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Hala Gorani Tonight
Russian Missiles Hit Ukraine's Key Infrastructure; Top U.S. Diplomats Visit Ukraine; France Re-Elects Emmanuel Macron For A Second Term; UNCHR: More Than 5.2M People Have Fled Ukraine; Russia-Bound Luxury Items Being Impounded In Belgium; Twitter Reportedly Near Agreement On Sale To Musk. Aired 2-3p ET
Aired April 25, 2022 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello everyone, live from CNN in London, I'm HALA GORANI TONIGHT. Russia strikes five key railway stations
in Ukraine, and an assault on the country's vital infrastructure. We're on the ground in Kyiv. Then, America's top diplomat and defense chief vowed to
keep standing with Ukraine as they make an in-person trip to the country's capital. And the French President Emmanuel Macron wins a decisive victory
and a second term.
But rival Marine Le Pen says she will not give up the fight, we're live with the very latest from Paris as well. Top U.S. official say Ukraine can
win the war if it has the right weapons, even suggesting Russia's invasion has failed so far. But new attacks across the country today underscore the
very difficult road ahead, and it could take a while to achieve these goals.
Ukraine says Russia is pro-systematically destroying railway infrastructure. it says five stations were hit within just one hour in
western and central Ukraine, in other words, far from the front lines of eastern Ukraine. Ukraine says Russia is also keeping up attacks on a steel
plant in Mariupol were both fighters and civilians have been holed up for weeks. The Azov Battalion released this video saying -- it shows women and
children sheltering inside.
Russia said it will allow evacuations today, but Ukraine says no agreement was reached on humanitarian corridors once again. The U.S. says it wants
Russia's military capabilities weakened so it can no longer wage these kinds of wars. The Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Secretary of
State Antony Blinken spoke to reporters a day after meeting with the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE, UNITED STATES: We don't know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign, independent
Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene. And our support for Ukraine going forward will continue, it will continue
until we see final success.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, Matt Rivers is live tonight in Kyiv, and the two men didn't come empty-handed, Matt.
MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, they sure didn't, and they once again announced yet another massive aid package coming here to
Ukraine. Hundreds of millions of dollars in additional aid, that is along the lines of what Ukraine has been requesting, both publicly and privately
for a long time. Not only were they requesting that the meeting take place, Hala, but they wanted deliverables, and it seems that they got that in the
form of another aid package.
Also, we're expecting U.S. diplomatic presence to resume here in Ukraine. Which obviously is going to have a huge impact on the war, but it is
symbolic in the sense that the United States feels that it is safe enough and controlled enough by Ukrainian forces at least in certain parts of the
country that their diplomats can come back. We also heard from Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin who very pointedly said that with this aid package,
not only does the United States believe that the Ukrainians can win this war.
I mean, he was unequivocal in saying that with the right materials, they can beat the Russians. But he even took it a step further and he said, it
is the hope of the United States that Russia is degraded militarily, that they are weakened militarily as a result of a loss here in Ukraine. He said
we've already seen part of that after the Russians tried and failed to take the capital of Kyiv where I am. And he thinks that, that might happen again
in the eastern part of the country.
Meanwhile, the Russians clearly sending a message, Hala, no question about that with these airstrikes on five different train stations across Ukraine.
We of course don't know if the Russians would have launched those attacks anyway were these U.S. delegation not visiting Kyiv, but Moscow is
certainly aware of the image, of the timing, of the messaging that surrounds that.
By hitting those rail stations, not only does it send that message, you know, an aggressive message to the United States and to the Ukrainians, but
it also depending on the amount of damage done at these rail stations, these are the kind of things that could impact the flow of all those heavy
weapons the United States and others are sending to the eastern front.
This is something the military strategist have looked out for a while now as a way Russia can possibly weaken the Ukrainian resistance in the east by
making it simply more difficult to get the kind of weapons they need to mount an effective defense.
[14:05:00]
Still finding out information, Hala, about exactly how much damage was done with these train stations, not entirely clear. But any damage is not a good
thing for the Ukrainians as they try and move those weapons to the front.
GORANI: Thank you very much, Matt Rivers in Kyiv. Let's get more now on the highest level American visit to Ukraine since the war began. And also,
obviously, with the move once again of the U.S. Embassy back to Kyiv. We're joined by CNN's Christiane Amanpour, she is currently in Paris covering the
results of the French election.
