Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Russian Military Forces Continue Invasion of Ukraine; Russian Forces Accused of Targeting Civilian Areas for Bombing and Missile Strikes; Ukrainian Military Attempting to Slow or Stop Russian Forces from Surrounding Capital City of Kyiv; Interview with American Fighting in Ukraine against Russian Invasion. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 14, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's where civilians live, residents obviously the target. Ukrainian officials say the Russian bombardment of Mariupol has caused more than 2,500 deaths there. And this image of a woman who was pregnant at the maternity hospital in Mariupol when it was bombed, she has died, we understand, along with her baby.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Ukraine also says Russian forces have now abducted a second Ukrainian mayor from a city in southern Ukraine. And this comes after the capturing of the mayor of Melitopol on Friday, video allegedly showing Russian troops leading him away from a government building.

Satellite images show the Ukrainian military stopped an attempt by Russian vehicles to cross the Irpin river on a pontoon boat. You can see that here in this photo, as Ukrainian forces continue to repel the Russian advance into Kyiv. Talks between Russia and Ukraine taking place this morning, but it comes as CNN learns that Russia has requested military and economic assistance from China. This as White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan meets with his Chinese counterpart today in Rome.

Let's get straight to CNN's Clarissa Ward. She is live for us in Kyiv. Clarissa, what can you tell us about the explosions that you've been experiencing there this morning?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So there's been a lot of fighting going on here all day, Brianna. And in fact, we can still hear it rumbling away in the background, coming from that direction. But the explosions you're referring to were just a few hours ago, coming from this direction. My cameraman, Scott McWhinney, was actually able to capture an image of the jet trails in the sky. It appears what happened is that Ukrainian missile defense batteries were activated, targeting what we believe to be a Russian jet. We don't have any sort of clarity on that, but that's what we believe happened.

All of this contributing to a picture of intensified fighting, particularly here in the capital. You mentioned that air strike, or rather missile strike, we can't be sure which it was, or shelling even, frankly, in the suburb of Obolon, which hit an apartment building. You can see the image of the residential building, civilians living there. Remarkably, only one person was killed, several were injured. One can only assume that a lot of people have already evacuated from this city.

And we're also getting reports of a major incident in Donetsk. Donetsk is the sort of capital, if you will, of one of these pro-Russian separatist enclaves, or breakaway republics. The images that have been coming in, images and videos, CNN has been able to geolocate them, appear to show at least several fatalities on a main street in Donetsk. The Donetsk pro-Russian separatist leader has claimed that it was a Ukrainian missile and has claimed that 20 people were killed. CNN cannot independently verify those claims at all.

But certainly, all of this leading to an increase in fighting, increase in tensions, more and more civilians being killed as a result of that. You mentioned the ongoing negotiations between the Ukrainian delegation and the Russian delegation. Those are taking place today via video teleconference. They're not in person. But certainly, increasing pressure for the Russians to agree to some kind of a cease- fire, even if it's only a temporary cease-fire, particularly to get people out of those besieged areas. You mentioned Mariupol where that woman and her baby were tragically killed in the hit on the maternity hospital there, but hundreds of thousands of civilians still pinned under with no food, no water. They've tried many times to try to get humanitarian aid in and tried to evacuate civilians as part of the humanitarian corridor. So far, no success on that. We'll see where the day leads in terms of these negotiations, whether there's any possibility or glimmer of hope at trying to help some of the civilians trapped there.

BERMAN: Clarissa, where you are in Kyiv, the capital, you mentioned the explosions you were hearing and, frankly, are still hearing. You talked about the Ukrainian air defense in the sky, and this intensified push by the Russians apparently to get to Kyiv. What's the status of their efforts right now to get inside the city itself?

WARD: So what's interesting, John, from what we're seeing and hearing, is it's not just an intensified Russian push to get to Kyiv, but we're also seeing a real intensification of Ukrainian defenses. They have been pushing the Russians back with some significant success.

[08:05:04]

Previously, the main area that Russian forces had been focused on was the sort of north, northwest, and west of the capital. Last week they started to make a major push towards the east, a suburb called Brovary. That push is continuing. And the worry, of course, is that the ultimate goal is to try to encircle the city entirely. Currently the south of the city is still largely open, but Ukrainian authorities have said over and over again even in the last few days that they have no doubt about what the Russian's objective is. It's to surround the city, starve the city, bombard the city, and try to topple Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government.

