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Ukraine Says, People Emerging Alive from Bombed Mariupol Theater; Russia Bombs Kyiv Residential Buildings Just Before Curfew Ends; Biden Calls Putin a War Criminal for the First Time. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired March 17, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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


JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And this is the ward for children, written clearly on the ground, indicating civilians are inside this structure.

[07:00:08]

We have some video taken from inside the theater. This is just one week ago. You can see so many people were sheltering there. That's why there was so much concern when the Russians more or less took this building out.

And this morning, again, crews are working to clear the rubble, allowing the people trapped inside to walk out. And the word is that some are emerging. We're trying to get information now on just how many, more on that in a second.

A couple miles away, a building that houses a public swimming pool was also hit. An official says that building was housing pregnant women and women with children, younger than three years old.

And just hours before a curfew in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was set to expire, a new attack on a residential building there. At least one person was killed when part of a downed missile hit that building.

Russia continues to deny it is targeting civilians. Kyiv's mayor having none of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR VITALI KLITSCHKO, KYIV, UKRAINE: They destroyed -- they killed children, women, civilians, for what reason?

REPORTER: Putin says he's only targeting military targets.

KLITSCHKO: (BLEEP), sorry. Where is military target? This building is not a military target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Where is the military target? The mayor's brother, Vladimir Klitschko, will join us soon shortly.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: And President Biden with his strongest condemnation yet of Vladimir Putin, for the first time, calling him war criminal for his attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Some examples, much of the small city of Volnovakha lies in ruins, destroyed by Russian strikes. Here's what this residential area and a church looked like before the invasion. Here's what it looks like now.

And this was a neighborhood, a roundabout surrounded by homes and buildings. And now, as you see, the area is totally destroyed, it is leveled with scorched rubble everywhere.

A senior adviser to President Zelenskyy claims that Ukrainian forces are actually beginning to counterstrike against the Russians, which would be a huge development. This new video shows blown-up Russian military vehicles at the Kherson Airport. And this is Mariupol. Ukrainian forces taking out a Russian tank in a military strike.

Overnight, Zelenskyy taking his worldwide plea for help to Germany in a virtual address, invoking the Holocaust, and calling on the German chancellor to destroy a wall that is separating Europe.

CNN's Scott McLean is live in Lviv. Scott, I do want to start with the breaking news about survivors at this theater in Mariupol. What do we know?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, there is a glimmer of hope, but we shouldn't draw any conclusions just yet because we still don't have nearly enough information. There was just an address posted to his telegram page from the Mariupol mayor. But at first glance through that, there does not appear to be any new information about potential survivors.

The information that what we do have at this point comes from the head of the Donetsk regional administration, who posted a message saying after an awful night of not knowing, finally some good news, he said, quote, the bomb shelter of the theater was able to hold the rubble, is beginning to be cleared. People are coming out alive.

Again, we should be cautious here though, because we don't know whether that means there are some people coming out alive, just a few, or perhaps all of them. That would seem like an absolute miracle considering local officials there said that there could be more than 1,000 people sheltering in that space alone.

Now, the reason it's taken so much time even to get this much information is because local officials said that it wasn't easy to get access to the site in the immediate aftermath because of constant shelling and the sheer volume of rubble as well.

This is from attacks coming from the air, which clearly had been so, so deadly in recent days in so many cities. But according to a British military assessment of the situation on the ground, the Russians are not making a lot of progress and penetrating the cities in many places. And the Ukrainians say that they are launching this counteroffensive. Even ordinary people are fighting back. One protest in the Black Sea town of Skadovsk, people were hit with tear gas there after they were protesting the detention of the mayor and two local officials. And one other thing that I want to point out, and that's the train infrastructure in this country continues to be a target. Yesterday, we saw a train station in Zaporizhzhia, where the building was heavily damaged, which makes the visit by three prime ministers just who left just the other day from Czech Repubic and Slovenia, all the more miraculous. And I spoke to the CEO of Ukrainian Railways to find out more about how this exactly took place. He said that it was organized, very short notice. He said that it was the idea of the prime ministers to travel by rail, thinking that it was the safest method.

[07:05:00]

But the railway chief had some criticism for them, saying that he was very surprised that he was keeping their travel plans under wraps, he was keeping them secret for security purposes, and that's why he was so surprised that they announced their trip before they had even managed to get to Kyiv, even telling the world that they were traveling there by train. He called that naive. He said he doesn't even tell his own children that they shouldn't give up their location because they should already know. People, in general, should already know that we are in a war. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. Scott, thank you so much, live for us from Lviv.