But before I ask you what a Macron would mean in the sort of bigger picture for Putin since obviously, his ideological and you know, support would have
gone perhaps more towards Marine Le Pen. Let's talk about this U.S. visit to Kyiv, clearly standing side-by-side in person in support of Zelenskyy.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hala, I think the issue and the statement from the Defense Secretary that struck me the most
because it was definitive. And I hadn't actually heard them say it like this. That they wanted to give enough to Ukraine to quote, "win this". To
win this current fight and to then build on for tomorrow. So, I think that, that seems to be an important statement because people have been asking, is
NATO giving Ukraine just enough to hold on?
To hold Russia off and just try to get through day-to-day? Or is there a strategy to this battle that NATO is helping Ukraine wage? As NATO says,
for it to keep its territorial integrity and its sovereignty. So we've been asking what the strategy is, and maybe it is now to ramp up enough heavy
weaponry, the kind that they will need as this battlefield shifts, and it has shifted of course to the east and to the south to inflict enough pain
on Vladimir Putin, to push him back enough so that perhaps he might see the light of reason as Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointed out.
Perhaps, if there is a negotiation, he said, this could lay the ground work for it. So it was pretty important. It was a little bit worrying to hear
Austin say, well, what we want to really see is Russia, you know, weakened. What does that mean? Because another question has been, does it serve U.S.
interest to see this war go on for a while? Precisely to weaken Russia, but we know what the cost is and who pays that price. Those of the Ukrainian
people.
The civilians and the others who have risen up to defend their right to exist as a country. So, you know, what is it? Is it to have Ukraine win now
--
GORANI: Yes --
AMANPOUR: Or just to drag this out and make it, you know, painful and degrade Russia's ability?
GORANI: And bigger picture, Macron won decisively. The polls preceding the second round of the election gave a higher share of the final vote to Le
Pen than she ended up achieving. I wonder how does that fit into the bigger picture with the clearly, pro-NATO, pro-Europe president once again re-
elected in France for five more years.
AMANPOUR: Well, Hala it plays absolutely directly into this bigger picture because on a foreign policy level, anyway on an alliance level on the war,
on all of these major issues right now, Macron is the right person for this moment, say his allies, and frankly, say the French people. They voted for
him, right, by a very large -- comparatively, compared to other western elections, a large majority.
So for those reasons, European leaders have been praising his re-election, the president of the United States who has just apparently finally managed
to reach President Macron re-elected now by phone to offer his congratulations, has been saying since last night that this was a key ally,
that of course France is one of the oldest and most reliable democracies. And that it was needed to fight this war of survival for Ukraine.
But also, for the democracy project that President Biden has staked his presidency on. So the reverse would have been true had Le Pen won. A NATO
skeptic, a Euro skeptic, probably would not have kept up the sanctions on Putin, would have perhaps fractured the European alliance and the NATO
alliance in terms of isolating him. In fact, Macron's Europe minister, I spoke to him today, and he admitted that you know, these sanctions are
painful, but here's what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLEMENT BEAUNE, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, FRANCE: When Marine Le Pen's party said for instance we should not do the ban on oil or
maybe tomorrow, gas, because it will have an impact on the French people's lives. It will have an impact, we will manage it, we will try to mitigate
it. But we cannot say that the war has no price.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So, a very stark reminder to the voters, to the French people that this moral duty and this security duty will come at a price, and
they're going to try to, as he said cushion the worst of the effects.
[14:10:00]
Now Hala, clearly, domestically, inside France, Macron faces a bit of an uphill struggle to reconcile a very divided country, and to make sure that
Marine Le Pen's project to combat him and to be a stiff opposition in parliament doesn't come true. So, he's got a lot of heavy, domestic,
political work ahead of him.
GORANI: Yes, thank you very much Christiane Amanpour live in Paris. Well, Russia continues to bombard Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv with
heavy shelling. The damage is immense and city officials cannot even account for all the dead. Clarissa Ward filed this report for us earlier
today, showing us what's left of the historic government building.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): So, we are in what remains of the Regional State Administration building. And you
know, you had just talked about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying it's possible the Ukrainians could win this if they have the right equipment.
Well, this is what they're up against. And I want to take you around so you can get a feel for the full scale of the damage that was done here when two
massive missiles landed in and around this building last month.
