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Ukraine Says, Russian Ship Destroyed in Port of Berdyansk; Now, Biden Attending Extraordinary NATO Summit on Ukraine War; Ukrainian Military Fighting to Regain Territory Near Kyiv. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 24, 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: Shooting into the air.

[07:00:01]

We're going to have much more on this ahead.

We're also joined by Wolf Blitzer in Brussels, where there's also breaking news. Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: There is major breaking news, a truly historic, extraordinary summit underway right behind me, John and Brianna. President Biden is here. He's in Belgium. He's attending this historic summit of 30 NATO heads of state. The agenda is truly critical, how to further, trying to further deter Vladimir Putin and his military from continuing a brutal assault in Ukraine, what steps need to be taken. Russia's brutal aggression continues nonstop.

President Biden is expected to announce major new sanctions, sanctions against Russian lawmakers and oligarchs, that's expected here in Brussels later today as well. And only moments ago, leaders have heard directly virtually from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He called in to this summit meeting with his pitch, with his appeal for additional help. We're getting new information. We'll share that to you as soon as it becomes available. What we know, he's making major new request for help, desperate help.

President Biden's visit here to Brussels and this gathering, this truly, once again, extraordinary gathering of leads, is nothing short of historic. It could be a potential turning point that shapes what happens in Ukraine as the Russian invasion enters its second month.

The goal here in Brussels is to bolster Ukraine's defenses without providing a direct clash between the U.S. and NATO allies and Russia. That potentially, according to U.S. officials, could lead to World War III.

Just before arriving here at the summit, the Biden administration did formally, publicly, officially announced that Russian military forces were committing war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. We're watching all of this unfold in various parts.

Kaitlan Collins, our Chief White House Correspondent, is here with us. So, Zelenskyy, he's not here but he did appear virtually with these 30 leaders.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Which is notable given Ukraine is not part of NATO. That has been something that's been at the crux of this response. It's shaped the way the U.S. and other NATO allies have responded to this, yet, he was still invited to come here to speak to these leaders, given that is the primary reason they're meeting today, Wolf, to talk about Ukraine, to talk about this ongoing Russian invasion, which has now stretched into a full month that this has been going on. And the White House is warning it's likely to go on for much longer.

So, they're talking here about the response, what other steps they are going to take, because that has been the pattern you have seen since Russia invaded, is the United States working in conjunction, in coordination with European allies to try to punish Putin and make Russia pay for its invasion of Ukraine.

And so that is what they're doing behind closed doors right now, listening to President Zelenskyy and his appeals, of course, as he has made broad appeals for support but also very specific appeals at a time for certain things that he believes that they need.

And then you're going to -- Biden and the other world leaders who are in that room right now are going to go around, will talk about their own respective responses. And, of course we do know President Biden will lay out in detail what the United States is going to do with when it comes to further steps later on today after these series meetings that they're holding.

BLITZER: What really worries senior U.S. officials from the president of the United States, the defense secretary, the secretary of state, the national security adviser, and they're all here right now, is that Russia potentially could they make matters even worse by using chemical or, God forbid, tactical nuclear weapons.

COLLINS: Chemical weapons seem to be the number one concern for the White House right now. And they have formed these teams behind the scenes where they're talking about what they would do, what their responses could look like from the United States if Putin does take that extreme route of using chemical weapons, which President Biden, as he was leaving to come here, told my colleague, Jeremy Diamond, he does think the threat of that is high, that Putin could take that chance and do that and try to conduct these mass casualty events.

And so that's a number one concern that we are told there, discussing while they're in there today, and how the United States would respond. We don't know precisely what that would look like, Wolf, because the president has said the response would be severe, they will have to be severe consequences if Putin takes that step. But I do think there are a lot of questions on whether or not that would change this position of the military going to Ukraine, of NATO sending forces into Ukraine. So far, they've said that's not on the agenda.

