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2 killed After Russian Shell Hits Kyiv Residential Building; Russia's War Takes Perilous Turn as Strike Nears NATO Doorstep; AP: Pregnant Woman, Baby Injured in Hospital Bombing Have Died; CNN: Russia Asked China for Military, Economy Help After Invasion; U.S. Journalist Killed in Ukraine While Reporting Near Kyiv. Aired 7- 7:30aET

Aired March 14, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: New images showing Ukrainian rescue and evacuation efforts after Russian shelling hit a residential building this morning, where it killed at least two people and injured several others. This was a suburb of Kyiv, a barrage of Russian missiles also hitting a military base in western Ukraine, leaving at least dozens dead and more than 100 injured.

Those missiles, 30 of them landing just 11 miles away from Ukraine's border with Poland, which of course is a NATO ally. And this new video from Mariupol, the city in the south that is now under siege and completely surrounded by Russian tanks, firing on an apartment building. Officials say Russian bombardment of Mariupol has caused more than 2500 deaths.

And this morning, a woman, pregnant at a maternity hospital in Mariupol when it was bombed last week has died, along with her baby. It's probably a photo that you've seen here in the last week.

The Red Cross calling for an urgent solution to prevent a worst case scenario for the 1000s of civilians who are still trapped in the city.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ukraine also says Russian forces have now abducted a second Ukrainian Mayor from a city in the southern part of the country. This comes after capturing the mayor of Melitopol on Friday. You can see in this video he was allegedly taken by Russian troops. They led him away from that government building.

Satellite images also show the Ukrainian military stopped an attempt by Russian vehicles to cross a river just outside Kyiv. You can see the destruction on that pontoon bridge. This comes as Ukrainian forces continue to repel the Russian advances into Kyiv.

Talks today between Russia and Ukraine are taking place, that's happening this morning. But it comes as CNN has learned that Russia has requested military and economic assistance from China. This comes his White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan meets with his Chinese counterpart today.

I want to bring in Kim Dozier, CNN Global Affairs Analyst and contributor at Time Magazine. Kim, I want to start with this missile attack on the base in the western part of Ukraine. You can see right here where it is. People can get a sense of just how close it is to the Polish border here. What message do you think the Russians are trying to send here?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: This is about warning them that if Poland start supplying those MiG jets, or allows more weaponry, the javelins that have been so effective killing tanks over its border, they risk getting attacked. That's also a base where a number of foreign volunteers had come and were being taken in and possibly sent out to fight against Russian troops. So it's a message to all of them, if you come here, you're going to get hit. It's going to be brutal.

BERMAN: Is it wagging a stick at NATO here just 11 miles from the border with Poland?

DOZIER: Yes, it's saying that look come any closer and you risk that nuclear war that you keep talking about that you're so afraid of?

BERMAN: I want to talk a little bit about what's happening outside Kyiv right now. You can see the Russian forces continue to move into the city, we see this satellite imagery of the Ukrainians destroying this pontoon bridge, the Russians have set up to try to cross a river to get closer to this. How important is the defense right now? How successful have the Ukrainians been?

DOZIER: Well, the Ukrainians had almost immediately gone to more insurgent tactics, small groups of soldiers, ambushing Russian tanks, ambushing those long convoys that we've seen and doing things like this to make it harder for the Russian forces to sweep across the country. But as you've seen, what the Russians have done in answer is to use their long range artillery, their dumb bombs, anything that can do to smash the resistance and make tracks, gain territory.

BERMAN: When I see something like this, it seems to me that the Ukrainians are trying to create a situation that just slows the Russians down, which brings me to my next question here, which is this news that we're getting that Russia has asked China for military help? What does that tell you?

DOZIER: Well, it makes a lot of sense, because I've been hearing from European diplomats that the Russian supply lines, especially for things like smart bombs, they're stretched, they're running out of some of their stocks. And it shows that Moscow didn't anticipate how sweeping the sanctions would be. And how many countries would cut off trade. Germany used to be one of their major weapon suppliers. So now China could become the stopgap measure. But of course, the Chinese have said that they recognize Ukraine sovereignty, they don't want to get drawn into this.

And the longer this war goes on, both in Ukraine and the way it's crashing through the European economy. Europe is one of China's major trading partners. This is all crashing into China's bottom line. And it's making it very uncomfortable for Beijing as it tries to stay on the diplomatic sidelines.

