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Russian Forces Close in on Other Cities in Ukraine; Russians Appear to Shift Tactics, Widening Attacks in Ukraine; Race to Deliver Medical Supplies Across Ukraine as Attacks Intensify; U.S. to Move to Remove Most Favored Nation Status for Russia; Exiled Russian Oligarch says Ukraine War Will End Putin's Regime. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 11, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He tries to nose on my earlobe biting when no milk comes out. The doctors say without the care he got here, he would have starved to death if left alone in Ukraine.

(On-camera): She would die if she wasn't here basically. --Oh, he would die, he would die if he wasn't here.

(Voice-over): The son of Ada Foundation's founder tells us Sasha was dropped off here by a woman after she escaped from Ukraine into Poland but had nowhere to take him. But she left one instruction, she will be back to get him. She loves him. He's family.

DR. RADOSLAW FEDACZYNSKI, VETERINARIAN AT ADA: And I think the owner, this lady loves so much this animal. This animal is --

SIDNER (on-camera): Family, no? Part of the family, no?

FEDACZYNSKI: Yes. Yes. A part of family. And we want her back when the war will end.

SIDNER (voice-over): This is a family affair. His daughter has been giving Sasha the love and warmth he needs. These are just two animal war stories of hundreds. And more arrive every week. And every week these animals get top-notch care. To the staff here, these war refugees are as important to care for as the humankind.

Sara Sidner, Przemysl, Poland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Friday, March 11th. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington with Alex Marquardt in Lviv, Ukraine. John Berman is off this morning. And we begin with breaking news. Russian forces bombarding three key

cities in Ukraine overnight. It's important to know where these cities are located. ;There's Dnipro which is in the center of the country, Ivano-Frankivsk, which is in the West, and Lutsk which is in the northwest. You can see here Russia is widening its attacks. And Lutsk is just 60 miles from the Polish border.

In Dnipro, Ukraine's emergency service says that there were three airstrikes and they hit a kindergarten, an apartment building and a shoe factory. These are civilian targets. That is not a mistake. Russia has provided here no explanation, nor have they provided an apology.

In the meantime, the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense says moments ago that Russian forces are also making limited progress advancing towards Kyiv. And they could be preparing for a fresh attack against the capital here in the coming days. A senior U.S. Defense official said some troops are now within nine miles of the capital city center. With other units approaching from several different directions.

These new MAXAR satellite images that you see here, these are from the outskirts of the city. And they show that 40-mile-long Russian convoy that we've been talking about for days here, it shows that it's largely dispersed and redeployed. There are some units, you can see from the tracks there, they have repositioned into forests, into tree- lined areas, behind homes in some cases. The northwest of Kyiv, in Chernihiv, images show the Russian onslaught has inflicted heavy damage. The mayor there says the city is encircled by Russian troops.

And then look at this. Ukrainian State Emergency Services released this heart-stopping video of them defusing a bomb from a downed Russian fighter jet. You can hear some explosions there going off in the background.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: And Ukraine's foreign minister has condemned what he is calling Moscow's barbaric crimes, posting a video of sick orphans being evacuated in ambulances from the town of Vorzel. That's, you know, near the capital Kyiv. Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy is saying around 100,000 Ukrainians have now been evacuated through those humanitarian corridors over the past few days.

Some have been more successful than others in Mariupol and Volnovakha which is both are in the east and southeast. Those corridors do remain blocked by Russian forces, according to local officials who are also saying that Russian troops are attacking them.

KEILAR: Live now to Dnipro where civilians are being targeted by Russian forces. That is where Sam Kiley is on the ground.

Sam, Russian targeting now moving into the center of the country, we should note, where you have been. This is a different move. What are you seeing?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've just come from an area close to a shoe factory, which was struck in the small hours of this morning by some kind of missile. We don't know if it was a long-range missile or a missile dropped from an aircraft. But as you rightly point out, it is a civilian area, it was a disused shoe factory. Sadly one person was killed there, the caretaker or security guard, rather, who was guarding the premises. It's not far, indeed it's right across the road from a former hospital.

