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U.S. Officials Say Belarus May Soon Join Russia in War; U.S Official Says, Clear Evidence Russians Deliberately Targeting Civilians; Tornado Hits New Orleans, Leaving Trail of Destruction. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 23, 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 NEW DAY: Could soon join the Russian war effort and is already taking steps to do so.

[07:00:05]

President Biden leaves Washington for Brussels very shortly. He will meet with NATO allies to bolster the western alliance. He also is expected to announce new sanctions on Russia lawmakers as soon as Thursday.

We want to again our reporting this hour with CNN's Frederik Pleitgen who is on the ground for us this morning in the capital of Kyiv. And, Fred, I do understand a new round of attacks on civilian areas.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right, John. And it's part of a battle that's really been going on for almost 24 hours here around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. In fact, right now, as I'm speaking to you, we are hearing what we believe to be outgoing fire once again here in the Ukrainian capital.

Also, we were woken this morning by what seemed to be machine gunfire and some other automatic fire, which may have been the Ukrainians firing at low-flying aircraft. That is one of the things that sort of people were talking about. Of course, that's something that we really can't confirm from our position. But it was definitely something that could be heard.

Then you have the area that you were that you just talking about, it's called the (INAUDIBLE) area, which is to that battlefield that we keep talking about, the one in the northwest of the Ukrainian capital, towards the northwest of Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. A mall hit there, residential buildings hit there, a high-rise hit there apparently as well. It's unclear what exactly the Russians were targeting. There is an airfield in that area. But, so far those, impacts seem to be nowhere near that airfield but instead have hit those residential areas.

Now, the Ukrainians so far have not said much about what they are actually doing up there, what the operation is about, but it certainly has been very intense. That's what where we are seeing a lot of those of plumes smoke, that's what we're hearing a lot of those impacts, and it could indeed be that the Ukrainians might be launching a counteroffensive in that place for some of those suburbs, the outskirts of Kyiv, of course, trying to squeeze the Russian forces back, which would, of course, be a major victory for them.

It was interesting, because, this morning, the National Police of Ukraine put out a press release saying that they were resuming work in a place called Irpin. That's also a suburb of Kyiv and one that had Russians in it until very recently. So far, the military has not confirmation that place has been retaken but, certainly, pictures have been posted.

And so there could be an indication, John, that there is not only a counteroffensive that possibly the Ukrainian forces are making headway, but, again, at this point in time, much too early to tell as we do hear some pretty intense fighting right now, as I'm speaking to you, that battle certainly very much still continuing, John.

BERMAN: And so, Fred, it sounds like there are claims right now from Ukrainian officials. Are there -- is there any way to tell if the lines have actually moved?

PLEITGEN: It's very difficult to tell, first of all, from our vantage point, whether or not the lines have moved at all. I mean, we do have that indication that Irpin, that there might be Ukrainian forces in there and holding that place right now.

But one of the things, of course, that we were able to geolocate is the fact that Makariv have been taken over by the Ukrainians. That, of course, a town that's only 35 miles to the west of Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, and that alone is a huge gain for the Ukrainian military because it not only cuts off the Russians from trying to advance or encircle the Ukrainian capital but also, of course, gives the Ukrainians a foothold to try and squeeze those Russian forces back and possibly even encircle the Russian forces that are positioned outside of Kyiv.

Of course, those forces seem to be having a very difficult time. Logistics are very difficult, there are some flooding in that area. So the Ukrainians, by all accounts, might be making a move to try and win back some territory back. It's unclear how much they've achieved.

But judging from the plumes of smoke that we have been seeing over the sky here in Kyiv, there certainly are things being hit in that area. Again, it's unclear whether or not that's the Ukrainians actually hitting Russian positions or whether that's the Russians firing from where they are, John.

BERMAN: A lot of activity, to be sure. It will take some time for the dust to settle, quite literally. Frederik Pleitgen, as always, our thanks to you.

Joining us now is Sergii Leshchenko. He's an adviser to President Zelenskyy's Chief of Staff. Thank you so much for joining us once again.

