analyst Bianna Golodryga. Bianna, let's start with you on this question of the jets. We have seen NATO staying remarkably in lockstep when it comes to their approach to Ukraine and fighting -- helping Ukraine fight against Russia. But here we have seen a bit of a gap. Explain why is it much more sensitive for the U.S. to send jets to Ukraine than it would be, say, than to send Stingers or Javelins, which they have.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SECURITY GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: On the one hand, it could appear arbitrary. But going back to the dispute that we have seen play out over the past 48 hours, it really was much of an own goal, I would say, the first that we have seen between NATO allies. And this obviously, Poland jumping the gun, suggesting that they are prepared to send their MiG-29s, not directly to Ukraine, but to Ramstein Air Force Base, right, and have the U.S. deliver it.

And this is where U.S. intelligence and all of the president's advisers are saying, it may look like the right decision to make, and clearly, we are hearing the pleas from Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying every single day that he needs planes, and he needs a no-fly zone. But the president's advisers and many experts are here saying that this could take this war to a new level, right, and that you have to be smart, and you have to think longer term about how the Russians would respond if they see the U.S. delivering these planes, which then they could at least acknowledge as a sign that U.S. and NATO is entering this war. The U.S. and NATO clearly following certain rules that Vladimir Putin has violated from day one.

MARQUARDT: Yes, President Zelenskyy repeatedly saying, every day almost, it seems, that he needs that no-fly zone, but at the same time thanking what the U.S. and other NATO allies for sanctions that they have put on Russia. John, you say that the pressure on Vladimir Putin is going beyond sanctions. Explain that.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, what we're seeing is an unprecedented economic isolation of a country. It is a form of -- it goes beyond containment. It goes beyond mere sanctions. Putin thought he had sanctioned proofed his government. He had not sanctioned proofed his whole economy.

And the fact that the kleptocracy is being targeted in such a direct way, Bianna describes it as they're shell shocked right now. They didn't expect to see all these countries remove -- all these companies remove themselves from the country, this pressure on their overseas assets. And I do think you need to dial up the effort. If the Biden administration actually had begun a major effort about confronting money laundering before this all happened. Now it needs to be accelerated with additional transparency with all our allies overseas. That's where the oligarchs will feel the pain that could shift the calculus of this. And that's all part of the focus on the economic war, so it doesn't necessarily turn to the hot war, World War III scenario, which everyone is obviously rightly concerned about.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and I would just say that what the Kremlin clearly did not anticipate as they built this fortress, $630 billion fortress, right, in reserves was the West freezing the central bank's assets, right?

[08:15:12]

And that money really can't be touched at this point. And you're seeing the Russian stock exchange closed for an unprecedented tenth day in a row. You've seen the value of the ruble just completely take a nose-dive.

And what was interesting this morning out of the 250 or so companies that we have seen at least pause, if not leave Russia altogether, is that McDonald's, which was the latest, it made headlines and a lot of symbolism there, everyone remembers in that first McDonald's store opened in Moscow, McDonald's at least for their part, for the near term they say they will continue to be paying employees there.

And that is an interesting way of using optics and symbolism to say, listen, this is not a war against Russian people. This is a reaction to the war that Russia has inflicted upon its neighbor, and obviously the damage that it is causing internally.

I think that may have been a smart message. I don't know how long the companies can go on, continuing to pay employees there, because you're going to have tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of employees now without jobs.

ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: John, is there a sense that Putin actually feels this pain, or the embarrassment of big companies pulling out or, you know, oligarchs who may be complaining about the sanctions against them, or the people on the street who are lining up at ATMs and seeing their savings wiped out.

Does Putin feel that pressure? Could he succumb to that pressure?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think ultimately he cannot ignore that pressure. Putin is a self-monitoring man and he's not going to show that kind of weakness.

But that pressure is being felt in the Kremlin. It is being felt in the streets of the cities and the protesters seeing and the economic anxiety. That's the kind of thing that undermines, even an autocracy.

And the question is, you know, at what point does that change his direct calculus? I will say also we're seeing, I think, a major shift, a blowback to Putin's violent aggression in the face of all the global populous who had elevated and venerated Vladimir Putin in recent years through forms of what-aboutism or maybe there's indirect funding to their organizations. But they now find themselves after making all sorts of excuses for Vladimir Putin, with no place to go. They can't spin their way out of this one. The utter brutality of his autocracy has been exposed for the world and that is going to undermine some of the political support he's tried to gin up overseas, including here in the United States.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, find me one person who is calling him a brilliant strategist at this point, right?

AVLON: Maybe one.

GOLODRYGA: Well, I think.