[07:05:01]

BERMAN: Yeah, this news, this leak or reporting in western papers, puts China a little bit of a box, right? Military assistance will be one thing, that would be an enormous, aggressive step by China. But what about economic aid to Russia?

DOZIER: Well, you know, this is also Russia sort of calling in a chit, saying, you know, I told you, we were going to invade. And now, you know, we need economic help. China has already stepped in doing things like putting Russian credit cards, offering to put them on the Chinese financial system. And if China and Russia are aiming to be the future influencers, a new axis, you know, this actually does help Russia break from the west and create this new sort of network of where the Chinese currency becomes superior to the dollar. That's somewhere down the road. But for right now, Moscow wants help and says, you know, if you want our support in future, we need your help right now.

BERMAN: Kim Dozier, great to see you in person. Thanks so much for coming in.

DOZIER: Thanks.

KEILAR: So as you heard, Berman and Kim talking about their new this morning, CNN has learned that Russia has reached out to China both for military and economic support. That's according to two U.S. officials. So consider where that is coming from for sure, they want this out there. China, for its part is denying this report. They don't know anything about it. That's what one of the embassy officials said. CNN's David Culver joining us live from Shanghai, China.

David, China generally likes to play the long game. But now what kind of position are they in?

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brianna, hearing Kim there, speaking about this discomfort. That's exactly what they're feeling right now. It's this lack of security as to where they should make their next move. And you seem to see that playing out from the officials. But it's also one that now is going to perhaps come to an end. I mean, we're getting to a point now where they're going to have to take a stance perhaps that's going to show where they fall in all of this.

As of now they've been saying we're neutral. We want to be peacemakers, even mediators between Russia and Ukraine. And they've portrayed one enemy in particular, and that's the U.S. and the rest of the West.

However, what's going to play out in the next few hours is going to be a meeting between the top foreign policy official for China, that's Yang Jiechi, and he's going to be meeting with Jake Sullivan. That's going to be integral in all of this. That's going to be happening in Rome. And while they say it's been in the works for a while, what could come out of this could show what the next step is going to be from Beijing.

However, let's look at how China is responding in particular, to this reporting that Russia has asked them for military and economic aid. They're pushing back against it. They're saying that this is the U.S. peddling lies, that from the foreign ministry a short time ago, I'll read this, this was from the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. They said, "The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control." They go on to say, "China calls for exercising utmost restraint and preventing a massive humanitarian crisis."

They're doing a lot of talking and all of this, but what could play out in the next few days, weeks even or actions from Beijing that show are they going to step forward with a pragmatism that suggests, Brianna, that they're looking at the economic interests of their own population, or is this an opportunity for Xi Jinping to show ideologically where he stands. And is that right next to his best friend, his words, Vladimir Putin? Or is he going to say, wait a minute, we need to take a step back. We need to perhaps elevate the opportunity for China to come out of this economically in good shape, versus taking any more hits and all of it. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yeah. Are they best friends? Or are they Fairweather friends? I think we're going to see that.

CULVER: Yeah.

KEILAR: David, thank you so much for the report.

Let's discuss this now with the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and the Vice President of Strategic Stability at the U.S. Institute of Peace, William Taylor with us now. What does this signify to you that Russia has asked China for military and economic help?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Brianna, I think this suggests that Mr. Putin is desperate, that he -- if he needs help, at this point, in this fight, which he thought would be over by now. You remember, he thought he would be in Kyiv in three days and the Ukrainian military has denied him that day after day. We're in what? Day 19. So Mr. Putin may be desperate here. He may need the financial help. He didn't think that the sanctions were going to be so tough, and so broad, and so unified with their implementation, and he didn't think that he would have trouble supplying his military. So now he needs both military support the Chinese and economic support on the sanctions. So I think this may be a sign of desperation on the part of Mr. Putin.

KEILAR: It's really interesting, desperation. And I wonder how concerned you are that Russia has hit so close to the border with Poland, really just to, I think about 12 miles away very close to Lviv, which has so far avoided a lot of bombardment.

TAYLOR: That may be yet another sign. I mean, he can send missiles, although we understand that he sent 30 missiles in Yavoriv, into that site and 22 of them were shut down according to the Ukrainians, but eight got through.

[07:10:07] But bombarding cities like Mariupol and others is something they can do without the need for the ground troops. The ground troops are having a hard time. The ground troops are not succeeding, they are out of ammunition. They're apparently out of food, out of fuel. So the ground offensive is going poorly. What he can do is fire missiles. So I think again, that's an indication that he's -- it's not going well for him. He's looking for other routes.

