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New Day

Kyiv Sets 35-Hour Curfew as Russians Close in on Capital; Biden, NATO Leaders May Meet in Person to Address Russia's War; Zelenskyy Makes Offer to Russian Soldiers, Surrender and Survive. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 15, 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 NEW DAY: Below $4.

[07:00:01]

Pete, thank you so much for the report.

And New Day continues right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Tuesday, March 15th. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

And the breaking news this morning, a two-day curfew declared in Kyiv. We're talking about day and night for residents there with the only exceptions to take cover in bomb shelters. The reason, it might be this. These escalating Russian attacks hitting civilians. This is a 15-storey apartment tower ablaze in Kyiv right now, just one of four separate residential buildings we have seen over the last 24 hours hit by the Russians.

At least two people were killed in this building. And we're getting reports this morning that there are still people trapped inside, this all according to the Ukraine Emergency Services. Remember, these are people's homes you're looking at right here, lives just upended.

We do have video of one man just walking down the street in Kyiv when an apartment building there gets blown up. That is what folks are dealing with right now.

Now, the Russian forces are facing heavy resistance. The Ukrainian military released this drone footage of a strike of a Russian military complex hidden in a forest outside Kyiv. President Zelenskyy is urging Russian troops to re-evaluate their orders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Russian conscripts, listen to me very carefully, Russian officers, you've already understood everything. You will not take anything from Ukraine. You will take lives, yes. There are a lot of you. But your life will also be taken. But why should you die? What for? I know that you want to survive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And here is something that the Russian people very much see infrequently on state-run T.V., and that is an opposing viewpoint. And anti-war protesters interrupting a live news broadcast with the sign that reads, no war, stop the war, do not believe propaganda, they tell you lies here, Russians against war.

That woman is a station employee and she reported this message and gave it to human rights group before her protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA OVSYANNIKOVA, RUSSIAN T.V. EDITOR: This happening now in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor country. And the responsibility for this aggression lies on the conscious of only one person. This man is Vladimir Putin.

Go to the rallies. Do not be afraid. They cannot arrest us all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And there are reports that that Russian T.V. editor is now at a police station. Her lawyer says her whereabouts are unknown.

Also developing, the White House is discussing a possible trip to Europe for President Biden, as NATO leaders talk about gathering in Brussels for an extraordinary session next week. And breaking just moments ago, word that the prime ministers from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are traveling to Kyiv today to meet with President Zelenskyy, which, of course, is remarkable. This is remarkable statement of solidarity under great personal risk that you would be hard pressed to find an example of in history. It's akin to world leaders going to London during the blitz.

Joining us now is Independent Journalist and Founder of Public Interest Journalism Lab, Nataliya Gumenyuk, who is with us.

Nataliya, I know earlier today you were in Kharkiv, which, of course, has come under such heavy shelling here, even compared to other cities in Ukraine. First, though, tell us you're on your way to Kyiv, and we now understand that there's a curfew even throughout the day for the next two days. What are you expecting?

NATALIYA GUMENYUK, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: So, first of all, yes, I'm coming from Kharkiv, this town where unfortunately there were less journalists with the reason it's the second biggest town in Ukraine. The students had to go. And, to me, somebody from Kyiv was quite powerful to see and quite painful to see how much destroyed the city center is. The town is very big.

So, there are a lot of areas which were not shelled, but it's really the very severe damage to the central three -- just to really show the Kharkiv residents that they didn't surrender, that's how they are punished. But also the situation is quite difficult on the outskirts of the city. The town is just 40 kilometers from the Russian border. So, shelling is coming both from the Russian borders but also from the Russian troops nearby, which is just shelling anywhere they can reach.

What is our concern and why we are all looking at Kharkiv with this unfortunate feeling of the expectation that that's exactly the role model which could be used for Kyiv. For instance, if Kyiv is surrendering, the artillery would shell anywhere. And that's exactly what probably might happen.

Still, just to explain, I know Ukrainians are defending themselves. Ukrainians are kind of in a very strong feeling, they don't want to feel just like the victims.

[07:05:04]

They really do the things, they really think we would rebuild our towns but explain the difference that the air defense system in the capital, in Kyiv, in fact, is strongest. So, it doesn't mean that the shellings was not taking place earlier. There are just tools to defend the towns.

Of course, not from the ground Grad rocket launchers and things like that. Unfortunately, there were less of the air defense system in Kharkiv. The country, of course, has limited resources. So, that's why, you know, the more troops and the more resources are brought to defend the capital, the crews (ph) would be there for more than a day. So, it's important to get back. The city is kind of further from Russian border. But, unfortunately, those role models of those towns, they are in our minds. And I think the government and everybody understands what already is the strategy of Russia.