You can see just out what's left of the window there. That is Freedom Square. And this city has been getting pulverized, day in, day out. Just
today, we have heard a pretty much constant stream of bombardment since about 4:30 in the morning. Often, it goes on all night. And the mayor here
says that 25 percent of the buildings in this city have been hit during strikes, 25 percent. Just try to get your head around the enormity of that
figure.
Sixty seven schools have been hit. Look at this, this was once a hellacious grand staircase. Now completely destroyed. According to authorities, only
ten people were killed here which is extraordinary. Although, I've just been talking with one of the soldiers who is in charge of looking after
this space, and he says, they believe there are many more dead under the rubble. I'm going to show you what some of that rubble looks like over
here.
People were rescued as well. But going back to those statistics that the mayor gave us, 67 schools, 54 kindergartens, 16 hospitals. That's just here
in the city of Kharkiv. You can see the defenses that they had tried to implement to protect themselves from attack. But obviously, sandbags, no
match for this -- I don't know if you could hear that as well, some bombardment again in the distance. And you can see outside, the scale of
the devastation.
Cars completely scorched, there is actually an office over there to the side that we can't get into easily from this point, which we saw yesterday
where an entire car has literally been thrown into an office by the force of that blast. And what people here fear in this city is that Kharkiv could
be the next Mariupol because of the amount of bombardment and the real intensification that we've seen of that bombardment especially in the last
week.
Now, I just want camera man Scotty McWhinnie and producer Brian Swells(ph) to be a little careful here. But I do want to show you this, because it
gives you a real feeling for just the enormity of that blast. I mean, absolutely astonishing. It literally took out sick stories. And that's why
as you can probably imagine, we're hearing from authorities here that they do believe some people are still trapped under that rubble.
But that it is just simply impossible for them at this stage with bombardment continuing day in and day out, in the city for them to try to
dig down underneath that and get a sense of just how many people may have lost their lives here. One more thing I think that's important to
contextualize in terms of what I was saying about how people here fear that this could be the next Mariupol. Kharkiv is 30 miles away from Russia.
It's in the northeast of the country, it's the second largest city. And Russian troops essentially have been launching this three-prong defensive
in the Donbas region, pushing down from the north, up from the south and in from the east.
[14:15:00]
Ukrainian forces have also been launching a series of counter offensive, particularly around the strategic town of Izium. So Kharkiv is very close
to a lot of the action, there are a lot of important supply routes for the Russians to get more ammunition and weaponry to places like Izium, and
that's why it's strategically important. Not to mention of course, the symbolic value, and you can imagine the symbolism of this building.
You talk to the locals, this was a place people came to pose for photographs. This was a place you would dress nicely to visit. And now,
this is what's left of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: And that was Clarissa Ward in Kharkiv. A National Security Council spokesperson says the U.S. is committed to strengthening Ukraine's chances
of victory. We heard it from the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin. This is winnable essentially is what these officials are saying on their visit
to Kyiv. And this administration official quote is saying on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, the U.S. Secretary of Defense
backed that up today in Poland. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, UNITED STATES: In terms of our -- their ability to win, the first step in winning is believing that you can
win. And so they believe that we can win, we believe that we can win -- they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support. And we're
going to do everything we can, continue to do everything we can, to ensure that gets done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, William Taylor is the former American ambassador to Ukraine. He's now the vice president for Russia and Europe at the United States
Institute of Peace and he joins me from Washington D.C. Thank you sir for being with us. First of all -- OK, the Secretary of Defense is saying this
is winnable. What does a victory look like here? You have Mariupol in ruins. You saw Clarissa Ward in the ruins of an administration building, in
the second largest city of the country, Kharkiv. What does a victory for Ukraine look for in this context?
WILLIAM TAYLOR, VICE PRESIDENT FOR RUSSIA & EUROPE, UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE: So victory is an independent, sovereign Ukraine within its
internationally recognized borders, and it can achieve that, as the secretary said, if there is adequate weapons and ammunition and fuel and
other support going to the Ukrainian military. The Ukrainian military have demonstrated that they will fight, can fight, against all odds they are
fighting.
They defeated the Russians in Kyiv and around Kyiv. They are holding out as heroes and around Mariupol. They've demonstrated that they've got the will.
They just need the resources. And that's what Secretary Austin is talking about providing so they can win.