BLITZER: Yes. We're going to be watching what's going on. At some point, they're going to open it up. We'll hear what they have to say.

John Berman is in Ukraine for us. John, be careful over there. I know you've got a lot going on.

BERMAN: Yes, and an unusual situation here in Ukraine, Wolf, because the people here being talked about where you are in Brussels but very much the ones doing the fighting themselves right now.

[07:05:02]

And breaking overnight, Ukrainian forces say they destroyed a large Russian ship in the currently Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk. The fire raging at the dock side with plumes of smoke shooting up into the air. We've got new details about what went on.

CNN's Phil Black here with me with some information. Phil?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, John, it was 7:00 A.M. local time that those explosions first started aboard that ship, a large Russian landing ship, the Orsk. The Ukrainian military say they have destroyed it. They say that attack also damaged two other vessels. It destroyed a very large fuel tank and also created a fire, which spread to a weapons depot. And that probably explains why you're seeing successive explosions in that video.

What they have explained though is how they did this. Keep in mind, this is a Russian-controlled ship in a Russian-controlled port. It's one of the first -- it fell to the Russians very early on in this war. The Ukrainians haven't revealed precisely what military capability they deployed here in order to carry off this attack.

I'd like to talk about Izyum as well. This is a key city in the east where we have some new video, including some disturbing images, which really confirm what we'd heard, and that is that there has been very intense fighting taking place here in recent days. We'd heard that this was the site of a recent Ukrainian counterattack, an effort to push out Russian forces. This video is one man's tour of his hometown, exploring the aftermath. And he is visibly shocked by he sees. You can still hear some very loud shelling in the near distance.

Now, the Russian military says this morning that this key city in the east is now completely under their control. Contradicting that, the Ukrainian military says this is still very much a live fight and they are not conceding it just, John.

BERMAN: So, some push and pull across the country. Phil Black, thanks so much for that update. I appreciate it. Wolf?

BLITZER: Thanks very much, John. Tomorrow, President Biden will speak to Poland, not too far away from here, where he will discuss the Ukrainian refugee crisis. And 3.5 million Ukrainians have now fled that country, most of them going to Poland.

Let's discuss what's going on with Poland's ambassador to the United Nations Krzysztof Szczerski. Mr. Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us.

Tell us a little bit about Poland's top agenda items, priorities right now in dealing with this war, in dealing with this crisis? What do you hope emerges from this historic summit here at NATO headquarters?

KRZYSZTOF SZCZERSKI, POLISH AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Thank you for having me and greetings from Warsaw. Actually, I came to Warsaw just before President Biden's visit here for the critical consultations. Really, if you walk through the streets of Warsaw, you'll see this is a bilingual city now. This is a Polish-Ukrainian city, that our friends from Ukrainian everywhere in the town and because we're having them in a large scale now in Poland.

Now, this war has changed its nature. It's changed from the pure military conflict into the (INAUDIBLE) created a humanitarian crisis on a large scale, and both in Ukraine and both through this inflow of refugees all over the region. So, we have to do everything, explore all the avenues to stop this catastrophic humanitarian crisis that we are looking, and which is, as I said, the new tactic of the Russian aggression.

So, from the NATO summit, what we expect is more confirmation about the deterrence and defense posture of NATO and expanding the defense and deterrence posture of NATO into the eastern flank because this is not just (INAUDIBLE). This is a Russia war, Russia intervention. This is the new face of Russian imperialism. And we have, as NATO, firstly to secure our own territory and put a strong message to Vladimir Putin that there is no way that he can challenge the Article 5 and there is no way that he can even think of challenging NATO.

The second issue is how to help Ukraine and how to help directly to stop this massacre that Putin is organizing in the side of Ukraine. And this is the appeal that we heard from President Zelenskyy, quote an emotional appeal for NATO, for more action and for more support.

BLITZER: Yes. And there's a lot going on right now behind me here at the NATO headquarters.