Whether or not they will be successful in that is another matter altogether, John, because despite their superiority of their military on paper in terms of weaponry and manpower they have, they have really been struggling throughout this offensive to try to implement their strategy on the ground, facing a lot of resistance from the Ukrainian forces, but also facing a lot of problems with their supply chains, moving ground forces around effectively, running out of things like diesel for some of their armored vehicles. And so I think it's fair to say it's clear things have not gone the way they wanted, which is exactly why fears are so high that there could be a real intensification and bombardment and even less -- or even more indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets as well, John.

BERMAN: This is an image right here we have of things not going the way the Russians wanted. This is a pontoon bridge the Russians had tried to set up there. The Ukrainians say they destroyed that, slowing the Russian movement into the city. Clarissa Ward for us in Kyiv, thank you so much being with us this morning. Stay safe.

KEILAR: And joining us now is Miro Popovich. He's a film student and dual U.S.-Ukrainian citizen, who is fighting against Russian forces in Kyiv. Miro, it is great to see you. We last spoke to you on Wednesday, and I'm wondering what has changed here in the last few days since we were last able to speak.

MIRO POPOVICH, U.S. CITIZEN FIGHTING IN UKRAINE: What's changed is, because I've just heard you guys talk that the Ukrainian military pushing Russians away. Yes, that is the case. They can't really come too close to Kyiv. They're sort of on the outskirts. And our military, our army and National Guard, they're doing really well. I am surprised, and I'm proud.

KEILAR: You are surprised and proud. You were expecting they might be in Kyiv, which could certainly change your role.

POPOVICH: Yes, exactly, because as we talked last time, my job is -- my unit's job is to help and operate when they come too close to Kyiv. But we, still, we don't have a chance yet. And that's great. I think that's fantastic.

KEILAR: So you've been, just to be clear, you've been waiting for the action, and you haven't seen it yet, which is --

POPOVICH: No, no, we still -- sorry.

KEILAR: No, go on. Tell me what you've seen.

POPOVICH: Yes, we still have action. We still have action. Our main priority right now is to get ready for assault that might happen, and humanitarian missions. There's a lot of humanitarian -- a lot of medicine and clothing and food that's coming from Europe and U.S. to Ukraine, and it has to be delivered to our military, to our National Guard, to our bomb shelters, to hospitals.

And I've been deputized. Right now, we're helping police to deliver all those goods, and, of course, to get ready for combat. And the third, and I think one of the most important tasks, is to identify saboteurs. There are a lot of saboteurs here, like sleeping agents. I know it sounds like movie stuff, but this is actually truth. A lot of Russian, whatever, sleeping agents, what they did is they guide missiles. And that's not very good.

KEILAR: They can give them locations of what to hit.

POPOVICH: Yes, exactly.

KEILAR: And you've personally encountered Russian saboteurs?

POPOVICH: Personally, we have arrested somebody, yes. I don't know if they are Russian saboteurs or not. Our job is to arrest them and then the other government officials, they take care of interrogations and stuff like that. We don't do that. We just stop somebody who is suspicious, and we just give them -- pass them to other authorities that do their thing. I don't have authority to identify whether they're real agents or they're just stupid enough to walk around government buildings and take videos.

[08:10:06]

KEILAR: Yes. And so what have you been ordered to do if Russia advances into the city, if they're coming into the streets, into the urban area, what are you prepared to do?

POPOVICH: We're going to give them urban warfare. It's like a guerilla-style warfare. We'll help our military fight. Yes, we are ready. We have a lot of weapons. We are officially deputized. We're not just some group of civilian people. We have an authority. We have a lot of veterans that are capable of fighting. And yes, that's what we're going to do. We're going to help them, and we're going to give everything. Hopefully it doesn't happen. But when the day comes, we're going to do whatever we can.

KEILAR: You served in the U.S. Army, you served in Afghanistan. What are you taking from those lessons learned there into this?

POPOVICH: What am I taking -- first of all, as I said, I think I said last time, stress, to operate under stress is the most important thing that you can learn in the military. And second of all, discipline, discipline. Even if you're in a U.S. civilian unit, you have to be disciplined, because discipline saves, and discipline gives you the success that you need. It's one of the most important things. In life, too, by the way.

KEILAR: Certainly true. Miro, and I suppose I should call you Officer Popovich now that you have been deputized, but I hope we will be speaking again soon. Thank you very much for checking in with us.

