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Ukrainian Forces Launch Counteroffensive taking Large Tracts of Land Quickly from Russian Forces in Eastern Ukraine; King Charles III Visits Northern Ireland; Queen Elizabeth II's Body Will Move from Scotland to London for Lying in State Ceremony; In Moments: King Charles Speaks in Northern Ireland. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 13, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And offering what are dubious rationales, that is what has concerned people, not merely that they disagree with opinions. So he's a bit in denial here, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: At least publicly, anyways. At least publicly. Joan, thank you so much for that reporting, really appreciate it.

NEW DAY continues right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Ukrainian forces seizing even more territory. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar. We have new developments in the remarkable reversal of fortune for Ukraine in the east and the south. They've made major gains, mostly in the east, also some limited gains in the south as well. President Zelenskyy claims they have recaptured some 6,000 square kilometers of territory, that's 2,300 square miles. That's since the beginning of the month alone.

Now, it's impossible to verify this, but that is more ground than the Russians have actually gained in months. And it happened fast. I want to show you this. You can see sort of a time lapse here in the area around Kharkiv. The yellow is where the Ukrainians have made gains just since September 3rd. You can see how quickly this all happened and how much of the territory held by the Russians the Ukrainians were able to take back.

Russia is responding, however. Ukrainian officials say that Russian strikes knocked out power in the region.

KEILAR: Ukrainian troops are being greeted like conquering heroes, civilians rushing to offer flowers, hugs, some of them crying tears of joy. This is a humiliating defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military, the Russians being forced to flee fearing they would be surrounded and captured. They've left behind a trail of destruction.

CNN's Sam Kiley was live from Kharkiv, Ukraine, with an exclusive look at what remains from the Izyum area now. He was the first international correspondent inside of Izyum since the liberation. (BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It has been a stunning advance. Ukraine's rout of Russian invaders has recaptured 6,000 square kilometers Ukraine's president says. This land was held by Russia just a few days ago. Now it's providing a rich harvest to Ukraine's army of abandoned Russian equipment. The Russian Z symbol painted over, the guns ready to kill Russians. The recapture of Izyum, a strategic prize, accelerated by precision strikes from new artillery donated by western allies.

This is clearly hit with a very large piece of artillery or an air strike. You see how important it was strategically, clearly a former school. There's a kind of children's painting on the wall. But it also has got these large holes, which have been dug to store tanks or armored personnel carriers, even artillery pieces. There is one, two, three, four, five.

We were shown into a command center in the bunkers of an old factory. So down here we see medical facility, call it something like that, inside this bunker. There's a barracks.

The top brass here slept in beds made of old doors.

And of course, the command center here. As I walk along here, it's actually extraordinary, there are different labels for the different roles of the senior Russian officers on these school decks that have been arranged in this bunker in an old -- looks like a brick factory. Now, they were safe down here underground. But they didn't feel safe enough to stay in Izyum. What's critical ultimately for the Ukrainian armed forces is making sure that the senior officers of the Russian army stay on the run. If they do that, the Russian armed forces will collapse completely in Ukraine and potentially threaten the longevity of one, Vladimir Putin.

This couple celebrated liberation. They told me that some of their neighbors were less delighted and had blamed Ukrainian forces for shelling their homes. But he insisted the incoming shells never hit the checkpoints or Russian artillery based right outside his house, and so blamed the Russians for false flag attacks on civilians. He said the Russians behaved like pigs. They stole everything from all the empty houses before they ran away.

The Russian guns were busy here with ammunition boxes now stockpiled for winter fuel. And to the Ukrainian victors here, the spoils have been rich. The capture of Izyum and the rout of Russia here has broken a key link in Putin's logistics chain in the battle for the east.

[08:05:00]

Now you have the remarkable scene of a tank coming to collect an abandoned Russian power cell.