As you know, the United States, Mr. Ambassador, has now formally, legally, officially declared that the Russian military has committed war crimes in Ukraine. Poland's prime minister has said that for every Russian war crime, there must be new sanctions that will be very effective against Putin and the Russians. So what are you -- elaborate, if you don't mind, Mr. Ambassador, what do you have in mind about even more sanctions?

[07:10:00]

SZCZERSKI: We have to really be firm in our sanctioning policy and with no exceptions. And that's really to keep the Russian (INAUDIBLE). But it's also important to note that for all these war crimes (INAUDIBLE) created in the United Nations the kind of group of (INAUDIBLE) culpability of war crimes in Ukraine because we have to be all prepared whether peace finally be decided, also to make all those war crimes accountable. And this is another challenge for the international community to really not to let this just happen and for all those war crimes to be judged and to be finally put into the proper trial.

BLITZER: So, like U.S., Mr. Ambassador, you have no doubt, that Putin and the Russians have committed war crimes?

SZCZERSKI: What we see, as I said, this is deliberately created humanitarian catastrophe. Though the tactics of the Russians have changed into targeting civilians, into targeting humanitarian convoys, remember, this is even worse than what we've seen in Syria conflict, for instance, where, finally, the humanitarian corridor were created, the Red Cross and all the humanitarian laws respected and there's kind of help and relief was able to be delivered to those in the warzones.

Here, in this conflict, Russia, even for this to happen, which is, I would say, one of the worst wars that we have seen for many years in the -- or for decades here in the globe. That's why Poland is so much present for the -- also NATO to secure the humanitarian corridor for Ukraine because this is the issue number one.

There will be no peace without a humanitarian relief. First, we have to have a humanitarian relief. Then there is open way to debate peace. And then we can discuss the culpability and the more further -- I would say, long-term strategy form for us after this conflict.

BLITZER: And the people in Poland, the Polish people deserve an enormous amount of credit right now, Mr. Ambassador, for taking in more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees within this first month of this brutal war. And we've seen those pictures, so emotional what's going on where you are, in Warsaw, and elsewhere in Poland right now.

The president of the United States will be traveling to Warsaw tomorrow. I'll be going there with him. We'll have extensive live coverage of what's going on in Poland with the refugee crisis, much more coming up. Mr. Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us and, once again, thanks to all the people in Poland for what they're doing. We really appreciate it very much.

Brianna, let's go back to you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: All right, Wolf. Let's talk about that summit, really a series of summits, with former National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia Angela Stent and CNN Political Analyst David Gregory.

This is some kind of schedule that President Biden has here in the day ahead, a series of different remarks that he's giving. He's got a news conference as well. What are you expecting from the summit? What has to come out of this for this to be a success?

ANGELA STENT, FORMER NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICER FOR RUSSIA AND EURASIA: Well, I think on the NATO summit, there has to be reassuring, I think discussing force posture, maybe sending more troops to the frontlines state there, reassuring our allies that we are helping the Ukrainians to push back against the Russians but also we're going to defend them in case there's some inadvertent accident or something and this war begins to spread. So, that's very important.

KEILAR: Force posture. Can you zero in on that?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, because there's such a concern about any spillover of this conflict bringing in NATO, which is something that President Biden and I think the other NATO leaders want to avoid at all costs because of how dangerous that could be.

This is also such an important moment for Biden as president. He's the leader of the western world on the international stage, effectively the leader of NATO. And there are some difficulties within the alliance, not in terms of standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine but on natural resources, like energy resources, cutting that off from Russia where the Europeans are so much more dependent, and the president saying, no, I'm not going to ask you to cut off oil supplies from Russia but we have to stand firm.

I think the president knows that his personal diplomacy here goes a long way toward not just showing Putin that the alliance will not be split but perhaps also showing Putin, who maybe feeling desperate, that there is some way out and that he's got to see the way out because the western alliance is not cracking.

KEILAR: So, what is the way out? I mean, what is the way out that they might construct or to try to suggest to Putin at this time?

