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U.S. Officials Say Russia Used Hypersonic Missiles Against Ukraine; Russian Military Forces Continue Invasion Of Ukraine; Ukrainians Reject Russian Demand For Surrender Of Mariupol; Ukrainian Forces Using Captured Russian Weapons In Defense Against Invasion; Russians Reportedly Shelling Civilian Targets In Attempt To Force Ukrainian Cities To Surrender. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 21, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

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MILA KUNIS, ACTOR: Our collective effort will provide a softer landing for so many people as they forge ahead into their future of uncertainty.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So the donations here are going to two organizations, freight transportation company Flexport, which is organizing shipments of relief supplies to refugee sites in countries that are neighboring Ukraine, and also Airbnb, which is providing free short-term housing to Ukrainian refugees.

NEW DAY continues right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. It is Monday, March 21st. I'm John Berman in Lviv in western Ukraine, Brianna Keilar in Washington this morning.

No surrender in Mariupol. The Russians have demanded it as they try to destroy the city, but Ukraine is rejecting that demand. More than 7,000 people did manage to evacuate over the weekend, but so many remain trapped, perhaps hundreds of thousands. The Russians just bombed an art school in the city where as many as 400 people may have been taking shelter. This is the new reality in Mariupol. Residents digging graves alongside the street. It was a bustling port city just one month ago. Now it's block after block of burned-out buildings.

In the capital Kyiv, CNN teams on the ground report several explosions overnight. At least eight people reportedly killed in an attack on a large shopping center. Dozens of firefighters ran toward the blast, pulling victims from the rubble alive. Officials say flames reached as high as the fourth floor.

KEILAR: That is the sound of anti-aircraft fire erupting last night over Kyiv. The fight for the capital appearing to be at a stalemate at this point. Kremlin forces dug in around the city with most analysts expressing doubts about their capability of capturing it. And Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for peace talks with the Russians before the unthinkable happens.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I am ready for negotiations. I was ready over the last two years, and I think that -- I think that without negotiations we cannot end this war. But if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third world war.

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KEILAR: And 3.3 million Ukrainians have now fled their country, 10 million people have been forced from their homes. And today President Biden is going to hold calls with the leaders of Germany, Italy, France, and the U.K. Then he will travel to Brussels on Wednesday to meet with NATO and European leaders.

BERMAN: We're going to begin our reporting this hour in Kyiv. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen standing by, not far, Fred, I think, from this shopping mall that was just destroyed in a Russian attack. What's the latest, Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm actually in one of the buildings that was also destroyed in that attack, and I'm right across from the shopping mall. You can see right over there, our photojournalist Byron Blunt pans over there. You can see the massive destruction that was brought on by that ordnance that was dropped by the Russians. You can see there's a building in that mall complex that is completely destroyed, that tall building, obviously, completely destroyed as well.

In the foreground you can see that there are still, you were talking about the firefighters, still a lot of them out there, a lot of them still doing work, obviously, looking to see if there's any secondary devices there that could go off, and, of course, still seeing if there might still be people somewhere trapped underneath there, although it certainly doesn't seem as though there is any hope of finding anyone alive in what you're seeing in front of you right now.

The city council and the city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, he says that so far they know of eight people who were killed in that explosion that happened here during the night. And the building that I am in also sustained severe damage. We've actually talked to some people. They say most people were actually sheltering in the basement of this building because there's been so much going on.

We're not far from the front line at all right here, a front line that, as you mentioned, John, has been in a stalemate for quite some time now. The Ukrainians really with some massive resistance there, pushing the Russians back, and in some cases, even capturing Russian military equipment that they then use for the Ukrainian army. Let's have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PLEITGEN: Another setback for Vladimir Putin's army. Ukrainian forces say they destroyed this column of Russian vehicles, but, believe it or not, some might be used by the Ukrainian army soon. This unit of Ukraine's territorial defense fixes up captured Russian military hardware. Mechanics working day in and day out, often using scrap parts to get armored vehicles back on the battlefield.

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Look at all the stuff that they have here. They have pulled metal cables. The guys here tell us that they use everything that they can to make these vehicles fit again and beat Vladimir Putin with his own weapons.

When we visited, the group was fixing up several armored personnel carriers and a fuel truck. They showed us this video of rockets they claim they captured and which they also say had already been fired back at the Russians.