Can you give us any information on the status of these counteroffensive efforts by your forces? Where have you been able to push the Russians back?

SERGII LESHCHENKO, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENTI ZELENSKYY'S CHIEF OF STAFF: Good morning. And let me, first of all, thank you for this interest. We are really starting took take control over one of the small towns around Kyiv, which was occupied almost three weeks ago. The National Police started to work in this town. Unfortunately, we cannot provide a lot of details because it is an ongoing process and some achievements can be destroyed the next day.

But I can confirm that we have progress around Kyiv to limit the presence of army of Russia in our suburbs of the capital.

[07:05:06]

But, at the same time, there's a huge army still and we fight for our freedom every day and every night.

Today, Kyiv was bombed again. And, unfortunately, they destroyed some small buildings, small houses and apartment buildings and trade center again.

BERMAN: We understand from U.S. and NATO officials that there are signs that Belarusian forces could soon enter in this conflict. How much of a difference would that make?

LESHCHENKO: You know, the motivation of Belarusian forces is so low that it is a challenge for Lukashenko, the leader of this territory, how he presents himself, that he's in trouble to fulfill the obligation in front of Putin. Because, for today, the Russian forces are not very well trained, demotivated and they are like just the way for Putin to continue attack against Ukraine. They have no reason to participate in this fight. They have very limited training experience. And if they come to Ukraine, they are going to be killed, of course, because Ukraine is going to defend our territory 1,000 percent.

That is why I believe Lukashenko in this process of maneuvering from one side to fulfill his obligation in front of Putin, from another side, not to enter Ukraine, as Putin wants, because it can have a problem for Lukashenko himself in Belarus, because Belarusian people don't understand the motivation. They see how many Russian soldiers are coming back killed from Ukraine to Belarus, because they have a center for killed Russian soldiers in (INAUDIBLE), not far away from the Ukrainian border, and all Belarusians see this these nonstop caravans of military cars full of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. It is more than 15,000 Russian soldiers killed in our territory. It is more than (INAUDIBLE), worst. It's more than in Afghanistan war in Soviet time. It is more than America army lost in Iraq. So for Belarus, it's a nightmare to come here. That is why we still hope that Lukashenko will take into account that it can be deadlock for himself as well.

BERMAN: Vladimir Putin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was speaking to our Christiane Amanpour and refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons against what he called an existential threat to Russia. How much does this concern you that he wouldn't rule out the use of nuclear weapons? LESHCHENKO: It concerns our government, and it concerns myself personally. Because in the office of president, I am responsible for counterpropaganda efforts of Russia and I see every day dozens of messages from different Russian stakeholders with blaming against Ukraine, that Ukraine prepare chemical weapons or nuclear bomb. They make this statement every day.

And, of course, it's fake. It has nothing to do with reality. But how much they said is just an example that there's preparation something from their side, like false flag operation or argument for Russia to use chemical or nuclear weapons against Ukraine, because there is no other reason to have this nonstop messaging from different stakeholders, different sources, officials.

Putin himself, Lukashenko himself, Lavrov himself, all of them said that Ukraine is preparing chemical weapons, which is not true, but they repeat it many times. For what reason? Just argument for their brutal war against now which is going on almost a month or to prepare something very horrible against Ukraine and to use this as an argument, as they did before in Syria.

That is why I believe the whole world has to raise their voice to say, Putin, just stop. It is not a joke, chemical weapons or nuclear weapons, especially against Ukraine, which has the third -- number three nuclear military sources in the world after the fall of Soviet Union. We were the number three country with nuclear weapons in the world. And then we sign with this Budapest memorandum. Russia was one of the grantors in the Budapest memorandum.

[07:10:01]

Now, we see the war of Russia now (INAUDIBLE).

It is a moment for the whole world to understand that it's not just Ukraine and Russian war. It is a global or what. Unfortunate to say this, especially for Americans who are far away from here, but I believe the goal of Putin is not just to occupy Ukraine but to destroy the whole global order, to destroy NATO as an institute to defend members of NATO. And if Ukraine is done, Putin is going to go further through Poland, to Baltic countries, all these countries under a permanent threat now. That is why we call the whole world to support Ukraine in this war.

