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CNN 10
Experts Say Russia`s Invasion Of Ukraine Has Stalled; The Ukrainian- Russian Conflict`s Impact On Farming. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired March 21, 2022 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hi. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
As you can hear, I`ve got a bit of laryngitis today but we`ve still got plenty of news to tell you about. So please bear with my voice and we`ll
explain what`s happening in the world.
Three and a half weeks after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine, no one knows when the war will end or exactly what needs to happen to end it.
In a recent phone call with the leader of Turkey, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined his conditions for a ceasefire. They included a
promise from Ukraine that it would never join NATO, an alliance of European and North American countries. The Russian leader also wants Ukraine to give
up its weapons. He wants what he calls, quote, nazification in Ukraine to stop and he wants the nation to remove obstacles to the Russian language
being widely taught there.
What does Ukraine want? The government of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy is pushing for an immediate cease-fire stopping the fighting. It
wants Russia to remove its military forces from Ukraine and it wants Russia to give security guarantees, promises it won`t attack its western neighbor
in the future.
Observers say negotiations between the two sides are complex and hard to figure out and some American and NATO officials reportedly have doubts
about how serious Russia is about bringing the conflict to an end. But the war is taking a toll on both sides. There have been numerous attacks on
civilian sites in Ukraine, places like health care facilities and a theater where people were hiding, and thousands of Ukrainian and Russian troops
have reportedly been killed in the fighting.
Russia has a larger and more powerful military than Ukraine but analysts say the invasion is not going as Russia hoped it would.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russian munitions are still having a devastating impact on civilians in key cities
in Mariupol, in the capital Kyiv, but Russian forces are still making little progress, advancing across Ukrainian territory.
The core U.S. assessment hasn`t changed for much of the war.
NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: The Kremlin`s forces remain stalled in many areas.
BLACK: And experts agree. Three weeks in, Russia is in trouble.
UNIDENTIFIIED MALE: No wars go according to plan. The problem is that Russia`s plan was extremely bad.
BLACK: The key question: why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would argue it is a mix of everything. It is a failed or botched concept of operation, with plenty of wrong assumptions about the
very nature of the battlefield. Russia believing in a way that Ukrainians would capitulate or Ukraine would crumble.
BLACK: And experts believe Russia`s failure to secure a quick definitive win has revealed another major flaw in its planning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russia`s out of available uh combat forces to put into this fight.
BLACK: Analysts say Russia`s limited forces are now divided between taking territory and laying siege to major cities, reducing their ability to do
both tasks effectively, and that means Russia must be reassessing what victory looks like.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this stage, we are still talking about limited gains and goals. There`s simply not enough troops um potentially coming from
Russia or elsewhere to do a sort of massive full-scale ground invasion of Ukraine, keep that territory, hold it and then fight a very costly counter
insurrection war.
BLACK: U.S. officials say they`re seeing some early efforts to boost troop numbers with foreign fighters.
GEN. KENNETH MCKENZIE, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: We believe that out of Syria, there are perhaps small, small -- very small groups of people
that may be trying to make their way to Ukraine.
BLACK: How the next phase of the war plays out will be significantly determined by Russia`s intentions in Kyiv, trying to take the capital would
likely involve months of bombardment and urban warfare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s going to be a tough order of business. Those Ukrainians know every single alley, every back room, every road, every
intersection. The Russians are going to find themselves in a hard fight.
BLACK: Slow Russian progress can help Ukrainian forces by allowing them more time to prepare and be resupplied with advanced weapons from allies.
But experts say it could also inspire greater brutality from Russia, a willingness to escalate and destroy in order to compensate for its stalled
invasion.
Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
Which of the following people was not a Hoosier?
Dan Quayle, Neil Armstrong, Michael Jackson or Orville Redenbacher?
A Hoosier hails from Indiana and astronaut Neil Armstrong was born in Ohio.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Agriculture is a major industry in Indiana and that makes the Hoosier state a good place for us to illustrate how the war in Ukraine is
having widespread effects on global food prices.
