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Two Dead after Shooting in Israel Bar; Rising Health Care Costs; Strike Hits Train Station; Christiane Amanpour is Interviewed about the Train Station Bombing. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 08, 2022 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:22]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news this morning, a Russian missile strike on a train station in eastern Ukraine, the city of Kramatorsk. We're getting some new video in of the seconds after the missile struck. We're going through the video right now. We'll play it for you in just a moment.

In the meantime, we have other breaking news for you. This time coming from Israel after a shooting at a bar in Tel Aviv that left two Israeli civilians dead. The Palestinian Authority president has condemned the attack. A militant group claims responsibility.

CNN's Hadas Gold live for us this morning in Tel Aviv.

Hadas, why don't you give us the latest.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, I'm standing outside of the bar where this attack took place. This is in the heart of the night life district of Tel Aviv. There -- people have been bringing flowers and candles all day. You might be able to hear people singing in the background. A makeshift memorial to the victims of this attack.

Around 9:00 p.m. last night, a man identified as a Palestinian from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank opened fire on the people sitting at this bar, killing two and wounding more than a dozen others. He then fled on foot, blending into the crowds of people who were running away from the scene, setting off a massive manhunt all night for the attacker. He was eventually caught at 5:00 a.m. in the Jaffa area of Tel Aviv. And after an exchange of gunfire with police was ultimately killed.

Now, authorities say he had no known ties to terrorist organizations, although the Palestinian militant group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has taken credit for the attack.

Now, Israel has been in a heightened sense of alert for several weeks now after a series of attacks last month in the course of a week killed 11 people. So there was a worry that it was a question of not if, but when and where another attack would take place.

The Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has called on the public not to panic, saying that they will cash any accomplices and that the Israeli Security Forces are on full deployment.

As you noted, the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, has condemned the attack. The Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, says that while they welcome the condemnation, they want the Palestinian Authority's words to match their actions.

There are concerns, though, that the violence will just continue, especially when in the next ten days, John, the holidays of Ramadan, Easter and Passover are all going to overlap in a rare convergence of the calendar. So really a lot of concerns that tensions will only further rise and there will only be more violence here.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, a very difficult situation there with the potential to get much worse.

Hadas Gold, thank you very much.

So, new intelligence out of the United Kingdom says that Russian troops have fully withdrawn from northern Ukraine heading to the Donbas region in the east. We have the latest from the battlefront.

Plus, the breaking news, dozens feared dead after missiles struck a packed railway station in eastern Ukraine. We have brand-new, horrifying video just in.

Our live breaking news coverage continues right after this.

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[08:38:14]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: More now on our breaking news here in Ukraine. Dozens of people have been killed at a train station after a Russian strike. The crowds there, and they were large, were waiting to evacuate.

Here's President Zelenskyy reacting moments ago to this horrific attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): Russian military hit the railway terminal in the city of Kramatorsk. This is an ordinary railway terminal. People crowded, waiting for the trains to be evacuated to the safe territory. They hit these people. There are witnesses, there are videos, there are remnants of the missiles and dead people. About 30 killed and 300 wounded as of this moment. Again, this is just a rank and file railway terminal, just an ordinary town in the east of Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And this is was in was, in eastern Ukraine, Kramatorsk, right there. And we are getting brand-new video just in showing the moments following the strike. And I do want to warn you, this is graphic.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You could hear there the terror and the confusion. You can hear the panic and the screams. You could also see the elderly victims, the children and then there were the people on the ground. You could see them trying to lift people up and drag them out of the station. These are still photos of the scene. You can see how much blood scattered everywhere.

Again, this is a train station with thousands and thousands of people passing through every day. Everyone knows this. People have been told to evacuate.

[08:40:01]

This is a funnel point for thousands of evacuees through this region, which is why the Ukrainians say the Russians absolutely knew what they were hitting when they struck this with at least two missiles. That video is just horrifying.

And I should say we're going to be joined by someone there on the ground next, Brianna. But to hear the screams there, from people who've already left their homes and are trying to get out, they've already suffered so much. And then to be at that train station as it's struck by a missile, it's just terror.

KEILAR: Yes, it is unsafe to stay. Very unsafe to stay. You're also seeing how unsafe it is to go, the risks they are taking.

We'll be right back in just a moment.

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BERMAN: We have new reporting this morning on the effects of inflation. A lot of talk about fuel and food prices. But one area that might have an even greater impact, rising healthcare costs.

[08:45:02]

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has the story.

And this has a particular impact on the middle class, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And medical costs is a top concern for many Americans, right behind gas prices. And when you look at it in totality, inflation is really affecting these two key things. Food and gas is something you can ration, but medical costs and medication, not so much. But we are hearing that many Americans are having to do just that because of all the other rising costs. It also is taking an emotional toll on Americans making their physical medical conditions even worse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OLGA MCGARITY, STRUGGLING WITH MEDICAL BILLS: $38.12, $3.29, $430.13. YURKEVICH (voice over): Olga and Kevin McGarity are sitting with four

years of medical bills.