BERMAN: All right. Joining me now is Chief of Staff to President Zelenskyy, Andriy Yermak. Andriy, thank you so much for being with us.

If we can, I want to start with the situation in Mariupol. This theater that we know was hit by a Russian airstrike. We are getting word this morning that there are survivors being pulled from the rubble there. What can you tell us about this?

ANDRIY YERMAK, PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY'S CHIEF OF STAFF: Yes. Hello, hello, and thank you for this opportunity to be with you in this is a critical moment and critical time for my country. Yes, the situation in Mariupol is still very difficult. You know that the Russians have blocked our convoys with the foods and the help, humanitarian convoy. It is still not able -- it's five days -- not able to come to Mariupol and to help the people. And one opportunity that the people, by the private cars, very slowly, have the opportunity to take out of the city.

And, of course, it was terrible events which happened one day ago. It's the bombing of the theater, the drama theater, in which thousands of the people, women, children found this safe place. And it is, really, when they get this information, it was we still was shocked because it is impossible to see what happens now in Ukraine and in our cities. But thanks God that the mainly people was in the bomb shelter and really survived.

We're still waiting for the full information for the representative of the power of our military people who are still in Mariupol and bravely defend and keep the city and will continue to do this. And, of course, I think the president of Ukraine have the speech today in the parliament of Germany, told every day all our team for all the work to take the attention of the tragedy of the real catastrophic situation, which happened in Mariupol, in other cities in Ukraine.

BERMAN: Andriy, just to be clear, you are getting some word that there are survivors from the rubble of this building?

YERMAK: Sorry. Can you repeat?

BERMAN: You have heard that there are survivors? You are being told that there are survivors in that building?

YERMAK: I can't confirm to you 100 percent this information, but mainly people, yes, really survived.

BERMAN: Okay. Well, that is good news. Let's continue to hope. Please keep us posted on that.

I also do want to ask you, we've heard from Ukrainian military sources, and there's been reporting elsewhere that the Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive against the Russian military, particularly around Kyiv. What information do you have on that?

YERMAK: That, really, our military forces, if they have the opportunity at the defense of our city to back their positions, to free some cities to some places, of course, they go forward and try to do this, because we are in our lands. And we're not stopping our fighting up to the victory and then all the Russian troops go out from our territory.

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: Have you been able to push them back in key locations?

YERMAK: Yes, we have some information that in some places it's really happened.

BERMAN: President Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal for the first time. What's your reaction to that?

YERMAK: Look, everything which happens in Ukraine, the whole world sees that it is a real big military crime.

BERMAN: Your president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke to the U.S. Congress yesterday, asked for more aid. President Biden, after that, announced that aid would be coming, including drones, including some of these switchblade drones. How do you receive this information? Is this pleasing to you?

YERMAK: President Zelenskyy yesterday, yes, is really said thank you, thanks for the American people, American states and to President Biden. And, of course, it will be -- we very appreciate it and it was very good news that immediately after the speech of the president's we received this information for the additional aids. And we hope that we get it as soon as possible because it's really important.

Ukraine today defend not just Ukraine, defend all democracy, all free world. And if we win, and I'm sure that we will win, we win all the world. It's normal. It's logical. And we have always said that America is our -- one of the biggest strategic partners. We really have this aid. And I think sometimes, ago, for the interview of some American journalists, I said that, really, President Biden is the president of the United States who betters know our country and who has done more than all presidents of United States.

And we hope, and President Zelenskyy, yesterday in Congress, said what they believe that President Biden will be really leader of the peace of Ukraine. And his leadership help my people, to my country really stop this war and Ukraine to win.

BERMAN: Andriy Yermak, please stay safe. We do appreciate you taking the time to speak to us this morning. We know how busy you are. So, thank you.

YERMAK: Thank you very much. Thank you.

KEILAR: So, the U.S. says that it has observed increased naval activity and shelling from Russian ships in the northern Black Sea. This is near the southern city of Odessa. So, what does that mean, and also something that we really should be paying attention.

We have Cedric Leighton here with us. I want to pay attention to something that has also been going on Japan is spotting, which is Russian ships, which appear to be troops and maybe some reinforcements of supplies, coming through the Japan Strait. What does this tell you?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, this is something that's really unique, Brianna. Right here, this is the island of Hokkaido and this is the island of Honshu, the one to the south right here.