POPOVICH: Thank you so much. Bye-bye. BERMAN: The breaking news this morning, explosions heard in and

around Kyiv. You can see the streaks in the sky there. We just heard from Clarissa Ward, the thinking is that may be Ukrainian air defense shooting down Russian missiles on their way into the city. We have seen the effect of these Russian air attacks in the Kyiv region. This is an apartment complex in a suburb. At least one civilian died here, several more injured. You can see how the civilians are suffering.

And then we have a haunting image that we're seeing for the first time this morning. This picture was taken last week of a pregnant mother being pulled from the hospital in Mariupol when it was hit by the Russians. We have word this morning that she and her baby have died. So you can see the toll that this is taking on the Ukrainian people.

I want to bring in CNN military analyst, retired Army General James "Spider" Marks. Spider, nice to see you this morning. The reason I wanted to give people an update on all that, is you say what we are seeing is an increase in the tempo and terror by the Russians. What do you mean?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Clearly, what the Russians have not been able to do over the course of almost two weeks now of military invasion is achieve a sense of pace and momentum in their operations. They're stalled around Kyiv. They have not been able to take any major city, Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Odessa yet. Clearly, they've taken some cities that haven't been able to resist. They've used tactics that are not unusual for the Russians, and that is to take their military, they've not been able to achieve this success. And so all of a sudden, in order to gain some momentum, they start using very indiscriminate targeting, which is SOP, standard operating procedure, for them anyway.

So we're going to see an increase of the use of weapon systems to really go after the morale of the Ukrainian citizens. The military is holding incredibly strong, but they want to make sure that the platform upon which this military stands is support of their citizens, support of the nation, the sovereignty of Ukraine. That is what the Russians are trying to attack right now and hope that they can chip away at that.

BERMAN: Civilian suffering by design. Spider, you think the next Russian target could be Odessa here on the Black Sea coast. I can give people a sense of how the Russians have been making progress coming up from Crimea, trying to move either directly to Odessa here or along the coast. Why? Why Odessa next?

MARKS: It's very obvious that the operation has gained very little success. Obviously, there's been some destruction, obviously, and some rubble that we see in Kyiv and the major cities. And 2.5 million immigrants now have pushed their way into western Europe. So the whole thing is incredibly tragic.

But the Russians have not been able to do anything militarily. I would imagine, unconfirmed, that some senior leaders are probably being pushed aside because they lied to Putin about their readiness, and their intelligence was bad about the Ukrainian ability to resist. HERE [08:15:00]

And so what you need to do now, as a military leader, I would say, look, let's continue to position ourselves in and around Kyiv, let's maintain our artillery fire our rocket fire in to Kyiv. Don't push any forces in there because we haven't been doing it very well.

But what we need to be able to do is focus, if we need additional forces, don't put good money after bad. Let's put some forces down in the south where we've achieved some success, we, Russian forces have achieved some success and go after Odesa, if you can get Odesa, you've now completely isolated Ukraine from the Black Sea and the Russian Navy is sitting down there and they are in a position to put Marines ashore and they are in positions to continue to provide that type of naval gunfire.

So I would say, divert resources down toward Odesa. That's a target they've indicated they need to get.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: It's interesting because we have seen sort of intensified strikes from the air around Kyiv. How many ground troops would it require for the Russians to take Kyiv, Spider?

MARKS: Certainly, more than what they've put on the ground so far. Kyiv is a city of about two and a half million, let's say three million folks. When you look at the kind of the counterinsurgency calculus of all of that, we are looking at in excess -- in excess of 100,000 soldiers that would be necessary to get into Kyiv and then start that very methodical, very precise, and in the case of the Russians, it's not going to be very precise, it's going to be very brutal.

But you've got to go from door to door, building to building, block to block, street to street in order to achieve this success, and that's where the defender has this immense advantage and the Ukrainians have indicated that this is where they're going to make a really good stand, in addition to what they're already putting up, it is quite phenomenal what the Ukrainians have been able to do.

And that interview that Brianna just had with that soldier, now, a civilian had served in the U.S. military in Afghanistan, quite phenomenal, quite phenomenal. It shows the level of resistance and will.

BERMAN: Yes, what struck me about that interview was the smile on his face, the obvious pride. He's taking the work that he's doing and the sacrifice that he's making.

Retired Army General James "Spider" Marks, great to see you this morning. Thank you so much.

MARKS: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right, this is a very interesting development overnight in what could be a critical moment in this war.