GORANI: OK, so if you provide Ukrainians with the resources, what are we talking about here? Because in terms of man power, in terms of boots on the
ground, in terms of sizes of army and air force fleets and the rest of it, Russia is superior even if obviously Ukrainians have shown their will to
fight and in many cases incredible heroism. How do you do that? Then you just flood the country with weapons and just allow the war to continue for
as long as it takes Ukrainians to take back every inch of territory including the east?
TAYLOR: You continue to support the Ukrainians as long as they are fighting and want to continue to fight. And if they go to the negotiating
table, we should support them there. One of the things that the Ukrainians have more than the Russians is the will to fight. The Russians don't know
why they're there. The Russian soldiers --
GORANI: Yes --
TAYLOR: Don't know why they're in Ukraine. But they also don't have as many Russian soldiers as they thought they did, as they need.
GORANI: Yes --
TAYLOR: So they are now -- the Russians are now looking for soldiers from Syria or from Libya or from private contractors or from Belarus, and
they're not getting the soldiers. The soldiers that they started out this fight with have been -- have been beaten up and their units have been
pushed back out of Ukraine. So the Ukrainians have strong support, and they have more volunteers than they can deal with. So the Ukrainians have the
soldiers, the Russians don't.
GORANI: Right, but at the same time the Russians are obliterating cities, I mean, in a way that then makes them almost uninhabitable, like Mariupol.
So, if those cities are taken back, then what? Do you think the Ukrainians -- and also this prolongs it for many more months, possibly years, this
conflict between the invaders and the Ukrainians, repelling the invaders. We're looking at a longer timeline, potentially.
TAYLOR: We could be looking at a longer timeline if the Russians continue to fight, and the Russians may not. I mean, it is very possible that the
Russian army will crumble as it did around Kyiv.
[14:20:00]
But on the other hand, you're right, it could go long. What we know is the Ukrainians are not giving up. The Ukrainians will continue to fight as long
as they have the support. As long as they have the weapons, ammunition, fuel to continue that fight, they will do that. And in the end, I am
convinced that the Russians will lose, and the Ukrainians will prevail. And if it comes to a negotiation, that's for the Ukrainians to decide, and the
negotiations will probably happen when President Putin realizes that he's not going to win on the ground.
GORANI: And the Americans are moving the embassy back to Kyiv. There is a new U.S. ambassador who will be -- the expectation is she will be
confirmed. Bridget Brink, who is a career veteran diplomat. Talk to us about the message that, that sends, that the U.S. is re-establishing an
embassy in the capital.
TAYLOR: It's really important to be on the ground. And Secretary Blinken made that very clear. It's good that he announced that the Ambassador
Bridget Brink will be the next ambassador there. That was a very good sign. He also said that he's anticipating the embassy moving back into Ukraine
and then soon, back to Kyiv because exactly as you say, it's important for the mission of the embassy.
That is to listen to the Ukrainians and to talk to the Ukrainians to be in the capital. That's where they have to be, and the diplomats tell me,
that's where they want to be.
GORANI: Thank you so much William Taylor for joining us from Washington. We really appreciate your time this evening on CNN. And still to come, the
French President Emmanuel Macron has been re-elected but there's something slightly bitter-sweet about the victory. We'll explain what it is coming
up. Stay with us, we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: The French President Emmanuel Macron will now serve another five- year term after winning Sunday's election. He is the first French leader to be re-elected in the last 20 years. But there is more to this victory than
meets the eye. Even though he did get about 58 percent of the vote, he beat his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen by a smaller margin compared to five
years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT-ELECT, FRANCE (through translator): And I know that for a number of my compatriots, who chose the far-right today, the
anger and the discord which brought them to vote for her project also merits a response.
[14:25:00]
It will also be my responsibility and the responsibility of those who surround me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: All right, so the French system is you have a first round with a number of candidates. The second round is a runoff between the two top
contenders. Then there is something that some people call the third run, which is the parliamentary election, and they are just around the corner,
they'll determine who gets to be the French prime minister. Sophie Pedder is the Paris Bureau Chief for "The Economist" and joins us live via Skype.
So, Sophie, it was a decisive victory.
It was a higher share of the votes than many polls had predicted for Macron, 58 percent. But you still had a higher share of the vote for Le Pen
than she's ever achieved in the past. What's your assessment of the final result?