[07:05:00]

So there may be no accusation there against deliberate targeting of hospitals as we've seen in Mariupol. But there have been two other locations close to a kindergarten and to an apartment block also hit by these missiles.

Now we're nowhere near any ground troops here. They are at least about 130 miles away south or 130 kilometers, I should say, about 100 miles, rather, south of here not far from Zaporizhzhia. So clearly this is an intent part of the campaign that we've seen periodically or spasmodically almost across the country where almost random -- almost at random cities get bomb or missile attacks.

Sometimes focused on airfields or military targets. But very often and increasingly against civilians. And of course we've also seen the very aggressive bombing of civilian areas or missile attacks on civilian areas in cities like obviously Kyiv, the capital, Kharkiv and Mariupol here down in the southeast -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Sam, thank you so much. And please stay safe as we see the increased bombardment there in that area. Thanks.

MARQUARDT: And joining me now is CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto.

Jim, I think what's notable overnight in terms of these new strikes are these are places that we haven't really been talking about as much. Dnipro in the center, Lutsk here in the west. It's really raising concerns, isn't it?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, particularly nor the strikes in the west, right, because they've concentrated most of their airpower, aerial bombardment, of course ground forces in the east, sort of Kyiv to the east. So to hit airfields here expands the air campaign, the missile campaign. But it also makes me think when I saw two airfields, one to the north and one to the southwest, it makes me think that Russia is looking for supply routes in, right?

They would look at these as, I mean, airfields would be a natural target for them. You know, they call them military targets. But also their attention to how weapons are getting into the country via the west from NATO and the U.S. and its allies. Are they looking for spots, airfields and perhaps down-the-road roads to try to do something about those supply lines because we know that those weapons have had a real impact on the battlefield?

MARQUARDT: And of course this does raise concerns because it's so close to the Polish border.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MARQUARDT: And, you know, the countries that border Ukraine have obviously been nervous about what could come for them.

SCIUTTO: Well, it makes you realize whether the patriot missile batteries are going to cross the border from us in Poland, why Poland wanted those missiles because these missiles travel high and fast. They're not always accurate. And the fear of course is that one strays off course or I mean, in a potential escalation one could target Poland. And that's the intention of the patriot missile batteries which Vice President Harris announced yesterday are now deployed there.

MARQUARDT: And that's why we're seeing Vice President Harris in Romania today and then Poland yesterday to reassure those NATO allies that, as she said, the U.S. would defend every inch of NATO territory.

SCIUTTO: Exactly. And reminding people that there is a treaty commitment to do that. Right? An attack on one is an attack on all.

MARQUARDT: Article 5.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MARQUARDT: Jim Sciutto, thanks very much.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: All right, well, joining us now is CNN military analyst and former army commanding general in Europe and the 7th Army, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

General, I want to get to that satellite imagery, that new imagery that we've gotten of that infamous 40-mile-long convoy near Kyiv that we've been talking about for the better part of a week now. But when you look at this imagery it is now largely dispersed. What does that tell you about the force of that convoy and the potential impact that it could have on Kyiv?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. It tells me a couple of things, Alex. First of all, that they have moved off the road and established what's called a military parlance a logger. They want to get under trees to try and establish some kind of camouflage. And they're doing this because they have been gradually picked off while sitting on this road by the weapon that we're going to hear more and more about, the (INAUDIBLE) drones.

These drones, these little killer drones, are going to be the signature weapon of this war much like IEDs were of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been highly effective. But the Ukrainians don't have many of them. They had about 50 at the start of the war. They are trying to increase their supply of those because they have been so good in picking off these kind of targets in a very quiet manner. The Russians don't know they're coming.

But going into the trees causes another problem. OK. So you get out from the long stack of vehicles on a road, which can be hit by drones, you move into the trees to try to establish camouflage. Then you are very susceptible to ambushes from weapons like the Javelin missiles or the smaller range AT-4 missiles or some of other ones that they have -- that NATO has given Ukraine to go against these armored targets.

So, truthfully, the Russian vehicles that are moving either on road or off road are subjected to multiple weapons systems.

