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Russians Fire 6 Missiles Toward Lviv; Mounting Russian Casualties Show Military's Vulnerabilities; American Killed in Ukraine While Waiting in Bread Line. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 18, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking directly to the Russian people in a video message posted on social media. It was an emotional appeal from the actor and former California governor. He's attempting to punch through Russian state propaganda.

[05:58:37]

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, FORMER GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: I know that your government has told you that this is a war to de-Nazify Ukraine. De- Nazify Ukraine? This is not true. Ukraine is a country with a Jewish president, I might add, whose father and three brothers were all murdered by the Nazis.

You see, Ukraine did not start this war. Neither did nationalists or Nazis. Those in power in the Kremlin started this war. This is not the Russian people's war.

Because of its brutality, Russia is now isolated from the society of nations. You are also not being told truth about the consequences of this war on Russia itself.

I regret to tell you that thousands of Russian soldiers that have been killed. They have been caught between the Ukrainians fighting for their homeland and the Russian leadership fighting for conquest. This is not the war to defend Russia that your grandfathers or your great- grandfathers fought. This is an illegal war.

Your lives, your limbs, your futures are being sacrificed for a senseless war, condemned by the entire world. Let me close with a message to all of the Russians who have been protesting in the streets against the invasion of Ukraine.

The world has seen your bravery. We know that you have suffered the consequences of your courage. You have been arrested. You have been jailed, and you've been beaten. You are my new heroes. You have the strength of Yury Petrovich Vlasov. You have the true heart of Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That Yury Vlasov he was talking about is his childhood hero, the world's strongest man, who was Russian. He spent the first half of his nearly nine-minute-long video talking about his admiration for the Russian people.

It has been viewed more than 15 million times.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans. NEW DAY picks it up now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Good morning to viewers here in the United States and all around the world. And it's Friday, March 18. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

And breaking overnight, CNN's team on the ground in Lviv reporting multiple explosions as air raid sirens sounded across that city. According to the mayor, several Russian missiles struck an aircraft repair plant.

Ukraine's military says a total of six missiles were fired toward the Lviv target, two of which were intercepted. And they were most likely fired at warplanes over the Black Sea.

Let me give you a sense of exactly where this is. Lviv and the far rest of the country, just a few miles from the border with Poland. If those missiles fired from the Black Sea, somewhere down here, that's how it all happened.

Right next to Poland, which of course, is NATO's doorstep. The plant has been shut down, according to officials. The Ukrainians say no one was hurt. Lviv has largely been spared so far from Russian bombs and missiles.

NATO officials say the Russian offensive to capture the capital of Kyiv has largely stalled. According to the U.S. and NATO, Russia has lost thousands of troops since the invasion began nearly a month ago, calling into question their readiness for war.

One assessment reported by "The New York Times" estimates that some 7,000 Russian troops have been killed so far. Still, Russian attacks on civilian targets have been relentless.

That is a man crying next to the body of his mother after an attack in Kyiv. At least 53 people have been killed in attacks in Chernihiv over the last 24 hours.

One of those victims, American James Hill, who was in Ukraine helping his partner get medical care. In Kharkiv, Russian forces shelled a giant market, setting off fires. At least 21 were also killed in a neighboring city when a school and arts club was destroyed.

Meantime, rescue efforts continue in the rubble of that Mariupol theater that served as a civilian shelter. There are reports survivors continue to emerge from the bombed-out building. We're watching that very closely.

The dead, though, inundating morgues. We've seen it happen in cities including Mykolaiv. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Tony Blinken echoing

President Biden's comments, accusing Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes.

On Thursday, Biden had some more choice words for Putin. He called him a murderous dictator, called him a pure thug waging an immoral war. And this morning, Biden will speak with President -- with the president of China, Xi Jinping, with a warning not to support Russian aggression in Ukraine.

China has reportedly expressed an openness to providing military and financial aid to Russia.

Let's go first to CNN's Scott McLean, who is near the airport in Lviv.

Tell us a little bit more about what was targeted nearby where you are, Scott.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna.

Yes, this was a wakeup call, frankly, for the city of Lviv. Air raid sirens have been going off almost daily in the city for the last several weeks.

To this point, nothing within city limits has been hit until now. It was a few minutes after those air raid sirens went off, you could hear the explosions. And shortly thereafter, the black smoke rising across the skyline.