I asked him if it had been a hard fight. Not really, he said. The latest Ukrainian successes may not be the beginning of the end of this war, but not even the Kremlin can deny that this chapter has been a very sorry tale for Russia.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

KEILAR: Our thanks to Sam Kiley for that exclusive look inside Izyum. Now, I want to bring in our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto to just walk us through the gains that the Ukrainian military have made.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: So they have been quick. Far quicker than anyone, U.S. or Ukrainian, expected as this came up. This is just over the last several days. And I'm just going to play it again, because you can see over the course of a week, they start just outside Kharkiv and push and push and push. What I've been told about U.S. officials is that what they found is they were pushing, they were able to go further than even they expected, in other words, that Russian defenses were softer than they expected. So in a way the advance accelerated as they went along. By the way, this time lapse we have here does not include the most recent day which has brought Ukrainian forces even further to the east.

KEILAR: Can they hold what they have cleared here?

SCIUTTO: That's going to be the big question. We don't know. At this point, there is a lot of sense that not only, as Sam was just saying, that Russian forces as they left, they dropped their weapons and left behind their artillery pieces and their armored personnel carriers. That's a problem, because if you want to reconstitute those forces, you may have the men who ran away, but you don't have the equipment to arm them to pose a credible defense going forward. Russia will certainly try, and they have got a lot of forces on the other side of the border. But this is quite a move, and the Russian forces not only left the territory, but they left some of their strength behind.

KEILAR: What about Kherson in the south, the Kherson area?

SCIUTTO: In the weeks leading up to this, all the talk, the public talk from Ukrainian officials, had frankly U.S. assessments, and I've been speaking to U.S. officials, was that the focus of the push was going to be in the south. And by the way, there is still a push being attempted here in the south. They're running into tougher Russian defenses down here because, with those warnings, Russia prepared. They dug in, right? They got their forces into a position so they could defend and push back. So part of the reason for the slower progress down here is that you have a more credible Russian defense lining up behind it.

But there was clearly an element of surprise here. Ukrainians not only were focusing down here, that they clearly wanted to make a go of it up north, they made that go, but even they, it seems, did not expect to have so much progress so quickly.

KEILAR: They surprised even themselves. Certainly us. Jim Sciutto, thank you for taking us through that. We appreciate it.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, you're looking at live pictures of Hillsborough Castle in Belfast. This is Northern Ireland's royal residence. King Charles III and the queen consort, they are meeting now with officials from Northern Ireland. Moments ago, they were welcomed with a 21-gun salute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Back in Scotland, in Edinburgh, thousands of people have been paying their respects at Queen Elizabeth's -- at the casket of Queen Elizabeth as it stands in public view. Later it will be flown to London.

CNN international diplomatic editor is in Belfast, back to Belfast now, at St. Anne's Cathedral, which is where after King Charles and Camilla finished at Hillsborough Castle they'll be headed to you a little bit later today, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, they will be. And already we have seen some of what is expected to be about 800 guests going into the cathedral. There will be community leaders there, religious leaders, figures within the community, within the Northern Irish community. But also invited today, significantly, very significantly the Irish president and the Irish prime minister will both be here as well.

And I think this speaks to King Charles' role following on from his mother the queen in helping sort of keep and strengthen peace and stability in Northern Ireland and across the island of Ireland. But it is those political meetings today that he'll be having with the political leaders. He, of course, doesn't exert political influence. He's the head of state. He does not get involved in politics. But in Northern Ireland, it's different, because the political divisions here are deep, and they're deep and significant to the monarchy because they are either pro-British or pro-Irish, pro united Ireland.

[08:10:11]

And it was that pro-Irish faction back in 1979, their political wing, the IRA, who blew up and killed King Charles' mentor, his great uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Mountbatten had taken his family, children, some elderly relatives out for a fishing chip on a beautiful sunny day. The IRA put explosives on his boat and blew it up, killing Lord Louis Mountbatten and some of his family. So that was something really that for a time King Charles, back then Prince Charles, struggled with.

But both he and his mother had been seen as figures here in Northern Ireland as helping establish peace. So when he comes in for the service of reflection here over the next couple of hours, it's not just about reflection, about his mother. It's not just about him becoming king. It is very important that he establishes himself as king in all four parts of the United Kingdom. But here in Northern Ireland, in particular, his role and how he plays and fills that role is very significant for stability here. BERMAN: Yes. Very much so. And it is impossible, as you say, to be

completely apart from politics, really for anyone in Northern Ireland, but particularly the royal family. Nic Robertson, please stand by for us if you will.