BERMAN: Sergii, Leshchenko, as always, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us. I know how busy you are. We appreciate it.

LESHCHENKO: Thank you very much.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NED DAY: This morning, President Biden leaves the U.S. on a high-stakes trip to Brussels to attend meetings with NATO and European allies. The president traveling without White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who tested positive for coronavirus, we learned yesterday. President Biden is also going to stop in Poland.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is live for us at E.U. headquarters in Brussels with more. Kaitlan, tell us what we are expecting on this trip. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. President Biden is going to leave just about two hours from now to head here to Brussels, where he has these three critically important meetings tomorrow. Of course, the first one is with NATO allies. And that is a meeting that was scheduled in just a matter of days.

And, Brianna, these are meetings, as you know, that usually take months to put together to get this many world leaders together in the same place. And it really speaks to the level of urgency that they are applying to these talks that President Biden is going to have while he's here on the ground in Brussels.

And we do know that at the end of the day, he is expected to announce new sanctions on Russia, including on hundreds of lawmakers in Russia's lower house of parliament. That is something that President Zelenskyy has called for repeatedly. And the president is also going to talk about efforts to crack down on the sanctions that they have already imposed to make sure people aren't able to evade them or try to weaken them or undermine them based on what the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters while he was previewing this trip.

And so while President Biden is here, maybe there will be some announcements on force posture. That has been a big discussion behind the scenes with these NATO allies. As you have already, seen the United States, of course, sending more forces since this invasion started to NATO countries to really shore up this eastern flank since this invasion has started, given, understandably, there are so many concerns among those NATO allies who were so close to Ukraine and so close to Russia.

And I think one thing to watch while President Biden is here on the ground is how he handles the differences that we have seen in NATO. We have talked how united a lot of the allies are on the measures to punish Putin for what he's doing but also there have been some different points of view on whether or not to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine, like Zelenskyy has called for, to send in the fighter jets that he says the Ukrainian Air Force needs.

Those will be things to watch as well. But, of course, really, just, overall, the president's presence here is what the White House says is also a big takeaway from this trip, showing the solidarity, coming to visit not just here but also going to Poland, which, of course, has taken in over 2 million refugees since his invasion started.

And this all comes as the White House is offering a blunt warning about what's to come, saying that this is not a war that's going to end easily or rapidly, and warning, Brianna, that this is something that could drag out for some time.

KEILAR: You said maybe an announcement on force posture. What would that mean?

COLLINS: It's far from clear what we would see. We heard from Jake Sullivan. He said that, right now, they do believe the current force posture they have is the one that they believe they need. That is something that's based on the assessments made by the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who we know will be traveling with President Biden. But whether or not that is something that they feel they need to add more of or change or make something that's longer term, all of that remains to be seen.

And all of that is certainly on the table in these conversations that he is going to have, first with NATO allies, then with the European Council. That was a meeting that was already scheduled, and then, of course, with the G7 allies. And we should note that we will hear from President Biden when he leaves the White House here in a few minutes. He will have a press conference while he's also on the ground here in Brussels, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, that's incredibly interesting. I mean, we look at the U.S. forced posture. It has increased by a factor of two-and-a-half, so, very curious to see what that means going forward.

Kaitlan, thank you so much. We're going to be checking back in with you there in Brussels a little later in the show as well. Thank you.

President Biden declaring Vladimir Putin a war criminal, but our next guest says that announcement comes seven years too late.

Plus, new struggles of Russian military forces, this time we're told they are suffering frost bite. This is CNN's special live coverage.

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[07:15:00]

KEILAR: U.S. defense officials say there is clear evidence that Russia is intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. And there are also indications that Russian forces have committed war crimes.