By the time we got here -- let me set the scene for you -- there is a traffic bridge here, runs over some train tracks. And just to the left of it is actually the airfield, the end of the runway here at the Lviv airport. And just beyond that runway, you could see the smoke gathering there.

And we understand, as you mentioned, that this was some kind of an aircraft repair facility. City officials here in Lviv say that there are no military targets that are actively working.

There are no factories here in the city of Lviv that are -- that are working. So there should be no military targets for the Russians. but this is a pattern we have seen before, especially in Western Ukraine where they have hit airfields, or at least aimed at airfields. We don't know -- we're not entirely sure what exactly the target was in this case.

When we got here, it was remarkable. There were all kinds of people coming and going across the bridge, because they'd actually closed the road. Pedestrians walking up and down it. Nobody seemed all that bothered, because this seemed like the most logical place for Russian bombs to hit. It's almost like they've been expecting it for the last three weeks.

[06:0518]

Here's what one man told me. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMAN DEMKO, LYIV RESIDENT (through translator): There were some explosions. I heard the noise and then looked right away, and I saw a column of smoke rising.

MCLEAN: Even with bombing you feel safe to stay here?

DEMKO (through translator): Well, I don't know. Where would I go?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So in terms of injuries, there was only one, according to the governor, and it was not serious, thankfully. But the governor also said that the Russians ought to know that this has become a humanitarian hub for many people fleeing violence in other parts of Ukraine.

There are at least 200,000 people here, they say, seeking safety. And the governor says that is proof -- this strike on Lviv is proof that nothing is sacred to the Russians. Not women, not children, not migrants. The fear, obviously, is that some of these 200,000 people may soon flood to the borders.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights has previously said that his concern is that the next wave of people leaving the country may not be as well-resourced as the first wave, may not have the connections outside the country either.

KEILAR: Yes. That man you spoke to really spoke to that. He said clearly he's afraid, but where will he go? Scott McLean, thank you so much for that report, live for us from Lviv.

So it seems that Russian President Vladimir Putin badly miscalculated his military's readiness for war, to say the least. Thousands of Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since the unprovoked invasion began. And now U.S. officials say that Russia is struggling to replace its forces.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is live for us in Brussels, Belgium, with more -- Natasha.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna. So U.S. and NATO intelligence officials telling us that it is difficult to get a precise number of exactly how many Russian soldiers have been killed in this war in the nearly month that it has been going on.

But one intel assessment places that number at about 7,000 Russian troops that have been killed. Others place it lower, about 3,000. And others place it even higher, about 10,000.

It just is very imprecise a measure of counting right now, because they're relying on open-source intelligence in many cases. Satellite imagery to determine the number of tanks that have been destroyed and extrapolating the number of forces that might have been in this tank so they can get a number. They're relying on intercepted communications between Russian officials speaking amongst themselves about these deaths. But I think the bottom line here, this is something that NATO and U.S. officials have been driving home, is that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely did not anticipate that the Russian forces would sustain such heavy losses in the nearly four weeks that they have been engaging in this heavy combat.

And that, in turn, has really, they believe, affected the Russian advances on the ground there in Ukraine.

Now, it is important to remember, of course, that this is about the troops that are on the ground, right? And this is not solely a ground operation that we're seeing in Ukraine. They are obviously flying planes and doing airstrikes. They're launching missiles into Ukraine that is killing dozens, hundreds of people at a time.

And so the question whether this is affecting -- the losses are affecting Russian morale here is really -- it remains to be seen whether or not that actually is going to deter Putin from continuing his military operation.

In fact, one senior NATO intelligence official told us that they still believe that Putin is intent upon taking the entire country of Ukraine and does not believe right now that he does not have the resources to do so.

Of course, they are having some trouble replenishing those forces that have been killed over the last month. But they are also trying to get additional reinforcements from places like Syria and other mercenary groups, as well as troops from as far away as the Pacific Ocean -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. The cost for him is high. He still does not seem deterred by that. Natasha, thanks for that report.

BERMAN: All right. Joining me now, CNN global affairs analyst and contributor to "TIME" magazine, Kim Dozier.

Kim, I want to talk about the Russians in just a second, but first, I just want to focus on the strike overnight in the western city of Lviv.