SOPHIE PEDDER, PARIS BUREAU CHIEF, THE ECONOMIST: Well, I think that's right. You know, we have to see the two sides to this vote. The first one
that's important to remember is that Macron won it, it's very unusual for a French president that is actually holding a parliamentary majority to be
re-elected in France, and it hasn't happened since de Gaulle in '65. And even then, it wasn't a direct vote for the presidency at the time.
Don't forget, you're looking at Emmanuel Macron, age 44, he's only stood the public office twice in his life, each time for the presidency, and each
time he's won. So, in that sense, it's historic and it's an extraordinary results for him. But at the same time as you said, Hala, you know, the
percentage of the vote that has gone to Marine Le Pen is significantly up. It's over 40 percent this year, it's significantly up on the 34 percent she
got five years ago.
And that is something that has got people thinking very long and hard about, you know, the force of populism, about the appeal to those who feel
disenfranchised off the populist vote, of nationalism in France at a time when nationalism is on the rise all over the West. And it is really
challenging, I think. Emmanuel Macron for the second term, if he's going to try and dent that populist vote durably.
GORANI: Why are the French -- why is the French electorate -- and by the way, we can put kind of an age breakdown which I thought was quite
interesting. So, the very young voted in the vast majority for Macron, the much older as well. But then you have kind of a chunk in the middle there,
the 25 to 34-year-olds, 49 percent voting for Le Pen, 50-59, 51 percent voting for Le Pen. Why was there -- why was she popular to that degree with
them when, you know, it had been discussed many times that she accepted a loan from a Kremlin-linked bank in 2014 to finance her 2017 campaign.
She's taken a loan from a Hungarian bank for this campaign in the middle of a Russian invasion of a sovereign nation. Why are so many French voters
attracted to the Marine Le Pen, the idea of her as the president of France?
PEDDER: Well, I think what you -- you put your finger on something really important about this election. That's that her links to Putin's Russia just
did not dent her appeal in front of French voters. And that's something that's really quite surprising at a time, as you said, of this brutal war.
I think the success she has, particularly in that first round campaign, leading up to the vote on April the 10th, was that she really did a quite
smart grassroots focus. Which took her --
GORANI: Yes --
PEDDER: To all sorts of corners of France that felt, you know, disenfranchised and sort of, as she called it, the forgotten of France. And
she was in markets, she was pressing the flesh, she was having her selfies taken and she spoke in a language they understand. And I think that's been
part of Macron's difficulty is finding the right kind of -- you know, he's a smart guy, he's very cerebral, he's very intellectual, and he finds it
difficult to speak that sort of simple language that people feel that they can understand, that helps them feel that they can connect with him, and
that he could represent them.
GORANI: Yes, in fact, as we've discussed before Sophie, her polling numbers were pretty bad in January, February. And when she started talking
about the cost of living crisis and moving away from issues like immigration, is when her numbers shot straight up. And she has really --
you know, she's sort of recast the image of the -- of her party. She's moving away from what was the national front of her father to something
that just at least cosmetically looks more appealing.
PEDDER: I think that the word cosmetically is the crucial one, because what happened, you described exactly what happened after the first round
vote. And I think there was a lack of scrutiny really of what she was really proposing until after that -- after she made it into the runoff. And
at that point, it was very interesting, and particularly during the head- to-head debate with Macron-Le Pen. There was only one of those.
He really laid into, you know, her links to Russia, what she -- what she meant for the European Union, how she would put an end to the Franco-German
relationship, how she would seek alliances with countries like Hungary and Poland, how she would take France out of NATO's military command structure.
And I think those points began to, you know, put a cap on how far the French were prepared to actually consider her someone who was a president
in waiting.
So I think it did have its limits at the end that appeal, even though she did a very good cost of living focus early on which captured voters'
attention.
GORANI: Yes, and banned the headscarf everywhere in public, which Macron really, really also attacked her on.
PEDDER: That's absolutely true. He attacked her, went for her on that during the debate and in a way, I think that helped him to attract some of
the vote that had gone into Jean-Luc Melenchon on the radical left, who he narrowly missed the place in the runoff. He came third with a very good
score. And some of that vote on the left I think went to Macron, about two thirds of it. Sorry, about two fifths of it went to Macron probably because
Macron had taken such a strong line against Marine Le Pen's proposal to ban that the Muslim headscarf on the streets of France which was just
unacceptable to most people outside the sort of hard right and nationalist right.