KEILAR: The schedule is set for her majesty Queen Elizabeth's final journey. Today her casket travels from Edinburgh, Scotland, to London's Buckingham Palace. On Wednesday she moves from Buckingham to Westminster Hall. There the queen will lie in state at the palace of Westminster through Sunday. And finally on Monday, a state funeral for the monarch at Westminster Abbey.

CNN's Nina Dos Santos is live for us outside of Buckingham Palace with all of the details on this. Nina, what can you tell us?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR: Thanks so much, Brianna. Crowds have already started to converge upon the British capital, awaiting the return of their much-loved departed sovereign. Authorities are expecting 2 million people to arrive in London over the next few days to pay their respects to their late queen, Elizabeth II. That obviously presents a huge logistics and security challenge for authorities who will have to put on tens of thousands of extra police officers for crowd control and other security issues as well. That's even before we get to the big issue of the state funeral early next week.

But now this evening, the focus is firmly fixed upon welcoming the late monarch back to a place that was her home, the seat of the British monarchy, Buckingham Palace. Her coffin is expected to arrive here probably in the early evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DOS SANTOS: After a sorrowful vigil in Scotland, the late Queen Elizabeth II returns to London one last time. The public will have a chance to bid farewell to their beloved monarch in a procession and lying-in-state ceremony held starting on Wednesday, ahead of the state funeral. It will resemble the service held for her father, King George VI, laid to rest in 1952. A carriage will transport the coffin through the city, flanked by members of the royal family walking solemnly alongside. Mourners will line the streets to pay their respects to her majesty as she passes by, and large screens will be set up for crowds to watch from Hyde Park.

Starting at Buckingham Palace, the procession will head down the mile before crossing Horse Guards Parade onto Whitehall and ending at Westminster Hall. There her closed coffin will rest on a raised platform for the public to visit throughout the lying-in-state period. The area will be open to visitors 24 hours a day until it closes next Monday morning.

The coffin will be draped with a royal standard and adorned with a diamond encrusted imperial state crown the Queen had worn so many times before. The area will be under the supervision of ceremonial guards, patrolling around the clock, and visitors will have to pass through an airport staff security search point before entering the palace.

Authorities have told visitors to anticipate extremely long lines with hours long wait times. Despite the government advising against it, some have already started to gather.

MARIA SCOTT, ROYAL FAN FROM NEWCASTLE: For her service, attending is nothing in respect of what she's given to us.

DOS SANTOS: An enormous turnout is expected in London as many mourn the loss of the only monarch they have ever known.

Nina Dos Santos, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

KEILAR: Our thanks to Nina for that report.

[08:15:03]

Joining us now from Buckingham Palace, we have CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward, and CNN royal commentator Emily Nash for us.

Clarissa, just give us a sense of how things are there at Buckingham palace.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think there is no question about it, this is a historic moment, and you can feel that in the air. You can feel that in terms of the logistics that Nina was just touching on in that story.

The incredible herculean effort going into funneling all the crowds to avoid there being choke points or people being pushed too much, and trying to make sure that everybody gets to have a moment to pay their respects. And then beyond that, of course, you have the anticipation of the moment, the emotion of the moment, talking to people who have already been waiting for hours, some of them carrying chairs, they're intending to camp out and wait for this moment.

And all of them saying the same sort of idea, we wanted to come to say thank you. It is the only thing to do. She was here for all of our lifetimes for most people who are here. And this is what makes Great Britain great. It is this observance of -- and tribute to tradition, rising to the occasion, to meet the moment, but also to mark the moment, Brianna.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, Emily, we have been watching King Charles as he make his first visit to Northern Ireland as king. We have been talking the last few days about how important it is. It is vital, definitional that King Charles operates separate from politics, but in Northern Ireland, that means something different. In Northern Ireland, that is in a way impossible, particularly for the royal family.

So how do you think he is navigating this, and how important is it for him today? EMILY NASH, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: This is a huge moment for Prince

Charles. Sorry, King Charles. He is very well connected to Ireland, both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, he's a regular visitor.

But this is the first time one of his visits has been announced in advance. Usually there is huge security around these events. You can only imagine the operation going on around that at the moment. But what he is is a leader and someone who brings people together and is very keen to speak to all sides involved.