Russia, asking China for economic and military support in Ukraine, including drones.

Now China denies that report, but if Russia is asking for this, what does this tell us about their efforts right now and where they might be falling short.

Plus, more on the breaking news, several heavy explosions heard across Kyiv this morning. We'll bring you the very latest.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:25]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is going to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi in Rome amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. So this is going to happen as a U.S. official is revealing that Russia has turned to China, asking for military and also economic assistance in Ukraine. China has denied this.

But joining me now to talk about this is anchor and chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, fresh back from Ukraine, I should add as well. What does this signify to you that after the invasion, Russia asked China for this help?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: One, that Russia needs to help, right, and we'd heard and I had been speaking to U.S. officials about -- and you've seen it, right, slower invasion than Russia expected. Russia running out of some key munitions, they are getting low on missiles, et cetera.

This is a potentially major escalation if China agrees to do this -- for Russia to reach out to China for military assistance, and I'm told that Moscow's request includes military drones. So we're talking about things that would be immediately used on the battlefield and have a have an effect on the battlefield.

Ukrainian drones have made a real difference in this in terms of targeting Russian convoys, so for Russia to get help from China in that space could have a battlefield impact.

The other bigger picture element here is that this would then pit in Ukraine, you talk about proxy wars, the U.S. and NATO on Ukraine's side, and Russia and China on Russia's side and that is -- that would be a major expansion of this conflict.

KEILAR: And I wonder, it would also be a pivot for China. I wonder if they would be inclined to do that, considering they've abstained from some votes on the U.N. Security Council and they kind of seem to want to stay out of the fray.

SCIUTTO: They've walked a fine line. And by the way, it's not clear yet what China's response is to Russia's request. We just know that Russia has made the request. China has tried to walk a fine line here. Right? You mentioned the abstention in the U.N., some public comments,

particularly prior to the invasion that seemed to echo Russia's position on Ukraine, but not an explicit endorsement yet of military action.

They have also echoed Russia's false claims about bio weapons labs there and U.S. involvement, so, teetering, and if China teeters more to Russia's side with a specific military helping hand that significantly -- one, it could affect the situation on the battlefield.

But two, it would be a significant escalation get to this point where the idea of this becoming a larger conflict is no longer far-fetched. It is one.

KEILAR: It is interesting where this story is coming from. It's coming from the U.S. side, right? When China is asked about it: Oh, we don't know about that. So you see, the U.S. has an interest in it getting out there. China certainly doesn't.

What does this signify? What's the objective here of this getting out here ahead of Jake Sullivan's meeting with his counterpart?

SCIUTTO: It's my understanding that China, if it were to help Russia, it wants to keep that help quiet. Right? So for --

KEILAR: Can they really do that, Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, apparently not, right? So if this comes out in public, as it has, and you're right to note that that could be deliberate, right, to expose what the U.S. knows about this. That would mean that China couldn't do it quietly, or it is a lot harder for them to do it quietly, so the world would know.

China is taking Russia side here and becoming involved and I think that's why you're having someone like Jake Sullivan, and that's our understanding, delivering a very direct message to China to say, we're watching this closely and if you were to do this, there could be penalties as well.

KEILAR: Yes, I think this is one of the biggest things to watch in all of this. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much for that.

SCIUTTO: Yes, absolutely. Thanks. Thank you.

KEILAR: So Russia reportedly threatening to arrest business leaders for defying the Putin regime, what this means for American companies like McDonald's and Coke.

[08:25:07]

KEILAR: And moments ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was supposed to address European leaders, he just canceled that appearance. We will tell you why, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: New this morning, the State Department is calling Iran's

rocket attack on the Iraqi city of Erbil near the American Consulate building outrageous. The strike comes at a delicate time as the U.S. works to restart the Iran Nuclear Deal.

CNN's Kylie Atwood with the latest.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Iran carrying out a missile attack into northern Iraq over the weekend with the IRGC claiming responsibility and an Iraqi official saying that there were two individuals that were injured as a result of these missiles.

Now significantly, this hidden location in northern Iraq where the U.S. Consulate is located and State Department spokesperson condemning the attack also confirming there was no damage to U.S. facilities there or hurt to any U.S. personnel.

Now, the Biden administration not saying that this attack has it all dead-ended efforts to revive the Iran Nuclear Deal, but we already know that there are a number of stressors that are complicating those efforts.

[08:30:11]