GORANI: Sophie Pedder, thanks very much and I urge our viewers to read your amazing reporting in The Economist and, of course, I'm one of your most
loyal Twitter followers as well. Whenever I need good frank analysis, that is my first stop. Thank you so much. Still to come tonight, with almost
three million Ukrainian refugees arriving in Poland, is the welcome mat maybe fraying a little bit? We'll look at the strains that Poland is
facing. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:35:01]
GORANI: More than 56,000 people fled Ukraine during this past weekend alone according to the U.N. And while the pace is slowing, more than 5.2 million
have now left since the war began. And we're talking about a country of about 44 million. So you get a sense there of the percentage of the total.
Well over half of them have poured into Poland equal to more than seven percent of that country's population.
And while the Polish people have been extraordinarily warm and welcoming, there is a simmering sense that some Poles may be reaching the limits of
their tolerance. CNN's Erica Hill is in the Polish capital, Warsaw, for us with more on that angle. Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala, that's right. So I spent today at a shelter for non-Ukrainian refugees. And we talked specifically about the
generosity of Poland and the Polish people welcoming millions of people from Ukraine fleeing war, of course, over the last nearly two months.
But you're right, what I was told is that it is starting to take a toll on people here in Poland. And it's not just those who are welcoming
Ukrainians, for example, into their homes. There are other stresses here. And it's true that the reception is not the same for everyone, as I heard
directly today. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMILA DEMBINSKA, MANAGER, HOSTEL FOR NON-UKRAINIAN REFUGEES: So clear that we are more open for, you know, those Slavic people, ethnic groups, so we
are not so open to accept and to host at our flats and apartments, people from, for example, different countries of Africa or Asia. That's why we are
pretty sure that for Ukrainian refugees, it's much more easier to find a place to stay. That's why we decided to guarantee this opportunity to stay,
and to rest, and to have this calm moment here in Poland at the beginning of the of the year, staying in our country.
HILL: So that opportunity that they're offering, Hala, is for non-Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. That's because it's a very different experience
for them. Ukrainians, when they arrive, can stay legally for 18 months, they can work. They have access to health care and social services, non-
Ukrainians have 15 days, and finding a place to stay can be tough.
And as I learned from these volunteers today, one of the reasons they believe it's so tough is that a lot of them are men. There are a number of
international students who are fleeing the war still in Ukraine. And there are also people of color.
And she says, as you just heard in that bite, she thinks it's a little harder sometimes for people to welcome them in. So she and some other
volunteers from an organization here in Warsaw have set up a shelter that is frankly, bursting at the seams where they welcome non-Ukrainian
refugees. They have families, they have single men, you name it, from 36 -- they've hosted more than 500 people from 36 different countries. And their
goal is to continue to expand those operations because what they are waiting on, frankly, is a second wave of refugees as fighting intensifies
in Ukraine.
To do that, though, they actually need a new building, Hala. The one they're in is donated, they only have it until the end of May. And so
they're hoping they can find another space that can hold more than the 70 refugees they can take in right now. They're hoping perhaps to double that
to 150 beds.
GORANI: All right. Thanks so much, Erica Hill, live in Warsaw.
Well, if you'd like to help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food, and water, and indeed help people out of Ukraine, including
some of those who may have more difficulty settling in neighboring countries, you can go to cnn.com/impact There are several ways to help
there.
Beijing is rolling out mass testing for another 16 million residents this week. That's an addition to the 3.5 million people already being tested in
the capital. And this comes as China continues to struggle to contain its worst ever COVID outbreak and, standby, its zero COVID policy. CNN's David
Culver has been experiencing firsthand the harsh restrictions in Shanghai.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hala, the determination to contain the virus leading to a disturbing video circulating on social media right here
in Shanghai. They show crews installing steel fences inside residential compounds so as to prevent people in buildings with reported positive cases
from getting out, essentially caging them in. Many raising the obvious fire hazard concerns.
In other communities like mine, we've got a paper seal on the door. And there's now a community COVID guard on duty 24/7 to make sure we don't
wander out of our homes without permission. On the public streets here, workers also putting up barricades. They're keeping people from traveling
to other districts.
This latest Omicron fueled surge has the city now reporting more than 500,000 cases since the start of this outbreak in early March. And there's
now concern growing outside of Shanghai, especially in Beijing.