[07:15:04]

STENT: Well, I mean, one way out, and President Zelenskyy has already said several times, he's willing to consider neutrality for Ukraine, that it's not going to seek to join NATO, since this is one of the major complaints of Putin, and sort of let's sit down and work out a deal where Ukraine says it won't join NATO but has security guarantees and involve Russia with them. And Putin could say this is a win. We wanted to make sure NATO didn't come closer to our doors. So, there is a way out of this but Russians, so far, haven't seen serious about sitting down in negotiating, finding a way out. Maybe as time goes on and the war gets more brutal, they will.

GREGORY: There's also this question of time. We're operating on the shorter clock thinking, well, this has been going on, this is so brutal and so horrific, this has to end. I think the president wants to prepare our allies, prepare Americans as well. This could grind on for a while before Putin gets to that place. And there's going to be a lot of death. There's going to be a lot of suffering, the refugee crisis that we see spilling into neighboring Poland and elsewhere in Europe, this is something -- energy shocks that we see in the United States, that this could go on for a while.

And I think for Americans who are paying attention to this without U.S. forces in the fight and yet seeing the importance of supporting it, that kind of steadiness is important. And the president plays a big role in keeping Americans on board, because even the news coverage will retreat at some point and this war could still be grinding on.

KEILAR: I think it's such a good point that you make. Putin's tolerance for suffering, I think, on the part of the Ukrainians but also on the part of Russians is high. It's higher perhaps --

GREGORY: Well, look at the history of what the Russians have done to Ukraine. KEILAR: That's right. So, I want to ask you before we go about Secretary of State Madeleine Albright passing away yesterday. Bill Clinton actually spoke to Wolf Blitzer and recounted a conversation that he had with her two weeks ago, where she talked about how Ukraine had to be defended. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The idea that Putin was trying to sell the argument that a country with a Jewish president was actually a Nazi country was blatantly absurd and she just wanted to support whatever we could do to back Ukraine and that is all she wanted to talk about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That's all she wanted to talk about, even just a couple of weeks before you worked with her. You worked with her in government and in Georgetown.

STENT: I did, yes. I worked with her at Georgetown and in government. This is a great loss. She was really quite instrumental in pushing for NATO enlargement in the 1990s.

And when I with worked with her in the State Department, we singled out Ukraine as a critical democracy that we wanted to support. And this is now like 1999-2000. So, she understood even then that it was very important to help the Ukrainians develop a democracy, deal with corruption and to be able to stand up to the Russians. And she had Putin's number. She knew exactly who he was.

GREGORY: And what's important about that, the The New York Times republished this today, she describes a meeting with him in 2000 at the end of the Clinton administration, where she does have his number, she does take this measure and get what he cares about and what he is, which is lamenting the laws of the Soviet empire and the Soviet Union.

And we have to remember, then 9/11 happened. And Putin very cynically makes nice with the west and the Bush administration in the fight against Islamic extremism, which diverts this attention away from what his real aim was, which was empire-building. And we lost focus on that at a governmental level for years. And Madeleine Albright really saw that and dealt with that firsthand.

KEILAR: Yes, looking into his eyes and seeing his soul is maybe different these days. David Gregory, Angela Stent, thank you so much to both of you. And thank you for helping us remember the secretary. I really appreciate it.

There's some new video this morning that shows fire and plumes of smoke rising from a large Russian ship that the Ukrainian forces say they destroyed in a Russian-held area. So, we'll have more on what that means, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

KEILAR: Ukrainian forces are actually fighting to take back parts of territory in the suburbs surrounding Kyiv, as many Ukrainians citizens remain trapped in cities that are being bombarded by the Russian military.

Joining us now is retired Brigadier General Steven Anderson. We're seeing some really interesting Ukrainian counteroffensive movement. Can you take us through this?