O. MCGARITY: That is the gap that the government won't pay.

YURKEVICH: Taking care of their health and keeping track of the cost consumes everyday life.

KEVIN MCGARITY, STRUGGLING WITH MEDICAL BILLS: I have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. I had a bout with cancer, that seems to be in remission at this point. And Olga --

O. MCGARITY: I have thyroid cancer, and it's been pretty much all the time going to the doctor.

YURKEVICH: Medicare doesn't cover all the medications and visits they need, but private insurance helps pick up the rest, but at a significant out of pocket cost.

O. MCGARITY: Every year the average cost for the last four years was $37,000.

YURKEVICH: One of the biggest issues facing Americans is inflation and rising costs, with 58 percent worried about how they would cover unexpected medical bills, a top concern.

O. MCGARITY: It's going to cost our life savings.

YURKEVICH: Medical bills are paid with credit cards, making up nearly all of their $70,000 worth of debt. It's the difficult choice they're making to try to save their home.

O. MCGARITY: That keeps me up every night. It does. Because eventually we will be destitute. That's probably the hardest part.

K. MCGARITY: Oh, yes.

O. MCGARITY: I will not leave anything to my son.

YURKEVICH: Fifty-one percent of Americans say they have put off or gone without medical care in the past year because of costs. Nurse practitioner Tarik Khan sees it firsthand at his clinic dedicated to serving low-income Americans.

TARIK KHAN, NURSE PRACTITIONER, ABBOTSFORD-FALLS FAMILY PRACTICE AND COUNSELING: The cost of living is going up, the cost of drugs are going up, but they're not making more money to make up for it. With people finding it hard to make ends meet, it's only making those physical health problems worse.

YURKEVICH: Which is why this food pantry, just down the hall from the clinic, has been critical, and, in the last year, he's noticed it's been busier.

YURKEVICH (on camera): Why are more patients coming in and using the food pantry? KHAN: I think with the increased costs, it's making it more difficult

for patients to be able to afford to buy food on their own.

YURKEVICH (voice over): Inflation is the key issue facing President Biden, who is trying to make healthcare more affordable by capping the price of drugs like insulin. That would bring immediate relief to millions of Americans like Kevin. That legislation is sitting in Congress.

YURKEVICH: Are you hopeful?

O. MCGARITY: I am really worried. I don't think anybody that can truly help is getting it.

K. MCGARITY: I tell Olga, I said, I try to put a positive spin on it. I said, we've been married for 40 years. I said, we've -- you know, we're pretty much the same person almost at this point. I said, if we end up in a cardboard box, that's just the way it is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: And next week we are going to receive a key inflation measure from the Labor Department. That's the CPI report. Estimates are looking like it's going to be even higher than the 7.9 percent that we're seeing today. But one bank, UBS, is saying that after this really high number come this month, things might start to taper off a little bit. That is very welcome news for folks that you just heard from who are struggling with these bills. But it is just a projection. It's not a fact for sure. But people are looking for any answers, any hope that things could get better helping them with their bills.

BERMAN: And for older people on a fixed income, there's just nothing they can do.

YURKEVICH: Yes.

BERMAN: They just have to cross their fingers.

YURKEVICH: Absolutely.

BERMAN: Vanessa Yurkevich, terrific report. Thank you so much.

The breaking news is this attack on a railway station in eastern Ukraine, in Kramatorsk. And we're getting this brand-new video in from the moments after the attack, literally the seconds after the attack.

I do want to warn you, it is very graphic.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, at this point the estimates are 30 plus people killed, 100 more perhaps injured. The details are hard to pin down. But you can see the carnage there.

[08:50:00]

We're joined now by a reporter from the AFP on the scene.

I believe the name is Marika Bar. Can you hear me?

Herve Bar.

HERVE BAR, AFP REPORTER AT SCENE OF ATTACK (via telephone): Hi. Yes.

BERMAN: Herve, can you tell me what you're witnessing there?

BAR: So, we've moved away from the train station now because the blast happened earlier this morning. But, at the moment, we're just kind of around the hospital, trying to see what the intake is.

As you say, the numbers of fatalities keeps changing. We're hearing over 40 at the moment, but there are also many, many people injured, so that's a number that could increase. But at this point you're just seeing people trying to make sense of what happened, people at the hospital trying to get treatment, people trying to get information about loved ones that they can't get hold of.

BERMAN: It looks horrifying. The video we're seeing there is simply horrifying. Bodies covered in tarps. You can see the blood on the sidewalk. And I think it's important for people to know, this is a railway station where thousands and thousands of people have been passing through every day. Can you just give us a sense of what you saw when you were close?

BAR: Yes, I mean, we've been here for quite a few days now. Every day we've seen more and more people going to the train station with a lot more urgency trying to get out. And, I mean, when we got there, we were there earlier this morning, before the attack, and again the train station full of just families and people and their pets and all of their belongings that they can possibly carry and they're trying to get trains to -- on the advice of the government, yes, get out of this area because they're obviously expecting some sort of offensive.