[07:10:07]

And truthfully, I don't think moving off road is going to help them all that much. But the important thing to remember is they're still there. They are stuck. They have been forced into a channelized position where the end of the column has been prevented from turning around and the front of the column cannot go anywhere. So they are stuck in the location and the Russians desperately need the resupply from those trucks but they're not getting to the places they need to go.

As Jim Sciutto just said, they're trying to establish supply operation bases. They can't do that right now with that convoy.

MARQUARDT: General, more generally, as we've seen this Ukrainian resistance being quite effective on the ground, we've seen the Russians stepping up their bombardment from the skies, whether it's artillery or a ground base missile launchers or just bombing from their aircraft. So what does that tell us about where Russia feels they are in this fight now two weeks into this invasion?

HERTLING: Well, that's what they'll continue to do, Alex. They will attempt to continue to use long-range weapons for terror purposes, for chaos to put the Ukraine on sort of horns of the dilemma. Do you protect the citizens that are being illegally targeted from these long-range weapons, or do you establish a resistance and an insurgency and a guerrilla war against the forces of Russia coming in?

You know, these -- what we have to talk about is the distances for these kind of weapons. When you're talking about mortars, it's a few miles. For artillery it's around 17 to 25 for missiles depending on the ability to shoot. For rockets and missiles, it's anywhere from 30 to 500 miles. So the Russians can stand off the target while they surround these cities with forces on the perimeter and hit the civilian targets from very far away.

For a major city, they could combine MLRS, the multiple launch rocket systems, with Iskander or caliber from very long distance. For smaller cities, they're just going to hit them with harassing artillery and mortar fire. Again, all to terrorize, cause chaos and force the Ukrainians to peel off security forces from the fight against Russia to help the civilians who are being killed and injured in these cities.

MARQUARDT: General, I want to ask you about what we were just talking about with our Jim Sciutto, these two attacks -- rather these attacks on these two cities, Dnipro in the center and then Lutsk here in the west, not too far from where I am right now. What do you see, what do you read into that when you see the targeting of these areas that we haven't been talking about as much in the past two weeks?

HERTLING: Yes. Yes, again, Alex, additional harassment. You can take an artillery or a missile or a rocket and swing it without a whole lot of effort from one city to another. So what the Russians are attempting to do is cause terror and chaos throughout Ukraine. But what I would suggest is they haven't sent any forces to some of these cities. So they are harassing them from a far with overhead fires.

And again, the artillery and missiles are much greater percentage than the air power. So Russia can't fly just yet. They would like to hit more and more city. But, you know, if you're in Dnipro, as an example, and suddenly you think you're in a safe area and you start getting hit with overhead fire, the chaos and the terror from the citizens of that city will say, holy smokes, we've got to get out of here, too.

And again it contributes to what Russia is attempting to do. They are attempting to force a humanitarian disaster. They're attempting to cause citizens to get out of cities so they have an easier way to occupy or take over those cities. And they are in fact just trying to cause casualties because that draws manpower away from any kind of resistance effort.

If you're treating casualties, if you're trying to get food and water and electricity to citizens who don't know what's going on, then you can't really establish a great resistance because you're using military manpower to help the civilians survive.

MARQUARDT: Right.

HERTLING: So I would expect more of this for cities we haven't seen Russian forces around. They will continue to swing artillery and missiles to cities where Russian forces are not close by because they can't support those with supply rounds or excuse me, supply convoys. All of these things will contribute to continued -- you know, just chaos within Ukraine.

MARQUARDT: Right. Yes. Only driving up the fear and likely sending more and more Ukrainians heading for the country's borders.

Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thank you as always for your expertise.

HERTLING: Thank you, Alex.

KEILAR: As the number of injuries and casualties in Ukraine grows by the day, the demand for medical supplies continues to skyrocket.

[07:15:06]

Joining me now is Dmytro Shymkiv. He is the CEO of Darnitsa which is a leading Ukrainian pharmaceutical company. He's the deputy head of Presidential Administration under the former president Petro Poroshenko. And since the beginning of the war, he's been working to distribute, as you can imagine, much needed medical supplies to these areas that really need them the most.

Dimitri, thank you so much for being with us. Can you tell us if you're able to get medical supplies where they need to go?