While some of the vehicles are captured during battle and the Russian crews killed or captured, often Russian soldiers simply abandon their gear and run away, Yuri Dologov, the deputy commander of this unit tell me. "The Russian soldiers are frightened and demoralized," he says, "they are afraid to be separated from each other because they are being shot at from every bush. We call it "Safari." Civilian hunters are now hunting for those Russians who fled through the forests."

The territorial defense unit also trains new fighters to help defend Ukraine's capital. And they show us some of the arms they've received from the U.S. and allied nations, like this German-made Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapon. "Is it effective?" I asked the deputy commander. "Very effective to shoot tanks," he says.

Ukraine's forces continue to hold off Russian advances in Kyiv and elsewhere, but their own losses are significant as well, both military personnel and civilians getting killed by Russian fire. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an exclusive interview.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We're losing people on a daily basis, innocent people on the ground. Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us. And we can demonstrate that the dignity of the people and our army, that we are able to deal a powerful blow, we are able to strike back.

PLEITGEN: They strike back with any weapons they can get their hands on, whether those come from allies abroad or from their enemy. These fighters say anything that drives and shoots will be put to use against Vladimir Putin's invading force.

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PLEITGEN (on camera): And that invading force is still pretty close to where we are right now. I told you, John, that some people, or a lot of people in this building are actually sheltering in the cellar, or in the basement of this building. It's probably a good thing, because all around this building we're finding shrapnel pieces like this one and some that are a lot larger. I know I showed that in the last hour.

These are all over this building here, and anybody, of course, who would have been in the path of something like this would have been severely wounded at the very least, possibly even killed. A lot of people saying because they sheltered is, in fact, why they may be alive here as, really, we're only a couple yards away from where that massive explosion took place and also only a couple miles away, very few, from the front line.

And as we stand here, John, we are really on a constant basis seeing smoke in the sky. We're also hearing outgoing fire. We're hearing incoming fire. This is where you can see the front line. You can hear the front line. Of course, it is for these people a very dangerous place to be, and that's one of the reasons why they stay in those shelters and maybe one of the reasons why not more people were killed in that massive explosion that took place, John.

BERMAN: Just one of the many front lines in this country right now. Frederik Pleitgen for us in Kyiv. Stay safe, Fred.

So joining me now here in Lviv, CNN's Phil Black. We're talking about a front line in Kyiv, another front line where people are suffering, maybe hundreds of thousands in Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, which has been the city under siege right now, and it's just being devastated.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's impossible to imagine, John, really. We heard from a Ukrainian military officer there on the ground who told us the shelling and the strikes are continuing around the clock, from the air, from Russian ground forces, from the naval bombardment as well.

We heard this offer from Russia, an offer, perhaps more accurately an ultimatum, overnight, offering to essentially let everyone out of the city safely if those defending the city give up their weapons. We know that was very quickly rejected with some pretty colorful language by the Mariupol city council.

But what it does show is very clearly what the Russian strategy is here. It is simply to hammer this city, to inflict massive pain and suffering on the civilians, on the defenders until, their will is broken, until they decide to capitulate.

And in doing so, what Russia gets to avoid doing is going in there, fighting street to street, fighting a bloody urban battle that would be very, very costly. And the Ukrainian government believes this defiance is not for nothing. Today the minister of defense has said that he believes that the people in Mariupol that are enduring this are saving lives elsewhere in the country. More than that, they are defending other big cities like Odessa, Dnipro, Kyiv, as well.

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But it is coming at an extraordinarily high cost. You mentioned a little earlier on the weekend we saw another strike on a big shelter there, an art school with some 400 people staying, women, children, the elderly, and we don't know if anyone survived that strike. The authorities there say they just have no way of getting that information.

BERMAN: What we're beginning to see or not beginning to see, we've seen it for four weeks now, if the Russian plan was to break the will of the Ukrainian people, did not happen, did not materialize. But at what a cost. Phil Black, thank you so much for being with us right now.

Joining me is journalist and the former spokesperson of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Iuliia Mendel. Thank you so much for being with us. We see what's happening in Mariupol. We heard from the Ukrainian minister of defense who said that the sacrifice of the people there may be saving tens of thousands of lives across this country. If you can, just reflect for a moment on what's happening in that city.

IULIIA MENDEL, FORMER SPOKESPERSON FOR PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: Well, thank you for having me. I'm now in Kyiv, and I was traveling around the country. The country actually changed a lot, of course, with the checkpoints, with all these guns. Every city tries to be a fortress here right now. And Mariupol is suffering the biggest today.

However, I would like to say that the latest is also coming from my native town, hometown, Kherson. In Kherson, they have brought us every day, this is the occupied territory, and people go out to protest against Russian occupation. And Russians started shooting already.

