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Star Ballerina Quits Russia's Ballet Over War In Ukraine; Biden Considers Range Of Options To Help Refugees Amid Pressure; Man Learns His Wife And Two Children Killed After Seeing Picture. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 17, 2022 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:33:31]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: In a new bold demonstration of resistance against Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Olga Smirnova, one of Russia's star Bolshoi ballerinas, has left the prestigious troupe after publicly denouncing the war. She has now joined the Dutch National Ballet and is set to start with them here in the coming days.

With us today from Amsterdam is the director of the Dutch National Ballet, Ted Brandsen. Ted, thank you so much for being with us.

This is quite a move. We know from what she has said that she was already considering the ballet, but this is something that certainly expedited this decision. Tell us how this came to be.

TED BRANDSEN, DIRECTOR, DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET (via Skype): Hi. Well, Olga contacted me -- she contacted a friend, first, who asked me if I would be interested in speaking to Olga about a possible move. And as I know her and have been following her career for a long time, I was, of course, interested in talking to Olga Smirnova. She's a beautiful dancer, an exceptional artist, and for her to come to us is a -- is a big move under very sad circumstances.

KEILAR: Incredibly sad.

And I just want to read part of her statement. She says, "I have to be honest and say that I am against war with all the fibers of my soul. It is not only about every other Russian perhaps having relatives or friends living in Ukraine or about my grandfather being Ukrainian and me being quarter-Ukrainian, it is what we continue to live as if this were the 20th century even though we have formally moved to the 21st century. In a modern and enlightened world, I expect civilized societies to resolve political matters only through peaceful negotiations.

[07:35:08]

I never thought I would be ashamed of Russia. I have always been proud of talented Russian people of our cultural and athletic achievements but now I feel that a line has been drawn that separates the before and the after."

Ted just put this into context how significant this is. I mean, she was with the Bolshoi and here she is leaving --

BRANDSEN: Yes.

KEILAR: -- leaving that.

BRANDSEN: I think it is very significant. She is one of the most important artists in Russia and she's considered an international star of the ballet world. And it is a big move. I think she's the biggest named artist who has spoken out against the war and against Putin.

And I just asked her -- now, weren't you at all scared or worried when you made this statement? And she said no, I just had to. I couldn't sit by and let this happen and not react. There was no -- there's no fear, she said, and I knew that I had to eventually leave the country and that I had to find a future somewhere else.

Because for the foreseeable future, there is not going to be any international art coming through Russia. There is not going to be any exchange. And we're separating ourselves completely and we're locking ourselves away from the rest of the world. And as an artist, she can't deal with that.

So, I'm so impressed with her courage and with her determination -- and with, also, the ease with which she did that.

And, of course, we're very happy to receive her here. It is going to be a very different environment for her but she is a curious and a very engaged artist who is looking for new opportunities --

KEILAR: Yes.

BRANDSEN: -- and new ways of working.

KEILAR: You know, Ted, I want to thank you so much. I think that we may be witnessing sort of a Russian cultural diaspora in a way and that Olga is perhaps part of that. And we really thank you for being with us -- thank you.

BRANDSEN: Thank you.

KEILAR: We have some new CNN reporting that the Biden administration is actively discussing ways to help Ukrainian refugees join family members who are already living here in the U.S.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And this photo of a woman and her two children killed while crossing the street as the Russians attacked a Kyiv suburb. We're going to hear from the husband and father who had his family taken from him.

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[07:41:39] KEILAR: New this morning, as more than three million Ukrainians flee their country, the call for the U.S. to take in more refugees is intensifying. Now, President Biden is looking at options, including fast-tracking immigration for Ukrainians who have already -- who already have family in the United States.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is with us here in Washington. So, I think we saw this with Afghanistan as well, right? The immigration process generally takes years, so what is the U.S. going to do here?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, and the Biden administration is under mounting pressure to solve this urgent issue because there are families who are here in the United States who want their loved ones.

So, there are a few options on the table. Fast-tracking Ukrainian refugees with U.S. ties, like family. Setting up a priority designation that would allow them to bypass the referral from a U.N. -- from the U.N. Refugee Agency so they have direct access to the U.S. admissions program. And then also, parole based off humanitarian grounds.

To your point, these are steps the administration took when there was the evacuation out of Afghanistan.

Now, administration officials don't expect the same number of people, necessarily, to come to the United States because they are going to European countries. But it is a very urgent issue for Ukrainian- Americans who, again, have family who fled.

In fact, I have spoken with them. They were on the phone with their family members as they went to the Polish border. And now, the biggest issue they have is getting them to the United States.

So they've exhausted several options. For example, tourist visas -- but there's a hurdle with that because to get a tourist visa you have to prove that you're going to go back to your origin country.