BRIG. GEN. STEVEN ANDERSON (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Yes. I'm very excited to be talking about counteroffensive. I've been wanting to say that word for a long time. There are some significant activity going on right now. We just saw the ship that was blown up down here in the port of Berdyansk. We know that there's counteroffensive ongoing right now in Kherson. We also know that in Kharkiv, there's a hard push there to take back previously held Russian domain. There's a lot of activity in Kyiv, and let me talk about that.

First of all, we know this city right here has been taken back. That is very significant. There's a town here right near the Antonov Airport that has been siege at Irpin. It's about six miles from Antonov. If the Ukrainians can re-siege the Antonov Airport, that would be hugely important to them for many, many reasons. They're obviously going to be able to stop the Russians from using that as a heliport launching site.

Also out here, this is very significant, they've pushed them back. They're using key terrain to fight the Russians, to push them out use the swamps and the rivers that are out there. What this all means in Kyiv is very important, now they've got a 35-mile ring around Kyiv that is protected. That means they're out of artillery range. And that's a hugely significant thing.

So, it's delightful to be able to start talking about counteroffensive, something we need to do, because if we're going to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, we need to do it from a position of strength.

[07:25:04]

KEILAR: So, when you're out of artillery range, you're now taking back normalcy, right, of life in the city, which is very important. It is worried about those bombardments. Why are we seeing this shift?

ANDERSON: I think that there's three key indicators that a counteroffensive is ready to start happening now in a big way. First of all is the will of the Ukraine people has never wavered. Now contrast that with the morale of the Russian soldiers. They're having a lot of trouble. We've seen the five general officers killed, the lack of non-commission officers, leadership and initiative at the front, and also the dead and wounded that they have left on the street. Americans never leave a fallen comrade. So, morale and the will of people is hugely important.

The second factor is logistics. Let's look at this. Right now, the Ukrainians' unimpeded access to Kyiv. They've god roads. They've got rails. They've got airports all out in the west that would continue to provide the key logistics they need. Contrast that with the Russians. They're coming down here. They've lost 700 cargo trucks. Their rail services have not started at all. They have got 14 rail brigades, none have been put into action. In fact, we've even heard of some insurrection up here in Belarus. Saboteurs are blowing up the trains that are presently supporting the Russian forces at the border. So, logistics has been hugely important and the Ukrainians have been able to leverage that.

And then the final factor is battle fatigue. The Russians now have been out there fighting for a month. I mean, put yourself in a T-72 tank. You've been doing this for a month. You're in the field for probably six weeks prior to this engagement. You thought you were going to Ukraine as a training exercise. Here you are in a war. Your buddies are getting killed. I mean, battle fatigue has got to have a huge impact.

So, I think these three reasons are why counteroffensive is -- we're ready to start talking about counteroffensive in a big way.

KEILAR: You're a logistics guy. I will say, there are not a ton of war movies about logistics but maybe there should be, because that's what it really all comes down to here, and that's key, as we're seeing here.

Can you talk about these NATO battle groups that are being added?

ANDERSON: Absolutely. So, right now, there are four NATO groups, one in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The secretary general yesterday agreed to add four more. So, now, there will be one in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

This is hugely important. It sends a strong message to Vladimir Putin that the world and NATO is unified. We've been inspired by what's going on in Ukraine, the courage and the commitment of Ukrainians have unified the entire world. So, NATO is stepping up in a big way to provide these new battle groups to make sure that Vladimir Putin knows we're seriously committed to supporting him, ensuring victory in Ukraine.

KEILAR: It's a belt tightening around the areas that he's invading, that he -- our satellites of Russia and of Russia.

General, thank you so much for walking us through that. I really appreciate it.

As Russian forces are retreating into defensive positions outside of Kyiv, the mayor says at least 264 civilians have been killed so far. The mayor's brother will be joining us next.

And coming up, John Berman sat down with a 15-year-old who lost his mother in their desperate escape from Chernihiv. We're going to hear this heartbreaking story ahead.

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