KEILAR: Fires missiles, he further turns the Ukrainians against him. I mean, he's making rubble of their cities. Do you see this stretching into NATO territory?

TAYLOR: I think neither side wants that. Certainly the NATO folks are not interested in that fight. And I bet that the that the Russians are not interested in taking on, they know that NATO was much stronger than the Russians, they know that. And for them to intentionally bring the NATO troops, weapons economies into that fight, that would be a terrible mistake. He's made mistakes before. The invasion of Ukraine is a mistake. So he can't rule it out. But they don't want to fight with NATO.

KEILAR: What do you make of the -- I think we always watching Kyiv, right? That's where we're watching the most closely. What do you make of the explosions there that you've seen today?

TAYLOR: Again, you just showed how they tried to go across the river. The river is a real boundary, it's a real barrier, the Nepa River.

KEILAR: The Nepa River.

TAYLOR: Nepa River is goes right through Kyiv, part of Kyiv is on the left bank side, on their side, parts on the right bank side. And they're trying to get across into the main part. And they were foiled. Again, the ground troops have not had success so they can bombard. They haven't yet bombarded the downtown. It's just -- it's wrenching to think that that beautiful city could be the site of devastation like we see in Mariupol.

KEILAR: I know you will feel it in your heart, if you see that happening, I know. These talks and I should just say, we were just showing video of a river, I believe that is the pontoon bridge on the European river that was destroyed a different river. These talks, do you -- are you optimistic that something may come from them because we're getting some signals?

TAYLOR: We are from both sides, actually. The signals are coming from both sides. Optimistic is too strong. I would love to be optimistic about this. But the only time we're going to see optimism, the only way we're going to be up is if President Putin allows his negotiators to make a deal. His negotiators sound like they're working on a deal. And I know the Ukrainians are, know that they've gotten some things on paper, and they're having concrete discussions about what should happen, what needs to happen from the Ukrainian standpoint, until Mr. Putin allows that to happen. There may even be a meeting they say between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy -- President Zelenskyy, and that would be a good sign too. But until Putin agrees it's going to be hard to be optimistic.

KEILAR: Yeah, he may still be able to achieve a victory but a Pyrrhic victory. It's sort of looking like at this point. Ambassador, always great to have you and your insights. Thank you so much.

TAYLOR: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: We do have some more of the breaking news. We are getting word of explosions heard in Kyiv right now as the Russian -- the Russian military continues to close in on the Capitol, we're going to take you there.

Plus, tributes pouring in for the award-winning American journalist killed by Russian forces outside of Kyiv. We'll speak with his best friend, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:17:43]

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news, more attacks in and around Kyiv. You're looking at some still photos of the aftermath of a Russian airstrike. This killed at least one Ukrainian civilian in an apartment block. This is a residential area outside the city.

You can see here in the sky, the streaks in the sky there. The reason I'm showing that to you is just over the last few minutes, we've had new reports of explosions in and around Kyiv. And one possible explanation from the Ukrainians is that they say they are shooting down Russian missiles as the Russians try to intensify their attack on the Capitol there. We have seen a lot more attempted movement by the Russians toward Kyiv and a very, very fierce defense from the Ukrainians.

This picture that we've seen here is of the Ukrainians what they say is a destroyed pontoon bridge. The Russians were trying to put up a pontoon bridge to take them over a river. That would bleep bring them closer to Kyiv. The Ukrainian say they were able to destroy that. You can see this battle intensifying around the Ukrainian capital city. Brianna.

KEILAR: Brent Renaud, award-winning American filmmaker and journalist has been shot and killed by Russian forces in Irpin, Ukraine. Not far from that photo of that bridge where you saw. Renaud's reporting partner (Jose) Arredondo was also shot as they were covering the Ukrainian refugees fleeing across bridges Irpin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's happened to you?

JUAN ARREDONDO, AMERICAN JOURNALIST: We were -- we crossed one the first bridge in Irpin, we're going to film other refugees leaving. And we got into a car, somebody offered to take us to the other bridge, and we cross a checkpoint and they start shooting at us. So the driver turned around and kept shooting, two of us, my friend is Brent Renaud. And he's been shot and left behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now is award-winning journalist Christof Putzel, who considers Brent Renaud his best friend of 15 years. I am so sorry, Christof, you and Brent, I mean, you go way back working together meeting in Juarez, Mexico, covering violence, you know, in risky assignments, bringing incredible stories to people from all over the world. Can you just tell us a little bit about him as a friend and a person and a journalist?