CNN's Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon. This is a significant label, to be clear here, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It is a step down that legal road of trying to prove that war crimes have been committed by the Russians. That's clear, Brianna. The Pentagon now saying, as you point out, there is deliberate evidence, they believe, that the Russians are targeting civilian areas, hospitals, shelters, civilian infrastructure. We have seen it for weeks of all the horrific images coming out. But now the Pentagon saying -- joining the chorus that this beginning to clearly constitute war crimes by the Russians.

Have a listen to a little bit more of what the Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, had to say about all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PETNAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Clearly, there are civilian casualties and, clearly, they're mounting every day because of the indiscriminate attacks that the Russians are conducting.

[07:20:02]

And it wouldn't be appropriate for us at the department to get ahead of investigative processes that we don't own. It is just we believe we should call it like we see it and we believe there are war crimes being conducted by the Russian armed forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: What the U.S. is doing -- is they don't have people on the ground, we're told, but they are helping to collecting and analyzing evidence, imagery, pictures, videos, social media, imagery collected by U.S. intelligence assets, beginning to assemble the portfolio of evidence that they hope one day will be the legal framework, the legal evidence that war crimes indeed have been committed. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Barbara Starr live for us at the Pentagon, thank you for that report. Berman?

BERMAN: All right. My next guest says that President Biden's declaration that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal comes too late. Joe Rogin writes, quote, for Syrians, Biden's comments are welcomed but about seven years too late, considering that the Russian military has been committing war crimes there in collaboration with Bashar al- Assad's regime since 2015. Perhaps, if the world had held Putin accountable then, he wouldn't be committing war crimes in Ukraine now.

Let's bring in CNN Political Analyst and Washington Post Contributor Josh Rogin. Too late you say, Josh?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's right. And that's not my opinion. That's the opinion of millions of Syrians who have been suffering under Russian war crimes that were committed in Aleppo and in places like Homs, Ain Dara and East Ghouta, and chemical weapons and starvation as a weapon of war, and the cluster munitions and other banned weapons to indiscriminately kill civilians.

Syria is where Putin practiced the war crimes that he's using in Ukraine now. Syria is also where Putin figured out that if he just kills enough people for long enough, the international community will ignore it and move on.

Syria is also the place where everyone in the Russian military learned that there is no accountability, that 11 years into the Syrian war, there are almost no prosecutions, there are almost no tribunals and that we have taught the Russians, that we've taught Putin that the international community has the ability to turn away from these war crimes, and that's exactly the lesson that he learned.

BERMAN: So what then, though, Josh, is the lesson for now? How do you turn this around and make it applicable to the present, what's happening here in Ukraine?

ROGIN: Right. Well, what war crimes experts and activists tell me is that, first of all, what you have to do is you have to document everything. You have to remember that there are no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity and that every bomb that goes off in a hospital in Ukraine and every starvation siege is a crime that can be prosecuted at any time in the future. So, the most important thing is to collect the evidence.

And the second thing is that we cannot only address war crimes in one place or another, that when Putin commits war crimes in Syria or he commits them in Grozny or he commits them in Ukraine, the international community has to treat all of those the same. And that means that we can't just solve the Ukraine crisis, we also have to solve the Syria crisis, because Putin is committing the same war crimes in both places.

And we can't have this attitude that we only care about mass atrocities when they happen to countries that look like us or closer to us. And that once we allow Putin to destroy the norms of war crimes and crimes against humanity, they are really hard to get back. So, that means that it is never too late to prosecute the war crimes. It's never too late to stop them.

Now, of course the Syrians would say that we should protect civilians from the war crimes. They want weapons to kill the Russians that are trying to kill them. And that's what the Ukrainians want too. And I'm for that as well.

BERMAN: Yes, make this the last time for Vladimir Putin if the world can, if the world wants to. Josh Rogin, thank you so much.

ROGIN: Any time.

KEILAR: Breaking overnight, a large tornado battering New Orleans leaving a trail of destruction in several areas. This powerful storm flipped cars, it tore the roofs off of homes, others were completely ripped from their foundations. At least one person was killed that we are now aware of and thousands are without power this morning as they clean up.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is live for us in the hard hit Arabi neighborhood of St. Bernard Parish. Awaiting sunrise there, Derek. Tell us what you see so far.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, first glimpse of light here that's going to reveal a lot for residents here. We are on the ground in St. Bernard Parish, as you mentioned, and this area was hit particularly hard.