KEILAR: Right.

ALVAREZ: And it is a very uncertain future right now for Ukraine so they can't take that option. And the current refugee process is just years to get to the U.S.

So, the Polish president has also asked the United States to step up and to expedite refugees who have family here.

And if these issues aren't solved, another concern is that they will go to the U.S.-Mexico border. It is easier for them to fly to Mexico and then to seek asylum at the border. We've already seen it happen with Ukrainians and Russians. In fact, a family last week was turned away until they were eventually let in.

So, all of these pressing matters for the administration to look at and they are discussing to see what they can do for these families who do want to come to the United States. KEILAR: All right. We know that you will continue to follow this. It's certainly ongoing. Priscilla, thank you so much for the reporting.

BERMAN: So, most of the refugees who have fled Ukraine headed to Poland. The country has welcomed nearly two million Ukrainians -- about the same number as the population of Warsaw.

CNN's Melissa Bell joins us from the train station just over the border here. And Melissa, tell us what you're seeing.

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you can see, a fairly crowded train station here at Przemysl. The latest train to arrive has come from Lviv and that's why there are so many people gathered on this platform right now. This is where so many -- all of them arrive.

Makeshift areas where they can be fed goulash have been set up. Reception centers where some of the women and children here are able to sleep until they're then put on buses or other trains that take them to other parts of Europe.

But a great deal of disruption here in Poland today, John -- first of all, because there was some sort of issue with the traffic control systems throughout the rail network here in Poland. The minister for cybersecurity is investigating that.

[07:45:00]

Also, because according to the Polish Interior Ministry here, Germany has stopped, for the time being, its special refugee trains simply because of the bottlenecks in getting those. As you said, nearly two million refugees that have come through Poland onwards to other countries simply were not equipped to deal with these sorts of numbers.

And, of course, we've spent the day here, so far, and amidst the numbers, it's very easy to lose sight of the individual stories. We've been speaking to some of the people who have been arriving here over the course of the morning.

One 16-year-old boy traveling with his mother and sister who very bravely -- a great deal of courage -- told us that he was proud that his father had stayed behind to fight. That he believed everything would be OK and they'd soon be reunited. He didn't want to show us any fear but you could sense a great deal of stress behind that.

And he explained they had already left Donetsk in 2014. They were two- time refugees. Fleeing war, he said, had become part of his life.

One woman traveling alone with her 1-year-old who did cry -- she spoke to us. She hadn't heard from her husband -- hadn't reached him, and was all alone dealing with all the uncertainty of getting out of this station.

And that, I think, is a great deal of part of the stress. You get here -- you've made it to Poland -- you're out of Ukraine, and then the question of what happens next? Where will you go, where will you sleep, how will you eat, and where will your journey end, John? That's really at the heart of what we're hearing from the people that we've been speaking to here.

Now, what we're hearing from authorities as well is that the large crowds that began to arrive in the very beginning are not as great as they were. And that's partly, of course, John, because it's just getting harder to leave Ukraine than it was in the very first days of the war, John.

BERMAN: Melissa Bell, so glad you pointed out that each person you meet has a story, each person has a life they left behind, and each person has an uncertain future that they're not trying to reckon with.

Melissa Bell, thank you so much for your reporting.

KEILAR: It is one of the most chilling and heartbreaking pictures out of this war seen around the world. The Ukrainian man's wife and children killed after Russian soldiers shelled a Kyiv suburb while they were trying to evacuate in a well-traveled corridor. He learned of their deaths when he recognized their faces in the graphic image of their bodies posted on social media.

CNN's Erin Burnett spoke with him in a powerful interview -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: John, Brianna, yes, they were killed on a bridge -- a bridge they were trying to cross to escape the horrible violence in Irpin and in Kyiv.

And the graphic image of their death, the world is now seeing. It was taken by a New York Times photographer there. And it's difficult - it's horrible to look at it -- but it's important to show this image. Because Serhiy Perebyinis saw it on Twitter and that is how he found out that his wife and children were killed by Russian fire because he saw that image on Twitter.

And he wants the world to know what happened. I spoke to Serhiy and here's what he told me.

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BURNETT: Serhiy, as a parent, any person around the world can't imagine your unbearable loss -- above all, losing your children. (Crying) Could you tell me about them?

SERHIY PEREBYINIS, LOST WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN KILLED BY RUSSIAN SHELLING WHILE TRYING TO FLEE IRPIN (via Skype) (through translator): I call this the war online because we used to be -- in our family used to use Google Geolocation and we used to see each other with my wife on Google maps.