KEILAR: Both Japanese islands, right?

LEIGHTON: Exactly. And right here, this is the Tsugaru Strait. The Tsugaru Strait is a strait between those two islands, two Japanese islands, but it is actually international waters because the U.S. wanted to transit their nuclear powered aircraft carriers through that strait. And the reason they made it international waters is so we could do it, not violate Japan's non-nuclear policy in its constitution.

So, the Russians are taking advantage of this and they're bringing their troops on ships through this strait and they're taking them through here, down through the Pacific, down here, all the way around. And whether they go through the Suez Canal, right through here, or around Africa, and then this way, which would be really long, that remains to be seen.

But their basic goal is to move into the Black Sea area right through here. What happens with Turkey and whether Turkey will allow them to pass will also be an interesting issue to see.

KEILAR: That is a hell of a long trip.

LEIGHTON: It is.

KEILAR: So, what does that tell you?

LEIGHTON: It tells me one big thing, that Russia has the huge Trans- Siberian railroad that goes basically along this course from Vladivostok the east to Moscow over here, then beyond. This tells me that the capacity of the Trans-Siberian railroad is not sufficient to handle the number of troops that Putin wants to bring into the Ukrainian theater.

KEILAR: That seems nuts to me. That is so far away.

[07:15:00]

Let's talk about Odessa. Let's go to Southern Ukraine, where we can discuss what we're seeing there.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely. So, this is, of course, Odessa right here. This is Ukraine's main port. This is where all their wheat exports, or almost all of their wheat exports come through here. And the other thing is, of course, we have major fighting around Mykolaiv and we've heard the report out of Skadovsk this morning. And then over on the eastern side, we have Mariupol, where the children were affected by the bomb shelter being hit.

So, all of these things are kind of coming together where you see the Russians moving in and trying to take control of a land bridge from Crimea all the way to the Donbas region, which is up that way. And then what they are planning to do is move to the west here and possibly use this area from the Black Sea for an amphibious operation against Odessa.

So, this is what we have to watch for next week. We have heard of artillery fire being lobbed against Odessa and targets in that region. Those targets are going to be, of course, part of what an amphibious operation would be considering at this point. And if they to this, that would be a major theater of conflict for the Ukrainians. They will have to defend Odessa in order to stay a sea-faring nation and not be a landlocked nation.

KEILAR: What do you think what we're hearing from Ukrainian officials that the Ukrainian military is launching counteroffensives in various places, including near Kyiv?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's also very interesting because this is kind of tough for somebody to do. Because if you're encircled in Kyiv and you've got -- which has not happened yet, by the way, just to be very clear -- you have Russian elements here and you have them on your western and northwestern sides, what you'll have to do in order to prevent the encirclement is you have to make sure that you have forces that can come up this way or this way and either cut off the Russians by doing something like this or, in a very dramatic move, potentially something like this. The other thing that they would have to do is, of course, get rid of Russian forces that are threatening them in this area.

So, this is potentially tough war. But if you have the right kind of weapons, the right kind of motivation, it's possible to do something like this. And that's what the Ukrainians are banking on.

KEILAR: They are high on motivation. I'll tell you that. We were speaking with one gentleman there in Kyiv. And, certainly, morale is very high.

Cedric, thank you so much for taking us through that. We appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Brianna.

KEILAR: So, the journalist who protested live on Russian television claims the majority of Russians are against the war, and that she isn't afraid to speak out. Christiane Amanpour joins us next with her interview with that journalist.

BERMAN: And President Biden calls Vladimir Putin a war criminal. So, what does that language now change?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think he is a war criminal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: For the first time, President Biden calls Vladimir Putin a war criminal. So, what does that change, the specific use of that language?

Joining us now, Christiane Amanpour, CNN Chief International Anchor. Christiane, thanks so much for being with us.

You heard it from President Biden, so what now?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, look, it actually doesn't change a lot because it is a legal process. And, yes, you can see the groundswell of international condemnation and you can see what's happening on the ground. And you also know that the ICC, the International Criminal Court, is starting a forensic investigation, even while the war is going on.

So, clearly, Biden is responding to public pressure to what he sees and to probably try to push this case along in that regard. But it will be a legal matter, and it does have to -- you know, it will be a fact if any prosecutor can proof chain of command and direct orders and all the rest of it that goes into proving these very tough cases. But, clearly, there's a huge amount of evidence building up on the ground.