MARQUARDT: Right, right. Well, John and Bianna, guys, we've got to leave it there, thank you so much.

AVLON: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Now, talks between Russia and Ukraine's top diplomats, the foreign ministers, those just ended in Turkey with no deal for a new cease-fire. And

Now, we're hearing about heavy fighting that is under way around the capital Kyiv. The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine will be joining us. That's next.

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[08:21:47]

MARQUARDT: This morning, a fourth round of talks between Russia and Ukraine at the highest level yet ended without any progress on a cease-fire agreement. The Ukrainians are also proposing a humanitarian corridor to give civilians a chance to flee the violence. That was also refused by the Russians.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh was at the talks.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jomana Karadsheh in Antalya, Turkey, where a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers hosted by the Turkish foreign minister came to an end after 90 minutes without reaching an agreement on a cease-fire.

Speaking shortly after that meeting, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba saying that he had come here hoping that through diplomacy, he could accomplish a 24-hour cease-fire in the country, and humanitarian corridors in and out of the city of Mariupol. But he says his Russian counterpart was not authorized to commit to this and he had to take that back to Moscow.

We heard from the Turkish foreign minister saying no one expected any miracles out of this one meeting, but that this is a significant step in the right direction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Yeah, no miracles, but really nothing coming out of that.

Let's talk about this with William Taylor, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, as well as vice president of strategic stability at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

I mean, that is a dismal outcome, nothing for the talks, nothing on humanitarian corridors. Is there any hope in these discussions?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Brianna, not until President Putin makes the decision. We heard the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba doing a great job say that the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was not authorized. He didn't have the authority, the decisions, from President Putin. It has to be President Putin to make that decision. And the question then is how to get through to him.

One possibility are the Chinese. The Chinese might be able -- Russia needs China and they don't have it yet. The Chinese have abstained as we have seen in the U.N., so China might be able to get through to Putin, but he's the decision-maker. It's not Lavrov.

KEILAR: What does it take then for China to intervene?

TAYLOR: China needs to probably president xi needs to have this conversation with president Putin saying, Mr. President, it's not going well for you. You are totally isolated in the world. Your military is not doing well around Kyiv. It looks to us that you have problems at home.

There are a lot of people in Russia who don't support this war, the Ukrainians unprovoked attack. You've attacked Ukrainians without justification. It is time for you to sit down and talk with Ukrainians.

And cease-fire is the first thing, but then there is the -- there are next steps on the negotiations. That's what President Xi could say to President Putin.

KEILAR: We're seeing horrific pictures out of Mariupol where this maternity and children's hospital has been bombed, and as if the pictures aren't bad enough, the facts behind them are even worse, because this is at a time when a humanitarian corridor was supposed to be in effect.

[08:25:03]

A 12-hour time period where there was not supposed to be this going on, and here you have this massive crater, three people dead, pregnant women bloodied and leaving the hospital in the middle of all of this.

What about a limited no-fly zone with a very narrowly defined humanitarian mission, and I ask you if that's a possibility after just hearing from the U.K. foreign minister, she was adamantly about no, it is not.

TAYLOR: She's adamant, the U.S. government is adamant. Several of us have been proposing this as you know, and the idea is exactly that. If there is an agreed cease-fire that is -- that would allow a humanitarian corridor to operate, and allow civilians to move, if that's agreed, then the Russians would have said, we're not going to attack those civilians, and they wouldn't be there.

We should then use our military to military hot line that we have agreed and is established and has been checked out a couple of times a day, so we know that works, to tell the Russians we are going to patrol, we're going to be sure that those humanitarian corridors and those civilians are able to move. We're going to let them know, very clear. Neither side wants to have a big fight. Neither NATO, the United

States, nor the Russians want to have that conflict.

And so this communication to say we're going to ensure that these civilians can get out, that should be possible. If not that, then something along the lines of providing an air defense system that can do that.

KEILAR: I asked the foreign minister, are these war crimes? She said, yes. I said, would it be helpful if the U.S. would also just be clear it is? And she said they're working with their allies. Can you translate that for us?

TAYLOR: What I'm sure she meant, I won't speak for her, but I'm sure she meant, what I would say is, of course, it would be important. It would be crucial for the United States government to say these are war crimes, yes, these are war crimes, it is clear. You're showing this every day, when you attack intentionally civilians, hospitals, maternity wards -- this is a war crime.

KEILAR: Former Ambassador William Taylor, really appreciate you joining us today, thank you so much.

TAYLOR: Thank you, Brianna. Good to be here.

KEILAR: Fallout from Putin's war being felt in America's Russian restaurants. They're facing backlash, they're facing hate, despite standing in solidarity with Ukraine.

We'll be speaking with one next.

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