[14:40:00]
Only double digit case numbers reported so far but it's concerning enough for one of the capital city's largest districts to require its three
million residents to get three rounds of PCR tests this week. Authorities have also locked down dozens of residential compounds across eight
districts in Beijing, where residents, like us here in Shanghai, are banned from leaving their doors or their complexes.
Following the horror stories of Shanghai and the challenges to get food here, Beijing officials are trying to reassure the public that the city has
enough supplies. But that doesn't stop people from panic buying. Many fearing that they're going to go into a city wide lockdown like here in
Shanghai. The news also causing global stocks and oil prices to fall Monday.
China's Shanghai Composite Index had its worst day since February 3rd, 2020 when the initial Coronavirus outbreak first rocked the nation stock market.
The lockdown here in Shanghai has already forced many factories to suspend production and made shipping delays worse. In turn, placing more strain on
global supply chains. All of this as officials stand by their zero-COVID strategy, Hala.
GORANI: All right, David, thanks very much. And still to come tonight, say you're a European nation that's just impounded millions of dollars worth of
luxury goods headed to Russia. What next? We'll get some answers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Right now, billions of dollars worth of luxury goods are sitting idle in ports around the world blocked by sanctions from reaching their
final destination Russia. This limbo is posing many interesting questions. Can these items be sold to fund Ukraine's defense, for example? And who
actually owns the sanctioned products? Our Nic Robertson finds out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Thousands of luxury vehicles not going to Russia. In this corner of the sprawling lot, 200 Top-
End Cadillac Escalades, street value in excess of $15 million. The spoils of sanctions literally piling up inside Belgium's megaport, Zeebrugge, a
new front line in Europe's economic war with Russia pitting Belgian customs agents against Russia's sanctioned oligarchs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have been freezing over 200 billion Euros of Russian assets. We have also other luxury goods that are being blocked.
[14:45:03]
Momentarily, there are 2,500 containers being blocked for more investigations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: But who actually owns these seized valuables? And can they be sold for money to support Ukraine is fast becoming a pressing question,
particularly in Europe, feeling the economic pinch of Russia's war, these vehicles aren't Russian owned yet, but there is plenty of Russian wealth
falling under Belgian government control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was already 2.7 billion Russian assets that were blocked, were frozen, and then also almost 200 billion transactions that
were blocked.
ROBERTSON: And the goods that have been seized so far, what happens to them, who owns them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their transactions, of course, are blocked and the assets itself are frozen, so they cannot be used anymore. It doesn't mean
that they become -- that the government owns them.
ROBERTSON: And all these vehicles we're looking at, they all say destination Russia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: In Zeebrugge, Shipping Terminal Boss, Marc Adriansens, is on the frontlines enforcing sanctions. Any vehicle bound for Russia, valued over
$55,000, is impounded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC ADRIANSENS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ICO TERMINALS: So for the moment, we have 8,000 cars that start to --
ROBERTSON: Eight thousand?
ADRIANSENS: Eight thousand already. Yes.
ROBERTSON: That's a lot.
ADRIANSENS: That's a lot, although we could get more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: A lot more. He says 120,000 vehicles bound for Russia a year transit his controls is already turning some away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADRIANSENS: We are not there to store cars. We are there to handle curse and to do added value on cars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Pressure on Adriansens and Belgium will grow. The war far from over and trade ties with Russia deep.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: In the third quarter of last year, Russia was the European Union's largest maritime trading partner. According to E.U. data, and one
third of all those goods coming through ports like this in Belgium, and just up the coast in the Netherlands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: It could all add up to potentially billions of dollars of goods that could be used to help Ukraine, but turning it into cash requires legal
confiscation, not an easy process. European parliamentarians are being warned by E.U. justice officials.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER CSONKA, EUROPEAN COMM. DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR JUSTICE: To get somebody's property confiscated, we need a crime. We are looking for legal
solutions, money laundering, embezzlement, perhaps sanction circumvention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Until then, seized goods and assets will age while Ukraine's frontline fighters die for fresh weapons. Nic Robertson, CNN, Zeebrugge,
Belgium.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: We'll have more on Ukraine in a bit.
But other news, actor Johnny Depp is back on the stand today. He's being cross-examined on his ongoing defamation lawsuit that he brought against
his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Heard's attorney asked the actor some difficult questions. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Heard wasn't the only one who had a problem with your drinking. Correct?
JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR: Sir, if anyone had a problem with my drinking at any time in my life, it was me. The only person that I've ever abused in my
life is myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Depp accuses her of ruining his career with false accusations of violence during their relationship. Both allege the other was physically
violent.