Months before the Russian invasion began, inflation was driving up the prices of gasoline in almost every category of groceries. This rise in
costs was at its highest level since 1982. But Russia is one of the world`s biggest exporters of fertilizer. Ukraine and Russia combined export more
than 25 percent of the world`s wheat. So while this can ultimately cause higher prices for groceries, what happens between the war and the store to
cause that?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every day, up to twice a day, like clockwork, Josh Everhart makes this trip hauling corn and soy
to the grain elevator in town. But the constant hauling of crops for his four trucks and record gas prices makes even the shortest journey feel like
a slow burn.
JOSH EVERHART, EVERHART FARMS: You don`t want to see the bill.
YURKEVICH: You don`t? What do --
J. EVERHART: You look at and you`re like, oh, no.
YURKEVICH: What is it looking like?
J. EVERHART: Well, I mean $1,000 or a thousand gallon tank is $4,000.
YURKEVICH: Gas prices hit a record last week, but are dropping slightly, yet still above four dollars a gallon nationally. And here in Indiana, even
steeper, diesel which fills these tanks, at nearly $5 a gallon.
CHRIS EVERHART, EVERHART FARMS: It`s astronomical, but, you know, it`s part of doing business.
YURKEVICH: Chris Everhart, Josh`s father, says inflation has pushed prices up on just about everything on their farm. But commodity prices have risen,
too. This month wheat rose to its highest price since 2008.
C. EVERHART: I`ve never seen anything like this in a wheat market.
YURKEVICH: For only the second time in 25 years, the Everhart family planted winter wheat, 165 acres of it to try to capitalize on rising wheat
prices. But it`s a risky bet.
C. EVERHART: They`re a lot higher than me than we ever anticipated them being. But so are inputs.
YURKEVICH: That`s fuel, seed, fertilizer and labor, and Russia`s invasion into Ukraine is only pushing prices higher.
PHIL RAMSEY, RAMSEY FARMS: This is uncharted territory for me.
YURKEVICH: On Phil Ramsey`s farm in Shelbyville, he says he`s spending $500,000 more to plant his crops this year. The only thing softening that
blow, the higher price he`ll hopefully get for his wheat, soy and corn.
How much does what is happening in Ukraine impact you here on the farm?
RAMSEY: I`m happy that the prices are going up. I am not happy about the situation because even though they`re a competitor of ours, it`s kind of
like playing sports, you don`t want to see somebody on the other team get hurt.
YURKEVICH: And fertilizer has become their biggest expense, because it`s made from natural gas which has also risen significantly. A key supplier,
Russia, has stopped exporting it.
How much more does it take to fill up those bins behind me this year compared to last year?
RAMSEY: Today`s cost is $60,000 more per tank. I have four tanks. That`s $240,000.
YURKEVICH: And those prices are much slower to come down, compared to the volatile price of crops.
C. EVERHART: We just lose money when that happens. It`s only happened a few times in my farming career, but this one`s totally different than any
that I`ve been through in 43 years.
YUKEVICH: Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, East Morristown, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
AZUZ: To many people, it might have looked like a big old block of rock with some ridges in it. But to this man who just happens to have a deep
interest in prehistoric animals, it`s the tooth of a woolly mammoth.
Justin Blauwet was recently observing a construction site in Iowa when he spotted it it`s inches long and weighs more than 11 pounds, and a
paleontology instructor at the University of Iowa thinks it`s thousands of years old.
Its weight explains why the tooth fairy left it alone, but if you`re enameled with the roots of paleontology on the lookout for bones that
cemented their place and made a dent in history, it`s no mammoth tusk to find the tooth the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth.
I`m Carl Azuz and we`ve got love for Loveland High School today. Shout out to our viewers watching from Loveland, Ohio. And thank you for subscribing
and leaving a comment on our YouTube channel.
END