There are several wounded. We don't know how many people, but Russia tries to just by shooting people there. So the feeling is living all this month in this country is, I'm sorry to say, but every day you have 9/11. And I'm sure the American people understand what it is. We are very much united, and we're defending and fighting back because freedom is something that we value very much.

BERMAN: To be clear, you are saying in Kherson where we have seen many cities, or parts of the towns that are under Russian occupation right now there have been regular protests, you're saying the Russians are now firing on those protesters?

MENDEL: Yes. They use the weapons against the protesters, and I've been reported there are several wounded, but we don't know how many people are wounded. So I was actually I was pretty tempered, because Russians have become aggressive. They wanted the people to give up, and they are very much disappointed that this se Russian-speaking region is actually under Ukraine, and they do not want to be part of Russia. This makes this very aggressive and very angry.

BERMAN: The WHO, the World Health Organization just reported over the weekend, I think was six, it may have been eight new health care facilities have been hit or targeted. I'm not sure it's a difference. If you're in one of the health care facilities, I'm not sure it matters whether it was specifically targeted or not. There have been more than 50 damaged over the last few weeks. What does that tell you that so many of these health care facilities there to treat people have been targeted or destroyed?

MENDEL: I have a personal situation about that. My mother is a pediatrician. When the first day of invasion came, she called me very early morning and said she was going to work. And I was very much surprised because I thought really it was the correct thing to do, just a usual thing to go to work. And she said to me, I cannot not go there because there are kids there, and I need to be with them. Who will be with them if not me?

And then this around four weeks started when she was coming to work and she goes to the bomb shelter, picking up newborn babies, little kids, staying with them as much as needed there. But when she drops me the messages, look, I'm having a time just behind my window, and I don't know what to expect. Or when they sit there and hear about this Mariupol maternity hospital shelling and understand they can be the same hospital to be bombed.

This means that Russians do not have any limit, and they try brutally and cynically to shell civilians to show their power. This is a war crime, but this is even worse. I would say this is the terrorism and this is something that -- this is something that makes them also weak because Ukrainians are never going to support Russia, but they are still angry Hand they feel that they must defend their land even more than ever because of such brutal and cynical behavior.

So the issue is, you say about 50 hospitals. We have reports about several hundreds of hospitals, but it's too difficult to count right now because many cities and regions are just blocked or occupied.

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BERMAN: It sounds like your mother is one of just the thousands -- tens of thousands of Ukrainians whether it be volunteers, whether it be people now joining the military healthcare worker, saying "If not me, who?" Everyone taking a stand.

Iuliia Mendel, thank you so much for being with us.

MENDEL: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, an escalation, the new weapon Russia now admits that it unleashed on Ukraine.

Plus, a Chinese air disaster. A plane crashes with at least 132 people on board. What we just learned about the flight's final moments.

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KEILAR: U.S. officials have confirmed that Russia launched hypersonic missiles against Ukraine last week. This is actually the first known use of such missiles in combat, potentially marking a major escalation in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Joining me now for more on this is retired Army General Steven Anderson. So, let's talk about this. A lot is being made of these hypersonic weapons. What are they and why is Russia using them? BRIG. GEN. STEVEN ANDERSON (RET), U.S. ARMY: Well, this is a

significant development but is not a game changer.

KEILAR: Okay.

ANDERSON: This is a tremendous capability. They have Mach 5. That means they can deliver a missile within 15 minutes within 1,200 miles of the launching site. So it's extremely effective in terms of speed, but it's also maneuverable, our air defenses just can't pick them up.

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ANDERSON: So what you have to do in order to defeat this is you have to defeat the delivery system, the MiG 31, the cruise missile before it launches, but once it launches, game over. It's probably going to hit its target.

Let's talk about that for a second. This shows a launch and what is significant about this is two things. The kinetic energy associated with this weapon.

I mean, just sending a BB at 3,800 miles an hour is going to cause a lot of damage. But they also have the capability say, they claim, to put nuclear warheads on this. This could be really a game changing issue if they decide to go that way. Of course, they have other delivery systems they can deliver nuclear weapons.

But of strategic importance is really what this capability sends is a message to NATO. Look at NATO and you look at 1,200 mile range. You can see that virtually all of NATO is potentially under the impact of a 1,200-mile missile that can be delivered in 15 minutes.

So this hypersonic capability is more psychological, more strategic than it really is operational.