DMYTRO SHYMKIV. CHAIRMAN OF DARNITSA: Thank you very much for having me. Since the very beginning of the war, Darnitsa have been operating in the (INAUDIBLE) to submit to deliver very needed pharmaceuticals goods across the country. Infusion, injectables, all around. We've been delivering to places like Kharkiv, Mariupol, to Zhytomyr, to Zaporizhzhia, to Mykolaiv. All the places that are needing, in desperate need of the supply.

We have enough of the supply in our warehouse and we continue to operate. We are located in Kyiv. And we are the biggest plant in Ukraine. I have 150 employees with their families in the bomb shelter at the plant, including 37 kids who are helping us to operate, to load things into the trucks and send trucks across Ukraine.

The challenges of course are obvious is the shelling of the trucks, getting trucks to Mariupol was a very difficult process. Our cars were shelled. The same thing delivering goods to Shostka or Sumy. Kharkiv, we've made several deliveries there involving support from military and volunteers. And of course delivering across the city of Kyiv to different hospitals making sure that there is enough supply for hospitals in case of the big casualties from civilians.

KEILAR: What is it looking like there on the ground? I mean, we've heard reports in Mariupol there isn't clean water. I mean, how do you properly treat people when you don't have things like clean water, when you don't have proper lighting, when you just don't even have any cleanliness and you're lacking supplies? What are the conditions of providing health care in these hard-hit areas?

SHYMKIV: In this situation, it's desperate. I have employees who are in Mariupol, we lost the connection with them and gradually the same with Kharkiv and other places. We're trying to reconnect. Even in Bucha next to Kyiv where there was (INAUDIBLE). I have employees with whom we tried to evacuate them using green corridors. But you're absolutely right. We have a case where a young girl died in Mariupol from dehydration.

Getting supplies, medical supplies is a big challenge. Nevertheless, we need guys including with our international partners to get (INAUDIBLE) to Ukrainian military which was very important and medical tools, to help our soldiers to survive when the wounds are very serious. But getting the right treatment and the heroic work of Ukrainian doctors is truly amazing work. They are committed. They are there. The supplies are coming. And we as the biggest pharma are committed to do that.

KEILAR: Yes, their hands are tied and they're still doing this amazing work.

And Dmytro, thank you so much for talking with us about all these supplies that you're trying to get delivered where they're needed. Appreciate it.

SHYMKIV: Thank you very much. KEILAR: Breaking overnight, Goldman Sachs dimming its outlook for the

U.S. economy because of the war in Ukraine as the firm itself cuts ties with Russia. Plus, an ex-Russian oligarch joining us answering this question. Is a coup against Vladimir Putin possible?

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:23:08]

BRIANN GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bianna Golodryga live in New York. The U.S. and its allies set to revoke Russia's most favored nation's trade status for its continued invasion of Ukraine. Stripping Russia's trade status would allow the U.S. and allies to impose tariffs on Russian imports, increasing Russia's economic isolations and retaliation for the invasion. Meantime, two of Wall Street's most influential firms are now leaving the country, dealing another financial blow to Moscow.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now. We're talking Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. Two huge names.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, two more names to this exodus. Both unwinding their business in Russia. The first big Wall Street banks to exit the country. Goldman was first winding down its business, quote, "in compliance with regulatory licensing requirements." What they're doing here they're helping their global clients close out of the market and they're trying to ensure the well-being of about 80 employees in Russia.

Then America's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, said it was actively unwinding its Russia business, also in compliance with government directives from around the world. Global sanctions making it really difficult for financial firms to operate in Russia. But it's not just banks, Putin's war in Ukraine pushing Western companies in every sector out of Russia. They cite a number of things. Difficulty doing business there.

They cite solidarity with Ukraine or they worry about the safety of their employees in the country. We're talking media companies, consumer giants, manufacturers, shippers, and of course oil companies. The Biden administration has directly sanctioned Russian fossil fuel. These companies abandoned joint ventures and factories. They closed stores, they closed offices. And now Russia could seize those abandoned assets.