I just want to give you an idea of the destruction that these residents have to clean up over the coming days. I mean, look at this, power polls completely snapped like twigs, you've got a child's tricycle directly in front of us, and then the ominous sign kind of looming behind me here. What have we got? We have got an overturned school bus from an elementary school that's just over my shoulder.

And would you believe me if I told you that this particular school bus was lofted or rotated or pushed down this road by the strong winds over 100 yards from where it is now before the tornado actually approached this area.

[07:25:05]

Listening to the media reports, and from the St. Bernard Parish sheriff, he said, using the words widespread destruction across this area, and this is clearly what has unfolded here. They are comparing this to a record tornado that impacted the St. Bernard Parish back in 2017, early February of that particular year. And they said that winds there were 136 miles per hour. They are comparing this as a comparable situation, if not, worse to what happened then.

I talked to some residents who rode out the storm. Listen to what this woman and her kids and her husband had to contend with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMARYS OLEA, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: You know, we felt the pressure and it was scary. It was like being in a movie.

Well, the way my husband explained it was it felt like a train was passing through, the wind, the pressure, the noise, the house shaking, everything, it just felt like a train was going by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN DAM: And, Brianna, they used a mattress from their bed and covered themselves inside of their bath within their bathroom and to keep safe. Fortunately, they were unharmed.

By the way, when we were watching this unfold, it was so close to downtown Metro New Orleans, that the lights of the city actually helped illuminate the funnel cloud as it passed through St. Bernard Parish. Brianna?

KEILAR: Which is why we were able to see it there in some of that video. Derek, thank you so much for that report, live for us in New Orleans.

I do want to bring in the president of St. Bernard Parish, Guy McInnis, who is with us now. Guy, I can see the sun is going to rise fully soon. It is starting to a little light and illuminating the damage. What's the latest there?

GUY MCINNIS, PRESIDENT, ST. BERNARD PARISH: Brianna, first of all, thank you for checking in on us here in St. Bernard Parish. Our first responders did some assessments overnight. They did search and rescues. We believe we searched every home that was affected. We're going to check on that this morning and do another assessment.

Sadly, we had one confirmed death. We only had seven people that went to the hospital and was released with minor injuries. And when you guys see what happened overnight once the daylight hits this damage, you are going to see that that was a miracle. People got home early from work, hunkered down. And the technology from our local weather station was spot-on. We knew it was coming. We knew when it was going to get close to us. And I guess everybody hunkered down as best they can. And we got out of this thing ready to recover once again. It's sad. We can do this thing. We're good at it. KEILAR: And thank goodness. I mean, those numbers really are a miracle. I'm so sorry obviously for the loss of one person and we do hope that it stays to that number. How big is the path of destruction here, Guy?

MCINNIS: Brianna, it's about a two-mile stretch. It kind of hopped around a little bit. But it is a widespread zone of damage, houses taken from their foundation, they sit in the middle of the street. We have stretches of streets where there are no homes now, where there were homes. So, we have sheltered people. Seven people have taken us up on the shelter.

This morning, we're going to look at our housing needs. The support is overwhelming from our region and from state and local officials. And we're going to manage all that this morning, see what the needs of our citizens are and get to work in recovery. We are resilient people. We can get through this. It seems like a gazillion times but we are good at it and we're going to get started this morning.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, you say that as there is a roof behind you and a car flipped over behind you. But, Guy, look, we hope the numbers stay where they are as the day dawns there. And we wish you the best as you recover. Guy McInnis, thank you so much.

MCINNIS: Brianna, god bless.

BERMAN: Ukrainian sailors waving flags and chanting all in an effort the block this yacht from docking. We will tell you the story. This was an amazing sight.

Plus, what would a Russian cyberattack against the U.S. in the middle of this war look like? A member of the Intelligence Committee joins us live.

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[07:30:00]