And, I mean, by the time we got there, after the blast, people were just really shell shocked to be honest. I think they didn't consider that this might actually really happen there because it was a corridor for people to move out of. And people were just trying to find their belongings, looking for their passports, trying to phone loved ones. It was very, very chaotic and quite sad.

BERMAN: Oh, trying to find their passports, looking for their belongings, trying to find loved ones. And as you say, this, in their minds, was a corridor. This is a target. Everyone knows, correct, that civilians, thousands of civilians are passing through this place?

BAR: Well, it has been for the last week at least, and obviously in the beginning, at the start of the war, it was also large evacuations from here. But, yes, it's predominantly families and just normal people trying to stay out of the fight.

BERMAN: And now caught right in the middle.

Herve Bar, thank you for being with us, letting us know what's there. Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, I want to bring in CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour with us.

Christiane, if you could just put this moment into context for us, in this war, with this train station being attacked like this.

CHRISTINE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, Brianna, it's yet another attack on that part of eastern Ukraine that the Russians are trying to take and capture, the entire area known as Donbas. And Kramatorsk is a very important, you know, town there, that had not fallen to the Russians, is not part of the area that they had been controlling since 2014, but does fall into the greater area that they're trying to secure.

I've just come back from speaking to the -- basically to the head of military intelligence here in Ukraine. And I asked him for his reaction. And as you can imagine, it was predictable. This is just another example, he said, of terror war being waged against us. And if you look at that picture that you've been showing of part of the rocket with Cyrillic writing on it, what it actually says on that, and I asked him about it, is for the children. So he said, the ultimate cynicism is a rocket written for the children, sent to kill children in the name of other children who have already been killed in this long, long war. So, he was very, very clear about that and called it a very cynical move from the Russian side.

We also, obviously, asked about the prospect for the unfolding battle for the east, and he said it's going to be -- he echoed his foreign minister, like World War II, it's going to be aircraft, it's going to be, as he called it, an all combat battle. Aircraft, on the ground, with armor and soldiers. And from the sea.

He told me that their aim is to divide Ukraine in a sort of a North/South Korea fashion. Either to hold for the indefinite future or to use in negotiations. If there should be any kind of peace conference out of this. And I asked him how long he thought this would go on. And he told me not more than six months. Absolutely convinced that the Ukrainians can hold on, but, again, echoed what his foreign minister, what his president, what Ukrainian officials are asking now urgently from NATO and their allies, for the kinds of weapons they need to be able to defend themselves in the -- in good time, in, you know, quickly enough to actually be able to use them. Said they need everything.

[08:55:00]

Particularly he called for combat aircraft and very sophisticated, antiaircraft, anti-missile systems as well.

Brianna.

BERMAN: Christiane Amanpour for us in Kyiv. Christiane, thank you so much. Again, the breaking news, a Russian missile attack at a crowded train station in Kramatorsk here in eastern Ukraine. Thousands and thousands of people there. The death toll, we're told, between 30, 40, maybe higher, hundreds injured. We're getting new details in by the minute.

CNN's live breaking news coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: At the start of the pandemic, many restaurant workers lost their jobs in small businesses as they started to shutter. And in an industry in which people typically work paycheck to paycheck and don't qualify for unemployment, there's no safety net to fall back on.

This week's CNN Hero Chef Kim Calichio could not let her community go hungry, even though Kim was also out of work and struggling. She immediately began doing what she does best, feeding people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM CALICHIO, CNN HERO: I had a choice to either sit here in my house and be overwhelmed, or I can do whatever it is that I could possibly do without thinking about whether it's going to work or not.

We're going to do two apples, the bunch of bananas, who tomatoes.

We started a Go Fund Me to direct deliver groceries to families across Queens.

Great. And then these guys.

And within a week, we raised $10,000.

We thought the pandemic was going to be over in two weeks. So we were, like, we'll spend this ten grand and then we'll go back to work. And that never happened.

The first week we delivered 25 grocery packages to 25 families. And within a month's time, we were delivering 400 to 500 groceries to families every single week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: To see Kim's operation in action, go to cnnheroes.com. And while you're there, you can nominate a hero in your life.

Finally, the legendary rock band Pink Floyd releasing their first new music in almost three decades. It's a protest song to support the people of Ukraine.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The song, "Hey, Hey Rise Up" features a vocal performance by the front man of a Ukrainian rock group Boom Box. The group was inspired by the singer who left his band to join the army. All proceeds from the single will go to humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

All right, the breaking news this morning, this attack on a railway station in eastern Ukraine. At this point we're told 39 people have been killed, more than 100 injured.

[09:00:02]

Thousands and thousands of people pass through this train station every day. It's a key evacuation point from part of the country, where the Ukrainians expect the Russians to begin what they call a massive offensive within days.

CNN's live, breaking news coverage continues right now.