Putin on Thursday said he backs this plan to introduce external management they call it of foreign companies leaving Russia. It's essentially nationalization. The Russian prime minister said earlier in the day that legislation has been drafted.

Still the exodus of Western companies, it really is a swift and growing isolation of a global economy sending the Russian people back in time where they face a cratering economy, empty shelves, long lines, limits on withdrawing their own money, and limited credit card services.

[07:25:07]

A recession is certain. Some even say you could see a Russian depression.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and we've seen Russia sort of being isolated, right, from the global economy over the past 10 or so years. That having been said, they are still a commodities behemoth and there's concern that that could impact economies around the world including the United States.

ROMANS: Yes, even with this isolation it is such a big producer of energy, a big producer of grains. Also of metals and other commodities that Goldman Sachs this morning is downgrading U.S. growth forecast for the first and second quarter due to the war in Ukraine. But coming back -- rebounding by the end of the year. And remember we're coming off the best year in the U.S. economy last year since the 1980s.

So 7 percent economic growth in the U.S. and the end of last year. So coming from a strong position but this war in Ukraine, this aggression from Putin will be felt around the globe.

GOLODRYGA: And the big question is how long will this go on, right?

ROMANS: That's right.

GOLODRYGA: It could be months.

ROMANS: That's right.

GOLODRYGA: Christine Romans, thank you so much. Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right, Bianna, thanks to you and Christine there.

Now a former Russian oil tycoon is speaking out about Vladimir Putin and is claiming that the war in Ukraine has significantly reduced President Putin's ability to stay in power. His name is Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He was Russia's richest man and led the country's largest private oil company, Yukos Oil, before he spent a decade in prison for charges that most observers say were completely trumped up.

Now I spoke with him with the help of our interpreter. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Mr. Khodorkovsky, you've been fighting Vladimir Putin for the better part of 20 years. Do you think that this war, as damaging as it will be to both Ukraine and Russia, do you think it will bring the end to Putin's regime?

MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY, EXILED RUSSIAN OLIGARCH (through translator): This will depend on the outcome of the war. Right now Putin is clearly suffering a defeat. But he can of course still kill very many people. If the West continues to support Ukraine, his own defeat is inevitable. Putin will always be the enemy of America. But since the start of the war, his stay, his term in power has been reduced significantly.

MARQUARDT: Given how insulated he is both socially and financially, how sensitive do you think President Putin is to all of this economic pressure brought by the West, all of these companies that are now pulling out of Russia? How much of an impact does that have?

KHODORKOVSKY (through translator): So the blow to the financial system has been enormous and it is being felt. But at the moment only 70 percent of the cash flows have been blocked. We need to block the remaining 30 percent if we want to stop Putin, we must -- there must be no exceptions.

MARQUARDT: You have said that the West needs to step up their sanctions and bring Russia financially to its knees even if that will hurt everyday Russians. What more do you think needs to be done to inflict that kind of pain?

KHODORKOVSKY (through translator): This isn't a question of getting somebody down to their knees. We need to stop the war. If we want to stop the war, then all the banking, all the bank accounts of Russia must be frozen. All of Putin's bankers must be blocked. This needs to stop, even if -- I've never advocated sanctions against Russia as a whole. But the financial flows need to stop.

And, yes, people will have problems. We will have problems. But these problems are incomparable to the problems of the people who are being killed and wounded.

MARQUARDT: What about the oligarchs who are close to Putin? Do they have any influence? These oligarchs who have been sanctioned, who have had their assets frozen, their yachts, their planes seized. Do they have any sway, any pressure that they can put on President Putin?

KHODORKOVSKY (through translator): Those people who you call oligarchs here, they are just Putin's footmen. They cannot influence him. However, he can use them as a tool of influence to influence the West. Therefore, it is absolutely important to stop all of these foot holders of Putin's until the war ends. They all must be blocked. And that's the only thing that will stop the war.

MARQUARDT: But if they say to him you need to stop this war, does he listen to them?

KHODORKOVSKY (through translator): Well, does the cleaner in your office, if she tells you or he tells you how to host a TV program, will you listen to them? Because that's all they are to Putin. They follow Putin's orders. And on Putin's orders, they can do things in the West.