We think that the missiles were shot from Russian ships in the Black Sea, so they may have traveled somewhere like this. And to give people a sense of how this is situated, this is the city's center in Lviv. This is where the missile strike was. The Polish border is right here. It's just not that far away. This was the base the Russians hit about one week ago.

What do you think the Russians were doing here, trying to send a message?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Sending a message that no part of the country is safe and that, while the U.S. and others have been reporting how poorly the Russian military is doing, that Putin has not given up in any way on this fight, and they are going to take every part of the country. At least, that is their intent.

BERMAN: Every part of the country is at risk.

[06:10:03]

Now, you've been picking up signs, and Natasha was just talking about the difficulty the Russians have had. Picking up signs of renewed -- not renewed. The Ukrainians have always seemed confident and fighting strong. But now they're beginning to think that they might be able to actually turn the tide.

DOZIER: Yes. I'm seeing from long-time Ukrainian scholars who are skeptics, saying we're seeing so many wins on the battlefield. And the Russian forces have remained static for so long in this bloody stalemate that we think Ukrainian forces could actually win.

And I've also been talking to U.S. military officials who say when you look at the casualty rate of the Russian forces, conservative estimates somewhere between 7,000 to 10,000, as Natasha was saying. And you also add in the fact that wounded are probably racking up at a rate of one to five. Like, five for every one KIA. You're looking at something like 35,000 to 40,000 of those initial Russian forces out of action.

That's about 20 percent of the forces they'd had arrayed around Ukraine. That is really hard to backfill. And a lot of those were also special operations forces who have been lost.

That's decades of training that you can't make that up overnight. So the Russian army is limping, while the Ukrainian army seems to have great confidence in its leadership.

And all those years of training by U.S. regular army and Special Operations and other NATO trainers, those skills have stuck. And they're using them to deadly effect.

BERMAN: Yes. Again, the Russian offensive seems to have stalled around Kyiv. To an extent feel if they're able to shoot these missiles from the Black Sea, from their warships, they can inflict so much damage. There is a very crucial phone call that's going to happen today between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. What does the United States want to get out of China in this phone call?

DOZIER: They want China to choose a side. They want China to start separating itself from Vladimir Putin.

And right now, China's still trying to have it both ways to maintain the relationship. I think it's going to get to a point where, you know, when Beijing and Moscow released that 5,000-word statement at the start of the Olympics saying, Our relationship is limitless. Surely, Putin had told Xi that this operation on Ukraine was going to be lightning fast.

Fast forward weeks later. Putin is now an international pariah on the economic -- in the economic danger zone. For China, the U.S. and Europe are two of its largest trading partners. As this goes on and secondary sanctions start to get applied, China is going to have to ask itself hard questions about how much it wants to support Russia.

Russia is becoming a mill stone around his neck. Now, in one sense, they could have that as a chip that Putin would always owe them by bailing them out. But in another sense, if we start to see Beijing distance themselves from Putin, he's finished.

BERMAN: We will watch every sign. Kim Dozier, great to have you here. Thanks so much.

DOZIER: Thanks.

BERMAN: Russia continues to say they are not targeting civilians, but obviously, that's not true. We can see it with our own eyes. The pictures on the ground. So much loss since the beginning of the invasion. We'll talk about that ahead.

KEILAR: Plus, an American killed in Ukraine while waiting in a bread line. He was in Ukraine to care for his sick partner. We're going to speak to a doctor who is treating his partner, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:55]

KEILAR: An America waiting in line for bread among those killed in Ukraine. Jimmy Hill was in Ukraine to be with his partner, Ira, who was being treated for M.S.

He documented his experience the last few weeks on Facebook. And his last entry read, "Bombing has intensified. Still alive. Limited food. No way out."

Joining us now is the doctor who began providing Ira that treatment just before the Russian invasion began, Dr. Serhiy Kareta. And so I really appreciate you being with us. This is an incredibly sad stories among so many sad stories.

Can you tell us a little bit about, you know, what you were doing and why Jimmy was in Ukraine for his partner's treatment?

DR. SERHIY KARETA, NEUROLOGY & M.S. CLINICAL RESEARCHER, CHERNIHIV REGIONAL HOSPITAL: Well, Jimmy had first contacted me sometime just after Christmas about a patient with advanced M.S. And that patient was living in an area in Ukraine where adequate medical care was not available to her.