Now many of you use Twitter, maybe not actively, maybe you just use it to peruse. Twitter is reportedly nearing a deal to sell itself to Tesla CEO
Elon Musk. The sale agreement could come as soon as today, according to the Wall Street Journal. Twitter declined to comment on the reports and it
comes 11 days after Elon Musk shocked the industry by offering to buy the company for more than $41 billion. He says Twitter needs to become a
platform for free expression once again. So if he does buy it, Twitter might change quite significantly.
A New York judge is holding former U.S. President Donald Trump in contempt of court the State Attorney General's Office says. He did not produce all
the documents that were subpoenaed in the investigation into his company. The judge said on Monday that Trump would be fined $10,000 a day until he
complies. New York's Attorney General is investigating whether the Trump Organization misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain
favorable loans and tax deductions. All right. Stay with CNN. We'll be back after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:52:16]
GORANI: This week, we're launching our new series, MISSION: AHEAD, to introduce you to the innovators tackling our world's biggest challenges by
taking on big, bold missions in science. Today we look at sleep. We all want more of it, of course. We want the right kind of it as well. And CNN's
Rachel Crane visits one tech startup that might finally have the answer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Imagine being able to fall asleep anywhere you want. Anytime we want. Ziv Pereman says he can do both. But this 33-
year-old has a PhD in neurocognitive science and has spent years studying how our brains work. He knows some of us aren't so lucky.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZIV PEREMAN, CO-FOUNDER AND CE, X-TRODES: There are so many people that suffer from poor sleeping, and even more suffer from poor quality of sleep
because of snoring partner. Or having a newborn that wake up every three hours. So --
CRANE: I have both of those things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CRANE: Technology probably can't help me there. But what it can do is help you better understand sleep behaviors, how long you sleep and how much you
toss and turn. Beyond that, you'll probably need something more sophisticated than a store-bought tracker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEREMAN: Today, there are amazing solution for measuring slip in wellness level. All kind of watches, mattresses, but when you like to measure all
the aspects of sleep, here we have a gap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CRANE: And Pereman thinks this device could fill that gap. A band-aid-like sleep tracker fitted with dozens of tiny sensors. They pick up electrical
activity in the body while you sleep, sending the data straight to a smart device, data like muscle activity, eye movement, and even brainwaves, the
kind of information you normally only get at the clinic. This you can use at home, buy yourself for a tenth of the cost of a professional sleep
study, Pereman.
The tracker is 10 years in the making and the reason Pereman co-founded his Israeli-based startup X-trodes in 2020.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRANE: Even with growing interest in sleep, is medical grade testing of your sleep still a relatively niche market?
PEREMAN: We start to understand that sleep is a goldmine for understanding our health.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CRANE: A better data could also help medical researchers and not just ones who study sleep, Pereman says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEREMAN: We can identify both sleep disorder but also sleep patterns that's related to other disorders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CRANE: But for many of the new sleep gadgets on the market, accuracy remains hard to prove, say experts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[14:55:01]
REBECCA ROBBINS, SLEEP SCIENTIST: Because it is truly complex to determine that staging of sleep, that movement in and out of the various stages so
the best way for companies to do that would be to partner with scientists to make sure that their algorithms are scoring sleep correctly and are
giving information back to their consumers that is accurate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CRANE: Pereman says his technology is currently being tested by independent researchers for validation. It still needs FDA approval. But if that goes
well, this tracker could be on the market by 2023.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEREMAN: Part of our activity now is provides a system for all kinds of researchers to find new patterns during sleep.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CRANE: In the long run, that could help us all snooze just a bit longer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right. Interesting. Breaking news. Twitter has just accepted Elon Musk's offer of acquisition. Twitter, under the terms of this
agreement, and this is being quoted here by Reuters, "Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 per share. And upon completion of this transaction,
Twitter will become a privately owned company by Elon Musk."
So as again, Twitter stockholders will be receiving $54.20. Currently, Twitter shares trading at $51.63, up $2.70. Big outstanding questions about
this, obviously, what will become of the social media platform that has -- is ubiquitous around the world used by world leaders, journalists,
thinkers, ordinary people, big, big outstanding questions now that Elon Musk's offer has been accepted. More on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" after a
break, I'll see you tomorrow.
END