I really hope and I think we will see him trying to use his role to bring people together, even across divides like we see in Northern Ireland. I think it is really significant as well that we're going to have Taoiseach there and the president of Ireland, it is really a very good symbol of how the royal family and the queen in particular was able to meet people across divides.

BERMAN: Emily, Clarissa, stand by if you will. Again, we're looking at live pictures from inside Northern Ireland. We're expecting to hear from King Charles shortly.

Our special live coverage continues right after this.

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[08:21:53]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, TV HOST: Well, this is what I think. I think in all families, you know, my father passed recently this summer, and when all families come together for a common ceremony, the ritual of, you know, burying your dead, there is an opportunity for peacemaking. And hopefully there will be that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That was Oprah weighing in on the royal family after her explosive interview, of course, with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last year exposing the family's struggles.

Now, we are awaiting King Charles at this event, at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland. While we do that, let's bring back Clarissa Ward, Emily Nash and Catherine Ostler to talk with us a bit.

Catherine, I'm curious what you think about this because they're -- look, if you read the press, and the British press, there has been so many things written about this being a time potentially where there have been these overtures to try to heal some of these divisions.

Do you see that as a real effort on the part of the royal family? Is this an opportunity for this right now?

CATHERINE OSTLER, FORMER EDITOR, TATLER MAGAZINE: I think it really is, yes. I think King Charles' words, we saw how he went out of his way to express his love for Harry and Meghan. We have seen William making that tangible effort to go on the walkabout.

So we can but hope this might lead to some sort of peace between -- in the family. I think the royal family is in an extraordinary position. They represent so much to so many people. And yet they are still also a family.

And most of us have our little family battles, big and little. But we don't play them out in front of the whole world on television. We can sort of resolve things.

There always has been this sense of royal being washed in public and how helpful is that? Probably not very. So you can just hope now it can be maybe ironed and put away again.

BERMAN: Clarissa, if you don't mind, there is a question I've been wanting to ask you, because when this news broke of the queen's death, you were in Pakistan, witnessing the devastating floods there. And you traveled back from the devastation and the suffering there to London where you lived for years.

I'm wondering what it felt like for you to be back in London. What it feels like for someone there now arriving in the middle of this hugely important transitional period.

WARD: Well, I think it was difficult to leave Pakistan. It's such an acute moment of need and such an important story, but also as someone who is half British, I definitely wanted to be here, and to be home and to be able to have the experience of witnessing this moment as a British citizen, of paying my respects, of being around my family at this time, of trying to explain to my young children who the Queen was, and what her legacy was.

And it is such an extraordinary thing, honestly, to even contemplate that my children won't really have a good memory of who the queen was because for the vast majority of us, we all grew up with her.

[08:25:09]

She was part of the fabric of life in this country. And I will say, just one more thing, John, as we were leaving Pakistan, at the Karachi airport, Pakistani security officer said to us, please will you convey our condolences to the people of Great Britain in this time. We're very sad to hear about the passing of the Queen.

I think obviously, of course, as well, there was some concern for many Pakistanis it meant the floods there would not get the level of attention they might have. But, still, in their moment of profound sadness and despair, they wanted to pass on their condolences to the British people.

KEILAR: Really amazing to hear that.

And, Emily, I know, look, this is coming at such a time of uncertainty in Britain, economically, politically there is this transition.

For Britons, what are their hopes and concerns right now as the monarchy moves into this next phase?

NASH: I think stability, first and foremost. Interesting just to go back to what you said, Clarissa. One of the last things the queen did before her passing was to send a message of sympathy to Pakistan. We need a figure like that, someone who can lead us on the world stage in apolitical way, someone who can give us the soft diplomacy the royal family is so known for and to give us that sense of continuity.

We have a new prime minister. We have a new monarch. We're an incredibly difficult time in our country's history for so many other reasons. We need things to keep moving as the king himself said when he met Liz Truss the other day, we have to try to keep things moving along. That's very important.

I think people in the coming days, once the funeral is over, will want to see the prime minister in particular moving quickly to address some of the issues.

KEILAR: We are looking right now at some live pictures. This is a state room there at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland as King Charles makes a bit of a unity tour as he has ascended the throne and we're going to be awaiting him and the queen consort will be here in a moment.

We'll get it a quick break and be right back.

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