KEILAR: Wow. So it's a message that they're sending.

Can we focus in on the Black Sea coast looking at Mykolaiv and this region? What are you seeing right now?

ANDERSON: Well, let's talk about the strategic significance of this area here. What Russia wants to do is build a land bridge, all the way over to Moldova from the Russian areas in the East. And what they want to do in order to do that is take this entire area and cut off the Ukrainians' access, particularly to the port of Odessa, the number three largest city in the Ukraine, and over half of its imports and exports come out of here.

As you know, they are one of the world's largest producers of wheat, and grain, and corn, and also iron ore. So if they can control this, they can cut off the livelihood of a lot of Ukrainians.

So what they've been trying to do is first they took Kherson, that was four weeks ago. Now, we see that there is some resistance now. It is coming on, and there's some counterattacks in that area, but there are also of course, in Mariupol. You've got 300,000 people out there. They're being bombed and shelled.

There's 50,000 buildings, and they're starting to conduct urban warfare for the first time in this area. That is going to take weeks and weeks I think to do this.

As long as they maintain the will to resist the Russians, they should not have any problem. I mean, it's going to be a terrible fight. They need food and water. But that is -- that's ongoing now in Mariupol.

They also want to take Mykolaiv, which is another city of about a half a million. It is 40 miles from Kherson. They have a couple of bridges. The Ukrainians are ready to detonate, to stop this, but as I mentioned earlier, there is some counter attack going on right now.

So Mykolaiv is still along objective for the Russians. But ultimately, it is 85 miles down here to Odessa. That is going to be a very difficult fight for them. There is over a million people down there. There is going to be very intense resistance.

So this is essentially a huge strategic front for the Russians. And right now, the Ukrainians seem to be holding their own down there.

KEILAR: Yes, normally a tourist town, right, sort of a jewel there on the Black Sea. I also want to ask you about something that I think Americans are not used to seeing in their military, certainly not here in most recent wars, which is the Russian military is suffering incredible losses when it comes to Generals or General-level officers.

The fifth General officer just killed. What does that tell you?

ANDERSON: It tells me that they have some huge leadership and communications and morale issues.

During the entire Korean War, the Americans lost two General officers. During the entire war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Major General Harold Greene was our only loss, a good friend of mine, a wonderful loss. They've lost five in less than four weeks of fighting. Now what does that say? They're having communications problems.

We know that their secure networks have already been inoperable, have been knocked out. So they are essentially using single channel open communications lines that are being jammed. When that happens, they have to resort to cell phones.

The Russians essentially cut off the Russian prefix for using cell phones. So they having to resort to stealing phones from the Ukrainians in order to talk to the frontline.

So what happens is you have General officers that can't communicate with their folks. So they're going down to the frontlines, and when they do that, they expose themselves and they get picked off by snipers.

The other thing that shows is about leadership. The Russians do not have a noncommissioned officer corps. They do not -- they centralize all decision making authority, so they don't have people down at the tip of the spear that can make decisions that can seize the initiative.

Instead of going left, go right at the fork in the road because of the evolving tactical situations.

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ANDERSON: So when they don't have that capability, the Russian senior leadership needs to go down.

The third thing I think that this points out is morale. Their morale that we've heard lots of reports about the morale of the Russians. There is only -- we've seen a lot of those pictures of the dead Russian soldiers on the side of the road, that tells you all you need to know about the morale of the Russians because they're not picking up their dead and their wounded.

A competent Army like the American army, we never leave a fallen comrade and so that says terrible things about the state of morale inside the Russian military.

KEILAR: Yes, it is a stunning thing to see from an American perspective, it really is.

Sir, thank you so much. Really appreciate this.

ANDERSON: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: John?

BERMAN: All right, breaking overnight, a Chinese airliner carrying 132 people crashed in a mountainous region of southeast China. China Eastern Airlines, in a statement confirmed one of its Boeing 737 passenger planes with 123 people and nine crew members on board had crashed.

Chinese state media says rescue teams were sent to the crash site, which is difficult to reach. It is potentially China's worst air disaster in at least a decade.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is calling for a full investigation. New tracking data shows the flight plunged more than 25,000 feet in less than two minutes.

China Eastern Airlines along with Boeing switched their websites in China to black and white, a sign of respect for the victims.

New overnight, the key Ukrainian city of Mariupol coming under heavy bombardment. Officials say bombs falling every 10 minutes.

Plus, a small Ukrainian town fighting back against Russian forces and holding the line, we have the extraordinary story, next.

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