KEILAR: These Russian claims that, Christiane that, no, they are not targeting civilian areas, they just ring so hollow. You heard the mayor of Kyiv say, B.S., and he didn't abbreviate. You look at what's happening at this theater in Mariupol, what do you think as you were watching this happen?

AMANPOUR: Brianna, you can see very clearly this is a pattern certainly in terms of Russian attacks over the last couple of decades. You can start, as we all have, with Chechnya and Grozny. You can then go on to places like Aleppo, Eastern Aleppo in Syria, and you can just look at where the Russian military and its air force have been engaged and how they tried to, quote/unquote, pacify the situation especially when the ground operation is not going well. All the analysts say, and we can see it again for ourselves, that their attempt to encircle, to besiege, to force big cities, like Kyiv, to surrender has just not happened yet.

And I have been speaking to a lot of people who were in touch actually with President Putin, the president of Finland, for instance, and others, they describe feeling from him a growing -- and this is what the president of Finland told me, a growing sense of hatred in Putin for Ukraine, hatred for what he believes is betrayal of so-called close ties with Russia, mother Russia, or all that stuff, hatred for being so resistant, hatred for the fact that all of the people on the ground in Ukraine hate the invaders. He thought he would be welcomed.

And so what you are seeing is a resort to the worst kinds of armed conflict, that is attacking civilians wildly and, in some cases, deliberately, especially as, quote/unquote, negotiations are under way, to put pressure on the victims, on the defenders in Ukraine. And it is a tactic that he has been able to get away with before, but unlikely now in this climate.

BERMAN: So, Christiane, you also had a remarkable conversation with Marina Ovsyannikova, the editor at that Russian news channel, who had that anti-war protest on air. What did she tell you?

AMANPOUR: She was extraordinary. I mean, we all saw her. She was so brave. She said that she had been thinking about it. She had realized since the invasion that this is something that Russians have sort of slept-walked into, that state television, as she had put it in a video message, had created a zombiefied nation. She claims that the majority of Russians are against war in general and are pacifists, but she also admits that they are all besieged by this propaganda that their T.V. and their media does very, very well.

Remember, the Russians, the Soviets, pretty much invented modern propaganda, especially in military but also politically. They're really, really good at it. And you can see what people in Russia think, and certainly those who have been questioned.

On the other hand, as the CIA has said, nearly 15,000 or so Russians have been arrested and detained over the last three weeks of this invasion, protesting at home. Many have fled. And many are able to get independent information through VPNs and playing a cat and mouse game with Russia trying to cut off social media and other independent news. They're getting a lot of information.

Now, Marina said to me that, you know, she had to plan it. First, she was going to stand far back in order that she didn't get arrested. Then they realized the world wouldn't see what she had written on the sign, so she had to come right close. And she got past a security guard who was sitting around in the studio. And she managed to do that six seconds that reverberated around the world. So, clearly, I asked her about the cost of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I just want to know on a human level how do you feel? Are you feeling scared right now?

MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, EDITOR, RUSSIA'S CHANNEL ONE: No. You know, I don't feel scared. But at the moment, of course, I feel a huge burden of responsibility. And I realize that my life has changed irrevocably.

I don't think I'm -- there's some sort of sad fate in store for the demarche on air, but I'm hoping that I won't face criminal charges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And there you have it. As you know, the Kremlin, President Putin has criminalized any protest, much less calling it a war or an invasion. And you saw that very clearly the word war was written on her protest. She has been fined the equivalent of $300, 37,000 Russian rubles, for, quote/unquote, an unauthorized public event. But she says she had to do it. Even her own mother, she said, believed the propaganda.

And she said she just had to do it and insisted that there are others in the state media system who have are considering their position as well, although so many of them kind of just get on with it and do their job. They say they have to pay their rent, their mortgages. But this is causing a lot internal dissent inside Russia as well.

BERMAN: Well, she found the courage, and we'll see if others do as well. Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

AMANPOUR: Thanks.

BERMAN: We see another incredible example of Russian resistance, a star ballerina leaving the Russian ballet, saying she's ashamed for her country for invading Ukraine.

KEILAR: Plus, new details emerging on the bombing of a theater in Mariupol, where Ukraine says 1,200 women and children were hiding. We'll have the latest on survivors, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]