And she didn't get medical treatment for a number of years. And they were looking for a physician who might be able to help in her situation, because a lot of places kind of turned down the case.

We -- initially, we communicated via email. And after learning the details of the case, I decided that I would take a case. So after a while we had some tests and recommendations going on between me and Jimmy and the patient.

And eventually, it was -- it was decided that we were able to take the patient in my hospital on the 21st of February for evaluation and treatment.

When I first met him in person, first met Jamie in person, on the 21st of January, 2022, when he was with the patient, he was helping along with all kinds of arrangements. Transportation, you know, just -- just helping along with the process of tests and treatment and transportation of the patient to my hospital.

And then when -- when the patient arrived, he stayed at the hospital most of the time helping with various errands. You know, just helping. So he was basically a volunteer.

And I learned from Jimmy that the patient was actually his former student from about 10 years ago or something like that. So that was probably the reason why he cared about the patient so much. And I can only, you know, assume from some of the comments that he might have had a relationship with the patient sometime in the past.

BERMAN: He just seemed so devoted. He just seemed so devoted to her care, to the point of putting his own life at risk when that city was under siege.

KARETA: Absolutely. Well, and then the war broke out on the 24th of February. And -- and some days later, I had to -- about a week later after the war broke out, I had to evacuate myself and my family to a safer location.

But I kept communicating with the patient, with the patient's family. And Jimmy and the staff in my department, and kind of monitored the situation and gave advice on testing and treatment. And we actually managed to treat the patient with the war raging around.

KEILAR: I'll tell you, Doctor, it's really -- it's amazing. And even as you were away from the hospital, you were trying to give counsel there and oversee the treatment.

I wonder, you know, at that point in time, Jimmy was staying in the hospital as a volunteer as the war was raging around. When did you realize, oh, my goodness, this might have been Jimmy who was killed in this bread line?

KARETA: Well, he -- we thought the hospital would be the safest place for him to stay in this situation. Because -- because there were indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas of the cities. And we thought that the hospitals would be -- would probably be the last targets to the effect. So we thought that he should stay in the hospital.

And then he actually -- in truth, he didn't have anywhere else to stay. So we listed him as a volunteer. And he did all kinds of small things around the department and the hospital, helping with this and that.

And he would sometimes wander out of the hospital for various things such as water, medications, you know, bread and stuff like that. And we actually talked about it. And you know, I told him to be discreet. Be careful. Because the military action was happening, like, maybe a mile, maybe two, away from the hospital. Sometimes, they would advance very closely to the hospital. And there was intense shelling of the area around the hospital throughout this whole period.

So there definitely was more danger.

KEILAR: Yes. And I know -- I know that you had -- you had heard that an American had died. And you saw that he wasn't really -- he wasn't communicating, and he wasn't on social media, right?

KARETA: Last -- you know, yesterday in the morning, I had this news clip that said that one of the victims of the artillery fire -- artillery was an American. And I thought, you know, how many Americans, if any, would be in the city at this terrible time? And it immediately kind of, you know, rang -- rang the bell. I thought it might be him.

And so I tried to contact my colleagues. I tried to contact different people in the city, just trying to get the I.D. on the -- on the victim. And then I saw a picture of his passport in one of the local news outlets, and I -- and I knew it was him, unfortunately.

KEILAR: Yes. I am so sorry, Doctor. Thank you so much for sharing his story with us. Thank you for the work that you're continuing to do with patients there. Doctor, really appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much.

KARETA: There is something that you might want to know. He realized the risks. He knew that there were, but he still decided to help that human being. So he basically -- he died trying to help another human being. So that's important to remember. That says a lot about the kind of person he is.

[06:25:14]

KEILAR: It says so much about him. And we appreciate you sharing that with us. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin is one of the richest people in the world. CNN investigating where he hides his money and who helps him do it.

BERMAN: Plus, a chilling development this morning in the crash that killed nine people, including members of a college golf team. Who was behind the wheel in the pickup truck that hit the van?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning shocking new information about the head-on collision in Texas that left nine people dead. Investigators say a 13- year-old boy was behind the wheel of the truck that crashed into the van carrying the University of the Southwest men's golf teams.

CNN's Pete Muntean has the story -- Pete.