And that morning I noticed that there was an unusual geolocation between Kyiv and Irpin. And then 20 minutes later, her phone moved to another location at a hospital in Kyiv and I suspected something was wrong. And I asked friends to come to the hospital and find out whether there were any bad news.

And then Twitter -- there was news on Twitter that in Romankiv that there was mortar shelling and that family died -- two children, their mother, and their father. And then I saw a photo on Twitter and I recognized my children. I recognized their things and their clothes.

And I called my friends to say the children are dead. Their bodies are lying on pavement. And I asked them please, could you help me to find my wife.

[07:50:00]

BURNETT: Serhiy, if anyone watching could learn something about Alise and Nikita and who they were, what would you want the world to know about them?

PEREBYINIS (through translator): They were normal, cheerful children.

My son was older. He was 18 and he was in second year of university. He studied and wants to become an I.T. professional. He studied programming.

And my daughter -- and my daughter was nine years old. And what -- she liked dancing, painting. She studied English. They were normal, cheerful children.

And we have here where I am now four families. All of us already settled from the Donbass area. And this house where I am now is where my wife had to be ever created.

I have here good children and we will not leave Kyiv. We will stay here until the end.

BURNETT: OK.

Serhiy, thank you so, so much for speaking to me and for sharing this such deeply personal loss. Thank you.

PEREBYINIS: Thank you for you.

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KEILAR: You know, I think it's so interesting when he says that image -- because it's hard to watch, but he says that image is important to be seen because people need to know what's going on. And he talks about his kids being normal, cheerful children. That's what all of these children are, I'm sure, who have been targeted and -- targeted and killed in this.

BERMAN: Look, this is hard to hear in the morning and these images are hard to see, but that's what war is. It is devastating, unbearable loss and grief. It's not arrows on a map, it's people who are losing everything, and I think the people need to know that. And if it's tough to see and it's tough to watch, that's just the way it is.

KEILAR: Yes. You have to witness, right? We're witnessing this going on.

There are some new concerns this morning that several incidents of rogue drones could unintentionally spark a larger war. We have some new CNN reporting ahead.

BERMAN: Plus, we do have breaking news -- maybe some miraculous news. Survivors said to be emerging this morning from the rubble of that theater in Mariupol -- the one targeted by the Russians. Much more ahead.

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[07:57:02]

KEILAR: Before he was the president of Ukraine, he actually played the president of Ukraine on T.V. And now, Netflix is bringing back Volodymyr Zelenskyy's comedy series, announcing in a tweet "You asked and it's back! Servant of the People is once again available on Netflix in the U.S."

This was a 2015 satirical comedy series that stars Zelenskyy playing a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after a video of him complaining about corruption suddenly goes viral.

So this is a show that originally aired on Netflix in 2017. It did end after three seasons when Zelenskyy chose to run for president in real life. That was in 2019, heading a new political party also called Servant of the People. He won that election, by the way, in a landslide.

BERMAN: All right, we have new CNN reporting this morning -- several incidents involving drones that have gone where they were not meant to go -- this is over the conflict in Ukraine -- including landing in Croatia and Romania. And this has renewed concerns that Russia's invasion of Ukraine could spill over to NATO nations.

CNN's Barbara Starr joins us now live from the Pentagon. Whose drones, and what exactly is going on here, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the question. The worry is that these are cases, both in Croatia and Romania -- they could have been Ukraine, they could have been Russian. But the worry is, of course, that this is an example of how things can spiral out of control.

What if it wasn't a drone? They were probably inadvertent incidents. No indication anyone got hurt. But what if it was a Russian missile that went astray and suddenly went flying into NATO airspace? This is the concern.

So how do you avoid this -- how do you avoid this kind of inadvertent or even deliberate activity that could suddenly spiral out of control? OK, a couple of things.

We know that Patriot air defense batteries are now in Eastern Europe and more are expected to be put there. That will be the main defense of NATO airspace in the east.

We know that there is now a U.S.-Russian deconfliction line -- essentially, a telephone hotline where the U.S. can pick up, call, hope somebody answers. They have tested it but in an emergency, can they get in touch with the Russians very quickly?

We also know that U.S. satellites and reconnaissance aircraft are able to very significantly monitor airspace and understand if something that has been launched is going off of its trajectory.

So there are some mechanisms to try and avoid any kind of sudden, inadvertent, unexpected crisis. But keep in mind, NATO, this week, said it wants to beef up its presence in Eastern Europe right on Vladimir Putin's doorstep. More planes, more combat airplanes, more ships, more troops, more military equipment, more prepositioned equipment and weapons, and higher readiness levels. All of this will be on Putin's doorstep.

He already -- the Russians bombing, earlier this week, a site in Ukraine just miles from the Polish border.

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