KEILAR: Nataliya, thank you so much. Please be safe as you make your way from Kharkiv to the border. We do appreciate the report.

BERMAN: And joining me now is Terrell Jermaine Starr. He is a non- Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and Host of the Black Diplomats Podcast. Terrell joins us live from Lviv this morning. I understand you spent the night in a bomb shelter there. Just tell me what that was like.

TERRELL JERMAINE STARR, NONRESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL'S EURASIA CENTER: Well, it was really simple. Sirens went off. We were alerted to go to the shelter that's in our complex. So, there's a leader who is assigned to our shelter who gives us instructions on what to do, how to prepare for that experience. For example, making sure that you have enough water for you to last 24 hours, to bring -- to basically have a kit with your -- whatever you want to sleep with, something that you can sleep on the ground with, food, whatever essentials that you need for at least 24 hours because people don't know how long they will be in these shelters. It can be an hour or so. In my case, it can be six hours. It could be a day. It just varies.

BERMAN: And, Terrell, you are in Lviv right now. And we do know that there have now been Russian strikes near that western city. But, overnight, we have seen relentless shelling in the capital of Kyiv, where I know you spent so much time and lived for a time. And we have also seen these apartment complexes, 16-storey apartment complex ablaze, as we speak, at least two people dead, residents trapped inside. I don't know if you've had a chance to see these images but I know you lived through attacks like this. Just your thoughts on civilians, their lives being upended in the capital.

All right, we lost Terrell Jermaine Starr. He is in Lviv right now. Again, though, you're looking at the devastation of these apartment complexes in Kyiv. And, of course, the breaking news out of that city this morning, the mayor has declared a full two-day curfew. There's been nighttime curfews there, but a full two-day curfew asking residents to stay at home. Only leave if they are going to bomb shelters. Brianna?

KEILAR: So, we do have some new CNN reporting this morning, the White House facing growing pressure to supply the Ukrainian military with Soviet-made weapons. This is coming as the Biden administration is wrestling with getting more military aid to Ukraine without triggering a wider war.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is live in Brussels. This is really the measure. This is the balancing act that they're doing, Natasha.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Exactly, Brianna. This is an effort by members of Congress and by President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to pressure the White House to get those heavier, Soviet-made weapons into Ukraine so that Ukraine can essentially take back control of its air space. They want S-300 surface-to-air missiles. They want MiG-29 fighter jets.

But there are a couple of problems here. The first is that the White House and NATO broadly are very concerned about what the transfer of those weapons into Ukraine might be -- how those transfer of weapons into Ukraine might be perceived by Russia, right, whether Russia would view that as yet another provocation by the U.S. and NATO.

The second problem is that they don't know yet where they're actually going to get these S-300 missiles from because the U.S. does not actually have them. Those are in some Eastern European countries, some Arab countries. And they would have to then backfill those missile systems. And we saw this problem play out last week with the Polish leader saying that they could not provide these MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine unless they were backfilled by the United States. So, the State Department and the Pentagon, we are told, still trying to figure out how they can get those missiles out of those countries and into Ukraine.

But you know, one interesting facet of this as we see Russia start to get closer and closer in their attacks to Poland, to NATO's borders, is that the U.S. is telling Congress, U.S. officials are telling Congress, that they do believe that still the vast majority of the weapons that they are sending into Ukraine is getting into Ukrainian force's hands, that they do believe this is successfully being transferred.

[07:10:10]

But we're told that NATO, as an alliance, as a bloc, really has very little visibility into what is actually happening to those weapons once they cross that border, what percentage of that weaponry is actually getting into Ukrainian force's hands. And that is actually on purpose. NATO, as a bloc, has been instructed the member countries not to share this information with each other in terms of the points of contact to get those weapons into Ukraine, and, importantly, it maintains this aura of plausibility, right? NATO does not want to be seen as a bloc providing lethal equipment to Ukraine.