[07:20:06]

CHRISTOF PUTZEL, FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE OF BRENT RENAUD: Absolutely. Brent was without question, the best that our profession has to offer. He is -- he was a living legend when he was alive. And he's a legend now that he's gone. I mean, he produced work in every corner of the world, in the darkest, most toughest areas and had this way to communicate humanity in a way that I have never seen any other journalist be able to do like Brent. And this is the way I always talked about him, because he wasn't that good. And he's just going to be real missed. It's a real loss for all of us.

KEILAR: I know, you've described him as sort of blending in, right? Being able to kind of be a chameleon into his environment, which was so helpful in his work?

PUTZEL: That was the most incredible thing about Brent, is that anywhere that he went, whether he was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, Colombia, Ukraine, wherever he was, even Somalia, somehow Brent looked like he belonged there. And he was never -- no one ever looked at him twice. He never stuck out. And there was just something about that energy, he reflected back to people who they were and then they trusted him, and they would talk to him. And they would share with him the things that they would never share with anyone else in their lives, much less in American journalist. That's what he was so incredibly good at. And it's something I've never seen before. And I don't know if I'll ever see it again.

KEILAR: And I know you would talk to him in recent days, right? Can you tell me a little bit about what he was saying, about what he was seeing and what he was experiencing covering Ukraine?

PUTZEL: I spoke to him right before he was leaving, soon as Russian troops invaded the country. Within a couple hours, he had his plane ticket to head over there. He'd been working on a documentary for the past year about migrants and refugees all over the world. And so when this happened, he obviously knew what was going to happen. So he headed over there immediately.

We were in touch a little bit through texting while he was there. Send me a couple pictures. You know, I said my standard, be safe. But, you know, what was strange was with Brent, you never worried because he was just so good at what he did. You know, Brent always came back, Brent was as careful as they come yet, as courageous as they come. And I'm still processing that he's not coming home. KEILAR: No, I mean, I think that makes sense. This just happened, it's an incredible shock, to even to people who don't know him and are watching what he has been doing, and that this has happened. And I know, you too, are kindred in a way. It's a particular type of person who sees danger and says, I'm going to risk it because I need to tell this story. You know, what was it about Brent that made him say, I need to risk my safety to go tell these stories?

PUTZEL: Because Brent believed in the truth and the story more than anything else. And that was the most important thing to him. You know, Brent didn't get scared, like the rest of us. Brent, and it's not that he wasn't human. He just was that kind of courageous. He was that brave where he would just, nope, that's where I got to be, because no one else is there. And if I'm not there, no one's going to get the story. And in a sense, he was absolutely right because nobody could get a story like Brent.

Any producer, any executive producer, who heard that Brent Renaud was getting on the plane to do that story knew that they had a homerun before Brent even left. That's, you know, you go through his career of 25 years. You could spend an entire week watching everything, documentary series back to back and have your job be dropped the entire time, be flabbergasted. Nothing Brent didn't did wasn't incredible, wasn't groundbreaking.

You know, the first thing Brent ever did was a feature on HBO, like and it just kept on getting more to duPont awards, a Peabody, you know, more accolades than then most journalists could ever even imagine. And that is not why Brent did it. Brent did it for the love of the profession. And because he believed in it, so much so that he gave his life for it.

KEILAR: He's telling the stories still, of refugees, stories that otherwise would be untold. Christof, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for your loss. And I really appreciate you being with us and sharing a little bit about him with us. Thank you.

PUTZEL: Thank you.

KEILAR: Christof Putzel. We appreciate it. A second Ukrainian Mayor kidnap by Russian forces. We'll have the latest on their whereabouts.

[07:25:03]

Plus, she was smeared by Trump allies and removed from her post as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. Why Marie Yovanovitch says the U.S. should have seen this coming. She'll join us live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news just over the last several minutes loud explosions heard over Kyiv. We're hearing from Ukrainian officials that it might be Ukrainian Air Defense hitting incoming Russian missiles. You can see the streaks in the sky there, successful attempts to stop incoming Russian bombardment. Now, we've also seen evidence of these Russian strikes where they have hit. This is in a suburb of Kyiv. This was at a residential apartment complex in a nearby city. At least one person was killed there, several more were injured.

[07:30:03]

Now, one person with unique insight into all of this is Marie Yovanovitch.