So, they have not been serving this kind of coordinating function in terms of getting that weaponry into Ukraine, also for security reasons, right? So, what we are kind of trying to figure out now is -- and what the administration is trying to assess is how is the best -- what is the best way of getting these weapons into Ukraine given the complexities, given the fact that Russia is targeting now closer to the polish border. And that is one of the things we believe that if President Biden does come here next week, does come to Brussels to meet with other NATO leaders, will be on the agenda, is, while NATO is a bloc, of course, says that it is not providing these weapons to Ukraine as a whole, the member countries, they will need to figure out the best way to keep this assistance flowing.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, of course, also coming to Brussels to discuss that with his counterparts here. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Natasha, thank you so much for that report. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: Again, we have been looking at these pictures right now of these residential buildings, apartment complexes in Kyiv ablaze. At least four separate attacks in the city over the last 24 hours. Civilians there suffering. And word now that a two-day curfew is in place, day and night, in the capital.

I want to bring in Kim Dozier, CNN Global Affairs Analyst and Time Magazine Contributor. What does it tell you right now that the mayor of Kyiv has imposed this two-day curfew, day and night, in the city.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: They either have some sort of intelligence that saboteurs are moving in the city and they want to be able to spot them, or they've seen the disposition of Russian troops and they think the Russians are going to try to make a break for the center. It means that they're expecting the fighting to get much worse, despite those reported progress in peace talks. Maybe that was just a time-wasting exercise by the Russians while their forces got in position.

BERMAN: It certainly indicates a level of urgency there by officials. And it comes with this extraordinary information we're getting the news that prime ministers in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia on their way to Kyiv right now, this city under siege, where we have seen building ablaze. I can't think of anything like this where world leaders are going to a capital under attack.

DOZIER: And they're making sure to message that they're on a train, on the way in. In other words, the warning is to Russia, you better stop your moves on the capital because we're soon going to be there in talks with Zelenskyy. And who knows how long they're going to stay. In a sense, they become human shields for as long as they're there.

BERMAN: That's a real great point. I mean, the Russians -- the idea of the Russians attacking that city while these leaders are there, do you think Vladimir Putin would be willing to do that?

DOZIER: Well, it puts the onus on him. Are you going to escalate this into a war against all of Europe? You know, right now you're trying to say it's just Ukraine and Ukraine is our territory that we're taking back, his claims. But that is a way to bring Europe and possibly NATO into this. He's going to -- we're all talking about the fact that they're headed in there. He can't say he doesn't know. And his forces can't say they don't know and they fired accidentally.

BERMAN: Obviously, we have seen the increased Russian intensity of attacks on civilians. We have been watching the Russian troop movements. We saw that video from the Ukrainian president, Zelenskyy, overnight pleading with Russian troops, basically come to our side. Lay down your weapons. What's the value of that, the information value?

DOZIER: Well, I wonder if they can see it. A lot of those troops are in the middle of the fight and cut off. But if they're seeing any modern -- any local media, maybe they're getting the message or on social media. The thing is a lot of these Russian troops, especially the conscripts, apparently were not told you're going to Ukraine or they were told you're going to free Ukrainians. And they weren't expecting this resistance. They thought this would mostly be a lightning strike on the capital and then they would be welcomed with open arms, especially in Russian-speaking areas.

The fact that some of the worst fighting and rebellion is coming against them in those areas has been sort of a psychological shock to those troops that they have had to adjust to.

BERMAN: Lastly, again, with the presidents of these European leaders in Kyiv with the knowledge that there might be a NATO meeting next week, President Zelenskyy addressing U.S. Congress tomorrow, what pressure do you think will be on the United States to perhaps increase the already substantial aid in weapons and whatnot going into Ukraine?

[07:15:09]

DOZIER: Well, I've spoken to diplomats who were very frustrated with the Biden administration. They say, you know what, we should have tried to get them those MiG-29s just as a psychological boost.

So, I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on the Biden administration to get maybe S-300 missile defense systems in. Everything short of those fighter jets to make Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people feel like we might not be on the ground with you but we're behind you and doing everything we can to help.

BERMAN: Kim Dozier, great to see you this morning. Thank you so much for your help on all this.

So, these European leaders, these prime ministers, traveling to Kyiv, we believe, at this moment to meet with President Zelenskyy. This comes just as NATO leaders are discussing an emergency in-person meeting in Brussels maybe within the next few days. We're going to speak to the former NATO supreme allied commander ahead.

KEILAR: Plus, an employee at one of Russia's state T.V. news stations interrupting a live broadcast to protest the Russian invasion in Ukraine. But now her lawyers say they cannot reach her.

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[07:20:00]

KEILAR: CNN has learned that NATO leaders could meet in person in Brussels as early as next week in what would be an extraordinary session. Multiple U.S. officials have confirmed that President Biden is preparing to join the NATO leaders there in Europe, though his trip has not been finalized.

Let's talk about this now with retired Admiral James Stavridis. He is the former NATO Supreme Allied commander. He's also the author of 2034, a novel of the next World War. Sir, thank you so much for being with us this morning, as I think we're seeing things changing and sort of evolving in Ukraine.

Assuming that President Biden does go to this meeting, what is the goal that he needs to achieve?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: I think he'll have three big ideas he'll want to push forward, Brianna. First will be solidarity amongst the alliance in terms of weapon systems, capabilities that we can provide the Ukrainians. We're very focused on MiG-29, S-300. But don't forget, it's intelligence, it's cyber, it's day-to-day ammunition. It's a very wide range of capabilities. So, number one is going to be kind of the material side of this.

Number two, Brianna, he's going to attempt to push forward the diplomatic efforts, similar to what you're seeing today, which is remarkable, these three prime ministers of NATO countries headed into a war zone. Boy, I applaud that, their personal courage, alongside the signal it sends from the alliance. So, diplomatically, President Biden will be applauding that.

And then I think, thirdly, Brianna, he'll be talking about what the alliance needs to do militarily, as distinct from providing that support to Ukraine. These are things, like moving more troops forward, closer to the borders of Russia, perhaps permanently stationing some NATO troops in places like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Those can come from Germany, move them forward to that border, so, those kind of moves.

And there might be a little side bar discussion, Brianna, which would be quite interesting, about what do we do if Finland and Sweden apply for membership? I think that may be a side bar conversation.

Anyway, lots to talk about, a good move on the part of the president. There's a few things he'll be thinking about. KEILAR: Yes. Adding more countries to NATO is not what Vladimir Putin's goal should be here. But you mentioned those prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland going to Kyiv, and it sounds like you did a little bit of a double take or eyebrow raise, as we did. This -- I don't think that we can overstate how significant this is, that they're going into this embattled city that's under curfew to meet with President Zelenskyy.

STAVRIDIS: It really puts pressure on Vladimir Putin because Putin has clearly lined up the Russian military to encircle the city of Kyiv, start a bombardment, probably put Special Forces in there, potentially push some of these Chechen and Syrian fighters that he's been threatening forward. He has got an agenda to conduct a medieval siege on that city.

And, by the way, that's going to be a tough order of business. Those Ukrainians know every single alley, every backroom, every road, every intersection. The Russians are going to find themselves in a hard fight.

Point of comparison, when the U.S. 1st Marine Division in the battle of Fallujah was ordered to take that city, those are the best combat shock troops on the planet Earth. It took them two months of hard fighting to get that job done. Fallujah is one tenth the size of Kyiv.

KEILAR: You're hearing Zelenskyy, he wants MiGs, he wants these surface-to-air missiles to defend against Russian bombardments. Should the U.S. go ahead and provide those things or some of those things and do you think the U.S. is overly concerned about being considered a cobelligerent, sort of a legal label?

STAVRIDIS: Yes. You mentioned earlier this idea of finding the balance, if I could put in nautical terms, we have got to kind of sail a narrow channel here. On one side of the channel is indeed the danger of provocation and escalation of conflict with Russia, nuclear arm power. That's a legitimate thing to be very concerned about. On the other side are the risks of not doing enough and creating a scenario where Putin can conquer the entire country.

[07:25:03]

I think the administration has done a good job trying to sail that channel, but I would argue the risk over here on the Russian side is less than the risk of not doing enough over here.

So, for one, I would advocate more surface-to-air missiles, higher reach than those Stingers, which are quite good under 10,000 feet. They need higher reach into the air stack. And, secondly, I think we should continue to look at this idea of getting some kind of flyable jets into the hands of the Ukrainians. Huge morale boost and it also brings capability to the battlefield. Not going to be a total game changer, but, boy, every bit helps at this point. You're going to hear the same things I think from President Zelenskyy Wednesday morning.

KEILAR: Yes, indeed, I think we will. Admiral, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. STAVRIDIS: You bet, Brianna. Thank you.

BERMAN: So, new this morning, the prime minister of Spain says authorities have seized this $140 million super yacht owned by one of the principal oligarchs, that's what they say, of Russia. This 279- foot yacht is named Valerie. It's been docked at a shipyard in Barcelona for repairs since early February. It will remain under detention until Spanish authorities say they can confirm the owner and whether the owner is on any list of sanctioned targets.

The United Nations' secretary general warns a once unthinkable nuclear war is now within the realm of possibility.

Plus, the mayor of Kyiv, he's instituting a two-day full curfew there but he also says he's not worried about being kidnapped and he's ready to fight. Stay with us.

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